Pentagon & Beyond 
Top News
- 5 percent of federal workers to be furloughed Friday
- Congress pressures agencies to speed up office consolidations
- Katherine Archuleta chosen as next OPM director
- Data breach puts DHS workers at risk of identity theft
- DoD chooses interoperability over integration for new e-health record system
- House GOP panel moves on deep budget cuts
- OMB fuels synergy between mobile, open data
- IRS official Lerner: 'I did nothing wrong'
- Accountability breakdown leading factor in DoD sexual assaults
- OMB reworking financial system requirements
- Federal retirement funds temporarily tapped
- VanRoekel to lead OMB management team
- Meet the 2013 Service to America Medal finalists
- Thursday federal headlines - May 23, 2013
National Security Correspondent J.J. Green has traveled three continents covering intelligence, terrorism, and security issues. From Afghanistan to Africa, Iraq to Ireland, there isn't anywhere J.J. won't go, nor anyone he won't talk with, to get the stories affecting the defense and national security communities.
Local Female Soldier Dies in Kuwait
The Department of Defense has announced the death today of a local female soldier who was supporting the war in Afghanistan. Army Staff Sgt. Jessica M. Wing, 42, of Alexandria, Va., died Monday Aug. 27, in Kuwait City, Kuwait in a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, Bangor, Maine. No other details on the cause of death are available at this time.
Marines expecting anxiety
The Marine Corps commandant says there may be some anxiety from male Marines as female officers work their way into infantry and other combat jobs that historically have been open only to men. The Associate Press reports Gen. James F. Amos told a National Press Club audience Tuesday that early steps have been successful, but some of the harder tests are yet to come. Two female Marine officers have volunteered to attend the grueling infantry officer school at the Marine Corps' Quantico, Va., base next month as military officials gauge whether women can handle the course's extreme physical and mental challenges.
US military denies concession claims
There are reports from Pakistan that the U.S. government is seeking some kind of truce with the Haqqani network. But the U.S. military denies there's any truth to it. Pakistan's Express tribune reports a "Senior American military official says the US would hand over the control of three Afghan provinces to the Haqqanis if they agreed to withdraw their support for the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan." This comes just days after the US allegedly killed Badruddin Haqanni in a drone strike. Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty, a spokesman for United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement, "Assertions made in an article today in The Express Tribune that the United States is willing to cede Afghan territory as part of a rapprochement with the Haqqani network and that the U.S. sees the Haqqani Network playing an '...important role in the future political dispensation of Afghanistan,' are categorically false."
African American Sailor Makes History
The Navy says a Virginia-based sailor has become the first black woman to earn a three-star-rank in the U.S. armed forces. Vice Adm. Michelle Janine Howard was promoted to deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces command in Norfolk on Friday. She's no stranger to making history. Howard was also the first black woman to command a U.S. Navy warship, the first female graduate of the Naval Academy to achieve the rank of rear admiral and the first black woman to command an expeditionary strike group at sea.
Bin Laden raid author identified
Fox News has identified the Navy Seal, who is the author of a book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Matt Bissonnette retired from the Navy last summer, according to Fox's conversation with a former U.S. and current U.S. Navy official. The book is called "No Easy Day" and is scheduled to come out on September 11th. Bissonnette wrote the book under the pseudonym Mark Owen. The book is being published by the Penguin group. He could face legal trouble if it is determined that he revealed classified information.
Dunford gets the Nod
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has recommended General Joseph Dunford to lead the war effort in Afghanistan once the outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO troops rotates out of the post. The final decision is President Barack Obama's and his nomination would need to be approved by Congress. Dunford, who served in the Iraq war, would replace General John Allen, who took over command of the Afghan mission in July 2011. Allen is expected to become the next head of U.S. forces in Europe sometime this winter.
Joint Chiefs Chairman cites Taliban Failure
Joint Chief's Chairman, General Martin Dempsey on his visit to Afghanistan met with his Afghan commanders and his counterpart. In addition to talking about insider attacks, they discussed the state of the war. He said the Taliban started the fighting season with three objectives: discrediting Afghanistan's central government, impeding the development of the national security forces, and recapturing lost territory. He said in his own words..."In every one of those objectives they've failed."
Hezbollah Warns Israel
Hezbollah Political leader Hassan Nasrallah has sent a warning to Israel. He says they have precision rockets that could hit a small number of targets and kill "tens of thousands" of Israelis He said "Hitting these targets with a small number of rockets will turn ... the lives of hundreds of thousands of Zionists to real hell, and we can talk about tens of thousands of dead." This threat comes as Israel debates whether or not to attack Hezbollah's benefactor Iran.
