OCTOBER 2008

MILITARY HEAVILY CENSORING PHOTOS OF THE WAR

FORMER GITMO PROSECUTOR SAYS TRIALS ARE RIGGED

HOW TO TELL THE RANK OF SOMEONE IN THE AIR FORCE'S BATTLE AGAINST TERRORISM

SEPTEMBER 2008

BUSH USING PRIVATE CONTRACTORS TO INVESTIGATE PRIVATE CONTRACTORS

THE AMERICAN WAR MOVES TO PAKISTAN

BUSH SHIFTS BLAME FOR 9/11

MILITARY SUICIDES SOAR

Alternet - A VA report acknowledged that suicide rates for young male Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans hit a record high in 2006, the last year for which official records are available. . . After five years of war in Iraq, Marine suicides doubled between 2006 and 2007, and Army suicides are at the highest level since records were first kept in 1980. Reported suicide attempts jumped 500 percent between 2002 and 2007.

SEARS TO START SELLING LINE OF OFFICIAL U.S. MILITARY GARB

PR Watch - Sears has entered into a first-ever deal with the United States military to market a new line of officially sanctioned, military-styled clothing to men, women and boys. The military has officially licensed a "soldier chic" line of clothing to Sears called the "All American Army Brand First Infantry Division" collection. The garb, to be launched in 550 Sears stores in October -- just in time for the holiday season -- consists of "authentic lifestyle reinterpretations" of regulation uniforms and military-issued gear like T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, denim and other outerwear. The partnership is part of a marketing strategy to raise the public profile of the U.S. military. Sears already carries some military-themed merchandise on its Web site, like a Modern Military Figure Special Forces Soldier toy for ages 8 and up, a musical DVD titled "Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes, Vol. 2," which lists song titles like "Cadaver Recovery Man" and "Mud & Guts," and a Self-esteem Zip Military Style Vest for Juniors.

AUGUST 2008

THE COLLAPSE OF NATO

Simon Jenkins, Guardian UK - NATO is useless. It has failed to bring stability to Afghanistan, as it failed to bring it to Serbia. It just breaks crockery. NATO has proved a rotten fighting force, which in Kabul is on the brink of being sidelined by exasperated Americans. Nor is it any better at diplomacy: witness its ham fisted handling of east Europe. As the custodian of the west's postwar resistance to the Soviet Union's nuclear threat it served a purpose. Now it has become a diplomats' Olympics, irrelevant but with bursts of extravagant self-importance. . .

With Russia, NATO is playing with fire. In Afghanistan/Pakistan - which should always be yoked together - it is playing with dynamite. . . The fall of Pervez Musharraf might be good news for Pakistan's democrats. It is dreadful news for NATO's proconsuls in their fortified enclaves in Kabul. The likelihood of political turbulence in Pakistan can only increase the hold that pro-Taliban tribes have over the long frontier with Afghanistan and, with it, the certainty of an escalating war.

NATO's performance here has been dreadful. A half-hearted peacekeeper, it had displayed divided counsels, divided leadership and divided rules of engagement. It has reflected the view of the US general in Kosovo, Wesley Clark, that US units should never again be placed under international command. International command means no command at all. . .

We shall now have the world's sixth largest country, and with an active nuclear arsenal, in internal turmoil because of a doomed NATO adventure on its border. Taliban units are operating freely throughout the south and east of Afghanistan and within miles of the capital, Kabul, flatly contradicting the mendacious spin of NATO spokesmen over the past two years.

Western governments seem never to learn. Counter-insurgency wars of this sort never work if they become drawn out. At best they leave broken, corrupted, failed states such as Lebanon and Kosovo - and, soon, Iraq. At worst they mean defeat. If ever America were walking into another Vietnam, it is now in Afghanistan, fast replacing Iraq as the mecca for every anti-western fanatic on earth.

Peace in Afghanistan might not matter over much. But its absence will grossly destabilize Pakistan, and that matters greatly. Is this to be another feather in NATO's cap?

INTERNAL BRITISH SPY AGENCY REPORT CHALLENGES TERROR MYTHS

Guardian, UK - MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalization seen by the Guardian.

The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism.

It concludes that it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the "British terrorist" as most are "demographically unremarkable" and simply reflect the communities in which they live.

The "restricted" MI5 report takes apart many of the common stereotypes about those involved in British terrorism.

They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices. Nor, the analysis says, are they "mad and bad".

Those over 30 are just as likely to have a wife and children as to be loners with no ties, the research shows.

The security service also plays down the importance of radical extremist clerics, saying their influence in radicalizing British terrorists has moved into the background in recent years.

The main findings include:

- The majority are British nationals and the remainder, with a few exceptions, are here legally. Around half were born in the UK, with others migrating here later in life. Some of these fled traumatic experiences and oppressive regimes and claimed UK asylum, but more came to Britain to study or for family or economic reasons and became radicalised many years after arriving.

- Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practice their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices. Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalization.

- The "mad and bad" theory to explain why people turn to terrorism does not stand up, with no more evidence of mental illness or pathological personality traits found among British terrorists than is found in the general population.

- British-based terrorists are as ethnically diverse as the UK Muslim population, with individuals from Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Caucasian backgrounds. MI5 says assumptions cannot be made about suspects based on skin colour, ethnic heritage or nationality.

-Most UK terrorists are male, but women also play an important role. Sometimes they are aware of their husbands', brothers' or sons' activities, but do not object or try to stop them.

- While the majority are in their early to mid-20s when they become radicalized, a small but not insignificant minority first become involved in violent extremism at over the age of 30.

- Far from being lone individuals with no ties, the majority of those over 30 have steady relationships, and most have children. MI5 says this challenges the idea that terrorists are young men driven by sexual frustration and lured to "martyrdom" by the promise of beautiful virgins waiting for them in paradise. It is wrong to assume that someone with a wife and children is less likely to commit acts of terrorism.

- Those involved in British terrorism are not unintelligent or gullible, and nor are they more likely to be well-educated; their educational achievement ranges from total lack of qualifications to degree-level education. However, they are almost all employed in low-grade jobs. . .

The MI5 authors stress that the most pressing current threat is from Islamist extremist groups who justify the use of violence "in defence of Islam", but that there are also violent extremists involved in non-Islamist movements. They say that they are concerned with those who use violence or actively support the use of violence and not those who simply hold politically extreme views.

HUGE BLACKWATER GETS $110 MILLION IN SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTS

Joseph Neff, Raleigh News & Observer - Blackwater obtained dozens of small business contracts worth more than $110 million . . . The Inspector General of the Small Business Administration said Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., obtained 39 contracts set aside for small businesses from 2005 through 2007. Of these, 32 contracts worth $2.1 million were set aside for companies with annual revenues of $6.5 million or less. Blackwater's revenues have exceeded $200 million each of those years, according to federal contracting data.

The Inspector General also found fault with the handling of aviation contracts worth $107 million that the Defense Department awarded Blackwater. The contract was set aside either for a company with less than $25.5 million in annual revenue, or a company with less than 1,500 employees. The report said the company may have improperly classified Blackwater guards in Iraq and Afghanistan as independent contractors rather than employees. The report also criticized the Small Business Administration for not examining Blackwater's contention that its security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are not employees, but independent contractors.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/45750.html

FORTY PERCENT OF MILITARY WOMEN AT HOSPITAL REPORT BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

CNN - A congresswoman said that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.

She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area, where women told her horror stories of being raped in the military.

"My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military," said Harman, who has long sought better protection of women in the military. "Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since.

"We have an epidemic here," she said. "Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.". . .

In 2007, Harman said, only 181 out of 2,212 reports of military sexual assaults, or 8 percent, were referred to courts martial. By comparison, she said, 40 percent of those arrested in the civilian world on such charges are prosecuted.

The Government Accountability Office released preliminary results from an investigation into sexual assaults in the military and the Coast Guard. The GAO found that the "occurrences of sexual assault may be exceeding the rates being reported."

"At the 14 installations where GAO administered its survey, 103 service members indicated that they had been sexually assaulted within the preceding 12 months. Of these, 52 service members indicated that they did not report the sexual assault," the GAO said.

