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A shadow legal body was set up by the Defense Department to manipulate the prosecutions of U.S. Marines accused of massacring Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005. That’s the bombshell disclosure from the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that is representing one of the accused Marines, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. And it could prove to be the most damning piece of evidence showing the political motivations behind the ongoing prosecutions of the Haditha Marines. “The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction...

Late last week, the Defense Department released an analysis of 600,000 documents captured in Iraq prepared by the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded think tank. Here's the attention-grabbing sentence from the report's executive summary: "This study found no 'smoking gun' (i.e. direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda." Relying on a leak of the executive summary, ABC News reported that the study was "the first official acknowledgment from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda." There followed a brief item in the Washington Post that ran under the headline "Study...

Duncan Hunter is a good man, a true patriot and a very conservative Republican, although not a small-government, new federalist one. He's still a much better choice than Rudy McRombee, hands down. I'm a Fred Thompson supporter, but I nevertheless like and admire Hunter. Oh sure, I have a few nits to pick with the man. His less than sterling attendance record in the U.S. House is one. His voting record on fiscal issues is another. Finally, his opposition to free trade is a non-starter for me, although those with a more populist bent will see it as a big...

Some Democrats have decided to try to transform the military draft into what the Social Security issue was 25 years ago. Time and time again since the late 1970s, Democratic candidates and campaign committees sought to win the votes of seniors by raising questions about whether Republicans would dismantle Social Security if they ever won control of Congress. The Democrats’ scare tactics on Social Security were not without basis. Republicans opposed the creation of Social Security, and for more than a decade, many conservative GOP candidates and high-profile officeholders, including former Rep. Newt Gingrich (Ga.), bashed the system and berated...

Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday. "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." "And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was...

AS the National Intelligence Estimate issued last week confirms, a terrorist haven has emerged in Pakistan’s tribal belt. And as recent revelations about an aborted 2005 operation in the region demonstrate, our Defense Department is chronically unable to conduct the sort of missions that would disrupt terrorist activity there and in similarly ungoverned places. These are perhaps the most important kind of counterterrorism missions. Because the Pentagon has shown that it cannot carry them out, the Central Intelligence Agency should be given the chance to perform them. The story of the scrubbed 2005 operation illustrates why the Pentagon is incapable...

These are the "birth pangs" of a "new Middle East," said Condi Rice last summer, as Israel pounded Lebanon. Unfortunately, the new Middle East may make us all pray for the return of the old. Hamas is today engaged in savage street-fighting with Fatah for control of Gaza. If Hamas prevails, it could convert this Palestinian enclave into a terrorist base camp between Israel and Egypt. In northern Lebanon, Islamic jihadists are battling the army for control of a Palestinian refugee camp. Scores are dead. On Wednesday, a seventh parliamentarian was assassinated with his son in a Beirut car bomb...

WASHINGTON, March 29 — Lapses in using a digital medical record system for tracking wounded soldiers have led to medical mistakes and delays in care, and have kept thousands of injured troops from getting benefits, according to former defense and military medical officials. The Defense Department’s inability to get all hospitals to use the system has routinely forced thousands of wounded soldiers to endure long waits for treatment, the officials said, and exposed others to needless testing. Several department officials said the problem may have played a role in the suicide of a soldier last year after he was taken...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned on Thursday the Army would face problems without emergency funds but insisted U.S. forces could fight a third war despite being stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan. He painted a mixed picture of the impact Iraq has had on U.S. military readiness at a time when Congress is considering tying a Bush administration request for emergency war funding to a deadline for pulling troops out of the conflict. Gates had raised concerns about a demand by some Democrats to set a deadline. He declined on Thursday to say what Congress should do or to discuss a...

