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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

Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks by video teleconference from U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday, May 7, 2020, with military medical specialists at civilian hospitals in New York and Connecticut. (AP Photo/Robert Burns)

Mark Esper rolls out plan to increase diversity in military

The Defense Department on Thursday rolled out a new initiative to end discrimination and promote equality in the military, pledging to take tangible steps to ensure all men and women in the armed forces are given a fair shot to succeed and climb the ranks

June 18, 2020
Gargash

UAE minister Anwar Gargash: Region’s dangers demand ‘activist’ stance

The hard realities of the modern Middle East requires a more "activist" foreign policy approach to contain hostile forces, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said Wednesday as he laid out why his small nation has played an outsized role in conflicts in Libya and Yemen and why the UAE intends to be a regional force.

June 17, 2020
A pair of F-15C Eagles from the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, in Japan, take off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, while participating in Northern Edge, a joint training exercise. (Bill Roth/Alaska Dispatch News via AP) ** FILE **

U.S. Air Force plane crashes into North Sea

Searchers have discovered the body of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who went down early Monday in the North Sea. The pilot was discovered after the wreckage of the F-15C Eagle was located.

June 15, 2020
This Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 file photo shows members of Alpha Company of the 244th Quartermasters battalion march to the physical fitness track at the Ft. Lee Army base in Ft. Lee, Va. As much as President Donald Trump enjoys talking about winning and winners, the Confederate generals he vows will not have their names removed from U.S. military bases were not only on the losing side of rebellion against the United States, some weren't even considered good generals. Or even good men. The 10 generals include some who made costly battlefield blunders; others mistreated captured Union soldiers, some were slaveholders, and one was linked to the Ku Klux Klan after the war. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Military racism review sets up clash with Donald Trump

The U.S. military may have avoided full-scale deployments to American cities, but the recent death of George Floyd has sparked a much deeper debate about race, discrimination and inequality within the ranks and has forced the Pentagon to face head-on its own checkered past.

June 14, 2020
Cindy McCain, wife of late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, left, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, depart after laying a ceremonial wreath honoring all whose lives were lost during the Vietnam War at at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. (Mary F. Calvert/Pool photo via AP)

James Mattis, John Kelly attacks on Trump drag military into partisan politics

In an extraordinary break with tradition, a slew of recently servicing senior brass -- capped by retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, Mr. Trump's ill-starred first secretary of defense -- have gone public with their criticisms of the commander in chief and their concerns he is dragging the military into partisan waters.

June 4, 2020
Then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis urged North Korea to "stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons," warning that continued efforts by Pyongyang would force a U.S. response "that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

James Mattis shreds Donald Trump: ‘Three years without mature leadership’

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis -- a member of a group President Trump once described as "my generals" -- eviscerated the commander in chief Wednesday, saying the U.S. has suffered through "three years without mature leadership" and is dealing with a president who actively tries to divide the American people.

June 3, 2020
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, left, listens as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley, right, speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Active-duty troops on ‘short alert status’ outside Washington, Pentagon says

Active-duty U.S. troops are on "short alert status" at bases outside the District of Columbia, Pentagon officials said Tuesday, but so far forces have not mobilized in any other region of the country following President Trump's threat to use the full weight of the American military to quell riots and violent protests.

June 2, 2020
People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Trafalgar Square in London Sunday, May 31, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA, that has led to protests in many countries and across the US. A US police officer has been charged with the death of George Floyd. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)

Britain, Germany hit U.S. over George Floyd riots

The Trump administration's struggles to get control of violent nationwide protests has sparked comment and criticism from even some of America's staunchest allies, potentially driving a wedge between the U.S. and its partners as demonstrations spread around the globe and the U.S. seems paralyzed by an onset of crises.

June 1, 2020