VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,537 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019

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WASHINGTON — ProminentAmerican officials concealed pes-simistic assessments about thelong-running military campaignin Afghanistan, according to thou-sands of pages of documents pub-lished by The Washington Post onMonday. Taken together, the docu-ments paint a stark picture of mis-steps and failures.

The United States militaryachieved a quick but short-termvictory over the Taliban and AlQaeda in early 2002, and the Pen-tagon’s focus then shifted towardIraq. The Afghan conflict becamea secondary effort, a hazy specta-cle of nation building, with inter-mittent troop increases to conducthigh-intensity counterinsurgencyoffensives — but, over all, with asmall number of troops carryingout an unclear mission.

Even as the Taliban returned ingreater numbers and troops onthe ground voiced concerns aboutthe American strategy’s growingshortcomings, senior Americanofficials almost always said thatprogress was being made.

The documents obtained byThe Post show otherwise.

“We were devoid of a funda-mental understanding of Afghani-stan — we didn’t know what wewere doing,” said Douglas Lute, aretired three-star Army generalwho helped the White House over-see the war in Afghanistan in boththe Bush and Obama administra-tions.

“What are we trying to dohere?” he told government inter-viewers in 2015. “We didn’t havethe foggiest notion of what wewere undertaking.”

The 2,000 pages of interviewswere obtained through a Freedomof Information Act request andyears of legal back-and-forth withthe Special Inspector General forAfghanistan Reconstruction, ac-cording to The Post. Formed in2008, the office has served as agovernment watchdog for the warin Afghanistan, releasing reportsquarterly on the conflict’sprogress, many of which publiclydepicted the shortcomings of theeffort.

In one interview obtained byThe Post, a person identified only

PUBLIC WAS DUPEDON AFGHAN WAR

Claims of Progress HidBleak Assessments

By THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF

Continued on Page A9

WASHINGTON — House Dem-ocrats signaled that they wouldunveil articles of impeachment onTuesday morning that chargePresident Trump with abuse ofpower and obstruction of Con-gress for conduct they called a“clear and present danger” to the2020 election and national securi-ty.

The House Judiciary Commit-tee was expected to work throughthe night on Monday readying thecharges, according to multiplesenior officials and lawmakers.

They cautioned that plans werenot final, but several officials saidthey were now focused on twocharges: that Mr. Trump violated

his oath of office by putting his po-litical concerns over the nationalinterest and that he stonewalledcongressional attempts to investi-gate. The officials spoke on thecondition of anonymity in order todiscuss the decision before it wasready.

“What happened with Ukraine— it’s not something we can closeour eyes to,” Representative EliotL. Engel of New York, the chair-man of the Foreign Affairs Com-

mittee, said as he emerged Mon-day night from a meeting withSpeaker Nancy Pelosi. Mr. Engeland four other Democratic com-mittee leaders scheduled a 9 a.m.news conference for Tuesday in astately Capitol reception room tolay out their plans.

Mr. Engel spoke an hour afterthe conclusion of a contentious Ju-diciary Committee hearing whereDemocratic lawyers testified thatthe evidence against Mr. Trumpwas overwhelming and de-manded urgent action.

Summarizing the findings of atwo-month investigation by theIntelligence Committee, they as-serted that the president hadabused his office by soliciting re-

Trump Said to Be Facing 2 Impeachment ArticlesBy NICHOLAS FANDOS House Readies Charges

of Abuse of Powerand Obstruction

Continued on Page A18

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. offi-cials had sufficient reason to openthe investigation into links be-tween Russia and Trump cam-paign aides in 2016 and actedwithout political bias, a long-awaited report said on Monday,but it concluded that the inquirywas a rushed and dysfunctionalprocess marked by serious errorsin documents related to a wiretap.

The exhaustive report by theJustice Department’s independ-ent inspector general, Michael E.Horowitz, faced an immediatechallenge. Attorney GeneralWilliam P. Barr sought to under-mine the key finding that investi-gators had an adequate basis toopen the inquiry, known as Cross-fire Hurricane.

