The drones are coming to a neighborhood near you. The unmanned aircraft that most people associate with hunting terrorists and striking targets in Pakistan are on the brink of evolving into a big domestic industry. It is not a question… Read More ›
U.S. Military
US Marine reduced to lower rank and fined for urinating on dead Afghans
A US Marine has had his rank reduced and been fined $500 fine for urinating on corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan after pleading guilty at a special court martial in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Staff Sgt Joseph W. Chamblin… Read More ›
Reported Sex Assaults Spike At Military Academies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reported sexual assaults at the nation’s three military academies jumped by 23 percent overall this year, but the data signaled a continued reluctance by victims to seek criminal investigations. According to a report obtained by The Associated… Read More ›
Army Seeking Death Penalty in Massacre of 16 Afghans
By KIRK JOHNSON SEATTLE — The United States Army will seek the death penalty against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday. Sergeant Bales’s court-martial will consider 16 counts of premeditated murder, six… Read More ›
Unexploded Ordnance Kills 10 Afghan Children
Ten Afghan girls between the ages of 9 and 13 were killed, and two others wounded in critical condition Ten Afghan girls, aged from nine to 13, were killed on Monday when an unexploded bomb or landmine detonated as they were out… Read More ›
U.S. defense chief orders Patriot missiles to Turkey
By Phil Stewart INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order on Friday to send two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey with 400 American personnel to operate them, in a move by NATO members to… Read More ›
Dark Secret of the US Military — Neo-Nazis and Criminals Are Filling Its Ranks
How the armed services have become a sanctuary for racists and the mentally unfit. The following is an excerpt from “Irregular Army: How The US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, And Criminals To Fight The War On Terror,” by Matt… Read More ›
Bradley Manning demands dismissal of his case due to inhumane punishment
Bradley Manning is expected to testify in a pretrial hearing that he has been punished illegally by being locked in solitary confinement. The whistleblower hopes that his inhumane punishment is grounds for having all charges against him dismissed. Manning, who… Read More ›
Condemned…again: ‘Genocidal’ US embargo on Cuba slammed by UN for 21st year
The UN has urged the US to lift the 52-year trade embargo with Cuba in an almost-unanimous vote. Cuba likened the blockade to “genocide” and said it was disappointed that Obama had not taken measures to lift the disputed embargo…. Read More ›
Puerto Rico Divided on Statehood, Majority Demands Decolonization
by Maritza Stanchich, Ph.D. The opening line of President Obama’s victory speech — “Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward” — felt ironic in… Read More ›
The Humiliation of Bradley Manning
by Ray McGovern It is a bitter irony that Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, whose conscience compelled him to leak evidence about the U.S. military brass ignoring evidence of torture in Iraq, was himself the victim of cruel, inhuman, and degrading… Read More ›
10,000 US troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2014 deadline
Ten thousand US troops will stay in Afghanistan past 2014, senior officials say, despite earlier demands from President Barack Obama to end the war during the second year of his upcoming term. Most of the 66,000 or so troops currently… Read More ›
US Using Bad Info for Drone Strikes Like It Did for Detainees
Just as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, the CIA and U.S. military act on bad intel when designating targets for drone attacks. As when the United States greased the skids for war with Iraq, it’s ratcheting up tensions with… Read More ›
Bales ignored ‘We are children!’ shouts, Afghan witnesses say
The Afghan children awakened in the dead of night with a terrifying warning: An American soldier was in their village, and he had shot at least one man to death. “He killed my man,” their neighbor’s wife cried as she… Read More ›
U.S. wanted to turn all of Okinawa Island into base site in 1945-46: documents
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military was planning between 1945 to 1946 to use all of Okinawa Island as a permanent site for its bases, declassified U.S. documents have shown. The documents are the latest evidence to apparently reinforce the background… Read More ›