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 …
The bin Laden Tweet heard round the world
The news of Osama bin Laden’s death unfolded in what is becoming typical for a fast-moving 21st-century story. Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, sent the Washington press corps into overdrive with this tweet about bin Laden’s death. Meanwhile, the Internet is already choc full of folks trying …
Panetta’s Challenge
When the President announced his new national security team last week most of the attention focused on David Petraeus at CIA and the problem of winding down the war in Afghanistan. Leon Panetta’s nomination as Secretary of Defense went almost unnoticed, by comparison.
But Panetta has the bigger challenge: how to manage a build down in …
Bin Laden: How They Got Him — And What Happens to al Qaeda Now
The reports started coming in more than a month ago: Osama bin Laden was on the move, and the U.S. had its eye on him. Stressed by the turmoil sweeping his part of the world – tumult he had no roll in sparking – bin Laden was trying to bolster al Qaeda’s credibility as young people Tweeted and Facebooked about a future that …
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 …
Pentagon Cites Gains in Afghanistan
Army Gen. David Petraeus is leaving his successor, Marine Lieut. General John Allen, “tangible progress” in Afghanistan to build on, according to the Pentagon’s semi-annual assessment of how the war is going. Easy for him to say, since by fall he’ll be running the CIA in Langley, Va.
Mental Health Ills Now Top Cause of Hospital Visits in U.S. Military
In 2006 and 2008, pregnancy accounted for the most hospitalizations among members of the U.S. military, with mental-health ailments ranked second. In 2010, those two swapped places: mental-health problems were the No. 1 cause of hospital stays for members of the U.S. military last year. “In contrast to recent prior years, in 2010 …
Israel’s 2007 strike in Syria hit a nuclear site
The IAEA says the Israeli air strike in Syria in 2007 did, in fact, hit a secret nuclear facility under construction as the United States has long insisted. The UN watchdog apparently tried to backpedal some, awkwardly, after the announcement.
Navy Fires Third C.O. — This Week!
The Navy is on a tear: it has just relieved its third commanding officer this week. That makes 10 so far this year, putting it well ahead of 2010, when 17 were canned over the entire year. The latest man overboard (the ninth, in fact, was a woman, relieved last Saturday) is Commander Jay Wylie, captain of the destroyer …
Sessions: bring back the interrogators who don’t know the job
Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions has penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post alleging that President Obama’s decision to yank the CIA from the lead role in questioning captured suspected terrorists has made the United States more at risk to an attack. His piece has an ominous tone and some frightening examples. Sessions …
Fancy Underwear Urgently Incoming for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
We’ve reported on the problems IEDs can cause troops’ private parts when they detonate underneath them. Things have gotten so dire that the Pentagon is now skipping normal procurement rules mandating competition, to speed up the purchase and deployment of so-called “ballistic undergarments.” The justification for the no-competition …
Meet The New Boss. Same As The Old Boss.
I remember when Harold Brown was Jimmy Carter’s defense secretary. Heck, I remember when Bob McNamara was JFK’s defense secretary, so let me rephrase that: I covered Harold Brown as Jimmy Carter’s defense secretary.
There’s been a flurry of reports over the last couple of days about how the shift of Leon …
Illuminating Kabul
U.S. cities like San Diego are debating the wisdom of putting solar-powered street lights along their roads. Heck — that’s already happening in…Kabul, Afghanistan? You bet. In fact, Colonel Thomas Magness IV, the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan, was raving about them Thursday:
There is no reliable
…