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DoD Training Manual: Protests are "Low-Level Terrorism"JUNE 14, 2009 7:35PM The Department of Defense is training all of its personnel in its current Antiterrorism and Force Protection Annual Refresher Training Course that political protest is "low-level terrorism." The Training introduction reads as follows: "Anti-terrorism (AT) and Force Protection (FP) are two facets of the Department of Defense (DoD) Mission Assurance Program. It is DoD policy, as found in DoDI 2000.16, that the DoD Components and the DoD elements and personnel shall be protected from terrorist acts through a high pirority, comprehensive, AT program. The DoD's AT program shall be all...

Army's 234th Birthday celebration at the Pentagon Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Col. Arthur Wittich (the oldest Soldier serving in the military district of Washington), Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, Pvt. Rex Vaughn (the youngest Soldier serving in the military district of Washington), and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston cut the Army's 234th birthday cake during a celebration at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2009. "Our Army's history is a proud one. At its heart, it is a story of people ....

For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere — but no longer. A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned. The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists. The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified

A June 10th posting by Stephen F. Hayes in the Weekly Standard brought to light a very interesting happenstance, which seems to be going on with increasing regularity among FBI agents working alongside CIA officers and American troops in Afghanistan. Hayes highlights remarks made by Mike Rogers, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, about his recent visit to the troops working in and around the region of Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan. Rogers’ remarks seem to indicate that a change in FBI and Justice Department policies as they relate to the interrogation of people suspected of being terrorists...

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department has failed to provide adequate oversight over tens of billions of dollars in contracts to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, says a new report by an independent commission investigating waste and fraud in wartime spending. U.S. reliance on private sector employees has grown to "unprecedented proportions," yet the government has no central database of who all these contractors are, what they do or how much they're paid, the bipartisan commission found. In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how taxpayer dollars have been spent since...

Author’s note: On May 24th, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, I sent the protest reproduced below to the Pulitzer Prize Committee. If Boycott NYT readers also find this award outrageous, the Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism is Nicholas Lemann (lemann@columbia.edu). The address: Columbia School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway, NY, NY 10027. My journalistic colleagues (and there really are some good ones though most are even older than me!) characterize the Pulitzer Committee as “stubborn as mules and dumber than rocks.” The reason: the committee never acknowledges a mistake or rescinds an award, no matter how egregious...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Thursday denied a British newspaper report that photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse, whose release U.S. President Barack Obama wants to block, include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Daily Telegraph newspaper had shown "an inability to get the facts right". "That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images," Whitman told reporters. "None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article."

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography. For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians...

A report on the GQ magazine Web site is quoting unnamed former Bush administration official as blaming former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for many failures, including a delay in military assistance in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The report says "in speaking with the former Bush officials, it becomes evident that Rumsfeld impaired administration performance on a host of matters extending well beyond Iraq to impact America's relations with other nations, the safety of our troops, and the response to Hurricane Katrina. The Washington Monthly highlights more of Robert Draper's article in GQ: "[T]hree years later, when I asked a...

An aide to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Keith Urbahn, e-mails to contest a widely discussed GQ article by Robert Draper, which suggested that Rumsfeld "appreciated" the practice of quoting Biblical quotations on the cover sheets of classified briefings, and that Rumsfeld brought the briefings to President Bush. Urbahn e-mails that the briefings in question were not routinely sent to Rumsfeld, and that Rumsfeld considers the cover slides "harmful and counterproductive to the war effort." Urbahn's full e-mail: The slides in the “World Intelligence Update” were prepared on a daily basis by military personnel serving on the Joint Staff, which...

The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography. For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and the...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration.

Donald Rumsfeld covered Iraq briefing papers with Biblical texts According to a report in GQ magazine the religious texts were imposed over pictures of the US armed forces engaged in the war. Shown to only a small circle of senior advisers, the pages were first used on the eve of the 2003 invasion and were designed to provide support and encouragement to Mr Bush, a Christian who often cited the Bible while in office. Some Pentagon officials feared that if the documents were leaked at the height of the conflict, the use of Christian language to justify the invasion of...

A series of cover sheets for intelligence reports written for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials during the early days of the war in Iraq in 2003 were adorned with biblical quotations, and appeared Sunday, six years later, on the Web site of GQ magazine. The daily briefings were called the “Worldwide Intelligence Update,” one of several intelligence reports compiled overnight and presented in a folder for Mr. Rumsfeld and other officials as they came to work. In the selection of the cover sheets that GQ placed on its Web site, photographs of soldiers praying...

