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President Trump said he is unsure whether Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will leave the administration and described him as “sort of a Democrat,” amid reports of friction between the two. Trump made the remarks in an interview with CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that airs Sunday night. An excerpt of the interview was released Sunday morning. “Well, I don’t know; he hasn’t told me that,” Trump said when asked whether Mattis might be leaving his position. Trump said that he has a “very good relationship” with Mattis and that the two had lunch together “two days ago,” but the president added...

A Pentagon spokeswoman says the suspicious substance found in envelopes turned over to the FBI contained the substance from which the poison ricin is derived, but not ricin itself. Dana W. White, the chief Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Brussels that the substance was castor seeds. ADVERTISING

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke before press on Friday after the remains of 55 troops believed to be U.S. service members were returned to U.S. custody by North Korea. He said that efforts to retrieve additional remains will continue, including the possibility of the U.S. entering North Korea for assistance.Outside the Pentagon, a reporter asked Mattis if there were plans for U.S. military personnel to enter North Korea for search missions to find additional U.S. troops’ remains.“That is certainly under consideration. Absolutely,” Mattis replied, according to Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, who posted to Twitter.

The idea of humans controlling machines with their minds has spun off sci-fi blockbusters like “Pacific Rim” and entire subgenres of foreign film, but while today skyscraper-sized fighting robots exist only on the big screen, the Pentagon is building technology that could one day make them a reality. Today, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is selecting teams to develop a “neural interface” that would both allow troops to connect to military systems using their brainwaves and let those systems transmit back information directly to users’ brains. The Next-Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology, or N3, program aims to combine the speed and...

Nicholas Bade showed up at an Air Force recruiting office on an icy morning in January, determined to be one of the first transgender recruits to enlist in the military. He was in top shape, and had earned two martial arts black belts. He had already aced the military aptitude test, and organized the stack of medical records required to show he was stable and healthy enough to serve. So he expected to be called for basic training in a month, maybe two at the most. Six months later, he’s still waiting. And so are nearly all other transgender recruits...

A group of House Armed Services Committee Democrats is demanding answers from the Pentagon on why it is “backing away” from its annual Pride celebration. “We write to express our concern that Pentagon leadership is backing away from supporting and celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) service members and Department of Defense (DoD) employees,” the eight Democrats wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis. “The fight for dignity and inclusion for LGBT individuals in our Armed Forces should remain a steadfast priority for the Department of Defense.” The letter was organized by Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.). This...

The U.S. will take advantage of the temporary cease-fire with the Taliban declared in Afghanistan to train its firepower on ISIS Khorasan and al Qaeda remnants, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels Friday. “Should the Taliban take full advantage of the cease-fire in the best interest of the Afghan people, then many of the surveillance assets we have overhead could be reoriented to ISIS-K, to al-Qaeda, and other foreign terrorists who have no business being in Afghanistan in the first place,” Mattis told reporters. “And obviously, those forces that would have been...

If one were to pick an emblem of America’s global military might, the B-52 properly might top the list. The strategic bomber’s expansive 185-foot wingspan and 159-foot fuselage, make the “Stratofortress” a universally recognizable symbol of unrivaled aerial firepower. This is especially the case if you are unfortunate enough to be the target of its devastating payload – which can be munitions ranging from unguided or guided bombs, to cruise missiles or nuclear weapons. Reportedly, up to 500 Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria found this out the hard way in February, illustrating that when America wants to send a message, it...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to propose to President Trump that transgender members of the U.S. military be allowed to continue serving despite the president’s call last summer for a ban on all transgender service members, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the issue. The defense secretary was scheduled to brief the president Wednesday, but the meeting was postponed and will occur soon, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy deliberations. Dana White, a spokeswoman for Mattis, said the secretary will provide his recommendation to Trump this week and the president will make...

The Pentagon scrubbed its latest National Defense Strategy of all references to climate change, an Orwellian rhetorical shift away from a scientific reality at an agency that has long avoided the issue’s politics. A summary document released Friday morning makes no mention of “climate,” “warming,” “planet,” “sea levels” or even “temperature.” All 22 uses of the word “environment” refer to the strategic or security landscape. The 11-page memo, signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, is the first update to the policy in a decade. It’s unlikely the Department of Defense will release a full National Defense Strategy report; instead, the...

Defense Secretary James Mattis said he does not carry tokens of gratitude to hand out to U.S. troops, saying “I’m saving money for bombs.” Mattis made the comment to Breitbart News after a reporter relayed a message from a U.S. Marine who asked whether the secretary was carrying challenge coins during a trip to an international terrorism conference in Jordan earlier this year.

At a remote military base in Jordan earlier this month, U.S. Marines were abuzz with excitement — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was in town. He would not be visiting Camp Titin, where they were training Jordanian forces — but he would be nearby at an international terrorism conference in Aqaba, Jordan, and for these Marines, that was close enough. One recalled being deployed in Afghanistan years ago, and how Mattis, then-commander of U.S. Central Command, had been just feet away from him, delivering a pep talk.

The anonymous poster Q first posted this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75tJkLB_upE And then Secretary of Defense tweeted this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVAepwywNPw

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — “Storm clouds are gathering” over the Korean Peninsula, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis declared Friday. And as diplomats try to resolve the nuclear standoff, he told soldiers that the U.S. military must do its part by being ready for war. Without forecasting a conflict, Mattis emphasized that diplomacy stands the best chance of preventing a war if America’s words are backed up by strong and prepared armed forces. “My fine young soldiers, the only way our diplomats can speak with authority and be believed is if you’re ready to go,” Mattis told several dozen soldiers and...

Defense Secretary James Mattis told the US Army it “must stand ready” and have military options “our president can deploy” in case diplomacy fails to solve the standoff with increasingly belligerent North Korea. “There’s one thing the U.S. Army can do, and that is you have got to be ready to ensure that we have military options that our president can employ if needed,” Mattis told the Association of the US Army’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, on Monday, according to The Hill. “But that means the U.S. Army must stand ready, and so, if you’re ready, that’s your duty...

WASHINGTON — Days before President Trump has to make a critical decision on whether to hold up the Iran nuclear deal, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis openly split with him on abandoning the agreement, the second senior member of the president’s national security team to recently contradict him.Mr. Mattis told senators on Tuesday that it was in America’s interest to stick with the deal, which Mr. Trump has often dismissed as a “disaster.”“Absent indications to the contrary, it is something that the president should consider staying with,” Mr. Mattis told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee after being repeatedly pressed...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted that the United States still had military options left for dealing with North Korea, but did not elaborate when asked for details Monday. Most experts think a military strike on North Korea would invite a devastating response from Pyongyang. The city of Seoul, South Korea, home to 25 million, is well within artillery range of the North, which would most likely use conventional artillery munitions and chemical weapons. But according to Mattis, the Pentagon has a few tricks up its sleeve that wouldn't involve the decimation of Seoul.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned President Trump on Tuesday that only Congress can authorize a military strike on North Korea, as tensions with Pyongyang continue to escalate. “The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges you to uphold the Constitution, and the fundamental principle of separation of powers, by recognizing the sole authority of Congress to declare war — and to refrain from the use of force against North Korea in the absence of explicit congressional authorization for the use of force,” the group wrote in a letter to Trump on Tuesday. “This drumbeat of threats over the past...

Secretary of Defense James Mattis issued issued a warning to North Korea on Sunday, saying the country would be hit with a “massive military response” if it continues to threaten the U.S. Mattis mentioned any threats to the U.S. and their allies, including territories such as Guam, would cause the U.S. to respond with strong military action. “Any threat to the United States or its territories including Guam or our allies will be met with a massive military response,” Mattis said outside of the White House after a meeting with President Donald Trump. The defense secretary called out Kim in...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday slammed news reports suggesting he was breaking with the president on North Korea a day earlier. “I can’t help people who misinterpret things. I’ll do my best to call it like I see it, but right now if I say ‘six’ and the president says ‘half a dozen,’ they’re going to say I disagree with him, so let’s just get over that,” he told reporters at the Pentagon. He added, “and if that’s the story that some people want to write then they’ll find the way they’ll sort out something, but there was nothing...