Georgetown Security Law Brief

Israel successfully tests missile defense system

02/10/12: The Denver Post reports that Israel says it has successfully tested an upgraded radar for the Arrow missile defense system, developed with the United States and designed to intercept projectiles that might be fired at the Jewish state from Iran. Defense official Yair Ramati says the test was conducted on Friday in conjunction with the US Missile Defense Agency. He said a Blue Sparrow 2 missile was fired west to east from "deep within the Mediterranean" but he would not say how far from Israel it was fired or what sort of threat it was designed to simulate. A defense ministry statement says the Blue Sparrow was "representative of potential ballistic missile threats facing Israel."

Afghan president postpones handover of US prison

02/09/12: The Miami Herald reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed that an airstrike carried out by the international coalition killed eight children in eastern Afghanistan. The Afghan leader said in a statement that he has assigned a delegation of high-ranking officials and lawmakers to launch a comprehensive probe into the affair. Also Thursday, Karzai's office said it has extended by one month the deadline for the transfer of the main American military prison in the country. It said the United States had until March 9 to transfer authority of the prison to the Afghan government.

US and Israel split on speed of Iran threat

02/09/12: The New York Times reports that amid mounting tensions over whether Israel will carry out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, the US and Israel remain at odds over a fundamental question: whether Iran's crucial nuclear facilities are about to become impregnable. Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, coined the phrase “zone of immunity” to define the circumstances under which Israel would judge it could no longer hold off from an attack. But judging when that moment will arrive has set off an intense debate with the Obama administration, whose officials counter that there are other ways to make Iran vulnerable.

Pentagon to ease restrictions on women in combat

02/09/12: The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pentagon plans to ease restrictions on women serving in combat, which will open 14,000 new and potentially more dangerous jobs to female troops, mostly in the Army and Marine Corps. The change, scheduled to be announced Thursday, would continue to bar women from serving directly in frontline infantry, armor and special operations forces, according to two senior defense officials. But the proposed regulations would allow women to serve in non-infantry battalion jobs, such as radio operators, intelligence analysts, medics, radar operators and tank mechanics, where they could join combat forces.

Lawmakers question UK's military capabilities

02/08/12: The Miami Herald reports that Britain would struggle to mount another operation on the scale of its intervention in Libya because of massive defense cuts, a report from UK lawmakers said Wednesday. The Defense Committee report said the intervention in Libya, which led to the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, was successful and justified but has raised "important questions" about the extent of the UK military's capabilities. "The real test is whether the success of this mission was a one-off or whether the lessons it has highlighted mean that future such missions can be successfully undertaken, whilst maintaining the UK's capability to protect its interests elsewhere," said committee Chairman James Arbuthnot.

Special Ops commander pledges to fulfill commitments

02/08/12: The Washington Times reports that American Green Berets, SEALS and other commandos will continue to meet their commitments around the world, as the Pentagon imposes budget cuts, the commander of US Special Operations said Tuesday. One of the top priorities will be helping regular combat forces withdraw from Afghanistan, where the US will draw down its conventional troop numbers down to 68,000 by October, Admiral Bill McRaven told a Washington audience. The Pentagon will rely more heavily on its special operation forces there to stabilize the region before the total US withdrawal by 2014, he said.

Top US military official heads to Egypt with relations on line

02/08/12: The Charlotte Observer reports that with $1.3 billion in annual US military aid and a three-decade relationship hanging in the balance, US officials said Tuesday that Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would travel to Egypt to press for the criminal charges against at least 16 American nonprofit workers to be dropped. The visit later this week by the top US military official likely represents the strongest leverage the United States has in its effort to get Egypt's ruling generals to end a crackdown on American and Egyptian nonprofit groups. 

Cuban migrants at Guantanamo base face restrictions

02/08/12: The Sacramento Bee reports that nearly three dozen Cuban asylum seekers were confined to the Leeward side of the US Navy base at Guantanamo Tuesday, no longer able to send packages to family across the minefield in a security crackdown at the US migrant center at the base in southeast Cuba. Officials wouldn't say precisely how the Cubans lost privileges of wider access on the base. But "several of the migrants repeatedly broke Naval Station rules in place to ensure base security," said Deborah Sisbarro at the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The infractions occurred "in the last several weeks," she said.

