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Kristina Wong

kwong@washingtontimes.com

Kristina Wong was a national security reporter for The Washington Times.

Articles by Kristina Wong

**FILE** Gen. John Allen (left), and Army Gen. David Petraeus (center), top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and incoming CIA Director, greet former CIA Director and new U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as he lands in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 9, 2011. (Associated Press)

Panetta wants ethics training review done soon

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review ethics training in the aftermath of high-profile scandals involving senior officers.

November 15, 2012
Attorney General Eric Holder speaks Nov. 13, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa, during the investiture of Stephanie Rose, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. (Associated Press)

Holder, Mueller were mum on Petraeus for weeks

Congressional leaders are calling on Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to explain why their agencies kept information about former CIA Director David H. Petraeus' extramarital affair from the White House, Congress and the U.S. intelligence community as the scandal expanded and ensnared the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

November 13, 2012
An undated photo shows Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 26, of Ketchum, Idaho, at least three years ago. The Pentagon confirmed in July 2009 that Sgt. Bergdahl, then a private, had been captured while serving in Afghanistan. (Bergdahl family via Associated Press)

Waiting for POW captured by Taliban in 2009

An empty chair on display at a Veterans Day ceremony in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Monday symbolized the costs military families face when loved ones have been killed or declared missing in action.

November 12, 2012
A U.S. Predator drone (Associated Press)

Iran warns U.S. over drone incident

Iran issued a bellicose warning to the U.S. over the weekend, after American officials disclosed last week that the Islamic republic had tried to shoot down a U.S. drone in international airspace near the Iranian coast on Nov. 1.

November 11, 2012
** FILE ** In this Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, file photo, Libyans walk on the grounds of the gutted U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack the previous day that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Alaguri)

Pentagon releases timeline of Benghazi attack

The Pentagon on Friday released a timeline of its response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, pushing back arguments that the Defense Department did not move fast enough to thwart the assault.

November 9, 2012
A U.S. Predator drone (Associated Press)

U.S. says Iranian jets fired at U.S. drone over Gulf

Two Iranian fighter jets pursued and fired at a U.S. predator drone on Nov. 1, but failed to take it down, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. The unmanned surveillance aircraft returned to base unharmed, a Defense Department spokesman said.

November 8, 2012
Syrians gather at the scene of a blast in Damascus on Monday, according to state-run Al-Ikhbariya television. Several people were killed and injured, the station reported. The U.S. believes a new opposition council would prevent al Qaeda terrorists and other “bad actors” from hijacking the 19-month revolt. (SANA via Associated Press)

U.S. pushes for new rebel council in Syria

The Obama administration is pushing this week to create a new Syrian opposition council that would have more legitimacy in the uprising against President Bashar Assad and prevent al Qaeda terrorists and other "bad actors" from hijacking the revolt, according to a U.S. official involved in the initiative.

November 5, 2012
Burnt out school block following a gun battle and explosions by the Boko Haram sect in Potiskum, Nigeria, Saturday, Oct. 20 , 2012. A Chinese construction worker has been killed in a besieged city in Nigeria's northeast, an official said, exacerbating security concerns for foreign workers in Nigeria's violence-wracked northeast. (AP Photo/Adamu Adamu)

In Africa, an Islamist convergence seen as a threat

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has conducted terrorist attacks in Nigeria that bring it closer to al Qaeda in northern Mali, making linkages between the groups more likely and more dangerous, according to a paper published by the Combating Terrorism Center.

October 30, 2012
**FILE** U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies Feb. 14, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Armed Services Committee to outline the Pentagon's budget. (Associated Press)

Dempsey hits rumors about AfriCom chief’s departure

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Monday dispelled rumors that the chief of U.S. Africa Command is being replaced because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

October 29, 2012
**FILE** U.S. Brig. Gen. John Charlton (left) and U.S. Lt. Col. Kevin Lambert talk Oct. 10, 2012, at the U.S base in An Band district in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan. Charlton is a deputy commander of Regional Command-East as well as the senior American advisor to the commander of the Afgan National Army’s 203rd Corps, Lambert is commander of 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. (Associated Press)

Official: Army to be lighter, leaner, more agile

The Army is looking to get leaner, more lethal and more agile after having fought two ground wars over the past decade and now facing budget constraints, a Pentagon official says.

October 25, 2012
** FILE ** Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on April 7, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Congress urges Pentagon to buy American

Congressional Republicans and Democrats sent an irate letter Tuesday to a Pentagon official requesting that the U.S. military issue uniforms made in America, not China.

October 23, 2012
Army Pfc. Morgan Alford (Photo by Sgt. Ryan Hallock/U.S. Army)

Gitmo guards don’t blink in war on terror

Eternal vigilance is the price of being a guard at this U.S. military detention center, where some of its 166 detainees from the war on terrorism believe they are "still in the fight."

October 22, 2012
In this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by the U.S. Department of Defense, the five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, back row from left, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid bin Attash and the alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, attend their Military Commissions pretrial hearing in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. The five accused of the Sept. 11 attacks were back before a military tribunal, forgoing the protest that turned their last appearance into an unruly 13-hour spectacle. (AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, Pool)

Accused 9/11 plotter rants at Guantanamo court

The accused mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, appeared Wednesday in a camouflage vest and railed against the U.S. government at the military tribunal where he is being prosecuted.

October 17, 2012
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (right) and co-defendant Walid bin Attash attend a U.S. military hearing at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Saturday, May 5, 2012, in this sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin. (AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, Pool)

9/11 tribunal to take on rat feces at Guantanamo

The U.S. military tribunal that is hearing pre-trial motions in the case of the accused 9/11 plotters is slated to address a contentious issue during Wednesday's proceedings — rat feces.

October 16, 2012
** FILE ** In this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by the U.S. Department of Defense, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed holds up a piece of paper during a court recess Oct. 15, 2012, at his Military Commissions pretrial hearing in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. (Associated Press)

Accused 9/11 conspirators appear in court at Guantanamo

The self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and four of his alleged accomplices appeared Monday in U.S. military court for an oft-delayed pre-trial hearing that will help determine how their eventual trial will be conducted.

October 15, 2012
U.S. troops in May 2009 walk near the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Congressional Republicans have expressed new suspicions that the Obama administration intends to move Guantanamo detainees to Thomson Correctional Center, a currently unused facility in Illinois. (Associated Press)

Lawmakers fret anew about Gitmo detainees

Twelve years ago Friday, the USS Cole was the target of a suicide-bomb attack that killed 17 sailors while the warship was moored in the Gulf of Aden.

October 11, 2012