WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. admiral who oversaw the operation to kill Osama bin Laden denied on Thursday that he or his staff helped advise Hollywood film makers shooting a movie about last year’s secret raid to kill the al Qaeda leader.

A conservative legal group this week made public documents which it said showed how the Obama administration arranged special access to top officials for film makers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the director and screenwriter of “The Hurt Locker,” a 2008 film about the Iraq war that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Judicial Watch said the documents indicated that the Pentagon granted Bigelow and Boal access to a “planner, Operator and Commander of SEAL Team Six,” the Navy commando unit that carried out the raid during which bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he apparently had lived for years.

But Admiral William McRaven, who commanded the mission and was later promoted to head the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), denied anyone from USSOCOM dealt with the filmmakers in any way.

“I … had no interaction, neither has anyone at USSOCOM had any interaction, with folks that are making this movie,” McRaven told reporters, speaking a press conference in Tampa, Florida. “We have not provided any planners.”

The most revealing document obtained by Judicial Watch is a 16-page transcript of a July 15, 2011 meeting between the two filmmakers and Michael Vickers, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and one of the key administration officials involved in the bin Laden operation.

In the transcript, Vickers says that the Pentagon was willing to “make a guy available” to them who “was involved from the beginning as a planner; a SEAL Team Six Operator and Commander.”

CHICAGO (Reuters) – NATO will hand over the lead role in combat operations to Afghan forces across the country by mid-2013, alliance leaders said on Sunday as they charted a path out of a war that has lost public support and strained budgets in Western nations.

A NATO summit in Chicago on Monday will formally endorse a U.S.-backed strategy for a gradual exit from Afghanistan, a move aimed at holding together an allied force scrambling to cope with France’s decision to withdraw its troops early.

President Barack Obama and NATO partners want to show their war-weary voters the end is in sight in a conflict that has dragged on for more than a decade while at the same time trying to reassure Afghans that they will not be abandoned.

“There will be no rush for the exits,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said as the summit got under way.

He sought to put up a show of unity even as France’s new President Francois Hollande vowed to stick by his pledge to withdraw French troops by year’s end, two years earlier than the alliance timetable.

NATO’s plan is to shift full responsibility to Afghan forces for security across the country by the middle of next year and then withdraw most of the alliance’s 130,000 combat troops by the end of 2014, Rasmussen said.

While foreign forces will continue to fight the Taliban and other militants as necessary – and it may be very necessary – the new mission for U.S. and NATO troops will assume a new focus on advising and supporting Afghan soldiers.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Western leaders gathering this weekend to define their path out of Afghanistan will announce a pivot in the NATO mission next year, formally putting Afghan soldiers in charge of combat operations across the country, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

The leaders are expected to endorse a U.S. decision – telegraphed by the Pentagon earlier this year – to shift foreign troops to a support role by mid- or late 2013, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

“The Afghans will be in combat lead at that stage,” the official said. While foreign forces will continue to fight the Taliban and other militants as necessary – and it may be very necessary – the new mission for U.S. and NATO soldiers will assume a new focus on advising and supporting Afghan soldiers.

The move is the latest step in what U.S. officials say is a steady military transition out of Afghanistan, but one that appears nonetheless to be accelerating.

The White House, looking toward November elections, is seeking to dispel notions at this weekend’s talks in President Barack Obama’s home town that Western nations are rushing for the exits in Afghanistan.

It is a hard sell given the sharp fiscal pressures on nations fighting in Afghanistan and the emerging fissures with countries such as France that have embraced a more speedy exit.

Under a plan agreed at their last summit meeting in 2010, NATO nations said they would gradually transition out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, meaning Afghanistan’s inexperienced military will then spearhead the fight against Taliban insurgents.

CHICAGO, May 20 (Reuters) – NATO’s chief sought on Sunday to dispel fears of a “rush for the exits” in Afghanistan as Western allies gathered to chart a path out of an unpopular war that has dragged on for more than a decade.

President Barack Obama hosts the summit in his home town, Chicago, a day after major industrialized nations tackled a European debt crisis that threatens the global economy.

The shadow cast by fiscal pressures in Europe and elsewhere followed leaders from Obama’s presidential retreat in Maryland to the talks on Afghanistan, an unwelcome weight on countries mindful of dwindling public support for a costly war that has not defeated the Taliban in more than 10 years.

Obama, hoping an Afghan exit strategy will help shore up his chances for re-election in November, will attempt to put the focus on a common alliance vision for gradually turning over security responsibility to Afghan forces and pulling out most of the 130,000 NATO troops by the end of 2014.

But the Chicago talks are likely to be marked by undercurrents of division, especially with France’s new President Francois Hollande now planning to remove its troops by the end of 2012, two years ahead of the alliance’s timetable.

Seeking to paper over differences, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed confidence that the alliance would “maintain solidarity within our coalition” despite France’s decision.

“There will be no rush for the exits,” Rasmussen told reporters. “We will stay committed to our operation in Afghanistan and see it through to a successful end.”

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. commander in Afghanistan told Reuters he would not be disappointed if a long-sought agreement with Pakistan on supply routes failed to materialize by the end of the NATO summit in Chicago on Monday.

General John Allen, who is also the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but “whether it’s in days or weeks, I don’t know.”

Many Obama administration officials had hoped for an agreement with Islamabad in time for the Sunday-Monday summit that would end a nearly six-month ban prohibiting trucks in Pakistan from carrying supplies to NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Islamabad cut off the ground supply routes after a NATO air strike in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, causing a rift with the United States and forcing NATO commanders to look to alternative, most costly routes to supply the war effort.

