The D Brief: Boko Haram’s impact is widening; A major cyber vulnerability, revealed; Obama’s approval rating among troops sinks; A win for the Kurds; Militants hanged in Pakistan; And a bit more.

A chilling new video from Nigeria shows just how ugly extremism can be. From the AP this morning: “A new video from Nigeria's home-grown Boko Haram extremists shows gunmen mowing down civilians lying face down in a dorm, and a leader saying they are being killed because they are "infidels" or non-believers.

There are so many corpses the gunmen have difficulty stepping to reach bodies still twitching with life. Most appear to be adult men.

The group’s leader: "We have made sure the floor of this hall is turned red with blood, and this is how it is going to be in all future attacks and arrests of infidels… From now, killing, slaughtering, destructions and bombing will be our religious duty anywhere we invade." AP here.

Boko Haram is a threat to the region. Also from AP via the NYT this morning: “Thousands of members of Nigeria's home-grown Islamic extremist Boko Haram group strike across the border in Cameroon, with coordinated attacks on border towns, a troop convoy and a major barracks.

“Farther north, Boko Haram employs recruits from Chad to enforce its control in northeastern Nigerian towns and cities.

“In Niger, the government has declared a ‘humanitarian crisis’ and appealed for international aid to help tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees driven from their homes by the insurgency. These recent events show how neighboring countries are increasingly being drawn into Nigeria's Islamic uprising. Thousands of people have been killed in Nigeria's 5-year insurgency and some 1.6 million people driven from their homes.”

Comfort Ero, Africa director for the International Crisis Group: "We are concerned about the increasing regionalization of Boko Haram.”

On Sunday, Cameroon's army announced it had broken up a Boko Haram training camp in the Mayo-Danay district in the country's Far North region. The army was looking for other hideouts in the area, said Jean-Pierre Mbida, a soldier with the Rapid Intervention Battalion tasked with fighting the insurgents.” More here.

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The D Brief, Defense One's new, first-read national security newsletter. If you’d like to subscribe to The D Brief, reply to this email and let us know, subscribe here or send us a holler at glubold@defenseone.com. Please send us your tips, your tidbits, your scoops and stories, your think tank reports and best of all your candy, but send it to us early for maximum tease. And whatever you do, we hope you'll follow us @glubold and @natsecwatson.

The devastating Sony hack has absolutely nothing on this. Our own Patrick Tucker details this major U.S. cyber vulnerability DHS accidentally revealed in a FOIA query on a Google-bound malware attack called “Operation Aurora” back in July: “DHS released more than 800 pages of documents related not to Operation Aurora but rather the Aurora Project, a 2007 research effort led by Idaho National Laboratory demonstrating how easy it was to hack elements in power and water systems… Perpetrating an Aurora attack is not easy, but it becomes much easier the more knowledge a would-be attacker has on the specific equipment they may want to target…”

Sony Pictures’ hackers mocked the FBI over the weekend, sending a weird house music video suggesting they deserve far less attention than Hollywood has given them. William Boot for The Daily Beast, here.

The trouble with attributing the Sony hack—and its connection to domestic surveillance. Jack Goldsmith at the natsec blog Lawfare breaks down the real soul-searching U.S. agencies must consider as it looks to prosecute in the cyber realm, here.

North Korea issued a new threat against the U.S. late Sunday, even if it’s not clear it has the wherewithal to make them. Fox News: “North Korea issued a new threat against the United States late Sunday and accused President Barack Obama of ‘recklessly’ spreading rumors that Pyongyang is behind last month's devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures. The long statement from the powerful National Defense Commission warned of strikes against the White House, Pentagon and ‘the whole U.S. mainland, that cesspool of terrorism.’” Read the rest here.

Meantime, the U.S. is considering how to retaliate against Pyongyang in a proportional way. That could include raising financial pressure against the North by targeting banks and trading companies that are controlled by its ruler, Kim Jong Un. The WSJ, here.

Obama should focus on China, not North Korea, in the wake of the cyber attack against Sony, writes Jason Healey, for the Christian Science Monitor’s Passcode. Read that here.

