How do military personnel handle illegal orders in war?The notion is drilled into his skull from the moment a prospective Marine first gets his locks sheared to the time his boots hit the ground in a war zone like Iraq: You will obey orders.
But what if the order is to commit kidnapping and murder?
That's what Marine Corps prosecutors allege in the case of eight Camp Pendleton-based servicemen accused of killing a civilian on April 26 in Hamdaniya. The charges could result in life imprisonment for some of the sus... (more)
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REPORT: Top U.S. Military Officer Recommends ‘We Remove All Troops From Baghdad’President Bush has consistently said that his strategy in Iraq is dictated by military officials on the ground. Last night on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, columnist Mark Shields revealed that one of the “highest ranking men” in the military has recommended removing all U.S. troops from Baghdad. Here’s the key excerpt:
MARK SHIELDS: The highest ranking or certain ... (more)
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McCain Calls For Escalation In Iraq, Wants 20,000 More Troops On The GroundToday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called for sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq. The AP reports:
Republican Sen. John McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said Friday the United States should send another 20,000 troops to Iraq.
A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain said increasing U.S. forces would require expanding t ... (more)
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FBI probing 'nuclear info leak' The FBI is investigating whether information from a US nuclear weapons laboratory was found in a police drugs search of a New Mexico trailer park.
Police said that material recovered during the search appeared to come from Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The lab, one of two US sites that carry out classified nuclear research, has a history of security breaches.
The owner of the mobile home which was raided is said to be a former em... (more)
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Al Qaeda Plans for an October Surprise? Is Osama bin Laden going to weigh in on the midterm elections? A senior counterterrorism official, anonymous, like other officials NEWSWEEK spoke to, because the subject is sensitive, says that based on previous patterns—such as the release of a rare bin Laden tape just before the 2004 presidential vote—a message before Election Day wouldn't be surprising.
Private expert Evan Kohlmann, who consults for the Feds on terror probes, says Al Qaeda has lately releas... (more)
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Poll: Americans don't want politicians constraining judges(CNN) -- Despite politicians' complaints about judges having too much power, two-thirds of Americans do not believe elected officials should have more control over federal judges, according to a new CNN poll released Saturday.
Sixty-seven percent of 1,013 people surveyed by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of CNN said federal judges -- and the decisions they make -- should not be subject to more control.
Only 30 percent said they should.
Both a curre... (more)
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Two soldiers suspended over skull photos The German army suspended two soldiers yesterday as the scandal of its troops stationed in Afghanistan who desecrated a skull widened.
The suspensions were announced by Franz Joseph Jung, the defence minister.
The men were allegedly pictured in photographs taken in 2003.
More pictures emerged, showing a different group of soldiers spelling out words with bones. The newspaper Bild, which published the original pictures, said it had doz... (more)
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Boehner: ‘Rumsfeld Is The Best Thing That’s Happened To The Pentagon In 25 Years’ This morning on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) whether he agreed with the growing number of prominent conservatives who think Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign.
Boehner said that “Rumsfeld is the best thing that’s happened to the Pentagon in 25 years.” He told Stephanopoulos the buck should stop nowhere. “Let’s not take the problems in Iraq, the tough fight that we&r... (more)
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Afghanistan war is 'cuckoo', says Blair's favourite general Tony Blair's most trusted military commander yesterday branded as 'cuckoo' the way Britain's overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan.
The remarkable rebuke by General the Lord Guthrie came in an Observer interview, his first since quitting as Chief of the Defence Staff five years ago, in which he made an impassioned plea for more troops, new equipment and more funds for a 'very, very' over-committed army.