“The inspector general’s reportnow makes clear that the F.B.I.launched an intrusive investiga-tion of a U.S. presidential cam-paign on the thinnest of suspi-cions that, in my view, were insuf-ficient to justify the steps taken,”Mr. Barr, a close ally of PresidentTrump who has begun his own re-investigation of the Russia inqui-ry, said in a statement.

Yet Mr. Horowitz stressed thatthe standard for opening an F.B.I.investigation was low — echoingthe sort of criticism that civil liber-tarians have made for years. Healso exonerated former F.B.I.leaders, broadly rejecting Mr.Trump’s accusations that they en-gaged in a politicized conspiracyto sabotage him.

“We did not find documentaryor testimonial evidence that politi-cal bias or improper motivationinfluenced” officials’ decision toopen the investigation, the report

REPORT DEBUNKS ANTI-TRUMP PLOT IN RUSSIA INQUIRY

But Inspector FindsMajor F.B.I. Errors

Tied to Wiretap

This article is by Charlie Savage,Adam Goldman and Katie Benner.

Michael E. Horowitz’s reportfaced an immediate challenge.

TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A21

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump and his allies spentmonths promising that a reporton the origins of the F.B.I.’s Rus-sia investigation would be a kindof Rosetta Stone for Trump-eraconspiracy enthusiasts — thekey to unlocking the secrets of agovernment plot to keep Mr.Trump from being elected in2016.

On that point, the report by theJustice Department’s inspectorgeneral, Michael E. Horowitz, didnot deliver, even as it foundserious problems with how F.B.I.officials justified the surveillanceof a Trump campaign aide to afederal court.

But by the time it was re-leased, the president, his attor-ney general, his supporters inCongress and the conservativenews media had already de-clared victory and decamped forthe next battle in the wider warto convince Americans of theenemies at home and abroadarrayed against the Trump presi-dency.

They followed a script theyhave used for nearly three years:Engage in a choreographedcampaign of presidential tweets,Fox News appearances and fierycongressional testimony to cre-ate expectations about findingproof of a “deep state” campaignagainst Mr. Trump. And then,when the proof does not emerge,skew the results and prepare forthe next opportunity to executethe playbook.

That opportunity has arrivedin the form of an investigation bya Connecticut prosecutor orderedthis year by Attorney GeneralWilliam P. Barr — and the presi-dent and his allies are now pre-dicting it will be the one to de-liver damning evidence that theF.B.I., C.I.A. and even closeAmerican allies conspiredagainst Mr. Trump in the 2016election.

Mr. Barr made clear histhoughts on the inspector gener-al’s report on Monday in a blis-tering public statement in whichhe described how the F.B.I. in2016 “launched an intrusiveinvestigation of a U.S. presiden-tial campaign on the thinnest ofsuspicions” and carried out sur-veillance “deep into PresidentTrump’s administration.”

NEWS ANALYSIS

Trump’s Allies Lookto the Next Query

By MARK MAZZETTI

Continued on Page A20

A former manager who says productionproblems plagued the troubled 737 Maxwill testify to Congress. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

A Boeing Whistle-BlowerAmerican pigs are raised on a liberaldiet of antibiotics, but Danish farmerssay they have a better way. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-6

Praise for Danish Pork

Democrats and the White House arenearing consensus on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. PAGE B1

Closing In on a Trade Deal

A standoff over the president’s plan tosimplify a generous retirement systemraises doubts about his ability to makebig changes in France. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-15

French Uproar Over Pensions

A confrontation in the New JerseyLegislature exposed a deep rift in theparty in a reliably blue state. PAGE A26

NEW YORK A26-27

Divide Among DemocratsThe rise of plant-based burgers hasmeat producers doubting the benefits of“ultra-processed imitations.” PAGE D1

Real Meat vs. Fake Meat

Netflix received the most Golden Globenominations, and Apple’s “MorningShow” got a lot of attention, too. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Streaming Toward Awards

The death of Juice WRLD signals theend of a promising musical movement,Jon Caramanica says. PAGE C1

Recalling a Rapper’s Artistry

Paul Krugman PAGE A30

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31

CHESTER HIGGINS JR./THE NEW YORK TIMES

Paul A. Volcker, who as chairman of the Fed tamed the inflationof the 1970s and ’80s, died on Sunday. He was 92. Page A28.

