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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

Cui Tiankai

Inside the Ring: New PRC ambassador

China's new ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, arrived in Washington this week and takes up the key diplomatic post with a notable past of diplomatic activities, as detailed in leaked classified State Department cables from 2006 and 2010.

April 3, 2013
Former NSA Deputy Director William B. Black, Jr. (Government photo)

Inside the Ring: NSA on cyberwar

Cyberwarfare is the hot topic in military and intelligence circles at the Pentagon amid unrelenting cyberattacks from China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere.

March 27, 2013
A Chinese paramilitary policeman stands guard on Tiananmen Square while sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference are held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Monday, March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China confirms nuclear deal with Pakistan

China confirmed this week it will sell a new 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor to Pakistan that the United States says would violate Beijing's obligations under a nuclear supplier control group.

March 26, 2013
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows a Canadian Air Force F-18 Hornet jet (left) escorting a Russian TU-95 Bear heavy bomber out of Canadian airspace. Japanese interceptor jets were scrambled to intercept two TU-95s recently. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: New Bear bomber flights

Two Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out a fourth high-profile training flight last week, flying near South Korea, where large-scale war games are under way, and near Japan and the U.S. military bases on Okinawa.

March 20, 2013
U.S. Pacific Command leader Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III.

Inside the Ring: New cyberwar developments

The U.S. government this week lifted the lid slightly on its mostly secret policies on cybersecurity and cyberthreats, as the Obama administration grapples with the growing problem of cyberwarfare attacks and computer-based spying.

March 13, 2013
Commander of U.S. Strategic Command Gen. C. Robert Kehler, with President Obama, warns of a cascade of problems with sequestration. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Asia pivot threatened

National security officials in the military and at the Pentagon are voicing growing worries that the second Obama administration is preparing to jettison the new policy focus on Asia known as the "pivot" or rebalancing.

March 6, 2013
Cyberattacks that stole information in the United States and other countries have been traced to Chinese army operations in a building in the outskirts of Shanghai. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Chinese pressure points

China’s military fears a major cyberattack against its strategic forces, and communist leaders also worry about cyberstrikes against infrastructure, according to Michael Pillsbury, a former Reagan administration defense-planning chief.

February 28, 2013
** FILE ** In this Dec. 24, 1998, photo, Muslim militant and al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden speaks to a selected group of reporters in mountains of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahimullah Yousafzai)

Inside the Ring: Who killed bin Laden?

A second Navy SEAL who reportedly fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden is challenging an earlier version of events that said the al Qaeda leader was killed by a commando outside bin Laden's room.

February 13, 2013
**FILE** China's only aircraft carrier, Liaoning, returns to port Oct. 30 after its first navy sea trial, in Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning province. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Blunt warning on China

A senior Navy intelligence official issued a blunt warning last week that China's growing "hegemonistic" threat to security is destabilizing the Asia-Pacific region.

February 6, 2013
A French soldier directs helicopters near Timbuktu, Mali, on Jan. 28, 2013. Backed by French helicopters and paratroopers, Malian soldiers entered the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday after al Qaeda-linked militants who ruled the outpost by fear for nearly 10 months fled into the desert, setting fire to a library that held thousands of manuscripts dating to the Middle Ages. (Associated Press/French Army Communications Audiovisual office)

Inside the Ring: New al Qaeda threat

A jihadist website posted a new threat by al Qaeda this week that promises to conduct "shocking" attacks on the United States and the West.

January 30, 2013
**FILE** Then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies on Capitol Hill on Jan. 23, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Inside the Ring: CIA in Benghazi

Congressional testimony from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday provided no new information about the CIA's covert operation in Benghazi involving weapons shipments.

January 23, 2013
**FILE** Chinese army trucks carrying new long-range and cruise missiles are shown off during China's 60th anniversary celebration in October 2009. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Chinese missile defense test?

U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring China's missile facilities in anticipation of a test of China's missile defense interceptor, which also doubled in the past as an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile.

January 9, 2013
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, California Republican. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Inside the Ring: No fix for defense cuts

The looming $600 billion defense spending crisis required under last year's Budget Control Act was delayed for two months under the compromise tax deal passed by Congress this week.

January 2, 2013
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends Monday’s ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. The sprawling, granite mausoleum holds the body of his father, Kim Jong-il. (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: U.S. warns China on North Korea

The State Department is pressuring Beijing about its communist ally North Korea following failed efforts to halt the recent rocket launch that proved to be Pyongyang's first successful long-range missile test.

December 19, 2012
“I believe, at a fundamental level, that the process of rebalancing is a substantial effort that will take years.”
— Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell on the Obama administration’s new Asia policy called the “pivot” (Associated Press)

Inside the Ring: Asia pivot questioned

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell on Tuesday defended the Obama administration's new policy called the "pivot" to Asia from critics who say the shift is largely rhetorical and lacks a substantial program to build U.S. military power in the region.

December 5, 2012
Michael G. Vickers, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict & Interdependent Capabilities, speaks with The Associated Press during an interview, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007, at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Inside the Ring: CIA director battle

Pentagon intelligence official Michael Vickers and National Security Council counterterrorism adviser John Brennan are being looked at by President Obama as top candidates to head the CIA.

November 21, 2012