Thanassis Cambanis, Hezbollah, Terrorism, and "Engagement Hawks"

WNYC recently reported on Hezbolah, and asked Cambanis to opine on the subject. The following is a podcast summary: Veteran Middle East correspondent Thanassis Cambanis discusses the cross section of people that make up Hezbollah—part standing army, part political party, and part theological movement. >A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel looks at the organization and the people it includes, and Cambanis follows a few Hezbollah families through the 2006 war with Israel in order to get a fuller understanding of the ideological and religious roots of the conflict in the Middle East.. See the WNYC webpage on this feature here. Download the podcast here. See also: Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics), Tea with Hezbollah: Sitting at the Enemies Table Our Journey Through the Middle East, Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Cambanis recently wrote in the Boston Globe: There's an increasingly assertive group of “engagement hawks” — a group of professional diplomats, military officers, and academics — is arguing that a mindless, macho refusal to engage might be causing as much harm as terrorism itself. Brushing off dialogue with killers might look tough, they say, but it is dangerously naive, and betrays an alarming ignorance of how, historically, intractable conflicts have actually been resolved. And today, after a decade of war against stateless terrorists that has claimed thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of foreign lives, and cost trillions of dollars, it’s all the more important that we choose the most effective methods over the ones that play on easy emotions. See that Boston Globe article by Cambanis here.

Majority of Public Deems Afghanistan War 'Not Worth Fighting' from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 60 percent of Americans say the Afghanistan war is "not worth fighting." This is a record low in public support of the war. Mary Galeti, the wife of Afghanistan veteran First Lieutenant Russell Galeti, and Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs and author of "How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle," describe their observations of public opinion, and what it might mean for the Obama administration's efforts in Afghanistan going forward. We asked how your support for the War in Afghanistan has changed since it started nine years ago. Here are some of the responses we got by text message.

Download that podcast here. With The Atlantic, Rose recently opined on the whole issue of Wikileaks:

"It's actually pretty striking how generally intelligent and sensible and straightforward the officials involved have been," said Foreign Affairs Editor Gideon Rose. "U.S. policy turns out to be pretty much what we say it is on the surface. There are not secret, nefarious, hidden agendas behind the scenes." The cables revealed a diplomatic corps made up not of soulless, colorless bureaucrats but of perceptive, human, and well-intentioned people, Rose said. If anything, the cable dump makes the U.S. look weak (and incompetent in preventing leaks) rather than hegemonic or scheming. "The United States is seen as trying to do sensible things but blocked by the intractability of various situations and the obduracy of other currents. This does portray a world in which the U.S. is not dominant," Rose said, while noting that such an interpretation may be realistic, given the truth that "diplomacy is always a matter of getting a less bad option."

In Defense of Force from KQED's Forum Podcast

In an era of terrorism and insurgency, is there an acceptable role for preventive force in our national security policy? Drawing on the findings of the Stanford Task Force on Preventive Force, Hoover Institution fellow Abraham Sofaer looks at this issue in his new book, "The Best Defense?: Legitimacy and Preventive Force."

Download the podcast here. See also: Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945, Obama's Wars, The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's

Kosovo PM Seeks To Sue European Investigator by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Marty, a Swiss senator, led a team of investigators to Kosovo and Albania in 2009, following allegations of organ trafficking published in a book by former U.N. War Crimes tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte who said she was given information by Western journalists. Marty's investigation found that there were a number of detention facilities in Albania, where both Kosovan opponents of the KLA and Serbs were allegedly held once the hostilities in Kosovo were over in 1999, including a "state-of-the-art reception center for the organized crime of organ trafficking." EU investigators looking into claims that organ harvesting took place in northern Albania have said they found no proof of the allegations. The EU police force in Kosovo on Wednesday called for those with evidence to come forward.

NPR posted this AP story; read it here. The Telegraph said this about the alleged organ trafficking:

Allegations of the Kosovo Liberation Army's alleged trade in civilian organs stem from a book by U.N. War Crimes tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, based on information she has said she received from Western journalists. In response to the allegations, Swiss senator Dick Marty led a Council of Europe team of investigators to Kosovo and Albania in 2009. The council's report is to be released to the public in France on Thursday.

Read that Telegraph report and story here. See also: U.S. Department of State Press Briefing for Dec 15, 2010.

Gideon Rose on How Wars End from WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs and author of How Wars End:Why We Always Fight the Last Battle, discusses his new book.

