News Alert: Gates Says U.S. Lacks Strategy to Curb Iran's Nuclear Drive

By GottaLaff

Via an e-mail alert from the N.Y. Times:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret
three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the
United States does not have an effective long-range policy
for dealing with Iran's steady progress toward nuclear
capability, according to government officials familiar with
the document.

Several officials said the memo touched off an intense effort
inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence
agencies to develop new options for President Obama. They
include a revised set of military alternatives, still under
development, to be considered should diplomacy and sanctions
fail to force Iran to change course.

One official called this a "wake up call," but the White House denied that, saying they've been planning for all kinds of outcomes for some time now.

The Sunday talk shows should be a real hoot, don't you think? Buckle up, we're in for yet another bumpy ride in the GOP gasbag gas-guzzling machine. Tune in early and you'll be treated to bellowing about our complete lack of national security, a foreign policy, and Obama's ineptness.

Oh, and no doubt we'll hear another refrain of this:



Please read the whole article here.

Defense Secretary Gates to announce changes to ban on gays in military

By GottaLaff

Incremental steps to end Don't Ask Don't Tell just don't seem like enough. And on top of that, it's always "tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow..."

Yes, I know, I know, but can't we just do this already?

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is close to announcing changes in the way the Department of Defense enforces the law that bans openly gay people from serving in the military. [...]

Gates will address “the changes that he is going to be making to the department's policy to provide for a more humane enforcement and application of the law,” Morrell said.

Gates directed the Pentagon’s legal counsel in February to explore ways to relax enforcement of the law commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

"Change. Relax. Provide for more humane enforcement."

Here's a word he didn't use: Repeal.

Let's please use that word a.s.a.p.

Pentagon moves to allow women to serve on Navy submarines

By GottaLaff

Click on image to enlarge. Via.

So serving with the opposite sex in close quarters is perfectly fine, but fighting side by side with Teh Gay is still a no-no to people like, say, John McCain?

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates notified Congress in a letter signed Friday that the Navy intends to repeal the ban on women sailors on subs.

At issue is the end of a policy that kept women from serving aboard the last type of ship off-limits to them. The thinking was that the close quarters aboard subs would make coed service difficult to manage.

I guess the thinking is that gay men and women have no self control, but straights are the epitome of self-discipline.

Finally: Don't Ask Don't Tell hearing Tuesday

By GottaLaff

That sound you hear is the right side of the aisle screaming "Obstruct!"

A senior defense official says to expect Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen provide more details about the end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during the Senate Budget hearings next Tuesday and Wednesday. [...]

The Joint Chiefs still have not worked out details on how military policy or infrastructure may change if DADT is repealed. One senior defense official said they will examine the need for actual changes in infrastructure -- separate berthing, showers, etc. -- NOT because they believe there needs to be separate facilities, but only to be prepared for critics who have said this could be an issue for the military. [...]

This new, more humane implementation will likely be the interim policy until the U.S. military figures out what needs to be changed for a smooth transition.

For much more, including which questions we should expect to be asked, go here.

I'd like to see an executive order on this, but that's not going to happen. I keep reminding myself what it would be like if McCain/Palin made it to the White House. After coming down off the ceiling at the very thought of those two taking charge of anything, and popping a few pretend sedatives, I realize I have to accept the baby steps we're taking, take a deep breath, and hope for the best.

I feel very strongly about DADT. It's hard to be patient, but patient I must be.

Gates Invokes New Authority to Block Release of Detainee Abuse Photos

By GottaLaff

(via)

My dear friend Jason Leopold has an exclusive (which has since made its way into the media) that is making my blood boil:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has blocked the release of photographs depicting US soldiers abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, using authority just granted to him by Congress to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to keep the images under wraps on national security grounds. [...]

As first reported by truthout, the photographs at issue, include one in which a female solider is pointing a broom at a detainee "as if [she were] sticking the end of a broomstick into [his] rectum."

Other photos are said to show US soldiers pointing guns at the heads of hooded and bound detainees in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army's Criminal Investigation Division investigated the matter and "three of the six investigations led to criminal charges and in two of those cases, the accused were found guilty and punished," according to papers Kagan previously filed with the Supreme Court. [...]

The Obama administration indicated it would abide by the appeals court order and release at least 44 of the photographs in question, but, in May, after he was pilloried by Republicans, President Obama backtracked, saying he had conferred with high-ranking military officials who advised him that releasing the images would stoke anti-American sentiment and would endanger the lives of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Truthout previously reported, the Obama administration petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear the case at the same time that the president privately told Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) he would work with Congress to help pass a measure to ensure the photographs could be withheld. [...]

"...[T]he fact remains that public disclosure of the photographs could reasonably be expected to endanger the lives and physical safety of individuals engaged in the Nation's military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The photographs therefore are exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA." [...]

Alex Abdo, a legal fellow with the ACLU's National Security Project, said the Obama administration's argument for continuing to suppres the photos "sets a dangerous precedent – that the government can conceal evidence of its own misconduct precisely because the evidence powerfully documents gross abuses of power and of detainees.

Please read the rest here.

Fayiz al-Kandari could have used some of those photos in his own defense during the military commission hearing that he is currently facing.

******

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

U.S. Commander to Seek Expansion of Afghan Forces

By GottaLaff

I smell protests:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the newly arrived top commander in Afghanistan, has concluded that the Afghan security forces will have to be far larger than currently planned if President Obama's strategy for winning the war is to succeed, according to senior military officials.

Such an expansion would require spending billions more than the $7.5 billion the administration has budgeted annually to build up the Afghan army and police over the next several years, and the likely deployment of thousands more U.S. troops as trainers and advisers, officials said. [...]

Without significant increases, said another U.S. official involved in training Afghan forces, "we will lose the war." Gates would have to agree to any request from McChrystal for additional funding or troops, and recommend it to Obama.

Gates: No change soon on `don't ask, don't tell'

By GottaLaff

Heavy sigh:

Don't expect any change soon to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy about gays in the military.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says both he and President Barack Obama have "a lot on our plates right now." As Gates puts it, "let's push that one down the road a little bit."

Okay, well, that's understandable.

The White House has said Obama has begun consulting with Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on how to lift the ban. Gates says that dialogue has not really progressed very far at this point in the administration.

Patience.

Defense Secretary Gates Could Stay Through Obama's 4 Years

By GottaLaff

Opening the floodGates:

Initial speculation that Defense Secretary would remain at the Pentagon for about a year and a half, or until the Iraq troop withdrawal was well under way, is yielding to new expectations that he will be there for years, possibly to the end of President Obama's first term in office. [...] Now, insiders say that Gates has cut a broad agenda to redo the military, review the budget, and shift the war focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, and he'd like to stay long enough to see it through. "He could be here the full four years," says an associate. "He and the president have really hit it off."