Marine

Military functionaries encouraged
denying political detainees at the Guantanamo Bay hold centre access
to monitoring devices from the International Committee of the Red Cross,
the New House Of York Times reported, citing a confidential 2003 manual.

The end of preventing this entree was to ''exploit'' the
disorientation of new reachings at the Republic Of Cuba facility, the manual
said, according to the Times.

The written document said it was all right for long-term detainees to have
no contact with the Red Cross, the newspaper said.

Some legal experts and political detainee advocators said the policy
may have got broken international law, which lets monitoring to
ensure human-centered treatment, the Times said.

To reach the newsman on this story:
James Temple in San Francisco at

: U.S. and South Korean functionaries celebrated the long-delayed start of building Tuesday on the American military's new central office on the peninsula, portion of a motion of military units away from the North Korean border.

Despite strong resistance from local occupants over compensation for their land, an understanding with South Korea's authorities earlier this twelvemonth allowed the edifice to begin in Pyeongtaek, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Seoul.

Under current understandings between the two countries, the top U.S. full general on the peninsula presumes bid of South Korean military units in the event of renewed ill wills with the North.

The South have pushed for wartime bid to reflect its sovereignty and development into a world-leading economy, and will take over wartime control of its armed forces units in April 2012 — around the same clip the U.S. military central office will travel from their current Capital Of South Korea base.

The new alkali "will function as a basis in additional development the South Korea-U.S. alliance," South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said in a message read at the groundbreaking ceremony. Today in Asia - Pacific

About 28,000 U.S. armed forces personnel are now based in South Korea, but the figure will drop to 25,000 by the end of 2008 as their chief function displacements to offering the South Korean military aerial and naval support to discourage any aggression by the North.

The new alkali will be place to 17,000 of the remaining troops, along with attached South Korean military, support staff and households for a sum 43,000 people.

"The United States will go on to prolong and foster this confederation as long as we are welcome and wanted in this land, throughout the 21st century and beyond," U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell said at the ceremony, where people pushed buttons to establish fusillades of colored pyrotechnics and 100s of balloons to tag the start of construction.

The U.S. have already begun consolidating its alkalis and moving away from the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone that splits the North and South. There were 109 U.S. armed forces installings in South Korean Peninsula as of 2003, but 59 have got already been closed and programs name for lone 10 to remain.

The two Koreas stay technically at warfare since their somes 1953 cease-fire ended the Korean War. The South have been pushing for a concluding peace understanding followers recent advancement on the North's atomic disarming and the second-ever acme of the two countries' leadership last month.

WASHINGTON, Nov. Three — Even though members of United States Congress cut back their porc gun barrel disbursement this year, House lawmakers still tacked on to the military appropriations measure $1.8 billion to pay 580 private companies for undertakings the Pentagon did not request. Multimedia

Twenty-one members were responsible for about $1 billion in earmarks, or funding for pet projects, according to information lawmakers were required to let on for the first clip this year. Each asked for more than than $20 million for concerns mostly in their districts, ranging from major military contractors to small known start-ups.

The listing is topped by the veteran soldier allow champs Representative , a Keystone State Democrat who is the president of the powerful defence appropriations subcommittee, and Representative C. W. Bill Young of Florida, the top Republican on the panel, who asked for $166 million and $117 million respectively. It also includes $92 million in petitions from , Republican of California, a commission member who is under federal probe for his neckties to a lobbying house whose clients often benefited from his earmarks.

The House speaker, , requested $32 million in earmarks, while , the bulk leader, asked for $26 million for undertakings in the $459.6 billion defence bill, the biggest of the appropriations measurements that spell through Congress.

As promised when they took control of United States United States Congress in January, House Democratic leadership cut in one-half from last twelvemonth the value of earmarks in the bill, as they did in the other 11 federal agency disbursement measures. But some lawmakers complained that the leading failed to turn to what it had called a "culture of corruption" in which members seek earmarks to profit corporate donors. Earmarks have got been a recurring issue in recent Congressional scandals, most recently the 2005 strong belief of Representative , Republican of California, for accepting payoffs from defence contractors.

"Pork hasn't gone away at all," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, an allow critic who mentions the "circular fund-raising" surrounding many of them. "It would be fantastic if this was a partisan issue, with Republicans on the right side, but it is really not. Many of these companies utilize money appropriated through earmarks to turn around and anteroom for more than money. Some of them are just there to have earmarks."