Fox News is reporting that Obama now wants to block the release of detainee abuse photographs taken in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU filed suit to have the photographs released and the Pentagon was about to comply with court orders. Obama met with his legal team to tell them that he does not feel comfortable with the release of those photographs because he believes it could endanger our troops and that the national security implications of releasing the photographs have not been fully presented to the court. At the end of the meeting, Obama directed his legal counsel to object...

It seems harsh to suggest the Pentagon top brass don't know what they're doing. But those who care to read the transcript of the press conference at which the sacking of the top American general in Afghanistan was announced may find that conclusion hard to resist. "In some ways we're learning as we go here," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs. It was not a reassuring admission. The public defenestration of General David McKiernan, a distinguished career officer who took command in Kabul less than one year ago, was brutal in that cold, callous way peculiar to...

An American Army sergeant shot and killed five fellow soldiers following an altercation at a military counseling center in Iraq Monday, officials said. [First sentence only, due to AP copyright policy.]

IF President Obama were as crafty as, say, Osama bin Laden, you might wonder if his decision last week to release new "torture" photos this month was part of some clever psych-ops scheme. After all, the decision came only a week after Obama & Co. let loose key memos on "brutal" US interrogation techniques. CIA operatives, the memos showed, had "tortured" prisoners and used sinister tactics designed to exploit fears. Now the Obama folks will hand out scores of new photos from investigations at US prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. So is this some new publicity campaign meant to deter...

Welcome to the Department of Defense Pandemic Influenza Watchboard align="center">News and Information on H1N1 Flu (previously known as Swine Flu)   Suspected H1N1 Flu Case Reported at California Marine Base (April 29, 2009)   Navy Researchers Helped Spot Swine Flu in the United States (April 29, 2009)   Interim Guidance for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems and 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) for Management of Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection (April 29, 2009)   CDC Health Update: Interim Guidance--Children and Pregnant Women who may be Infected with Swine-Origin Influenza Virus: Considerations for Clinicians...

The US Defense Department said on Monday it was closely following the outbreak of swine flu but had no immediate plans to release anti-viral drugs from its stockpiles. "The US military is monitoring the situation closely," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. Asked if the military would begin distributing anti-viral medicine such as Tamiflu and Relenza from its stockpiles, Whitman said: "I know of no plans to do so that at this point." He said the Pentagon's priority was to protect the health of military personnel and had contingency plans in place to address such an emergency. The Defense Department...

The Department of Defense announced late Thursday that a 'substantial number of photos' depicting abuse of prisoners at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan will be released. The Department of Defense announced late Thursday that a "substantial number of photos" depicting abuse of prisoners at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan will be released. The photos are being released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2004.

Retired military analysts are reacting with outrage that the Pulitzer committee awarded one of its prestigious prizes for a story discredited by an independent investigation, special correspondent Rowan Scarborough reports.

The Obama administration has chalked up a quick victory in its drive to kill an expensive jet fighter better suited for the Cold War than Afghanistan, but more skirmishes with job-rich defense contractors and their allies in Congress are just over the horizon. With billions of dollars and thousands of high-paying jobs at stake, a top Pentagon contractor and its allies in Congress are battling to maintain production on another military aircraft targeted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Boeing Co. is optimistic of winning billions of dollars for giant C-17 transport planes and F-18 fighter jets not requested by...

Note: The following text is a quote: Spokesman Cites Pentagon Cooperation in Interrogation Probe By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – The Defense Department provided full cooperation during a U.S. Senate committee investigation that examined detainee-interrogation operations, a senior official said here today. “We fully cooperated with that effort in responding to requests for interviews, as well as documents,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. The two-year Senate Armed Services Committee investigation centered on examining U.S. interrogation procedures for detainees captured during the war on terrorism. The committee’s report is critical of some interrogation...

By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – Defense Department officials are working to reduce vulnerability to cyber-attack attempts that occur regularly and are likely to continue for the foreseeable future, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said. “We are under attack virtually all the time, every day here,” Gates told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric yesterday during an interview broadcast on the show. Attempts to attack DoD computer networks have more than doubled recently, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters yesterday. He declined to cite details, saying that to do so would only “make it...

Although President Obama has prohibited the use of waterboarding in interrogating captured al Qaeda terrorists, the Defense Department will not say whether it has stopped using waterboarding in its training of certain U.S. military personnel, as was discussed in a 2002 government memo made public last week. One of the previously classified Justice Department memos detailing CIA interrogation techniques that was released by Obama last week revealed that waterboarding was routinely used in the training some U.S. military personnel. The waterboarding took place in the SERE program, an acronym for “Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape.” The formerly classified memos were prepared...

