Private Government Report: Iran Spending Billions to Pay Terrorist Salaries: Iran has been spending billions of dollars to fund the salaries of terrorist fighters across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, according to a private U.S. government analysis conducted for a leading senator, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Copter was taking part in ropes exercise when it landed hard, killing Marine

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:24 AM

Stars And Stripes

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A U.S. Marine who died and 11 comrades who sustained injuries were taking part in a helicopter ropes exercise that's described as "high-risk" in a training manual that underscores the dangers.

It's not clear if those factors played a role. The Marines have declined to say what may have caused the hard landing, or whether the Marines were in the aircraft, on ropes or on the ground.

     

Copter was taking part in ropes exercise when it landed hard, killing Marine - U.S.

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:19 AM

Stars And Stripes U.S.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A U.S. Marine who died and 11 comrades who sustained injuries were taking part in a helicopter ropes exercise that's described as "high-risk" in a training manual that underscores the dangers.

The Marine Corps has scheduled a news conference Friday morning to offer more details about what happened when the helicopter had to land harder and faster than normal during training at Camp Lejeune, resulting in the injuries and death. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter made the hard landing around 9 p.m. Wednesday in a training area known as Stone Bay, military officials said.

About 20 Marines were participating in the training that requires them to exit through the back of the helicopter using suspended ropes, according to a news release. The technique allows Marines to enter and exit terrain where helicopter landings would be difficult.

A 2003 edition of the Marines' manual for Helicopter Rope Suspension Techniques acknowledges the dangers, warning of the potential for injury or death. It also discusses how nighttime operations can be a challenge, lays out safety procedures and primes Marines on how wind from the helicopter's rotors can affect them.

It's not clear if those factors played a role. The Marines have declined to say what may have caused the hard landing, or whether the Marines were in the aircraft, on ropes or on the ground.

The Marines called the accident a hard landing, which generally describes when an aircraft hits the ground with greater speed and force than normal.

The weather appeared to be calm at the time. Skies were clear, winds were less than 5 mph and the temperature was 79 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

One Marine was taken from the scene by medical aircraft and pronounced dead at the hospital, according to a news release. Two remained hospitalized in stable condition Thursday afternoon. Nine have been treated and released. No names have been disclosed.

"The loss of a Marine or sailor affects us all. My heartfelt condolences go out to the families and friends of our deceased Marine," said Maj. Gen. William Beydler, commander of II Marine Expeditionary Force.

The helicopter was assigned to Heavy Helicopter Squadron-464, Marine Aircraft group-29, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The Super Stallion, a massive, heavy-lift helicopter, is the largest in the military and considered the Marine Corps' workhorse. It stands nearly three stories tall and has a top speed of 172 mph.

The Marine Corps website says the aircraft can carry 16 tons of cargo — such as the Marines' Light Armored Vehicle — on a 100-mile roundtrip and says it has "the armament, speed and agility to qualify as much more than a heavy lifter."

It was used in Afghanistan and Iraq to ferry troops and equipment to remote bases.

In 2005, a CH-53E went down in bad weather in western Iraq, killing 30 Marines and a sailor. At the time, it was the worst loss of life for the Marines since the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 220 Marines.

Military officials said in 2005 that the model's safety record was on par with other Marine Corps aircraft.

In April, a Marine Corps CH-53E had to make an emergency landing on a California beach after a low oil-pressure indicator light went on in the cockpit during training. It didn't cause any damage or injuries.

In March, a Black Hawk crashed in a thick fog during training off Florida, killing 11 servicemembers. The military said two National Guard pilots became disoriented while switching from visual-based to instrument-based flight procedures.

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Private Government Report: Iran Spending Billions to Pay Terrorist Salaries

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:18 AM

Washington Free Beacon

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Hassan Rouhani / AP

BY: Adam Kredo 

Iran has been spending billions of dollars to fund the salaries of terrorist fighters across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, according to a private U.S. government analysis conducted for a leading senator, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Iran’s defense budget ranges anywhere from $14 to $30 billion a year, with much of that money going to fund terrorist proxy groups and rebel fighters in a number of countries, according to a Congressional Research Service report conducted following a request by Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.).

The report discloses that funding for these terrorist groups could actually be much higher, as Iran obfuscates public records about its defense spending and financial support for paramilitary groups secretly conducting operations outside the Islamic Republic.

The report was assembled following a request by Kirk for the Obama administration to disclose its estimates of “Iranian military spending, as well as Iranian assistance to Houthi rebels in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, the Assad government, Hezbollah, and Hamas,” according to a copy of that report obtained by the Free Beacon.

This includes potentially millions of dollars in monthly payments to pro-government forces in Syria, more than $1 billion in military aid to fighters in Iraq, and around $20 million annually to Hamas terrorists, according to the report.

“Some regional experts claim that Iran’s defense budget excludes much of its spending on intelligence activities and support of foreign non-state actors,” the report states, estimating that actual military spending could far exceed the $30 billion Iran discloses annually.

“Similarly, another study claims that actual funding for the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Force’s Al Quds Force] is ‘much greater’” than the amount allocated in the state budget, as the group’s funds are supplemented by its own economic activities,” according to the report.

The White House estimated this year that Iran spends about $30 billion on its defense budget. Iran’s fiscal year 2015 budget is believed to be about $300 billion in total.

In Syria, for instance, Iranian-backed fighters are paid anywhere between $500 and $1,000 a month to take up arms in support of Bashar al-Assad’s embattled government.

Afghan fighters in Syria have disclosed that they “had recently returned from training in Iran and planned to fight in Syria,” the report notes. These militants “expected to receive salaries from Iran ranging from $500 to $1000 a month.”

Furthermore, “a Syrian from the central province of Homs stated that an Iranian recruiter had offered a monthly salary of up to $200 for joining a pro-government militia,” according to the report, which relied upon publicly available information published by news outlets and other sources.

These Iranian-backed fighters in Syria “have formed sniper teams, led ambushes, established checkpoints, and provided infantry support for Syrian armored units” supported by the Assad government, according to the report.

Iran also has trained “Iraqi fighters” within its borders and then flown them “in small batched into Syria” with the help of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, the report discloses.

“In addition to facilitating the entry of Iraqi Shiites, anecdotal reporting suggests that Iran also recruits Afghans, as well as local Syrians, to join pro-government militias,” according to the report.

Official estimates by the United Nations state that Iran is giving Syria about $6 billion a year, much of which is spent to fund military operations supporting the Assad government. Separate estimates speculate that the number could be as high as $15 billion.

A separate estimate provided by “an Arab security source in 2013” claimed that Iran paid “$600-700 million a month for expenditures in Syria,” according to the report. Others put this number at more than double conventional estimates.

These funds are spent on a “range of military assistance to the Syrian government, including training and salaries for some pro-government fighters,” according to the report. “The U.S. Department of the Treasury in a 2012 press release stated that Iran and Hezbollah had provided training, advice, weapons, and equipment for the pro-government militia Jaysh al-Sha’bi.”

In July 2015, for instance, “Iran extended $1 billion in additional financial credit to the Assad government, reportedly bringing the total approved credit to $5.6 billion dollars since 2013,” the analysis found. “Some reports have suggested that Iran has requested collateral in the form of land and real estate assets in exchange for its aid.”

In Iraq, where Iran is supporting government forces battling against the Islamic State (IS), Iran has “spent more than $1 billion” on military aid since 2014, though it remains unclear if these funds are being sent to the Iraqi government or independent militias.

“Iran helped establish many of the Shiite militias that fought the United States during 2003-2011,” the report notes. “During 2011-2014, the Shiite militia evolved into political organizations, but Iran has helped reactivate and empower some of them to support the Iraq Security Forces (ISF) against the Islamic State.”

In 2014 alone, these Iraqi militias received anywhere from $1.5 million to $2 million a month from the Iranian government.

Iran also has continued its support for Hamas, and, in recent months since the nuclear agreement, has recommitted resources and money to the terrorist group.

“Hamas has historically received much of its political and material support from Iran,” the report notes. “At one point, according to the Telegraph, Iran was reportedly providing Hamas somewhere in the range of $20-25 million per month to cover its governing budget after 2006, while also apparently providing ‘weapons, technical know-how and military training.’”

The IRGC’s Quds Force has independently provided “tens of millions of dollars” to Hamas’s armed military wing in the last several months, according to the report. This aid facilitates the “rebuilding of [terror] tunnels damaged in the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, the replenishment of rockets, and the salaries of Qassam Brigades personnel,” according to the report.

Kirk, who opposes the recent nuclear accord, said that this information is a sign that the deal will lead to more terrorism by Iran.

“The Administration is celebrating support from a partisan minority of senators for a nuclear deal that threatens the security of the United States and our allies,” Kirk said. “This deeply flawed agreement will transfer over $100 billion to a regime that U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper calls the ‘foremost state sponsor of terrorism,’ and pave Iran’s path to nuclear weapons.

“Like North Korea before it, Iran will cheat on this flawed deal in order to get nuclear weapons. Congress must hold accountable the Iranian regime and ensure that our children never wake up to a nuclear-armed Iran in the Middle East.”

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News Roundup and Notes: September 4, 2015

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:17 AM

Just Security

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Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.

