FPI Overnight Brief: February 25, 2010

The C.I.A. and its Pakistani counterpart, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, have a long and often tormented relationship. And even now, they are moving warily toward conflicting goals, with each maneuvering to protect its influence after the shooting stops in Afghanistan.  Yet interviews in recent days show how they are working together on tactical operations, and how far the C.I.A. has extended its extraordinary secret war beyond the mountainous tribal belt and deep into Pakistan’s sprawling cities. Beyond the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, C.I.A. operatives working with the ISI have carried out dozens of raids throughout Pakistan over the past year, working from bases in the cities of Quetta, Peshawar and elsewhere, according to Pakistani security officials.  The raids often come after electronic intercepts by American spy satellites, or tips from Pakistani informants — and the spies from the two countries then sometimes drive in the same car to pick up their quarry. Sometimes the teams go on lengthy reconnaissance missions, with the ISI operatives packing sunscreen and neon glow sticks that allow them to identify their positions at night…The C.I.A.’s drone campaign in Pakistan is well known, which is striking given that this is a covert war. But these on-the-ground activities have been shrouded in secrecy because the Pakistani government has feared the public backlash against the close relationship with the Americans. – New York Times

The Obama administration is sharply expanding American weapons transfers to both India and Pakistan, longtime rivals about to sit down for peace talks Thursday. The U.S. has sought to remain neutral in the thorny relationship between the nuclear-armed neighbors. But Washington hasn't been shy about pursuing weapons deals in the region, which officials say will lead to closer ties with each country while creating new opportunities for American defense firms.  The U.S. has made billions of dollars in weapons deals with India, which is in the midst of a five-year, $50 billion push to modernize its military. At the same time, American military aid to Pakistan stands to nearly double next year, allowing Islamabad to acquire more U.S.-made helicopters, night-vision goggles and other military equipment. The aid has made it easier for Pakistan to ramp up its fight against militants on the Afghan border, as the U.S. tries to convince Islamabad that its biggest security threat is within the country, not in India. – Wall Street Journal

An adviser to former president Bill Clinton intervened in 2005 to help win Kazakh approval of a uranium mining deal benefiting a major donor to the Clinton Foundation, according to a video statement made by the former chief of Kazakhstan's state nuclear firm. The executive, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, who was arrested last year on corruption charges that he has denied, described the deal as "a financing mechanism of the Democratic Party" and said a Clinton adviser named Tim Phillips championed it in meetings with him and other officials.  The statement is the first confirmation by a Kazakh official that a member of Clinton's staff lobbied the government on behalf of Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra, who purchased stakes in three Kazakh uranium deposits that he later sold for a huge profit. – Washington Post

In an effort to grow the U.S. Navy faster than planned, one key lawmaker has proposed forcing the service to hold off taking ships out of service until more are ready to replace them.  "I want to put you on notice," Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., told the Navy's top officials Feb. 24. "Decommissioning 10 ships this year is unacceptable. "It is my intention that for every three ships that are commissioned, we give permission to decommission two. We need to stop the bleeding this year." Of the 10 ships the Navy is planning to remove from service in fiscal 2011, three are frigates, three are amphibious ships, three are civilian-manned ammunition ships and one is a nuclear submarine. Only about five ships are planned to enter service in the same time frame. – Defense News

Not far from the site Iraqis believe to be the biblical Ur, birthplace of Abraham, Nasiriya has a streak of eclecticism that infuses everything from its politics to its landscape. Much of the city is given to the indeterminate overlap of rural and urban, lots filled with soggy trash and cinder-block huts, interspersed with urbane islands where men don a coat and tie to sip tea at the outdoor Writers Cafe.  Many of those men represent a stubborn secular current that once made Nasiriya a bastion of progressive thought. Yet even they concede that, today, power here is the preserve of religious Shiite parties, leaving secular groups with almost no say in politics in a city where the Iraqi Communist Party was founded in 1934. That has meant that two alliances will compete in the March 7 vote for the province’s 18 seats in the 325-member Parliament: Mr. Maliki’s State of Law Coalition and the fractious Iraqi National Alliance, which joins the rest of Iraq’s powerful Shiite factions, some of which faced off at gunpoint only a few years ago in Nasiriya’s streets. The two alliances control all 31 seats in the provincial council, elected in January 2009. – New York Times

The human rights branch of the Organization of American States issued a blistering 300-page report Wednesday against Venezuela, saying that the oil-rich country run by President Hugo Chávez constrains free expression, the rights of its citizens to protest and the ability of opposition politicians to function.  The report, compiled and written by the OAS's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, reflects growing concern in the region over how one of the organization's member states is governed. The document holds legitimacy for human rights investigators and diplomats because it has the imprimatur of the commission, which is run independently from the OAS and largely free of its political machinations. "This is a professional report, and the commission has been progressively more critical about Chávez over the years," said Michael Shifter, an analyst who tracks Venezuela for the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "There's a growing sense of the greater risks of human rights abuses and authoritarianism in Venezuela." – Washington Post

After a mysterious delay and a public challenge by Tehran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to backtrack on Russia's pledge to supply S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, telling  Moscow's official state news agency on Wednesday that Russia "has never taken actions that could cause the destabilization of certain regions." "There are issues that need to be resolved before [the contract] is executed," he said, referring to a deal that was signed in 2005. "We hope that all countries supplying arms, and not only defensive ones but also those that are killing our peacekeepers, will treat this issue in the same way."…Lavrov's latest comments suggest Russia is considering canceling the contract altogether rather than be seen as supplying weapons to Iran as the world powers contemplate stricter sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The Iranians are losing patience and have begun to lash out at Russia in the press. – Babylon and Beyond

North Korea threatened to attack South Korean and U.S. forces for scheduled joint military drills in March even as nuclear envoys picked up the pace of work to get stalled disarmament talks back on track. South Korea and the United States have held the drills for years without major incident. North Korea regularly criticizes the exercises as a prelude to invasion and nuclear war. The drills run from March 8 to 18. A spokesman for the North's army said the military drills by the South and United States troops were "nuclear war exercises aimed to preempt a surprise attack on the (North)", despite assurance by the two allies that they were purely defensive. "If the U.S. imperialists and South Korean warmongers launch the joint military exercises for aggression, ignoring our repeated warnings, we will react to them with our powerful military counteraction, and if necessary, mercilessly destroy the bulwark of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means including nuclear deterrent," the spokesman said. – Reuters

The son of one of Hamas's founders says in a new book that he served as a top informant for Israel for more than a decade, providing top-secret intelligence that helped prevent dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis. Mosab Hassan Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas," is being published next week in the United States, and highlights of the book and an interview with the author appeared Wednesday in Israel's Haaretz daily. Yousef declined to comment, but his Facebook page plugs the book as "a gripping account of terror, betrayal, political intrigue, and unthinkable choices." – Washington Post

Viktor Yanukovych was inaugurated as Ukraine's president Thursday, five years after his first bid failed amid massive protests over vote fraud. Mr. Yanukovych took the oath of office in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament that has been the scene of intense maneuvering over the future of his rival Yulia Tymoshenko, who aims to stay on as prime minister…Weeks of negotiations in the back rooms of parliament have failed to produce a coalition against Ms. Tymoshenko. On the eve of Mr. Yanukovych's inauguration, she appeared to taunt his Party of Regions for this failure, challenging its leadership to oust her if they could. "The Party of Regions does not have the votes to carry out this dismissal," Ms. Tymoshenko told a government meeting Wednesday, appearing in a stark red dress instead of the soft tones she is known for wearing. – Associated Press