foreignpolicy--2020-07-23--No, Mr. Prime Minister, Pakistan Does Not Have a Free Press

No , Mr. Prime Minister , Pakistan Does Not Have a Free Press One year ago this week , Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sat next to U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House and declared to reporters that Pakistan has “ one of the freest presses in the world.
” He added : “ So to say that there are curbs on [ Pakistan ’ s ] press is a joke.
” In reality , there ’ s nothing funny about the state of Pakistan ’ s media environment today .
The apparent abduction on July 21 of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in broad daylight in Islamabad underscores the perils of a Pakistani media climate victimized by a broader , and increasingly robust , crackdown on dissent .
According to local and international news reports , Jan was picked up outside the school where his wife , Kaneez Sughra , works .
Sughra told Deutsche Welle : “ The doors of his car were open , and the keys were still inside .
… I could see from the car that he was taken forcibly.
” Fortunately , later in the day , Jan was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released a video on his YouTube channel in which he described his ordeal .
He said that “ those who kidnapped me are the same forces who have been against democracy ” in Pakistan .
“ Police uniform or plain clothes , these days everyone is on the same page.
” But if history is any guide , there will be little effort to investigate and hold accountable those behind the incident .
Jan has long been a sharp critic of the Pakistani state , including a military that is violently allergic to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his job as a TV anchor in 2018 , a move many believe was made under military pressure .
Earlier this month , a tweet he posted about the judiciary prompted the Supreme Court to issue a contempt of court notice against him—certainly not the first time Pakistani courts have used this tactic against the press .
He was scheduled to attend a hearing on July 22 .
Jan ’ s brief disappearance comes at a moment when Islamabad is stepping up efforts to stifle dissent , thereby exposing the fragility of democracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off the legacy of military rule .
Pakistan is home to a lively press with dozens of private print and broadcast outlets and many new online portals .
It is willing and able to expose , critique , and hound—so long as it avoids red lines .
One of these red lines is criticism of the military and intelligence agencies .
If you breach that line , all bets are off .
Over the last few years , broadcast media outlets perceived to be unfriendly to the state have mysteriously gone off the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their distribution interrupted .
An investigation by the Pakistani media watchdog Freedom Network found that 33 journalists in Pakistan were killed due to their work between 2013 and 2019—and not one perpetrator was successfully convicted .
Reporters Without Borders ’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index ranks Pakistan 145 out of 180 nations—a three-place drop from its already dismal 2019 ranking .
Intensifying threats and intimidation tactics—from withholding advertising revenue to waging hate campaigns on social media—against Pakistani outlets and journalists have resulted in extensive self-censorship by journalists and editors on content related to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the sole remaining bastions in Pakistan for dissenting views , is increasingly in the crosshairs of the state .
Authorities have used a 2016 cybercrimes law , which is supposed to target online sexual harassment and terrorist groups ’ internet activities , as a pretext to crack down on online content—including the banning of thousands of websites—critical of the government .
In May , Twitter , Zoom , and Periscope suddenly went down in Pakistan at the very moment when prominent anti-military critics were hosting a conference on Zoom , prompting accusations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These press crackdowns play out against a broadening assault on dissent in Pakistan that has targeted journalists but also academics , activists , and nongovernment organizations .
The campaign began during the previous Pakistani government , and it has continued if not intensified in the Khan era .
One of the biggest victims of this crackdown is the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement ( PTM ) , a nonviolent organization that champions the rights of ethnic Pashtuns , a minority that suffers from discrimination and is often targeted by the state , and that harshly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members are often arrested , media coverage of their protests is frequently banned , and social media campaigns demonize them as violent thugs bankrolled by Indian and Afghan intelligence .
Branding critics as terrorists or agents of foreign powers is an increasingly common tactic .
The state is tightening the screws because it can .
The military , the most powerful political player in Pakistan under any circumstances , has been particularly emboldened since Khan took power .
Khan largely sees eye to eye with the military , and the prime minister has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of more and more influence over public policy—including the domestic policy portfolio , which is often ceded to civilian leaders .
The influential new National Development Council , established in 2019 and charged with setting long-term economic policy , features Pakistan ’ s army chief , Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa , as a member .
Last November , a retired lieutenant general , Asim Saleem Bajwa , was appointed chair of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority , a new body that oversees the Pakistan component of China ’ s Belt and Road Initiative—a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effect , the military , stronger than ever , is fully empowered to engineer state crackdowns on the dissent that has long galled it .
This is not to absolve the civilian leadership of responsibility , which has—among others things—proposed curbs on media reporting of opposition politicians accused of corruption and approved a plan for new fast-track media courts .
To be sure , Pakistan ’ s war on dissent is also a reflection of the world ’ s illiberal moment , with ascendant authoritarianism assaulting freedoms across the globe .
But Pakistan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democracy falling prey to illiberal forces .
It ’ s a case of an illiberal state struggling to consolidate the small but real democratizing steps it has taken in recent years .
These include a constitutional amendment , ratified in 2010 , that devolves more power to provincial governments ( and which Islamabad has recently criticized , citing the difficulties it poses to crafting a national response to the coronavirus pandemic ) , as well as 12 consecutive years of civilian rule ( which the military undermines through its ever-expanding footprint in public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ freedoms and other democratic principles in Pakistan also undercuts a prominent state narrative of the day—one frequently articulated by government officials in speeches and interviews and echoed by many Pakistani citizens , including those who are no fans of their government : Pakistan has moved on from its troubled past ; it has become a more stable , safe , and tolerant place ; and this stands in sharp contrast to an Indian state that has morphed into a fascist nightmare .
To be sure , on some levels , Pakistan has changed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receded , major cities are safer , and new industries—particularly in the high-tech sector—are flourishing .
India , meanwhile , has changed for the worse , as New Delhi ’ s ever-expanding Hindu nationalist agenda promotes intolerance and discrimination and has stoked communal violence—not to mention increasing crackdowns on the press .
But the notion that Pakistan has turned the corner on its authoritarian and intolerant past is wildly false .
And that ’ s an inconvenient truth for a state singing a positive tune as part of a high-priority effort to repair @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the perilous plight of the Pakistani press is an unsettling reminder that despite Islamabad ’ s talk of “ Naya Pakistan ” ( a ruling party slogan that means “ New Pakistan ” ) , the problematic policies of the past die hard .
Back in 2005 , during the last period of Pakistani military rule , Asma Jahangir , a Pakistani human rights activist who died in 2018 , gave an address at the Wilson Center in Washington .
“ If you want to be with the establishment , the sky @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , referring euphemistically to the military .
“ But if you don ’ t agree with the establishment , you won ’ t be able to do an honest day ’ s work.
” Fifteen years later , her words still ring true .

