This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

• Prominent Palestinian writer Salameh Kaileh spent three weeks in detention in various Syrian prisons over suspicion that he was handing out leaflets calling for Assad’s downfall. Kaileh described the prisons as a “human slaughterhouses” and “hell on earth.”
• UN Sec’y General Ban Ki-Moon told Christiane Amanpour that there is “no Plan B” for Syria at this moment.
• The violence in Syria spilled further over the border into Lebanon, igniting clashes throughout the week.
• Rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a deal that will lead to elections and a unity government in the West Bank and Gaza.
• A huge suicide bombing in Sana’a, Yemen, on Monday, killed more than 100 and was claimed by militants connected with Al Qaeda.
• The Lockerbie bomber died in Libya on Sunday.
• Pakistani Dr. Shakil Afridi, who assisted the CIA in ascertaining bin Laden’s whereabouts, has been sentenced in Pakistan to 33 years for treason.
• It’s been another very bloody week in Karachi.
• On Tuesday, the Senate appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid voted to cut aid to Pakistan by 58% and threatened further cuts if Pakistan doesn’t reopen supply lines. 
• At the Chicago summit, NATO leaders decided on a permanent timetable in which Afghan forces will take over combat command in mid-2013 and NATO combat forces will leave by 2014. 
• US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, will be leaving his post this summer.
• Five kidnapped aid workers are apparently being held for ransom in Shahr-e Bozorg, Afghanistan. Negotiations are ongoing. 
• The State Dept. spent $1800 per student per day in 2010 for its Anti-Terrorism Training program in North Africa, the Middle East and South and Central Asia. The total money spent on programs like this since 9/11 is $1.4b. The State Dept’s Inspector General released a report on these programs for public consumption this week.
• Talks over the Iranian nuclear program resumed in Baghdad this week, hitting a snag on negotiations over sanctions.
• The military junta in Guinea-Bissau has handed over power to a civilian government.
• Dioncounda Traoré, the interim president of Mali, was beset by protesters on Monday, who stormed the presidential palace and beat him unconscious.
• A yearlong probe identified 1800 cases of fake parts in US military equipment. A suspected million such fake parts are out there, and 70% of these parts can be traced back to China.
• CNAS released a policy report outlining suggestions for reforming the structure and operation of the military.
• A 2011 Army memo obtained by Danger Room shows that the Army has had extensive concerns about the long-term health risks associated with the combat burn pit operated at Bagram Airfield. Service-members have been coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with puzzling health problems, most likely associated with exposure to these burn pits. A recent animal study also came to light showing that burn pits not only adversely affects lungs in the short term, but has serious long-term impacts on the immune system.
• Two female Army reservists have filed suit in district court to remove the restriction on combat service in the military based “solely on sex,” saying the restriction violates their 5th amendment right to due process.
• A new GAO report says that wounded service-members are now waiting an average of a year for their official disability evaluation. This is a big increase, and the wait time has been on the up for the last three years.
• Congressional investigators want an explanation within 10 days from the Defense Logistics Agency as to why the military was double-billed and excessively charged to the tune of $750m for food supplies.
• One of the owners of a firm involved in propaganda operations for the Pentagon has publicly admitted to creating a series of websites in a misinformation campaign attacking two USA Today journalists who had reported on the contracting company.
• The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the ACLU’s challenge to the 2008 FISA Amendments, the warrantless wiretapping legislation which grants the NSA the power to tap the international phone calls and emails made by US citizens. Just this Tuesday, a Senate panel voted to extend these provisions, which the White House hopes to extend beyond its year-end expiration date.

Picture of the Day: Karachi, Pakistan. After a rally organized by the smaller Awami Tehrik Party, but backed by several other parties, eleven people were killed and more than thirty injured in gunfire. Above, a young man, visibly wounded by a gunshot, flees the shooting.  Those responsible for opening fire are not yet known. More from Dawn and AFP.

Credit: Faysal Mujeeb/Whitestar. Via.

