Morning Must Reads — Community organizing in Kandahar

American leaders, including the commander of our forces in Afghanistan and our secretary of state, sought to downplay the violence of our troops’ pending attack on the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s home turf.

The word “attack” was already considered too combative and “offensive” was deemed too, well, offensive. So Hillary Clinton went with the anodyne Pentagon term “operation.”

On Wednesday, Gen. Stanley McChrystal ruled out even that because it raised expectations for a “D-Day and an H-Hour and an attack.” McChrystal wants people to think about the community building that his peace corps will do, not the killing people part, which he hopes to keep to the barest minimum.

But what to call the mission of mercy for the armed community organizers of Kandahar?

Karzai, with a foreigner’s ear for English and a politician’s sensibility, knew the answer.

It’s “a process,” of course.

Writers Brian Knowlton and Elisabeth Bumiller offer this slice of Orwellian pie:

“‘At Kandahar, after coalition and Afghan forces have helped improve governance, brought in new resources and devised better intelligence, Mr. Karzai said, ‘then, if and when and where needed, an operation militarily, in consultation with community and backed by community — this is the approach we have adopted and this approach will definitely succeed.’

‘We’re not calling it an operation,’ he said. ‘Operation would indicate a military operation, tanks and troops moving. That is not the situation in Kandahar.

‘We’re talking of a process.’”

New York Times — 3 in Custody May Have Supported Bomb Suspect

Was the Jersey Shore Jihadi an undercover agent funded by shadowy figures within the Pakistani Taliban, or was he a jerk who got whipped into an Islamist frenzy on trips back to Pakistan and put together a poor man’s car bomb?

If Faisal Shahzad was part of a sleeper cell, not only could the investigation lead back to higher-ups in the Taliban, but it would give the Obama administration leverage against the Pakistani government in seeking more latitude for U.S. forces already operating in the country.

But if he was a jerk, then there is no trail to follow and we can only thank God that Shahzad was less competent than fellow lone wolf, Maj. Nidal Hasan.

Writers William Rashbaum and Scott Shane tell us about the other Pakistani-Americans now in custody on suspicion of helping Shahzad get together the funds needed to buy a beat up Nissan Pathfinder, some gasoline, some propane tanks and some firecrackers.

The question here is whether they were part of a plot or just owed money to Shahzad or were willing to lend a few hundred bucks to their friend.

That Shahzad had to go to multiple associates to get together the small sum suggests it may be the latter.

They’ve got a dozen folks locked up in Pakistan for aiding Shahzad. If necessary, they can round up two dozen more.

“Agents conducted searches Thursday in the Boston suburbs of Watertown and Brookline, and at two locations on Long Island, one in Centereach and another in Shirley. Agents from the Philadelphia F.B.I. office conducted searches in Camden and Cherry Hill, N.J., according to a spokesman for that office, J. J. Klaver.”

Wall Street Journal — Goldman Joins Race to Save Chicago Bank

The family bank of the Chicago Democrat running to take President Obama’s former Senate seat has been seized by regulators and shuttered. Obama basketball buddy Alexi Giannoulias may end up losing the race because of the scandal and the unseemly loans the bank made during his tenure.

The boys at Goldman Sachs, desperate to find ways to please the president these days, may save another politically connected bank in Chicago from the same fate by Writers John McKinnon and Elizabeth Williamson explain how ShoreBank, sunk because of bad mortgage loans, could get a $125 million bailout from Goldman and other Wall Street banks organized by Goldman CEO Lloyd Blanfein.

ShoreBank helped lead the charge for the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which gives federal regulators the power to make sure that banks’ lending favors minorities and is part of the city’s political establishment.

But I’m sure that has nothing to do with why Goldman is rushing to take a stake in the Bank of Alinsky.

“President Obama drew attention to the bank’s micro-lending efforts while traveling in Nairobi as a senator. ShoreBank co-founder and now president Mary Houghton offered guidance on small-business lending to Mr. Obama’s mother, who worked on similar issues in Asia. Officers and employees of ShoreBank gave Mr. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign a total of $12,150, according to data from Center for Responsive Politics.

In January, the Illinois Finance Authority considered assisting ShoreBank. Mr. Brandt, the authority’s chairman, said he and George Surgeon, ShoreBank’s CEO, are childhood friends, and Mr. Brandt was sympathetic both to ShoreBank’s ‘historic’ status and to its request for a state bond issue to finance a bailout.

The bank decided not to seek a state bond issue, but Mr. Brandt says he has continued to advise the bank. ‘Sometimes a bank like ShoreBank has to rely on karma, and the planets seem to have aligned to provide some karma with respect to this particular deal,’ Mr. Brandt said.”

Financial Times — Senate votes on new rules for credit rating agencies

The Senate has approved two competing amendments to the Dodd bank bill relating to credit rating agencies like Moodys and Standard and Poor.

One, from Al Franken, would turn the government into a rating agency of its own – rating the raters.

When a business sought to seek credit through a bond, a government panel would match the company with a certified rating agency in an effort to “increase competition” and decrease the chance that rating agencies would cook up positive scores in an effort to land clients.

The increased competition, of course, would be for a government warrant to be an approved rating agency. There would be no competition for the business or for the trust of investors. That would be the government’s deal under the Franken plan. The agencies would only need work about pleasing the SEC (!).

You wouldn’t want to give a good rating to politically unpopular companies or those engaged in controversial practices that could make the government look bad. As for the value of the investment, that’s for somebody else to worry about.

In showing how little this legislation is understood by the senators debating it, some members like Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Democrat Patty Murray of Washington, voted for the Franken amendment and then, in the next vote, a measure from George LeMieux of Florida that cannot coexist with Franken’s.

While Franken would make the government the broker for bond ratings, LeMieux would bar the government from offering any seal of approval for bond rating house.

Writers Tom Braithwaite and Aline van Duyn explain:

A separate amendment to remove a federal ‘seal of approval’ given to rating agencies was also approved. George LeMieux, a Republican from Florida, who authored the change, said: ‘There is a handful of federally-approved rating agencies that gave their top marks to some of the worst investments.’

Mr LeMieux added: ‘Removing their federal endorsement will end the dangerous over-reliance on these ratings and allow sound measures of risk to re-emerge in the marketplace-giving investors confidence an investment’s true risk is known.’

Washington Post — Customs chief neglected to file forms on household workers

How broken is our immigation system? It’s so broken that the guy who is running border security can’t figure it out.

Take it away Ed O’Keefe:

“Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan D. Bersin said Thursday he didn’t know he’s required by law to file paperwork verifying that his household employees were authorized to work in the United States. …

According to a memo by the Senate Finance Committee, Bersin has employed 10 household employees since 1993 and failed to complete I-9 forms for all of them. The I-9 form is issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which shares immigration enforcement responsibilities with CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

President Obama nominated Bersin in September and issued a recess appointment for him and 14 other nominees in March. Obama said all of the nominees would remain in the Senate for confirmation.”

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