An Afghan militant group is willing to "help" U.S. and coalition forces, if they prepare to leave Afghanistan, the group's leader said in a statement given to CNN on Monday. "We are ready to help with the United States and ... other coalition forces if foreign troops announce the time frame for the pulling out their troops from Afghanistan," said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and leader of the pro-Taliban Hizb-e-Islami militant group. "I am sure Afghans will ...

Last year's howls of outrage when U.S. auto executives flew to Washington on private jets to seek government bailouts may soon be repeated, now that the House of Representatives has added $330 million to the 2010 defense budget to buy four new planes for the Air Force's VIP fleet. That's because the planes that usually fly generals and White House officials around the globe are also being used — on 15% of their flights — to ferry lawmakers around ...

A Jewish Holocaust survivor who later lived on the streets of New York City has left half of her $300,000 estate to Hebrew University, the school said Monday. The new plan is the first time the U.S. military has been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and commanders say it is an essential part of the overall plan to stabilize the country, which is under heavy Taliban influence. Until now the U.S. military has left the eradication programs to ...

The U.S. military hopes to kill or capture some 50 Afghan drug traffickers with financial ties to the Taliban in an effort to shut down one of the insurgency's biggest sources of revenue, a U.S. Senate report says. The new plan is the first time the U.S. military has been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and commanders say it is an essential part of the overall plan to stabilize the country, which is under heavy Taliban influence. Until ...

And now, the rejects. Three months after the White House released a single photograph taken during a photo op of "Air Force One" flying over New York -- a flight that caused panic on the streets below -- the U.S. Air Force on Friday released the remaining 145 photos taken during the flight. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 -- a military version of a 747 -- making three passes by the Statue of Liberty, at one point accompanied by ...

The Briton accused of hacking into U.S. government computers on Friday lost his court appeal to have his case heard in Britain, his legal team said. The decision means Gary McKinnon faces extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly hacking into computers at the Pentagon and NASA. His mother, Janis Sharp, promised to appeal. McKinnon, who has admitted breaking the law and intentionally gaining unauthorized access to computer systems, wanted to be tried in Britain ...

Time was kind to the U.S. over its invasion of Iraq: the Bush Administration was able to waste four years pursuing misguided strategies there before finally getting things right last year and turning the situation around. But the new U.S. military approach to winning the war in Afghanistan is likely to take years, if not decades, to bear fruit, and there are growing signs that America's patience is fraying. On July 23, Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged that a ...

The Senate voted Tuesday to block expansion of one of the country's most controversial and expensive defense programs, the F-22 fighter jet program. The vote gave the White House and Pentagon a key victory over congressional supporters of the F-22, many of whom represent states and districts where jobs are tied to the production of the jet. The vote, which stripped $1.75 billion for an additional seven F-22s from the fiscal year 2010 budget, was a reversal of an earlier ...

Families of September 11 victims visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday urged the Obama administration to drop plans to close the facility and to restart terror trials there. "I am opposed to the closing of this facility because of political reasons," said Gordon Haberman whose daughter, Andrea, was killed when terrorist planes struck the World Trade Center. "I believe that the current administration spoke too quickly on this." Haberman said he thinks President Obama should not insist on carrying out ...

Boeing will slash about 1,000 jobs from its Integrated Defense Systems department because of funding cuts by the Pentagon, according to a memo to employees. These cuts are in addition to previously announced job cuts at the aerospace giant. The Boeing news, coupled with job cut announcements Tuesday at NASA and US Airways, is a stark reminder of the continued precarious position of the U.S. worker in a severe recession that won't loosen its grip. US Airways said ...