Meantime, according to a new Military Times survey of 2,300 active-duty career troops, Obama’s approval rating has dropped to 15 percent – down from 35 percent about five years ago. From Military Times’ Steve Losey, on the papers’ last long-form installment of their project #AmericasMilitary. Losey: “…Obama is an unpopular president in the eyes of the men and women in uniform. Yet his two-term administration is etching a deep imprint on the culture inside the armed forces.

“As commander in chief, he will leave behind a legacy that will shape the Pentagon's personnel policies and the social customs of rank-and-file troops for decades to come.

For Obama's supporters, the cultural changes he's overseeing are on a level with President Truman's 1948 order that desegregated the military and put it at the forefront of the national push for racial equality.

“But to his critics, his moves amount to heavy-handed social engineering that erode deep-seated traditions and potentially undermine good order and discipline. And for the troops in today's career force, the wave of changes to deep-seated policies and attitudes can be jarring.” More here.

One more Bush for president? The GOP doesn’t seem too keen on it. Defense One’s politics editor Molly O’Toole reports from Capitol Hill on the tepid response to last week’s escalating Jeb Bush 2016 chatter.

Also in Defense One: Cheap crude oil (for now) could be a double-edged sword for the Pentagon. On the one hand, it could save the department billions—but on the other hand, allies in the Middle East may be less inclined to throw down dollars for U.S. weapons systems. Marcus Weisgerber has more on the military implications of crude’s 40 percent decline since June: “In 2015, the Pentagon has budgeted $13.6 billion for fuel, according to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the arm of DOD the purchases energy for the military services. The agency plans to spend an average of $134 per barrel over the next five years… Since oil prices often fluctuate, DOD is not in unchartered territory… ‘It could be a short-term windfall, but it’s definitely a fiscal windfall,’ [Gordon Adams, an analyst with the Stimson Center who oversaw the Pentagon’s budget at the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration] said.”

More arms for Iraq. From Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber: “The State Department cleared $3 billion worth of arms sales to Iraq on Friday, one for 175 Abrams tanks and the other for 1,000 up-armored Humvees. If you recall, Islamic State militants captured some Abrams and Humvees from Iraqi security forces earlier this year. The $2.4 billion Abrams deal includes ammunition and radios. The $579 million Humvee deal includes .50-caliber machine guns, 40-millimeter grenade launchers and communications equipment. Even though the Pentagon announced the sale last week, the Iraqis must still finalize the deal.”

A successful push by Iraqi Kurdish forces put a mark in the win column against the Islamic State. The WSJ’s Ali Nabhan and Matt Bradley: “…In one of the most successful counterattacks against the extremists since the group took over huge swaths of the country in June, about 1,500 Kurdish fighters known as Peshmerga, backed by Yazidi and Christian militia units, pushed into the city center on Sunday.

“The coordinated assault came nearly a week after American aircraft launched 47 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in the area—one of the most concentrated strikes since the U.S. started attacking the militants in Iraq in August. Aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition continued to pound Islamic State positions throughout the past week.” More here.

Sounds familiar: How the so-called catch-and-release program in Iraq helped get us where we are today. Craig Whiteside for War on the Rocks, here.  

Pakistan has begun to hang militants after it lifted its ban on the death penalty following the attack in Peshawar last week.

McClatchy’s Tom Hussain: “Pakistan executed two convicted terrorists Friday, the first of 400 militants headed to the hangman’s noose amid a government crackdown ordered after Taliban attackers gunned down 148 children and teachers Tuesday at a school in the northern city of Peshawar.” Read the rest here.

The U.S. released four Afghans from Guantanamo on Friday. Carol Rosenberg for The Miami Herald, here.

Meantime, after those four Afghan detainees were moved, expect to see more transfers from Gitmo in the next several weeks. President Barack Obama is expected to reframe the nature of the debate about Gitmo by making it about money. The WSJ’s Carol Lee and Jess Bravin: “…Obama aims to make 2015 a landmark year in his long-stalled effort to close the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, with plans to announce a flurry of detainee transfers in coming weeks, senior administration officials said.

"Mr. Obama is also seeking to reshape the national debate over closing the facility in Cuba by casting it as a fiscal issue, arguing that keeping it open is cost-prohibitive.”

