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Joint Strike Fighter: We Were Told This Would Happen
Winslow T. Wheeler
Director, Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information
Posted: November 20, 2009 11:52 AM

As the Pentagon's $300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program continues to unravel, it is useful to remind ourselves who told us all of this would happen, and who might now be making foolish prognostications.

~snip~

Last Sunday, Bob Cox at the Fort Worth Star Telegram told us that the Defense Contract Management Agency has described some of the ongoing delays and cost overruns as a result of a painfully long list of serious production problems. Find the details here.

On Monday, Lockheed proudly announced to Reuters that its short take-off and vertical landing test jet has finally arrived at the Navy test facility at Patuxent, Maryland to resume the F-35 flight test program, now a few months or a few years behind schedule - depending on what baseline you use. But later in the week, the word spread at Lockheed that things didn't go as well as expected at Patuxent. (The specifics of this are sure to break in the news, given the close attention paid by the press.)

This weekend, the Pentagon's "Acquisition Czar," Ashton Carter, will convene a meeting to ponder how to rescue the program. The word is that he is contemplating a plan to accelerate the flight test program - which sounds good until you consider the program can't even maintain the delayed flight test program it is on now. The plan, nonetheless, will provide cover for moving around contractor engineers and other actions to feign big savings in the program. Carter is also contemplating a downsizing of the F-35's performance requirements, perhaps in a manner that will be hard for overseers, if any, in Congress to find and/or in a manner that may complicate the program for the Air Force and further dampen the already tepid enthusiasm for the aircraft in the Navy. As a result of all this, cost growth being predicted by a multi-service team of analysts in the Pentagon, known as the "JET," would be mostly wished away. (We know about the Joint Estimating Team's cost analysis thanks to reporting from Jason Sherman at Inside Defense.)

None of this would fix the program in any real sense, but it would pretend that the F-35 program is not going to breach some newly revised congressional reporting requirements for cost overruns (known widely as Nunn-McCurdy). Thus - it is hoped - the world would remain ignorant of the problems beneath.


Rest of article about this $239 million dollar wonder that still can't fly above 20,000 feet: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/winslow-t-wh...

Active-duty suicides almost double from Sept.
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 13, 2009 18:36:27 EST

As many as 16 active-duty soldiers committed suicide in October, nine more than reported the month before, the Army announced Nov. 13.

In addition, eight Army National Guard or Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty are believed to have killed themselves in October. That’s one more than reported in September.

Each death is still under investigation and pending a determination. Army officials have said that 90 percent of pending cases typically are ruled to be suicides.

Since Jan. 1 there have been 133 reported active-duty soldier deaths. Of those, 90 have been confirmed and 43 are pending a determination.

There were 115 suicides among active-duty soldiers during the same period in 2008.


Rest of article at:: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/army...

The Word Not Spoken: Bagram
Harry Shearer
Actor, author, director, satirist, musician, radio host, playwright, multi-media artist
Posted: November 13, 2009 11:50 AM

When the Fox network staged a special Veterans' Day version of its NFL pregame show at Bagram AF Base last Sunday, two hours was apparently not long enough to mention one interesting fact about Bagram: It's the site of America's other Gitmo, a prison where detainees have been kept for years outside the purview of U.S. law, outside even the scope of the Supreme Court's habeas corpus decision on Gitmo detainees.

Interestingly, it was at Bagram that the only detainees (that we know of) to have died while in US custody were kept.

When Eric Holder held a press conference announcing the plans for trying several Gitmo detainees, he was peppered with questions from the Washington media about the trials, about security, about the closing of Gitmo. The word not spoken at that briefing: Bagram.

And, of course, the president's promise to close Gitmo within the year, much debated, said nothing about Bagram.

People can keep a secret when they want to...


Article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-sheare...

Relations have frayed between top U.S. officials and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan.


Another Afghan war: Media leaks spark administration fight
By Jonathan S. Landay, Dion Nissenbaum and John Walcott | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's internal debate over Afghan policy has escalated into a battle of media leaks that's straining relations between officials who're seeking a major troop increase and those who want a more limited approach and a greater focus on domestic priorities.

The feud also has poisoned ties between the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan and the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, and left the administration struggling for leverage to press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to appoint untainted officials to his new government, attack corruption and share power with the parliament and provincial officials.