JULY 2008

IRAQ-AFGHAN WAR MORE EXPENSIVE THAN VIETNAM

Here is what America's wars have cost in 2008 dollars along with the percent of GDP, as provided by the Congressional Research Service

-American Revolution: $1.8 billion; GDP figure not available

-War of 1812: $1.2 billion; 2.2 percent

-Civil War, Union: $45.2 billion; 11.3 percent

Civil War, Confederacy: $15.2 billion; GDP figure not available

World War I: $253 billion; 13.6 percent

World War II: $4.1 trillion; 35.8 percent

Korean War: $320 billion; 4.2 percent

Vietnam War: $686 billion; 2.3 percent

-Gulf War: $96 billion; 0.3 percent

Iraq war: $648 billion; 1 percent

Afghanstian/Global war on terror: $171 billion; 0.3 percent

Post 9/11 domestic security: $33 billion; 0.1 percent

Post 9/11 operations: $859 billion; 1.2 percent

We recently ran pictures of flight accomodations (top) for high Air Force brass provided by the Project on Government Oversight. POGO has now come up with the enlisted equivalent. Troops have sat for hours on long flights in mangled seats and on netting inside cargo aircraft. This photo (bottom) was taken at Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar. Al Udeid is a major logistics hub for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, and is a command center for operations in Iraq. It is home to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing of the U.S. Air Force.

TERRORISM: WRONG PICTURES

86,000 PENTAGON STAFFERS WENT TO WORK FOR WAR CONTRACTORS

SAUDI FINANCIER WANTED BY FBI GIVEN $80 MILLION U.S. WAR CONTRACT

AMERICA PRIVATIZES ITS WARFARE

PENTAGON RESISTED IRAN AIR ATTACKS

PIMP MY RIDE -- AIR FORCE EDITION

Project on Government Oversight The Air Force brass is pushing lush travel accommodations for themselves while troops put up with mangled seats on cargo aircraft, POGO and the Washington Post revealed. A cache of internal Air Force documents and emails show that Air Force generals frivolously blew hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars because they didn't like the color of seat belts, carpet, leather and wood used in work and living space units being developed for use on cargo planes.

The two little-known programs are called the Senior Leader In-transit Conference Capsule and the Senior Leader In-transit Pallet. Earlier, SLICC was called Senior Leader In-transit Comfort Capsules, with the "Comfort" being dropped in favor of "Conference" at one point in late 2006. SLICCs are two connected chambers with first class amenities on a pallet that can be loaded onto a C-17, KC-10, C-130 and KC-X aircraft. These SLICCs are modeled on two existing "Steel Eagles" which are currently used for the most senior Pentagon officials (and are replacing the previous two "Silver Bullets" which are customized Airstream trailers). Each SLIP is made up of four leather business class chairs with tables that fit on a pallet that can be loaded on a cargo plane.

The program began under General Duncan McNabb's tenure as commander of Air Mobility Command, a part of the Air Force that is responsible for air transport. General McNabb originally sought ten SLICCs and was involved in choosing the original color and material choices for the SLICC and SLIP leather, wood and carpet, which General Robert H. McMahon later changed at the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Disgust towards the generals' requests grew inside the Air Force, leading the acquisition effort to be moved when one part of Air Mobility Command refused to make some of the costly changes.

"In Mar 07, Gen McMahon requested A4 [Air Mobility Command's Logistics Directorate] take over the acquisition effort when he could not get support from A5 [AMC's Plans and Programs Directorate] for updates and cooperation on making the equipment 'world class' which was one of his goals," according to an Air Force email.

In one email it states, "Gen McMahon's concern is so significant that we need assurance by the end of the week from [Air Force Research Laboratory] that the SLICC will be 'world class' inside. While we know the requirements document says 'business class', we all know there are levels of that."

The "world class" emphasis entailed the costly aesthetic redesign of the interior of an already existing system known as Steel Eagle. After the first SLIP was procured, General McMahon expressed dissatisfaction with the color of the seat leather and type of wood used. He directed that the leather be reupholstered from brown to Air Force blue leather and to replace the wood originally used to cherry.

The cost alone to reupholster the seats on the first SLIP is about $21,000 - one estimate of the total cost of wood and leather changes to all the first four SLIPs (16 chairs total) was about $113,000. The cost was so appalling to General Kenneth Merchant that he wrote, "How'd we get to $113K for 4 pallets? Pls tell me this is for all 4 pallets. . . I could carpet and upholster a couple of houses for $113K. . . "

As of March this year, the total cost increase for retrofit and further customization -which goes beyond wood and leather - for the SLIPs, directed by Air Mobility Command headquarters, is $493,000.

Knowledge of the acquisition went even above General McNabb -- then-Chief of Staff T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley was briefed on the SLICC program. And as an email states, "the expectation was high" for the program. Moseley was canned by Defense Secretary Robert Gates about a month ago.

US MILITARY PLANNED TO TEST DEADLY NERVE GAS ON AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS

MAY 2008

AMERICA PRIVATIZES ITS WARFARE

GALAL NASSAR, AL AHRAM There are now more than 50 private security firms currently operating in Iraq and their number is likely to increase, according to recent reports. Officially their function is to protect vital facilities (from government buildings to oil wells) and important persons (the US ambassador, for example). Some of these companies have special information gathering and analysis departments whose staff has access to state-of-the-art military and security technologies. Global Risks is one such company. Charged with protecting Baghdad International Airport, it has hired for this purpose 500 Nepalese and 500 Fijian soldiers who are apparently the cheapest of the 30 nationalities of mercenaries currently in Iraq.

The existence of these types of firms in Iraq was first brought to public attention by the London Times, which reported in May 2004 that the number of British employees such firms posted to Iraq had doubled to 1,500 since the previous year. Among these employees were former British police, navy and paratrooper officers and soldiers. Iraqi officials at the time admitted to having no idea of how many mercenaries were operating in the country. A year later, former US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld stated that they were by then in the neighborhood of 100,000 and that they were needed because coalition forces were unable to supply the number of forces necessary to protect foreign diplomats and businessmen. . .

It has apparently become Pentagon policy to hire mercenaries in American wars, despite official denials. According to Peter Singer, a security analyst at the Brookings Institution and author of Corporate Warriors, private companies offering specialized military services for hire played a major support role in most of the wars in which the US was involved in the 1990s, including Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, the Balkans and East Timor. But this role has increased exponentially in America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. . .

The firms themselves, the majority of which are American or British owned, offer services ranging from guarding important persons and facilities, and supplying equipment and provisions, to intelligence gathering and actual field combat. The growth of this phenomenon has added a new term to the late 20th century military lexicon. On top of "remote control warfare", "proxy wars" and "pre-emptive war", we now have "privatized war", or war fought or supported by forces and personnel subcontracted from private military firms and who are not subordinate to the official military hierarchy. . .

Soldiers of fortune could also come in handy for operations that fall outside the pale of international law because recourse to them would spare members of official occupation forces from being brought before international courts on charges of crimes against humanity or violating international humanitarian law governing occupation. If Washington continues the pursuit of the American global enterprise, one could well envision an increasing reliance on privatized military forces, or PMFs -- a term that certainly has a more respectable ring than "mercenaries", reflecting a business that has become a legal and increasingly lucrative industry. . .

Not all personnel are British or American; they could just as well be from South Africa, Nepal, Chile, Columbia, San Salvador, Honduras, Ireland, Spain, Poland, Brazil, Israel and, more recently, Russia and Lebanon. . .

Not a few Arabs have signed up with mercenary outfits, which have been linked to some of the most atrocious crimes against Iraqi civilians, and for less money than their fellow mercenaries from other countries. . .

It appears, too, that mercenaries have begun to fill the ranks of the US army itself. So desperate has the US military become that it has recruited more than 35,000 soldiers who are not US citizens. Instead, these recruits possess or have been awarded the much-coveted "Green Card" and the promise of naturalization if they should be fortunate enough to live out their tour of duty in Iraq. . .

NAVAL BLOCKADE OF IRAN WOULD BE AN ACT OF WAR

VETERANS' PSYCHOLOGIST TELLS STAFF TO STOP STRESS SYNDROME DIAGNOSES: "REALLY DON'T HAVE TIME"

MORE THAN 43,000 MEDICALLY UNFIT TROOPS SENT TO WAR

REVIVING THE GI BILL OF RIGHTS

SUICIDES & MENTAL RELATED DEATHS MAY TOP IRAQ BATTLE FATALITIES

THE PETRAEUS MYTH

THE COST OF PREJUDICE: 2-3 BATTLE BRIGADES

PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - As the military sends 43,000 troops it defines as medically unfit into battle because it can't keep up with its personnel requirements, it has dumped the equivalent of two to three battle brigades from its rosters because the troops were gay or lesbian. Over a ten year period ending in fiscal 2003, the Pentagon separated nearly 10,000 troops because of its anti-gay policies. This from a 2005 GAO report:

"The estimated training costs for the occupations performed by Navy members separated for homosexual conduct from fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 2003 was about $48.8 million ($18,000 per member). The comparable Air Force cost estimate was $16.6 million ($7,400 per member). The Army estimated that the training cost of the occupations performed by Army members separated for homosexual conduct over the 10-year period was about $29.7 million ($6,400 per member). The Marine Corps was not able to estimate occupation-related training costs. . .

