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- Funding War Through the Backdoor, Sean
Duggan and Laura Conley
- Finishing the Fight Against the LRA,
Julia Spegel and Noel Atama
- A View from Israel, Efraim Halevy
- Don't Try Bush Administration Officials
for Torture, Ken Gude
- Congo's Electronic Blood Diamonds, John
Norris
- The Missing Piece of the Pakistan Puzzle,
Brian Katulis
- Beyond Piracy, Ken Menkhaus, John
Prendergast, and Colin Thomas-Jensen
- Operations in Swat, Brian Katulis
- Progress on Homeland Security, Rudy deLeon
- Building Partnership in Pakistan, Brian
Katulis and Lawrence Korb
- Challenges of Implementation, Brian
Katulis
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Sean Duggan and Laura
Conley "Funding War Through the Backdoor," The Guardian Comment is Free, May
12, 2009
It's silly season in Washington, again. The House appropriations
committee has approved President Barack Obama's first supplemental
appropriations request for Iraq and Afghanistan,
and, as in years past, Congress is seeking to use this "emergency" war
funding bill to spend without scrutiny over $13bn beyond what the
administration requested in discretionary funding. And it appears as if
they will get their way, if the present course is maintained.
Click here to
read the full article.
Julia Spiegel and Noel Atama, "Finishing
the Fight Against the LRA," Enough Project, May 12, 2009
In the months since the armies of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, and southern
Sudan
launched Operation Lightning Thunder, a joint military offensive
against the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, the threat to
civilians in
the region has dramatically intensified. Efforts to negotiate a
political solution with the LRA ran aground in late 2008, and prospects
for a peaceful end to the conflict are nonexistent as long as LRA
leader Joseph Kony refuses to sign the deal that remains on the table.2
Unless Joseph Kony and the LRA’s other top commanders are
apprehended
or otherwise removed, the group’s campaign of terror will
continue.
Click here to
read the full report.
Efraim Halevy, "A
View from Israel," Middle East Bulletin interview, May 12, 2009
"I believe that the major challenges
which the world is facing with the Iranian threat are the following:
first, the great difficulty of getting the Iranians to agree to a
solution which will prevent them from achieving an option to produce a
nuclear device. Second, trying to get the Iranians to agree to putting
the lid on their enrichment program after they have repeatedly declared
that it is their sovereign right to enrich uranium like any other
country in the world. It is an issue of Iranian pride and the problem
is how to address the Iranian national pride. And the third challenge
is how to reach a solution with which other countries in the region can
live comfortably. ...I think the United States is approaching this in a
very prudent manner ... I think that one has to take into account that
at the end of the day, Iran will have to make a decision as to whether
it wants to continue to play a pariah role in international affairs. We
need to take into account that if negotiations fail, all other options
would come closer to implementation ... These include more punitive
sanctions in the economic field and a variety of other efforts which
might be made to impress upon Iran that the price it is paying for its
refusal to negotiate in good faith is a price which maybe Iran would
prefer not to pay."
Click here to
read the full interview.
Ken Gude, "Don't Try
Bush Officials for Torture," The Guardian Comment is
Free, May 11, 2009
John
Bolton is back. The disgraced former diplomat has returned to the
policy debate, throwing out his usual xenophobic rant against the
Spanish investigation into Bush administration torture policies. The
fact that Bolton is against it, however, does not make the Spanish
action any better of an idea. No matter how doggedly Baltasar
Garzón chases former Bush torturers,
they will not end up in a Spanish prison. But even an unsuccessful
prosecution would impair relations between Washington and Madrid and
provide an avenue for embarrassments like Bolton to get back into the
limelight.
Click here to
read the full article.
John Norris,
"Congo's Electronic Blood Diamonds," The Guardian Comment is
Free, May 8, 2009
Millions of people have died in eastern
Congo, in what is the world's deadliest conflict since the second world
war. Ending the Democratic Republic of the Congo's
multiple conflicts is the single most important task in improving the
lives of Congolese, making more lasting development possible and giving
people a say in their own affairs. Trying to talk about economic
development in eastern Congo without acknowledging this elephant in the
room just doesn't make sense.
Click here to
read the full article.
Brian Katulis, "The
Missing Piece of the Pakistan Puzzle," Middle East Bulletin, May 7, 2009
This week's round of trilateral talks
between the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington
offers an important opportunity for the Obama administration to address
the weakest link in its “Af-Pak” strategy—the
deteriorating situation in Pakistan. Just back from my most recent
visit to Pakistan last week, I don't share the rather alarmist and
pessimistic views dominating U.S. news coverage and political debates
on Pakistan. Yes, the situation is very serious and not improving, and
some grave risks to U.S. security lurk in Pakistan. But most of
Pakistan, a country of 170 million people, has not fallen into anarchy.
The Taliban are a fringe minority isolated in small pockets of the
country, and Pakistanis in recent weeks have turned against extremist
Islamists. It is a country with millions of ordinary middle class
citizens working in universities, banks and law offices who strive for
the same things we want—stability and prosperity. With the right
approach, a strategic framework agreement, the United States can more
effectively address Pakistan's multiple security, political and
economic challenges. It has no other option but to work to develop
stronger partnerships in Pakistan.
Click here to
read the full article.
Ken Menkhaus, John Prendergast, and Colin
Thomas-Jensen, "Beyond Piracy: Next Steps to Stabilize Somalia," Enough
Project, May 7, 2009
For the first time in a long time,
Americans are paying attention to
what their government does in Somalia. Following last month’s
hostage
drama off the coast of Somalia, President Barack Obama is under
increasing political pressure to address the threat of piracy in the
Gulf of Aden. While short-term measures to curb pirate attacks are
certainly necessary, the Obama administration must not allow the
politics of the piracy problem to distract it from putting in place a
long-term strategy to help Somalis forge a state that, with measured
external support, can fight piracy, promote peace and reconciliation,
and combat the threat of terrorism within its borders.
Click here to
read the full report.
ABC News - Brian Katulis comments on recent
Pakistani military operations in the Swat valley: "The big challenge
will be, will the Pakistani military be able to hold the territory and
then most importantly, build and provide basic services to its
citizens... when the state fails in those areas, that's when you see
the Taliban come back in and fill the gap."
Christian Science
Monitor - Rudy
deLeon says the reopening of the State of Liberty's crown to the public
shows that progress has been made on homeland security since 2001:
"We've reached the point in the country where we've made routine the
security procedures that are necessary to protect airports and public
facilities... We still have a ways to go on the infrastructure and the
ports."
Prime Time
- Brian Katulis and Lawrence Korb on Pakistani television: "We have a
lot of work to do to actually reestablish the partnership, or build a
partnership between our two countries and our people."
24Seven - Brian Katulis
discusses the challenges of implementating an expansion of aid to
Pakistan: "There isn't a coherent, clear, go-to person [in
Pakistan]... I don't see a plan yet that the U.S. can plug into, so
there's a very real risk [that aid will not be effective]."
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