Pentagon

Report shows disastrous effect of Pentagon cuts in budget cuts

By: James Carafano 10/11/11 10:22 PM

The House Armed Services Committee recently sent President Barack Obama a report outlining cuts the military would have to make under the “sequestration” formula in this year’s Budget Control Act. Unless Congress and the president agree to an alternative long-term plan to reduce the deficit (supposedly coming from the so-called “supercommittee”), there will be automatic reductions in “discretionary” spending. Read More

A Decade Later

By: Nate Beeler 09/10/11 7:59 PM

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Three attacks, ten years of healing: A sense of loss at the Pentagon

By: Liz Farmer 09/09/11 3:30 PM

Ten years ago, 11-year-old Bernard Curtis Brown Jr. was packing his bags for a school trip to southern California. United Airlines flight attendant Michele Heidenberger was celebrating her 57th birthday with her family before making the same West Coast trip. And at the Pentagon, Angie Houtz, 27, was just getting settled in her new office on the west side of the building. Read More

The dangers of further Defense cuts

By: By Gary Schmitt and Tom Donnelly 08/09/11 11:47 PM

In a classic case of closing the barn door after the horses have bolted, newly appointed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and retiring Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen held a joint news conference Thursday in which they decried the impending cuts to the defense budget made likely by the debt ceiling deal. Read More

No. 2 at Pentagon to step down

By: Hayley Peterson 07/07/11 10:52 AM

The No. 2 official at the Pentagon announced on Thursday that he is stepping down. Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III is leaving his position "to return to private life," according to the Department of Defense. The move didn't come as a surprise, and it opens the door for newly-appointed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to select a new second-in-command. Read More

New al Qaeda leader is no bin Laden, Gates says

By: Hayley Peterson 06/16/11 12:00 PM

The new leader of al Qaeda is nothing like Osama bin Laden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over the No. 1 spot in the terrorist organization Thursday, is already facing challenges from those within his own ranks, Gates told reporters. Read More

Mullen, Gates tell senior officials 'It is time to stop talking'

By: Hayley Peterson 05/18/11 10:53 AM

The Pentagon told military and senior administration officials on Wednesday to shut up about the Osama bin Laden mission. "It is time to stop talking," Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said at the State Department. "We have talked far too much about this. It's a story that, if we don't stop talking, it will never end and it needs to." Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates rapped the White House for leaping to the microphone too soon after the operation. Read More

Coming defense cuts will leave US unprepared for future risks

By: James Carafano 04/25/11 9:45 PM

It was 1989 — and everyone knew that defense budgets were going to go down.At the time, spending less on defense made sense. Almost overnight, with the Soviet Union disintegrating from within, the world had become dramatically safer. The U.S. would need a smaller conventional force, a reduced nuclear arsenal, and a shift in focus of its national security missions. Read More

U.S. Afghan forces tout gains in Taliban birthplace

By: Sara A. Carter 04/14/11 1:43 PM

In the birthplace of the Taliban, US military officials are clinging to gains and keeping fingers crossed that successful campaigns in Zhari district against the insurgency will hold during the Spring offensive. U.S. Army Col. Arthur Kandarian, told reporters via satellite from Afghanistan at the Pentagon that positive changes are a testament to combined efforts of both Afghan and U.S. forces since launching the campaign against the insurgency last September. Read More

Little consequence for companies that cheat the US government

By: By Danielle Brian 04/07/11 10:56 PM

When Boeing was caught red-handed in 2003 cheating on its bid for a lucrative Air Force deal, you might have expected the federal government to punish the giant defense contractor to send a message that such dishonest behavior is not tolerated. Read More