National Security Watch: Changing of the czars
White House officials are buzzing about the appearance of the latest wunderkind at the White House's National Security Council, which already sports several talented young staffers in senior posts. Juan Carlos Zarate, who just turned 34 last month, starts as a deputy national security adviser this week, coordinating the actions of the nation's ever growing counterterrorism apparatus. (This is basically the same job that Richard Clarke, the fiery counterterrorism czar under Clinton and Bush, once held.)
Zarate has been working on terrorism-financing issues since September 11, most recently as an assistant treasury secretary. The new post is a big promotion for Zarate, but he has the confidence of Frances Fragos Townsend, Bush's homeland security adviser, who until now has held the terrorism portfolio. The two worked together on the thorny issue of alleged Saudi financing of terrorism. His first task will be to head up a wide-ranging review of terrorism policy, including a possible shift in focus of the war on terrorism to a broader attack on extremism.
After months of proliferating tales of abuse at military-run prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, there are signs of some movement in Congress. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter, a Republican, is reportedly planning to hold a rare hearing on the treatment of "enemy combatants" later this month. But Democrats on the House side are still frustrated at their inability to get access to details relating to these detainees. Indeed, staffers complain that they largely learn about abuses from leaks to the press or from documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through Freedom of Information Act requests. So far, House Republicans have shown little interest in pushing the Pentagon to disclose more, meaning that Democrats have not been able to call hearings or issue subpoenas. (They can't even file freedom of information requests.)
In an attempt to urge debate, House Dems are introducing several legislative plans this week to force the Pentagon to release more documents. One proposal calls for creating a special investigative committee. Two others would try to directly compel the release of several specific documents. None are expected to go anywhere, but Democrats will use them as an opportunity to publicize the information gaps. "We have seen a report from no other source than the U.S. Army that lays out a different case about detainee abuse than the case laid out by the Pentagon and the White House," Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, fumes to U.S. News. "It is time for accountability at the highest levels."
One issue that's still completely in the dark: treatment of prisoners at a series of secret prisons run by the CIA and the military around the world in places like Jordan and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. –Danielle Knight
It has been 42 months since the still-unexplained anthrax-by-mail attacks that killed five people. But the U.S. government, which has already vaccinated 1.3 million soldiers for anthrax, has yet to receive a single dose of vaccine from the company it chose to provide the vast majority of a stockpile that will be kept to protect the public from future attacks.
The contract is part of Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion effort to beef up U.S. reserves of vaccines for chemical and biological agents. In November 2004, the Health and Human Services Department selected a small pharmaceutical company called VaxGen, which had never produced an FDA-approved vaccine, for the $877.5 million contract. VaxGen agreed to provide 75 million doses–enough for 25 million people–by the end of 2007. But the first vaccine won't be delivered until 2006, according to company spokesman Paul LaLand. (One reason given: The vaccine depends on next-generation technology developed in an Army medical lab that had never been used to develop an FDA-approved anthrax vaccine at the time the contract was issued.)
The timeline is leaving some critics (including VaxGen competitors) crying foul. BioPort, which developed an earlier anthrax vaccine in the 1970s, is launching a public relations offensive. BioPort recently agreed to supply 5 million doses of its vaccine for the stockpile more rapidly (and has already delivered some 1 million doses). Dan Abdun-Nabi, a vice president and general counsel for BioPort's parent company, insists that BioPort could boost production "almost immediately." (BioPort's critics fire back that its vaccine, which was sold to the military, produces some negative side effects.)
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, who chairs the Finance Committee, is also demanding answers from the Bush administration about the slow pace [Related PDF]. One of his concerns: A scientist who helped the Army develop the technology underlying the new vaccine was also involved in choosing VaxGen for the contract. Look for hearings as early as this summer. –Angie C. Marek
The State Department has been touting its monthly Arabic-language magazine called hi as a key part of its outreach to young Arabs in the larger war of ideas against extremism. Available in 18 countries around the Middle East, the magazine distributes some 45,000 copies a month.
So, many public diplomacy watchers were surprised–and chagrined–by the magazine's April 2005 issue, which chose to introduce "metrosexuals" to its readership. "Real men moisturize," it begins. Citing British soccer hunk David Beckham as something of a role model, the article explores the benefits of pedicures, facials, and generally looking spiffy. Just another part of the battle for hearts, minds, and pores. –David E. Kaplan
Overheated rhetoric of the week: "Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast, as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood" – North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, as quoted by the official North Korean news agency.
Coming up this week: The Senate Intelligence Committee looks at a series of proposed reforms to the Patriot Act.