Before September 11th, 2001, American military strategy in Africa was little more than a cursory investment to buffer its interests against those of the Soviet Union, then Russia, China, and the Middle East governments. Now the Pentagon is taking a new approach to the African continent, one that may be especially welcome.
Part of the new strategy is to create a new regional headquarters called “Africa Command”
responsible for coordinating American military projects on that continent.
The death of a Green Beret in Iraq, electrocuted while showering this past January, finally attracted the attention of the Pentagon and US lawmakers to the issue of shoddy and dangerous electrical work on US bases in Iraq. At one building complex, soldiers have complained of electrical shocks in their living quarters daily.
For millions of dollars, private contractors have upgraded Iraqi buildings, including the electrical systems, that house American troops.
What Happened Inside the Pentagon After Being Struck on 9/11
When word had first started to circulate about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York, Joint Staff officers at the Pentagon grew anxious. When a second plane struck, there was no doubt about it — a terrorist attack was underway. Then came something even more unthinkable: a huge explosion on the western side of the Pentagon, followed by a massive inferno.
Col. Morris D. Davis, the US military's former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay,
testified yesterday that top Pentagon officials interfered with his work for political reasons, and told him that there could be no detainee acquittals.
We've been focused on the
ills of YouTube lately, but here's one story where the website was used for good instead of evil. Army dad Edward Frawley paid a welcome home visit on his 22-year-old son — just returning from a tour of duty with the 82nd Airborne Division in the mountains of Afghanistan — and he was shocked to see the deplorable conditions of his son's barracks at Fort Bragg, NC.
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In our high-tech age when we want to send a grievance we don't have to wait for a carrier pigeon — and Frawley didn't.
Since the build-up to Iraq, retired US military generals, presented as independent mediate analysts, were in fact part of an extensive Pentagon program called "Message Force Multipliers."
The New York Times reported last week that the experienced personnel, appearing to want nothing more than to help Americans assess a post-9/11 world, were actually part of a
carefully organized Pentagon information apparatus used to disseminate a message favorable to the Bush Administration.
The effort began with the build-up to Iraq, and television stations continued to use these retirees, who also had extensive and current military contracts, until yesterday when the Pentagon
suspended the program.
Imagine soldiers returning from battle with missing limbs, burned skin, and damaged organs from a confrontation. Then imagine them days later
completely regenerated, healed with their own tissue. According to the Pentagon, this day is not far off.
What's being called the Torture Memo (written in 2003 and made public yesterday) sheds a bold light on upper official decrees on the
definition of torture at the beginning of the Iraq War. The memo contains language telling Pentagon senior leadership that inflicting pain would not be considered torture unless it caused “death, organ failure or permanent damage.”
It is the most fully developed legal justification that has yet come to light for inflicting physical and mental pressure on suspects, and it was declassified in response to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. Campus Progress has a
great breakdown of the quotes and arguments from the memo.
The Pentagon
initially denied Representative Tammy Baldwin's request to bring her domestic partner with her on a fact-finding trip to Europe over the Easter recess. As usual, the delegation traveled on a military flight. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi petitioned Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, before the trip was approved.