“The administration repatriated four Afghan detainees over the weekend, as Mr. Obama began his vacation in Hawaii, and senior administration officials said the president plans to transfer more prisoners to foreign countries early next year—and possibly before the end of 2014. Earlier this month, six prisoners were transferred to Uruguay —a move administration officials hope will open the door to further resettlements in Latin America.” Read the rest here.

With his Army investigation complete, the Bergdahl case could now go one of two ways: desertion or $300,000 in back pay. AP’s Lolita Baldor: “The Army has finished its investigation… and senior Pentagon leaders have been briefed, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, officials said Friday… Officials suggested that the report's findings may not be made public any time soon... Army Secretary John McHugh could send the case to a military commander who would decide whether it should go before a court martial and what, if any, charges would be filed against Bergdahl.” More here.

For the last six months, the Pentagon has been routing thousands of vehicles used in Afghanistan—mostly MRAPs—to Kuwait ahead of an anti-ISIS offensive. U.S. News’ Paul D. Shinkman with more on the logistics shuffle as one conflict winds down while another, different kind of war gets cranking, here.

Joe Anderson is back at home station. Drew Brooks for The Fayetteville Observer from Fort Bragg on the return of the three-star, here.

Last time we heard from Anderson, it was early November and Afghan troops—he told us—were taking such heavy losses the general called it simply “unsustainable.” That, here.

A thousand paratroopers from Fort Bragg are headed to Iraq in late January. And another 300 from across the services are headed there as well, bringing the total cleared to deploy just 50 shy of the 3,100 authorized by the president. Jon Harper reports for Stars and Stripes, here.

A half-dozen Airmen at Moody AFB in Georgia were rounded up by the local sheriff’s office in connection with a wider child exploitation sting last week. Kristin Davis for Air Force Times, here.

As an Afghan Army battalion struggles to hold on to gains southwest of Kabul, a message the U.S. is receiving pretty uniformly: Afghans still need the U.S. The WaPo’s Sudarsan Raghavan, here.

Aussie Defense Minister David Johnston lost his job in a big cabinet reshuffle in Sydney. Reuters, here.

Egypt’s Sisi replaces his intel chief. Al-Jazeera, here.

A former NGO chief George Green of International Relief and Development (IRD) indicted on federal bribery charges. The WaPo’s Scott Higham: “…Green, 57, was charged with steering contracts to an Afghan subcontractor as part of an agricultural program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). IRD had received a cooperative agreement to administer the agricultural program for the federal agency.

Green did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday.

“…Prosecutors say Green accepted $66,000 in bribes in exchange for directing work to the Afghan subcontractor. Some of the money was wired to a car dealer in San Severino Marche, Italy, in an attempt to conceal the payments, according to the indictment. Green, of Carrollton, Tex., allegedly structured cash deposits into his bank and credit card accounts to avoid federal currency reporting requirements.”

Said Robert Arrambide, Green’s lawyer: “He pled not guilty at his arraignment and we will investigate the case and prepare a defense.” More here.

The militarization of U.S. police intelligence should be at least as big a concern to Americans as the militarization of the Ferguson police department, writes Mike German with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program: “[J]ust as the drug war fuelled increased military participation and militarization in domestic policing, the war on terrorism is driving the militarization of domestic intelligence operations…

“Trained by the military to spy on hostile foreign nations, [Erik Dahl, a former Navy intelligence officer and now a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School] cautioned that ‘you wouldn’t want to hire me to conduct domestic surveillance.’ His statement should serve as a warning to those in Congress who authorized the NSA to play a major role in seizing Americans’ electronic communications (and want to give it more authority over U.S. cyber security), and sat silent as the FBI has transitioned into a domestic intelligence agency…

“Though there are legal limits to the type of work military officials can do within these programs and the information they can share, there is little to no oversight conducted to ensure they follow the law…”

A holiday safety briefing, thanks to the occasionally cryptic folks at The Duffel Blog: A soldier disobeyed his command on the unit holiday party’s two-beer limit: “A source present during the incident said that Wallace “definitely attended” the safety brief prior to the barbecue, where both the commander and first sergeant told the soldiers that they were only authorized two beers each and were not allowed to be released until 5 p.m., even though it was a half-day.” The rest, here.