Two police officers at the Pentagon were wounded Thursday evening when a man walked up to the entrance of the complex’s subway station and, without a word, opened fire on them, Pentagon officials said.

Policemen patrolled the Pentagon after a shooting in Washington on Thursday.

Police officers quickly returned fire, fatally injuring the gunman after hitting him once in the head and once in the shoulder. The gunman was identified as John Patrick Bedell, 36, according to a police official here assisting with the investigation.

The injured police officers, whose names were not released, were wearing ballistic vests and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Richard S. Keevill, the Pentagon police chief. In a Friday morning news conference, officials said one of the officers had been struck in the shoulder and one in the thigh, and that both had been released from the hospital.

Pentagon officials said that the motive for the shooting remained unclear, but said the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

“It appears to be a single individual who had issues,” Chief Keevill said Friday morning.

Source/Full Story: NYTimes.com

The U.S. military monitored Planned Parenthood and a white supremacist group as part of the government’s security preparations for the 2002 Olympics in Utah, according to new documents released by the Department of Defense.

The U.S. Joint Forces Command liaison collected and disseminated information on U.S. citizens who were members of Planned Parenthood and the white supremacist group National Alliance regarding their involvement in protests and distributing literature, according to an intelligence-oversight report released by the Pentagon. The documents indicate that the JFC liaison was working with the FBI’s Olympic Intelligence Center at the time.

Source/Full Story:   Wired.com

President Bush was expected to sign detailed plans for a worldwide war against al-Qaida two days before Sept. 11 but did not have the chance before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, U.S. and foreign sources told NBC News.

The document, a formal National Security Presidential Directive, amounted to a “game plan to remove al-Qaida from the face of the earth,” one of the sources told NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski.

The plan dealt with all aspects of a war against al-Qaida, ranging from diplomatic initiatives to military operations in Afghanistan, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

In many respects, the directive, as described to NBC News, outlined essentially the same war plan that the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon put into action after the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration most likely was able to respond so quickly to the attacks because it simply had to pull the plans “off the shelf,” Miklaszewski said.

Source/Full Story: msnbc.com

And what about punishment for the criminal that actually pulled the trigger?

A Pentagon inquiry into the case of the alleged Fort Hood shooter could lead to punishment of up to eight Army officers, a U.S. official said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to refer findings on the officers to the Army for further inquiry and possible punishment. The report on what went wrong in the case of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused in the shootings, is expected to be released Friday.

The official said a Pentagon inquiry finds fault with five to eight supervisors who knew or should have known about the shortcomings and erratic behavior of the shooting suspect. Hasan is accused of killing 13 people at the Texas Army base on Nov. 5.

Source/Full Story: msnbc.com

The Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General is conducting a new investigation into a covert Bush administration Defense Department program that used retired military analysts to produce positive wartime news coverage.

Last May, the Inspector General’s office rescinded and repudiated a prior internal investigation’s report on the retired military analyst program, which had been issued by the Bush administration, because it “did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product.” Yet in recent interviews with Raw Story, Pentagon officials who took part in the program were still defending it by referencing this invalidated report.

Gary Comerford, Inspector General spokesman for the Defense Department, told Raw Story last week that his office is conducting an investigation into the retired military analyst program and confirmed that the investigation began during the summer.

Source/Full Story: Raw Story

The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete.

Call it Plan B for dealing with Iran, which recently revealed a long-suspected nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

The 15-ton behemoth — called the “massive ordnance penetrator,” or MOP — will be the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal and will carry 5,300 pounds of explosives. The bomb is about 10 times more powerful than the weapon it is designed to replace.

The Pentagon has awarded a nearly $52 million contract to speed up placement of the bomb aboard the B-2 Stealth bomber, and officials say the bomb could be fielded as soon as next summer.

Pentagon officials acknowledge that the new bomb is intended to blow up fortified sites like those used by Iran and North Korea for their nuclear programs, but they deny there is a specific target in mind.

“I don’t think anybody can divine potential targets,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. “This is just a capability that we think is necessary given the world we live in.”

Source/Full Story: Yahoo! News
Technorati Tags: massive ordnance penetrator

The fact that this even needs to be said by Gates is of tremendous significance.

Amid tension between the military and President Barack Obama over military action in Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a gathering of Army officers Monday that the Pentagon would follow any strategy that Obama orders.

“Speaking for the Department of Defense, once the commander in chief makes his decisions, we will salute and execute those decisions faithfully and to the best of our ability,” Gates told the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington.

Gates’ comments seemed to include a rebuke to Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Last week, McChrystal appealed for more troops during a speech before the Institute of International and Strategic Studies, calling current White House consideration of proposals that would not increase U.S. troop strenght in Afghanistan “short-sighted.”

On Monday, Gates said that military and civilian advisors should provide “our best advice to the president candidly — but privately.”

U.S. military officers, both in Washington and Afghanistan, recently have expressed growing frustration with the administration and its prolonged debate over policy in Afghanistan. The administration is now reconsidering its strategy just months after it named McChrystal as its commander there, calling him the best military mind the United States has to fight a counterinsurgency war. McChrystal has asked for as many as 45,000 troops, but the White House said it needs weeks to consider that request, with some suggesting the United States may redefine its goals there all together. In an assessment submitted to the Pentagon, McChrystal that found the effort there could fail without more troops.

Source/Full Story: McClatchy
Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, Robert Gates

Britain’s top general in Afghanistan backed calls for more troops, insisting it would be impossible to deny al-Qaeda their terrorist safe havens by “simply patrolling from the skies”. In an exclusive interview with The Times, Lieutenant-General Jim Dutton, said yesterday that he supported a formal request made by his boss, General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander, for up to 40,000 new troops.

