• Navy cruise unites families with sailors returning home

    After an eight-month deployment in the Persian Gulf, the USS John Stennis picked up the sailors' family and friends for a six-day cruise from Hawaii to San Diego. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

    After an eight-month deployment, the USS John C. Stennis headed home from the Persian Gulf where it played a vital role providing air support to troops in Afghanistan.

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    But on its way back it had another mission -- to pick up family and friends in Hawaii so they could experience life aboard the Stennis.

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    Aaniya Dorrah tries on a fireman's suit on the John C. Stennis.

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    A "Tiger" wears a pilots helmet while getting a tutorial on the Navy's F-18 fighter jet.

    The "Tiger Cruise" is the Navy's special take on bringing your loved one to work. 

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    The Lemons family, Samantha, Michael, and Micheal Jr., watch the Navy's air power demonstration aboard the USS John C. Stennis.

    More than 1100 family members and friends gathered to join the crew for a six-day cruise. The 'Tigers' are any friend or family member of the sailor, with the exception of spouses or significant others, invited to experience life, and sailors' duties, out at sea.

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    A family of "Tigers" gathers on the flight deck of the USS John C. Stennis before departing Pearl Harbor.

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    All the sights and sounds that accompany the sailors' work on board made memories that will last these families a lifetime. 

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    The American flag flies off the stern of the USS John C. Stennis in Pearl Harbor with the USS Arizona Memorial just behind.

    Steven Louie/NBC News

    An F-18 fighter jet sits atop the flight deck of the USS John C. Stennis.

     

  • Navy to pull aircraft carrier from Persian Gulf over budget worries

    Kristina Young / Handout / EPA

    The USS Harry S. Truman at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean in December 2012.

    Jim Miklaszewski and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News writes

    Published 6:30 p.m. ET: Budget constraints are prompting the U.S. Navy to cut back the number of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf region from two to one, the latest example of how contentious fiscal battles in Washington are impacting the U.S. military.

    According to Defense Department officials, the USS Harry S. Truman, which was set to leave for the Persian Gulf region on Friday, will now remain stateside, based in Norfolk, Virginia. 

    Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the change to the department’s “two-carrier policy” in the Persian Gulf region early Wednesday.

    The U.S. has steadily kept two aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf for much of the last two years. In 2010, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates issued a directive to keep two in the area given the volatility of the region.

    The cutback is largely a result of automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration, passed by Congress during the summer of 2011. Congress has failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year, and has instead opted on passing legislation that will keep spending at the same level as last year. But that means the Pentagon has been operating with less money and is unsure of what the future holds for its bottom line.

    Under sequestration, the Navy would lose $4 billion over the next six months, the last half of fiscal year 2013. The Navy was already $4.6 billion in the hole for this year because the continuing resolution for 2013 was budgeted at 2012 rates.

    Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta tells NBC's Chuck Todd if a sequester is allowed to happen it will "badly damage" the readiness of the U.S. military.

    Navy officials say the Defense Department ordered members of their branch and all services to “prepare for sequestration,” even though it’s not yet clear the automatic budgets cuts will kick in next month. 

    “We cut back to one carrier in the Gulf region to save money now, or wait until sequestration and be forced to cut back to zero carriers,” a senior defense official told NBC News.

    It’s not certain whether the Defense Department or the White House would permit a zero carrier presence in the Persian Gulf, no matter what the budget constraints, given rising tensions over Iran. The Truman would still conduct exercises off the US East Coast and would be “surge ready” in the event of an emergency or disaster.

    A statement from Pentagon Press Secretary George Little assured that the United States will “maintain a robust presence” in the area, but cited the pending sequestration cuts as the reason the Navy sent Panetta the request.

    “This prudent decision enables the U.S. Navy to maintain these ships to deploy on short notice in the event they are needed to respond to national security contingencies,” read the statement.

    Revelation of the cutbacks comes the same day as news that Panetta is recommending military pay increases be limited to one percent in 2014. Uniformed military will still get a raise, but it will be much smaller “to reflect the difficult budget decisions” facing the department, a defense official told NBC News.

