May 8, 2013

Michele Bachmann May Face Lawsuit Over 'Religious Freedom in The Military' Campaign

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/05/07/michele-bachmann-may-face-lawsuit-over-religious-freedom-in-the-military-campaign



Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R- Minn., is facing a possible lawsuit for fundraising off of claims that the military was persecuting practicing Christian soldiers.

Michele Bachmann May Face Lawsuit Over 'Religious Freedom in The Military' Campaign
By Elizabeth Flock
May 7, 2013

A series of media reports that allege the Pentagon could start court-martialing soldiers for their Christian faith has been debunked by the fact-checking website PolitiFact and even the Pentagon itself.

But that didn't stop Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., from sending out a fundraising email Monday asking supporters to sign a "Protect Religious Freedom in the Military Pledge," along with a plea for donations to her campaign so she can "have the funds necessary to continue fighting for religious liberty and our troops."

Now, the man at the center of the court-martial allegations, Mikey Weinstein, says he may sue Bachmann for "propagating complete and utter lies."

It was Weinstein, a former Reagan administration lawyer and founder of the civil rights advocacy group Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), who allegedly influenced the Pentagon to punish Christians who pushed their faith on other members of the military, according to media reports. Weinstein met privately with Pentagon officials to discuss religious issues in the military in April.

May 8, 2013

Littoral Combat Ship Network Can Be Hacked, Navy Finds

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/littoral-combat-ship-network-can-be-hacked-navy-finds.html

Littoral Combat Ship Network Can Be Hacked, Navy Finds
by Tony Capaccio - 2013-04-23T20:43:52Z

The computer network on the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship is vulnerable to hacking, according to findings by Navy cybersecurity specialists.

A “red team” assigned to test weaknesses in computer systems found major deficiencies last year on Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)’s USS Freedom, said a government official familiar with the findings who asked not to be identified because the Navy report hasn’t been made public. The Freedom, the first of the new ships to be deployed, sailed to Singapore last month for eight months of testing of its manning and logistics operations.

The concern about cybersecurity adds to previous questions about the $37 billion program to build ships intended to perform missions in littoral waters, those close to shore. The estimated price to build each vessel has doubled to $440 million, and its ability to survive to fight after an attack has been questioned.

Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of weapons testing “provided Navy leadership an assessment of information assurance vulnerabilities testing revealed in LCS” and “recommended those vulnerabilities be remediated without delay,” Defense Department spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said in an e-mailed statement.

May 8, 2013

Navy Ship (LCS) Can’t Meet Mission, Internal U.S. Report Finds

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/navy-ship-can-t-meet-mission-internal-u-s-report-finds.html



A hull section of a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship sits in a paint booth during a facility tour at Marinette Marine Corp., in Marinette, Wisconsin.

Navy Ship Can’t Meet Mission, Internal U.S. Report Finds
By Tony Capaccio - 2013-05-07T20:08:42Z

U.S. Navy leaders were warned last year that a $37 billion program to build Littoral Combat Ships can’t meet its promised mission because the vessels are too lightly manned and armed, according to a confidential report.

“This review highlights the gap between ship capabilities and the missions the Navy will need LCS to execute,” said the report prepared last year for the Navy by Rear Admiral Samuel Perez. “Failure to adequately address LCS requirements and capabilities will result in a large number of ships that are ill-suited to execute” regional commanders’ warfighting needs.

The 36-page report obtained by Bloomberg News is at odds with assurances from Navy leaders that their project is on course to deliver a small, speedy and adaptable ship intended to patrol waters close to shore.

The review, requested by Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, echoes findings by critics inside the Pentagon who deride the vessel. The report, stamped “confidential draft,” found that the plans to swap equipment needed for different missions are impractical, the vessel’s width may prevent it from docking in some ports, and the decision to proceed with two versions complicates logistics and maintenance.



unhappycamper comment: The LCS has has been a loser sink they hit the water.

The super-dooper NLOS missile system was cancelled because it could not hit shit. No mission modules are available. The main armament is a five inch pop gun on the front deck.

Littoral Combat Ships were first defined the the Navy's Bluewater project for costing $200 million dollars a pop. LCS #1 cost $584 million dollars delivered sans people, aircraft and mission modules. LCS #2 was delivered for $704 million dollars sans people, aircraft and mission modules.

Since the first two craft produced were somewhere between 200 ~ 300 percent over budget Congress, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to purchase 10 more of them.

May 8, 2013

NATO probes charges of misconduct in Afghanistan

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/08/3386647/nato-probes-charges-of-misconduct.html

NATO probes charges of misconduct in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Posted on Wednesday, 05.08.13

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan says it has launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops in the country's south.

The coalition, known as the International Security Assistance Force, said Wednesday that the probe pertains to an incident on April 28 during an encounter with insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

A statement from ISAF says four insurgents were killed in the incident. The NATO-led force did not disclose further details or elaborate on the allegations against coalition troops.

Afghan officials were not immediately available for comment.

