ON THE FIGHT
Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa is operating terrorist training camps in northern Mali and providing arms, explosives and financing to a militant Islamist organization in northern Nigeria, the top American military commander in Africa has said.
The Senate voted to pass an amendment to the defense bill that would require a report on military activities that could be used in Syria. The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, S. 3254, which funds the U.S. military and its operations, passed on a 92-6 vote. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced amendment 3262, which would require the Department of Defense to submit to the congressional defense committees a report identifying the limited military activities that could deny or degrade the ability of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to use air power against civilians and opposition groups in Syria.
From its headquarters at Florida’s Patrick Air Force Base, the State Department directs 51,000 annual hours worth of air operations. In Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Pakistan, and Guatemala, it mostly performs “counternarcotics and law enforcement activities,” explains State Department spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala, and in Afghanistan it does transportation support as well. Diplomats at the mega-embassy in Iraq also rely on State’s contractor air fleet to move about the country. And in recent years, that fleet has also needed to perform short-term air missions in Sudan, Honduras, Malta, Libya and Egypt. Private-security giant DynCorp currently holds the contract for supporting the diplomatic fleet. If you’ve got pilots and air-maintenance crews on your payroll, the risk of operating in “permissive and non-permissive” environments (i.e., dangerous places) could be worth your while. “The total dollar value of services could reach $10B over the life of the resulting contracts,” the pre-solicitation reads. That’s as much as State pays for its entire crew of mercenaries that protect diplomats worldwide.
ON THE FORCE
The New York Times, on Susan Rice’s chances at becoming Secretary of State, while Keith Baron examines Panetta’s legacy as Secretary of Defense: "Panetta, who replaced Robert Gates, the longest-serving defense secretary in Pentagon history, has never been considered a long-termer by folks in the building. He already was called out of retirement to head the CIA, and was halfway back to his home in Monterrey, Calif., before Obama and Gates begged the walnut farmer to stay in Washington a few more years. So there’s always been a question of his commitment — not to the troops or the job, but to leaving a significant legacy as a manager of the Defense Department.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Carter, on the future force and President Obama’s priorities: “Now to the force that we want. First thing, President Obama, one of the things he was very insistent on the whole way is, he said just – "You’re in a budget stringency, make sure that you protect, and go out of your way to protect the newest things, because they have the shallowest roots. And they’re the easiest thing to pull out bureaucratically, and I don’t want you to do that." So he made sure that we didn’t eat our seed corn in a budget reduction. And so that meant continuing to invest, and in fact we are growing the special operations forces, actually growing them.”
Michael Mullen, a former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs, says the U.S. defense budget can be trimmed and more focus should be placed on Washington’s non-military national security tools. The retired Navy admiral joined other members of the defense community by reiterating his opposition to the $500 billion, 10-year cut to planned Pentagon spending that will kick in Jan. 2 unless Congress and the president reach a $1.2 trillion deficit-paring plan or agree to delay the automatic cuts. Mullen appeared, however, to break with many of his former uniformed colleagues when he said two things: That the Pentagon can take more budget cuts and “resources need to be shifted to the non-military” devices in Washington’s national security and foreign policy toolbox.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
"Working in an environment where trust is essential and evasive, outside the law, is not merely the realm of criminals. It should be no surprise that clandestine operations and criminal organizations frequently work together. To acknowledge this is not to endorse the conspiracy theories which attribute all mob actions to some government or another’s master plan than to recognize how the international arena can make common cause between the two types of organizations." Daniel Trombly, on the lack of so-called mustache guys in the National Clandestine Service and across the broader Intelligence Community.
The structure of the Central Intelligence Agency has remained essentially unchanged since the agency was created in 1947 to fight the cold war against the Soviet Union and its satellites. A 21st-century CIA must be renovated to reflect present-day realities.
The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size. The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.
CONTRACT WATCH
South Carolina-based ASG will assist Naval Special Warfare Group 2 in preparing a realistic Non-coventional Assisted Recovery Exercise.
The Defense Intelligence Agency has issued a Solicitation for the Chief Information Officer Support Services IDIQ Contract.
"Coverent is seeking a high-impact Data Ninja to lead our Data Science team. The lead ninja facilitates conversations with our clients to develop performance metrics, make methodology recommendations, conduct advanced analyses, and leverage fact-based insights to help our clients make data-driven decisions."
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.
