Huffington Post | Jill Kelley, the Tampa, Fla., socialite whose FBI complaint about threatening emails set off the investigation that exposed CIA Director David Petraeus' extramarital affair and led to his resignation, sued the FBI and the Defense Department on Monday for what she claims was a breach of her privacy.

Reuters |  President Barack Obama's administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA, several U.S. government sources said on Monday.

NYT | The problem of sexual assault in the military leapt to the forefront in Washington on Tuesday as the Pentagon released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010, and an angry President Obama and Congress demanded action.The study, based on a confidential survey sent to 108,000 active-duty service members, was released two days after the officer in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the Air Force was arrested and charged with sexual battery for grabbing a woman’s breasts and buttocks in an Arlington, Va., parking lot.

Breitbart | The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith. (From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Infowars.com | Technology would make robots “truly autonomous” A Pentagon-funded team of scientists have constructed a machine that functions like a human brain and would enable robots to think independently and act autonomously.

Wired.com | The next big customer for smartphones and tablets? The U.S. military. Finally. The military has begun talks with device and mobile operating-system manufacturers, as well as the major carriers, to supply troops with secured mobile devices. The idea is for the manufacturers to offer the Pentagon an already-secure device and OS, rather for the military to laboriously build a bespoke mobile suite that inevitably won’t keep pace with commercial innovation.

Fox News | Women in all branches of the military soon will have unprecedented opportunities to serve on the front lines of the nation's wars. Leon Panetta, in one of his last acts as President Obama's defense secretary, is preparing to announce the policy change, which would open hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.

Wired | In late October, the man ostensibly in charge of America’s 16 intelligence agencies decided to push out his most powerful subordinate. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, had learned that CIA Director David Petraeus had an affair with his biographer — one that had attracted the scrutiny of the FBI. Clapper urged Petraeus to resign. That set off a chain of events leading to President Obama nominating his main counterterrorism and intelligence adviser, John Brennan, to replace Petraeus.

CBS | American soldier suicides continue to outnumber combat-related deaths in 2012, and the trajectory for soldier suicides continues to get worse. Statistics released by the Department of the Army show that through November potentially 303 active-duty, Reserve and National Guard soldiers committed suicide. As of Dec. 7, Stars and Stripes reports that 212 soldiers have died in combat-related deaths in Afghanistan.

House.gov | Earlier this month we learned that the Obama Administration is significantly expanding the number of covert Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) agents overseas. From just a few hundred DIA agents overseas today, the administration intends to eventually deploy some 1,600 covert agents. The nature of their work will also shift, away from intelligence collection and more toward covert actions. This move signals a major change in how the administration intends to conduct military and paramilitary operations overseas. Unfortunately it is not a shift toward peace, but rather to an even more deadly and disturbing phase in the “war on terror.”

CNN | A strong U.S. military is indispensable to our national security. As retired military officers, we have dedicated our careers, on active duty and retired, to that end. We have been involved in crafting and teaching national security strategy, of which military strategy and use of military force are vital components. In the debate over the Pentagon budget and with threats of deeper cuts coming, the president, Congress, governors and the entire defense community are rightly concerned about sequestration, which cuts both domestic and defense spending indiscriminately. It is agreed that overall spending reductions are necessary, but the "fiscal cliff" crisis reflects a lack of political will, not rational planning.

AntiWar.com | Despite the extremely speculative nature of the Syrian “threat,” the Pentagon is wasting no time in scrambling to prepare a set of options for different possible ways in which the United States could invade Syria. Several different plans are under consideration, including the full-on occupation of Syria which officials estimate would require 75,000 troops just for securing chemical weapons, and many tens of thousands more for the open-ended “peacekeeping” operation certain to follow.

Antiwar | In October, the US launched an airstrike in Afghanistan that killed three children – ages 8, 10, and 12 -while they were gathering firewood (or by some accounts, dung to burn as fuel). NATO issued its usual dismissive statement, admitting it may have “accidentally killed three innocent Afghan civilians.” But now, according to the Military Times, the US military includes children on their list of who they’re allowed to murder with impunity.

Common Dreams | New Pentagon strategy 'reflects the Obama administration’s affinity for espionage and covert action' The Pentagon has announced plans to implement a heavy increase in spies around the world as part of a new espionage network comparable to the CIA that is likely to increase covert US strikes overseas. File/AFP/Getty Images U.S. officials told the Washington Post Saturday, the goal is to transform the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency into a spy service "focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units."