Europe Gates hopes to expand US-Russian cooperation

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Russia Monday to take a final, personal try at easing Moscow's worries over a missile defense shield in Europe and to expand a military relationship that has grown dramatically since his Cold War days at the helm of the CIA. Gates, who is expected to retire this summer, told reporters traveling with him that Russian cooperation in the Afghanistan war and support of U.N. Security Council resolutions against North Korea and Iran underscore an alliance that has dramatically evolved in recent years. Russia also abstained in the recent United Nations vote for military intervention in Libya, effectively allowing the allied assault to go forward.The ongoing military action in Libya, however, didn't come up as Gates spoke to Kuznetsov Naval Academy midlevel officers during a stop at The Central Naval Museum. The future leaders of Russia's Navy quizzed the Pentagon chief on the likelihood of joint training and military exercises between the two nations.

 Hopes to expand US-Russian cooperation

There was no mention of Russia's unease with the Libya attack, and Gates avoided the subject as well when asked about the primary roles of the U.S. Navy. He mentioned disaster relief, humanitarian missions and securing global waterways  even as his Naval commanders were assessing the damage from their two-day pounding of Libyan air defenses, including the use of cruise missiles off Navy destroyers and submarines. The issue is more likely to come up Tuesday when he heads to Moscow for meetings with Russian leaders. Gates focused instead Monday, on what he said was a significantly improved relationship with Moscow and agreed that joint exercises would be a good move. "I start from the premise that the closer we work together the better off the world will be," he told the officers. Gates said that 21st century security terror threats have created new opportunities for U.S. and Russia to cooperate.

Both nations recognize, he said, that "allowing terrorism that weakens one nation does not provide opportunity for another, but rather ultimately increases the danger for everyone." Earlier he told reporters traveling with him that, "We have now had underway, for more than 40 years, the kind of dialogue with Russia that I'm just trying to get started with China." Gates, a Russian scholar, spent much of his career as an officer, and later director of the CIA, focused on the threat posed by the former Soviet Union. He has made four trips to Russia as defense secretary, but said he was last in St. Petersburg in 1992, making the first trip to the city by a CIA chief. His latest visit comes as the U.S. and Russia continue to joust over details and coordination of the European missile shield which is aimed at countering future Iranian threats. Russia has raised strong objections to the plan, which is already underway, and begins with ship-based, anti-missile interceptors and radars. It would add land-based radars in Southern Europe later this year.

The four-phase plan would put land- and sea-based radars and interceptors in several European locations over the next decade. Gates is expected to meet Tuesday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who said last month that the issile shield could undermine Russian nuclear deterrent forces. Moscow remains skeptical of U.S. insistence that the systems is not aimed at Russian missiles or that it could be used against Russia's security interests. Reflecting on the changes in U.S-Russia relations over his career, Gates suggested they have moved from what was once a fierce rivalry to a bureaucratic brotherhood. Now, he said, the U.S. and Russia have a common enemy  the battle to modernize their militaries amid rising costs for weapons and elusive contract deadlines that are never met. He said that while the two nations' interests will differ, they have learned one critical lesson from the past to avoid the mistrust and lack of transparency that can trigger dangerous consequences.

Acknowledging that Russia still has uncertainties about the defense shield, Gates told the young officers that both are committed to resolving the differences, and eventually collaborate, including on launch information, a data fusion center and conducting joint analysis.  In other comments, Gates said the Pentagon needs to do more to streamline spending, and warned that additional budget cuts could force more reductions in the size of the U.S. military. He said another key way to save money would be for all of the armed services to buy more of their weapons jointly, including unmanned aircraft, which are in great demand by U.S. commanders around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama called Monday for Congress to pass education reforms by the time students return to school next fall, telling a Virginia middle school that fixing problems in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act -- more commonly known as "No Child Left Behind" -- should be a top priority. "In the 21st century, it's not enough to leave no child behind. We need to help every child get ahead," Obama said, urging Congress "to send me an education reform bill I can sign into law before the next school year begins."

