defense secretary

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Panetta: Asia-Pacific Strategy Isn't Threat to China

US will have 60% of fleet there by 2020

(Newser) - Defense chief Leon Panetta said today that America's new military focus on the Asia-Pacific region is not intended to threaten Beijing. Panetta appeared to offer an olive branch to the communist power, saying the often feuding rivals must learn to work better together. "We both understand the differences...

Panetta Feels Bad About $800K in Flights He's Taken

Defense secretary is open to 'alternatives'

(Newser) - Leon Panetta has taken at least 27 trips home to California since becoming secretary of defense in July, which have cost taxpayers more than $800,000 in all—but he does feel bad about it. The Pentagon chief expressed his regrets at a Pentagon briefing yesterday and said he is...

Panetta Safe After Vehicle Blast Near Afghan Runway

Truck drives onto Afghan runway as plane was landing

(Newser) - It's either a close call or a false alarm for Leon Panetta in Afghanistan: An Afghan man drove a pickup truck through a fence and onto a runway about the same time that the defense secretary's plane was landing at a US base, reports the AP and Washington ...

Panetta Plans to Shrink Size of Army, Marines

Defense chief outlines cuts for Pentagon

(Newser) - The Pentagon outlined a plan today for slowing the growth of military spending, including cutting the size of the Army and Marine Corps, retiring older planes, and trimming war costs. It drew quick criticism from Republicans, signaling the difficulty of scaling back defense budgets in an election year. The changes...

Panetta Pays Coach Fare for $30K Flights Home

Defense secretary required to travel on military jets

(Newser) - Leon Panetta usually heads home to California for the weekend, and the defense chief is racking up huge costs in cross-country travel, reports the Washington Times . Panetta has made the journey 14 times since taking the post in July, and the Times says each round trip in a military jet...

Panetta to Iraq: Decide on US Troop Extension

Defense secretary makes unannounced visit to Baghdad

(Newser) - Fresh from his visit to Afghanistan, the AP is reporting that Leon Panetta made a surprise appearance in Baghdad today. The newly minted defense chief is looking to press the Iraqis to get off the fence on whether they want residual US forces to remain in the country after...

Leon Panetta: al-Qaeda Defeat 'Within Reach'

Terror group is down to 20 or so key leaders

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda, lately without its late leader Osama bin Laden, is on the ropes and defeat of the terror group is "within reach," Leon Panetta said today. En route to his first trip to Afghanistan since taking office, the new defense secretary told reporters that intelligence from Abbottabad indicated...

Obama Gives Retiring Gates Medal of Freedom

Today is outgoing defense secretary's last day

(Newser) - President Obama today honored outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates' four decades of service, including the past 4 1/2 years in charge of the Pentagon, by surprising him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US honor a president can give a civilian. "I can think of no better...

What We&#39;ve Learned From Robert Gates
 What We've 
 Learned From 
 Robert Gates 
analysis
Jun 28, 2011 7:20 AM CDT

What We've Learned From Robert Gates

A look back at the retiring defense secretary's career

(Newser) - With Robert Gates, who has served eight presidents over four decades, about to retire, the Washington Post looks back at how Gates operated in the Pentagon. He’s been “careful, conservative, and consensus-oriented,” writes Greg Jaffe, and he’s “earned a reputation as the most ruthlessly efficient...

Senate OKs Panetta as Defense Chief, 100-0

He will replace Robert Gates at end of the month

(Newser) - The Senate today uanimously approved the nomination of Leon Panetta to be the next defense chief, handing him a crowded agenda of overseeing the drawdown of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, tamping down congressional unrest over the Libyan conflict, and cutting the budget. Panetta will replace Defense Secretary Robert...

Rumsfeld: We Woulda Hit bin Laden Same Way

Praises intel, SEALs, says hit was years in the making

(Newser) - Add Donald Rumsfeld to the list of Republicans heaping praise for Osama bin Laden's killing on anyone but the Obama administration: "The capabilities to do it were developed over time by previous administrations, and they benefit the country, and the intelligence had been gathered over a long period...

Lines Blur in War, Spying
 Lines Blur in War, Spying 
Apr 28, 2011 7:26 AM CDT

Lines Blur in War, Spying

Which explains the Panetta-Petraeus shake-up

(Newser) - Today, President Obama is expected to announce that CIA director Leon Panetta will become secretary of defense, and that David Petraeus will slide into his old job. That’s a pretty startling illustration of just how far the lines between spies and soldiers have blurred over the past year, the...

Rumsfeld to Obama: Hey, Wars Have Consequences

He also faults president for having an unclear mission

(Newser) - Glass houses, alert: Donald Rumsfeld thinks the US intervention in Libya—or at least the way President Obama is going about it—is misguided. The former defense chief tells Politico that President Obama has presented a muddled set of goals, resulting in an unclear mission. The problem involves the international...

Gates: After 2014, US Should Stay Involved in Afghanistan

Officials agree on engagement beyond deadline, says defense secretary

(Newser) - Both the US and Afghanistan agree that the US military should maintain its involvement with Afghanistan past 2014 by continuing to train and advise Afghan troops, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “Obviously it would be a small fraction of the presence that we have today, but I think we're...

Gates to Army: No More Wars Like Iraq

US must dial down 'controversial large-scale military intervention'

(Newser) - Will the US ever undertake another war like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan? Not if Defense Secretary Robert Gates has his way. “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East...

Rumsfeld: I Wish Bush Had Let Me Leave Earlier
Rumsfeld: I Wish Bush
Had Let Me Leave Earlier
MEMOIR PREVIEW
Feb 3, 2011 12:32 PM CST

Rumsfeld: I Wish Bush Had Let Me Leave Earlier

Memoir unapologetic, but he wishes president accepted resignation in '04

(Newser) - Reviewers have gotten an early peek at Donald Rumsfeld's memoir, Known and Unknown, with the Washington Post and New York Times noting these highlights:
  • Biggest regret: Not insisting that President Bush accept his resignation after the Abu Ghraib allegations in 2004. He says the abuse was the work of rogue
...

Pentagon: Hurry Up on DADT
 Pentagon: Hurry Up on DADT 
Nov 22, 2010 6:06 AM CST

Pentagon: Hurry Up on DADT

Better for Congress, not courts, to repeal it: Gates

(Newser) - Top military brass are calling on Congress to quickly repeal "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell"—before the courts overturn the policy, potentially ordering changes that military leaders consider too fast or poorly thought-out. “If this law is going to change, it's better to be changed by...

Pentagon Asks Media Not to Publish WikiLeaks' Iraq Files

Pushes against distribution of war material

(Newser) - The Defense Department is asking media organizations not to publish or post on websites classified US war files released by WikiLeaks. The department has been bracing for a possible leak of as many as many as 400,000 documents from a military database on the Iraq war. The documents are...

Gates, Russian Counterpart Look to Downsize Militaries

Full-day meeting seeks ways to cut waste

(Newser) - Robert Gates today becomes the first US defense secretary to show his Russian counterpart around in almost six years, devoting an entire day to Anatoly Serdyukov, the New York Times reports. The two men are looking for common ground on a topic that would have been unthinkable during the Cold...

Gates Plans to Retire in 2011
 Gates Plans to 
 Retire in 2011 
Aug 16, 2010 11:12 AM CDT

Gates Plans to Retire in 2011

Unless he changes his mind again

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has always hated Washington, and he plans to get the heck out sometime next year, he revealed today in a lengthy interview with Fred Kaplan for Foreign Policy . “I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012,” he reasons. “...

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