Congressional earmarks are for programmes that are not competitively command , and the Shrub disposal have complained that they waste material taxpayer dollars and skew precedences from military needs, like the warfares in Republic Of Iraq and Islamic State Of Afghanistan and the planetary warfare on terror.

Thomas E. Mann, a Congressional scholarly person and senior chap at the , though, sees the costs of earmarks as less of a job than their possible for abuse.

"The financial radioactive dust of earmarks is trivial," he said. But they can take to "conflicts of interest, the irrational and unconstructive allotment of resources, or their usage by Congressional leadership as carrots and sticks to purchase ballots for bigger measurements that clearly deficiency bulk support on the merits."

The House version of the military measure includes 1,337 earmarks totaling $3 billion, the most Congressional earmarks in any of the disbursement measures passed this year. A conference commission is now reconciling House and Senate versions. The Senate added $5 billion in earmarks, but it is hard to find the patrons because it have no revelation rules.

About one-half of the House armed forces earmarks travel to universities, military alkalis and other populace institutions; the other one-half to concerns and nonprofits. For the first time, members submitted written petitions for each undertaking and statements attesting that they had no personal fiscal involvements in them. Previously, earmarks often were inserted anonymously. The New House Of York Times analysis of earmarks used information compiled by the Washington-based watchdog grouping Taxpayers for Park Sense along with political campaign part and lobbying records.

Democrats see allow reform a success, since they have got got significantly reduced their cost and brought "disclosure so components can see what their members have asked for," said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Ms. Pelosi. "That's one of the things we wanted to change, to convey more than openness." But the House Republican Conference postulates that Democrats still utilize earmarks as a close slush monetary fund to honor contributors.

Mr. Murtha have drawn much attending this year, first as he bitterly opposed the statute law requiring revelation of earmarks, then continued his wont of submitting tons of requests, most benefiting his hometown of Johnstown, Pa. (He asked for 47 earmarks.) Two Republicans said he threatened to barricade them from getting any earmarks when they questioned one of his requests. "You're not going to acquire any, now or forever," he warned Representative Microphone Rogers, a Wolverine State Republican who eventually received a written apology from the Keystone State congressman.

The Republican Conference chairman, Adam H. Putman of Florida, said Mr. Murtha's behaviour have been "like watching a atavist in time." 1

Barclay Walsh contributed reporting.

The Government Accountability Office have chided the Department of Defense for adopting a restructuring program for the military wellness system without conducting a comprehensive analysis of the costs, benefits and risks.

The GAO study released in October also proposes that Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England opted for the way of least opposition last November when he rejected three options for consolidating Army, Navy and Air Military Unit medical bureaucratisms in favour of a program that merely would compound some cardinal support mathematical functions such as as finance, logistics and medical research.

Phased execution of this option is under way, but it won't be too far along by January 2009 when a new disposal presumes control.

Influencing England, functionaries said last December, were Air Military Unit statements that cultural differences between the services do a incorporate medical bid impractical and could harm medical readiness.

The Navy, Army and joint staff had endorsed a incorporate command. They were backed by an consultative board of concern executive directors and by a Pentagon workings grouping established specifically to weigh options for restructuring the wellness attention system. The Center for Naval Analyses projected yearly nest egg of 100s of billions of dollars.

England rejected three options presented to him for a joint or incorporate command. Instead, he embraced a 4th developed by his senior advisers. This program phone calls for keeping the three service medical sections but combining some support functions. This "incremental" approach, functionaries argue, would also ensue in cost efficiencies while preserving the service-unique cultures of the three medical components.

Ironically, it also might affect establishing a new layer of bureaucratism to supervise amalgamate functions.

The GAO suggested that claims of cultural differences can barricade many transformational alterations for the military if defence leadership let them to make so.

"The department's position that there is a strong cultural challenge to successful execution [of a incorporate medical command] should underline the demand for section leading to turn to the challenge," GAO said, "rather than be used to warrant a determination by the section to avoid necessary change."

The study mentions a rand Corporation determination that at least 13 surveys have got been conducted over five decennaries to reconstitute military wellness care. All but three favorite moving to a incorporate system or at least toward stronger cardinal control over service departments.

But what most bothered the GAO about England's "fourth option" was a deficiency of "comprehensive analysis" to back up the decision. The concern lawsuit presented "does not show how Department of Defense determined the 4th option to be better than the other three in footing of its possible impact on medical readiness, quality of care, beneficiaries' entree to care, costs, execution clip and risks," the study says.

