The national debt is the single biggest threat to national security, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Tax payers will be paying around $600 billion in interest on the national debt by 2012, the chairman told students and local leaders in Detroit.
“That’s one year’s worth of defense budget,” he said, [...]

In a video message released today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the Defense INVEST Program, which is designed to solicit ideas from DoD employees and service members on ways to reduce costs.
During a briefing held Aug. 9, Gates said he is looking for military and DoD civilian personnel to think outside the box on ways [...]

Admiral Thad W. Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, was relieved by Admiral Robert Papp yesterday. Adm. Allen will continue to serve as National Incident Commander for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It has been an honor to serve as your Commandant for the past four years and I [...]

Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, both members of the 9/11 Commission, appeared before the House Committee on Homeland Security to discuss the nature of the terrorist threat to the United States.
“The conventional wisdom for years has been that al Qaeda’s preferred method was a spectacular attack like 9/11. But the defining characteristic of today’s threat [...]

The U.S. Air Force is looking to align its work with “a new National Security Strategy, the Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense Review, and strategic reviews of the Nation’s space, nuclear and ballistic missile defense postures,” according to testimony presented to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
During a hearing earlier this week, Michael B. Donley, Secretary [...]

During a Service Chiefs’ Panel at the Navy League Sea Air Space 2010 Exposition in Maryland this week, Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) told the audience that the current pace of operations in the Navy is incredibly busy due to current commitments and pointed to the need to increase affordability.
Discussing the Navy’s [...]

Federal CTO and CIO Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra believe that the Open Government Initiatives for each agency “are off to a good start–but have much more work to do.”
In a blog post on the White House website, Chopra and Kundra outlined three major findings from reviews of the plans submitted by agencies against the [...]

The U.S.-Pakistani partnership is vital to U.S. strategic interests, senior Defense Department officials told Congress members yesterday. Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John M. Paxton Jr., director of operations for the Joint Staff, each said that continued funding of Pakistan’s civilian and military efforts to combat [...]

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra recently unveiled the new Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) guidance which will look to use “real-time electronic data that feed directly and immediately into security monitoring and alert systems.”
In a blog post, Kundra writes “This change means that agencies will be able to identify vulnerabilities faster [...]

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday outlining the recent progress of the Department of Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke about the problem with determining which forum would be appropriate for the 9/11 suspects to be tried.
Asked to report on DOJ’s work, priorities and goals, Holder detailed thwarted terrorist plots and mentioned [...]