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Matt Schofield

Panetta: Congress hurting itself and U.S. image with continuous squabbling

The world is nervously watching a dysfunctional Congress and wondering “whether or not we can rise to the challenges” that face the United States, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Wednesday. | 02/13/13 18:41:25 By - Matthew Schofield

Experts: U.S. must prepare for day North Korea can put a nuclear warhead on a rocket

Scientists and security experts studying North Korea’s nuclear test on Tuesday believe the rogue nation is closing in on being able to place a nuclear weapon atop a missile and loft it at another country. | 02/12/13 19:29:33 By - By Matthew Schofield and Jonathan S. Landay

By exiting papacy still alive, Pope Benedict follows a precedent not seen for 598 years

Before April 19, 2005, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger talked warmly of retiring. He was looking forward to a leisurely life, with his books, his brother and his beloved gray cat back in ancient Regensburg, Germany, where he owned a house. | 02/11/13 19:30:20 By - By Matthew Schofield

Despite sanctions, U.S. aid to Afghanistan might also be helping Iran

The Afghan National Army may have broken the U.S.-led economic embargo against Iran by using American aid to buy Iranian fuel for its military vehicles, generators and cooking processes, according to a military audit and experts on the region. | 02/11/13 16:21:26 By - By Matthew Schofield

Change of commanders in Afghanistan starts clock on end of U.S. war there

Inside the heavily secured headquarters of the NATO-led forces here, the man who could be the last commander of America’s longest war will officially take charge Sunday of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. | 02/08/13 16:06:16 By - By Jay Price and Matt Schofield

Panetta, military wanted to arm Syrian rebels, Senate panel told

America’s two top defense leaders acknowledged Thursday that they’d supported a CIA plan, opposed by the White House, to arm Syrian rebels . | 02/08/13 10:59:18 By - By Matthew Schofield

Chuck Hagel, Senate Republicans clash at confirmation hearing

The left came to praise former Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican whom Obama nominated to be his next secretary of defense. The right came to, if not bury him, keep him on the hot seat all day as it explored his views and past, sometimes controversial, statements on Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and nuclear weapons. | 01/31/13 19:12:04 By - By Matthew Schofield

New combat policy for women cracks the ‘Kevlar ceiling’

Those familiar with the impact of the ban on women in combat say the reasons to lift it rest in the numbers. About one in five junior officers are women. But because official combat roles were ruled out for women, and those roles are at least the tiebreaker in promotions, the percentages of women decline as ranks increase. By the time service members reach the rank of general, women are down to about one in 12. | 01/31/13 14:24:23 By - By Matthew Schofield

U.S. military to lift ban on women in combat: ‘Historic step for equality’

The U.S. military will soon announce the end of a 19-year ban on women in combat, according to a senior defense official, a sweeping change that appears to recognize the reality that female troops have experienced since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. | 01/23/13 19:21:51 By - By Matthew Schofield

Gen. Allen cleared in email investigation linked to the Petraeus scandal

The top general in Afghanistan has been cleared in an email scandal that had threatened his career just as he was putting the finishing touches on plans for the American military drawdown in the 11-year-old war. | 01/22/13 19:39:19 By - By Matthew Schofield

Is Mali the next Afghanistan?

It sounds as if it could be the plot for a new Indiana Jones adventure. But those who study international terrorism say it would be a mistake for Americans to think of this conflict as anything but deadly serious. The war in Mali is the new front in the war on international terrorism. | 01/18/13 17:43:36 By - By Matthew Schofield

From Capitol Hill to Iran, next defense secretary faces challenges

The trial balloon for the next secretary of defense barely lifted off before the darts started zipping at it, from the left and the right. | 12/31/12 15:29:51 By - By Matthew Schofield

All-volunteer military may desensitize U.S. to war, some fear

The all-volunteer military force appears to be passing from generation to generation, leading to the worrying notion that the United States is developing a warrior class. One survey indicated that 57 percent of active troops today are the children of current or former active or reserve service members. | 12/31/12 13:37:09 By - By Matthew Schofield