Obama calls for Congress to pass education reforms

Mindful of the budget debate currently enveloping Washington, Obama insisted that education funding must remain robust because it is vital to the nation's future success. "We cannot cut education," Obama said, noting that families facing tough times cut back on vacation or movies or eating out, rather than dipping into savings for a child's college tuition. "A budget that sacrifices our children's education will be a budget that sacrifices our country's future," he said. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was originally passed in 1965 and requires periodic reauthorization. The current version of the law, which was passed on a bipartisan basis in 2002, requires states to set higher standards and to have greater accountability through standardized testing.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a dire prediction Sunday afternoon during a conference call with reporters, saying that if "No Child Left Behind" isn't reformed, four out of five schools won't meet the law's standards. "Under the current law, it's one size fits all," Duncan said. "We need to fix this law now so we can close the achievement gap." The administration, which has been meeting with congressional leaders to hash out changes before any reauthorization vote, believes current law is too punitive and has led to a too-narrow curriculum and lower standards.

A pair of House Republicans agree.

"Although we have our different approaches, everyone agrees the current law is broken and in need of repair. The status quo is failing both students and taxpayers," Reps. John Kline, R-Minnesota, and Duncan Hunter, R-California, said in a joint statement last week. "No one disagrees on the importance of education," Duncan said Sunday. "For the most part, we've been largely aligned with leaders on both sides of the aisle, but we need to come together and do the right thing for our children."

For Obama, that means increasing the incentive-based concept of his "Race to the Top" program that offers extra funding for states that show home-grown education reforms are improving performance. He proposed expanding "Race to the Top" to let local school districts apply, and said reforming "No Child Left Behind" should build on the program's goals. The president made a point of promoting the importance of teachers, calling for them to get more pay and respect as valued assets in the nation's future success. He made no mention of the new Wisconsin law that stripped some collective bargaining benefits from teachers and other public employees, but his enthusiastic promotion of teachers prompted applause and cheers of support.

China challenges US predominance in Asia-Pacific

China's military has been on a spending spree at a time that the debt-ridden U.S. government is looking to cut defense costs. On Friday, China announced a 12.7 percent hike for this year, the latest in a string of double-digit increases. That trend has triggered worries in Congress and among security analysts about whether the United States can maintain its decades-long military predominance in the economically crucial Asia-Pacific.

China challenges US predominance in Asia-Pacific

While the U.S. military has been drained by 10 years of costly conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, China has developed air, naval and missile capabilities that could undercut U.S. superiority in China's backyard. China is still decades away from building a military as strong as the United States. It has not fought a major conflict since a border war with Vietnam in 1979 and is not a Soviet-style rival threatening American soil.

But the shift raises questions about whether the U.S. can meet its commitment to maintain a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific for decades a matter not just of global prestige but also seen as critical for safeguarding shipping lanes vital for world trade and protecting allies. China already has an innate geographical advantage in any conflict in the west Pacific. One expert posits that with its military buildup, China could conquer Taiwan by the end of the decade even if the U.S. military intervenes. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory. Relations between the two, long seen as a potential flash point, have warmed in the past two years. But China's assertion of territorial claims in the South China Sea, which it has declared as a "core interest" essentially something it could go to war over has spooked its neighbors and fortified their support for a strong U.S. presence in the region. Even former enemy Vietnam is forging military ties with the U.S.

Last week, the Philippines deployed two warplanes after a ship searching for oil complained it was harassed by two Chinese patrol boats in the South China Sea. Japan scrambled F-15 fighter jets after Chinese surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft flew near disputed islands in the East China Sea. "As China's military has gotten more capable and China has behaved more aggressively, a number of countries are looking at the U.S. as a hedge to make sure they can maintain independence, security and stability," said Abraham Denmark, director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. But those allies question whether the U.S. can retain its freedom to operate in the region, and whether its economy highly indebted to China and struggling to recover from a recession can sustain its high level of military spending, said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center of Strategic and International Studies think tank.

The U.S. Pacific Command has 325,000 personnel, five aircraft carrier strike groups, 180 ships and nearly 2,000 aircraft. Tens of thousands of forces stay on China's doorstep at long-established bases in South Korea and Japan. China's defense spending is still dwarfed by the United States. Even if China really invests twice as much in its military as its official $91.5 billion budget, which some analysts believe, that is still only about a quarter of U.S. spending. It has no aircraft carriers and lags the U.S. in defense technology. Some of its most vaunted recent military advances will take years to reach operation. For example, China test flew its stealth fighter in January, months earlier than U.S. intelligence expected, but U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says China will still only have a couple of hundred of these "fifth-generation" jets by 2025, when the United States should have 1,500.

