From Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper:
A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday.
National Security
Who Will Fill Bob Gates' Pentagon Office?
Like Paul Bunyan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is going to do a lot of chopping as early as Thursday, when he’s expected to detail $100 billion in new cuts to future Pentagon budgets. But some time after that, he’s going to lay down his ax, leave his Pentagon E-ring office for the last time, and head west to his Washington state home …
Captain Video Is History
The Navy relieved Capt. Owen Honors of command of the USS Enterprise on Tuesday afternoon. That ended a PR problem, and all but ends his career, but is triggering deeper concerns among Navy officers that are going to persist long after cable TV has moved on to something else, if it hasn’t already.
Here’s the issue in a nutshell, as …
Walking The Plank…
Looks like Capt. Owen Honors, the star of his own tasteless but morale-boosting videos while serving as the No. 2 officer aboard USS Enterprise several years ago, is going to be relieved of command of that very vessel this afternoon, Navy officials say. It’s a pity he apparently never visited the Coalition of Sailors Against …
John P. Wheeler III, 1944-2010
John Wheeler was one of those outer planets in the capital’s solar system, never drawing too close to the Sun but riding the country’s business in an elliptical orbit that would bring him closer to the heat every once in awhile. I can remember discussing the plight of Vietnam veterans with him — and their push for a memorial to …
Raunchy Video Captain May Be Suspended
A Navy official says the service will, at a minimum, relieve Capt. Owen Honors of his post as commander of the USS Enterprise until a probe into the videos he created several years ago when he was serving as the No. 2 officer aboard the carrier is completed. The suspension could come as early as Tuesday. It’s likely to signal the end of …
Crew Expresses Support For `Raunchy Video' Captain
What made the case of Navy Capt. Holly Graf — relieved of command aboard the USS Cowpens last year for “cruelty and maltreatment” toward her crew — so compelling was the anger she generated among those who had served under her. Dozens of sailors and officers, in interviews, and hundreds, in blog posts online, expressed a profound …
The Navy's Latest: Capt. Jekyll Or Capt. Hyde?
The latest Navy case of an officer behaving badly is a tidal wave of poor leadership. Or is it a mere ripple in the never-ending quest by a senior officer trying to motivate 5,000 young men and women on a six-month cruise aboard a floating airport, where death is always a snapped cable or botched landing away? If you find yourself …
Aye Aye Sir — We're Still at Sea About This Stuff
[vodpod id=Video.5238398&w=425&h=350&fv=] It’s hard to believe 20 years after Tailhook that some Navy officers still don’t get it. So here’s the drill: if you don’t want your gay-bashing and sexual-harassment antics leading the network news, keep your comments close-held among like-mind cronies….and, God forbid, don’t broadcast them …
Betting the Family in Korea
For more than a half-century, most U.S. troops headed to South Korea for one-year tours without their families, over concern that a sudden war would trap spouses and children in the “sea of fire” the North Koreans promised to unleash if provoked. But over the past several years, that policy has come to an end — just as tensions in the …
Held Up By Hillary
It seemed closer to Halloween than New Year’s in a Wachovia Bank just outside the capital earlier this week when a robber brandishing a gun — and wearing a Hillary Clinton mask — demanded money. He got away with an unspecified amount of loot, and the local sheriff is now investigating. Looks like he might have been wearing this …
North Korea's Follow-on Follies
Busy as North Korea may be lobbing artillery shells at a South Korean island, it’s also making time to fire orders at its 23 million people about its dictator-in-the-wings. You may recall that in September the NoKos awarded Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of ailing dictator Kim Jong Il, with the rank of Daejang, equivalent to a U.S. …
U.S.-Chinese War Games Ratchet Up
The top U.S. commander in the Pacific says the Chinese military has developed and begun deploying a new missile capable of sinking U.S. aircraft carriers. Adm. Robert Willard says the DF-21D is designed to be fired into space as a ballistic missile, homing in on its target as it returns to Earth. A top Pentagon official warned earlier …