Derek Harvey - one less neocon

 

"Derek J. Harvey was the first Director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and a retired United States Army Colonel. He was selected by General David Petraeus in 2009 to lead the new organization.^[1] Harvey is a Senior Executive Service-member of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and was the previous senior analytical specialist for Iraq to Petraeus, then Commander, Multi-National Forces-Iraq."

wiki on Harvey

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A very odd biographical wiki.  It doesn't say much of anything about him.  It is as though he was born anew when he came to Petraeus' attention as a briefer/analyst working in the big FOB at the Baghdad airport.  Usually these things describe your life, parentage, education, marriage, etc.  There is none of that.  It is also rather out of date, being from the time when Mike Flynn brought him into DIA as a member of the Senior Executive Service.

I have known DH for a very long time.

1. He evidently does not like to talk about his service in DIA as a captain in the late '80s.  He was then a very green junior analyst in the Current Intelligence branch of DIA down in the basement of the Pentagon.  Bob Woodward in "The War Within..."  writes that in the late 80s Harvey wandered the back roads in Iraq traveling about 500 miles, chatting with villagers, headmen and tribal leaders to learn what the true state of affairs might be.  This is untrue.  If Harvey told Woodward that, he lied IMO.  Saddam was then fully in power and an American who wandered in Iraq would shortly have been in prison or worse.  No,  Harvey was scribbling away in his basement cubicle in the Pentagon and hanging around my upstairs offices whenever my staff were silly enough to let him in through the alarmed door.  I finally banned him from the office suite because he had no legitimate business there other than to try to obtain tutoring from me.
2. I should be clear about his supposed adventures in Saddam's Iraq.  Nobody in DIA would have sent or allowed this junior desk jockey to go do anything of the kind.  He would have required orders in writing to make this trip.  A number of people would have been needed as signatures on the permission, among them, me, and that never happened.  If there had been official orders they would have required the allocation of funds in the orders.  The idea that DIA would have funded this is laughable.  If he  had gone to Iraq on leave without permission the Iraqi police would have picked him up at the point of entry.  In any event he would have needed the permission of the US ambassador and the US DATT to be in the country.   That never happened either. In other words he seems to have built a "Harvey of Iraq" legend about himself out of whole cloth.
3. He speaks no Arabic.  None.  That would have made his Laurentian or Munchausian adventures somewhat more difficult.  In some web bios he is said to have an elementary knowledge of French and Farsi.  Farsi?  How would that have happened?
4. He does not seem to have ever had any training as a field intelligence collector.
5. He does not seem to have been board selected for senior Army schools like C&GSC and the War College.  Perhaps he did these schools by correspondence or was given constructive credit for "experience?"
6. So far as I know he never served in a Middle East or North African country before 9/11.
7. His teaching job at South Florida University does not seem to have involved teaching about the Middle East.  It was something about management that he taught.

Well, pilgrims, perhaps I have all this wrong, if so, then I will welcome your corrections.  I am sure there will be some.

In the present instance of his dismissal from the NSC staff it is now clear to me that he thought he could wrestle control of the ME policy function away from McMaster and Mattis.  He seems to have believed that he could do that with the slick persuasiveness that had worked so well for so long on so many and with the support of his neocon patrons.

Here is the statement he released yesterday on the occasion of his departure for greener pastures:

 

 

"Subject: Derek Harvey - Statement

I will be leaving the National Security Council today to take advantage of a new opportunity to continue serving our President and the United States of America in an important capacity. 

Since January, I have had the special honor to serve as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Middle East Affairs in the National Security Council. This has been work of vital importance to our country, and my departure comes with mixed emotions.  In addition to the criticality of the mission, the people I have worked with in the NSC and the White House make this a tough decision. 

I have known LTG H.R. McMaster for many years, and H.R. and I have worked closely together to tackle some of our nation's most difficult challenges.  I value our friendship and deeply respect his visionary leadership.   I look forward to working with H.R. in my future capacity.  I have also appreciated the chance to work with the superb, selfless professionals on our team at the NSC, an amazing group of American patriots who have been instrumental in supporting the President, integrating U.S. policies toward the Middle East, and developing a series of strategies to protect and advance American interests in the region. 

