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Rowan Scarborough

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Rowan Scarborough

rscarborough@washingtontimes.com

Rowan Scarborough spent over 30 years at The Washington Times covering national security, including the Democrats' "Russia Hoax." He wrote two books, "Rumsfeld's War" and "Sabotage." A Navy veteran, Mr. Scarborough graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland. He reported for The Salisbury (Md.) Daily Times, Wilmington (Del.) News Journal and Defense Week.

Articles by Rowan Scarborough

The George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group. U.S. Navy photo.

China encroaching on U.S. military dominance in Pacific, says top admiral

While Adm. Sam Locklear said it was obvious Chinese military power is growing, he suggested it remains unclear whether China will seek in the long-term to be a hard adversary to the U.S. — so Washington should be working overtime on steering Beijing toward a cooperative security posture.

January 16, 2014

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Contractors of the U.S. security firm Blackwater secure the site of a roadside attack near the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad in 2005. The firm, whose guards were accused of fatally shooting 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007, left Baghdad on Thursday.

State Department chose flight over fight in Benghazi, Senate report says

Armed State Department security agents retreated rather than fire on terrorists who were invading the U.S. mission in Benghazi, says a Senate Intelligence Committee report.

January 15, 2014

Afghan police officers watch the site of a Taliban attack last year against NATO supply trucks near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. After more than 13 years of American bloodshed and treasure, the U.S. military will leave national security in the hands of Afghans. (Associated Press)

Chaos in Iraq could be omen for Afghanistan without U.S. troops

Afghanistan's war planners trying to picture their country without U.S. troops next year might want to cast an eye toward Iraq.

January 12, 2014

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping reviews the troops during a full honors ceremony on Feb. 14, 2012, at the Pentagon in Arlington. (Associated Press)

In new poll defense leaders see China rising, U.S. declining

Most defense leaders believe the United States is weaker today than five years ago, according to a poll by Gannett's Defense News.

January 8, 2014

Old Ways: Iraqis have posted checkpoints along roads rather than adopting counterinsurgency practices as taught by U.S. forces, says an architect of the U.S. troop surge that reduced violence in Iraq by 90 percent and led to the military exodus ordered by President Obama in 2011. Trained Iraqi defense forces have since been unable to contain al Qaeda. (Associated Press photographs)

U.S. troops prevented from helping even as al Qaeda overruns Iraqi cities

The U.S. has inserted 200 troops in Iraq since 2012, but they cannot directly help the Iraqi military repel a surge of al Qaeda fighters, even as the country succumbs to sectarian violence and insurgents claim control of two key cities.

January 5, 2014

A U.S. Army cultural support team member with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force scans the terrain while sitting in a Humvee in Sarobi district, Kabul province, Afghanistan, Dec. 6, 2013. Team members traveled to multiple villages in order to speak with women and children about issues within their community and to address their medical needs. (DoD photo by Spc. Sara Wakai, U.S. Army/Released)

Pentagon pivots to social issues; providing for common defense a lower priority

As the armed forces shrink and withdraw from some global hot spots, their agenda for the battle of the sexes grows.

January 1, 2014

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, brief reporters at the Pentagon in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013. Hagel commented on the Congressional budget deal and took questions about Pakistan and Afghanistan from reporters. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

With demise of Pentagon’s ‘Early Bird,’ military readers hunt bootleg copies of ‘Morning News’

The Pentagon has killed its "Early Bird" compilation of news and opinion stories, and now provides "Morning News" only for the top brass.

December 24, 2013

** FILE ** Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos ordered the officer overseeing a Taliban desecration case to "crush" the defendants shown in a video, court-martial all of them and kick them out of the Corps, according to witnesses. (Associated Press)

Pentagon to review case of Marine who defied general in Taliban defilement case

A Marine Corps whistleblower says the Pentagon is investigating whether higher-ups retaliated against him for filing complaints against the Marine commandant.

December 22, 2013

**FILE** Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter speaks March 1, 2013, during a news conference regarding the automatic spending cuts at the Pentagon. (Associated Press)

Robert O. Work to be named Pentagon’s No. 2 official

A former top Navy official is the leading candidate to become the next deputy defense secretary.

December 20, 2013

A U.S. soldier returns fire as others run for cover during a firefight with insurgents in the Badula Qulp area, west of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010. The unit is operating in support of a U.S. Marine offensive against the Taliban in Marjah area. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Medal of Honor: General orders review of tracking battlefield awards

The top U.S. commander for the Persian Gulf has ordered a review of how recommendations for battlefield awards are tracked by the Afghanistan command, which lost the paperwork for a Medal of Honor nominee and for other heroes.

