Employees of the CIA-connected private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee. On at least one occasion, an individual claiming to More…
The following quote was emailed to me by Matthew Alexander, the pseudonym of a military interrogator and vocal torture opponent who helped track down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq killed in 2006. A veteran of three wars and the Special Forces community, Alexander claims to More…
Just as the U.S. government’s Iraq reconstruction watchdog formally unveils a proposal to revamp the integration of civilian and military activities in combat zones, opposition from the State Department and the Pentagon threatens to scotch the whole effort.
[Security1]When he testifies Monday before the congressionally created Commission on Wartime More…
Starting on Sept. 1, when combat troops depart Iraq and 50,000 training/advisory troops remain, the war once known as Operation Iraqi Freedom will become Operation New Dawn. The name change will “recognize our evolving relationship with the Government of Iraq,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates writes to Gen. David Petraeus, More…
This is probably the result of Website neglect, but still. The Defense Department’s official tally of U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan (PDF) lists only 139 Iraq deaths from “combat operations.” The remaining 4,227 U.S. troop deaths are considered the wages of “Post-Combat Ops.” In other words, every More…
The Iraqi government shows signs of increasing impatience with Blackwater guards getting hired by other private security firms:
A top Iraqi official said Wednesday that guards formerly employed by the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide must leave the country within days.
Below is the Pentagon’s presentation of the long-term budget picture. Why’s it going from Fiscal 2001 to Fiscal 2015? I don’t presume to know for sure. But the effect is clear: It’s immediately obvious that President Obama is proposing spending more, consistently, on defense — excluding the cost of the More…
Glenn Thrush has a keen, insightful post on how “Republicans are absolutely killing Democrats when it comes to leveraging the web to go negative,” using the spinning of David Axelrod’s Sunday morning remarks about turning the interrogation of the Christmas bomber over to the FBI as an example. Read More…
From the Naval blogger Raymond Pritchett, aka Galrahn, a stunning observation:
The State Department told NBC news on Tuesday that there are still 5,500 missing Americans in Haiti. What the article does not mention is that no Americans have been pulled out of rubble alive in 2
I had to staple my hands to my desk to prevent from facepalming after reading this account of a recent talk from Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, about his 2010 priorities and now it’s hard to type:
Restore balance to the Army: Casey discussed the need
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