1 of 3. U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks at his news conference at the Pentagon in Washington March 15, 2013.

WASHINGTON | Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans on Friday to bolster missile defenses in response to "irresponsible and reckless provocations" by North Korea, which threatened a preventative nuclear strike against the United States last week.

Hagel said the Pentagon would add 14 new anti-missile interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska - an effective reversal of an early Obama administration decision - and move ahead with the deployment of a second missile-defense radar in Japan.

The Pentagon also left open the possibility of creating a site on the East Coast where the Pentagon could field more interceptors capable of striking down an incoming missile. The 14 additional interceptor deployments would cost nearly $1 billion and must be approved by Congress.

"By taking the steps I outlined today we will strengthen our homeland defense, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression," Hagel told a news conference.

North Korea issued its threat last week to stage a preemptive nuclear attack against the United States as the United Nations readied new sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its February 12 nuclear test.

Experts say North Korea is years away from being able to hit the continental United States with a nuclear weapon, despite having worked for decades to achieve a nuclear capability.

But Hagel said the moves announced by the Pentagon were justified to stay ahead of the threat, underscored by the nuclear test and a December rocket launch that analysts believe was aimed at developing technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Hagel also cited North Korea's display last April of what appeared to be a road-mobile ICBM.

The Pentagon said the United States had informed China, North Korea's neighbor and closest ally, of its decision to add more interceptors but declined to characterize Beijing's reaction.

U.S. SAYS SYSTEMS NOT AIMED AT CHINA OR RUSSIA

Officials say its missile defense systems are not designed to counter the large number of ICBMs in arsenals in China or Russia and are focused instead on the threat from North Korea or, potentially, Iran.

Friday's announcement came with a key caveat - the Pentagon said it would only purchase the extra interceptors if they perform appropriately in tests. The interceptors in question have not hit a target since 2008, a defense official said.

Boeing Co. is the prime contractor of the system. Key Boeing subcontractors include Raytheon Co., which makes the kill vehicle, and Orbital Sciences Corp, which makes the rocket booster.

Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed confidence in the missiles and said he believed the steps taken by the United States would make North Korea's young leader, Kim Jung-un, think twice before acting on bellicose rhetoric.

"We not only intend to put the mechanics in place to deny any potential North Korean objective to launch a missile to the United States, but also to impose costs on them if they do," he told reporters.

"And we believe that this young lad ought to be deterred by that. And if he's not, we'll be ready."

The addition of another 14 interceptors amounts to a reversal of an Obama administration decision in 2010 to stop expansion of the missile interceptor system at 30 interceptors. The Bush administration had planned to deploy a total of 44.

The United States currently has 26 interceptors deployed at Fort Greely and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Congressman Mike Turner, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, said the Obama administration had began "to realize the shortcomings of its missile defense strategy."

"Now that the administration has decided to see clearly, America can get back on the right course," Howard McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, lamenting lost time and resources.

In a sign of fiscal pressures facing the Pentagon, U.S. officials acknowledged they were also forgoing development of a new anti-missile interceptor that would have been deployed in Europe. They said European defense would be unaffected.

Officials said the United States would move forward with congressionally mandated environmental impact studies for alternative sites in the United States for deploying additional ground-based interceptors, if needed.

Winnefeld said locations on the East Coast were being considered but declined to offer details.

"We're still looking at sites," he said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and David Brunnstrom)

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Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) (L), sits down before giving testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee to be Defense Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 31, 2013. Hagel, 66, is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a former two-term Republican senator.

WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:06pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From his lonely position as an early Republican critic of the Iraq war, former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel sometimes lectured his more timid Senate colleagues. "If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes," he told them.

President Barack Obama's nominee for defense secretary began a Senate confirmation process on Thursday that revived the contentious relations the fiercely independent Vietnam war veteran had with fellow Republicans over his political career.

"I'm proud of my record," Hagel declared before the Armed Services Committee. "I'm on the record on many issues. But no one individual vote, no one individual quote, no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs or my record."

