Defense Department

  • President Obama is expected to make personnel announcements Thursday to unveil a major shuffling of his national security team. We get details and analysis from the AP\'s Mark Smith and our own JJ Green.

    April 28, 2011
  • The Defense Department is working to expand and integrate its network of military and civilian helping professionals to ensure military families receive the support and care they need for years to come.

    April 28, 2011
  • Services and components in the Defense Department are being told they will be permitted to retain any savings they find through better management of acquisition programs. Undersecretary of Defense Ashton Carter says the decision would provide an incentive for program managers to make effective use of a now-mandatory initiative known as \"will-cost and should-cost management.\"

    April 28, 2011
  • Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation is here to offer some insight on the DoD-CIA swapping.

    April 27, 2011
  • Pat Tamburrino is DoD\'s Chief Human Capital Officer. He\'s my guest to discuss how things are going for the Defense Department.

    April 27, 2011
  • At nearly four times the budget, a new Air Force satellite is about to be launched nine years late.

    April 27, 2011
  • Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell says his state won\'t have enough time to prepare for the move of 6,400 Defense Department employees to the Mark Center in Alexandria, Va., as part of the Base Realignment and Closure. The deadline for the move is Sept. 1.

    April 26, 2011
  • A Defense Science Board panel found DoD\'s procedures and its senior leaders don\'t give service contracts the attention they deserve. Service contracts make up more than 50 percent of the Defense Department\'s acquisition budget.

    April 25, 2011
  • The Central Intelligence Agency says it\'s practice of shredding and burning classified papers-often referred to in movies and books as \"burn after reading\"-is one of several ways the CIA conserves energy, reduces its impact on the environment, and lowers costs through its sustainability efforts. But what about the Agency\'s carbon footprint? Exhaust from the Agency\'s on-site incinerator generates steam to heat water at CIA Headquarters. In addition to saving fuel, that process reduces the amount of waste-which would otherwise be destined for landfills-by nearly 1,000 tons per year. The CIA increases its recycling efforts each year, annually collecting over three tons of plastic, glass, cardboard, aluminum, construction debris, and other waste.

    April 25, 2011
  • According to the Associated Press, \"British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Thursday that NATO isn\'t edging toward the deployment of ground troops in Libya despite the decision by several European nations to send military staff to assist rebel forces.\" Britain, Italy and France are sending combat advisers to train Libya\'s opposition forces.

    April 25, 2011
  • Wikileaks suspect PFC Bradley Manning has arrived at his new temporary home. The Leavenworth Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Kansas. It is there he will wait while the government decides whether to put him on trial. The first order of business is in-depth assessment by the medical staff there. The facility is a state-of-the-art, 464-bed, medium/minimum custody facility with a 48-bed special housing unit built to comply with American Correctional Association Standards. It officially opened last October.

    April 25, 2011
  • World War One era documents have been declassified by the CIA. One document outlines the chemicals and techniques necessary for developing certain types of secret writing ink and a method for opening sealed letters without detection. One question that has come up since the declassification is, why now as opposed to a decade ago when, the case was litigated in court? The revelation at the time was deemed to be a hazard to U.S. national security.

    April 25, 2011
  • In the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan, the Defense Department says it concurs with the State Department\'s determination that the situation in Japan does not pose significant risk to U.S. citizens. As a result, last Friday, the Pentagon ended the voluntary authorized departure of DoD eligible family members from Honshu, Japan. So far approximately 20,000 personnel, approximately 140 aircraft, and more than 20 ships from the U.S. military have supported Operation Tomodachi.

    April 25, 2011
  • Changes may be coming at the top at the Pentagon and the CIA. If they are in the works, it\'s difficult to tell who will do what, but as far as CIA Director Leon Panetta is concerned, \"I hope he stays there. I think we wants to stay there. I\'m encouraging him to stay there, says House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. And he has some advice for the President. \"You may need to find another Secretary of Defense. I think Secretary Gates deserves his time, but I would not make wholesale changes in all of the national security posts all at one time.\"

    April 25, 2011
  • The Commission on Wartime Contracting says the United States has misspent tens of billions of dollars on contracts and grants.

    April 25, 2011