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This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

• The NATO summit is this weekend… and leaders are struggling to come together and present a united front on commitments.
• Col. Michael D. Wirt, a brigade surgeon with the 101st Airborne, has meticulously cataloged a database of the wounds and injuries he’s treated in Afghanistan, with extensive accompanying details. His careful documentation highlights the otherwise scattered nature of our knowledge about the impacts of the last decade of combat.
• NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker.
• As part of economic reconstruction efforts, Afghanistan plans to start pumping oil within five months. This will be the first time the country has done this.
• Pakistan is making rumblings about allowing NATO to begin using the supply route to Afghanistan, which is getting it invited to the upcoming NATO summit. Pakistani negotiators suggested a $5000 per-truck transit fee, an amount which is a “sticking point” in talks.
• The parents of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a US soldier held by the Taliban since 2009, are now speaking out about their son, and the negotiations process to get him back.
• Nearly half a million Pakistanis have been forced to flee from border regions because of fighting spillover from Afghanistan and nearly a quarter million have registered for aid.
• The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill was on NPR’s Fresh Air, interviewed by Terry Gross about Yemen, AQAP and US drone policy.
• Yemen’s Press and Publication Court is trying two Sana’a-based journalists with Al Jazeera for covering the revolution in a suit filed by Saleh’s regime in June of 2011.
• North Korea has resumed construction of a nuclear reactor.
• The Free Syrian Army is receiving new, better weapons as of late — paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated with assistance by the US.
• The Atlantic’s In Focus photo blog gathered together a stunning and stomach-turning (no, seriously, very very graphic and the graphic photos are shown in full) post of recent photography from the Mexican drug war. 
• Researchers find striking neurological similarities between returning combat soldiers and career pro athletes when it comes to a degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is believed to be caused by blast exposure. Traumatic brain injury, confirmed in nearly a quarter million troops, is considered a precursor to CTE.
• On Wednesday, the Army launched a probe of PTSD diagnoses and treatment at all of its medical facilities since 2001.
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has introduced the Gender Equality in Combat Act, which, if passed, would require the Pentagon to set a date by the end of the year for allowing women on the front lines. 
• The top five recipients of GI Bill education funds in the 2010-11 academic were highly problematic for-profit institutions, known to target veterans.
• The Hill is up in arms over the latest defense appropriations bill, the House GOP version of which abandons last year’s attempt at fiscal austerity and ups defense spending by $8m as well as increasing funding for nuclear weapons and slowing down the processes of force reductions. The President has threatened a veto.

Photo: Kabul, Afghanistan. A French soldier reads a book about Afghanistan while waiting at the airport for his flight out. Musadeq Sadeq/AP. 

Picture of the Day: Karachi, Pakistan. Tankers usually used to truck NATO fuel supplies through Pakistan and into Afghanistan stay parked and unused near oil terminals in Pakistan’s main port city and economic hub.

News: Pakistan today hinted at the possibility of reopening the shuttered NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said at a presser, “Pakistan has made a point, and now we can move on.” This hint was enough to officially earn Pakistan an invitation to the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago.

Credit: Asif Hassani/AFP/Getty. Via.

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This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

