Sec Def Watch (Democrat Edition)

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SEC DEF Watch (Democrat edition). If President Obama wins in November, there is a good chance that Leon Panetta will return to Carmel Valley for good, leaving the Pentagon’s top job open. Obama will want a savvy political operative who can manage the major muscle movements of the defense budget on the Hill, but someone steeped enough in Pentagon culture to help right the ship generally, taking it from a decade of war to a decade of myriad threats, from Iran, North Korea and the Sinai to turning the lights out in Afghanistan. Panetta is seen as a thoughtful and benevolent leader whose skills as a Washington insider will help get the Pentagon through sequestration this year. But it was always thought that he would not stay much past Obama’s first term, should he win re-election. On the heels of the convention, it’s clear there are many top Dems working for Obama to see what it might get them.

So keep in mind, for now, three people to replace him. While they are in many ways the conventional wisdom about who would replace Panetta, they are also nonetheless considered likely possibilities: Richard Danzig, Michele Flournoy, and perennial favorite John Hamre. While there are good reasons why each would not be considered — or would say they didn’t want the job — these three keep returning to water cooler status. Former Navy Secretary Danzig, who was in the running for the top Pentagon job before, is said to be still interested in the job. After working hard on behalf of Obama in the first election, Danzig watched Robert Gates be asked to stay. Danzig seemed to disappear, although he continues to sit on the Defense Policy Board. He’s active in the campaign, we’re told and is a possible contender. "He is really lobbying for it," we were told by one Dem insider.

Many still believe that Hamre, a former Pentagon comptroller and also a member of the Defense Policy Board, has the political savvy and the defense budget chops to help the Defense Department make the transition from inflated budget to shrunken budget over the next few years. Although as president and CEO of CSIS, he may have his hands full and be content to continue in that role.

It is Michele Flournoy who is still considered a frontrunner. After stepping down from the Pentagon’s No. 3 spot — in policy — last year, she is thought to be tanned, ready and rested to jump back into the fray. That she is working on behalf of Obama this year puts her back into consideration. And many believe, likely rightly, that Obama would relish naming the first woman to the top job. More to come.

The Pentagon: "we’re not listening to you." After issuing a directive that it would monitor news reporting to crack down on national security leaks, the Pentagon had stressed they did not listen to reporters’ phone calls or monitor their e-mails. Despite the vast number of secrets it has to preserve, the Pentagon allows reporters into the building on a daily basis. But now it’s in writing – the Pentagon is not listening to reporters’ conversations or otherwise monitoring their work. "The Department of Defense does not conduct electronic or physical surveillance of journalists," press secretary George Little wrote the Pentagon Press Association on Friday. "The review of media reports is part of an effort to improve the Department’s tracking of unauthorized disclosures so that operational risk can be effectively mitigated and to ensure the referral of any possible violations of law to law enforcement agencies in a timely manner."

It’s nice not to have to play by the rules. Professional informants aren’t tied to the same regulations and scrutiny as normal undercover agents, as J.M. Berger tells us in a piece on FP about the FBI and its informant problems. In one case, a stripper hired as an informant – who said she always wanted to be a cop – became so enthusiastic for the job that she might have had sex to obtain information. (A towel over the camera obscured the view so we’ll never know for sure.) http://bit.ly/TxkI75

Wanna really mess with your enemy’s head? Call in a cyber attack. When front-line troops need to rain some cyber punishment on their enemy, they’ve now got an option. FP’s Killer Apps’ John Reed tells us that the Pentagon is creating a wild new option for troops in the field that gives them the power of a cyber attack with a click of their mic. Right now, only combatant or operational commanders can call in for a Cyber Effects Request Format, or CERF. But soon, perhaps — thanks to the Army, which is pushing for this — smaller, tactical, front-line troops could call in for cyber fire support, too. But educating planners on just what cyber tools are and what they can do is the steep part of this learning curve. http://bit.ly/OSwCE7

The much-anticipated terrorist designation that changes so little. Despite repeated calls for the State Department to designate the Haqqani Network in Pakistan as a foreign terrorist organization, and with State finally doing so Friday, the new designation changes little. Although military officials had wanted it, too, it was never stopping them or other agencies from conducting missions against the group.

How it’s seen over there: A Pakistani analyst in Washington told us: "This will certainly complicate and probably delay any breakthrough [on a peace settlement] if the Obama team was working on one before elections. The Bowe Bergdahl negotiations were part of the confidence building measures being debated at the Qatar talks; and this is not likely to alter Pak policies on Afghanistan, meaning they are unlikely to change their stance on the [Haqqani Network] or meaningfully increase their support of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan," said Simbal Khan of the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Eleven Years and Counting

• Deccan Herald: The Taliban is ready to disown al-Qaida, agree to U.S. bases and sign on to a ceasefire, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute. http://bit.ly/NkdQJh
• NYT: How truly adaptive is the U.S. in fighting its enemies and how resilient is it? http://nyti.ms/Tzvhbv
• WSJ: When traffic turns violent, a reflection of ethnic tensions on the streets of Kabul.  http://on.wsj.com/TBeZyG
• FP: An NGO opened a skate park in Kabul. Photos: http://bit.ly/P2ieJm
• AP: U.S. turns prisons over to the Afghans amid disagreements over fate of some prisoners. http://bit.ly/UDTnjp

The Iraq Factor

• NYT: Iraq’s vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi, sentenced to death for murder as violence erupts across the country. http://bit.ly/mxkFBv
• BBC: Tariq al-Hashimi rejects guilty verdict.http://bbc.in/P7dkNe

Getting your tech on

• AOL Defense: Why the military wants legs on its robots. http://aol.it/P2ezLC
• Danger Room: Taliban lure Aussie soldiers to give away secrets after posing as women on Facebook.http://bit.ly/thwNA