BattlelandBattleland
Mark Thompson’s post earlier today is a good walk-up to the debate on getting out of Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead. New reports also show more Republicans seeking an exit, and independent voters want to declare victory and leave.
An article in Politico today explores how the urge to leave has spread in the GOP from …
BattlelandNational Security
Demonstrators in Syria today are carrying out their biggest protests of this week, which typically take place on Fridays and usually end with troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad ruthlessly gunning down protestors using live ammunition and tank rounds.
The Wall Street Journal nails the western response to Assad’s cruelty in …
BattlelandTerrorism
The Associated Press has details on how Osama bin Laden managed to email his terrorist colleagues and avoid detection by the United States. The AP piece has a relatively breathless buildup, suggesting bin Laden had an ingenious secret plan:
WASHINGTON – Despite having no Internet access in his hideout, Osama bin Laden was a prolific
…
BattlelandNational Security
Yesterday I noted that Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi had disappeared for 11 days following a NATO air strike that killed his son. Some on the streets of Tripoli had begun to wonder if the two bombs that struck that house — Gaddafi was there also — might have killed the Libyan leader as well.
Gaddafi, understandably, appears to be a …
BattlelandNational Security
Thanks to Ron Capps for highlighting the provocative story by Kelly Kennedy in USA Today about how contaminated dust in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait may have triggered high rates of respiratory, neurological, and heart ailments among U.S. troops. The dust is laden with toxic metals and bacteria.
I’m a genuine fan of the hugely …
BattlelandNational Security
Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since a NATO air strike 11 days ago that reportedly killed his son, Saif al-Arab. Gaddafi was apparently in the home when at least two NATO bombs hit. He also did not attend his son’s funeral.
Gaddafi may very well be keeping a low profile in order to stay alive. A …
BattlelandNATO
Late last month the White House hit Syria’s intelligence agency and two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad with sanctions because of Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. President Obama did not target Assad himself with those sanctions, nor did Obama call for Assad to step down. A White House aide told Reuters that Obama …
BattlelandIraq
A few years back I was having dinner with a former Special Forces soldier who had just recently returned from Iraq. This time he was working as a contractor there. It was sometime during 2008, because I recall remarking about how successful the surge of U.S. troops had been in Iraq. I had been extremely skeptical before the surge, I told …
BattlelandPakistan
In June 2009, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the former leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, was asked what might happen to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if that country’s government destabilized into chaos. This might set off a mad scramble for parts of Pakistan’s significant nuclear arsenal, possibly even causing the United States to execute …
BattlelandCIA
It seems the United States is seeking — and may get — the opportunity to interview the three wives who were holed up with Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
These are the same three wives in the compound the night of the raid. Why didn’t U.S. forces just take the wives then? One of the couriers was apparently unarmed when shot also. He …
BattlelandNational Security
A startling new study about U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan shows the lowest morale of the past five years among soldiers fighting there. USA Today reports that less than half of the troops there describe morale as high — a 20 percent drop from 2005. Troops there also report more intense fighting in Afghanistan now than during the …
BattlelandNational Security
It turns out that only one person, Osama bin Laden’s trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, exchanged fire with the Navy SEAL team raiding bin Laden’s compound early Monday morning. Al-Kuwaiti was killed early on in the engagement and those were the last shots fired from bin Laden’s side of the firefight.
The new facts are yet another …
BattlelandCIA
Advocates of so-called “enhanced” interrogation techniques this week seized on the killing of Osama bin Laden to dust off the debate about the efficacy and legality of torture. The proponents claimed the successful raid was a vindication of those brutal intelligence-gathering methods during the Bush administration.
Obama …
