Government Executive - Authors - Dashiell Bennett

A Second Texas Healthcare Worker Has Ebola

Dashiell Bennett, The Atlantic — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:48:02 -0400

State health officials in Texas announced on Wednesday morning that a second healthcare worker who treated the U.S.'s first Ebola victim, has now been diagnosed with the disease. On Monday, a 26-year-old nurse from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas was identified as the first person to actually contract Ebola on American soil. Thomas Eric Duncan, the patient they were treating who contracted the disease in Liberia, died on October 8.

The second worker was immediately isolated and tests conducted after they reported coming down with a fever on Tuesday. Test results came back overnight confirming the diagnosis, and interviews immediately began to identify anyone the person may have come in contact with, so they could also be monitored for symptoms. More than 100 people are currently being watched after having come in contact with Duncan before he entered the hospital.

Decontamination crews (along with police, fire departments, elected officials, and the media) have descended on the apartment complex where the second patient lives.

As news of the new infection broke, more information has been revealed about the care that Duncan received when first trying to gain treatment, and not all of it is good. National Nurses United, a California-based union, has made a number of claims about poor preparation and infection control on behalf of the nursing staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Among the charges are claims that Duncan was left in an open room with other patients "for hours," employees were given substandard protective gear, and hazardous waste piled up to the ceiling.

The Dallas nurses are not members of the union, but asked union officials to give a statement on their behalf, so that they could reveal the information anonymously.

As is typical with the spread of Ebola, healthcare workers are particularly vulnerable to infection from the disease that kills nearly 70 percent of its victims. Jon Williams of ABC News reports that 10 percent of the Ebola deaths in Africa have been healthcare workers, and the organization Doctors With Borders has seen nine of its staffers die, out of 16 who have become infected.

]]>

New Book Claims CIA Guards Were Told to Stand Down During Benghazi Attack

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:37:14 -0400

In a new book about the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, a group of American commandos who were tasked with guarding the compound claim they were ordered to stand down during the attack, preventing them from rescuing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and others who were trapped inside. The book, titled13 Hours, is scheduled to be released next week, but a copy was obtained by David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times.

According to book, five members of a private security team say an unidentified CIA station chief ordered them not to intervene (against their protests) as the consulate was under attack by militants. The commandos say they eventually disobeyed the order, but not soon enough to save Stephens and another American who were both killed.

The group of commandos eventually did engage with fighters at the compound later that evening. Two members of the security team — former Navy SEALS who hired as private contractors — were also killed in the fighting.

It's believed that the station chief gave the order stand down on his own accord, and not on the authority of commanders elsewhere. According to the Times's description of the story, the CIA chief was hoping to rally support from local Libyan militias, believing they might step into rescue those inside consulate, without the CIA needing to expose its position in the city. That support never came.

In a statement to the Times about the book, a U.S. intelligence official said, "there was no second-guessing those decisions being made on the ground” and “there were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”

The book will likely reignite the long-running debate over the American response to attack, and the level of protection given to the consulate. There have many previous claims about what happened at the compound that night, and how U.S. commanders chose to respond to the unfolding attack, although many of the accounts remain unconfirmed, or have been debunked. In June of this year, U.S. forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the man say was instrumental in planning the attack.

]]>

British Intelligence Reportedly IDs James Foley's Executioner

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 08:32:04 -0400

Intelligence officials from Britain's MI5 and MI6 agencies say they know the identity of "Jihad John," the man responsible for the beheading of American journalist James Foley, according to reports from news outlets in the U.K. Fox News also says American officials have corroborated those reports.

According to The Times of London and other sources, "John" is believed to be Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a 23-year-old man from London, who went to Syria to join Islamist forces last year. His father, Adel Abdel Bary, is an Egyptian-born man who is accused of taking part in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. He was extradited from the U.K. to the U.S. in 2012 and is currently awaiting trial.

Bary was an aspiring hip-hop artist who performed under the name L Jinny when he still lived in London. His music has even been played on BBC Radio and there are several YouTube videos of his performances online. It's believed those videos could have been used to match Bary's voice to the voice of the man in the video of Foley's beheading.

