A Russian-American Alliance? (cont'd)

RIA-Novosti reports that the American and Russian armies are planning joint military exercises for next year. Maybe Bush and Putin did agree on something?

Senate Hears Able Danger Testimony

I was listening to C-SPAN radio in the car this morning, and heard some just fascinating testimony from Congressman Curt Weldon about "Able Danger" at this Senate hearing, chaired by Senator Arlen Specter. Senator Grassley came on and made a strong statement, basically "give 'em hell," which which Specter chose to associate himself. Here's a sample of what Weldon had to say:

It was during the briefings on Able Providence that I was provided additional information about Able Danger. I was told that Able Danger had amassed significant data about Al Qaeda and five worldwide cells – one of which had linkages to Brooklyn and has been referred to as the Brooklyn cell. I was told that Able Danger identified the Brooklyn cell – to include Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers – more than one year before September 11, 2001. Additionally, I was informed of an effort to share specific information with the FBI about Al Qaeda in September 2000 – one year before 9/11 – and that three meetings for that purpose were abruptly cancelled hours before they were scheduled to take place.

This new information was startling, and caused me to review the 9/11 Commission Report to see if any reference to Able Danger was contained therein. Realizing that no such reference existed, I asked my Chief of Staff to personally contact the 9/11 Commission and determine if they had been briefed about Able Danger. On May 18, 2005, the 9/11 Commission Deputy Staff Director Chris Kojm said that the staff had been briefed, but had decided "not go down that route". Still puzzled that no mention of Able Danger had been made, I raised this question with 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer during a meeting in my office on May 23, 2005. He told me that he had never been briefed on Able Danger. 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman said the same thing during a lunch on June 29, 2005. He expressed dismay and suggested that I pursue the issue further.

How could it be possible that two 9/11 Commission staffers received two briefs, by two different members of Able Danger, in two different countries, on the same subject, yet no such information was brought to the level of a Commissioner. One is left to wonder if there was a similar information sharing problem within the commission.

On June 27, 2005, dismayed by the fact that Able Danger was omitted from the 9/11 Commission Report, I took to the floor of the House of Representatives to outline the entire Able Danger story for my colleagues and the American people. In the weeks following that speech, I methodically briefed the Chairs of House Armed Services, Intelligence, Homeland Security and FBI Appropriations Oversight Committee.

The New York Times picked up the story in August and ran three straight days of stories. On each day, the 9/11 Commission changed their story.
• First, they said that they were never briefed.
• Second, they said that they were briefed and that there was never a mention of Mohammed Atta.
• Third, they said they were briefed, Atta was mentioned, but they found Able Danger to be 'historically insignificant".

As someone who had supported the creation of the 9/11 Commission and their recommendations, even though more then half were already recommended by the Gilmore Commission, I was incensed by this cavalier attitude. Along with my Chief of Staff, we pursued the operatives involved in Able Danger throughout the months of July and August. We identified five officials who confirmed the facts of Able Danger, as well as knowledge of massive data and materials tied to the effort. We identified an FBI agent who played a role in arranging meetings to share information on U.S. persons that were abruptly cancelled. We also identified a technician who did Able Danger analysis and an individual who admitted to destroying Able Danger data – up to 2.5 terabytes. This data contained information on U.S. persons with ties to terrorism that could have helped prevent 9-11 and possibly even be used to track terrorist movements today. The person who destroyed this data has also spoken about how Major General Lambert, the J3 at U.S. Special Operations Command, was extremely upset when he learned that his data had been destroyed without his knowledge or consent.

On at least four occasions, I personally tried to brief the 9/11 Commissioners on: NOAH; integrative data collaboration capabilities; my frustration with intelligence stovepipes; and Al Qaeda analysis. However, I was never able to achieve more than a five-minute telephone conversation with Commissioner Tom Kean. On March 24, 2004, I also had my Chief of Staff personally hand deliver a document about LIWA, along questions for George Tenet to the Commission, but neither was ever used. [I would like to submit for the record.] Had the Commission been more thorough, I would have provided all of the leads that I recently pursued on my own. In the end I was ignored by the Commission. In fact, on the day the Commission provided the first brief for House Members in the Cannon Caucus Room, I attended and was the first to be recognized. I asked the Commission why they did not meet with Members who had worked intelligence and security issues prior to 9/11, and Lee Hamilton told me that "the Commission did not have time to meet with every Member who had information to share."