• News today: In Syria on Friday, the day after bombings killed 55, Assad’s government is calling for action on terrorism and the opposition is accusing the government of having ties with al-Qaeda forces.
• On Tuesday, the UN released numbers stating that more than 80 Libyan refugees have died so far this year in their attempts to reach Europe.
• Libya quietly passed a controversial amnesty law, offering a blanket pardon to any crimes committed by pro-revolution rebels.
• Egypt seized dozens of heavy weapons bound for the Sinai peninsula at the Libyan border on Thursday.
• Panetta has promised that no troops will be deployed to Yemen.
• The story of the double agent sent by Saudi Arabia to disrupt and foil an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber plot and his successful infiltration strategy.
• Turkey will not extradite fugitive Iraqi VP Tareq al-Hashemi.
• Joost Hiltermann had a longreads piece on sectarian conflict in Bahrain up on NY Books. In Manama, protesters blocked roads with burning tires, demanding the release of female activist prisoners, some of whom have been being held for a year.
• US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter is leaving his post after not even two years on the job.
• The Red Cross is suspending its work in Pakistan pending a review after a ICRC health program manager was abducted and later killed in Balochistan.
• Pakistan has successfully tested another short-range nuclear capable missile, the Hatf III Ghaznavi, and the second such in two weeks.
• A cabinet of Pakistani officials will meet next week to consider reopening the NATO supply routes.
• Monday, the Pentagon Inspector General released a report expressing concern over the Afghan National Army’s pharmaceutical distribution.
• An AP-GfK poll puts public support in the US for the Afghan war at a record low of 27 percent.
• The US is continuing to search for a Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by insurgents in Afghanistan in 2009.
• A rare bright news report out of A’stan: the UN is reporting that civilian deaths fell by 20 percent in the first four months of this year.
• Russia is claiming to have foiled a terrorist plot against the Sochi Winter Olympic games in 2014.
• In Honduras, days after the kidnapping and killing of journalist and gay rights activist Erick Martinez, another journalist named Alfredo Villatoro of HRN Radio was kidnapped on his way to work in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
• The GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee voted to include a provision in the new FY2013 defense budget that would ban same-sex marriage on military bases. HASC’s draft also failed to include mention of sequestration cuts.
• Fearing Iranian nuclear capability, the GOP are pushing an East Coast missile defense shield.
• The prospect of war with Iran is dividing the Israeli defense community, with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak leading a hawkish charge and numerous former intel chiefs publicly opposing them.
• Reporting by Noah Schachtman and Spencer Ackerman for Wired reveals that the US military held a course (now cancelled) at the Joint Forces Staff College taught officers that “total war” need to be waged on global Islam. The professor’s presentation includes quotes like: “This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction.”
• On Wednesday, the FBI Chief said the recently thwarted bomb plot was a good reason to renew surveillance policies set to expire soon, extending the FBI’s abilities to spy on people abroad without a warrant.
• Here’s your new to-be Chief of Staff of the Air Force: General Mark Welsh.
• The Pentagon ceased cooperation with Marvel Studios on The Avengers because it did not treat military bureaucracy realistically (!).
• Sgt. Major Teresa King, the first female commandant of the Army’s elite drill sergeant school, has been fighting for her job amidst a mix of accusations that she set unfair standards. The Army has now said these accusations aren’t substantiated. King is asserting that her gender was a cause for mistreatment at the hands of her superiors, whom she says actively campaigned against her.

Photo: Dover Air Base, Delaware. An Army carry team transports the body of Master Sgt. Gregory L. Childs of Warren, Arkansas, killed in Afghanistan. Steve Ruark/AP.

Picture of the Day: Lahore, Pakistan. May Day protesters gather in the capital of Punjab province.

Credit: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty. Via.

View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

• Pakistani journalist Murtaza Razvi, senior assistant editor and head of magazines at Dawn, was found dead in Karachi yesterday, his body bearing the marks of torture.
• In Afghanistan, Salahuddin Rabbani, the son of slain former leader Burhanuddin Rabbani, will head the High Peace Council. 
• The Taliban engaged in an 18 hour attack on Kabul that was ended early Monday by Afghan forces on the ground and coalition air assaults.
• The LA Times published damning photographs of soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division posing with the bodies of suicide bombers. WARNING: The pictures in the link are quite graphic.
• Interesting stat to consider: the US spends $14,000 annually per Afghan soldier, but each Afghan soldier is paid $1872. Here’s an interesting look into the finances.
• At least 36 were killed on Thursday in blasts across Iraq from Ramadi and Kirkuk to Baghdad. Hundreds were injured.
• Following South Sudan’s occupation of a disputed oil field, Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir declared that he would teach his southern neighbour a “final lesson by force.”
• The Mexican police seized 250,000 US-made bullets that were being smuggled across the border.
• Ban Ki-Moon declares that Syria has not complied with the cease-fire. No one is surprised.
• A recent US-DPRK deal hailed as major progress has fallen through. North Korea is now saying it will not honor the deal to suspend uranium enrichment and long-range missile tests in exchange for food aid. A nuclear test seems inevitable.
• India successfully tested a long-range ballistic missile with nuclear capability, signifying a regional arms build-up.
• New polling data shows that Americans today report being more afraid of Iran than Americans in 1985 were afraid of the USSR. Interesting polling data, although I think we’re dealing with a different kind of fear.
• As Libya undergoes its critical transition, it cannot forget the victims of the war’s sexual violence.
• Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a Libyan commander who was abducted and flown to a Gaddhafi prison with the help of MI6, has begun legal proceedings against Jack Straw, the man who was at the time the British Foreign Secretary, for complicity in his torture during the rendition operation.
• Yesterday was Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. McClatchy brings us a terrible story about the plight of many aging survivors living uncared for and below the poverty line in Israel.
• Some 1200 Palestinian prisoners began an open-ended hunger strike this week, protesting the terrible conditions and humiliation inside their jails.
• Panetta announced a “special victims unit” to deal with sexual assault in the military.
• The Marines will open up their officer infantry school to women!
• The TIME Top 100 list included its usual fair share of odd choices, but also some on point ones relevant to this list. Former defense secretary Robert Gates wrote about our inimitable Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Admiral Mike Mullen wrote about Barbara Van Dahlen, who, through her program Give An Hour, mobilizes mental health professionals in support of veterans. Also notably on the list are cartoonist Ali Ferzat, Samira Ibrahim, Manal al-Sharif and Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.

