A military strike against Iran would have "unintended consequences", US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned, sounding the Obama administration's strongest reservation about an attack since the release of a UN report, which suspected Tehran was working on a nuclear explosive device.
Asked by Frank Sesno, former CNN anchor who moderated the conversation, if the story that Pakistan handed over parts of the helicopter that went down in bin Laden's compound -- or gave access -- to the Chinesse before returning it to the US was true, United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta first started shifting uneasily in his seat and then started laughing and said, "this is a very complicated relationship with Pakistan."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday joined Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in deploring the video in which US marines are seen urinating on the dead bodies of the Taliban fighters.
Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta has confronted Pakistan's military leadership with evidence of collusion between militants and security officials in the country, causing fresh strains in the troubled United States-Pak ties.
In a major goof-up, new US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta clubbed India and China, describing them as emerging "threats", but his office quickly retracted the remarks, saying Washington strongly values close ties with New Delhi.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a fraud, a liar and a hypocrite, top Democratic leaders and speakers at the party's national convention said as they lashed out at the billionaire from New York.
Pakistani officials were kept deliberately out of loop by the United States in its operation to get Osama bin Laden as it feared they might "alert" the targets and "jeopardise" the mission, Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta said on Tuesday.
Top US security officials briefed Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday, on the probe into the botched car bombing in New York by a Pakistani-American and discussed measures to prevent "potential attacks."
Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, the world's most wanted terrorists, are hiding "inside Pakistan", CIA chief Leon Panetta has said and claimed that aggressive US operations against Al Qaeda have disrupted its ability to plan sophisticated attacks.
CIA Director Leon E Panetta said: "The bottom line here is that the war on terrorism is not just about Al Qaeda. It is a series of terrorist groups that are basically confronting us and it is the kinds of changes that we see in their methods of approaching the United States that I think represents the very important threat that we have to pay attention to."
Blair's assessment came at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee when panel chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein asked him to weigh up the possibility of an attempted attack in the United States.
United States Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta says that while the CIA has been scrupulously tracking the whereabouts of Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal, it has no intelligence about where they are dispersed.
The Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E Panetta on Thursday confirmed that seven of its officers died while six others were wounded in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, the deadliest single attack on a United States intelligence agency.
The decision by the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta who chose India for his first overseas trip--unprecedented in the annals of the spy agency's history-- was deliberate and intended to sustain the momentum and institutionalize the unprecedented intelligence cooperation between Washington and New Delhi that began in the aftermath of the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, say intelligence officials.
Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta has said that the drone attacks against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban targets inside Pakistan would continue.
One could assess without fear of contradiction that the New Delhi visit of Panetta, who is still to find his feet as an intelligence chief, would have had a much larger political objective for Obama. Firstly, to reassure Indian leaders that Clinton's first visit to China does not mean the downgrading of the US relations with India.
United States Deputy Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter, who played a critical role in boosting Indo-US defence ties, on Friday said that he will step down in December.
'We have a common way of looking at the world, a common way of thinking, and a common set of values that predispose us to be partners. And our interests overlap greatly,' US Deputy Defence Secretary Dr Ashton B Carter tells Aziz Haniffa in an interview.
"Secretary Hagel is strongly committed to the US strategic partnership with India and to fostering an even closer defence relationship with India that builds upon the work of Secretary [Leon] Panetta, Deputy Secretary [Ashton] Carter, and their Indian counterparts," Pentagon spokesperson George Little told Washington Free Beacon.
Republican Senators Monday expressed concern over the views of Chuck Hagel, nominated by US President Barack Obama as his next defence secretary, on several key issues, as the White House defended him saying that he is in "sync" with the president's policies.
US President Barack Obama and his Defence Secretary Leon Panetta have praised special forces for conducting a successful rescue operation in Afghanistan that left one American soldier and seven terrorists dead.
America's top commander in Afghanistan is being probed for his alleged "inappropriate communication" with a woman linked to former CIA director David Petraeus, who resigned abruptly last week over an extramarital affair.
In a landmark decision, United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta Monday announced to extend benefits being accorded to same sex partners serving within the American armed services.
'Such barbaric acts reflect that there has been a Talibanisation of the Pakistan army. An army that gets used to barbarism cannot overnight change and behave in a humanitarian manner and abide by the code of conventional/unconventional operations,' says retired Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar.
Visiting United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday, strongly backed America's drone campaign, which flies unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, from Afghanistan into Pakistan's tribal areas to launch missile attacks on terrorists who feature on a detailed hit list, says Ajai Shukla
Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday assured the United States that with a strong security force, Afghanistan would not be threatened by terrorists from across its borders post-2014 when the America-led international force withdraws from the war-torn country.
The much sought after H-1B visa programme, particularly among Indian technology graduates, discriminates against women.
Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping on Wednesday met visiting US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, in the first public meeting with a visiting foreign dignitary since his mysterious disappearance early this month that sparked rumours about his health.
China on Tuesday warned that it reserves the right to take "further actions" over its maritime dispute with Japan even as fresh anti-Japan protests erupted across the country forcing top Japanese firms to remain padlocked.
Three marines have received non-judicial punishment for their role in the incident in which United States soldiers were accused of urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and recording the act.
United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday defended the administration's response to last year's terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that claimed the life of the US ambassador to Libya.
Egypt's military council was scheduled to meet on Thursday, without Hosni Mubarak, its leader, in a move that points to the fact that the Egyptian leader could step down.
The Taliban has chosen to interpret the lack of open Indian enthusiasm on the US idea of Indian military training role in Afghanistan as Indian rejection of the US feelers, says B Raman.
In the strongest warning so far to Pakistan, the United States on Thursday said it is reaching the limits of its patience with Islamabad for allowing terrorist safe havens, specially the dreaded Haqqani network.
Chinese analysts say that United States' efforts to make India part of its alliance against China will not succeed, as they believe India pursued independent foreign policy focusing on its national interests.
A top Republican Senator has slammed the Obama administration's plan to end the Afghanistan combat mission in 2013, saying the "very unfortunate" move is more directed towards domestic politics rather than ground realities. "It is very unfortunate that the administration continues to provide reassurance to our enemies that the United States is more eager to leave Afghanistan than to succeed," Senator John McCain said.
Bolstering his hunch, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency at the time when US Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in Pakistan's Abbottabad town, said there were intelligence reports of Pakistani military helicopters passing over the compound where the Al Qaeda chief was hiding.
Top Pentagon leaders have warned US lawmakers against including their "pet projects" in the annual defence budget, particularly at a time when it is struggling to save money in view of the tough economic environment.
Pakistan continues to tolerate and abet the insurgency in Afghanistan, particularly the Haqqani terror network, as it aims for a Pak-friendly government in Kabul with limited Indian influence, the United States said on Friday in a key report prepared for the American Congress.
The US has decided to give top priority to its ties with India, which is reflected in an unprecedented series of high-level exchange of visits between the two countries this month aimed at taking forward their cooperation in areas like defence, trade and education.
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