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"BREAKING: Pete Hegseth answered a question about the Signal Chats: "So you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax." "So this is the guy that pedals in the garbage. This is what he does." "I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and courage of our troops, I've monitored it very closely from the beginning."' ...

U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. This is...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Monday that “nobody was texting war plans” following news breaking that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, gained access to a Signal group chat featuring Trump administration officials talking about plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen. “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii after being asked about Goldberg’s access to the chat.Hegseth also called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”Goldberg gained access to...

The military will draw up a new operational plan for the Yellow Sea after its existing one was leaked in the wake of the sinking of a naval vessel late last month. A military official said yesterday that the Navy cannot conduct missions with the existing plan because it and other military secrets have been leaked to North Korea since the sinking. “We have re-designated the operational zone of naval patrol ships to cope with the North’s coastal artillery since last year’s (inter-Korean) naval clash,” the official said. “In particular, we find it inevitable to review the operation of monitoring...

Hackers in North Korea have allegedly stolen a cache of classified military documents from South Korea, according to a South Korean lawmaker. Lee Cheol-hee, a member of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, initially told local media outlets that the documents were taken in a September 2016 hack of the country's Defense Ministry. The ministry would not comment to ABC News, citing national security concerns. "The way it got hacked was preposterous," Lee told ABC News, confirming what he initially told South Korean media. "It wasn't because North Koreans had advanced hacking skills but was due to negligence on the South...

WASHINGTON - Democratic critics of the Iraq war seized the offensive at both ends of the Capitol on Tuesday, disclosing plans for a symbolic rejection by the House of President Bush's decision to deploy additional troops and filing legislation in the Senate to require withdrawal of U.S. military personnel. "We're going to stand by our soldiers, but we're not going to stand by a failed policy that exposes more of our soldiers to death and suffering," said Sen. Richard Durbin (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, rebutting charges that the war's critics may be undermining the morale or even the...

The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm. Note: Document titles were added by ABC News. "U.S. War Plan Leaked to Iraqis by Russian Ambassador" Two Iraqi documents from March 2003 — on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion — and addressed to the secretary of Saddam Hussein, describe details of a U.S. plan for war. According to the documents, the plan was disclosed to the Iraqis by the Russian ambassador. Document written sometime before March 5, 2003 The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the...

This week, President Bush visits the People's Republic of China. As with all such high-level diplomatic missions, he will doubtless be tempted to accentuate the few, putatively positive aspects of the Sino-American relationship, and gloss over the increasing number of negative ones. In that happens, history may record this as a moment when the failure to speak truth to the Chinese communists condemned the two nations to conflict later.

Rockefeller’s Confession What was the West Virginia Democrat doing as a freelancing prewar diplomat? By William J. Bennett Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, the following exchange took place between Chris Wallace and U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: WALLACE: Now, the President never said that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. As you saw, you did say that. If anyone hyped the intelligence, isn't it Jay Rockefeller? SEN. ROCKEFELLER: No. The — I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I'll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I...

The US military is for the first time making its own plans for dealing with domestic terrorist attacks. Under the plans, quick-reaction forces will be prepared to deal with 15 potential scenarios, including simultaneous bomb attacks. The civilian authorities would usually expect to plan for and provide the vast majority of the resources and personnel for major domestic emergencies. Now military resources such as sniffer dogs will be easier to deploy. The Department of Defense has not traditionally taken a major role in domestic operations. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents the military from taking part in any law...

Laurie Mylroie sent out an email about Paul O'Neill's appearance on 60 Minutes last night; she notes what appears to be a major error in Ron Suskind's book, which casts doubt on the credibility of both Suskind and O'Neill. Here is the key portion of Mylroie's email: "In his appearance this evening on '60 Minutes,' Ron Suskind, author of The Price of Loyalty, based to a large extent on information from former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, made an astonishing, very serious misstatement. "Suskind claimed he has documents showing that preparations for the Iraq war were well underway before...

