ON THE FIGHT
The Washington Post, on the increasingly worrying situation in Mali and al-Qaida’s unprecedented gains there:
"Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic extremist fighters have been burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become al-Qaida’s new country. They have used the bulldozers, earth movers and Caterpillar machines left behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts and ramparts. In just one case, inside a cave large enough to drive trucks into, they have stored up to 100 drums of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel supply in the face of a foreign intervention, according to experts. Now that intervention is here. On Friday, France deployed 550 troops and launched air strikes against the Islamists in northern Mali, starting battle in what is currently the biggest territory in the world held by al-Qaida and its allies. But the fighting has been harder than expected, and the extremists boast it will be worse than the decade-old struggle in Afghanistan. “Al-Qaida never owned Afghanistan,” said former United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by al-Qaida’s local chapter, whose fighters now control the main cities in the north. “They do own northern Mali.”
ON THE FORCE
The United States has pledged extensive non-lethal aid in France’s bid to oust Islamic militants in Mali, including drones, surveillance planes and refueling tankers.
"Panetta declined to provide further details about what kind of military assistance the Pentagon might bring to the conflict, but said one option under consideration would be to deploy transport aircraft that move French troops or equipment."
Recent news reports seem to suggest that Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta agree on mostly everything, from Iran to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to preventing looming budget cuts.
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Steve Coll writes in the New York Review of Books that Zero Dark Thirty, the movie chronicling the bin Ladin manhunt, should be viewed with great skepticism and is "disturbing".
Human Rights Watch has released a statement about the portrayal of torture in Zero Dark Thirty.
ON TECH
A devastating new cyberespionage program, buried in the folds of malware, has been discovered on computer systems across the world.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
In a statement released yesterday Senator Wyden, a Democrat sitting on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, claimed he has not even received an answer from the Obama administration or the intelligence community on how many countries the US is conducting covert actions within.
Is the FBI investigating Scientology?
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.
