THREATWATCH
Senators McCain and Whitehouse visited Mali amid a renewed push to train and equip the Malian military in its battle against Islamic militants. Sen. McCain, specifically, has pushed for greater military aid packages and other incentives to match French efforts in Mali and throughout the region.
French forces partnered with Malian forces are not pleased with their performance or readiness and are calling for increased efforts to train them, ostensibly with assistance from the United States.
France has begun a push to draw back this fall from towns it seized from Islamic militants in Mali.
ON THE FORCE
The Congressional Budget Office is urging the Pentagon to force the Army’s hand; under the proposal, the Army would drop development and acquisition of the Ground Combat Vehicle in favor of the German-manufactured Puma.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Greenert offered a wide-ranging look at the future of electronic warfare and the Navy’s role in it.
The nation’s special operations forces are in it for the long haul and to preempt another Afghanistan, and may be granted even more expansive powers.
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Yesterday, Secretary Hagel spoke to China’s Minister of Defense amid mounting concerns in Washington about espionage and other nefarious activities from China.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
Popular Mechanics takes you deep inside the National Security Agency’s red teams, who – like other red teams – test defenses and attempt to identify exploits before actual adversaries and wicked actors do.
The US military is continuing to train South Korean troops, amid recent unrest in North Korea.
In The Week magazine, Marc Ambinder spots a contract position for computer network operations in Afghanistan with a rather expansive bailiwick.
That alternate location for the new FBI headquarters, in Virginia? Yeah — someone’s already using it.
It’s about to become a whole lot easier to pry information via FOIA from the clutches of government bureaucrats.
