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More on U.S. Training in Pakistan

Hampton Stephens | Bio | 24 Feb 2009

Two quick follow-ups to Judah's recent posts about the U.S. training mission in Pakistan:

First, WPR readers would have seen this coming well before it appeared in the New York Times on Sunday. In a Sept. 5, 2008, piece on WPR, Malou Innocent wrote that a "40-page classified document titled 'Plan for Training the Frontier Corps' is under review at Central Command."

A few days later, on Sept. 9, 2008, as I reported on this blog, a senior defense official told a small group of reporters at the Pentagon that the United States would spend $800 million over three or four years training the Frontier Corps.

Secondly, Judah's point about the leak to the NYT being good evidence of a coordinated effort by the Obama administration to create a more positive narrative about Afghanistan and Pakistan is right on. If the manner of the leak weren't enough evidence that this was officially sanctioned, we have the fact that the U.S. State Department's official blog highlighted the Times story the day after it was published. The Times piece was one of just three featured on Monday's "top issues" blog post, a daily feature on Dipnote.