This story might have legs, after all, if the Senate finally lets the chips fall where they may...

Putin Meets Yankee Oilmen

Here's Kommersant's account of their tete-a-tete at Washington, DC's Madison Hotel:

Ten minutes after the press conference ended, Putin was meeting with oilmen in the Madison Hotel. He announced that meeting while still at the press conference. “We will speak about projects for American participation in the Russian economy, mainly in the energy sphere,” he said.

It was already known that there was only one project, the development of Shtokmanovskoe deposit. ExxonMobil chairman of the board Lee Raymond, president of that company Rex Tillerson, ConocoPhillips president James Malva, Chevron chairman of the board David O'Reilly and LUKOIL head Vagit Alekperov were waiting for the Russian president at the Madison. Alekperov was sitting in the center of the group and center of the conversation. They probably weren't asking how to cozy up to Putin. (It is unclear that Alekperov know the answer to that question.) I overheard that they were asking about how Alekperov found the U.S. market. (LUKOIL has 1400 gas stations in the United States.)

Putin was included in the conversation.

“Welcome to the United States!” Malva greeted him.

It would have been more logical to wish him a safe trip home, since he was leaving the country in an hour and a half, after three days there.

Putin began by mentioning that the U.S. receives only an insignificant portion of Russia's energy resources. “According to various estimates, oil is just over 2 percent. That means that petroleum products are 0.3 percent, and there has just been the first delivery of natural gas. Our potential is huge.”

He went talking about that potential as they moved to another room and left the journalists behind. The conversation lasted ten minutes, and was completely unnecessary. More interesting was that Putin then spoke with each oil executive one-on-one.

Malva and Alekperov went in together to see him. There was ten minutes scheduled for each of three meetings. That first meeting went according to schedule.

Malva recounted, “I told the Russian president about our investment projects in Russia. He approved.”

Malva has learned the rules of the Russian market well. We can be sure that, with an approach like that, ConocoPhillips has a bright future in Russia.

I asked Alekperov if they talked about the Shtokmanovskoe deposit.

“We are not involved with that project,” he said with a shrug. That meant no, obviously.

Tillerson from ExxonMobil spoke with Putin for no less than half an hour. He looked gloomy and refused to comment afterwards, but he might always look like that.

Chevron head O'Reilly, on the other hand, was jubilant on his way out of the meeting. He told Putin, and subsequently everyone else, how much his company suffered from the hurricane, which was practically not at all.

The second topic of their discussion was, finally, the Shtokmanovskoe deposit. “Mr. Putin made it clear that he knows that the Chevron Co. has passed the second stage of the competition, and is one of the five companies still in the running for the development of the deposit,” O'Reilly said.

Then they talked about energy security at the Big 8 summit coming up in St. Petersburg.

“We spoke in general terms about the general topic,” O'Reilly said.

He tried to get away after that, but he was asked if he thought Chevron was closer to developing the Shtokmanovskoe deposit after his conversation with Putin.

“Gazprom should answer that question,” he said, caught short. “Their management will make the decision. I only told the president that we are glad to have been chosen at the second stage.”

The only American journalists there asked who asked for the meetings, the executives or Putin.

“I don't know,” he said heavily. “But the fact that Mr. Putin wanted to meet speaks of his interested in the development of Russia as a country that can become a supplier of both natural gas and oil.”

He made a halfhearted attempt to leave again and was asked about Shtokmanovskoe again.

“It seems to me that you… that is, people, don't understand,” he said, beginning to show his annoyance. “That question will be decided by Gazprom.”

If he really thinks so, he, unlike his colleague from ConocoPhillips, has little future on the Russian market. But he probably isn't as uninformed as that.

I heard from sources in the Russian delegation that the discussion of the Shtokmanovskoe deposit with both O'Reilly and Tillerson was limited to only a few phrases. Putin made believe that he was more interested in how American strategic oil reserves were doing after the hurricane. And they gave him detailed descriptions of the technical specifications that allowed them to weather the hurricane.

That is, Putin is satisfied just to meet those people so far. The intrigue is just beginning.

How to Drink Vodka and Stay Sober

Konstantin's Russian Blog tells you how to do it.

