GATES TRIP

Gates Seeks Help From Gulf Leaders On Iran Sanctions
(Wall Street Journal)
By Yochi J. Dreazen and Margaret Coker
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Persian Gulf leaders to press China to back stronger sanctions on Iran, a sign of the Obama administration's efforts to win diplomatic support for its harder-line stance toward Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Gates Meets With Ruler Of Emirates On Iran
(New York Times)
By Elisabeth Bumiller
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met in Abu Dhabi on Thursday with the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates as part of an intensifying American effort to build up defenses with Arab allies and contain Iran’s military might in the Persian Gulf.

Gates Sees Broad Agreement For Iran Economic Sanctions
(Associated Press)
By Anne Gearan
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that Persian Gulf allies understand sanctions are the inevitable next step in dealing with the threat of a nuclear Iran.

Gates Sees Saudi Help, International Support For Iran Sanctions
(Bloomberg News)
By Viola Gienger
Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. welcomed the Obama administration’s emphasis on measures aimed at pressuring the Iranian regime and its Revolutionary Guard Corps rather than penalties that would hurt ordinary residents, Gates said.

Gates Sees Gulf Support For Iran Sanctions Push
(Reuters)
Gates said Iran’s rejection of President Barack Obama’s attempts to engage with the Islamic Republic had helped boost international support for more punitive steps.

CONGRESS

Cost Of F-35 Has Risen 60% To 90%, Military Says
(New York Times)
By Christopher Drew
The projected cost of Lockheed Martin’s new Joint Strike Fighter has increased 60 to 90 percent in real terms since 2001, blowing well past a level requiring the program to be revamped, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

GAO Analyst Says Cost Overruns, Delays Plague F-35 Program
(Washington Post)
By Dana Hedgpeth
Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, said the cost increases will breach limits placed under the Nunn-McCurdy law, which requires additional scrutiny from Congress when a program is over-budget.

Pentagon:F-35 Fighter Jet Cost Doubles
(Associated Press)
By Anne Flaherty and Pauline Jelinek
The bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program, delivered to Congress, was swiftly denounced by lawmakers who said runaway spending on major weapons systems has become all too common. “The taxpayers are a little tired of this, and I can’t say that I blame them,’’ Senator John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said during a hearing yesterday.

Congress Debates New Satellite Plan
(USA Today)
By Matt Kelley
The Obama administration plans to reorganize and more than double the annual budget for a troubled weather satellite program that is five years behind schedule and more than $7 billion over its original cost estimate.

WHITE HOUSE

Obama Picks Charities To Get His Nobel Prize Cash Award
(Washington Post)
By Scott Wilson
The largest share of the Nobel funds, $250,000, will go to Fisher House, which provides housing for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.

AFGHANISTAN

Program Aims To Rebuild Afghan Police Force, Repair Its Image
(Washington Post)
By Greg Jaffe
U.S. and Afghan officials are beginning a major overhaul of the Afghan police with the goal of cleaning up a force whose recent history of corruption has undermined confidence in the Kabul government and fueled the insurgency.

Afghan Tribal Rivalries Bedevil A U.S. Plan
(New York Times)
By Alissa J. Rubin
This week, that commitment seemed less important as two Shinwari subtribes took up arms to fight each other over an ancient land dispute, leaving at least 13 people dead, according to local officials. The fighting was a setback for American military officials, some of whom had hoped it would be possible to replicate the pledge elsewhere. It raised questions about how effectively the American military could use tribes as part of its counterinsurgency strategy, given the patchwork of rivalries that make up Afghanistan.

British Troops To Hand Over Musa Qala To Americans
(London Times)
By Tom Coghlan
British troops are to hand over control of the largest town in north Helmand to U.S. forces as part of a major "rebalancing" of U.K. forces in Helmand, the Defense Secretary said yesterday.

Russia Criticizes U.S., NATO Over Afghan Drug Trafficking Fight
(Associated Press)
By Slobodan Lekic
Russia's envoy to NATO has sharply criticized the alliance's shift away from fighting drug trafficking in Afghanistan, saying the resulting surge in heroin smuggling is endangering Russia's national security.

AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

Karzai Meets With Top Officials In Pakistan
(New York Times)
By Salman Masood
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani here on Thursday in a show of public friendship, even as the two sides tried to work through underlying tensions over how to deal with the Taliban militants who use the countries’ lawless border region as a sanctuary.

Some U.S. Officials See A Growing Taliban-Al-Qaida Rift
(Los Angeles Times)
By David S. Cloud and Julian E. Barnes
A growing number of Taliban militants in the Pakistani border region are refusing to collaborate with al-Qaida fighters, declining to provide shelter or assist in attacks in Afghanistan even in return for payment, according to U.S. military and counter-terrorism officials.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

168,000 DoD Employees May Transfer To New Pay Systems By September
(Federal Times)
By Stephen Losey
The Defense Department hopes to move as many as 168,000 employees out of the National Security Personnel System and back to the General Schedule between May and September.

Defense Department Gives City $3.4 Million For Uncashed Checks
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
By Patrick Kerkstra
The U.S. Department of Defense handed over $3.4 million to the City of Philadelphia yesterday, after an Inspector General's Office investigation found evidence of uncashed wage-tax checks from the federal government to the city from 2005.

AIR FORCE TANKER

The Best Plane Loses
(The Economist)
Politics decided the contest to supply America's new aerial fuel tanker.

Tanker Spat Raises Threat To U.S. Arms Sales
(Reuters)
By Jim Wolf
U.S. arms-makers face potential retaliation from Europe after the bitter demise of a transatlantic bid for a potential $50 billion U.S. aerial refueling aircraft contract.

ARMY

Virtual Reality War
(At War (NYTimes.com))
By Tim Hsia
One of the biggest hobbies and distractions of soldiers deployed is playing video games with war themes such as America’s Army, Call of Duty or Medal of Honor. A platoon sergeant told me in a half-serious, half-joking tone that he felt these battlefield video games honed his soldiers’ “abilities to shoot, move, and communicate.”

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE

General: Army Reserve To Weed Out Underachieving Soldiers
(Pacific Stars and Stripes)
By Charlie Reed
Having evolved from a force of “last resort” to an oft-deployed and essential component of the military, the Army Reserve now needs restructuring.

IRAQ

In Early Tally, Tight Iraq Race Deepens Splits
(New York Times)
By Anthony Shadid and Tim Arango
Iraq’s major coalitions were locked in a surprisingly close race on Thursday, in initial results from elections that deepened divisions across a fractured landscape. Candidates were quick to charge fraud, heightening concerns whether Iraq’s fledgling institutions were strong enough to support a peaceful transfer of power.

Maliki's Slate Out Front In Two Southern Provinces
(Washington Post)
By Ernesto Londono
But the results — from five of Iraq's 18 provinces — are far from conclusive because they do not include Baghdad, which has the most seats in parliament, and other key areas.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan Tests Missiles In Arabian Sea
(Associated Press)
Pakistan's navy successfully test-fired a series of missiles and torpedoes Friday in what it called a message to "nefarious" forces — an apparent reference to longtime rival India.

Top North Waziristan Taliban Leader Bahadar Rumored Killed In US Strike
(LongWarJournal.org)
By Bill Roggio
Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that the top Taliban commander in North Waziristan may have been among those killed in yesterday's swarm attack by unmanned U.S. aircraft in the lawless tribal agency.

ASIA/PACIFIC

US, China Military Visits In Limbo
(China Daily)
By Cui Xiaohuo and Zhang Haizhou
Army deputies said on Thursday that the door to military exchanges with the United States remains open, but urged the Pentagon to take the initiative to fix the stagnant Sino-U.S. military relations.

Bureaucrats Out Of Futenma Talks Loop
(Kyodo News)
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet plans to exclude senior bureaucrats from taking part in bilateral talks over the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, government sources said.

U.S. Anti-WMD Troops Join Military Drills In S. Korea
(Associated Press)
By Kwang-Tae Kim
U.S. troops who would be tasked with eliminating North Korea's weapons of mass destruction in the event of armed conflict are participating in military drills with South Korea, the top U.S. commander in the country said Thursday.

HAITI

As Haiti Works On Recovery, A Shift In Global Relief Effort
(Miami Herald)
By Jacqueline Charles
The U.S. drawdown of troops has some nervous as Haiti marks two months since the quake, but the head of U.S. forces is promising a seamless transition.

STATE DEPARTMENT

Rights Report By U.S. Faults Iraq, Pakistan
(Associated Press)
By Foster Klug
The governments of Iraq and Pakistan, two key U.S. war allies, are singled out for criticism in the State Department's annual report on human rights, for arbitrary killings of civilians and other abuses.

MILITARY

Tuition Program For Military Spouses To Resume
(Fayetteville Observer)
By John Ramsey
A popular tuition program for military spouses will resume at noon Saturday for people already enrolled, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

Soule Lost Legs, Found Competitive Spirit
(USA Today)
By Meri-Jo Borzilleri
The Paralympics follow the Winter and Summer Olympics every two years. They are held at the same site as the Games, contested on most of the same venues and are the most prestigious sporting event for the athletes involved. This year, five military veterans, including Soule and opening ceremony flag bearer Heath Calhoun, are among the 50 members of the U.S. team.

MOVIES

'Brothers At War' Documentary Explores Iraq's Impact On A Family
(Emily's Post (politicsdaily.com))
By Emily Miller
The D.C. screening of "Brothers at War" Wednesday night brought the mostly military crowd to thunderous applause and to tears.

A Search For That Casualty, Truth
(New York Times)
By A.O. Scott
“We’re here to do a job,” says an American soldier in Baghdad, about a month after the United States-led invasion of Iraq and a third of the way into “Green Zone,” Paul Greengrass’s breakneck tour of street-level mayhem and official deceit. “The reasons don’t matter.”

BUSINESS

Northrop To Cut 180 Jobs In Maryland
(Associated Press)
Northrop Grumman said Thursday that it issued layoff notices to 180 employees at its Hagerstown, Md., maintenance and modification center.

OPINION

America's Unlawful Combatants
(Washington Post)
By Gary Solis
Every day, CIA agents and CIA contractors arm and pilot armed unmanned drones over combat zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including Pakistani tribal areas, to search out and kill Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. In terms of international armed conflict, those CIA agents are, unlike their military counterparts but like the fighters they target, unlawful combatants.

Obama's Foreign Policy Paradox
(Wall Street Journal)
By Matthew Kaminski
These days, good news for the Obama administration comes from places like Iraq and Pakistan. Let's ponder the irony for a moment.

Man Of Letters
(The New Republic)
By Elizabeth D. Samet
Captain Whitten was my student.

Immigration And Our Military
(HuffingtonPost.com)
By Jon Soltz
As the immigration debate once again heats up, and the President prepares to meet with Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham on the issue today, one perspective that is often missing is that of how this plays into the strength of our military.