Mark Thompson

Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Thompson has covered national security in Washington since 1979, and for Time since 1994. Follow him on Twitter at @MarkThompson_DC

Articles from Contributor

Battleland Battleland

The Pall of Confusion Surrounding bin Laden’s Death

Even when the U.S. government feels like bragging about a military success, it takes several days for the most elementary outline to surface. Now, imagine it’s a secret raid involving sensitive sources and methods that the U.S. doesn’t want to divulge. Pile on top of that a senior White House official a little too eager to spin a …

Battleland Battleland

Speaking of Afghanistan…

Jim Lacey is a former Time colleague now a professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War College. He’s still writing:

While I was in Kandahar, General Petraeus announced that the Coalition faced about a hundred al-Qaeda fighters. Did anyone do the math? There are over 140,000 Coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, or 1,400 for

Battleland Battleland

Wither the Afghan War

So now that Osama bin Laden has gone on to his just deserts, what impact — if any — will his demise have on the war in Afghanistan next door?

The military answer: none.

The political answer: accelerate that troop pullout.

Battleland Battleland

And You Think You’re Happy bin Laden Is Dead

Imagine how the Oregon schoolteacher who pledged not to shave until Osama bin Laden was history feels today:

A teacher who vowed nearly 10 years ago not to cut his beard until Osama bin Laden was captured or proven dead said he cried Sunday night upon hearing of the terrorist’s death. “I spent my first five minutes crying and then

Battleland Battleland

The Final Room-by-Room Hunt For Osama Bin Laden

A senior U.S. intelligence official described Osama bin Laden’s compound with two words that are rarely spoken together: “opaque windows.” Once the U.S. became aware of the compound, a closer look made them even more curious. “The walls around the compound were up to 18 feet high,” a senior U.S. intelligence operative said Monday. …

Battleland Battleland

Bin Laden: Betrayed By His Face, His DNA…And His Wife

Senior U.S. officials say the U.S. government used several sophisticated methods to confirm that the tall man Navy SEALs killed early Monday in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was, indeed, Osama bin Laden:

1. CIA experts compared known photos of bin Laden with photographs of the corpse, and concluded they were 95% sure the dead man was bin

Battleland Battleland

Bin Laden: A Tale Of Two Mornings, Three Decades Apart

Just over 31 years ago, a much bleaker dawn greeted Americans awakening and getting ready to go to work than was the case Monday morning. Back in 1980, the U.S. military had just been humiliated at Desert One, deep inside Iran, trying to rescue the 52 hostages that had been held by Iran for six months. The U.S. military was forced to …

Battleland Battleland

How ‘Operation Kill bin Laden’ Went Down

The details remain foggy, but Osama bin Laden’s death early Monday local time began with a fleet of four helicopters slicing through the night skies over Pakistan from a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan. The mission, approved by President Obama on Friday, had been set for early Sunday local time but had to be delayed because of poor …

Battleland Battleland

CBO Defense Option #6

This is our final selection from the Congressional Budget Office’s recent report on cutting federal spending, by slicing Pentagon programs among other things. It calls for dropping one of the Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers, and one of the 10 air wings that supply them with aircraft. Total savings, in outlays, over the next five years is …

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