Morning Brief, Friday, January 5
Brent Stirton/Getty Images Washington Speaking of personnel changes, the Bush administration is ready to make a bunch of ’em, starting with counterinsurgency guru Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as the new top commander in Iraq. If any outsider can save Iraq at this point, he’s probably the guy, despite his relatively junior seniority. Other shifts: Zalmay ...
Brent Stirton/Getty Images
Brent Stirton/Getty Images
Washington
Speaking of personnel changes, the Bush administration is ready to make a bunch of ’em, starting with counterinsurgency guru Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as the new top commander in Iraq. If any outsider can save Iraq at this point, he’s probably the guy, despite his relatively junior seniority.
- Zalmay Khalilzad leaves Iraq to become ambassador to the U.N.
- Admiral William J. Fallon moves laterally from the Pacific to Central Command—where despite being a Navy guy he’ll have to manage two grueling counterinsurgencies.
- Mike McConnell (another Navy type and a former National Security Agency head) will likely take John Negroponte’s old job as director of national intelligence.
- Ryan Crocker will head west from Pakistan to Iraq, where he’ll be the new ambassador.
“Jubilant,” nay, “Joyful” Democrats took control of Congress yesterday. New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first priority? Ethics reform, because, as she once said, “it takes a woman to clean house.”
Iraq and Middle East
Libya’s latest brilliant PR move: a statue of Saddam Hussein at his hanging. Maybe it’s because, as Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak said yesterday, Saddam has become a martyr in the region.
As expected, al Qaeda’s #2 called for a jihad against the Ethiopian “crusader invader forces” in Somalia. Meanwhile, chaos reigns in that Mogadishu and beyond.
Rival Palestinian factions are burying the hatchet yet again. This time, they promise, it’ll be different.
Europe
The new archbishop of Warsaw, Poland, was a communist informant in the 70s.
President Bush assented to German PM Angela Merkel’s call for a new drive for Middle East peace. Also, no back rubs this time.
The European Commission is calling for an “industrial revolution” for green energy.
Asia
Is North Korea going to test another nuclear device?
China to Iran: “respond seriously” to the U.N. Security Council.
Elsewhere
The new director of the World Health Organization says her top priority is to make Africans and women healthier.
Pakistan wants Afghan refugees to go back home.
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
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