May 8, 2013

Milley takes command in Afghanistan

http://kdhnews.com/military/milley-takes-command-in-afghanistan/article_9f594318-b3a5-11e2-a8ef-001a4bcf6878.html

Milley takes command in Afghanistan
Posted: Friday, May 3, 2013 4:30 am
Rose L Thayer | Herald staff writer

Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley assumed command of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command from Lt. Gen. James L. Terry during a ceremony presided over by ISAF Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., at IJC’s Kabul, Afghanistan, International Airport headquarters Thursday.

Milley, commander of III Corps and Fort Hood, and about 500 troopers of the Phantom Corps will spend the next year in Afghanistan overseeing all operations in theater.

Terry, commander of the Wiesbaden, Germany-based U.S. Army V Corps, served as IJC commander and deputy commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan since June 12.

IJC is responsible for the day-to-day planning and operations of the coalition efforts in Afghanistan. The command is responsible for forming essential partnerships with the Afghan National Security Forces and supporting improved governance and development in order to protect the Afghan people and provide a secure environment for sustainable peace.



unhappycamper comment: Another General gets his combat ticket punched.

I did not realize that Obama had permission to remain in Afghanistan past 2013. I wonder where the $$$$$$ are coming from?

Or better yet: will Kharzai agree to a Status Of Forces Agreement that prevents Americans from being tried for crimes against Afghans?

May 8, 2013

AP Exclusive: Air Force sidelines 17 ICBM officers

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/05/08/2588736/ap-exclusive-air-force-sidelines.html



FILE - This file photo provided by the National Park Service shows the inside of the deactivated Delta Nine Launch Facility near Wall, S.D., that is now open to the public. The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control _ and if necessary launch _ nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized and unacceptable failings, including a potential compromise of missile launch codes. The group’s deputy commander said it is suffering “rot” within its ranks. The tip-off to trouble was a March 2013 inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a “D” grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations.

AP Exclusive: Air Force sidelines 17 ICBM officers
By ROBERT BURNS; AP National Security Writer
Published: May 8, 2013 at 12:14 a.m. PDT — Updated: May 8, 2013 at 12:24 a.m. PDT

WASHINGTON — The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control - and, if necessary, launch - nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills. The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.

"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force.

The tip-off to trouble was a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a "D" grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers tested much better, but the group's overall fitness was deemed so tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further, that an immediate crackdown was called for.

~snip~

But in April it quietly removed 17 officers at Minot from the highly sensitive duty of standing 24-hour watch over the Air Force's most powerful nuclear missiles, the intercontinental ballistic missiles that can strike targets across the globe. Inside each underground launch control capsule, two officers stand "alert" at all times, ready to launch an ICBM upon presidential order.



unhappycamper comment: "The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks." So the guys who launch Minutemen missiles are suffering rot within their ranks.

The rot also goes pretty high when you talk about military rapes. An Air Force light bird was arrested last weekend for sexual assault. Jeffery Sinclair is a Brigadier General who's also up for sexual assault. The Lackland Air Force basic training facility has a a shitload of drill instructors who are being tried for sexual assault again people in Basic training.

I think the military needs a time-out to get their shit in one bag.

May 8, 2013

Survivor of Baghdad fratricide saw gunman's boots and knew "it's one of our people"

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/05/07/2588595/soldier-recalls-dash-from-killer.html



A U.S. Army civilian federal police officer patrols the perimeter of the building at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., where the court-martial for U.S. Army Sgt. John Russell began on Monday. Russell has already pleaded guilty to killing five fellow servicemen in Iraq in 2009, and prosecutors are expected to argue that the killings were premeditated.

Survivor of Baghdad fratricide saw gunman's boots and knew "it's one of our people"
ADAM ASHTON; Staff writer
Published: May 7, 2013 at 9:53 p.m. PDT — Updated: May 8, 2013 at 2:55 a.m. PDT

Sgt. Dominic Morales still hears an “evil chuckle” in his nightmares.

He remembers it as the frightening laugh of Sgt. John Russell just before he shot an unarmed soldier in the face inside a Baghdad combat stress clinic four years ago.

The victim “didn’t have a weapon. He was just a sitting duck,” Morales testified Tuesday at Russell’s court-martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Russell, 48, has already pleaded guilty to killing a Navy commander and four soldiers at the Camp Liberty combat stress clinic on May 11, 2009. He’s on trial facing a life sentence as he fights the Army’s accusation that he killed the men with premeditation.

May 7, 2013

Robot Top Gun: Navy X-47B Drone Rehearses Carrier Landings

http://breakingdefense.com/2013/05/06/robot-top-gun-navy-x-47b-drone-rehearses-to-land-on-aircraft-carrier-video/



Robot Top Gun: Navy X-47B Drone Rehearses Carrier Landings
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 06, 2013 at 3:04 PM

The Northrop Grumman-built X-47B, aka the UCAS (unmanned combat air system), is getting ready to be the first robotic aircraft, aka UAV (unmanned air vehicle) to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. On Friday, as the video shows, it took another big step forward by making its first landing using what the Navy calls “arresting gear,” the complex system of cables, brakes, and shock absorbers built into a carrier deck — or, in this case, a test facility on land at Naval Air Station Patuxent River — that Navy pilots use to bring their aircraft to a screeching halt before they run right off the back end of the carrier’s flight deck and fall into the water. For humans, learning to land on a carrier and snag the arresting gear wire is one of the most demanding feats possible, with stress levels in some cases going higher than in actual combat. Teaching a robot how to do it is a historic achievement. But of course the real test will come on the actual aircraft carrier.

