Spencer Ackerman gets the details
of an apparently uncomfortable conference call this morning between
National Security Council staffers and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S.
Ambassador to Kabul, whose confidential cables calling for caution in
increasing troop levels in Afghanistan were leaked to the Washington Post.
It
was a tense videoconference this morning at the White House, as
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry addressed the National Security Council from
Kabul just hours after the media got hold of his dissent on the crucial question of sending more troops to Afghanistan. "He is very unpopular here," said a National Security Council staffer.
No one was happy to read in The Washington Post
that Eikenberry, who commanded the war himself from 2005 to 2007,
thinks that the Karzai government needs to demonstrate its commitment
to anti-corruption measures before the administration can responsibly
authorize another troop increase. The prevailing theory is that "he
leaked his own cables" because "he has a beef with McChrystal," the
staffer said. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Eikenberry's successor as NATO
commander in Afghanistan, has requested an increase in troops to
support a counterinsurgency strategy with a substantial counterterrorism component.
But
Eikenberry - who also briefed the White House by teleconference
yesterday - reiterated his concerns. The ambassador told the NSC not to
send additional troops to Afghanistan "without an exit strategy" and
urged that the president to adopt a "purely civilian approach" with the
State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development in
the lead, not the military...
Despite
the dissatisfaction with Eikenberry's apparent leak, according to the
staffer, Obama "demanded" an exit strategy for the war "after
Eikenberry's cables." Certain members of the NSC dialed into the
conference from the Fort Bragg, N.C. headquarters of the Joint Special
Operations Command, which is playing a large if underreported role in shaping Afghanistan strategy. It would appear that much remains fluid in the administration's strategy debates.
Update: Ackerman retracts:
I am retracting this post,
published yesterday, titled “Inside This Morning’s White House
Afghanistan Meeting: Anger With Eikenberry, ‘Beef’ With McChrystal.”
My original source for the post stands by the account provided. The
individual, a National Security Council staffer who spoke on condition
of anonymity, has provided truthful and verified information on past
stories, and so I trusted the source for this one. Elements of the
account have been subsequently borne out: yesterday afternoon, White
House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama will ask
his Afghanistan-Pakistan advisers to provide him with an exit strategy
for the eight-year war, which is congruent with but not identical to my
source’s information that Obama has asked the team to derive timetables
for troop withdrawal.
But there are greater problems with the post. For one, the source
was not actually present for the video teleconference that is the
post’s central scene, and passed information to me second-hand.
Furthermore, not only has the White House’s Tommy Vietor denied, on the
record, that Ambassador Karl Eikenberry participated in a video
teleconference yesterday morning, but the other two individuals I named
as being present for the meeting — the inspector generals for Iraq and
Afghanistan — have, through representatives, denied being present. I
cannot subsequently stand by this account.
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