Bary has been followed by intelligence services since arriving in Syria last year. Earlier this summer, he tweeted a photo of himself holding a severed head, though it's not believed he executed the man in that photo, and that does not connect him to directly Foley. However, he was believed to be part of a group of British-born fighters who had joined up with ISIL in Syria, along with at least two other men who recently traveled there from the U.K.

Although the man in the video is almost completely covered in black clothing, including his face, and it was filmed in a desolate desert setting with no landmarks, we've written previously about how investigators might be able to piece together clues from his appearance — height, weight, skin tone, and (most importantly) accent — to help identify him. In addition to the apparent identity of the killer, Elliot Higgins (who blogs under the name "Brown Moses") believes he may have even pinpointed the location of the video itself, based on the sparse environmental clues available and comparing them to satellite images of Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, the British Ambassador to the U.S., Peter Westmacott, said in an interview with CNN that "we are close" to identifying a suspect, but would not go further than that. The Daily Mail is also reporting that Britain's elite Special Forces units have sent a significant number of soldiers to the region in recent days, to join the hunt for the group of British ISIL fighters.

]]>

Autopsy Report Says Michael Brown Shot Twice in the Head

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 10:22:22 -0400

An autopsy report conducted at the request of Michael Brown's family shows that he was shot six times — four in the right arm and twice in the head — with all shots coming from the front of his body. The autopsy was the second of three that will be conducted on Brown's body. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a federal medical examiner to do an independent examination. State officials performed the first autopsy. This second autopsy, performed on Sunday, was conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, a former chief medical examine for New York City, at the request of Brown's family.

The details of Baden's report were given to the New York Times, and provide some new information about the incident, but Baden was limited in his conclusions by lack of certain evidence. He did not have access to Brown's clothes (which might have contained gunpowder residue), nor did he have access to witness statements, police photographs, x-rays, or all of the bullet fragments. Only three were recovered from the body.

The fact that all six shots came from the front would seem to refute at least one witness claim that Brown was shot in the back while running away. However, at least one of the shots was fired into the top of Brown's head, indicating he could have been on his knees or giving up, as others have reported. Baden also allows for the possibility that he was charging forward at the officer when he was shot, but all the bullets appeared to have been fired from some distance away. According to Baden, the two shots that hit Brown in the head were likely the final two fired. They would have killed him almost instantly.

The autopsy concludes that even if medical personnel had arrived immediately, Brown would not have survived.

(Image via Flickr user Ryan Johnson)

]]>

Police Just Missed a Chance to Stop the LAX Shooter at His Home

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 11:11:44 -0500

Police in Los Angeles were tipped off that there might be a problem with the man who shot and killed a Transportation Security Administration agent at Los Angeles International Airport last week, but arrived at his house too late to intercept him. According to reports given by U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, the shooter's father called police after the family received a disturbing text message last Friday. The call was relayed from police in New Jersey, where the father lives, to Los Angeles, where local police were sent to Paul Ciancia's home to check on him. Unfortunately, they arrived about 45 minutes after Ciancia had already left to carry out his deadly assault.

Ciancia reportedly got a ride to the airport from his roommate, who was unaware of the killer's plans.Ciancia shot five people, including TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez, who died of his wounds. The killer remains in the hospital in critical condition, after being shot several times by police. A note carried by Ciancia indicates that he deliberately targeted TSA agents, because he distrusted the government and wanted to "instill fear into their traitorous minds."

Homeland Security officials say they are reviewing TSA procedures and screening rules to see if any changes might made to prevent a similar incident from happening again. TSA officers are the only federal law enforcement officials who are not armed and do not receive firearms training, although armed police officers and security guards are usually present at most airports.

]]>

This Sad Kid at the Zoo Is Now the Defining Image of the Shutdown

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:48:00 -0400

We've all heard the tragic stories of the unintended consequences of the shutdown — cancer patients denied treatments; military families who can't bury loved ones ; mothers who can't feed their babies — but none will probably spread as far and wide as this kid in a bear costume being locked out of the National Zoo.

