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In the front row: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed was among the top advisers watching President Obama's Dec. 1 speech on a new strategy in Afghanistan at West Point, N.Y. From left are: National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones; Deputy National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute; Senator Reed; Gen. David Petreaus, the American commander in the Middle East; Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki; Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Doug Mills / The New York Times
By John E. Mulligan
WASHINGTON -- Time magazine has described in detail what many Rhode Islanders already know about U.S. Sen. Jack Reed -- that he has long acted as a key intermediary between Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
In its latest edition, Time relates how the Rhode Island Democrat played go-between after President Obama's election. Former Army officer Reed's relationship with Gates, a onetime top intelligence official in the first Bush administration, dates back years before Mr. Obama entered public life, to when both were members of the Aspen Institute, a Colorado-based think tank.
Democratic presidential candidate, then Sen. Barack Obama, center, and Sen. Jack Reed, left, arrive for a July 20, 2008, meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Presidential Palace in Kabul. AP photo
During the summer of 2008, Reed served as candidate Obama's guide on a highly publicized tour of the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Here is what Time reports about the Obama-Reed-Gates contacts after the 2008 election:
"In late 2008, with the Iraq war and the Bush presidency winding down, Gates made plans to return to Texas. Just before the presidential election, Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed contacted Gates.
"Would he be interested in staying on? Would he meet with Obama about it? Gates prepared some questions. He wanted Obama to know where he was coming from. Obama read them over
and told Reed, `They're right on target. I'm impressed, and it'd be useful to have a conversation with him.' ''
