For all the public scrutiny of military sexual assault this year — from hearings to heated Senate debates — congressional efforts are only just beginning to challenge the Pentagon’s overarching strategy on the issue for the past 25 years: secrecy.
From tracking the extent of the problem to showing how cases are resolved, the military has consistently and forcefully resisted fully airing details.
Military still secretive on sex crimes
Cyber security: The new arms race for a new front line
In the eastern New Jersey suburbs, a train carrying radiological material is barreling toward a small town, and it is up to Pentagon cyber-operators to derail it. The town is the kind of idyllic whistle-stop hamlet where residents socialize at a cafe with complimentary Wi-Fi while surfing FaceSpace, a social networking site.
But danger lurks all around. Terrorists are using the open Wi-Fi connection to hack into the laptop of a patron who works at the hospital down the street. They plan to find the hospital codes stored in his computer to access the mayor's medical records, in which they will change the dosage of a prescription the mayor refills regularly in an effort to poison him.
Feds won't enforce same-sex veterans law
The Obama administration said Wednesday it will stop enforcing a law that blocks benefits to partners of military veterans in same-sex marriages.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Attorney General Eric Holder said that a provision in federal law on benefits to veterans and their families defines "spouse" to mean a person of the opposite sex. He says that definition leaves out legally married same-sex couples, and runs afoul of a June Supreme Court ruling.
USS Nimitz carrier group rerouted for possible help with Syria
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other ships in its strike group are heading west toward the Red Sea to help support a limited U.S. strike on Syria, if needed, defense officials said on Sunday.
The Nimitz carrier strike group, which includes four destroyers and a cruiser, has no specific orders to move to the eastern Mediterranean at this point, but is moving west in the Arabian Sea so it can do so if asked. It was not immediately clear when the ships would enter the Red Sea, but they had not arrived by Sunday evening, said one official.
Bradley Manning's sentence: 35 years for exposing us to the truth
As of today, Wednesday 21 August 2013, Bradley Manning has served 1,182 days in prison. He should be released with a sentence of time served. Instead, the judge in his court martial at Fort Meade, Maryland has handed down a sentence of 35 years.
Of course, a humane, reasonable sentence of time served was never going to happen. This trial has, since day one, been held in a kangaroo court. That is not angry rhetoric; the reason I am forced to frame it in that way is because President Obama made the following statements on record, before the trial even started:
TVNL Comment: This is breaking news. It is also a black mark on our system of military 'justice.' Despite their crimes, George Bush, Dick Cheney and their murderous cohorts go free, while a man who dared to reveal the atrocities committed by his own country is imprisioned.
US Air Force nuclear missile unit fails safety test
The US Air Force unit that oversees a remote Cold War-era nuclear missile installation has failed a safety test, the Air Force has said.
The 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana made "tactical-level errors" in an exercise, it said.
The exercise concluded on Tuesday was meant to test the unit's ability to operate safely, the Air Force said. But a senior Air Force commander said the failure did not indicate the US nuclear arsenal was at risk.
Decades behind: Sexual assault unchecked as Defense Department ducks reform
In 2010, the parents of a Texas high school student told an Air Force officer they were concerned a recruiter was sending their daughter inappropriate text messages, showing up at her work and spreading rumors.
The officer listened to the complaint, but it went no further — a common practice for popular soldiers, according to a senior Defense Department official with knowledge of the case.
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