The photo was posted on Reddit last night by user "superbonnie" (before spreading like wildfire over Twitter), although there weren't any other details or backstory provided on the thread. Perhaps that's for the best. In conflict, that's pretty much become only about metaphor and symbolism , the image — staged or not — is all that matters. It's time to think of the children.

Reports: Al-Qaeda Has Gone Quiet Since Surveillance Leaks

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 11:45:00 -0400

U.S. intelligence officials are complaining that recent news leaks of America's spying capabilities have severely undermined efforts to keep tabs on al-Qaeda. The New York Times reports Monday that unnamed officials claim the normal communications channels used by al-Qaeda's top operatives have gone silent in the two months, following a major news scoop that seemed to embarrass the terrorist organization's leaders, but also exposed the manner in which Western spies were keeping tabs on them.

You may recall that back in August, the United States temporarily closed most of its embassies in the Middle East (and issued global travel warnings), due to an unspecified threat that appeared to be emanating from Yemen. A couple days later, it was reported that the warnings came about because al-Qaeda was believed to be in the final stages of planning a major attack (that was now apparently averted.) Shortly after that, McClatchy reported that the information on the attack came from "an intercepted communication between Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and al Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri in which Zawahiri gave “clear orders” to al-Wuhaysi, who was recently named al Qaida’s general manager, to carry out an attack."

A few days later, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin at The Daily Beast piled on, adding that the intercepted communication in question was actually a "conference call" between more than 20 top al-Qaeda leaders.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Obama Has 'Grave Concerns,' but No Action Yet on Egypt and Syria

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 09:29:59 -0400

The U.S. military is reportedly re-thinking its options for possible strikes on Syria, but President Obama is still not committing the country to direct action against Bashar al-Assad's regime. In a wide-ranging interview broadcast on CNN this morning -- which covered everything from Egypt to his new dog -- Obama continued to speak the language of caution and diplomacy, even as he stated that the "core national interests of the United States" are now on the line in the Middle East.

Obama said there is "grave concern" over the possibility that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people, but seemed to suggest that the U.S. will not be able to take action on its own -- as much some people might wish they would. He said the U.S. remains an "indispensable nation," but also implied that having a united coalition would be a necessary step along the road to intervention. He specifically mentioned the still ongoing war in Afghanistan, suggesting that American are not eager to get involved in another conflict.

While President Obama remained non-committal to CNN, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are reporting that American military leaders are "refining" their options, and drawing up new lists of possible targets for airstrikes. That doesn't mean the White House will use them, of course, but the administration clearly wants to be seen weighing that possibility, in the hopes that the threat of attack might bolster the parallel diplomatic efforts being pursued by the State Department. The Times also claims there is a growing divided within the administration, between those who want to punish Assad's regime and those who are counseling against our involvement in a complex and messy civil war.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

The CIA Laid Off the People Who Declassify Their Secrets

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:22:39 -0400

The Historical Collections Division is the office that catalogs the record of our nation's clandestine service and decides how much of it the American public gets to see -- and they all just lost their jobs because of the sequester. The Los Angeles Times reports that the mandated budget cuts have forced the CIA to disband the division and fold its duties into the same super efficient and speedy office that handles Freedom of Information Acts requests from the public.

The people who handle historical records like Cold War spy reports and Iranian coup plans are probably considered non-essential worker by an agency focused on present day threats, but the loss will put a big damper on the work of historians and other academics hoping to study the CIA's past. Unlike the Pentagon, which forced many of its employees into temporary furloughs after the government-wide sequester kicked in, the CIA mostly eliminated contractors, many of whom pore over the boxes and boxes of decades-old documents to determine what is safe to be declassified. Like the fact that CIA once overthrew the Prime Minister of Iran. We only had to wait 60 years to find out about that.

The closure doesn't mean that no more records will be ever be declassified, since a lot of the declassification is required by law to take place after a set number years. That those duties will now be handled by the FOIA office is not encouraging, however. One lawyer who often does battle with the CIA in courts told the Times that the unit "is the most obstructionist and unfriendly of those I have dealt with during the last two decades." When you're dealing with people whose job is to keep secrets, obviously giving out more information is not high on their priority list.