Soros told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes that he developed his character as Nazi collaborator in Hungry. He took that learning and became convicted Insider trader, a guy who made 10 billion dollar off the British people through currency speculation, terrorist supporter and Israel hater. After the last election George Soros, met with a group of Mega-rich liberals to ensure that they get to control the country after the 2008 Elections. What they ended up doing is giving $100 Million dollars to key liberal organizations in major battle ground states(see Obama's Liberal Shock Troops ). Here's the scary part--it worked....

NEWPORT, Rhode Island (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department will take a "hard look" at whether it needs a projected $13.2 billion General Dynamics Corp program designed to hurl combat-ready Marines from ship to shore, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday. Widening a drive to reshape the U.S. military for what he sees as its most likely future fights, Gates raised questions about the "expeditionary fighting vehicle," or EFV, an amphibious tank being developed by General Dynamics for the Marine Corps.

The office was created in 2007 to be the central point within the vast Pentagon bureaucracy and far-flung military to coordinate the Defense Department’s overseas information efforts with the rest of the government, in particular the White House, the State Department and American embassies.

Rosa Brooks: We need government-owned newspapers APRIL 9, 2009 BY ED MORRISSEY Rosa Brooks will leave the LA Times to become a flack for the Pentagon, to which she lightheartedly refers as her “personal government bailout.” However, she wants a more expansive government program for her ex-colleagues, in the form of an industry-wide bailout. The reason? It appears to be that we need journalism to keep government honest, and the best way to accomplish that is for government to control journalism. Huh?

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials, in deciding how to handle the lone surviving pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain, must weigh the violence of the suspect's actions against his surprisingly young age.

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/pdf/Letter-MissileDefense_Apr08-2009.pdf

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2009 – A ship taken by pirates off the coast of Somalia this morning is now presumed to be under the control of its crew again, Defense Department officials said. The cargo ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by pirates early this morning and presumed hijacked, according to information provided by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The vessel was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was assaulted about 300 miles off Somalia’s coast, officials said. The Maersk Alabama is home-ported in Norfolk, Va., and has a crew of about 20 U.S. nationals, John Reinhart, president and CEO...

Governor Palin Stresses Need for Strong Missile Defense Capability April 6, 2009, Juneau, Alaska – Responding to the missile test by North Korea, Governor Sarah Palin today reaffirmed Alaska’s commitment to protecting America from rogue nation missile attacks. “I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,” Governor Palin said. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska’s strategic location and the system in place...

The basic bargain is sound: countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them.” -- President Barack Obama, Prague, April 6, 2009 As far as nuclear weapons are concerned, the President of the United States wants America to disarm: “Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament.” It is hard to imagine a more destructive goal. A nuclear disarmed America would lead to massive and widespread killing, more genocide, and very possibly the nuclear holocaust worldwide nuclear disarmament is meant to prevent. There is nothing moral, let alone realistic, about this goal. Here...

The unclassified version of the 2009 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) -- the U.S. Defense Dept.’s four-year strategy planning exercise -- has yet to be released. But an unprecedented gag order placed on those responsible for developing the QDR, combined with Monday’s proposed terminations of programs -- like the Air Force’s newly operational air-superiority fighter, the F-22 Raptor -- has military experts concerned the writing may already be on the wall. “I am appalled at the decisions just made by the secretary, as are other very senior Air Force general officers,” retired Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney (U.S. Air Force), told...

GOD bless Bob Gates: Our secretary of defense can't be bought, can't be bullied and can't be fooled. And he values our men and women in uniform. "This is a reform budget," the SecDef stated yesterday as he unveiled the Pentagon's new priorities. He insisted that we must "critically and ruthlessly separate appetites from real requirements." Translation: We need to give our troops the numbers and gear they need, not the gilded garbage defense-industry cartels foist upon us -- on loan-shark terms. Gates appears to have made the right call on every single issue. And, instead of beginning with a...

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2009 – A Pentagon working group solicited and obtained input from several military support organizations for a policy change that, under strictly delineated conditions, allows media filming of dignified transfer operations of fallen servicemembers’ remains at Dover Air Force Base, Del., a senior U.S. officer said here yesterday. “There was great appreciation on the parts of the stakeholders that we reached out to them,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael J. Basla told reporters during a roundtable at the Pentagon. Basla, the vice director of the Joint Staff’s command, control, communications and computer systems directorate, chaired the...

