Pentagon calls Mosul briefing a mistake by CENTCOM

A U.S. military officer's media briefing about plans for an Iraqi-led ground offensive in Mosul, including its expected timing, amounted to a mistaken disclosure of "military secrets," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday.

Dempsey says Iranian hand in Iraq could turn out well

Previous: US-Iraq mission to take back Mosul to launch in April or May

In first testimony as DOD chief, Carter defends White House defense budget

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told senators that President Barack Obama’s proposed $534-billion budget will allow the military to defend the country and fight wars.

Defense secretary wrests control of policy debates with stellar first week

CENTCOM chief: Islamic State can be defeated without US ground troops

The general in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East defended the Obama administration’s war strategy Tuesday, telling House lawmakers that the Islamic State will be defeated without U.S. ground combat troops.

Airstrikes starting to take toll on Islamic State's money flow

Stories of grief, love, penance in mementos left at the Wall

Over the past three decades, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall has become a hallowed spot, a place of pilgrimage, homage and reconciliation. Now, some of the 400,000 items left there over the years by visitors are being selected for display in the new $115 million Vietnam War education center planned for a site nearby.

Stars and Stripes special report: Vietnam at 50

Ex-CIA chief Petraeus admits sharing military secrets with mistress

Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose career was destroyed by an affair with his biographer, has agreed to plead guilty to charges he gave her classified material — including war strategy and the names of covert operatives — while she was working on the book.

Netanyahu warns Congress against striking a ‘bad’ nuclear deal with Iran

Standing at the rostum of the House of Representatives, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly challenged the Obama administration’s top foreign policy goal Tuesday, saying negotiations with Iran were headed for “a very bad deal; we’re better off without it.”

Like a Rubik's Cube: The 6 gaps that remain in Iran nuclear talks

Veteran jobs

See more at the Stars and Stripes Veteran Job Center.

Find your 2014 Basic Allowance for Housing rate

Ombudsman

Ernie Gates, Stars and Stripes' ombudsman

Official 2014 military pay tables

Person in custody in Maryland shootings, damaged NSA building

A person believed responsible for shootings along highways over the last two weeks in the Baltimore-Washington area, including shots that damaged a National Security Agency building, is in custody, the FBI said early Wednesday.
North Korea: Airmen died with ‘suicidal-attack spirit’ during 2009 missile launch

North Korea lost 14 airmen to an accident during the launch of a long-range missile and satellite in 2009, according to a state media report issued Tuesday.
Four months in, Veterans Choice Program remains underused, officials say

The report’s survey of veterans found that 80 percent of the 1,068 respondents who were interested in and eligible to receive outside medical care through the Veterans Choice Program had not been offered non-VA care.
Report: International rules needed for armed drone use
Casualties, desertions spike as Afghan forces take lead
Terror investigators revisit home in teen’s Islamic State case
Senate follows House with bill to reclaim VA bonuses
Lawyer: NSA leaker Edward Snowden wants to return home
Pentagon calls Mosul briefing a mistake by CENTCOM
USS New York chaplain honors 9/11 firefighters each night

Sunken Japan WWII warship found off Philippines

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen says he's found a massive Japanese World War II battleship off the Philippines near where it sank over 70 years ago.
North Korea: Airmen died with ‘suicidal-attack spirit’ during 2009 missile launch

North Korea lost 14 airmen to an accident during the launch of a long-range missile and satellite in 2009, according to a state media report issued Tuesday.
Official says China to boost military budget by 10 percent
In Beijing, political pomp abounds as China kicks off ‘two meetings’

Person in custody in Maryland shootings, damaged NSA building

A person believed responsible for shootings along highways over the last two weeks in the Baltimore-Washington area, including shots that damaged a National Security Agency building, is in custody, the FBI said early Wednesday.
Different views of bombing suspect to be given at trial

Two dramatically different portraits of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are expected to emerge when prosecutors and Tsarnaev's lawyers give their opening statements at his federal death penalty trial.
'American Sniper' killer files appeal
Four months in, Veterans Choice Program remains underused, officials say
Congress sends Homeland Security bill to Obama without conditions
Like a Rubik's Cube: The 6 gaps that remain in Iran nuclear talks
Terror investigators revisit home in teen’s Islamic State case
USS Cole defense lawyers want entire Senate ‘Torture Report’

Kerry heading to Saudi Arabia to consult on Iran nuke talks

Fresh from the latest round of Iran nuclear negotiations, Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to Saudi Arabia to ease Gulf Arab concerns about an emerging deal and discuss ways to calm instability in troubled Yemen.
ANALYSIS

US on sidelines of key Iraqi battle against Islamic State

The campaign for Tikrit is a dress rehearsal for the real contest: The fight to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the extremists' biggest stronghold. But can a large-scale ground offensive alone succeed, without U.S.-led air support?
Pentagon calls Mosul briefing a mistake by CENTCOM
Syrian war refugees seen by US as terror recruiting targets