WASHINGTON -- Ever wonder what's in the Pentagon's old war plans? Why, for instance, "Project Cornflakes" was a go in World War II, but Cold War-era plans dubbed "Dropshot," "Broiler," "Sizzle," "Trojan" and "Shakedown" stayed on the drawing board? An upcoming "Top Secret" exhibit at the National Archives building, which houses the revered copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, may answer some questions. Using a new interactive computer program, visitors will be able to inspect spy documents and war plans once limited to officials with special security clearances. While the exhibit itself won't open until next year,...

<p>U.S. military commanders, working with the Pentagon's Joint Staff, have revised plans for potential wars on the Korean peninsula, in the Middle East and elsewhere based on assumptions that conflicts could be fought more quickly and with fewer American troops than previously thought, senior officers said.</p> <p>The changes reflect advances in precision munitions, greater use of Special Operations forces, and improved coordination between air, ground and sea forces tested in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. By incorporating these and other new elements in all U.S. war plans, Pentagon authorities hope to make them permanent features and gain greater combat efficiency, the officers said.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - Coalition commander Gen. Tommy Franks won't begin his ground attack against the Republican Guard divisions on the outskirts of Baghdad until U.S. air power has whittled Saddam Hussein's front-line units down to less than half-strength. The trouble is that it may be hard to know when or whether that goal has been reached.</p>

<p>As many of us sat, hypnotized in front of television screens watching in real time our troops fighting their way into Iraq, we realized that we were watching the unfurling of a plan as old as the Roman invasion of Britain in 54 B.C.</p>

Why Bush faces terrible choices March 29 2003 We now know the start, but how does this end? The stiff resistance of Iraq's armed forces has already deprived George Bush of the outcome in Iraq that he most wanted and expected - the swift collapse of the Baath regime and the triumphant liberation of a grateful Iraqi nation.But the war is just over a week old. It can still end in many different ways. Here are the three most likely scenarios - and one very unlikely one.RUMSFELD'S REVENGE It is still entirely possible that the US could bring the war...

The media continue to wail about the U.S. being forced to change its strategy, after early setbacks in Iraq. This proposition -- which is becoming accepted over the facts through mind-numbing repetition -- is compounded from two big lies: 1. There have been setbacks. 2. There was a strategy that didn't anticipate them. On the first point, there has been nothing resembling a setback. The U.S. and allied forces have moved backwards nowhere, under enemy fire, except in the briefest tactical manoeuvres. They are holding all their bridges and lines, and doing terrible damage to anyone who attacks them. The...

US hits telecoms in Baghdad, ground advance pauses By Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD, March 28 (Reuters) - The United States blasted communications centres in Baghdad on Friday in some of the heaviest air strikes of the Iraq war, but advancing U.S. ground troops appeared to pause to regroup and strengthen supply lines. Playing on U.S. and British fears of being sucked into bloody street battles, especially in a capital heavily defended by elite Republican Guards, Iraq swore to fight on and promised "living hell" for the invaders. After a night of fire and thunder, Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki saw two...

Failure of Rumsfeld's 'War Lite' strategy leads Allies to bring in the heavies By Paul Vallely 29 March 2003 It was the day the war changed gear. As the Iraqis preened themselves on the success of their battlefield strategy to date and another apparently misdirected missile reaped the worst civilian death toll of any single incident in Baghdad, Washington and London tacitly acknowledged it was time for a rethink. They had tried it the easy way but Donald Rumsfeld's business-school approach of War Lite, with just-in-time levels of troops and supplies had failed. It was time to do it the...

The United States military now faces a series of difficult calculations in its efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his government. One way to accomplish that goal is to try to advance quickly to the outskirts of Baghdad, destroy the Republican Guard troops defending the approaches to the capital and then win the fight inside the city. Once Mr. Hussein is deposed, the fedayeen and other paramilitary forces that have been attacking allied troops as they head north would find themselves cut off from the main source of their power. In this view, the paramilitary forces would then be defeated...