Robert Gates

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US Backs Taliban Talks
 US Backs Taliban Talks 
Oct 15, 2010 1:00 AM CDT

US Backs Taliban Talks

Clinton: 'Stranger things have happened'

(Newser) - Western nations seem to be quickly warming to the idea of talking peace with the Taliban. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who only last month said talks would be premature, backed the idea at a NATO meeting yesterday, the AP reports. "Whenever opportunities arise that are worth exploring, I think...

Gates: Don't End DADT Abruptly

This is a job for Congress, not the courts, he says

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says an abrupt end to 'Dont' Ask, Don't Tell' could have "enormous consequences" for American troops. He didn't answer directly when asked by the Washington Post whether the government should appeal a worldwide injunction stopping enforcement of the policy, but said that the Pentagon should...

Gates Challenges Elite Students to Join Military

Defense chief: 'Instead of J Crew, they wear body armor'

(Newser) - Defense chief Robert Gates wants students from prestigious universities to join the military, arguing that more of the country's "best and brightest" need to step up. In a speech to Duke University students, Gates praised those who do choose to serve, reports Politico . “Instead of wearing J. Crew,...

Gates, Russian Counterpart Look to Downsize Militaries

Full-day meeting seeks ways to cut waste

(Newser) - Robert Gates today becomes the first US defense secretary to show his Russian counterpart around in almost six years, devoting an entire day to Anatoly Serdyukov, the New York Times reports. The two men are looking for common ground on a topic that would have been unthinkable during the Cold...

Gates Plans to Retire in 2011
 Gates Plans to 
 Retire in 2011 
Aug 16, 2010 11:12 AM CDT

Gates Plans to Retire in 2011

Unless he changes his mind again

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has always hated Washington, and he plans to get the heck out sometime next year, he revealed today in a lengthy interview with Fred Kaplan for Foreign Policy . “I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012,” he reasons. “...

McChrystal to Teach at Yale
 McChrystal to Teach at Yale 
Aug 16, 2010 8:47 AM CDT

McChrystal to Teach at Yale

Ex-General eschews defense industry, politics

(Newser) - Stanley McChrystal has landed on his feet, with a new teaching position at Yale. He’ll be heading up a course on leadership at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, alongside such notable names as former US ambassador John Negroponte and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, Politico reports. Apparently people...

Top Brass in Huff Over Pentagon Cutbacks

Move to end 'brass creep' ruffles feathers

(Newser) - Four-star military commanders have joined the ranks of Americans worried about keeping their jobs. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made it clear when he announced Pentagon cutbacks this week that he plans to reduce "brass creep" in the military, and the decision has ruffled many feathers in the top ranks,...

Pentagon Slashing Thousands of Jobs

Gates to ax Joint Forces Command

(Newser) - "No sacred cows" are safe from the budget ax as the Pentagon seeks to trim spending, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned yesterday as he announced massive cuts. Reductions include the closure of Joint Forces Command, which employs some 5,000 people, and a 10% reduction in the budget for...

WikiLeaks May Have Blood on Its Hands: Mullen

Gates, Mullen warn Afghan leak will do great harm to US, allies

(Newser) - Julian Assange et al "might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," because of the massive leak of Afghan war records, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday. Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert...

Military Honors Retiring McChrystal

General says career didn't end as he'd hoped

(Newser) - After 34 years in the Army, Gen. Stanley McChrystal left behind legions of admirers and the prospect that his reputation as a ferocious fighter would one day eclipse the costly comments that appeared in Rolling Stone. "Over the past decade, arguably no single American has inflicted more fear on...

US Levies New Sanctions on N. Korea

Clinton, Gates visit DMZ, show solidarity with South

(Newser) - The Obama administration pushed new sanctions today against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced new measures during a visit to the DMZ four months after the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North....

Angry Spy Crew Hits Back at WaPo Probe

Boast they've thwarted attacks

(Newser) - The intel community has struck back fast at a scathing Washington Post investigation that portrayed post-9/11 intelligence gathering as wastefully massive and out of control. "The fact is, the men and women of the intelligence community have improved our operations, thwarted attacks, and are achieving untold successes every day,...

US Intel Gathering Insanely Out of Control

 US Intel Gathering 
 Insanely Out of Control 

wapo Investigation
Jul 19, 2010 7:56 AM CDT

US Intel Gathering Insanely Out of Control

Post 9/11 buildup has left us with more info than we can handle

(Newser) - In the wake of 9/11, the US has built an unspeakably massive top-secret counter-terrorism apparatus that appears to be riddled with waste, according to a major investigative piece that some 20 journalists spent nearly two years working on for the Washington Post . The paper found that 1,271 government organizations,...

Gates Clamps Down on Media/ Pentagon Relations

Worried the department has 'grown lax;' top brass will need clearance

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates is now requiring even top military brass to get Pentagon clearance for contact with reporters in an order issued yesterday to military and civilian personnel worldwide. The order tells officials to make sure they are not going out of bounds or unintentionally releasing information that the...

McChrystal Was Doomed From 1st Words of 'Runaway'
McChrystal Was Doomed From 1st Words of 'Runaway'
Inside Obama's Warroom
Jun 24, 2010 10:52 AM CDT

McChrystal Was Doomed From 1st Words of 'Runaway'

Obama thought keeping general would undermine civilian command

(Newser) - One paragraph into “the Runaway General,” Barack Obama was pretty sure he’d fire Stanley McChrystal. An hour after the president got the Rolling Stone article, aides were summoned to discuss the possibility. “There was a basic meeting of the minds,” Rahm Emanuel tells the New ...

McChrystal Leaves White House Before Strategy Meeting

No word on his fate after 30-minute meeting with Obama

(Newser) - Stanley McChrystal left the White House after a 30-minute meeting with President Obama today—and didn’t return for the big strategy session that followed. There’s still no word on the general’s fate, or on how the meeting went— MSNBC says there’s “an almost complete lockdown...

Marines Fear They'll Never Storm a Beach Again

Much-revered maneuver hasn't been used since Korean War

(Newser) - Storming enemy beaches is almost the Marines’ raison d’être. The stories of the glorious amphibious assaults of the past “are encoded in our DNA,” one officer tells the LA Times . But there hasn’t been a beach assault since the Korean War, and many—including Robert...

Democrats Confront Pentagon on Afghan War

Violence is up, and so is lawmaker anxiety

(Newser) - A schism deepened yesterday between US war leaders and Congress as top Democrats challenged Pentagon assertions that progress is picking up in Afghanistan. "I wouldn't call it eroding," Carl Levin said of support for the war. "But there's a lot of fair concern." That was especially...

Gates Has Unlikely Ally in Defense Fight: Tea Party

Conservative group willing to shrink military

(Newser) - Robert Gates wants to impose a new fiscal discipline on the military by slashing millions from weapons programs—and he may have an unlikely ally in his uphill battle: the Tea Party. The conservative group is so dedicated to cutting government spending that many of its members are backing off...

Pelosi, Hill Forced Obama to Back Deal on 'Don't Ask'

They threatened to move without him

(Newser) - Barack Obama went ahead with a plan to repeal “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” only because Congress dragged him into it kicking and screaming. Lawmakers, particularly Nancy Pelosi and Carl Levin, threatened to push ahead without Obama, and he reluctantly struck a deal. “Levin made it clear that the...

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