http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/pentagon/ en-us Sun, 5 Jul 2009 14:42:20 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285926/posts U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the Obama administration would not stand in Israel's way should the latter chooses to take military action to eliminate Iran's nuclear threat. Israel has the right to determine its own course of action with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat regardless of what the Obama administration chooses to do, Biden told ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos. When asked whether the Obama administration would restrain Israeli military action against Iran, Biden responded: "Israel can determine for itself - it's a sovereign nation - what's in their interest and what they decide to do... Haaretz http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285926/posts#comment Sun, 5 Jul 2009 14:42:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2239803/posts Transition: The new adviser to an undersecretary of defense is a left-wing reporter who once wrote that President George W. Bush was the "torturer-in-chief." Leftist billionaire George Soros has a mole in the Pentagon. Before she was a far-left columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks was once counsel to Soros' Open Societies Institute. Now she's the "principal adviser" to Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, the Pentagon's No. 3 official and top policymaker. Investors Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2239803/posts#comment Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:04:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284047/posts U.S. President Barack Obama's policies have left an Israeli attack on Iran the only option in preventing the Muslim country from obtaining a nuclear weapon, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton wrote in The Washington Post Thursday. In an article headlined "Time for an Israeli Strike?" Bolton answered his own question by stating, "Israel decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever ... Those who oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons are left in the near term with only the option of targeted military force against its weapons facilities." IsraelNationalNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284047/posts#comment Thu, 2 Jul 2009 13:57:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283373/posts The Pentagon says it has put cooperation with the Honduran military on hold. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman says the United States has "postponed" joint operations in light of last weekend's military coup against that country's president. breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283373/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 16:56:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274270/posts A written exam administered by the Pentagon labels "protests" as a form of “low-level terrorism” — enraging civil liberties advocates and activist groups who say it shows blatant disregard of the First Amendment. The written exam, given as part of Department of Defense employees’ routine training, includes a multiple-choice question that asks: “Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism?” — Attacking the Pentagon — IEDs — Hate crimes against racial groups — Protests The correct answer, according to the exam, is "Protests." Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274270/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:41:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275757/posts The Department of Defense has withdrawn a training manual question that linked protesters across the United States to terrorism, but there's evidence coming to light that describing Americans as terror suspects, or "low-level" terror suspects, is routine. reported just days ago that the U.S. Department of Defense had included in a training course a question that defined protesters as terrorists.According to the letter from the Northern California ACLU, the DoD's "Annual Level 1 Antiterrorism (AT) Awareness Training for 2009" tells department personnel "that certain First Amendment-protected activity may amount to 'low-level terrorism.'" Specifically the training "Knowledge Check 1" asks, "Which... WorldNetDaily.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275757/posts#comment Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:31:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274868/posts "A House committee threw a wrench in the Obama administration's plans to end Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 Raptor fighter program, voting instead to add $369 million in extra funding to keep production of the Air Force's most advanced jet alive." "Mr. Gates thinks the Air Force only needs 187 of the F-22 fighters. The White House didn't budget for additional planes beyond that level in its proposed 2010 Defense Department budget, which is currently being reviewed by Congress. "Everybody knows where the Secretary and the President stand on the F-22," said Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Mr. Gates. But in... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274868/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:23:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274284/posts A top Air Force general says President Obama's plan to end production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet puts U.S. military strategy at "high risk." Gen. John D.W. Corle, the four-star chief of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va., wrote a letter to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., about the impact of Obama and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates decision to limit the number of F-22s in the U.S. inventory to 187. "In my opinion, a fleet of 187 F-22s puts execution of our current national military strategy at high risk in the near to mid term," Corley... Yahoo! News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274284/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:00:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2273995/posts Recently we’ve learned that you are not allowed to hold a rally for a specific piece of legislation unless you pay the government for permission to do so. Now, if you hold a protest … like say … a tea party. You are officially committing an act of terrorism. Needs of the Many http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2273995/posts#comment Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:39:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271478/posts Army's 234th Birthday celebration at the Pentagon Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Col. Arthur Wittich (the oldest Soldier serving in the military district of Washington), Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, Pvt. Rex Vaughn (the youngest Soldier serving in the military district of Washington), and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston cut the Army's 234th birthday cake during a celebration at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2009. "Our Army's history is a proud one. At its heart, it is a story of people .... www.army.mil http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271478/posts#comment Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:31:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2270497/posts I am picking up the vibe that some powerful people want to have Defense Secretary Robert Gates move over to the White House to replace retired Marine Gen. James Jones as national security advisor. Maybe this is the reason Gates made pro-Jones comments to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius the other day. "I think of Jim as the glue that holds this team together," Gates said. Foreign Policy http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2270497/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:01:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267325/posts Author’s note: On May 24th, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, I sent the protest reproduced below to the Pulitzer Prize Committee. If Boycott NYT readers also find this award outrageous, the Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism is Nicholas Lemann (lemann@columbia.edu). The address: Columbia School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway, NY, NY 10027. My journalistic colleagues (and there really are some good ones though most are even older than me!) characterize the Pulitzer Committee as “stubborn as mules and dumber than rocks.” The reason: the committee never acknowledges a mistake or rescinds an award, no matter how egregious... Boycott The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267325/posts#comment Mon, 8 Jun 2009 17:56:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266265/posts WASHINGTON: Pakistan has used a substantial amount of military aid from the US meant to fight terrorism to build up its army with modern weapons and equipment for a conventional warfare against India, Pentagon documents have revealed. All this was done with the knowledge of the then Bush administration, which not only provided $1.9 billion in foreign military financing (FMF) but also signed agreements with Pakistan for military sales worth nearly $5 billion during the period, showed the documents. The Pentagon documents also revealed that a major post-9/11 American defence supply to Pakistan under FMF had nothing to do with... PTI http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266265/posts#comment Sat, 6 Jun 2009 17:39:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2263251/posts Obama condemns Muslim attack on Arkansas Army recruiters…not By Michelle Malkin  •  June 2, 2009 12:47 PM President Obama announced his choice for Army Secretary this afternoon.The news isn’t what he said in his statement about GOP Rep. John McHugh:“As Secretary of the Army, he will ensure that our soldiers are trained and equipped to meet the full spectrum of challenges and threats of our time. And John [McHugh] shares my belief that a sustainable national security strategy must include a bipartisan consensus at home, and he brings patriotism and a pragmatism that has won him respect on both sides of... Michelle Malkin Website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2263251/posts#comment Tue, 2 Jun 2009 21:44:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262895/posts President Obama will name Republican Rep. John McHugh as Army secretary, FOX News has learned. McHugh, of New York, is the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. First elected in 1980, he represents a large rural area of upstate New York that borders Canada. The district includes Ft. Drum. The selection of McHugh is significant as the president has again picked a leading Republican with impeccable national security credentials for a key military post. McHugh would be tapped to succeed Pete Geren, who has held the post since July 2007. Foxnews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262895/posts#comment Tue, 2 Jun 2009 14:15:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262002/posts ATLANTA (AP) — Armed with a handheld video camera, a Georgia university student drove with a friend in April 2005 to Washington, D.C., and captured scenes of the Capitol, the Pentagon and other locations. Investigators say Syed Haris Ahmed, now 24, wasn't a tourist but a wannabe terrorist who wanted to send the videos of potential terror targets to an overseas contact. He was attending the Georgia Institute of Technology at the time. The charges, along with an allegation that Ahmed went to Pakistan and tried to join a terrorism group a few months later, are central to a federal... (Greg Bluestein for AP) via JIHAD WATCH.