Just let a major newspaper report on a Pentagon document, residing unheralded on the DOD Web site since March, and down it comes. Someone alerted the Washington Post to the existence of the Pentagon’s final draft on its joint nuclear operations doctrine, which includes a list of conditions under which a combatant commander may request Presidential approval to use a theater nuclear weapon. The doctrine simply supports the White House’s policy of pre-emptive strike against a state or group intending to use weapons of mass destruction. After the Post’s article Sunday, the unclassified doctrine became unavailable, although untold copies already are out and about. It is in draft form, so one would expect once it’s complete, to find it back in the list of available material.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