IRAQ and SYRIA

The US-led coalition is facing allegations that its airstrikes against the Islamic State have killed 71 civilians in Iraq and Syria; a US central command spokesman disclosed the claims to the Guardian, reports Alice Ross.

The battle to retake Ramadi is “going nowhere,” reports Loveday Morris, a situation which highlights the “shortcomings” of the US strategy to defeat the Islamic State. [Washington Post]

ISIS has blown up three tower tombs in Palmyra, Syria’s antiquities chief announced today; the Islamist group has also destroyed two ancient temples in the city in recent weeks. [Reuters]

US-led airstrikes continue. The US and partner military forces carried out seven airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria on September 2. Separately, coalition forces conducted a further 16 strikes on targets in Iraq. [Central Command]

Syrian civilians are “suffering the unimaginable, as the world stands witness,” said the chair of a UN-mandated human rights inquiry, calling for greater diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to a conclusion. [UN News Centre]

Turkey has released two British VICE News journalists detained on suspicion of terrorism; the Iraqi fixer working with them is still being held.

The refugee crisis facing Europe highlights its political failure in finding solutions to conflicts like the one in Syria, reports Anne Bernard, citing suggestions that the crisis is “essentially self-inflicted.” [New York Times]

A Dutch air force sergeant is suspected of travelling to Syria to join the Islamic State, the defense ministry has said. [BBC]

A mother accused of trying to travel to Syria with her children has been arrested after returning to the UK following her detention in Turkey. [The Guardian’s Chris Johnston]

“The largest humanitarian failure of the Obama era is also its largest strategic failure,” argues Michael Gerson, suggesting that the US response to the Syrian conflict has been a “sickening substitute for useful action,” in an op-ed at the Washington Post.

ISIS “will be defeated,” writes Bernard-Henri Lévy, arguing that “although they are very adept terrorists they are not good soldiers,” at the Wall Street Journal.

IRAN

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the country’s parliament “should not be sidelinedon the nuclear deal issue,” ordering parliament to vote on the accord and calling for the complete lifting of sanctions rather than suspension, in remarks broadcast on state TV. [The Guardian; New York Times’ Thomas Erdbrink and Somini Sengupta]

Three Democratic “holdouts” expressed their support for President Obama’s nuclear deal yesterday; Sens Heidi Heitkamp, Mark Warner and Cory Booker said that while the deal is not perfect, it is better than the alternative, reports Seung Min Kim. [Politico]

The Pentagon is finalizing a $1 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, a move designed to reassure the kingdom about the Iran agreement, report Helene Cooper and Gardiner Harris. [New York Times] Carol E. Lee and Ahmed Al Omran discuss US-Saudi relations and the importance of King Salman’s visit to Washington today. [Wall Street Journal]

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have won “in a way” on the Iran deal, with aides and allies of the leader arguing that Netanyahu never believed he could block the deal in Congress, but instead wanted to convey how dangerous Iran was. [Washington Post’s William Booth]

The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes that the Democrats “[p]olitically speaking, … now own the Ayatollahs,” arguing that by supporting the deal, the party is now responsible for Iran’s compliance and “imperial ambitions.”

“A disaster has been averted.” Roger Cohen explains why President Obama’s victory in Congress has prevented the US from negative international repercussions, at the New York Times.

US citizens held in Iran’s prisons could be swapped for Iranians detained in America, the speaker of Iran’s parliament suggested yesterday. [Washington Post’s Carol Morello] 

HILLARY CLINTON EMAIL CONTROVERSY

The State Department has asked the FBI whether the agency has come across certain official records during its review of Hillary Clinton’s email server, in compliance with a court order, Josh Gerstein reports. [Politico] 

A former Hillary Clinton aide is refusing to cooperate with the investigations of FBI and State Department officials, reports Bradford Richardson. [The Hill]

If an “ordinary worker” at the State Department had sent similar information to that sent by Hillary Clinton on her private server, “they would very likely face prosecution for it,” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said during an interview with Al Jazeera. Snowden added that the idea Clinton believed her server to be safe is “completely ridiculous.” [The Guardian’s Ellen Brait]

The Clinton campaign is in “damage control mode” trying to reassure supporters as the investigation into her email practices while at the State Department goes on. [Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler and Peter Nicholas]

And, a former State Department official underwent nine hours of questioning by the House Benghazi Committee yesterday. [The Hill’s Julian Hattem] 

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS 

Two improvised explosive devised wounded six international peacekeepers stationed in Egypt, including four Americans, yesterday. [New York Times’ Liam Stack]

NATO has established its first permanent outposts beside Russia, opening a small command post in Lithuania. [Wall Street Journal’s Julian E. Barnes]

A new Justice Department policy will require federal agents to obtain warrants before using equipment to locate and track cellphones, it was announced yesterday. [New York Times’ Nicholas Fandos]

Cluster bombs were used in five countries this year, none of which have signed the treaty prohibiting the weapons, according to a Cluster Munition Coalition report. [New York Times’ Rick Gladstone]  Glenn Greenwald criticizes the article, asserting that the US “remains one of the world’s most aggressive suppliers” of the weapons. [The Intercept]

The Palestinian UN ambassador expects to raise the Palestinian flag at the organization’s headquarters in time for a speech from Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas to the General Assembly on September 30. [New York Times’ Somini Sengupta]

The Navy is seeking prosthetic services for five Guantánamo detainees for at least five years, indicating that the Pentagon intends to continue detaining there after President Obama leaves office, reports Carol Rosenberg. [Miami Herald]

Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda said he “never attacked civilians” and was a professional solider during his trial on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the ICC. [Al Jazeera]

Reform of China’s military will be risky and difficult, an armed forces official paper said today following the announcement of a 300,000 cut to troops. [Reuters]

Many in southern Yemen are wondering when exiled President Hadi will return to the country from Saudi Arabia now that Houthi rebels have been pushed out of much of the region. [Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov]

A French soldier has been accused of sexual abuse in Central African Republic, the UN human rights chief said yesterday in a statement; the teenage girl is thought to have been abused about a year ago and in April gave birth to a child. [New York Times’ Nick Cumming-Bruce]

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Between Iraq and a Hawk Base

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:17 AM

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The first sign that the Republican Party’s 17 presidential candidates might have trouble explaining what a conservative foreign policy should look like — beyond simply saying that it should not look like Barack Obama’s — emerged on May 10. That’s when the Fox News host Megyn Kelly asked Jeb Bush a rather predictable question about the Iraq war: ‘‘Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?’’

Bush said yes. Shortly after that, he said that he had misheard the question; later, that the question was hypothetical and thus unworthy of an answer; and finally, upon further review, that he in fact would not have authorized the invasion. The jittery about-face suggested that Bush had spent little, if any, time digesting the lessons of the war that defines his older brother’s presidency.

The shadow that George W. Bush’s foreign policy casts over Jeb Bush’s quest for the White House is particularly prominent. But it also looms over the entire G.O.P. field, reminding the candidates that though Republican voters reject what they see as Obama’s timid foreign policy, the public has only so much appetite for bellicosity after more than a decade spent entangled in the Middle East. At some point, even the most conservative of voters will demand an answer to the logical corollary of Megyn Kelly’s question: How does a president project American strength while avoiding another Iraq?

Among the many advisers recruited to help Jeb Bush answer that question is Richard Fontaine, the president of the Center for a New American Security, a policy group based in Washington. Fontaine was a senior foreign-­policy adviser for Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, where he first learned that winning over voters was a radically different task from those he navigated during his career in the Bush administration. ‘‘Diplomacy is about minimizing differences,’’ he told me. ‘‘ ‘Pol Pot and the Pope — surely there’s something they can agree on.’ A political campaign is exactly the opposite. It’s about taking a minor difference and blowing it up into something transcendent.’’

Kevin Wolf / Associated Press

Watching Jeb Bush flub the Iraq question confirmed a theory about that war and its unheeded lessons that Fontaine had been nurturing for several months. In February, he co-wrote an essay in Politico Magazine arguing that Congress should not authorize Obama to use military force against ISIS until it had done the kind of due diligence that Congress utterly failed to do before authorizing Bush to invade Iraq in 2002. In response to the essay, Fontaine said, many of his peers acknowledged to him ‘‘that there actually hasn’t been a lot of thinking on this from the entire foreign-policy establishment other than the knee-jerk ‘Well, we’re never gonna do that again.’ ’’

Fontaine, who is 40, Clark Kentish in appearance and wryly self-deprecating in conversation, has been doing quite a bit of thinking on the matter of Iraq. He worked in the State Department as well as the National Security Council during the first year of the Iraq war before signing on as McCain’s foreign-policy aide in 2004. Over the next five years, he and McCain traveled to Iraq 10 times. His boss had been one of the loudest advocates of toppling Saddam Hussein and then one of the most candidly chagrined observers when the war effort began to crumble before his eyes. ‘‘We’d been running this experiment from 2003 to the end of 2006 of trying to make political changes in Iraq and hoping this would positively influence the security,’’ Fontaine recalled. ‘‘It only got worse and worse. Things got to the point where there was no political or economic activity in the country, because the violence was so bad.’’

The troop surge in 2007 succeeded in stabilizing the country. By then, however, Americans were weary of military aggression. In 2008, they elected president a one-term U.S. senator who had consistently opposed the war in Iraq and vowed to end it so he could devote most of his attention to a foundering economy. Four years later, the electorate awarded Obama a second term, with the same priorities in mind. Exit polls showed that 60 percent of voters regarded the economy as the predominant issue in 2012, while a mere 4 percent cited foreign affairs as their chief voting issue.

Three years later, this has changed — especially for Republican voters, who, according to several polls, now say national security rivals the economy as a foremost concern. Several factors explain this. While the economy has continued to improve, the Obama administration has watched with seeming helplessness as ISIS dominates swaths of Iraq and Syria while beheading American hostages; as Iran threatens to make good on its nuclear ambitions unless the United States agrees to lift sanctions; as Vladimir Putin reasserts Russian primacy by invading the Crimean Peninsula; and as China spreads its influence across Asia and Africa. These and other developments have revived concerns that the United States has become dangerously weaker under a Democratic president, one whose first secretary of state happens to be the apparent favorite for that party’s presidential nomination.

The swaggering rhetoric of Donald Trump, the current Republican front-runner, seems deftly calibrated to reflect the mood of a G.O.P. base spoiling for fights abroad. According to a Quinnipiac University poll in July, 72 percent of registered Iowa Republican voters (where the first contest for presidential delegates will be held early next year) favor sending American ground troops into Syria and Iraq to fight ISIS. In August, Quinnipiac found that 86 percent of all Republicans opposed the Iran nuclear deal.

Fontaine is among the conservative foreign-policy thinkers who argue that the Obama administration has overlearned Iraq’s lessons. ‘‘Their core belief was ‘We’re here to wind these wars down, and the risks in doing so are manageable,’ ’’ he said. ‘‘The instinct was to limit our investment, whether diplomatically or in terms of blood and treasure. That’s caused a willful disregard for the realities at hand. You hear it all the time: ‘This is the Iraqis’ fight,’ or ‘The Syrians should be fighting.’ Yes, they should. But if they’re not, then we have a national interest, and we should be doing something.’’

Eventually, each G.O.P. candidate will be called upon to define exactly what that ‘‘something’’ is and determine whether Americans have an appetite for it. To that end, for the next 14 months, it will fall to advisers like Fontaine to help the candidates craft a post-Bush/post-Obama foreign-policy vision, one that simultaneously projects more muscle than Obama and less reckless use of muscle than Bush. The tricky part, as their advisers — avowed hawks whose careers were shaped by Iraq — know all too well, will be to demonstrate that an aggressive foreign policy can somehow avoid becoming a reckless one.

In the weeks and months following the announcement of a presidential candidacy, the ‘‘invisible primary’’ ensues: a wooing and hoarding of assorted campaign specialists and policy experts to convince the donor community that the candidate in question is for real and lacks only money to make the whole operation hum. During this season, men and women who have lived lives of bookish reserve and who are thoroughly unknown to the general public become, for a brief time, objects of considerable desire.

As a national-security expert who worked with politicians but had no political agenda of his own, Fontaine received multiple inquiries. He declined to work with the campaigns of Scott Walker and Marco Rubio but agreed to join the Bush foreign-policy team after Bill Simon, a former Wal-Mart chief executive and now the Bush campaign’s policy-team recruiter, asked him to come aboard as an informal outside adviser. Simon had heard about Fontaine through other recruits, including the former World Bank president Robert Zoellick, who had been a consultant for several campaigns before Bush prevailed upon him to pledge his fidelity.

Zoellick and Fontaine belong to a nomadic tribe of worldly Republican technocrats who migrate from academia to government to nonprofit policy centers to the private sector. Nearly all are hawks who abhor not only Obama’s posture of caution but also the old-style, consensus-building internationalism espoused by officials who served in the first Bush administration, like Richard Burt and Lorne Craner, who are now on Rand Paul’s foreign-policy team. Among the conservative intelligentsia, a few — Meghan O’Sullivan, Kristen Silverberg and Elbridge Colby — are comparatively moderate alumni of the second Bush administration who now advise his brother’s campaign. Others have made their names on the Hill as forceful interventionists: Robert S. Karem, who advised the House majority leaders Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy before directing Jeb Bush’s foreign-policy team; Jamie Fly, formerly Rubio’s aide in the Senate and now in his campaign; and Michael Gallagher, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff member who now runs Scott Walker’s foreign-policy shop. In addition, advisers like Vance Serchuk, who was Senator Joe Lieberman’s foreign-policy aide and now works in a geopolitical-strategy unit for the global investment firm KKR, and Christian Brose, the staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, are not committed to a particular campaign but are routinely called by campaign aides for their thoughts on foreign policy. What most of them have in common is that they are under 45 and have been influenced far more by the fall of the twin towers than by the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

The candidates are pulled toward experience as well, creating an odd dissonance within these teams as they are taking shape. For example, Jeb Bush’s team includes not just a new generation of foreign-policy thinkers but also Paul Wolfowitz, a prominent 71-year-old neoconservative. Wolfowitz’s long career in the national-security arena reached both its peak and its nadir when he served as George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of defense and pushed aggressively for the invasion of Iraq just after 9/11, assuring skeptics that the Iraqis would ‘‘welcome us as liberators’’ and that the indigenous oil revenues would largely finance the country’s reconstruction. In no small measure because of Wolfowitz’s erroneous predictions, the neocon brand came to be ridiculed during the early stages of the Iraq war, only to be vindicated somewhat by the triumph of the 2007 troop surge, which quelled Sunni violence and stabilized the Shia-dominated government.

Throughout that period, not every hawk self-identified as a neocon, including Fontaine, who told me, ‘‘Where I come down on this is I believe in the promotion of human rights and democracy, but there are times when you have to have pragmatic relationships with autocracies.’’ And today there are fewer still who call themselves neocons, the moniker being generally viewed as an epithet. Its basic principles, however — among them, a belief in the aggressive promotion of American values throughout the world, an unapologetic distrust of international institutions and the conviction that a more democratic world is a less belligerent one — are abiding specters in conservative foreign-policy thought.

The persistence of a chesty, exceptionalist view of America’s place on the world stage is, of course, also abetted by today’s nuance-free zone of political dialogue. ‘‘The discourse in Washington just becomes like a self-licking ice cream cone of maximalist foreign policy,’’ Obama’s deputy national-security adviser, Ben Rhodes, told me. ‘‘That’s what gets you on television. That’s what gets your think-tank paper read.’’

But conservative voters far from the Beltway are also clamoring for a return to a more muscular foreign policy, and there is almost certainly one major reason for this: It would be very different from the current foreign policy. Obama’s worldview, seven years into his presidency, is aptly reflected by something else that Rhodes said to me: ‘‘There’s such an extreme vanity that everything happening in the world is an extension of our agency. There are just forces happening. They’re happening all across the Middle East. And our narrative of what’s supposed to happen in these places has never been right, because they’re at different stages of development and have different politics. And where we succeed in foreign policy is when we patiently and methodically incentivize better behavior, and you give space for that to occur. It’s very hard to completely impose a system on a country. The last time it worked was in postwar Japan.’’

When I shared Rhodes’s sentiment with Jim Talent, one of Scott Walker’s foreign-policy advisers, he winced before replying: ‘‘Obama doesn’t accept as a basic principle that we should lead in the forefront of events, particularly in the Middle East. I’m not sure the president believes the U.S. can do that. And there I disagree. We can’t control the world. No way. But we do have influence. If you want to call me a neocon for that, go ahead.’’

Talent, a placid-faced 58-year-old Midwesterner, was a congressman from St. Louis when he won a special election to the U.S. Senate in 2002 with heavy backing from President Bush, whose desire for congressional authorization to invade Iraq Talent heartily endorsed. By 2006, when Talent was up for re-election, the war had taken a disastrous turn. Talent nonetheless insisted that ‘‘the mission is going well’’ and further declared that the invasion was justified even when no weapons of mass destruction were found. He lost to Claire McCaskill and has been out of electoral politics ever since.

A second career soon awaited him — that of national-security guru. While serving on congressionally established advisory commissions, Talent also became a national-security adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012. It was commonly speculated that a President Romney would tap Talent to be his secretary of defense. Today the same can be said for Talent under a Walker presidency.

If Bush, the candidate being advised by Richard Fontaine, is challenged by the need to distinguish his foreign-policy vision from that of his brother, Talent’s candidate — a Wisconsin governor with no experience on international issues — is obligated to come up with a vision from scratch. Talent asserts that Walker, the man who dismantled Wisconsin’s public-employee unions, will face down enemies abroad with equal fortitude. On Aug. 28 at the Citadel, Walker laid out his own foreign-policy approach, emphasizing the need for strong executive leadership, much as Rubio’s foreign-policy address in May made the case that America must ‘‘lead with strength and principle,’’ and Jeb Bush’s speech in August cited America’s need to ‘‘lead again’’ in the Middle East — all of them stopping short of Lindsey Graham’s pledge to send 10,000 troops to Iraq.

