Well the detention portion is up for constitutional discussion… Gitmo is a up in the air choice to that end SOS Kerry must be on his job of maintaining the confidence of our Nation.
My eight yr old making mothers day breakfast for her mommy #Priceless. She put pickles on it and ate one…wow…lol. (Taken with instagram)
This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.
- This week marked the one year anniversary of Bin Laden’s death in a US raid on his compound in Abbottabad. NBC’s Rock Center program aired an in-depth look at the President’s situation room the night the operation was carried out.
- 17 de-classified documents taken from the compound in the raid have been released by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center. You can read the CTC’s report on them, download them in the original form, or download translated versions of the documents.
- What impact has the Bin Laden raid had on aid groups in Pakistan? Declan Walsh examines the question.
- The Taliban have officially announced their spring offensive.
- IEDs are apparently a quarter less effective than last year. Check out Danger Room’s hard look at the stats on IEDs (which are really important stats to look at in evaluating any kind of progress).
- Obama signed a 10-year security deal with Afghanistan, which of course has some holes and flaws.
- The Pentagon released a report on progress in Afghanistan on Tuesday. As the Washington Post puts it: it “paints a mixed picture.”
- The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) also released one of its quarterly reports. The report notes two major problems. First, the insistence of the Afghan government that the hired guns be replaced with Afghan locals is proving to be a stumbling block. Second, serious corruption is one of the main forces hampering the reconstruction process.
- The Special Inspector General on Iraq Reconstruction has also released its quarterly report. I really encourage giving these watchdog reports serious reads. They contain so much valuable information.
- A New York Times longreads on the Afghan women who write poetry despite grave risk.
- In Egypt, deadly clashes between protesters, security forces, and armed plainclothes thugs in the Abbasiyya district of Cairo have disrupted the presidential election.
- In Syria, women pregnant from rape used as a weapon of war are committing suicide.
- Syrian activists have posted video of crackdown on student demonstrations at Aleppo University.
- A piece in the most recent issue of the Columbia Journalism Review tells how a filmmaker accidentally leaked the identity of a Syrian source, and highlights the importance of digital security in war correspondence.
- Thursday was World Press Freedom Day and the Committee to Protect Journalists released a handbook on journalist safety.
- The UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has announced the list of countries limiting human rights organizations, and this year Israel has been added to the list.
- Iraq’s fugitive Vice President, Tariq Al-Hashemi, a Sunni politician who fled Baghdad when the government issued an arrest warrant in December, has been charged, along with his bodyguards, with the murder of six judges. Al-Hashemi is currently in Istanbul and will not be present for the trial.
- On Wednesday, the British national police agency website was hacked. The British Defence Ministry is now acknowledging that it was also hacked.
- The Army is making changes to training and deployment, putting more soldiers under the direction of Special Operations commanders and assigning them to emerging risk regions.
- The audio is available for a CSIS panel on the roles of women in terrorism and counterterrorism.
- An increasing number of women are filling top executive positions in the defense industry.
- Nurses at VA hospitals are being scrutinized following investigation of patient deaths.
Photo: Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunfire lights up a building occupied by militants in an April 16th battle with Afghan forces. Musadeq Sadeq/AP.