A social conservative and strong internationalist who co-chaired John McCain's failed Republican presidential campaign in 2000, Hagel might have seemed an unlikely pick for Obama were it not for his opposition to the Iraq war launched in 2003 by former President George W. Bush, a Republican.

Opposing that war was the issue on which Democrat Obama also rose to national prominence and he has said that Iraq was not the only matter where he held similar views with Hagel, who was also once touted as presidential material.

"He's a staunch Republican, but Chuck and I agree almost on every item of foreign policy," Obama said in August 2008, a month after joining Hagel on a tour of Iraq.

Hagel's detractors noted he had voted at times against U.S. sanctions on Iran, and said he had made disparaging remarks about the influence of what he called a "Jewish lobby" in Washington.

Hagel rejects the allegations, saying that he had always supported Israel, and if confirmed he would ensure America's military is prepared to strike Iran if necessary.

Hagel has also been critical of the size of the American military, saying in an interview in 2011 that the Defense Department was "bloated" and needed "to be pared down."

Hagel served two terms in the Senate, representing the state of Nebraska, and left in 2008. He is now a professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.. He also serves as co-chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and is a member of the Secretary of Defense's Policy Board.

Since he left the Senate, Hagel has been a big critic of his own party. He told the Financial Times in 2011 that he was "disgusted" by the "irresponsible actions" of Republicans during a fractious debate over raising the U.S. debt-ceiling in 2011.

Last year he endorsed a Democratic candidate for Senate from Nebraska - former Senator Bob Kerrey - instead of Republican Deb Fischer, who won.

Hagel would not be the first Republican to serve Obama as Pentagon chief. Bob Gates, Obama's first defense secretary, was a holdover from his predecessor George Bush.

CLASHES WITH FELLOW REPUBLICANS

While he was in the Senate as a member of the Foreign Relations, Banking, and Intelligence Committees, Hagel often clashed with his party's leaders on foreign and defense policy.

He co-sponsored legislation to ease U.S. trade restrictions with Cuba, and at times voted against trade sanctions on Iran and Libya.

In 2002 Hagel said the U.S. should try to improve relations with the countries Bush had branded an "axis of evil" - Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

The same year, when Hagel expressed doubts about the Bush administration's buildup to war in Iraq, the conservative Weekly Standard magazine branded him part of an "axis of appeasement." But Hagel did vote to give the president the authority to carry out the March 2003 invasion.

Later Hagel said he regretted that vote and became a persistent critic of the conflict. In January 2007, he was the only Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support a non-binding measure that criticized Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq.

Hagel told senators they must take a stand on "the most divisive issue in the country since Vietnam," a war in which he had fought, but later decided was wrong. His stance put him at odds with McCain, who also has a reputation as a maverick, and Hagel was pilloried by other Republicans.

Bush's vice president Dick Cheney reflected the view of many in his party when he told Newsweek: "I believe firmly in Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment: thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. But it's very hard sometimes to adhere to that where Chuck Hagel is involved."

Hagel did not make a public endorsement in the 2008 presidential race, but his wife Lilibet endorsed Obama and sat with Obama's wife Michelle during a presidential debate with McCain.

Hagel skipped the 2008 Republican convention, an important pre-election event, and further irked his party by telling the Omaha World-Herald newspaper that it was a "stretch" to say McCain's running mate Sarah Palin would be qualified to be president.

He had once been considered a contender for the 2008 presidency himself. Instead he said in September 2007 that he was dropping out of politics and retiring from the Senate when his term ended the following year.

Born in 1946, Hagel grew up in Nebraska as the oldest of four boys, and made a fortune by launching a cellphone company in the 1980s. His father was also a military man, a World War II veteran who died of a heart attack when Chuck was 16.

Hagel and his younger brother Tom volunteered for Vietnam, and Hagel saved Tom's life there by pulling him out of a burning vehicle.

