ON THE FIGHT
A former al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group based in West Africa has become the latest member on the State Department’s rapidly growing list of officially recognized terror organizations, according to recently released department documents. The group known as the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), and its top two commanders, Hamad el Khairy and Ahmed el Tilemsi, are now banned from receiving any material support from the U.S. citizens, and any assets located in U.S. territories have been frozen as a result.
Foreign Affairs contributors: Despite the hype, cyberwarfare is a seldom-used, relatively toothless tactic that will not change foreign policy calculations anytime soon.
The controversy of the American targeted-killing program, and especially the resurgence of covert paramilitary and military action, has inspired a great deal of concern about the accountability and oversight of America’s supposed new ways of war. Does the lack of risk they offer encourage the Congress, media, and public to stay silent? One of the most prominent scholars of military robotics, P.W. Singer, recently put out an article that reiterated an argument he makes about the decline in the accountability of American wars, as exemplified in the drone program. This narrative exemplifies a civil mythology under final assault from the robotic barbarians at the gates. Unfortunately, history itself tells a far messier story.
ON THE FORCE
The Obama administration plans on keeping 6,000 to 9,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, fewer than previously reported, and will confine most of them to fortified garrisons near the capital, leaving Afghan troops largely without American advisors in the field to fight a still-powerful insurgency, U.S. officials said. Although it is not final, contours of the plan have become increasingly clear in the weeks since President Obama’s reelection. Officials close to the discussions say the final U.S. presence will be substantially smaller than the 15,000 troops senior commanders have sought to keep after most of the 68,000 remaining American troops leave in the next two years. The massive bases that the Pentagon built in Kandahar and Helmand, two southern provinces where the Taliban is strongest, probably will be turned over to Afghan control, the officials said. So will a string of U.S. combat posts near the eastern city of Jalalabad, a key staging ground for military operations along the Pakistani border. The U.S. forces that stay behind are likely to operate mainly from Bagram air base, the sprawling installation 25 miles north of Kabul, and a few other bases near the capital. They and a smaller contingent of foreign coalition troops will mostly do small-scale training of Afghan army and police units, said the officials, who described internal discussions on condition of anonymity. Bagram will become the hub for U.S. special operations teams charged with tracking and killing members of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, the chief American military mission after the drawdown.
State Department Counselor Harold Koh will leave government and return to teaching at Yale law school, after four years in a key role in setting the Obama administration’s legal policies dealing with international terrorism, the State Department has confirmed. "Harold Koh was thrilled to serve Secretary Clinton and President Obama as State Department legal advisor over the last four years. But his life is teaching, and he is ready to start the next chapter," a senior State Department official told The Cable. There is no word yet on Koh’s replacement. His resignation comes only days after the Pentagon’s top lawyer, Jeh Johnson, also announced his plans to leave the administration.
The Army is weighing the utility of an innovative to assist in special reconaissance missions: motorcycles.
Leaders from both branches of government and both political parties agree that the amount of money that the United States can and should spend on defense must be part of the discussion on how to reduce the federal deficit. But in their deliberations, they must keep in mind that they cannot buy perfect security. Even if the Obama administration and Congress were to give the Pentagon the entire federal budget or the whole gross domestic product, there would still be risks and unforeseen developments. But, in deciding how much of the nation’s scarce resources to allocate to national security, political and military leaders can minimize those risks by considering five interrelated factors.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will not award fallen Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta the Medal of Honor, deciding new evidence wasn’t enough to warrant an upgrade from the nation’s second highest valor decoration, Marine Corps Times has learned. Panetta made his decision after reviewing new evidence in the case, said Joe Kasper, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, who has pushed for the upgrade. The congressman was informed of Panetta’s decision by Jeh Johnson, general counsel of the Defense Department, Kasper said. Peralta, 25, is credited with shielding fellow Marines from a grenade blast in his dying moments during house-to-house fighting in Fallujah, Iraq, on Nov. 15, 2004.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
The U.S. Air Force launched a Boeing X-37B space plane on Dec. 11 from the Kennedy space center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The unmanned vehicle was carried into orbit onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at around 13:00 Eastern Time. This particular X-37B, one of two examples built, is on its second flight according to manufacturer Boeing. "The second mission for OTV-1 [Orbital Test Vehicle-1] demonstrates the vehicle is capable of multiple missions and affordable access to space," says Paul Rusnock, vice president of Boeing government space systems. The USAF has flown the X-37B twice before for extended periods of time, but the service has not revealed the nature of the spacecraft’s missions. One of the previous missions lasted for some 469 days.
A 28-year-old student is exposing the covert U.S. drone programme one tweet at a time.
A twenty-something details the ease with which he circumvented a costly, tedious and supposedly secret bag screening en route to board the Washington-area metro subway.
CONTRACT WATCH
The State Department needs to repair one of its Beechcraft aerial surveillance platforms.
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.
