Military
Off-campus houses a long-standing problem for Naval Academy
“Last week’s hearing on sexual assault allegations against three U.S. Naval Academy football players highlighted a little-known problem at the school: off-campus rental houses that violate academy regulations but have been the scene of alcohol-and sex-fueled parties for years. The Sun found that the houses, nestled in quiet suburban neighborhoods, have been the focus of…
Read MoreBack Home: The enduring battles facing post-9/11 veterans
“In the 12 years since American troops first deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 2.6 million veterans have returned home to a country largely unprepared to meet their needs. The government that sent them to war has failed on many levels to fulfill its obligations to these veterans as demanded by Congress and promised…
Read MoreCIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam As He Gassed Iran
“The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America’s military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy has learned.”
Read MoreIn Afghanistan, redeployed U.S. soldiers still coping with demons of post-traumatic stress
“A diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is not a barrier to being redeployed. Not when the Army needs its most experienced soldiers to wrap up the war. Instead, the Army is trying to answer a new question: Who is resilient enough to return to Afghanistan, in spite of the demons they are still fighting?”
Read MoreTop drone supporter, beneficiary now looks to uses closer to home
The strikes are deeply unpopular in South Asia and in other parts of the world, reports the Investigative Reporting Workshop. The Taliban killed 10 foreign mountaineers in Pakistan in June — in retaliation, the Taliban said, for the U.S. drone strikes. Many of the drones that were used in Pakistan, along with those sent to…
Read MoreUN: Unexploded ordnance killing Afghan civilians as U.S.-led coalition abandons bases
“The U.S.-led coalition is failing to clear unexploded munitions from the Afghan bases it’s demolishing as it withdraws its combat forces, leaving a deadly legacy that has killed and maimed a growing number of civilians, United Nations demining officials charge,” according to a McClatchy report.
Read MoreNew $34 million military headquarters in Afghanistan will sit unused
The U.S. military has erected a 64,000-square-foot headquarters in Afghanistan at a cost of $34 million, but has no plans to use it. Senior military officials told The Washington Post that they insisted they did not need the facility and see no point to moving into it as they withdraw forces from the area. Military…
Read MoreDefense Department accounting errors leave some soldiers struggling to get by
A Reuters investigation has found that “pay errors in the military are widespread” and as many have found, including U.S. Army medic Shawn Aiken whose story Reuters has highlighted, “once mistakes are detected, getting them corrected – or just explained – can test even the most persistent soldiers.” “A review of individuals’ military pay records,…
Read MoreMIA work ‘acutely dysfunctional’
“Largely beyond the public spotlight, the decades-old pursuit of bones and other MIA evidence is sluggish, often duplicative and subjected to too little scientific rigor, (an internal military) report says. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the internal study after Freedom of Information Act requests for it by others were denied.”
Read MoreExtra Extra Roundup: Drug cartels, unjustified shootings, unseen farm worker harassment
Unjustified | Newsday“Report reveals how cop shot unarmed man – and kept his job.” Secret files reveal how pay-to-play works in N.J. | The Star-Ledger“A special report by The Star-Ledger exposes how one politically connected engineering firm parlayed campaign donations into millions of dollars in public contracts, all the while keeping the scheme hidden from the…
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