Obama to Announce New Sudan Policy Oct. 19

The U.S. will engage Sudan to achieve its goals:

The new U.S. policy, which will be formally unveiled Monday, calls for a campaign of "pressure and incentives" to cajole the government in Khartoum into pursuing peace in the troubled Darfur region, settling disputes with the autonomous government in southern Sudan and providing the United States greater cooperation in stemming international terrorism, according to administration officials briefed on the plan. It also provides Khartoum with a path to improved relations with the United States if it begins to address long-standing U.S. concerns.

The public rollout of the policy brings an end to months of contentious internal debate on how to confront a government headed by an indicted war crimes suspect, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and blamed in the deaths of more than 300,000 people in Darfur, according to U.N. estimates.

In what is intended as a show of unity for the new policy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will announce it at the State Department with President Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration. Rice and Gration had battled fiercely over the direction of the new policy, with Rice pressing for a tougher line and Gration calling for easing U.S. sanctions. Read more at WaPo

The violence in Darfur will be called genocide:

The review also addresses a long-standing dispute between Rice, who has argued that there is an "ongoing genocide" in Darfur, and Gration over how to characterize the violence in Darfur. From now on, the United States will maintain that genocide "is taking place" in Darfur, officials said. The agreement on genocide represents a setback for Gration, who argued publicly in June that Sudan is no longer engaged in a campaign of mass murder in that region. "What we see is the remnants of genocide," he told reporters.

Obama To Name Scott Gration Sudan Envoy

Scott Gration was originally on the shortlist to head NASA, according to earlier media reports. In 2006, Gration accompanied Obama on a five-nation, 15-day tour of Africa.

AFP: US President Barack Obama will on Wednesday name retired Air Force general Scott Gration as his special envoy to Sudan to confront what Washington sees as a "horrendous" situation in Darfur.
The President "will be naming Scott Gration as special envoy to Sudan," an Obama administration official said on condition of anonymity.
The announcement will come as the United States ratchets up pressure on the government of Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir following his expulsion of international aid groups from Darfur that worsened the humanitarian crisis.
Former fighter pilot, Gration, a personal friend of Obama, was the pick of both the president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the official said.
Gration, who sometimes traveled with Obama on the campaign trail last year, had expertise on African issues and was also versed in the operational requirements of training peacekeepers and of airlift capabilities.

Gration's bio:

Gen. Jonathan S. Gration is the Director, Strategy, Policy, and Assessments, United States European Command, Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany. As Director of Strategy, Plans, and Policy, he is responsible for formulation and staff direction of the execution of basic military/political policy and planning for command activities involving relations with other US Unified Commands, allied military and international military organizations and subordinate commands. As Director of Capabilities and Assessments, he is responsible for the development of force structure requirements; conducting studies, analyses, and assessments; and for evaluating military forces, plans, programs, and strategies.

The general was raised in Africa and entered the Air Force in 1974 through the Air Force ROTC program at Rutgers University. He has previously served as a White House Fellow, operations group commander and two-time wing commander. Prior to assuming his current position, the general served as Director of Regional Affairs in the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs.

General Gration is a command pilot with more than 5,000 flight hours, including more than 2,000 hours as an instructor pilot. He has extensive combat experience in the Middle East and served as the Commander of Task Force West during Operation Iraqi Freedom. General Gration’s aerial combat experience includes 274 combat missions over Iraq (983 hours of combat time).