I  treasure having had the opportunity to support committed and visionary leaders such as Mrs. K.T. McFarland, Mr. Jared Kushner, and Mr. Steve Bannon, and consummate professionals like Mr. Jason Greenblatt and Ms. Dina Powell.   I am especially grateful for the Middle East Directorate and those on the NSC with whom we have worked so closely and with such great effect.  I remain humbled by their dedication, commitment, and patriotism and wish them all the very best as they face the challenges ahead. 

Most importantly, I am excited about the opportunities to advance American interests in the Middle East under President Trump's leadership, and I look forward to shouldering greater responsibilities in support of the President. 

Sincerely, 

Derek J. Harvey

Special Assistant to the President

Near East Region"

pl

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Harvey

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Col. Lang:

Not surprising; that fellow, Pollack, of "The Coming Storm" fame, repackaged himself as an Iran-analyst - never having been to Iran, not knowing Persian, and not being able to comprehend - for religious as well as ideological reasons - that country.

Yet he was influential in forming US policy under Obama.

[ked]

At least he didn't call Kushner & Bannon consumate professionals, while using criticality in a sentence.

[Larry Kart]

Many thanks for this. How common is it in your experience for a weasel like Harvey to get as far as he did where he did for as long as he did?

[Haralambos]

This is up from yesterday on Harvey's dismissal: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/27/derek-harvey-trump-middle-east-adviser-dismissed-241037

Here is a revealing quote from the article: "Harvey was viewed as one of Trump’s more hawkish foreign policy advisers—particularly on Iran, whose leadership he has studied closely and which he recommends confronting more aggressively. He has also been a staunch critic of the Iran nuclear deal.... Many military officials consider him the government’s most knowledgeable source on the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and Syria."

[turcopolier]

Larry Kart

This level of self-promotion is unusual in one so specialized. pl

[Old Microbiologist]

I have seen the equivalent in the science arena. I know of at least 2 biodefense scientists who were so bad at getting funding for projects they were moved over to management positions. This is what happens with permanent GS civilians. You can't fire them so you move them to relatively harmless positions such as program managers or outreach program people. After 9/11 Congress in their wisdom decided we needed yet another mother of all government agencies and created the Department of Homeland Security. However, they failed to create any permanent GS slots to put into this agency. So, every government agency was required to move authorized/obligated positions over to DHS and this would include any personnel currently holding those slots. No one would ever give up good and productive people so all the dregs were moved over to DHS. This might help explain why DHS has been so screwed up from the get go. As you might expect these 2 scientists were moved over to senior positions and eventually slimed their way to the top and became SES scientific managers and ultimately heads of programs. Kissing ass works well for a lot of people especially when the ass you are kissing is more incompetent that you are. This might explain why the DHS biodefense programs are so screwed up. One of them is now over at FDA working hard to screw that agency up and the other went over to DHHS (NIH) where they are working hard to screw that up as well. A few very rare people went over to DHS who were good and did it voluntarily but they eventually regretted it having to work for these former loser scientists.There are no smiling faces at DHS.

[WG McCreedy]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/colonelderekharvey/

[Ishmael Zechariah]

Colonel,
I might be becoming a conspiracy nut in my old age. Could it be that this fellow was promoted and placed as part of an infiltration operation? There are so many claims on his vita which could have been verified with minimal effort. Were these not checked? Could it be that they were checked and the discrepancies were being used for control?
In a similar vein how can the entire US Senate minus 2 vote for a sanctions proposal which is patently and demonstrably based on false premises?

Ishmael Zechariah

[Randy]

Legend in his own mind. How many more like him are influencing/making foreign policy decisions? Scary.

Nice take down pl.

[SmoothieX12]

Farsi? How would that have happened?