"The military services separated 9,488 members pursuant to the homosexual conduct policy statute from fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 2003. . . Seven hundred fifty-seven (about 8 percent) of these separated servicemembers held critical occupations ("voice interceptor," "data processing technician," or "interpreter/translator"), as defined by the services. About 59 percent of the members with critical occupations who were separated for homosexual conduct were separated during their first 2.5 years of service, which is about 1.5 years before the expiration of the initial service contract of most enlistees. Such contracts are typically for 4 years. Also, 322 members (about 3 percent) had some skills in an important foreign language.

APRIL 2008

MAKING A KILLING ON THE WAR ON TERROR

FREE THINKING SOLDIER SUES ARMY OVER THREATS

VA CONCEALED VET SUICIDE DATA

PENTAGON HEAVILY MANIPULATED TELEVISION MILITARY COVERAGE

THE BACKDOOR DRAFT

MARCH 2008

US AIR FORCE ADOPTS NAZI MOTTO

US AIR FORCE - The Air Force has a new advertising campaign to recruit the next generation of Airmen as well as better inform people about the Air Force mission: "Above All."

"The new slogan is admittedly a bold one," said Col. Michael Caldwell, deputy director of Air Force public affairs, "but so are Airmen." This campaign accurately portrays Airmen and how they're executing the Air Force mission to ensure the security and safety of America now and in the future.

"'Above All' is about what we do and how we do it," Colonel Caldwell said. "The job of the Air Force is to defend America and we do that by dominating air, space and cyberspace. The new campaign and slogan captures our roots, but also illustrates where we're going as a service as the Air Force prepares to contend with future threats."

Although the phrase 'uber alles' describing Germany well precedes the rise of Hitler, any one who lived through World War II would easily associate it with its Nazi use. The adoption by the Air Force is either stupid or scary.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123087033

HEARING LOSS A MASSIVE PROBLEM AMONG TROOPS

WHAT IF THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY CAME?

SOLDIER CLAIMS PROMOTION DENIED BECAUSE OF HIS ATHEISM

FEBRUARY 2008

ARMY UPGRADES 'NATION BUILDING' TO LEVEL OF COMBAT IN ITS LATEST MANUAL

PENTAGON LAWYER WHO TRIED TO RIG GITMO CASES RESIGNS

AIR FORCE BANS ALL SITES WITH WORD 'BLOG' IN THEM

NOW THE PENTAGON WANTS TO MAKE YOU CRAZY

SHARON WEINBERGER, DANGER ROOM - Of all the crazy, bizarre less-lethal weapons that have been proposed, the use of microwaves to target the human mind remains the most disturbing. . . A newly declassified Pentagon report, Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons Weapons, obtained by a private citizen under the Freedom of Information Act, provides some fascinating tidbits on a variety of exotic weapons ideas.

Among those discussed are weapons that could disrupt the brain, as well as my longtime obsession, the "Voice of God" device, which creates voices in people's heads. As the report notes, "Application of the microwave hearing technology could facilitate a private message transmission. It may be useful to provide a disruptive condition to a person not aware of the technology. Not only might it be disruptive to the sense of hearing, it could be psychologically devastating if one suddenly heard 'voices within one's head.'". . .

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/report-nonletha.html

PENTAGON: TREAT INTERNET LIKE AN ENEMY WEAPONS SYSTEM

SHORT-CHANGING MASSACHUSETTS FOR BAGHDAD

JANUARY 2008

HOW THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES MISLED ON ROTC AND CAMPUS RECRUITING

JOHN K. WILSON, INSIDE HIGHEER ED, 2007 - The Solomon Amendment prohibits a college from receiving federal funds if it bans military recruiters, prevents the military "from maintaining, establishing, or operating" an ROTC unit at that college or prohibits a student from enrolling at an ROTC unit at another college.

But what does it mean to establish an ROTC unit? For example, no college prohibits any students from enrolling in ROTC at another college. Likewise, to my knowledge, there is no college that has actually banned the military from renting space on campus like any other group and holding ROTC training sessions. The proposed rule explicitly rejects the concept of equal treatment; instead, the military is demanding special rights to control curriculum and faculty that no other outside group is ever granted.

It's common to refer to campuses "banning" ROTC, but it apparently never happened. For example, in 1969, Yale University never "abolished" ROTC; it simply denied ROTC academic credit and faculty rank, and the military chose to withdraw under these conditions. In 1970, Stanford's Faculty Senate voted to end academic credit for ROTC courses because the courses were not open to all Stanford students, and the military (instead of Stanford) chose the teachers.

The proposed rule not only prevents a college from prohibiting ROTC, but also bans a campus from doing anything that "in effect prevents" an ROTC unit from operating. This would include neutral rules applied to everyone on campus, such as nondiscrimination rules, faculty control over the curriculum, or academic freedom. According to the proposed rule, "The criterion of 'efficiently operating a Senior ROTC unit' refers generally to an expectation that the ROTC Department would be treated on a par with other academic departments." Since in other academic departments, professors are given faculty rank and students receive college credit, this provision would effectively revoke faculty and campus control over the curriculum. It appears likely that the military will demand academic credit for ROTC classes (including those held at other campuses) and faculty rank for instructors who are selected and controlled by the military. Yet there is nothing in the Solomon Amendment to require this.

If colleges allow students in ROTC classes to receive credit, they should be careful to impose the same conditions offered for all other classes: the faculty must be appointed by the college, not the military; the faculty, not the military, must determine the content of the classes; and all qualified students, regardless of sexual orientation or enrollment in the military, should be able to take the class. Nothing in the Solomon Amendment reverses these common rules, and if it did so, it would be unconstitutional, as this proposed rule is. . .

The military seems unwilling to give up control over the selection of ROTC faculty and the curriculum. The choice of faculty and content for courses must remain the authority of faculty at each campus, and not be handed over to the government. Decisions on whether a particular department or course is legitimate must be determined by the faculty, not by a government fiat.

Nor should military recruiters be exempt from protest or criticism. The proposed rule makes it a violation if the college "has failed to enforce time, place, and manner policies established by the covered school such that the military recruiters experience an inferior or unsafe recruiting climate, as schools must allow military recruiters on campus and must assist them in whatever way the school assists other employers."

It is essentially impossible for any college to prohibit an "inferior ... recruiting climate" for military recruiters without banning all such protests. .
.
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/06/25/wilson

BLACKWATER LEAVES MERCENARY TRADE ASSOCIATION BECAUSE ETHICS STANDARDS ARE TOO TOUGH

DECEMBER 2007

BEING GAY IN THE MILITARY IS FINE. . . WHEN THERE'S A WAR ON

CBS - Discharges of gay soldiers have dropped dramatically since the Afghan and Iraq wars began, from 1,200 a year in 2001 to barely 600 now. With the military struggling to recruit and retain soldiers, gay soldiers claim that commanders are reluctant to discharge critical personnel in the middle of a war.

[Leslie]Stahl spoke with several gay former military members who say they were out openly in their units, known to be gay by as many as a hundred other service members. "They don't care. . . these are our peers. . . the 'Will and Grace' generation," says Brian Fricke. . .

U.S. Army Maj. Daniel Davis, speaking to Stahl out of uniform to emphasize that he does not speak for the U.S. military, says don't ask, don't tell is necessary to achieve cohesion among soldiers, especially those in combat. Most service members are conservative, he says, and won't readily accept gays. "If you have a moral or religious issue, you cannot order me to [bond] with that [gay] person," says Davis, a specialist in battlefield tactics. "Our purpose in the military is not social engineering. . . It's about fighting and winning the nation's wars."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/13/60minutes/main3615278.shtml?123

NOVEMBER 2007

'HIDDEN COSTS' DOUBLE PRICE OF TWO WARS

COMPLETE GUIDE TO UNCLE SAM'S RECRUITING INCENTIVES

GOP SENATOR CALLS FOR MILITARY DRAFT

THE MYSTERY OF IRAQ NON-COMBAT DEATHS AND MEDIVACS

GREG MITCHELL, EDITOR & PUBLISHER - Pretty much alone in the media, E&P for weeks had been charting a troubling increase in non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq. . .

According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers lost their lives in August for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in September. Compare that with the average for the first seven months of this year: fewer than nine per month. The spike has coincided with extended 15-month deployments, one senior military official said.

The military officially counts about 20% of the nearly 3900 U.S. fatalities in Iraq as "noncombat." It has officially confirmed 128 suicides in Iraq since 2003, with many others under investigation (and still more taking place on the return home). . .

As I've noted repeatedly, the military releases little news to the press when a service member dies from a non-hostile cause, beyond saying it is "under investigation." When that probe ends, many months later, the military normally does not tell anyone but family members of the deceased. For more than four years, however, E&P has kept close tabs on non-combat deaths. . .

[From a letter Mitchell received]

Thank you for addressing the non-combat deaths issue. I've been struck by the number of people killed when vehicles drove into canals (Michael Kelly of the Washington Post being the best known of these). . .

Another mystery you should call attention to is the medivacs of people for non-combat injuries and illnesses, which far exceed those for combat injuries. Icasualties.org reports 24,912 non-hostile medivacs, which means the people were flown out or Iraq and to Germany (or perhaps other military hospitals). Some 18,741 of the patients suffer from disease/other (as opposed to the 6,171 for non-combat related injuries, presumably trauma).

Three times as many of our troops are being flown out of Iraq for disease than wounds in battle (6,354), and yet we hear nothing about this epidemic, or whatever it is. . .

OCTOBER 2007

BLACK RECRUITMENT TO ARMY PLUMMETS

BOSTON GLOBE - African-Americans, whose longstanding relationship with the US military helped them prove their abilities and offered a way to get ahead, have turned away from the armed forces in record numbers since 2000, a period covering the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the start of the Iraq war. Defense Department statistics show the number of young black enlistees has fallen by more than 58 percent since fiscal year 2000. The Army in particular has been hit hard: In fiscal year 2000, according to the Pentagon statistics, more than 42,000 black men and women applied to enlist; in fiscal year 2005, the most recent for which a racial breakdown is available, just over 17,000 signed up.

The unpopular Iraq war is the biggest reason, according to military analysts, Pentagon surveys, and interviews with young African-Americans. But they say mistrust of the Bush administration is adding to the problem - along with the notion that black soldiers are being steered to combat jobs, a lingering perception from the Vietnam War.

THINK TANK: WAR ON TERROR HAS BEEN A DISASTER

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - The US-led "war on terror" has been a "disaster" and Washington and its allies must change their policy in Iraq and Afghanistan to defeat Al-Qaeda, an independent global security think tank said. The Oxford Research Group said in a report that Western strategy since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States had failed to extinguish the threat from Islamist extremism and even fuelled it. "Every aspect of the war on terror has been counterproductive in Iraq and Afghanistan, from the loss of civilian life through mass detentions without trial. In short, it has been a disaster," report author Paul Rogers said.

"Western countries simply have to face up to the dangerous mistakes of the past six years and recognize the need for new policies." Rogers, professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford, northern England, also warned that any military action against Iran over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear program would further aggravate the situation. "Going to war with Iran will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region," he added.

"Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs -- the mistakes already made will be completely overshadowed by the consequences of a war with Iran."

http://breitbart.com/article.php?id=071008003156.4a37l4c6&show_article=1&catnum=0

WAR PROFITEERING HITTING NEW RECORDS

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AU - Arms manufacturers are making record profits from the war on terrorism and unprecedented spending on weapons programs. . .

The world's biggest arms maker, Lockheed Martin in the US, maker of fighter jets including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Australia is buying, announced last week it had increased third-quarter profits by 22 per cent to $US 11.1 billion.

Northrop Grumman, maker of aircraft carriers, submarines and bombers, increased profits 62 per cent to $US 489 million.

At General Dynamics, maker of the Abrams tank, which Australia has just bought, profits climbed 24 per cent to $US 544 million. . .

http://snipurl.com/1t511

BUSH'S WAR ON TERROR HAS COST AMERICA $94 BILLION IN TOURIST DOLLARS

AFP - "Since September 11, 2001, the United States has experienced a 17 percent decline in overseas travel, costing America 94 billion dollars in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and 16 billion dollars in lost tax revenue," the Discover America advocacy campaign said in a statement. . .

Last year, only 56 percent of Britons had a positive opinion of the United States compared with 83 percent in 2000, the Pew Global Attitudes report for 2006 shows.

Thirty-nine percent of French people saw the United States in a positive light last year, compared with 62 percent in 2000.

In Turkey 12 percent had good things to say about the United States last year -- 40 percentage points down on 2000.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gW0k9nzBC6HnafIwxJfGcmXxhGaQ

JUN 2007

PENTAGON STUDIED PLAN FOR BOMB TO MAKE ENEMY SOLDIERS GAY

BBC - The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say. Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath. . . The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued. . . The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.

The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behavior among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale.

Scientists also reportedly considered a "sting me/attack me" chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.

A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.

Another idea was to develop a chemical causing "severe and lasting halitosis", so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4174519.stm

ONE MAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE ILLEGAL MERCENARIES IN IRAQ

WASHINGTON POST - A federal judge yesterday ordered the military to temporarily refrain from awarding the largest security contract in Iraq. The order followed an unusual series of events set off when a U.S. Army veteran filed a protest against the government practice of hiring what he calls mercenaries, according to sources familiar with the matter. The contract, worth about $475 million, calls for a private company to provide intelligence services to the U.S. Army and security for the Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction work in Iraq. The case, which is being heard by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, puts on trial one of the most controversial and least understood aspects of the Iraq war: the outsourcing of military security to an estimated 20,000 armed contractors who operate with little oversight. . .

Brian X. Scott, a 53 - year - old Colorado man, filed the complaint in early April. He argues that the military's use of private security contractors is "against America's core values" and violates an 1893 law that prohibits the government from hiring quasi - military forces. Scott's challenge set off a domino effect, prompting the Government Accountability Office to dismiss protests brought by two major private security contractors the Army had removed as potential bidders - - Erinys Iraq, a British firm, and Blackwater USA of North Carolina. . . In his court protest, Scott relied on the Anti - Pinkerton Act, which Congress passed more than a century ago to thwart businesses that had hired mercenaries to disrupt labor groups.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp - dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102261.html

MICHAEL DE YOUANNA, COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT, 2006 - Brian X. Scott, armed with reams of paper to battle federal policy, says private security contractors have become rampant in Iraq, with little public debate. . . "The use of these contractors is bad for the country," he says. "It's bad for the Army. We're disconnecting the citizen part from the solider part. These security contractors are really mercenaries for hire.". . .

Last spring, when Scott saw listings for two contracts that required private security, he posed as a contractor and submitted bids. . . One contract solicited private guards for cargo transports. The other called for guards at gates and gun towers at Camp Victory, a U.S. base in Baghdad. "Just the fact that the private security guards are placed where there could be an attack - that is a combat role and not allowed," Scott says. "They're replacing troops with mercenaries.". . .

The contractors, who earn hundreds of dollars more a day than troops, have become essential in Iraq, he says. "You can't take a crap without them," Pelton says. . .

In March, the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., provided a rare overview of incidents involving security contractors. Reviewing 400 voluntary incident reports spanning nine months of 2004 - 2005, the newspaper found that contractors shot at 61 vehicles. Yet in just seven instances were Iraqis clearly attacking. In most cases, contractors drove away. None were prosecuted.

http://csindy.com/csindy/2006 - 09 - 07/news4.html

70% OF CLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE BUDGET GOES TO CORPORATE CONTRACTS

TIM SHORROCK, SALON - More than five years into the global "war on terror," spying has become one of the fastest - growing private industries in the United States. The federal government relies more than ever on outsourcing for some of its most sensitive work, though it has kept details about its use of private contractors a closely guarded secret. Intelligence experts, and even the government itself, have warned of a critical lack of oversight for the booming intelligence business.

On May 14, at an industry conference in Colorado sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. government revealed for the first time how much of its classified intelligence budget is spent on private contracts: a whopping 70 percent. Based on this year's estimated budget of at least $48 billion, that would come to at least $34 billion in contracts. . .

