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Obama hasn’t had very many kind words for Karzai since, well, ever.

This White House statement hearlding Karzai’s acceptance of a consitutionally mandated second round election may be as cordial as it has ever been between the two.

This second round is a victory for Holbrook and the White House. The US pushed hard for the full vetting of the first round results and was able to out muscle UN officials that wanted a speedier (and cheaper) resolution. Karzai saw all of this as a US strategy to weaken and unseat him.

If Karzai comes out the victor anyway, he and Obama will be stuck with each other – Obama the head of Karzai’s strongest ally and Karzai the head of Obama’s most daunting campaign promise.

Here’s the full WH statement:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2009

Statement by President Barack Obama on Afghan Elections

I welcome President Karzai’s statement today accepting the Independent Electoral Commission’s certification of the August 20 election results, and agreeing to participate in a second round of the election. This is an important step forward in ensuring a credible process for the Afghan people which results in a government that reflects their will.

While this election could have remained unresolved to the detriment of the country, President Karzai’s constructive actions established an important precedent for Afghanistan’s new democracy. The Afghan Constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai’s decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people.

I congratulate the Afghan people on the patience and resilience they have shown throughout this long election process. Given Afghanistan’s recent history, it is extraordinary that they were able to overcome threats and violence to express their democratic right to choose their leader. Insecurity in the country prevented some Afghans from voting, but it is a testimony to the bravery of the Afghan people that so many of them did come out to vote in the first round under tremendously difficult circumstances.

I commend both the Independent Electoral Commission and the Electoral Complaints Commission for carrying out their mandates. Throughout this process, the United States has been interested above all in the strength and independence of those institutions, and the need for them to fulfill their mandate on behalf of all Afghans.

I congratulate President Karzai and Dr. Abdullah, who both earned the support of voters from across the country. I also commend all of the other Presidential candidates who made this such a vibrant campaign.

It is now vital that all elements of Afghan society continue to come together to advance democracy, peace and justice. We look forward to a second round of voting, and the completion of the process to choose the President of Afghanistan. In that effort, the United States and the international community are committed to partnering with the Afghan people.

##

Image via Wikipedia

The Afghan election commission has ordered a Presidential run-off for Nov. 7. This will be expensive, logistically challenging and presents another opportunity for the Taliban to disrupt the political process there. But it’s the right step.

Anti-corruption is the Taliban’s strongest talking point. The decision to toss out the fraudulent ballots of the August 20 election shows that even the president and his supporters can be held to account. It is entirely likely that the widespread fraud that mostly favored Karzai cost him a first round victory he very well may have won outright if his team had played fair.

Karzai should now publicly insist that his supporters keep it clean for the run-off. It’s a challenge, given the unsavory characters he’s had to bring into his tent for the race. But, if he is re-elected, his legitimacy in the eyes of Afghans could be his strongest weapon.

Image by Kash_if via Flickr

The Taliban offensive in Pakistan has a flip side. The Pakistani military is actually riding a wave of momentum in its campaign against extremists. We’re seeing the beginning of a shift in Pakistani policy toward recognizing extremists – and not just India – as an existential threat to the country. This offensive can last only as long as Pakistani citizens are convinced it reflects Pakistan going after a Pakistan problem and not just pandering to the U.S.

Sovereignty is the third rail of the Pakistan political scene. The Pakistani leadership has long insisted that it is doing all it can to face down internal militants and any more aggressive action would risk a backlash of civil unrest. Four major attacks on Pakistani soil since October 5 may be giving the generals there the cover they need to launch a serious offensive in the tribal areas. The Pakistani government is repeating over and over again that all four attacks were planned in South Waziristan.

Now is Pakistan’s moment to show it is serious about taking on militants inside its borders. Twenty-eight thousand Pakistani troops have rolled toward South Waziristan in the past few days to prepare for what the Pakistani government is billing as a major effort to oust some 10,000 Taliban fighters that have been holing up there for the past eight years. Intense diplomatic pressure from the U.S. may be paying off. Earlier this year, the Pakistani Army hammered militants that had taken power in the Swat Valley, a few hours drive from Islamabad. It was the first time the Pakistani government had taken such aggressive action against some of the very militant groups that it had helped create and train.

This could be derailed if Pakistan’s leaders start feeling the heat of civil unrest and Anti-American sentiment gains momentum on the street. Which is why the Pakistani politicians flipped out when the new $7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan started moving toward the President’s desk with a lot of demands on Pakistan. The Kerry-Lugar bill is right to demand better oversight of how Pakistan uses the aid it gets from the U.S. Too much cash has gone into the country with little to show for it over the past eight years. But the timing couldn’t have been worse. Pakistani generals need to sell their offensive against homegrown extremists on the streets of Peshawar right now. It’s not the moment for the U.S. to be showing off just how much it’s paying for it.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

There is a fascinating article in WSJ about Iran’s technical ability to monitor internal access to the Internet and collect information on users. The fact that the Iranian government is likely collecting vast information about the people Twittering from the streets could provide Tehran with a very long list of names to arrest. Here’s the top of the story:

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

Essentially the technology plugs into the main fiber optic cable that connects Iran to the rest of the world and analyzes the data very quickly, searching for key words and drawing out names, IP addresses and SIM card identifiers. The capability comes from a consortium of two European companies, Siemens and Nokia.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

Then, as an interesting side note — half way down the story is an obtuse mention of how similiar this all is to the U.S. capability to process the data going in and out of the country that was used as part of the “Terrorist Surveillence Program.”

In the U.S., the National Security Agency has such capability, which was employed as part of the Bush administration’s “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” A White House official wouldn’t comment on if or how this is being used under the Obama administration.

Image via CrunchBase

The Iran protests have been knocked off the front pages today by the D.C. Metro crash (yes, I’m fine, thank you, was nowhere near) and the Obama press conference.

If you don’t feel like drinking from the #iranelections fire hose on Twitter, there’s a more efficient way to digest what’s happening on the ground. Here are three sites that have been bringing the best up to the minute aggregations of news, tweets and videos.

1) Andrew Sullivan puts up a compendium of tweets from Iran every day that read like a living history.

2) Nico Pitney has been comprehensively live-blogging the coverage.

3) Also visit The New York Times news blog, to fill in what Nico’s missed (and the video links are faster)

If you have three better sites, let me know.