Barbara Starr | BIO
Pentagon Correspondent

Notes from CNN’s Barbara Starr

- Two US military officials confirm to CNN that the Obama national security team is scheduled for a transition meeting this morning. Expected attendance: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Admiral Michael Mullen, Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton, national security advisor James Jones. (not expected Obama or Biden will attend but I don’t have that confirmed one way or the other)

- Topics will be ‘security matters’ the team will face upon taking office the officials say. you can assume middle east is on the list officials say though neither has seen the official agenda.

- Also a ‘tank’ meeting scheduled this afternoon for joint chiefs on Afghanistan strategy review—which is also one of the first issues facing national security team.

CNN’s Barbara Starr has the story and the dramatic video from April 2006 of U.S. troops caught in a firefight in Afghanistan.

A wounded man is carried from the attacked rail station.

Barbara Starr | BIO
Pentagon Correspondent

Intel services from the US, India and Britain were trying to piece together what they knew in the wake of the Mumbai bombing, a US official tells me.

There is some thought, according to this source, that the attack might be linked to a group called LET (Lashkar-E-Tayyaba). It’s a terrorist group that is active in the region. One of the largest and most active Islamic militant organizations in south asia–a group that has carried out major attacks in India–its objective ..ending Indian rule KASHMIR–

A US counterterrorism official says “when you see the choice of target and the sophistication of the attack,” Islamic extremism is what would come to mind.

“No one would be surprised if its Islamic extremists,” the counterterrorism official added.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Al Qaeda central, it could be a related group. What are US experts looking at for clues? The level of organization, money, financing, and communication needed to pull this off.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

Barack Obama’s potential national security team is looking like a galaxy of high power big star talent. Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State. Retired General Jim Jones as National Security Advisor. Retired Admiral Dennis Blair is rumored to be on tap for Director of National Intelligence–one of a handful of military officers who did a high level tour of duty at the CIA.

And of course there is growing buzz that Obama will ask Bob Gates to stay on as as Secretary of Defense.

But how can all these high powered egos work together? The answer is Obama will want them to…so they will. First up; Gates. He has been pressing for months for the State Department to contribute personnel and billions of dollars in aid for Iraq and Afghanistan. AND he wants the next secretary of state to try again to get NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton’s star power on the world stage may be the ticket to make that happen.

But the real power broker may be this man–retired Marine Corps four star General James Jones–a former Middle East advisor, and a man with decades of military experience. His job: make sure President Obama gets all the best advice–but also make sure–the team plays together nicely.

So what about two other key players: Admiral Mike Mullen chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General David Petraeus, now head of Central Command and the currently serving four star overseas military operations in the Middle East. Both men are used to having a direct line to President Bush–everyone is watching to see if it will be the same rules of the road in the Obama White House.

Activists shout slogans during an anti-US protest rally in Karachi on Thursday.

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

A senior US military official with direct knowledge confirms these are the top Al Qaeda operatives the U.S. believes have been killed in action as a result of strikes in Pakistan. I realize some of these names (Habib and al Libi in particular) have been out before…but it gives us indication of the success of strikes inside Pakistan.

Wednesday night:

Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, the main link between Al-Qaeda’s senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region with Afghanistan.

Also:

Abu Jihad al Masri (AQ Propaganda Chief, KIA Oct 08)

Khalid Habib (AQ #4, KIA Oct 08)

Abu Khabab al Masri (AQ Chemical/Explosives expert, KIA Jul 08)

Abu Layth al Libi (AQ senior cdr, KIA Jan 08)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

1. The question of whether Defense Secretary Robert Gates would stay on the job, if asked by President–elect Barack Obama is a matter of “minute by minute” speculation around the Pentagon according to a senior defense official who said only Gates knows what is really going on at this point. The official said many senior department officials continue to internally discuss the possibility, but he noted Gates staying on “would be difficult in a practical sense,” because so many of the existing senior staff members are political appointees from the Bush Administration.

For example, two of the most influential senior staff members: Robert Rangel, chief of staff and Jim O’Bierne, chief of White House liaison are deep Bush political loyalists—who would have to be replaced—even though Gates has relied on them since the day he got here. Also all the undersecretaries and assistant secretaries would have to leave as a practical political matter, this official said. The bottom line is…do you really ask Bush loyalists to stay?