Listen to the whole whole here, or download the podcast here.

How the AK-47 Changed the World from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

The AK-47 has long been synonymous with armed combat at both large and small scale, and for good reason. The gun has remained the most widely-deployed assault rifle in the world for decades. Compact, efficient and reliable in the field, the gun releases fifteen rounds from its barrel in a single second – allowing users to annihilate their enemies with the single touch of a trigger. Of course, this also means that millions have died at the hands of those who operate AK-47s. The United Nations estimates that four million people died by small arms in the 1990s alone, ninety percent of them civilians. How did the AK-47 become the go-to assault rifle? Who first developed it? And how has the world changed since it was first used? C.J. Chivers explores these questions in his new book, “The Gun: The AK-47 and the Evolution of War.” Chivers is a New York Times senior writer, former Marine Corps officer and Moscow bureau chief.

Listen to the whole show here, or you can download an mp3 copy of it here.

Founding Fathers from Lopate - Underreported by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

The Pentagon bought tens of thousands of copies of a new book called Operation Dark Heart in order to destroy them on national security grounds. The author, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, explains why, and tells what he witnessed in the war in Afghanistan. Then, Jett Williams, Hank Williams’ daughter, talks about a new collection of the country music pioneer's recordings. Also, Joseph O’Neill talks about his grandfathers—one Turkish, one Irish—who were both imprisoned for suspected subversion during World War II. Plus, award-winning historian Ron Chernow discusses George Washington.

Download the show here (mp3 file).

The Tuesday, October 5, 2010 Charlie Rose Interview, Hour (sit down, chat, or whatever Rose calls these) with Bob Woodward

He doesn't want to over dramatize anything; he also doesn't want to under dramatize anything. That's the gist of this sit down. They're obviously pals, and Rose is working, and so is Woodward to an extent, but, really? Is that it? Chock it up to a bad relationship. Rose was pressing for something a little more definitive from the bottom line takeaway from the whole book, and it's basically: that The White House and the Military are of different ilk, obviously, and they don't get along, and they don't see eye to eye, and haven't, and won't, and that's that. Pepper in a bunch of exciting and fancy details about what the Oval Office smells like at 11:59 PM, or what 4 yards beyond "Employees Only" sign at the Pentagon looks like, and you've got the book. It took 45 minutes to get to what Woodward would have done, had he even imagined himself imagining that he could imagine a decision as to which we he might have gone, about the decisions that were made, amongst the actors in this story. It's an interesting read, no doubt about it. But really: it's fancy gossip. What is this, supposed to be influential at some strategic level? I get it; there's texture, there's enough narrative here to make a movie, and Ron Howard should do it. I get it. Watch that whole interview here. You can buy it for a few bucks on Amazon, but why would you?

Changes in Advisors and White House Staff from The Takeaway: Early Edition

My friends that work, do business in D.C. are too cool for books like this. But I dig the commercial fiction, Dan Brown flair and how current it is (with notes citing meetings from just a couple of months ago); I'm a little naive, so details about little security features about various Federal buildings (such as "secured rooms" for discussing classified information) are interesting to me.

Books of The Times: What’s a Submarine Officer Doing in the Desert? from NYT > Books by By DWIGHT GARNER

Christopher Brownfield’s memoir, “My Nuclear Family,” is not the best book written by an insider about America’s post-9/11 military, but it’s certainly the most entertaining. It’s got a cocky, star-spangled, wide-angle feel, as if a subversive young novelist had decided to rewrite a Tom Clancy thriller after first piloting some nuclear submarines as a gonzo practice drill. “My Nuclear Family” is, in part, the story of a political conversion. Mr. Brownfield voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2001. He gleefully chanted Oliver North’s name — “Ol-lie, Ol-lie, Ol-lie” — along with his brigade when Mr. North waved from the stadium stands at the Army-Navy football game.

Read the NYT feature here. Check out the author's Daily Beast page.

Richard Clarke On The Growing 'Cyberwar' Threat from NPR Podcast Fresh Air

Story: Richard Clarke, the former anti-terrorism czar, has now turned his attention to a new national security threat: cyberwar. In a new book, Clarke details what a full-scale cyberattack could look like, how the United States is particularly vulnerable, and what measures can be taken to ensure our networks remain safe.

Read the full Fresh Air transcript here, and listen to the podcast. See also: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters