Gates to Leave Pentagon by End of 2011

Published August 16, 2010

FoxNews.com

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Monday he will retire by the end of 2011, Fox News confirmed.

Gates, the only Bush holdover in President Obama's Cabinet, made the announcement in an interview conducted at the Pentagon with Foreign Policy magazine on July 12 that was published Monday.

Gates has been expected to leave the administration before the 2012 election.

"I think that by next year I'll be in a position where, you know, we're going to know whether the strategy is working in Afghanistan. We'll have completed the surge," Gates, 66, told the magazine.

"We'll have done the assessment in December, and it seems like somewhere there in 2011 is a logical opportunity to hand off."

White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters Monday that it wasn't a surprise that Gates is "talking about his next phase in life."

"Gates has served our country with great distinction for years," he said."He did the president and the nation a great favor by agreeing to stay on longer than he had originally intended, when the president started his administration."

Gates was a key supporter of Obama's war strategy in Afghanistan that authorized 30,000 more U.S. troops to the region, raising American numbers to 100,000 and calling for them to begin pulling out next summer.

Gates' top Afghan commander, Gen. David Petraeus, however, said he's not sure whether troops will begin withdrawing next summer, saying any drawdown will be based on conditions. Gates insists the drawdown will begin next July.

Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld in 2006 after the midterm elections, determined to turn around the faltering war effort in Iraq and to improve relations between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Congress.

Gates' decision to accept Obama's request to continue serving as Pentagon chief reassured lawmakers on both sides who were wary of major changes in the middle of two wars abroad.

Gate is now overseeing a controversial plan to find $100 billion in savings in the next five years to reinvest in a military ravaged by years of war.

Gates is currently on vacation for two weeks in Washington state.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/16/report-gates-leave-pentagon-end/

Gates to Leave Pentagon by End of 2011

Published August 16, 2010

FoxNews.com

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Monday he will retire by the end of 2011, Fox News confirmed.

Gates, the only Bush holdover in President Obama's Cabinet, made the announcement in an interview conducted at the Pentagon with Foreign Policy magazine on July 12 that was published Monday.

Gates has been expected to leave the administration before the 2012 election.

"I think that by next year I'll be in a position where, you know, we're going to know whether the strategy is working in Afghanistan. We'll have completed the surge," Gates, 66, told the magazine.

"We'll have done the assessment in December, and it seems like somewhere there in 2011 is a logical opportunity to hand off."

White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters Monday that it wasn't a surprise that Gates is "talking about his next phase in life."

"Gates has served our country with great distinction for years," he said."He did the president and the nation a great favor by agreeing to stay on longer than he had originally intended, when the president started his administration."

Gates was a key supporter of Obama's war strategy in Afghanistan that authorized 30,000 more U.S. troops to the region, raising American numbers to 100,000 and calling for them to begin pulling out next summer.

Gates' top Afghan commander, Gen. David Petraeus, however, said he's not sure whether troops will begin withdrawing next summer, saying any drawdown will be based on conditions. Gates insists the drawdown will begin next July.

Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld in 2006 after the midterm elections, determined to turn around the faltering war effort in Iraq and to improve relations between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Congress.

Gates' decision to accept Obama's request to continue serving as Pentagon chief reassured lawmakers on both sides who were wary of major changes in the middle of two wars abroad.

Gate is now overseeing a controversial plan to find $100 billion in savings in the next five years to reinvest in a military ravaged by years of war.

Gates is currently on vacation for two weeks in Washington state.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/16/report-gates-leave-pentagon-end/

The Washington Post published the opening installment of its Top Secret America project, a two-year investigation into the national security buildup in the United States that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In a series of articles by the Post reporters Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, a host of interactive graphics and a searchable database, the series details the unintended downside of ballooning governmental financing for agencies and departments that have been unable to spend the massive influx of money responsibly, the inevitable turf battles that emerged as spending and responsibilities shifted and overlapped, and the near-impossible task of determining the effectiveness of a system that has grown so massive so quickly and with so little transparency.

Here are just a few of the investigation’s findings included in the online report:

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – about 17 million square feet of space.

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/a-look-at-the-washington-posts-top-secret-america/