Photo: At rest after setting up a camp that overlooks the Pakistan border. April 8. Javier Manzano/Polaris

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

• Violence is threatening the ceasefire in Syria, and the UN Security Council moved to authorize the deployment of unarmed monitors to try and preserve it.
• A new report from Human Rights Watch, “In Cold Blood,” details extra-judicial executions by Assad’s forces in Syria.
• This week, violence spilled over from Syria into Lebanon and Turkey.
• Bahraini journalist Ahmed Al Bosta was beaten and arrested in Manama.
• A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed that allows night raids in Afghanistan to continue, but under the auspices of Afghan forces.
• Afghanistan’s defense minister has announced plans to make personnel cuts to the Afghan security forces after NATO’s 2014 drawdown, amounting to a planned force reduction of about 230,000.
• Afghan president Hamid Karzai has brought up the idea of an early presidential election before the transition.
• Pakistan sets new conditions for re-engagement with the US, including and end to drone attacks and an end to the use of Pakistan as a land route for arms transport to Afghanistan.
• Myanmar and its Karen rebels are in peace negotiations made more favorable by the recent political wins for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. 
• Awkward but predictable: North Korea’s much-hyped long-range rocket broke apart shortly after launch, probably not even reaching the first stage of separation. Here is the White House statement (as well as the NORAD/Northcom statement).
• The 20th anniversary of the war in Bosnia served as a reminder of wounds that have persisted over the past two decades.
• Rwanda also reflected on a painful anniversary, marking the 1994 genocide.
• Sudan breaks off talks with South Sudan.
• Two Marines were killed during a training exercise when their V-22 crashed in Morocco.
• London’s Metropolitan Police say that their Anti-Terrorism Hotline may have been hacked and conversations recorded. 
• About 110,000 active-duty service-members took prescription sedatives, anti-depressants, narcotics, anti-psychotics and anti-anxiety drugs last year. 8% of the active-duty Army is on sedatives; 6% are on anti-depressants. This marks an eightfold increase since 2005. The Battleland Blog calls this ”yet another mental IED planted by recycling troops back into combat.”
• The Army surveyed 40,000 of its members to check up on its own report card and gets an A for having pulled through the last decade. Three cheers for bending but not breaking.
• Active duty Army whistleblower LTC Daniel Davis was on Democracy Now!
• A new report from CNAS looks at veterans post-service and their transition into civilian life.
• Homelessness among female veterans is climbing, even as overall veteran homelessness declines.
• And, for some nerdy fun, a statistical analysis of The Hunger Games: “Hunger Games survival analysis: in a Cox proportional hazards model, which covariates are associated with the odds (or hazard ratios) being ever in your favor?”

Photo: An Afghan horseman rides beside Qargha Lake in Kabul at sunset. April 5. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty.