Military / Pentagon

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Downing North Korean Missiles Is Hard. So the U.S. Is Experimenting.

November 17, 2017

by David Sanger, William Broad | The New York Times

The new approach, hinted at in an emergency request to Congress last week for $4 billion to deal with North Korea, envisions the stepped-up use of cyberweapons to interfere with the North’s control systems before missiles are launched, as well as drones and fighter jets to shoot them down moments after liftoff.

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Trump asserts ‘a lot of progress’ on North Korea, urges ‘deal’ to resolve standoff with United States

November 7, 2017

by Ashley Parker | The Washington Post

President Trump asserted Tuesday that his administration is making “a lot of progress” on North Korea, and he urged dictator Kim Jong Un to “make a deal” at the negotiating table on the rogue nation’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

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U.S. Captures a Second Suspect in 2012 Benghazi Attack

October 31, 2017

about Nancy Youssef | The Wall Street Journal

U.S. Special Operations Forces captured a Libyan man believed to be part of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

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U.S. Forces in Niger Were Denied Armed Drone

October 28, 2017

by Nancy Youssef, Julian E. Barnes,, Ben Kesling | The Wall Street Journal

U.S. military officials sought permission to send an armed drone near a patrol of Green Berets before a deadly ambush Oct. 4 in Niger, but the request was blocked, raising questions about whether those forces had adequate protection against the dangers of their mission.

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Pentagon acknowledges a second team was on the ground in Niger

October 27, 2017

by Margaret Brennan | CBS News

Details of the ambush in Niger are slowly emerging more than three weeks after four U.S. soldiers were killed. The Americans were part of a larger group looking for an Islamic militant, but his fighters found them first.

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Trump undercuts widow again, says he remembered name ‘right from the beginning’

October 26, 2017

by Ashley Parker | The Washington Post

President Trump on Wednesday revived the controversy over his handling of a condolence call with an Army soldier’s widow, disputing Myeshia’s Johnson’s claim that he did not seem to remember her husband’s name and calling into question the memories of others who heard the conversation.

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A Sergeant’s Last Mission: Soldiering, Barbering and Missing His Family at Home

October 25, 2017

by Yamiche Alcindor, Dave Philipps | The New York Times

The bitter back and forth is a marked contrast to his life, which family, friends and fellow soldiers say was characterized by kindness and an optimism that allowed him to rise above a tough upbringing, when so much around him seemed set on keeping him down.

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McCain critiques Trump without labeling him ‘draft dodger’

October 24, 2017

by Erica Werner | The Associated Press

Republican Sen. John McCain left no doubt Monday that he was thinking of President Donald Trump as he criticized the draft system during Vietnam for forcing low-income Americans to serve while the wealthy could avoid war with a doctor’s note.

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What's next for the caliphate?

October 23, 2017

by Jonathan Swan | Axios

ISIS lost its Syrian capital, Raqqa, last week. Trump issued a congratulatory statement; but we've not seen any George W. Bush-style "Mission Accomplished" speeches.