Nobody knows the answer. This person who is close to Gates but pretty even handed…says his read is Gates hasn’t been formally asked yet. He believes Gates is playing it very close to the vest, to see what the offer looks like, and what those critical staff arrangements would be. He acknowledges the current rumour of the morning is Gates staying, and Richard Danzig as deputy—and moving up. but who knows? Anything still possible…but if Gates stays the details will be awfully interesting.

Some Obama transition people were in the Pentagon on Friday. Top transition official Michelle Flournoy comes to the building today for courtesy calls.

2. Re Obama saying on 60 Minutes last nite he will close Gitmo. This same senior defense official who is a position to know says the Pentagon has long looked at two options. The brig at Charleston , and fed prisons. In addition to legal questions he says members of congress in those areas have been adamantly opposed. He says the estimate is there are currently about 80 detainees considered still to be such a threat they could not likely be released.

Editor’s Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.

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This week, the Pentagon's September 11th memorial will be dedicated to those lost in the attack. CNN's Barbara Starr reports.

Barbara Starr | BIO
Pentagon Correspondent

Journalists are trained that most of the time, the world is gray. Nothing is black and white, there is always some nuance, or piece of context to report. We look for that little something of gray to help explain to our readers and viewers what is going on in the world. The color gray went away that day.

I have always thought I must have been the most clueless journalist in America that morning. I woke up early, saw the weather was absolutely gorgeous in Washington DC and thought only about how early I could sneak out of work since it was my birthday. The phone in the kitchen rang, a Pentagon source was telling me an unmanned drone had crashed a few hours earlier in Iraq. Still, on September 11, 2001, I thought, heck Iraq’s not really a big story, I can still get out early.

I was working as the Pentagon correspondent for ABC News, with the late Jack McWethy, broadcasting from the Pentagon press area along the famous E-ring of the building…home to offices of top generals, admirals, the Defense Secretary and the always cynical press corps.

The morning was beautiful, sunny and warm. I always wondered how America missed the clouds of horror that would explode two hours later. I think you had to be at one of the attack sites to really understand that feeling.

Keep reading

Barbara Starr
Pentagon Correspondent

Americans have heard the name General David Petraeus and the word Iraq many times together. But with today’s announcement that Petraeus is moving up to head the US Central Command….the name you will start hearing will be General Raymond Odierno. And, you might be wondering…who is “Ray” Odierno?

Odierno commanded the 4th Infantry Division in 2003 when it pulled Saddam Hussein out of the spider hole. Odierno was on his way home in 2004 when his then 26-year-old son Tony was headed into Iraq—the two met for a 90-minute dinner in a mess tent in Kuwait. General Odierno at that point was sometimes referred to as “Tony Soprano” for his very tough line with Iraqis suspected of being involved in insurgent activity.

But for the entire Odierno family, the war was about to change.

Keep reading

-CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr

The rifle has always been a soldier’s best friend, but these days it was never more true for the thousands of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq who may round a corner and suddenly find themselves in a firefight. That brings us to news over the weekend about the M4 carbine, the workhorse of military rifles. The military and Congress are beginning to look at alternatives.

But guess what? The US Special Operations Command is already on the case.
SOCOM is home to the nations’ most covert troops, the commandos who hunt Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists around the world from the mountains of Afghanistan to the deserts of Iraq.  SOCOM is about to put a new assault rifle in the hands of its operatives that the military says is more reliable than the M4. And while most troops have never even seen the new rifle, I got to fire it…  

Before we get into what that was like, a couple highlights: SOCOM says the new gun won’t jam in the desert dust, is more reliable overall, and most importantly has interchangeable components. For example you can put a shorter barrel on the front if you are about to kick down a door, enter a building and go around tight corners. And with greater accuracy than older rifles, a soldier can stand further away from the enemy and stay out of range.

Keep reading

When you are a Pentagon correspondent, as I have been since….oh…I don’t want to say how long….you learn that news comes from the strangest places in the 17.5 miles of Pentagon hallways. 

In fact just the other day one of the CIA liaison officers who works here and I were chatting, in the hallway, and he pointed his ‘best intel’ came from hanging out at the Pentagon’s Dunkin Donuts counter in the morning where he could “run into everybody” he needed to talk to without wasting time in endless meetings.

Sometimes you get news by just being in the hallways. You can really get a feel for when things seem to be other than normal, when people are in a crisis mode.

But sometimes you get the most important news by just keeping track of the tidbits and waiting a few weeks for a story to move off the front page. Once it’s out of the headlines, then it’s time to get down to business and talk to my various deep throats around here.

So here’s a tidbit, but it’s darn interesting. 

Keep reading