Author's Guild Sues Google

The issue is Google Print, according to the Washington Post:

A Google spokesman said the company regretted that The Authors Guild had chosen to sue rather than continue discussions.

"Google Print directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the program," Google said in a statement. "Only small portions of the books are shown unless the content owner gives permission to show more."

A year ago Google began working with five of the world's libraries -- at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the New York Public Library -- to make large parts of their book collections searchable on the Web.

The action by the 86-year-old Authors Guild is part of a push by the organization to roll back efforts by Web sites to make the contents of books freely available online.

In a related case, the group has been seeking for a decade to force online publishers from New York Times Co. to Amazon.com to pay royalties to writers whose stories appear in online databases without their consent.

In August Google said it planned to temporarily scale back plans to make the full text of copyrighted books available on its Internet site.

I've used Google Print, and liked it, yet the question is whether Google Print is actually harming authors or helping them. In the end, I imagine the Author's Guild and Google will come up with some ASCAP or BMI type of royalty scheme, based on click-through counts. All this can be worked out, I'm sure, using digital technology. It's only money...

Department of Homeland Stupidity

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for this link to Michelle Malkin's column on the latest cronyism caper to come out of the Bush administration.

Leon Aron on the Republican Party of Russia

Putin seemed pretty entrenched when I lived in Moscow last Winter, but what if Leon Aron is right?

ONE OF THE MOST POTENTIALLY significant events in Russian politics this year was the national conference of the Republican party of Russia (RPR). It witnessed what may prove to be the last credible attempt to create a democratic opposition with broad enough appeal to contest the Kremlin's control over the Duma (parliament) in 2007 and the presidency in 2008.

Largely forgotten before this year, the RPR is one of Russia's oldest liberal (in the Russian sense--right-of-center, pro-market, and reformist) parties. Founded in 1990, it failed repeatedly to gain a foothold in the Duma, and sank from view. This year, however, the party was back in the headlines, overhauling its rules, adopting a new platform, and installing new leaders.

It was clear on the morning of July 2, in the Rusotel Hotel on the outskirts of Moscow, that this renewal went beyond any mere reorganization. Rejuvenation, even exuberance, was in evidence in the auditorium where several hundred delegates from 58 of Russia's 89 provinces applauded and booed. The gathering overflowed with an energy and optimism I have not seen among Russian democrats since the revolution of the late 1980s.

Most reminiscent of those halcyon days, however, was the abandon with which the delegates criticized the government. Their indictment was remarkable both in its scope and its merciless intensity. It found vigorous expression in the documents released by the conference--an "Appeal to the Citizens of Russia" and a platform--as well as in speeches and debates, which were webcast live on the party's website.

Bush a Decisive Leader--NOT

(ht andrew sullivan)

Karzai to US: "Yankee Go Home!"

Maybe it is due to Bush's Katrina fiasco, but I have long thought that Islam Karimov's eviction of the US military from Uzbekistan, with the support of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Russia, China, et al.), might have a ripple effect in Afghanistan. Of course, I had no idea that this would happen so quickly. Today, Afghan president Hamid Karzai also seems to be saying: "Yankee Go Home!"
The Guardian has this report:

Karzai demanded an immediate end to foreign troops searching people's homes without his government's authorization. He also said foreign governments should "concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them" - a veiled reference to support that militants allegedly get from neighboring Pakistan.

Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of aiding Taliban rebels and other militants, a charge Islamabad vehemently denies.

"I don't think there is a big need for military activity in Afghanistan anymore,"Karzai told reporters. "The nature of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan has changed now.

"No coalition forces should go to Afghan homes without the authorization of the Afghan government. ... The use of air power is something that may not be very effective now. ... That's what I mean by a change in strategy."

It was the second time Karzai has publicly challenged the U.S.-led coalition. In May, before a trip to Washington, he demanded more authority over the 20,000-member U.S.-led coalition here, but President Bush said they would remain under American control. In addition to the coalition troops, there are 11,000 NATO peacekeepers in Afghanistan.

There's an interesting Eurasianet profile of Karzai by Ahmed Rashid from 2001 that contains this revealing quote:

"The tragedy was that very soon the Taliban were taken over by Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence (ISI) and they became a proxy for a foreign power. Then they allowed Arabs and other foreigners to set up terrorist training camps on Afghan soil and I began to organize against them," he said. "By 1997 it was clear to most Afghans that the Taliban were unacceptable because Osama bin Laden was playing a leadership role in the movement. I warned the Americans many times, but who was listening - nobody," he added.

