War Glance
In order to be able to claim "no more troops on the ground" in Afghanistan by 2014, the Pentagon envisaging transferring its special operations forces to the CIA, thus "making them spies" and "reducing the number of troops". This was reported in an AP article quoting two unnamed Pentagon officials.
The troops, such as the SEALs and other units, would only change titles since they “still would target militants on joint raids with Afghans and keep training Afghan forces to do the job on their own”, according to AP. (Kimberly Dozier, Pentagon may put special ops in Afghanistan under CIA control to meet 2014 pullout deadline, March 3, 2012)
U.S. drone attacks killed at least 25 al Qaeda-linked fighters including one of their leaders while a Yemeni air force raid killed 20 more in the south, sources said on Saturday, in the biggest airstrikes since Yemen's new president took office.
Women are subordinate to men, should not mix in work or education and must always have a male guardian when they travel, according to new guidelines from Afghanistan's top clerics which critics say are dangerously reminiscent of the Taliban era.
The mega-leaks website, WikiLeaks, has partnered with the hackers cooperative Anonymous, to publish internal emails of the American strategic intelligence company Stratfor. In one of the hacked emails, Stratfor officials discuss information obtained from one of their sources who reports that Israeli commandos, in cooperation with Kurdish fighters, have destroyed Iranian nuclear installations.
Israel’s foreign minister on Wednesday said it's not the business of the United States whether his country decides to attack Iran.
But if the public had access to these classified reports they would see the dramatic gulf between what is often said in public by our senior leaders and what is actually true behind the scenes.
I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.
