Transition (originally aired April 23, 2006)
- Issues: Kazakhstan, NSA wiretaps
Josh begins forming the next White House staff by recruiting Sam Seaborn as his deputy chief of staff (Josh's old job) and by recruiting Lou as communications director (Toby's old job). President-Elect Santos makes a call to the Chinese president, expressing dissatisfaction with President Bartlet's plans for Kazakhstan; the call gets tapped by the National Security Agency and prompts concern by CJ. Donna gets a job offer from the next First Lady and tries figuring things out with Josh, who is on the edge of a breakdown. Sam arrives in Washington and steps in for an intervention. Josh takes a vacation and invites a guest.
- Kazakhstan. This episode, like many others this season, centers on an international crisis involving Kazakhstan, an oil-rich country that has ties to both Russia and China. Kazakhstan, like other countries in the Caspian Sea region, has significant oil reserves and has been working to develop its production capabilities and exporting routes. Kazakhstan exported about 1.1 million barrels per day in early 2005, much through Russia's pipelines. China agreed in May 2004 to develop a pipeline that would export Kazakh crude oil into western China; the pipeline is expected to be about 1,860 miles long when complete and to have a capacity of about 400,000 barrels a day, which would increase China's oil imports from Kazahstan by ten times compared to early 2005. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has information about Kazakhstan on-line here.
In real life, the United States has indeed looked to Kazakhstan as an important ally in Central Asia, and Kazakhstan did have in December 2005 a presidential election which was criticized by some. That election resulted in the re-election of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has held power since the country became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991 and who has taken many steps over the years to expand his power and to limit criticism of his government.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) criticized the December 2005 election as failing to meet international standards for democratic standards. "While candidate registration was mostly inclusive and gave voters a choice, undue restrictions on campaigning, harassment of campaign staff and persistent and numerous cases of intimidation by the authorities, limited the possibility for a meaningful competition," the OSCE said in preliminary conclusions (on-line here).
Still, the election did not result in the international crisis seen in recent West Wing episodes.
The United States has recognized the importance of Kazakhstan's stability and independence. In December 2001, President George W. Bush and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev issued a statement (on-line here) recognizing Kazakhstan's development as a "basis for regional security." In October 2005, a State Department official cited Kazakhstan's importance in the U.S. strategy for Central Asia, saying that the U.S. government believes that "Kazakhstan has the potential to emerge as a regional leader in powering economic growth, promoting tolerance, and perhaps even advancing democratic reform. Our vision is of a reforming and prosperous Kazakhstan, leading a new corridor of reform in Central Asia by spearheading energy, trade and investment in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other neighboring countries." (statement on-line here).
To that end, the United States has contributed about $95 to 115 million a year to Kazakhstan for democratic, economic, and security related programs (an assessment of FY 2004 contributions is on-line here).
- NSA Wiretaps. Controversy has surrounded recent reports that President George W. Bush has authorized the National Security Agency to monitor communications involving U.S. persons within the United States without warrants. Bush has defended the program as focused on those communicating with members of al-Qaeda and as effective in fighting terrorism, as in a December 19 appearance where he first discussed the program (on-line here). He has also said that the program was legal and was authorized by his constitutional authority to protect the United States and by a Congressional resolution to use military force against al-Qaeda.
In explaining why such intercepts were conducted without seeking authorization from a special court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Bush said in a December 19 press conference (on-line here) that the FISA was for "long-term monitoring" and that the intercepts he ordered were to "detect" enemies and to "prevent" new attacks.
Some have questioned the legal basis for the program. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a January 5 memo (on-line here) that there is uncertainty about the legal justification for the program and that the justification "does not seem to be as well-grounded" as suggested in a December letter to the heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The American Civil Liberties Union, along with other groups, filed a lawsuit on January 17 challenging the wiretaps as illegal (information on the lawsuit here).
Some also have questioned the effectiveness of the program. The New York Times reported on January 17 (on-line here) that more than a dozen current and former officials said that the tips provided by the NSA based on its wiretaps did not provide much new information and distracted agents from more productive counterterrorism work. "We'd chase a number, find it's a schoolteacher with no indication they've ever been involved in international terrorism - case closed," one former F.B.I. official told the New York Times. "After you get a thousand numbers and not one is turning up anything, you get some frustration."
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