To assist in constructing Walker’s foreign policy, Talent says that he is urging the candidate to articulate what he also ‘‘hammered on Mitt’’ to put forward: an encompassing vision with strategic clarity that the public, Congress, allies and enemies can all understand. ‘‘The real lesson of Iraq,’’ he said, ‘‘is that you always have to ask, ‘O.K., what are we trying to achieve and how does it fit into our broader goals?’ ’’ He continued, ‘‘We can’t spend the next term with everybody pointing fingers about what went wrong with Iraq.’’

Arguably, however, ‘‘what went wrong with Iraq’’ was that there was a strategically clear vision in play. It was called the Bush Doctrine, a post-9/11 articulation of neoconservatism. Among its central tenets, as enunciated frequently by Bush himself, was the determination to ‘‘take the fight to the enemy overseas before they can attack us again here at home.’’ Walker has employed nearly identical rhetoric in describing how he would fight ISIS: ‘‘We need a leader who will look the American people in the eye and say, ‘We will do whatever it takes — whatever it takes — to make sure that radical Islamist terrorism does not wash up on American soil.’ I’d rather take the fight to them.’’

I asked Michael Gallagher, the coordinator of Walker’s foreign-policy team, what distinguished his own philosophy from that of the neoconservatives. He replied that such distinctions weren’t meaningful, given that all Republicans favored a robust alternative to Obama’s seeming reluctance to lead: ‘‘I think lost in this debate between isolationism and neoconservatism is the fact that there is a striking amount of consensus within the party.’’ When I asked if there was anything in his experience — Gallagher was a Marine captain deployed to Anbar Province in late 2007 — that would make him question the neoconservative worldview, he paused at great length before finally saying, ‘‘I don’t have anything to offer on that.’’

Republicans like Walker have criticized Obama’s incursion into Libya on the front end (‘‘leading from behind’’) as well as the back end (failing to prevent the free-for-all of warring militias that currently prevails there). But they have been far more reticent in explaining how they would have responded to the popular uprising against Qaddafi or to the Arab Spring in general. When I asked Talent, he thought for a moment before replying. ‘‘Well, I’ll tell you as Jim Talent — I don’t think Governor Walker has opined on this topic yet,’’ he said. ‘‘The question of when purely humanitarian goals, assuming there is such a thing, should be an object of American policy is one that I think reasonable people can really debate over.’’

Prodded to specify what he would have advised the president to do in Libya, Talent mentioned ‘‘two reasonable options.’’ One would have been to limit American activity to humanitarian aid, on the grounds that the circumstances did not significantly affect our national interests. The other recourse would have been to drive Qaddafi out of power but then ‘‘continue to be involved post-conflict, to help ensure that the government that emerges is a partner.’’ In Talent’s view, ‘‘Either of those options would have been better than overthrowing him and seeing what happens next. Now we have a much worse humanitarian disaster and elements on the ground that are enemies of America.’’ Of course, as Talent conceded, he did not warn against such scenarios in real time, before the Libya bombing, just as many Republicans did not forecast the complications that would arise from invading Iraq in 2003.

In May, Walker offered a textbook case of how a Republican presidential candidate can reframe the failures of the Iraq war: Skip past the first four years of chaotic bloodshed and focus instead on President Bush’s decision in 2007 to send another 20,000 troops into Iraq. Bush, Walker said, deserved ‘‘enormous credit for ordering the surge, a courageous move that worked,’’ and then lamented that Obama ‘‘threw away the gains of the surge,’’ with brutal consequences. And in his foreign-policy address last month, Jeb Bush also glossed over the questionable decision to invade Iraq and instead lavished praise on the surge as the ‘‘turning point we had all been waiting for,’’ one that was then squandered by Obama with a ‘‘premature withdrawal’’ of troops that constituted ‘‘the fatal error, creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill, and that Iran has exploited to the full as well.’’

The only Republican candidate who has expressed disagreement with this point of view is Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Regarding the surge, Paul has offered measured praise: ‘‘It was a military tactic and it worked.’’ But he has flatly stated that ‘‘invading Iraq was a mistake.’’ Paul’s blunt assessment of the Iraq war has won him some peculiar bedfellows — among them, Elise Jordan, who served in Bush’s National Security Council’s communications team in Washington and Afghanistan and also traveled to Iraq while serving as a speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She is now on the foreign-policy team of Paul, the least interventionist candidate in the Republican field. Jordan, who is 33, has often been asked variations of: ‘‘Wait. You work for Rand Paul? And you were in Iraq?’’ To which her reply has been: ‘‘Yes. Exactly.’’

As a Bush staff member, Jordan watched Iraq degenerate into turmoil — observing at close hand, she said, ‘‘a really clear disconnect between what we were telling ourselves and what was happening on the ground.’’ The surge revived her hopes in America’s ability to quell sectarian violence by military means. But after leaving the White House, she worked as a freelance journalist, visiting Afghanistan in 2010 to embed with U.S. troops for an article about the military’s counterinsurgency efforts against the Taliban. This was during a troop surge modeled after the maneuver in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, the tactic proved ineffectual. Jordan began to question the value of the war there and, more broadly, the neoconservative notion that America can impose its values on other nations. ‘‘While I still believe that all people deserve freedom, it’s paternalistic to think we can bring it to them,’’ she told me.

She met Paul in March 2013 — days after his nearly 13-hour filibuster relating to Obama’s drone program, and three months before her husband, the acclaimed Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings, was killed in an automobile accident. Echoing what Paul’s other advisers would tell me, Jordan was struck by how thoughtful and well read he seemed, belying the caricature of him as an isolationist. Since signing on, she has been surprised by the vigor with which the other candidates, particularly Marco Rubio, Rick Perry and Lindsey Graham, have attacked his foreign-­policy views. ‘‘The fact that so many are threatened by him is a sign of how the Republican Party can’t deal with some deviations from conventional thought,’’ she said.

Those attacks have dwindled of late, no doubt because Paul has struggled to raise money, mount a disciplined campaign and break through the primal roar of the Trump movement. Still, it remains the case that Paul is the only candidate committed to designing a post-neocon Republican foreign policy. As another of his advisers, the Carnegie Mellon University international-relations professor Kiron Skinner, says, ‘‘He’s trying to provide a corrective to both the Bush and Obama administrations, in which we use American military power responsibly and when there’s a clear understanding of what’s needed.’’

That feat has been difficult for Paul to pull off as he attempts to placate both the libertarian followers of his father, Ron Paul, and the conservative G.O.P. base. He has hedged on his commitment to eliminate all foreign aid, gone out of his way to show his support for Israel and adopted more confrontational language toward Syria and Iran. Paul has also said that if he were president, he would ‘‘seek congressional authorization to destroy ISIS militarily.’’ Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper to clarify what this would entail, he said that he meant ‘‘Arab boots on the ground.’’ The candidate has yet to elaborate on how he would be the first American president to inspire an Arab army to ‘‘destroy’’ an Islamist extremist group.

Of course, presidential campaigns don’t tend to be incubators of complex foreign policy. Throughout the 2008 campaign cycle, Obama the candidate was fond of declaring on the stump that Al Qaeda grew stronger because the Iraq war had caused the Bush administration to ‘‘take our eye off the ball’’ instead of ‘‘refocusing our attention on the war that can be won in Afghanistan.’’ Today the president is at pains to explain why this refocusing has not come close to fulfilling his campaign declarations.

Today’s foreign-policy thinkers must also test their idealistic notions of American possibility on a geo­political landscape littered with the wreckage of ideals past. As Richard Fontaine explained to me: ‘‘In Iraq, we toppled the government and did an occupation and everything went to hell. In Libya, we toppled the government and didn’t do an occupation and everything went to hell. In Syria, we didn’t topple the government and didn’t do an occupation and everything went to hell. So, broadly, this is the Middle East. Things go to hell. And we’ve got to make our way through that fact to protect our national interests, on the back of a war-weary public that doesn’t want to invest our treasure in this.’’

That tension between steadfast principles and hard realities, both at home and abroad, was on display when some of America’s leading foreign-policy thinkers gathered for a retreat hosted by the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan education and policy organization, in August. The conference’s main event was an hourlong debate about ISIS. Each debate team featured two national-security officials from the Bush and Obama administrations. One team, Philip Zelikow, a former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Michèle Flournoy, Obama’s former defense undersecretary of defense for policy, argued that ISIS should be defeated, including through military means. The other team, Dov Zakheim, Bush’s former Defense Department comptroller and foreign-­policy adviser, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, Obama’s director of policy planning for the State Department, argued that it should be contained until it collapsed under the weight of its own failed ideology, as occurred with the Soviet Union. Among the 200 spectators were the retired general David Petraeus, the former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and Jeb Bush’s outside adviser, Richard Fontaine.

The debate was spirited and replete with unintended ironies. There was Flournoy, the former Obama official, arguing the traditional neocon position that the only way to give the lie to ISIS’s ideology was to ‘‘take territory away from ISIS.’’ And there was Zakheim, the former Bush official, sounding decidedly noninterventionist: ‘‘The issue is, can you and are you willing to send in hundreds of thousands of troops? Do you think this country wants to do that? Do you think we even want to spend money to do that?’’

