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OBAMA LVI: THE OBAMESSIAH, MEDIA BIAS, AND THE PENTAGON Posted by Gene on Saturday, July 26, 2008 2:05:54 AM Today is 3-For-One-Day as we combine 3 Obama articles, each of which in its own way exposes the Obama cult. For an excellent bit of irreverent satire on the Obamessiah from the U.K., this piece is not to be missed: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece. (Ecce homo?) Nor is this scathing expose’ on media bias which appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=301702713742569. (Guess which political party benefits most when lib “journalists” open their own wallets instead of just favoring candidates who want to pick yours.)...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. or Israeli attack, state television reported. The exercise was being conducted at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. Iran has threatened to shut down traffic in the strait if attacked. Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said the exercise would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened...

U.S. officials say Israel carried out a large military exercise this month that appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, The New York Times reported on Friday. Citing unidentified American officials, the newspaper said more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters took part in the maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June. It said the exercise appeared to be an effort to focus on long-range strikes and illustrates the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program. The newspaper said Israeli officials would not discuss the...

The Pentagon Gets Ready For President Obama June 9, 2008: U.S. military planners are working on how to deal with another round of major cutbacks, in terms of budgets and manpower. This is because one of the major candidates for Commander-in-Chief (president of the United States), Barak Obama, has a video in circulation, of a short speech he gave earlier this year, about how he planned on handling the Department of Defense. His major points were; "I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning; and as president, I will end it. "Second, I will cut tens...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2008 – Tomorrow the United States observes National Flag Day, an annual tribute to the American flag, the ideals it stands for and the sacrifices made to preserve them. President and Nancy Reagan file by the flag-draped caskets of victims of the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in an April 23, 1983 file photo. Photo courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidential Library  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. President Woodrow Wilson recognized during his first Flag Day address in 1915 that the freedoms the U.S. flag stands for weren’t and never would...

When Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ousted the Air Force’s two top leaders last week, there was more to it than just the service’s reported slip-ups with handling of nuclear weapons, according to Pentagon insiders. The shake-up was a clear message to the Air Force to quit making a direct case for preferred systems and get more “Joint.” It also took from the service its top champions in ongoing roles and missions discussions, decapitating airpower advocacy in the Department of Defense. Gates told reporters at a Pentagon press conference that the nuclear issue was his sole reason for accepting the...

Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday. A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report...

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2008 – Medal of Honor recipient Army Spc. Ross A. McGinnis joined a select group of military heroes during a Pentagon ceremony here today. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England hosted the event that added McGinnis’ name to the roster of other Army Medal of Honor recipients. Army Secretary Pete Geren and Gen. Richard R. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, also attended the event at the library and conference center. Medal of Honor recipients “are our nation’s most-revered heroes,” England said. “And every time a name is added, that individual’s story enriches the significance of...

At 9:37 a.m., on 9/11, those aboard Arlington Fire Department Engine 101 were headed north on I-395 for a training session near the Pentagon. Firefighter Jamie Lewis saw the American Airlines Flight 77 first. “Hey, look at the plane!” he shouted. “What’s he doing?” Nearby, on the Columbia Pike, Paramedic Claude Conde was loading a stroke victim into an ambulance when a plane roared overhead. “He had never seen a plane so close. Something wasn’t right. The airport wasn’t far away, but the plane was already at treetop level, well below the glide path it should be on for National...

The Pentagon cannot account for nearly 15 billion dollars in payments for goods and services in Iraq, according to an internal audit which members of Congress blasted Friday as a "shocking" accountability failure. Of 8.2 billion dollars in US taxpayer-funded defense contracts reviewed by the defense department's inspector general, the Pentagon could not properly account for more than 7.7 billion dollars. The lack of accountability of the funds, intended for purchases of weapons, vehicles, construction equipment and security services, amounted to a 95 percent failure rate in basic accounting standards, according to the report. "We estimated that the army made...

