CNN

In an unusual move, the president asked for and received the 'informal' request by the top commander in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (CNN)- President Barack Obama's national security team will begin discussing the number of troops needed in Afghanistan as early as this Friday, according to a White House spokesman.

In an unusual move, the president asked for and received the "informal" request by the top commander in Afghanistan which outlined how many more troops and resources Gen. Stanley McChrystal needed to implement his preferred Afghanistan strategy, the Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. Obama received the request on Thursday, a day before he met with McChrystal in Copenhagen.

The discussion of troop levels appears to be a departure from the administration insistance that the Afghanistan strategy must be decided before any resources can be considered. The White House's spokesman said the introduction of troop levels did not mean resource levels were being decided first.

"One has to develop and get the strategy before one can figure out the resources one needs to get it," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "We are not pre-judging the outcome of the discussion based on some range of resources."
Read the rest of this entry »

Kennedy may be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Washington (CNN) – CNN has learned that Army officials a few weeks ago met with Sen. Edward Kennedy’s staff and presented a plan that has his final resting place may be just a few feet from the graves of his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery, according to a senior Defense Department official with direct knowledge of funeral planning.

The meeting occurred at Arlington National Cemetery, the official confirmed. The plan was then given to the family by staff members. The proposed gravesite is 95 feet south of the grave of the late Senator Robert Kennedy. Arlington National Cemetery is now awaiting final word from the Kennedy family on approval of that site.

The senior official said a final decision is expected from the Kennedy family in the next two days, discussions with family representatives are ongoing at this time

Sen. Kennedy was eligible for burial at Arlington as a serving member of Congress but also on the basis he served honorably on active duty in the Army from 1951 to 1953.

The identified plot of land is currently covered with grass and is near to both Robert Kennedy’s grave and the gravesite of the late President John F. Kennedy. At this point, U.S. military ceremonial units have not received orders for participating in a funeral, but military sources say a typical congressional funeral would include military personnel at the internment, a military team to carry the casket, a firing party for a gun salute and a bugler.

Any arrangements will depend on the family wishes.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's report on the war's status will be delivered in August, the source says.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is expected to ask the Obama administration for additional troops and equipment, according to a senior U.S. military official familiar with Gen. Stanley McChrystal's thinking.

The request will be for troops and equipment for conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as more assets to deal with roadside bombs and explosives, said the official, who declined to be identified because McChrystal's request has not been formally transmitted to the Pentagon.

The request could be made in coming weeks after McChrystal completes a "troop-to-task review" to calculate whether there are enough U.S. troops in Afghanistan - and the right mix of troops - to carry out the military's war plan at an acceptable level of risk, the official said.

The review could also lead to a request for additional troops for either combat or training of Afghan forces, but the official emphasized McChrystal has not made a decision on that. The military already has tasked an additional 4,000 troops to train Afghan forces.

The official said McChrystal is likely to submit his recommendations to Defense Secretary Robert Gates as a series of options, with each option having a level of risk attached to it.

"This will start the discussion" within the highest levels of the administration about whether to send a significant number of additional troops, the official said.

Full story

Defense Secretary Gates told reporters he has discussed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' with President Obama.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the first time is outlining potential Obama Administration plans to selectively enforce the "don't ask don't tell" ban on gays in the military so that some gays could serve.

Gates says he is now looking at ways to make the ban "more humane" including letting people serve who may have been outed due to vengeance or a jilted lover. The remarks were made in a transcript released Tuesday by the Pentagon.

In addition, Capt. John Kirby, spokesman for Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday the chairman "supports the idea of a less draconian way of enforcing the policy."

Gates told reporters traveling with him, "One of the things we're looking at - is there flexibility in how we apply this law?" As the "don't ask don't tell" law now stands, anyone who is openly gay in the military is expelled if they are found out.

Gates indicated he is looking at several options. "Let me give you an example. Do we need to be driven when the information, to take action on somebody, if we get that information from somebody who may have vengeance in mind or blackmail or somebody who has been jilted."

