In Afghanistan, Hagel Presses for Pact on Security, but Is Not Meeting Karzai --- “I never asked for a meeting with President Karzai,” Mr. Hagel said. “I never received an invitation to meet with him. I didn’t expect a meeting with him. This trip is about the troops.” -- “I don’t think pressure coming from the United States, or more pressure, is going to be helpful in persuading President Karzai to sign a bilateral security agreement,” the defense secretary said. -- Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the senior NATO and American commander in Afghanistan, said late Saturday that he was continuing to plan for a continued military presence to train, advise and assist Afghan forces after 2014. -- But he warned that if the agreement was not signed by the end of this year, he would have no choice but to begin “more detailed planning on some other reality,” a nod to the so-called zero option with no foreign troops remaining. - More, nytimes