 In 2005, Gordon transferred to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he served as a Pentagon spokesman, first under Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and later Secretary Robert Gates.In this period, notable issues were related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the extrajudicial detention of captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba.Other issues were increasing U.S. tensions with Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, and increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico against drug cartels.