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What does the Death of Holbrooke Mean for Af-Pak War?

December 16, 2010

The sudden death of Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is like the head falling right off the policy.  Is Holbrooke's death an omen that indicates the end of the failed and criminal war policies in the region?  We can always hope.


Richard Holbrooke, looking like a Mafia boss, in Herat in 2009

Frank J. Ruggiero, Holbrooke's deputy, has been named as his replacement.  Very little information is available on Ruggiero's background, which raises questions about why.  Is he related to the infamous Ruggiero family gangsters of New York City?  It wouldn't suprise me if he was.  This is, after all, a criminal war based on the false-flag terror atrocity of 9/11.


Richard Holbrooke, head U.S. policy boss in the Af-Pak war, has been replaced by...


his deputy Frank J. Ruggiero...


seen here in the theatre of the war.

Frank Ruggiero is a 1982 graduate of Ursuline High School from Youngstown, Ohio.  He is married to Yong J. Lee and lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He was born in 1963, the youngest child of Frank and Barbara (Palermo) Ruggiero of Youngstown and Austintown, Ohio.

Ruggiero previously was the top civilian official in southern Afghanistan and helped manage the plan to increase the number of non-military experts providing reconstruction assistance to Afghan leaders.

Ruggiero has worked in various positions in the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Commerce.  He was named Holbrooke's top deputy in July, a position that included helping Holbrooke develop the United States policy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Ruggiero has worked for the State Department since 2003 and worked for the Department of Commerce for several years before that. It was during a course on international relations at Youngstown State University when he decided he wanted to pursue it as a career, he said. He transferred to The Ohio State University, graduating in 1987.
 
Ruggiero earned a master's degree in Middle Eastern affairs from American University in 1989 and has completed course work toward a Ph.D. in U.S. foreign policy in Asia at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  He has served in several positions in the departments of State and Commerce and has played a leading role in the State Department on security strategy in the Persian Gulf and on political-military issues in the Middle East.
 
He said he worked for former U.S. Rep. James Traficant during the Persian Gulf War and later moved to California to work for the Department of Justice.


The U.S. sends women to fight its criminal war in Afghanistan.

I have written about Richard Holbrooke's role in the war in Afghanistan in the following articles:

Richard Holbrooke and the Zionist War on Terror, July 7, 2009
http://www.bollyn.com/richard-holbrooke-and-the-zionist-war-on-terror

Nine Years of the War on Terror, October 8, 2010
http://www.bollyn.com/the-war-of-terrorisms-tenth-year 

Sources: 

Kosinski, Marly, “Valley native to replace Holbrooke”, Tribune Chronicle, December 16, 2010


"Post-Holbrooke Question: ‘What Now?’" by Mark Landler, New York Times, December 14, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/world/15diplo.html?_r=1&src=twrhp