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US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis linked Friday the pullout of US-led coalition forces from Syria to an agreement on a political process. Speaking at a meeting of coalition defense ministers at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mattis said: “As the operations ultimately draw to a close, we must avoid leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited by the (Bashar) Assad regime or its supporters.” He added that in Syria, “leaving the field before the special envoy Staffan de Mistura achieves success in advancing the Geneva political process we all signed for under the UN security council resolution would...

The US has pledged it will insist North Korea gives up all its nuclear capabilities and is subject to strict verification before sanctions are lifted, as it attempts to allay concerns that President Donald Trump could settle for a quick compromise deal at his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12. “We will continue to implement all UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea,” Jim Mattis, US defence secretary, said after a meeting with his Japanese and South Korean colleagues in Singapore on Sunday. “North Korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates verifiable and irreversible...

A day after abruptly canceling plans for a June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, the Trump administration renewed hopes on Friday that the meeting is not all but doomed and may still take place. Following a fiery letter to Kim Jong Un cancelling the meeting on Thursday, Donald Trump tweeted on Friday morning: “Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea. We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!” ______________________________________________ Very good news to receive the warm and...

Yesterday’s testimony by the Secretary of Defense provided a genuine Mattisism for the ages, but also some nuance over the destruction of a reported Russian mercenary force in Syria. James Mattis addressed the issue in response to a question from Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), who wanted to know whether US commanders used deconfliction communications to resolve the conflict. Mattis affirmed that, and more, as the Free Beacon’s Paul Crookston reports:

The Long Gray Line is dying before your very eyes. It is being murdered by Obama holdouts, diversity champions, politically correct Marxist professors and feminist nuts. The United States Military Academy is sinking into the Hudson and General MacArthur’s million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, can rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country from now until forever. No one at the Point is listening anymore… The enemy is not at the gates of West Point. The enemy is inside and burning the institution down. Today, I learned that it’s...

When General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis was picked by President Trump to serve as Secretary of Defense, the veteran community was largely ecstatic. Finally, someone would sit in the Pentagon’s top seat who was a warrior, and an enemy of the PC monster eating the military alive. While there is no doubt that General Mattis served honorably, there is growing doubt and indeed fear that he will never lift a finger to stop the social engineering that is putting the US military on a collision course to disaster. Therefore, US Defense Watch has comprised a list of questions for General...

Last Saturday, retired Major General ‘Iron Mike’ Healy passed away at the age of 91. Healy, was a living legend in the Special Forces community; a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, he was the inspiration for John Wayne’s character, “Col. Iron Mike Kirby,” in the 1968 film “The Green Berets.” Major General Healy earned the nickname “Iron Mike” while serving as a young officer leading Army Rangers on combat patrols deep behind enemy lines in Korea in the early 1950s. The nickname would follow him throughout his career, including during five tours — nearly eight years in all...

Although the recent Syrian airstrikes were double the size of last year's, President Trump reportedly selected one of the more restrained proposals designed by the Pentagon. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that Trump was presented with a wide array of options. There were intense discussions on the best approach after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis presented the three military options, the report said. Trump chose a restrained response. The paper reported that the most expansive proposal included airstrikes on Russian air defense capabilities in Syria. The attack would have been three times the size of the operation carried...

But testifying before Congress Thursday morning, Defense Secretary James Mattis seemed more cautious. "I believe there was a chemical attack and we're looking for the actual evidence," Mattis said. U.S. officials say blood samples provided by medical workers confirm the presence of chemicals but do not tell which side used them -- the regime or, as the Russians have claimed, rebels seeking to overthrow the regime. An international team of experts is expected to arrive in Syria on Saturday, but even if they are allowed to visit the scene of the attack, they will not be able to determine who...

I want to continue to cover the Syria conflict, as it is moving fast. First of all, this is the latest development from James Mattis. Of course, those at the White House are busy today. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has told Congress he believed there was a chemical attack in Syria as he pressed for inspectors on the ground to find evidence. Further Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee, “I believe there was a chemical attack and we are looking for the actual evidence.” Mattis said he was concerned about an “out-of-control” escalation in that country’s war, in...

Please see update at end of Part 1 – Washington is at pause for the moment. Alex Jones went to Washington and met with President Trump on April 10, 2018. He told President Trump not to strike Syria and enter into war with Russia. Russia’s Defense Ministry says “US instructors” trained militants to stage false flag chemical attacks in south Syria. The incidents are said to be a pretext for airstrikes on Syria. I think most of us in the US suspected this. I think we accept this as the truth. “We have reliable information at our disposal that US...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday said the US is still looking for “actual evidence” of a chemical weapons attack in Syria, but United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said the United States has “enough” proof. “I believe there was a chemical attack and we are looking for the actual evidence,” Mattis told ​a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, adding that he wants inspectors in Syria “probably within the week.” But Haley said she’s satisfied and urged caution in the US’ response to the chemical weapons attack Saturday in Douma that killed at least 60 people. “We definitely have...

Despite the panic and hysteria in the media, the Russian and American military commands in Syria continue to cooperate to ensure that any attack by one side against Syrian targets will not lead to the loss of life by soldiers of the other country. American military personnel who constantly coordinate their actions with the Russians just as the Russians do with the Americans on the territory of Syria have taken all measures so that any American strike will not inflict casualties among Russians. Only if the Russian forces confirm that there are no Russian soldiers present at a place the...

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary James Mattis confirmed to reporters that the United States and its allies are “still assessing the intelligence” about the alleged chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians this weekend. In response to a question about whether U.S. military forces are “ready right now to conduct a retaliatory strike if ordered,” Mattis added: "We stand ready to provide military options if they are appropriate as the President determines.” Mattis’s comments followed President Trump’s tweet this morning promising that missiles “will be coming” to Syria soon: In spite of Trump’s above certainty about Assad’s culpability in the chemical attack,...

Read Gov. Brown's full letter below. Dear Secretary Nielsen and Secretary Mattis: Pursuant to your request, the California National Guard will accept federal funding to add approximately 400 Guard members statewide to supplement the staffing of its ongoing program to combat transnational crime. This program is currently staffed by 250 personnel statewide, including 55 at the California border. Your funding for new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state. Combating these criminal threats...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday ordering the end of a policy, known as “catch and release,” in which illegal immigrants are released from detention while awaiting a court hearing on their status. As part of the memo, Trump asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to produce a list of military facilities that could be used to detain illegal immigrants.

Defense Secretary James Mattis decided Thursday that the best way to break the ice during his first ever meeting with President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser John Bolton was with a joke. “I heard you’re actually the devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you,” Mattis said in an off-microphone exchange that was captured upon Bolton’s arrival at the Pentagon. Bolton laughed and the two men entered the building. In the days following Trump’s decision to name Bolton as the replacement for outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Mattis has been doing his best to downplay notions that he...

Secretary of Defense James Mattis dispelled reports Tuesday that he was apprehensive about working with President Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor John Bolton. "I'll tell you right up front, it's going to be a partnership, we are going to go forward," Mattis told reporters during a news conference at the Pentagon. When asked about his differing world views with Bolton, Mattis responded, "I hope that there's some different world views. That's the normal thing you want unless you want group think." Mattis acknowledged that the two hadn’t met yet but said Bolton was coming to the Pentagon later this week...

The road to total military disaster is being paved by feminists, Obama holdouts and cultural Marxists who have infiltrated the armed forces at the highest levels in the last decade, while warriors have become an endangered species in the Pentagon. The Hour of the Clusterfu*k approaches and yet across the world, the US military marches on, like martinets suffering from cognitive dissonance, not committed to warfighting anymore, but to a much higher calling, diversity. Meanwhile, our enemies our dying with laughter. Our enemies know that the US military in 2018 is a feminized, PC weakling. Our enemies know that as...

Elizabeth Holmes — the Silicon Valley wunderkind whose blood-testing startup Theranos has collapsed in a slew of scandals — has been charged with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC on Wednesday accused Theranos CEO Holmes and a top lieutenant of defrauding investors of more than $700 million through false claims about its blood-testing technology. Theranos and 34-year-old Holmes ran “an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business, and financial performance,” according to the SEC. While Theranos had said it was on track to make $100 million by...