But China's growing array of aircraft, naval and submarine vessels, ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-satellite and cyber war capabilities already enable it to project power beyond its shores. It plans new submarines, larger naval destroyers and transport aircraft that could expand that reach further. Roger Cliff, a respected defense researcher who recently testified before a congressional hearing on China, says many of the missiles and strike aircraft have a range of about 900 miles, which put them within attacking distance of virtually all U.S. air and naval bases in the region. They include the DF-21D missile which is designed to target aircraft carriers. It employs technology that no other U.S. rival has mastered. It does not appear to have been tested yet against a maneuvering target at sea.

GAO Details Billions in Federal Waste --- Report Obtained by Fox

As members of Congress fight over what to cut in the current federal budget to avert a government shutdown, lawmakers are about to receive a blockbuster report that could provide a roadmap to potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in waste. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office (GAO) is poised to release a report Tuesday that one senator said "will make us all look like jackasses." "Go study that (report). It will show why we're $14 trillion in debt," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "Anybody that says we don't look like fools up here hasn't read the report."

provide a roadmap to potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in waste

The report, a summary of which was obtained by Fox News, was mandated by Congress the last time it raised the debt limit in January 2010. In its analysis of federal agencies, the GAO found 33 areas with "overlap and fragmentation." "Reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap, or fragmentation could potentially save billions of taxpayer dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and effective services," the report says. In one example, the report found that if the Defense Department were to make "broader restructuring" of its "military health care system" it "could result in annual savings of up to $460 million."

Even more scathing is the duplication investigators found in the nation's biodefense efforts, with the report essentially saying that the billions of dollars spent annually is the responsibility of no one individual and that there is no plan for post-attack coordination, this on the heels of a 2010 federal commission finding that gave the U.S. a "failing grade" in its prevention measures. "There are now more than two dozen presidentially appointed individuals with some responsibility for biodefense. In addition, numerous federal agencies, encompassing much of the federal government, have some mission responsibilities for supporting biodefense activities. However, there is no individual or entity with responsibility, authority, and accountability for overseeing the entire biodefense enterprise," the report finds.

"There is no national plan to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts following a bioterror attack, and the United States lacks the technical and operational capabilities required for an adequate response," the report goes on. "Neither the Office of Management and Budget nor the federal agencies account for biodefense spending across the entire federal government." As a result, the federal government does not know how much is being spent on this critical national security priority."

The report touches agencies and programs across the federal government, from the Transportation Security Agency to homeless programs and domestic food assistance, and what emerges is a kind of bureaucratic morass where sometimes enough is not even known about federal programs to provide an accurate evaluation. "We don't know what we're doing," Coburn chastised. The Defense Department takes a number of hits in the report. The GAO found many instances of duplication in the sprawling agency. The use of "urgent need" funds have been expanded, GAO found, with "multiple places for a warfighter to submit" such requests. GAO found that the Pentagon has "no tracking mechanism" for these funds, resulting in an estimated $77 billion in overlap since 2005. An analysis of 18 different programs across three federal agencies that deal with domestic food assistance found that though multiple programs can ensure the needy have access to food, "administrative costs increase significantly," with GAO estimating a $62.5 billion expense to the government from overlap and duplication. Better coordination of hazardous material assessments between TSA and the Department of Transportation could save the government more than $1 million.

"Congress is often to blame," the report reads in bold type for emphasis, as the report details $2.9 billion in overlap in 20 homeless programs spread throughout seven different agencies. "Fragmentation and overlap in some of these programs may be due in part to their legislative creation as separate programs under the jurisdiction of several agencies," the report finds.  

"Little is known about the effectiveness of most (federal job training and employment) programs," GAO says, resulting in a possible $18 billion in savings. The report says there are 47 programs offered currently, but 44 of those "overlap with at least one other program." Congress asked GAO to look specifically at "federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives with duplicative goals and activities, to estimate the cost of such duplication, and to make recommendations to Congress for consolidation and elimination of such duplication." There are many other examples of potential waste found across the yawning federal bureaucracy, with GAO concluding, "Considering the amount of program dollars involved in the issues we have identified, even limited adjustments could result in significant savings." Perhaps members looking to find billions in savings will not have as tough a job finding the money as they thought.