Gates said he has discussed the issue with President Obama and also during a meeting with his top war-fighting commanders last week. At that military meeting Gates said. "The issue that we face is that how do we begin to do preparations and simultaneously the administration move forward in terms of asking the Congress to change the law."

Obama has been criticized for not moving fast enough to propose a repeal of the ban to Congress. Gates did not indicate the Pentagon was yet supporting a full repeal.

"What we have is a law - be it a policy or a regulation - and as I discovered when I got into it, it's a very prescriptive law. It doesn't leave much to the imagination for a lot of flexibility. And so one of the things we're looking at - is there flexibility in how we apply this law."

The secretary appears to be proposing interim measures. "If somebody is outed by a third party … does that force us to take an action? And I don't know the answer to that, and I don't want to pretend to. But that's the kind of thing we're looking at to see if there's at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Tuesday signed a memo establishing a military command aimed at cyber warfare and defense.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates Tuesday signed a memorandum establishing for the first time a military command aimed at conducting cyber warfare, and defending the military's computer network.

The so-called Cyber Command - -also known as USCYBERCOM - is expected to be headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, and headed by the director of the National Security Agency, according to Pentagon officials. The new command will report to the U.S. Strategic Command, which has overall military responsibility for protecting military networks.

"We're increasingly dependent on cyberspace, and there's a growing array of cyber threats," said said Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a Department of Defense spokesman. To counter the risk, the department "requires a command possessing the required technical capability and which remains focused on streamlining cyberspace operations," he added.

Read the rest of this entry »

More than 14 percent of detainees released from Guantanamo Bay are expected to have returned to terrorism activities, a source tells CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Preliminary intelligence assessments show more than 14 percent of detainees released from Guantanamo Bay have returned or are suspected of having returned to terrorism activities, an administration official with knowledge of the Defense Department's information told CNN.

That number, which reflects data through the beginning of 2009, has gone up slightly from statistics compiled through the end of 2008, when the recidivism rate was considered to be 11 percent, according to the administration official. It had been at 7 percent in earlier years, but the Pentagon has not disclosed what time frame that encompasses.

The official emphasized the latest data is still being verified within the military intelligence community, but it appears likely to show that the rate of recidivism has now reached more than 14 percent.

Full story

CNN's Barbara Starr says any soldier will agree - securing morning coffee is a priority.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and photojournalist Peter Morris are traveling to southern Afghanistan with Gen. James Conway, Commandant of the Marines.

ADDIS ABABA (CNN) - When you are a CNN reporter out on the road, nothing is more important than the first task at hand every day - securing the morning's first cup of coffee. After that, you can handle just about anything, from the war zone to the flood zone.

No, I am not being silly. Any soldier will tell you the same thing. Morning coffee first. And nowhere is coffee a more serious business than in Ethiopia. (Did I mention? I am in Ethiopia on assignment.)

And after flying all night, I am up way too early because of jet lag. But yes, I have found a big, steaming, fantastic cup of Ethiopian coffee, so the day can begin now.

OK, now for the serious part. CNN cameraman Peter Morris and I left Andrews Air Force Base on the night of March 31 with Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Conway and a small group of Marines.

Full Story

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama and Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by telephone Saturday morning about how the U.S. military can assist Mexico with growing violence by drug cartels - underscoring the growing concern with which the U.S. views the situation, according to a U.S. military official.

The president initiated the call within hours of Mullen returning to the U.S. from a visit to Mexico City to talk to top military officials there.

"The president was eager to get the chairman's observations on what he found out," the official told CNN.

Robert Gates announced the new policy Thursday.

(CNN) - The Pentagon on Thursday lifted its ban on media coverage of the coffins of war victims when they arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, according to a senior U.S. defense official with direct knowledge of the decision.

The coverage must be approved by families, however.

Sixty-seven percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday say they think the government should allow the public to see photos of caskets of U.S. troops at an air force base. Thirty-one percent of the those surveyed disagree with the decision to release photos of the event.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey was conducted February 18-19, with 1,046 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Barack Obama has approved a significant troop increase for Afghanistan, Pentagon officials told CNN Tuesday.

