The Security Budget: Balancing Cuts and Consequences

Mackenzie Eaglen

Mackenzie Eaglen has worked on defense issues in the U.S. Congress, both House and Senate, and at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on the Joint Staff. She specializes in defense strategy, budget, military readiness and the defense industrial base. In 2010, Ms. Eaglen served as a staff member of the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission established to assess the Pentagon's major defense strategy. A prolific writer on defense related issues, she has also testified before Congress.

David Martin

David Martin has been CBS News' national security correspondent, covering the Pentagon and the State Department, since 1993. In that capacity, he has reported virtually every major defense, intelligence and international affairs story for the "CBS Evening News," as well as for other broadcasts, including "60 Minutes" and "48 Hours." He also contributed to "60 Minutes Wednesday."

During the invasion of Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, Martin's in-depth knowledge of how the State Department, intelligence community and military operate, both on the battlefield and in Washington, positioned him as the "big picture" reporter for CBS News. Utilizing his own sources and reports from CBS News correspondents in the region and around the world, as well as in Washington, he explained and assessed the military's strategies and operations for viewers.

Martin broke several significant stories before and during the Iraq war. He was the first to report, on the opening night of the war, that the U.S. was launching a strike on a palace bunker in southern Baghdad in an attempt to take out Saddam Hussein. Martin also broke the story of the military's "shock and awe" strategy for its initial strike on Baghdad. During a trip to Iraq in May 2003, he was the first journalist to visit and report on Dora Farms, where Saddam was said by the CIA to have been hiding on the opening night of the war.

Martin has received several Emmys, most recently in 2010 for his story "The Battle of Wanat." He also has received two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards in three years (2002 and 2004) for his body of work, most of which has appeared on the "CBS Evening News" and "60 Minutes Wednesday."

Regarding the first Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, the award committee said that his "consistently excellent reporting on the beat of national security hit its peak this year....break[ing] news on a wide range of defense and security stories with details that only experience and doggedness can ferret out. This is exemplary reporting that repeatedly breaks through the barriers of official statements."

In awarding the second DuPont, the committee said, "David Martin's reports on the Pentagon, the military build-up to the Iraq war and on the war itself demonstrate his exceptional grasp of national security issues. Teamed with his long-time producer, Mary Walsh, Martin consistently breaks new information with clear reporting on the Pentagon's goals. He exemplifies the role of a journalist: to measure what we are being told against what we find out."

Martin also received the 2004 Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in Washington-based national affairs and public policy reporting awarded by the Washington Radio & Television Correspondents' Association.

He joined CBS News as its Pentagon correspondent in 1983. Martin's duties later expanded to include the State Department and intelligence beats.

Before that, he covered defense and intelligence matters for Newsweek magazine from its Washington bureau (1977-83). Martin was a reporter with the Associated Press in Washington (1973-77), covering the FBI and CIA. He also was a member of the AP special assignment team (1977).

Martin began his journalism career as a researcher for CBS News in New York in 1969. He then became a news writer with the AP broadcast wire (1971-72) and a fellow at the Washington Journalism Center (1973).

Martin is the author of two books, "Wilderness of Mirrors" (Harper & Row, 1980), an account of the secret wars between the CIA and KGB, and "Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism" (Harper & Row, 1988).

Dana Priest

Dana Priest is a two-time Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter for The Washington Post. She spent three years as the Post's intelligence reporter and was Pentagon correspondent for seven years before that. She covered the invasion of Panama (1989), reported from Iraq (1990), covered the Kosovo war (1999), and has traveled widely with Army Special Forces in Asia, Africa and South America and with Army infantry units on peacekeeping duty in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Priest has received numerous awards, including the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for "The Other Walter Reed" and the 2006 Pulitzer for Beat Reporting for her work on CIA secret prisons and counterterrorism operations overseas. Other honors include the Robert F. Kennedy Award, George Polk Award, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Annenberg School of Communication's Selden Ring Award, the Overseas Press Club Award for interpretation of international affairs and the American Academy of Diplomacy's Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis on Foreign Affairs.

Priest's widely acclaimed 2003 book about the military's expanding responsibility and influence, The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military, earned the New York Public Library Bernstein Book Award and was a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction.

Priest is also a contributor to CBS News and 60 Minutes. She is a board member of the Reporters Committee for Free of the Press. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California at Santa Cruz and lives in Washington, D.C.

Lawrence B. Wilkerson

Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) Larry Wilkerson joined General Colin L. Powell in March 1989 at the U.S. Army’s Forces Command in Atlanta, Georgia as his Deputy Executive Officer. He followed the General to his next position as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving as his special assistant. Upon Powell's retirement from active service in 1993, Colonel Wilkerson served as the Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia. Upon Wilkerson’s retirement from active service in 1997, he began working for General Powell in a private capacity as a consultant and advisor. In December 2000, Secretary of State-designate Powell asked Wilkerson to join him in the Transition Office at the U.S. State Department and, later, upon his confirmation as Secretary of State, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to his Policy Planning Staff with responsibilities for East Asia and the Pacific, and legislative and political-military affairs. In June of 2002, the Director for Policy Planning, Ambassador Richard Haass, made Wilkerson the associate director. In August of 2002, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to the position of Chief of Staff of the Department. Wilkerson is a veteran of the Vietnam war as well as a U.S. Army "Pacific hand," having served in Korea, Japan, and Hawaii and participated in military exercises throughout the Pacific. Moreover, Wilkerson was Executive Assistant to US Navy Admiral Stewart A. Ring, Director for Strategy and Policy (J5) USCINCPAC, from 1984-87. Wilkerson also served on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, RI and holds two advanced degrees, one in International Relations and the other in National Security Studies. He has written extensively on military and national security affairs - especially for college-level curricula - and been published in a number of professional journals, including the Naval Institute’s Proceedings, The Naval War College Review, Military Review, and Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ).