We’re launching a major offensive operation here on Monday with the start of our new Battleland blog. What with the ever-changing threats confronting the nation, the three (OK, 2.5) wars the nation is waging, and the budget crunch the U.S. military now faces, there’s not a better time to begin a blog dedicated to the challenges of …
National Security
Does the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program Violate the Nuremberg Code?
There is new criticism of the Army’s high-profile effort to train mental toughness into soldiers so they can better handle the stress of repeated combat tours. This time, the critique comes from a group of psychologists who say the program appears to be scientific research without consent.
Despite Obama’s Sunlight Order, Federal Information Often Obscured by Shadow
For those of us in the press who spend a good chunk of our time trying to pry information out of the federal government’s reflexively self-protective bureaucracy, Jan. 21, 2009 brought good news. On his first full day in office, President Obama issued a memorandum encouraging more accessibility to government information. The memo began …
State Department Spokesman Resigns Over Critique of Manning Treatment
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley has resigned his post in wake of his too-candid assessment of the incarceration conditions of suspected Wikileaker Private First Class Bradley Manning.
Obama Defends His Record on Gas Prices, Budget Talks and Libya
President Obama today rejected GOP criticisms that he has not done enough to address the rising price of oil and that his Administration had helped cause the spike by limiting domestic oil and gas production.
“Last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003,” Obama told reporters in a wide-ranging press …
Raymond Davis Case Tests U.S.-Pakistan Intelligence Ties
By TIME contributor Mark Benjamin
The first details of a possible deal to spring Raymond Davis from Pakistan surfaced late last week, providing a potential boost for the CIA in what has become a public relations disaster for the agency that at times has seemed like it just couldn’t get much worse. Davis is the agency operative …
Morning Must Reads: Review
–As Mark reports, the Obama administration’s Afghan war review depicts a fragile effort nonetheless on track for draw-down starting next year. The Times gets a Taliban commander on record saying “the government has the upper hand now” in Kandahar.
–The standalone “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repeal heads to the Senate as the tax deal …
The End of DADT and DREAM?
Two Democratic constituencies are likely to end the day disappointed: Hispanics and gays. This afternoon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will try and move to the DREAM Act, which would grant a path to citizenship to millions of illegal children who are getting college degrees or serving in the armed forces. After that he will attempt …
Morning Must Reads: Deal
(White House/Pete Souza)
–After the weekend, a deal extending all the Bush tax cuts temporarily (1-3 years) in exchange for Recovery Act tax credits and a year or so of unemployment benefits still appears to be the only way forward in the Senate. The timing of the expiration, of course, has implications for Obama’s re-election …
Lame Duck Bingo
There are a lot of bills floating around this lame duck – most of them lacking the mojo to pass – the ratification of the nuclear START treaty with Russia, the DREAM Act helping the children of illegal immigrants, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the defense reauthorization bill, the renewal of the Bush tax cuts and a …
Morning Must Reads: Leaked
(White House Photo/Pete Souza)
–Ben Smith writes Cablegate calls into question the potency of American diplomacy.
–It’s no revelation that many leaders in the Arab world privately sweat Iran, but Mark Lynch argues the greatest potential for political blowback is in that sphere.
–Matt Yglesias questions whether private …
Morning Must Reads: Turkey
(White House/Chuck Kennedy)
–From the archives: What you didn’t know about the turkey pardon and what happens to the not-so-lucky ones.
–Obama pledges solidarity with South Korea, dispatches warship for exercises.
–Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and David Brock talk about the new Dem Super PAC.
–Re disclosure, Brock’s …
Morning Must Reads: Screening
(White House/Pete Souza)
–As Obama and Biden head to Kokomo, Indiana for an auto bailout victory lap out, the AP tells the back story.
–The White House “strongly condemns” North Korea for exchange of artillery fire with the South. Things are escalating.
–The administration is willing to go to bat for TSA screening …