One year ago this week, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sat next to U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House and declared to reporters that Pakistan has “one of the freest presses in the world.” He added: “So to say that there are curbs on [Pakistan’s] press is a joke.”
One year ago this week, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sat next to U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House and declared to reporters that Pakistan has “one of the freest presses in the world.” He added: “So to say that there are curbs on [Pakistan’s] press is a joke.”
In reality, there’s nothing funny about the state of Pakistan’s media environment today. The apparent abduction on July 21 of a prominent journalist, Matiullah Jan, in broad daylight in Islamabad underscores the perils of a Pakistani media climate victimized by a broader, and increasingly robust, crackdown on dissent.
According to local and international news reports, Jan was picked up outside the school where his wife, Kaneez Sughra, works. Sughra told Deutsche Welle: “The doors of his car were open, and the keys were still inside. … I could see from the car that he was taken forcibly.” Fortunately, later in the day, Jan was released. On July 23, he released a video on his YouTube channel in which he described his ordeal. He said that “those who kidnapped me are the same forces who have been against democracy” in Pakistan. “Police uniform or plain clothes, these days everyone is on the same page.” But if history is any guide, there will be little effort to investigate and hold accountable those behind the incident.
Jan has long been a sharp critic of the Pakistani state, including a military that is violently allergic to public criticism. He was fired from his job as a TV anchor in 2018, a move many believe was made under military pressure. Earlier this month, a tweet he posted about the judiciary prompted the Supreme Court to issue a contempt of court notice against him—certainly not the first time Pakistani courts have used this tactic against the press. He was scheduled to attend a hearing on July 22.
Jan’s brief disappearance comes at a moment when Islamabad is stepping up efforts to stifle dissent, thereby exposing the fragility of democracy in a nation still struggling to shake off the legacy of military rule.
Pakistan is home to a lively press with dozens of private print and broadcast outlets and many new online portals. It is willing and able to expose, critique, and hound—so long as it avoids red lines. One of these red lines is criticism of the military and intelligence agencies. If you breach that line, all bets are off.
Over the last few years, broadcast media outlets perceived to be unfriendly to the state have mysteriously gone off the air, and print outlets have had their distribution interrupted. An investigation by the Pakistani media watchdog Freedom Network found that 33 journalists in Pakistan were killed due to their work between 2013 and 2019—and not one perpetrator was successfully convicted. Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index ranks Pakistan 145 out of 180 nations—a three-place drop from its already dismal 2019 ranking.
Intensifying threats and intimidation tactics—from withholding advertising revenue to waging hate campaigns on social media—against Pakistani outlets and journalists have resulted in extensive self-censorship by journalists and editors on content related to security institutions. Social media, one of the sole remaining bastions in Pakistan for dissenting views, is increasingly in the crosshairs of the state. Authorities have used a 2016 cybercrimes law, which is supposed to target online sexual harassment and terrorist groups’ internet activities, as a pretext to crack down on online content—including the banning of thousands of websites—critical of the government. In May, Twitter, Zoom, and Periscope suddenly went down in Pakistan at the very moment when prominent anti-military critics were hosting a conference on Zoom, prompting accusations that Islamabad was censoring the conference.
These press crackdowns play out against a broadening assault on dissent in Pakistan that has targeted journalists but also academics, activists, and nongovernment organizations. The campaign began during the previous Pakistani government, and it has continued if not intensified in the Khan era.
One of the biggest victims of this crackdown is the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a nonviolent organization that champions the rights of ethnic Pashtuns, a minority that suffers from discrimination and is often targeted by the state, and that harshly critiques the military. PTM leaders and members are often arrested, media coverage of their protests is frequently banned, and social media campaigns demonize them as violent thugs bankrolled by Indian and Afghan intelligence. Branding critics as terrorists or agents of foreign powers is an increasingly common tactic.
The state is tightening the screws because it can. The military, the most powerful political player in Pakistan under any circumstances, has been particularly emboldened since Khan took power. Khan largely sees eye to eye with the military, and the prime minister has not resisted the military’s accumulation of more and more influence over public policy—including the domestic policy portfolio, which is often ceded to civilian leaders. The influential new National Development Council, established in 2019 and charged with setting long-term economic policy, features Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, as a member. Last November, a retired lieutenant general, Asim Saleem Bajwa, was appointed chair of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority, a new body that oversees the Pakistan component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative—a critically important project for Pakistan.
In effect, the military, stronger than ever, is fully empowered to engineer state crackdowns on the dissent that has long galled it. This is not to absolve the civilian leadership of responsibility, which has—among others things—proposed curbs on media reporting of opposition politicians accused of corruption and approved a plan for new fast-track media courts.
To be sure, Pakistan’s war on dissent is also a reflection of the world’s illiberal moment, with ascendant authoritarianism assaulting freedoms across the globe. But Pakistan is not a case of a long-established democracy falling prey to illiberal forces. It’s a case of an illiberal state struggling to consolidate the small but real democratizing steps it has taken in recent years. These include a constitutional amendment, ratified in 2010, that devolves more power to provincial governments (and which Islamabad has recently criticized, citing the difficulties it poses to crafting a national response to the coronavirus pandemic), as well as 12 consecutive years of civilian rule (which the military undermines through its ever-expanding footprint in public policy).
The assault on press freedoms and other democratic principles in Pakistan also undercuts a prominent state narrative of the day—one frequently articulated by government officials in speeches and interviews and echoed by many Pakistani citizens, including those who are no fans of their government: Pakistan has moved on from its troubled past; it has become a more stable, safe, and tolerant place; and this stands in sharp contrast to an Indian state that has morphed into a fascist nightmare.
To be sure, on some levels, Pakistan has changed for the better. Anti-state terrorism has receded, major cities are safer, and new industries—particularly in the high-tech sector—are flourishing. India, meanwhile, has changed for the worse, as New Delhi’s ever-expanding Hindu nationalist agenda promotes intolerance and discrimination and has stoked communal violence—not to mention increasing crackdowns on the press.
But the notion that Pakistan has turned the corner on its authoritarian and intolerant past is wildly false. And that’s an inconvenient truth for a state singing a positive tune as part of a high-priority effort to repair Pakistan’s global image.
Instead, the perilous plight of the Pakistani press is an unsettling reminder that despite Islamabad’s talk of “Naya Pakistan” (a ruling party slogan that means “New Pakistan”), the problematic policies of the past die hard.
Back in 2005, during the last period of Pakistani military rule, Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights activist who died in 2018, gave an address at the Wilson Center in Washington. “If you want to be with the establishment, the sky is the limit,” she said, referring euphemistically to the military. “But if you don’t agree with the establishment, you won’t be able to do an honest day’s work.”
Fifteen years later, her words still ring true.


