National & World Headlines

  • Despite vowing to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, President Barack Obama's quest to close it is still running into problems in Congress. So the White House may have to transfer some terror suspects back overseas. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a leading opponent of closure, responded to Obama's latest call by citing last year's administration report that 28 percent of the roughly 600 released detainees were either confirmed or suspected of later engaging in militant activity.

    May 02, 2013
  • Currently deployed units and those behind them are fully trained and equipped, the services say. But those next in line "aren't doing much." The fiscal 2013 budget also may be too little, too late in some ship repair and maintenance efforts.

    May 02, 2013
  • Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Tex.) is a certified public accountant who chaired a year-long series of hearings on DoD audit readiness for the House Armed Services Committee. He spoke with Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu for this week's On DoD.

    May 01, 2013
  • Russia's Rosaviatsiya aviation agency has banned its airlines from flying over Syria, after a plane with 160 passengers detoured to avoid danger from fighting on the ground. Syria's civil war has severely impacted airline traffic to and from the country. Reuters reports, most Russian airlines had heeded a recommendation issued in February not to cross Syrian territory but some had ignored the risk and continued to do so on flights to and from Egypt, among other destinations.

    May 01, 2013
  • The Pentagon says one of four Air Force members killed in a plane crash in Afghanistan was a pilot from northern Virginia. Capt. The Associated Press reports Brandon Cyr, 28, of Woodbridge, Va., had been stationed at Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois. Cyr died in Saturday's crash of an Air Force MC-12. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Pentagon says there were no reports of enemy activity in the area at the time. Cyr was an instructor pilot and member of the 906th Air Refueling Squadron within the 375th Air Mobility Wing based at Scott. The base also says Cyr flew with members of the Illinois Air National Guard's 126th Air Refueling Wing.

    April 30, 2013
  • An Army helicopter pilot from northern Virginia is one of two soldiers killed in Afghanistan by enemy fire. The Pentagon said Friday that 26-year-old 1st Lt. Robert J. Hess of Fairfax died Tuesday in the Pul-E-Alam district of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan, from wounds suffered as a result of indirect fire. Also killed was 32-year-old Capt. Aaron R. Blanchard of Selah, Wash. Both soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Aviation Battalion, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, N.Y.

    April 29, 2013
  • The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative technologies ever created — including the Internet. But as budgets tighten, the agency's director says she's trying to figure out how to deal with an increasingly complex threat environment as less money flows into the research and development pipeline.

    April 29, 2013
  • Air Force Secretary Michael Donley will step down in June after nearly five years on the job, the Air Force announced Friday. Donley's last day with the service will be June 21.

    April 26, 2013
  • After four years as the second in charge, Scott Gould has decided to leave VA. His last day on the job will be May 17.

    April 26, 2013
  • Some military chaplains trying to access the Southern Baptist Convention website this week were surprised to find it blocked with a message that it contained "hostile content." The problem left military officials having to explain to leaders of the nation's largest Protestant denomination that it was an unintentional software glitch. A Defense Department spokesman said the problem seemed to be with the commercial software the military uses to protect its network. The software blocks access to prohibited sites, like those for pornography or gambling, as well as sites that might have some type of malware associated them.

    April 26, 2013
  • The military chiefs of Japan and the United States on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate closely on defense measures in order to deal with threats of missile and nuclear tests from North Korea.

    April 26, 2013
  • The Pentagon's top acquisition official released guidance this week to implement the Defense Department's latest iteration of the Better Buying Power program. The plan tells acquisition managers their first priority should be to use their own expertise in making decisions.

    April 26, 2013
  • Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the U.S. effort to determine whether Syria has used chemical weapons is a "serious business" that cannot be decided in a rush just because several countries believe evidence supports that conclusion. Wrapping up a visit to Egypt, he told reporters, "I think we have to be very careful here before we make any conclusions (and) draw any conclusions based on real intelligence. That's not at all questioning other nations' intelligence. But the United States relies on its own intelligence."

    April 25, 2013
  • Secretary of State John Kerry urged NATO to prepare for the possible use of chemical weapons by Syria. This came on Tuesday, the same day that a senior Israeli military intelligence official said Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad had used such weapons last month in his battle against insurgents. It was the first time Israel had accused the embattled Syrian leader of using his stockpile of nonconventional weapons. The assessment was based on visual evidence, could raise pressure on the U.S. and other Western countries to intervene in Syria. Britain and France recently announced that they had evidence that Assad's government had used chemical weapons.

    April 24, 2013