"Those numbers are startling," said Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists and an expert on the U.S. intelligence budget. "They represent a transformation of the Cold War intelligence bureaucracy into something new and different that is literally dominated by contractor interests."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/01/intel_contractors/?source=whitelist

NEO - CONS - INCLUDING WOLFOWITZ - PRESSED FOR CONFRONTATION WITH CHINA AS WELL AS IRAQ

JEFF STEIN, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY - The same top Bush administration neoconservatives who leap - frogged Washington's foreign policy establishment to topple Saddam Hussein nearly pulled off a similar coup in U.S. - China relations-creating the potential of a nuclear war over Taiwan, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the U.S. Army colonel who was Powell's chief of staff through two administrations, said in little - noted remarks early last month that "neocons" in the top rungs of the administration quietly encouraged Taiwanese politicians to move toward a declaration of independence from mainland China - an act that the communist regime has repeatedly warned would provoke a military strike.

The top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan at the time, Douglas Paal, backs up Wilkerson's account, which is being hotly disputed by key former defense officials. . .

With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, some of Taiwan's most fervent allies were swept back into power in Washington, particularly at the Pentagon, starting with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

They included such key architects of the Iraq War as Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, Douglas Feith, the undersecretary for policy, and Steven Cambone, Rumsfeld's new intelligence chief, Wilkerson said. President Bush's controversial envoy to the United Nations, John Bolton, was another.

While Bush publicly continued the one - China policy of his five White House predecessors, Wilkerson said, the Pentagon "neocons" took a different tack, quietly encouraging Taiwan's pro - independence president, Chen Shui - bian.

"The Defense Department, with Feith, Cambone, Wolfowitz [and] Rumsfeld, was dispatching a person to Taiwan every week, essentially to tell the Taiwanese that the alliance was back on," Wilkerson said, referring to pre - 1970s military and diplomatic relations, "essentially to tell Chen Shui - bian, whose entire power in Taiwan rested on the independence movement, that independence was a good thing."

http://public.cq.com/docs/hs/hsnews110 - 000002523531.html

MAY 2007

WAR ON TERROR A FISCAL DISASTER, TOO

JOHN MCCASLIN, WASHINGTON TIMES - The Government Accountability Office has just sent Congress a breakdown of financial obligations to continue fighting the global war on terrorism. . . Prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks the Defense Department's reported annual cost to fight global terrorism was $0.2 billion. By fiscal 2006, that amount grew to $98.4 billion. Thus far in fiscal 2007, Congress has provided the Defense Department with another $70 billion in annual anti-terrorism funds. . . But the Pentagon has since requested an additional $93.4 billion supplemental for this year, on top of a $141.7 billion request for fiscal 2008. In its correspondence, the GAO tells Congress that U.S. commitments to the GWOT will likely involve "continued investments of significant resources, requiring decision-makers to consider difficult trade-offs as the nation faces an increasing long-range fiscal challenge."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm

MILITARY BLOCK TROOPS' USE OF MY SPACE, YOU TUBE

ROBERT WELLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS - The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to You Tube, My Space and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell. . . The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell. "This recreational traffic impacts our official DOD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said.

The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.

Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4801313.html

STUDY FINDS CANADIAN MILITARY RECRUITS INCREASINGLY SOCIAL DYSFUNCTIONAL

NEWS, AUSTRALIA - An increasing number of would-be recruits to the Canadian military are prone to displaying traits of social disobedience, intolerance toward ethnic groups and being fatalistic, a new report says. The report cautions that such recruits could put the Canadian Forces' positive public image at serious risk.

The analysis, delivered to the Department of National Defense in March, warns of the "increasingly socio-dysfunctional profile of military aspirants." It goes on to suggest the military's reputation could be "easily shattered by the actions of a few or even just one Canadian Abu Ghraib" - a reference to the abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. military.

The report raises the specter of the Canadian military scandal in Somalia, in which the Canadian Forces covered up the 1993 murder of a young Somali prisoner for several weeks. The incident led to criminal charges, a public inquiry and a decade of soul-searching for the military.

A profile drawn up in the study shows that today's average potential military recruit is "proud and intense," a "crude hedonist" and drawn to transgressive behaviour - or breaking the rules. Potential recruits are also driven by the need for social status and "to belong," and feel a lack of confidence in the future.

Male candidates are "macho," while women have "a strong masculine side."

The potential recruits tend to show an affinity for social Darwinism, characterized by the view that only the strongest members of society will survive. Violence and sex are also prominent interests associated with potential soldiers, according to the study, by Montreal-based polling firm CROP Inc.

70% OF FOREIGN TRAVELLERS FEAR US OFFICIALS MORE THAN TERRORISTS OR CRIMINALS

PETER HUCK, NEW ZEALAND HERALD - In a recent poll of international travelers, commissioned by Discover America Partnership, a coalition of US tourist organizations, 70 per cent of respondents said they feared US officials more than terrorists or criminals. Another 66 per cent worried they would be detained for some minor blunder, such as wrongly filling out an official form or being mistaken for a terrorist, while 55 per cent say officials are "rude."

Such fears are fuelled by the horror stories. Earlier this year a friend of mine was detained for hours and strip-searched at LAX for a minor visa infraction. He was finally allowed to enter the US, on the condition he departed the next day. "I won't be coming back," he said.

In a January Listener article New Zealand journalist Marilyn Head described how she missed a flight after being treated like a criminal by US airport guards. "I left the US vowing never to return," she wrote. "I'm not alone.". . .

Before September 11, US airport staff often seemed to err on the laid-back rather than on the vigilant side. Now some overzealous officials appear to regard all tourists as potential terrorists. Entering America can feel like running the gauntlet. . .

Such comments, and the poll results - which rate the US by a 2:1 margin as the world's "most unfriendly" destination for foreign travelers - are found in "A Blueprint to Discover America," unveiled in January by Discover America Partnership to halt a dramatic decline in foreign visitors.

According to the blueprint overseas travel to the US has slumped 17 per cent since 2001, even as world travel to other countries reaches historic growth levels. The decline has cost US $94 billion in visitor spending, US $16 billion in tax receipts, and some 194,000 American jobs. Many poll respondents said that visiting the US had become a hassle and that they would take their holiday money elsewhere.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436518

JUNIOR OFFICERS UNHAPPY WITH GENERALS' HANDLING OF IRAQ

THOMAS E. RICKS, WASHINGTON POST - An active-duty Army officer is publishing a blistering attack on U.S. generals, saying they have botched the war in Iraq and misled Congress about the situation there. "America's generals have repeated the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq," charges Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, an Iraq veteran who is deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "The intellectual and moral failures . . . constitute a crisis in American generals.". . .

The article, "General Failure," is to be published today in Armed Forces Journal. Its appearance signals the public emergence of a split inside the military between younger, mid-career officers and the top brass.

Many majors and lieutenant colonels have privately expressed anger and frustration with the performance of Gen. Tommy R. Franks, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno and other top commanders in the war, calling them slow to grasp the realities of the war and overly optimistic in their assessments.

Some younger officers have stated privately that more generals should have been taken to task for their handling of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, news of which broke in 2004. The young officers also note that the Army's elaborate "lessons learned" process does not criticize generals and that no generals in Iraq have been replaced for poor battlefield performance, a contrast to other U.S. wars.

Top Army officials are also worried by the number of captains and majors choosing to leave the service. . . Until now, charges of incompetent leadership have not been made as publicly by an Army officer as Yingling does in his article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602230.html

APRIL 2007

CONGRESS TURNS 'BOUTIQUE VEHICLE' INTO HALF BILLION DOLLAR SPECULATION

CHRISTIAN, DEFENSE TECH - Well it looks like the first spasm of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle orders has been launched, with the Pentagon inking a - get this - $481 million contract for 1,000 vehicles this week. That's a half a billion dollars for 300 of the 15-ton Cougar Cat-1 vehicles and 700 of the 16-ton Cat-2 behemoths - all going to Force Protection Industries, Inc. . .

The MRAP is not a tactical vehicle. It is a specialized armored truck designed primarily for protecting EOD units and their gear from explosions while diffusing bombs or mines. The Marine Corps' top gear buyer, Brig. Gen. Mike Brogan, admitted last month the MRAP was viewed by the Corps as a "boutique vehicle" for certain specialties. They asked for a limited quantity of these vehicles in the 2008 budget and 2007 wartime funding request based on that view.

