Tag Archives: Pentagon

The Washington Post reports: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to propose to President Trump that transgender members of the U.S. military be allowed to continue serving despite the president’s call last summer for a ban on all transgender service members, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the issue. The defense secretary was scheduled to brief the president …

Reuters reports: The Pentagon on Thursday said it was not certain that the Washington-area would host a parade requested by President Donald Trump to honor the U.S. military. “We don’t know that. There are options and we will explore those and the president will ultimately decide,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, adding that the U.S. Army was taking the lead …

The Hill reports: Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday dodged a question about why the Pentagon should spend time and money planning a military parade requested by President Trump when the military has been complaining about budget woes. “I think what my responsibility is to make certain I lay out the strategy and make the argument for the oversight of …

The Associated Press reports: Russian cyberspies pursuing the secrets of military drones and other sensitive U.S. defense technology tricked key contract workers into exposing their email to theft, an Associated Press investigation has found. What ultimately may have been stolen is uncertain, but the hackers clearly exploited a national vulnerability in cybersecurity: poorly protected email and barely any direct notification …

CBS News provides likely topics: Government shutdown: Congress must approve a spending package before Thursday at midnight. Tuesday night, the House approved another short-term spending bill to pay for six more weeks of funding. The bill does not address immigration. If the Senate does not pass the measure, the government will shut down. President Trump said Tuesday that he would …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces. Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting …

Politico reports: One of the Pentagon’s largest agencies can’t account for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of spending, a leading accounting firm says in an internal audit obtained by POLITICO that arrives just as President Donald Trump is proposing a boost in the military budget. Ernst & Young found that the Defense Logistics Agency failed to properly document more …

The Associated Press reports: The Republican National Committee is siding with President Donald Trump on his order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military. In a resolution passed at its annual winter meeting Friday, the committee voted to support Trump’s August demand that military recruitment policy consider transgender as “a disqualifying psychological and physical” condition Trump’s order …

Fallout from the Fitbit story: Secretary of Defense James Mattis is actively considering banning US military and civilian personnel from bringing their personal cell phones into the Pentagon, the world’s largest office building, according to three US defense officials familiar with an ongoing review of the issue. The officials told CNN that while the issue is under review and a …

NBC News reports: A FedEx delivery arrived at Helen Grace James’ door on Wednesday. It was a message from the U.S. Air Force. She called two of her closest friends to come be with her before she opened it, and they arrived 20 minutes later. Once she opened it, she received the good news: The military had upgraded her discharge …

Bloomberg reports: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged patience in waiting out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying there’s no place for him in the war-torn country’s future while vowing that the U.S. military will remain to counter Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Iran. In remarks prepared for a policy speech Wednesday on the Syrian war, Tillerson called for closer cooperation with …

USNI News reports: The commanders of the two guided-missile destroyers that were involved in fatal collisions with merchant ships in 2017 will face military criminal charges that include dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide, USNI News has learned. Cmdr. Bryce Benson, former commander of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62), along with three Fitzgerald junior officers, face a mix charges …

Newsweek reports: The Trump administration has abandoned its bid to prevent openly transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, the Pentagon announced late Friday night. In July, the Trump administration attempted to delay an Obama-era Department of Defense ruling allowing openly transgender Americans to enlist in the military from January 1. President Donald Trump tweeted last summer that the …

The Washington Post reports: Russian officials said Sunday that the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons to combat Russian-backed separatists will cause new bloodshed, as long-standing tensions between Washington and Moscow escalated over the four-year-old conflict. Moscow’s admonition came shortly after the State Department announced Friday evening that the United States will provide heavy armaments to Ukraine for …

The Associated Press reports: Ukraine will soon have more lethal American-made weapons to help it fight Russian-backed separatists. U.S. officials said Friday that the Trump administration approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, in a long-awaited move that deepens America’s involvement in the military conflict and may further strain relations with Russia. The new arms include American-made Javelin …

Reuters reports: A federal appeals court in Virginia on Thursday rejected a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent the U.S. military from accepting transgender recruits starting Jan. 1. The administration had urged the appeals court to suspend an order by a lower court judge for the armed forces to begin accepting transgender recruits on that date. The administration …

Politico reports: The Pentagon, at the direction of Congress, a decade ago quietly set up a multi-million dollar program to investigate what are popularly known as unidentified flying objects—UFOs. The “unidentified aerial phenomena” claimed to have been seen by pilots and other military personnel appeared vastly more advanced than those in American or foreign arsenals. In some cases they maneuvered …

The Hill reports: The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to delay a requirement to begin accepting transgender recruits to the military on Jan. 1. “Specifically, Defendants request that the Court stay the portion of its preliminary injunction requiring Defendants to begin accessing transgender individuals into the military on January 1, 2018, pending a decision by the D.C. Circuit …

CNN International reports: North Korea fired what the US military believes to be an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday as the Pentagon confirmed that it detected and tracked a single North Korean projectile at 1:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. “The missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and traveled about 1,000 kilometers before splashing down in the Sea of …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Eliminating any question on whether the administration would allow court orders against President Trump’s transgender military ban to stand, the U.S. Justice Department late Tuesday appealed one decision to a federal appeals court. The appeal came on the same day a federal court in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s transgender military …