Video & Transcript: Obama, Clinton, and Gates on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategy Review

The video of President Obama's presentation on Friday of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Annual Review. The transcript that follows includes not only Obama's address but also the briefing by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates:

We have already posted the unclassified summary of the Review, along with our snap reaction, "Big Damn Deal". A special analysis will be posted on Saturday:

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  When I announced our new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last December, I directed my national security team to regularly assess our efforts and to review our progress after one year.

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Pakistan and US: Border Opened to NATO Tankers But Tensions Continue (Cole)

The Pakistani government has decided to reopen the Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the route whereby 70 percent of US/NATO supplies and 40 percent of fuel are brought by truck into Afghanistan. The Pakistani Frontier Corps and the Afghanistan National Army began work Sunday to coordinate the clearing of the huge backlog of trucks that have been stuck at the crossing for a week and a half. Some reports say that the opening is expected to occur on Monday.

Pakistan closed the crossing to trucks transporting goods for NATO & the US after a September 30 incident in which US helicopter gunships made incursions into Pakistani territory and then fired missiles at a Frontiers Corps checkpoint, apparently mistaking the scouts for Taliban. Two scouts were killed and four wounded. Pakistani nerves were already raw because of unmanned drone strikes on Pakistani territory.

US President Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus appear to have decided to push for more hot pursuit missions into Pakistan from Afghanistan, and this decision was absolutely unacceptable to the Pakistani military, as well as to the public.

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Pakistan: US Supplies for Afghanistan Blocked, 27 Trucks Burned (Cole)

Tensions between the United States, NATO, and the Pakistani government boiled over on Thursday and Friday after American helicopter gunships killed 3 Pakistani Frontier Corpsmen and wounded 4 others. The two countries are nominally allies in the battle against Taliban and other extremists, but Pakistan stands accused of being selective in which extremists it wants to combat and of remaining anti-American even as it takes $8.5 bn. in aid from Washington.

Some 27 NATO fuel tankers parked near Shikarpur and sidelined because of the Pakistani blockade of such vehicles were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades by insurgents early on Friday, turning them into a massive bonfire.

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