The Senate has confirmed retired Lt. Gen. James Clapper to serve as the Pentagon’s top intelligence official, a post vacated by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s man Stephen Cambone. Clapper, nominated by President Bush in January, had served for five years as head of the National Geo-spatial Intelligence Agency, before being forced out by Rumsfeld.
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…