The D Brief: In Yemen, what was old becomes new again; Austin on using boots on the ground: we’ll do what it takes; Thornberry on U.S. and Assad: it’s confusing; Tom Brady: “It’s not ISIS;” Hersman to CSIS; And a bit more.

The U.S. embassy in Yemen is pulling some but not all of its staff after President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned yesterday. Reuters, here.

The NYT’s Shuaib Almosawa and Rod Nordland in Sana'a on the implications of the resignation there: “…The resignation of the president, prime minister and cabinet took American officials by surprise and heightened the risks that Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, would become even more of a breeding ground for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula…

“The resignation… brought full circle Yemen’s Arab Spring revolution, which ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 amid massive popular protests. Now Mr. Saleh, who has lately made himself an unlikely ally of the Houthi rebels who toppled the government, is poised to return to the forefront of Yemeni politics.

“But some experts warned that the country might be hurtling toward partition — and civil war. The events in Yemen were not the week’s only death knell for accomplishments of the Arab Spring’s first year, 2011. In Libya, that country’s last remaining intact and functioning institution, its Central Bank with $100 billion in foreign reserves, lost its major Benghazi branch to marauding militiamen.”

Jamal Benomar, the United Nations envoy to Yemen to the NYT: “We are in uncharted territory now... It’s going to be very difficult days ahead.” More here.

US Special Operations Forces are still conducting operations in Yemen while remaining careful not to antagonize the Houthis. NPR's Tom Bowman, here.

The NYTs editorial Board on the implications of Hadi’s resignation: “The United States is not known to have a direct, open line of dialogue with the Houthis, but it would be in Washington’s interest to start building a relationship, even through back channels. The tactics the Houthis have used to pressure Mr. Hadi, including surrounding his home and holding his chief of staff hostage, are deplorable. But some of their grievances about widespread corruption and poor governance are legitimate.” More here.

Here’s a recent history of Yemen’s internal chaos—from 1962 to present—in 12 pictures, by Time’s Noah Rayman, here.

Meantime, the death of King Abdullah, at 90, of Saudi Arabia, brings uncertainty from another quarter. AP’s Lee Keath and Abdullah Al-Shihri on his legacy: “…Backed by the kingdom's top ally, the United States, the king was aggressive in trying to put up a bulwark against the spreading power of Saudi Arabia's top rival, mainly Shiite Iran, thus shaping the Arab world along new lines — an anti-Iran camp and a pro-Iran camp.

“According to a leaked U.S. diplomatic memo, Abdullah urged Washington in 2008 to consider military action against Iran to ‘cut off the head of the snake’ because of its nuclear advances. Another memo spoke of how Abdullah angrily berated Iran's foreign minister in private that ‘Persians’ had no business meddling in ‘Arab’ affairs.

“He pushed Gulf allies into taking increasingly vocal stands against Iran and sought to isolate Syria because of its alliance with Tehran. In Syria, Abdullah stepped indirectly into the civil war that emerged after 2011. He supported and armed rebels battling to overthrow President Bashar Assad and pressed the Obama administration to do the same.” More here.

The new Saudi King moves fast to name a second-in-line, here.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on King Abdullah’s passing: “…King Abdullah was a man of tremendous character and courage - a historic figure dedicated to advancing the lives of his people at home as well as his country's leadership abroad.  He was a committed friend and partner of the United States.  And he was a powerful voice for tolerance, moderation, and peace - in the Islamic world and across the globe.” More here.

Meantime, in Iraq, the “Mosul Offensive” is just around the corner. U.S. military planners, along with Iraqis, have been planning a big operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State. It’s been in planning stages for awhile. But U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin told the WSJ’s Julian Barnes that it’s coming soon.

That lede: “The U.S. and Iraq have begun preparations for an assault by summer to retake Mosul, selecting and training military units and cutting supply lines to Islamic State militants who control Iraq’s second-largest city, the top American commander in the Middle East said. [Austin said] that the international campaign against Islamic State has inflicted significant damage. Opposing forces have reclaimed about 300 square miles of territory in Iraq and killed some 6,000 members of the Sunni radical group, eliminating about half its leadership.”

Combat boots on the ground? “…Gen. Austin said he had not decided whether to recommend that U.S. ground troops accompany local units pushing into Mosul, but emphasized the military would ‘do what it takes.’” Read that bit here.

