FAST team deployed to protect US embassy in Baghdad.

The Pentagon has deployed about 100 troops — including more than 50 Marines attached to a Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team to the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq, to help protect diplomatic personnel and property.

Meanwhile, President Obama is considering miltiary action against the Islamic insurgents, who have seized vast swaths of northern Iraq and are moving south toward the capital. Several U.S. warships have moved into the Persian Gulf, where they provide “the commander in chief additional options to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq, should he choose to use them,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, on Monday.

The arrival of FAST Marines and a contingent of U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq on Sunday marked the first operational deployment of U.S. troops there since the withdrawal of combat forces in December 2011. Pentagon officials declined to identify the Army unit deployed to Baghdad. The Marine platoon is based out of nearby Bahrain, and is tasked with protecting American personnel and property, said Master Sgt. William Price, a spokesman for Marine Corps Forces Central Command.

FAST Marines are the traditional go-to assets when U.S. embassies require reinforcement in times of crises. The Marine Corps has two more forward-deployed FAST elements in Spain and Japan.

“This is a temporary thing,” Kirby said Monday. “There is no intention that this is any kind of permanent plus up. They are there temporarily, to assist with some relocation of some personnel who work at the embassy. They are not engaged in ferrying to and fro anyone. No military aircraft … is being used to ferry these folks.”

On Monday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde, part of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, to enter the Persian Gulf. It joins the carrier George H. W. Bush, which Hagel ordered to enter the Gulf on Saturday.

The carrier brings F/A-18 Super Hornets that could provide air strike capability over Iraq. The Mesa Verde carries more Marines, all members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, along with MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft that will be in standby in case the State Department needs support to completely evacuate the embassy in Baghdad.

Also entering the Persian Gulf Saturday was the guided-missile cruiser Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer Truxtun. The ships carry Tomahawk missiles that could reach inland Iraq.

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Obama may authorize military action against Sunni Islamic militants in Iraq

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama refused to rule out U.S. action in Iraq against Sunni Islamist militants who have surged out of the north to threaten Baghdad, threatening to divide the country and establish their own jihadist state.

Hours after ethnic Kurdish forces took advantage of the chaos to take control of the oil hub of Kirkuk as the forces of the Shi'ite-led government abandoned their posts, Obama was asked if he might order drone strikes or other action to halt the insurgency that has seized much of northern Iraq this week.

"I don't rule anything out," he told reporters, saying he was looking at all options to help the elected leaders who took full control of Iraq when the U.S. occupation ended in 2011.

He added that the United States had an interest in denying a foothold to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and that Washington was prepared to take military action when its national security interests are threatened.

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Five Americans killed in friendly fire incident by B-1B bomber

KABUL, Afghanistan Five American service members were killed in southern Afghanistan when a B-1B bomber was called in by a SOF unit that had come under intense Taliban attack.

The five were killed along with an Afghan soldier in Zabul province, said the province’s Police Chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwanai.“But the airstrike mistakenly bombed their own friends too,” he said.The alliance did not offer additional details.

According to sources, the troops were conducting a security sweep. Such operations have been stepped up ahead of the Afghanistan’s presidential runoff election, which will take place on Saturday.

The patrol came under heavy fire from enemy forces and an airstrike was called in. "That’s when the casualties occurred, a NATO statement said — but then it added this line: Tragically, there is the possibility that fratricide may have been involved.”

Roghliwanai said the troops had completed their joint military sweep when they came under rocket fire from Taliban militants.

A U.S. defense department spokesman said early Tuesday morning he didn’t have a comment about the incident.

Senator Graham calls for hearing on Taliban prisoner swap.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has called on Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to immediately hold hearings on the prisoner swap that secured the freedom of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Graham questioned President Obama’s decision to release the “Taliban Dream Team” from the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in exchange for Bergdahl, a 28-year-old Army sergeant who spent five years as a prisoner of the militant Haqqani network.


“While I appreciate an American was released from captivity, this decision by the Obama administration has serious implications for our future national security,” Graham wrote.

He predicted the militants released from American custody, including the chief of staff of the Taliban army and Taliban’s deputy minister of intelligence, will return to the fight “surely as night follows day.”

“I fear President Obama’s decision will inevitably lead to more Americans being kidnapped and held hostage throughout the world,” he said.

Graham questioned why the administration did not notify Congress 30 days in advance of the release of prisoners from Guantánamo as required the by the National Defense Authorization Act.

“We need a thorough review of this decision, and I urge you to hold a hearing on this matter as it has profound implications for national security,” he said.

Graham faces a crowed field of challengers in the South Carolina Republican primary scheduled for June 10.

Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services panel, and Rep. Buck McKeon (Calif.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, released a statement over the weekend calling for a careful examination of the deal that secured Bergdahl’s release.

White House accidentally leaks cover of top CIA officer in Afghanistan.

USA TODAY: The White House accidentally blew the cover of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan Saturday, when his name and title were released in an e-mail sent to reporters who traveled with President Obama on his surprise visit to Bagram Air Field.

The CIA officer's identity was released as part of a list of U.S. officials who were attending a military briefing with Obama at Bagram, theWashington Post reported.

The individual was identified as "Chief of Station," a term used for the top spy in a country, according to the Post.

The White House recognized the error and issued a revised list that did not include the official's name.

The list was sent in an e-mail to reporters traveling with Obama to Afghanistan, and then further distributed in a "pool report" to reporters not taking part in the trip, including members of foreign press agencies. In all, more than 6,000 people were sent the initial pool report that included the CIA officer's identity.

The Post reported that Scott Wilson, the newspaper's White House bureau chief, filed the pool report. Wilson copied the list contained in the e-mail sent from White House press officials.

"Wilson said that after the report was distributed, he noticed the unusual reference to the station chief and asked White House press officials in Afghanistan whether they had intended to include that name," the Post reported. "Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to distribute to news organizations. But senior White House officials realized the mistake and scrambled to issue an updated list without the CIA officer's name."

The CIA and the White House have not officially commented on the incident and it remains unclear how the exposure will affect the CIA officer's ability to continue in his in role in Afghanistan.

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