WASHINGTON -- The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials. Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue, which could expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially using mercenaries to defend the country. Other analysts voice concern that a large contingent of noncitizens under arms could jeopardize national security or reflect badly on Americans' willingness...

by Mark Finkelstein September 28, 2006 - 15:37 With one of his inimitable montages, Rush Limbaugh documented today the way in which the MSM got hung up on a handshake - one that apparently didn't come off between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf during their recent White House visit. The media tea-leaf readers apparently imbue The Handshake That Didn't Happen with dire implications for the achievement of US goals in the region. Ironically, on the very same day, the MSM has yet to report on a major, positive development in the region that should bring...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 — Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials say they may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide enough troops for overseas deployments. Senior Army officers have discussed that analysis — and described the possible need to use more members of the National Guard — with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s senior adviser on personnel, David S. C. Chu, according to Pentagon officials. While no decision has been made to mobilize more Guard forces, and may not need to be before...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 — In the first full-scale test of the ballistic missile defense system in more than a year, an interceptor rocket launched from California on Friday shot down a target fired from Alaska that officials said in some respects resembled a warhead from a North Korean rocket. Pentagon officials said that the successful interception, which occurred in space over the Pacific Ocean, showed that the fledgling system, put in place in 2004 by the Bush administration before testing was complete, would have a good chance of stopping a ballistic missile fired at the United States in a limited...

THREE years into the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, everyone from slicksleeved privates fighting for survival in Ramadi to the echelons above reality at the Pentagon still believes that eliminating insurgents will eliminate the insurgency. They are wrong. There is a difference between killing insurgents and fighting an insurgency. In three years, the Sunni insurgency has grown from nothing into a force that threatens our national objective of establishing and maintaining a free, independent and united Iraq. During that time, we have fought insurgents with airstrikes, artillery, the courage and tactical excellence of our forces, and new technology worth billions of...

The US military is relying ever more on space satellites to help wage combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, though analysts say that Washington's space supremacy could be threatened by rivals in the future. The Pentagon is using sophisticated satellites that orbit Earth in a bid to track down its enemies and keep a round-the-clock watch on unfriendly foes. The technological advantage can prove lethal, as witnessed by the recent air raid that killed the long-wanted Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "Space capabilities have revolutionized the way we fight today by providing our forces with battlefield situational...

WASHINGTON— Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign, in part because "our policy in Iraq is just not working." "My view is the secretary should step aside," Richardson said at the outset of a 10-minute interview on "Face the Nation." Richardson, a Democrat who is viewed as a likely presidential contender in 2008, said the fact that six military generals have publicly called for Rumsfeld's resignation...is significant. "We should listen to what these generals are saying," Richardson said. "These are six distinguished military officers who were involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq....

WASHINGTON, March 21 — An inquiry has found that an American public relations firm did not violate military policy by paying Iraqi news outlets to print positive articles, military officials said Tuesday. The finding leaves to the Defense Department the decision on whether new rules are needed to govern such activities. The inquiry, which has not yet been made public, was ordered by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, after it was disclosed in November that the military had used the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations company, to plant articles written by American troops...

Some have described the situation in Iraq as a tightening noose, noting that "time is not on our side"and that "morale is down." Others have described a "very dangerous" turn of events and are "extremely concerned." Who are they that have expressed these concerns? In fact, these are the exact words of terrorists discussing Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates -- who are describing their own situation and must be watching with fear the progress that Iraq has made over the past three years. The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that...

Op-Ed Contributor(Guest) DESPITE claims to the contrary by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Army is facing a manpower crisis. The evidence can be found in two separate reports released last month — one commissioned by the Pentagon, the other by Congressional Democrats — and in this simple fact: last year the Army accepted its least qualified pool in a decade. The Army inducted both more recruits without high school diplomas and more youths scoring in the lowest category of the Army's aptitude test, so-called Category IV recruits. Welcoming more such recruits into the military has obvious appeal at a time...

A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials. The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 - The Pentagon's leadership, recognizing that it was caught off guard by difficulties in pacifying Iraq after the invasion, is poised to approve a sweeping directive that will elevate what it calls "stability operations" to a core military mission comparable to full-scale combat. The new order could significantly influence how the military is structured, as well as the specialties it emphasizes and the equipment it buys. The directive has been the subject of intense negotiations in the Pentagon policy office and throughout the military; the deliberations included the State Department and other civilian agencies, as the order...

