The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday it is being petitioned to reactivate its investigation into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, which disintegrated shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing all 230 on board.
WASHINGTON -- The United States is entering into a new agreement with Russia that would continue in some form the Cooperative Threat Reduction program that aims to lock down vulnerable nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union, Global Security Newswire has learned.
Now that the U.S. is moving toward arming the Syrian rebels, American allies in the region will play an increasingly important role in the coming months. But some of those countries have their own security issues that could hamper that effort.
National Journal is expanding the role of Global Security Newswire's Elaine Grossman, creating a new, more senior position for her at GSN -- executive editor and senior correspondent -- and also naming her special correspondent for National Journal. An Atlantic Media publication, GSN features groundbreaking news coverage related to weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and international security, as well as daily round-ups and analysis of some of the most important news of the day.
House Armed Services' ranking member acknowledges some defense cuts are inevitable in tight fiscal times, and he says he is committed to helping the Pentagon make reductions.
A long line of former active-duty military personnel have sought an Armed Services Committee post after winning election to Congress. Each brings something that can’t be taught to nonveterans: first-person knowledge.
On Aug. 1, 2011, hours before the government was set to default on its debt, House Speaker John Boehner convened Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee in his office to discuss a legislative solution.
It’s tough to chair a 62-member panel responsible for authorizing roughly half a trillion dollars that funds America’s defenses. Just ask Rep. Buck McKeon.
It's somewhat rare for a congressional staffer to gain praise from both Republicans and Democrats. Such was the case for Roach, a committee veteran for more than two decades who died in January at the age of 70.
As majority policy director on the House Armed Services Committee, Jenness Simler has a wide range of responsibilities, from managing strategy and committee organization to advising the chairman.
Debra Wada, who previously served as deputy staff director on the House Armed Services Committee when Democrats held the majority, now specializes in military-personnel issues.
Majority Staff Director Bob Simmons retired after spending 26 years in the defense industry, ultimately serving as the CEO of Senior Aerospace in California, when former Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the House Armed Services chairman at the time, called him up.
Leonor Tomero, counsel for the House Armed Services Committee, has a portfolio that includes strategic forces, missile defense, military space, nuclear weapons, and nuclear cleanup.
Paul Arcangeli announced the beginning of a "reign of terror" after taking the helm of the committee staff when Democrats were in the majority. "You can call me Mr. Arcangeli or O Dark Lord," Arcangeli joked.
Fox News host Geraldo Rivera and his mustache have decided not to run for Senate in New Jersey, Rivera reported on Friday, citing The Lord of the Rings.
Ross Gianfortune and Government Executive | June 7, 2013
With news coming out that the National Security Agency has been collecting telephone data on millions of American Verizon customers, late-night comedians focused on Barack Obama's role in the program. Jay Leno made a play on the "big brother" term for surveillance government and made a joke about the amount of telephone time Americans use calling for pizza. Late Night's Jimmy Fallon also used some wordplay in referencing a formerly famous Verizon slogan.
Star Trek has a pretty good track record of forecasting the future. Who would have thought that the franchise's darkest vision would be the next to come true?
When Rep. John Dingell wakes up on Friday, he will have set a record as the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history. It was a career that almost never happened at all.
Stark battle lines are emerging in the Senate over efforts to stamp out the military’s reputation for providing inadequate protections for victims of sexual assault.
Legislation rolled out on Monday would require the U.S. Defense Department to inform lawmakers regarding "a variety of options" for potential military involvement in the Syrian civil war and what resources would be needed to carry them out.
It Didn't Have to Be Like This. The letter starts off with leadership stressing that they just had no choice but to write it in response to one he had sent them earlier.
Years from now, this past week may be remembered less for developments in a spate of White House scandals than as a turning point in the "war on terror."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has a long record of working to stop sexual assault both in Alaska and in the armed services. This year she readily signed on to three different bills to combat sexual assault in the military. But when it came to a sweeping bill that would take the decision-making power of which cases to prosecute out of the hands of commanders, she paused.
Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte won’t drop it. Despite the White House’s release of Benghazi e-mails, the Republican trio has a long list of additional questions, all carrying serious political implications.
National Journal's National Security Insiders were split on whether the Obama administration's edits to remove any mention of terrorism from the original public statements on the Benghazi, Libya, attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens showed it deliberately tried to mislead the American public.
A half-dozen former U.S. national security leaders last month implored President Obama to avoid tightening restrictions on foreign nuclear cooperation in the interest of nonproliferation.
The White House, in an effort to calm the swirl of controversy about the reaction to last year’s attacks on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, late Wednesday released more than 100 pages of e-mails leading to the development of talking points that attempted to explain the violence that left four Americans dead. The e-mails had earlier been shown to members of Congress but the White House had resisted releasing them, citing the precedent of protecting internal discussions within an administration.
The Obama administration is considering House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., for the top job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
As the U.S. and Russia go through the motions of expelling each other’s “diplomats” in the coming days, it’s likely they will only be pawns in a much bigger game.
