Civilian analysts gained Petraeus’s ear while he was commander in Afghanistan

[DonViejo]

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Published: December 18

Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts, put their jobs at influential Washington think tanks on hold for almost a year to work for Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Provided desks, e-mail accounts and top-level security clearances in Kabul, they pored through classified intelligence reports, participated in senior-level strategy sessions and probed the assessments of field officers in order to advise Petraeus about how to fight the war differently.

Their compensation from the U.S. government for their efforts, which often involved 18-hour workdays, seven days a week and dangerous battlefield visits? Zero dollars.

Although Fred Kagan said he and his wife wanted no pay in part to remain “completely independent,” the extraordinary arrangement raises new questions about the access and influence Petraeus accorded to civilian friends while he was running the Afghan war.

Petraeus allowed his biographer-turned-paramour, Paula Broadwell, to read sensitive documents and accompany him on trips. But the entree granted the Kagans, whose think-tank work has been embraced by Republican politicians, went even further. The four-star general made the Kagans de facto senior advisers, a status that afforded them numerous private meetings in his office, priority travel across the war zone and the ability to read highly secretive transcripts of intercepted Taliban communications, according to current and former senior U.S. military and civilian officials who served in the headquarters at the time.

-snip-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/civilian-analysts-gained-petraeuss-ear-while-he-was-commander-in-afghanistan/2012/12/18/290c0b50-446a-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

[Fumesucker]

1. Follow the money

This paid off for these people somehow, find out the payoff and you make a connection.

[yellowcanine]

2. Neocon warmongers advising Petraeus? Quelle surprise.

This is a cancer. It really is.

The Kagans did not get paid by the U.S. Government. But they got paid all right. By Neocon think tanks funded by defense contractors and for giving speeches to right wing groups. They traded on the access given to them by Petraeus and they bullied Gen. McChrystal into giving them access by threatening to write negative columns.