Pentagon

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Mattis Breaks From Trump on Key Iraq Issue

Defense secretary assures Iraq we want to help beat ISIS, not take its oil

(Newser) - President Trump has noted more than once he thinks we should've taken Iraq's oil when we had the chance (and suggests that option may still be on the table), but his secretary of defense is pushing a different message—what the New York Times characterizes as comments that...

DOD Jumps Into Mystery of Vanished WWII Sailors

More than 130 deemed 'missing' after ship explosion could be in Long Island cemetery

(Newser) - Could we be one step closer to finding more than 130 US sailors who went missing after a World War II catastrophe? More than 70 years after the USS Turner exploded and sank near New York Harbor—leaving about half of the 300 or so men aboard alive, the other...

Trump Tower May Lease Space to Pentagon

Which, if that happens, raises new questions about president's conflicts of interest

(Newser) - Questions about presidential conflicts of interest resurfaced Wednesday after a Pentagon announcement that it's looking into leasing space in Trump Tower, the New York Times reports. DOD spokesman Lt. Col. JB Brindle said in a statement that, to "meet official mission requirements," it may be necessary to...

Military Uses Decade-Old Video to Justify Yemen Raid

It falsely claimed the video was recovered last Sunday

(Newser) - US Central Command said video posted to the Pentagon website this week was recovered during last Sunday's raid in Yemen and shows the kind of important al-Qaeda intelligence recovered during President Trump's first counter-terrorism operation, the Hill reports. There's only one problem: The video was actually recovered...

Pentagon Finds $125B in Internal Waste, Kills Report

DOD official was warned when requesting study: 'You are about to turn on the light in a very dark room'

(Newser) - The good news: A Pentagon-requested study on administrative waste turned up plenty of fodder for officials to work with in streamlining operations. The bad news: The study found so much internal waste—$125 billion worth—that Pentagon officials seemingly tried to squash it, based on interviews and secret memos seen...

Pentagon Ready to Lift Ban on Transgender Troops

It could happen within days, source says

(Newser) - The end of the Pentagon's ban on transgender troops serving openly could be just days away. It has been almost a year since Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered a review to determine whether lifting the ban would affect military readiness, and sources tell USA Today that the Pentagon will...

Pentagon Official in Trouble for Stealing License Plates

He left threatening note on nanny's car

(Newser) - A top Pentagon official known as a "stickler for the rules" almost ended up in prison for harassing a nanny who parked in his upscale Washington, DC, neighborhood, the Washington Post reports. Cops say Bryan Whitman stole the nanny's license plates three times in April after leaving a...

America's Nuke Program Runs on Floppy Disks

And not even the tiny ones

(Newser) - To anyone born after 1995, the floppy disk is better known as that thing that resembles the "save" icon. To the Pentagon, it's the gizmo that controls America's nukes. A report from the Government Accountability Office finds US government agencies spend $60 billion a year operating and...

Where Rebels Backed by CIA, Pentagon Fight Each Other

Yet another challenge in the disastrous Syrian war

(Newser) - Syrian militants backed by different arms of the US government have fought just outside Aleppo—a recent headache highlighting the difficulty of intruding on a disastrous war, the LA Times reports. Backed by the Pentagon, the Syrian Democratic Forces in February pushed the CIA-armed Knights of Righteousness out of the...

US: We Blew Up 150 Militants in Somalia

Pentagon says it destroyed al-Shabab's Raso Camp

(Newser) - A US airstrike using multiple drones and manned aircraft struck a training camp in Somalia Saturday, killing more than 150 al-Shabab fighters who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, likely against African or US personnel, the Pentagon said Monday. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, says the US...

The Pentagon Wants You to Hack Its Websites

You'll have to pass a background check first

(Newser) - Get ready for "the first cyber bug bounty program in the history of the federal government." Beginning in April, American hackers who pass a background check will be able to access predetermined Web pages and networks of the Department of Defense in the hope that they'll find...

Pentagon Finally Releases Detainee Abuse Photos

The ACLU says the worst ones are being kept under wraps

(Newser) - After fighting an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for more than a decade, the Pentagon has finally released photos of Bush-era detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. But only 198 photos were released on Friday, mainly showing bruises and scrapes, and the military is still blocking...

Marine Corps Gives Up on &#39;Robot Mule&#39;
 Marines Scrap 'Robot Mule' 
Dec 31, 2015 4:12 AM CST

Marines Scrap 'Robot Mule'

The big one was too noisy and the small one was too weak

(Newser) - It obeys voice commands and can carry 400 pounds of equipment over rugged terrain for 24 hours—but it sounds like a lawn mower, and US Marines worried that it could get them killed. The Marine Corps has shelved the Legged Squad Support System "robotic mule" developed by Google'...

Pentagon Blew $150M on Afghan Villas, Fine Dining

Cost would have been closer to ... nothing, had staff stayed at military base

(Newser) - First the Pentagon poured $43 million into an Afghan gas station that should've cost $500,000. Now it's under fire for putting up a "handful" of staff and visitors in private Afghan villas, as well as shelling out for private bodyguards and fine dining—running up a...

$80B Stealth Bomber Project Takes Flight

The LRS-B will become 'backbone' of Air Force: Carter

(Newser) - One of the most expensive projects in the Pentagon's history has been awarded to Northrop Grumman. The company won the bid to build the Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B) at a cost that could top $80 billion, reports the Los Angeles Times . Northrop will get more than $20 billion to...

F-35's Fancy New Helmets Come With Wild Price Tag

And also some serious problems

(Newser) - How cool does a helmet have to be before you can justify spending $400,000 on one? That's the question before the Pentagon, which is expected to spend around $1 billion on helmets for its new fleet of state-of-the-art F-35s, the Air Force Times reports. In fairness to the...

US Making 'Condolence Payments' in Hospital Bombing

Pentagon says it's 'important to address the consequences of the tragic incident'

(Newser) - President Obama has apologized for the American-led airstrikes on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz that killed 22, but the Pentagon is now putting its money where the White House's mouth is, reports the Los Angeles Times . "The Department of Defense believes it is important to address...

Things Getting Tense Between US, Russia in Syrian Airspace

US fighter jets forced to reroute to avoid Russian aircraft

(Newser) - A Russian military aircraft was too close for comfort in the skies above Syria, forcing two US F-16s to move out of the way and scuttling their mission, CNN reports. The Pentagon made the announcement Wednesday but would only say the incident occurred in the past few days. All US...

Pentagon May Be Fudging Numbers in ISIS Fight

Its inspector general is looking into allegations

(Newser) - Next time a US policy maker is talking about the progress being made against ISIS, it might be wise to be extra skeptical. The New York Times reports that the Pentagon's inspector general is looking into allegations that intelligence analyses are being goosed to present a picture rosier than...

Russian Hackers Suspected in Cyberattack on Pentagon

Emails of 4K Joint Chiefs of Staff employees affected

(Newser) - Officials believe Russian hackers are behind a cyberattack on the Pentagon's unclassified email system that has left approximately 4,000 employees of the Joint Chiefs of Staff without email for nearly two weeks, NBC News reports. The attack happened sometime in the last week of July, and while officials...

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