Billy House and Nancy Cook and Coral Davenport and Fawn Johnson and Sara Sorcher and and George E. Condon Jr. contributed | May 12, 2013
With tensions over fiscal issues building, and the three-month suspension of the nation’s debt limit set to expire Sunday, lawmakers this week will be rehashing on the House floor their messaging war over repealing President Obama’s three-year-old health care law.
Putting the former independent senator in an attack-dog role gives Republicans political cover to keep pressing for answers on intelligence and law enforcement failures ahead of the Boston bombings.
Joe Lieberman gave a boost to a Republican line of attack against the Obama administration for failing to fully investigate and share information that might have prevented the Boston bombings.
The top deputy to the U.S. ambassador killed during the attacks last September in Benghazi, Libya, said Wednesday he was “stunned” when U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said on talk shows days later that the incident stemmed from “demonstrations” sparked by protests over an anti-Islamic video.
Even though President Obama acknowledged chemical weapons use in Syria, nearly two-thirds of National Journal's National Security Insiders believe the American military should not yet intervene in the bloody fight against Bashar al-Assad.
In this week's National Journal cover story, Michael Hirsh looks at why the Obama administration's plan to use American Muslims as an early-detection system to spot radicals hasn't worked. In this video, go inside the story with the author himself.
Two years ago, the Obama administration launched a plan to use American Muslims as an early-detection system to spot radicals. So why hasn’t it worked?
Cutting a deal with the alleged Boston bomber might prevent future attacks and ensure a conviction. But it could enrage victims and disappoint the public.
The House Homeland Security Committee plans to hold the first congressional hearing next week examining the Boston Marathon terrorist attack and what it says about the state of the nation’s post-Sept. 11 security infrastructure.
President Obama’s "red line" for U.S. intervention in Syria is actually more of a fuzzy zone whose goalposts keep shifting, said the former top WMD hunter in Iraq.
Senior senators -- now including Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein -- say Syria has used chemical weapons on its citizens, crossing the 'red line' President Obama put down as trigger for U.S. intervention.
The keys to a strong military are coordinated intelligence efforts, high-tech weaponry, and good shoes – American-made shoes, that is, according to certain members of the sneaker lobby.
The FBI was not just concerned with Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 but other family members too, according to information that U.S. security officials gave some senators during a closed-door briefing on Thursday. Here is what the senators learned, according to one lawmaker, who would not speak on the record.
In the wake of the Boston Marathon attack, lawmakers are focusing on whether federal law enforcement botched information it had about the deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 and whether post-Sept. 11 information-sharing security measures broke down.
WASHINGTON -- Accusing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of carrying out a WMD strike at the Boston Marathon could offer prosecutors a clear route to a conviction, even though the two pressure-cooker devices used in last week's attack do not fit the accepted definition of a "weapon of mass destruction," academics and former federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Two-thirds of National Journal's National Security Insiders said the U.S. government does not need to reassess its policies to prevent attacks at high-profile events in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. But Insiders' opinions are more evenly divided on U.S. intervention in Syria.
Sen. Bob Corker's independent voice on high-profile issues and scholarly devotion to studying policies he is interested in have made GOP leaders take notice of him and want to keep the Tennessee Republican close at hand — both to capitalize on his expertise and to watch his moves.
The ex-president is preparing to dedicate his library this week, but these days he's more interested in painting, golfing, and enjoying a life away from politics.
The United States has a fairly generous policy in admitting foreigners to the country as refugees, harkening back to the 1950s when several laws were passed to provide for people who escaped communist regimes.
While authorities continue to focus on finding one of the suspects sought in the deadly Boston bombings, attention will soon turn to how to prevent another terrorist attack on an event with limited security.
The Friday lockdown of Boston and surrounding communities was a highly rare response in the United States to a terrorism threat, reminiscent of security plans typically contemplated in response to attacks involving weapons of mass destruction.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised its Republican counterpart for a third straight month to start 2013, according to reports. Roll Call reported Thursday that the National Republican Congressional Committee raised $8.1 million in March, trailing the $10.2 million the DCCC gath...
Dashiell Bennett and Philip Bump - The Atlantic Wire | April 19, 2013
Following a chaotic night of mayhem and a police shootout, one of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings was shot and killed by police. The second suspect is on the loose and police are actively searching the area of Watertown, Mass.
Veteran Capitol Hill staffer Amy Smith starts a new job on Friday, feeling lucky to be alive after narrowly escaping Monday's devastation near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Late in the evening on Wednesday, one of the busiest and most unnerving times Washington has seen in a long while, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid quietly appointed Gregory Jaczko, a controversial former nuclear-energy regulator to a key but obscure panel.
WASHINGTON – The United States has spent billions of dollars to prevent terrorists from obtaining a weapon of mass destruction even as this week’s bombings in Boston further show that a nuclear weapon or lethal bioagent is not necessary for causing significant harm.
Amid an already edgy state of alert in Washington following Monday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon, law enforcement officials confirmed on Tuesday that they were also investigating whether an envelope containing the poison ricin was intended to harm Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
While officials are still investigating who was behind the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon, President Obama made it clear on Tuesday that authorities are still unclear whether domestic or foreign actors are responsible for the attack.
The U.S. Defense Department was poised as recently as last month to dismantle a National Guard crisis team that assisted in the emergency response to the bombings at Monday's Boston Marathon.
