Yesterday, on the floor of Congress, a new verb was coined: "Nordstrom, nord-struhm, verb; 1.) To document your position so effectively and completely that, in the event of a very public Congressional hearing, if there are rear ends left flapping about in the breeze at the end of it, yours sure isn’t one of them." Rejoice (or not).
Department of State spokeswoman Vicky Nuland fields questions over whether the US would back unilateral military action in Mali. Official transcript here. Meanwhile, UPI is reporting some rather controversial developments, among them that "U.S. units reportedly operate unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles out of a desert base in Morocco, with a similar Special Operations base in Burkina Faso", as well as alledging that "[since] [Ambassador Stevens] was killed" special operations forces "have been quietly deployed at U.S embassies across the region." This all comes on the heels of rumors French special operations forces have been involved in covert actions against AQIM with regional forces. France, the former colonial power in much of the region, openly favors military intervention against AQIM. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a recent visit to Algeria, which Paris wants to spearhead a regional offensive, that AQIM is "the main enemy."
The Department of State also asserted yesterday it monitored the events in Benghazi as they unfolded, in real-time. In addition to its crisis management center in Foggy Bottom (page 6), State is linked with all the relevant interagency partners, even the military, and has gone so far as to exchange liaisons between the Joint Special Operations Command (page 2, block 4) and itself.
Africa: the gift that keeps on giving! After four weeks of near silence over the attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the State Department has now come out with a completely different story line of what happened on the night of September 11th. NBC News Terrorism expert and former NCTC Director Michael Leiter appeared on The Andrea Mitchell Show with his reaction (VIDEO) The mother of Pat Smith, one of the slain State Department employees in Benghazi, has tired of the excuses and non-answers and took to CNN (VIDEO) to air her concerns.
The Washington Post publishes the dubious claim that Benghazi will somehow reflect badly on Secretary Clinton’s legacy.
AROUND THE WORLD
The people of Fiji celebrated the 42nd anniversary of their nation’s independence yesterday.
Algeria and Mauritania are scheming…something.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs thinks doing anything with regards to Syria is an exceedingly bad idea.
ON THE FIGHT
As Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa and its home, Camp Lemonier, grows to meet operational demands in the region, commanders have tasked a Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron with patrolling the waters offshore full-time.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
Director Long, a favorite on everyone’s shortlist to succeed Mike Vickers, doesn’t seem to have a problem with a recent merger of commercial satellite imagery companies.
Senator Lieberman has some things to say on the pending cybersecurity legislation.
The first rule of cryptology: what can be encrypted, can be decrypted.
ON TECH
Microsoft Office is coming…to Android?
CONTRACT WATCH
As the biggest spender in the federal government, the Department of Defense has the greatest potential to award contracts to small businesses. But the nature and breadth of defense contracts can leave out small companies. The Building hopes to fix all that.
Booz Allen is so sure of future US involvement in North Africa, its opening an branch office in the UAE, specifically focused on MENA. Quote: "Booz Allen Hamilton opened an office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates last week, which will serve as the company’s regional headquarters for the Middle East and North Africa."
Maryland’s Montgomery County issued a $1,000 fine to Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin’s CEO, Robert Stevens, for cutting trees on his property overlooking the C&O Canal without a permit. Stevens, who angered environmentalists with the tree clearing, apologized through his attorney for not getting permission first. The CEO’s attorney said the trees were cleared because they were unsafe.
BAE and EADS are not merging after all.
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.