In the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was president, Hagel served as deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration. (Reporting By Susan Cornwell; Editing by David Storey)

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WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:29pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers attacked Chuck Hagel on Thursday at a contentious hearing over his nomination to become the next U.S. defense secretary, questioning his judgment on war strategy and putting him broadly on the defensive.

In one of the most heated exchanges, Senator John McCain aggressively questioned Hagel, interrupting him and talking over him at times. He voiced frustration at the former Republican senator's failure to say plainly whether he was right or wrong to oppose the 2007 "surge" of U.S. troops in Iraq.

"Your refusal to answer whether you were right or wrong about it is going to have an impact on my judgment as to whether to vote for your confirmation or not," McCain said.

Hagel, who like McCain is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, declined to offer a simple yes or no answer, responding, "I would defer to the judgment of history to sort that out."

As President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Pentagon in his second term, Hagel could clinch Senate approval thanks to help from majority Democrats. But he appeared to pick up little new Republican support as his hours-long hearing wore on.

Although Republicans could create procedural hurdles to block him, there were no overt promises at the hearing to do so.

"Unless the Republicans filibuster him, the nomination is going to go through," said Bill Galston, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist, said, "It's been a tough day for Chuck Hagel overall."

"I think the Republicans are trying to decide whether they really want to push the pedal to the floor with Hagel," he said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee's Democratic chairman, Carl Levin, praised Hagel's performance after the nearly eight-hour hearing ended. "I thought he did very well. I thought he was responsive. He kept his cool. His experience was both modestly and eloquently described," the Michigan senator said.

The earliest the committee will vote on Hagel's nomination is next Thursday, Levin added.

Hagel's fellow Republicans dredged up a series of his past controversial statements on Iran, Israel and U.S. nuclear strategy, trying to paint him as outside mainstream security thinking. Even in polarized Washington, the grilling was highly unusual for a Cabinet nominee.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina laid into Hagel for once accusing a "Jewish lobby" of intimidating people in Washington, comments Hagel repeatedly said he regretted. Asked whether he could name one lawmaker who had been intimidated, Hagel said he could not. It was one of the many times he appeared uncomfortable.

"I can't think of a more provocative thing to say about the relationship between the United States and Israel and the Senate or the Congress than what you said," Graham said.

SEEKING TO SET RECORD STRAIGHT

If he is ultimately confirmed, Hagel will take over the Pentagon at a time of sharp reductions in defense spending, and with the United States still facing major challenges, including China, Iran and North Korea.

Hagel, speaking publicly for the first time since the attacks against his nomination began, seemed cautious and halting at times. He sought to set the record straight, assuring the panel that he backed U.S. policies of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and supporting a strong Israel.

"No one individual vote, no one individual quote, no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs, or my record," Hagel said in opening remarks to the packed hearing room.

"My overall world view has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world."

In an unusual reversal of partisanship, Democrats, more than Republicans, gave Hagel sympathetic support and time to air his views, which adhered broadly to Pentagon policy.

"I feel like I want to apologize for some of the tone and demeanor from today," said Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia.

Galston said Thursday's hearing appeared to sap some of the momentum Hagel had going into the session after weeks of pushback by his allies against criticism.

He added, "It's going to be harder to present Hagel's confirmation now as a victory for bipartisanship - overcoming doubts, or coming together around sensible mainstream policies."

Despite the harsh tone from many Republicans, some senators from the party approached Hagel more collegially.

Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia called Hagel by his first name and exchanged jokes with him during his testimony. He served alongside Hagel in the Senate.

But Hagel years ago angered many Republicans by breaking with his party over the handling of the Iraq war.

It was one of several contentious chapters of modern U.S. history that surfaced during the session, from the Vietnam War, where Hagel served as an infantryman and was wounded, to former President Ronald Reagan's call for nuclear disarmament.

Hagel, who would be the first Vietnam veteran to serve as Pentagon chief, also was questioned on his view of the Pentagon budget. He is known as an advocate for tighter spending controls.