SOLDIERS MISSING IN ACTION FROM THE KOREAN WAR ARE IDENTIFIEDThe Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors. They are Cpl. Samuel C. Harris, Jr., of Rogersville, Tenn; Cpl. Lloyd D. Stidham, of Beattyville, Ky.; Cpl. Robert G. Schoening, of Blaine, Wash; and one serviceman whose name is being withheld pending a briefing to his family. All men were U.S. Army. Harris will be buried April 10 in Arlington National...

Maj. Gen. Mark Graham is on the frontlines of the Army's struggle to stop its soldiers from killing themselves. Through a series of novel experiments, the 32-year military veteran has turned his sprawling base here into a suicide-prevention laboratory. One reason: Fort Carson has seen nine suicides in the past 15 months. Another: Six years ago, a 21-year-old ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky killed himself in the apartment he shared with his brother and sister. He was Kevin Graham, Gen. Graham's youngest son.

Three days after the inauguration, this DOD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce directive was announced. ~~~ 1. PURPOSE. This Directive: a. Reissues DoD Directive (DoDD) 1404.10 (Reference (a)) under a new title to establish the policy through which an appropriately sized subset of the DoD civilian workforce is preidentified to be organized, trained, and equipped in a manner that facilitates the use of their capabilities for operational requirements. These requirements are typically away from the normal work locations of DoD civilians, or in situations where other civilians may be evacuated to assist military forces where the use of DoD civilians is appropriate....

Discussion on the change of the name of the Department of Defence to the Office of Serenity, new calmer looking uniforms, FEMA camps, and questions by Helen Thomas. Discussion of recent trip to China by Sec. Of State Hillary Clinton - Old Glory Radio Morning Report

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - If it seems like a nightmare now, it started with a dream come true. Anna Viviano got into one of the best schools in the country, and as an ROTC recruit, she didn't have to pay a penny. "I talked to a couple recruiters and they were just like you can go to Vanderbilt for free," she recalled. And for two and a-half years, Viviano thrived -- second in her ROTC class and a near-perfect GPA. "I thought everything was going swimmingly -- was right on track to do what I wanted," she said. Then came...

The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use "Overseas Contingency Operation" instead.

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2009 – The Army, Navy and Air Force nurse corps are highly trained, capable and critical to the wartime mission of each service, the corps’ leaders told a congressional committee this week. The Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee heard testimony March 18 from the services’ nursing chiefs. Each reported a healthy force that plays a vital role in maintaining the health of America’s servicemembers and saving lives on the battlefield. Despite a nationwide nursing shortage, all three services have had success in recruiting and retaining nurses, the leaders said. New incentive and training programs will help boost...

We warned you that Barak Obama would publicly deny his radical anti-gun agenda, while engaging in "stealth" attacks on private gun ownership. The most recent example is a directive from the Department of Defense that will severely aggravate the current ammunition shortage. For those who either don't own guns (or have been living in a cave) supplies of ammunition are getting alarmingly low. Many retailers report shelves virtually empty of popular pistol and rifle ammo. Most ammunition manufacturers depend on reclaiming used brass cartridge cases from the military, that are then recycled to make new ammunition. It is a system...

"Effective immediately DOD Surplus, LLC, will be implementing new requirements for mutilation of fired shell casings. The new DRMS requirement calls for DOD Surplus personnel to witness the mutilation of the property and sign the Certificate of Destruction. Mutilation of the property can be done at the DRMO, if permitted by the Government, or it may be mutilated at a site chosen by the buyer. Mutilation means that the property will be destroyed to the extent prevents its reuse or reconstruction. DOD Surplus personnel will determine when property has been sufficiently mutilated to meet the requirements of the Government. "...

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2009 – Calling Navy Capt. Michael “Scott” Speicher “an American hero,” Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter today announced his decision to change the status of the first Operation Desert Storm casualty from "missing/captured" to "missing in action.” Navy Capt. Michael “Scott” Speicher’s status has been changed to “missing in action.” U.S. Navy file photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Winter made the determination after a thorough review of information about the case, including a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment and comments from the Speicher family, defense officials said. His determination overruled recommendations of a Navy status...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is moving to overhaul the way the U.S. government awards contracts for work to be done by the private sector, saying there have been too many abuses of taxpayer money. Obama joined Republican Sen. John McCain, his presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures Wednesday to put his pen to an executive memorandum. The document essentially commits the administration to new marching orders for awarding such contracts, and Obama said that it could save up to $40 billion to $50 billion a year. One area in particular that is targeted is no-bid contracts, which...