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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

In this March 12, 2016, file photo, Marines of the U.S., left, and South Korea wearing blue headbands on their helmets, take positions after landing on a beach during the joint military combined amphibious exercise, called Ssangyong, part of the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises, in Pohang, South Korea. (Kim Jun-bum/Yonhap via AP, File)

U.S. to resume military exercises in Korea, Mattis says

The U.S. military will move ahead with all future military exercises on the Korean Peninsula, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said Tuesday, suggesting that America's brief suspension of the drills as a show of "good faith" toward North Korea has not paid dividends in the struggling denuclearization talks with Pyongyang.

August 28, 2018
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, speaks to reporters at the Pentagon, Friday, July 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) ** FILE **

James Mattis: U.S. urges Russia to stop looming chemical weapons attack in Syria

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said Tuesday the U.S. is in close consultation with Russia in the hopes of preventing a looming chemical weapons attack in Idlib, Syria -- an attack that could lead to new American military strikes against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's government and surely would add a new spark to an already volatile situation on the ground.

August 28, 2018
FILE - In this Sunday, July 15, 2018 file photo, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. Talks next month in Moscow to discuss a peaceful end to 17-years of war in Afghanistan that includes a place at the table for the Taliban has ruffled feathers in Washington and Kabul, who are refusing to attend, and resurrected Cold War memories. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) **FILE**

Russia calls off planned Afghan peace conference

Russia on Monday officially called off a major peace conference on Afghanistan scheduled for next week after both the U.S. and Afghan governments said they wouldn't attend, leaving the Taliban as the only key player left on the guest list.

August 27, 2018
In this Tuesday, June 12, 2018, photo, U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore. Mr. Trump has already met twice with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he is eager to re-create in Finland the heady experience that he had last month with Mr. Jong-un. That Singapore summit became a mass media event complete with powerful presidential images. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

North Korea blasts U.S. for canceling talks

The Trump administration's decision late last week to cancel another round of in-person talks with North Korea was met with harsh reaction over the weekend, with a state-run newspaper in Pyongyang accusing the U.S. of "hatching a criminal plot" against the reclusive country and Chinese officials blasting the White House as "irresponsible."

August 26, 2018
"The landowners must not be afraid to embrace this process," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told critics. "You say the landowners want certainty. I can tell you the people who are hungry for land also want certainty." (Associated Press)

South Africa plan to seize white-owned farms could destroy its economy, analysts warn

South Africa faces potential economic calamity if it moves ahead with the seizure of largely white-owned farmland, analysts warned this week, as global investors reacted to a plan that government leaders say is necessary to correct decades-old wrongs of apartheid that left deep, systemic wealth inequalities and land ownership disparities along racial lines.

August 22, 2018
A helicopter belonging to the international coalition forces takes off from a base outside Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. (AP Photo) ** FILE **

1 dead, 3 injured as U.S. helicopter crashes in Iraq

A U.S. helicopter crashed in Iraq on Monday morning, killing one and injuring at least three others, American officials said in a statement, marking the second fatal crash so far this year.

August 20, 2018
China's President Xi Jinping takes his seat for the first closed session of the BRICS summit, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, July 26, 2018. The five leaders of the BRICS emerging economies have gathered in South Africa for an annual summit where the United States is being criticized for escalating tariffs on foreign goods. (Mike Hutchings/Pool Photo via AP) ** FILE **

China ‘likely training for strikes against U.S.,’ Pentagon warns

China's military is "likely training for strikes" against U.S. targets in the Pacific, the Defense Department warned Thursday in a sobering report that says Beijing's broader strategy is to develop armed forces capabilities able to "degrade" American advantages.

August 17, 2018
A Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket carrying Meteor M satellite and additional 18 small satellites, lifts off from the launch pad at the new Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Yleem D.S. Poblete raises alarm on Russia’s satellites

A top State Department official warned Tuesday that Russian "space apparatus inspector" satellites are behaving unlike anything seen before, and that current international inspection protocol makes it virtually impossible to know whether they could actually be space weapons.

August 14, 2018
In this July 28, 2018, photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the State Prize awards ceremony in Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool) ** FILE **

Could Russian ‘inspector satellite’ actually be space weapon?

A top State Department official warned Tuesday that Russian "space apparatus inspector" satellites are behaving unlike anything seen before, and that current international inspection protocol makes it virtually impossible to know for sure whether they could actually be space-weapon prototypes.

August 14, 2018
Defense Secretary James Mattis' authority to set U.S. troop levels for Afghanistan and the fight against Islamic State could ease the bitter bureaucratic battles that divided the Obama White House and the Pentagon over war strategy. (Associated Press/File)

‘Space Force’ key to counter Russia, China threats, military insiders say

President Trump's call for a U.S. "Space Force" may have turned into a punchline on Twitter and late-night TV, but U.S. intelligence agencies, military insiders and security experts say the nation must take real, concrete action to prepare for conflicts in space or risk falling behind its global foes, chiefly Russia and China.

August 13, 2018
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking Thursday at the Pentagon, announced plans to create a U.S, Space Force to ensure American dominance in space amid heightened completion and threats from China and Russia. (Associated Press)

Pence, Pentagon promise ‘Space Force’ by 2020

The U.S. "Space Force" will become a reality by 2020, Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis promised Thursday, laying out an ambitious timeline to set up the first new branch of the armed forces in nearly 75 years and making the case that Americans must prepare for space threats from Russia, China, North Korea and other hostile actors.

August 9, 2018