Then what happened? You guessed it, Congress stepped in. After browbeating every service and DOD official they could over the meager number of MRAPs in the budget, Army and Marine officials snapped to and revamped their request to satisfy lawmakers' new infatuation. . .

I know I'll probably get a lot of crap for this, but I think the services recognize that the MRAP isn't what they need but they're responding to the congressional love affair with the vehicle because they have to. . .

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003456.html

MARCH 2007

A QUARTER OF RETURNING VETS HAVE MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

REUTERS - High rates of mental health disorders are being diagnosed among US military personnel soon after being released from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to investigators in San Francisco. They estimate that out of 103,788 returning veterans, 25 percent had a mental health diagnosis, and more than half of these patients had two or more distinct conditions. Those most at risk were the youngest soldiers and those with the most combat exposure. . . In addition to the high rate of mental health disorders, about one in three (31 percent) were affected by at least one psychosocial diagnosis. The most frequent diagnosis was post-traumatic stress disorder. Other diagnoses included anxiety disorder, depression, substance use disorder, or other behavioral or psychosocial problem.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTON27935120070312

Detailed Video Report

MOST YOUTH INELIGIBLE FOR ARMY

GINA CAVALLARO, ARMY TIMES - Close to three-quarters of American youth are ineligible to serve in the Army and patriotism among the country's recruitable population has been sliding since 2002. That was the assessment of a series of recent surveys . . . presented Thursday by Gen. William S. Wallace, commanding general of Training and Doctrine Command. . . According to Wallace, only 27 percent of youth between the ages of 17 and 24 are eligible for recruiting. The remaining 73 percent, he said, "are morally, intellectually or physically" unfit for service. "It's the lowest it's been in more than 10 years." College, he said, is now the preferred post-high school activity and youths surveyed said they perceived the Army as "ordinary."

According to Wallace, those surveyed considered the Marine Corps "elite but dangerous." They considered the Navy "somewhat elite but safer" and the Air Force was considered "elite and highly technical."

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/03/ATrecruitsurvey070308/

CBS - Its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends. "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted. $2.3 trillion - that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

FEBRUARY 2007

AMERICAN EMPIRE HAS OVER 700 BASES ABROAD

[From Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic"]

CHALMERS JOHNSON - The total of America's military bases in other people's countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. Reflecting massive deployments to Iraq and the pursuit of President Bush's strategy of preemptive war, the trend line for numbers of overseas bases continues to go up.

Interestingly enough, the thirty-eight large and medium-sized American facilities spread around the globe in 2005 -- mostly air and naval bases for our bombers and fleets -- almost exactly equals Britain's thirty-six naval bases and army garrisons at its imperial zenith in 1898. The Roman Empire at its height in 117 AD required thirty-seven major bases to police its realm from Britannia to Egypt, from Hispania to Armenia. . .

Using data from fiscal year 2005, the Pentagon bureaucrats calculated that its overseas bases were worth at least $127 billion -- surely far too low a figure but still larger than the gross domestic products of most countries -- and an estimated $658.1 billion for all of them, foreign and domestic . . . During fiscal 2005, the military high command deployed to our overseas bases some 196,975 uniformed personnel as well as an equal number of dependents and Department of Defense civilian officials, and employed an additional 81,425 locally hired foreigners.

The worldwide total of U.S. military personnel in 2005, including those based domestically, was 1,840,062 supported by an additional 473,306 Defense Department civil service employees and 203,328 local hires. Its overseas bases, according to the Pentagon, contained 32,327 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and 16,527 more that it leased. The size of these holdings was recorded in the inventory as covering 687,347 acres overseas and 29,819,492 acres worldwide, making the Pentagon easily one of the world's largest landlords.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/47998/

IT'S NOT JUST THE BUILDINGS THAT ARE BAD AT WALTER REED

KELLY KENNEDY, AIR FORCE TIMES - In 2001, 10 percent of soldiers going through the medical retirement process received permanent disability benefits. In 2005, with two wars raging, that percentage dropped to 3 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Reservists dropped from 16 percent to 5 percent. Soldiers go to VA to try for more benefits, but the department had a staggering 400,000-case backup on new claims in fiscal 2006, according to VA. . .

Perhaps more important, many of the soldiers leaving Walter Reed face post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies have shown that if soldiers receive treatment within a year, they fare much better. Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, the number of soldiers wading through the paperwork, physicals and appointments has doubled at Walter Reed. According to a Defense Department directive, it should take a total of 120 days from start to finish, but the average stay for Walter Reed soldiers is 270 days. The soldiers navigate a complicated system with the help of counselors with little more experience -- or rank -- than they have, and who lack training, according to a March 2006 Government Accountability Office report.

On March 2, 2006, Col. Robert Norton, deputy director, Government Relations, for the Military Officers Association of America, told the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs that since October 2003, medical evaluation boards have averaged 67 days and physical evaluation boards have taken between 87 and 280 days. . .

On Feb. 17, 2005, Lt. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, former deputy chief of staff for personnel, told the House Committee on Government Reform that the Army did not have nearly the resources it had during the Vietnam War

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/0 2/tnsmedboards070217

PENTAGON TRIES TO CENSOR '24'

ANDREW BUNCOMBE, INDEPENDENT UK - In the hugely popular television series 24, federal agent Jack Bauer always gets his man, even if he has to play a little rough. Suffocating, electrocuting or drugging a suspect are all in a day's work. As Bauer - played by the Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland - tells one baddie: "You are going to tell me what I want to know - it's just a matter of how much you want it to hurt.". . .

The US military has appealed to the producers of 24 to tone down the torture scenes because of the impact they are having both on troops in the field and America's reputation abroad. Forget about Abu Ghraib, forget about Guantanamo Bay, forget even that the White House has authorized interrogation techniques that some classify as torture, that damned Jack Bauer is giving us a bad name.

The United States Military Academy at West Point yesterday confirmed that Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently traveled to California to meet producers of the show, broadcast on the Fox channel. He told them that promoting illegal behavior in the series - apparently hugely popular among the US military - was having a damaging effect on young troops.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2264632.ece

JOSH WHITE, WASHINGTON POST - Nationwide enrollment in the Army's Reserve Officers' Training Corps has slipped more than 16 percent over the past two school years, leaving the program, which trains and commissions more than six of every 10 new Army officers each year, with its fewest participants in nearly a decade.

SAIC IS KING OF SWEETHEART DEALS WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

PR WATCH - With 44,000 employees, Science Applications International Corporation "is larger than the departments of Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development combined," Donald Barlett and James Steele write, in an in-depth profile of the military contractor. "SAIC currently holds some 9,000 active federal contracts," more than any other company. But "several of SAIC's biggest projects have turned out to be colossal failures," including "Trailblazer," a system to manage incoming intelligence for the National Security Agency, and the "Virtual Case File," a centralized data repository for the FBI. "SAIC executives have been involved at every stage . . . of the war in Iraq," from pushing WMD claims to helping "investigate how American intelligence could have been so disastrously wrong." Under "yet another no-bid contract," SAIC created the Iraqi Media Network, supposedly a "free and independent indigenous media network" that quickly became "a mouthpiece for the Pentagon." Eventually, "the network was turned over to Iraqi control. Today it is a tool of Iraq's Shiite majority and spews out virulently anti-American messages." Moreover, SAIC's work on the Iraqi Media Network was criticized by the Pentagon's Inspector General as having "widespread violations of normal contracting procedures."

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703

JANUARY 2007

U.S. MERCENARIES NOW SUBJECT TO COURT MARTIAL

DEFENSE TECH - Since the start of the Iraq war, tens of thousands of heavily-armed military contractors have been roaming the country -- without any law, or any court to control them. That may be about to change, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow P.W. Singer notes in a Defense Tech exclusive. Five words, slipped into a Pentagon budget bill, could make all the difference. With them, "contractors 'get out of jail free' cards may have been torn to shreds," he writes. They're now subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the same set of laws that governs soldiers. But here's the catch: embedded reporters are now under those regulations, too.

Over the last few years, tales of private military contractors run amuck in Iraq -- from the CACI interrogators at Abu Ghraib to the Aegis company's Elvis-themed internet "trophy video" -- have continually popped up in the headlines. Unfortunately, when it came to actually doing something about these episodes of Outsourcing Gone Wild, Hollywood took more action than Washington. The TV series Law and Order punished fictional contractor crimes, while our courts ignored the actual ones. Leonardo Dicaprio acted in a movie featuring the private military industry, while our government enacted no actual policy on it. But those carefree days of military contractors romping across the hills and dales of the Iraqi countryside, without legal status or accountability, may be over. The Congress has struck back. . .