The decision by Guthrie, an experienced W... (more)
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NBC Refuses Ads for Dixie Chicks Movie Because "They are Disparaging to President Bush"In an Ironic Twist of Events, NBC and The CW Television Network Refuse to Air Ads for Documentary Focusing on Freedom of Speech
NBC Claims that the Network “Cannot Accept These Spots as They are Disparaging to President Bush”
The CW Television Network that the Network Does “Not have Appropriate Programming in which to Schedule this Spot”
NBC and The CW Television Network have taken a stand against the Dixie’s Chicks new d... (more)
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Authorities: Powder At Clinton Office Non-ToxicNEW YORK Police and Secret Service agents determined Friday that a suspicious substance found at former President Clinton's office in Manhattan was inert and nontoxic.
A staff member opened a package delivered to the president's office that contained a white powdery substance and a letter, and called authorities, said Secret Service spokesman Richard Staropoli. He described the letter as a "rambling diatribe."
Clinton was not at the office at the time, but was in Ne... (more)
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Saddam Hussein verdict postponed until two days before U.S. election: Will the media turn a skeptical eye?Summary: While it cannot definitively be said that the reason the senior Iraqi court in charge of Saddam Hussein's trial postponed its verdict in the case until two days before the November elections so that it would influence the midterms, the postponement suggests several obvious questions, including, most importantly: Given the Bush administration's history of timing national security-related actions to the political calendar, has the date for the verdict's release been set to ... (more)
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Conservative Columnists Meet With Bush at White HouseEight conservative columnists visited the White House yesterday to interview George W. Bush, and heard the president once again defend his Iraq War policies.
"(T)there are people out there that would like nothing more than to have another spectacular moment by killing the American people," Bush told the columnists, according to a transcript posted on U.S. News & World Report magazine's Web site. "And they're coming. ... That's why we need to be on the offense all the time. I... (more)
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Poll: Most feel civil liberties not harmed by war on terror Most Americans do not believe the Bush administration has gone too far in restricting civil liberties as part of the war on terror, a new CNN poll released Thursday suggests.
While 39 percent of the 1,013 poll respondents said the Bush administration has gone too far, 34 percent said they believe the administration has been about right on the restrictions, according to the Opinion Research Corp. survey. Another 25 percent said the administration has not gone far enough.... (more)
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Speeding ticket... for deaf and blind manSTUNNED Martyn Styles has been sent a £60 speeding fine - even though he cannot drive because he is deaf and blind.
Police say Martyn, 42, who has never even sat behind the wheel of a car, was caught in a speed trap doing 36mph in a 30mph zone.
And Martyn was informed he would have three penalty points slapped on his non-existent licence. Yesterday, he said: "I'm shocked and upset.
"They say they've got evidence against me. Well, let's see the p... (more)
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German troops in skull photos row Photos apparently showing German troops posing with a skull in Afghanistan have caused outrage in Germany.
The tabloid newspaper Bild, which carried the photos, says they show German troops in Afghanistan in 2003.
On one of the pictures, a soldier is seen holding the skull next to his exposed penis, on another - soldiers pose with the skull on their jeep.
German chancellor Angela Merkel expressed disgust at the photos and said there... (more)
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Paraguay in a spin about Bush's alleged 100,000 acre hideaway Meeting the new couple next door can be an anxious business for even the most relaxed home owner. Will they be international drug traffickers? Have they got noisy kids with a penchant for electronic music? As worries go, however, having the US president move in next door must come fairly low on the list.
Unless of course you are a resident of northern Paraguay and believe reports in the South American press that he has bought up a 100,000 acre (40,500 hectare) ranch in y... (more)
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Poll: Americans for more border cops, not a fence Although a majority of Americans support increasing the number of Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border, most do not support building a 700-mile fence along the border, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.
Seventy-four percent of 1,013 poll respondents said they would be in favor of more U.S. agents along the border. But only 45 percent said they wanted a border fence built, according to the survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of CNN.... (more)
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NY Times falsely reported Lieberman never "utter[ed] the words 'stay the course' "In an October 24 New York Times article, reporters Jennifer Medina and Anne E. Kornblut wrote of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's (CT) stated positions on the Iraq war: "Never, in the statements reviewed, did Mr. Lieberman utter the words 'stay the course.' " In fact, Lieberman has uttered those exact words about Iraq several times.
... (more)
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