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262002/posts#comment Mon, 1 Jun 2009 10:35:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2255060/posts A compromise from the Times. They went ahead and published this notwithstanding the fact that it’s a crap sandwich for The One, especially at this particular moment in the debate, but they bent over backwards to emphasize that the delay’s all DOD’s fault, not his. So he’s really sort of a victim, you see, even though as C-in-C he could have demanded the report any time he wanted. Hot Air http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2255060/posts#comment Wed, 20 May 2009 23:10:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254651/posts In an escalation of arguments over closing a prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, a top Pentagon official says members of Congress must rethink their opposition to accepting these detainees into the United States. Michele Flournoy is President Barack Obama's new Pentagon policy chief. She says members of Congress need to remember that closing the stigmatized prison in Cuba will mean hard choices for everyone. She spoke after Senate Democrats said they won't pay for closure until the administration delivers a satisfactory plan for what to do with the detainees. AP via Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254651/posts#comment Wed, 20 May 2009 14:01:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254044/posts On May 12 James Mattis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation [ACT] and commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, spoke at a three-day symposium called Joint Warfighting 09 in Norfolk, Virginia, where NATO's Allied Command Transformation is based, and stated: "I come with a sense of urgency. The enemy is meeting like this as well." A local newspaper summarized his speech: "Mattis outlined a future in which wars will not have clearly defined beginnings and ends. What is needed, he said, is a grand strategy, a political framework that can guide military planning." He failed, for what passes for diplomatic... Pravda http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254044/posts#comment Tue, 19 May 2009 17:33:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2250187/posts A PENTAGON official formerly of the US Air Force has been charged with conspiracy to pass classified information to an agent of China, the US Justice Department said. A criminal complaint said today that retired Lieutenant Colonel James Wilbur Fondren, a deputy director of the US Pacific Command's Washington Liaison Office, "unlawfully and knowingly conspired" to communicate secrets. Agence France-Presse http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2250187/posts#comment Wed, 13 May 2009 19:04:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2245368/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's Defense Department plans to create 20,000 new jobs to manage a series of changes aimed at improving the way the United States buys billions of dollars of weapons each year, the Pentagon's No. 2 official told Congress. Yahoo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2245368/posts#comment Wed, 6 May 2009 15:19:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2244684/posts WASHINGTON – The Pentagon Tuesday played down a confrontation between Chinese vessels and one of its Navy surveillance ships, taking a decidedly more low-key tone than during similar incidents two months ago. In what has become almost a routine cat-and-mouse game on the seas, there have been four incidents in the past month in which Chinese-flagged fishing vessels maneuvered too close to two unarmed ships crewed by civilians and used by the Pentagon to do underwater surveillance and submarine hunting missions, two defense officials said. .. The Pentagon did release a brief statement on the latest confrontation in which two... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2244684/posts#comment Tue, 5 May 2009 18:21:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2244306/posts North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service, a news report said Tuesday. The North's military has expanded the unit, staffing it with about 100 personnel, mostly graduates of a Pyongyang university that teaches computer skills, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an intelligence agency it didn't identify. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it is aware that Pyongyang has been training hackers in recent years but did not provide details and had no other comment. The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2244306/posts#comment Tue, 5 May 2009 04:42:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242470/posts The Obama administration wanted Congress to give wartime authorities to US military commanders dealing with Pakistan, US officials told a congressional panel. Under the new proposal, the US Central Command will have the same unfettered authority in its dealings with Pakistan as it enjoys in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Centcom will also have complete control over US military assistance for Pakistan and will not have to consult other US departments or agencies before disbursing those funds. Traditionally such military aid flows through the State Department and is subject to Foreign Assistance Act restrictions. US Secretary of... Dawn http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242470/posts#comment Sat, 2 May 2009 00:58:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242115/posts One of the many perks of being POTUS, or TOTUS, if you are a stickler for accuracy, is that you don’t need to go through the nettlesome process of applying for a security clearance. POTUS gets to decide by fiat what positions should require clearance, and we must accept his appointments as competent patriots, notwithstanding titanic amounts of evidence to the contrary. The president is also at liberty to install incontestably unqualified individuals to sensitive posts. Canada Free Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242115/posts#comment Fri, 1 May 2009 16:23:26 GMT