General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, warned in his August 30 assessment that “many indicators suggest the overall situation is deteriorating.†In an unclassified version of the assessment, obtained and posted (pdf, 1.6mb or searchable text) by the Washington Post, McChrystal said the …
A Government Accountability Office inquiry into a Defense Department public relations campaign which enlisted retired military officers (RMOs) in support of the Bush Administration’s war strategies concluded that the activity did not violate a federal propaganda prohibition. Congress requested GAO’s opinion last year after the New York Times reported that …
Ineffective oversight of contractors providing support in Iraq and Afghanistan has contributed to wasteful spending in the billions of dollars, according to the interim report (pdf, 5.8mb) of the Commission on Wartime Contracting. The Commission was established in 2008 to assess the management of contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where, …
A group of retired military officers warned in a new report that the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and a fragile electricity grid poses security and military risks for the United States. Their report, Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security, was published by CNA, a nonprofit …
The Pentagon agency responsible for preparing US forces to survive and resist enemies operating outside the Geneva Conventions warned, in a July 2002 memo, of risks in appropriating those training exercises to develop techniques for use against detainees held in US custody. The unsigned memo (pdf, 112kb) came from the …
A newly declassified Senate Armed Services Committee report provided new details to support the committee’s conclusion that harsh interrogation techniques used against detainees in US custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay had the approval of high-ranking Bush administration officials. The newly released report (large pdf, 15.2mb), dated November 20, …
In an April 15 speech to the Air War College on Maxwell Air Force Base, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the Pentagon seeks to begin “a fundamental overhaul of our approach to procurement, acquisition, and contracting†with the budget proposal he outlined a week earlier. On the first stop …
Iraq continues to make “fragile and uneven†progress in establishing security and addressing its internal political divisions, according to a new Defense Department report (pdf, 580kb). The fifteenth installment of the Pentagon’s series of quarterly reports on security developments in Iraq, covering the period from December 2008 through February 2009, …
Training techniques developed to prepare US forces for interrogation tactics used by enemies which don’t observe the Geneva Conventions were an important influence on the techniques authorized for use in the interrogation of detainees held by US forces, according to a Senate Armed Services Committee report (pdf, 81kb). The report …
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report substantiated allegations that improper influences within an agency which oversees Pentagon contract audits “impaired the independence of three audits involving two of the five largest government contractors.†Responding to hotline complaints of improper auditing practices, GAO investigated 14 audits performed by the Defense Contract …