The Runaway Ambassador
By Cernig Tuesday Aug 26, 2008 8:45am
In the midst of all the convention hooplah, some important stories get missed. That seems to be the case with the tale of Bush ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been engaged in some very irregular cozying up with Pakistani presidential hopeful Asif Zardari.
Mr. Khalilzad had spoken by telephone with Mr. Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorized contacts, a senior United States official said. Other officials said Mr. Khalilzad had planned to meet with Mr. Zardari privately next Tuesday while on vacation in Dubai, in a session that was canceled only after Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, learned from Mr. Zardari himself that the ambassador was providing “advice and help.” “Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?” Mr. Boucher wrote in an angry e-mail message to Mr. Khalilzad. “What sort of channel is this? Governmental, private, personnel?” Copies of the message were sent to others at the highest levels of the State Department; the message was provided to The New York Times by an administration official who had received a copy.
A senior American official said that Mr. Khalilzad had been advised to “stop speaking freely” to Mr. Zardari, and that it was not clear whether he would face any disciplinary action.
State and White House officials from Negroponte on down are said to be furious with Khalilzhad for his planned vaction with Zardari and his unofficial contacts at a time when the US wants to be seen as neutral in the Pakistani presidential race. Zalmay is an old political hand who knows the rules and White House plans but decided to break them anyway. Why?
Well, maybe its just that, like other neocons, Khalilzhad doesn't think the rules apply to him. The founding PNAC member certainly didn't mind interfering in Afghan elections to get his old buddy Karzai elected (although that was probably on White House orders). Maybe he felt he could do the same for his new friend Zardari with impunity.
But the worrying element is that there have been rumors for a while that Khalilzhad, who is Afghan born, has his sights on the Afghani presidency himself. While Karzai has been confrontational with Pakistan about its ISI intelligence agency and their support for the Taliban (something Zardari has been helpless to do anything about). He's also allied himself strongly with India in response to Pakistani treatment of Afghanistan -something that led to the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul recently, carried out by ISI proxies.
If Khalilzhad does have his sights on the presidency, then he could be a very different matter. Despite his neocon credentials he was an early and staunch supporter of the Taliban - chaperoning their officials to a Unocal Oil party in their honor and declaring in a 1996 WaPo op-ed that "The Taliban does not practice the anti-U.S. style of fundamentalism practiced by Iran." He went on to say that the Taliban's brand of Islam was more akin to that of Saudi Arabia...
Zardari is by some accounts quite unstable and paranoid - if an alliance with the ambassador would definitely appeal to the highly corrupt Pakistani politico. He might think that he would thereby get U.S. protection, just like Musharraf did, by default even if the Bush administration didn't originally intend to extend it. Kalilzhad might be thinking that Zardari can leverage him into power. India, I'm sure, has thought of all this already and will have been burning up the phones to the White House since the story broke, demanding to know what the runaway ambassador thinks he was doing.
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ZOMG! Negroponte furious?? Bet he is popping nuns from helecopters now... just to relieve some tension.
The guy is only looking out for his career prospects and hedging his bets. If Obama wins the presidency, his days are numbered. This rat is looking for another ship...
No way this psycho would get (fairly) elected president of Afghanistan... people there are already pissed that Karzai is an American puppet. If he does, there will be another civil war before he gets to office.
I thought Boris Karlof was dead??
Do these people not realize that Bush will be gone in a few (too many) months? I cannot see McCain getting elected, so who's going to protect Zardari, much less Khalilzhad after next January.
Of course it may not matter if that region fucks itself as it appears to heading for even prior to the US election. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan...throw in Kashmir for good measure, lots of positive things to think about. Maybe we could send Swinging Dick Cheney to calm things down, or Cindy McCain...better yet, let's get Lieberman and Goober (my Senator) to go chew tobacco with the Pashtun tribes and get a real settlement of hostilities.
Americans want glitz. hype, and comfort.
Not important stories.
New York Times - Aug 27 1:23 AM
Senator Ted Stevens won the Republican primary in his home state after he was indicted for concealing more than $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company.
Another fine example of how screwed up this country is.
My guess on this is that Khalilzad, like a large number of domestic and foreign players, realizes that Bush is one of the lamest duck in American history. He's playing for himself alone, and has five months to do whatever he wants.
Putin is Georgia was the same thing. There are some good things coming out of this too -- I think that some of the surviving professionals in the Justice Department, EPA, and even the FBI and the military are going to start ignoring and defying Bush. But basically, when the President is weak the US is weak, and we'll be paying the price for the rest of the year.
That's one reason why a negative, anti-Bush campaign -- not a feel-good "come together" campaign -- is so essential. A lot of shit is going to hit the fan once Obama is elected, and he'll be blamed for everything unless the American people already know that it's Bush's doing. I hope that Obama figures this out; so far, he hasn't seemed to have.