foreignpolicy--2020-07-23--In Base Visit, Esper Avoids the White House Radar

Welcome to Foreign Policy ’ s Security Brief .
What ’ s on tap today : Defense Secretary Mark Esper lays low during a visit to an air force base , Afghanistan troop withdrawals continue , and the U.S. Agency for International Development staffs up while the Pentagon sheds talent .
If you would like to receive Security Brief in your inbox every Thursday , please sign up here .
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper continued to survey the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on U.S. troops on Wednesday , when he traveled to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stealth bomber fleet .
Like the elusive B-2 Spirit bomber looming behind him during an eight-minute press conference , Esper—who hadn ’ t appeared for an on-camera briefing since bucking President Donald Trump last month over the use of active-duty troops to quell protests—was intent on staying off of the White House ’ s radar .
But even as Esper seeks to avoid the limelight , it finds him in far-flung military bases .
A reporter asked about the deployment of heavily armed , federal agents to Portland , Ore. , after a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerns about law enforcement agents wearing military-style uniforms .
“ Today I ’ m going to focus on the important folks at Whiteman Air Force Base and the tremendous capability sitting behind me , ” Esper told reporters .
After touring the rest of the facilities , including a simulated flight , Esper returned to Andrews Air Force Base .
There he found Trump threatening to veto the Pentagon ’ s annual authorization bill because it would rename bases honoring Confederates and to send more federal agents to the streets of Chicago .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are the stealth bombers he toured : Storied as the B-2 is , the Air Force is currently making plans to phase out the 20 bombers at Whiteman .
It ’ s set to test fly a next-generation replacement in the next two years .
Drawing out the drawdown .
On Monday , Zalmay Khalilzad , the United States ’ peace envoy and chief negotiator in Afghanistan , tweeted that the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan had been reduced from 12,000 to 8,600 , and that five bases in the country had closed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all troops from Afghanistan as part of the peace deal signed with the Taliban in February .
However , in March , U.S. officials said they would pause withdrawals and reassess the situation once the figure was brought down to 8,600 .
The Taliban has stepped up its attacks on Afghan government forces in recent months , straining the peace process .
But Khalilzad confirmed that its attacks on U.S. personnel have stopped , a key part of the deal and a sign that troop withdrawals will likely continue .
Houston , Xi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ upped the ante in its diplomatic showdown with Beijing this week , abruptly ordering the closure of China ’ s consulate in Houston by Friday .
U.S. officials told Foreign Policy that the move came following a surge in Chinese espionage activities in the United States .
What comes next ?
Expect China to respond in kind .
U.S. officials indicated that could mean the closure of the U.S. consulate in Wuhan or in Chengdu .
But China could escalate by shuttering a larger U.S. consulate or even multiple consulates .
On Wednesday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may order the closure of more Chinese consulates after the office in Houston closes .
Eastern promises .
Ukrainian , Russian , and international representatives agreed to a full and comprehensive cease-fire on Wednesday , scheduled to go into effect on July 27 .
The agreement aims to breathe life back into the Minsk Accords and put an end to sporadic fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian paramilitaries .
The Minsk Accords , which lay out the process by which the breakaway eastern republics can be reintegrated into Ukraine , are are contingent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The war in eastern Ukraine has simmered for years despite peace talks .
Some experts are skeptical this diplomatic breakthrough will lead to lasting peace .
Should the U.S. cut troops in the Middle East ?
Two prominent Washington think tanks say so .
The George Soros and Koch brothers-backed Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is out with a new paper this week calling for the Trump administration to draw down American forces in the Middle East and become a more forceful diplomatic player in the region .
The Center for a New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ report pushing for a new national security strategy that defines U.S. interests in the Middle East more narrowly .
Pentagon loses legislative chief .
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Robert Hood is set to leave the Defense Department on Friday , Foreign Policy first reported , raising the number of vacancies in civilian Pentagon posts to 21 .
That matches the Trump administration ’ s record .
Hood ’ s departure leaves the Pentagon without a point person to lead eight civilians tapped for senior roles through Senate confirmation .
USAID @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Norquist , the agency ’ s senior advisor on religious freedom and pluralism in the Middle East bureau , is set to move up to international religious freedom advisor for acting USAID Administrator John Barsa , the agency announced on Monday .
She is married to Grover Norquist , a former lobbyist and anti-tax crusader .
More moves at USAID .
Ken Hill , a former Department of Homeland Security official , was recently named USAID ’ s executive secretary , according to Politico ’ s Nahal Toosi .
The move represents a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role is typically filled by career staffers .
Space politics .
The United States ’ 1,000 satellites in space are mostly unprotected .
When Russia launched a projectile into space in February 2017 and China began training specialized armed units for space missions , it helped spur a push in Washington for a space force that could protect U.S. property .
Time took a deep look inside the newly established U.S. Space Force .
The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a confirmation hearing for Anthony Tata , Trump ’ s pick to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has come under fire for conspiratorial , offensive , and Islamophobic tweets .
Last week , we asked readers for their most Washington-themed name for the Washington Football Team .
Thanks to everyone who responded via email and Twitter .
We now present the final list : Winner : Don ’ t tell me you didn ’ t see this coming .
The Washington Swamp takes first place , suggested by multiple readers .
Runner up : D.C. resident Tripp suggests : Why not just add another government agency to manage the moribund @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is his pick .
Honorable mention : Just lop off one letter of the current name and add starch , says reader Letty .
The Washington Redskin Potatoes is her pick .
Some of our other favorites : The Washington Blob , The Washington SCIFs , The Washington Telecommuters , and The Washington Gridlock .
For more from FP , subscribe here or sign up for our other newsletters .
Send your tips , comments , questions , or typos to securitybrief @ foreignpolicy.com .

Jack Detsch, Robbie Gramer and Dan Haverty

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Security Brief. What’s on tap today: Defense Secretary Mark Esper lays low during a visit to an air force base, Afghanistan troop withdrawals continue, and the U.S. Agency for International Development staffs up while the Pentagon sheds talent.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Security Brief. What’s on tap today: Defense Secretary Mark Esper lays low during a visit to an air force base, Afghanistan troop withdrawals continue, and the U.S. Agency for International Development staffs up while the Pentagon sheds talent.
If you would like to receive Security Brief in your inbox every Thursday, please sign up here.
Esper Stays in Stealth Mode During Bomber Trip
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper continued to survey the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on U.S. troops on Wednesday, when he traveled to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, home of the Pentagon’s stealth bomber fleet. Like the elusive B-2 Spirit bomber looming behind him during an eight-minute press conference, Esper—who hadn’t appeared for an on-camera briefing since bucking President Donald Trump last month over the use of active-duty troops to quell protests—was intent on staying off of the White House’s radar.
But even as Esper seeks to avoid the limelight, it finds him in far-flung military bases. A reporter asked about the deployment of heavily armed, federal agents to Portland, Ore., after a Pentagon spokesman said that Esper had raised concerns about law enforcement agents wearing military-style uniforms. “Today I’m going to focus on the important folks at Whiteman Air Force Base and the tremendous capability sitting behind me,” Esper told reporters.
After touring the rest of the facilities, including a simulated flight, Esper returned to Andrews Air Force Base. There he found Trump threatening to veto the Pentagon’s annual authorization bill because it would rename bases honoring Confederates and to send more federal agents to the streets of Chicago.
In Esper’s rear view mirror are the stealth bombers he toured: Storied as the B-2 is, the Air Force is currently making plans to phase out the 20 bombers at Whiteman. It’s set to test fly a next-generation replacement in the next two years.
What We’re Watching
Drawing out the drawdown. On Monday, Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States’ peace envoy and chief negotiator in Afghanistan, tweeted that the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan had been reduced from 12,000 to 8,600, and that five bases in the country had closed. The United States pledged to remove all troops from Afghanistan as part of the peace deal signed with the Taliban in February. However, in March, U.S. officials said they would pause withdrawals and reassess the situation once the figure was brought down to 8,600.
The Taliban has stepped up its attacks on Afghan government forces in recent months, straining the peace process. But Khalilzad confirmed that its attacks on U.S. personnel have stopped, a key part of the deal and a sign that troop withdrawals will likely continue.
Houston, Xi has a problem. The Trump administration upped the ante in its diplomatic showdown with Beijing this week, abruptly ordering the closure of China’s consulate in Houston by Friday. U.S. officials told Foreign Policy that the move came following a surge in Chinese espionage activities in the United States. What comes next? Expect China to respond in kind. U.S. officials indicated that could mean the closure of the U.S. consulate in Wuhan or in Chengdu.
But China could escalate by shuttering a larger U.S. consulate or even multiple consulates. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump suggested that he may order the closure of more Chinese consulates after the office in Houston closes.
Eastern promises. Ukrainian, Russian, and international representatives agreed to a full and comprehensive cease-fire on Wednesday, scheduled to go into effect on July 27. The agreement aims to breathe life back into the Minsk Accords and put an end to sporadic fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian paramilitaries. The Minsk Accords, which lay out the process by which the breakaway eastern republics can be reintegrated into Ukraine, are are contingent on an end to the fighting. The war in eastern Ukraine has simmered for years despite peace talks. Some experts are skeptical this diplomatic breakthrough will lead to lasting peace.
Should the U.S. cut troops in the Middle East? Two prominent Washington think tanks say so. The George Soros and Koch brothers-backed Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is out with a new paper this week calling for the Trump administration to draw down American forces in the Middle East and become a more forceful diplomatic player in the region. The Center for a New American Security is also out with a report pushing for a new national security strategy that defines U.S. interests in the Middle East more narrowly.
Movers and Shakers
Pentagon loses legislative chief. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Robert Hood is set to leave the Defense Department on Friday, Foreign Policy first reported, raising the number of vacancies in civilian Pentagon posts to 21. That matches the Trump administration’s record. Hood’s departure leaves the Pentagon without a point person to lead eight civilians tapped for senior roles through Senate confirmation.
USAID gets new religious freedom advisor. Samah Norquist, the agency’s senior advisor on religious freedom and pluralism in the Middle East bureau, is set to move up to international religious freedom advisor for acting USAID Administrator John Barsa, the agency announced on Monday. She is married to Grover Norquist, a former lobbyist and anti-tax crusader.
More moves at USAID. Ken Hill, a former Department of Homeland Security official, was recently named USAID’s executive secretary, according to Politico’s Nahal Toosi. The move represents a break from past practice, as the role is typically filled by career staffers.
Foreign Policy Recommends
Space politics. The United States’ 1,000 satellites in space are mostly unprotected. When Russia launched a projectile into space in February 2017 and China began training specialized armed units for space missions, it helped spur a push in Washington for a space force that could protect U.S. property. Time took a deep look inside the newly established U.S. Space Force.
The Week Ahead
The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a confirmation hearing for Anthony Tata, Trump’s pick to be undersecretary of defense for policy. He has come under fire for conspiratorial, offensive, and Islamophobic tweets.
And the Winner Is…
Last week, we asked readers for their most Washington-themed name for the Washington Football Team. Thanks to everyone who responded via email and Twitter. We now present the final list:
Winner: Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming. The Washington Swamp takes first place, suggested by multiple readers.
Runner up: D.C. resident Tripp suggests: Why not just add another government agency to manage the moribund team? The Washington Department of Football is his pick.
Honorable mention: Just lop off one letter of the current name and add starch, says reader Letty. The Washington Redskin Potatoes is her pick.
Some of our other favorites: The Washington Blob, The Washington SCIFs, The Washington Telecommuters, and The Washington Gridlock.
That’s it for today.
For more from FP, subscribe here or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or typos to securitybrief@foreignpolicy.com.