Rep. Kirt Weldon is on Michael Savage's radio program, and he is implying Rumsfeld is the one blocking further investigation into Able Danger. Weldon is fuming; says he personally (in a committee hearing) asked Rumsfeld about the investigation being blocked. Rumsfeld replied that he would 'get back to Weldon with a response.' Weldon says he still has gotten nothing from Rumsfeld. Weldon to give a speech in a few moments this evening on the floor of the House. It should be aired on CSPAN this evening.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - As thousands of National Guard soldiers entered New Orleans on Friday to help restore order and deliver emergency supplies, Pentagon and Guard officials said the military's response had been slowed by a combination of physical obstacles created by the storm compounded by a cumbersome bureaucratic process for sending federal forces to assist in natural disasters. State officials in Louisiana and Mississippi said they had overcome the absence of some 8,000 of their National Guard troops who are deployed to Iraq by drawing on Guard members from other states, but not until after the storm had passed...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 - A Defense Department inquiry has found three more people who recall seeing an intelligence briefing slide that identified the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks a year before the hijackings and terrorist strikes, Pentagon and military officials said Thursday. But the officials said investigators who reviewed thousands of documents and electronic files from a secret counterterrorism planning unit had not found the chart itself, or any evidence the chart ever existed. The officials acknowledged that documents and electronic files created by the unit, known as Able Danger, were destroyed under standing orders that limit the military's...

Cenk Uygur on The Huffington Post: Draft Hagel for Defense At this point, nearly everyone agrees that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should be fired (with the obvious exception of Vice President Dick Cheney, and hence, the President). Republican Senators like John McCain and Trent Lott have called for his dismissal. Nearly every Democrat in Congress believes he should be fired. Even neoconservatives like Bill Kristol have turned on him. But the question isn’t whether Rumsfeld should be fired – it’s who replaces him? Whoever replaces the Secretary will hopefully lead the Iraqi operation in a new direction that it...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks. The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for...

We all know that when contracting the government should spell out the terms of the contract. But, what we might not know is that there are people within our government who write, review, test, and approve documents beyond reasonable, such as for baking brownies or oatmeal cookies. When the politicians say they can't seem to find much in the annual federal budgets to cut, ask them to cut out the brownies and cookies. The following document is a military recipe specification and is 26 pages long. It includes references to many, many other government agency standards, including those of the...

Newsweek is under intense criticism for a report it has now retracted about the American prison in Guantánamo Bay. Since we've weathered a journalistic storm or two, we can only say the best approach is transparency as Newsweek fixes whatever is broken, if anything. There is already a debate about journalistic practices, including the use of anonymous sources, and these things are worth discussing - especially at a time of war, national insecurity and extreme government secrecy, a time when aggressive news reporting is critical. But it is offensive to see the Bush administration use this case for political purposes,...

Taiwan's Commander-in-Chief Lee Tian-yu (—›“V‰H) will visit the US on May 20 to discuss arms purchase and military cooperation, a local Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday. Lee will visit the Pentagon on May 23. He will meet with Gordon England, the new deputy secretary of defense, and Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of General Staff, to discuss arms purchases, military cooperation and regional security, the paper said. The US is pushing Taiwan to buy modern arms to boost its defenses against China. The government approves of the arms purchase, but the legislature has been blocking the budget, saying the...

<p>For years, a citizen who wanted to know the name and phone number of a Pentagon official could buy a copy of the Defense Department directory at a government printing office. But since 2001, the directory has been stamped ''For Official Use Only," meaning the public may not have access to such basic information about the vast military bureaucracy.</p>

Jane Murray was fuming as she answered the phone, and, hearing her husband's voice, let it rip: their teenagers had once again left the bathroom littered with empty shampoo bottles despite repeated lectures on tidying up. It was a routine parental exchange, but not one Ms. Murray would have indulged in had she taken a moment to collect herself. The problem was one of context. Ms. Murray's husband, Col. John M. Murray, was calling from Baghdad, where he commands 6,000 soldiers of the First Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Tex. Over nine time zones and many months of separation,...

Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy secretary of defence, has emerged as a leading candidate to replace James Wolfensohn as the president of the World Bank. Mr Wolfowitz is one of a small number of people being considered for the US nomination, administration insiders said. The nomination of Mr Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Iraq war and a former US ambassador to Indonesia, would likely be highly controversial, and could raise new questions about the process by which the World Bank chief is selected. One administration official said his nomination “would have enormous repercussions within the development community”. Others...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - The nation's fledgling missile defense system suffered its third straight test failure when an interceptor rocket failed to launch Sunday night from its base on an island, leaving the target rocket to splash into the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon said Monday. The target rocket was launched from Kodiak, Alaska, at 9:22 p.m. Sunday (1:22 a.m. Monday, Eastern Standard Time), but the interceptor that was supposed to go up 15 minutes later remained on its pad in the Marshall Islands, the Missile Defense Agency at the Pentagon said. The target rocket fell into the ocean near Wake...

INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: Calculating Chinese Capabilities January 27, 2005: Department of Defense intelligence analysts are having a hard time figuring out when China thinks it will be ready to make a grab for Taiwan. The recent surge in the construction of short range amphibious ships, and constant movement of more ballistic missiles to within range of Taiwan, indicate something may happen sooner rather than later. Taiwan is only 300 kilometers from China. There are about 600 DF-15 missiles (with a range of 600 kilometers) aimed at Taiwan now, and by next year, there may be 800. Moreover, it is suspected that...

Among the many distinctive expressions Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has offered as gifts to the media is the following: “I don’t do quagmires,” referring to the mantra-like repetition by some war critics that Iraq has become a quagmire. The media, however, especially its Official Rumsfeld-Hating Clique, remains mired in the viciously viscous putrid muck of all-consuming loathing of the Secretary of Defense. That same media currently has its puerile knickers in a twist about President Bush awarding Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer and George Tenet the Medal of Freedom. Or, as liberal columnist Richard Cohen, speaking for many media colleagues,...

BETHESDA, Md. Department of Defense officials have startup funding for a new initiative for servicemembers injured in the war on terrorism, a senior official said here Dec. 7. "We're looking at possibilities for internships and other types of trial employment," John M. Molino, the acting deputy undersecretary for equal opportunity, told attendees at the 17th DOD Disability Forum here. "We're also looking at possibilities for mentoring. "We intend for every injured or disabled veteran to have as many opportunities as he or she needs to achieve his or her maximum potential on active duty or in our civilian work force,"...

THE American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, should be sacked, according to a growing chorus of conservative commentators who want him replaced by a figure with wider appeal. In a seemingly innocuous Thanksgiving message to readers last week, William Kristol, the neoconservative editor of The Weekly Standard magazine, slipped in a surprise demand for Rumsfeld’s dismissal. “What remains to be done is to announce new leadership for the department of defence,” wrote Kristol. “This, surely, would be an important opportunity for a strong, Bush-doctrine-supporting outsider, someone who of course would be a team player, but someone who could also work with...

The Pentagon is building its own Internet, the military's world wide web for the wars of the future. The goal is to give all American commanders and troops a moving picture of all foreign enemies and threats - "a God's-eye view" of battle. This "Internet in the sky," Peter Teets, under secretary of the Air Force, told Congress, would allow "marines in a Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of a rainstorm, to open up their laptops, request imagery" from a spy satellite, and "get it downloaded within seconds." The Pentagon calls the secure network the Global Information...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - A Pentagon-sponsored study of weapons made from depleted uranium, a substance whose use has attracted environmental protests around the world, has concluded that it is neither toxic enough nor radioactive enough to be a health threat to soldiers in the doses they are likely to receive. In a five-year, $6 million study, researchers fired depleted uranium projectiles into Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks, in a steel chamber at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, and measured the levels of uranium in the air and how quickly the particles settled. The conclusion, said Dr. Michael E....

There are 27 names on a high-profile statement released today by a group calling itself “Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change” denouncing current U.S. foreign and defense policy. It reads in part: American policies have failed... instead of building upon America's great economic and moral strength to lead other nations in a coordinated campaign to address the causes of terrorism and to stifle its resources... insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations... The United States suffers from close identification with autocratic regimes in the Muslim world... Responsible leadership would not turn to...

Iraq reconstruction on hold December 29, 2003BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement A pall was cast over Christmas for disappointed U.S. government civilians in Baghdad when they received word two weeks ago that the $18.6 billion for Iraq's reconstruction rushed through Congress in November was indefinitely on hold. They have been told not to issue ''requests for proposal,'' which surely will extend the promised Feb. 1 date for contract awards.No announcement of the slowdown has been made, though the Pentagon has confirmed published reports. The closely held decision to hold up the process was made in Washington, with no explanation...

