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WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 — In the first full-scale test of the ballistic missile defense system in more than a year, an interceptor rocket launched from California on Friday shot down a target fired from Alaska that officials said in some respects resembled a warhead from a North Korean rocket. Pentagon officials said that the successful interception, which occurred in space over the Pacific Ocean, showed that the fledgling system, put in place in 2004 by the Bush administration before testing was complete, would have a good chance of stopping a ballistic missile fired at the United States in a limited...

THREE years into the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, everyone from slicksleeved privates fighting for survival in Ramadi to the echelons above reality at the Pentagon still believes that eliminating insurgents will eliminate the insurgency. They are wrong. There is a difference between killing insurgents and fighting an insurgency. In three years, the Sunni insurgency has grown from nothing into a force that threatens our national objective of establishing and maintaining a free, independent and united Iraq. During that time, we have fought insurgents with airstrikes, artillery, the courage and tactical excellence of our forces, and new technology worth billions of...

The US military is relying ever more on space satellites to help wage combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, though analysts say that Washington's space supremacy could be threatened by rivals in the future. The Pentagon is using sophisticated satellites that orbit Earth in a bid to track down its enemies and keep a round-the-clock watch on unfriendly foes. The technological advantage can prove lethal, as witnessed by the recent air raid that killed the long-wanted Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "Space capabilities have revolutionized the way we fight today by providing our forces with battlefield situational...

WASHINGTON— Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign, in part because "our policy in Iraq is just not working." "My view is the secretary should step aside," Richardson said at the outset of a 10-minute interview on "Face the Nation." Richardson, a Democrat who is viewed as a likely presidential contender in 2008, said the fact that six military generals have publicly called for Rumsfeld's resignation...is significant. "We should listen to what these generals are saying," Richardson said. "These are six distinguished military officers who were involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq....

WASHINGTON, March 21 — An inquiry has found that an American public relations firm did not violate military policy by paying Iraqi news outlets to print positive articles, military officials said Tuesday. The finding leaves to the Defense Department the decision on whether new rules are needed to govern such activities. The inquiry, which has not yet been made public, was ordered by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, after it was disclosed in November that the military had used the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations company, to plant articles written by American troops...

Some have described the situation in Iraq as a tightening noose, noting that "time is not on our side"and that "morale is down." Others have described a "very dangerous" turn of events and are "extremely concerned." Who are they that have expressed these concerns? In fact, these are the exact words of terrorists discussing Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates -- who are describing their own situation and must be watching with fear the progress that Iraq has made over the past three years. The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that...

Op-Ed Contributor(Guest) DESPITE claims to the contrary by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Army is facing a manpower crisis. The evidence can be found in two separate reports released last month — one commissioned by the Pentagon, the other by Congressional Democrats — and in this simple fact: last year the Army accepted its least qualified pool in a decade. The Army inducted both more recruits without high school diplomas and more youths scoring in the lowest category of the Army's aptitude test, so-called Category IV recruits. Welcoming more such recruits into the military has obvious appeal at a time...

A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials. The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 - The Pentagon's leadership, recognizing that it was caught off guard by difficulties in pacifying Iraq after the invasion, is poised to approve a sweeping directive that will elevate what it calls "stability operations" to a core military mission comparable to full-scale combat. The new order could significantly influence how the military is structured, as well as the specialties it emphasizes and the equipment it buys. The directive has been the subject of intense negotiations in the Pentagon policy office and throughout the military; the deliberations included the State Department and other civilian agencies, as the order...