US and Japan mull sending 4,700 Marines to Guam

02/07/12: The Miami Herald reports that the US and Japan, hoping to break a stalemate over the US military presence on Okinawa, are discussing a plan to transfer nearly 5,000 troops to Guam despite their failure to replace a major Marine base on the southern Japan island. The transfer, a key to US troop restructuring in the Pacific, has been in limbo for years because it was linked to the closure and replacement of the strategically important base, which has been fiercely opposed by local residents. "We are not at a point where we can discuss the details, but we are looking into ways to reduce the burden on Okinawa as soon as possible," Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Parliament on Tuesday.

US sending Commander to repair ties with Pakistan

02/07/12: The New York Times reports that a senior American military commander is expected to travel to Pakistan this month in what Obama administration officials say is the first step toward thawing a strategic relationship that has been in effect frozen for more than two months. General James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command, will meet General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, to discuss the investigations of an exchange of fire at the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode.

The Pentagon’s new view of warfare

02/07/12: The Washington Post reports that when Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta introduced the Obama administration’s new strategic guidance he made his first point that the military will be smaller and leaner, but it will be agile, flexible, rapidly deployable and technologically advanced. The Obama administration has moved into the era of satellites and drones for intelligence and stand-off air attacks (Libya). If ground forces are needed, local, allied or United Nations troops can be used, some with the help of US Special Forces teams for training or direction (Central African Republic). To go it alone, drones (Pakistan, Yemen), and again those Special Forces (Pakistan for Osama bin Laden, January’s Somalia rescue). 

Pentagon opens Tweet offensive in cyberspace

02/07/12: The Washington Times reports that the Pentagon on Monday launched a new campaign. The Defense Department (@DeptofDefense) held its first Twitter town hall, and the nearly hour-long session addressed questions from “don’t ask, don’t tell” to the Middle East to cyber security. “. . . important to discuss national security matters with American public, service members . . .” Pentagon press secretary George Little, or @PentagonPresSec, tweeted. On Syria, Mr. Little first tweeted: “@13monsters asks about Libya v. Syria. Each difficult situation, but approaches to dealing with crises must be case-by-case.”

Obama administration’s Afghanistan endgame gets off to bumpy start

02/06/12: The Washington Post reports that with war fatigue growing and an election looming, the Obama administration has bumpily embarked on its endgame in Afghanistan. In recent weeks, closed-door strategizing over Taliban peace talks, the pace of NATO’s combat handover and withdrawal, and the future of US relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan have suddenly become part of the public and political debate. But revelations about plans already in motion have emerged sooner than the administration has been prepared to explain them, complicating efforts to turn them into a coherent whole and build support.

US said to target rescuers at drone strike sites

02/06/12: The New York Times reports that British and Pakistani journalists said Sunday that the CIA's drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan have repeatedly targeted rescuers who responded to the scene of a strike, as well as mourners at subsequent funerals. The report, by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile. The bureau counted more than 20 other civilians killed in strikes on funerals. The findings were published on the bureau’s Web site and in The Sunday Times of London.

Charges dropped against soldier in Afghan deaths

02/04/12: The Miami Herald reports that the Army on Friday dropped all charges against the fifth soldier it had accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport during a 2010 deployment. Specialist Michael Wagnon, 31, of Las Vegas, had been charged with the unlawful killing of one Afghan civilian in February 2010. He was expected to go on trial in March. In a statement, Joint Base Lewis-McChord said the charges were dismissed "in the interest of justice." According to Wagnon's attorney, preparations for the impending trial "just kept developing the evidence of Michael's innocence until it just became overwhelming."

NATO says missile shield plans proceed despite Russian concerns

02/04/12: The San Francisco Chronicle reports that NATO leaders have downplayed Moscow's fears that a new Europe-based missile defense system represents a threat to Russia, and vowed to move ahead with it. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Saturday that the alliance expects to have first elements of the defense system up and running by its summit in Chicago in May, and that it would continue to work on getting Russia on board with the plan. "We will continue to develop a NATO missile defense system because we feel a strong responsibility to protect our populations effectively against the missile threat," he said.

