ON MALI
Algeria’s official APS news service liveblog of the Algeria hostage crisis here.
McClatchy papers, dateline Nioni, Mali “French forces unseen as Mali town prepares for possible Islamist advance“:
“The new frontline in the war on terror runs alongside a 20-meter-wide canal where a dozen or so Malian government soldiers and a handful of French armored personnel carriers now stand guard against an Islamist force that clearly is not backing down. A signpost points the way north down a gravel road to Diabaly, some 40 miles away, where on Monday a rebel Islamist unit surprised a Malian garrison and overwhelmed it. Two days later, fleeing refugees reaching here by car, donkey cart and bicycle reported seeing no signs of a much discussed counteroffensive to reclaim Diabaly. The 40 miles between Diabaly and this administrative hub was a no-man’s land, they said. “I did not see a single Malian soldier,” said Cheikh Omar Dicko, who fled the whole way on a motorbike, with a friend on the back. “Not one.” France’s short celebratory honeymoon in halting Islamist gains in Mali was dashed at Diabaly, when an Islamist force routed roughly 200 Malian troops from a small garrison in the village. The Malians were ambushed from behind, and many fled through a grove of mango trees and knee-high water. It was a battle that taught the French some lessons about the anti-jihadist campaign they’ve begun…”
Wired Magazine, on the weapons of war in Mali being utilized by the French government in an attempt to roll back extremist elements.
ON THE FIGHT
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrived in Libya, to press for greater cooperation in the wake of Benghazi.
Reuters, on the unprecedented visit:
Mueller met with several senior Libyan officials, including Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, the justice minister and the intelligence chief, a Libyan government source said, adding that the meetings were secret. FBI agents went to Benghazi in October to analyze the crime scene but have since remained in Tripoli because of security concerns. In an effort to generate leads, the FBI has put out a poster asking for information. U.S. officials have not announced the capture of any suspects in the attack, although President Barack Obama said in December that investigators have some “very good leads.”
The Department of State has issued new travel advisories for American nationals traveling and living in Kenya, amid new threats to US personnel and their families.
ON THE FORCE
The Department of the Navy has redesigned its stealthy submarines to accommodate a new nuclear energy plant, designed to keep the in-demand platforms in service for at least another 50 years.
The Department of State has made statements suggesting it hopes to open a full-blown embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia after recognizing the struggling African nation for the first time in more than 20 years.
In the Marine Corps Gazette, Marine Corps Captain Friedman encapsulates the lessons of France’s OP SERVAL, the seminal push into Algeria and Mali to carry the fight to al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb.
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
The Navy has begun preparing for a world where budgets dwindle, personnel are furloughed and the sequester has, in fact, gone into effect.
ON TECH
A handful of US power plants have been targeted with specifically-designed malware, crafted to bring our infrastructure to its knees.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
A member of French special operations forces has been executed by a Somali extremist group, a revelation made by the group itself.
The FBI has asserted everything about its surveillance practices, even the basis for starting it, isn’t secret, just privileged.
Meanwhile, the FBI has admitted to being duped by the provisional Tunisian government.
The man cast as Usama bin Ladin in the blockbuster “Zero Dark Thirty” reveals himself in the pages of the New York Times.
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.
