military

Don’t miss this mammoth USA Today investigation into retired generals and admirals receiving heaps of Pentagon cash for occasional “mentoring” work to their previous service branches — usually while they’re receiving not only their duly-earned pensions, but also generous military contractor dollars. Tom Ricks, who thinks the piece ought to contend for a Pulitzer, puts [...]

From Beijing, President Obama says that his imminent announcement of refined Afghanistan strategy will contain some very important details:
“I am very confident that when I announce the decision, the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we’re doing, how we’re going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost,” Mr. [...]

A statement released by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:
“Due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood, the President has instructed the National Security Council to assume control of all informational briefings. The NSC has directed that the leadership, [...]

Adam Doster of ProgressIllinois reports that Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) is reacting in a revealing manner to the prospect of the Obama administration moving Guantanamo detainees to a prison his district. Manzullo told a local TV station that the detainees are “driven by some savage religion.”
That would be the same religion that members of the [...]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has had enough of internal administration debates appearing on blogs like this one. Gates:
“I think a lot of different places are leaking. I’m confident that the Department of Defense is one of them.To have details or options that are being considered out there in the middle of the president’s deliberative process [...]

The New York Times reports that President Obama is considering sending a far smaller number of additional troops to Afghanistan than previously mentioned:
Pentagon officials said the low-end option of 10,000 to 15,000 more troops would mean little or no significant increase in American combat forces in Afghanistan. The bulk of the additional forces would go [...]

Following up on ABC’s report that U.S. intelligence knew Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan tried to contact al-Qaeda facilitators online, The New York Times reports the aftermath:
[T]he federal authorities dropped an inquiry into the matter after deciding that the messages from the psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, did not suggest any threat of [...]

You might think that that commentary about a deranged lone gunman ought to await the facts, but you’re not going to get a job at Fox News with that attitude. Raw Story catches Fox’s Brian Kilmeade asking a guest, “Do you think it’s time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim Army officers [...]

Last month, on a conference call with reporters, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair stated that the total budget for U.S. intelligence activities — an unsurprisingly murky total; and until recently a classified one — is $75 billion. As I later clarified, Blair meant the total for both military and non-military intelligence activities — as [...]

The conference report to next fiscal year’s defense appropriations bill includes a provision long — and I mean long — sought by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.): a requirement for military interrogators to videotape their interrogation sessions. (The CIA, which is no longer in the lead on high-value interrogations, has admitted to destroying nearly 100 videotapes [...]