]]>

Bradley Manning Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 11:14:27 -0400

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private who gave thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks has been given a 35-year prison sentence for giving away government secrets. Manning was convicted last month on charges of theft and violations of the Espionage Act, but was found not guilty of the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy." He is being given credit for more than three years of time already served. He will also be dishonorably discharged from the Army, which means a loss of benefits and pension.

Manning, who is just 25 years old, would be required to serve one-third of his sentence before being eligible for parole. That would be roughly eight more years, at which point he could be released. He was facing a maximum of 90 years in jail.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

The Obamas Get a New Puppy

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 09:44:42 -0400

Bo Obama is still the top dog at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but he does have some company now, thanks to the addition of his new "sister, Sunny. The White House announced yesterday that the First Family just bought a second Portuguese Water Dog, a one-year-old female that's the spitting image of the existing First Dog. (She's the one on the right, without any white fur.) Sunny is the same breed as Bo, because Portuguese Water Dogs are supposed to be good for people with allergies, like Malia Obama.

See Twittersphere reaction to the new White House Dog at TheAtlanticWire.com.

]]>

U.S. Evacuates a Consulate in Pakistan

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 09:23:02 -0400

A new unspecified terror threat has forced State Department personnel to leave the U.S. Consulate office in Lahore, Pakistan. All non-emergency employees were moved to the main embassy in Islamabad on Friday, after "credible threat information" that was specific to Lahore surfaced. Officials say the threat is unrelated to previous vague threats that caused the closure of 19 embassies in the last week, and the evacuation of the embassy in Yemen.

The State Department also re-upped its general warning to Americans to avoid all "non-essential" travel to the country. The embassy would have been closed this weekend anyway, in observance of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

There are also concerns that a rising tide of violence in Pakistan may turn its focus toward the Americans. At least 37 people were killed on Thursday when the funeral of a slain police officer was attacked by a suicide bomber. The Pakistani Taliban took credit for the bombing, which killed another 21 officers in the city of Quetta. On Friday, 10 more people were killed there when a gunman opened fire on worshippers at a mosque.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Friends of the Tsarnaev Brothers Indicted by Grand Jury

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 13:44:57 -0400

Two friends of marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of obstruction of justice. The two men are not accused of participating in the bombings or its planning, but allegedly tried to hide evidence of Tsarnaev's guilt after they learned he was a suspect.

The two men, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, were arrested back in May along with a third friend, Robel Phillipos. (He was charged with separate crimes.) Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, who are from Kazakstan and came to the U.S. as students, attended college with the younger Tsarnaev, and recognized his photo when the FBI released it to the media. They reportedly went to Tsarnaev's apartment and removed some belongings, including a laptop and backpack filled with fireworks, in a misguided effort to help their friend.

Today's grand jury indictment merely confirms that case against them will go forward to trial, unless they decide to make a deal. The obstruction of justice charges carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, followed by a likely deportation. They could also get another five years for conspiring to obstruct justice.

]]>

U.S. and Britain Evacuate Their Embassies In Yemen

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 08:00:48 -0400

The U.S. airlifted all "non-emergency" personnel from Yemen on Tuesday, just hours after it was revealed that an American drone strike killed at least four suspected al-Qaeda militants in the same country. The British government also followed suit, withdrawing all of its diplomatic personnel from their embassy in Saana overnight. The State Department also instructed any U.S. citizens in Yemen to leave the country "immediately."

The decision comes days after the United States issued a globe travel warning and closed 19 embassies in the Middle East and Africa due to an unspecified security threat. On Monday, sources revealed that intelligence agencies had intercepted communications from al-Qaeda's top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, his counterpart in Yemen, in which Zawahri apparently ordered a terrorist attack to be carried out from Yemen. The fact that two such highly placed operatives were talking directly seems to have escalated the seriousness of the threat.

There is also some concern that the recent rash of prison breaks in Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere may be part of a coordinated effort to recruit new militants and rescue old ones ahead of some larger terrorist operation. (There have been at least nine such prison breaks targeting suspected terrorist inmates in the last month alone.) Officials are also expecting a rise in activity in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan, which concludes this week.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Man Gets $4 Million from the DEA After Being Locked Up for Days Without Water

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 09:12:13 -0400

The Justice Department has a settled a lawsuit with a California college student who nearly died in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell after being held nearly five days, handcuffed, without food or water. Daniel Chong will get $4.1 million in the settlement agreement, even though no criminal charges have been filed against the agents and no one has been disciplined for the mistake that almost killed him.