Zakheim’s realpolitik warning hit the audience like a bucket of cold water. Even the nation’s most intellectually rigorous foreign-­policy thinkers seemed struck by the challenge of convincing the American public that war against ISIS would not entail a horrific reprise of the Iraq war. Surveyed before the debate began, 52 percent of attendees believed that ISIS should be destroyed, with 27 percent saying it should be contained and another 21 percent being undecided. After the debate, the audience underwent a reversal: 59 percent were now convinced that the proper course of action was to contain ISIS rather than to pour blood and treasure into an attempt to destroy it.

But Fontaine was not won over. ‘‘Their argument — don’t roll them back, hold them in place and they’ll defeat themselves through their internal contradictions — has never happened to a terrorist group,’’ he said later. ‘‘And I think we can roll them back. We’ve already shrunk their territory by a third. Containment, if you stop there, is a recipe for endless bloodshed.’’ That was his distinctly minority, stubbornly hawkish opinion. And if Fontaine had his way, it would soon become Jeb Bush’s as well.

Correction: September 2, 2015

An earlier version of this article referred ​incorrectly to comments about foreign policy and neoconservatives made by Michael Gallagher, the coordinator of Scott Walker’s foreign-policy team. He was giving his own views, not those of Walker.

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Exodus of Syrians Highlights Political Failure of the West

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:17 AM

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Arresting images of desperation on the West’s doorstep have brought Syria, for the moment, back to worldwide attention: refugees cramming into train stations and climbing border fences; drowned Syrian toddlers washing up on beaches, a girl in polka dots, a boy in tiny shoes.

It was never any secret that a rising tide of Syrian refugees would sooner or later burst the seams of the Middle East and head for Europe. Yet little was done in Western capitals to stop or mitigate the slow-motion disaster that was befalling Syrian civilians and sending them on the run.

“The migrant crisis in Europe is essentially self-inflicted,” said Lina Khatib, a research associate at the University of London and until recently the head of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “Had European countries sought serious solutions to political conflicts like the one in Syria, and dedicated enough time and resources to humanitarian assistance abroad, Europe would not be in this position today.”

The causes of the current crisis are plain enough. Neighboring countries like Lebanon and Jordanbecame overwhelmed with refugees and closed their borders to many, while international humanitarian funding fell further and further short of the need. Then, Syrian government losses and other battlefield shifts sent new waves of people fleeing the country.

A migrant child crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni on Friday.

Sakis Mitrolidis / Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Some of these people had initially thought they would stick it out in Syria, and they are different from earlier refugees, who tended to be poor and vulnerable, or wanted by the government, or from areas hard-hit early in the civil war. Now those departing include more middle-class or wealthy people, more supporters of the government, and more residents of areas that were initially safe.

One of those, Rawad, 25, a pro-government university graduate, left for Germany with his younger brother Iyad, 13, who as a minor could help his whole family obtain asylum.

They walked from Greece to save money, Rawad reported via text message, sleeping in forests and train stations alongside families from northern Syria who opposed President Bashar al-Assad.

People like Rawad and Iyad have been joined by growing numbers of refugees who had for a time found shelter in neighboring countries. Lebanon — where one in three people is now a Syrian refugee — and Jordan have cracked down on entry and residency policies for Syrians. Even inTurkey, a larger country more willing and able to absorb them, new domestic political tensions make their fate uncertain.

As the numbers of displaced Syrians mounted to 11 million today from a trickle in 2011, efforts to reach a political solution gained little traction. The United States and Russia bickered in the Security Council while Syrian government warplanes continued indiscriminate barrel bombing, the Islamic State took over new areas, other insurgent groups battled government forces and one another, and Syria’s economy collapsed.

For years, Yacoub El Hillo, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Syria, has been warning that with the Syrian crisis — the “worst of our time” — the international system of humanitarian aid has “come to the breaking point,” especially as protracted conflicts pile up around the world, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere.

“This is the price of political failure,” he said in Beirut in March, declaring that the breakdown of the aid system results from the strategic stalemate over Syria. “This is a direct affront to international peace and security.”

He said that it cost the United States $68,000 an hour to fly the warplanes used to battle the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, while the United Nations has received less than half of the money it needs to take care of the half of Syria’s prewar population that has been displaced.

For neighboring countries alone, just $1.67 billion of the needed $4.5 billion for 2015 has been received. For those displaced in Syria, $908 million has been given of $2.89 billion needed. This week, World Food Program benefits were canceled for 229,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan.

“It is not really a question of money,” Mr. El Hillo said. “It is a question of in which pot the money is sitting.”

Few refugees have been accepted by the regional and global players that have helped fuel the conflict — not by the United States, Russia, Iran or the Gulf Arab states, some of which, despite their wealth, have pledged just tens of millions toward the billions of dollars Syrians need. Politics also intrudes on aid, with the combatants trying to restrict aid to areas held by their opponents.

At a recent donors’ meeting in Kuwait, Mr. El Hillo said on Wednesday, he had emphasized that “more can be done, not just by traditional donors but by new donors, chiefly Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to support humanitarian efforts inside Syria.”

Syrians have so little hope for a solution in the near future that talk in the capital, Damascus, among supporters and opponents of the government alike, has turned to plans for getting overseas, especially to Europe. It is a route taken by everyone from the wealthy, whose money cannot always buy them visas, to the poor, who often sell everything to finance the trip. While many rich and poor alike risk an illegal boat ride to Greece from Turkey, those with money can fly or ride on other legs of the journey — choosing a kind of first-class ticket — while the poor walk for days.

There are signs everywhere that not all those taking the boats are economically destitute. On flights from Beirut to the Turkish city of Adana, costing hundreds of dollars, flight attendants plead with passengers over the intercom not to take the life jackets. Tourist ferry boats from Greek islands to Athens, where tickets can cost $100, are full of Syrians.

Lebanon is giving transit visas to Syrians who take buses from the border to the Port of Tripoli, and commercial ferries from there to Turkey. Traveling on one recently was Jamal, a government supporter who fled after Islamic State fighters took over Palmyra, where he owned a cafe. Like the other Syrians interviewed, he asked that only his first name be used to avoid jeopardizing his bid for asylum.

At first he had moved from place to place inside Syria, living “like a hobo,” he said, but with “no job, no money, no house,” he decided to head to Turkey to work in a cafe and contemplate going farther.

Recently, boats to Greece from Turkey have carried numerous college-educated activists and insurgents who fought both the government and the Islamic State but have given up for now, seeking new lives abroad. On some of the same boats are young men who come from pro-government families yet are evading the draft.

Ahmed, 36, an agronomist, said the government office where he worked in Damascus was down to seven employees from 23, after the draft-age men left the country, mostly for Europe.

Even wealthy Sunni merchants of Damascus are making plans, including some who, while not big supporters of Mr. Assad, long put business over revolution, helping him hang on until now.

Abu Moaz, 45, and his two brothers own a cookie factory just outside Damascus, and persevered when government forces occupied the area around it and demanded more and more bribes. They moved the operation to the Midan neighborhood of the capital, but still government militiamen kept stopping their delivery trucks for bribes.

“Now we are just working for the checkpoints,” Abu Moaz said just before leaving. “It is better to start a new life in Germany.”

He spent $3,500 per person for him, his wife and two sons to take the deluxe route — by ferry from Lebanon to Izmir, Turkey; to Greece in an inflatable smuggler’s boat; and to Germany in a refrigerated truck — rather than walking for a month.

On arrival in Germany, he reported good news: Some of his friends had new ventures that were already thriving.

“One of my friends opened a Damascene restaurant,” he said. “The other opened a sweets shop.”

But not all families are that lucky. Aylan Kurdi, 3, was found lying face down in the surf on a Turkish beach, one of at least 12 Syrians who drowned nearby.

The boy’s father, Abdullah Kurdi, said in an interview that the family had fled first from Damascus and later from their ancestral home, the Kurdish town of Kobani that has been attacked repeatedly by the Islamic State. They were trying to immigrate to Canada, but could not get permission to travel legally. His son Ghalib, 5, and his wife, Rehan, also drowned.

“If they can’t work together to save these children,” Adnan Hadad, an activist from the Syrian city of Aleppo, wrote on Twitter as the image of the boy went viral, “the world leaders better find another planet to rule.”

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Cambridge spy’s last years in Russia are detailed in new biography

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:15 AM

IntelNews.Org

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The life of Guy Burgess, one of the so-called ‘Cambridge Five’ double agents, who spied on Britain for the Soviet Union before defecting to Moscow in 1951, is detailed in a new biography of the spy, written by Andrew Lownie. Like his fellow spies Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross, Burgess was recruited by the Soviets when he was a student at Cambridge University. He shook the British intelligence establishment to its very core when he defected to the USSR along with Maclean, after the two felt that they were being suspected of spying for the Soviets.

A few years after his defection, Burgess wrote to a close friend back in the UK: “I am really […] very well and things are going much better for me here than I ever expected. I’m very glad I came”. However, in his book, entitled Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess, Lownie suggests that Burgess’ life in the USSR was far from ideal. After being welcomed by the Soviets as a hero, the Cambridge University graduate was transported to the isolated Siberian city of Kuybyshev. He lived for several months in a ‘grinder’, a safe house belonging to Soviet intelligence, where he was debriefed and frequently interrogated until his Soviet handlers were convinced that has indeed a genuine defector.

