The Senate has confirmed Eric Edelman to be Undersecretary of Defense for Policy—after a 10-month delay. President Bush formally put Edelman in the job in August 2005 as a recess appointment, which would have expired in 2007. Edelman replaced Douglas Feith. According to Congressional Quarterly, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) had placed a hold on Edelman because the Pentagon had not released some documents from Feith’s time in office.
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.