Mar 7, 2010 15 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Nasr-1 cruise missiles are displayed during a ceremony to inaugurate its production line at an undisclosed location in Iran March 7, 2010. TEHRAN (AP) -- Iran announced Sunday it has started a new production line of highly accurate short-range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country's already imposing arsenal. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Iran's ...
Continue ReadingMar 7, 2010 27 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Newer Update: KARACHI, Pakistan – The American-born spokesman for al-Qaida has been arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers in the southern city of Karachi, two officers and a government official said Sunday as video emerged of him urging U.S. Muslims to attack their own country. The arrest of Adam Gadahn is a major victory in the U.S.-led battle ...
Continue ReadingMar 6, 2010 15 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Politico: President Barack Obama has been clear. He wants no new nukes. Pentagon chief Robert Gates has been equally direct, advocating in recent years for a new generation of warheads. And nearly 14 months into their bipartisan-tinged partnership, Obama and Gates haven’t publicly reconciled their views. Some anti-nuclear activists suspect the pair still don’t see completely eye-to-eye and ...
Continue ReadingMar 6, 2010 3 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Times Online: Former commanders accused Gordon Brown of deliberately misleading the Iraq inquiry after he blamed the military for failing properly to equip the Armed Forces for war. The Prime Minister denied putting the lives of British troops at risk by starving the military of equipment. In a confident performance yesterday at the Chilcot inquiry, he admitted ...
Continue ReadingMar 6, 2010 3 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Times Online: The heavily-criticised Snatch Land Rover is to be replaced with 200 new patrol vehicles in Afghanistan to protect troops from booby-traps, it was revealed as Gordon Brown paid a surprise visit to the war-torn country. News of a £118 million investment in new vehicles and equipment for came after former commanders accused the Prime Minister ...
Continue ReadingMar 5, 2010 19 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Washington Times; by Bill Gertz Recent statements by Chinese military officials are raising concerns among U.S. analysts that the communist government in Beijing is shifting its oft-stated "peaceful rise" policy toward an aggressive, anti-U.S. posture. The most recent sign appeared with the publication of a government-approved book by Senior Col. Liu Mingfu that urges China to "sprint" toward ...
Continue ReadingMar 4, 2010 2 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
WASHINGTON (AP) - White House advisers are nearing a recommendation for President Barack Obama to choose a military trial for self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his alleged henchman, senior administration officials said Thursday. The review of where and how to hold a Sept. 11 trial is not over, so no recommendation ...
Continue ReadingMar 3, 2010 3 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
The Hill: Legislation was launched Wednesday to repeal the 17-year-old policy that prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. military. A group of six senators — including five Democrats and headed by Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucuses with Democrats — introduced a three-part bill that would immediately repeal ...
Continue ReadingMar 1, 2010 4 Comments ›› Erik Wong
The Washington Post: The suicide bomber behind the Dec. 30 attack on a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan claims in a posthumously released recording that he lured U.S. and Jordanian intelligence officers into a trap by sending them misleading information about terrorist targets as well as videotapes he made of senior al-Qaeda leaders. The bomber, a Jordanian ...
Continue ReadingMar 1, 2010 19 Comments ›› Erik Wong
The Washington Post: Time magazine called "The Hurt Locker" "a near-perfect war film," but Ryan Gallucci, an Iraq war veteran, had to turn the movie off three times, he says, "or else I would have thrown my remote through the television." Critics adore the film and it has been nominated for nine Oscars -- a feat matched ...
Continue ReadingFeb 26, 2010 1 Comment ›› Erik Wong
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Veterans Affairs Department says it will look again at the rejected claims of veterans who say their Gulf War service caused a mysterious illness, the first step toward potentially compensating them nearly two decades after the war ended. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the decision is part of a "fresh, bold look" ...
Continue ReadingFeb 26, 2010 37 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Reuters: The head of the US Marines said on Thursday he opposed ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the first top officer to break openly with President Barack Obama over the issue. General James Conway told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he disagreed with Obama's plan to repeal the ban. "My best military ...
Continue ReadingFeb 24, 2010 11 Comments ›› Erik Wong
Someone give this witch a cookie for doing such a bang-up job. Liveshots-Fox News: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the first Obama Administration official to publicly describe last year's deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Tex., as a terrorist act, according to a search of news clips and transcripts. "Violent Islamic terrorism ... was part and parcel ...
Continue ReadingFeb 24, 2010 13 Comments ›› Erik Wong
God bless you and your service to this country, Colonel... FOX News: One of the nation's most highly decorated veterans was being laid to rest on Wednesday. Ret. Colonel Robert L Howard, a Medal of Honor recipient who was awarded eight Purple Hearts for his service in the Vietnam War, was to be buried at Arlington National ...
Continue ReadingFeb 22, 2010 7 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Agencie France Presse: The US-led offensive in southern Afghanistan is progressing at a slower pace than expected due to Taliban resistance and deadly roadside bombs, US defense chiefs said on Wednesday. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also expressed condolences over the deaths of Afghan civilians ...
Continue ReadingFeb 21, 2010 4 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) - Marines and Afghan units converged on a dangerous western quarter of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Sunday, with NATO forces facing "determined resistance" as their assault on the southern town entered its second week. Fighter jets, drones and attack helicopters hovered overhead, as Marine and Afghan companies moved on a 2-square-mile ...
Continue ReadingFeb 21, 2010 4 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
NY Times: MARJA, Afghanistan — As American Marines and Afghan soldiers have fought their way into this Taliban stronghold, the performance of the Afghan troops has tested a core premise of the American military effort here: in the not-too-distant future, the security of this country can be turned over to indigenous forces created at the cost ...
Continue ReadingFeb 20, 2010 3 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
WAPO: Retired Army Gen. Alexander Haig, who held influential positions in the U.S. military and government and who as White House chief of staff shepherded Richard M. Nixon toward peacefully resigning the presidency, died Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of complications from an infection. He was 85. Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter ...
Continue ReadingFeb 19, 2010 2 Comments ›› Erik Wong
CBN: This morning, I spoke to Army CID spokesman Christopher Gray and learned more details about a possible poisoning plot that I first reported here yesterday after CBN confirmed with Patrick Jones of Fort Jackson's Public Affairs Office and a reliable source with intimate knowledge of the investigation. Here is the latest on what we do ...
Continue ReadingFeb 18, 2010 20 Comments ›› Erik Wong
ABC: ABC News has learned that the Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq -- currently known as Operation Iraqi Freedom -- a new name. The new name: "Operation New Dawn." In a February 17, 2010, memo to the Commander of Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the "requested operation name ...
Continue ReadingFeb 17, 2010 20 Comments ›› Erik Wong
BBC: Taliban militants are increasingly using civilians as "human shields" as they battle against a joint Afghan-Nato offensive, an Afghan general has said. Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them. The joint offensive in southern Helmand province has entered its fifth ...
Continue ReadingFeb 17, 2010 No Comments ›› Erik Wong
Afghanistan (AP) - Military commanders raised the Afghan flag in the bullet-ridden main market of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Marjah on Wednesday as firefights continued to break out elsewhere in the town between holed-up militants and U.S. and Afghan troops. About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive around Marjah, a ...
Continue Reading