Fiscal cliff’s impact in Kentucky uncertain but worrisome

Two weeks before the federal government is forced to make cuts that could impact classrooms, extension programs and staff, Kentucky State University’s Teferi Tsegaye notes that all he knows for sure about the so-called “fiscal cliff” is that his agricultural school is among those being shoved over. | 12/17/12 15:33:53 By - By Matthew Schofield

Successful North Korean missile launch triggers security concerns

Just shy of eight months after a very public and humiliating failure, the successful long-range missile launch Wednesday by Kim Jong Un’s North Korean ballistic-missile program gave the world a reason to re-evaluate the threat from his rogue nation. | 12/12/12 18:52:48 By - By Matthew Schofield

Deep defense cuts loom as fiscal cliff inches closer

Pentagon spokesman George Little recently talked about what the U.S. military accomplished during Hurricane Sandy: installed hundreds of generators, removed millions of gallons of water and tons of debris, and ferried millions of meals and gallons of fuel to affected areas. | 12/06/12 16:44:07 By - By Matthew Schofield

Emails between Gen. Allen and Jill Kelley raise more questions

The emails between Marine Gen. John Allen, the top American military leader in Afghanistan, and a Florida socialite contain comments that “go beyond flirtatious, and can probably be described safely as suggestive,” a Defense Department official said Wednesday. | 11/14/12 16:23:16 By - By Matthew Schofield

Top general swept up in Petraeus scandal; another investigation underway

Congress returned from its election break Tuesday to grapple with the shocking resignation of former CIA Director David Petraeus in a sex scandal that widened to possibly taint the Marine general who commands U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. | 11/13/12 20:08:01 By - By Matthew Schofield, James Rosen and Jonathan S. Landay

Questions and some answers about attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Questions continue to swirl around the attack on the American consulate in Libya in September that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. | 11/01/12 19:30:16 By - By Matthew Schofield

Obama and Romney not that different on national security, foreign policy

After a campaign that’s been about jobs, jobs and more jobs, the next president will be faced with a world full of problems that have little to do with improving the American economy. These are issues that often bear a geographic name: Afghanistan, Benghazi, Iran, Syria, Israel, or with out-thinking and overcoming those who seek to harm Americans. | 10/29/12 00:00:00 By - By Matthew Schofield

Despite Germany’s economic boom, problems lie ahead

On a recent Friday afternoon at a downtown grocery store, just blocks from where there was once a very famous wall and not far from where Adolf Hitler killed himself, perhaps the most powerful woman on Earth waited in a recycling line with a sack of empty plastic bottles. | 10/24/12 15:09:32 By - By Matthew Schofield

To tally the Navy’s strength requires more than math

America’s Navy is stronger, smaller, more dominant, more vulnerable and more lethal than at any time since World War I. So, for those confused by dueling candidates on the topic during Monday night’s presidential debate, hope that’s cleared up things. | 10/23/12 19:08:07 By - By Matthew Schofield

The Afghan war: Do the numbers add up to success?

The 33,000 U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan two years ago to stop Taliban advances are back home, with military officials claiming that the surge accomplished its objectives. | 10/09/12 18:26:09 By - By Matthew Schofield

State Department delay cited in seeking Pentagon protection for FBI agents in Libya

The State Department took nearly three weeks to formally request U.S. military protection for FBI agents assigned to investigate the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed the U.S. ambassador to that country and three other Americans, according to a senior U.S. official and a person familiar with the matter. | 10/04/12 20:38:18 By - By Matthew Schofield and Jonathan S. Landay

In storybook rural Germany, thefts prompt concern over gun restrictions

Small businesses in this newly capitalist region have lost millions of dollars’ worth of equipment to thieves from beyond the German border. The thefts have made some Germans wary of their neighbors and they’ve triggered an unprecedented debate on gun use. | 09/24/12 11:37:31 By - By Matthew Schofield

U.S. military won't have role in probe of Libya consulate attack

American warships will prowl the waters off the Libyan coast and surveillance drones will buzz the skies overhead, but Defense Department officials said Thursday that catching the people who attacked the American consulate in Benghazi and killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans will involve an on-the-scene investigation led likely by Libyans. | 09/13/12 20:03:03 By - By Matthew Schofield

German Jews, Muslims see circumcision issue as attack on faith

A seemingly simple case led a court to classify religious circumcision as assault, hospitals nationwide to prohibit the practice, a debate in now largely secular Germany about the primitive nature of religion, and Jews and Muslims to band together to protect a time-honored rite both believe to be central to their faiths. | 09/06/12 15:15:12 By - By Matthew Schofield

Sens. Carl Levin, John McCain want United Technologies suspended from defense work

Two powerful U.S. senators want the Pentagon to consider suspending or blocking one of the nation’s largest defense contractors from government work because a subsidiary has admitted selling software to China that it knew would be used for military purposes. | 08/09/12 18:56:43 By - By Matthew Schofield

Pentagon gets U.S. military ready for its movie close-ups

The Defense Department has a relationship with the American movie industry that dates to 1911. It even has a price list for the rental of military equipment for films the military wants to support. Renting a B-1B long range bomber for an hour costs $50,529 for approved films. | 08/09/12 15:49:16 By - By Matthew Schofield

In Chesapeake Bay, Army Corps tries to build a better island

In a bay where waves and rising water levels are sweeping islands away, the corps is turning a few fragile pieces of land into a 1,700-acre island with wetlands and a forest to restore decimated bird populations. | 07/23/12 00:00:00 By - By Matthew Schofield

Family of Anwar al-Awlaki files wrongful death suit against Obama administration officials

The families of three U.S. citizens killed in drone strikes last year in Yemen filed suit Wednesday against Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and three other senior U.S. officials in the latest attempt to shed light on the Obama administration’s secretive program of unmanned aerial strikes overseas. | 07/18/12 19:35:27 By - By Franco Ordonez and Matthew Schofield

States praised, others faulted, for policies toward military voters

With both a tradition of helping service members get their votes counted as well as a tight turnaround between its primary and general elections this year, Washington officials decided to move up the state’s primary date a few weeks, from late August to early August. | 07/17/12 18:37:35 By - By Matthew Schofield

Supreme Court rejects ‘Stolen Valor’ law, says lying about military honors isn’t a crime

The Supreme Court Thursday struck down a federal law that makes it a crime to lie about being a military hero. In fact, the justices ruled that many lies are protected by the First Amendment. | 06/28/12 17:48:06 By - By Michael Doyle and Matthew Schofield

Swimming to freedom, and into center of fight against modern-day slavery

In 2009, Cambodian Prom Vannak Anan dove into a dark sea and away from a life of beatings, unpaid labor and imprisonment on a fishing boat. The lights of a port, four miles distant, guided him. The desire to be free kept him swimming. | 06/19/12 18:28:14 By - By Matthew Schofield

In Mali, rise of Islamic radicals poses new terrorism fears

An unlikely alliance of Islamic radicals and Tuareg tribesmen have seized northern Mali, imposed Sharia law and raised concerns that the area could become the next safe haven for international terrorism. | 06/07/12 18:02:20 By - By Matthew Schofield

U.S.: Al Qaida’s No. 2, Abu Yahya al Libi, killed in Pakistan

U.S. officials on Tuesday confirmed the death in Pakistan of the No. 2 official in al Qaida’s central organization, Abu Yahya al Libi, the latest senior operative killed in the United States’ campaign against the terrorist organization. | 06/05/12 18:33:25 By - By Matthew Schofield and Lesley Clark

For U.S., Egyptian election results are simply 'flavors of bad'

The United States has been preparing for varying degrees of anti-Americanism with the election of a new Egyptian president. So even as the seeming chaos appears to calm, the future of American relations with the new democracy remains uncertain. | 05/25/12 19:13:09 By - By Matthew Schofield

Europe’s economic troubles mount ahead of G-8

Europe’s deepening debt crisis is likely to play out on U.S. shores Friday as financial markets digest the downgrade of the creditworthiness of 16 Spanish banks and the arrival of France’s new socialist president at the White House for meetings with President Barack Obama. | 05/17/12 20:12:40 By - By Kevin G. Hall and Matthew Schofield

Experts: Euro was troubled from birth

From its inception, Europe’s move to a common currency was not as much about money as about political unity and guarding against another European conflict. The economics were always known to be, at best, difficult. | 05/10/12 17:01:49 By - By Matthew Schofield

