ON THE FIGHT
Max Boot, on what the intelligence community should look like, and what it should — and should not — do.
Under siege by drones in Pakistan and Yemen, al Qaeda 3.0 has exploited the Arab Awakening to create its largest safe havens and operational bases in more than a decade across the Arab world. This may prove to be the most deadly al Qaeda yet.
This command, which is formally called Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal and run by the Navy on an Air Force base, is neither strictly naval nor for the Air Force, as its name and location might suggest. It is a four-service academy that has become remarkably busy. In 2004, as the use of improvised bombs against American troops spiked, this school trained 600 students. This year, its officers say, the school will train 1,800. Its approach is atypical. Enlisted service members and officers train side by side in the same classes, learning the same skills. This is in part because ordnance knows no rank. Each student in the 143-day basic course studies — and must pass — identical technical exams.
ON THE FORCE
Does Posse Comitatus Act apply in cyberspace? Or if it does apply, how so? While cyberspace is bound by physical infrastructure located on territory with national borders, cyberspace as a domain is very different from any of the four other territorial domains — land, sea, air, and space. Foreign Policy tackles the tough questions.
Just weeks after the deadly assault on the U.S. consulate and CIA station in Benghazi, Libya, the head of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) was for the first time given operational control over a dedicated special operations company that could be tasked with handling similar incidents in the future. Until now, AFRICOM had been alone among the six U.S. geographic combatant commands without its own CIF. Before this, AFRICOM relied on the CIF assigned to the commander of the European Command. One of the reasons given for the lack of military response during the attack on the American consulate and CIA station in Benghazi on Sept. 11 was that the special operations quick reaction unit staged in Europe was unable to get there in time.
Rear Admiral (lower half) Samuel Perez Jr., who has been selected for the rank of rear admiral, will be assigned as deputy assistant secretary, plans, programs and operations, Department of State, Washington, D.C. Perez is currently serving as director, Navy Irregular Warfare Office, N3/N5, OPNAV, Washington, D.C.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats. Meanwhile, in Syria, overt funding and arming of Syria’s rebels (reportedly by the U.S., Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and various European countries including Great Britain and France), are currently occurring.
The White House Photo Office has declined CBS News requests to release images taken of U.S. officials during the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks. CBS News first requested the images on Oct. 31. In the past, the White House has released photos showing US.. officials during national security incidents. A half dozen images related to the mission that captured and killed Osama bin Laden were given to the public last year. One depicts President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team gathered in the Situation Room on May 1, 2011. A White House official referred the request regarding the Benghazi attacks to the White House Photo Office.
BLUE SKIES
If he doesn’t spend the rest of his life in prison, Bradley Manning wants go to college and perhaps run for public office, his lawyer, David E. Coombs, told supporters of the former Army intelligence analyst.
CONTRACT WATCH
The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization has taken upon themselves to teach combat-proven Marines how to spot IEDs.
The Department of State is looking to buy a ton of close-circuit cameras, metal detectors and x-ray systems.
Air Force Special Operations Command is on the hunt for a contractor to “furnish all labor, materials, tools, supervision, and equipment”, ultimately resulting a shiny new runway at Hulburt Field, Florida.
You might think that Blackwater, now called Academi, was banished into some bureaucratic exile after its operatives in Afghanistan stole guns from U.S. weapons depots and killed Afghan civilians. Wrong. Academi’s private 10-acre compound outside Kabul, called Camp Integrity, is the new headquarters for perhaps the most important special operations unit in Afghanistan. That would be the Special Operations Joint Task Force–Afghanistan, created on July 1 to unite and oversee the three major spec-ops “tribes” throughout Afghanistan, which command some 7,000 elite troops in all. It’s run by Army Maj. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, a former deputy commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, and is already tasked with reforming how those elite forces train Afghan villagers to fight the Taliban. And its role is only going to grow in Afghanistan, as regular U.S. forces withdraw by 2014 and the commandos take over the residual task of fighting al-Qaida and its allies. Perhaps that’s why Academi’s no-bid contract runs through May 2015.
One of the latest reports analyzing the potential ramifications of a deficit reduction deal predicts tens of billions of dollars in increased spending for military cybersecurity and cyber weaponry. Under one scenario, cyber funding would grow at the expense of personnel accounts. Savings of $55 billion from Defense Department payrolls would go toward space, cyber and communications activities. Under another scenario, officials would shift funds away from legacy aircraft programs, while devoting more than $121 billion to the cyber category.
