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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

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is seen during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. Iraq's Prime Minister is defending a decision to ban hundreds of candidates from the upcoming election, saying that it would not hurt Sunni turnout for next Sunday's vote. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Inside the Ring: Iraq backing Iran

Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, led by President Nouri al-Maliki, continues to align itself more closely with neighboring Iran.

August 29, 2012
Jeh Johnson

Inside the Ring: Pentagon plumber

Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson is leading a major effort to plug news leaks and recently sent a memorandum to all Defense Department employees requesting that they all search their computers for information about contacts with reporters, according to defense officials familiar with the memo.

August 15, 2012
The Chinese frigate Dongguan, “the bully that ran aground” in the words of one Philippines official, was temporarily grounded near disputed Half Moon Shoal. (Philippines Government)

Inside the Ring: China warship grounded

A Chinese warship recently ran aground in the South China Sea, an embarrassing incident that has highlighted international tensions over Beijing's increasing military power and disputes among China's neighbors.

August 8, 2012
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz says the Air Force and Navy are developing "a range of initiatives" to counter high-technology and area-denial weaponry as part of the new Air Sea Battle Concept. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Air Force Chief on air-sea battle

Outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz says the Air Force and Navy are developing "a range of initiatives" designed to counter high-technology anti-access and area-denial weaponry as part of the new Air Sea Battle Concept.

July 25, 2012
FILE - In this April 13, 2012 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, applauds with military officers as he attends the unveiling ceremony of statues of late leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansudae in Pyongyang, North Korea.  (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Inside the Ring: North Korean EMP

Recent satellite navigation jamming by North Korea’s military near the demilitarized zone and a report in a Chinese journal are raising new fears that Pyongyang is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons.

July 18, 2012
Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, chief of U.S. Cyber Command, this week told a Chinese reporter that he thinks "defending our country in cyberspace is one of our most important missions ...  to ensure that we're secure." (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: CyberCom chief on digital war training

Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, this week defended the creation of the military's digital war-fighting command and its training of cyberwarriors for future high-tech combat.

July 11, 2012
**FILE** House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King, New York Republican, speaks March 10, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Military hit for correctness

The U.S. military is guilty of political correctness toward domestic Islamic terror, according to a congressional report made public Wednesday that concludes al Qaeda is using U.S.-based Muslim radicals to plan mass casualty attacks.

June 20, 2012

Inside the Ring: Russian arms exporter under fire

A senior senator called out Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta this week over Pentagon cooperation with Russia's state arms exporter amid new reports of weapons transfers by Moscow to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

June 13, 2012
The extended peacetime competition with China "at its heart is a clash of visions for the international system," Rep. J. Randy Forbes, Virginia Republican, says. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Forbes pressures Obama

A key House Republican this week stepped up pressure on the Obama administration for its weak public response to the growing threat posed by China's military buildup.

June 6, 2012

Inside the Ring: FBI on social-network risks

The FBI recently published a report warning of the dangers posed by social-network sites that it says are being exploited by digital "con artists, criminals and other dishonest actors."

May 30, 2012
A sketch by a courtroom artist depicts the five 9/11 co-defendants praying during their arraignment at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on May 5. Their disruptive tactics stretched out the proceedings to 13 hours. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Terrorists’ antics

The Washington-based legal group Judicial Watch earlier this month sent an investigator to Guantanamo Bay Naval Air Station, Cuba, to watch the May 5 arraignment of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (aka KSM) and four others accused of plotting and executing the Sept. 11, 2001, airline attacks.

May 16, 2012

Inside the Ring: China launcher proliferation

China Defense Minister Liang Guanglie will visit the United States this week and is expected to face questioning on the presence of a Chinese-made mobile strategic-missile launcher that was spotted carrying a new North Korean long-range missile in Pyongyang on April 15.

May 2, 2012
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs chairman, has ordered a review of U.S. military training material with the goal of purging allegedly anti-Islamic content, the online portal Danger Room reported Tuesday. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Brotherhood threat

Islamists linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and similar groups are working to undermine the U.S. government through "civilization jihad" aimed at imposing Islamic law rule in the United States.

April 25, 2012
Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, May 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Inside the Ring: Aegis Ashore moves ahead

The director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said Wednesday that the military is moving ahead with deployment of modified sea-based anti-missile interceptors on the ground in Central Europe, something likely to further upset Russia, which opposes U.S. deployments.

April 18, 2012
Gen. Mark A. Welsh III (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Counter-space battle craft

The head of the Air Force Space Command recently made cryptic comments about some aspects of one of the military's most cutting edge and secret weapons, the X-37 space plane.

April 11, 2012
Ilario Pantano, who is seeking to become the Republican nominee to challenge Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre in North Carolina's 7th congressional district, suggests Saul Alinsky's book "Rules for Radicals" as reading material during a meeting of supporters of the Fair Tax in Wilmington, NC, Wednesday, February 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Logan Wallace)

Inside the Ring: New North Korea ICBM

Details of a new North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) surfaced this week with a report from Asia that U.S. spy agencies spotted what appears to be a larger long-range missile than the one now being readied for launch in the next two weeks.

April 4, 2012
Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kehler, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that budget cuts pose "acceptable" risk levels for U.S. strategic nuclear deterrence against current nuclear-armed enemies. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Nuclear risk

The commander of U.S. strategic nuclear forces told a Senate hearing this week that defense budget cuts are undermining the urgently needed modernization of strategic nuclear forces through delays in planned upgrades.

March 28, 2012