Inflation Fighter

PAUL A. VOLCKER, 1927-2019

GEORGE NOVAK/NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

At least five people were killed when a volcano exploded on Monday, turning a popular tourist site into a deadly trap. Page A6.Sudden Eruption in New Zealand

With 40 games total, there are a lotmore postseason matchups than justthe College Football Playoff. PAGE B7

SPORTSTUESDAY B6-9

The Big Games, and the Rest

WASHINGTON — There aredays in Washington lately whenit feels like the truth itself is ontrial. Monday was one of thosedays.

An impeachment hearing onCapitol Hill presented radicallycompeting versions of reality. AnF.B.I. inspector general reportpunctured longstanding conspir-acy theories even as it providedammunition for others. And atrove of documents exposedyears of government deceptionabout the war in Afghanistan.

While truth was deemed anendangered species in the na-tion’s capital long before Presi-dent Trump’s arrival, it has be-come axiomatic in the era of“alternative facts” that eachperson or party entertains only

their own preferred variant,resisting contrary information.Rarely has that been on displayas starkly as on Monday, under-scoring the deep distrust thatmany Americans harbor towardtheir leaders and institutions.

“We’re in a dangerous mo-ment,” said Peter Wehner, aformer strategic adviser to Presi-dent George W. Bush and a vocalcritic of Mr. Trump. “The dangeris people come to believe thatnobody is giving them the factsand reality, and everybody canmake up their own script andtheir own narrative.”

In such a situation, he added,“truth as a concept gets obliter-ated because people’s investmentin certain narratives is so deep

In a Swelling Age of Tribalism,The Trust of a Country Teeters

By PETER BAKER

WASHINGTON MEMO

Continued on Page A18

After a bone marrow transplant, a manwith leukemia found that his donor’sDNA traveled to unexpected parts ofhis body. PAGE A25

A DNA Makeover

LAUSANNE, Switzerland —The world’s top antidoping au-thority agreed on Monday to ban-ish Russia from internationalcompetition — including nextsummer’s Olympic Games in To-kyo — for four years, the latestand most severe punishment yetconnected to a yearslong cheatingscheme that has tarnished sports,rendered Russia a sports pariah,and exacerbated tension betweenMoscow and the West.

If the ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s board is upheld,Russia’s flag, name and anthemwill not be allowed at the TokyoGames next summer or the Bei-jing Winter Olympics in 2022,though the competitive effectsmay be minimal: Russian athletesnot implicated in doping are ex-pected to be allowed to compete inthe Olympics and other worldchampionships, but only under aneutral flag.

The antidoping agency alsobarred Russian sports and gov-ernment officials from the Gamesand prohibited the country fromhosting international events. Thedecision, which Russia is ex-pected to appeal, most likely willset up a series of confrontations inthe coming months and years asRussia fights to have its athletesand teams compete at majorevents.

The ban comes four years after

Russia Is BarredFrom Olympics

For Four YearsBy TARIQ PANJA

Continued on Page A10

Sanna Marin will become the world’syoungest sitting prime minister whenshe is sworn in this week. PAGE A6

Set to Run Finland, at Age 34

A North Dakota county voted, under anew Trump administration policy, tocontinue accepting refugees. PAGE A24

NATIONAL A16-25

Keeping the Doors Open

Late EditionToday, mild, showers, high 62. To-night, colder, rain mixing with snowlate, low 34. Tomorrow, much colder,snow early, little accumulation, high37. Weather map is on Page B12.

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