Obama Considers Reaching Out to Taliban

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said the United States is not winning the war in Afghanistan and hinted at possible talks with moderate elements of the Taliban.

Highlighting the success of the US strategy of bringing some Sunni Iraqi insurgents to the negotiating table and away from Al-Qaeda, Obama told The New York Times that “there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region.”

The strategy in Iraq had been developed by General David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the country.

“If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al-Qaeda in Iraq,” Obama said in the interview published in the online edition of the Times.

But Obama warned that Afghanistan was not Iraq, and that reconciliation efforts could face difficulties …

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Analysis: Even Military Split over Iraq Pullout

By ROBERT BURNS | Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama faces split opinions within the military on whether to make the speedy withdrawal from Iraq he championed on the campaign trail.

Obama’s top generals in Baghdad are pressing for an elongated timetable, while some influential senior advisers inside the Pentagon are more amenable to a quicker pullout.

Although Obama has yet to decide the matter, his announcement last week that he’s sending thousands more combat troops to Afghanistan implies a drawdown of at least two brigades from Iraq by summer.

But that does not answer the question that has been dangling over Iraq since he took office in January: Will Obama stick to his stated goal of a 16-month pullout or opt for a slower, less risky approach? …

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U.S. Senator Urges Full-Spectrum Somalia Policy

By JOHN T. BENNETT | Defense News

An influential Senate Democrat is urging the Obama administration to fashion a new soup-to-nuts U.S. policy for the tinderbox that is Somalia, a strategy he says must break with Bush administration plans by including the U.S. military.

In a Feb. 13 letter to President Barack Obama, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., expressed frustration at the Bush administration’s Somalia efforts and made clear he expects more from the new White House team. The African nation has been beset by civil war and strife since the early 1990s.

“The previous administration maintained a disjointed and short-sighted approach toward Somalia that was counterproductive and led to increased anti-Americanism in the region,” according to the letter. “As a result, the situation in Somalia has deteriorated, undermining our national security goals, including counterterrorism.”

What Feingold wants from the Obama White House is a “comprehensive strategy to address this crisis.” The Bush administration complied with a law requiring that such a plan be fashioned annually, but according to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, those plans “addressed only diplomatic activities.”

“Just as important, however, is the integration of all our national security resources, including those of the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, into one coherent strategy,” Feingold writes …

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Obama Backs Bush on Terror Prisoners

By JOSH GERSTEIN | Politico

The Justice Department told a federal court Friday that it shouldn’t consider legal challenges filed by prisoners being held in Afghanistan by the U.S. military — another example of the Obama administration hewing to one of President Bush’s war-on-terror stances.

In a short legal filing, Justice Department lawyers said they planned to maintain the Bush administration’s claim that the roughly 600 prisoners held in Afghaninstan have no right to contest their detention in the courts. “The Government adheres to its previously articulated position,” the attorneys said …

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Related News: Official: Pentagon Report says Gitmo is Humane

Kyrgyzstan Issues Eviction Notice to Key US Base

By LEILA SARALAYEVA | Associated Press

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyzstan ordered U.S. forces on Friday to depart within six months from an air base key to military operations in Afghanistan, complicating plans to send more troops to battle rising Taliban and al-Qaida violence.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, however, that he believed the base was not a “closed issue.” The U.S. has said it would consider paying more rent to keep the base open.

Pakistani militants have stepped up attacks on convoys traveling the primary supply route to Afghanistan in recent months pushing U.S. officials to secure alternative, northern routes through Central Asia.

The U.S. announced a small victory in that hunt Friday — saying neighboring Uzbekistan had granted permission for the transit of non-lethal cargo to Afghanistan …

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Obama Tells Canada He Favors Free Trade

By JENNIFER LOVEN | AP White House Correspondent

OTTAWA – On his maiden voyage outside U.S. borders as president, Barack Obama sought to reassure free-trading Canadians that his country is not cultivating a protectionist streak as its economy tanks and hemorrhages jobs.

