Note on Yesterday's Post on the Pipeline War

I received a couple of warranted complaints about yesterday's description of a delay within the Bush administration in naming a top envoy to direct the U.S. side of the West's pipeline war with Russia. As background, I've complimented the choice of gray beard Thomas Pickering as Washington's chief envoy for the Caspian. Steve Mann, another talented senior diplomat, would be his deputy. But I've not understood why these men aren't already in the field making the case for a western-directed, trans-Caspian pipeline for Turkmenistan gas. Yesterday I reported that an 11th-hour struggle over personnel was partly to blame. Specifically I reported that Dan Fried, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European affairs, was trying to get one of his deputies into the envoy's slot.

Fried rightly notes that I didn't offer him a chance to respond, and I regret that. Today Fried said the following in a telephone chat: "I think it's a great idea to have a senior person doing it, and he will be most effective if there is a team representing all the bureaus, economic, mine. (Under Secretary of State for Economics and Energy) Ruben Jeffrey should also be involved. We should get that team together and get them to work." On why there is a holdup, he said, "I'd like to do this as soon as someone identified is in place. The sooner the better is best."

Fried couldn't say so, but I'm still told that Pickering is headed into the top slot. I'm also told that there's a cat fight over who will be his deputy, including a turf war between the State Department and the National Security Council.

While the bureaucrats tussle over the details, they risk Russia gaining greater advantage.