Previously, contractors would only fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, better known as the court martial system, if Congress declared war. This is something that has not happened in over 65 years and out of sorts with the most likely operations in the 21st century. The result is that whenever our military officers came across episodes of suspected contractor crimes in missions like Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, or Afghanistan, they had no tools to resolve them. As long as Congress had not formally declared war, civilians -- even those working for the US armed forces, carrying out military missions in a conflict zone -- fell outside their jurisdiction. The military's relationship with the contractor was, well, merely contractual. . .

With the addition of just five words in the law, contractors now can fall under the purview of the military justice system. This means that if contractors violate the rules of engagement in a war zone or commit crimes during a contingency operation like Iraq, they can now be court-martialed.

http://www.defensetech.org/

THE TECHNO-CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST

CHUCK SPINNEY - There is no mention of the fact [in the Baker Hamilton reports] that this all happening while we are spending more on the military than we did at the height of the Vietnam war, even after the effects of inflation are removed. This debilitating burden is a direct consequence of the increasing technical complexity of weapons based on a variety of cockeyed theories of "transformation," all premised on the idea that that technology can substitute for both manpower and thinking on the battlefield ... This can be seen in the claims about revolutions in military affairs, "network centric warfare, and the all-electronic, all-seeing, all-knowing command and control system that can control precision strikes from a distance."

My prediction: the ultimate price of withdrawing our forces from Iraq will include a "bipartisan" political agreement that the Pentagon (really the Military - Industrial - Congressional Complex) needs yet another huge semi-permanent increase in the defense budget. So much for the end of the Cold War and fiscal responsibility in Versailles on the Potomac.

[Spinney was a long official at the Pentagon]

U.S. MILITARY HAD PLANS FOR WIDESPEAD ILLNESS IN HOSTILE CITIES

DEFENSE TECH - The middle years of the Cold War were, in many ways, a Silver Age of bad weapons ideas -- from nuclear bazookas to one-man "aerocycles." But this has to be just about the worst I've heard yet: Developing "biological agents" -- including ones that can lead to "inflammation of the brain, coma and death" -- for "incapacitating" enemies on the battlefield or "neutralizing hostile cities." It's one of a number of head-scratching ideas University of Bradford researcher Neil Davison reveals in his new report, "The Early History of 'Non-Lethal' Weapons." . . .

US military, for example, standardized viral agents Coxiella burnetii (Q fever) and Venezuelan equine encephalitis [whose symptoms range from "mild flu-like illness to...inflammation of the brain, coma and death," according to the CDC -- ed.] bacterial agent Brucella suis (brucellosis), and toxin agent staphylococcal enterotoxin B, as incapacitating biological weapons...

The political advantages of these agents were that their foreseen limited "lethality", (the aim was to develop agents with a 1-2% lethality), would enable greater freedom in the use of force. From a tactical perspective these agents might be used to cause large-scale incapacitation and thus overwhelm medical and logistical services. They may also be used in situations where there was a risk to civilian or friendly forces...

Thankfully, no one ever got the chance to try out this tactic. Biological weapons were banned under international law by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_lesslethal.html

DECEMBER 2006

BUSH DEVELOPING ILLEGAL BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

SHERWOOD ROSS, TRUTH OUT - In violation of the US Code and international law, the Bush administration is spending more money (in inflation-adjusted dollars) to develop illegal, offensive germ warfare than the $2 billion spent in World War II on the Manhattan Project to make the atomic bomb.

So says Francis Boyle, the professor of international law who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 enacted by Congress. He states the Pentagon "is now gearing up to fight and 'win' biological warfare" pursuant to two Bush national strategy directives adopted "without public knowledge and review" in 2002. . .

Terming the action "the proverbial smoking gun," Boyle said the mission of the controversial CBW program "has been altered to permit development of offensive capability in chemical and biological weapons!" . . .

For fiscal years 2001-2004, the federal government funded $14.5 billion "for ostensibly 'civilian' biowarfare-related work alone," a "truly staggering" sum, Boyle wrote.

Another $5.6 billion was voted for "the deceptively-named 'Project Bio Shield,'" under which Homeland Security is stockpiling vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox and other bioterror agents, wrote Boyle. Protection of the civilian population is, he said, "one of the fundamental requirements for effectively waging biowarfare."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122006R.shtml

AMERICA FEELS THE DRAFT AGAIN WITH TALK AND TESTS

AP - The Selective Service System is planning a comprehensive test of the military draft machinery, which hasn't been run since 1998. The agency is not gearing up for a draft, an agency official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009. Meanwhile, the secretary for Veterans Affairs said that "society would benefit" if the United States were to bring back the draft and that it shouldn't have any loopholes for anyone who is called to serve. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson later issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft.

The Selective Service "readiness exercise" would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and the network of appeals boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, said Scott Campbell, Selective Service director for operations and chief information officer. . .

The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that its position had not changed. . .

In remarks to reporters in New York, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels. He said the draft "does bring people from all quarters of our society together in the common purpose of serving."

Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat who has said minorities and the poor share an unfair burden of the war, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft.

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said that reinstating the draft would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list, and the White House said Thursday that no draft proposal is being considered.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/12/22/2931388-ap.html

THE TECHNO-CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST

CHUCK SPINNEY - There is no mention of the fact [in the Baker Hamilton reports] that this all happening while we are spending more on the military than we did at the height of the Vietnam war, even after the effects of inflation are removed. This debilitating burden is a direct consequence of the increasing technical complexity of weapons based on a variety of cockeyed theories of "transformation," all premised on the idea that that technology can substitute for both manpower and thinking on the battlefield ... This can be seen in the claims about revolutions in military affairs, "network centric warfare, and the all-electronic, all-seeing, all-knowing command and control system that can control precision strikes from a distance."

My prediction: the ultimate price of withdrawing our forces from Iraq will include a "bipartisan" political agreement that the Pentagon (really the Military - Industrial - Congressional Complex) needs yet another huge semi-permanent increase in the defense budget. So much for the end of the Cold War and fiscal responsibility in Versailles on the Potomac.

[Spinney was a long official at the Pentagon]

COULD YOU HELP THEM FIND 189 MISSING BADGES IN YOUR GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA?

AP - More than 3,700 identification badges and uniform items have been reported lost or stolen from Transportation Security Administration employees since 2003, according to documents obtained by a San Antonio television station. WOAI-TV received the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Los Angeles International Airport reported the most items with 636 missing uniforms. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago reported 189 missing badges. Bush International Airport in Houston led Texas with 77 missing items. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had about 40 items gone.

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4420374.html

HOMELAND SECURITY SORT OF ADMITS IT LIED, BROKE LAW

- The Homeland Security Department admitted Friday it violated the Privacy Act two years ago by obtaining more commercial data about U.S. airline passengers than it had announced it would. Seventeen months ago, the Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing arm, reached the same conclusion: The department's Transportation Security Administration "did not fully disclose to the public its use of personal information in its fall 2004 privacy notices as required by the Privacy Act." Even so, in a report Friday on the testing of TSA's Secure Flight domestic air passenger screening program, the Homeland Security department's privacy office acknowledged TSA didn't comply with the law. But the privacy office still couldn't bring itself to use the word "violate."

Instead, the privacy office said, "TSA announced one testing program, but conducted an entirely different one." In a 40-word, separate sentence, the report noted that federal programs that collect personal data that can identify Americans "are required to be announced in Privacy Act system notices and privacy impact assessments."