Hagel, speaking to reporters yesterday for one of his last pressers, on Iraq’s complaints about training and materiel being slow: “I do disagree with the prime minister’s comments,” said Hagel, in an uncharacteristically frank moment for the secretary. “I would say even further, I don’t think they’re helpful.”

Lubold's story here about what Hagel thinks about using body counts to assess the war's impact: Pentagon officials weren’t keen on U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones’ use yesterday of the metric that more than 6,000 Islamic State fighters had been killed by the U.S.-led airstrike campaign. Body counts are not a good way of measuring success, officials have stressed, until Jones’ put the number out there yesterday.

Hagel: “But I don’t think it is the measurement. I mean, I — I was in a war where there was a lot of body counts every day. And we lost that war,” said Hagel, the former sergeant who fought in Vietnam who rarely speaks meaningfully about his service in that war.  

And in the meantime, time is darkly and almost impossibly short for Japan to secure the release of its two hostages held by ISIS. The deadline expired today. AP, here.

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He has a point, even if the Pats’ problems are legit: Tom Brady yesterday on the ball inflation controversy: “This is not ISIS.”

ICYMI: CBS’ David Martin on the SOTU’s special guest, who flies, below.

HASC’s new chair Rep. Mac Thornberry said the ugly truth about Syria is it’s a “bloody mess” and the White House’s newest position on Assad is confusing our allies and undermining the U.S. mission. Our own Molly O’Toole has this: “Thornberry criticized the restrictions Obama has put on the military as largely political, rather than tactical, and said the apparent shift has undermined the mission in Syria. ‘I really am concerned about the stories I read this week that say, “Ok, maybe we’ve changed our mind and Assad can stay after all,” he said,  ‘because who is gonna trust us when our positions flip-flop around back and forth, and who is gonna risk their lives to be trained guided and work with us if you can’t be reasonably confident that we’re a reliable entity to work with?’”
The next defense secretary can turn the current budget crunch to his advantage by shifting money from nuclear programs to higher priority defense needs, Tom Collina, policy director for Ploughshares Fund, writes in Defense One: “The United States can save tens of billions, even if it stays at currently planned New START warhead levels, by taking these simple steps: Keep nuclear submarines closer to U.S. shores… Buy new systems only when you need them… [and] Don’t replace things just because we had them before.”

The Bureau of Atomic Scientists just released their annual doomsday clock, and it's only been this close to midnight (3 mins. out) twice before—in 1984 and 1949. More here.

And the Congressional Budget Office just updated their report on projected costs of nuclear weapons through 2024, revising costs down some due to a 3-year delay to a new nuclear cruise missile. Arms Control Association’s Kingston Reif dives into the context of the new report, warning the nuclear bill could still top $1 trillion over the next 30 years. That, here. The CBO report, here.

The $22 million tab is what held up legislation to help reduce veterans suicides late last month in the Senate. With the bill back under discussion, lawmakers are now saying it shouldn’t be hard for the VA to shift funds to pay for pilot programs in the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act. McClatchy’s Lindsay Wise, here.

Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Robert Cardillo, laid out his plans for the future of satellite intelligence collection, and Defense One’s Patrick Tucker explains what it could mean for ISR tomorrow: “In the global coverage area, for the first time, we’re trying to create really persistent surveillance from space, rather than having episodic surveillance… these would be different from geo-stationary orbiting satellites for communication, which have limited ISR capabilities.

“It’s never about the image. It’s about the answer to the question around that image,” says Cardillo. Nowhere is that truer than in those parts of the world where violence is increasing and human rights are under threat but where the media, largely, fears to tread,” such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram problem that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch addressed with open source satellite data.

The SEAL who killed bin Laden took a lot of flak for his high profile in late 2014, but a charity he started to help fellow SOF transition out of the military has been largely overlooked. WaPo's Dan Lamothe with more on Rob O'Neill's nonprofit, Your Grateful Nation, here.

With Nigerian elections coming up, a 72-year-old general is looking like a fitting replacement for the largely inept President Goodluck Jonathan. NYTs Adam Nossiter, here.

