Tag Archives: Pentagon

Trump Claims Executive Privilege In Amazon Lawsuit

Politico reports: The Pentagon’s inspector general “could not definitively determine” whether the White House influenced the procurement process for a major cloud computing contract because senior Defense Department officials were barred from answering questions on the subject during interviews, according to a 313-page report released on Wednesday. Department personnel who evaluated proposals and awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract …

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Plan To Withdraw From Open Skies Treaty Raises Alarm

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reports: Reports emerged this week that the White House may be moving “soon” on withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty, a nearly two-decade-old agreement that allows 34 countries to fly and share reconnaissance missions over each other to promote military cooperation and transparency. Last month, defense secretary Mark Esper said he was freezing a long-overdue …

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US Aircraft Carrier Now Has At Least 550 COVID Cases

NBC News reports: At least 550 crew members aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after its captain, Brett Crozier, was relieved of duty for sounding the alarm about an outbreak on the ship. The Navy said 92 percent of crew members have been tested for COVID-19. More than 3,600 tested negative. The …

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Defense Secretary Open To Reinstating Carrier Captain

The Hill reports: Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he is open to reinstating the Navy captain who was removed from his post last week shortly after asking for help with a coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship. “We’ve taken nothing off the table,” Esper said on CBS News Friday morning. “My inclination is always to support the chain of command, and …

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Esper Accepts Modly’s Resignation, Successor Tapped

CNN reports: Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday, a day after leaked audio revealed he called the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt “stupid” in an address to the ship’s crew, according to a US official and a former senior military official. The Navy and Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment. Undersecretary …

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Trump Ousts Pentagon IG Overseeing Pandemic Funds

The Washington Post reports: Glenn Fine, the acting inspector general at the Defense Department, was dismissed from his acting position at the Pentagon, making him ineligible to be the watchdog over spending to counter the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Fine, a career official who will remain a deputy inspector general, had been chosen for the spending role by …

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US Army Announces “Tactical Pause” In Basic Training

NBC News reports: The U.S. Army has paused the movement of future U.S. soldiers to basic combat training, the department announced Monday. “This tactical pause will allow commands to ensure appropriate safety measures are in place and are operating effectively at training installations,” the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, which oversees training of Army recruits, said in a statement. …

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Pentagon To Require Face Masks For Service Members

ABC News reports: The Pentagon will soon announce a new policy requiring face masks for military personnel, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday on ABC This Week. “We will have a directive coming up on that today,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. “Now we’re going to move towards face covering.” Over 1,200 service …

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Sailors Cheer Fired Carrier Captain As He Leaves Ship

The Hill reports: Sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt cheered for their departing captain Thursday night as he was removed from duty. Videos captured on social media and sites like Stars and Stripes show sailors shouting “Captain Crozier” for Capt. Brett Crozier as he left the ship. Crozier was removed from duty after a letter he wrote pleading for help …

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Reuters: Navy To Relieve Captain Of Stricken Carrier

Reuters reports: The U.S. Navy is expected to relieve the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote a scathing letter that leaked to the public asking the Navy for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak onboard, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Captain Brett Crozier was being relieved not …

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Pentagon Seeking To Acquire 100,000 Body Bags

Bloomberg News reports: The Pentagon is seeking to provide as many as 100,000 military-style body bags for potential civilian use as the U.S. warns that deaths could soar in the coming weeks from the coronavirus pandemic. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 body bags, known as Human Remains Pouches, through an interagency group that directed it to the …

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Navy “Disappointed” With Captain Of Stricken Carrier

The Navy Times reports: The Navy’s senior leadership was aware of both the COVID-19 outbreak onboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and the concern about properly isolating sailors well before the ship’s commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, sent a letter Monday up his chain of command sounding the alarm, the Navy’s top admiral told reporters Wednesday. “Let me emphasize that …

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Aircraft Carrier Captain Pleads For Help, 100+ Cases

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: The captain of a nuclear aircraft carrier with more than 100 sailors infected with the coronavirus pleaded Monday with U.S. Navy officials for resources to allow isolation of his entire crew and avoid possible deaths in a situation he described as quickly deteriorating. The unusual plea from Capt. Brett Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, came …

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Pentagon Preps To Activate US Navy Hospital Ships

Just in from the US Naval Institute: The Pentagon is starting the process of activating Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) as part of the Defense Department’s domestic response to the spreading COVID-19 virus, USNI News has learned. “We’ve already given orders to the Navy… to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy,” …

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Pentagon To Reconsider Denial Of Amazon Contract

Reuters reports: The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking court permission to reconsider certain aspects of its decision to award a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft Corp, court filings showed on Thursday. A U.S. judge last month granted Amazon.com Inc’s request to temporarily halt the DoD and Microsoft from moving forward with the deal, which Amazon had …

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Judge: Amazon “Likely” To Win Pentagon Cloud Lawsuit

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge has concluded that a bid protest lawsuit brought by Amazon over President Trump’s intervention in an important Pentagon cloud computing contract “is likely to succeed on the merits” of one of its central arguments, according to a court document made public Friday. The document provides the first indication of how Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith …

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Pentagon Linguist Charged With Spying For Terrorists

Via press release from the Justice Department: Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged today in the District of Columbia with transmitting highly sensitive classified national defense information to a foreign national with apparent connections to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization that has been so designated by the Secretary of State. According to the affidavit filed in …

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Appeals Court Hears Challenge To Male-Only Draft

Courthouse News reports: An attorney for a men’s rights group argued Tuesday before the Fifth Circuit that the military’s all-male draft registration system, which the Supreme Court upheld in 1981, should now be struck down as unconstitutional. Marc Angelucci, representing the National Coalition for Men and two men challenging the male-only draft, said a 2015 decision by the military to …

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Congress Warns Pentagon: Don’t Move Money To Wall

The Associated Press reports: Lawmakers from both parties told Pentagon leaders on Wednesday that the Defense Department is undermining its own efforts to get military money by diverting billions of dollars for the construction of President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the committee’s top Republican warned Defense Secretary Mark Esper that …

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Congress Told Virus Is Impacting US Military In Europe

Roll Call reports: The spread of the coronavirus in Europe is affecting operations and services on some U.S. military bases in Italy, and precautions could soon extend to the thousands of personnel stationed in Germany, the general in charge of the military’s activity on that continent told senators on Tuesday. Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters, who leads U.S. European …

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