Military Glance
A federal judge in Riverside declared the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional Thursday, saying the “don't ask, don't tell” policy violates the 1st Amendment rights of lesbians and gay men. U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips said the policy banning gays did not preserve military readiness, contrary to what many supporters have argued, saying evidence shows that the policy in fact had a “direct and deleterious effect’’ on the military.
Phillips said she would issue an injunction barring the government from enforcing the policy. However, the U.S. Department of Justice, which defended “don’t ask, don’t tell” during a two-week trial in Riverside, will have an opportunity to appeal that decision.
Judge declares U.S. military's 'don't ask, don't tell' unconstitutional
Dead Souls: The Pentagon Plan to Create Remorseless 'Warfighters'
But as we'll see below, this attempt to peddle magic pills to chase away the horrors of war is just one front in a long-term, wide-ranging "warfighter enhancement program" -- including the neurological and genetic re-engineering of soldiers' minds and bodies to create what the Pentagon calls "iron bodied and iron willed personnel": tireless, relentless, remorseless, unstoppable.
Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography
The Pentagon declined to investigate more than 200 employees or contractors who purchased child pornography online, according to a report from Yahoo! News.
According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who used their credit cards or Paypal to purchase pictures online of children in sexual situations in 2006. But DCIS investigated only 52 of those suspects, and only 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography, the report said.
Questions loom over drug given to sleepless vets
Andrew White returned from a nine-month tour in Iraq beset with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder: insomnia, nightmares, constant restlessness. Doctors tried to ease his symptoms using three psychiatric drugs, including a potent anti-pyschotic called Seroquel.
Thousands of soldiers suffering from PTSD have received the same medication over the last nine years, helping to make Seroquel one of the Veteran Affairs Department's top drug expenditures and the No. 5 best-selling drug in the nation.
Several soldiers and veterans have died while taking the pills, raising concerns among some military families that the government is not being up front about the drug's risks. They want Congress to investigate.
Vietnam Vet Group: human experimentation shrouded in secrecy
The Vietnam Veterans of America asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on the Central Intelligence Agency, for failing to produce documents on the CIA's testing of hundreds of kinds of drugs - including sarin and phosgene nerve gas and LSD - on thousands of soldiers.
The Vietnam Veterans of America sued the CIA in January 2009, claiming the agency had experimented on soldiers at Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick, Md., testing the effects of mind-controlling drugs.
US: $1.9M in computers for kids missing in Iraq
The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by American taxpayers and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000, the military said Friday.
The U.S. press release was a rare public admission by the military of the loss of American taxpayer money in Iraq and an equally rare criticism of Iraqi officials with whom the Americans are trying to partner as the military hands over more and more responsibility and withdraws troops from the country.
Walter Reed patients, staff may have been exposed to radiation in May
Two packages of radioactive material sat under a counter in the main lobby of Walter Reed Army Medical Center for 44 hours, possibly exposing patients and staff to elevated radiation, according to an investigation by federal regulators. The packages were delivered May 1 to the hospital's concierge, who stored them under the counter, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The intended recipient, the hospital's administrative officer, didn't locate the package until the next Monday, two days later. An NRC spokesman said that the agency is not aware of anyone being harmed.
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