Barbara Starr
@bstarrreports
USC senior fellow @ center for comms leadership & policy.. More than two decades on CNN national security beat. Find me on Substack @barbarastarrreports
Tomorrow on @CBSSunday, The Wizard of Oz is being reimagined at @SphereVegas. A screen the size of four football fields, 167,000 speakers, and tech wizards prepping the audience for the full Tornado experience. No, Dorothy, you’re not in Kansas anymore. You’re in Vegas, baby.
Konstantin Toropin (@KToropin) named @AP Pentagon reporter. On our blog: buff.ly/csD3Rr7
I served with Colonel DA Sims in combat & peacetime in Iraq & Europe. I watched him deploy his division to Poland in the early stage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is a brilliant commander, values-based leader & selfless soldier He should be a 4-star commander.
“Hegseth’s actions could shape the military’s top ranks for years. His insistence on absolute loyalty, backed with repeated threats of polygraphs, creates uncertainty and mistrust that threaten to undermine the readiness and effectiveness of the force” nytimes.com/2025/07/26/us/…
SCOOP: Defense Secretary Hegseth’s use of polygraph tests to hunt for people leaking info to the news media was stopped at the direction of the White House after a senior adviser to Hegseth raised alarm to senior WH officials, people familiar w/ the matter say.
Can confirm the New York Times report today that Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Staff, had a promotion to four-star general seemingly secured and then pulled back by Secretary Hegseth. Sims seen in Pentagon by most as nonpartisan, straightforward and bright.
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon suspends participation in think tank events. ow.ly/Aqqm50WuMmk
New: The Pentagon’s inspector general has received evidence that the military plans shared from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Signal account were taken from a US Central Command document that was marked classified at the time, sources tell me and @ZcohenCNN The Pentagon…
As Trump accuses Obama of "treason" for the US intel report that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, here's @KatieBoLillis and me on why the allegations from DNI Gabbard conflate and misrepresent what the intelligence community actually concluded cnn.com/2025/07/22/pol…
Statement by @weijia on behalf of the @whca on Trump excluding the @WSJ from the White House press pool as punishment for its coverage:
Roughly 700 active-duty US Marines who were mobilized last month to respond to protests in Los Angeles are being sent home from the mission, the Pentagon said Monday. More via @halbritz 👇cnn.com/2025/07/21/pol…
New U.S. assessment finds American strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites nbcnews.com/politics/natio…
Pete Hegseth deleted and reposted his drone video, which previously featured Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” The new version contains no music. A Metallica representative confirms the use of the song was unauthorized rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
So the Pentagon via tweet below has announced it is now soon to be the Department of War? Does Congress get a say? Does America get a say? @DODResponse can you tell us some details?
. @SecDef At the Defense Department (soon to be the Department of War), we lead the BIGGEST PEACE DEPARTMENT IN THE WORLD. Our job is to be strong, ready and lethal so that you NEVER have to use us.
Defense Secretary @PeteHegseth to speak at @TPUSA's student event in Tampa tonight. Not an event you'd usually see a sitting defense secretary attend.
SoCal update: US District Court Judge Hernán D. Vera issues temporary restraining order: LAPD cannot interfere with reporters, assault them or use so-called less-lethal munitions against them unless they pose threat order below:
More than 1,000 U.S. counties — one out of three in the nation — do not have the equivalent of even one full-time local journalist. niemanlab.org/2025/07/new-re…
Trump told NBC he struck a deal with NATO for the US to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance, and that NATO will pay for those weapons “a hundred percent.” Rubio said earlier that US is “actively” talking to countries in Europe about sharing Patriot batteries w Ukraine.
Did @DeptofDefense get @Metallica permission to use their song “Enter Sandman” for this? I ask because they’ve historically been against having their music used for any political party. They also urged the U.S. government to stop using their songs during interrogations.
“Israel has concluded that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of near-bomb-grade enriched uranium survived American and Israeli attacks last month and may be accessible to Iranian nuclear engineers” nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/…
NEW: Will Pete Hegseth's 'War on Woke' sideline women in the military? A team appointed by Hegseth to look at fitness/combat standards will review and possibly redo the 'women in combat' study that led to the integration of ground combat roles 10 yrs ago. theatlantic.com/national-secur…