Defense Drumbeat

"...A really important report [that] dives into detail about a very controversial episode..." reported MSNBC's Kelly O'Donnell today. Click here for the full segment.House Republicans Denounce Obama’s Handling of Prisoner Exchange New York Times - Charlie Savage - 12.9.15 After months of secret talks in early 2014 on a potential deal to swap five Taliban detainees… Read more »

The law requires the Secretary of Defense to notify Congress “not later than 30 days before the transfer or release of detainees" from GTMO. According to the HASC report, here are just some of the missed opportunities to comply with the letter or even the spirit of the law before the Taliban Five were transferred on May 31st, 2014: 102 Days before the Transfer, when on… Read more »

Yesterday, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, talked ISIS strategy with Fox News. Watch here. Read more »

Today, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, talked with Fox News about the need for a strategy to defeat ISIS not a increasing number of U.S. troops without a strategy. Watch here. Read more »

RealClearPolitics By Mac Thornberry The ISIS attack on Paris has been a wake-up call for the world. A network of terrorists exploited weaknesses in Western intelligence networks, border controls, and law enforcement to savagely attack soft targets and inflict devastating casualties. To protect America, Congress has rightly acted on one of these weaknesses and strengthened the screening… Read more »

RealClearPolitics By Mac Thornberry The ISIS attack on Paris has been a wake-up call for the world. A network of terrorists exploited weaknesses in Western intelligence networks, border controls, and law enforcement to savagely attack soft targets and inflict devastating casualties. To protect America, Congress has rightly acted on one of these weaknesses and strengthened the screening… Read more »

Today the House Armed Services Committee will hearing from Ashton Carter, Secretary of Defense, and General Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an open hearing. Yesterday, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, laid out what he would like to hear from them with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Watch the segment here. To watch today's… Read more »

Secretary Of Defense Ashton Carter and General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify tomorrow about the President’s strategy to take on ISIS. President Obama has had more Secretaries of Defense than any other Commander-In-Chief in the modern era. As Secretary Carter prepares to face Congress, how do his predecessors think the President’s… Read more »

POST By Jim Sensenbrenner In a recent Post op-ed, Gregory B. Craig, former White House counsel, and Cliff Sloan, former special envoy for Guantanamo closure, argued that President Obama has the legal authority to ignore the law and transfer some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists to the United States. I sincerely hope that, as former Obama administration officials, they are… Read more »

Washington Post By Editorial Board PRESSED ABOUT his strategy for fighting the Islamic State, a petulant-sounding President Obama insisted Monday, as he has before, that his critics have offered no concrete alternatives for action in Syria and Iraq, other than putting “large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground.” This claim was faulty in two respects. First, few if any White… Read more »