The 23-year-old Chong was scooped up in a DEA raid last April and taken to a detainment facility along with several others who were accused of distributing ecstasy. After answering agents' questions, it was decided that he wouldn't be formally arrested or charged with a crime, but agents placed him in a 5-by-10-foot holding cell with his hands cuffed behind his back and told him they would return in a few minutes to release him. For reasons no one seems able to explain, it was more than four-and-a-half days before anybody came back to check on Chong, by which time he was severely dehydrated, hallucinating, incoherent, and suicidal.

The details of Chong's ordeal are so horrifying that even $4 million hardly seems like just compensation. The cell did not have a toilet or sink and he was forced to drink his own urine to try and stay alive. On the fourth day, he broke his own eyeglasses with his teeth (swallowing some of the shards) and used them to try and carve a goodbye note into his own arm. His kidneys failed after so much time without water, he lost 15 pounds, and he was hospitalized for a week with dehydration and a perforated esophagus. He spent the final two days of captivity in total darkness and still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Someone Threw Paint on the Lincoln Memorial

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 13:04:06 -0400

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, was closed on Friday morning after it was discovered that someone had vandalized the iconic statue in the middle of the night. Park police say that sometime after 1:00 a.m. this morning, visitors to the memorial noticed that green paint had been splashed on the base of the giant statue of our 16th president and with more paint spilled on the floor. There was no other evidence of damage and no apparent message left behind by the vandal.

The entire memorial was closed off to the public and the media while cleanup crews worked to undo the damage.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Congress Sets a New Record for Being Hated

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:33:52 -0400

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls finds that in addition to setting new milestones for futility, Congress is also more hated than it's ever been. A full 83 percent of respondents say they disapprove of the job Congress is doing, the highest number for that question since the poll began tracking the number. (The last time it was even above 50 percent was in 2002.) You can read the full poll questions and results here.

President Obama is not doing so great either, though by comparison to Capitol Hill he looks fantastic. His approval rating is at 45 percent, just off of his all-time low of 44 that he reached in the midst of the debt ceiling crisis in 2011. With a margin of error at about 3 percent, the nation is basically split down the middle on their opinion of him and the way he's handling the economy.

Another 60 percent feel that the country is "off track," a number that's remained pretty consistent since the financial crisis began, though not as bad as it was in the doldrums of 2008, when things were at their worst.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Ex-CIA Agent Convicted of Kidnapping Terror Suspects Is Arrested in Panama

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 16:08:24 -0400

The highest-ranking American official to be tried and convicted for abducting terror suspects overseas has been arrested in Panama, opening the possibility that he could be sent to prison for an "extraordinary rendition." In 2009, an Italian court convicted Robert Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, and 22 other American operatives for kidnapping a Muslim cleric six years earlier.

The abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr was in 2003 at the height of the CIA's aggressive use of rendition, where foreign terrorism suspects were arrested in one country and then either transported to a U.S. facility in another country or turned over to a different government for questioning. (Nasr was eventually sent to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.) The Italian intelligence services were also accused of being complicit, but courts did not allow them to be charged.

None of accused Americans appeared to face charges in Italy and Lady is now retired from the CIA. But earlier this year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison and is considered a fugitive by the Italians.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

The Afghanistan Negotiations Are Not Going Well

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 12:25:36 -0400

Just when it seemed like all the sides were ready to come together to finally end the Afghanistan war, suddenly no one is talking to anyone and peace could not seem farther away. Less than a month after opening a diplomatic office to further the cause of a settlement, the Taliban announced they have shut down their Qatar outpost and cut off all meetings on the subject. Meanwhile, a "frustrated" Barack Obama is threatening to end all U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, thanks to a relationship with President Hamid Karzai that is "slowly unraveling."

Not only are the enemies —the Taliban and the Afghan government that replaced them —unwilling to talk now, the attempt to even start peace negotiations have driven the supposed allies even further apart. After the Taliban opened their Qatar office, Karzai's government accused the U.S. of going behind their back in an attempt to negotiate a separate peace. It didn't help that the Taliban office deployed a flag and title identifying themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the name they ruled under before the 2001 invasion by the United States. (The uproar over the flag was the reason the Taliban gave for closing the office.) A video conference meant to smooth things over between Obama and Karzai "ended badly," according to The New York Times, leading to the report — or some say bargaining ploy — that Obama is now contemplating removing all forces from Afghanistan after 2014, including a planned security force that was expected to remain behind.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

A New Reconstruction of the Deadly Night in Benghazi

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 10:25:50 -0400

A new book purports to tell the "untold story of the attack in Benghazi," but based on the excerpt published in the new Vanity Fair, the newer, more intimate details won't necessarily answer the larger questions about the attack.

The excerpt from the upcoming book "Under Fire," focuses on the 40 minute span between when the attackers first burst through the gates of the American compound in Benghazi and the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was overcome by smoke when the buildings were set on fire. Authors Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz appears to have pieced together their account from public records and the personal stories of some of the Diplomatic Service agents who were part of the security detail that night, including one who attempted (unsuccessfully) to lead Stevens and Sean Smith to safety.

While they've managed to put together a step-by-step narrative from the eyes of a few specific witnesses, they're left to fill in many of other the details with overly dramatic purple prose:

The DS agents ran like sprinters toward their stowed weapons and equipment. Their hearts rushed up their chests, to the back of their throats; their mouths dried up in the surge of adrenaline. The agents attempted to draw on their training and keep their minds focused and fluid as they hoped to avoid an encounter when outnumbered and outgunned. The sounds of guttural Arabic voices, which sounded like angry mumbling to the Americans, grew, and the odd vicious shot was fired into the September sky. The bitter smell of cordite, like a stagnant cloud left behind following a Fourth of July fireworks display, hung in the air. Numerous figures, their silhouettes barely discernible in the shadows, chased the agents from behind, chanting unintelligibly and angrily.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Bush Joins Obama in Remembering the African Embassy Bombings

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 09:17:00 -0400

The two American presidents whose administrations have been defined by the war on terror met in Africa Tuesday to honor some of that war's earliest victims. Barack Obama wrapped up his tour of the continent with a stop in Tanzania on Tuesday, where he was met by George W. Bush, who was already in Tanzania on his own international trip. Together, they laid a wreath at a memorial in the American embassy at Dar es Salaam, which was the site of a deadly truck bombing in August of 1998. They also met with several survivors of the attack and relatives of some of the victims.

That attack -- and the simultaneous bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya that killed more than 200 people -- was the first major assault on American targets to be credited to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. (Ten Tanzanian citizens were killed in the Dar es Salaam bombing.) It also led to the first counter-attack on bin Laden, when President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan two weeks later.

President Obama was originally supposed to lay a wreath at the site by himself, but when Bush's unrelated trip happened to overlap with his own, he was invited as well. (He was in Tanzania to support Laura Bush's summit of African first ladies, which Michelle Obama also attended.) Together, the tenures of the last two commanders-in-chief represent the larger history of America's war on terror and the sight of them together at the place where some say it all began left a striking image.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Do-Nothing Congress Somehow Manages to Do Even Less

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 16:38:17 -0400

The 112th Congress (2011-2013, R.I.P.) was relentlessly mocked for its amazing ability to not get things done, but the new edition is on pace to set an even greater standard for futility. The 112th, which ended its last session on January 3, passed 220 laws, the fewest of any Congress since they started keep statistics, and more than 100 fewer than the previous record low. Yet, six months into its term the 113th Congress is actually on pace to pass even fewer laws than that. Just 15 bills have become law this year, compared to 23 over the same period in 2011. (It also doesn't help that they rarely show up to work.)

