So, how big was the O’Hanlon-Pollack op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times? (Read Sen. McCain’s response here on NRO.) It completely overshadowed the other big column of the day, in which Robert Novak effectively cancels a covert U.S. counterterrorism operation by revealing it to the world.
That got your attention, huh?
The background, since I’m not impressed with Novak’s, is that the PKK, a Kurdish separtist terrorist group, has been blowing up Turkish beach resorts and Istanbul neighborhoods for years. (Novak calls them, at one point ”guerrilla fighters.”) They raise money all over Europe. No matter how much we may like the Kurds in northern Iraq, the PKK are bad guys, and have defined themselves as that by their actions. Some of them are hiding in the mountains of Northern Iraq, and local Kurdish authorities have demonstrated a true disinclination to do anything about it.
The U.S. plan was to go after the PKK leadership with special forces, with assistance from the Turks. That option, though involving an element of risk, would be less violent and far-reaching than the Turks’ saber-rattling and threats of an all-out invasion of Northern Iraq.
I say “was” since Novak’s column gives the PKK everything except the time and direction of any joint U.S.-Turkish attack.
We can strongly suspect that Novak’s source is on Capitol Hill. (And to think, a few weekends back on CNN, I said the Pentagon ought not give details of a withdrawal plan to Hillary’s office as the Senate leaks like a sieve.) Novak writes:
The surprising answer was given in secret briefings on Capitol Hill last week by Eric S. Edelman, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and now undersecretary of defense for policy. A Foreign Service officer who once was U.S. ambassador to Turkey, he revealed to lawmakers plans for a covert operation of U.S. Special Forces helping the Turks neutralize the PKK. They would behead the guerrilla organization by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years.
Edelman’s listeners were stunned.
If Novak knows that the listeners were stunned, it strongly suggests his source was probably among the listeners (and a skeptical one at that), not among the Pentagon or the administration. (Anyone know if Richard Armitage caught wind of this plan?)
Novak asks, “Wasn’t this risky?” No, it’s one of those risk-free covert counterterrorism operations. Of course there’s an element of risk! But Novak acts like it’s something new or surprising for U.S. soldiers to encounter an element of risk and danger while fighting terrorists on Iraqi soil. This operation, had it been pulled off successfully, could have cemented the U.S.-Turkish alliance for a generation and undone a lot of ire over the Iraq war. (And while the Kurds would have been bothered, they probably would have recognized that one covert operation in the mountains is better than 250,000 Turkish troops advancing over the border.)
Now, it looks like it won’t happen. Because someone exercised the “Novak veto.”