National Security -- Out With McKiernan, In With McChrystal

May 14, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, and Matt Duss

NATIONAL SECURITY

Out With McKiernan, In With McChrystal

On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates abruptly announced the removal of Gen. David McKiernan as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, saying that "fresh eyes were needed" and that "a new approach was probably in our best interest." McKiernan, "who led U.S. ground forces during the 2003 Iraq invasion," took command of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan in June and was scheduled to serve in the post for two years. But he will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, "a former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. He served in Afghanistan as chief of staff of military operations in 2001 and 2002 and recently ran all commando operations in Iraq." Asked if the dismissal -- the first such removal of a top commander since President Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War -- had ended McKiernan's military career, Gates replied, "Probably."

THE NEW COIN OF THE REALM: "If you want a sign of how thoroughly Gen. David Petraeus is taking command of the Afghanistan war," wrote the Washington Independent's Spencer Ackerman, "look no further" than his replacement of McKiernan with McChrystal, who "is known as one of the smartest and least conventional thinkers in the Army, and a counterinsurgent's counterinsurgent." McChrystal was the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) responsible for hunting al-Qaeda in Iraq, employing what he called "'collaborative warfare,' using every tool available simultaneously, from signal intercepts to human intelligence and other methods, that allowed lightning-quick and sometimes concurrent operations." According to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, "beginning in the late spring of 2007, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies launched a series of top-secret operations that enabled them to locate, target and kill" key insurgent, militia, and terrorist leaders Iraq. "The operations incorporated some of the most highly classified techniques and information in the U.S. government." McChrystal was head of the team that killed Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS: McChrystal may face a few potential roadblocks at his confirmation hearing. Questions could arise over the death in 2004 of Army Ranger and former NFL star Pat Tillman. In April 2004, "McChrystal approved paperwork awarding Tillman a Silver Star after he was reported killed by enemy fire, even though McChrystal suspected the Ranger had been killed accidentally by fellow American soldiers." An investigation cleared McChrystal of any official wrongdoing, but held him "accountable for the inaccurate and misleading assertions" regarding Tillman's death. McChrystal also "oversaw a task force that was criticized in 2006 for abusing detainees and harsh interrogation methods at Baghdad's Camp Nama." But Andrew Exum, a fellow with the Center for a New American Security who served under McChrystal in Iraq and Afghanistan, told NPR that he didn't think that "as savvy a political actor" as Gates "would have let [McChrystal's] nomination go forward if he thought either of these were going to be serious problems."

OWNING THE AFGHANISTAN WAR: The retiring of McKiernan in such a public way is evidence of Obama's serious intention to right a war effort that is, by most accounts, going very poorly. According to a report from the Center for American Progress, the "chronic and unacceptable neglect" of the previous administration "has led to a resurgent Taliban, a fierce insurgency, a weak Afghan government tainted by corruption and incompetence, a booming opium trade, and an increasingly disillusioned Afghan people." The Taliban, al Qaeda, and other insurgent groups "are now stronger than at any time since the 9/11 attacks on the United States, operating out of neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan and making key inroads in both countries." According to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the President praised McKiernan's leadership, but said it was time for a "change of direction in Afghanistan" requiring a new military commander versed in counterinsurgency methods. Slate's Fred Kaplan wrote that "McKiernan's ouster signals a dramatic shift in U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan. And it means that the war is now, unequivocally, 'Obama's war.'"

TORTURE -- FEINGOLD SAYS CHENEY IS WRONG, 'NOTHING I HAVE SEEN' IN CIA MEMOS PROVES TORTURE WAS NECESSARY: Vice President Cheney has spent the past few weeks on a media blitz defending the Bush administration's authorization of torture. During his media appearances, Cheney repeatedly points to two currently classified CIA memos that he says "showed the success of the effort." During a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing yesterday on Bush's torture regime, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) declared that nothing in those memos suggests that torture was the most effective way to gain information. "Nothing I have seen -- including the two documents to which former Vice President Cheney has repeatedly referred -- indicates that the torture techniques authorized by the last administration were necessary, or that they were the best way to get information out of detainees. The former vice president is misleading the American people when he says otherwise," Feingold said. Also during the hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) echoed Cheney's defense of torture, saying that "one of the reasons these techniques have survived for about 500 years is apparently they work."

A report on "Rightwing Extremism" that upset conservatives has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told lawmakers yesterday. "It was not authorized to be distributed. It had not even completed its vetting process," she said, calling the incident "probably the worst thing" to happen at DHS.

In April 2003, "very senior" Bush administration officials suggested that an Iraqi prisoner be waterboarded to see if he would "provide information of a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime," says former Iraqi Survey Group chief Charles Duelfer. Two senior U.S. intelligence officials from the time tell the Daily Beast that the suggestion came from the office of Vice President Cheney.

The Obama administration "is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay." The idea has been "floated with members of Congress" while the administration's internal deliberations on how to close the prison continue.

President Obama told a bipartisan group of senators yesterday that he would "review names of potential Supreme Court nominees over the weekend." The potential nominees are believed to include Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood.

Following the release of Frank Luntz's right-wing messaging memo on framing the health care debate, Democrats like Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) said they felt "unease that we did not have a strategy" to counter the attacks. A lengthy meeting yesterday with President Obama's Senior Adviser David Axelrod seemed to quell concerns. "Axelrod came to reassure us that they do have a strategy," Bayh said. More

House Republicans plan to "nitpick" climate change legislation "into legislative oblivion by introducing more than 100 amendments during the committee debate." "This is not going to be one of gentlemanly, pro forma markups," Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the ranking Republican on Energy and Commerce Committee, told Politico. "We're prepared for it to take weeks or months."

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero was sharply critical of President Obama's decision not to release photos of detainee abuse. "He said officials had described them as 'worse than Abu Ghraib' and said their volume, more than 2,000 images, showed that 'it is no longer tenable to blame abuse on a few bad apples. These were policies set at the highest level.'"

President Obama is "expected to expand its mortgage aid program on Thursday" that will "include ways to allow borrowers to avoid foreclosure by selling their properties or giving them back to lenders."

Pentagon records show that "[m]ore soldiers have been unavailable for combat in the past year because of wounds or injuries than at any time since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, shrinking the pool of soldiers ready for deployment to those conflicts." The Army "is counting on plans to draw down forces from Iraq to ease this situation."

And finally: Make sure your phone is off during the briefing! Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs "confiscated" a reporter's ringing phone. "Just put in on vibrate, man," Gibbs said initially. After the phone continued to ring, Gibbs demanded, "Give me the phone" and snatched it for the rest of the briefing. "I made the determination that the illumination of the sound was distracting to the briefing as the Press Secretary to the President of the United States," he explained. Watch it here.

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"Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances. The first is the ticking time bomb. An innocent's life is at stake. ...Under those circumstances, you do what you have to do. And that includes waterboarding."
-- Charles Krauthammer, 5/01/09

VERSUS

"Some people on the right have faulted me because in that column that you cite I conceded that waterboarding is torture. Actually, I personally don't think it is."
-- Krauthammer, 5/13/09

Think Progress

Out With McKiernan, In With McChrystal

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