Free Republic

The U.S. military is planning to deploy more than 400 troops to help train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, along with hundreds of U.S. support personnel, a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.

STEVE KROFT, THE OLD FOOL OF 60 MINUTES WHO BOASTED HE IS BARACK OBAMA’S “GO TO MAN” AT THE CBS SHOW, PREFERS HIS BLACK WOMEN IN BED WHILE CHEATING ON HIS SOCIETY WIFE. THE VICIOUS, UNSOLVED SLAYIING OF A BLACK FEMALE WAS IGNORED WHILE KROFT AND CBS PILE UP BROWNIE POINTS WITH THE PENTAGON PRESS OFFICE. Copyright 2015 MilitaryCorruption.com Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes is more than an old fool with a fecal fetish (more about that later in this story). He’s a phony hypocrite as well. A Vietnam veteran and former enlisted man, like Chuck Hagel, he forgot where...

The Obama administration's nominee for a senior legal position at the Pentagon is one of the congressional staffers accused by Republicans and intelligence officials of stealing classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency, Fox News has learned -- and the controversy could imperil her shot at a major career promotion. Sources on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community say Alissa Starzak, a majority staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) who has been nominated for the position of general counsel to the U.S. Army, is one of two SSCI employees accused by the panel's Republicans, and by...

The steady stream of detainees being transferred out of Guantanamo Bay is raising security concerns among lawmakers who worry the Obama administration has no system for keeping tabs on them. The latest batch includes four prisoners once classified as high risk, individuals ranging from a known weapons smuggler to a Taliban operative involved in multiple attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. "They're very dangerous terrorists," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., told Fox News, after the four Afghan detainees were transferred to their home country over the weekend.

If there is one salient fact that emerges from the now infamous Sony hack it is that the bad guys won.  The bad guys won because there they paid no price for the damage inflicted.  In the Sony case the hackers are outside and beyond the law, so their backers and sponsors are encouraged to cause even more damage in future. To stop cyber attacks, particularly those sponsored by foreign governments, we need to respond to attacks now. Sony is a movie company, a major cog in the entertainment industry.  Whether Sony rises or falls has little or nothing to...

Brian P. McKeon, deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said U.S. cruise missile deployments are among a range of options being considered if Russia fails to return to compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

President Obama on Friday announced former Pentagon official Ashton Carter as his choice to lead the Defense Department, calling him one of America's top national security leaders who has a "relentless dedication to our armed services." The president's selection of Carter, 60, who was deputy defense secretary from October 2011 to December 2013, was widely rumored but not confirmed by the White House until now. If confirmed by the Senate, Carter would be Obama's fourth Pentagon chief in his roughly six-year administration.

WASHINGTON— Ashton Carter, the former deputy defense secretary, is the leading candidate to become the next Pentagon chief, but senior officials said President Barack Obama wouldn’t make an announcement Tuesday. The president could announce his pick for defense secretary later this week, a senior White House official said. Mr. Carter, who was out of town Tuesday, is seen as the likely choice, officials said. But the White House is continuing to look at other candidates, including former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig and former assistant Secretary of State Kurt Cambpell. Mr. Obama could still change his mind and opt for one...

Thanksgiving weekend marks the official kickoff of the holiday season and it’s always a busy one. Today for example Raj, Little Mo, DeweyFromDetroit and I traditionally go see the Nutcracker.  No, not Val Jar or Lady M – White House entrance to Val-Jar’s officeThe Nutcracker I’m talking about is Tchaikovsky's ballet. Neither of our Big White nutcrackers enjoy the music, greatly preferring the beat and lyrics of a good Beyoncé song and dance to that of classic ballet. Odd, as Bey has been known to “borrow” from the ballet art form. And I’m not just talking about the ballerina heels...

On a trip to Afghanistan during President Barack Obama's first term, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was stunned to find a telephone line at the military's special operations headquarters that linked directly back to a top White House national security official. "I had them tear it out while I was standing there," Gates said earlier this month as he recounted his discovery. "I told the commanders, 'If you get a call from the White House, you tell them to go to hell and call me.'" To Gates, the phone in Kabul came to symbolize Obama's efforts to micromanage the Pentagon and...