“I want to grow trade and not contract it,” Obama declared Thursday during a quick visit to court warmer relations with America’s snowy northern neighbor.

The president stuck to his pledge to eventually seek changes in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement to increase enforcement of labor and environmental standards. But he said he intends to do so in a way “that is not disruptive to the extraordinarily important trade relationships that exist between the United States and Canada.”

His host, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he might be willing to negotiate but not by “opening the whole NAFTA and unraveling what is a very complex agreement.” Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner and with $1.5 billion in trade between the two nations, they have the largest trading relationship in the world.

Harper sounded a similar warning on a “Buy American” clause that Congress added to the $787 billion economic stimulus package that Obama signed this week. “We expect the United States to adhere to its international obligations,” Harper said. “I can’t emphasize how important it is that we do that.” …

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Obama OKs about 17,000 More Troops for Afghanistan

By ANNE GEARAN | AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he’s sending additional U.S. troops into Afghanistan to battle insurgent threats and crumbling security along the Pakistan border. Obama has approved a Pentagon request to deploy Marines and Army troops to the region. Congressional officials say an estimated 17,000 troops will go in the coming months.

In a statement Tuesday, Obama called sending armed forces into harm’s way one of a president’s most solemn duties …

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G7 Finance Ministers Reject Protectionist Measures

By COLLEEN BARRY and ARIEL DAVID | Associated Press

ROME – The Group of Seven finance ministers pledged Saturday to avoid resorting to protectionism as they try to stimulate their own economies in the face of the world’s worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

The meeting marked the international debut of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who assured his counterparts that President Barack Obama’s $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy, approved Friday, would not violate in any way the United States’ commitment to free trade.

Geithner, who was among friends and colleagues he had worked with from his days at the Federal Bank, appealed to the “common imperative” to sustain open trade.

“These are global challenges and it is imperative that we work together to address them,” Geithner told reporters afterward. “Effective global response will require sustained action by governments working with the international financial institutions.”

The meeting’s host, Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, affirmed “strong agreement” among the ministers on rejecting protectionism …

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Related News: China Criticizes ‘Buy American’ Provision in U.S. Stimulus Bill

Obama: No Timetable on Afghanistan; Seeks ‘Face to Face’ Talks with Iran

By Jonathan Allen | CQ Politics

In his first prime-time news conference, President Obama said he has no timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

Even as he tried to focus the nation on his plan for addressing an economic crisis that he warned will become a “catastrophe” without action by Congress, Obama vowed to stop al Qaeda from operating “with impunity” in Afghanistan and said his administration would be “looking for openings” to move “in a new direction” U.S. policy toward Iran.

“My bottom line is that we cannot allow al Qaeda to operate. We cannot have those safe havens in that region. And we’re going to have to work both smartly and effectively, but with consistency in order to make sure that those safe havens don’t exist,” Obama said Monday evening.

“I do not have yet a timetable for how long that’s going to take. What I know is I’m not going to make — I’m not going to allow al Qaeda or [Osama] bin Laden to operate with impunity, planning attacks on the U.S. homeland.”

On Iran, Obama said he envisioned looking for “openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face to face” with Iranian leaders …

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Critics Blast Foreign Policy Transition

By BEN SMITH | Politico

Democratic foreign policy hands say that a senior Marine general’s public frustration with Obama’s top aides is a symptom of a national security transition that has been historically speedy—and at times opaque, chaotic, and deeply frustrating for some of Obama’s supporters and would-be aides.

Retired General Anthony Zinni told Foreign Policy that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor James Jones had both indicated to him that he would be Ambassador to Iraq, and that Vice President Joe Biden “called and congratulated me” on getting the job.

Then, after days of silence, Zinni learned that he was instead being offered the post of Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

“I said, ‘You can stick that with whatever other offers,’” he recalled saying. Zinni’s account roiled foreign policy circles Thursday, and drew rare public criticism of Obama from leading Democratic voices outside the administration …

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