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Note: The following text is a quote: U.S. Seeks to Counter Enemy’s ‘Weapon of Choice’ By John J. Kruzel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2009 – The Defense Department expects U.S. forces in Afghanistan to continue to be targeted by improvised explosive devices -- which have claimed more lives there than any other weapon -- while it seeks ways to counter the threat, officials said. As President Barack Obama and his advisors weigh decisions on the next phase of the Afghan war, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is working to protect against and defeat the growing threat from...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 23, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today he’s encouraged by unofficial endorsements NATO defense ministers are expressing for Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s strategy proposals for Afghanistan, along with indications they’re considering additional resources to support the mission there. Gates, here for a NATO ministerial, emphasized that he is in a “listening mode” and not pressing for specific contributions. “This was not the forum for anyone to express a view of any commitment,” he said. McChrystal’s resource requests, including troop recommendations, are working their way through the NATO chain of command and will be addressed...

Wow! You can call that leadership! As seen on Hannity: It has been 53 days since General McChrystal delivered his recommendations to the Pentagon for a troop increase. That’s 53 days since the president’s handpicked general gave the Commander- in- chief a recommendation on how to win that war in Afghanistan. Now in that time, the president has flown to Copenhagen to get embarrassed by the International Olympic Committee. He’s dispatched his henchman in an attempt to silence his critics and even found time for dance parties at the White House. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said a couple of...

President Obama's announced decision this week to remain undecided on new troops in Afghanistan for weeks, or even months, rejects his top commander's determination that without urgent reinforcements the war may be lost. At yesterday’s White House press briefing, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs reconfirmed that President Obama had not decided when a decision on a possible troop surge for Afghanistan would be reached. At issue was the forthcoming runoff election in which incumbent Hamid Karzai will compete again, after an earlier polling was apparently tainted by voting fraud. "The UN, NATO, the US stand ready to assist the Afghans in...

National Security: On the eve of a visit by China's No. 2 ranking military officer, the Obama administration loosens export controls on technology that will benefit Chinese missile development. It's deja vu all over again. The Pentagon has announced that Chinese Gen. Xu Caihou will visit the United States and meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Oct. 26. Xu is vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army Central Military Commission. While here, Xu will visit American military installations around the U.S., including the U.S. Pacific Command. Perhaps Xu will bring with him a note of thanks for the administration's...

Democrats Remain Divided After Congressional Meeting With President; Posts for Two Generals Support McChrystal StrategyWASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates has forwarded a request for more troops in Afghanistan to President Barack Obama, the Pentagon said Wednesday, as divisions within the administration and Congress continued despite Mr. Obama's high-profile meeting with congressional leaders the day before. Mr. Gates -- who made no recommendation of his own about the troop request, defense officials said -- had planned to hold back the document until the administration finished a broad re-evaluation of its Afghan war strategy. That decision came amid increasing public and...

Note: The following text is a quote: Gates: Withdrawal from Afghanistan Would Embolden Radicals by Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2009 – Withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan before accomplishing the mission there would greatly embolden Islamic radicals worldwide, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. Afghanistan -- particularly the region that abuts the Afghan-Pakistan border -- is “the modern epicenter of jihad,” Gates said, noting that area is where the Soviet Union’s military forces eventually were defeated by Afghan insurgents during the 1979-89 Soviet-Afghan War. Gates joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at...

HH: There are five Americans, Bill Kristol, who by simple act of resignation could rally a lot of concerned citizens – Secretary Gates, Generals Petraeus, McChrystal, Jones, and Odierno. Of course, Jones, retired and [is now] in the White House. Do you agree with me that if any of those five said I cannot be part of this administration as a result of their policy decisions, that that would mobilize public opinion? BK: I think it would help, and I wonder if General McChrystal will say if something pretty close to his recommendation isn’t accepted, but you know, I think...

