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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

The creation of the Pentagon's Coalition Task Foce has coincided with the decilne of Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and has left Tehran searching for a new strategy to challenge U.S. power in the region. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Iranian attacks abate as Pentagon unveils Gulf task force

It's attracted just six members and has faded from the headlines, but a Pentagon-led Persian Gulf maritime coalition has played a key role in snuffing out Iranian ship seizures in the vital Strait of Hormuz, analysts say, and has left Tehran searching for a new strategy to challenge U.S. power in the region.

November 14, 2019
Defense Secretary Mark Esper talks to the media with Qatar Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Khalid Al Attiyah at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Amazon to protest Microsoft $10 billion JEDI contract

Amazon Web Services will protest the Pentagon's award of a $10 billion war cloud contract to Microsoft, claiming that "political influence" may have led to the decision and possibly setting up an explosive legal battle with the Trump administration.

November 14, 2019
President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi raid raises new ISIS fears, questions

The Islamic State was well-prepared for the eventual loss of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and likely is already taking steps to fill the vacuum left by his death at the hands of U.S. special operations forces over the weekend, experts warned Sunday as attention turned to the next phase of the fight.

October 27, 2019
President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi DNA testing confirms death, Donald Trump says

DNA testing has confirmed that the man who died during Saturday's U.S. military raid in northwestern Syria is in fact Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, President Trump said Sunday, detailing how American forces used body fragments to confirm the terrorist leader's identity.

October 27, 2019
Russian forces armored vehicles patrol the Syrian border in Kobani, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019. Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border Wednesday, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. (AP Photo)

Donald Trump announces a permanent cease-fire, claims victory in Syria

President Trump said Wednesday he is lifting sanctions on Turkey after it agreed to stop its incursion against American-allied Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, brushing aside complaints that he ceded American interests in the region to Vladimir Putin and his Russian military patrols.

October 23, 2019
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, center, is greeted by U.S. military personnel upon arriving in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019. Esper arrived Sunday in Afghanistan, where stalled peace talks with the Taliban and persistent violent attacks by the insurgent group and Islamic State militants have complicated the Trump administration’s pledge to withdraw more than 5,000 American troops. He told reporters traveling with him that he believes the U.S. can reduce its force in Afghanistan without hurting the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Lolita C. Balbor)

Mark Esper says Syria troop withdrawal reversal is possible

The Trump administration signaled Monday it may re-thinking its troop withdrawal strategy in Syria, with the president and military officials now saying a small number of U.S. forces may remain in the country to protect oil supplies and keep them from falling into the hands of the Islamic State terror group.

October 21, 2019
In this frame grab from video provided by Hawar News, ANHA, the Kurdish news agency, residents who are angry over the U.S. withdrawal from Syria hurl potatoes at American military vehicles in the town of Qamishli, northern Syria, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday in Afghanistan that U.S. troops will stay in eastern Turkey to protect Kurdish-held oil fields for at least the coming weeks and that he was discussing options to keep them there. (ANHA via AP)

Syrians throw potatoes at withdrawing American troops

Residents of a heavily Kurdish city in northeast Syria threw potatoes at withdrawing American troops on Monday, underscoring the deep anger over President Trump's decision to pull most U.S. forces from the region amid a Turkish military offensive.

October 21, 2019
In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, flames and smoke billow from a big fire in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, caused by bombardment by Turkish forces, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Wednesday on Syrian Kurdish fighters to leave a designated border area in northeast Syria 'as of tonight' for Turkey to stop its military offensive. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Turkey NATO status complicates response to Erdogan Syria incursion

Its behavior in recent years may have left Turkey a NATO ally "in name only," but some experts say there is virtually no appetite -- and no legal mechanism -- to kick the country out of the 70-year-old alliance even as its military offensive in Syria further divides Ankara from the U.S. and its Western partners.

October 16, 2019