Without analysis to warrant the choice, GAO said, neither the secretary of defence nor United States Congress can be assured that Department of Defense "made an informed decision" to consolidate cardinal support mathematical functions and to reject the other options.

In a written response to GAO, Dr. S. Ward Casscells, helper secretary of defence for wellness affairs, said his section overall concurs with its findings. He gave self-assurances that the squad tasked to implement the restructuring program would be preparing a more than comprehensive concern lawsuit with determinations on hazards and benefits.

In a telephone interview, Army Col. Thom Kurmel, Casscells' head of staff, said that while the section "doesn't disagree" with GAO, the hearers "failed to realize" that senior leadership like the deputy sheriff defence secretary are authorized to do these sorts of "governance decisions."

"Perhaps if we had known there was a regulation book to play by we might have got used it," Kurmel said. "But in the end, the deputy sheriff is the concluding determination shaper on these sorts of issues and he made a determination last year."

Kurmel said the "hybrid" option chosen had been analyzed by the Pentagon workings group. One factor in choosing the plan, he said, was concern that "we don't interrupt anything" critical to military personnel in wartime. Another factor, he said, "was preserving service equities."

England's memorandum of last November also contained of import determinations for implementing the 2005 Base Realignment and Closing unit of ammunition as it impacts the medical system. One of these volition have got a profound consequence on military direct attention for 500,000 patients in and around Washington, D.C., Kurmel said.

England authorized a Joint Undertaking Military Unit National Capital Region Checkup Command to supervise all medical centers, infirmaries and clinics in the D.C. area. That includes Bruno Walter Reed Army Checkup Center, the National Naval Checkup Center in Bethesda, and 29 littler infirmaries and clinics from Quantico, Va., up to Sugar Grove, W.Va. and across to Lakehurst, N.J.

On Oct. 1, Rear Adm. Toilet M. Mateczun, Navy's deputy sheriff operating surgeon general, took complaint of the undertaking force. He confronts two large challenges tied to the BRAC deadline of 2011. He will supervise the amalgamation of Bruno Bruno Walter Reed and Bethesda into the Walter Reed National Military Checkup Center at Bethesda. He also will carry a major displacement in regional wellness attention from Bruno Walter Reed and Bethesda down to Garrison Belvoir, Va.

DeWitt infirmary at Belvoir will derive primary attention capablenesses as well as most forte attention for the D.C. area, thus improving entree for the big donee population life in Northern Virginia. Bruno Walter Reed will reserve primary attention capableness as well as major instruction programs, amputee care, traumatic encephalon hurt attention and psychological health.

To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com, compose Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Virginia 20120-1111 or visit

Recent News Articles

: U.S. military units hunting for a senior al-Qaida belligerent leader killed three suspected terrorists Wednesday after surrounding a edifice in the northern metropolis of Kirkuk, the military said.

The military said alliance military units surrounded the edifice and demanded that the residents come up out. A fighting broke out when alliance armed forces units spotted a grouping of work force "manuvering" on the building's roof, according to a U.S. military statement.

The senior al-Qaida leader, who was not named, is suspected of playing a prima function in a series of character assassinations and car-bomb assaults in the violence-plagued northern city, the military said.

The clang came around the same clip as a failing character assassination effort on an fact-finding justice in Kirkuk. Police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said gunmen inch a vehicle attacked Judge Zaher al-Bayati around 8:30 a.m. in the city's southern al-Wasiti neighborhood.

Two escorts were killed, Qadir said, but Al-Bayati, somes Turkoman, was unharmed. Today in Africa & Center East

About 20 proceedings later, drive-by taws opened fire on an intelligence military officer as he was driving with his married woman and daughter, the police force head said. The intelligence military officer escaped injury, but both his married woman and 5-year-old girl were both hurt.

Tensions are rising in Kirkuk in progress of a projected referendum on whether the oil-rich city will fall in the semi-autonomous Kurdish part of Iraq, largely governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Kirkuk, 290 kilometres (180 miles) North of Baghdad, is the topic of competing claims by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmenistan ethnical groups.

Some of Kirkuk's Kurds have got also supported Turkey's threatened military trading operations against guerrillas Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who are hiding along the Iraq-Turkey border. Many Iraki Kurds support the PKK.

A U.S. armed forces offense this springtime against al-Qaida fastnesses in Diyala state in cardinal Iraq, pushed insurrectionists north to Kirkuk.

BAGHDAD, May 13 — About 4,000 American ground troops supported by surveillance aircraft, attack helicopters and spy satellites swept towns and farmland south of Baghdad today searching for three American soldiers who disappeared on Saturday after their patrol was ambushed, military officials said.


