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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.
Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.
Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

Israel’s war against Hamas posts lower civilian-to-combatant death ratio than other urban battles

It's been described as an unspeakably brutal "massacre," even a "genocide" perpetrated by Israel's powerful military machine against innocent civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip. In reality, data show, Israel's campaign to defeat Hamas in the densely populated Palestinian enclave is one of the most careful and surgical operations in recent human history.

April 18, 2024

War-wary Iran keeps tensions stirring; proxies carry out most of death, unrest, destruction

Does Iran, beneath all of its tough talk and its anti-Israel, anti-U.S. bluster, actually want to go to war?

April 16, 2024

Israel vows Iranian attack ‘will be met with a response’

Israeli leaders vowed Monday that the weekend's Iranian attack "will be met with a response" as Jerusalem appears poised to brush aside the Biden administration's call for diplomacy and de-escalation and instead opt for more aggressive retaliation against Tehran.

April 15, 2024

Biden administration pushes for ‘diplomatic response’ after Iran’s attack on Israel

Top Biden administration officials on Monday doubled down on their calls for a measured, de-escalatory response from Israel to the massive Iranian attack on the Jewish state over the weekend.

April 15, 2024

Iran launches major drone attack against Israel

Iran on Saturday launched a coordinated drone attack on Israel, according to Israeli and U.S. officials, as Tehran brushed off warnings from the Biden administration and appeared willing to escalate its standoff with Jerusalem.

April 13, 2024

Bold move or reckless escalation? Debate flares on Western boots on the ground in Ukraine

It has been a red line for President Biden since the U.S. and its NATO allies first rushed to Ukraine's defense after the Russian invasion of early 2022, but the prohibition on U.S. and Western combat boots on the ground in the war is itself under fresh attack.

April 5, 2024

Biden’s opportunity? Some see opening for U.S. in warming North Korea-Russia ties

Direct U.S.-North Korea diplomacy appears nearly nonexistent as Pyongyang rapidly deepens its military and political relationships with Russia, one of Washington's leading geopolitical adversaries.

April 2, 2024

Former U.S. officials say Russia probably could have stopped ISIS-K attack

The U.S. likely provided Russia with enough information to help avert the recent ISIS-K attack on a Moscow concert that killed more than 130 people, a former American military official said Sunday, as questions swirl about whether the Kremlin knew the assault was coming and allowed it to happen.

March 31, 2024

Netanyahu pressured from all sides amid mass protests, strained relations with Biden White House

Protests across Israel on Sunday put even more political pressure on embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose approval numbers among the public keep dropping and whose relationship with the Biden administration has reached an all-time low.

March 31, 2024

‘I could kill someone’: Most U.S. troops aren’t getting enough sleep, report warns

Most U.S. troops need to get more sleep. That's the big-picture takeaway from a sweeping Government Accountability Office study that found a sizable majority of service members get six or fewer hours of sleep each night -- less than the minimum of seven hours recommended by the Defense Department.

March 27, 2024

More than 100 killed in terror attack on Moscow concert venue; ISIS claims responsibility

At least 115 people were killed and many more wounded in an attack on a Moscow concert hall Friday, Russian officials said, marking one of the deadliest assaults in recent history in Russia and coming just two weeks after U.S. officials warned of a looming terrorist attack on the Russian capital.

March 22, 2024

It’s complicated: Terror group ISIS-K targets U.S. — and its worst enemies

The rapidly growing threat posed by the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, the jihadi terrorist group's Afghanistan affiliate better known as ISIS-K, has linked the U.S. with some of its most bitter enemies, including Russia, Iran and even Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, in the high-stakes world of counterterrorism.

March 21, 2024

Innovation falls short at crucial time for security; federal government gets ‘F’ in report card

"Major warning signs" in the national security sector could hold back America's ability to innovate at a crucial moment in the intensifying global competition with adversaries such as Russia and China, according to a report made public Tuesday.

March 19, 2024

Numbers war: Watchdog group presses Pentagon on Austin’s Gaza death toll claims

A nonpartisan watchdog group sent a letter to top Pentagon officials this week requesting all information that led to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's public claim that more than 25,000 Palestinians had been killed in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 -- a figure based on data supplied by the Hamas militant group.

March 14, 2024

Drones hit Russian oil depots, pro-Ukraine groups claim capture of Russian town

Shadowy pro-Ukraine "Russian liberation forces" said they took control of a Russian town just over the Ukrainian border Tuesday as part of a seemingly well-coordinated assault by anti-Kremlin groups designed to bring the war to Russian soil.

March 12, 2024

‘Ukraine cannot win this war’: Hungarian minister says talks with Russia a must

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto argues in an exclusive interview that his country remains the only NATO nation to avoid sending weapons to Ukraine because such a step, he believes, would only prolong a war with Russia that it is increasingly evident neither side can win.

March 11, 2024

U.S. shoots down more than two dozen Houthi drones in ‘large-scale’ attack in Red Sea

American forces on Saturday shot down more than two dozen drones launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Pentagon officials said.

March 10, 2024

Biden draws ‘red line’ for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: No Israeli attack on Rafah

President Biden drew a "red line" for Israel over the weekend, warning against an attack on the Gaza Strip city of Rafah.