After investigators said an engineer in last week's collision had been texting on the job, regulators temporarily banned the use of all cellular devices by anyone at the controls of a moving train.
It seems some people at the Pentagon are getting going to extraordinary lengths to prevent the public from finding out about torture at Guantanamo:
Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed face the incredible prospect of a six-month jail sentence in America after writing a letter to President Obama detailing their client’s allegations of torture by US agents.
The privilege review team – officials from the US department of defence who monitor and censor communication between Guantánamo prisoners and their lawyers – have previously been accused of using their powers to suppress evidence of the abuse and mistreatment of detainees.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve, and his colleague Ahmed Ghappour have been summoned to appear before a Washington court on May 11 after a complaint was made by the privilege review team.
Stafford Smith had written to the president after judges in the UK ruled against the release of US evidence detailing Mohamed’s alleged torture at Guantánamo. The letter [PDF] asked the president to reconsider the US position and urged him to release the evidence into the public domain. He attached a memo summarising the case because his US security clearance gives him access to the classified material. In order to comply with classification guidelines, the memo did not identify individual officers by name or specify locations of the abuse.
He and Gappour submitted the memo to the privilege team for clearance but the memo was redacted to just the title, leaving the president unable to read it. Stafford Smith included the redacted copy of the memo in his letter to illustrate the extent to which it had been censored. He described it as a “bizarre reality”. “You, as commander in chief, are being denied access to material that would help prove that crimes have been committed by US personnel. This decision is being made by the very people who you command.”
The privilege team argue that by releasing the redacted memo Reprieve has breached the rules that govern Guantánamo lawyers and have made a complaint to the court of “unprofessional conduct”.
Stafford Smith described their actions as intimidation, saying the complaint “doesn’t even specify the rule supposedly breached”.
So not only did someone at the Pentagon fully redact a memo in order to keep the President of the United States from reading it, but the people who alerted the president to the censorship are being threatened with a six month jail sentence for the “crime” of bringing it to his attention.
The Air Force has concluded that a recent stealth bomber crash in Guam was caused by moisture, which confused the aircraft’s sensors. That plane cost more than $1 billion, so I hope that those sensors were still under warranty.
Also, the Air Force released footage of the crash from several different cameras. The clip below appears to be the best. It gives a pretty clear view of the two pilots ejecting:
It’s easy to see why Clinton is turning to attacks and negative ads. Voters generally don’t change their allegiance during the last couple of weeks of a campaign, except in response to attacks. But it’s only an effective strategy if you can identify something in your opponent’s character or record that you can credibly attack, and Clinton’s attacks have all been shown to be either false or frivolous.
By now, you probably know that many wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center were forced to live in moldy, rat-infested rooms, given inadequate care, and denied disability payments. Now we’re learning of fresh outrages:
“You’re in good hands, soldier! I put some of my buddies from Halliburton in charge operations at this facility.”
“Say what?”
When the Washington Post exposed the disgraceful conditions endured by maimed veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington Post coverage) (Military Times coverage), most conservative commentators ignored the story. A few went so far as to say that the soldiers were just a bunch of whiners. And some tried to use the story as a club to beat up on liberals who favor universal access to health care:
With Iraq in flames, Afghaninstan spinning out of control, and our closest allies leaving the fight, many Americans fear that the Global War on Terror will be much longer and more expensive than we had at first anticipated.
Were you wondering how Bush intends to sustain a 20,000-soldier troop surge in Iraq? Here’s how:
The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq.
Some people would rather not know what’s going on in Iraq
Whenever the government doesn’t want you to know something, it tells you on Friday afternoon. That way, the story doesn’t appear in the news until Saturday, and most of the media have forgotten about it by Monday. Since most people shy away from the news during the weekend, this is usually an effective way to bury a story.
Yesterday, the story being buried was an important one: Iraq is descending into a chaotic civil war. A Pentagon report shows that despite increasing troop levels, coalition forces have failed to prevent a sharp escalation of violence in Iraq:
Executions, kidnappings and other sectarian attacks targeting Iraqi civilians have soared over the past three months, contributing to a 51 percent rise in casualties among the population and Iraqi security forces, the report said. More than 3,000 Iraqis are killed or wounded each month, and by July, 2,000 of the casualties were the result of sectarian incidents, it showed.
(snip)
In a grim revelation, the report cited the Baghdad coroner’s office stating that it received 1,600 bodies in June and more than 1,800 in July, of which 90 percent were assessed to be the result of executions.
(snip)
“Sustained ethno-sectarian violence is the greatest threat to security and stability in Iraq,” the report said. “Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq,” it said, while maintaining that civil war can still be prevented.
Most coverage of the Pentagon report have focused on the deteriorating security situation, but other indicators also spell trouble for Iraq:
It’s now Memorial Day, and you’re probably wondering how you can honor America’s fallen soldiers, beyond giving them the traditional minute of silence.
The Disabled American Veterans provide services for those who make the penultimate sacrifice. If you can’t afford to send them $5 or $10, and you can’t volunteer your time, then you can check out their legislative action page, and contact your congressmen to tell them to support veterans when they vote on a number of crucial pieces of legislation.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars offers services to both veterans and the communities in which they live. I know that I’ve been asking both of my readers to support a lot of veteran’s organizations, and I don’t expect everyone to send checks to 5 or 10 different groups every Memorial Day.
But that’s the great thing about the VFW. Just about every city and town have a chapter, and they always need volunteers. Even if you can only give two hours a month, your service is always appreciated. You can find out more about VFW services and how to get hold of your local chapter here.
