The real State-Defense turf war begins | The Cable - The Diigo Meta page

• 04 Nov 09
  

  Robert Maguire

  gates hillary politics statedept congress reference reform dod US government waronterror

  • The forum for this fight: a new interagency policy task force being managed by the National Security Council and being pushed along by the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which needs to start forming its fiscal 2011 budget and wants to sort out who gets the funding for a variety of foreign aid and security assistance programs.
  • The range of funds up for grabs between the different departments includes everything from coalition support funds and combatant commanders' initiative funds to foreign military financing, the Commanders Emergency Response Program (CERP) funding, and many more.
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  • • although the NSC is managing the process, it's understood that the principals themselves will have the final say.
    • At the Pentagon
    • Michele Flournoy
    • At State
    • Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro
    • Sources inside the process tell The Cable that the Pentagon effort, supported by civilian contractors, is far more massive than at State, giving DOD an advantage in terms of research, preparedness, and execution.

    • One pool of money at the center of the debate is what's called "1206" authority, which covers money, over $1 billion since 2006, for all equipping and training of other countries' security forces who are involved in the "overseas contingency operations" but not Iraq and Afghanistan.

      Here, the Pentagon brass is said to be amenable to allowing the initial funding to go through State, provided they have some influence over its distribution, such as a "duel key" mechanism whereby they would be able to approve or veto expenditures.

    • But sources said the Pentagon is receiving blowback from the commanders in the field
    • From the combatant commands' point of view, they don't trust the State Department's ability to raise money or to act with the agility with which they can act. So they want the money on their turf.
    • Congress is also trying to drive some of these authorities toward the State Department, namely the money that goes to support the Iraqi Security Forces and what's call the Pakistani Counterinsurgency Capability Fund (PCCF).

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