ON THE FIGHT
The French Foreign Legion have continued their push into and past Timbuktu and released footage of their paratroopers swooping into roust Islamist extremists from a C-160 transport plane.
The New York Times has quoted Dianne Feinstein as saying that in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death and turmoil of the Arab Spring, there was "an effort to establish a beachhead for terrorism, a joining together of terrorist organizations."
The Wall Street Journal has a big A1 spread on the announcement of a Status of Force Agreement between the U.S. and Niger, and the expeditionary basing of drones and other surveillance platforms:
The U.S. and France are moving to create an intelligence hub in Niger that could include a base, near Mali’s border, for American drones that could monitor al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali’s vast desert north, U.S. officials said. The moves show the extent to which the U.S. and France are girding for what could be an open-ended campaign against the militants in North and West Africa.
U.S. and French officials said they see Niger as a logical hub for intelligence-collection operations nearby in Mali, where France has deployed warplanes and ground troops to drive Islamist militants from cities and towns they have held for months. War planners say small air strips in Niger could be used as launching pads for spy missions and strikes.
ON THE FORCE
In Foreign Policy magazine, John Norris asks if the US military has been training too many militaries and if that has resulted in a recent spate of coups and general instability across Africa and other places.
ON TECH
Representative Darrell Issa, chair of the House Government Oversight committee, has formally requested that Attorney General Holder look into the suicide and investigation of open technology activist Aaron Swartz. Swartz killed himself after garnering the attention of the Justice Department for downloading free academic journals and articles from a private MIT network.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
A Oregon man claims his son was brainwashed by the FBI: "Osman Barre, the father of Somali-American terrorism suspect Mohamed Mohamud, said he was concerned for his son’s safety when he contacted the FBI in 2009. Barre said Mohamud told him he was planning to fly to Yemen to learn Arabic at a time when Barre was frightened by news accounts of Somali-American teenagers joining the mujahedeen in Somalia."
Robert Caruso is a veteran of the United States Navy, and has worked for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Business Transformation Agency and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
