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Pelosi continues against Gates, the following op-ed first appeared in PW on 5/19/09.
Scott Sullivan : Pelosi escalates against Gates
The US civil war between Congressional Democrats and the Executive Branch began last week week by accident, following the pattern of many great conflicts. Nancy Pelosi, who by all accounts is regarded as a loyal Democrat, did not want to start a civil war when she attacked CIA. What Pelosi intended was to send President Obama a signal that many Democrats in Congress now disapprove of the policies of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in conducting the US war on terrorism.
First, many Democrats perceive Gates view Gates as power hungry and as a would be Terrorism Czar who controls the Department of Defense and CIA, and is now reaching for control over the entire Executive Branch. Gates may even seek to displace President Obama as the US Commander in Chief. To this end, Gates took the lead in firing the previous Army commander of US forces in Afghanistan, while also announcing his successor in Afghanistan from the US Special Operations Forces.
Second, many Democrats distrust Gates because he insists on a plan for immediate and ill-defined military escalation in Pakistan. The Pakistani military offensive, now underway in Swat Province and instigated by Gates personally, seems to have backfired by reinforcing anti-US sentiments in Pakistan by displacing over one million innocent civilians.
Third, Gates' briefings on Afghanistan and Pakistan lack depth on the issue of political relations between Taliban and al-Qaeda. CIA should have covered this issue as a top priority months ago. In the absence of more detailed information on Taliban-al Qaeda relations, US policymakers are unable to measure the political effects of US airstrikes against Taliban, especially in view of the possibility that US air strikes will drive Taliban back under al-Qaeda influence.
Fourth, CIA consistently downplays Iran's threat to the region. Indeed, during the Gates era, DoD and CIA have taken the policy, without presenting a detailed and balanced assessment of the issues, that al-Qaeda is now a permanent US enemy, while Iran is a valuable strategic partner, beginning in Afghanistan, where Pakistani, Iranian, and US interests overlap.
Fifth, CIA seems unaware that its pro-Iran stance fuels hatred of the US throughout the Arab world, especially in Iraq's large and powerful Sunni community. To justify Sunni perceptions of US hostility, many Sunnis refer to US news reports that al-Qaeda prisoners, who are Sunni Arabs, were repeatedly subjected to various forms of torture until they agreed with false and provocative allegations of al Qaeda-Saddam collaboration in terrorist attacks. The Sunnis note that Gates' policy approves extensive and undeserved US torture against Sunnis, with no approval for US torture of any kind against Iranians.
Sixth, many Democrats distrust Gates because he is seen as using his access to President Obama to gain Obama's approval of continuing Bush policies on torturing prisoners, and continued US reliance on the Guantanomo Bay facility to incarcerate and interrogate Muslims.
Finally, many Democrats distrust Gates because he is perceived to be in the back pocket of Pakistan's CIA, the ISI. Gates' ties with ISI go back as far as the late 1970's when Gates served as the paymaster and overall operational CIA coordinator for financing, training, and arming Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
In addition to Pelosi disapproval of Gates' policies in Afghanistan, Pelosi worries that Gates shows no interest in the danger of Iran's strategic partnership with Germany, or in the reasons behind the rising influence of Iran's Nazi president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Following the lead of president Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Ahmadinejad now exploits the issue of Holocaust Denial as a means of widening his influence in Iran, Germany, and the Vatican. Despite editorial prodding by Petroleumworld.com, Gates refuses to direct DoD or CIA to monitor German Nazi contacts with Vatican officials or with pro-Nazi activists in Ahmadinjad's office. Gates is reluctant to monitor Ahmadinejad because he wants to avoid being accused by Iran's government of CIA interference in Iran's elections.
Likewise, over a period of several years Gates has turned back requests from his own policy staff for CIA monitoring of contacts between German and Croatian right wing extremists with the numerous Iranian- controlled terrorist groups in Latin America, including Hezbollah.
In any case, we hope Pelosi's attacks on CIA have ignited a civil war over US intelligence policy on Germany and Iran. In fact, we hope Pelosi escalates against CIA, and against Obama, if necessary.
Scott Sullivan is a former Washington government employee and was the Senior Advisor for International Economics at the Crisis Management Center of the National Security Council, 1984 - 1986. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.
Petroleumworld News 05/19/09
Petroleumworld News 10/06/09
ISSUES.... Inside, confidential and off the record
Is an independent journalist effort from Petroleumworld, on Inside, Confidential and Off The Record Information, its views are not necessarily those of Petroleumworld
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