From the Wall Street Journal - October 1, 2009 Gates Doubts U.S.'s Afghan Strategy As Obama Reviews Options, Defense Secretary Worries Manpower-Intensive Plan Won't Stop Taliban WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama met with senior counselors for three hours Wednesday to launch his review of Afghan war strategy, amid indications that his defense secretary -- the key link between the White House and the military -- is among those undecided about the right approach. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior U.S. commander in Kabul, is advocating a manpower-intensive counterinsurgency strategy that focuses on protecting the Afghan populace rather than hunting individual militants. He submitted...

I lived in Georgia for most of four decades before moving to the Roaring Fork Valley. My mother's family was from New Orleans; she was born there, and I attended Tulane University. My children were born in Atlanta, and my grandparents owned a large farm — “plantation,” if you like — outside Thomasville in southwest Georgia. I know the South pretty well, and I'm familiar with the cultural stereotypes that attach to anybody who has ever lived there. I guess the “Stars ‘n' Bars” confederate battle flag tops the list. Then there's NASCAR and denim coveralls, banjos, cornbread and grits....

George Stephanopoulos does a great job interviewing Defense Secretary Robert Gates on General McChrystal’s Afghan memorandum calling for up to 40,000 armed forces troops. Here is both a blog report and videos. Jim Vicevich adds: "Gates never wavers. I will wait to pass the memo on until the President is ready."

(IsraelNN.com) A top official in the Obama Administration has at last admitted what intelligence agents and Israeli government officials have been warning about for years: Iran intends to build a nuclear arsenal. In media interviews with American television news networks scheduled to air Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said bluntly, "The Iranians have the intention of having nuclear weapons."

Note: The following text is a quote: NEWS ARTICLE ‘No Doubt’ New Iranian Nuke Facility is ‘Illicit,’ Gates Concludes By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2009 – Revelations that Iran has covertly been building an underground nuclear-fuel processing plant belie the Iranian-government’s denials that it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on the Sunday TV talk show circuit today. “We’ve been watching the construction of this facility for quite some time and one of the reasons that we’ve waited to make it public was to ensure that our conclusions...

Mr. Bill is up to his old tricks, now with a new website that is the world wide web embodiment of a giant pharmaganda campaign to "teach" the world how important it is for the U.S. to fund global vaccination programs throughout the world. In other words, it teaches how great it is to give all our money to big pharma. Notice how “The Living Proof Project”, as Mr. Bill calls it, puts a nice face on disinformation. They will spend their time telling us the “good” things about global health efforts. They have had enough of hearing about the...

(snip) STEPHANOPOULOS: So you fully expect there will be prisoners in Guantanamo after the deadline? MCCAIN: All I know is, frankly, what I briefed on, and apparently they’re certainly not going to make that deadline. But we should continue to work towards the closure of Guantanamo Bay because of the image that it has in the world of brutality and harms our image very badly.(snip) STEPHANOPOULOS: But it’s going to take more than a decade to succeed, isn’t it? MCCAIN: I think you will see signs of success in a year to 18 months, if we implement the strategy right...

The administration is finally revealing to the public what most of us already knew. Yesterday, unnamed administration officials first revealed that GITMO will most likely still be open come January 22,2010, when it was scheduled for closure. Today, here's what Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said trying to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay has proved more complicated than anticipated. Gates said "it's going to be tough" for the president to meet his goal of shutting the prison in January. He said there are difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and...

The administration is finally revealing to the public what most of us already knew. Yesterday, unnamed administration officials first revealed that GITMO will most likely still be open come January 22,2010, when it was scheduled for closure. Today, here's what Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said trying to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay has proved more complicated than anticipated. Gates said "it's going to be tough" for the president to meet his goal of shutting the prison in January. He said there are difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and...

The 'Manchurian Mullah' February 01, 2008 New York Post Amir Taheri AS the "student" arrives in a bulletproof limousine with heavily armed guards, his teachers, ignoring that he's two hours late, greet him deferentially. The scene takes place at the Shiite seminary in Qom, Iran's holy city. The 35-year-old "student": Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, a militia often deemed one of Iran's chief assets in Iraq. Sadr has spent much of the last 10 months in Iran, living in a 14-bedroom villa in Tehran's posh Farmanieh neighborhood. From there, he travels 90 minutes to Qom twice a week,...

