On Tuesday, 6 July in Baghdad, the Department of Defense preferred two criminal charges against Army Private First Class Bradley E. Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst from the 10th Mountain Division. Arrested in May, Manning had been held without charges in Kuwait. The charges, consisting of 12 specifications, are under Articles 92 and 134 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Manning is accused of the unauthorized transfer and possession of classified information in the form of videos, Department of State cables, and a PowerPoint presentation to his personal computer, and then the further transfer of classified photographs, video, and Department of State cables to unauthorized personnel.
Frank Blazich Articles
Asked for his thoughts on CNBC on whether the Afghan surge will succeed, Erik Prince — former CEO of Blackwater — offers this commentary (H/T FeralJundi):
I won’t comment to whether it will work or not. I’ll just comment on how difficult it is to do it logistically. When you have to fly in a lot of your jet fuel that you’re using everyday — you can’t truck even it in, because the roads are so bad through Pakistan or coming out of Uzbekistan — it’s just hard. I mean, the troops for that surge are not even on the ground yet, won’t even be in there till August. So, whereas in Iraq, you could fly them in, boat them in, truck them in, it’s just that much harder. It’s a remote country with a lot more gravel roads than paved.
Staff Articles
US Marines on patrol (DOD: Sgt. Mark Fayloga)
A contact in the US Army poses this question to Bellum: Suppose the Rolling Stone article never gets printed and those interviews are never given. Instead, General McChrystal falls gravely ill, is seriously wounded, or — God forbid — killed in action. Do we still put Petraeus in to replace him? Or does someone else, perhaps his No. 2 — General Rodriguez — take over? Perhaps Petraeus comes in temporarily until a replacement can be mentored up to speed?
Staff Articles
Changing of the guard. (AP)
Many are asking why President Obama would tap General David Petraeus to replace Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan. After all, there were other candidates: Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, second-in-command in Afghanistan; Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John R. Allen, the deputy commander of CENTCOM; Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, head of JFCOM; maybe even Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute at the NSC. Whether there were other qualified commanders is not the point, however. What Obama achieves by picking Petraeus is to reassure Hamid Karzai and the Pakistanis — who are repositioning for a US pull-out in 2011 — that the US is committed to the war. Obama needed a name, and a name who would take this as an end-of-career move where he stays there for multiple years.
Staff Articles
Victor Davis Hanson provides some historical perspective on generals who “mouth off,” at NRO:
The issue is not whether McChrystal is a great officer (he is), but one of judgment. One does not openly criticize civilian overseers to the press, however justified (and there are plenty of justifications). Nor does one allow a climate in which subordinate officers feel emboldened enough that they loosely trash an administration to the press.
Robert Haddick at SWJ predicts a resignation:
To allow McChrystal to apologize and stay on would set a bad precedent, send the wrong signal regarding civil-military relations to the rest of the military, and would cause great uproar among Obama’s civilian staff.
Tristan Abbey Articles
Bellum’s suggested readings for the weekend:
- The Ethnic violence that occurred over the last week in the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan, has left the future of Eurasia security in question. Read in, Kyrgyzstan: A Test for Mutual Security, why some propose that the U.S. and Russia work together and play a more active role in stabilizing the conflict.
Sayra Castro Articles
Not quite Stalag Luft III.
What is with the war on terror and prison breaks? From the AP today:
Under a hail of gunfire and grenades, heavily armed militants believed to be al-Qaida stormed the intelligence services’ jail in a southern Yemen port city on Saturday, killing at least 10 people, security officials said.
From UPI back in April:
The Yemeni Interior Ministry denied reports that dozens of detainees escaped from prison following an explosion in southern Yemen. Al-Jazeera and several other media outlets reported Thursday that up to 40 prisoners escaped following a bombing at a prison in the southern Yemeni city of Daleh.
Staff Articles
The Indian embassy was attacked in 2009. (AP)
The New York Times reported today that the Pakistani-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has expanded its operations in Afghanistan. For analysts who follow this region closely, this is not a surprise. In fact, LeT has been sending fighters and resources to the fight in Afghanistan since at least 2006. Yet, none of this could take place without the active assistance of a preexisting network of facilitators, logisticians and local knowledge of notoriously difficult Afghan tribes and terrain. The Haqqani network, operating in Afghanistan’s southeast, is the main conduit for LeT’s Afghan endeavor.
Jeffrey Dressler Articles
The blogosphere is atwitter with James Risen’s reporting at the NYTimes on the supposed $1 trillion in mineral wealth discovered in Afghanistan. Joseph Lawler over at AmSpecBlog provides a bearish view on things, arguing that this isn’t good news.
In a fascinating conference call this afternoon, Jack Medlin and Kathleen Johnson of the US Geological Survey, along with Paul Brinkley, the director of the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations at DOD, presented additional info and commentary on the findings. From Brinkley:
Tristan Abbey Articles