Free Republic

Brig. Gen. Terryl Schwalier was stunned when he read the account of the June 25, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that appeared in my recent book, Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran. I was writing many years after the fact, drawing on sources from inside Iranian intelligence but also on published U.S. government reports. It was those U.S. reports that prompted General Schwalier to contact me a few months ago. “You paint a picture of significant government awareness that “Iran was up to something” in the months prior to the Khobar Towers attack,” he wrote...

James Roche, the college roommate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, speaks to CNN's Anderson Cooper about his experience with Kavanaugh at Yale. .....

Democrats for Boeing The truth about the tanker deal. by Christian Lowe 03/24/2008, Volume 013, Issue 27 It was one of those insider deals that give the defense industry a bad name, conjuring up images of smoke-filled negotiations between the brass and corporate fat cats in plush leather chairs. By the time it was over, two fat cats were in jail, a top Pentagon official had been forced to resign, a corporate CEO had lost his job, and the reputation of an iconic company that had served American troops for decades had suffered irreparable damage. Then it turned out it...

Ousted Army Chief Blasts Bush Iraq Policy Tue Sep 2, 4:49 PM ET By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON - Thomas E. White, forced to resign as Army secretary in May, has fired back in a book that describes the Bush administration's postwar effort in Iraq (news - web sites) as "anemic" and "totally inadequate." The book, which presents a blueprint for revitalizing Iraq, asserts that the administration underestimated the difficulty of putting that country back on its feet after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). "Clearly the view that the war to `liberate' Iraq would...

Leadership, Compelling Mission Keep Air Force Strength High By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2004 -- Air Force leadership is struggling with a problem as the service celebrates its 57th birthday Sept. 18. The Air Force has 20,000 more people than it's authorized. And as the service works to pare its numbers by 16,000 by the end of fiscal 2005, airmen and would-be airmen are standing in line to re-enlist or enlist. "It's a fascinating problem for us," Air Force Secretary James G. Roche said during a joint interview with the Pentagon Channel and the American...

war storiesRumsfeld's ManWhy generals will fight the new secretary of the Army.By Fred KaplanPosted Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at 3:59 PM PT It was thoroughly predictable that, after the swift victory in Gulf War II, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would wage his next war against the hidebound generals of the U.S. Army. Now that war has begun.Rumsfeld fired his first shots last Thursday night when he let it be known that a man named James G. Roche will be his new secretary of the Army.Roche is an extremely intriguing—and, to any senior Army officer, an equally shocking—candidate for the...

The Bush administration wants Air Force Secretary James Roche to be the next Army secretary, InsideDefense.com has learned. Two industry sources tracking the issue said Roche is the favorite to fill the shoes of outgoing Army Secretary Thomas White, who recently resigned at the request of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Whether Roche will accept the position remains to be seen. Roche is viewed as a trusted aide who could “fix” problems in the Army, said one of the sources, noting Rumsfeld's well-publicized disagreements with White and outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki. White's effective date of resignation is...