ON THE FIGHT
Taliban suicide bombers assaulted a joint United States-Afghan air base in the eastern part of the country early on Sunday, detonating explosives at the gate and engaging in a gun battle that killed at least one member of the Afghan security forces.
The Department of Defense has updated its internal guidelines regulating counter-threat finance operations.
Under the law, covert operations are conducted by the CIA, while the military can do covert-like operations that are commanded by a military officer and serve a military purpose. If that sounds vague, it is, even though there is a statutory definition for what covert action is. To my mind, it doesn’t really matter which part of the executive branch does what: what matters is HOW; these blended intelligence operations MUST be placed under a clear chain of command that incorporates an accountability structure and a mechanism for Congressional notification. It does matter and it is worth thinking about very carefully how military activities that are also clearly covert action ought to be handled; who can order them? Who supervises the missions? To whom are the supervisors accountable? Who grades the missions and how is the military chain of command affected by mission failures and successes? It has been reported that the DCS officers will be trained by the CIA and report to, CIA chiefs of station. Congress needs to figure out what this means for the military chain of command, which, in turn, is THE essential requirement for covert-like activities to be legal when conducted by the Defense Department. Once complete, the DIA will have roughly 1,600 ‘collectors’ in around the world. That includes military attachés and intelligence operatives who do not work undercover. However the main growth will be in recruiting clandestine operatives to be trained by the CIA to work alongside the Joint Special Operations Command. Their assignments will be ordered by the Department of Defense.
The war on drugs expands to Southeast Asia, and with it the rather creative interpretation that anything not explicitly branded terrorism is narcotics-related — and we must counter it.
For months, the Pentagon has been trying to put in place a new contract to support a “vital” program that gathers intelligence on high-value terror targets and on terrorist finance, according to contracting records released Wednesday. Called Global Harvest, the little-known program has for years been run by defense contractor SAIC on behalf of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency.
“They wanted to kill as many as possible — Muslim and Christians.” The plan was to unleash mayhem across an entire city and “bring Amman to its knees,” in the words of one security official. It would start with suicide bombings at two shopping malls, then build momentum as teams of terrorists blew up cars and raked cafes with machine-gun fire. In the midst of the chaos that would ensue, the attackers would turn their attention to the U.S. Embassy, the primary target and a long-sought prize for the organization that investigators say provided critical support for the scheme: al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq. Using the terrorist group’s expertise and weapons from Syria’s civil war, the plotters planned to rain mortar shells on the American compound and homes nearby.
ON THE FORCE
After nine months at sea, hundreds of sailors were reunited with their families Sunday when the USS McFaul pulled into port at Naval Station Norfolk. The Guided-missile destroyer and its crew deployed February 26th and spent 281 days at sea in support of counter-piracy and maritime security missions. The crew participated in the attack of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which meant staying at sea well past its scheduled return date.
U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno is mostly comfortable knowing the Army will have to shed 80,000 soldiers from its 551,000-strong ranks as the force restructures after more than a decade of war. Up to 16,000 soldiers and 5,000 officers will likely face involuntary separation in order to reach 80,000, Odierno said. The Army has already slashed about 6,000 soldiers from its ranks, closing out fiscal 2012 with 551,000 active-duty soldiers, down from a wartime high of 570,000.
The Navy has announced it will name its newest state-of-the-art aircraft carrier Enterprise. “The USS Enterprise was the first of its kind, and for 51 years its name has been synonymous with boldness, readiness and an adventurous spirit,” said Mabus. “Rarely has our fleet been without a ship bearing the name. I chose to maintain this tradition not solely because of the legacy it invokes, but because the remarkable work of the name Enterprise is not done.” The future USS Enterprise, designated CVN 80, will be the ninth ship to bear the name. USS Enterprise and subsequent Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers will provide improved warfighting capability, quality of life improvements for Sailors and reduced life cycle costs.
The Government Accountability Office has found duplication and a lack of coordination in the geospatial projects of various agencies. The federal government invests billions of dollars in geospatial information across a variety of agencies to support many functions, including national security and disaster response. The Federal Geographic Data Committee was established to coordinate the nation’s geospatial data nationwide and has established a clearinghouse of metadata. However, agencies are not using this metadata in planning their investments, according to the GAO.
"[. . .] soldiers who enlisted with moral waivers were more likely to have disciplinary action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and to be discharged. But . . . such soldiers were also promoted faster in the infantry branch to noncommissioned officer (sergeant), more likely to re-enlist and received more commendations for valor than non-waivered enlistees."
Pentagon investigators are finding more wrongdoing among senior officers — Investigators at the DOD inspector general’s office have seen a rise in the number of investigations against senior officers, typically three- and four-stars (as well as many top civilians) since 2007 – as well as the rate of investigations that actually find that they did something wrong. And the so-called substantiation rate — meaning that investigators found at least one allegation to be substantiated — rose from 21 percent in fiscal 2007 to as high as 52 percent in fiscal 2010. In fiscal 2011, it was 39 percent. The number of actual cases only went up a little bit between fiscal 2007 and 2011 – 33 in 2007 to 38 in 2011, for a total number of 155 cases investigated over that period. But it is the substantiation rate for each year that took DoD officials by surprise.
ON TECH
"The Department of Homeland Security has a central role to play in the cybersecurity of the United States. However, authorities governing and supporting this central role appear to lack sufficient clarity." Lawfare, on DHS’ struggle to codify its cyber-security authorities.
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.