    At a speech Wednesday, the outgoing secretary of defense warned that the budget battles in Washington are putting America at risk.  

    “The Department of Defense and other agencies across government have been living under a serious shadow -- the shadow of sequestration ... Today, with another trigger for sequestration approaching on March 1st, the Department of Defense is facing the most serious readiness crisis in over a decade,” he said to a crowd at Georgetown University.

    “Make no mistake, if these cuts happen there will be a serious disruption in defense programs and a sharp decline in military readiness,” Panetta said in his speech Wednesday.

    “We have begun an all-out effort to plan for how to operate under such a scenario, but it is already clear that no good options exist.”

    On Tuesday, President Obama called on Congress to pass “a small package of spending cuts and tax reforms” to avoid the automated cuts set to kick in at the beginning of next month.

    Republican Sens. John McCain and Kelly Ayotte – who have toured the country warning that sequestration cuts could put U.S. national defense at risk – responded on Wednesday by introducing a bill that would avoid cuts by slashing the federal workforce by 10 percent. 

    Additional reporting from Courtney Kube

  • Ex-Navy SEAL faces legal jeopardy for writing about bin Laden raid

    A senior military official tells NBC News the special operations community feels betrayed by the former SEAL who published a book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    Pete Williams writes

    What legal consequences could a former U.S. Navy SEAL face for writing a book about the still-classified 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden?  

    Legal experts say the author could face trouble on two fronts -- a civil lawsuit for not seeking a military review before the book was published and possible criminal prosecution for revealing classified information.

    Follow Open Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

    But a former Justice Department national security lawyer, Pat Rowan, said the government might be reluctant to prosecute a man who helped kill America's No. 1 terrorist enemy, unless the book reveals highly valuable and sensitive intelligence secrets.

     "What's more, if the government did decide to prosecute, the author's lawyer would be entitled to dig into the information that was disclosed by the White House and other officials, in both sanctioned and unsanctioned leaks," Rowan said.

    Rowan was referring to the fact that President Barack Obama and other administration officials have been accused by Republicans of leaking details of the bin Laden raid for political gain. 

    Dutton, a subsidiary of Penguin Group USA, announced on Wednesday that the book, titled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden," would go on sale on Sept. 11. The author, who will be identified only by a pseudonym, “was one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader’s hideout and was present at his death,” it said in a statement.

    A similar case arose in the 1970s, when a former CIA officer named Frank Snepp published a book about his activities in Vietnam.

    NBC's Brian Williams spoke with President Barack Obama about how it felt to look at the image of Osama bin Laden's dead body, and what it was like to place a call to George W. Bush after the terrorist was killed. He also speaks with Michael Leiter, Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who was in the Situation Room with the President and the national security team during the bin Laden raid. Although al-Qaida still exists, Leiter says there's no doubt the U.S. is much safer.

    The U.S. government sued on the grounds that he did not seek pre-publication review -- as he was obligated to do under an agreement he signed as a condition of employment -- and lower courts agreed to a demand that all the profits from the book be turned over to the government. By a vote of 6-3, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, even though the government never claimed the book revealed classified information.

    "When a former agent relies on his own judgment about what information is detrimental, he may reveal information that the CIA -- with its broader understanding of what may expose classified information and confidential sources -- could have identified as harmful," the court said.

    The participants pictured in the famous photo of the White House Situation Room taken during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound speak with NBC's Brian Williams.

    These days, said former Homeland Security official Stewart Baker, most government non-disclosure agreements say that if pre-publication review isn't sought, the profits must be forfeited. Legal experts doubt, however, that the government could stop publication of the book.

    The author could also be charged with violating federal laws that make it a crime for government employees to reveal classified information.  Anyone given a security clearance is bound for life by its non-disclosure terms, so the fact that the former SEAL is no longer in the military would not free him from the obligation to keep government secrets to himself.

    A DOJ official who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity on Thursday said he knew of no legal action against the former SEAL. That process would most likely start with a request from the Defense Department and, so far as the official knew, none had been made. DOD would have to verify that the book revealed government secrets before making such a request, the official said.