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Blood's in the water over news media leaks

Political infighting about troop increase in Afghanistan could weaken U.S. position

By Jonathan S. Landay, Dion Nissenbaum and John Walcott / McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's internal debate over Afghan policy has escalated into a battle of news media leaks that's straining relations between officials who are seeking a major troop increase and those who want a more limited approach and a greater focus on domestic priorities.

The feud also has poisoned ties between the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan and the U.S. ambassador in the capital of Kabul, and left the administration struggling for leverage to press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to appoint untainted officials to his new government, attack corruption and share power with the parliament and provincial officials.

The battle in the media prompted Defense Secretary Robert Gates to lash out at leakers Thursday, telling reporters on a flight to Oshkosh, Wis., that the disclosures do "not serve the country or ... the military," and "everyone should just shut up."

It may be too late for that.

A U.S. defense official said the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, feels he was "stabbed in the back" by Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Three months ago, Eikenberry supported McChrystal's request for more troops, but last week it was revealed he sent a classified cable opposing it until Karzai shows that he can be trusted.

The official, like others who were interviewed for this report, requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

However, according to a half-dozen U.S. military and administration officials, published reports that President Barack Obama was settling on a major troop increase have deprived Eikenberry and other officials of the ability to tell Karzai that no more U.S. troops will be forthcoming if he doesn't agree to implement reforms.

Eikenberry wrote the cable after a meeting in which he pressed Karzai to send his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the political power in southern Kandahar province who allegedly has links to the drug trade, anywhere outside the country. Eikenberry also pressed Karzai to embrace a program of overhauls, known as the Afghanistan Compact, that was drafted by U.S. and Afghan officials, three U.S. officials said.

Karzai rejected the demands, the officials said.

The Afghan leader is also under U.S. pressure to select senior officials for his new government from a U.S. list of 40 individuals the Obama administration considers competent and clean, said a diplomat in Kabul who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Policy announcement uncertain

The increasingly acrimonious policy dispute may force Obama to delay unveiling his Afghan policy until after Thanksgiving as the White House, the Pentagon and U.S. commanders in Afghanistan resolve differences.

Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence analyst now with the Middle East Institute, said the leaks about Eikenberry's cable have left Obama with no choice but to delay the unveiling of his new Afghan policy.

Obama can't dismiss the cable, Weinbaum said. "It complicates things enormously," he said. "It really sets things back."

Some U.S. officials say they think Obama will still embrace a plan that calls for sending just over 30,000 additional U.S. troops, because no more than that are available now. Also, sending fewer troops would telegraph a lack of resolve to Taliban-led insurgents, their funders across the Muslim world, Pakistan and U.S. allies, and among ordinary Afghans.

Still, U.S. commanders and senior defense officials said the prospect of a delay could mean putting off preparations for housing and supplying the additional forces, most of whom likely would be sent to Taliban strongholds.

Political infighting

The policy battle has been simmering since administration officials led by Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel began leaking to journalists this summer their opposition to McChrystal's call for a major troop increase to support intensified efforts to expand Afghan security forces and civilian aid programs.

McChrystal and his allies fired back by criticizing the limited counterterrorism approach favored by Biden.

Advocates of this approach argue that the administration should be concentrating tackling domestic issues such as health care and unemployment. They worry that Afghanistan is a quagmire, and think that the United States should limit the size of its force there and instead use special forces and missile-firing drone aircraft to kill Al Qaeda leaders.