foreignpolicy--2020-07-23--The Trump Administration Throws Its Support Behind a Vaccine

The Trump Administration Throws Its Support Behind a Vaccine Here is today ’ s Foreign Policy brief : The United States is pushing hard for a COVID-19 vaccine , Turkey is conducting military operations deep inside Iraq , and anti-Putin protests flare in eastern Russia .
If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday , please sign up here .
The U.S. government has reached a $ 1.95 billion deal to purchase 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed jointly by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech , one of the largest single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The vaccine will be administered in two doses , so the initial agreement will cover the inoculation of 50 million people , contingent on the Food and Drug Administration determining that it is safe and effective .
The agreement also allows for an additional 500 million doses at the beginning of 2021 .
Reason for optimism .
The deal represents a major push in the search for a vaccine , and it opens a wealth of resources to one of the world ’ s most promising candidates .
Pfizer and BioNTech administered the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and a Pfizer statement earlier this week said the initial results were positive .
But the vaccine is still in a relatively early stage of testing and the initial results have not yet been published in a medical journal , meaning several more rounds of positive testing are required before the vaccine reaches the public .
While this does give the United States some advantage toward rolling out the world ’ s first vaccine , it still lags behind other more advanced efforts .
The University of Oxford ’ s joint initiative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a vaccine in Phase 3 of testing .
Something bigger ?
The investment comes as the Trump administration has been scrambling to restore its image after its failure to take effective measures to counteract the spread of the virus badly damaged its credibility .
The Pfizer/BioNTech investment is part of Operation Warp Speed , a major initiative by the Trump administration to develop and roll out a vaccine by January 2021 .
But still a ways to go .
Mike Ryan , head of the World Health Organization ’ s emergencies programme , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying that despite “ good progress ” being made , a viable vaccine will unlikely be available until early 2021 .
“ Realistically it is going to be the first part of next year before we start seeing people getting vaccinated , ” Ryan said .
Boris on the defensive .
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ’ s Conservative government is under fire after a recently published parliamentary report suggested that the government did not act quickly enough to investigate claims that Russia may have interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum .
During @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outright rejected the notion that Russian interference tipped the scales in favor of Brexit , and further denied that the government balked at investigating Russia .
As FP ’ s Amy Mackinnon writes , the report notes that the issue of protecting the integrity of British elections had become a “ hot potato ” with no one government ministry or intelligence agency taking the lead .
Tensions escalate .
U.S.-Chinese relations continue to deteriorate .
On Tuesday , the Trump administration ordered the closure of a Chinese consulate in Houston , Texas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a response to widespread suspicion that the Chinese government is using the office to carry out espionage activities in the United States .
The move threatens a major diplomatic row between the world ’ s two largest economies .
China called it an “ unprecedented escalation ” of tensions , and has threatened retaliation .
Sources told Reuters that the Chinese government was considering ordering the closure of the U.S. consulate in Wuhan .
How China chooses to retaliate could determine whether the situation spirals , FP ’ s Robbie Gramer and Amy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offensive .
Turkish forces have moved deep into Iraqi territory in an effort to root out Kurdish militants , who the government claim use northern Iraq as a staging post for operations inside Turkey .
Although Turkish troops have been in northern Iraq for some time , the government recently adopted a more aggressive approach , seeking “ to destroy the threat from where it begins.
” As part of the campaign–dubbed Operation Claw Tiger–Turkey has advanced 25 miles inside the Iraqi border and established 30 military bases .
The operation could serve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iraq .
Looking for a way out .
On Wednesday , Russian , Ukrainian , and international actors agreed to a cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian paramilitaries in eastern Ukraine , effective July 27 , in an effort to bring an end to the 6-year-old war in the country .
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ’ s press office , the ceasefire is comprehensive and , if observed by the pro-Russian side , could lead to the full implementation of the Minsk accords , which are considered the basis for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pave the way for the reintegration of the breakaway republics back into Ukraine .
Breaking with the past .
Political instability continues to threaten the Ivory Coast .
On Wednesday , Marcel Amon-Tanoh , the country ’ s former foreign minister and long-time ally of President Alassane Ouattara , broke with the ruling RHDP alliance and announced he would stand in the country ’ s presidential election in October .
Amon-Tanoh ’ s announcement comes as Ouattara ’ s handpicked successor , Prime Minister Gon Coulibaly , suddenly died .
Amon-Tanoh will reportedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ouattara and the RHDP .
Unrest continues in Russia .
Anti-government protests continued in Russia ’ s eastern region of Khabarovsk on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin ’ s new appointee for regional governor , Mikhail Degtyaryov , refused to step down amid growing tension with the federal government .
Protests first erupted in Khabarovsk after Sergei Furgal , the region ’ s hugely popular former governor , was arrested on July 9 on charges that protesters are claiming were politically motivated .
Furgal ’ s 2018 electoral victory over the Putin favorite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy in the region , and some observers believe his arrest was the government ’ s attempt to undo that defeat .
Wall of moms .
Amid the melee of activity surrounding the unrest in Portland , Oregon , over the killing of George Floyd , hundreds of local mothers have decided to take action .
Dubbing themselves the “ Wall of Moms , ” they have taken to the streets each night to form a human barricade to protect Black Lives Matters protesters against the aggressive tactics of federal agents .
Slogans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stay clear , moms are here ” and “ I ’ m so disappointed in you -mom.
” For more from FP , visit foreignpolicy.com , subscribe here , or sign up for our other newsletters .
Send your tips , comments , questions , or corrections to morningbrief @ foreignpolicy.com .

