Pentagon

NEW YORK -- In the weeks since Russian President Vladimir Putin's trip to Texas for informal talks and a barbecue with President Bush, it is clear that the war on terrorism has claimed a surprising victim, which most Americans thought was dead long ago: the Cold War. The essential operational requirements for combating terrorists depend heavily on intelligence gathering and other military and nonmilitary activities across the globe -- on both sides of...

WASHINGTON -- A company whose chairman was President Ronald Reagan's defense secretary teamed up with a Canadian arms dealer and some enterprising officials in the former Soviet republic of Belarus in a most unusual arms deal, financed in secret by the Pentagon.The deal came to light when the sun rose on Monday morning on a huge Russian-made transport plane parked within sight of an interstate highway in Huntsville, Ala.Its cargo: components of the S-300, the Russian equivalent of the Patriot missile defense system.

WASHINGTON -- Barely a month after Defense Secretary Dick Cheney stunned the defense industry by canceling the troubled A-12 stealth attack plane, the Navy asked the builders to return $1.35 billion in excess payments that Pentagon auditors said shouldn't have been made.When the companies balked and asked for a delay, both the Navy and Defense Department immediately acquiesced, saying the companies would not have to pay back a cent for almost two years, if not longer.All of this occurred on Feb. 5, according to documents obtained by The Sun.For several weeks, congressional and federal investigators have been delving into this little-publicized financial deal, which some believe was carefully orchestrated to soften the blow to the two firms responsible for the largest weapons program ever terminated by the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon stopped emergency airdrops of food and other humanitarian supplies to stranded civilian communities inside Afghanistan yesterday, saying that most such supplies can now be delivered by road. Giant C-17 cargo planes had dropped pallets of food, tents, blankets, winter clothing and other relief supplies since the U.S.-led air war began in October. The aid program began with great fanfare but soon dwindled to about two deliveries a day. Overall, U.S. military forces have flown about 17,000 operational sorties in support of the war against the al-Qaida terror network and the now-defeated Taliban regime in Afghanistan, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr.

WASHINGTON - Borrowing a green Army camouflage jacket as a shield against the rain, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend toured the damaged Pentagon yesterday, thanking Maryland National Guardsmen who have helped provide security there since the terrorist attack last week. Townsend arrived with Maj. Gen. James F. Fretterd, commander of the Maryland National Guard, and walked out to the building's courtyard to shake hands with the citizen soldiers. She then viewed the attack site. The lieutenant governor presented the guardsmen, part of the 115th Military Police Battalion in Salisbury, with a stack of thank-you letters and colorful drawings from students at Millington Elementary School in Kent County.

WASHINGTON -- In this week's raid on Iraq, American warplanes destroyed only one of the four Iraqi surface-to-air missile batteries they targeted, according to the Pentagon.But despite that battle damage assessment, the Pentagon characterized the raid as a success, saying that Iraq had been forced to disassemble the three other missile batteries and that two of Iraq's stationary air defense command sites had been seriously damaged.In proclaiming the raid a success, Defense Department spokesman Pete Williams insisted yesterday that it was wrong to evaluate the political and the military utility of the attack by the percentage of the targets struck.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has given the state another $4 million to help plan for the arrival of new residents coming with the expansion of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Meade, the National Naval Medical Center and other military facilities in the state. "[The Base Realignment and Closure process] will bring tremendous benefits to Maryland, but only with significant planning and new development," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said yesterday in a statement. "This funding will lay the groundwork essential to the implementation of the BRAC recommendations."

WASHINGTON -- An internal Pentagon audit of the military's multibillion-dollar surplus accounts has uncovered four "potential" criminal violations involving unauthorized overspending for Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps reserve programs and weapons testing.An audit report by the Pentagon inspector general's office, a copy of which was obtained by The Sun, said that records of four separate defense appropriations indicate what "appears to be a potential violation of the Antideficiency Act," a federal law that bars officials from willfully obligating or spending money in excess of amounts appropriated by Congress.

WASHINGTON -- In its first detailed military planning for the post-Cold War era, the Pentagon envisions seven scenarios for potential foreign conflicts that could draw U.S. forces into combat over the next 10 years, according to internal Pentagon documents.Maintaining forces capable of fighting and winning one or more of the seven scenarios outlined in the documents would require a robust level of defense spending into the next century.The classified documents indicate that the leadership of the Defense Department has instructed the military chiefs to request forces and weapons sufficient to fight large regional wars -- in two scenarios, against Iraq and North Korea, and in a third scenario, against both countries at the same time.

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. - The presidential candidates have been acting as if they disagree about the Pentagon, with Gov. George W. Bush claiming the United States must "rebuild" the military and Vice President Al Gore boasting that he would add twice as much to the defense budget as his opponent. In truth, there is little substantive difference between the two on defense policy: Both believe we should continue to train and arm our military as if the Cold War never ended. To this end, both favor adding tens of billions of dollars to the Pentagon budget over the next decade - money that would go a long way toward funding health, education and other initiatives that both candidates propose.