Rowan Scarborough

For Marine, a rush to judgment and a belated vindication

As William C. Rodriguez inspected the badly decomposed bodies of two Iraqis, he was troubled by the large crowd of observers in the military's national morgue at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

November 30, 2011

Pakistan secretly helps, publicly hits U.S. interests

Pakistan has cooperated secretly with the U.S. on several war-fighting missions in an odd-couple alliance that also sees factions in Islamabad backing the fiercest American enemy.

November 26, 2011

House panel seeks briefing on senator’s contacts with Pentagon IG

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked the Pentagon inspector general to report whether Sen. Carl M. Levin is trying to influence the wording of a report that exonerates a Pentagon war-briefing program.

November 18, 2011

Agreement elusive on women in combat

Top defense officials are grappling to find a unified position on whether to allow women in direct ground combat, as the Pentagon prepares a landmark report to Congress on the military's coed future.

November 17, 2011

Attack on Iran could risk Gulf oil supplies

Iran is contemplating violently shutting down shipping in the Persian Gulf as one of several counterattack options if Israel strikes its nuclear facilities, regional and intelligence analysts say.

November 14, 2011

Military mortuary draws scrutiny

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday ordered new reviews into mismanagement at the military's national mortuary. He said he wants the Air Force to determine if there were reprisals against whistle-blowers and if those who oversaw remains of fallen heroes were disciplined adequately.

November 10, 2011

Critics on left hit Pentagon on talk of budget disasters

Left-leaning Pentagon critics are panning congressional testimony by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and his top officers, who warned of catastrophes if the military is forced to cut $1 trillion if congressional budget talks fail.

November 6, 2011

Senator pushes for last word on Bush-era war briefings

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is intervening with a Pentagon investigator to influence the final wording of a report that exonerates George W. Bush-era officials who gave war briefings to retired military TV and radio commentators.

November 3, 2011

Service chiefs warn $1T cut would be ‘catastrophic’

The Army's top officer told Congress on Wednesday that he would have to cancel nearly every new weapons system now planned if automatic, across-the-board spending cuts of $1 trillion-plus hit the Pentagon.

November 2, 2011

Government to disclose evidence against WikiLeaks suspect in pretrial hearing

The Army is preparing to hold a pre-trial hearing that for the first time will disclose the government's case in detail against the soldier accused of disseminating thousands of classified documents that were aired on the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

October 29, 2011

General: Cuts risk Marines’ war-fighting missions

A top Marine Corps general told Congress on Thursday that cutting the Corps to 150,000 Marines, as some analysts project, would mean it could not fulfill its mission during a major war, or respond adequately to crises and humanitarian disasters around the world.

October 27, 2011

Full story of SEAL mission in question

U.S. Central Command released hundreds of pages of interviews and exhibits that showed there were at least two tactical moves that came in for second-guessing.

October 24, 2011

Key general: Iraq pullout plan a ‘disaster’

President Obama's decision to pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq by Dec. 31 is an "absolute disaster" that puts the burgeoning Arab democracy at risk of an Iranian "strangling," said an architect of the 2007 troop surge that turned around a losing war.

October 23, 2011

U.S. pegs Haqqani as most lethal foe

The family criminal enterprise known as the Haqqani Network conducts terrorist attacks inside Afghanistan by keeping in constant phone contact with its suicide bombers before and during attacks.

October 17, 2011

Panetta warns of retreat in Africa because of budget cuts

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday warned Congress that automatic cuts in defense spending would force the Pentagon to reduce its presence in some trouble spots, including Africa, a hotbed of al Qaeda franchise groups.

October 13, 2011

Defense-cut projections seen as risk to recruitment

Looming defense budget cuts not only threaten new weapons, ships and planes, but also endanger the all-volunteer force itself.

October 10, 2011

Activists push partner benefits for military gays

A prominent gay advocacy group has issued a five-point manifesto of new rights it wants from the U.S. military since the Sept. 20 repeal of the longtime ban on open homosexuals in the ranks.

October 6, 2011

Al-Awlaki would have been difficult to try as a civilian

Taking Anwar al-Awlaki alive would have presented a difficult challenge for U.S. government prosecutors seeking a terrorism conviction, legal experts say.

October 3, 2011

Report: Budget cuts would hollow military

A new congressional report spells out in detail how the military would become "hollow" if Congress' super committee fails to agree on deficit reductions and $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts kick in.

September 29, 2011

After demise of ‘don’t ask,’ activists call for end to military ban on transgenders

With homosexuals now able to serve openly in the military, the gay rights movement's next battleground is to persuade the Obama administration to end the armed forces' ban on "transgenders," a group that includes transsexuals and cross-dressers.

September 28, 2011