And the Nigerian response to Boko Haram’s rampage and destruction is employing more local actors—hunters and scouts, e.g.—which may have been why they razed the village of Baga in early January. Jeff Moore rolls up the Nigerian government’s mostly unsavory options for halting Boko Haram over at Small Wars Journal, here.

Also at SWJ this morning, JAG Lt. Col. Jay Morse breaks down Army Chief Odierno’s regionally aligned forces approach to global security after the worst of the Iraq and Afghan wars: “Human engagement is the crux of RAF. It is a visionary concept of military security cooperation that embraces the lessons of the past decade—recognition that it is not enough to provide weapons and ammunition to our partners and teach them how to set a better L-shaped ambush... RAF recognizes that to prevent a fight before it starts, we must equally emphasize the goal to build leaders in foreign militaries who have a healthy respect for institutions, understand the necessity of a disciplined force under democratic control, and who embrace sacrifice, not entitlement.” More on that, here.

How well do you know the differences between the two Talibans? The folks at the Council on Foreign Relations assembled a nifty multimedia explainer that traces the roots and future aims of the two groups feuding with the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, here.

It’s an episode of NCIS in the making: After the Navy’s announcement Wednesday that it had fired the Gitmo base commander, the reasons behind the decision—which now includes allegations of an affair and a suspicious death—are beginning to see the light of day. AP’s Lolita Baldor: “U.S. officials said [Capt. John R. Nettleton] is under investigation in connection with the death of Christopher Tur, who was found dead on Jan. 11... Tur, a civilian, was found dead in Guantanamo Bay waters on the western side of the base by the U.S. Coast Guard. He had been reported missing by his wife, also a civilian, the day before... Officials said the alleged affair between Nettleton and Tur's wife was discovered during the course of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's investigation into his death. Officials did not provide any details on the cause of Tur's death.” More here.

CSIS to welcome Rebecca Hersman, currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counterproliferation Policy at the Pentagon. Hersman will join the Center for Strategic and International Studies in March as the director of its new Project on Nuclear Issues, cutely named “PONI,” as well as serve as a senior advisor to the International Security Program, D Brief has learned.  CSIS’ Clark Murdock is stepping out of that role to focus on defense analysis.

Meantime, Andrew Hunter went to CSIS late last year. Hunter, formerly of the Pentagon’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics – AT&L – who had also served at one point as a special assistant to Ash Carter, the presumed new Defense Secretary. At CSIS, Hunter replaced CSIS’ David Berteau as the director of the Defense Industrial Initiatives Group. Berteau was confirmed as the Pentagon’s Assistant Secretary for Logistics and Materiel Readiness just a bit ago.

Speaking of which: CSIS was just named the world’s “Top Defense and National Security Think Tank” by the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tank Index. Rounding out the top 5: Rand Corporation, the U.K.’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, Brookings and Chatham House. Read the full list, as well as additional rankings by world region and specialization, here.

Gold, Jerry, Gold: While the military junta enters its eighth consecutive month of rule in Thailand, the U.S. embassy there confirmed plans are still on for this year’s Cobra Gold exercise. Bangkok Post, here.

ICYMI: Meet the State of the Union guest whose spirit should give you pause – Jason Gibson. CBS’ David Martin profiled a man who was invited to the SOTU by President Obama and whose story makes you wonder why you should ever complain about anything again: “…Gibson is tethered to a wheelchair because he lost both legs so high up he cannot wear prosthetics. It happened on patrol in Afghanistan in 2012 when he took a knee and set off a roadside bomb.

Gibson says he doesn't know how he survived -- simply calling it, ‘a miracle.’ A miracle of medicine and of the human spirit. Since then Gibson has competed in four marathons, hit the slopes in Sun Valley and cast for trout in Montana.

Gibson, who also got his pilot’s license: “"I tell people I've done more stuff with my life with no legs than when I had legs.”

Last October, Obama visited him in his hospital.

Martin: “When President Obama visited Gibson in the hospital no one could have imagined he would one day fly. Gibson was so tranquilized on pain medication he didn't even know it was the president.”

Gibson, on Obama visiting him, with a laugh: “"I didn't register who he was and there are pictures of me just like glaring, 'who is this guy? What's he doing here?”

Martin’s kicker: “Notice how Gibson ends every statement with a chuckle? None of us would envy his condition. All of us should envy his spirit.” Read or watch, worth the click here.