If Principi holds any high cards, he’ll have to play’em fast. The BRAC panel’s final deliberations start Wednesday and supposedly end Friday. Their final recommendation must go to President Bush by Sept. 8, and it has to go to the printer.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.