It was many years later that Burgess was able to leave Kuybyshev for Moscow, under a new name, Jim Andreyevitch Eliot, which had been given to him by the KGB. Initially he lived in a dacha outside Moscow, but was moved to the city in 1955, after he and Maclean spoke publicly about their defection from Britain. He was often visited in his one-bedroom apartment by Yuri Modin, his Soviet intelligence handler back in the UK. According to Lownie, Burgess often complained to Modin about the way he was being treated by the Soviet authorities. His apartment had apparently been bugged by the KGB, and he was constantly followed each time he stepped outside.

The British defector worked for a Soviet publishing house and produced foreign-policy analyses for the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also produced a training manual for KGB officers about British culture and the British way of life. But he did not like living in the USSR and argued that he should be allowed to return to the UK, insisting that he could successfully defend himself if interrogated by British counterintelligence. Eventually, Burgess came to the realization that he would never return to his home country. He became depressed, telling friends that he “did not want to die in Russia”. But in the summer of 1963 he was taken to hospital, where he eventually died from acute liver failure caused by his excessive drinking.

Andrew Lownie’s Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess, is published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and by St Martins’ Press in the US. It is scheduled to come out in both countries on September 10.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 04 September 2015 | Permalink

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Foiling the Islamic State - NYTimes.com

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:15 AM

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To the Editor:

Re “The Crimes of Palmyra” (editorial, Aug. 26): I agree that the Islamic State, or ISIS, can and must be stopped, and that military and economic pressures from the West must be a key part of our plan. But these tactics alone will never prove adequate. They must be part of a much broader strategy that includes ways to persuade the residents of the affected regions of the world that there is a better approach to the future, one that offers hope and opportunity.

The strategy must include demonstrations of economic progress, of the possibility of freedom of action, freedom from hunger and poverty, freedom of expression. It must not be seen as a contest between Christianity and Islam, or between East and West, but as a contest over how best to provide hope, progress and opportunity.

People in the Mideast are suffering in many ways: fear, hunger, joblessness, anger and so on. ISIS offers some hope to desperate people; we must offer greater hope. We must demonstrate that we in the West are potential friends and allies who wish them well, and who will put our money and our effort into helping them, not simply into fighting.

We must also reach out to Muslim communities throughout the West, to make it clear that we do not view them as opponents but as citizens who are welcome participants in our societies — that it is only a few violent groups that we oppose and strive to defeat, and that many Muslim people and countries are our allies and friends.

GARDINER L. TUCKER

Shelton, Conn.

The writer was an assistant secretary of defense, 1970-73, and assistant secretary general of NATO for defense support, 1973-76.

Pentagon discloses new problems in widening anthrax investigation

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:09 AM

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The U.S. military disclosed new problems in its handling of dangerous pathogens, such as anthrax, on Thursday, including contamination in a laboratory in Utah from which live anthrax samples were sent across the world.

Anthrax was found “in secure areas located outside the primary containment area but still contained within the special enclosed lab for holding these materials” at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, military officials said in a statement. The commander at Dugway ordered an immediate decontamination of the biosafety area, and it has since been cleaned and found to be clear, the statement said.

[‘We are shocked by these failures.’ Pentagon cites ineffective testing in shipping of live anthrax]

Army Secretary John McHugh ordered an immediate safety review afterward of all nine Defense Department laboratories involved in the handling of dangerous agents and toxins in a new memo, military officials said. Each lab must report back to him within 10 days, the memo said.

McHugh also expanded an existing moratorium prompted by the discovery this year of live samples being shipped from Dugway to temporarily ban the handling or shipping of any dangerous substance there and at three other facilities: the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and Naval Medical Research Center Biological Defense Research Directorate at Fort Detrick, Md.

“These measures will remain in place pending completion of the ongoing review and investigation until the Army determines it is appropriate to resume operations,” military officials said in the statement. “Specific exemptions to this policy will be judiciously reviewed and approved only in appropriate circumstances by the Secretary of the Army.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work said in July that a review of how Dugway distributed scores of live anthrax samples to facilities across the United States and overseas found systemic problems with irradiation and testing procedures that have been used there for a decade, but determined that a root cause is still not certain.

“Obviously, when over half of those anthrax batches that were presumed to be inactivated were then proven to contain live spores, we have a major problem,” Work said. He later added: “We are shocked by these failures.”

The Pentagon disclosed this week that those live samples were sent to facilities in all 50 U.S. states and numerous countries overseas.

Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.

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Emerging Cyber Security Threats | WTNH Connecticut News

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 10:09 AM

WTNH Connecticut News

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — “It’s a rite of passage. Usually these personal types of devices that are connected to the internet are the first stages for an attacker to build themselves up and then next attack a corporation,” said Michelle Syc, a Senior Cyber Security analyst with Farmington-based ADNET.

“If I get a cell phone. I can get anything about someone who owned it, where they were, bank account information, any passwords to sites they have every visited,” she said.

Also vulnerable, smart TV’s, baby monitors, refrigerators and even stoves. “Could you imagine if someone hacked into your stove and turned it on when you are on vacation that wouldn’t be too good.”

Cybersecurity experts say hackers are even going after your car’s bluetooth. “You could do anything in the car-pin the accelerator, stop the brakes-anything that’s connected to Bluetooth technology.”

Fred Hect learned about cyber security the hard way. He lost 54-thousand dollars. “There is always an element of doubt and your information is out there and someone has it,” he said.

Someone, broke into Nex Ruiz’s cell phone and used his personal information to rent a car for a week. “I won’t enter any more information on my cell phone especially on the wallet section. It is very scary absolutely.”

The problem? cyber security is so far behind. Experts offer these tips to protect yourself:

1. When in doubt delete it
2. Scan devices for viruses
3. Update your operating systems

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Friendship Between Putin and Xi Becomes Strained as Economies Falter

Friday September 4th, 2015 at 9:14 AM

U.S. National Security and Military News Review

us national security | national security | us military | US military news | Drug wars | 

» Between Iraq and a Hawk Base
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G.O.P. presidential candidates struggle to craft a foreign policy that can please the gung-ho and win in 2016 — without overpromising military force.

» Exodus of Syrians Highlights Political Failure of the West
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Little was done in Western capitals to stop or mitigate the slow-motion disaster that was befalling Syrian civilians and sending them on the run.

» Germany and Sweden Are Said to Help Make Afghan ‘Kill Decisions’
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Direct participation by U.S. allies in helping to target insurgents in Afghanistan would be a violation of the rules of the Western presence there.

» Freedom of Movement Tests Continental Unity
04/09/15 20:40 from NYT > Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
Tensions are growing from the influx of Syrians and other migrants seeking entry to the European Union, even as some Muslims in the bloc flee in the opposite direction, to Syria itself.

» Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies
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» Face of Defense: Air Force Pilot Chases Olympic Dreams
04/09/15 09:10 from American Forces Press Service News Feed
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04/09/15 08:17 from Washington Free Beacon
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» News Roundup and Notes: September 4, 2015
04/09/15 08:00 from Just Security
Nadia O'Mara Before the start of business,  Just Security  provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. IRAQ and SYRIA The US-led coalition is facing allegations that its airstrikes...

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» Fort Custer in 'very, very strong position' to land missile defense site ... - MLive.com
04/09/15 07:35 from missile defense - Google News
MLive.com Fort Custer in 'very, very strong position' to land missile defense site ... MLive.com Congressman Dan Benishek, Congressman Fred Upton, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Major General Gregory Vadnais, Governor Rick Snyder and C...

» Russia Slams New NATO Hubs - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
04/09/15 07:21 from nato - Google News
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Russia Slams New NATO Hubs RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Russia's envoy to NATO , Aleksandr Grushko, said in Brussels on September 4 that the opening this month of the small NATO centers reaffirms that &qu...

» 68485Search 68,485 Articles:
04/09/15 07:19 from United States Defense and Military Forces - News - Times Topics - The New York Times
68485 Search 68,485 Articles: Germany and Sweden Are Said to Help Make Afghan ‘Kill Decisions’ By ROD NORDLAND Direct participation by U.S. allies in helping to target insurgents in Afghanistan would be a violation of the rules of the We...

» Stoltenberg: Bulgaria's NATO Membership Does Not Hamper Relations with Russia - Novinite.com
04/09/15 07:13 from nato - Google News
Novinite.com Stoltenberg: Bulgaria's NATO Membership Does Not Hamper Relations with Russia Novinite.com Bulgaria: Stoltenberg: Bulgaria's NATO Membership Does Not Hamper Relations with Russia NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbe...

» Copter was taking part in ropes exercise when it landed hard,
04/09/15 07:07 from News - Stripes
Copter was taking part in ropes exercise when it landed hard, killing Marine A U.S. Marine who died and 11 comrades who sustained injuries were taking part in a helicopter ropes exercise that's described as "high-risk" in a training manu...

» Castro, cows and the Summer of Love: how pop art became political dynamite - The Guardian
04/09/15 06:30 from anti-Americanism - Google News
The Guardian Castro, cows and the Summer of Love: how pop art became political dynamite The Guardian The irony of anti-Americanism in a country whose postwar economic recovery was entirely dependent on Marshall Aid was not lost to those ...

