This Week in War

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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. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

• War deaths in Syria now top 100,000.
• The US plans to begin directly supplying arms to the opposition force within the month.
• Experts say that sarin gas use in Syria still cannot be genuinely proved, since the process can’t control for tampering.
• Fighting between rival armed militias in Libya’s capital have killed five and wounded nearly 100.
• Monday saw Israeli air strikes carried out against Gaza in retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire.
• At least 16 Lebanese soldiers were killed in fighting with Sunni militants in Sidon.
• A series of bomb attacks in Iraq on Monday killed at least 42.
• A Taliban attack on Kabul has put peace talks on edge.
• The annual report (PDF) from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime shows Afghanistan remains the world leader in opium cultivation and production.
• Pakistan’s former leader Pervez Musharraf’s treason trial has been adjourned indefinitely and a four-member committee has been created to probe treason charges.
• A video of two Czech women captured in Balochistan a couple of months ago surfaced, along with demands by their unidentified captors, that neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui be released by the US. It has not been verified.
• Head of NGO For Human Rights, Lev Ponomaryov, was forcibly evicted from his offices along with staff and beaten by Russian law enforcement.
• China will send peacekeeping troops to Mali.
• HRW says that China has resettled 2 million Tibetans over the past seven years.
• Violence and rioting in the Western region of Xinjiang left 27 dead.
• In response to US threats to end trade benefits over Snowden,  Ecuador waived the benefits and offered the US $23 million worth of human rights training.
• Protesters continued to take to the streets in Brazil, facing off against police.
• Dzokhar Tsarnaev has been formally charged with killing four people and using a weapon of mass destruction.
• Marine Gen. James Cartwright, formerly the vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is apparently the target of a DOJ leak investigation regarding information leaked about Stuxnet.
• A new Guardian scoop revealed that the Bush administration email record collection continued for two years under the Obama administration.
• The administration insists anyway, that Bush era data collection ended in 2011, but as The Guardian went on to report, massive metadata mining continues through the program EvilOlive (what?).
• Here’s a pdf of a 2009 draft report of the NSA inspector general regarding the surveillance program, thanks to The Guardian.
• Leaks also reveal massive online data collection by the British counterpart to the NSA, the GCHQ, of information obtained by tapping fibre-optics cables. The info is shared with the US.
• The Army is restricting access to The Guardian’s website in an Armywide filter.
• McClatchy on how memories of Stasi affect Germans’ views of US surveillance practices.
• Glenn Greenwald addresses attempts to smear his reputation and attack his work. David Carr and Jay Rosen both came to his aid earlier this week.
• Two law school professors say the NSA data collection programs “violate both the letter and the spirit of federal law.”
• The Snowden leaks have brought WikiLeaks back into the news.
• A CIA inspector general’s report (PDF) reveals there have been four CIA embeds with the NYPD since 9/11 and raises questions about the limitations they had, the assistance they offered, and the relationship between the two organizations.
• Former US National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke rather astonishingly acknowledged to the Huffington Post that the circumstances of Michael Hastings’ crash were “consistent with a car cyber attack.” He was careful to say that he was not saying he thought there had been such an attack.
• The Daily Beast profiles the life and work of incoming deputy director of the CIA, Avril Haines.
• A video interview with journalist and Dirty Wars author Jeremy Scahill on national security oversight, whistleblowers and the effect of surveillance on journalists and journalism.
• A military court overturned a Marine’s conviction in the murder of a retired Iraqi policeman because Sgt. Hutchins was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer.
• The Army plans to cut 12 combat brigades and reduce force size by 80,000.

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Photo: Kabul, Afghanistan. An Afghan soldier stands guard at the presidential palace on June 25th following a Taliban attack. Shah Merai/AFP/Getty