Pentagon

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Pentagon Never Admitted Having Secret UFO Program. Until Now

'What was considered science fiction is now science fact'

(Newser) - The truth, as they say, is out there. In 2007, former senator Harry Reid—along with former senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye—used "so-called black money" to secretly fund a program inside the Defense Department to study and investigate reports of UFOs, particularly from US military personnel. Despite...

Transgender Recruits Can Enlist, Over Trump Opposition

Pentagon decision goes against wishes of the White House

(Newser) - The Pentagon is allowing transgender people to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Trump's opposition . The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue, and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump's demand to ban transgender individuals from...

2,400 Auditors Are About to Descend on the Pentagon

Department of Defense is being audited for 1st time ever

(Newser) - The Department of Defense had a budget of $590 billion last year and will have one of nearly $700 billion next year. It has an estimated $2.4 trillion in assets. And yet the department has never been audited. That finally changes this month when the Pentagon undergoes its first-ever...

Pentagon Retweets Call for Trump to Resign

Spokesperson says message was 'erroneously retweeted'

(Newser) - See, this is why all those Twitter profiles are sure to note that retweets do not equal endorsements. CBS News reports the Pentagon's official Twitter account on Thursday retweeted a tweet calling for President Trump's resignation. "GOP: Stop making sexual assault a partisan issue," tweeted "...

How to Secure N. Korea's Nukes: Ground War

Pentagon gives a blunt assessment when asked about potential conflict with Hermit Kingdom

(Newser) - The only way to locate and destroy with complete certainty all components of North Korea's nuclear program is through a ground invasion, reports the AP , according to a blunt assessment from the Pentagon in response to a letter from two Democratic congressmen asking about casualty assessments. Rear Adm. Michael...

US Troops in Niger Fought 2 Hours Before Help Arrived

Pentagon has new timeline of 'complex' firefight

(Newser) - American troops and the Nigerien soldiers they were patrolling with fought ISIS-allied militants for two hours before help arrived, the Pentagon says. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a new timeline Monday of the deadly ambush , the Wall Street Journal reports. "This is a...

US Hasn&#39;t Shown Military Bands Are Worth the Bill
US Hasn't Shown
Military Bands Are
Worth the Bill
GAO REPORT
Aug 17, 2017 1:14 PM CDT

US Hasn't Shown Military Bands Are Worth the Bill

GAO demands performance measures, Pentagon to oblige

(Newser) - A $437 million annual budget is allotted for US military bands. While that's less than 0.1% of the Department of Defense's total budget, it's also about as much as Latvia's entire defense budget, reports Fox News . The funds pay for instruments—the Air Force requested...

White House May Outsource Afghan War to Contractors

Blackwater's Erik Prince floats his plan

(Newser) - President Trump is said to be frustrated with progress in the 16-year-old Afghanistan war, and a familiar name in US military circles is offering an unprecedented solution. Blackwater founder Erik Prince has floated a plan to the White House that it turn over most of its military duties in the...

The Big Question After Transgender Military Ban
The Big Question After
Transgender Military Ban
the rundown
Jul 26, 2017 11:58 AM CDT

The Big Question After Transgender Military Ban

What about those already serving?

(Newser) - President Trump's decision to ban transgender people from serving "in any capacity" in the military raises a question, notes Slate . What about the thousands of transgender troops already in the ranks? A study by the RAND Corporation estimated that up to about 11,000 trans troops may be...

Pentagon Delays Move on Transgender Recruits

Defense chief Mattis postpones acceptance of them for another 6 months

(Newser) - The military isn't quite ready to recruit transgender troops. A new policy allowing the Pentagon to do so was supposed to begin on July 1, but defense chief Jim Mattis said Friday night that it would be delayed six months, reports USA Today . A Pentagon statement said Mattis had...

Syria, Iran, Russia Push Back Against US Warning
Syria, Iran, Russia Push
Back Against US Warning
The Rundown
Jun 27, 2017 1:23 PM CDT

Syria, Iran, Russia Push Back Against US Warning

Syria says it isn't planning to use chemical weapons, which it says it doesn't have

(Newser) - Late Monday, the White House took the unusual step of issuing a preemptive warning against Syria, which it claims is preparing to launch a chemical weapons attack. The Wall Street Journal reports the Trump administration is basing that assertion on evidence from the same air base that the US hit...

US to Send 4K More Troops to Afghanistan

Move comes after defense chief Mattis gets more authority to set levels

(Newser) - The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, the largest deployment of US manpower under President Trump's young presidency, reports the AP . The decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, said a White House official. It follows Trump'...

Pentagon Confirms Suspected Fate of ISIS Afghan Head

Abdul Haseeb Logari was killed in raid last month

(Newser) - A military raid last month killed the head of the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Sunday night. The death of Abdul Haseeb Logari had been suspected after the April 27 raid on a compound in Nangarhar, a province in eastern Afghanistan, but officials said then that they weren'...

For All the World to See: Video Shows Massive Bomb Strike

DoD tweeted out 30-second video of bomb's drop in Afghanistan

(Newser) - The "mother of all bombs" was unleashed Thursday on an ISIS target, and by Friday morning, the Defense Department had a short video up on Twitter showing the strike. The 30-second clip was embedded in a tweet that described the strike as hitting "#ISIS cave and tunnel systems...

Mattis Breaks From Trump on Key Iraq Issue

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

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

DOD Jumps Into Mystery of Vanished WWII Sailors

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

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

Trump Tower May Lease Space to Pentagon

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

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

Military Uses Decade-Old Video to Justify Yemen Raid

It falsely claimed the video was recovered last Sunday

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

Pentagon Finds $125B in Internal Waste, Kills Report

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

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

Pentagon Ready to Lift Ban on Transgender Troops

It could happen within days, source says

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

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