Secrets of State by Matthew Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

in political science from Harvard, master’s degree from the University of Chicago. He was one of the few people unafraid to stand toe-to-toe with Sara in an argument. They had few real professional disputes, however, and no issues stemming from their nominal ethnic and religious affiliations. The only knock-down-drag-outs in the office were over American politics. Sara was a hard-core Republican and Shoe a card-carrying Democrat. Ken, thankfully, was a libertarian who was often called on to moderate.
    â€œMullah Akhbar just installed himself in the presidential palace over the weekend as an ‘advisor’ to Talwar. That’s just the latest sign that the influence of the clerics is on the rise. It looks like Barazani is on the way out at the Defense Ministry. He lost an arm-wrestling match with Yusaf Khel, who is close to the clerics. The headlines in the papers over the weekend were all about Kashmir and pretty inflammatory.”
    â€œWhat’s Talwar’s role in all this?” Sam asked. “Is he even trying to hold the line against the clerics?”
    â€œTrying and failing,” Shoe replied. “The Islamists are definitely on the ascent, helped out, mind you, by public anger at our drone-strikes program in the northwest tribal belt.”
    â€œWhat about recent developments in the Pakistani military?” Sam asked, turning to Ken. “Anything I should be ready to brief upstairs on?”
    â€œThere are a lot of variables,” Ken cautioned. “Whatever you tell the boss, I’d hedge the bets a bit. Indications are that the religious leadership is extending its reach, particularly with the army. We’ve seen a rotation of senior colonels—brigade commanders—that has marginalized the most secular and put more overtly religious officers in charge of critical units.”
    â€œDoes that include nuclear units?”
    â€œIt does. They don’t have direct control of the weapons themselves. Those units are, for the time being, reporting directly to Talwar, but the units that control the installations where the weapons are based are increasingly subject to clerical influence if not yet direct control. It’s really only a matter of time, however.”
    â€œYou all are just a bundle of sunshine this Monday morning, aren’t you?”
    Shoe leaned across the table. “There’s one more thing,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œI’m worried about the intel-sharing program.”
    â€œIn what way?”
    â€œYou know we have a program to share select intel with the Indian and Pakistani services?”
    â€œSure. In exchange for some of their reporting. It’s a pretty standard arrangement.”
    â€œWell, I’m picking up echoes in our information. What we are giving the two sides is evidently volatile enough that it’s getting amplified and driving the debate within their own systems. There’s something of a positive feedback loop in operation. What they know about each other, or what they think they know about each other, affects what they do and the choices they make, which in turn influences what they think about each other. The program was supposed to promote transparency and information exchange in the service of peaceful dispute resolution, but it’s having the opposite effect. It’s making the leadership increasingly paranoid and trigger-happy.”
    â€œI’m seeing the same thing as Shoe is in Islamabad. Our intel is dominating the discussion and reinforcing the hardliners. The program needs to be scaled back in some way, because it’s starting to warp the decision-making process in ways we don’t entirely understand.”
    â€œI’ll raise it upstairs,” Sam promised. “But don’t get your hopes up. Those programs are managed by the director of National Intelligence, not Argus.”
    Dorothy stuck her head into the conference