The War
The U.S. thwarted a bomb plot by al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch aimed at bringing down a jetliner with a more advanced version of an underwear bomb used in a failed 2009 Christmas Day attempt, officials said Monday. – Wall Street Journal
Warren Weinstein, a 70-year-old American aid expert kidnapped in Pakistan last summer, has appeared in a video asking President Obama to save his life by meeting his al-Qaeda captors’ demands to free convicted terrorists imprisoned in the United States. – Washington Post
U.S. military leaders have developed new proposals to speed the deployment of elite American special-operations forces to a growing number of the world’s trouble spots, advancing the Obama administration’s emerging approach to armed involvement abroad. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A sophisticated bomb built in Yemen as part of an apparent terrorist plot to destroy Western jetliners underscores that militants based in Yemen — not in Afghanistan or Pakistan — now pose the biggest terror threat to the U.S. and its allies. – National Journal
Retired Gen. Jack Keane criticized Obama’s handling of the bin Laden mission, and said the White House delayed the mission for months while seeking photographic evidence verifying the terrorist leader’s whereabouts. – DEFCON Hill
In recent months U.S. officials have been quoted in media reports describing growing disagreements and tension between Zawahiri and bin Laden in the years before the Abbottabad raid, with bin Laden fearing becoming marginalized…[T]he few documents released so far hint the two had some differences in strategic vision, and that their interactions had become sporadic. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Editorial: At some point, the prosecution has to start treating this like the Nuremberg tribunal—as an opportunity to re-educate the world about what the terrorists did and why they are on trial. Among other things, KSM conspired to hijack airplanes and fly them into office towers to slaughter 3,000 Americans, most of them innocent civilians. That’s the “torture” General Martins should focus on. – Wall Street Journal
Defense
Consistent with a staunch resistance to further cuts in defense spending, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) has added $2.8 billion to the Pentagon’s fiscal 2013 budget request for ships, aircraft and weapons. – Defense News
House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young has crafted a 2013 defense spending bill that is $3.1 billion more than the White House request. – Defense News
The Military Coalition, a group of 31 military and veterans associations, is being pitted against federal employee unions by House Republicans as part of a broader battle over deficit reduction. – Military Times
Rep. Todd Akin, seapower chairman on the House Armed Services Committee, will offer an amendment to the defense authorization bill at Wednesday’s mark-up session that will demand that the Navy Secretary start turning the 30-year plan in on time — or lose access to a small but highly sensitive spending account called the “triple E” fund. – AOL Defense
The U.S. Air Force is narrowing its focus on new combinations of factors as it explores hypoxia events that claimed the life of one F-22 pilot and plagued the fleet for more than a year. – Aviation Week
Oxygen problems plaguing the Air Force’s F-22 stealth fighter are afflicting maintainers working on the plane — as well as pilots — with dizziness, nausea and other hypoxia-like symptoms, Air Force Times has learned. – Military Times
The newest littoral combat ship successfully completed its acceptance trials May 4, the Navy announced May 7, clearing the way for the ship’s delivery to the U.S. Navy. – Defense News
Gordon England writes: Why is the F-16 fighter jet so successful, with 4,500 airplanes delivered and, 30 years later, still in production, while the F-35 is a continuing struggle? I was heavily involved in both programs, to include industry and government, and here are my observations — and some lessons learned from the F-16 — that could be helpful for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. – Defense News
Missile Defense
The U.S. military could be a step closer to a defense against cruise missile attacks, nine years after the vulnerability was exposed at the outset of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. – Defense News
Cybersecurity
A series of natural gas pipeline sector companies are being targeted by a cyber attack that appears to have been launched in December, according to a notice from the Department of Homeland Security. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Despite the ongoing concern about the escalating pace of cyber attacks, a new set of standing rules of engagement for cyber operations — policy guidelines that would specify how the Pentagon would respond to different types of cyber attacks — is being delayed by a debate over the role of the U.S. military in defending non-military networks, sources said. – Defense News
The United States and China both have advanced cyber warfare capabilities and must work to avoid miscalculations that could lead to conflict, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday as he hosted the first visit by a Chinese defense minister in nine years. – Reuters
