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National Security Brief: May 14, 2012

— A Pentagon-funded study found that the U.S.-trained and -funded Afghan police that follow U.S. soldiers into town to establish government authority are failing and often susceptible to corruption and other temptations of lucrative organized crime.

— Insurgents assassinated a former Taliban official turned member of the Afghan High Peace Council aimed at reconciling the government and Taliban insurgency in what a fellow Council member called a “big loss.”

— The Wall Street Journal reports that “international donors called on Sunday for an inquiry into potential mismanagement of the United Nations-administered trust fund that helps pay for Afghanistan’s fledgling police force.”

— The European Union imposed a new round of Sanctions on Syria Monday, highlighting frustrations with the length of time it is taking United Nations’ mission leader Kofi Annan to broker a ceasefire.

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— An estimated 10,000 people followed a group of a dozen Russian writers leading a march through Moscow — a “test stroll” to see if police interfered, which they did not — in opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s newly re-established government.

— U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants to form a global network linking special operations forces of allied and partner nations with regional coordination centers to combat terrorism.

— Human Rights Watch today accused NATOP of failing to acknowledge the scope of collateral damage it caused during the campaign that helped oust former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

— A unnamed source “from an IAEA member country that is severely critical of Iran’s assertions that its nuclear activities are peaceful” provided the Associated Press with a drawing “based on information from inside an Iranian military site” showing an explosives chamber of the the type needed for nuclear weapons related tests.