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Female Cop Hailed as Ft. Hood Hero

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - Nov. 06 (News Report) - (CBS/ AP) Updated at 9:45 p.m. EST A military mental health doctor facing deployment overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post on Thursday, setting off on a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded, Army officials said. Authorities

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Strain of deployments hit base

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Ann Scott Tyson - Nov. 05 (News Report) - Fort Hood, the Texas military base that was the scene of a mass shooting Thursday, has been hard hit by the growing strain on the Army from multiple combat deployments -- with its personnel suffering the highest number of suicides among Army

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Seven members of House defense subcommittee scrutinized by ethics investigators

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carol D. Leonnig - Oct. 30 (News Report) - The investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of the powerful subcommittee chairman, John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), as well as others who helped steer federal funds to clients of the PMA Group. The lawmakers received campaign

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US diplomat quits over Afghan war

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Oct. 27 (News Report) - A senior US diplomat in Afghanistan has become the first such person to resign in protest at the war against the Taliban, the Washington Post reported.

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Official resigns over Afghan war

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Karen DeYoung - Oct. 27 (Special Report) - A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. But last

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Former Marine captain resigns in protest of Afghanistan war

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, resigned last month from his position with the Foreign Service, where he was the the senior U.S. civilian in the Taliban-dominated Southern Afghanistan province of Zabul, because he became convinced that our war in that country will not only inevitably fail, but is fueling the very insurgency we are trying to defeat. Hoh's resignation is remarkable because it entails the sort of career sacrifice in the name of principle that has been so rare over the last decade, but even more so because of the extraordinary four-page letter (.pdf) he wrote explaining his reasoning.

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Push for Afghanistan troop increase continues on deadly day

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Laura King, Julian E. Barnes, Paul Richter - Oct. 27 (News Analysis) - On a day when 14 U.S. servicemen and drug agents were killed in helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, the largest such toll in more than four years, momentum continued to build to send more troops to the war zone. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a Washington address that he would support a decision by President Obama to "send some additional troops" provided improvements are made in Afghan troop training and government, and civilian aid efforts are increased.

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Zakaria on a Third Surge in Afghanistan

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Fareed Zakaria - Oct. 26 (Opinion) - The real question we should be asking in Afghanistan is not "Do we need a surge?" but rather "Do we need a third surge?" The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in January 2008 was 26,607. Over the next six months, the Bush administration raised the total to 48,250. President Bush described this policy as "the quiet surge," and he made the standard arguments about the need for a counterinsurgency capacity—the troops had to not only fight the Taliban but protect the Afghan population, strengthen and train the Afghan Army and police, and assist in development.

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Stimulus Contracts Go to Companies Under Criminal Investigation

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Oct. 26 (Investigative Report) - The Department of Defense awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of defrauding the government. According to Air Force documents, the companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, which allowed them to gain special preference in bidding for government contracts. But investigators found that they were all part of a larger minority-owned enterprise in Southern California, making them ineligible for the contracts.

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Troop-Boost Plan Gains Backing

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Peter Spiegel, Yochi Dreazen - Oct. 24 (News Report) - The Obama administration is moving toward a hybrid strategy in Afghanistan that would combine elements of both the troop-heavy approach sought by its top military commander and a narrower option backed by Vice President Joe Biden, a decision that could pave the way for thousands of new U.S. forces.

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Seymour Hersh: Military Is Waging War Against The White House

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By The Huffington Post News Team - Oct. 23 (News Report) - In addition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military is also fighting a war against the Obama administration at the White House ... "...and they feel they have Obama boxed in."

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Hill Aides Call For JSF Restructure

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

dodbuzz.com - By Colin Clark - Oct. 23 (News Report) - A preliminary Pentagon cost estimate that the F-35 could cost as much as $17.1 billion more than currently planned is prompting calls from congressional sources for the program to be reassessed and restructured.

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Why Did The DoD, And The White House, Oppose The Franken Rape Amendment?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Rachel Slajda - Oct. 21 (News Analysis) - On Oct. 6, the Senate passed an amendment that would guarantee rape victims employed by defense contractors a chance to take their case to court. The 30 Republicans who voted against it have been vilified. (See, for example, RepublicansForRape.org.) But the Department of Defense -- and, by extension, the White House -- also opposed the amendment. Why?

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Going 'deep', not 'big', in Afghanistan

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Gareth Porter - Oct. 16 (News Report) - An analysis making waves in Washington by a veteran United States officer calls for the withdrawal of the bulk of United States combat forces from Afghanistan over 18 months, warning against General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy. Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L Davis says that it is already too late for US forces to defeat the insurgency.

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Lt. Choi Won't Lie for His Country

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Amy Goodman - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - After receiving the letter from the Army, Choi wrote an open letter to his commander in chief, Obama. He said: "I have personally served for a decade under Don't Ask, Don't Tell: an immoral law and policy that forces American soldiers to deceive and lie about their sexual orientation. Worse, it forces others to tolerate deception and lying." U.S. troops in Afghanistan are serving side by side with NATO forces that include openly gay and lesbian troops.

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We've Seen the Future, and It's Unmanned

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Esquire - By Brian Mockenhaupt - Oct. 15 (Special Report) - Every so often in history, something profound happens that changes warfare forever. Next year, for the first time ever, the Pentagon will buy more unmanned aircraft than manned, line-item proof that we are in a new age of fighting machines, in which war will be ever more abstract, ever more distant, and ruthlessly efficient.

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Lisa Versus Lisa: EPA's Jackson Bests Sen. Murkowski

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Stephen Power - Sep. 25 (News Report) - Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s plan to limit EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases won’t be coming up for a vote after all. This, after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers sent letters to Congress warning that the Alaska Republican’s amendment would prevent the EPA from completing its recent proposal to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions. If that had happened, the industry would face “a patchwork of conflicting state and federal regulations,” the Alliance warned in its letter. A Murkowski spokesman said Senate Democratic leaders prevented a vote on her amendment and that the senator disputes the EPA administrator’s view that the amendment would prevent the EPA from completing its vehicle proposal. “They’ve gone out of their way to refuse to debate the merits of this” amendment, the spokesman said.

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Obama Finally Facing Reality in Afghanistan

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dan Froomkin - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - Should Obama actually change his mind about Afghanistan, our elite journalists -- obsessed as they are with how the game is played -- will almost inevitably characterize this as vacillation and declare it a sign of political weakness. But that really misses the point.

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Reading the McChrystal Report

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By George Packer - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - It’s not the Pentagon Papers. After all the noise and controversy, the assessment of the war in Afghanistan by General Stanley McChrystal that was leaked to the Post’s Bob Woodward turns out to be a singularly unsurprising document. Its emphasis isn’t on more troops (which is what all the discussion in Washington inevitably comes down to) but on a better approach to counterinsurgency. It’s a distillation of all the recent discoveries and rediscoveries made by the military under General Petraeus, with the advice of experts like David Kilcullen.

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Afghanistan Surge? Jamal Dajani Weighs In

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - Sep. 23 (News Report) - The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the U.S.-led NATO coalition risks losing the war unless there are fundamental changes in military strategy, including the addition of at least 10,000 more American troops

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12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - Sep. 22 (Opinion) - Warning: The people's ideas expressed here may be dangerous. For this year's list, we walked right past the usual suspects and went looking for trouble.

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McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure'

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Bob Woodward - Sep. 21 (News Report) - The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

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McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure'

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Bob Woodward - Sep. 20 (Special Report) - The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

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Inquiry Into CIA Practices Narrows

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson, Jerry Markon, Julie Tate - Sep. 19 (News Report) - On Friday, seven former CIA directors urged President Obama to end the inquiry, arguing that it would inhibit intelligence operations in the future and demoralize agency employees who believed they had been cleared by previous investigators. "Attorney

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WaPo Reporter Misleads In Claiming Interrogation Double Standard

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Scott Horton Read more at: - Sep. 18 (News Analysis) - This suggests that the message that torture enablers really draw from the West experience is this: Political cards played deftly will foil the impartial administration of justice every time. They may even win you a seat in Congress. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/18/pincuss-double-standard_n_291801.html

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