Tag Archives: Pentagon

WSJ: Hegseth Brought Wife To “Sensitive Meetings”

The Wall Street Journal reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing scrutiny over his handling of details of a military strike, brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed, according to multiple people who were present or had knowledge of the discussions. One of the meetings, a …

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Second Judge Blocks Ban On Trans Military Service

The Associated Press reports: A U.S. judge in Washington state has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from serving in the military, the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks. The order Thursday from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came in a case brought by several long-serving transgender military members …

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Pentagon Warned Against Using Signal Just Last Week

NPR reports: A Pentagon-wide advisory went out one week ago warning against using the messaging app Signal, even for unclassified information. “A vulnerability has been identified in the Signal messenger application,” begins the department-wide email, dated March 18, obtained by NPR. The memo continues, “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations.” It …

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Democrat Plans Hearing On “FUBAR” War Plan Texts

The Hill reports: Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), a military veteran, on Monday called for a congressional hearing following a news report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted The Atlantic’s top editor key details of the U.S. plan to bomb Houthi targets, just two hours ahead of the attacks. “Only one word for this: FUBAR,” Ryan wrote in a post on …

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Congress Rages Over War Plan Texts: “Heads Must Roll”

Axios reports: Members of Congress in both parties exploded in anger Monday after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic revealed he was inadvertently included in a highly-sensitive Trump administration Signal chat on airstrikes in Yemen.  “This is an outrageous national security breach and heads should roll,” Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement …

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Trump Admin Accidentally Texted Reporter War Plans

Jeffrey Goldberg writes for The Atlantic: 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 …

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Hegseth Attacks Judge Who Blocked Trans Military Ban

“Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.” – Pete Hegseth, after the judge blocked Trump’s ban on transgender military service, writing, …

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Pentagon To Polygraph “Leakers” Of Musk/China Story

CNN reports: The Department of Defense is investigating “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information” and plans to use polygraphs as part of the probe, according to a memo published to the department’s website Friday. “The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,” DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper …

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Hegseth Floats “Department Of War” Name Change

First, some history about the name: In 1789, the Department of War was established to oversee all military affairs, including naval affairs, with the Secretary of War as its head. The National Security Act of 1947 established the Department of the Air Force and merged it with the War Department and the Navy Department to create the National Military Establishment. …

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Musk Vows Prosecution Of “Pentagon Leakers”

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s top adviser Elon Musk has openly threatened Pentagon employees who may have leaked information that the tech billionaire was due to get a briefing on a potential American war with China. The story, published by the New York Times on Thursday evening U.S. time, said that — according to anonymous American officials — the Pentagon planned …

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Pentagon Spox Demoted In Jackie Robinson Uproar

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has sidelined a senior Defense Department spokesman, defense officials said Thursday, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with colleagues and journalists who cover the Pentagon, and aggressively defended the agency’s purge of government-produced content recognizing the contributions of minorities in the military. John Ullyot’s removal followed an uproar Wednesday …

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Hegseth Vows Appeal Of Block On Trans Military Ban

Axios reports: A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to ban transgender people from serving in the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to appeal. “The Military Ban is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext,” wrote U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in a scathing ruling that found the restrictions that were due to take effect …

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Pentagon Deletes Articles On Holocaust As “DEI”

CNN reports: Articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the department has scrambled to comply with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order to scrub “diversity” content from all its platforms. A database obtained by CNN shows that more …

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Pentagon Scrubs Mention Of Jackie Robinson’s Service

NBC News reports: The military story of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball after serving as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army, no longer exists on the Department of Defense’s website as part of the Trump administration’s wiping out of diversity, equity and inclusion within the federal government. Robinson trained as an officer and was …

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Famed Navajo Code Talkers Axed From Pentagon Sites

Axios reports: Articles about the renowned Native American Code Talkers have disappeared from some military websites, with several broken URLs now labeled “DEI.” From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Axios identified at least 10 articles mentioning the Code Talkers that had disappeared …

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Hegseth Shutters Pentagon Office On Future Wars

The New York Times reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the shuttering of the Office of Net Assessment, a small, often secretive and sometimes opaque office that for more than 50 years has helped the Pentagon’s most senior leaders think about the future of war. The office costs about $10 million to $20 million a year — a fraction of …

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FBI Told To Halt Background Checks For WH Staff

Reuters reports: The White House has quietly directed the FBI to halt the background check process for dozens of President Donald Trump’s top staffers, and has transferred the process to the Pentagon, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The directive came last month after agents tasked with completing the background investigations had conducted interviews with a handful of …

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Pentagon Draws Plans To Seize Panama Canal By Force

NBC News reports: The White House has directed the U.S. military to draw up options for increasing the American troop presence in Panama to achieve President Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning. During a joint address to Congress last week, Trump said, “to further enhance our national security, my administration …

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Hegseth To Overhaul US Rules Against War Crimes

The Guardian reports: The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is expected in the coming weeks to start a sweeping overhaul of the judge advocate general’s corps as part of an effort to make the US military less restricted by the laws of armed conflict, according to two people familiar with the matter. The changes are poised to have implications across …

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REPORT: US Won’t Participate In Future NATO Exercises

The Kyiv Independent reports: The United States has notified its allies that it does not plan to participate in military exercises held in Europe beyond those already scheduled in 2025, Swedish media outlet Expressen reported on March 7. Sources told Expressen that this will affect several exercises currently in the “drawing board” phase that will be held in Sweden. Since …

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