December 18, 2013

Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee (Illustration/The Washington Times)

U.S. Army mulls wiping out memory of Robert E. Lee, ‘Stonewall’ Jackson

The U.S. Army War College, which molds future field generals, has begun discussing whether it should remove the portraits of Confederate generals, including Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

December 17, 2013

A solider stands guard near a military aircraft in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013. U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel traveled to Kandahar Air Base to speak with U.S. troops and thank them for being deployed for the holidays. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson, Pool)

Administration can’t answer basic queries costs of war in Afghanistan

President Obama's brain trust on Afghanistan does not know much the U.S. spends on the war each year or the American cost in lost lives on the battlefield.

December 12, 2013

An Army carry team, carries the transfer case containing the remains of Army Sgt. 1st Class Ricardo D. Young of Rosston, Ark., arriving at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013. The Department of Defense said Young was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Obama’s Afghanistan experts stumped on U.S. death toll, war costs during hearing

President Obama's brain trust on Afghanistan does not know how much the U.S. spends on the war each year or the American cost in lost lives on the battlefield.

December 12, 2013

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel steps off a plane to visit U.S. troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013. Mr. Hagel spoke with troops and thanked them for being deployed during the holidays. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson, Pool)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Kabul, gets no invitation from Afghan President Hamid Karzai

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel traveled halfway around the world for a rare visit to the Afghanistan war zone, but he did not meet with the man holding up an agreement to keep U.S. troops there after 2014.

December 8, 2013

**FULL FRAME VERSION OF AFDG102, WEDNESDAY AUG. 19, 2009 PHOTO** In this full frame version of AFDG102, Wednesday Aug. 19, 2009 photo, Spc. Paul Pickett, 22, of Minden, La., centers, covers Pfc. James Gordon, 20, of Texas, both of the U.S. Army's Apache Company, 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Combat Brigade 10th Mountain Division based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., from the rotar wash of a landing medivac helicopter after Gordon sustained leg injuries when the armored vehicle he and six others were riding in hit an improvised explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province. It was Apache company's 48th IED in a month, 7 that were attacks, 41 diffused or destroyed, resulting in 22 soldiers injured and one soldier killed in that timeframe. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Spike in battlefield deaths linked to restrictive rules of engagement

The number of U.S. battlefield fatalities in Afghanistan exceeded the rate at which troop strength surged in 2009 and 2010, prompting national security analysts to assert that coinciding stricter rules of engagement led to more deaths.

December 5, 2013

** FILE ** - A member of the Afghan special forces, left, briefs soldiers after a training exercise on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 14, 2013. A senior U.S. commander said Saturday, March 30, 2013 that American special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan’s Nirkh district to local Afghan commandos. (Associated Press)

Rules of engagement bind U.S. troops’ actions in Afghanistan

The new U.S.-Afghanistan security agreement adds restrictions on already bureaucratic rules of engagement for American troops by making Afghan dwellings virtual safe havens for the enemy, combat veterans say.

November 26, 2013

Navy SEALs raid Osama Bin Laden’s compound in “Zero Dark Thirty,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film is among the American Film Institute’s Top 10 movies of the year announced Monday. (Columbia Pictures Industries via Associated Press)

Navy SEALs cite shabby treatment as Obama administration helps Hollywood instead

Navy SEALs are the toast of America, but revelations show that the top brass has not always watched their backs during the Obama administration.

November 17, 2013

** FILE ** Navy Cross (Associated Press)

Delta Force Marine awarded Navy Cross for fight at CIA annex in Benghazi

In a unique battlefield commendation, a Marine Corps member of Delta Force has been awarded the nation's second highest military honor for coming to the defense of Americans last year at a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.

November 16, 2013

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Christopher Babcock, from New Orleans, La., photographs an Afghan villager for intelligence purposes after he was stopped cycling near COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan, Thursday, July 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Army intelligence says it needs good cloud computing to save lives in Afghanistan

The U.S. military's main battlefield intelligence processor, so crucial to the war in Afghanistan, still lacks an element common to civilian computer networks — a cloud.

November 11, 2013

Libyan rebels were armed with SA-7s to help topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi, but weapons merchants have set up large operations with no interference. (Associated Press)

Missiles flow into Syria, risk falling into hands of al Qaeda

One of terrorism's most feared weapons, the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile, has begun to flow into war-ravaged Syria in numbers that alarm the West because they may fall into the hands of al Qaeda, according to national security analysts.

November 6, 2013