Race-Based Student Government by: Alana Goodman, September 24, 2009 Racism is alive and well at the University of Massachusetts. And I’m not talking about the hysterical, trumped-up allegations of racism made by people like Henry Louis Gates and Jimmy Carter at the mere mention of legitimate criticism about Barack Obama’s policies. I mean clear-cut, systematic, institutionalized racism. Just look at our Student Government Association (SGA) By-Laws. As we prepare to swear in our elected representatives to the SGA Senate next week, UMass students should be aware that 13 percent of our SGA Senators will not have even competed in Tuesday’s...

General McChrystal’s report on the Afghan War should be required reading for us all. It’s written in plain English and is brutally realistic in its assessment of the current situation. It makes clear that if we continue on the path we’re on, even with the additional 21,000 troops President Obama has already added, we’re headed for certain defeat. Put simply, the General concludes that President Obama’s stated goal “to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future” cannot be accomplished with the current troop levels, resources and...

Last Sunday SecDef Robert Gates wrote an Op-Ed in the NY Times that was not only deceptive, but avoided the main point. What he missed telling us is the European Missile Shield (Ground based Mid-course Defense - GMD) is primarily a system to defend the US from ICBMs, with a secondary capability to defend the northern and central portions of Europe. By killing it he has killed our ability to stop US bound missiles from Iran. Early in his article Gates makes a statement that is totally misleading. In it he claims the original system would not be ready until...

America in Danger: Important Courtroom Battles Published: 24 September 2009Dear Mr. Yon:It is my pleasure to forward to you the attached copy of the amicus curiae brief which we filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of the Special Operations community on Monday evening.We believe that this unique brief has the potential to play an important role in the Court of Appeals’ consideration of Maqaleh v. Gates.  We are especially optimistic that the Court will value the insight that only veterans of Special Operations can offer as to the extremely adverse...

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates threw his support on Wednesday behind an on-again, off-again plan to develop a new long-range U.S. bomber, citing the military modernization of China. "I am committed to seeing the United States has an airborne long-range strike capability," Gates said at an annual conference of the U.S. Air Force Association, an advocacy group. He said the United States should be less concerned with a toe-to-toe challenge from "countries like China" and "more concerned with their ability to disrupt our freedom of movement and narrow our strategic options." Gates referred to investments that...

Gibbs blasts CNN for reporting on the Coast Guard's training exercise. But what really stands out is at the bottom of the article. Gibbs said "I tend not to question law enforcement". But didn't Obama say that cops acted stupidly regarding the Gates incident? Didn't Obama basically praise Gates for "questioning authority?"

If Republicans act like Democrats we don’t need Republicans. Obama has a penchant for making HC speeches that alter his intent. Just like his recent 157,929th news conference/HC speech, he indicted the Cambridge Police as “Stupid” while defending his friend, Hahvad Professor Louie Gates. HC was put on the backburner while Barack played racial politics cover-up at a beer fest. Last night, SC Republican, Rep. Joe Wilson blurted out the words “YOU LIE!” after one of the many fibs told by our Dear Leader. Never mind Barack Obama called millions of Americans liars for objecting to what’s actually in House...

The Van Jones story isn't about another radical federal employee or even about President Obama's addiction to executive authority (he has appointed over 30 czars with whom he meets regularly, but he has held just one cabinet meeting since his inauguration). The Van Jones story is about our president: a man who fills the void in his emotional past with "authentic" black men who have no interior struggle for definition. President Obama has incessantly injected himself into racial matters that require no clarification (see Henry Louis Gates Jr.); he has turned every debate into a racial debate (see his 2008...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.rest of story at link...

It isn’t easy to put U.S. defenses back on track after they’ve endured a season of neglect. Gen. William Snow found that out firsthand. Snow’s job, when he arrived in Washington in the World War I era, was to direct the buildup of artillery for the Allied Expeditionary Force. He thought his office should have stationery reflecting the importance of the task. His request was rejected. Rather than fund this extravagance, it was suggested the general purchase a rubber stamp to mark his correspondence. Snow had joined a War Department completely unprepared to fight a war. The Army hadn’t been...