US reassures Europe on defense cuts

02/04/12: The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration sought to reassure anxious European allies Saturday that budget cuts won't undercut the US's commitment to their security. "We made this decision only after ensuring that our force posture adjustments will not weaken our ability to meet our commitment to the security of Europe," US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a security conference in Munich, Germany. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a rare joint appearance in Europe with Mr. Panetta, brushed aside "some of the doubts" expressed in European capitals about Washington's continued commitment to the continent, saying the US still sees Europe as its "partner of first resort."

Bradley Manning to face all charges in court-martial

02/04/12: WIRED reports that WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is headed for a general court-martial, according to the commander of the US Army Military District of Washington in an announcement released late Friday. Major General Michael Linnington, the general convening authority for the district, made the determination that Manning will face all 22 charges leveled against him. The most serious charge — aiding the enemy — carries a possible death penalty. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty. Instead, Manning faces life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

Military Judge denies request to delay 9/11 case at Guantanamo

02/04/12: NPR reports that a request for a delay in the September 11 case at Guantanamo has been denied. Two lawyers close to the proceedings tell NPR that a military judge denied their request to delay the arraignment of the September 11 suspects at Guantanamo until the summer. The lawyers were asking for more time to file memos on why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators should not be tried in a capital case and be eligible for the death penalty. The 9/11 suspects are expected to be arraigned before a military commission as early as April.

Surveillance drone crashes in Somali capital

02/03/12: ABC News reports that witnesses say a surveillance drone has crashed into a refugee camp in the Somali capital. Drones have been used by the US to attack or observe al-Qaida-linked militants in the Horn of Africa nation. Refugees and soldiers in Mogadishu's Badbado camp say they watched the drone crash Friday into a hut made of sticks, corrugated cans and plastic bags. Sacdiyo Sheikh Madar, a refugee at the camp, says African Union peacekeepers came to remove it. Police officer Ali Hussein says the drone was shaped like a small plane. A similar drone crashed into a house in Mogadishu last year.

Top security and defense officials meet in Munich

02/03/12: The Boston Globe reports that the world's top security and defense officials are gathering in Munich, with uncertainty over the future of the Middle East and the implications of the financial crisis in Europe looming large. The Munich Security Conference begins Friday with officials from more than 70 countries expected to include US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. It comes as Western diplomats try to overcome Russian objections to a UN Security Council resolution aimed at halting the violence in Syria.

Taliban captives dispute US view on Afghanistan war

02/02/12:  The New York Times reports that more Taliban insurgents are being killed or captured than ever before, yet when the captives are interrogated by the American military, they remain convinced that they are winning the war. The Taliban captives tell their interrogators that their hearts-and-minds campaign is converting a growing number of Afghan government officials and soldiers. This is one of the findings of a NATO report, “State of the Taliban 2012,” based on 27,000 interrogations of 4,000 Taliban and other captives that portrays a Taliban insurgency that is far from vanquished or demoralized even as the United States and its allies enter what they hope will be the final phase of the war.

Commentary: Gitmo’s prying eyes

02/01/12: The American Conservative features an opinion piece by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos alleging that Department of Defense actions have deprived Guantanamo detainees of the attorney client privilege.  Vlahos notes that the Office of Chief Defense Counsel for Military Commissions, whose clients are incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, is engaged in a standoff. They’ve refused to sign the user agreement required by the Department of Defense that consents to “the routine monitoring, interception and search” of “all communications using or data stored on” the Pentagon’s global computer network, which all DoD personnel—including the attorneys—use every day. HT to Neal R. Sonnett.

Alleged bomber's lawyer wants to question Yemeni President

02/01/12: The Miami Herald reports that Guantánamo defense lawyers for an alleged al Qaida bomber asked an Army judge on Tuesday to order Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to undergo war court questioning at a New York hospital. Navy Lieutenant Commander Stephen Reyes wouldn’t say what he wants to ask the former Yemeni strongman on behalf of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who faces a death penalty trial at Guantánamo next year. He did said he believed the chief military commissions judge could issue a subpoena that “would compel the Yemeni president to be deposed” — despite a US State Department declaration that the 69-year-old Yemeni would receive diplomatic immunity as head of state.