And this:

According to a US diplomat, the issue of whether or not to support Karzai provoked a heated debate between the US departments of state and defense. Secretary of State Colin Powell reportedly was reluctant to support Karzai out of concern that such a move would anger Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. "There was real anger at Powell from the military because he was accepting at face value whatever the Pakistanis were telling him, when in reality they were doing nothing constructive in the Pashtun belt," the US diplomat said.

Washington only decided to support Karzai in the first week of November - four weeks after the bombing campaign started - and only after the Pentagon had taken the decision to support a Northern Alliance attack on Mazar-i-Sharif.

Interesting, the Pentagon supported Karimov against the State Department's support for human rights NGOs. Sounds like a familiar situation. So, stay tuned...

Remembering Simon Wiesenthal

Roger L. Simon mentioned that Simon Wisenthal had passed away. Here's the story in Haaretz.

Putin Grants Pushkin's Descendants Russian Citizenship

According to this RIA Novosti report, they currently live in Belgium.

Will Safavian Sing?

If he does, this could be big news:

The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.

The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.

(HT War and Piece)

Musharraf's Historic Speech

Daniel Pipes praises the Pakistani leader for opening up to Israel and the Jewish diaspora:

Most news coverage of the Musharraf speech focused on the prospect of Pakistan opening diplomatic relations with Israel (Reuters: "Pakistan leader urges US Jews to help make peace"), but what is potentially of lasting importance about the Musharraf address – beyond the mere fact of its being delivered to a Jewish organization – was the president's respectful, accurate, and constructive comments about Jews.

He began with the important observation that Jews and Muslims "have many similarities and few divergences in their faith and culture," then listed three specifics: belief in the oneness of God, shared ways of greeting, and a common phrase in the Talmud and Koran. And Moses, he pointed out, is the prophet most often referred to in the Koran.

Mr. Musharraf noted how "our experiences and histories intertwine" and then elaborated on what he called the two communities' "rich and very long" history of interaction. He mentioned the "shining examples" of Cordova, Baghdad, Istanbul, and Bukhara, the golden period of Muslim Spain, and the joint experience of the Spanish Inquisition. Generalizing from the inquisition, he correctly asserted that Jews and Muslims "have not only lived together and shared prosperity, but also suffered together."

A Russian-American Alliance?

That's the stated aim of this website. I found it on a link at Registan. It looks a lot more Russian than American, Gleb Pavlovsky seems to run the show. Right now, it looks unlikely. But stranger things have happened. I don't know who is lobbying for this type of thing on the American side right now. On the other hand, maybe Putin helped Bush out with the Korea talks. And if Hillary Clinton becomes President...

Ben Paarman's Central Asia Blog

Has some nice photos posted today...

Human Rights Watch Condemns British Antiterrorism Plan

Their headline:U.K.: Detention Plan Amounts to Punishment Without Trial

Moscow Cat Theatre Comes to NYC

We saw the New York Times article announcing the Moscow Cat Theatre has come to New York, and thought about going. Our Moscow friends said it was sort of a cat circus, but if you had a cat, you'd seen the show. So we don't know yet if we'll go. But we do know that we like their website.

More on Uzbekistan

My account of Shirin Akiner's appeareance at Johns Hopkins University to discuss the Andijan violence in now online at Registan.

Judy Miller's Jailhouse Guest List

Carol D. Leonnig writes in today's Washington Post that some of Washington's most powerful figures have visited Judy Miller in jail.

Locked in the Alexandria Detention Center for the past 11 weeks, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is cut off from the world. She has no Internet access and precious little opportunity to view CNN. Her phone calls are limited, friends say. Her daily newspaper arrives a day late.

But for 30 minutes nearly every day, the world comes to her: A parade of prominent government and media officials, 99 in all, visited Miller between early July, when she was jailed for refusing to be questioned by a federal prosecutor, and Labor Day, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

Her visitors have included Bob Dole, John Bolton, and Tom Brokaw...

Cashing in on Katrina

The Project on Government Oversight has posted this list of government contracts for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. (ht War and Piece)