Slavery Reparations by Fred Reed On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. It's because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess he'll send me a bill, huh? I feel like saying, Let me get this straight, Hank. I'm slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I don't blame you. I'd like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in justice. I'll give you a million dollars...

RUSH: President Obama has arrived at Marxist Vineyard, has told the press no coverage, just leave us alone, we don't want any coverage here, just leave us alone. I feel like waiting for the next headline on Drudge to be: "People to President: Leave Us Alone! Keep your hands off our health care; keep your hands off our Social Security; keep your hands off everything, just stay up there in Marxist Vineyard with your buddy skip Gates and go play a couple rounds of golf." In fact, I have a very good friend -- I wonder if I should say...

The Air Force spent years fighting to keep building the $350 million F-22 fighter, an airplane crammed with so much gee-whiz technology there's a law barring it from being sold to any other nation. But since no other nation is building such a plane to challenge it, the F-22 has become a costly investment with an uncertain payoff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates just killed it. That sent an unmistakable message to the two new top Air Force officials Gates recently appointed, and now the service is seeking 100 slower, lower-flying and far cheaper airplanes — most likely prop-driven —...

Let's go back to that "teachable moment." It was proclaimed by Barack Obama after he said that police in Cambridge, Mass., had acted "stupidly" in arresting Henry Louis Gates for essentially being black in his own house. It has been a month now, and the one sure thing we have learned in this extended teachable moment is about Obama himself. He can't teach.

Let's go back to that "teachable moment." It was proclaimed by Barack Obama after he said that police in Cambridge, Mass., had acted "stupidly" in arresting Henry Louis Gates for essentially being black in his own house. It has been a month now, and the one sure thing we have learned in this extended teachable moment is about Obama himself. He can't teach. This is clear when it comes to two of the major challenges confronting his administration: health care reform and the war in Afghanistan. Both are losing popular support. Increasingly, Americans are becoming convinced that Afghanistan will cost...

With relativistic people, there is no such thing as a true axiom, yet you'd never know it listening to our modern mantras. We hear things such as "Our strength lies in our diversity," "Religion has caused all the wars in history," and "Everything is a matter of perspective" proclaimed with theological assurance. Of course, the last supposition is contradictory, and embracing it renders moral supposition itself meaningless. Regardless, it's natural for man to make sense of the world by "profiling" elements of reality. Many of our assumptions pertain to race, and one is always uttered in the wake of stories...

Note: The following text is a quote: News American Forces Press Service Obama, Gates Lead Defense Acquisition Reforms By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2009 – President Barack Obama threw his weight behind the Defense Department’s acquisition reform efforts earlier this week, emphasizing that unnecessary spending hurts not only taxpayers, but also warfighters on the front lines. “Every dollar wasted in our defense budget is a dollar we can’t spend to care for our troops or protect America or prepare for the future,” the president told participants at the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ 110th convention, in...

On a rainy day last week in Long Branch, NJ, Bob Dylan, wearing a hood, was peering into a for-sale home when a neighbor called the police fearing he might be a burglar. Two young officers arrived on the scene and neither of them knew who Bob Dylan was. They asked for I.D. - he had none but explained he was a musician on tour with John Mellencamp and they were set to play at a nearby stadium in Lakewood. Without fuss or anger, Mr. Dylan was escorted back to his tour bus where he produced I.D.

Harvard Professor Henry Gates' arrest has given new life to the issue of racial profiling. We can think of profiling in general as a practice where people use an observable or known physical attribute as a proxy or estimator of some other unobservable or unknown attribute. Race or sex profiling is simply the use of race or sex as that estimator. Profiling represents mankind's attempt to cope with information cost. God would not have to profile since God is all knowing. People differ by race and sex. Let's look at a few profiling examples to see which ones you'd like...

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Aug. 17) -- Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley received a standing ovation from thousands of police officers Monday as he opened a five-day Fraternal Order of Police convention with brief remarks. Crowley, who is white, sparked a national debate on race relations and policing when he arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct at Gates' home in Cambridge, Mass. Gates is black.