<p>Help our allies, or the French? You decide.</p> <p>Friday, December 12, 2003 12:01 a.m.</p> <p>OK, it was probably bad timing. Just at the moment the U.S. is going to ask Germany, France and Russia to forgive a big chunk of Iraqi debt, the U.S. put its finger in their collective eye.</p>

GENEVA — Worried over U.S. domination, a group of developing nations wants to put control of the Internet into the hands of the United Nations, an issue that likely will overshadow a summit on information technology opening today. Key decisions on Internet issues, such as domain names and addresses, now reside in a private agency spun off from the U.S. government — and the United States wants to keep it that way. But if countries do not think their concerns are adequately heard by the Internet's key decision-makers, a U.N. official warned yesterday, they may create conflicting national policies and...

THE FRONT PAGE of the November 7 Washington Post says it all. The first headline, in large type: "Bush Urges Commitment to Transform Mideast." Below, in slightly smaller type: "Pentagon to Shrink Iraq Force." And below that: "Iraqi Security Crews Getting Less Training." It's a jarring juxtaposition. The president eloquently makes the case for a necessarily and admirably ambitious foreign policy. Yet his own administration's deeds threaten the achievement of his goals. In his fine speech to the National Endowment for Democracy last Thursday, the president made the case for "a forward strategy of freedom" in the Middle East. He...

  United States Department of DefenseNews ReleaseOn the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2003/b04252003_bt275-03.html Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711   No. 275-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 25, 2003 DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY The Department of Defense announced today it has changed the status of Army Sgt. Troy David Jenkins, 25, of Ridgecrest, Calif., from Wounded in Action to Died of Wounds received in action during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On April 19, 2003, Sgt. Jenkins was on a dismounted patrol with other soldiers when he was injured as result of an explosion. Sgt. Jenkins died from...

Rapidly, decisions are being made about the governance of postwar Iraq. While debate rages in the press and in Congress, George W. Bush has decided that the United States, not the United Nations, and the Defense Department, not the State Department, will be in charge of Iraq once hostilities have been concluded. Last Wednesday, Colin Powell informed the European foreign ministers that the United Nations would not be in charge. Also on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Donald Rumsfeld had rejected eight State Department nominees for positions in postwar Iraq. On Thursday U.S. News broke the story that Rumsfeld...

  United States Department of DefenseNews ReleaseOn the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2003/b03292003_bt170-03.html Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711   No. 170-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 29, 2003 DOD ANNOUNCES CHANGE IN MARINE CASUALTY STATUS The Department of Defense announced today it has changed the status of Marine Sgt. Bradley S. Korthaus from Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) to killed in action. Sgt. Korthaus was declared DUSTWUN in the vicinity of the Saddam Canal on March 24. His remains were recovered on March 25. Sgt. Korthaus, 28, of Scott, Iowa, was assigned to Engineering Company...

  United States Department of DefenseNews ReleaseOn the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2003/b03282003_bt169-03.html Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711   No. 169-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 28, 2003 DOD ANNOUNCES MARINE KILLED IN NON-HOSTILE ACCIDENT The Department of Defense announced today that Marine Major Kevin G. Nave, 36, of Union Lake, Mich., was killed March 26 in a non-hostile vehicle accident in Iraq. Major Nave was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif. The accident is under investigation.

Ongoing now....

* * * * WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * * RUMSFELD MEMO TO NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: HOW TO WIN THE SPIN WAR By Joel C. Rosenberg, national correspondent, WORLD magazine (www.worldmag.com) ** ADVANCE FROM NEXT WEEK'S WORLD MAGAZINE ** (WASHINGTON, D.C., March 27, 2003) -- Fox News Channel star Ollie North is drawing huge ratings reporting from the front lines with his fellow Marines. David Bloom of NBC is suddenly a household name. CNN's Walter Rodgers breathlessly tells the Washington Post via satellite phone from deep inside Iraq, "I don't believe I've ever had such access over 36 years...