Europe elections aside, experts say austerity is far from dead

Even as France’s Francois Hollande proclaims that pro-growth measures can help rescue Europe from economic crisis, experts say that only Germany has the money needed to launch a major round of stimulus spending across the euro zone - and it has no intention of sending that much money around the continent. | 05/07/12 19:09:09 By - By Matthew Schofield

Osama bin Laden was angry, increasingly irrelevant in final years, letters show

Seventeen letters seized from Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout by the Navy SEALs who found and killed him there last May expose the international terrorist icon in his final years as increasingly irrelevant to his own movement. | 05/03/12 18:07:13 By - By Matthew Schofield

After Osama bin Laden, al Qaida still a many-headed threat

A year ago, U.S. Navy SEALs slipped into a heavily fortified compound in Pakistan and killed the face of international terrorism. There is a growing fear, however, that Osama bin Laden’s death didn’t even seriously wound the international terror threat. | 04/26/12 17:00:00 By - By Matthew Schofield

UN's Ban Ki-moon calls South Sudan's capture of Heglig an 'illegal act'

The secretary-general of the United Nations on Thursday blasted U.S. ally South Sudan for seizing an oil town on its border with Sudan, calling the military move “an illegal act” and demanding that the country, which split from Sudan last year under a U.S.-brokered peace accord, withdraw its troops. | 04/19/12 19:43:42 By - Matthew Schofield

New Afghanistan war photos part of a long, controversial tradition

The photos released Wednesday of U.S. service members posing with fallen enemies in Afghanistan are ‘morally repugnant,’ officials say, but hardly the first to show soldiers behaving badly in wartime. | 04/19/12 14:21:51 By - By Matthew Schofield

As North Korea readies rocket test, U.S. policy faulted

As North Korea said Tuesday that it was ready to launch a long-range rocket later this week, prompting stern criticism from U.S. officials, experts said the planned launch revealed weaknesses in American policy toward the rogue nation. | 04/10/12 18:13:00 By - Matthew Schofield

News organizations protest closure of Guantanamo hearing

News organizations including The McClatchy Co., The Washington Post and The New York Times filed an objection Thursday to Pentagon plans to close a terrorism hearing next week where details could emerge of a detainee's mistreatment at secret CIA prisons overseas. | 04/05/12 18:19:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Trial of five 9/11 suspects to resume at Guantanamo

The five men believed to be behind the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history were officially charged Wednesday under military law with crimes that carry a maximum sentence of death. | 04/04/12 13:13:39 By - Matthew Schofield

Impact of ending military's 'don't ask, don't tell' law 'negligible'

For 13 years, Marine Maj. Darrel Choat didn't tell. That meant 13 years of demurring when the wives of fellow officers tried to set him up with women they knew. It meant sneaking away to attend the funeral of a friend who'd died of AIDS. It meant staying silent when fellow Marines ranted about "fags." | 04/03/12 14:55:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Mission to reclaim U.S. soldiers' remains shelved as Korean tensions rise

The first to fall in the Korean War are also among the first casualties of the current diplomatic impasse between the United States and North Korea. | 03/27/12 16:14:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales formally charged in Afghanistan massacre

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Friday formally charged Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales with 17 counts of premeditated murder, meaning the 38-year-old soldier could face the death penalty if convicted of a March 11 rampage in southern Afghanistan. | 03/23/12 18:05:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Staff Sgt. Bales to be charged with 17 murder counts

The American soldier suspected in the bloodiest rampage against civilians in the decade of the Afghan war is expected to be charged Friday with 17 counts of murder. | 03/22/12 20:29:00 By - Matthew Schofield

After Bales' arrest, military tried to delete him from Web

Besides waiting nearly a week before identifying the Army staff sergeant who's accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers, the U.S. military scrubbed its websites of references to his combat service. | 03/21/12 18:50:00 By - David Goldstein and Matthew Schofield

Murder case against U.S. soldier presents challenges for prosecutors

In the United States, a murder case can be pretty straightforward: the victim dies, police collect evidence and use it to pursue suspects. But as U.S. military prosecutors prepare to charge Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in the deaths of 16 Afghan villagers, the challenges they face are certain to make the high-profile case anything but straightforward. | 03/20/12 18:55:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales named as suspect in Afghan massacre

A complex portrait emerged Friday of the suspect in the killings of 16 Afghan civilians: Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was hurt about being passed over for a military promotion, and as a civilian had brushes with the law and spent time in anger management. | 03/16/12 21:14:00 By - By Rob Carson, Debbie Carfazzo and Matthew Schofield

Afghan-massacre suspect Staff Sgt. Robert Bales en route to U.S.

