Tag Archives: Pentagon

Another stunning excerpt from A Very Stable Genius: Trump by now was in one of his rages. He was so angry that he wasn’t taking many breaths. All morning, he had been coarse and cavalier, but the next several things he bellowed went beyond that description. They stunned nearly everyone in the room, and some vowed that they would never …

CNN reports: Several US service members were injured during last week’s Iranian missile attack on Al-Asad airbase in Iraq Pentagon. “While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed,” the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq …

Roll Call reports: Defense Department brass are expected Wednesday afternoon to brief President Donald Trump on their plans for standing up a new military branch called the Space Force, and a Pentagon official said they may even present several logo options for the new armed service. The White House meeting is expected to include Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, Air …

CBS News reports: Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he “didn’t see” specific evidence that top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was planning attacks on four U.S. embassies, but said he believed such attack would have occurred. “The president didn’t cite a specific piece of evidence. What he said was he believed,” Esper said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” “I …

The Navy Times reports: The warship Farragut was “aggressively approached” by a Russian naval ship Thursday in the North Arabian Sea, U.S. 5th Fleet officials said. The American guided-missile destroyer was conducting routine operations at the time of the approach, according to a statement from the Bahrain-based command. “Farragut sounded five short blasts, the international maritime signal for danger of …

The Insider reports: The US is sending 3,500 Army paratroopers to the Middle East on a snap deployment as tensions with Iran soar, and they have been told to leave their cellphones and other personal electronic devices behind. “This is not a standard deployment,” Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, said, telling Insider that the …

CNN reports: US forces and air-defense missile batteries across the Middle East were placed on high alert overnight Monday to possibly shoot down Iranian drones as intelligence mounted about a threat of an imminent attack against US targets, two US officials tell CNN. The alert reflects the heightened tensions between the US and Iran in the wake of last week’s …

Politico reports: Eric Chewning, chief of staff to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, is stepping down at the end of the month, the latest in a series of high-profile civilians to leave the Pentagon. He’ll be replaced by Jen Stewart, the top Republican staffer on the House Armed Services Committee and a former top adviser to the chairman of the Joint …

Via press release from the Department of Defense: At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq …

Agence France-Press reports: The Pentagon warned Thursday that the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group that stormed the US embassy in Baghdad would would carry out more attacks on US facilities – and would regret it. “The provocative behavior has been out there for months… So do I think they may do something? Yes. And they will likely regret it,” Esper told …

Reuters reports: The United States would be very disappointed if North Korea tested a long-range or nuclear missile and would take appropriate action as a leading military and economic power, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday. Washington has many “tools in its tool kit” to respond to any such test, O’Brien said in an interview with …

Yahoo News reports: The Pentagon is advising members of the military not to use consumer DNA kits, saying the information collected by private companies could pose a security risk, according to a memo co-signed by the Defense Department’s top intelligence official. The memo provides little details on how genetic profiles could endanger security, other than noting that potential “inaccuracies” in …

ABC News reports: The U.S. Space Force has become the nation’s newest branch of the military as President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorized the creation of the new military service. Space Force went into operation almost immediately after the legislation was signed into law, but many questions still need to be decided as to how …

ESPN reports: Hand gestures flashed by West Point cadets and Naval Academy midshipmen during the televised Army-Navy football game were not racist signals, military investigations have concluded. A Navy probe of the event found that the students were “participating in a sophomoric game” on Saturday and had no racist intent. Clips of the hand gestures by the students went viral …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration intends to announce the drawdown of about 4,000 troops from Afghanistan as early next week, according to three current and former U.S. officials. The withdrawal will leave between 8,000 and 9,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the officials said. The announcement would come just days after Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad rejoined diplomatic …

Politico reports: Rank and file troops sharing candidates’ positions on social media. MAGA ball caps on display at military bases. Former soldiers, pardoned of war crimes charges, appearing on stage with the commander-in-chief at a political fundraiser. These and other examples of partisanship seeping into the armed forces are prompting generals and admirals to confront what they see as a …

Here’s one more thing to worry about: “On Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time, the U.S. Air Force, in partnership with the Strategic Capabilities Office, conducted a flight test of a prototype conventionally-configured ground-launched ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver said in a statement. Such a missile was prohibited …

Politico reports: The military’s top officer today defended efforts to maintain discipline in the ranks amid stiff questioning from lawmakers on whether President Donald Trump’s intervention in the cases of three service members accused or convicted of war crimes will create chaos on the battlefield. “We do maintain, and we will maintain, good order and discipline,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. …

The Washington Post reports: A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. The documents were generated by a federal project examining …

The Voice Of America reports: Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military. While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of …