Dr. Gates has made some bizarre statements along with his recent bomb and death threat claims, including "dreaming of being arrested at the White House." Is he dreaming about death and bomb threats, too? After his dreamed-up racism, I want to see reality.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private philanthropy fund, sold off almost all of its pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health-care investments in the quarter ended June 30, according to a regulatory filing published Friday. The Seattle-based charity endowment, set up by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and his wife, sold its total holding of 2.5 million shares in health-care giant Johnson & Johnson in the quarter, according to the filing.

When Barack Obama said that the Henry Louis Gates affair was a teachable moment, he spoke truly. But the key is ensuring that the right things are taught and the right people learn. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. There is no need to rehash the events of July 16 chapter and verse. We all know about how the Harvard professor flew into a rage of racial accusations and haughty posturing after Sergeant James Crowley appeared at his Cambridge home to investigate a report of a possible break-in. We've heard that Gates called Crowley a "racist" and said he was...

Maybe they would have recognized him if he had introduced himself as Robert Allen Zimmerman. Folk and rock god Bob Dylan was treated like an mere mortal by Jersey shore cops when a someone called to report a shady looking man wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, N.J, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, said Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley. But...

Note: The following text is a quote: News American Forces Press Service U.S. Must Rebuild Trust with Pakistan, Gates Says By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2009 – The United States must maintain relationships with Pakistan for the long term to build trust between the nations, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. A new public opinion poll in Pakistan says that only 9 percent of Pakistanis see the United States as a partner, while 64 percent see America as the enemy. The poll is disturbing to defense leaders, but not surprising. “First of all,...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53857 Obama Announces Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 9, 2009 – President Barack Obama announced plans today to create a joint virtual lifetime electronic record that will improve care and services to transitioning veterans by smoothing the flow of medical records between the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments. The concept, long advocated by officials in both departments, is considered a major step toward improving the delivery of care and services to servicemembers transitioning from military to civilian life. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and...

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win. Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida will take "a few years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, with success on a larger scale in the desperately poor country a much longer proposition. He acknowledged that the Taliban has a firm hold on parts of the country President Barack Obama has called vital to U.S. security.

Two Cambridge rappers are weighing in on the Gates-Crowley debacle with a verbal assault aimed at racist cops and a sellout black scholar. E’Flash and Vee Knuckles of Natural Born Spitters (NBS) say they don’t want to take sides in the protest track “CPD” (for Cambridge Police Department), their reaction to the July 16 arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley. Instead, they want to offer a street analysis of longstanding problems within their community.

Sonja Schmidt's "Left Exposed" takes a deeper look at President Obama's lifelong friends and discovers that, with friends like his, you not only don't need enemies, you might actually be one.

The "professor gone wild" episode involving Harvard professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. has generated enormous media attention, but few, if any, commentators have tried to explain why this distinguished African American professor "lost it." Having personally encountered numerous black affirmative action professors first hand, let me offer an explanation that transcends this particular incident. First, Gates is the classic black "empty suit:" the articulate, well-attired, well-credentialed, superficially scholarly African American who is really an impostor, an actor playing a role. Gullible white outsiders (but not professors in "real" academic departments), are just easily conned by fancy vocabulary, name dropping and...

A little more than a year ago, while we were preparing to welcome our first child, my wife and I decided to move from Kansas to Philly. We loved Lawrence, a university town with some great basketball and plenty of talk about “diversity”—but all that meant was that Lawrence voted Democrat while the rest of the state voted Republican. The reality was that barely 5 percent of the town’s population was black. We decided to get away from Lawrence’s comfy ivory-tower atmosphere and move someplace where our son wouldn’t be surrounded by people who looked, talked and believed the exact...

A Boston police officer is suing the city after he was suspended for referring to a black Harvard professor as a "banana-eating jungle monkey" in an e-mail. Boston police Officer Justin Barrett apologized for his e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "If I'm charged with a crime I want a chance to answer. I want the chance for a fair hearing," Officer Justin Barrett told CNN on Tuesday. Barrett has apologized and denied he is a racist. His lawsuit claims his civil rights have been violated; Barrett's lawyer said the words referring to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were...