The battle in the media prompted normally mild-mannered Defense Secretary Robert Gates to lash out at leakers Thursday, telling reporters on a flight to Oshkosh, Wis., that the disclosures do "not serve the country or . . . the military," and "everyone should just shut up."

It may be too late for that.

A U.S. defense official said the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, feels he was "stabbed in the back" by Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Three months ago, Eikenberry supported McChrystal's request for more troops, but last week he sent a classified cable opposing it until Karzai shows that he can be trusted.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/78813...

2,266 Veterans Died In 2008 Because They Were Uninsured
The Huffington Post | Elyse Siegel
First Posted: 11-10-09 06:38 PM | Updated: 11-10-09 06:49 PM

According to a study released by the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year as a result of not having health insurance. Researchers emphasize that "that figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001."

The 1.46 million working-age veterans that did not have health insurance last year all experienced reduced access to care as a consequence, leading to "six preventable deaths a day."

Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people -- too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School. <...>


Dr. David Himmelstein, the co-author of the report and associate professor of medicine at Harvard, commented, "On this Veterans Day we should not only honor the nearly 500 soldiers who have died this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the more than 2,200 veterans who were killed by our broken health insurance system. That's six preventable deaths a day."

The study's authors warn that the health care legislation "would do virtually nothing for the uninsured until 2013" and would "leave at least 17 million uninsured over the long run when reform kicks in," leaving many veterans still without care.


Rest of article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/2...

Scans show PTSD effects
By Lauran Neergaard
Associated Press / November 10, 2009

WASHINGTON - Powerful scans are letting doctors watch just how the brain changes in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and concussionlike brain injuries, signature damage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

It is work that one day may allow for easier diagnosis for patients - civilian or military - who today struggle to get help for these largely invisible disorders. For now it brings a powerful message: Problems too often shrugged off as “just in your head’’ in fact do have physical signs, now that scientists are learning where and how to look for them.

“There’s something different in your brain,’’ said Dr. Jasmeet Pannu Hayes of Boston University, who is helping to lead that research at the Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. “Just putting a real physical marker there, saying that this is a real thing, encourages more people to seek care.’’

Up to one in five US veterans from the long-running combat in Iraq and Afghanistan is thought to have symptoms of PTSD. An equal number are believed to have suffered traumatic brain injuries, most that do not involve open wounds but hidden damage caused by explosion’s pressure wave.

Many of those brain injuries are considered similar to a concussion, but because symptoms may not be apparent immediately, many soldiers are exposed multiple times, despite evidence from the sports world that damage can add up, especially if there is little time between assaults.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles...

War Is A Racket
by Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired



CHAPTER ONE

WAR IS A RACKET

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War (I) a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce , their dispute over the Polish Corridor.

The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.

Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?

Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:

"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace... War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."

Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it, apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too. There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.

Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.

Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.

Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.

Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.

Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.

But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Yes, and what does it profit the nation?

Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been ours without the wars.

It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people – who do not profit.


Rest of book at: http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles...

Coming soon, to a port near you:

Pentagon Pouring Your Money Into Afghanistan: Are They Preparing for a Very Long War?
By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com. Posted November 9, 2009.

In recent weeks, President Obama has been contemplating the future of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. He has also been touting the effects of his policies at home, reporting that this year's Recovery Act not only saved jobs, but also was "the largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s." At the same time, another much less publicized U.S.-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway. This one in Afghanistan.

While Washington has put modest funding into civilian projects in Afghanistan this year -- ranging from small-scale power plants to "public latrines" to a meat market -- the real construction boom is military in nature. The Pentagon has been funneling stimulus-sized sums of money to defense contractors to markedly boost its military infrastructure in that country.

In fiscal year 2009, for example, the civilian U.S. Agency for International Development awarded $20 million in contracts for work in Afghanistan, while the U.S. Army alone awarded $2.2 billion -- $834 million of it for construction projects. In fact, according to Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, the Pentagon has spent "roughly $2.7 billion on construction over the past three fiscal years" in that country and, "if its request is approved as part of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, it would spend another $1.3 billion on more than 100 projects at 40 sites across the country, according to a Senate report on the legislation."

Nowhere has the building boom been more apparent than Bagram Air Base, a key military site used by the Soviet Union during its occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. In its American incarnation, the base has significantly expanded from its old Soviet days and, in just the last two years, the population of the more than 5,000 acre compound has doubled to 20,000 troops, in addition to thousands of coalition forces and civilian contractors. To keep up with its exponential growth rate, more than $200 million in construction projects are planned or in-progress at this moment on just the Air Force section of the base. "Seven days a week, concrete trucks rumble along the dusty perimeter road of this air base as bulldozers and backhoes reshape the rocky earth," Chuck Crumbo of The State reported recently. "Hundreds of laborers slap mortar onto bricks as they build barracks and offices. Four concrete plants on the base have operated around the clock for 18 months to keep up with the construction needs."

The base already boasts fast food favorites Burger King, a combination Pizza Hut/Bojangles, and Popeyes as well as a day spa and shops selling jewelry, cell phones and, of course, Afghan rugs. In the near future, notes Pincus, "the military is planning to build a $30 million passenger terminal and adjacent cargo facility to handle the flow of troops, many of whom arrive at the base north of Kabul before moving on to other sites." In addition, according to the Associated Press, the base command is "acquiring more land next year on the east side to expand" even further.


Rest of article at: http://www.alternet.org/story/143819/penta...

I've been reading Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side" for about a month already. I can get maybe five to ten pages before I need to put it down for a while.

Obama's stance on torture makes me nuts. Big time, full time torture started in Afghanistan right after the invasion. Extraordinary rendition (aka kidnapping) had people snatched off the streets and sent to places to be tortured. IMO, the first fully institutionalized torture factory was Guantanamo. Meet the man who made it work:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_D._M...


Geoffrey D. Miller

Geoffrey D. Miller (born c. 1949) is a retired United States Army Major General who commanded the US detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Iraq. Detention facilities in Iraq under his command included Abu Ghraib prison, Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca. He is also famous for training soldiers in "improved interrogation techniques".<1>

Miller was born in Gallipolis, Ohio. He attended Ohio State University where he got an undergraduate degree in History, following up with a Master of Science in Education Administration at the University of Southern California. Miller is the nephew of Bob Evans, of Bob Evans Restaurants, franchiser from Rio Grande, Ohio.

Miller joined the US Army in 1972 and was trained in field artillery and army command. He spent time in Germany before being moved to Korea in 1980. There, he rose to become assistant chief of staff for operations in Korea. Miller later returned to the United States to become the deputy chief of staff for personnel and installation management for the US Army.

On November 2002, Miller was given command of Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), which runs the US detention facilities known as Camp X-Ray, Camp Delta and Camp Echo in Cuba. Miller claimed that two-thirds of the 600 prisoners had confessed to being involved in terrorism and were giving "actionable intelligence." However, instances of abuse such as beatings, using attack dogs to intimidate prisoners, and other abuses at Guantanamo Bay were alleged to have occurred under Miller's command.

On September 22, 2003, Miller ordered the arrest of James Yee, an Army captain who served as a chaplain for the Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo. Miller accused Yee of stealing classified documents and smuggling them out of the prison, but those charges were later dropped. It is believed that no evidence of espionage was found, but records on the case have been sealed.

Abu Ghraib prison scandal

In August 2003, Miller was sent to Iraq by the Department of Defense to help get more information out of Iraqi prisoners. In September, Miller submitted a report that recommended "GTMO-ising" their approach - combining the detention and interrogation units at Abu Ghraib into the Theater Joint Interrogation and Detention Center. Specifically, Miller suggested that prison guards be used to "soften up" prisoners for interrogations.

In his final report on the prison abuse, General Antonio Taguba blamed Miller's recommendations for the abuse at Abu Ghraib, and noted that using military police for interrogation was a breach of official policy. Miller denies that he was specifically ordering guards to humiliate and torture prisoners to get confessions out of them.

After the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story broke in March 2004, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was suspended and Miller was appointed the deputy commanding general for detainee operations for Multinational Forces in Iraq. In this role, Miller reports directly to Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez. Since his appointment, Miller has vowed to reduce the number of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, adhere to military laws as well as the Geneva Convention, investigate allegations of abuse, and reform the Iraqi prison system. He banned the use of hoods on prisoners during transport and set up a new system to allow prisoners to have visitors.

Since the investigation of abuses at Abu Ghraib, some have suggested that Miller encouraged abusive tactics. In an interview with BBC Radio, former prison commander Janis Karpinski claimed that Miller told her to treat prisoners "like dogs" in the sense that "if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them".<2> Major General Miller denies that he ever made the comparison.

