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Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, two former directors of the CIA and Defence Department, on Saturday criticised President Barack Obama's micromanagement of the military. “For the past 25 to 30 years, there has been a centralisation of power in the White House,” Panetta said during a panel discussion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. “Because of that centralisation of authority at the White House, there are too few voices that are being heard.” Without naming the Obama administration, Panetta said that by the time you get to the White House, the staff has already decided what should be done. Panetta...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed a new policy this week that requires all troops returning from West Africa be isolated on bases and not be permitted to see their families for 21 days. The new policy is tougher than Center for Disease Control guidelines. The new policy, “intended to provide a “safety valve,” was recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as an assurance that the service members participating in Operation United Assistance and returning home won’t bring the Ebola virus to America. The Joint Chiefs have 15 days to provide guidance on the quarantine of service members once they...

Congressman Patrick McHenry (NC-10), the Chief Deputy Whip, questions witnesses on how prepared the Department of Defense is should a member of the American military be stricken with Ebola while in Africa.

“The idea that you’re coming before us and giving this type of testimony raises great concerns” (Infowars) – The US Defense Department will only have the capability to fly four service members out of Africa per week should they contract the deadly Ebola virus, a Major General said at a meeting today regarding the military’s response to the epidemic. Speaking at a House Oversight & Government Reform Committee hearing earlier today, Maj. Gen. James Lariviere told North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry that the US plans to have “in the vicinity of 3,000” troops in Africa by the end of the...

A popular military enlistment program for immigrants with specialized skills is now stuck in bureaucratic limbo — after the Pentagon announced last month it would begin allowing some young immigrants without legal status into the program. Army officials confirmed Thursday that the program, called Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, has been suspended while the service tries to finalize screening procedures for the immigrants who want to enlist. (SNIP) And a new requirement instituted in 2012 mandates that all MAVNI applicants go through a high-level security check, called a single-scope background investigation. But DACA recipients would not be able...

If any American soldiers in Liberia contract the deadly Ebola virus, they will be quarantined, stabilized, and evacuated to a medical facility for treatment, said the Ebola mission commander, adding that the U.S. military hospitals that will admit potentially infected troops have not yet been identified. “If, God forbid, one of these soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marine contracted this disease, as I mentioned, they would be stabilized, they would be quarantined, we would go through the appropriate protocols,” Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa, said on October 16 while briefing reporters in the Pentagon by telephone from...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced a new Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap at the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas in Peru today, saying the Pentagon has “nearly completed a baseline survey to assess the vulnerability” due to global warming of more than 7,000 bases, installations, and other facilities.The 20-page document details three “broad adaptation goals”: “Identify and assess the effects of climate change on the Deparment,” “integrate climate change considerations across the Department and manage associated risks,” and “collaborate with internal and external stakeholders on climate change challenges.”“Initial analysis indicates that four primary climate change phenomena are likely...

The Pentagon released a report Monday asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster response as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises. The report lays out a road map for how the military will adapt to rising sea levels, more violent storms and widespread droughts. The Defense Department will begin by integrating plans for climate change risks across all of its operations, from war games and strategic defense planning situations to a rethinking of the...

U.S. Special Forces will soon be riding into battle in a race-bred truck. The Polaris DAGOR is a compact military machine that uses a trophy truck-style suspension for extreme off-road capability and was developed in partnership with Roush Industries of NASCAR fame. The purpose-built military machine is about the size of a four-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, but can fit up to nine warfighters onboard: four in the cabin, four in the bed, and a roof gunner positioned in a sling seat suspended from the roll cage. The 4,500-pound vehicle is powered by a diesel engine of unspecified origin, has a...

With boots-on-the-ground heading to Liberia to help 'manage' the anarchic dystopia that a frightened nation has become, General David Rodriguez (Commander, US Africa Command) held a briefing today to explain US troops' role: QUESTION: Will they be in contact with individuals or just specimens? RODRIGUEZ: They come in contact with the individuals. Of course this was followed by a stream of qualifiers that all protection possible will be taken (just like the nurses in Madrid?)Via Bloomberg Transcript, KIRBY: Afternoon, everybody. I'm proud to welcome into the briefing room General David Rodriguez, commander of Africa Command. He's here to give you...