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: The United States is pushing hard for a COVID-19 vaccine , Turkey is conducting military operations deep inside Iraq , and anti-Putin protests flare in eastern Russia.
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: The United States is pushing hard for a COVID-19 vaccine, Turkey is conducting military operations deep inside Iraq, and anti-Putin protests flare in eastern Russia.
If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.
The United States Makes a Major Investment in a COVID-19 Vaccine
The U.S. government has reached a $1.95 billion deal to purchase 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed jointly by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech, one of the largest single investments in a vaccine to date. The vaccine will be administered in two doses, so the initial agreement will cover the inoculation of 50 million people, contingent on the Food and Drug Administration determining that it is safe and effective. The agreement also allows for an additional 500 million doses at the beginning of 2021.
Reason for optimism. The deal represents a major push in the search for a vaccine, and it opens a wealth of resources to one of the world’s most promising candidates. Pfizer and BioNTech administered the first tests of the vaccine in April, and a Pfizer statement earlier this week said the initial results were positive. But the vaccine is still in a relatively early stage of testing and the initial results have not yet been published in a medical journal, meaning several more rounds of positive testing are required before the vaccine reaches the public.
While this does give the United States some advantage toward rolling out the world’s first vaccine, it still lags behind other more advanced efforts. The University of Oxford’s joint initiative with the multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has a vaccine in Phase 3 of testing.
Something bigger? The investment comes as the Trump administration has been scrambling to restore its image after its failure to take effective measures to counteract the spread of the virus badly damaged its credibility. The Pfizer/BioNTech investment is part of Operation Warp Speed, a major initiative by the Trump administration to develop and roll out a vaccine by January 2021.
But still a ways to go. Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies programme, has urged caution over growing optimism, saying that despite “good progress” being made, a viable vaccine will unlikely be available until early 2021. “Realistically it is going to be the first part of next year before we start seeing people getting vaccinated,” Ryan said.
What We’re Following Today
Boris on the defensive. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is under fire after a recently published parliamentary report suggested that the government did not act quickly enough to investigate claims that Russia may have interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum. During a subsequent debate in Parliament, Johnson outright rejected the notion that Russian interference tipped the scales in favor of Brexit, and further denied that the government balked at investigating Russia. As FP’s Amy Mackinnon writes, the report notes that the issue of protecting the integrity of British elections had become a “hot potato” with no one government ministry or intelligence agency taking the lead.
Tensions escalate. U.S.-Chinese relations continue to deteriorate. On Tuesday, the Trump administration ordered the closure of a Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, which members of the administration claim is a response to widespread suspicion that the Chinese government is using the office to carry out espionage activities in the United States. The move threatens a major diplomatic row between the world’s two largest economies. China called it an “unprecedented escalation” of tensions, and has threatened retaliation.
Sources told Reuters that the Chinese government was considering ordering the closure of the U.S. consulate in Wuhan. How China chooses to retaliate could determine whether the situation spirals, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Amy Mackinnon report.
Turkey’s quiet offensive. Turkish forces have moved deep into Iraqi territory in an effort to root out Kurdish militants, who the government claim use northern Iraq as a staging post for operations inside Turkey. Although Turkish troops have been in northern Iraq for some time, the government recently adopted a more aggressive approach, seeking “to destroy the threat from where it begins.” As part of the campaign–dubbed Operation Claw Tiger–Turkey has advanced 25 miles inside the Iraqi border and established 30 military bases. The operation could serve as the prelude to further incursions into Iraq.
Looking for a way out. On Wednesday, Russian, Ukrainian, and international actors agreed to a cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian paramilitaries in eastern Ukraine, effective July 27, in an effort to bring an end to the 6-year-old war in the country. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s press office, the ceasefire is comprehensive and, if observed by the pro-Russian side, could lead to the full implementation of the Minsk accords, which are considered the basis for a peaceful resolution to the conflict as they pave the way for the reintegration of the breakaway republics back into Ukraine.
Keep an Eye On
Breaking with the past. Political instability continues to threaten the Ivory Coast. On Wednesday, Marcel Amon-Tanoh, the country’s former foreign minister and long-time ally of President Alassane Ouattara, broke with the ruling RHDP alliance and announced he would stand in the country’s presidential election in October. Amon-Tanoh’s announcement comes as Ouattara’s handpicked successor, Prime Minister Gon Coulibaly, suddenly died. Amon-Tanoh will reportedly establish a new political party to challenge Ouattara and the RHDP.
Unrest continues in Russia. Anti-government protests continued in Russia’s eastern region of Khabarovsk on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin’s new appointee for regional governor, Mikhail Degtyaryov, refused to step down amid growing tension with the federal government. Protests first erupted in Khabarovsk after Sergei Furgal, the region’s hugely popular former governor, was arrested on July 9 on charges that protesters are claiming were politically motivated.
Furgal’s 2018 electoral victory over the Putin favorite was considered a sharp rebuke of government policy in the region, and some observers believe his arrest was the government’s attempt to undo that defeat.
Odds and Ends
Wall of moms. Amid the melee of activity surrounding the unrest in Portland, Oregon, over the killing of George Floyd, hundreds of local mothers have decided to take action. Dubbing themselves the “Wall of Moms,” they have taken to the streets each night to form a human barricade to protect Black Lives Matters protesters against the aggressive tactics of federal agents. Slogans used by the group include “Feds stay clear, moms are here” and “I’m so disappointed in you -mom.”
That’s it for today.
For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.


foreignpolicy--2020-07-22--Americans Stopped Trusting Long Before Trump

One early evening in November of 2005 , I found myself walking through Union Station in Washington , D.C. , with then-Sen. Joe Biden .
The train that was to ferry us to his resident city of Wilmington , Delaware , had already completed boarding , so we were striding at a very fast clip .
Still , the senator kept talking the entire way .
I ’ d asked him a question as we walked , and he was still answering it as we disembarked in Wilmington 75 minutes later .
That question was : Why , three years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of giving President George W. Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq ?
Biden ’ s answer boiled down to this : He had believed that the authorization vote would give the president leverage to force the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to effectively relinquish his illicit weapons program .
Further , he had believed that Bush would not blunder recklessly into war .
The senator ’ s windy monologue featured multiple digressions relating to the Bush family ’ s wealth , to Vice President Dick Cheney ’ s nefariousness , and to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Colin Powell .
But those cameos were themselves illustrative of the greater tragedy .
For Biden , it had come down to who to trust .
He trusted that Saddam—who , the day after the United States was attacked on Sept. 11 , 2001 , crowed that America “ reaps the thorns its rulers have planted in the world ” —was an evil megalomaniac who possessed weapons of mass destruction .
He trusted that Bush would consult with Biden and other foreign-policy sages before committing to military force .
And if it came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hell , he trusted that the public would themselves entrust people like Biden—who was then gearing up for his second run at the presidency—to make things right .
At the time , both of us ( and , for that matter , the rest of Washington ) were unaware of two rather unusual letters that had been written less than a month after 9/11 .
The author of them was Tariq Aziz , Saddam ’ s deputy prime minister .
Aziz had sent them one week apart from each other to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reagan , Frank Carlucci , who in turn dutifully forwarded them to Bush ’ s assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs , Bill Burns .
In the letters , Saddam ’ s right-hand man asked that the dictator ’ s churlish remarks “ be disregarded.
” Aziz insisted that the Iraqi regime was “ ready to meet any American official , publicly or secretly , to discuss issues of mutual concern .
At any rate Iraq has suffered from terrorism ” —including , he maintained , several assassination attempts against Saddam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minister was explicitly imploring the Bush administration : Ignore my boss ’ s bluster—he ’ s just playing to his base .
We are not your enemy .
We should be allies in the war on terror .
Burns didn ’ t recall anything about the letters ( which had been retrieved in a Freedom of Information Act request by George Washington University ’ s heroic National Security Archive team ) when I showed them to him in 2018 .
The assistant secretary understandably had other preoccupations in the wake of 9/11 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ consider the source .
Why trust Saddam ’ s advisor ?
At the time of that visit with Burns , Donald Trump had been president for a year .
A key to Trump ’ s astonishing victory over Hillary Clinton was the complete breakdown of public trust in what the Republicans termed the Washington “ swamp ” —and , as Barack Obama had done in his presidential campaign eight years earlier , Trump repeatedly scorned Clinton and other Beltway sages who had supported Bush ’ s decision to invade Iraq .
The toll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recognized , transcended blood and treasure .
An entire generation had come of age knowing that Washington was not on the level .
Why trust the White House anymore ?
Why trust intelligence specialists ?
Why trust Congress ?
Why trust the media ?
And so , it followed , why not consider trusting a boastful reality TV star and compulsive disruptor whose Washington inexperience could be cast as a crowning virtue ?
That the Iraq War made possible the presidencies of first Obama and then Trump is hard to refute .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three years ago to write my new book , To Start a War : How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq .
Having already written an in-depth book about Bush ’ s presidency , what continued to eat at me was not so much that consequential decision ’ s obvious legacy but what the United States failed to learn from it .
Not by design , my book arrives at a time of national crisis , when polls suggest that Americans are fed up with the Trump administration ’ s pervasive amateurism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shoo-in in the November election .
Though the pandemic has revealed a nationwide yearning for straight talk and scientifically validated guidance , recoiling from the White House ’ s antics has not translated into a reacquired appreciation of old hands on the Hill like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , for example—or , for that matter , of the media .
Respect for such institutions remains abysmal .
Biden therefore remains afflicted with an indelible weakness—an inability to convince voters that 45 years ’ worth of government experience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afflicts the United States .
After all , what did all that expertise get Americans two decades ago ?
George W. Bush brought with him to the White House a highly skilled staff , featuring a star-studded foreign-policy team that had worked in government going back to the Ford administration .
The new president managed to pass major bipartisan legislation with a Congress that was enjoying a relatively even-tempered interval between Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party .
Meanwhile , newsrooms were well resourced and not yet convulsed by the internet .
All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s first year in office came at a time when Washington was at a peak of functionality .
But the same Washington did not know what it did not know .
During Bush ’ s first eight months in office , not one member of the White House press corps asked any question to press secretary Ari Fleischer about al Qaeda .
Fleischer himself had only recently learned of the organization , when Vladimir Putin brought up the subject during Bush ’ s summit with the Russian leader in June 2001 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Powell , Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice—had each been out of government for eight years or more .
Their experience was shaped primarily by the Cold War and secondarily by the 100-hour-long hot war known as Operation Desert Storm .
Saddam ’ s behavior , before and since the U.S.-led coalition routed Iraqi troops out of Kuwait , was seen as that of a murderous barbarian .
At a National Press Club luncheon on Sept. 10 , 2001 , the featured speaker , Biden , termed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” “ 9/11 changed everything , ” I must have heard a hundred times in the course of my book reporting .
In retrospect , it ’ s remarkable to see how little change the attacks immediately brought about—and not simply because Bush famously urged Americans a month later “ to go about their business.
” Though the nation ’ s capital had suddenly lost its sense of impregnability , its fearful leaders continued to embrace time-honored predilections .
Among these was that Saddam Hussein was a threat to America .
Evidence that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. homeland was wafer-thin ; that he might confederate with those who had attacked the United States , even less so ; that he harbored any ambition to attack the United States himself , nonexistent .
Indeed , the letters sent by Aziz to Carlucci shortly after the 9/11 attacks suggesting the opposite—that the Iraqi regime wished to ally itself with the United States against a common enemy—were only the latest such overtures , the others having been previously transmitted throughout the 1990s by Iraq ’ s United Nations Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one do business with so unsavory an actor as Saddam ?
Presidents Jimmy Carter and Reagan had been down this road before , with mixed results .
But by 9/11 , it was all but universally acknowledged—above all , by Washington ’ s most experienced hands—that the United States could not do business with Saddam .
He was , after all , a “ certifiable maniac.
” U.S. history is littered with examples not only of the laxity Americans exhibit toward their morally challenged allies but also of how comically they demonize their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but he was not suicidal .
Most everybody in Washington , including the press , failed to see this , and failed as well to appreciate the complicated game of survival he was playing as a secular dictator living next door to the Islamic theocracy of Iran .
Instead , went the groupthink : A maniac was capable of anything .
A maniac would never dispose of his deadly weapons .
A maniac would surely use those weapons—or , as Bush hypothesized about Saddam without a shred of evidence but with little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ would like nothing more than to use a terrorist network to attack and to kill and leave no fingerprints behind.
” Even before Feb. 5 , 2003 , when Powell laid out the soon-to-be-disproven case that Iraq had violated U.N. resolutions by retaining a weapons program , Biden was already sold on the subject , declaring a week before Powell ’ s speech , “ Every world leader in Europe and the Middle East knows he ’ s in material breach.
” This assumption , like that of Saddam being a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a family fable , a convenient verity that somehow gained credibility over the years even as it took on more hyperbole .
During the campaign , Biden has passed on opportunities to elaborate his lessons learned from the Iraq experience .
That ’ s not to say he hasn ’ t learned any .
A nuclear physicist on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ’ s payroll , Peter Zimmerman , had warned the committee ’ s chairman , Biden , of flaws in the prewar intelligence .
Biden later apologized to Zimmerman for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who would a President Biden listen to now ?
As to who duped whom in the Iraq saga , the blame deserves a wide distribution .
Ultimately , however , it ’ s all in the family—and that , I believe , is the lesson worth absorbing from this tragic episode .
Today , even as Americans suffer the latest reminder of what happens when leadership fails them , a long-overdue dialogue about race and power is also underway .
The two conversations belong together .
In finally addressing America ’ s ongoing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the omnipresent monuments to a slaveholding past , Americans are in effect acknowledging an insularity that is racist , but not only that .
A democracy whose leaders listen only to each other is as prone to degeneration as any incestuous family .
It ’ s unknowable , of course , whether the United States would have gone to war against Iraq had the so-called experts in the White House Situation Room included smart and accomplished newcomers to Washington who could see the “ certifiable ” for the tall tale it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tale said more about the tellers than most of them will yet admit .

