Skip to content

Threat Status

Read today's newsletter: Europe’s biggest arms show playing out beneath shadow of Russia-Ukraine war

TRENDING:
Donald Trump
Advertisement
Author profile
Bill Gertz

Bill Gertz

bgertz@washingtontimes.com

Bill Gertz is a national security correspondent for The Washington Times. He has been with The Times since 1985.
He is the author of eight books, four of them national best-sellers. His latest book, "Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China's Drive for Global Supremacy," reveals details about the growing threat posed by the People's Republic of China. He is also the author of the ebook "How China's Communist Party Made the World Sick."
Mr. Gertz also writes Inside the Ring, a weekly column that chronicles the U.S. national security bureaucracy.
Mr. Gertz has been a guest lecturer at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.; the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia; the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington; and the Brookings Institution in Washington. He has participated in the National Security Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
He studied English literature at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and journalism at George Washington University. He is married and has two daughters.
He can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Bill Gertz

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, has been a leading advocate for the use of secret intelligence operations for information warfare. The most dangerous form of his plans has been assassinations of political opponents. (Associated Press)

Vladimir Putin wages information war against U.S., allies

Russia under Vladimir Putin has emerged from the decades following the fall of the Soviet Union as a revanchist threatening power that is engaged in strategic information warfare against the United States and its allies. The attacks strike at the heart of the American democratic system and involve a covert action program aimed at influencing the outcome of the nation's most important political contest: the election of the president of the United States.

January 3, 2017
Three Republican members of Congress are urging the Pentagon to investigate the security risks to American facilities and military forces in South Korea posed by a Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. (Associated Press)

Lawmakers urge Pentagon to probe Huawei deal

Three Republican members of Congress are urging Defense Secretary Ash Carter to investigate the security risks to American facilities and military forces in South Korea posed by a Chinese telecommunications company's role in a new wireless network in the country.

December 28, 2016
China deployed guns on islands throughout the Spratlys, including Cuarteron Reef. "China appears to have built significant point-defense capabilities, in the form of large anti-aircraft guns and probable close-in weapons systems, at each of its outposts in the Spratly Islands," the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported Tuesday. (CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative)

North Korea missile test

North Korea is preparing to conduct new missile tests amid heightened tensions in Northeast Asia.

December 14, 2016
A Rand Corp. report on China's military made public this week identifies key military capabilities, including drones, hypersonic glide vehicles, stealth jets, aircraft carriers and long-range ballistic and cruise missiles. (Associated Press)

China upgrades force projection doctrine

Along with a large-scale nuclear and conventional arms buildup, China is upgrading its military doctrine to include guidance focusing on rapid military power projection, according to Pentagon intelligence officials.

December 7, 2016
President Obama and White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice (Associated Press/File)

Susan Rice, Obama engage enemies of U.S.

White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice remains among the more low-profile presidential advisers serving at the higher levels of the waning administration of President Obama. Details emerged this month showing Ms. Rice in 2008 was vetted for a national security post in the anticipated new administration and shared Mr. Obama's willingness to work with enemies of the U.S.

October 26, 2016
In the latest move in an extraordinary battle at the Pentagon, the defense filed an appeal saying the Navy's two highest-ranking lawyers committed unlawful command influence. (Associated Press/File)

Pentagon issues handbook on sex change in the ranks

Political correctness remains a central characteristic of the Obama administration's policies. Take the Pentagon's new anti-discrimination policy on what a newly-published handbook calls "gender dysphoria," or "the distress that some transgender individuals experience due to a mismatch between their gender and their sex assigned at birth."

October 12, 2016
A man plays "Pokemon Go" at a popular PokeStop in Hanoi, Vietnam on Saturday 13 August 2016. One week after being released in Vietnam, the game has become one of the most talked-about topics in the Southeast Asian country. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Inside the Ring: Pokemon Go security worries

The hugely popular augmented reality video game Pokemon GO, where users chase virtual creatures in the real world with handheld devices, is creating new security worries around the world, according to a State Department report.

October 5, 2016
The cease-fire in Syria, negotiated by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Moscow, collapsed last week after a Russian airstrike hit a U.N. aid convoy headed for the besieged city of Aleppo. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

China cyber espionage continues

U.S. Cyber Command recently reported within secret government channels that China is continuing aggressive cyber espionage against American companies.

September 28, 2016
Gen. John E. Hyten

China, Russia space war weapons on fast track

The nominee to lead the U.S. Strategic Command warned Congress this week that China and Russia are rapidly building space warfare capabilities and the United States is lagging behind in efforts to counter the threat.

September 21, 2016
CORRECTS THE SECOND SENTENCE TO REMOVE REFERENCE TO "NUCLEAR-CAPABLE" - A U.S. B-1B bomber, right, flies over Osan Air Base with a U.S. jet in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. The United States on Tuesday sent two supersonic bombers streaking over ally South Korea in a show of force meant to cow North Korea after its recent nuclear test, and also to settle rattled nerves in the South. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Inside the Ring: North Korea seeks aid while building nukes

The North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop nuclear weapons and missiles at the same time the government is begging international aid groups to provide flood relief.

September 14, 2016
Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who took over the lead war-fighting command in March, told reporters at the Pentagon the ultraviolent jihadi group's capabilities have been greatly degraded and dismantled in Iraq and Syria, including significant loss of territory it once controlled. Recent military operations have cut off key supply lines and routes used by foreign fighters. (Associated Press)

Islamic State: From nation-state to terror group

Battlefield successes against the Islamic State could force the group to shift away from nation-state status to a less visible terror threat, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said this week.

August 31, 2016