Human Rights Watch urges India to prosecute border soldiers for torture

02/01/12: Jurist reports that Human Rights Watch is urging the Indian government to prosecute Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers that it has long implicated in torture and extrajudicial killings near the Bangladesh border. HRW's plea comes in response to the release of a YouTube video capturing BSF soldiers stripping, tying up and beating a Bangladeshi national caught smuggling cattle from Bangladesh into India. Although Indian law requires the BSF to hand over such lawbreakers to the police, HRW contends that the soldiers "illegally detained and tortured" the man, then left him to return to Bangladesh.

US report says Pakistan still backs Taliban

02/01/12: The Financial Times reports that a leaked US military report that says Pakistan still supports the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has overshadowed a high-level visit by Pakistani officials seeking to repair ties with Kabul. The secret document, based on interrogations of thousands of captured fighters, says Pakistan’s intelligence agencies continue to help direct Taliban attacks, according to the BBC and The Times, which obtained copies.

UK Court upholds extradition in Iran missle case

01/31/12: ABC News reports that Britain's High Court says a retired businessman who allegedly plotted to sell missile components to Iran cannot appeal against his extradition to the United States. Two judges said Tuesday that Christopher Tappin could not take his fight against extradition to Britain's Supreme Court. US authorities allege Tappin offered in 2006 to sell Iranians specialized batteries for Hawk missiles for $25,000, not knowing that his contacts were undercover US agents.

Opinion: With its deadly drones, the US is fighting a coward's war

01/30/12: The Guardian features an opinion piece by George Monboit. He argues that if, as the US air force says, a drone’s missiles are less likely to kill civilians than those launched from a piloted plane, it must also be true that such easier and less risky deployments are more frequent.  Monboit notes that this danger is acknowledged in a remarkably candid assessment published by the UK's Ministry of Defence, which maintains that the undeclared air war in Pakistan and Yemen "is totally a function of the existence of an unmanned capability – it is unlikely a similar scale of force would be used if this capability were not available."

NATO allies grapple with shrinking defense budgets

01/30/12: The Washington Post reports that NATO allies are confronting a sustained weakening of the military alliance as ailing economies are forcing nearly all members, including the United States, to accelerate cuts to their defense budgets at the same time.The Pentagon’s recent decision to eliminate two of the Army's four brigades in Europe is the latest blow to NATO’s military capabilities. It extends a year of grim announcements from members of the alliance that they can no longer afford their security commitments and that a long period of austerity is in the offing.

Papua New Guinea's mutiny leader arrested

01/29/12: Reuters reports that an army officer who led a military revolt aimed at reinstating Papua New Guinea's ousted prime minister appeared in court on Sunday on mutiny charges, police said. Retired Colonel Yaura Sasa, who led last week's attempt to restore Sir Michael Somare to power, appeared in a court charged under the criminal code with incitement to mutiny following his arrest overnight. Police spotted Sasa by chance at a lodge away from the Taurama barracks, where his supporters have been holed up with weapons since last week's failed mutiny, police media spokesman Superintendant Dominic Kakas said.

France, Karzai want faster NATO Afghanistan exit

01/28/12: The Boston Globe reports that France and Afghanistan agree NATO should speed up by a year its timetable for handing all combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, raising new questions about the unity of the Western military alliance. Sarkozy also announced a faster-track exit for France, the fourth-largest contributor of troops in Afghanistan -- marking a distinct break from previous plans to adhere to the US goal of withdrawing combat forces by the end of 2014.

