ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: Army TImes
08April2011 8:20pmEST
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: As the Army and the other military services face the prospect of a government shutdown by the end of the week, they are looking to the Civil War Era “Feed and Forage Act,” for potential authorities to continue operations, according to Army budget officials.
Under the law, the government is allowed to buy “clothing, subsistence, forage, fuel, quarters, transportation, or medical and hospital supplies,” for the troops before receiving the necessary appropriation from Congress.
The Act was first created during the Civil War for soldiers operating out West who had no idea whether a spending bill had been passed in Washington, but needed to resupply their ammunition, food and other necessary provisions, said John Cooney, who served as deputy general counsel in the Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan administration. (read full report)
Speaking at West Point to leaders of tomorrow’s Army, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that “any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” This underscored Gates’s point that “the most plausible, high-end scenarios for the U.S. military are primarily naval and air engagements — whether in Asia, the Persian Gulf or elsewhere.”
The staff of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, head of the effort to train Afghan security forces, ordered the information operations unit to compile profiles, voting records and other information on visiting lawmakers to leverage in a campaign to get more assistance, said a story Thursday on Rolling Stone’s website. It says the campaign also improperly targeted the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and others.
Maj. Gen. Kurt Fuller said special operations forces are presently working on 116 missions in 53 countries -- and "that's actually sort of low. It's usually somewhere between 60 and 65 countries, small numbers of people in most spots that total between 5,500 and 6,000 people."
warned that combat will likely escalate during the spring thaw as Taliban insurgents try to return to areas cleared by the international forces during the past several months.
Jan 31 he feared Egypt could end up with a radical Islamic regime as in Iran that would "grind human rights to dust" and go against the interests all the peoples of the region share for peace and stability.
of employees in the Von Braun Complex parking lot here were the focus of a group of young engineers involved in an experiment with the first Army-built satellite launched in more than 50 years.
"If you're listening to a radio, if you're talking on a cell phone, if you're using a GPS you're tied to the electromagnetic spectrum," said Maj. Gregory Griffin, 1st Armored Division Headquarters. "It's a very functional part of the battlefield. Everyone uses it. Everyone relies on it - adversaries as well as friendlies."