'WRONG' MAN FOR THE JOB

Even before Hagel started speaking, James Inhofe, the panel's senior Republican, called him "the wrong person to lead the Pentagon at this perilous and consequential time."

"Senator Hagel's record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream. Too often it seems he is willing to subscribe to a worldwide view that is predicated on appeasing our adversaries while shunning our friends," said Inhofe of Oklahoma.

McCain's harsh attitude toward Hagel - whom he also singled out for opposing Obama's increase of forces in Afghanistan - was a far cry from their past, warm ties. McCain campaigned for Hagel in his Nebraska U.S. Senate race in 1996, and Hagel was national co-chairman of the Arizona Republican's unsuccessful 2000 presidential bid.

On Thursday, McCain said concerns about Hagel's qualifications ran deep.

"Our concerns pertain to the quality of your professional judgment and your world view on critical areas of national security, including security in the Middle East," he said.

In the entire Senate, which would vote on Hagel if he is cleared by the committee, only one of the 45 Republicans - Mississippi's Thad Cochran - has said he backs Hagel.

Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Dan Coats of Indiana on Thursday joined the list of Republicans who said they would vote against Hagel.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Warren Strobel, Jackie Frank and Peter Cooney)

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US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (R) shares a laugh with Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) at the Amman Citadel in Amman July 22, 2008.

WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:12pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama offered strong support for former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as the potential next U.S. defense secretary but said in remarks aired on Sunday that he had not yet decided on a nominee for the Pentagon post.

Hagel is considered a leading candidate to replace outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, but the former Nebraska lawmaker has come under criticism for his record on Israel and for a comment that being gay was an inhibiting factor for being an ambassador.

"I've served with Chuck Hagel. I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the United States Senate, somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam," Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview taped on Saturday and broadcast on Sunday.

Any nomination for defense secretary must be approved by the Senate where some lawmakers have voiced criticism about their former colleague.

"I think a lot of Republicans and Democrats are very concerned about Chuck Hagel's positions on Iran sanctions, his views toward Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, and that there is wide and deep concern about his policies. All of us like him as a person," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said.

"There would be very little Republican support for his nomination, at the end of the day, there will be very few votes," Graham said on Fox News Sunday.

Republican Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma said bluntly: "I cannot vote for Chuck Hagel."

Aside from his controversial statements, "he does not have the experience to manage a very large organization like the Pentagon," Coburn said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "If there's a place that we need great management it's the Pentagon."

Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said on the same television show that Hagel deserved "respect for the service he's given our country in the military and in the Senate" and should be given consideration. "He at least deserves a hearing and an opportunity," he said.

Obama said he had seen nothing that would disqualify Hagel.

The president said Hagel had apologized for his comments related to homosexuality, referred to by NBC's David Gregory in the interview.

"With respect to the particular comment that you quoted, he apologized for it," Obama said.

"And I think it's a testimony to what has been a positive change over the last decade in terms of people's attitudes about gays and lesbians serving our country. And that's something that I'm very proud to have led," he said.

Obama came out in favor of gay marriage in the middle of his re-election bid this year. Earlier in his term he presided over the end of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited gay men and women from serving openly in the U.S. military.

Hagel, who left the Senate in 2008, has faced questions about his record on Israel.

Some of Israel's leading U.S. supporters contend that Hagel at times opposed Israel's interests, voting several times against U.S. sanctions on Iran, and made disparaging remarks about the influence of what he called a "Jewish lobby" in Washington.

Obama, who has strained relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has faced questions of his own from the American Jewish community about his approach to the U.S. ally.

Obama said Hagel was doing an "outstanding job" serving on an intelligence advisory board and gave no indication on when he would make his final decision about the defense chief job.

The president has already backed down once from a contentious nomination, choosing Democratic Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state rather than going with his presumed first choice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, whom many Republicans opposed after she made controversial remarks about the September 11 attacks on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 20, 2012 6:05pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday came to the defense of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel against critics who have attacked his record on Israel and Iran in a bid to head off his possible nomination as President Barack Obama's next Pentagon chief.

