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Amid controversy, U.S. Sudan strategy expected next week

The State Department is getting ready to release its long-awaited Sudan policy review as early as Monday, several sources in the Sudan-watching community have heard. "Senior contacts in the White House have said it will be coming out of State on Monday," one source said, adding, "All of our partners are lining up a response ...

The State Department is getting ready to release its long-awaited Sudan policy review as early as Monday, several sources in the Sudan-watching community have heard.

The State Department is getting ready to release its long-awaited Sudan policy review as early as Monday, several sources in the Sudan-watching community have heard.

"Senior contacts in the White House have said it will be coming out of State on Monday," one source said, adding, "All of our partners are lining up a response for Monday, as this the closest to a confirmation we have seen in months."

A State Department spokesman declined to comment on whether or not the review was forthcoming.

Meanwhile, many members of the Sudan policy community have been unhappy with the level of involvement and access they have had throughout the process of the review.

They are especially unhappy with Special Envoy J. Scott Gration, the personal friend of President Obama’s who has been leading the review. He was heavily criticized for emphasizing the use of cookies and gold stars — no joke — to win over Sudan, and his hopes for the Khartoum regime to change its murderous tune are not met with confidence by others in the community.

Gration also came under criticism for his dealings with Robert MacFarlane, a Reagan administration official involved in the Iran-Contra scandal who has ties to the Sudanese government and scored a meeting with Gration and National Security Advisor Jim Jones.

Sudan-related groups sent a letter to Obama Thursday calling for Gration to be fired, and the administration may be seeking to release the review before the pressure gets any more intense.

UPDATE: The Washington Post has more, including some details about the new strategy, and the New York Times has a very favorable treatment of Gration and the new policy.

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin

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