Gen. Stanley McChrystal, right, arrives at a U.S. base in Logar Province, Afghanistan, last month.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

President Obama’s national security team is now intensively looking at alternative strategies for the war in Afghanistan they hope to present to the President within the next three weeks, a senior U.S. official familiar with the highly confidential discussions told CNN Wednesday.

The alternatives would not require the tens of thousands of additional troops General Stanley McChrystal says would be needed to carry out the counterinsurgency called for by the President back in March. Several sources tell CNN McChrystal’s assessment—which only offered the single option of a full counterinsurgency effort—essentially put the President in the position of all or nothing acceptance. Officials privately describe the situation as the president being ‘in a box,” and the situation as messy.

Keep reading

Barbara Starr and Adam Levine
CNN

The Obama administration is in the process of establishing new procedures that could allow prisoners to challenge their detentions at a U.S. facility in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

For the first time at the Bagram Air Base detention facility, detainees will be given representatives who will help them prepare their cases.

Under the new policy, which was decided in July, a first review of a detainee's status will come within 60 days of detention, Whitman explained. They will have a military person appointed as a "personal representative" who can shepherd them through the process and help gather witness statements, although it's not at all clear how that would happen.

Those already in detention will be given a personal representative to assist them in front of a review board for their appearances every six months.

Keep Reading...

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

While the military has instituted dozens of programs to help troubled soldiers with post traumatic stress, brain injuries, and other problems, a number of troops at Fort Hood have privately told the nation’s top military officer they feel they are treated poorly because they are wounded, ill or injured.

In an April 19 confidential memo to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, outlined a number of problems he observed during a trip to several military locations in Texas days before. CNN obtained the memo from a military source, and both the Army and Mullen staffers confirmed its authenticity.

Keep reading

Barbara Starr
Pentagon Correspondent

Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the first time is outlining potential Obama Administration plans to selectively enforce the "don't ask don't tell" ban on gays in the military so that some gays could serve.

Gates says he is now looking at ways to make the ban "more humane" including letting people serve who may have been outed due to vengeance or a jilted lover. The remarks were made in a transcript released Tuesday by the Pentagon.

Gates told reporters traveling with him, "One of the things we're looking at - is there flexibility in how we apply this law?" As the "don't ask don't tell" law now stands, anyone who is openly gay in the military is expelled if they are found out.

Gates indicated he is looking at several options. "Let me give you an example. Do we need to be driven when the information, to take action on somebody, if we get that information from somebody who may have vengeance in mind or blackmail or somebody who has been jilted."

Keep reading...

Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear more on the North Korea nuclear threat on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Commercial satellite imagery of Yongbyon Nuclear site from the Institute for Science and International Security.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

Here's some insight to consider, as North Korea launches short range rockets and threatens military action, while thousands of US troops are stationed in the region:

- Four US military sources tell me there is no evidence North Korea has restarted its nuclear plant. An analysis of commercial satellite imagery by the Institute for Science and International Security makes a similar observation. Based on their reading of satellite images taken May 26th there does not appear to be any emissions from the plant.  That’s not to say the situation won’t change.

- There is no unusual military movement on the North Korean side of the border, US military sources say, noting that NK is ‘getting a lot of mileage” out of this rhetoric and saber rattling, as always. But there's no evidence at this point that North Korea is taking any conventional military steps.

- I am told the US has no current plans to move any units around inside the Pacific theater or send fresh units there. US troops in Korea are always at the ready but there is no move to step up the stance.

- There is concern about the nuclear test. The US is analyzing air samples and we might get some results by the end of the week

The bottom line: there is tons of rhetoric, little action. The big focus remains the nuke test.

A U.S. soldier on patrol in Khost province in February 2009.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

The Pentagon is considering a significant overhaul in how it deploys critical military units to Afghanistan to fight the insurgency, a U.S. military source tells CNN. The change is based on the experience in Iraq of special operations units commanded by Lt. General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal is slated to become the next top commander in Afghanistan if he is confirmed by the Senate.

