A leading ethics watchdog group filed a formal complaint on Wednesday against two Republican House members who took part in committee debates and floor votes despite having missed last week's formal swearing-in ceremony for the 112th Congress.
A new showdown is looming between China and the United States over arms sales to Taiwan. The Obama administration privately has decided to sell a new arms package to the island but is keeping details secret until after next week's visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
China carried out the first flight test of an advanced stealth fighter as visiting Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates raised questions about the jet during a meeting in Beijing with China's president.
Peter L. Bergen was one of the first Western investigative journalists to cover Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in the late 1990s, and then he published two best-selling books and numerous articles about what became the world's most dangerous terrorist organization.
President Obama's veto pen didn't see much action in the past two years, but history suggests that's likely to change now that Republicans control the House and want to dismantle some of his marquee legislative achievements.
Once again, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has proposed an increase in health care premiums for military retirees and their families as a way to save money and cut the Department of Defense budget.
China's defense minister on Monday rebuffed an offer from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to hold strategic nuclear talks, saying military dialogue will be limited to counterpiracy, counterterrorism and peacekeeping cooperation.
A look at some noted scandals involving the U.S. military
If President Obama wants to create jobs, why is the Pentagon rigging the $35 billion refueling-tanker contract for a foreign company? ("Democrats aim to create jobs, Kaine says," Politics Jan. 3). Speaking in 2008 about the tanker deal in Pennsylvania, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama said, "When you've got such an enormous contract for such a vital piece of our U.S. military arsenal, it strikes me that we should have identified a U.S. company that could do it."
