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NEWS ABOUT: Robert Gates

Gates Visits Pakistan, Urges Terror Crackdown

But Pakistan says it won't launch further offensives

(Newser) - Robert Gates arrived in Islamabad today for an unannounced visit, urging a crackdown on Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters headed for India or Afghanistan. Pakistan often leaves such outward-bound militants alone, concentrating on domestic foes, but “the reality is that you can’t ignore one part of this cancer and... More »

Gates Will Stay Through 2010

Defense chief agrees to remain 'at least another year'

(Newser) - The new year won't bring a change at the top in the Defense Department. Robert Gates will stay on through on 2010, says a Pentagon spokesman. He and President Obama met before Christmas and agreed that the Bush holdover will remain for "at least another year," reports Reuters... More »

Iran's Nukes in Rabbit Warren of Tunnels, Bunkers

Hidden arsenal complicates nuclear standoff

(Newser) - Iran is using a network of tunnels and bunkers to shield its atomic complex, obscuring the size of its arsenal and complicating calls for military action against the rogue state. Military experts from the United States and Israel say a well-hidden nuclear program is especially hard to take down. "... More »

Dems Block GOP War Bill Filibuster

Gates slams tactic to delay health bill

(Newser) - Senate Democrats beat back a Republican attempt to filibuster a huge Pentagon spending bill in a post-midnight session last night. Republican success would have forced the government to seek a new stopgap way to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, delaying health care legislation in the process. Three Republicans... More »

Cocky Karzai Calls Gates' Bluff

Defense sec gets dissed by Afghanistan, Iraq 'puppets': Dowd

(Newser) - Robert Gates may be the man "running the world's best military," a force not inconsequential to stability in Afghanistan these days, but Hamid Karzai thumbed his nose at the defense secretary on his recent visit. "Puppets just aren’t what they used to be," notes Maureen... More »

Gates Expects 'Significant' Sanctions on Iran

Tehran still unwilling to yield on nukes

(Newser) - Robert Gates warned Iran today in the strongest language yet from the US that it faces serious economic sanctions because of its refusal to budge on nuclear talks. "I think that you are going to see some significant additional sanctions imposed by the international community, assuming that the Iranians... More »

Maliki Too Busy to Meet With Gates

He promises to squeeze him in tomorrow morning

(Newser) - Robert Gates apparently doesn't rank. When the defense chief flew into Iraq today for a surprise visit with Nouri al-Maliki, he learned the prime minister was simply too busy to see him. The Pentagon is playing down all hints of a snub, explaining that Maliki had to spend hours in... More »

Gates Arrives in Iraq in Wake of Bombings

US officials say spate of violence won't affect withdrawal plan

(Newser) - Robert Gates flew to Baghdad today for an unannounced visit, finding a city still reeling from the bombings that killed at least 127 people on Tuesday. The defense secretary is scheduled to meet with Nouri al-Maliki and other top officials, and to offer condolences to victims of the attacks. He’... More »

Gates, in Kabul, Contradicts Karzai's Timetable

'We're in this thing to win,' he tells reporters

(Newser) - Robert Gates and Hamid Karzai seemed to contradict each other at a press conference in Kabul today, with Gates saying the US commitment in Afghanistan isn’t open ended, and Karzai saying it will be at least 5 years before Afghanistan is ready for a US withdrawal. Gates arrived in... More »

Obama's Long Road to Afghan Strategy

Prez was relentless in analyzing every angle

(Newser) - Amid cries of "dithering" and the silent finality of Arlington's rows of white tombstones, President Obama calmly, analytically, and exhaustively reviewed all options in Afghanistan before finally announcing to his team on Nov. 29 that he would send in 30,000 more troops. The New York Times retraces the... More »

Gates: Afghan Failure Means 'Civil War'

Troop surge is necessary to transition to humanitarian role

(AP) - Defense chief Robert Gates and other members of the Obama administration took to Capitol Hill today to sell President Obama's plan to send 30,000 additional troops. "Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of much, if not most, of the country and likely a renewed civil war,... More »

Pentagon Denies Helping Salahis Crash Dinner

Gates assistant communicated with couple, but made no promises

(AP) - The couple who crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denies that she helped the couple get in. Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement tonight that she... More »

Top Obama Advisers Push 30K Troop Increase

President, war council, weigh Afghan troop options today

(Newser) - As President Obama heads into a meeting with his national security team today, one of the four options on the table for increasing troop levels in Afghanistan has emerged as a favorite of his top advisers. Hillary Clinton, Mike Mullen, and Robert Gates all favor a plan to send about... More »

Troop Injuries Hit New High in Afghanistan

Taliban roadside bombs highly effective against US

(Newser) - Injuries to US troops in Afghanistan have risen alarmingly in the last 3 months, as a Taliban offensive deploys deadlier roadside bombs aimed at American and other foreign forces. The rate of injury has surpassed that in Iraq during the heaviest fighting of the surge 2 years ago, the Washington... More »

Obama Looks for Local Allies in Afghanistan

Administration's decided it can't wipe out Taliban

(Newser) - President Obama has requested detailed, province-by-province analysis of Afghanistan’s local and tribal leaders, hoping to find more effective partners than the country’s weak and corrupt central government. The administration has concluded that no surge in troops will be able to eradicate the Taliban as a political force, but... More »

Pentagon Holds Secret Afghan War Games

Mullen leads exercise to assess effects of troop surge

(Newser) - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, led a secret war game earlier this month to assess the Obama administration's options in Afghanistan, including a 44,000-troop surge. A team of military leaders used Gen. Stanley McChrystal's analysis to examine how Taliban insurgents and the Afghan... More »

Gates Warns Japan Not to Back Out of Troop Deal

Relationship with Asian ally increasingly strained

(Newser) - All is not well between the US and Japan. Yesterday Robert Gates warned the country of serious consequences if it backs out of a troop movement deal the two countries spent 10 years negotiating. Japan’s new ruling party wants to reopen those negotiations, as it moves to redefine its... More »

Pentagon Downplays 13K Surge in Afghan Support Troops

Extra thousands swell US numbers in Afghanistan

(Newser) - When does 21,000 equal 34,000? When the Pentagon is counting. The 21,000 additional troops President Obama approved for Afghanistan earlier this year have been accompanied by 13,000 extra support troops, bringing the total number in Afghanistan to nearly 68,000. Pentagon and White House officials have... More »

Vietnam Books Playing Key Role in Afghan War Debate

Competing works on Vietnam War top policymakers' reading lists

(Newser) - A pair of books on the Vietnam War—one on why America should never have gotten involved, and one on how it could have won—are providing the framework for the Washington debate over Afghanistan strategy, insiders say. Lessons in Disaster, which describes how the White House was pushed into... More »

Military Advice to Obama Should Be Private: Gates

Defense secretary joins criticism of McChrystal

(Newser) - Military commanders should give their advice on Afghanistan to President Obama, not to the public, Robert Gates said today. In an implicit reprimand to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has commented openly on his low opinion of the administration’s Afghanistan policy, the defense secretary said such advice should be given... More »

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