POLITICO
Scandals have prompted calls for more oversight of Special Operations Command.
U.S. Special Operations Command chief Gen. Richard Clarke listens during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. | Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images
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Over the past several years, America’s special operations forces have been rocked by a string of scandals drug trafficking, murder and multiple
investigations involving war crimes. As the cultural chaos unfolded, top civilian Pentagon officials moved to exert more control over America’s most elite military units.
But now, the academic arm of the military command that directly oversees those troops is quietly conducting a study that critics say is designed to help fend off additional efforts to increase civilian oversight of the community.
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POLITICO
A misplaced or unaccounted-for weapon is a major security risk, Guard members said.
National Guard stand their posts around the Capitol at sunrise. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
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The Army has dispatched its in-house criminal investigative arm to probe the potential theft of a rifle from the D.C. National Guard while the unit was training in Virginia three weeks ago, an Army spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.
The M4 rifle and its scope went missing around March 11, according to two people familiar with the investigation, as members of a quick reaction force that was formed to protect the U.S. Capitol were training at a weapons range at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia.
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