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Bill Gertz

Bill Gertz

bgertz@washingtontimes.com

Bill Gertz is a national security correspondent for The Washington Times. He has been with The Times since 1985.
He is the author of eight books, four of them national best-sellers. His latest book, "Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China's Drive for Global Supremacy," reveals details about the growing threat posed by the People's Republic of China. He is also the author of the ebook "How China's Communist Party Made the World Sick."
Mr. Gertz also writes Inside the Ring, a weekly column that chronicles the U.S. national security bureaucracy.
Mr. Gertz has been a guest lecturer at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.; the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia; the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington; and the Brookings Institution in Washington. He has participated in the National Security Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
He studied English literature at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and journalism at George Washington University. He is married and has two daughters.
He can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Bill Gertz

A French soldier directs helicopters near Timbuktu, Mali, on Jan. 28, 2013. Backed by French helicopters and paratroopers, Malian soldiers entered the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday after al Qaeda-linked militants who ruled the outpost by fear for nearly 10 months fled into the desert, setting fire to a library that held thousands of manuscripts dating to the Middle Ages. (Associated Press/French Army Communications Audiovisual office)

Inside the Ring: New al Qaeda threat

A jihadist website posted a new threat by al Qaeda this week that promises to conduct "shocking" attacks on the United States and the West.

January 30, 2013
**FILE** Then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies on Capitol Hill on Jan. 23, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Inside the Ring: CIA in Benghazi

Congressional testimony from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday provided no new information about the CIA's covert operation in Benghazi involving weapons shipments.

January 23, 2013
**FILE** Chinese army trucks carrying new long-range and cruise missiles are shown off during China's 60th anniversary celebration in October 2009. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Chinese missile defense test?

U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring China's missile facilities in anticipation of a test of China's missile defense interceptor, which also doubled in the past as an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile.

January 9, 2013
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, California Republican. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Inside the Ring: No fix for defense cuts

The looming $600 billion defense spending crisis required under last year's Budget Control Act was delayed for two months under the compromise tax deal passed by Congress this week.

January 2, 2013
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends Monday’s ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. The sprawling, granite mausoleum holds the body of his father, Kim Jong-il. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: U.S. warns China on North Korea

The State Department is pressuring Beijing about its communist ally North Korea following failed efforts to halt the recent rocket launch that proved to be Pyongyang's first successful long-range missile test.

December 19, 2012
“I believe, at a fundamental level, that the process of rebalancing is a substantial effort that will take years.” — Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell on the Obama administration’s new Asia policy called the “pivot” (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Asia pivot questioned

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell on Tuesday defended the Obama administration's new policy called the "pivot" to Asia from critics who say the shift is largely rhetorical and lacks a substantial program to build U.S. military power in the region.

December 5, 2012
Michael G. Vickers, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict & Interdependent Capabilities, speaks with The Associated Press during an interview, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007, at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Inside the Ring: CIA director battle

Pentagon intelligence official Michael Vickers and National Security Council counterterrorism adviser John Brennan are being looked at by President Obama as top candidates to head the CIA.

November 21, 2012

Inside the Ring: Ideological war on terror needed

The U.S. military made impressive gains on the battlefield and covertly in countering Islamist terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But the military and government at large so far have failed to strike the religiously motivated ideology behind al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists.

November 14, 2012
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who has held that position since June 2011, is said to want to resume private life, but officially, he is he’s fully focused on his department’s missions. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Panetta’s future

Tuesday's re-election of President Obama triggered immediate speculation about the future of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who will turn 75 in June. Mr. Panetta, defense secretary since June 2011, has had a long career in government and is said by associates to be ready to return to private life in Northern California, where he frequently visits and owns land.

November 7, 2012

Inside the Ring: Obama, Romney on China

Last week's presidential debate on foreign policy has sharpened attention on the candidates' views on China and whether its large-scale military buildup is a threat to U.S. security.

October 31, 2012

Inside the Ring: Former CNO on Sequester

Retired Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations until a year ago, said the coming defense budget sequester will be tantamount to shooting the military in the head.

October 24, 2012
President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speak during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Inside the Ring: Benghazigate debate heats up

The presidential debate Tuesday between President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney added new life to the fierce debate over the Obama administration's mishandling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

October 17, 2012
Book cover for "Renegades Write the Rules: How the Digital Royalty use Social Media to Innovate" by Amy Jo Martin.

Inside the Ring: New WMD threats

A Pentagon-sponsored report warns that the United States faces new threats from mass destruction weapons in the form of cyber, electronic and financial attacks, in addition to more well-known dangers from nuclear, chemical and biological WMD arms.

October 10, 2012
**FILE** Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld delivers his speech to the crowd during a "Symposium on Values and Consequences" as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of The Washington Times at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington on Oct. 2, 2012. (The Washington Times)

Inside the Ring: Rumsfeld hits Obama

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld blamed President Obama's apologies and policies of blaming America for the ills of the world as the root cause behind the anti-U.S. violence that erupted recently in the Muslim world.

October 3, 2012
The newly commissioned Liaoning is China’s first aircraft carrier. It was put into service on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, underscoring the country’s ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, although no warplanes have been seen taking off from or landing on the ship — making its current utility as a strategic power projection tool questionable. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: China’s aircraft-less carrier

China celebrated the commissioning this week of its first aircraft carrier with blustering statements and warnings to neighbors in Asia that the warship will help China settle its numerous maritime disputes.

September 26, 2012
Rohrabacher

Inside the Ring: Invitation to China

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta's unusual offer to China's military to join a major U.S.-led naval exercise in the Pacific prompted several U.S. security officials to express fears privately that China will gain valuable war-fighting intelligence from the Rimpac, or Rim of the Pacific, exercise.

September 19, 2012

Inside the Ring: China rejects zero option

President Obama and other disarmament advocates continue to call for the total elimination of nuclear arms. This week, China's government signaled its intention to move in the opposite direction and expand and speed up its large-scale nuclear buildup.

September 12, 2012
Rep. Michael R. Turner

Inside the Ring: Romney’s policy liberals

Several conservatives who sat in on closed-door meetings at last week's Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., came away worried by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's foreign and defense policies.

September 5, 2012