defense secretary

Stories 121 - 136 | << Prev 

Pentagon Lifts Coffin Media Ban
 Pentagon Lifts Coffin Media Ban 
Feb 26, 2009 1:39 PM CST

Pentagon Lifts Coffin Media Ban

(Newser) - The Pentagon has lifted the media ban at Dover (Del.) Air Force Base and will allow photos of the coffins of US war casualties returning from overseas—provided the service members' families approve. Under the new rules, the families can withhold permission, CNN reports. Some relatives had lobbied against...

Pentagon Warned: Prepare to Shut Gitmo

Dilemma is what to do with worst inmates

(Newser) - The Pentagon has been ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to draw up plans to be prepared to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center soon after President-elect Obama takes office, reports the Voice of America. The immediate problem is what to do with prisoners who likely can't be convicted in...

Gates: Don't 'Test' Obama
 Gates: Don't 'Test' Obama 
Dec 13, 2008 12:26 PM CST

Gates: Don't 'Test' Obama

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates assured the world today that there would be continuity between the administrations of George Bush and Barack Obama, and that anyone who thought otherwise “would be sorely mistaken,” the BBC reports. Gates, who will be staying on in the Obama Cabinet, told an audience...

Kissinger High on Obama-Clinton Team
 Kissinger High on 
 Obama-Clinton Team 
OPINION
Dec 5, 2008 10:35 AM CST

Kissinger High on Obama-Clinton Team

Obama's sound choices pose cooperative challenges

(Newser) - Barack Obama wasn’t afraid to take risks in choosing his national security team, and the outcome has left Henry Kissinger optimistic, he writes in the Washington Post. Each member comes to the “team of heavyweights” with well-established views and an “autonomous constituency.” That could mean a...

Obama Foreign-Policy Team Signals Shift to Diplomacy

Clinton, Gates, Jones will lead diplomatic reform

(Newser) - The three lead players on the national security team Barack Obama will announce today have each historically been more hawkish than the president-elect—but all have embraced his plan for a sweeping foreign policy shift, the New York Times reports. Hillary Clinton, Gen. James Jones, and Robert Gates will work...

Why Gates Should Stay &mdash;and Why He Shouldn't
Why Gates Should Stay
—and Why He Shouldn't
ANALYSIS
Nov 21, 2008 1:25 PM CST

Why Gates Should Stay —and Why He Shouldn't

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom has it that Barack Obama will ask Robert Gates to keep his post as Secretary of Defense, but there’s no conventional wisdom about how wise that is. “It has more minuses than pluses,” opines one ex-Pentagon official, but others disagree. Some pros and cons:
  • Gates
...

Obama Talks to Gates About Staying at Pentagon

Defense Secretary fulfill talk of bipartisan cabinet

(Newser) - Barack Obama and Robert Gates are negotiating policy issues with a view toward Gates remaining Defense secretary, the Financial Times reports, a move that would make the Bush appointee a key member of a bipartisan cabinet that resembles Abraham Lincoln's “team of rivals.” Gates, a former CIA chief,...

Secret Directive Lets US Attack Up to 20 Nations

Rumsfeld order in '04 allowed peacetime strikes on al-Qaeda

(Newser) - The American military has conducted almost a dozen secret attacks against al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Syria, Pakistan, and other nations since 2004, the New York Times reveals. The strikes were carried out under a classified order signed by Donald Rumsfeld that gave sweeping powers to let the military...

Obama Gets First Taste of Commander-in-Chief Role

Gets first national security briefing, assembles staff

(Newser) - Barack Obama receives his first top-secret national intelligence briefing today, and with it his first taste of life as commander-in-chief, reports Time. Already international concerns are vying for Obama’s attention—Hamid Karzai is demanding the president-elect reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s PM wants him to end...

Pentagon Backtracks, Extends Afghanistan Tours

2,200 Marines will remain another 30 days despite repeated denials

(Newser) - The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather...

Gates to USAF: Straighten Up and Fly Right

Defense sec criticizes service for being slow to adapt to change

(Newser) - Robert Gates chided the Air Force today for being slow to change and for not providing enough help in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Addressing American and international student officers in Alabama, the defense secretary said getting the USAF to adapt, particularly in the use of drone aircraft, has...

Rumsfeld Memos: 'Keep Elevating the Threat'

'Snowflakes' urge linking Iraq and Iran

(Newser) - During his six years as defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld told staffers to “keep elevating the threat” and develop “bumper sticker statements” to sell administration war policies. Internal memos obtained by the Washington Post depict a media- and politics-obsessed Rumsfeld who instructed staffers to link Iraq and Iran, contemplated...

Gates Eyes $3B Army Expansion
Gates Eyes $3B Army Expansion
Sep 28, 2007 9:42 AM CDT

Gates Eyes $3B Army Expansion

Gates ready to approve major recruitment campaign to boost ranks

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he's likely to approve spending nearly $3 billion over the next four years to accelerate an expansion of the US Army, stretched thin by punishing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the AP reports. The Pentagon believes the Army and Marine Corps need to grow to...

Feds Prepare for Cyberwar
Feds Prepare
for Cyberwar
Sep 27, 2007 7:57 AM CDT

Feds Prepare for Cyberwar

Attack by hackers, likely from China, could cut communications, power, banking

(Newser) - Readying for a new cyber doomsday in which Americans wake to find the power off, cell phones dead, and no access to cash, the Bush administration is considering creating an agency to protect critical public and private computers. Experts say that any attack, which would likely originate in China, would...

Gates Warns of 'Protracted' Iraq Stay

Troops will remain to support government, Defense chief says

(Newser) - US troops will likely remain in Iraq for a "protracted period of time," Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned yesterday. Soldiers would remain as a "stabilizing and supporting force" for the government long after combat troop numbers are reduced, he said in a CNN interview. Gates couldn't say...

Gates Pushed to Close Guantanamo
Gates Pushed
to Close Guantanamo
Mar 23, 2007 8:58 AM CDT

Gates Pushed to Close Guantanamo

New defense secretary butted heads with Cheney, Gonzales

(Newser) - Newly appointed Defense Secretary Robert Gates pushed hard for shutting down the controversial detention center at Guantanamo Bay, but  was blocked by Cheney and Gonzales, until Bush pulled the plug on the argument.  Gates at least succeeded in halting a $100 million expansion of the prison he felt had...

Stories 121 - 136 | << Prev 
Most Read on Newser