One early evening in November of 2005, I found myself walking through Union Station in Washington, D.C., with then-Sen. Joe Biden. The train that was to ferry us to his resident city of Wilmington, Delaware, had already completed boarding, so we were striding at a very fast clip. Still, the senator kept talking the entire way. I’d asked him a question as we walked, and he was still answering it as we disembarked in Wilmington 75 minutes later. That question was: Why, three years earlier, had Biden voted in favor of giving President George W. Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq?
One early evening in November of 2005, I found myself walking through Union Station in Washington, D.C., with then-Sen. Joe Biden. The train that was to ferry us to his resident city of Wilmington, Delaware, had already completed boarding, so we were striding at a very fast clip. Still, the senator kept talking the entire way. I’d asked him a question as we walked, and he was still answering it as we disembarked in Wilmington 75 minutes later. That question was: Why, three years earlier, had Biden voted in favor of giving President George W. Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq?
Biden’s answer boiled down to this: He had believed that the authorization vote would give the president leverage to force the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to effectively relinquish his illicit weapons program. Further, he had believed that Bush would not blunder recklessly into war. The senator’s windy monologue featured multiple digressions relating to the Bush family’s wealth, to Vice President Dick Cheney’s nefariousness, and to the futile valor of Secretary of State Colin Powell. But those cameos were themselves illustrative of the greater tragedy.
For Biden, it had come down to who to trust. He trusted that Saddam—who, the day after the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, crowed that America “reaps the thorns its rulers have planted in the world”—was an evil megalomaniac who possessed weapons of mass destruction. He trusted that Bush would consult with Biden and other foreign-policy sages before committing to military force. And if it came down to war and everything subsequently went to hell, he trusted that the public would themselves entrust people like Biden—who was then gearing up for his second run at the presidency—to make things right.
At the time, both of us (and, for that matter, the rest of Washington) were unaware of two rather unusual letters that had been written less than a month after 9/11. The author of them was Tariq Aziz, Saddam’s deputy prime minister. Aziz had sent them one week apart from each other to a former national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan, Frank Carlucci, who in turn dutifully forwarded them to Bush’s assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Bill Burns. In the letters, Saddam’s right-hand man asked that the dictator’s churlish remarks “be disregarded.” Aziz insisted that the Iraqi regime was “ready to meet any American official, publicly or secretly, to discuss issues of mutual concern. At any rate Iraq has suffered from terrorism”—including, he maintained, several assassination attempts against Saddam and Aziz himself. The deputy prime minister was explicitly imploring the Bush administration: Ignore my boss’s bluster—he’s just playing to his base. We are not your enemy. We should be allies in the war on terror.
Burns didn’t recall anything about the letters (which had been retrieved in a Freedom of Information Act request by George Washington University’s heroic National Security Archive team) when I showed them to him in 2018. The assistant secretary understandably had other preoccupations in the wake of 9/11. And, of course, one should consider the source. Why trust Saddam’s advisor?
At the time of that visit with Burns, Donald Trump had been president for a year. A key to Trump’s astonishing victory over Hillary Clinton was the complete breakdown of public trust in what the Republicans termed the Washington “swamp”—and, as Barack Obama had done in his presidential campaign eight years earlier, Trump repeatedly scorned Clinton and other Beltway sages who had supported Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. The toll of that ill-fated decision, Trump shrewdly recognized, transcended blood and treasure. An entire generation had come of age knowing that Washington was not on the level. Why trust the White House anymore? Why trust intelligence specialists? Why trust Congress? Why trust the media? And so, it followed, why not consider trusting a boastful reality TV star and compulsive disruptor whose Washington inexperience could be cast as a crowning virtue?
That the Iraq War made possible the presidencies of first Obama and then Trump is hard to refute. But this was not why I set out three years ago to write my new book, To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq. Having already written an in-depth book about Bush’s presidency, what continued to eat at me was not so much that consequential decision’s obvious legacy but what the United States failed to learn from it.
Not by design, my book arrives at a time of national crisis, when polls suggest that Americans are fed up with the Trump administration’s pervasive amateurism. But Biden is not yet a shoo-in in the November election. Though the pandemic has revealed a nationwide yearning for straight talk and scientifically validated guidance, recoiling from the White House’s antics has not translated into a reacquired appreciation of old hands on the Hill like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example—or, for that matter, of the media. Respect for such institutions remains abysmal.
Biden therefore remains afflicted with an indelible weakness—an inability to convince voters that 45 years’ worth of government experience represents a surefire cure for what now afflicts the United States. After all, what did all that expertise get Americans two decades ago? George W. Bush brought with him to the White House a highly skilled staff, featuring a star-studded foreign-policy team that had worked in government going back to the Ford administration. The new president managed to pass major bipartisan legislation with a Congress that was enjoying a relatively even-tempered interval between Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party. Meanwhile, newsrooms were well resourced and not yet convulsed by the internet. All of which is to say that Bush’s first year in office came at a time when Washington was at a peak of functionality.
But the same Washington did not know what it did not know. During Bush’s first eight months in office, not one member of the White House press corps asked any question to press secretary Ari Fleischer about al Qaeda. Fleischer himself had only recently learned of the organization, when Vladimir Putin brought up the subject during Bush’s summit with the Russian leader in June 2001. Bush’s national security team—Cheney, Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice—had each been out of government for eight years or more. Their experience was shaped primarily by the Cold War and secondarily by the 100-hour-long hot war known as Operation Desert Storm. Saddam’s behavior, before and since the U.S.-led coalition routed Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, was seen as that of a murderous barbarian. At a National Press Club luncheon on Sept. 10, 2001, the featured speaker, Biden, termed the Iraqi dictator a “certifiable maniac.”
“9/11 changed everything,” I must have heard a hundred times in the course of my book reporting. In retrospect, it’s remarkable to see how little change the attacks immediately brought about—and not simply because Bush famously urged Americans a month later “to go about their business.” Though the nation’s capital had suddenly lost its sense of impregnability, its fearful leaders continued to embrace time-honored predilections.
Among these was that Saddam Hussein was a threat to America. Evidence that the dictator had the capability of attacking the U.S. homeland was wafer-thin; that he might confederate with those who had attacked the United States, even less so; that he harbored any ambition to attack the United States himself, nonexistent. Indeed, the letters sent by Aziz to Carlucci shortly after the 9/11 attacks suggesting the opposite—that the Iraqi regime wished to ally itself with the United States against a common enemy—were only the latest such overtures, the others having been previously transmitted throughout the 1990s by Iraq’s United Nations Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon to the CIA.
Now: Should one do business with so unsavory an actor as Saddam? Presidents Jimmy Carter and Reagan had been down this road before, with mixed results. But by 9/11, it was all but universally acknowledged—above all, by Washington’s most experienced hands—that the United States could not do business with Saddam. He was, after all, a “certifiable maniac.”
U.S. history is littered with examples not only of the laxity Americans exhibit toward their morally challenged allies but also of how comically they demonize their adversaries. Saddam was many horrible things, but he was not suicidal. Most everybody in Washington, including the press, failed to see this, and failed as well to appreciate the complicated game of survival he was playing as a secular dictator living next door to the Islamic theocracy of Iran. Instead, went the groupthink: A maniac was capable of anything. A maniac would never dispose of his deadly weapons. A maniac would surely use those weapons—or, as Bush hypothesized about Saddam without a shred of evidence but with little pushback from Democrats or the media, “would like nothing more than to use a terrorist network to attack and to kill and leave no fingerprints behind.”
Even before Feb. 5, 2003, when Powell laid out the soon-to-be-disproven case that Iraq had violated U.N. resolutions by retaining a weapons program, Biden was already sold on the subject, declaring a week before Powell’s speech, “Every world leader in Europe and the Middle East knows he’s in material breach.” This assumption, like that of Saddam being a “certifiable maniac,” was akin to a family fable, a convenient verity that somehow gained credibility over the years even as it took on more hyperbole.
During the campaign, Biden has passed on opportunities to elaborate his lessons learned from the Iraq experience. That’s not to say he hasn’t learned any. A nuclear physicist on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s payroll, Peter Zimmerman, had warned the committee’s chairman, Biden, of flaws in the prewar intelligence. Biden later apologized to Zimmerman for not listening. The question is, who would a President Biden listen to now?
As to who duped whom in the Iraq saga, the blame deserves a wide distribution. Ultimately, however, it’s all in the family—and that, I believe, is the lesson worth absorbing from this tragic episode. Today, even as Americans suffer the latest reminder of what happens when leadership fails them, a long-overdue dialogue about race and power is also underway. The two conversations belong together. In finally addressing America’s ongoing tolerance of unchecked police brutality, and of the omnipresent monuments to a slaveholding past, Americans are in effect acknowledging an insularity that is racist, but not only that. A democracy whose leaders listen only to each other is as prone to degeneration as any incestuous family. It’s unknowable, of course, whether the United States would have gone to war against Iraq had the so-called experts in the White House Situation Room included smart and accomplished newcomers to Washington who could see the “certifiable” for the tall tale it was. What we do know is that the tale said more about the tellers than most of them will yet admit.