The new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines headquartered from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additional Army troops from Fort Lewis, Washington. The troops will be equipped with Stryker vehicles able to operate in southern Afghanistan's tough terrain, according to the Pentagon officials.

The Obama administration has been conducting several reviews of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, including a review by Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in the region.

Read the rest of this entry »

A U.S. soldier stands guard as policemen destroy poppy fields in Nadi Ali district, February 5, 2009.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Decisions about withdrawing troops from Iraq and sending more troops to Afghanistan have been delayed until the Pentagon provides President Barack Obama with more detail about the risks and implications of the issues confronting him, according to two senior Pentagon officials.

Both officials, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, have a direct understanding of the discussion regarding troop withdrawals. They said the military is not concerned about the delays, but that there is concern about the deteriorating levels of security in Afghanistan.

The officials confirmed that the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command are now working on three Iraq combat troop withdrawal options for the president: 16 months, 19 months and 23 months.

Full story

CNN has learned that President Obama plans to issue executive orders that will close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Obama administration is drafting executive orders calling for the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, according to two administration officials.

Both officials say it is now expected the announcement about closure could come as soon as Wednesday in the form of one or more executive orders.

The officials said the White House is expected to call for:
–Closing the detention facility within a year;
–A systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review
of all individual cases;
–A new policy requiring the Army field manual for interrogations to apply to all people in U.S. custody. This is aimed at closing any potential loophole that might allow the CIA to engage in what many say are coercive interrogations.

Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (CNN) - CNN has learned Gen. David Petraeus is returning to Washington to attend the meeting President Barack Obama is planning to have Wednesday with the Joint Chiefs and his wartime commanders.

That meeting is expected to involve discussion of troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan and the new president is expected to tell commanders he wants them to plan to have combat forces out of Iraq in sixteen months– as he promised in the election campaign.

Petreaus will have just arrived from Afghanistan and Pakistan and is expected to brief Obama on the latest developments in that troubled region.

[Editor’s Note: A photo caption published Wednesday morning with this report erroneously stated that Gen. David Petraeus and President-elect Barack Obama were unable to reach a consensus on future plans for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The caption was in error and does not reflect CNN’s reporting of the issue. CNN apologizes for the error.]

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Although President-elect Barack Obama will become the next commander-in-chief in just two weeks, several key military issues remain to be resolved regarding the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq and the buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

A closed door meeting Monday at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. David Petraeus - who is in charge of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - ended with no consensus on troop plans for either country, several top U.S. military officials told CNN.

The officials, who did not want to be identified because the meeting was private, all offered CNN similar accounts of the discussions. In addition, a review of the Afghanistan war strategy being conducted by Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Michael Mullen is still under review and has not been approved by the Joint Chiefs. That review, according to one official, will not be finished until the Obama administration is in office.

The Monday meeting was polite, one official said, but also interesting and intense. A second official described the discussion as lively, and said it ranged further than originally anticipated.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Obama national security team, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is meeting Monday.

(CNN) - Two US military officials confirmed to CNN that the Obama national security team is scheduled for a transition meeting Monday morning. Expected in attendance: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Admiral Michael Mullen, Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton, and national security advisor James Jones. Officials say topics will include security challenges the team will face upon taking office the officials say. These officials say it is safe to assume the Middle East is on the list, though neither has seen the official agenda.

A ‘tank’ meeting is also scheduled this afternoon for joint chiefs on Afghanistan strategy review, also one of the first issues facing national security team

Gen. David Petraeus hosted then-Sen. Barack Obama on an aerial tour of Baghdad when Obama visited Iraq in July of this year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The military has prepared an initial plan for withdrawal from Iraq that meets the demands of the recent agreement with Iraq, but appears to contradict the wishes of President-elect Barack Obama.

Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno, the top commanders in Iraq, briefed Defense Secretary Robert Gates on plans for the withdrawal of the 146,000 troops in Iraq, when Gates visited the country last weekend.

In turn, Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Obama this week about "the way ahead in Iraq," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday.