The plan is evolving as Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expressing growing concern that American public support for the war in Afghanistan will begin declining unless the Obama Administration can demonstrate progress in improving the security situation by the end of this year according to his top spokesman.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell tells CNN that Gates believes “its critically important” for both the US and Afghan governments to make progress in the coming months although “that doesn’t mean you have to have decisive gains,” Morrell said.

Secretary Gates believes the Taliban has momentum in southern Afghanistan at this time, Morrell said. But with more than 20,000 additional US troops on the way to the warzone, people want to see “tangible” progress, Morrell said.

Keep reading

A machine gun points out from a U.S. Marine helicopter flying over southwest Afghanistan.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

Two little-noticed but telling press releases today from U.S. Forces in Afghanistan offer clues that bad times may be ahead in Afghanistan. Essentially the coalition said that over just 12 hours it had located and destroyed two ZPU-1 anti-aircraft guns in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. These are Soviet era weapons, long considered obsolete in the West.

So what's to worry? Plenty.

Operated by a four-man crew they shoot down helicopters. And for the Marines in southern Afghanistan, that’s bad news.

Senior US commanders are concerned…wondering if this capability could be a ‘game changer” in the hands of insurgents. It was just a few days ago while in Helmand with CNN that General James Conway talked about the latest intelligence indicating insurgents had heavy anti-aircraft weapons:

“We are hearing intelligence reports to that degree. We have not actually been fired on. Nor have we identified them on the ground with our surveillance and reconnaissance but there rumors there are intercepts there are indications that there could be something like that in the weeks and months to come.”

Keep reading

U.S. soldiers stand guard outside a mosque during a prisoner release Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq.

Barbara Starr
Pentagon Correspondent

President Obama is expected to approve a proposal to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq within 19 months, Pentagon officials told CNN Wednesday.

Although no decision has been announced by the White House, "That's the way the wind is blowing," a Pentagon official said.

A White House spokesman said the president has made no final decisions about Iraq policy.

Obama's campaign pledge was to withdraw combat troops within 16 months. But shortly after taking office, he asked Pentagon and military commanders for an analysis of other time frames.

The Pentagon sent Obama options for withdrawals at 16, 19, and 23 months.

It is expected that the final plan will call for the majority of combat forces to be withdrawn, and keep as many as 50,000 in Iraq to serve mainly as military trainers or advisers.

U.S. military officials said even those residual forces could find themselves in combat.

For the last two months, the U.S. Central Command has been assessing how equipment and personnel will be withdrawn from Iraq, according to a U.S. military official. Video Watch what Obama said Tuesday night about Iraq.

The official did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of discussing withdrawal details before the president's announcement. However, he said the U.S. military is looking at exit routes through Jordan and Kuwait.

The military is trying to determine what equipment might be returned to the United States; transferred to the Iraqi or Jordanian government; sent to Afghanistan; or simply discarded.

Reporter's Note: Tune in to hear more on this story from Peter Bergen tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Barbara Starr | BIO
Pentagon Correspondent

A few points from a US military official with specific direct knowledge of the Afghanistan deployment and what the US military is planning there.

1. the increased troop levels expected to last at minimum three to four years.

2. Obama authorized 17K, 12K will get orders soon, another 5K of support troops will get their orders at a later date.

3. The additional troops will ALL go to Afghanistan’s southern border region with Pakistan. The aim is primarily (but not solely) to begin to stop the flow of foreign fighters across that border.

4. The US troops will be dual purpose: combat and also training afghan army units. But at least another 2,000 US troops needed specifically for the training mission.

Keep reading

President-elect Obama visited injured soldiers and helped volunteers on Monday.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

A US military official confirms to CNN that President elect Barack Obama visited Ward 57 when he went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier today.

Ward 57 is the area of the hospital where mainly those who have undergone amputation or massive other surgeries for their wounds are treated once they are out of ICU. The Ward encompasses an entire floor with a nurses station in the middle and from each side two rows of rooms stretching down the hallway.

When you visit there are often little kids and other family members on the ward visiting their wounded family member. Depending on the case, some wounded are at the point where they can get themselves in and out of wheelchairs, so they might be out in the halls, but some are just out of surgery and in very tough shape—if he visited those he would have been escorted into the room most likely by himself, as the rooms are small.