Deadly Embrace by Bruce Riedel

Author:Bruce Riedel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

CHAPTER FIVE

GLOBAL JIHAD

ONCE MORE A MEETING with Pakistani officials was being held at the Willard Hotel near the White House, now at the end of July 2008. This one was between Senator Barack Obama, the soon-to-be presidential candidate, and the new prime minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani. The conference room was arranged with two large chairs facing each other at an angle and four smaller chairs off to the sides for aides. Gillani brought with him the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, and his information minister, Sherry Rehman. I knew them both and think of them as friends. I was with one of Obama's traveling aides, Mark Limpert. As the campaign's team chief for South Asia, my job was to brief the senator in advance of the meeting and then take notes for the record.

This was, in effect, Obama's first official interaction with the Pakistani government, with which he is now trying to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda. Obama was not yet president and could not assume he would be, so he had to speak as a senator, although he was clearly more than that already. His interest in Pakistan related in part to his work on the Kerry-Lugar-Obama legislation that the Democrats had introduced in the Senate in 2008 and that was designed to bring constancy and consistency to U.S.-Pakistani relations and end the cycle of romance and divorce repeating itself for the past fifty years or more. The bill promised to triple economic aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year and maintain that level for ten years, regardless of political changes in Pakistan or the bilateral relationship. It had a special democracy bonus, which mandated an automatic additional $1 billion in aid each year if the president could certify to Congress that Pakistan had a democratically elected government in office. I had worked with Senator Kerry's staff to draft the bill. Unlike Bill Clinton and many of his other predecessors at the negotiating table, Obama had something to offer and wanted Gillani's reaction.

Obama began by noting that Pakistan is an important country by every measure. The second largest Muslim country in the world. A nuclear power. A great friend of the United States for many years. He welcomed the return of democracy to Pakistan and explained that he had been urging the Bush administration for over a year to do more to restore democracy there. The Kerry-Lugar-Obama bill would be a visible and serious way for America to help.

The senator then turned to the legacy of terrorism bestowed on Pakistan's new government, explaining he understood how difficult the challenge was. If al Qaeda succeeded in staging a mass-casualty attack on America from Pakistan, the impact on their relations would be enormous. Therefore it was crucial to work together to ensure that such an assault did not occur. The safe haven al Qaeda and its allies had developed in Pakistan must be shut down. This would be among his highest priorities if he was elected to the presidency in November 2008.

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