Liberal AND Proud @ 4:
That was a serious discredit to a film icon... you should be ashamed. (I'm teasing.)
Another bush appointee turns out to be an untrustworthy, unethical, sleazy person who works at his high position NOT for the Country, but for his own Political and Financial positions.
bush has surrounded himself with the most Un-American group for his own purposes, just as he allowed the Energy Dept's secret meetings to be run by the Big Energy Corporations.
☻Bangkok Bob ☻ @ 10:
Bush can still do a lot of damage between now and next Jan.
☻Bangkok Bob ☻ @ 10:
Ho dimenticato di dire il buon giorno
You forgot to mention, he was kicked out by the Iraqis ,I heard because that he was meddling for the Sunni sides, and many Shiites parties who hold majority complained about him, until he was removed. Bush humiliated diplomacy, Bolton and Khalilzad . just wow. And the cons & neocons worry about a paper mosque in denver.
L.A. Confidential @ 11:
Good morning old dude, hows it for you today. Did you stay up all night for the speechifying?
When I saw the headline I thought it was about Cindy McCain.
ThunderMonkey @ 9:
LOL I thought the same thing ;D "Hey don't say that about Boris!" hehehehe
Why is the US Ambassador to the UN born in another country? I think that all US Ambassadors should have to follow the same requirements that the US Presidents do, be born in the good ole U S of A
Rusty "One House" Shackleford @ 15:
Like one of those cartoon screaming baseballs they put up on the big screen every time there is one knocked out of the park?
A little too early in the day for my brain to grasp the meaning of all this, so I'll just sit here in he corner and listen to the adults talk. I hope the sound of my crunching toast doesn't disturb anyone.
Another day of huge Demonstrations here. Not too bad up here, but Bangkok is having a hell of a time. The demonstrations are being paid for by small donations from the people (mostly in the cities).
Too bad people in America can't get fired up like this.
Storm Washington with a few hundred thousand people with signs to let them know how people feel.
But then, it's probably freer here than there right now with the bush gestapo in charge.
pissed off patricia @ 19:
the time difference is interesting ... I'm on my 4th cocktail.
.
One more turd on the heap. Wow, these people stink.
BTW: Afghani = currency. Afghan = person.
It may seem a trifling distinction, but having spent some time there (good times!), I can say it makes a big difference to an Afghan. A mistake not to make twice.
.
☻Bangkok Bob ☻ @ 21:
Wanna trade? I feel much better after a martini or three than I do after a piece of toast.
Good evening to you!
L.A. Confidential @ 7:
Come on L.A., that shows me how screwed up republiscums in Alaska are. Now If they are reelected in November that will show me either how screwed up Alaskans are or how effective the GOP vote stealing was there.
These contacts could be a violation of the Logan Act. Certainly, the vacation/meeting would be. I wonder if the Dems will investigate. LOL! Yeah, right.
It was Khalilzad who 'discovered' Karzai while at Rand and brought him along. They were both on the Unocal payroll and go waaay back.
Its a very tangled web, one I can't navigate with any real success. Anyhow, calling Khalilzad a neocon is a bit of a stretch. As his recent actions point out, he's always had another agenda.
You know you’re a neocon (stooge) if you’re an Afghan national and represent the best interests of the US at the UN.
You know you’re a neocon if VP Cheney visits a country (a.k.a. one of those undisclosed locations) and bombs start falling soon afterward.
You know you’re a neocon if the POTUS is NOT smarter than a 5th grader.
The Neocon virus infects yet another body.
DrBadger @ 3:
It's very interesting how many American "puppets" we have as heads of other countries, isn't it?
Saakashvili, the Columbia educated lawyer who speaks 4 languages and was hand-picked by the U.S., is the "President" of Georgia. Here he is chewing on his tie after Putin handed him (and his U.S. handlers) their heads on a platter for making a pre-emptive move into South Ossetia in order to MURDER Russian peacekeepers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGf2tmuz1aw
Here's a wild idea! I say we let the South Ossetians VOTE (again!) to let the people there declare they would prefer to be part of Russia and not the U.S./Israeli dominated Georgia:
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/104/article_1266.asp
"unstable, paranoid neocon"
Isn't that a tautology?
These sort of shenanigans have been going on forever in Pakistan and it just keeps getting worse. Believe me Asif Zardari is one of the most corrupt person Pakistan has ever seen and we have a history of corrupt leaders. Zardari never held any official position unless being married to Benazir Bhutto counts this guy should not be in any position of authority not even a dog catcher.
Zardari, Khalilzad and Miers sitting in a tree....
From what I've heard Zardari has had a mistress in NYC for some time.
OK< color me crazy but....emailing back and forth a couple times a week? Then going on a vacation together?
Maybe they are just a couple in love.
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