“Department of Defense” on The Daily Caller

WASHINGTON (AP) — Turning their budget knife to domestic programs to protect the Pentagon, House Republicans on Thursday approved legislation cutting food stamps, benefits for federal workers and social services programs like day care for children and Meals on Wheels for the elderly. (more)

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent over $15 billion in Afghanistan since 2002, rebuilding the country and aligning redevelopment goals with military ones in order to stabilize the region. Progress, however, has been slow because of delays caused by widespread insurgency, poor oversight, over-reliance on outside contractors, cost overruns and corruption, The Wall Street Journal reports. (more)

Have defense contracts become less competitive over the past decade? A recent report by the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News shows that over the past ten years Defense Department funding for non-competitive contracts has nearly tripled. (more)

Testifying on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged Congress to prevent $500 billion in defense cuts from automatically taking effect and doing “untold damage” to America’s national security. (more)

The Pentagon has announced that it will make assignment policy changes that will result in 14,325 more positions being opened to women this spring. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the past decade women in the U.S. military have served, fought and died on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. (more)

On Tuesday evening, U.S. Special Operations Forces freed two aid workers — one American and one Dane — held hostage in Somalia. The hostages and their rescuers were unharmed in the operation, the Department of Defense reported. According to the Washington Post, nine of the suspected pirates were killed, with three unaccounted for and possibly captured. (more)

President Barack Obama announced on Thursday a new military strategy that will include $487 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. That strategy, according to Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, is a huge mistake. (more)

New York Republican Rep. Peter King, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, announced Thursday that the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency are investigating the possibility of politically motivated leaks — to a Hollywood filmmaker — about the Navy SEAL mission to kill Osama bin Laden. (more)

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain isn’t shy about arguing why he should be chosen as the next Secretary of Defense. (more)

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has announced that the Department of Defense will now allow Muslim and Sikh students participating in Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) to wear headscarves and turbans while in uniform. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress passed a massive $662 billion defense bill Thursday after months of wrangling over how to handle captured terror suspects without violating Americans’ constitutional rights. (more)

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — LightSquared Inc. is calling for a government investigation into what it calls a leak of test results that indicated its planned wireless service caused interference with global-positioning system receivers. (more)

For 10 years, thousands of American troops have fought against terrorism and for the liberation of Iraq. Many have sacrificed their lives on the altar of freedom on behalf of people in a land halfway around the world, leaving their families with the memory of their fallen heroes. Meanwhile, American taxpayers have spent billions of dollars on the military equipment used during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now, the U.S. is withdrawing from Iraq and thousands of our desert warriors will soon be enthusiastically welcomed home. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says sex with animals would still be illegal even if Congress repeals a military rule on sodomy. (more)

The war on counterterrorism training inside the FBI shifted to a new battlefield in October — the Department of Defense — with an unclassified memo from the Joint Chiefs of Staff asking subordinate commands and agencies to explain the procedures they use to evaluate Countering Violent Extremism training. And that memo appears to lean heavily on the criticisms of Spencer Ackerman, a former JournoList member who was fired by The New Republic in 2006 and currently blogs for WIRED’s Danger Room. (more)

ALEXANDRIA — Holiday travelers could receive enhanced pat-downs at the hands of Transportation Security Administration agents in the next few days, but TSA failed to enforce a key foreign pilot screening process that could have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (more)

Following the two test flights of the unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) earlier this year, both of which ended prematurely with the vehicle making a “controlled descent” into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command last week conducted the first test flight of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) concept. (more)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military already knows thousands of cases of sexual assault go unreported each year in the ranks. But more victims would come forward, California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier said, if soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines could report those crimes to someone outside their normal chain of command. (more)

A 23-year-old Arizona man arrested on Thursday in connection with the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment last May was a model student who saw himself one day defending networks at the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency. (more)