That briefing was a "point of conversation" during the 5-1/2 hour national security team meeting Monday in Chicago, a senior military official said.

An Obama transition official confirmed that Mullen discussed the "current plans developed under President Bush."

Among those attending the meeting were Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton, Vice President-elect Joseph Biden and Gen. James Jones, Obama's choice for national security adviser.

The meeting covered a "whole range of topics," including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, the transition official said.

The current withdrawal plan proposes removing all U.S. combat troops from Iraqi urban areas in 2009, and all American troops from Iraq by 2011, in keeping with the recent Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, signed by President Bush, according to the senior military official.

The agreement with Iraq details withdrawals for 2009, 2010 and 2011, the official said. It proposes removing troops at a slower pace than Obama promised during the campaign, when he called for all combat troops to be out within 16 months - by the summer of 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Hillary Clinton is on track to be Secretary of State, say sources.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - When the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House during a crisis, President Barack Obama won't lack for advice. But the question may be whose advice will be the loudest?

Obama's potential national security team looks like an all-star lineup: Sen. Hillary Clinton is on track, sources say, to be secretary of state; Defense Secretary Robert Gates may stay on; and retired Gen. Jim Jones is a leading candidate for national security adviser.

And according to The New York Times, retired Adm. Dennis Blair may be named as director of national intelligence. He did a tour of duty at the CIA, and his expertise is clandestine military operations.

Observers may wonder if so much high-power talent can get along.

"Are there downsides? Sure. When you have people with this much stature, there can be ego clashes," said CNN contributor David Gergen. "Everybody's ego has got to get into the same room ... and in at least one or two of those cases, I'm sure people think that their egos are big enough to fill the room all by themselves."

Clinton has applauded Gates' candor, but early on put him on notice.

"We need a strong secretary of defense - but that doesn't mean strong-headed," Clinton said during Gates' confirmation hearings in 2006.

Watch the debate over Clinton's foreign policy experience

Full story

Obama and Mullen met Friday in Chicago.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President-elect Barack Obama and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a private closed door meeting in Chicago Friday for 45 minutes, according to a U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the talks.

The meeting was a "get acquainted session," the official said.

President George Bush personally approved the meeting, and it was also "encouraged" by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the official said. The approval was not required, but was given because of the sensitivity of the sitting president's advisers giving advice to a president not yet in office.

Obama extended the invitation to Mullen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gates will meet with President-elect Obama's transition team Thursday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has long said he wants to ensure a smooth transition at the Pentagon with the Obama administration, but it may be a while before some of the big secrets are revealed to the new team.

Gates will have his first substantive meeting with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team Thursday to discuss key issues the new administration will face as it comes into office.

But CNN has learned that the Obama transition team will not immediately be provided classified information on current military operations and plans, certain National Security Council matters, intelligence programs and future DOD budget plans for the time being, under the terms of a memo sent to senior DOD officials by Gates' top aide.

CNN has obtained a copy of the three-page memo, sent to all top department civilian and military officials November 19 by aide Robert Rangel.

It outlines what can and cannot be shared at this point with Obama's transition staff.

According to the memo, until there is "further guidance," there will be no disclosure of "sensitive information" in the following categories: "current military operations; special access programs; pre-decisional budget information; contingency operations/plans; personnel records; privileged and other legally protected information; competition sensitive information; and active National Security Council policy deliberations."

Read the rest of this entry »

Gates is avoiding questions about his future.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In the best tradition of the CIA spymaster he once was, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is still holding his cards close on whether he has had any discussions with President-elect Obama about remaining at his post in the new administration.

Speaking tersely to CNN in a Pentagon hallway Friday, Gates said, "Nice try," when asked if he or his staff had spoken to the president-elect or his staff.

He said he had "nothing to add" to a statement he made earlier this week in which he told reporters, "I have nothing new to say on that subject."

But Gates' non-answers are a change from earlier in the year, when the idea seemed more remote.

"The circumstances under which I would do that are inconceivable to me," Gates craftily replied in an April 2008 Pentagon news briefing.

Read the rest of this entry »