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Kristina Wong

kwong@washingtontimes.com

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

Articles by Kristina Wong

Company with Taliban ties got access to NATO base in Afghanistan

An Afghan company with ties to the Taliban gained access to a detention facility located on a NATO air base because of poor U.S. government communication and inaction by the U.S. Army, according to the U.S. special inspector general in Afghanistan.

November 13, 2013
**FILE** Afghan security forces members stand guard at the site of a blast near the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 18, 2013. The large bomb exploded in the Afghan capital as the international military coalition hands over responsibility for fighting the Taliban insurgency to the nascent national army and police they have been training. (Associated Press)

Shady Afghan company tied to Taliban gains access to NATO airbase

An Afghan company with ties to the Taliban gained access to a detention facility located on a NATO airbase because of poor U.S. government communication and inaction by the U.S. Army, according to the U.S. special inspector general in Afghanistan.

November 13, 2013
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. Hagel said the projected defense budget cuts of nearly $1 trillion over 10 years is too much, too fast, and will cause a dangerous erosion of U.S. military power. In a speech about U.S. defense priorities, Hagel said Tuesday that it would be a mistake to let these cuts happen. But he also said officials are not assuming the government's budget crisis will be resolved soon. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Hagel: Military must play supporting role in foreign policy

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel laid out his strategic vision for a smaller, more technologically advanced military force that will play a supporting role to foreign policy, in contrast to the last decade in which foreign policy was dominated by 9/11 and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

November 5, 2013
In a Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 photo, a group of sailors and Marines who failed the so-called “tape test” are led by an instructor on a three mile run as they work to improve their fitness and remain in the military, at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Doctors say a number of military personnel are turning to liposuction to remove excess fat from around the waist so they can pass the Pentagon’s body fat test. Some service members say they have no other choice because the Defense Department’s method of estimating body fat is weeding out not just flabby physiques but bulkier, muscular builds. A number of fitness experts and doctors agree, and they’re calling for the military’s fitness standards to be revamped. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Troops get liposuction to pass fat test

As shrinking budgets force the Pentagon to thin its ranks, troops engaging in their own belt-tightening increasingly are turning to liposuction to meet stringent physical standards and remain in the military.

October 28, 2013
Afghan National Army and International Security Assistance Force personnel gather near a C-130 transport aircraft during a handover ceremony at the Afghan Air Force Base in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. Afghanistan took delivery on Wednesday on two C-130 transport aircraft from the United States, part of an effort to give the country’s military the ability to better fight insurgents around the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

NATO to scale back training for Afghan air force

NATO intends to refine its ambitious plan to train a fully functional Afghan air force and focus only on the most critical military capabilities needed after the combat mission ends by December 2014, according to the head of the Afghan air training command for the Western alliance.

October 21, 2013
**FILE** Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel listens during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 26, 2013. (Associated Press)

For civilian workers at Pentagon, it pays to work for military

At the Pentagon, some civilians are more essential than others. Civilians in the public affairs office that supports Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have returned from furlough during the 2-week-old partial government shutdown. But those in Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's public affairs office remain on unpaid leave, even though they perform the same duties in the same agency.

October 13, 2013
** FILE ** An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan on a moonlit night in January 2010. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Drone strikes plummet as U.S. seeks more human intelligence

The number of drone strikes approved by the Obama administration on suspected terrorists has fallen dramatically this year, as the war with al Qaeda increasingly shifts to Africa and U.S. intelligence craves more captures and interrogations of high-value targets.

October 9, 2013
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, right, watches an Army carry team move a transfer case containing the remains of Pfc. Cody J. Patterson Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Patterson, 24, of Philomath, Ore., died Oct. 6, 2013 in Zhari district, Afghanistan of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

Pentagon to pay death benefits with help from nonprofit

The Pentagon announced Wednesday it will provide family members of fallen service members with the full benefits they have been promised, including a $100,000 death gratuity despite a partial government shutdown that had halted such benefits.

October 9, 2013
**FILE** U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks during a joint news conference at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul on Oct. 2, 2013. (Associated Press)

Hagel appoints envoy for closing Guantanamo Bay

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday appointed Paul M. Lewis as special envoy for Guantanamo Bay closure, reflecting the Pentagon's commitment to President Obama's pledge to close the military detention facility in Cuba.

October 8, 2013
Dozens of supporters of the militant group Ansar al-Shariah burn an American flag and shout anti-American slogans denouncing the U.S. violation of Libya's sovereignty in the abduction of Abu Anas al-Libi, in the center of Benghazi, Libya, on Oct. 7, 2013. Two days earlier, the U.S. Army's Delta Force captured Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, an al Qaeda leader linked to the 1998 American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. (Associated Press/Mohammed el-Shaiky)

Libya demanding answers about U.S. raid

Libya's interim government is seeking answers after U.S. special forces over the weekend captured al Qaeda operative Abu Anas al-Libi in Tripoli, calling the operation a "kidnapping of a Libyan citizen."

October 7, 2013
"Obviously we prefer a U.S. government which is working to one which is not," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in reference to the shutdown. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

U.S. reassures allies after Obama cancels Asia trip

U.S. allies expressed their disappointment Sunday over President Obama's cancellation of his trip to an Asia-Pacific summit because of the partial American government shutdown, as U.S. officials tried to reassure them of Washington's commitment to the region.

October 6, 2013