The Reach of War

Related




(May 13, 2007)

The Islamic State of , an insurgent umbrella group, claimed responsibility today for the attack, which killed four American soldiers and an Iraqi Army soldier, and it said it had captured the three missing Americans. The group offered no proof for its claim.

The search for the three soldiers continued as violence flared anew in Iraq. At least 55 people were killed and 155 wounded in two vehicle bombings, one against the offices of a leading Kurdish political party in a contested region of northern Iraq and the other in a market in Shiite-dominated eastern Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

The ambush of the Americans on Saturday morning occurred near Mahmudiya, a farming town south of the capital that has been a battleground between Sunni Arab insurgents, Shiite militias and Iraqi and American security forces.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, said today that three of the American soldiers killed in the attack had been identified, but that “we’re still going through the process of identifying” the fourth, suggesting that the soldier had been seriously disfigured. American officials said the soldiers were traveling in two vehicles, which burst into flames during the ambush.

The attack, and the disappearance of the soldiers, come at a critical time in the American engagement in Iraq. President Bush has ordered the deployment of about 30,000 additional American troops to Iraq and has insisted that the country can be pacified, given enough time and persistent American involvement. But the increase in American troops comes as public and Congressional support for American involvement in Iraq has waned.

American military officials said they were sparing no resources in their search for the missing soldiers.

“Everybody is fully engaged; the commanders are intimately focused on this,” Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said at a news conference with reporters from the Iraqi news media, according to The Associated Press. He said the searchers were using “every asset we have from national assets to tactical assets.”

Two American soldiers were kidnapped last June after their unit was ambushed near Mahmudiya. Their bodies were found days later, mutilated and booby-trapped.

The Islamic State of Iraq, which includes , posted its claims of responsibility on jihadist Web sites. “Clashes between your brothers in the Islamic State of Iraq and a Crusaders’ patrol in Mahmudiya, southern Baghdad province, has led to the killing and arresting of several of them,” the group’s message said.

The suicide attack in northern Iraq killed at least 50 people and wounded at least 115, according to Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Wagaa, an Iraqi Army commander in Mosul. It occurred just south of the border of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the town of Makhmur, which has a sizable Kurdish population.

In the attack, a man drove his explosives-laden car into the main gate of a compound that includes the offices of Makhmur’s mayor and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the organization led by Massoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan.

It was the second vehicle bombing in five days against Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, suggesting the beginning of a terrorist offensive against the Kurdish authorities.

The blast destroyed several buildings and houses, “many cars” and a gasoline station, according to Abdulrahman Belaf, the mayor of Makhmur, who was in his office at the time and was wounded in the attack. The town’s police chief died in the blast, officials said.

Makhmur falls within a region that the Kurdish authorities want to annex as part of an expanded Kurdistan. The Iraqi Constitution calls for a referendum before the end of year on whether a swath of territory in three northern Iraqi provinces, including the oil capital of Kirkuk, should become part of Kurdistan.

American and Iraqi officials say they expect a sharp rise in violence as the referendum nears, led mainly by Sunni Arab insurgents opposed to the expansion of Kurdistan’s borders.

Kurdish officials said today that they did not yet know who was responsible for the attack in Makhmur or whether it was related to an attack last week in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, in which a truck loaded with explosives detonated in front of offices of the Kurdish regional government, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 70.

The Makhmur bombing was the deadliest attack of the day in Iraq today.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded at the Sadriya market in a predominantly Shiite quarter of eastern Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding 40, an official at the Interior Ministry said.

The neighborhood has been a repeated target of attacks in recent months. On April 18, at least 140 people were killed and 150 people were wounded when a bomb exploded in an informal bus station near the market. On Feb. 3, a truck bombing killed at least 137 people, wounded 305 and obliterated part of the market.

In another attack today, gunmen broke into a flour factory in the Uaireej region south of Baghdad and killed five people and wounded four, the Interior Ministry official said.

Reporting was contributed by Yerevan Adham from Erbil, Damien Cave and Wisam A. Habeeb from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Mosul.

The April 15th, 2007 Washington Post article called, "Military Sees Security Threat" by Juliet Eilperin adds fuel to my previous commentary on "Climate Change: Security or Aid." It is amazing that only a few short months ago no one in the Bush Administration was taking climate change very seriously and now The U.S. military is calling it a potential national security threat.

A report released on April 16th by 11 retired generals says that "global warming presents a significant national security challenges to the United States." According to the Post, the report says that global warming could destabilize "vulnerable states in Africa and Asia and drive a flood of migrants to richer countries." The Post confirmed that "the military has begun studying possible future impacts of global warming with new intensity."

The report notes that poorer states will find it increasingly difficult to meet their basic needs. Of specific note was the fact that 40% of the world population gets at least 50% of drinking water from glaciers which are now rapidly drying up. The inability of governments to protect and provide for its citizens will make such places as "ripe for turmoil, extremism and terrorism." Vice Admiral Richard Truly was quoted as saying, "It's going to happen to every country and every person in the whole world at the same time."

What is interesting is that only a few short months ago the Bush Administration was still denying that climate change was even a reality. And yet, there are reports coming from the military that have been under way for a while that are warning that climate change could impact national security. There is little doubt that other developed nations are also reaching their own conclusions regarding the destabilizing effects of global warning.

This again raises the specter of military control in dealing with social issues. When terrorism erupted we saw our rights dwindle under the Patriot Act. And, while I supported some of its provisions, its implementation has left much to be desired. We are all familiar with the concerns over the privacy of our mail, phone calls and emails and the abuse by the FBI and CIA. To deal with the migration issue we used the umbrella of terrorism once again and now we have the start of our own Berlin Wall. If climate change is considered in light of terrorism, will the military will once again be in the forefront of shaping our policies? What rights and privileges will we use to combat rising sea levels, droughts and food shortages?

Can we avoid this growth in military dominance by taking a more active and urgent role is helping other countries cope with global warming? Wouldn't it make sense to start now and work with the at risk countries to help them plan for possible disaster? We are walking a very thin line in allowing the military to place all social issues in the context of terrorism. While there is certainly a place for the military with regards to dealing with "real" terrorists threats, I am not sure that the best way to deal with our climate crisis is the militarization of the problem. How many more rights are we willing to sacrifice under the guise of security? If we do not take a more humanitarian position on these issues what will happen to our values as a nation? We need to think hard and fast here because Mother Nature has run out of patience.

US and coalition military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are employing high power laser pointers as means of non lethal deterrent and saving lives. High power laser pointers though are a new form of technology and are not yet standard military issue. Due to their immense value in combat situations, military personnel and their families are regularly buying high power laser pointers at their own expense.

Sergeant Maiolo of the OIF 3 is one of many military personal who privately purchased a high power laser pointer.

"I am deployed at Baghdad in OIF 3. I recently showed this laser product to the platoon leader and both of us came up with many possible uses for this military device.... This is a great alternative to tracer fire to direct troops or a great way to paint a target; also a great intimidation to our enemies overseas...We were thinking of ordering one for each platoon in our company. " Sgt. David Maiolo

In a recent response to the value of laser pointers as means of non lethal deterrent and saving lives, the US army Rapid Equipping Force (REF) at Fort Belvoir Va has expedited the shipment of 2000 laser pointers to soldiers in Baghdad, Iraq.

In terms of their use, a common dilemma often faced by soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan is how to warn/deter suspicious or aggressively driven vehicles that are approaching their checkpoint or convoy operations with out using potentially lethal force. This is particularly a problem during night operations when identification is more difficult. Laser pointers have been especially useful in this regard as a means of non lethal deterrent.

"The system was very effective in stopping oncoming traffic and personnel," – Spec. Loren active duty Iraq

The use of laser pointers in combat zones is not just limited to fixed positions and vehicles. Military personnel out on patrol or in the field have also used laser pointers as a non lethal means of deterrent. This use is clearly illustrated from a soldiers records of a Baghdad night patrol on Route Michigan.

"Hey!" the lieutenant shouted, shining a green laser pointer at a group of men, walking into the road from an alley 50-75 yards away. They scattered."

The importance of laser pointers in saving lives is also acknowledged by the Department of Defence (DOF). "When you consider the alternative which is a bullet, I honestly believe we can use [lasers]; we can use them effectively. We can use them in ways that don't necessarily even, quote, unquote, "light up" the individual, but provide a marker so individuals realize they are approaching a danger point. And we will do everything possible to inform the Iraqi people of their use, so when they see them, they react appropriately." – Lieutenant General (LTG) Pete Chiarelli

These high powered laser pointers are commercially available and are normally purchased by military personnel and their families online. In situations when lives are at stake, it is essential for the laser pointer to be effective. An effective laser pointer should be high power (at least 75mW), high quality components and have out standing beam specifications. Lives could easily be lost if poor quality, low power shoddy laser pointers were used.