When playing back-gammon as it is played in the region? I joke, of course. But I remember playing the game (known in the area as Nard(y)) All numbers (combinations) of dice were called out loud in Farsi. Everybody in Caucasus pretty much knew counting to six in Farsi plus some additional (proprietary)names of numbers' combinations. Sadly, I forgot that--I don't play backgammon in its "westernized" configuration--the board has to be done in a specific way. But, probably, would recall numbers and titles given couple of games with native speakers pretty fast.

[The Beaver]

committed and visionary leaders such as Mrs. K.T. McFarland
Yep, Troia who went MIA since 1985 after marrying a rich banker and became more or less a socialite only to resurface in 2006.
Envoy Jason Greenblatt who couldn't do much last WE about the hot spot of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and Bibi had to remove his electronic gear to "control the Arab Muslims". Jared would have loved to accompany him on that school trip but he was busy on the Hill.

[The Beaver]

This may be a good read:
https://www.cfr.org/blog/our-man-middle-east-confusing-worldview-trump-aide-derek-harvey

When it comes to Iran, Harvey has articulated a tough line, but there is a fair amount of bipartisan support for this in Washington. When he turns his attention to other issues, however, Harvey offers a curious set of dubious assertions and contradictory claims, wrapped up in a troubling lack of knowledge about the region for which he is now primarily responsible. Needless to say, this combination is bad for U.S.-Middle East policy.

[MRW]

Hope someone at the White House reads this. It is delicious.

[Jack]

No wonder policy is so screwed up when "weasels" like this one get up to positions of influence.

[Kooshy]

The Board must be of hard wood ( specific species) and the dice must be small ( like 1/4 in) made of tusk, so one can hear an specific sound of rolling dice. The board is called Takhteh ( board made of wood) Nard

[Emad]

Reminds of that other paragon of ME knowledge Larry Franklin.

[Lemur]

Breaking: Trump's fired Priebus, hired John Kelly as Chief of Staff.

“My hunch is that Reince Priebus will be gone by the end of August along with Sean Spicer and most of their RNC team of White House leakers.” ~ Conservative Treehouse, July 23rd

Sounds like Trump's trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. If you don't get with the Trump program, you're put out to pasture.

[Fellow Traveler]

Reince Priebus out, another General in.

"WASHINGTON — Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff who failed to impose order on a chaos-wracked West Wing, was pushed out on Friday after a stormy six-month tenure, and President Trump replaced him with John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security and retired four-star Marine genera"

[EEngineer]

And the bulk was staffed up with any college republican that could fog a mirror. Got to deal with a few of those while developing a bio-particle detector. Basic science seemed to be missing on their resumes. But Moore's law seemed to apply to everything!

[Lars]

Nobody in the White House will read this, or anything else. They are too busy watching TV. Of course, the old Greeks had a story about somebody who flew too close to the sun.

[JMH]

Got to admire the defensive/defiant tone of the resignation letter, here's a thought: it was an honor and a privledge to serve, God bless America... IMO 'nuff said

[Peter in Toronto]

How does does one receive neo-con patronage in the first place? Do you have to marry into the tribe?

Seems like a profitable thing to do and it gets you into places well beyond any formal education or qualifications or merit, it seems.

I have to look into this.

[turcopolier]

Peter in Toronto

They have had an active recruitment program for at least fifty years. The Wohlstetters pitched me in my Pentagon offices. pl

[SmoothieX12]

It is also known as Shesh-Besh (the game--six-five) and every move of the essentially checker has to be loud and fixated in the own nest. Drinking tea from armuda glass is desirable;) You got it right about dice known as zary. It is a ritual of an incredible delight and power.

http://obruch.com.ua/sites/obruch.com.ua/files/khyqx_baku_hjmobt_rhunuq._kepmohu.gif

[Babak Makkinejad]

I think the word for six is the same in both Russian and in Persian.
The expeession "losing at Love's Nard" is well-known in Persian. (In Love, one wins by losing; as I am sure you know.)