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When Pentagon strategists sought to create a new military command to oversee Africa, they believed they could build one that deemphasized military might and would serve as an exemplar of what so-called US soft power could do around the world.

Congressional researchers said Thursday the Defense Department has not done enough to find and contact people who were likely exposed to old chemical and germ warfare tests overseen by Utah-based Army scientists. The U.S. General Accountability Office, a research arm of Congress, wrote that until such efforts improve, "Congress, veterans, and the public may continue to question the completeness and accuracy of DOD's (Department of Defense) efforts." The GAO said the Defense Department stopped efforts in 2003 to identify people who may have been exposed to "Project 112" chemical and biological warfare tests. The military said then that efforts were as complete as possible, but that it would follow any new leads that might arise.

Of all the crazy, bizarre less-lethal weapons that have been proposed, the use of microwaves to target the human mind remains the most disturbing. The question has always been: is this anything more than urban myth? We may not have the final answer to this question, but a newly declassified Pentagon report, Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons , obtained by a private citizen under the Freedom of Information Act, provides some fascinating tidbits on a variety of exotic weapons ideas.

The Pentagon's plan to hit anywhere on Earth, in just an hour or two, just got a $100 million boost from Congress. As the Washington Post notes, "the House-Senate conference report on the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill" provides a hundred large for a "'prompt global strike' program that could deliver a conventional, precision-guided warhead anywhere in the world within two hours."

Northrop Grumman said Wednesday it has won a new U.S. Defense Department contract to help fight the war on drugs. The company said it had been "awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity -- IDIQ -- contract by the U.S. Department of Defense to provide technology development application for new products and services to defense and federal civilian agencies, state and local authorities, and partner nations engaged in counter-drug and counter-narco-terrorism -- CNT -- operations." Northrop Grumman said it was "one of five companies that will compete for task orders under this IDIQ contract. The contract, administered by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala., has a total program ceiling of $15 billion over five years."

A commander of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombian (FARC) was extradited to the United States on Thursday, Colombian officials said.

Much of the work for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), the U.S. military’s newest geographic command, likely will be done by five teams, each deployed to and designed for a specific region of the continent. The plans for these “regional integration teams” are still being laid, but Pentagon officials want a “split-based, tailored presence” there, not a one-size-fits-all approach that might produce dividends in one region but chaos in another, according to Department of Defense documents prepared in mid-September.

The U.S. Defense Department has invited five contractors to bid on elements of a new multibillion-dollar effort to combat the global flow of illegal drugs allegedly used to finance terrorism.

Envision an aircraft carrier in the sky. Drugs that can immediately prepare soldiers for duty at high altitudes. Prosthetic limbs with something approaching real sensitivity. The Pentagon has.

The Pentagon’s 2008 spending blueprint seeks $31.9 billion for classified programs, nearly double the $19.1 billion the U.S. military was devoting to “black” initiatives in 2001, according to a new analysis. That’s 18 percent of the 2008 acquisition total of $176.8 billion, according to the July 25 analysis, compiled by Steven Kosiak of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). It includes $14.4 billion for procurement, 14 percent of the total; and $17.5 billion for research and development (R&D), or 23 percent of the total, the analysis said.