Hypersonic Jet crashes
Why did the X-51 crash into the Pacific? The military is investigating why the Waverider, designed to fly at six times the speed of sound went down off the coast of Southern California on Tuesday after successfully separating from a B-52 bomber. What investigators have learned is that one of its cruiser control fins caused it to lose balance and crash. Four Waveriders were built, two have crashed. One flew three times the speed of sound in 2010 before being deliberately crashed. The Air Force has one more.
General facing disciplinary action
The Associated Press says "that a four-star Army general who was the first head of the new U.S. Africa Command is under investigation and facing demotion for possibly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars improperly on lavish travel, hotels and other items. Several defense officials said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected soon to decide the fate of Gen. William "Kip" Ward.
Morsi Questioned
A new question is being floated in Egypt. Is their new President another Mubarak? The Associated is reporting Egypt's Islamist president has given himself the right to legislate and control over the drafting of a new constitution. He has installed at the top of the powerful military a defense minister likely to be beholden to him. Under Mohammed Morsi's authority, officials have moved to silence influential critics in the media. And though a civilian, he declared himself in charge of military operations against militants in the Sinai peninsula.
US Destroyer Collides in the Persian Gulf
The USS Porter is being evaluated after it collided with an oil tanker on Sunday morning. The guided missile destroyer has a 10 foot by 10 foot hole on one side after banging into a Japanese owned tanker about 1:00AM local time. The USS Porter is on a scheduled deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain. The vessel is there as a part of buildup in the Persian Gulf to pressure Iran and reassure U.S. allies concerned about Iran's influence and power.
Commander relieved of duties over sex scandal
More than a dozen military instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in Austin, Texas have been investigated or charged with sexually assaulting recruits. The scandal has reached all the way to the top, claiming the job of Colonel Glen Palmer, who oversaw basic training. Investigators say more than three dozen female trainees were victimized. Lackland is home to more than 475 military training instructors --the equivalent of Army drill sergeants.
U.S. pays for shooting
The U.S. Embassy in India says the U.S. is compensating the family of a dead Indian fisherman and is giving assistance to three survivors of a U.S. Navy ship's firing on their small boat near Dubai last month. The embassy did not disclose the payment amounts. The U.S. Navy said the fishermen's boat rapidly approached the refueling ship USNS Rappahannock near Dubai's Jebel Ali port and that the boat disregarded warnings before the Navy vessel's gunners opened fire. One of the Indian survivors has said they received no warning.
Ivory Coast militia crackdown coming
Military officials in the Ivory Coast are cracking down on militias in the country's volatile western region. Army spokesman Cherif Moussa said an operation to disarm them will start soon and involve 800 soldiers. Amade Oueremi, head of a militia group implicated March 2011 massacre is the primary target. More than 3,000 people were killed in Ivory Coast during post-election violence involving militias.
Sequestration views as non-starter
Less training and less tools. That's one of the major concerns for DoD if lawmakers are not successful in the next few months developing a substitute to a deficit-reduction plan that calls for across the board Pentagon cuts. White House's acting budget chief, Jeff Zients told the House Armed Services Committee, "Sequestration" is not the responsible way for our nation to achieve deficit reduction." A politically polarizing issue, a compromise doesn't seem likely before the election.
Israel downplays Iranian sanctions
Solidarity is not enough. That was the message from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint appearance with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in Jerusalem. He seemingly brushed aside Panetta's guarantees that the two countries share the same goal of a non-nuclear Iran. Netanyahu said, the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program. He suggested an attack is the only way to do that. He said international economic sanctions have had no effect on Iran's nuclear program.
DARPA to scrutinize internet
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise. So what they are planning to do now to meet that mandate is promoting research to study chatter certain groups of Internet users. They want to track how online groups evolve on certain social media sites and learn how criminal organizations and hacker collectives evolve.
Russia sends warning to U.S.
Are we looking at a new Cold War in the Arctic? Russian President Vladimir Putin as he launched the construction of Russia's latest generation of submarines vowed to boost nuclear naval forces to safeguard the country's position as a leading sea power and he warned that the Navy will protect Russia's interests in the oil-rich Arctic. Putin also sent a message to the U.S. directly saying they're aiming for naval nuclear parity.
Army exercise gets underway
Vibrant Response 13, a major field exercise conducted by U.S. Northern Command and led by Army North got underway late last week. It tested the fictitious detonation of a 10-kiloton nuclear device in a major Midwestern city. It's a national catastrophic incident exercise designed to test more than 9,000 service members and civilians in 11 training locations and airfields spread across 5,000 square miles in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky.
