PICTURE: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti
TEARLINE
"Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced earlier Thursday that the committee would hold a hearing on Nov. 15."
Lawfare muses: Is the “Disposition Matrix” Really Significant? The headline’s focus on the “disposition matrix” is a bit of a red herring, I think. The article’s title and sequence of topics suggests that the “disposition matrix” is itself a significant policy innovation (one that has been “secretly” developed over the past two years). It seems to me, however, that it is a mistake to focus on the matrix as such. The matrix appears to be a management tool to improve the efficiency of how existing policy gets implemented, not a substantive policy change in its own right.
ON THE FIGHT
The coming battle between the Central Intelligence Agency and Joint Special Operations Command.
Trying to keep in step with the increasing need for cybersecurity capabilities, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications will be reshuffling its employees and adding two more divisions. Meanwhile, an outreach program to industry is faltering.
Meet the 780th, the Army’s premiere cyberwarfare brigade.
Ex-Secretary of Defense Gates: Biggest challenges in US come from within.
Djibouti, while home to a host of remotely-piloted and rotary-wing aircraft, is also where fixed-wing birds from across the OEF-HOA JOA come to roost.
The Embassy in Ankara has restricted travel of U.S. government employees and U.S. citizens to a series of provinces.
Iran is funding aid projects and expanding intelligence networks across Afghanistan, moving to fill the void to be left by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
The Central Intelligence Agency wants to increase its paramilitary activities — but how can it ensure the safety of its personnel with brilliant moves like this?
The Building’s ISR Task Force is on the move again.
TURNOVER?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton long has said she would leave the job after one term. Now, however, in a sign of how much the tragedy has shaken her final days, she indicated in an interview that she may be willing to stay a bit longer. "A lot of people have talked to me about staying," Mrs. Clinton said, declining to be more specific. When asked if current events will force her departure date to slip, she said it was "unlikely," but for the first time left open that possibility for the short term. With presidential voting just days away, the suggestion she might stay could offer a sense of stability for Barack Obama as he makes his closing arguments.
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.
