Skip to content
TRENDING:
Donald Trump
Advertisement
Author profile
Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

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

Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 15, 2021. A bomb targeting a minibus in Afghanistan's capital exploded Monday wounding at least 15 civilians, police said, amid a surge in attacks in Kabul. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Joe Biden says May 1 deadline to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan is ‘tough’

President Biden on Wednesday offered perhaps the clearest signal to date that U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan past a tentative May 1 deadline and blamed his predecessor for crafting what he described as a shoddy deal with the Taliban that so far has failed to produce a path to a lasting political settlement.

March 17, 2021
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, elbow bumps with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, and Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, front, watch after a joint news conference after their two plus two security talks at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Defense and foreign ministers from the U.S. and Japan are meeting to discuss their concern over China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region as the Biden administration tries to reaffirm engagement with its key regional allies.(Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. lines up Japan, South Korea ahead of China meeting in Alaska

The Biden administration this week is racing to line up key Asian allies ahead of a high-stakes meeting with top Chinese officials in Alaska on Thursday -- a meeting that analysts say will offer a key window into how the complex geopolitical showdown between Washington and Beijing will play out over the next four years.

March 16, 2021
In this Dec. 6, 2012, photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, soldiers assigned to 6th Engineer Battalion use snow shoes during Arctic Light Individual Training on the Bulldog Trail in sub-zero conditions at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. ALIT is the United States Army Alaska's Cold Weather Indoctrination program. It gives all soldiers, regardless of their job, the foundation to successfully work, train, and go to war in some of the harshest environments in the world. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Justin Connaher) **FILE**

Army aims for ‘Arctic dominance’ over Russia

The U.S. Army will stand up a new headquarters in the Arctic, better prepare military units to carry out long-term missions in the icy region, and invest heavily to improve the quality of life for soldiers stationed in Alaska and beyond, the Pentagon said Tuesday in a sweeping new strategy that aims to recapture "Arctic dominance" from Russia.

March 16, 2021
In this March 2, 2017, file photo, Tucker Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Pentagon’s Tucker Carlson offensive fuels fears of a politicized military

The Pentagon's slow drift into the political mudslinging of Washington may be accelerating under President Biden, with the military's unusually aggressive attack on a conservative Fox News critic sparking a backlash from conservatives on Capitol Hill and threatening to drag the Defense Department into a broader culture war.

March 15, 2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on foreign policy at the State Department, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 in Washington. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)

Antony Blinken eyes pulling Iran, Russia into Afghan talks

The Biden administration's surprise diplomatic push in Afghanistan could serve a dual purpose: to lay the groundwork for a U.S. military presence in the country past a looming May 1 withdrawal deadline, and to create an opening to work with adversaries Iran, China and Russia, each of which has created major geopolitical headaches in the White House's early days.

March 8, 2021
President Biden on committed to working with Congress to replace war-making authorities that have underpinned U.S. military action in the Middle East and beyond for the nearly two decades since the shock of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Joe Biden moves to limit presidential authority to go to war

President Biden and a bipartisan caucus on Capitol Hill may have just taken the first step toward a deal that has eluded Washington for more than a decade: the establishment of clear, narrow limits on a commander in chief's authority to take the country into war.

March 7, 2021
Pilots from the 69th Bomb Squadron board B-52H Stratofortress bomber "Wham Bam II" in preparation for a flight over the Mideast on March 6, 2021, at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. A pair of B-52 bombers flew over the Mideast on Sunday, March 7, 2021, the latest such mission in the region aimed at warning Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran. (U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Josh W. Strickland via AP)

U.S. deploys B-52 bombers to Middle East in warning to Iran

The U.S. military on Sunday delivered a pair of clear warnings to Iran, with the Air Force dispatching two B-52H "Stratofortress" bombers to the Middle East while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed to "hold people accountable for their acts" if Americans are targeted.

March 7, 2021
This Dec. 29, 2019, aerial file photo taken from a helicopter shows Ain al-Asad air base in the western Anbar desert, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

Rockets hit airbase in Iraq hosting U.S. troops

A burst of at least 10 rockets targeting the Ain al-Asad airbase early Wednesday resulted in no direct U.S. troop casualties, but the Pentagon later revealed that an American contractor working with the base had suffered a "cardiac episode" and died while taking cover from the attack.

March 3, 2021
This Dec. 10, 2018, file photo, provided by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), shows the launch of the U.S. military's land-based Aegis missile defense testing system, that later intercepted an intermediate-range ballistic missile, from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. (Mark Wright/Missile Defense Agency via AP) **FILE**

Pentagon lays out big tab to keep up with China

The U.S. military must invest heavily in high-tech radar, space-based weapons detection systems, long-range artillery and a host of other 21st-century capabilities to keep at bay an increasingly aggressive China, the Pentagon told congressional leaders this week in a sweeping new funding proposal.

March 2, 2021
In this file photo from April 1, 2015, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, right, speaks with then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, and U.S. Robert Malley, left, Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf States, National Security Council during a break outside the hotel at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel as the Iran nuclear talks continue, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Malley currently serves as the Biden administration's special envoy to Iran and is working to salvage the Obama-era Iran deal that President Trump canceled. (AP Photo/Keystone,Laurent Gillieron) ** FILE **

Michael McCaul, Mark Green question Iran-John Kerry backchannel talks

Top Republicans in Congress called on the State Department Tuesday to immediately explain why key Obama-era diplomats now serving in the Biden administration held backchannel talks with Iran during the Trump years, saying it's crucial that the public learn more about Democrats' closed-door shadow diplomacy with Tehran.

February 23, 2021
President Joe Biden speaks during a virtual event with the Munich Security Conference in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Joe Biden Iran outreach backfires, pressure builds

The Biden administration came under pressure from all sides Monday in its push to restart nuclear talks with Iran, as leaders in Tehran threatened to dramatically ramp up uranium enrichment programs while officials in China and Israel laid out their own wildly different blueprints for how Washington should handle the tense diplomatic standoff.

February 22, 2021