On Friday General McChrystal submitted a formal request to Nato and the Pentagon for a surge in troop numbers to help to tame a growing insurgency.

General Dutton, the deputy commander of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, insisted that “long-term stability” in Afghanistan was the only way to stop international terrorists using the country as a launch pad for attacks in Europe and the US.

His comments came as continuing violence across the country yesterday claimed the lives of six Nato troops, including a British casualty. The soldier, from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welsh Regiment, was hit by a roadside bomb in northern Helmand.

Source/Full Story:  Times Online

THE Pentagon’s enthusiasm for non-lethal crowd-control weapons appears to have stepped up a gear with its decision to develop a microwave pain-infliction system that can be fired from an aircraft.

The device is an extension of its controversial Active Denial System, which uses microwaves to heat the surface of the skin, creating a painful sensation without burning that strongly motivates the target to flee. The ADS was unveiled in 2001, but it has not been deployed owing to legal issues and safety fears.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, has now called for it to be upgraded. The US air force, whose radar technology the ADS is based on, is increasing its annual funding of the system from $2 million to $10 million.

The transmitting antenna on the current system is 2 metres across, produces a single beam of similar width and is steered mechanically, making it cumbersome. At the heart of the new weapon will be a compact airborne antenna, which will be steered electronically and be capable of generating multiple beams, each of which can be aimed while on the move.

Source/Full Story:: New Scientist
Technorati Tags: Active Denial System, Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate

The Pentagon will create a Cyber Command to oversee the U.S. military’s efforts to protect its computer networks and operate in cyberspace, under an order signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday.

The new headquarters, likely to be based at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., will be responsible for defending U.S. military systems but not other U.S. government or private networks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Asked if the command would be capable of offensive operations as well as protecting the Department of Defense, Whitman declined to answer directly.

"This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of DoD’s networks," he said. "This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do that."

U.S. officials have voiced growing concern in recent years about being vulnerable to attacks on the country’s civilian or military networks as technology takes on an ever-increasing role, including in military operations.

President Barack Obama said last month he would name a White House-level czar to coordinate government efforts to fight cybercrime.

Source/Full Story: Reuters

Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they’ll read each other’s minds.

At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.

Before being vocalized, speech exists as word-specific neural signals in the mind. Darpa wants to develop technology that would detect these signals of  “pre-speech,” analyze them, and then transmit the statement to an intended interlocutor. Darpa plans to use EEG to read the brain waves. It’s a technique they’re also testing in a project to devise mind-reading binoculars that alert soldiers to threats faster the conscious mind can process them.

The project has three major goals, according to Darpa. First, try to map a person’s EEG patterns to his or her individual words. Then, see if those patterns are generalizable — if everyone has similar patterns. Last, “construct a fieldable pre-prototype that would decode the signal and transmit over a limited range.”

The military has been funding a handful of  mind-tapping technology recently, and already have monkeys capable of telepathic limb control. Telepathy may also have advantages beyond covert battlefield chatter. Last year, the National Research Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report suggesting that neuroscience might also be useful to “make the enemy obey our commands.” The first step, though, may be getting a grunt to obey his officer’s remotely-transmitted thoughts.

Source/Full Story: Wired.com

A Defense Department official has been charged in an espionage conspiracy with providing classified information to a Chinese government agent, including details about a joint U.S.-Chinese naval exercise, prosecutors announced today.

James Wilbur Fondren Jr., 62, worked at the Pentagon and is the deputy director for the Washington Liaison Office of the U.S. Pacific Command. He was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiring to knowingly communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government.

Fondren, who is expected to appear in federal court later today, faces up to five years in prison if convicted. He has been on paid administrative leave since February 2008. An attorney for Fondren had not yet been appointed.

Source/Full Story: washingtonpost.com

A top US commander has warned that Washington will consider using any option even a military one against threats to the army’s computer networks.
Air Force General Kevin Chilton said cyber espionage and attacks from well-funded nations or terror groups are the biggest threats to the military’s networks.
"Our job would be to present options. I don’t think you take anything off the table when you provide options," in the wake of an attack, whether the weapon is a missile or a computer program, said the general.
Gen. Chilton, who heads US Strategic Command, added that the Pentagon is concerned about new ways for disabling or distorting battlefield communications.
The US military is planning to set up a new cyber command at Fort Meade near Washington that would report to the Strategic Command.
The decision is a response to concerns that offensive and defensive cyber operations are currently separate, and not as coordinated as they should be.
Gen. Chilton said 2,000-4,000 more staff were needed over the next five years to provide the expertise for both offensive and defensive cyber operations.
There have been no major attacks against the military’s networks so far, only intrusions or efforts to steal data, he concluded.

Source/Full Story: presstv.ir

The Obama administration plans to create a new military command to focus on Pentagon computer networks and offensive capabilities in cyberwarfare, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing current and former officials familiar with the plans.

The initiative will reshape the military’s efforts to protect its networks from attacks by hackers, especially those from countries such as China and Russia, the newspaper said.

Pentagon officials were quoted as saying the new command will be unveiled within the next few weeks.

The cyber command will likely to be led by a military official of four-star rank and initially would be part of the Pentagon’s Strategic Command, the newspaper said, citing officials familiar with the proposal.

Source/Full Story:: Reuters

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

…

Lockheed Martin Corp is the lead contractor. Northrop Grumman Corp and BAE Systems PLC also have major roles in the project. Lockheed Martin and BAE declined comment and Northrop referred questions to Lockheed, the paper said.

…

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Journal quoted former U.S. officials as saying the attacks seemed to have originated in China, although it noted it was difficult to determine the origin because of the ease of hiding identities online.

Source/Full Story:: Reuters