Just because Juan Zarate no longer directly works in the federal government doesn’t mean he’s not making his voice heard in national security issues.
Zarate, who served as President George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies after Bush left office. And with a recent commando raid killing Osama bin Laden, Zarate’s views are still making the rounds of those debating the ramifications of the al-Qaeda leader’s death.
“[Bin Laden] remained the most important terrorist leader in the world. He was the symbolic, ideological and strategic core of the Qaeda movement,” Zarate recently wrote for The New York Times. “His removal not only deprives Al Qaeda of its founder and leader but comes at a critical time for AQ… This loss could unleash internal divisions and fractures within the movement and call into question the very legitimacy of Al Qaeda.”
Zarate also recently weighed in on the ramifications of the bin Laden killing in The Post, answering questions about commando raid’s relationship with Pakistani officials in a web chat.
“The relationship between the United States and Pakistan on counterterrorism is critical, but it is under a great deal of stress,” Zarate wrote. “This was an American operation without Pakistani involvement and with no pre-notification to their leadership. The phone calls to President Zardari and others happened after the fact. This signals both the great sensitivity of the operation but also a serious level of distrust with the Pakistanis.”
“Certainly, the Pakistanis will have to answer some tough questions as to why UBL [Usama bin Ladin–Zarate prefers this spelling of the leader’s name] was housed in a villa in Abbottabad, a settled part of Pakistan with plenty of Pak military and intelligence presence. Bad intelligence, willful blindness, or complicity — or some combination thereof — may be to blame,” Zarate concluded. “None of these is a good answer, which gives the United States some leverage now to repair the relationship on our terms and to push the Pakistani government to do more to root out AQ and Taleban leadership in their midst.”
With a Twitter feed dedicated to plugging his many national security talks, Zarate is certainly positioning himself as an exec to know.