foreignpolicy--2020-07-24--U.S. Justice Department to Investigate Federal Agents Involved In Protest Crackdown

U.S. Justice Department to Investigate Federal Agents Involved In Protest Crackdown Here is today ’ s Foreign Policy brief : U.S. Justice Department watchdog announces probe into the behavior of federal agents during protest crackdown , the Taliban say they are ready to negotiate with Kabul in August , and China retaliates for Houston consulate closure by ordering the United States out of Chengdu .
We welcome your feedback at morningbrief @ foreignpolicy.com .
The U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has announced an investigation into the use of force by federal agents during recent protests against police violence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as U.S. President Trump has sent federal law enforcement personnel from various agencies to three American cities , with plans to deploy to more cities over the next three weeks .
The moves have been criticized as political stunts , not least since all the cities targeted in the crackdown are run by Democratic Party mayors .
One of those mayors , Portland ’ s Ted Wheeler , was tear-gassed while standing with protesters on Wednesday night .
The Justice Department investigation will look at the behavior of federal agents in two U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force against protestors in Portland , Oregon and the June 1 incident at Lafayette Square in Washington , when protestors were clubbed and tear gassed in order to make way for a presidential photo opportunity in front of St. John ’ s Church .
The F word .
Writing in Foreign Policy on Thursday , Yale History Professor Timothy Snyder discusses why the history of fascism helps explain our present moment , and how understanding it may offer us a way out .
“ It can happen in the United States , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but the rest of it need not , ” he writes .
On July 21 , FP ’ s Michael Hirsh wrote a detailed essay on why fascists fail .
In it , he offers some hope for those who worry about America ’ s democratic decline .
“ The good news is that history tells us he will almost certainly fail in the end , especially since Trump possesses nothing like the fearsome competence or detailed programs of fascists past , ” he writes .
China closes Chengdu .
China ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the closure this week of the consulate in Houston by ordering U.S. diplomats to vacate the consulate in Chengdu , in the country ’ s southwest .
The move is an escalation of sorts , since some observers expected Beijing might retaliate by kicking the United States out of the still-vacant consulate in Wuhan , but is a less dramatic move than shuttering a bigger diplomatic outpost like Shanghai .
While the State Department ordered the Chinese to vacate Houston by Friday , it ’ s not clear they will .
Speaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Chinese consul general in Houston , did not commit to closing the consulate today , and said it would remain open “ until further notice.
” Taliban ready to talk .
The Taliban is ready for talks “ immediately ” after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha has passed at the end of the month , as long as prisoner release requirements are met by that time , a Taliban spokesman has said .
That means talks could begin as soon as August .
The Afghan government has not yet responded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close to meeting their agreements on prisoner releases : Kabul must release 600 more Taliban prisoners to meet the terms of the deal and the Taliban must release a further 136 government prisoners .
U.S. jet confronts Iranian airliner .
Passengers on an Iranian commercial airliner suffered minor injuries after it was forced to drop altitude suddenly to avoid a collision with a U.S. fighter jet over Syrian airspace .
The plane had been traveling from Iran to Beirut with approximately 150 passengers on board .
A U.S. Central Command spokesman said the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visual inspection ” on the plane as it was flying close to the U.S. military base at al-Tanf .
Mediation in Mali .
Mediation efforts are continuing in Mali between the country ’ s opposition and President Ibrahim Boubcar Keita after a deal to form a unity government was rejected by the opposition because it would keep Keita as president .
Keita still has 3 years to run on his second term , having been re-elected in 2018 .
Protests against Keita ’ s rule began on June 5 , fueled by dissatisfaction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an Islamist insurgency and ongoing corruption allegations .
China joins Mars race .
China has launched a spacecraft that aims to reach Mars in February 2021 , the first time it has sent an independent mission to another planet .
The rocket included a rover—Tianwen-1—in its payload which plans to search for underground water and test the planet ’ s soil and atmosphere .
It is the second Mars mission to launch in the past week , after the United Arab Emirates launched an unmanned orbiting probe to Mars on Monday .
Italexit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former member of the Five Star Movement , launched the “ Italexit ” party on Thursday following a meeting with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage .
While announcing his decision , Paragone cited a recent poll showing a sliver of Italians ( 7 percent ) would vote for a an anti-European Union party .
“ Consensus will only grow further , in line with the lies Europe tells us , ” Paragone said .
A mile high price .
The Mexican presidential plane has returned to Mexico after failing to find a buyer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Manuel López Obrador put the Boeing 787 up for sale when he took office in 2018 , a nod to his populist campaign , and it spent the last year and a half in the United States .
Former President Enrique Peña Nieto bought the jet , which features marble-lined bathrooms , in 2012 .
The $ 130 million resale price has scared off buyers so far .
War gaming .
The U.S. Army has conducted a tactical retreat from Twitch , a popular online video game streaming site , after ethical and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ platform .
The U.S. Army ’ s esports team ( made up of active duty service members ) has been on the platform since 2019 and had used its presence on the site to entice prospective recruits .
The Army allegedly ran fake giveaways for gaming products that , when clicked , took users directly to recruitment pages .
The Army ’ s Twitch channel had also blocked users who had asked U.S. service members to comment on U.S. war crimes , potentially stifling the questioners ’ right to speak freely without government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ team had “ paused ” streaming for the time being to “ review internal policies and procedures.
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Send your tips , comments , questions , or corrections to morningbrief @ foreignpolicy.com .

