Jim Jones's Secret Trip to Pakistan
Only hours before President Obama took off for Asia on Thursday, his national-security adviser landed in Pakistan on an unannounced trip to meet with senior Pakistani officials, a White House official said. Jim Jones is "going to continue the discussions that Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton had" on her own recent visit, said the official, who would talk about the trip only on condition of anonymity. Jones plans to fly on to Asia afterward to join the president on his nine-day trip to Japan, Singapore, China, and South Korea.
The reason for Jones' visit remains unclear, but it is very likely related to Obama's strategic rethink of the war in neighboring Afghanistan (though Jones is not planning to visit there, the official said). The president is expected to announce a decision on how many additional troops he will send to Afghanistan at some point after his Asia trip concludes on Nov. 19. The administration's internal deliberations have been marred by open dissension about the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, leading to some speculation that Obama might want to send a message of strength and commitment by stopping in central Asia on his return.
Most recently it was reported that U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry's has questioned whether Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recommendation to add at least 40,000 troops is prudent as long as the government of President Hamid Karzai fails to reform. Clinton seemed to sympathize with that position on Thursday at a news conference in Manila, when she said she is concerned about Afghanistan's "corruption, lack of transparency, poor governance [and] absence of the rule of law." Eikenberry's own concerns go back to his days as U.S. commander on the ground in Afghanistan in 2006. In an interview with NEWSWEEK then, Eikenberry said he was leery of sending more troops, saying what was really needed were additional nation-building resources and a "political solution."
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Michael Hirsh covers international affairs for NEWSWEEK reporting on a range of topics from Homeland Security to postwar Iraq. He co-authored the November 3, 2003 cover story, "Bush's $87 Billion Mess," about the Iraq reconstruction plan. The issue was one of three that won the 2004 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Hirsh writes a column on Newsweek.com entitled "The World from Washington" focusing on foreign policy issues and serves as Washington Web Editor for Newsweek. He also edited NEWSWEEK's "Issues 2007" special issue, which explores all facets and issues of globalization.
Hirsh was the magazine's Foreign Editor from January 2001 to January 2002, and helped guide Newsweek's award-winning coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Before that he was a Senior Editor/Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in the Washington bureau, writing about foreign affairs and international economics. Hirsh was also managing editor for the Newsweek International special issue "ISSUES 2001," the second in a series of three annual reviews of the global economy in the new century.
From September 1998 to December 1999, as Diplomatic Correspondent, Hirsh covered foreign policy, the State Department and the Treasury. He moved to the Washington D.C. bureau in May 1997, previously serving as a senior editor of Newsweek International, covering the same beat.
Prior to joining NEWSWEEK in October 1994 as a New York-based senior writer, Hirsh served as the Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief for Institutional Investor from 1992 to 1994. Previously, he was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Tokyo and a National Editor in New York.
Hirsh was co-winner of the 2002 Ed Cunningham Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's terror coverage and contributed to the team of Newsweek reporters who earned the magazine the prestigious 2002 National Magazine Award for General Excellence, also for the magazine's coverage of the war on terror. Hirsh also won a Deadline Club Award in 1997 for investigative reporting on his expose of the IRS's abusive practices, and was one of five finalists for a 1994 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for his article, "China's Financial Revolutionaries." It profiled the new generation of mainland Chinese businessmen who are striving to build a capitalist financial system from scratch. Hirsh is the author of the nonfiction book "At War with Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2003) which explores America's foreign policy and its global role.
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