The report by a Pentagon inspector general, made public under a Freedom of Information Act request, said spy drones on non-military missions have occurred fewer than 20 times between 2006 and 2015 and always in compliance with existing law.
The inspector general analysis was completed March 20, 2015, but not released publicly until last Friday.
It said that with advancements in drone technology along with widespread military use overseas, the Pentagon established interim guidance in 2006 governing when and whether the unmanned aircraft could be used domestically. The interim policy allowed spy drones to be used for homeland defense purposes in the U.S. and to assist civil authorities.
The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies.
It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups†to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.â€
In response to the terrorist attack on military facilities in Chattanooga last year, the Air Force has reminded base commanders that they can authorize personnel to carry weapons on-duty and off-duty, and has established armed personnel programs to increase base security. Fox News reports, “the Unit Marshal Program enables commanders at every level to work with security forces to train Air Force members and allow them to open carry their [Beretta] M9 service pistol at their duty location. The Security Forces Staff Arming program enables more security officers to carry a government-issued weapon while on duty.â€
The FBI confirms tonight “some weapons†are missing after a burglary at the Lincoln W. Stoddard U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester last night, but the agency insisted there is “no indication” of terrorism.
“The FBI is aware that some weapons are missing as a result of the break in at the Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. We have entered those weapons into NCIC, a national database, and alerted our federal, state and local law enforcement partners,†said Kristen Setera, spokeswoman for Boston Special Agent-in-Charge Harold H. Shaw.
Where are the lawmakers calling for the military and local law enforcement to be held accountable for lost/stolen weapons?
Sen. John McCain is recommending at the U.S. Army throw out its current plan to replace the M9 service pistol until it can decide upon a specific caliber and type of ammunition soldiers need.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee blasted the Army’s Modular Handgun System, or MHS, effort in the latest in his “America’s Most Wanted: Indefensible” report series.
“The easiest solution would be to allow Army divisions or even brigade combat teams to select from handguns, ammunition and accessories that are already tested, approved and are being used in combat by units within the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Joint Special Operations Command,” according to the report.
At sea, the Phalanx® Close-In Weapon System—a rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided gun system—is designed to defeat anti-ship missiles and other close-in air and surface threats. The Land-based Phalanx Weapon System is part of the U.S. Army’s Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar systems used to detect and destroy incoming rounds in the air before they hit their ground targets. It also helps provide early warning of attacks.
“A woman will graduate Ranger School,” a general told shocked subordinates this year while preparing for the first females to attend a “gender integrated assessment” of the grueling combat leadership course starting April 20, sources tell PEOPLE. “At least one will get through.”
Multiple sources told PEOPLE:
• Women were first sent to a special two-week training in January to get them ready for the school, which didn’t start until April 20. Once there they were allowed to repeat the program until they passed – while men were held to a strict pass/fail standard.
• Afterward they spent months in a special platoon at Fort Benning getting, among other things, nutritional counseling and full-time training with a Ranger.
• While in the special platoon they were taken out to the land navigation course – a very tough part of the course that is timed – on a regular basis. The men had to see it for the first time when they went to the school.
• Once in the school they were allowed to repeat key parts – like patrols – while special consideration was not given to the men.
• A two-star general made personal appearances to cheer them along during one of the most challenging parts of the school, multiple sources tell PEOPLE.
In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,†the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.â€
The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.
He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit, but the latest one had hit him like a brick: Joshua Markel, a mentor from his fire team, who had seemed unshakable. In Afghanistan, Corporal Markel volunteered for extra patrols and joked during firefights. Back home Mr. Markel appeared solid: a job with a sheriff’s office, a new truck, a wife and time to hunt deer with his father. But that week, while watching football on TV with friends, he had wordlessly gone into his room, picked up a pistol and killed himself. He was 25.
“He has inspired a number of people by the way he as responded to this – his humility,†Welsh said at the Air Force Association’s 2015 national convention. “He has stayed very true to himself from the very beginning. He has not let the moment overwhelm him. He has represented the Air Force very well and very proudly and, basically, he has an instinct for saying and doing the right thing, which I think is going to be a very, very good attribute in a young NCO supervisor.”
The promotion is in addition to the previously announced Purple Heart and Airman’s Medal Stone will receive Thursday. Welsh said that Stone was eligible for the Purple Heart under a precedent set by the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, but he is not eligible for other combat valor awards.
Lt. Cmdr. Tim White, the Navy officer who fired a sidearm in defense during the attack on Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., will not face charges, an official familiar with the investigation told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.
A leaked document shows nearly one-third of the 847,000 veterans in the Department of Veteran Affairs’ backlog died while waiting for treatment, amounting to more than 238,000 patients, according to documents obtained by the Huffington Post.
Editor’s Note: This analysis was written by Stratfor’s lead military analyst, Paul Floyd, who served in the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, a core component of the United States Army Special Operations Command. He deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan in a combat role.
The Iraqi city of Ramadi has fallen again into the hands of the Islamic State, a group born of al Qaeda in Iraq. That this terrorist organization, whose brutality needs no description, has retaken a city once fought for by American soldiers troubles me. I served two deployments in Ramadi, fighting al Qaeda. Comrades died in that fight. I was shot in Ramadi. My initial reaction, like that of many veterans, is to ask what the hell it was all for, when nothing seems to change. The whole endeavor was a costly bloodletting and it seems the price we paid yielded no actual benefit. Yet, Memorial Day is as much a day for reflection as it is for remembrance and commemoration. And in reflecting, I have had to sit back and define exactly what we are memorializing on this day. Read the rest of this entry »