» Russian Envoy Warns Against NATO Bases in Eastern Europe - Sputnik International
04/09/15 06:25 from Nato Russia - Google News
Sputnik International Russian Envoy Warns Against NATO Bases in Eastern Europe Sputnik International Relations between Russia and NATO have deteriorated amid the Ukrainian crisis. Since 2014, the alliance has been strengthening its milit...

» Defeating 'Tronald Dump' and Preventing 'World War III' - Worldmeets.us
04/09/15 06:20 from anti-Americanism - Google News
Worldmeets.us Defeating 'Tronald Dump' and Preventing 'World War III' Worldmeets.us 'Dump's' campaign is itself one GIGANTIC exercise in anti-Americanism : it represents everything that the United States does ...

» Confronting cybercrime: is the collaborative pipe dream finally becoming a ... - Information Age
04/09/15 06:09 from CyberWar - Google News
Information Age Confronting cybercrime: is the collaborative pipe dream finally becoming a ... Information Age In a keynote address at the event, a top US Presidential official called for more trust between the government and cyber secur...

» Global stocks slide ahead of U.S. jobs data
04/09/15 05:18 from Search Results
Global stocks slide ahead of U.S. jobs data Brent crude oil slips towards $50 on demand concerns Communique will not urge Fed against rate hikes: G20 delegate U.S. job gains seen solid in August, spotlight on Fed Weidmann open to talks o...

» Israel Unveils 'Iron Dome of the Sea' missile defense system - Defenseworld.net
04/09/15 05:11 from missile defense - Google News
Israel Unveils 'Iron Dome of the Sea' missile defense system Defenseworld.net The Israeli Navy on Wednesday has unveiled its new missile defense system 'Iron Dome of the Sea' in a defense exercise. The defensive exercise ...

» Spengler responds to George Koo: This isn't American ...
04/09/15 05:05 from american exceptionalism - Google Blog Search

» ‘The Transporter: Refueled’ Review
04/09/15 05:01 from Washington Free Beacon
The Transporter: Refueled contains the single most redundant moment I’ve ever seen committed to film. The post ‘The Transporter: Refueled’ Review appeared first on Washington Free Beacon .

» Twilight of the Idols
04/09/15 05:01 from Washington Free Beacon
A little over two weeks ago, agents of the Islamic State escorted Khaled al-Asaad, the retired director of Palmyra’s complex of antiquities, to the square in front of the city’s principal museum and beheaded the 82-year-old before an aud...

» An Anti-American White House
04/09/15 05:00 from Washington Free Beacon
This week President Obama won the 34th vote in support of his nuclear deal with Iran. The vote, from Senator Barbara Mikulski , guarantees that the deal will survive a rejection by Congress. The fact that the deal will be made despite su...

» De Blasio Aide Billed Taxpayers for Uber Ride
04/09/15 04:59 from Washington Free Beacon
An aide for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio charged taxpayers for an Uber ride, a company the mayor’s office has waged war against. The post De Blasio Aide Billed Taxpayers for Uber Ride appeared first on Washington Free Beacon .

» Private Government Report: Iran Spending Billions to Pay Terrorist Salaries
04/09/15 04:58 from Washington Free Beacon
Iran has been spending billions of dollars to fund the salaries of terrorist fighters across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, according to a private U.S. government analysis conducted for a leading...

» China Shows New intermediate-Range Missile Capable of Targeting Ships
04/09/15 04:57 from Washington Free Beacon
China’s display of military hardware in Beijing showcased several new weapons systems built as part of the People’s Liberation Army military buildup, including a new intermediate-range missile capable of attacking U.S. forces on Guam. Th...

» CIA spy ship built to raise Soviet sub becomes victim of oil slump - Reuters
04/09/15 04:02 from cia - Google News
The Japan Times CIA spy ship built to raise Soviet sub becomes victim of oil slump Reuters "If the Russians had become aware of the real purpose of the mission, we'd have had to cancel it, and all the money would go down the dra...

» US F-22 jets presented in Germany to reassure NATO members - Ukraine Today
04/09/15 03:22 from nato - Google News
Ukraine Today US F-22 jets presented in Germany to reassure NATO members Ukraine Today Reassuring NATO members, alarmed by Russia's actions in Ukraine. This pair of US F-22 fighter jets recently deployed to an airbase in Germany were...

» 68484Search 68,484 Articles:
04/09/15 03:12 from United States Defense and Military Forces - News - Times Topics - The New York Times
68484 Search 68,484 Articles: Egypt: American Soldiers Are Wounded By LIAM STACK Six international peacekeepers stationed in Egypt, including four American soldiers, were wounded by two improvised explosive devices on Thursday. September...

» China’s troop-cut plan is more about modernization than peace
04/09/15 03:00 from News - Stripes
China’s troop-cut plan is more about modernization than peace, analysts say President Xi Jinping’s announcement that China will cut its military by 300,000 troops was couched in the language of peace. Yet analysts say that it was intende...

» UK to Decide Whether To Allow Women in Combat Jobs Next Year
04/09/15 03:00 from Defense One - All Content
As the U.S. nears its own decisions, the Royal Army is considering allowing women into infantry and armor positions.

» Fighting weapons of terror - NATO HQ (press release)
04/09/15 02:46 from nato - Google News
NATO HQ (press release) Fighting weapons of terror NATO HQ (press release) Recent terrorist attacks across Europe have shown that terrorism remains a real threat to Alliance populations. So does the risk that terrorist groups consider th...

» Exclusive: Former Clinton aide has rebuffed FBI and State Department ... - Yahoo Politics
04/09/15 02:39 from fbi - Google News
Yahoo Politics Exclusive: Former Clinton aide has rebuffed FBI and State Department ... Yahoo Politics Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checks her mobile phone at a U.N. Security Council meeting in 2012. (Photo: Richard Drew/AP). ...

» Tesla engineer investigated for illegal computer intrusion - KRON4.com
04/09/15 02:37 from fbi - Google News
KRON4.com Tesla engineer investigated for illegal computer intrusion KRON4.com 3 of last year. Less than two weeks later, FBI investigations determined that Kalbasi had obtained his former manager's email account information and logg...

» NATO Warships to Visit Montenegrin Port - Balkan Insight
04/09/15 02:17 from nato - Google News
Balkan Insight NATO Warships to Visit Montenegrin Port Balkan Insight The Ministry of Defence said that the aim of the visit was to highlight the importance of NATO operations in the fight against terrorism, as well as foster cooperation...

» Why did the FBI show up at this Globalist youth reporter's house? - Seattle Globalist
04/09/15 02:05 from fbi - Google News
Seattle Globalist Why did the FBI show up at this Globalist youth reporter's house? Seattle Globalist Abdirhaman wasn't home when the two FBI agents came calling, but his 16-year-old brother was, and handed over his cell phone nu...

» Palestinian rescues 5 American tourists mobbed in Hebron
04/09/15 01:42 from DEBKAFile
September 4, 2015, 8:42 AM (IDT) The five American Yeshiva students from Brooklyn were driving through Hebron Thursday when they lost their way and entered a Palestinian district of the West Bank town. A mob surrounded the car, bombarded...

» LIBYA: Festering, Talking, Hoping
04/09/15 01:11 from StrategyPage.com

» Asian shares mixed as U.S. jobs report looms, ECB soothes
04/09/15 01:11 from Search Results
Asian shares mixed as U.S. jobs report looms, ECB soothes Oil prices dip, investors wait on cues from U.S. jobs data Hong Kong stocks fall on nervousness ahead of U.S. job data Father of drowned Syrian toddlers prepares to take bodies ho...

» WARPLANES: ISIL Adopts Chinese UAVs
04/09/15 01:10 from StrategyPage.com

» INFORMATION WARFARE: The Terrible Ten Pwn Twitter For The Death Cult
04/09/15 01:09 from StrategyPage.com

» Cambridge spy’s last years in Russia are detailed in new biography
04/09/15 00:24 from intelNews.org
The life of Guy Burgess, one of the so-called ‘Cambridge Five’ double agents, who spied on Britain for the Soviet Union before defecting to Moscow in 1951, is detailed in a new biography of the spy, written by Andrew Lownie.

» FBI investigating fatal crash on Ute reservation - KSL.com
04/09/15 00:23 from fbi - Google News
KSL.com FBI investigating fatal crash on Ute reservation KSL.com Investigators want to recover any data from the SUV's internal computer system that might provide them with additional forensic evidence about the crash, according to a...

» Four U.S. troops, two international peacekeepers wounded in Sinai blasts
04/09/15 00:01 from National Security: National Security, Pentagon & Defense Department News - The Washington Post
All six troops were with the Multinational Force of Observers (MFO), an international coalition set up to keep the peace between Egypt and Israel.

» Iran Deal Will Top Agenda When Saudi King Visits White House
04/09/15 00:00 from NYT > United States Defense and Military Forces
With the nuclear deal now poised to go into effect, the meeting represents the first major effort by President Obama to reassure crucial Persian Gulf allies.

» Egypt: American Soldiers Are Wounded
04/09/15 00:00 from NYT > United States Defense and Military Forces
Six international peacekeepers stationed in Egypt, including four American soldiers, were wounded by two improvised explosive devices on Thursday.