NOVEMBER 2006

FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSTS CALL WAR ON TERROR A FAILURE

LYNDA HURST, TORONTO STAR - - Washington is failing to make progress in the global war on terror and the next 9/11-style attack is not a question of if, but when. That is the scathing conclusion of a survey of 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts. In its first "Terrorism Index," released yesterday, the influential journal Foreign Policy found surprising consensus among the bipartisan experts. Some 86 per cent of them said the world has grown more, not less, dangerous, despite President George W. Bush's claims that the U.S. is winning the war on terror. The main reasons for the decline in security, they said, were the war in Iraq, the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, U.S. policy towards Iran and U.S. energy policy

HOMELAND SECURITY'S REVOLVING DOOR ALREADY PAYING OFF BIG TIME

AP - Lured by high salaries and generous perks, many members of the Bush administration's homeland security team are quitting their government posts for private sector jobs in the security business. The New York Times reported Sunday that dozens of members of President Bush's security team assembled after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now working for companies that sell security products and services to the government agencies they once helped manage. "People have a right to make a living," Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general of the Homeland Security Department told the newspaper. "But working virtually immediately for a company that is bidding for work in an area where you were just setting the policy -that is too close. It is almost incestuous."
The Times found that at least 90 former officials in the department and the White House Office of Homeland Security now work for companies that do billions of dollars worth of business in the homeland security industry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5894645,00.html

THE ARMY'S WATER PROBLEM

DAVID HAMBLING, DEFENSE TECH - According to one US Army estimate, up to 65% of military road traffic in Iraq is taken up with transporting water to the troops. Cutting the number of trucks used for water will reduce the number of convoys that need protecting, and Allied Command Transformation Headquarters aims to do that by generating drinking water in the field. They recently demonstrated a mobile bottling plant that fits into a C-130 which can generate, purify and bottle 700 liters of water an hour.

Further down the line, DARPA [is] pursuing a project called 'Water From Air', looking at ways of extracting potable water from the atmosphere or from vehicle exhaust (water is one of the by-products when any hydrocarbon fuel is burned. . . .

But there is one big, rather simple problem, as explained in this piece on logistics in Iraq: "Dependence on bottled water in Iraq turned out to be a major sustainment and quality of life issue, Chambers said. Bottled water made up 30 percent of the distribution requirement even though bulk water was available, he said."

Because the bottom line is:"Soldiers do not like to drink purified water."

Which is why the idea of recycling urine into drinking water is even less likely to catch on, something that the Army has looked at on the grounds that "The technology is there. NASA is doing it." However, Thomas Bagwell, acting executive director for research at TARDEC, admitted that the last time he put this idea to soldiers, "they chased me out of the room."

Water may be technically safe and potable, but it can still taste terrible and troops are understandably not going to want to drink it. If you can solve that problem, you can take out a huge amount of the logistics overhead. Maybe they should look at additives (flavoring? caffeine?), or maybe it needs some branding and an advertising push ("Real Water For Real Men"). But I suspect it will take a lot more to persuade people to give up bottled water for purified. And if you can work out how to do that one, you're a better man than I am.

ARMY CENSORING TROOP WEBSITES BIG TIME

DEFENSE TECH - "Big Brother is not watching you, but 10 members of a Virginia National Guard unit might be," according to the Army. The Manassas-based Guardsmen are on a one-year assignment to clamp down on both "official and unofficial Army Web sites for operational security violations."

The team, working "under the direction of the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell" hunts for "documents, pictures and other items that may compromise security" -- and then orders the parties to take the offensive content offline. Not that the material is top secret or anything, an Army News Service article notes.

The most common operational security violations found on official sites are For Official Use Only FOUO documents and limited distribution documents, as well as home addresses, birthdates and home phone numbers.

Unofficial blogs often show pictures with sensitive information in the background, including classified documents, entrances to camps or weapons. One soldier showed his ammo belt, on which the tracer pattern was easily identifiable.

Since the relatively wide-open days following the Iraq invasion in 2003, the Pentagon has been slowly tightening the screws on military bloggers. Officers started busting frontline diarists for their websites. In Iraq, new rules required bloggers to check with their commanders before posting. Then, in August, a message came highest levels of the military that "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, NO INFORMATION MAY BE PLACED ON WEBSITES THAT ARE READILY ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC UNLESS IT HAS BEEN REVIEWED FOR SECURITY CONCERNS AND APPROVED IN ACCORDANCE WITH DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE MEMORANDUM WEB SITE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES, DECEMBER 7, 1998."

"So much for military blogging," said one officer, deployed in Iraq, when the ruling came down. Not that the officer -- an active blogger back in the States -- was doing much public writing while on the front lines. "The Army's guidance on OPSEC has been broad and ambiguous enough to chill my speech," he wrote to me. "Discretion is clearly the better part of valor where OPSEC rules are concerned, because the sensitivity of any particular detail is in the eye of the beholder."

Other soldiers, even ones stationed back home, took similar measures.

As of today, May 5th, 2006, I am officially shutting down my blog... There are certin [sic] commands out there that do NOT want me to blog... they have been trying very hard to find out who I am and shut me down... I really don't want to end my military career over a blog - it has gotten THAT bad!

Others -- thousands of others -- have continued on, trying to stay within the rules. . .

http://www.defensetech.org/

MILITARY PRESS CALLS FOR RUMSFELD TO RESIGN

POLITICAL WIRE = A rare joint editorial in the Army Times, the Air Force Times, and the Navy Times calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads."

http://tinyurl.com/y7q266

OCTOBER 2006

MILITARY SAYS THOUSANDS OF TROOPS CAN'T FIGHT BECAUSE THEY'RE IN HEAVY DEBT

AP - Thousands of U.S. troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt they are considered security risks, according to an Associated Press review of military records. The number of troops held back has climbed dramatically in the past few years. And while they appear to represent a very small percentage of all U.S. military personnel, the increase is occurring at a time when the armed forces are stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We are seeing an alarming trend in degrading financial health," said Navy Capt. Mark D. Patton, commanding officer at San Diego's Naval Base Point Loma. The Pentagon contends financial problems can distract personnel from their duties or make them vulnerable to bribery and treason. As a result, those who fall heavily into debt can be stripped of the security clearances they need to go overseas.

FBI ONLY HAS 33 ARABIC SPEAKING AGENTS

UPI - Of 12,000 special agents, the FBI has only 33 who have limited proficiency in speaking Arabic, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. With much of the United States' security focused on terror threats from the Middle East and Asia since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has stepped up its hiring of translators. In 2001, there were 70, while now, the agency employs 269. However, they are not agents who are actually out in the field.

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/view_upi.php?StoryID=20061011-082940-2916r

SEPTEMBER 2006

ARMY NOT READY FOR ANOTHER CONFLICT

PROGRESS REPORT - In today's Washington Post, American Progress's Lawrence Korb and Peter Ogden note, "In July an official report revealed that two-thirds of the active U.S. Army was classified as 'not ready for combat.' When one combines this news with the fact that roughly one-third of the active Army is deployed (and thus presumably ready for combat), the math is simple but the answer alarming: The active Army has close to zero combat-ready brigades in reserve." Worse, "one-half of all Army units (deployed and non-deployed, active and reserves) received the lowest readiness rating any fully formed unit can receive." The readiness problem reflects the fact that every "available active-duty combat brigade has served at least one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, and many have served two or three." According to a report released yesterday by Reps. Dave Obey (D-WI) and John Murtha (D-PA), "The U.S. Army's preparedness for war has eroded to levels not witnessed by our country in decades."

Obey and Murtha report, "Thousands of key Army weapons platforms -- such as tanks, Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles -- sitting in disuse at Army maintenance depots for lack of funding. "This is having a snowball effect on its readiness issues because the Army is "compensating" for its shortfall by "shipping to Iraq some of the equipment that it needs to train non-deployed and reserve units."

The Army is also struggling to meet its recruiting goals. For example, "After failing to meet its recruitment target for 2005, the Army raised the maximum age for enlistment from 35 to 40 in January -- only to find it necessary to raise it to 42 in June." Also, the Army has been forced to lower its standards for basic training. "Through the first six months of 2006, only 7.6 percent of new recruits failed basic training, down from 18.1 percent in May 2005."

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053

THE REAL RISK OF TERRORISM

A chart compiled by Ryan Singel at Wired, shows some of the relative risks in contemporary life over the past five years. You would have been, for example, far more likely to die in an auto accident, from a fall, or from drowning than in a terrorist incident. You were also more likely to die from the flu or from a hernia, not to mention being shot by a law enforcement officer.

Other useful comparisons include those in a recent article in Foreign Affairs that estimates the probability of an American being killed in an terrorist incident is about 1 in 80,000. And as we have reported previously, you are also more likely to be murdered, commit suicide, be killed by the side effects of a prescription drug, or die of cancer or heart disease.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71743-0.html?tw=wn_index_4

MILITARY PLANNED TERRORIST IN U.S. CITIES TO BLAME ON CASTRO

DAVID RUPPE, ABC NEWS - In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban emigres, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets, a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford . . .

The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=92662

TERRORISM HASN'T INCREASED, JUST THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY