PHOTO: The USS IWO JIMA steams through the eastern Mediterranean.
Three U.S. Navy amphibious warships are returning to the eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby in the event they are needed to assist Americans leaving Israel in the coming days, according to two U.S. officials. The officials stressed an evacuation remains an extremely remote possibility and the Obama administration is not currently planning for one. Americans who wish to leave the region now are able to do so using commercial airlines. The ships involved are the USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall. At the end of last week the ships were west of Gibraltar, before the decision was made to turn them around and send them back to the eastern Mediterranean, where they will remain for now. The U.S. military also maintains three to four ships off the coast of Israel that are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. That deployment has stretched for some months in the face of a potential ballistic threat from Iran.
ON BENGHAZI & PETRAEUS-GATE
Emptywheel: “Between the extensive leaking from the so-called closed hearings on Thursday and Friday (Spencer’s got a good wrap-up here) and the Sunday shows (LAT has a good wrap-up here), we’ve got a little better understanding of the Administration’s current understanding of the Benghazi attack.”
Paula Broadwell, whose extramarital affair with CIA chief David Petraeus led to his resignation, is telling friends she is devastated by the fallout. A person close to Broadwell said Sunday she deeply regrets the damage that’s been done to her family and everyone else’s, and she is trying to repair that and move forward. The friend spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. A group of friends and neighbors welcomed Broadwell, her husband, Scott, and their young sons back to their home in Charlotte, N.C., after Broadwell spent more than a week being hounded by media while staying at her brother’s home in Washington. The family friend said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from her neighbors.
Max Boot pushes back against the more ludicrous criticisms of former Director Petraeus.
In Cased You Missed It – HPSCI Chairman Rogers and SSCI Chairwoman Feinstein on Meet The Press.
ON THE FIGHT
The Central Intelligence Agency has shuttered its Center on Climate Change and National Security, an office created in 2009 to serve as the “focal point” of the agency’s work on the topic.
Meanwhile, Marc Thiessen claims the Central Intelligence Agency is still in the detention business.
Despite the colossal amount of resources the United States has devoted to dismantling al-Qaeda since September 11, 2001, the organization remains a global threat. Al-Qaeda has evolved from a loosely connected network of terrorist actors into a dynamic social movement adept at exploiting new technologies and contextualizing the jihad to make it relatable to a majority of the Muslim world. The United States’ aggressive counterterrorism campaign, meanwhile, plays directly into al-Qaeda’s narrative of Western oppression and allows its followers to defiantly—and dramatically—take the defensive. Al-Qaeda seeks to use the mass media to perpetuate this image and, ultimately, to inspire a revolution capable of dislodging a superpower and toppling apostate Arab governments. To decisively defeat al-Qaeda, the United States must look beyond the group’s sensationalist tactics and carefully examine its media strategy, which illuminates the true nature of al-Qaeda’s appeal.
President Hamid Karzai has ordered Afghan forces to take control of the American-built Bagram Prison and accused American officials of violating an agreement to fully transfer the facility to the Afghans, according to a statement issued by his office on Monday. The move came after what Mr. Karzai said was the expiration of a two-month grace period, agreed to by President Obama in September, to complete the transfer of the prison, at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. The Afghan president convened a meeting Sunday of top officials to report on the prison’s status, which led to Monday’s statement. Hundreds of new prisoners are being held by American authorities in a closed-off section of the Bagram Prison, which the American military calls the Detention Facility in Parwan. American military forces, mainly Special Operations troops carrying out night raids, have been arresting suspected insurgents at the rate of more than 100 a month, according to Afghan officials.
Palestinian Media Watch highlights this spot airing on Al-Aqsa TV, a message from Hamas to Israeli soldiers intended, it appears, to rally Palestinians to the cause. According to the translation provided by PMW, the ad intones, “All of Palestine is ours. There’s nothing for you here but death.” And, in a more graphic warning, “If your eyes look [at us], they will be gouged out.”
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of being a “terrorist state” on Monday and criticized world powers for supporting the weeklong bombardment of Gaza that has killed about 100 people, signaling that the three-year-old rift between the countries is deepening.
ON THE FORCE
The fiscal cliff is looming, and Washington is scrambling to reach a deal to avoid a Thelma and Louise ending in January. To start, they need to identify spending cuts, and they should look no further than Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) just-released report on wasteful and duplicative spending in the Pentagon. The report identifies savings totaling at least $67.9 billion over the next decade in the Department of Defense. The common thread linking these disparate recommendations — from axing non-military research and development projects ($6 billion) to eliminating Pentagon-operated grocery stores ($9 billion) — is that the expenditures “have little to do with national security” and therefore could be implemented “without impacting our national security.” “Many of these programs, initiatives or research projects,” the report explains, “may serve worthy interests, but should not be the job of our military tasked with fighting and winning the nation’s wars.”
Special-Purpose MAGTF Africa has begun training for their upcoming deployment.
United States Special Operations Command is upgrading their wargame center.
ON TECH
Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots
Nate Silver was just the beginning. Some of the same statistical techniques used by America’s forecaster-in-chief are about to revolutionize world politics.
ON SECRECY OR LACK THEREOF
Lawfare examines the latest leak of the National Defense Authorization Act language.
San Diego County sheriff refuses to release drone documents, citing ‘Very little public benefit’ in disclosing UAV inquiry paper trail.
CONTRACT WATCH
United States Special Operations Command is on the hunt — for better biometric, and a new range right outside MacDill Air Force Base.
DARPAs spending spree has begun, in earnest.
The U.S. Army has awarded a $10 billion contract to Northrop Grumman for global tactical advanced communications systems and services. The five-year, multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract was awarded by the Army’s Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical.
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.
