Tag Archives: Pentagon

NBC News reports: Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday. Cooper, during Oct. 23 testimony before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into …

Courthouse News reports: Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Thursday that charges a Long Island tech company with rebranding Chinese-made security equipment as “Made in the U.S.A.” before selling them to the U.S. military. The complaint takes aim at Aventura Technologies Inc., run by Jack Cabasso, which allegedly raked in $88 million, including more than $20 million in federal government contracts, …

CNN reports: A new biography of former Defense Secretary James Mattis reports President Donald Trump personally got involved in who would win a major $10 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Pentagon, according to the website Task & Purpose, which writes about military issues. That hotly contested contract was awarded to Microsoft on Friday evening over Amazon …

NBC News reports: The world’s most wanted terrorist, Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was the target of a deadly U.S.-led raid in northwestern Syria, sources told NBC News early Sunday. Forensic testing is underway, but officials believe al-Baghdadi is among the dead, the sources said. A U.S. Special Ops mission targeted the ISIS leader near Barisha, in northwestern …

The New York Times reports: The Department of Defense on Friday awarded a $10 billion technology contract to Microsoft over Amazon in a contest that was closely watched after President Trump ramped up his criticism of Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and said he might intervene. The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known as JEDI, had set off …

USA Today reports: The Pentagon is preparing to send tanks and armored vehicles to Syrian oil fields, according to a U.S. official – a stunning reversal of President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the war-torn country after he declared victory over ISIS. The deployment of heavy armor to Syria would represent a significant escalation in the fight, requiring …

Guy Snodgrass writes for Politico: Long before real planning for it began, and long before the first news stories about it, those of us in the top levels of the Pentagon heard President Donald Trump demand the military parade he would eventually get. The bizarre request was one of the first signs I had of the enormous rift between my …

CBS News reports: The U.S. is “preparing to evacuate” about 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria “as safely and quickly as possible,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper told “Face the Nation” in an interview Sunday. The move comes a week after President Trump announced the repositioning of several dozen American troops embedded with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, opening the door …

The Military Times reports: American troops and former U.S. officials believe a Turkish artillery strike on Friday that landed about 300 meters from a U.S. commando outpost near the Syrian city of Kobani was done deliberately. No U.S. troops were injured in the strike, but U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said American commandos temporarily withdrew from their observation post on Mishtanur …

Via press release from the Pentagon: Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar spoke by phone where they discussed the situation in northeast Syria. Secretary Esper made it clear that the United States opposes Turkey’s uncoordinated actions as they place at risk the progress made by the Defeat-ISIS Coalition. While the Secretary reaffirmed …

The Guardian reports: The White House has given the green light to a Turkish offensive into northern Syria, moving US forces out of the area in an abrupt foreign policy change that will in effect abandon Washington’s longtime military partners, the Kurds. Kurdish forces have spearheaded the campaign against Islamic State in the region, but the policy swerve, after a …

From the Facebook of the USS George H.W. Bush: Avengers, Family, and Friends, It is with a heavy heart that I can confirm the loss of three Sailors last week in separate, unrelated incidents from apparent suicide. My heart is broken. These deaths mark the third, fourth, and fifth crew member suicides in the last two years. Now is the …

The military blog Task & Purpose reports: On Friday DVIDSHUB tweeted a picture of a B-2 bomber on the flight line with a formation of airmen in front of it along with the caption: “The last thing #Millenials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today.” If death is easy and comedy is hard, jokes about wiping out millennials with …

Reuters reports: In a press conference Friday evening, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford announced the US would be sending “hundreds” of US troops, as well as additional air defense capabilities, to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “The president has approved the deployment of US forces which will …

NBC News reports: Three videos posted online that have been described as being related to UFO sightings do indeed include footage of “unidentified aerial phenomena,” a U.S. Navy spokesman confirmed. But as for specifics, spokesman Joseph Gradisher said the Navy doesn’t know exactly what the objects are. “The three videos (one from 2004 and two from 2015) show incursions into …

Politico reports: Democrats in the House are doubling down on proposed legislation to block military funds from being spent at properties owned by President Donald Trump, following reports that Air Force personnel stayed at the president’s Turnberry resort in Scotland. The House voted in July to bar the Defense Department from spending money at nearly five dozen Trump properties worldwide …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: North Carolina’s military bases will lose about $80 million in planned military construction, according to a list released by the Pentagon on Wednesday of projects across the United States losing funding to build President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico. The affected projects in North Carolina include $40 million for a new ambulatory care …

The Associated Press reports: Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the use of $3.6 billion in funding from military construction projects to build 175 miles (282 kilometers) of President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Pentagon officials would not say which 127 projects will be affected but said details will be available Wednesday after members of Congress are notified. They …

The Associated Press reports: Mindful of President Donald Trump’s intense interest in space, the Pentagon is declaring U.S. Space Command open for business as part of a broader effort to better defend American interests in space. But there’s still no Space Force . Trump planned to participate in a ceremony Thursday marking Space Command’s official establishment, or to be more …

The Associated Press reports: Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warns bitter political divisions have pushed American society to the ‘‘breaking point’’ in his most extensive public remarks since he resigned in protest from the Trump administration. Mattis also goes into some reasons he left the Trump administration in an excerpt from his book published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. …