Rep. Kirt Weldon is on Michael Savage's radio program, and he is implying Rumsfeld is the one blocking further investigation into Able Danger. Weldon is fuming; says he personally (in a committee hearing) asked Rumsfeld about the investigation being blocked. Rumsfeld replied that he would 'get back to Weldon with a response.' Weldon says he still has gotten nothing from Rumsfeld. Weldon to give a speech in a few moments this evening on the floor of the House. It should be aired on CSPAN this evening.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - As thousands of National Guard soldiers entered New Orleans on Friday to help restore order and deliver emergency supplies, Pentagon and Guard officials said the military's response had been slowed by a combination of physical obstacles created by the storm compounded by a cumbersome bureaucratic process for sending federal forces to assist in natural disasters. State officials in Louisiana and Mississippi said they had overcome the absence of some 8,000 of their National Guard troops who are deployed to Iraq by drawing on Guard members from other states, but not until after the storm had passed...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 - A Defense Department inquiry has found three more people who recall seeing an intelligence briefing slide that identified the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks a year before the hijackings and terrorist strikes, Pentagon and military officials said Thursday. But the officials said investigators who reviewed thousands of documents and electronic files from a secret counterterrorism planning unit had not found the chart itself, or any evidence the chart ever existed. The officials acknowledged that documents and electronic files created by the unit, known as Able Danger, were destroyed under standing orders that limit the military's...

Cenk Uygur on The Huffington Post: Draft Hagel for Defense At this point, nearly everyone agrees that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should be fired (with the obvious exception of Vice President Dick Cheney, and hence, the President). Republican Senators like John McCain and Trent Lott have called for his dismissal. Nearly every Democrat in Congress believes he should be fired. Even neoconservatives like Bill Kristol have turned on him. But the question isn’t whether Rumsfeld should be fired – it’s who replaces him? Whoever replaces the Secretary will hopefully lead the Iraqi operation in a new direction that it...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks. The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for...

We all know that when contracting the government should spell out the terms of the contract. But, what we might not know is that there are people within our government who write, review, test, and approve documents beyond reasonable, such as for baking brownies or oatmeal cookies. When the politicians say they can't seem to find much in the annual federal budgets to cut, ask them to cut out the brownies and cookies. The following document is a military recipe specification and is 26 pages long. It includes references to many, many other government agency standards, including those of the...

Newsweek is under intense criticism for a report it has now retracted about the American prison in Guantánamo Bay. Since we've weathered a journalistic storm or two, we can only say the best approach is transparency as Newsweek fixes whatever is broken, if anything. There is already a debate about journalistic practices, including the use of anonymous sources, and these things are worth discussing - especially at a time of war, national insecurity and extreme government secrecy, a time when aggressive news reporting is critical. But it is offensive to see the Bush administration use this case for political purposes,...

Taiwan's Commander-in-Chief Lee Tian-yu (—›“V‰H) will visit the US on May 20 to discuss arms purchase and military cooperation, a local Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday. Lee will visit the Pentagon on May 23. He will meet with Gordon England, the new deputy secretary of defense, and Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of General Staff, to discuss arms purchases, military cooperation and regional security, the paper said. The US is pushing Taiwan to buy modern arms to boost its defenses against China. The government approves of the arms purchase, but the legislature has been blocking the budget, saying the...

<p>For years, a citizen who wanted to know the name and phone number of a Pentagon official could buy a copy of the Defense Department directory at a government printing office. But since 2001, the directory has been stamped ''For Official Use Only," meaning the public may not have access to such basic information about the vast military bureaucracy.</p>

Jane Murray was fuming as she answered the phone, and, hearing her husband's voice, let it rip: their teenagers had once again left the bathroom littered with empty shampoo bottles despite repeated lectures on tidying up. It was a routine parental exchange, but not one Ms. Murray would have indulged in had she taken a moment to collect herself. The problem was one of context. Ms. Murray's husband, Col. John M. Murray, was calling from Baghdad, where he commands 6,000 soldiers of the First Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Tex. Over nine time zones and many months of separation,...

Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy secretary of defence, has emerged as a leading candidate to replace James Wolfensohn as the president of the World Bank. Mr Wolfowitz is one of a small number of people being considered for the US nomination, administration insiders said. The nomination of Mr Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Iraq war and a former US ambassador to Indonesia, would likely be highly controversial, and could raise new questions about the process by which the World Bank chief is selected. One administration official said his nomination “would have enormous repercussions within the development community”. Others...