Now to be fair, more laws don't necessarily mean better laws. (Most conservatives and libertarians would argue that the fewer laws there are, the better.) But as Ezra Klein pointed out in his eulogy for the last term, many of the laws passed by the 112th were intentionally designed to spur future legislative action that never came to pass. (Remember the fiscal cliff? Sequestration?) Those ideas failed miserably, causing much more harm than good, and the 113th has done nothing to pick up the slack. The only the sequester problem that's been "fixed" was a few airport lines. Everyone else has been out of luck.

So with six months gone in 2013, there's been no progress on immigration, the debt ceiling, gun control, taxes, climate change, or any of the big, hot ticket items that everyone says they want to take action. And it's clear that they're not simply responding to the will of the people. One of the few things they have accomplished is historically low approval and confidence ratings. Voting 37 times to repeal a law that isn't going away has a way of making people thing that you're wasting their time.

]]>

Senate Votes to Double Border Security Agents

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 09:24:24 -0400

Late last night, a group of Republicans Senators teamed up with Democrats to pass an important amendment to the immigration reform bill, but that still might not be enough to save the larger package of laws. The "border surge," which passed by a 67-27 vote will double the number of border agents along the Southern border of the United States and nearly 700 miles of fencing. It also requires all the new security measures to be in place before any currently undocumented immigrants are granted resident status, but opponents say those provisions may never be completed and would be unlikely to actually improve security.

The 67-vote victory was enough to get the amendement past a filibuster, but it will still need a full debate and another majority vote to pass before the Senate can move on to considering the full bill. The agreement should be enough to get the larger bill through the Senate, but none of that will matter if the House of Representatives doesn't take up the bill, something that still isn't fully certain at this point.

Most Republicans were reluctant to consider any immigration package without some guarantee that border security would be strengthened. The most strident even wanted proof that new security measure were actually working before going any further. Democrat Charles Schumer, who helped author the main bill, accepted a compromise that will spend $46 billion on security initiatives along the Mexican border, though one opponent of the measure called it a "a Christmas wish list for Halliburton" and other defense contractors. Others, like Ted Cruz of Texas, called it a "fig leaf" that won't do much at all.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Are Afghan Troops Really 'Getting Good Enough' to Take Over for NATO?

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:57:44 -0400

Afghanistan's military formally took over responsibility for its own security on Tuesday, accepting the handoff from NATO forces, whether security forces there are ready or not. At a brief ceremony in Kabul this morning, Western forces handed the lead responsibility for all security operations to the Afghanistan's national forces, the first time since the U.S. invasion 12 years ago, that the Afghan government is officially in charge. (Or, really, since the Soviet-backed communist government collapsed in the early 1990s.) The move comes on the same day that Taliban has open actual diplomatic office in Qatar and has signaled a desire for formal peace talks.

U.S. and NATO troops will remain in the country until the end of 2014, but are supposed to serve only in an advisory and back-up role from now on — and they will likely be needed as violence is spiking across the country and serious doubts remain about the local forces ability to get the job done. Just a few hours before President Hamad Karazi formally accepted the transition, a suicide bomb in Kabul killed three people in an assassination attempt on a local politician.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

]]>

Obama's Approval Ratings Have Taken a Huge Hit After Scandals

Dashiell Bennett, The Wire — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:31:07 -0400

A new CNN poll shows President Obama's approval ratings taking a nose dive in recent weeks, a development that is probably not unrelated to the deluge of second-term scandals that have taken over the media. The poll, conducted in the middle of last week, shows the president's disapproval rating at 54 percent, his worst marks in about a year and a half, since November of 2011. Even more notable, the rating has swung nine points since the last time the poll was taken in mid-May, which predates all of the National Security Agency leaks that have been provided by Edward Snowden.

Normally, that would be understandable given all the negative news of the last week, but the president has to be concerned that the biggest drop came among people under 30 years old. His support among that key group dropped an astonishing 17 points in the last month.

A deeper dive into more specific questions shows that Obama is seeing his marks fall across the board, although on issues like the economy, the deficit, and immigration, his numbers are mostly unchanged. (Or at least within the margin or error.) When asked how he's handling terrorism, however, the president's numbers take the biggest hit. He's still at a 52-percent approval rating, but that's down from 65 percent in January, after having a consistent rating in the 60s since 2010.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

]]>