With Hagel considered a leading choice for defense secretary, the administration joined allies rallying to support him against the onslaught, led by some pro-Israel groups and neo-conservatives, but also including former colleagues on Capitol Hill.

It was the second time since Obama's re-election last month that the White House has found itself forced to defend a Cabinet candidate who has yet to be nominated for anything, a source of frustration for the president's advisers.

Obama's aides have been preparing for a realignment of his national security team, possibly by Friday, sources familiar with the process have said. But with Obama focused on the "fiscal cliff" standoff and the Hagel controversy also fueling concerns, an announcement could easily be delayed.

Some American Jewish leaders contend Hagel, who left the Senate in 2008, at times opposed Israel's interests, voting several times against U.S. sanctions on Iran, and made disparaging remarks about the influence of what he called a "Jewish lobby" in Washington.

White House spokesman Jay Carney made clear Obama's faith in the former lawmaker, who is a decorated Vietnam war veteran.

"Senator Hagel fought and bled for his country. He served his country well. He was an excellent senator," Carney said, without acknowledging that Hagel was under consideration to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He did not address any of the specific criticisms aimed at Hagel.

The controversy over Hagel's possible nomination comes after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew from consideration for secretary of state last week amid withering attacks from Republicans over her role in initial explanations of the deadly September assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

"We've been through this before with Ambassador Rice where there's an effort to go after somebody," Carney said.

The drumbeat of criticism against Hagel could prompt Obama to reconsider whether it would be worth the likely Senate confirmation battle. But the White House has given no sign of dropping him the president's short list.

Obama himself has been criticized by some Jewish leaders for his approach to close U.S. ally Israel, especially given his strained relations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

BATTLE LINES DRAWN

Some of the attacks on Hagel stem from comments he made to former U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller for his 2008 book, "The Much Too Promised Land," in which Hagel was quoted as saying, "The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here."

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said earlier this week that Hagel would "have to answer for that comment" if he is nominated.

William Kristol of the conservative Weekly Standard wrote in a recent column that Hagel "has anti-Israel, pro-appeasement-of-Iran bona fides."

Hagel's supporters have started firing back, insisting he has shown himself supportive of Israel and tough on Iran.

"His views are strong, solid on American foreign policy. I'm amazed at the turnout of the neo-cons and so on," Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under President George H.W. Bush, told Reuters.

He was referring to the neo-conservatives, a loose group of right-wing foreign policy thinkers who gained ascendancy during the tenure of Obama's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

And Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal American Jewish group, denounced what he said was a "smear campaign" against Hagel.

Democratic presidents have sometimes turned to Republicans to fill key national security posts. Former President Bill Clinton chose former Senator William Cohen to lead the Defense Department, and Obama kept Robert Gates, former President George W. Bush's last defense secretary, on board for part of his term.

QUESTIONS ON CUBA

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio's office said he also would have questions about Hagel's record on Cuba, and raised the possibility of putting a hold on his nomination. Hagel has voiced doubts about the wisdom and effectiveness of maintaining the decades-old U.S. trade embargo on communist Cuba.

"Promoting democracy in Latin America is a priority for Senator Rubio, and he's put holds on other administration nominees over the issue," said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant.

"If President Obama were to nominate Senator Hagel for a cabinet position, I'm sure we would have questions about Cuba positions." Rubio is Cuban-American.

Adding to the sense of battle lines drawn, Hagel's critics and allies are circulating dueling fact-sheets on Capitol Hill.

Many Republicans consider Hagel suspect. He was an early dissenter on the Iraq war - an issue that helped Obama rise to prominence - and crossed the aisle to endorse the president in his successful re-election bid this year.

Since leaving the Senate after two terms, he has also been a vocal critic of his own party's fiscal policies.

Obama is said to feel comfortable with Hagel. The two traveled together to the Middle East during the 2008 campaign. Hagel currently co-chairs Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Warren Strobel; editing by Todd Eastham)

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