Secretary of Defense - Charles Timothy “Chuck” Hagel
Photo: Monica A. King
Chuck Hagel’s trip to Afghanistan got off to a rough start when a suicide bomber killed nine people outside of the defense ministry in Kabul. Hagel was about a half mile from the blast, and he reportedly felt its vibrations from inside the facility he was visiting at the time. In an e-mail claiming responsibility for the bombing, a Taliban official wrote that the attack was intended as “a message” to the new secretary of Defense.