US transfers security control to Afghans in Jalalabad

01/28/12: The New York Times reports on the latest transfer of power from NATO forces to Afghan authority in the city of Jalalabad and four districts in eastern Afghanistan. As in other areas that have transferred authority, American forces will remain in the region to provide support but, from now on, the Afghan Army is to be in charge. So far, about 20 such ceremonies have taken place across the country, part of the unfolding plan for all NATO combat troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Defense budget plan would cut spending by half a trillion

01/27/12: The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pentagon has released a budget blueprint that cuts projected military spending by nearly half a trillion dollars, yet still calls for increasing the base defense budget in all but one of the next five years. The proposal meets both goals because spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is dropping sharply, allowing the base budget — the annual cost of paying troops and buying planes, ships and tanks — to increase modestly, even while complying with last year's bipartisan deal in Congress to reduce the deficit.

DOJ defends keeping Bin Laden death photos secret

01/27/12: The Blog of Legal Times reports that the US Justice Department has asked a federal judge to keep secret photos showing the death of Osama bin Laden, saying the images are classified because of their potential to incite violence against the United States. The department filed court papers this week in a FOIA suit in Washington asking US District Judge James Boasberg to keep the photos out of the public domain. The DOJ asserts the photos reveal specific military and intelligence activities, methods and techniques.

Accused Pentagon shooter Melaku pleads guilty

01/27/12: The San Francisco Chronicle reports that an ex-Marine from Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday and has agreed to serve a 25-year prison sentence on charges that he fired a series of overnight pot shots in 2010 at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and other military targets as part of what prosecutors called a campaign to strike fear throughout the region. Prosecutors revealed that Yonathan Melaku’s intended next target was Arlington National Cemetery, where he was arrested before he was able to carry out a plan to deface gravestones there.

Iraq will take legal action over US raid

01/26/12: The Ithaca Journal reports that Iraq will take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a US raid in Haditha seven years ago, a government spokesman said Thursday, after the lone US Marine convicted in the killings reached a deal to escape jail time. Residents in Haditha, a former Sunni insurgent stronghold of about 85,000 people along the Euphrates River valley some 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, have expressed outrage at the American military justice system for allowing Staff Sergeant Frank Wultrich to avoid prison.

The Philippines negotiates broader military ties with the US

01/26/12: The New York Times reports that Philippine foreign affairs and defense officials are visiting Washington to negotiate an expansion of the American military presence in the country, a senior defense official in Manila said Thursday. “They are thrashing out the details,” the official, Peter Galvez, acting chief of staff to the secretary of national defense, said by telephone. The discussions will be followed by higher-level discussions in March, Mr. Galvez said.

New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who's accountable?

01/26/12: The Los Angeles Times reports that the Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers. What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all. Although humans would program an autonomous drone's flight plan and could override its decisions, the prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many.

US military raid in Somalia frees American, Dane

01/25/12: CBS reports that US Navy SEALs parachuted into Somalia under cover of darkness early Wednesday and crept up to an outdoor camp where an American woman and Danish man were being held hostage. Soon, nine kidnappers were dead and both hostages were freed. President Barack Obama himself authorized the mission two days earlier, and minutes after he gave his State of the Union address to Congress he was on the phone with the American's father to tell him his daughter was safe.

Scholarship: Proportionality in modern asymmetrical armed conflicts

01/24/12: Amichai Cohen of the Ono Academic College of Law has posted Proportionality in Modern Asymmetrical Armed Conflicts. The paper attempts to show that a proper interpretation of the existing principles of IHL might sometimes provide satisfactory answers to the problems posed by non-state actors. Its main argument involves the principle of proportionality, contending that commander’s determinations in this regard should be reviewed both in advance and after the fact.

4th Circuit denies damages suit for alleged torture suffered by ‘enemy combatant’ Jose Padilla

01/24/12: The ABA Journal reports that in a move decried by the American Civil Liberties Union as a sad day for the rule of law, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court's ruling that an American citizen who claimed he was illegally detained and tortured at a US military jail in South Carolina cannot turn to the legal system for redress. Because he was designated an "enemy combatant" by the military, Jose Padilla's treatment falls outside the scope of government conduct that tort litigation is intended to address, held the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals as it affirmed a trial court's dismissal of the case.

Commentary: Did international law motivate the “capture-if-feasible” element of the Awlaki legal opinion?

