Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 2, 2008 By Eric Schmitt
WASHINGTON — Since Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani took command of Pakistan’s Army last November, a parade of top American officers and spymasters has trooped to Islamabad to urge him to wage an aggressive campaign against Al Qaeda and other militants in the country’s restive tribal areas.
The American officials have come away gushing about the Pakistani general’s military prowess and his commitment to disentangle the army from domestic politics. General Kayani’s predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, resigned last year to become a civilian president.
So perhaps it was just a coincidence when a letter from the United States Embassy in Islamabad arrived in General Kayani’s mailbox last week, congratulating him on being selected for the United States Army Command and General Staff College’s International Hall of Fame.
The hall “honors those officers of United States allies’ militaries who have attained the highest command positions in their national service component or within their nation’s armed forces,” Maj. Gen. James R. Helmly, the embassy’s defense representative, wrote in a letter to General Kayani on March 20.
Asked whether General Kayani’s selection was an attempt to curry favor with the officer, one American military official said Tuesday, “Absolutely not.”
General Kayani is a 1988 graduate of the Army college, which is at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and provides advanced training to the Army’s most promising officers and to some foreign officers.
Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the commander of the Army’s Combined Arms Center, which includes the college, said that General Kayani was the fourth Pakistani officer named to the hall, and met the requirements that he was a graduate and the chief of his service. The Army has admitted 227 officers from more than 60 countries since the hall was established in 1973. (Mr. Musharraf, who did not attend the college, is not among them.)
April 2, 2008 By Eric Schmitt
WASHINGTON — Since Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani took command of Pakistan’s Army last November, a parade of top American officers and spymasters has trooped to Islamabad to urge him to wage an aggressive campaign against Al Qaeda and other militants in the country’s restive tribal areas.
The American officials have come away gushing about the Pakistani general’s military prowess and his commitment to disentangle the army from domestic politics. General Kayani’s predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, resigned last year to become a civilian president.
So perhaps it was just a coincidence when a letter from the United States Embassy in Islamabad arrived in General Kayani’s mailbox last week, congratulating him on being selected for the United States Army Command and General Staff College’s International Hall of Fame.
The hall “honors those officers of United States allies’ militaries who have attained the highest command positions in their national service component or within their nation’s armed forces,” Maj. Gen. James R. Helmly, the embassy’s defense representative, wrote in a letter to General Kayani on March 20.
Asked whether General Kayani’s selection was an attempt to curry favor with the officer, one American military official said Tuesday, “Absolutely not.”
General Kayani is a 1988 graduate of the Army college, which is at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and provides advanced training to the Army’s most promising officers and to some foreign officers.
Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the commander of the Army’s Combined Arms Center, which includes the college, said that General Kayani was the fourth Pakistani officer named to the hall, and met the requirements that he was a graduate and the chief of his service. The Army has admitted 227 officers from more than 60 countries since the hall was established in 1973. (Mr. Musharraf, who did not attend the college, is not among them.)