Asked if he would be disappointed if Pakistan – whose president will attend the summit – didn’t strike an agreement before the end of the Chicago talks, Allen said: “No.”

“I don’t need the (ground supply lines) to be open to support the campaign. But they’re helpful to us in sending home our equipment,” Allen said.

“We don’t want an agreement fast, we want an agreement that’s right. So we’re going to take the time to get it right.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Friday it believes China spent up to $180 billion on its military buildup last year, a far higher figure than acknowledged by Beijing, and it accused “Chinese actors” of being the world’s biggest perpetrators of economic espionage.

The Pentagon, in its annual report to Congress on China’s military, flagged sustained investment last year in advanced missile technologies and cyber warfare capabilities and warned that Chinese spying threatened America’s economic security.

“Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” the report said.

“Chinese attempts to collect U.S. technological and economic information will continue at a high level and will represent a growing and persistent threat to U.S. economic security.”

David Helvey, acting assistant secretary for defense, stopped short of saying the Chinese government was behind cyber intrusions, and instead repeated that they were “from China.”

“As we learn more about them, we have a better understanding of the nature of the operations and that helps us to say with greater confidence that some of these are in fact coming from China,” he told reporters in a briefing on the annual report.

Analysts said espionage and aggressive acquisition of dual-use technology could accelerate China’s military modernization.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In what would be a major breakthrough, Pakistan and the United States appeared on Tuesday to be on the verge of clinching an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, a U.S. official said, as Pakistan confirmed its president will attend a summit of NATO leaders this weekend in Chicago.

Ties between the United States and Pakistan have been severely strained over the past year, fuelling speculation Islamabad might be excluded from the high-level NATO talks on Afghanistan’s future because of the failure to reach an agreement on the supply lines, which have been shut for months.

Pakistan closed down the supply lines for the Afghan war effort following the NATO air strike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. That strike fanned national anger over everything from covert CIA drone strikes to the U.S. incursion into Pakistani territory last year to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Nadeem Hotiana, an embassy spokesman, confirmed that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will attend the May 20-21 summit.

“This meeting will underline the strong commitment of the international community to the people of Afghanistan and to its future. Pakistan has an important role to play in that future,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is also expected to attend the meeting, where NATO nations will hone their plans to withdraw most of their troops by the end of 2014. As the Western presence ebbs, Pakistan, whose tribal areas are home to Taliban and other militants, will be key in shaping Afghanistan’s future.

But the supply routes have been a major sticking point.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) – The Pentagon announced on Tuesday new safety precautions for its F-22 fighter jets - including limiting how far they can fly away from airstrips - after pilots experienced symptoms of oxygen deprivation aboard the advanced stealth aircraft.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes the new precautions on the F-22s, built by Lockheed Martin Corp, are sufficient to guarantee safety. But the Pentagon did not rule out again grounding the aircraft, if necessary.

Panetta “will be receiving regular updates, and all options remain on the table going forward,” said Pentagon spokesman George Little.

The F-22s were grounded for over five months last year because of the same issue. But concern over the jet’s safety has again taken the spotlight after CBS’s “60 Minutes” program aired a report this month in which two pilots said they had stopped flying the fighter due to safety concerns.

In the short term, the Pentagon said the decision to limit the distance that jets can fly from landing strips means that other aircraft instead of the F-22 will need to perform long-duration airspace-control flights in Alaska.

The Air Force will also expedite installation in the jets of an automatic backup oxygen system, with the first systems being fitted before the end of the year.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the first reported hypoxia-related event occurred in April 2008, with a total of 12 reported between then and January 2011.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After years of worrying what might happen if openly gay troops were allowed in the military, the Pentagon said on Thursday there had been no impact on morale, readiness or unit cohesion in the eight months since the ban on homosexuals was lifted.

President Barack Obama, who on Wednesday became the first U.S. president to publicly support gay marriage, helped champion the end of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He is counting the ban’s repeal last September as a fulfillment of one of his campaign promises.

The 1993 policy allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military only if their sexual orientation was kept a secret. Many senior members of the military publicly warned against repealing the ban in wartime, saying it could hurt cohesion of troops or undermine morale.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, however, said a report he received on Wednesday showed there had been no negative fallout – something he credited to the military’s gradual preparation for repeal, which included sensitivity training.

“It’s not impacting on morale. It’s not impacting on unit cohesion. It is not impacting on readiness,” Panetta said.

Army General Martin Dempsey, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the top U.S. military officer, said: “I have not found any negative effect on good order or discipline.”

Asked what many top brass had been afraid of, Dempsey said: “What were we afraid of is we didn’t know.

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 25 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made a full-throated pitch for Brazil to buy American fighter jets in a speech on Wednesday and said defense trade between the hemisphere’s two largest economies was “an area ripe for growth.”

U.S.-based Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet is seen as an underdog in a Brazilian competition for a contract with an initial value of about $4 billion. It will likely be worth considerably more over time once maintenance and follow-on orders are included.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has cast the deal as a watershed decision that will help mold Brazil’s military and strategic alliances for the next few decades as it establishes itself as a leading economic power.

“This offer, which has the strong support of the United States Congress, contains an unprecedented advanced technology sharing that is reserved for only our closest allies and partners,” Panetta said in prepared remarks to Brazil’s Superior War College in Rio de Janeiro.

“I am hopeful that the Brazilian government will ultimately choose to purchase the Super Hornet for its Air Force’s next generation fighter.”

Panetta said the deal would also bolster Brazil’s defense and aviation industries, allowing them to “transform their partnerships with U.S. companies.”

“And they would have the best opportunity to plug into worldwide markets,” Panetta added.