Despite claims by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that one man couldn't have killed 16 villagers, American military officials insisted Friday that Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who was being brought to a military prison in the United States, is the only suspect in a deadly rampage in southern Afghanistan. | 03/16/12 19:21:00 By - Jon Stephenson and Matthew Schofield

Move blocks Iranian banks from world payments system

A move Thursday by a Belgian-based financial-transfers company to block Iran from global transactions is expected to isolate the country further and send it tumbling back toward a barter economy. | 03/15/12 18:28:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Pentagon officials: 'No smoking gun' in Afghan rampage

As the Army staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 civilians was flown out of Afghanistan, two military officials told McClatchy on Wednesday that investigators combing his medical records had found "no smoking gun" to explain the rampage. | 03/14/12 19:21:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Matthew Schofield

U.S. soldier to be charged in Afghanistan massacre

Pentagon officials insisted Monday that the weekend's Afghanistan killing spree was an "isolated incident" and said that a 38-year-old Army staff sergeant would soon be charged in connection with the deaths of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children. | 03/12/12 18:32:00 By - Matthew Schofield and Nancy A. Youssef

Few military options for U.S. in Syria, general says

Facing questions over U.S. options to stem the bloodshed in Syria, top U.S. military leaders said Tuesday that creating "safe havens" for rebels or imposing a no-fly zone would be extremely difficult because of the Syrian regime's Russian-provided air defense weaponry. | 03/06/12 17:53:00 By - Matthew Schofield

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi. | 08/31/11 20:06:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion

The stench of human waste is enough to tell Falah abu Hasan that his drinking water is bad. His infant daughter Fatma's continuous illnesses and his own constant nausea confirm it. | 03/18/09 16:38:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Joy in Baghdad: Its soccer teams are playing again

A series of quick, short passes suddenly left Haitham Kadhim with an opening about 25 yards from the goal. His left foot lashed the ball into the far corner of the net. The thousands of Jawiya supporters packed into Shaab Stadium erupted. | 03/11/09 16:49:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Second big blast in three days kills at least 33 in Iraq

A suicide car-bomber killed at least 33 early afternoon Tuesday in Abu Ghraib, the infamous prison community just west of Baghdad. The bomber struck near a crowded marketplace, targeting a reconciliation conference of tribal sheiks. It was the second major blast in three days. | 03/10/09 11:10:50 By - Matthew Schofield

Iraqi pilgrims visit Samarra's bombed mosque once again

For the first time since bombs ripped apart the sacred golden dome of the ancient mosque in Samarra in 2006, millions of Shiite Muslim pilgrims returned to worship Friday. | 03/06/09 14:41:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Iraqis find hope in their history — 5,000 years of it

Luma Yass led a visitor into the Assyrian Hall of the infamously looted museum of antiquities in Iraq's capital city. | 02/27/09 15:32:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Firm behind huge Iraq embassy doesn't want to talk about it

The new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has almost everything architects love to talk about: big money, high profile, controversy, historic significance, fascinating location. So, what�s the reaction from the Kansas City firm involved in designing it? Nothing, really. | 01/12/09 07:11:41 By - Matt Schofield

This story's two years old, but you should read it anyway

At the height of the Hezbollah-Israel war almost exactly two years ago, McClatchy's Matt Schofield wrote about Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese killer that Israel released Wednesday in return for the remains of two Israeli soldiers whose capture July 12, 2006, touched off the 34-day conflict. This story was published July 22, 2006, but it's still worth your time to read it if you're curious about what took place in the Middle East today. | 07/16/08 17:15:13 By - Matt Schofield

In German town, Benedict XVI known for love of cats, conversation

When he was a cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI often delivered sermons at the German-language church in Campasanto Teutonico near St. Peter's Basilica, but his most heartfelt talks may have been the ones he gave after celebrating Mass. | 05/01/05 09:32:05 By - Matt Schofield

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