The Political Freakshow

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.

The UN observer mission in Syria is pulling out as the Security Council calls it quits days before its mandate expires.

The Free Syrian Army claims to have downed its first Assad jet.

The pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi will be sending a delegation to Syria to study and inspect important Syrian artistic, historic and cultural artifacts threatened by the ongoing war.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, Syrian rebels display three small surveillance drones that they say are Iranian.

A number of Syrian citizens have been kidnapped inside Lebanon.

Azmat Khan makes some smart points about U.S. policy on Yemen on her personal Tumblr.

A longform piece by Joshua Hammer in National Geographic paints a picture of Yemen on the edge, a nation “on the brink of a new beginning—or deeper divisions.”

Egyptian President Morsy has made dramatic claim to executive power, ridding himself of the nationally hated Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi (defense minister and head of the army) as well as a number of generals and cancelling a number of amendments proposed by the military that would have restricted his power.

Egypt has been deploying anti-terrorist forces in Sinai without informing Israel in advance. Israeli officials are not commenting, noting only that the two countries have maintained good security cooperation.

Egyptian film collective Mosireen has collected more than 1000 hours worth of footage of the revolution for use by activists and citizen journalists (site mostly in Arabic).

The Amazigh population of Libya is renewing its push for equality and rights to their language and culture.

The influence of Chinese media has arrived in Africa.

The South African police killed 30 striking miners in Marikana in a scene that is reminding many of bad old days.

The decentralized Sudanese protest movement is seeing its first violence.

The politics of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi (only eighteen months away, the Olympics are never really over) have already become beyond complicated.

The three members of the Russian anti-Putin punk band have been found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred this morning.

The man who hid Saddam Hussein speaks out.

Bahrain has sentenced activist Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, to three years in prison for inciting antigovernment protests.

The challenges for Iran seem to be continually piling up on all sides: from the geopolitical problems of Syria to the bite of international sanctions.

Not to mention the terrible consequence of its recent magnitude 6.4 and 6.3 magnitude earthquakes, which killed more than 300 people. Not a good time to have nuclear facilities built right on fault lines.

Families of the assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists will file suit against Israel, the US and the UK.

In two separate incidents, Kazakh journalists Maksim Kartashov (chief editor of a Kazakh hockey magazine who has made few friends reporting on corruption in ice hockey) and Ularbek Baitailaq (a stringer working for a variety of opposition outlets) were severely beaten in attempts on their lives.

New Gallup polling numbers are out on Afghan public outlook on life (a little on the bleak side).

Mujib Mashal writes for Newsweek on Afghan “princelings,” the well-educated, globally savvy children of the mujahedin who represent a major “a generational transformation among the Afghan elite” and are having difficulty reintegrating.

An ISAF helicopter crashed on Thursday in southern Afghanistan, killing eleven. The cause is under investigation.

Yet another green on blue attack this morning killed two US troops in Farah province.

The Tehreek e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed Thursday’s militant attack on the Minhas air base in Kamra, Pakistan. Nine of the attackers were killed and the attack was rebuffed. Pakistan has rushed to affirm that the base was not nuclear and a US State Dept. spokeswoman has said that the US is confident of Pakistan’s nuclear security.

The TTP on Thursday also killed 22 young men, mostly Shi’ites returning to their villages after Eid Al-Fitr, in a remote northern pass in Mansehra.

The Kalashnikov’s big new market is in the United States.

Sandra Avila, a Mexican “drug queen” known as the Queen of the Pacific, has been extradited to the United States.

Guatemalans who were victims of non-consensual medical experimentation by the United States in the 1940s are appealing the dismissal of their case in US federal court.

Ecuador has granted Julian Assange asylum, citing worries that he could face political persecution and execution for espionage if transferred to the US, yet Britain remains committed to its legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.

The ACLU is suing the FBI for internal memos on the use of GPS to track suspects.

The House Republicans are suing Attorney General Eric Holder over documents in connection to “Fast and Furious”.

General William Ward, former chief of AFRICOM, is being investigated for lavish travel expenses.

General Ann Dunwoody, who was the US’ first female four-star general, has retired.

38 US servicemembers committed suicide in July, another horrible record-breaking statistic on military suicide.

If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at torierosedeghett@gmail.com.

Photo: Bab Nasr, Aleppo, Syria. A Syrian fighter with a bandaged eye turns toward the camera in front of closed up shops. Phil Moore/AFP/Getty.