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Joint Chiefs of Staff, The (JCS)


Self Description

February 2005: 'The Joint Chiefs of Staff consist of the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps. The collective body of the JCS is headed by the Chairman (or the Vice Chairman in the Chairman's absence), who sets the agenda and presides over JCS meetings. Responsibilities as members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff take precedence over duties as the Chiefs of Military Services. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military adviser to the President, Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council (NSC), however, all JCS members are by law military advisers, and they may respond to a request or voluntarily submit, through the Chairman, advice or opinions to the President, the Secretary of Defense, or NSC. The executive authority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has changed. In World War II, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff acted as executive agents in dealing with theater and area commanders, but the original National Security Act of 1947 saw the Joint Chiefs of Staff as planners and advisers, not as commanders of combatant commands. In spite of this, the 1948 Key West Agreement allowed members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to serve as executive agents for unified commands, a responsibility that allowed the executive agent to originate direct communication with the combatant command. Congress abolished this authority in a 1953 amendment to the National Security Act. Today, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have no executive authority to command combatant forces. The issue of executive authority was clearly resolved by the Goldwater-Nichols DOD Reorganization Act of 1986: "The Secretaries of the Military Departments shall assign all forces under their jurisdiction to unified and specified combatant commands to perform missions assigned to those commands..."; the chain of command "runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense; and from the Secretary of Defense to the commander of the combatant command."'

http://www.dtic.mil/jcs/

Third-Party Descriptions

October 2006: The rules stem from the Joint Chiefs' Standing Rules of Engagement, which are based on laws of war that bar harming unarmed civilians who can be identified as such, says Lt. Col. John 'Jay' Mannle, a Marine Corps lawyer. But firing on a car that contains civilians yet fails to slow or stop for a checkpoint - something US troops have done often in Iraq - is justified if those firing have a 'reasonable' belief the car is a threat, he adds.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1010/p04s01-woiq.html

October 2006: On May 26, the Pentagon released an unclassified report to Congress, required by law, that contradicted the Joint Chiefs' secret assessment. The public report sent to Congress said the 'appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000293.html


Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Department of Defense (DOD)/Defense Department Organization Feb 28, 2005
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Department of the Navy Organization Feb 28, 2005
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) National Defense University (NDU) Organization Dec 30, 2005
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) National Security Council (NSC) Organization Feb 28, 2005
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) U.S. Marine Corps ("Marines") Organization Feb 28, 2005
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) US Army Organization Feb 28, 2005
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Gen. Martin E. Dempsey Person Dec 23, 2011
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Vice Adm. John "Mike" M. McConnell Retd. Person Jul 9, 2007
Member (past or present) Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno Person Dec 23, 2011
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Person Jun 13, 2008
Organization Executive (past or present) General Joseph W. Ralston Person Jan 24, 2007

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Oct 19, 2009 Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets (Danger Room)

QUOTE: In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available...

 Wired
Jun 06, 2008 2 Leaders Ousted From Air Force in Atomic Errors

QUOTE: The Air Force secretary, Michael W. Wynne, and the service’s chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, were forced to resign after the inquiry found that the latest in a series of incidents reflected “a pattern of poor performance” in securing sensitive military components, Mr. Gates said at a Pentagon briefing. So deep and serious are the problems, Mr. Gates said, that he has asked a former secretary of defense and of energy, James R. Schlesinger, to head “a senior-level task force” to recommend improvements in the safekeeping of nuclear weapons, delivery vehicles and other sensitive items.

 New York Times
Jun 02, 2008 Gates Accuses Myanmar of ‘Criminal Neglect’

QUOTE: In the strongest remarks yet by a high-ranking American official, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Sunday that Myanmar was guilty of “criminal neglect” for blocking large-scale international aid to cyclone victims, and that more Burmese civilians would perish unless the military regime reversed its policy.

 New York Times
May 26, 2008 Military Chief Warns Troops About Politics

QUOTE: “The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways,” wrote the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation’s highest-ranking officer. “It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no matter which party holds sway.”...In particular, members of the Joint Chiefs have expressed worries this election year about the influence of retired officers who advise political campaigns, who have publicly called for a change in policy or who serve as television commentators on the war.

 New York Times
Mar 13, 2007 Don't Ask: The increasing incoherence of the military's gay exclusion policy.

QUOTE: For years, the Pentagon has defended its ban on gays and lesbians by repeating the mantra that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service." But as evidence has mounted that gays serve openly in dozens of countries including the United States without harming unit cohesion, the military has grown increasingly incoherent in defending the "don't ask, don't tell" gay exclusion.

 Slate
Oct 10, 2006 Rules of engagement: What were they at Haditha? If marines are charged with killing as many as 24 Iraqi civilians, defense lawyers will argue the soldiers followed the rules.

QUOTE: The rules stem from the Joint Chiefs' Standing Rules of Engagement, which are based on laws of war...firing on a car that contains civilians yet fails to slow or stop for a checkpoint - something US troops have done often in Iraq - is justified if those firing have a "reasonable" belief the car is a threat, he adds. During the November 2004 battle of Fallujah, marines - including some from the unit under suspicion in Haditha - tossed hand grenades into houses or rooms where they believed insurgents to be. That's the tactic that was used in Haditha, too...

 Christian Science Monitor
Oct 01, 2006 STATE OF DENIAL

QUOTE: There was a vast difference between what the White House and Pentagon knew about the situation in Iraq and what they were saying publicly. But the discrepancy was not surprising. In memos, reports and internal debates, high-level officials of the Bush administration have voiced their concern about the United States' ability to bring peace and stability to Iraq since early in the occupation.

 Washington Post
Apr 23, 2005 Top Army Officers Are Cleared in Abuse Cases: One General Will Likely Get Reprimand Over Abu Ghraib

QUOTE: An Army inspector general's report has cleared senior Army officers of wrongdoing in the abuse of military prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere, government officials familiar with the findings said yesterday. The only Army general officer recommended for punishment for the failures that led to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan is Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski

 Washington Post