Today's Headlines and Commentary

Let’s begin with Afghanistan news. Amie Ferris-Rotman of Reuters reports that, this summer, NATO will announce the size of the training force that will remain in Afghanistan after most troops leave in 2014. Carlo Munoz of the Hill tells us that the Pentagon is considering stationing more than 13,000 American troops there. And on goes the numbers game. In this Foreign Policy exclusive, eight important voices, ranging from Pervez Musharraf to Frederick W. Kagan, weigh in on what went wrong in Afghanistan. Peter Bergen discusses what went right. Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post reports that the construction of the Kajaki Dam to provide electricity to Kandahar, once deemed an essential reconstruction project, is being abandoned by USAID as priorities rapidly shift in Afghanistan. Bet you never thought you’d see the day when drones became the new UFOs: The New York Post informs us that the Joint Terror Task Force has launched an investigation after an airline pilot claims to have spotted a drone as he landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Just what the conspiracy theorists need. House members don’t much like the idea that drone pilots are eligible for the Distinguished Warfare Medal, says Jeremy Herb of the Hill, and have written to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Maybe that’s because there aren’t a lot of drone pilots in the House of Representatives. Paul Scott, a Washington reporter, was being illegally wiretapped and by the CIA in the 1960s in an operation nicknamed “Project Mockingbird”; Scott’s son has been pushing for more information from the Agency for the last five years, says Ian Shapira of the Washington Post. Janet Napolitano---who spoke at this Brookings event last week on homeland security---said Monday that the Obama administration’s drone policy is quite a bit narrower in practice than the law would allow. Josh Gerstein of Politico has the story. Meanwhile, U.N. special rapporteur Ben Emmerson will call on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to release the results of an investigation on alleged torture and other abuses by the United States, reports Colum Lynch of the Post. Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters has more. Declan Walsh of the Times describes quite the controversy from the FATA: Two drone strikes, on February 6 and 8, respectively, killed nine militants, including two senior commanders of Al Qaeda. Just one teeny, tiny problem: the CIA denies it carried them out, saying the Pakistani military might instead by responsible. On Twitter, one Robert Caruso has a different theory about who is responsible---one I can neither confirm nor deny.

Robert Caruso @robertcaruso @benjaminwittes's blog is fully self-aware and has graduated to conducting strikes outside the US. nyti.ms/XI27a6

The Associated Press tells us that Hafiz Khan, a Florida-based imam, was convicted yesterday of conspiracy and providing material support to the Pakistani Taliban. Here is the Times with more. I scoffed. I rolled my eyes. I may have even groaned when President Obama said in his State of the Union address that he would continue to be transparent and work with Congress on matters of national security. Must I now eat crow? The White House has offered to release more information on the Benghazi attacks, and is now providing the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence additional OLC memos on the targeted killing of Americans, says Adam Levine of CNN’s Security Clearance blog. Crow will wait. Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald reports that more than a dozen lawyers have filed a protest with Guantanamo Bay commander Rear Adm. John Smith “over what they describe as a deterioration in conditions at the most populous prison building there, and mistreatment of Islam’s holy book, the Quran.” Here is Steve’s earlier post on the matter. The Senate will consider John Brennan’s nomination this week, according to Ramsey Cox of the Hill. Walter Russell Mead has this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the different phases of the War on Terror and what this stage will look like:

The question that confronts the U.S. and its allies now is twofold. How to counter the explosive growth of radical jihadist organizations and networks in Libya's post-Gadhafi vacuum and in surrounding states? And what to do about the integration of terrorist groups into the sectarian Sunni-Shiite war that spans the region and to some degree overlaps with America's own struggle to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon? At this stage, the terrain favors America's enemies. In places like the wide swath of Africa's Sahel region, and in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, it is difficult to establish strong states that can keep the extremists in check. The free-floating nature of the new jihadist movement also poses problems: At any given moment, from Afghanistan to Mauritania, dozens of groups are competing for funds and followers, moving swiftly in response to perceived opportunities.

And, In honor of the aforementioned Congressional opposition, here is the estimable Duffel Blog on drone pilots and the Distinguished Warfare Medal: today’s Moment of Zen.

Heroic Predator Drone Is First Recipient of Distinguished Warfare Medal

BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN — The Defense Department has announced that THX-1138, an MQ-1 Predator Drone, will be the first recipient of the Pentagon’s newly-minted Distinguished Warfare Medal. On 17 December, THX-1138 stayed on station for 8 hours, defending a US Special Forces A-Team from numerous attacks with its Hellfire missiles. During the action, THX-1138 repeatedly refused requests to return to base. At the end of the day, THX-1138′s tenacity, perseverance, and valor in the face of enemy fire saved all 12 members of the team.

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