Free Republic

Attorneys: Navy arguments, findings 'divorced from reality' By BILL SANDIFER Staff Writer Attorneys suing the Navy to stop construction of an outlying landing field in Washington County contend the Navy's account of environmental studies outlined in its last federal court brief is "divorced from reality." Law teams representing the Charlotte-based firm of Kennedy Covington and the Chapel Hill Southern Environmental Law Center office responded Dec. 20 with a brief discounting Navy contentions that it had "fully complied" with National Environmental Policy Act requirements. "(T)he Navy paints a different -- but highly sanitized -- version of the process it followed," argues...

WDN News Analysis: OLF, chicken or egg? By BILL SANDIFER, Staff Writer The Pentagon has frequently cited the "fog of war" to describe confusion that can scramble the best-laid battle strategies. That same phenomenon may now beset circumstances surrounding the evolving decisions that led to the Navy's selection of Washington County for its preferred outlying landing field site. Just what came when -- and in what order -- now befuddles many who have followed the process since its inception. And the very record that reflects that evolution now appears subject to different interpretations by the Navy and OLF opponents. One...

To the Editor: With regard to your Outlying Landing Field (OLF) news articles and editorials, I would ask the question: Did Members of the U.S. Congress and Military violate their Oath of Office and act as agents to deprive citizens of rights guaranteed them under the U.S. Constitution; and specifically the XIV Amendment? I believe that the prospect of a decisive, concerted and active effort to deprive citizens of their due process protection of property rights by the federal government would draw serious concern from anyone who holds the Constitution as the foundation, structure and security of our society of...

Navy top gun calls the shots By BILL SANDIFER, Staff Writer As the Navy skated on the thinning ice surrounding its justification for a Washington County outlying landing field, a former Tiger Team member, Navy Cmdr. John Robusto, penned a document titled, "OLF justification verbiage." That paper was circulated among Tiger Team members who had been polishing the language to pass muster with high-level Navy officials. That account is gleaned from a court brief summarizing more than 200,000 Navy documents turned over to OLF opponents' attorneys under court order. Those documents form the backbone of the latest brief filed by...

SELC reveals OLF smoking gun By BILL SANDIFER, Staff Writer There was no judge on the stand, no Navy brass on hand, no opponents filling a courtroom. In the world of litigation, Monday was just another day of filing reams of legal briefs among Navy attorneys and two legal teams suing to halt permanently the plans for a Washington County outlying landing field. One brief, a motion for summary judgment, if granted, would stop OLF plans without completion of a civil trial in U.S. District Court in Raleigh. Contained within the 74-page motion filed by Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys...