by Roshan Nebhrajani | Mar 2, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON- When it comes to Afghanistan, the number to stay focused on is 2014, experts say. Now entering its tenth year, the war in Afghanistan surpassed Vietnam last summer as the longest in U.S. history. While the Obama administration will begin withdrawing some...
by Rebecca Cohen | Mar 2, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — With upheaval spreading across the Middle East, now is the wrong time for proposed cuts to the State Department budget, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday. A 16 percent hit to State Department funding in the 2011 continuing budget...
by Peter Larson | Mar 1, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — The military descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, touting national security as grounds to stress the demand for passing long-awaited 2011 spending legislation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates joined Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike...
by Alex Campbell | Mar 1, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a break Tuesday from “around-the-clock” work on the situation in Libya to defend that work’s importance on Capitol Hill. “Marathon diplomacy” has led to “quick, aggressive...
by Roshan Nebhrajani | Mar 1, 2011 | National Security
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security commemorated its eighth anniversary Wednesday with a roundtable discussion featuring current Secretary Janet Napolitano and her two predecessors. Flanked by former secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff,...
by Peter Larson | Feb 23, 2011 | National Security, Politics
The joke at Gitmo used to be in order to win you have to lose. Take it from Air Force Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. Davis presided over the prosecution of detainees from 2005 to 2007. He brought charges...
by Roshan Nebhrajani | Feb 22, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he wouldn’t change a thing. When asked whether he’d do anything differently, the often-criticized Rumsfeld fell silent. Then he answered: “Ya know, I can’t think of anything.” The...
by Olivia Marcus & Tal Axelrod | Feb 16, 2011 | National Security
WASHINGTON—Secretary of Defense Robert Gates supported moderate cuts in the defense budget Wednesday but warned Congress that “short-sighted cuts could well lead to costlier and more tragic consequences later – indeed as they have in the past.” Gates, joined by...
by Peter Larson | Feb 15, 2011 | Health & Science, National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that the U.S. continues to support the protection of such basic human rights as speech and assembly, whether online or off. However, Clinton did not say if the ability to access the Internet at all was a...
by Olivia Marcus & Tal Axelrod | Feb 9, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON—Citing the growing importance of “homegrown” terrorism, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that “in some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state” since attacks on 9/11. While terrorist groups abroad are still...
by Peter Larson | Feb 2, 2011 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — Unanswered questions about exactly what President Barack Obama said privately to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday had White House reporters frustrated in Wednesday’s press briefing — and it looks unlikely the hush will lift anytime soon....
by Peter Larson | Feb 2, 2011 | Health & Science, National Security, Politics
If you’re having as much trouble as we are keeping up with Google’s realtime results for keywords such as Egypt and Mubarak, here are a few accounts to follow through the rest of the week that are being updated by journalists on the ground there. 1....