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via David D. Kirkpatrick, Alan Cowell, and Rick Gladstone, The New York Times The violently anti-American rallies that have roiled the Islamic world over a video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad expanded on Friday to nearly a dozen countries, with demonstrators breaching the United States Embassy in Tunisia for the first time and protesters in Sudan’s … Continue reading
via Robert Burns, The Huffington Post Suicides among active-duty soldiers in July more than doubled from June, accelerating a trend throughout the military this year that has prompted Pentagon leaders to redouble efforts to solve a puzzling problem. The Army, which is the only branch of the military that issues monthly press statements on suicides, … Continue reading
via Scott Shane, The New York Times For streamlined, unmanned aircraft, drones carry a lot of baggage these days, along with their Hellfire missiles. Some people find the very notion of killer robots deeply disturbing. Their lethal operations inside sovereign countries that are not at war with the United States raise contentious legal questions. They … Continue reading
via Owen Bowcott, The Guardian The US policy of using aerial drones to carry out targeted killings presents a major challenge to the system of international law that has endured since the second world war, a United Nations investigator has said. Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or arbitrary executions, told … Continue reading
via David Ignatius, The Washington Post As an intelligence operation, it must have seemed like pure genius: Recruit a Pakistani doctor to collect blood samples that could identify Osama bin Laden’s family, under cover of an ongoing vaccination program. But as an ethical matter, it was something else. The CIA’s vaccination gambit put at risk … Continue reading
[Editress’ Note: The photos can be seen here. They are not for the squeamish.] via David Zucchino, L.A. Times The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification. The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at … Continue reading
via Barbara Starr, CNN The Defense Department is notifying Congress Thursday it will open up nearly 14,000 jobs to military women that will place them even closer to the front lines of combat. A senior Pentagon official confirmed details to CNN, but declined to be identified until a formal announcement comes later on Thursday. Under … Continue reading
via Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today The war in Iraq ended officially Thursday with a flag-lowering ceremony in which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said a free, democratic Iraq was worth the sacrifice in American lives. “The cost was high — in blood and treasure for the United States and also for the Iraqi people,” Panetta … Continue reading
via E.D. Kain, Forbes If Obama does one thing for the remainder of his presidency let it be a veto of the National Defense Authorization Act – a law recently passed by the Senate currently which would place domestic terror investigations and interrogations into the hands of the military and which would open the door … Continue reading
via Softbox Films
via Thom Shanker and Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq … Continue reading
via Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post President Obama’s lunchtime announcement that all American troops will be out of Iraq by year’s end will produce a series of political reverberations — some of which we know and some that, quite frankly, we don’t. Here’s our look at the knowns and unknowns from Obama’s announcement today. KNOWNS … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 