DTN News - OBAMA BACK FROM AFGHANISTAN: US President Barack Returns To The White House From A Surprise Trip To Afghanistan And Signed A Strategic Partnership Agreement With President Hamid Karzai

DTN News - OBAMA BACK FROM AFGHANISTAN: US President Barack Returns To The White House From A Surprise Trip To Afghanistan And Signed A Strategic Partnership Agreement With President Hamid Karzai

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 2, 2012: US President Barack Obama walks from Marine One to the White House May 2, 2012 in Washington, DC. 

President Obama was returning from a surprise trip to Afghanistan where he signed a strategic partnership agreement with President Hamid Karzai, visited troops and addressed Americans from Bagram Air Base.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/05/dtn-news-obama-in-afghanistan-obamas.html

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda Places A Wreath At The Tomb of Unknowns Soldier At The Arlington National Cemetery In Arlington, Virginia

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda Places A Wreath At The Tomb of Unknowns Soldier At The Arlington National Cemetery In Arlington, Virginia

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 30, 2012: Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda places a wreath at the Tomb of Unknowns Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on April 30, 2012. 

The leaders of Japan and the US meet Monday to look at new ways to cooperate in defense, hoping to show that the alliance is back on track after a rocky few years. Amid fears that North Korea will test another nuclear bomb, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will hold talks at the White House with President Barack Obama days after a deal on a thorny dispute over US troops.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/04/dtn-news-white-house-news-japanese.html

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda Visits White House

DTN News -  WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda Visits White House


(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 30, 2012: President Barack Obama shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 30, 2012.


The leaders of Japan and the US meet Monday to look at new ways to cooperate in defense, hoping to show that the alliance is back on track after a rocky few years. Amid fears that North Korea will test another nuclear bomb, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will hold talks at the White House with President Barack Obama days after a deal on a thorny dispute over US troops.


http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/04/dtn-news-white-house-news-japanese.html

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: British Prime Minister David Cameron And Samantha Cameron At White House Attending State Dinner Hosted By US President Barack Obama And First lady Michele Obama

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: British Prime Minister David Cameron And Samantha Cameron At White House Attending State Dinner Hosted By US President Barack Obama And First lady Michele Obama

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 16, 2012: US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stand alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife, Samantha Cameron, as they arrive for a State Dinner as part of an official visit on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, DC, March 14, 2012.

 Earlier in the day, Prime Minter Cameron participated in a joint press conference with President Obama, topics included Afghanistan, Syria and Iran.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/ 

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. DoD Awarded Contract To Sikorsky For Rework On 2 VH-3D And 1 VH-60N Helicopters

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. DoD Awarded Contract To Sikorsky For Rework On 2 VH-3D And 1 VH-60N Helicopters

 

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 22, 2012: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $20,521,388 modification to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-07-D-0004) for special progressive aircraft rework of two VH-3D and one VH-60N executive helicopters, including vendor repairables and component overhaul.  

Funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued.  

Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed in September 2012.  Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.  

The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

Marine One is the call sign of any United States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the President of the United States. It usually denotes a helicopter operated by the HMX-1 "Nighthawks" squadron, either the large VH-3D Sea King or the newer, smaller VH-60N "WhiteHawk", both due to be replaced by the VXX program. A Marine Corps aircraft carrying the Vice President has the call sign Marine Two.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-defense-news-us-dod-awarded_22.html

DTN News - AFGHANISTAN NEWS: Afghanistan - Moving Toward A Distant Endgame

DTN News - AFGHANISTAN NEWS: Afghanistan - Moving Toward A Distant Endgame

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 7, 2012:  U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested last week that the United States could wrap up combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2013, well before the longstanding 2014 deadline when full control is to be ceded to Kabul. Troops would remain in Afghanistan until 2014, as agreed upon at the 2010 Lisbon Summit, and would be engaged in two roles until at least 2014 and perhaps even later. One role would be continuing the training of Afghan security forces. The other would involve special operations troops carrying out capture or kill operations against high-value targets.

Along with this announcement, the White House gave The New York Times some details on negotiations that have been under way with the Taliban. According to the Times, Mullah Mohammad Omar, the senior-most leader of the Afghan Taliban, last summer made overtures to the White House offering negotiations. An intermediary claiming to speak for Mullah Omar delivered the proposal, an unsigned document purportedly from Mullah Omar that could not be established as authentic. The letter demanded the release of some Taliban prisoners before any talks. In spite of the ambiguities, which included a recent public denial by the Taliban that the offer came from Mullah Omar, U.S. officials, obviously acting on other intelligence, regarded the proposal as both authentic and representative of the views of the Taliban leadership and, in all likelihood, those of Mullah Omar, too.

The idea of negotiating with the Taliban is not new. Talks, as distinct from negotiations, in which specific terms are hammered out, have gone on for some time now. Several previous attempts have ended in failure, including one instance when the supposed representative proved to be a fraud. However, according to the Times report, the negotiations took on a degree of specificity last summer. They began in November 2010, initiated by a man named Tayyab Agha, who claimed to speak for Mullah Omar. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama regards authenticating the present offer as unimportant and the intermediary as having authority; the question on the table is the release of Taliban captives as a token of American seriousness.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-afghanistan-news-afghanistan.html

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Obama Receives Baseball Jersey Honoring 2011 World Series Champions - The St. Louis Cardinals At White House

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Obama Receives Baseball Jersey Honoring 2011 World Series Champions - The St. Louis Cardinals At White House

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 18, 2012: U.S. President Barack Obama (C) holds up a uniform given to him by the 2011 Major League Baseball World Series champions St. Louis Cardinals while posing for photographs with the team and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House January 17, 2012 in Washington, DC. Noticably absent from the congratulatory event are the team's former 1st baseman Albert Pujols and former manager Tony La Russa. The Cardinal's visit to Washington will include a stop at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to visit with patients and their families.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Jolie, Pitt Meet Obama In Oval Office

DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Jolie, Pitt Meet Obama In Oval Office

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 11, 2012:  US President Barack Obama took a break from the affairs of state to rub shoulders with Hollywood royalty Wednesday, meeting Angelina Jolie and her beau Brad Pitt at the White House.

Jolie was in Washington for the launch of her new movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey" and the couple were seen through the panelled windows of the Oval Office by reporters and photographers.

"President Obama spoke with Ms Jolie about her work to raise the profile of preventing mass atrocities and combating sexual violence against women," said Jamie Smith, a White House spokeswoman.

Jolie, in a dark dress, and Pitt, wearing black framed glasses, spent several minutes speaking to Obama before he left aboard his Marine One helicopter for a campaign fundraising trip in Chicago.

The Oscar-winning actress premiered the film, her directorial debut, at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Tuesday night.

The movie relates the story of a couple who had a fling before Bosnia's 1992-1995 war and met up again when the woman was taken prisoner by a unit of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by her former lover.

He shields her at first but is transferred and she suffers abuse and rape at the hands of the soldiers.

At the premiere, Jolie, who as well as her film work pursues a wide range of humanitarian causes as a UN goodwill ambassador, offered a mixed review of Obama's presidency.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/01/dtn-news-white-house-news-jolie-pitt_11.html