The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee voted yesterday to freeze basic Pentagon spending next year to the 2011 level of $513 billion, cutting about $26 billion from President Obama's original request for fiscal 2012. With an additional $117.8 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the panel voted on a total of $630.8 billion, $18 billion below the amount the…
September 14, 2011
White House press secretary Jay Carney last week caught my eye when he talked about members of Congress, currently vocal about the deficit, who were on Capitol Hill over the past decade and voted for unpaid large tax cuts but "put two wars on the credit card without paying for them." That last phrase reflected words used in 2007 by several House Democrats who wanted to institute…
August 22, 2011
The Defense Logistics Agency has extended without competitive bidding a $4 billion food-supply contract to a company whose top officials include a retired lieutenant general who commanded the agency just over two years ago. In an announcement, the DLA said it had granted a two-year contract extension to Supreme Foodservice to supply food to U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.…
January 5, 2011
In a move that could anger a vital ally in the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon yesterday awarded a major jet fuel contract to Mina Corp., a secretive company that has declined to reveal its ownership but has nonetheless become a trusted partner with the U.S. military. The contract, which may be worth more than $600 million, covers supplies for a U.S. Air Force base in Kyrgyzstan,…
November 4, 2010
The Obama administration's 20-year plan for the U.S. nuclear arsenal would reduce the number of deployed and stored warheads from 5,000 to a range of 3,000 to 3,500 and significantly increase spending on the complex that maintains them, according to newly disclosed documents. Unclassified sections of the National Nuclear Security Administration's plan show that annual costs for…
July 15, 2010
Republican senators voiced concerns about the new U.S. arms-control treaty with Russia yesterday, asserting that it would limit the development of U.S. missile defenses and fail to reduce Moscow's stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons. The administration needs the support of two-thirds of the Senate to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which would further reduce the…
May 19, 2010
A year after his groundbreaking pledge to move toward a "world without nuclear weapons," President Obama yesterday will unveil a policy that constrains the weapons' role but appears more cautious than what many supporters had hoped, with the president opting for a middle course in many key areas. Under the new policy, the administration will foreswear the use of the deadly weapons…
April 6, 2010
The Obama administration plans to send the new arms-control treaty package with Russia to Congress by the end of April, hoping for ratification by year's end, officials said this week as they laid out details of the proposed agreement. Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said that work was still being done in Geneva on the treaty,…
March 31, 2010
The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day was read his Miranda rights nine hours after his arrest, according to a detailed chronology released yesterday by White House officials. The timing of events during the arrest, initial interrogation and medical treatment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was made available after…
February 15, 2010
President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget blueprint calls for an increase in funding of more than 13 percent for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a greater percentage increase than for any other government agency. The request could help reduce opposition to a new strategic arms control treaty with Russia. Republicans have argued that the Obama administration will jeopardize…
February 4, 2010
Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is creating a department-wide task force to focus on ways to counter the roadside bombs that have caused 80 percent of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. The challenges are different from those in Iraq, Gates told reporters Thursday before a visit to a Wisconsin factory that is producing a rugged new armored vehicle for use in Afghanistan. Gates said…
November 15, 2009
Iran reported yesterday that it successfully test-fired its most advanced and powerful medium-range missiles as part of war games it said were intended to deter the country's enemies. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps tested the Shahab-3 and Sejil missiles in the third phase of a two-day exercise called The Great Prophet IV, state-run news media reported. The missiles are believed…
September 29, 2009
Amid growing international pressure in advance of highly anticipated talks this week, Iran displayed its defiance of Western threats against its nuclear program by announcing yesterday that it had test-fired at least two short-range missiles. Senior Obama administration officials, meanwhile, said they had the international…
September 28, 2009
The Middle East press has questioned President Obama's authority over Arab-Israeli issues since Charles Freeman's withdrawal from his appointment to a senior intelligence position.
March 15, 2009
