The saga continues. Senior lawmakers had called for an inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the case of CIA Director David H. Petraeus on Sunday as new details and questions emerged about the investigation that led to his resignation last week. And now comes news that Petraeus will, in fact, testify on the events in Benghazi.
ON THE FIGHT
The head of the U.S. military command in Africa said on Wednesday that some of the militants involved in the attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya were linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). "There is a growing network of violent extremist organizations and it appears to me very likely that some of the terrorists who participated in the attack in Benghazi have at least some linkages to AQIM," General Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, told reporters in Paris."That is not to say that it was AQIM which planned, or organized or led the activity but clearly some of the individuals had some linkages," he said.
The oft-forgotten common thread in every campaign Petraeus has ever participated in overseas: death squads?
The American Security Project on the new emergent challenges.
The Government Accountability Office has issued a new report detailing the structural and operational challenged integral to countering violent extremism.
Former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Stephen Kappes seems to think this whole Arab Spring thing could be important.
ON THE FORCE
Four-Star Egos: The cult of the general from Douglas MacArthur to David Petraeus
Now-Major General Ward faces the music.
Panetta defends General Allen "No one should leap to any conclusions here.”
ON THE INTERSECTION OF PRIVACY AND TECH
Skeptics often dismiss those concern about growing levels of surveillance as paranoid conspiracy theorists. But Google’s latest transparency report, released Tuesday, shows the fears are grounded in reality: Government surveillance is on the rise. Every six months Google publishes transparency reports to disclose how many requests it has received from government agencies to hand over user data or take down content. Yesterday’s figures reveal Google received 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world for user data in the first half of this year—a 55 percent increase in requests received during the same period in 2010. The United States by far made the most requests for user data, submitting more than one-third of the 20,938 received. India was second, followed by Brazil.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
What David Petraeus could have learned from Janet.
CONTRACT WATCH
In the market for a former French Foreign Legion member? BeyondSOF has you covered.
The Army plans to award Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. a five-year, $80 million contract to continue providing hardware and software support for National Cyber Range operations. The National Cyber Range consists of government- and Lockheed Martin-owned hardware and software housed in a special facility with appropriate security protocols for the execution of missions through top-secret and special-access programs.
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.
