Editor’s Note — We’ve updated the post to include official figures from the Pentagon’s report. — Scott @ SFB
Lawyers representing hunger-striking detainees at America’s controversial Guantánamo Bay prison have warned they fear some of the protesters could soon die in the ongoing protest.
The news comes as fresh details emerge about conditions at the camp from lawyers visiting clients, letters being written by inmates and phone calls from inside the prison.
They describe dramatic weight loss among many of the hunger strikers, force-feeding, putting protesters in isolation and at least one suicide attempt – though that has been denied by military authorities.
Prisoners have also reported being punished by guards for taking part in the strike, with some detainees allegedly moved to more isolated parts of the prison for refusing to eat. The U.S. military has denied all allegations of mistreatment at the facility.
Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military’s ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.
The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta’s decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.
A senior military official says the services will develop plans for allowing women to seek the combat positions. Some jobs may open as soon as this year. Assessments for others, such as special operations forces, including Navy SEALS and the Army’s Delta Force, may take longer.
While it’s not an across-the-board authorization that some were undoubtedly hoping for, the changes being authorized by Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta still seem like a step in the right direction. An official announcement about the change is expected on Thursday.
We’re still looking for more info on the story, but this is a pretty big deal guys. The decision reverses a combat exclusion policy passed back in 1994. source
U.S. aiming to hit 6,000 km/h in test flight of supersonic ‘waverider’
The U.S. military conducted an unmanned test flight on Tuesday of its hypersonic Waverider aircraft, designed to move at six times the speed of sound using technology that bridges the gap between planes and rocketships, a military official said.
A B-52 bomber launched the remotely monitored, nearly wingless experimental aircraft, officially known as the X-51A, between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., John Haire, a spokesman for the 412th test wing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, said in a statement. Results of the brief test flight will be released on Wednesday, he said. (US Air Force / AFP/Getty Images)
That looks sort of fast.
Part of me can still see this little boy scurrying around in the balcony of our church. I just cannot believe that he’s gone.New Zion Baptist Church pastor Reverend William Wright • Remembering Army Spec. David Hickman, the 4,474th and final United States military casualty of the war in Iraq. Many who were close to Hickman recently spoke with The Daily, sharing their memories of the former athlete and tae kwon do black belt, six months after he was killed by an IED while driving through Baghdad. source (via • follow)
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
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Hat tip to this headline writer.
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The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops.
The coalition routinely reports attacks in which a coalition soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But it does not report the instances in which an Afghan wounds U.S. or NATO troops or misses his target.
So, what don’t we know? Do we want to know?
A missing ankle bone. Some missing tissue. A sawed-off arm. War is an ugly thing, and the death of a soldier is certainly one of the more difficult things to put into a pretty package. But three employees at the Dover, Delaware Air Force base found out that “close enough” isn’t good enough when it’s someone’s life in the package. They got reprimanded (but not fired) for the mishandling of the soldiers’ remains, leading to some shocking and gruesome details getting out to the press. As this is a sensitive issue, the Air Force is working to ensure this won’t happen again. “We and every employee of the Dover Port Mortuary understand the obligations of this work, the sanctity of this work, the necessity, the need for reverence, the need for dignity and respect for our fallen, just as if these were our sons and our daughters,” noted Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the chief of staff for the Air Force. source
» Going on a diet: With over half a million soldiers, the U.S. Army isn’t lacking in warm bodies, but those numbers went way up in recent years, in part due to the troop surge in Afghanistan. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, the Army is ready to move on. “We feel that with the demand going down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and given the time to conduct a reasonable drawdown, we can manage (the force reduction) just as we have managed drawdowns in the past,” noted Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick. Is this nearly enough?
Army’s abandoned weapons programs pretty darn ¢O$tly: Since 1995, the U.S. Army has spent $32 billion on military programs (like the Comanche helicopter, shown) it later abandoned. Why? With defense, supply is expensive and demand is unknown. source
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