Colonel Thomas Pappas, head of the military intelligence brigade at Abu Ghraib, has claimed that it was Miller's idea to use attack dogs to intimidate prisoners.<3> He said the same tactics were being used at Camp X-Ray. Several of the photos taken at Abu Ghraib show dogs surrounding (and in at least one case biting) screaming, naked detainees.

In November 2004, Miller was replaced as deputy commanding general for detainee operations for Multinational Forces in Iraq by MG William H. Brandenburg.<4>

Request for war crimes prosecution

In November 2006, the German government received a complaint seeking the prosecution of then-Attorney General and former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales for alleged war crimes. <1>

Other co-defendants include: Donald H. Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Stephen Cambone, Ricardo S. Sanchez, Geoffrey Miller, Walter Wojdakowski, Thomas M. Pappas, Barbara Fast, Marc Warren, John Yoo, William J. Haynes, II, David Addington, and Jay Bybee.

On 14 November 2006, German attorney Wolfgang Kaleck filed the complaint with the German Federal Attorney General (Generalbundesanwalt) against Mr. Miller for his complicity in torture and other crimes against humanity at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mr. Kaleck acts on behalf of 11 victims of torture and other human rights abuses, as well as about 30 human rights activists and organizations who are co-plaintiffs. The co-plaintiffs to the war crimes prosecution include: 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Argentine), 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Martín Almada (Paraguay), Theo van Boven, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Sister Dianna Ortiz (Torture survivor, Executive Director of TASSC), the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Peace Bureau (Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1910), the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), European Democratic Lawyers, European Democratic Jurists, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Comité de Acción Jurídica (CAJ) (Argentina) , Liga Argentina por los Derechos del Hombre (Argentina), Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), Lawyers against the War (LAW) (Canada), Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo (Colombia), Association Africaine des Droits de l’Homme (ASADHO) (Democratic Republic of Congo), Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) (Egypt), Ligue Française des Droits de l'Homme (LDH), The Republican Attorneys' Association (RAV) (Germany), Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHR) (Jordan), Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH), Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (LIMEDDH), Centro Nicaraguense de Derechos Humanos (CENIDH), Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Association Tchadienne pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (ATPDH) (Chad), Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO) (Senegal), The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), National Lawyers Guild (NLG), Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), and Veterans for Peace. <2>


Here's his Iraq counterpart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Sanch...



Ricardo Sanchez

Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez (born 1953) is a retired United States Army general who served as the V Corps commander of coalition forces in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. He was the highest-ranking Hispanic in the United States Army when he retired on November 1, 2006. At the time of his retirement, Lieutenant General Sanchez called his career a casualty of the Abu Ghraib scandal.<1>

June 2003 to June 2004

Sanchez held the top military position in Iraq during what was arguably one of the most critical periods of the war—the year after the fall of the Hussein regime, and the time the insurgency took root and began its counterattack. Highlights during his tenure as commander in Iraq include the killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein, and the capture of Saddam Hussein.

He was in command when the abuse of prisoners occurred most notably at Abu Ghraib prison. Some have been highly critical of the U.S. military's failure to hold generals accountable, as the blame for abuses at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers was placed only on a few individuals of the lowest rank.

Sanchez was succeeded as commander of allied ground forces in Iraq by a four-star general: former Army Vice Chief of Staff George Casey.

Disunity in leadership

L. Paul Bremer was the leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. There was almost a complete failure to communicate between Bremer, the top civilian, and Sanchez, the military leader. "It was very clear they hated each other. They lived in the same palace and didn't talk to each other." This disunity in leadership has been cited as one of the major failures of the first year of the Iraq War.<2>
Abu Ghraib

Sanchez was commander of coalition forces during a period when abuse of prisoners occurred at Abu Ghraib and at other locations. In a memo signed by General Sanchez and later acquired by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request, techniques were authorized to interrogate prisoners, included "environmental manipulation" such as making a room hot or cold or using an "unpleasant smell", isolating a prisoner, disrupting normal sleep patterns and "convincing the detainee that individuals from a country other than the United States are interrogating him." <3> On May 5, 2006 Sanchez denied ever authorizing interrogators to "go to the outer limits". Sanchez said he had told interrogators: "...we should be conducting our interrogations to the limits of our authority." Sanchez called the ACLU: "...a bunch of sensationalist liars, I mean lawyers, that will distort any and all information that they get to draw attention to their positions." <4>

