2012 has been a busy year at Security Clearance. From the U.S. diplomatic facility attack in Benghazi, Libya to the Petraeus sex scandal to the future of Afghanistan and the Pentagon preparing(or not) to fall off the fiscal cliff.
But there have been numerous other stories that have caught your eye this year.
Top 10 Security Clearance stories you, the readers, made the most popular in 2012: Read more .... My Comment: What are my top ten stories .... in no particular order:
1) Sequestration .... it's impact on the U.S. defense budget 2) Civil war in Syria 3) Afghanistan 4) The Petraeus scandal 5) Benghazi consulate attack 6) Euro crisis 7) China's border disputes with it's neighbors 8) The growth of China's military 9) The growth of Al Qaeda and militant Islamic groups in Africa, and the proliferation of wars and internal conflicts in Africa. 10) The expanding U.S. involvement in global/regional conflicts and counter-terrorism operations.
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Michael Tarasiewicz and an Afghan policeman speak with a village official in Khoni Kwar village in Afghanistan's Khowst province, Dec. 14, 2012. Tarasiewicz is assigned to Company A, 3rd Special Troops Battalion. U.S. soldiers and Afghan police were trying to gain any information on an improvised explosive device located in the area. They also distributed blankets to village residents during the mission. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kimberly Trumbull
Hard Feelings On Both Sides As U.S. Winds Down Afghanistan Role -- David Zucchino, Fay Observer/L.A. Times
SUROBI, Afghanistan - Col. Babagul Aamal is a proud veteran of 28 years in the Afghan National Army. Short and fit, with a thick black beard, he's a leader who blurts out exactly what he's thinking.
"I don't talk politics - I talk facts," Aamal said, wearing a sweater beneath his uniform in his unheated command office on a dusty base 40 miles east of Kabul.
It shames him, Aamal said, that he is not allowed to wear his pistol when he enters the fortified gate of the new American military base next door. Though he's a brigade commander, he's required to stand before an airport-type scanner with his arms raised, almost in surrender.
Yet when Americans visit Aamal's base, they are not searched. They are offered chai tea. And they bring half a dozen soldiers armed with M-16s, so-called Guardian Angels on the lookout for "insider attacks" by Afghan soldiers.
"Afghan generals get searched by low-ranking foreign soldiers," Aamal said. "Our soldiers see this, and they feel insulted."
UN Envoy, Moscow Call For Revival Of Syria Plan That Envisions Transitional Government -- Washington Post/AP
BEIRUT — Russia and the U.N called Thursday for the resuscitation of a peace initiative for Syria that never got off the ground when it was proposed months ago because both parties to the conflict rejected it.
The plan, unveiled by world powers at an international conference in Geneva in June, called for an open-ended cease-fire, a transitional government to run the country until elections, and the drafting of a new constitution. The plan was a non-starter for the opposition because it did not explicitly ban authoritarian President Bashar Assad and other members of his regime from taking part in the transitional leadership. Read more ....
F-22s and a B-2 fly over Guam in 2009. Photo: Air Force
Pentagon Preps Stealth Strike Force To Counter China -- Danger Room
The U.S. military has begun a staged, five-year process that will see each of its three main stealth warplane types deployed to bases near China. When the deployments are complete in 2017, Air Force F-22s and B-2s and Marine Corps F-35s could all be within striking range of America’s biggest economic rival at the same time. With Beijing now testing its own radar-evading jet fighters — two different models, to be exact — the clock is counting down to a stealth warplane showdown over the Western Pacific.
The gradual creation of the U.S. stealth strike force is an extension of the Pentagon’s much-touted “strategic pivot” to the Pacific region, and echoes the much faster formation, earlier this year, of a similar (but only partially stealthy) aerial armada in the Persian Gulf. That team of F-22s, non-stealthy F-15s and specialized “Bacon” radio-translator planes was clearly meant to deter a belligerent Iran, although the Pentagon denied it. Read more ....
A suspected uranium-enrichment facility near Qom, 156 km southwest of Tehran, in this September 27, 2009 satellite photograph released by DigitalGlobe. Photo: REUTERS/DigitalGlobe
Iran Blames US And Israel For Spree Of Cyber Attacks -- Sydney Morning Herald
Iran has reported a spree of new cyber attacks, saying foreign enemy hackers have tried in recent months to disrupt computer systems at a power plant and other industries in a strategically important southern coastal province, as well as a Culture Ministry information centre.
Accounts of the attacks in the official media did not specify who was responsible, when they were carried out or how they were thwarted.
But they strongly suggested that the attacks had originated in the United States and Israel, which have been engaged in a shadowy struggle of computer sabotage with Iran in a broader dispute over whether Iran's nuclear energy program is for peaceful or military use.
Read more .... My Comment: They are probably right.
International peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi speaks to the media after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus Dec 24, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]
UN Envoy Calls For Syrian Transitional Government -- Voice of America
As diplomacy to end the Syria crisis escalates, peace envoy Lakhar Brahimi on Thursday called for the installation of a transitional government in Syria that would run the country until elections could be held.
Brahimi's comments come as a Syrian envoy was in Moscow where Russia said Thursday that it was intensifying its efforts to end bloodshed in Syria.
Brahimi, who plans to be in Russia on Saturday for talks on Syria, told reporters in Damascus that a transition period must not lead to a collapse of the state or state institutions.
I live in Montreal, Canada .... and we are being hit with a massive snow storm right now (40cm. of snow). Power just came back on, which means that I can now blog .... unfortunately .... I must first clean the snow drifts from my car and around my house. Regular blogging will return (with updates) in the next hour or two. Yes .... I will post some pictures .... a windy and massive snow storm is always an impressive site to see and experience (until you start shoveling the snow).