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: The U.S. Justice Department watchdog announces a probe into the behavior of federal agents during protest crackdown, the Taliban say they are ready to negotiate with Kabul, and China retaliates for Houston consulate closure by ordering the United States out of Chengdu.
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: The U.S. Justice Department watchdog announces a probe into the behavior of federal agents during protest crackdown, the Taliban say they are ready to negotiate with Kabul, and China retaliates for Houston consulate closure by ordering the United States out of Chengdu.
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Watchdog to Investigate Federal Crackdown On Protests
The U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has announced an investigation into the use of force by federal agents during recent protests against police violence and systemic racism.
The decision comes as U.S. President Trump has sent federal law enforcement personnel from various agencies to three American cities, with plans to deploy to more cities over the next three weeks. The moves have been criticized as political stunts, not least since all the cities targeted in the crackdown are run by Democratic Party mayors. One of those mayors, Portland’s Ted Wheeler, was tear-gassed while standing with protesters on Wednesday night.
The Justice Department investigation will look at the behavior of federal agents in two U.S. cities. They include allegations of excessive force against protestors in Portland, Oregon and the June 1 incident at Lafayette Square in Washington, when protestors were clubbed and tear gassed in order to make way for a presidential photo opportunity in front of St. John’s Church.
The F word. Writing in Foreign Policy on Thursday, Yale History Professor Timothy Snyder discusses why the history of fascism helps explain our present moment, and how understanding it may offer us a way out. “It can happen in the United States, and some of it has already happened, but the rest of it need not,” he writes.
On July 21, FP’s Michael Hirsh wrote a detailed essay on why fascists fail. In it, he offers some hope for those who worry about America’s democratic decline. “The good news is that history tells us he will almost certainly fail in the end, especially since Trump possesses nothing like the fearsome competence or detailed programs of fascists past,” he writes.
What We’re Following Today China closes Chengdu. China’s Foreign Ministry retaliated in a tit-for-tat manner for the closure this week of the consulate in Houston by ordering U.S. diplomats to vacate the consulate in Chengdu, in the country’s southwest. The move is an escalation of sorts, since some observers expected Beijing might retaliate by kicking the United States out of the still-vacant consulate in Wuhan, but is a less dramatic move than shuttering a bigger diplomatic outpost like Shanghai. While the State Department ordered the Chinese to vacate Houston by Friday, it’s not clear they will. Speaking to Politico on Thursday, Cai Wei, the Chinese consul general in Houston, did not commit to closing the consulate today, and said it would remain open “until further notice.”
Taliban ready to talk. The Taliban is ready for talks “immediately” after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha has passed at the end of the month, as long as prisoner release requirements are met by that time, a Taliban spokesman has said. That means talks could begin as soon as August. The Afghan government has not yet responded to the announcement. Both sides are close to meeting their agreements on prisoner releases: Kabul must release 600 more Taliban prisoners to meet the terms of the deal and the Taliban must release a further 136 government prisoners.
U.S. jet confronts Iranian airliner. Passengers on an Iranian commercial airliner suffered minor injuries after it was forced to drop altitude suddenly to avoid a collision with a U.S. fighter jet over Syrian airspace. The plane had been traveling from Iran to Beirut with approximately 150 passengers on board. A U.S. Central Command spokesman said the U.S. F-15 was conducting a “standard visual inspection” on the plane as it was flying close to the U.S. military base at al-Tanf.
Mediation in Mali. Mediation efforts are continuing in Mali between the country’s opposition and President Ibrahim Boubcar Keita after a deal to form a unity government was rejected by the opposition because it would keep Keita as president. Keita still has 3 years to run on his second term, having been re-elected in 2018. Protests against Keita’s rule began on June 5, fueled by dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of an Islamist insurgency and ongoing corruption allegations.
Keep an Eye On
China joins Mars race. China has launched a spacecraft that aims to reach Mars in February 2021, the first time it has sent an independent mission to another planet. The rocket included a rover—Tianwen-1—in its payload which plans to search for underground water and test the planet’s soil and atmosphere. It is the second Mars mission to launch in the past week, after the United Arab Emirates launched an unmanned orbiting probe to Mars on Monday.
Italexit? Italian Senator Gianluigi Paragone, a former member of the Five Star Movement, launched the “Italexit” party on Thursday following a meeting with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage. While announcing his decision, Paragone cited a recent poll showing a sliver of Italians (7 percent) would vote for a an anti-European Union party. “Consensus will only grow further, in line with the lies Europe tells us,” Paragone said.
Odds and Ends
A mile high price. The Mexican presidential plane has returned to Mexico after failing to find a buyer in the United States. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador put the Boeing 787 up for sale when he took office in 2018, a nod to his populist campaign, and it spent the last year and a half in the United States. Former President Enrique Peña Nieto bought the jet, which features marble-lined bathrooms, in 2012. The $130 million resale price has scared off buyers so far.
War gaming. The U.S. Army has conducted a tactical retreat from Twitch, a popular online video game streaming site, after ethical and legal questions about its conduct on the platform. The U.S. Army’s esports team (made up of active duty service members) has been on the platform since 2019 and had used its presence on the site to entice prospective recruits. The Army allegedly ran fake giveaways for gaming products that, when clicked, took users directly to recruitment pages.
The Army’s Twitch channel had also blocked users who had asked U.S. service members to comment on U.S. war crimes, potentially stifling the questioners’ right to speak freely without government interference. An Army spokesperson said the team had “paused” streaming for the time being to “review internal policies and procedures.”
That’s it for today.
For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.