War crimes prosecution

On 14 November 2006, human rights advocate Wolfgang Kaleck brought charges at the German Federal Attorney General (Generalbundesanwalt) against Ricardo Sanchez and a number of other high officials for their involvement in human rights violations in Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Kaleck acts as an advocate for more than 30 human rights organizations as well as 11 former prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
Career after Iraq

In June 2004, Lieutenant General Sanchez relinquished command of the Multi-National Force Iraq (MNF-I) to General George Casey, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. Sanchez returned to Germany where he continued as Commanding General, V Corps. He was briefly considered for promotion to four-star rank with assignment as Commander, Southern Command; nomination would have required Senate confirmation, which would have been contentious due to the Abu Ghraib scandal. He was not nominated; the position went to General Bantz Craddock.

Sanchez led V Corps in Germany during 2004-2005 as it refitted in anticipation of its second deployment as the command headquarters in Iraq. When V Corps returned to Iraq as headquarters element for the Multi-National Corps Iraq (MNC-I), Lieutenant General Peter W. Chiarelli was named commander; the V Corps flag remained in Germany with Sanchez. The result was somewhat unusual; the V Corps headquarters was in Iraq under Chiarelli's command with the name MNC-I while Sanchez remained in Germany with the corps flag, but with replacement (V Corps-Rear) personnel.

On 6 September 2006, Sanchez relinquished command of V Corps in a ceremony at Campbell Barracks, Heidelberg, Germany. Sanchez had commanded the corps for more than 3 years; longer than any previous commander in the unit's history. In deference to Sanchez' longevity, he relinquished command to General David McKiernan, Commanding General, US Army Europe and Seventh Army, his higher commander, instead of to a successor.

Sanchez retired on 1 November 2006, culminating 33 years of Army service. Sanchez now lives in his home state of Texas.

US Fed Up With Troops Dying to Prop Up Karzai
by Paul McGeouh in Kabul
Published on Friday, November 6, 2009 by The Sydney Morning Herald

It seems that Hamid Karzai just can't be trusted on his own.

When he breasted the microphone at the presidential palace on October 20, to make an oblique admission that he attempted to steal the election and would go along with the second poll which he had resisted for weeks, he was flanked by a high-powered international posse - lest he depart from the agreed script.

On one side was the US senator John Kerry; on the other, the United Nations special envoy Kai Eide; and riding shotgun were the British and French ambassadors.

Fast forward two weeks. Last Sunday, Karzai's challenger, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, played exquisite politics. Baling out of the second vote which was to be held today, he left a wounded Karzai to claim the presidency, knowing that the stench of a million stolen votes would cling to him for the next five years.

On Tuesday, Karzai was back on the presidential dais, this time to claim his prize. But lest he make any reckless promises - say, to eject some of the more odorous among his cronies from office - the enforcers came from among the cronies, his vice presidents Karim Khalil and Mohammad Qasim Fahim, both former warlords from the ranks of Afghanistan's looting class.

Rest of article at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/...

We are already at nine American deaths this month and it's only the sixth of November.

If you look at previous Novembers in this occupation,

2001 --> 4 American soldiers died
2002 --> 8 American soldiers died
2003 --> 1 American soldier died
2004 --> 4 American soldiers died
2005 --> 4 American soldiers died
2006 --> 9 American soldiers died
2007 --> 22 American soldiers died
2008 --> 12 American soldiers died
2009 --> 9 American soldiers died

To date in 2009, 463 American soldiers have died in the continued occupation. Things are not going well.

http://icasualties.org/oef/

Eielson airmen Taser 81-year-old priest
By Erik Holmes
Posted : Wednesday Nov 4, 2009 14:09:04 EST

How many airmen does it take to arrest an 81-year-old preacher?

Four, apparently — plus a Taser.

Airmen from the 354th Security Forces Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, used a Taser on an elderly man on Oct. 29 after the man allegedly resisted arrest and assaulted one of the airmen during a routine traffic stop.

~snip~

The airmen gave chase and got Wilcox to pull over once again, according to the News-Miner, but he refused to get out of his car.

When he did finally get out of the car and the airmen tried to handcuff him, he allegedly resisted arrest and pushed one of the airmen. After warning him several times, the paper reported, one of the airmen used a Taser on Wilcox to subdue him.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/11/... /



unhappycamper comment: This tasing of an 81-year-old man proves that Eielson airmen are p**ssies.