01/23/12: Opinio Juris features a piece by John C. Dehn concerning Newsweek’s report that the Obama administration is finally going to reveal a bit more about its legal authority to target and kill US citizens (in armed conflict or national self-defense) without a prior judicial adjudication. After a prolonged internal debate, reportedly pitting the State and Defense Departments’ head lawyers against others on the President’s national security team, the Attorney General may soon provide details in a public statement. The time and place of that statement is still unclear or undetermined.

Pakistan rejects US self-defense claim on strikes

01/23/12: The Washington Times reports that Pakistan's army on Monday formally rejected a US claim that American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops last year were justified as self-defense, a stance that could complicate efforts to repair the troubled but vital relationship between the two countries. In a detailed report, the army said that Pakistani troops did not trigger the November 26 incident at two posts along the Afghan border by firing at American and Afghan forces, as the US has alleged. Pakistan's army said its troops shot at suspected militants who were nowhere near coalition troops.

Opinion: Do drones undermine democracy?

01/22/12: The New York Times features an opinion piece by Peter W. Singer concerning the impact of the use of drones. In democracies like ours, he contends, citizens have historically participated in decisions to take military action, through their elected representatives, helping to ensure broad support for wars and a willingness to share the costs, both human and economic, of enduring them. In America, our Constitution explicitly divided the president’s role as commander in chief in war from Congress’s role in declaring war. Yet Singer argues these links and this division of labor are now under siege as a result of a technology that our founding fathers never could have imagined.

Commentary: Are new technologies to blame for combat zone misconduct?

01/21/12: Stars and Stripes features an article by Chris Carrol questioning whether, at a time when the US military is moving toward equipping individual soldiers with government-issued smartphones and similar devices, these increasingly powerful technologies could themselves be helping to create behavior problems, not to mention public-relations nightmares for the Pentagon.

Pentagon, CIA sued over alleged meetings with filmmaker

01/19/12: Reuters reports that Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group, filed a Freedom of Information Act complain against the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, claiming the agencies are refusing to release details of their alleged meetings and communications with director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal. It has been alleged that Bigelow and Boal -- in preparation for the script to their Annapurna Pictures movie about the killing of Osama Bin Laden -- received classified information regarding his death.

Scooter Libby case invoked at Guantánamo terror trial

01/19/12: The Miami Herald reports that prosecutors working out procedures for handling secret evidence in the trial of an alleged Al Qaida chieftain invoked a surprising precedent Wednesday — the 2007 felony trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s aide. At issue here was how, if at all, defense lawyers could challenge substitutions for secret evidence that’s to be shielded from them in the death penalty trial of alleged USS Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al Nashiri. Pentagon prosecutors are seeking his military execution as the alleged mastermind of the October 2000 Cole attack that killed 17 US sailors. HT to Neal R. Sonnett.

A changed way of war in Afghanistan’s skies

01/16/12: The New York Times reports that the use of air power has changed markedly during the long Afghan conflict, reflecting the political costs and sensitivities of civilian casualties caused by errant or indiscriminate strikes and the increasing use of aerial drones, which can watch over potential targets for extended periods with no risk to pilots or more expensive aircraft. Fighter jets with pilots, however, remain an essential component of the war, in part because little else in the allied arsenal is considered as versatile or imposing, and because of improvements in the aircraft’s sensors.

US Marine video not likely to derail Afghan talks

01/15/12: The Denver Post reports that initially there were concerns that outrage over the video showing Marines desecrating the bodies of three men would spiral into a scandal like the one in 2004 over photos showing a group of US military police abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. But Afghan officials said the quick responses by all sides had helped contain the damage. "As all three sides — the US, the Afghan government and the Taliban — have all condemned this act, I'm hopeful that this will not have any effect on the peace process," a member of the peace council and the Taliban's former envoy to the UN said Saturday. The Taliban agreed.

Army withdrawing two brigades from Europe

01/14/12: The Hill reports that in a move reflecting the Pentagon’s new cost-cutting strategy, the US Army is planning to withdraw two of its four brigades from Europe. The Army is replacing the two brigades with rotational units, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in an interview with the Defense Department’s American Forces Press Service. The move is part of both a reduction in ground forces for the Army as well as a strategic shift toward the Asia-Pacific region.