Could bacteria end our oil woes? A farmer in Georgia thinks so, and the Pentagon is paying attention. And it can’t happen a moment too soon. Last week, House Democrats ridiculously voted to sue OPEC for high oil prices (with the support of my useless Republican congressman, Vern Ehlers). Meanwhile, global warming types propose gas and carbon taxes of $300 billion a year or more, and want to turn over regulatory control of American industry to the United Nations. These activists scoff when President Bush insists that the answers to these issues will come from new technologies. But one of...

The inspector general for the Defense Department said yesterday that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort. The Pentagon did not have the proper documentation, including receipts, vouchers, signatures, invoices or other paperwork, for $7.8 billion that American and Iraqi contractors were paid for phones, folders, paint, blankets, Nissan trucks, laundry services and other items, according to a 69-page audit released to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. An...

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 22, 2008 · After American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, it took firefighters three days to extinguish the flames. Firefighter Patrick Creed and journalist Rick Newman join Fresh Air to talk about the Pentagon blaze and the book they wrote about it, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11. Firefight tells the stories of the people inside the Pentagon when the plane hit, the rescue efforts that followed the attack and the three-day battle to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters faced unique circumstances, Creed and Newman write,...

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2008 – In the first “full honors” ceremony he’s hosted as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen welcomed his counterpart from Poland at the Pentagon today. In full-dress Navy “whites,” Mullen greeted Gen. Franciszek Gagor, chief of general staff of the Polish armed forces, and his staff when they arrived in black sport-utility vehicles. In less formal receptions -- known as “honor cordons” -- the military leaders would have disappeared into the Defense Department headquarters without much fanfare. In contrast, before their closed-door meeting today, Mullen led Gagor onto a podium...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – For the 38 grassroots groups who took up a temporary home in the Pentagon’s center courtyard today, the mission was clear: show support for the troops and share information about just how they do that. Tennessee's Helping Hearts table at the America Supports You Salute to Our Military Men and Women concert May 16, 2008, was staffed by the group’s pageant winners. From left, Paige Wilson, 12, 2007 Ms. Tennessee Helping Hearts; Shay Salmon, 16, 2008 Tennessee Helping Hearts Queen runner up; Amanda Britt, 18, 2008 Ms. Tennessee Helping Hearts; and Summer Salmon, 14,...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Award-winning actor and part-time rocker Gary Sinise and the "Lt. Dan Band” jammed for a standing-room-only crowd in the courtyard of the Pentagon today. Hollywood actor and part-time rocker Gary Sinise performs at the 4th Annual America Supports You Military Tribute Concert as part of the Military Appreciation Month celebrations. Sinise and “The Lt. Dan Band” jammed for a standing-room-only crowd packed into the courtyard of the Pentagon. Defense Dept. photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Rocking at the Pentagon,” Sinise exclaimed mid-set for a much-appreciative audience. The...

The Department of Defense announced today its recruiting and retention statistics for the active and reserve components for the month of April. Active Duty Recruiting:April Monthly:All services met or exceeded recruiting goals for the month of April (below) and have surpassed goals for fiscal year 2008 to date.April 2008:Army Accessions:5,681 Goal:5,650 101%Navy Accessions:2,905 Goal:2,905 100%Marine Corps Accessions:2,233 Goal:1,577 142%Air Force Accessions:2,435 Goal:2,435 100%Active Duty Retention. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps met or exceeded their active duty retention objectives. Reserve Forces Recruiting: April Monthly. All six reserve components have met or exceeded accession goals through April 2008. April 2008: Army National...

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2008 – Oscar-nominated actor and director Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will perform a concert in the Pentagon Courtyard Friday, May 16 at noon as part of Military Appreciation Month. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, and Department of Defense's 'America Supports You' program will be hosting the event. Military Appreciation Month is a nationwide observance honoring current and former members of the armed forces, including those who have died in service of our nation. Sinise is renowned for his role as Lt. Dan in the movie "Forrest Gump," and...

Charges dropped against alleged 20th hijacker: Pentagon WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon has dropped charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged "20th hijacker" in the September 11 attacks on the United States, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday. Susan Crawford, the convening authority for war crimes trials by special military commissions, gave no explanation in dropping the charges against al-Qahtani "without prejudice," said Commander Jeffrey Gordon. "They have been dismissed without prejudice, which means they can be reinstituted at any time," he said of the charges.

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2008 – U.S. lawmakers have informed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that they expect to pass the remaining $108 billion of the fiscal 2008 budget by their Memorial Day recess on May 24, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said at a Pentagon news conference today. Video Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell briefs the press on issues ranging from the supplemental budget proposals before Congress to the situation in cyclone-damaged Burma, May 6, 2008. Defense Department photo by Cherie Cullen   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday to...

September 11, 2001 Life With the Weathermen: No Regrets for a Love of Explosives By DINITIA SMITH Todd Buchanan for The New York TimesBill Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, former members of the Weather Underground, a radical Vietnam-era group. don't regret setting bombs," Bill Ayers said. "I feel we didn't do enough." Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago. The long curly locks in his Wanted poster are shorn, though he wears earrings. He still ...

As their stranglehold on information is loosened, the MSM reacts more and more rabidly to alternative voices. Having set themselves in opposition to the Administration on the war, they profess to be outraged that the Pentagon has tried to bypass the media in getting its story out. Which gets me to the Virginian Pilot’s Joyce Hoffman (“public editor”) second-hand smear of the Pentagon. She refers to a “staggering breach of public trust by Pentagon leaders,” designed to “sabotage traditional journalism.” Traditional journalism has done a remarkable job sabotaging itself in my lifetime so no help is needed on that front....

WASHINGTON -- Iraqi leaders have been given the latest U.S. evidence of Iranian support for militias inside Iraq, and Baghdad will decide what to do about it, two senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday. Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler, director of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki possesses the evidence, which other officials said contradicts Tehran's stated commitment to stop providing arms, weapons technology and training to Shiite militias inside Iraq...

WASHINGTON - Iran is ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq, providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Tehran's elite Republican Guard, U.S. military officials said Friday. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, such as date stamps on newly found weapons caches, that shows that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate. Mullen would not detail the evidence, which is expected to be unveiled by military leaders in Iraq...

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2008 – It was déjà vu in the Pentagon’s center courtyard today, as children gathered with their parents for arts and crafts as part of 16th annual “Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day.” Air Force Col. Rod Dorsey watches his sons, Joshua, 9, left, and Ben, 13, paint a T-shirt as part of the Pentagon's observation of the 16th annual "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day." About 1,000 children and their parents participated in the April 24, 2008 event in the Pentagon's center courtyard. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley, Department of Defense  (Click...

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2008 – As the children of Defense Department employees arrived in throngs for National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, they transformed the normally serene Pentagon courtyard into a veritable circus, replete with clowns, animals, and arts and crafts. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Edmonds and his sons, Gatlin, 5, center, and Adam, 4, prepare to enjoy the arts and crafts in the Pentagon's center courtyard April 24, 2008. The activities were part of America Supports You's celebration of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Defense Dept. photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."Addressing officer students at the Air Force's Air University, the Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to...

Pentagon chief says Air Force should do more By ROBERT BURNS 16 minutes ago Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business." Gates complained in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth." The Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to...

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure. The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo. To the public, these men are members...

Paper: Extensive ideological, business ties raise issue of manipulation Many U.S. military analysts used as commentators on Iraq by television networks have been groomed by the Pentagon, leaving some feeling they were manipulated to report favorably on the Bush administration, The New York Times said in Sunday editions. A Times report examining ties between the Bush administration and former senior officers who acted as paid TV analysts said they got private briefings, trips and access to classified intelligence meant to influence their comments. "Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in...

Internet source imagery from January 4 has offered the first glimpses of what may be China's emerging 5th generation air-to-air missiles (AAM). One missile, called the PL-ASR or PL-10, shows a very close resemblance to the South African Denel A-Darter AAM. A second image, discovered on a China's Northwestern University website in mid-December, shows another missile similar to the radar-guided South African Denel R-Darter, designed in cooperation with Israel. Both of these missiles are likely designed for use with modern Helmet-Mounted Displays (HMD), which enable pilots to "look to kill" their targets. But there is more: additional imagery suggests that...

Return to the Article April 17, 2008Saddam and al-QaedaBy Debra Baker Claims that there were no links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda are wrong. Documents just released by the Pentagon prove it. In March 2008, the Pentagon released a document that details some of the classified documents from Saddam's regime.  This document called the Iraqi Perspectives Project Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents Volume 1 (Redacted) is an overview of "more than 600,000 original captured documents and several thousand hours of audio and video footage archived in a US Department of Defense (DOD) database. As...

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2008 – Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, a Navy SEAL who posthumously received the Medal of Honor yesterday for his heroic actions in Iraq, joined a rarefied fraternity of military heroes at the Pentagon today. In September 2006, Monsoor leaped onto a grenade and used his body to absorb a blast that likely would have killed two fellow SEALs and several Iraqi soldiers. For his heroism, the Defense Department today enshrined Monsoor’s name alongside the 3,446 other Medal of Honor recipients honored in its Hall of Heroes. “To stand in this room, surrounded by...

Suit: Military Deducted Money From Service Members' Gov.'t Benefits or Tax Refunds U.S. soldiers and veterans have been illegally hit up by Pentagon debt collectors for millions of dollars in payments over military credit card debt, according to the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "It is shocking that a U.S. government agency would illegally take this money from veterans who have served our country well," said Deepak Gupta of Public Citizen. Public Citizen and consumer lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Army and Air Force Exchange Services (AAFES), which issues credit cards to U.S. service members to buy...

The Pentagon recently issued a memorandum with the less-than-snappy title "Uniform Code of Military Justice Jurisdiction Over Department of Defense Civilian Employees, Department of Defense Contractor Personnel, and Other Persons Serving With or Accompanying the Armed Forces Overseas During Declared War and in Contingency Operations." Despite the cumbersome title, the memo, which gives military commanders authority over civilian contractors in their areas of operation, is an effort to close what many see as an accountability loophole for private military contractors. Effectively, the new rules extend the Uniform Code of Military Justice -- the same military legal code U.S. forces personnel...

But were the Action steps recommended here undertaken? It appears that they were not. An update on the Stephen Couglin imbroglio: "Islam cleared," from Bill Gertz's Inside the Ring in the Washington Times (thanks to all who sent this in):Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England cleared his special assistant of any wrongdoing related to a run-in with former Joint Staff analyst Stephen Coughlin, and amid questions about the Muslim aide's background. "The deputy secretary's office has thoroughly reviewed the issues of concern raised by a few members of Congress and the media and has concluded there is no reason to question...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Pentagon official pleaded guilty Monday to passing US military secrets to an agent working for China after being showered with gifts and gambling money, the Department of Justice said. ...

A Defense Department analyst pleaded guilty Monday to charges alleging he gave classified information about U.S. and Taiwanese military communications systems to a businessman working with the Chinese government. Gregg Bergersen, a weapons analyst at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency who held top secret security clearances, was arrested last month. Prosecutors alleged he divulged military secrets to a New Orleans furniture salesman, Tai Kuo, who turned over the information to the Chinese government.

A shadow legal body was set up by the Defense Department to manipulate the prosecutions of U.S. Marines accused of massacring Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005. That’s the bombshell disclosure from the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that is representing one of the accused Marines, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. And it could prove to be the most damning piece of evidence showing the political motivations behind the ongoing prosecutions of the Haditha Marines. “The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction...

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti international commentator Tamara Zamyatina) - Predictions made by experts before Kosovo's illegal declaration of independence are coming true - the territory seized from Serbia is turning into a big military base of the United States and NATO. Thus, George W. Bush ordered arms shipments to Kosovo. Because of this, Moscow insisted on an emergency session of the NATO-Russia Council - it will be held in Brussels on March 28. Incidentally, Bush issued this order two days after the Moscow visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who urged Moscow to promote...

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that an investigation into over 600,000 documents captured at the end of the invasion of Iraq showed no operational links to al-Qaeda — or at least, that’s how the media reported it. After a strange few days in which the Pentagon delayed the report, it finally hit the internet last night — and it’s clear that the analysis done by the media was superficial at best. If no operational “smoking gun” could be found, the report still shows that Saddam Hussein had plenty of ties to all sorts of terrorist groups, including radical Islamist...

This week opponents of the war were given a treat. They were told-in a single article-based on a single anonymous source-that a report which hadn’t been released said there was never any ties between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the al-Qaida network of terrorist groups. Millions of the war’s opponents were instantly elated with glee at the idea that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with the war against the al-Qaida terrorist network; that the invasion was completely disconnected from any threat to the United States. Disregarding the misplaced glee for a moment, let’s face some facts. The report...

The latest Pentagon report on China is a sobering tale of advancing capability and agression intentions inside Beijing. The report also illustrates newly developed weapons being fielded by the Chinese military based in part on advanced technology exported by the United States. "China has the most active ballistic missile program in the world. It is developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading certain missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses," notes the 2008 Defense Department report. "By November 2007, the PLA had deployed between 990 and 1,070 CSS-6 and CSS-7 short range ballistic...

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that an investigation into over 600,000 documents captured at the end of the invasion of Iraq showed no operational links to al-Qaeda — or at least, that’s how the media reported it. After a strange few days in which the Pentagon delayed the report, it finally hit the internet last night — and it’s clear that the analysis done by the media was superficial at best. If no operational “smoking gun” could be found, the report still shows that Saddam Hussein had plenty of ties to all sorts of terrorist groups, including radical Islamist...

Read the whole bloody thing. Here's just a taste: A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda." How, then, to explain this sentence about Iraq and al Qaeda from the report's abstract: "At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual...

Little-Known Event Is Emotional Salute; Cpl. Lyon Pays a Visit. Cpl. Kenny Lyon's mother pushed his wheelchair down a narrow Pentagon hallway, crying as she listened to the applause. Hundreds of Defense Department employees lined the corridor, cheering for Cpl. Lyon and the other wounded military personnel who walked or rolled past. Some of them patted Cpl. Lyon on the shoulder, while others shook his hand or leaned in to hug his mother, Gigi Windsor. "I was really humbled by it because I didn't do anything special," says Cpl. Lyon, a 22-year-old Marine who lost a leg in a mortar...

A new study commissioned by the Pentagon has reviewed over 600,000 documents captured in the invasion of Iraq, and the analysis shows no evidence of operational ties between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda. It did find operational ties and more between Saddam and other terrorist groups, however, which will likely be lost in an avalanche of I-told-you-sos: An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein’s regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network.The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this...

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2008 – In a broad-ranging news conference today, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell fielded questions on the costs of the war on terror, troops’ water safety in Iraq, the fielding schedule for mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, and a recent contract for aerial refueling tankers. The Pentagon has spent $527 billion dollars fighting the war on terror since Sept. 11, 2001, officials released today. Through December 2007, the Defense Department had paid $406.2 billion for the war in Iraq, $92.6 for operations in Afghanistan, and $27.8 billion defending the homeland, Morrell said. “I think the Pentagon has been extraordinarily...

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2008 – Frank Woodruff Buckles lived an unassuming life for 105 years. That was until word got out that he was among the last of a generation that his countrymen only recently seemed to embrace. World War I veteran Frank Woodruff Buckles as featured in photographer David DeJonge's American Survivors of World War I portrait exhibit, donated to the Pentagon at a March 6, 2008, ceremony. Buckles, 107, is shown in his home library outside of Charles Town, W.Va. He is one of the last known surviving veterans of World War I. Copyrighted photo by David...

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2008 – A new Defense Department policy prohibits all commercial photography or other image collection on U.S. military bases and installations. U.S. Northern Command issued the policy message Feb. 28 after detailed images of Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, appeared on the Google Map Web site, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Gary Ross, a NORTHCOM spokesman. Google Corp. representatives had entered the post with permission and taken the images with roof-mounted recording equipment, according to the policy message. Google Earth’s Street View Web site revealed 360-degree detailed imagery of the post, including headquarters locations, access and...