The Department of Defense is reversing a decision not to award certain medals to soldiers fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) on the ground in the Middle East following pressure from Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), Huelskamp said Friday. “I was shocked that the Obama Administration intended to show such disrespect to our brave soldiers,” Huelskamp said in a statement. “However, after our letter and likely pressure from numerous other sources, I am pleased that Obama has apparently and abruptly reversed course and is recognizing the military action in the Iraq and Syrian region for what it is – a combat mission....

Frustrated that Congress does not bend to his will by granting amnesty to millions of undocumented Democrat voters, Mullah Obama has ordered the military to pander to and enlist illegal immigrants. In true PC fashion, the media are reporting the story of Military Accessions Vital to National Interest, or MAVNI. It is a Department of Defense policy which encourages illegals to enlist in the military for the purpose of introducing language skills critical to national security, such as Arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian. (1) Spanish is missing from the list. (2) In simple terms, native speakers are needed for translation...

The Defense Department plans to let some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children enlist in the military—a policy that comes as the Army is effectively firing active-duty soldiers due to budget cuts.The Military Times reports that a program—called the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest, or MAVNI—which currently allows recruiters to search for foreign nationals with unique skills will be expanded to accommodate the new policy. The Defense Department now wants to let in some illegal immigrants who enjoyed a reprieve under a 2012 Obama administration policy. That policy applied to those who came to the country...

According to a newly revealed Department of Defense policy, undocumented immigrants with “high-demand skills” and “mostly rare foreign language expertise or specialized health care training” will now be allowed to serve in the military, USA today reported. The program is called Military Accessions in the National Interest (MAVNI). Immigrants lacking proper documentation will be allowed in if they came to America with their parents before the age of 16 and are approved under President Obama’s 2012 DACA, or Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, policy. Interesting announcement from our government, considering that the Army had just announced back in May that...

"Mali national arraigned in 2000 killing of American diplomat in Niger" 


Minnesota law enforcement agencies have nearly $10 million worth of military surplus equipment, an amount that has worried some people who say police have strayed from their civilian roots. Through a program to transfer surplus military gear to local law enforcement agencies, Minnesota departments have received about 3,300 weapons, 40 tactical vehicles and 40 pairs of night-vision goggles. The U.S. Defense Department's 1033 program has been around for decades, though it's been in the spotlight after racially charged unrest in Ferguson, Mo., after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager. The initial police reaction to the protests...

The law violated by the Obama administration when it secretly exchanged five Guantanamo terrorists for an Army solider captured by the Taliban after deserting his post is punishable by jail, suspension and removal of office, according to written White House rules. The nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), confirmed this week that the president broke a “clear and unambiguous” law when he swapped the high-level terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, an Army sergeant who went AWOL in Afghanistan in 2009. According to rules issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the violation is...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - - Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Nasdaq:TKMR) (TSX:TKM), a leading developer of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics, today announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has verbally confirmed they have modified the full clinical hold placed on the TKM-Ebola Investigational New Drug Application (IND) to a partial clinical hold. This action enables the potential use of TKM-Ebola in individuals infected with Ebola virus. …………. "TKM-Ebola is being developed by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals and the U.S. Department of Defense's Medical Countermeasure Systems BioDefense Therapeutics (MCS-BDTX) Joint Product Management Office."

Mac Slavo July 29th, 2014 The Department of Defense informed Congress that it has deployed biological diagnostics systems to National Guard support teams in all 50 states, according to a report published by the Committee on Armed Services. The report, published in April amid growing fears that the Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus might spread outside of West Africa, says that the portable systems are designed for “low probability, high consequence” scenarios. Some 340 Joint Biological Agent Identification and Diagnostic System (JBAIDS) units have thus far been given to emergency response personnel. The systems are “rapid, reliable, and [provide] simultaneous identification...

Britain’s Farnborough Air Show wrapped up last week after seven ear-splitting days. To impress the excited kids and jaded dealers in attendance, the U.S. sent an F-8, an F-15, and a pair of F-16s. But the much anticipated F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter was a no-show. After a runway fire grounded the fleet earlier this month, the Department of Defense suspended negotiations to purchase the next batch of the planes. The troubled fighter is only the latest in a growing number of cases where the DOD has bought poorly designed and massively overpriced equipment for the nation’s armed forces....