In a letter sent this month to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, House Armed Services Committee Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) noted that Joint Special Operations Command delivered a ransom payment for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. He wrote “Given the significance of this matter, as well as the fact that Pentagon officials have denied that a payment was even considered — and you also said you were unaware of any such attempt — I ask you to immediately inquire with JSOC to determine the specific order of events.” (2) The money was delivered to a phony “intermediary” who...

Jim Miklaszewski kept it relatively diplomatic, declaring "there's something amiss here." But Joe Scarborough was blunt: "boy, that's damning," said the Morning Joe host. They were characterizing Miklaszewski's description of the Obama administration's "micromanagement" of the Department of Defense in which communication flows only in one direction: from the White House to the Pentagon. On today's Morning Joe, NBC's Pentagon correspondent reported that former SecDefs Robert Gates and Leon Panetta had recently "lambaste[d]" that micromanagement. View the video here.

United Technologies Corp. Chief Executive Louis Chenevert abruptly stepped down, startling people inside and outside the industrial conglomerate he led for six years.

A senior Navy intelligence officer has been removed from his position due to comments made regarding aggressive Chinese military movements that ran counter to the Pentagon’s talking points on the issue, according to the Navy Times. Capt. James Fanell was removed from his position as the director of intelligence and information operations at U.S. Pacific Fleet. Fanell was reassigned within the command. Though neither the Navy nor Fanell commented on the reason for the personnel change, it is widely believed to be due to an internal investigation of his comments on China, according to the report. Fanell warned during a...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — November 12, 2014 … US President Barack Obama never misses an opportunity to attack one of America’s most trusted allies. And in doing so, he weakens US interests in the Middle East. Last week, US General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths” to prevent civilian casualties during this summer’s war in the Gaza Strip. “I actually do think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties,” said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,...

As of the end of August, there was no communication between the White House and the Pentagon concerning a strategy to fight the Islamic State, the Department of Defense (DoD) said in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Not only did the president not have a strategy, as he candidly admitted on August 28, the White House did not talk about developing a strategy with his Defense Department prior to launching airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq on August 8. This contradicts comments by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest trying to explain Obama telling reporters on...

Stars&Stripes: Pentagon names military bases as Ebola troop quarantine sites 11/7/2014 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Friday it has designated five military bases inside the U.S. and two in Europe as quarantine areas for troops returning from the Ebola-response mission in West Africa. Servicemembers will be isolated for 21 days at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, Texas; and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia to check for symptoms of the deadly virus, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said. Army garrisons in Baumholder, Germany, and Vicenza, Italy, will also be quarantine sites. [snip]...

A bombshell New York Times investigation revealed in mid-October that hundreds of American soldiers were exposed to chemical weapons while serving in Iraq. Worse than that, the experiences of these soldiers was covered up by Defense officials during the Bush and Obama eras. Today, the Pentagon is finally acknowledging that American servicemen and women did suffer exposure to chemical agents while serving in Iraq. “American troops were exposed to chemical weapons multiple times in the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while the Pentagon kept their discoveries of the expired or degraded weapons secret from investigators, fellow soldiers,...

More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say. The Pentagon’s disclosure abruptly changed the scale and potential costs of the United States’ encounters with abandoned chemical weapons during the occupation of Iraq, episodes the military had for more than a decade kept from view. This previously untold chapter of the occupation became public...

The Pentagon has scaled back its plan to assemble an overseas spy service that could have rivaled the CIA in size, backing away from a project that faced opposition from lawmakers who questioned its purpose and cost, current and former U.S. officials said. Under the revised blueprint, the Defense Intelligence Agency will train and deploy up to 500 undercover officers, roughly half the size of the espionage network envisioned two years ago when the formation of the Defense Clandestine Service was announced. The previous plan called for moving as many as 1,000 undercover case officers overseas to work alongside the...