Times Of Harvard

The US Department of Defense said on Friday it was cancelling the construction of parts of former president Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico that were being built using military funds. All unobligated money was being returned to military, the Pentagon said. Trump declared a national emergency in 2019, in an effort to redirect funding to build a wall along the southern border. Joe Biden issued a proclamation on 20 January, his first day in office, ordering a freeze on border wall projects and directing a review of the legality of funding and contracting methods. “The Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions such as schools for military children, overseas military construction projects in partner nations, and the national guard and reserve equipment account,” said a Pentagon spokesperson, Jamal Brown. Brown said the returned funds would be used for de...

The Biden administration will not lift the Trump administration’s ban on Turkey buying F-35 stealth fighters, a punishment for Ankara’s 2019 purchase of a Russian air-defense system, a senior Pentagon official said Friday. “Turkey is a longstanding and valued NATO ally, but their decision to purchase the S-400 is inconsistent with Turkey’s commitments as a U.S. and NATO ally,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said during a Friday afternoon press briefing. “Our position has not changed. The S-400 is incompatible with the F-35 and Turkey has been suspended from that program. We urge Turkey not to retain the S-400 system.” Much of the language used by Kirby was identical to how Pentagon officials characterized the decision to ban Turkey from the multibillion-dollar project in July 2019. “Turkey had multiple opportunities over the last decade to purchase the Patriot defense system from the United States and instead chose to purchase the S-400, which provides Russia revenue, access and i...

 Up to 15,000 National Guard members will assist security efforts for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration this month, the National Guard chief announced Monday after multiple calls for increased security. “To date, our troops have been requested to support security, logistics, liaison, and communication missions,” Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a statement.  The National Guard has a long history of helping to secure U.S. presidential inaugurations, but, by contrast, only about 8,000 National Guard members were present during President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2016. The announcement comes amid warnings of possible violence in the days leading up to the inauguration, following the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters last week. The FBI sent a memo to police departments across the country Monday, warning that armed protests have been planned in Washington, as well as all 50 state capitols. The U.S. National Park Serv...

The branches of the Department of Defense and the State Department were among the agencies hacked as part of a massive espionage attack aimed at the federal government by a nation state that came to light this week. The New York Times reported that both agencies were among the groups successfully breached by hackers as part of the attack on IT company SolarWinds, an Austin, Texas, based organization that said this week that hackers had accessed its Orion software between March and June of this year. SolarWinds counts all five branches of the military among its customers, along with many other federal agencies and 425 of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies.  Reuters first reported on Sunday that the company had been hacked by a nation state, and that the Treasury Department and a Commerce Department agency had been among those successfully breached. On Monday, reports emerged that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had also been successfully breached. Defense Department spokespers...

 Members of the military won't be required to take a coronavirus vaccine when it comes available through a new trial plan the Pentagon announced Wednesday, but that could change if the Food and Drug Administration moves beyond the emergency approval that currently allows for the initial distribution of the vaccine. "Voluntary for everyone," Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, chief of the Defense Health Agency, told reporters at a press conference at the Pentagon. "No ifs, ands or buts about it. Voluntary for everyone." Public skepticism in a vaccine to treat the coronavirus has persisted throughout the spread of the pandemic, though a two-thirds majority of Americans now say they would take the vaccine, up from only half in September, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center released last week. "The safety profile is very good. The risk of these vaccines from what we know is much less than the risk from the actual disease process," Place said....

President Donald Trump will sharply reduce the number of US forces in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 before he leaves office, the Pentagon has announced. The Pentagon also outlined a modest withdrawal of US forces in Iraq that will reduce troop levels from 3,000 to 2,500. Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said about 2,000 troops would be pulled out of Afghanistan by January 15 and 500 more would come back from Iraq, leaving 2,500 in each country. The moves reflect Trump’s policy “to bring the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to a successful and responsible conclusion and to bring our brave service members home”, Miller said. The announcement came days after Trump fired former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who had insisted on the need to maintain troop levels in Afghanistan to support the Kabul government while it negotiates a peace deal with the Taliban. The announcement was part of Trump’s attempt to “make good” on campaign promises made in 2016 to end “endless wars” and “preserve...