» An Arms Deal Is Aimed at Saudis’ Iran Worries
04/09/15 00:00 from NYT > United States Defense and Military Forces
With the nuclear deal now poised to go into effect, the meeting represents the first major effort by President Obama to reassure crucial Persian Gulf allies.

» Foiling the Islamic State
04/09/15 00:00 from NYT > Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
A former assistant secretary of defense urges a strategy to defeat ISIS that goes beyond military and economic pressures.

» Ash Who? After Six Months On The Job, 44% Have No Opinion on Defense Secretary
03/09/15 23:49 from Defense One - All Content
A Defense One survey finds that nearly half of troops, natsec employees say they still have no opinion about Ash Carter.

» UPDATE: Unified Command responds to sinking vessel, diesel spill in Sitka
03/09/15 23:08 from Recent Updates for U.S. Coast Guard Digital Newsroom

» 4 US troops, 2 peacekeepers hurt in IED blasts in Sinai
03/09/15 22:45 from News - Stripes
4 US troops, 2 peacekeepers hurt in IED blasts in Sinai The Defense Department says four U.S. soldiers and two Multinational Force and Observers' peacekeepers have been injured by improvised explosive devices in the Northeast Sinai regio...

» Coast Guard, NOAA transports two rehabilitated Hawaiian monk seals to Oahu
03/09/15 22:33 from Recent Updates for U.S. Coast Guard Digital Newsroom
Photos available

» Justice Department: Agencies need warrants to use cellphone trackers
03/09/15 22:32 from National Security: National Security, Pentagon & Defense Department News - The Washington Post
The department has issued a new policy on the use of StingRays and other tracking devices.

» Florida prosecutor says FBI agent's troubled past doesn't change shooting findings - Boston Globe
03/09/15 21:47 from fbi - Google News
Florida prosecutor says FBI agent's troubled past doesn't change shooting findings Boston Globe Prosecutor Jeffrey L. Ashton has admitted that he did not know about prior allegations of misconduct against FBI agent Aaron McFarlan...

» FBI investigating fatal crash on Ute reservation - Deseret News
03/09/15 21:43 from fbi - Google News
Deseret News FBI investigating fatal crash on Ute reservation Deseret News One person died and four others were hospitalized on April 5, 2015, after the driver of a sport-utility vehicle lost control and rolled while fleeing from Bureau ...

» Krauthammer: Testimony By Clinton Aide Would Likely Contradict Hillary’s Email Alibi
03/09/15 21:21 from Washington Free Beacon
The post Krauthammer: Testimony By Clinton Aide Would Likely Contradict Hillary’s Email Alibi appeared first on Washington Free Beacon .

» What it takes for the FBI to get involved - KESQ
03/09/15 21:07 from fbi - Google News
KESQ What it takes for the FBI to get involved KESQ In order to conduct Tuesday's raid, the FBI needed to convince a judge or magistrate there is probable cause that a crime was committed and that evidence of that crime is in a speci...

» Asian shares win reprieve on ECB signal, U.S. jobs next focus
03/09/15 21:04 from Search Results
Asian shares win reprieve on ECB signal, U.S. jobs next focus Foreign investors navigate turmoil in Chinese markets with new playbook Euro on the defensive after dovish ECB, USD awaits payrolls Special Report: Thai junta hits royal criti...

» Iranian suggests prisoner swap could free Washington Post reporter
03/09/15 20:19 from National Security: National Security, Pentagon & Defense Department News - The Washington Post
An Iranian official said “one way” to win Americans detainees’ freedom is releasing Iranians from U.S. jails.

» Iranian official suggests prisoner swap could free Washington Post reporter
03/09/15 20:19 from National Security: National Security, Pentagon & Defense Department News - The Washington Post
An Iranian official said “one way” to win Americans detainees’ freedom is releasing Iranians from U.S. jails.

» Lawyer for Palm Springs mayor expects 'swift conclusion' to FBI probe - Business Insider
03/09/15 19:48 from fbi - Google News
Business Insider Lawyer for Palm Springs mayor expects 'swift conclusion' to FBI probe Business Insider FBI agents and members of a local public corruption task force descended on Palm Springs City Hall on Tuesday armed with sear...

» The FBI Now Needs a Warrant To Use Its Phone-Sniffing Stingray Boxes - Gizmodo
03/09/15 19:40 from fbi - Google News
Gizmodo The FBI Now Needs a Warrant To Use Its Phone-Sniffing Stingray Boxes Gizmodo If the FBI or NSA or Homeland Security want to spy on a crowd filled with cellphones without a warrant—according to the policy—they'll have to be ac...

» Dakota State hosts US Senate cybersecurity field hearing - Macon Telegraph
03/09/15 19:36 from cybersecurity - Google News
KSFY Dakota State hosts US Senate cybersecurity field hearing Macon Telegraph John Thune chairs a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on confronting the challenges of cybersecurity at Dakota St...

» FBI has 13 of Oklahoma City bombing coconspirator's guns - Boston Globe
03/09/15 19:35 from fbi - Google News
Boston Globe FBI has 13 of Oklahoma City bombing coconspirator's guns Boston Globe OKLAHOMA CITY — The FBI has more than a dozen rifles, handguns, and shotguns belonging to Oklahoma City bombing coconspirator Terry Nichols, who wants...

» PHOTO: Eagle's Bottom
03/09/15 19:33 from StrategyPage.com

» Dakota State hosts US Senate cybersecurity field hearing - The Idaho Statesman
03/09/15 19:30 from cybersecurity - Google News
The Idaho Statesman Dakota State hosts US Senate cybersecurity field hearing The Idaho Statesman South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune chairs a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on confronting th...

» Thune Cyber-Security Hearing Draws Big Crowd Of Students - KELOLAND TV
03/09/15 19:14 from Cyberwarfare - Google News
KELOLAND TV Thune Cyber - Security Hearing Draws Big Crowd Of Students KELOLAND TV Security experts shared strategies on foiling cyber -attacks at a gathering at Dakota State University Thursday. U.S. Senator John Thune chaired this fiel...

» FBI Reportedly Looking Into Whether Hillary's Server Was Hacked - Mediaite
03/09/15 19:05 from fbi - Google News
Mediaite FBI Reportedly Looking Into Whether Hillary's Server Was Hacked Mediaite The FBI has been reportedly looking into whether Hillary Clinton's private email server was compromised by hackers. A Bloomberg report today says t...

» Navy Names Littoral Combat Ship
03/09/15 19:02 from GlobalSecurity.org
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today that the next Freedom-variant littoral combat ship will be named USS Minneapolis/St. Paul (LCS 21).

» New regs for Friday: Gypsy moths, cyber security, foreign aid - The Hill
03/09/15 19:00 from Cyberwar - Google News
New regs for Friday: Gypsy moths, cyber security , foreign aid The Hill In Friday's edition of the Federal Register, the Department of Agriculture adds new regions to its list of areas infested with gypsy moths, the Nuclear Regulator...

» FBI, IMPD team up to target violent Indy criminal organizations - Fox 59
03/09/15 18:59 from fbi - Google News
Fox 59 FBI , IMPD team up to target violent Indy criminal organizations Fox 59 INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (September 3, 2015) - The FBI spent four weeks working alongside IMPD officers to gather intelligence and target violent criminal organizat...

» FBI, DEA and others will now have to get a warrant to use stingrays - Ars Technica
03/09/15 18:58 from fbi - Google News
Ars Technica FBI , DEA and others will now have to get a warrant to use stingrays Ars Technica The move comes after federal agencies, most notably the FBI , have tried to tightly control information about stingrays for years. The FBI and...

» Coast Guard urges Alaskan boaters to be safe over Labor Day weekend
03/09/15 18:55 from Recent Updates for U.S. Coast Guard Digital Newsroom

» Coast Guard Auxiliary aircrew makes emergency landing in Cresskill, N.J.
03/09/15 18:47 from Recent Updates for U.S. Coast Guard Digital Newsroom

» Pentagon discloses new problems in widening anthrax investigation
03/09/15 18:46 from National Security: National Security, Pentagon & Defense Department News - The Washington Post
Army Secretary John McHugh ordered an immediate safety review of all nine Defense Department laboratories involved in handling dangerous agents and toxins.

» Cameron preparing to give way and accept more Syrian refugees
03/09/15 18:38 from News - Stripes
Cameron preparing to give way and accept more Syrian refugees David Cameron's government is preparing to bow to pressure both from within Britain and from European allies and let in thousands more refugees, according to a person familiar...

» Cyber missions could fuel Boeing EA-18G orders: US Navy chief - Business Insider
03/09/15 18:37 from CyberWar - Google News
Business Insider Cyber missions could fuel Boeing EA-18G orders: US Navy chief Business Insider He said the Navy had asked the Pentagon's Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office to evaluate the electronic warfare needs of ...

» Cyber missions could fuel Boeing EA-18G orders: U.S. Navy chief - Business Insider
03/09/15 18:37 from CyberWar - Google News
Business Insider Cyber missions could fuel Boeing EA-18G orders: U.S. Navy chief Business Insider He said the Navy had asked the Pentagon's Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office to evaluate the electronic warfare needs o...