The Navy actually put an X-47B aboard a carrier, the USS Truman, this past December, but that was just to teach the robot’s ability to navigate the complex, congested traffic of a carrier deck without running into anything. The big day will come later this month when it actually lands on a carrier. ” “When that happens, people will say ‘wow,’” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations, told me recently. “There’ll be a lot of pictures, and I think that will start a discussion.”

From Greenert’s perspective, the value of the X-47B isn’t just that it’s cool technology. It’s a proto-prototype for a larger, heavily armed drone called the UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System) that will provide a long-range bomber capability that carrier-based aircraft currently flying, like the F/A-18E/F and F-35C, do not have. (The Navy plans to release a formal UCLASS Request For Proposals to defense companies this summer). That range, in turn, is a crucial component of future “AirSea Battle” tactics against high-tech foes like, for example, China. So while the drone may be gee-whiz now, it is the forerunner of something deadly serious.




unhappycamper comment: "... will provide a long-range bomber capability that carrier-based aircraft currently flying, like the F/A-18E/F and F-35C, do not have."

Since our F-35 fleet will not be operational until at least 2017, I wonder why Gtreenert included them in this sentence. Granted they fly (sometimes) but this makes it sound like the F-35 is ready to "defend our freedoms". It's not.

May 7, 2013

A Soldier's Story: Bush, Cheney and the Lies That Killed

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Soldier-s-Story-Bush-C-by-Dan-Harkins-130506-169.html

A Soldier's Story: Bush, Cheney and the Lies That Killed
By Dan Harkins (
OpEdNews Op Eds 5/6/2013 at 19:59:46

Nobody likes being lied to, especially when tens of thousands of lives and trillions of tax dollars hang in the balance.

Some have perfected the fib to industrial strength. American leaders have a storied knack for inventing truths to stoke the flames of fear for war, but the fabricated set-up for the second Bush camp's post-9/11 ransack of Iraq, a decade-long hunt for the still-mythical lair called "Terror," was unprecedented in audacity. The lies flew by like machine-gun blasts, giving earlier efforts like the pre-Vietnam Gulf of Tonkin fairy tale the air of squirt-gun fire.

~snip~

As an Army veteran of the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division and a professional journalist for nearly 15 years, I have endured more than my share of deception. So no one can question my patriotism when I say that the greediest Americans in the uppermost minority are the masters of this deception, which not only regularly makes us all look like hypocritical heathens to the rest of the world, but sacrifices life after life, at home and abroad, to secure their reign and market dominance.

The examples abound, in plain view. Like: Bush Jr.'s Vice President Dick Cheney, Republican puppet-master all the way back to Nixon, secured for his former company Halliburton $40 billion in no-bid contracts to rebuild the oil and civil infrastructure that his toy soldiers had just decimated. Does anyone think this is a national secret contained within our borders for only us to dwell upon? (International Business Journal)

May 7, 2013

Ducking the Full Costs of War: The Ongoing Scandal Called the Veterans Administration

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-lindorff/49412/ducking-the-full-costs-of-war-the-ongoing-scandal-called-the-veterans-administration

Ducking the Full Costs of War: The Ongoing Scandal Called the Veterans Administration
by Dave Lindorff | May 5, 2013 - 8:57am

My mother died last Thursday at the age of 89. Her death, fortunately coming peacefully after she suffered a stroke during her sleep, followed a long mental decline caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

I’m sure the Veterans Administration is relieved. They won’t have to pay her the thousands of dollars in retroactive pension money they would have owed had she lived until they finally processed her application (or the tens of thousands of dollars more they'd have spent if she'd continued to live).

Mom was a US Navy veteran of World War II. Something of a pioneer for women in the military, she volunteered to become a Navy WAVE (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) as a young woman in her early 20’s during the war, and was posted at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she took on the duties of some male sailor who was thus freed up to go to sea. Because she had earned an honorable discharge, she was entitled, in her old age, to a pension, currently worth about $22,000 per year, based upon her financial need.

The way these pensions work is, if a retired veteran’s income, after deducting all medical costs, including the costs of home care for those who cannot live on their own because of some disability, falls below the pension amount of $22,000, the VA is supposed to provide pension funds that will “top up” the person’s income to that level. In my mother’s case, because she was unable to take care of herself, and had to have a round-the-clock home-care companion in her house, her cost of care -- about $70,000 a year -- was entirely eating up both the $36,000 pension my father left her and her $14,000 Social Security widow’s benefit, leaving her with a deficit of $20,000 a year plus the cost of her food and other things, all of which I and my two siblings had to cover.