The neighborhood militias that are the lynchpin of the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq have a new name, but the problems these groups present are as old as the Iraq war. In recent weeks, the U.S. military has begun calling the groups by the patriotic moniker “Sons of Iraq,” which Baghdad proposed to replace the difficult-to-translate “Concerned Local Citizens.” But the re-branding has done nothing to resolve the poor vetting, sectarian divisions and murky motives that make the groups a potential security risk in coming years. Three years after Iraq’s Sunni minority mostly boycotted national elections, the Sunni-dominated Sons of [...]
The U.S. Coast Guard Feb. 18 captured a surface-skimming submarine called “Big Foot” off the coast of the Florida Keys. According to this Pentagon video report, the sub was carrying four tons of cocaine and had unidentified “new technology” that allowed it to elude drug enforcement radar and sonar. The Pentagon Channel news reader calls the sub “one-of-a-kind.” Judging by a number of recent news reports, however, the clean-cut former drug smuggler quoted in the video appears to be more on target when he says that subs are “in vogue” for the international drug smuggling crowd. Back in August 2006, [...]
The Pentagon’s decision to shoot down a failing U.S. spy satellite has prompted speculation about why the orbiter must intentionally be destroyed and has reignited debate regarding the military and diplomatic implications of using weapons in space. Last week, Pentagon officials said that a three-ship convoy just north of the Hawaiian Islands would track the satellite and shoot it down in the next two weeks using a modified SM-3 missile fired from an Aegis cruiser. The satellite, launched just over a year ago, experienced a technical failure almost immediately after reaching space and is currently circling in a low orbit, [...]
