Category Archives: Military

May 16, 2012

Website of the Week: Until They Are Home

The Battle of Tarawa finally has some closure after 69 years. US remains were flown back in a C-130 with a C-17 transfer back to Honolulu.

Filmmaker Steven C. Barber, Producers Matthew Hausle and Tamara Henry and Executive Producer Tim Shelton invite you to the 2012 Memorial Day catered red carpet premiere of Until They Are Home at the DGA Directors Guild of America with 100 US Marines. Monday May 28th, 2012. 6PM. Details at our facebook event page, please check if you will be attending and invite your friends who have military connections.

The Battle of Tarawa finally has some closure after 69 years. US remains were flown back in a C-130 with a C-17 transfer back to Honolulu. Mr. Barber’s sequel of WWW.RETURNTOTARAWA.COM (Ed Harris) will be the amazing story of the young men and women of JPAC that embed themselves in beyond rugged and brutal conditions in order to bring our fallen service members home.

JPAC Team members are the unsung heroes that until now have been unrecognized and have worked in the shadows. That is about to change. “Until They Are Home” is proud to announce that Kelsey Grammer has attached himself as the main narrator. Larry King and John Savage are also on board. Please like our facebook page to keep up to date with current develpoments at www.Facebook.com/UnitlTheyAreHome

And also please like our Vanilla Fire Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/VanillaFire

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May 13, 2012

Bloodless bean-counters rule over us – where are the leaders?

These habits are now pervasive across industry and the public services. “Diversity” is always “celebrated”, but it never means diversity of thought. The people who tell you they are “passionate about” X or Y are usually the most bloodless ones in the outfit.


The Armed Forces have fought several wars in the past 15 years, dealing with a Ministry of Defence staffed by people who know nothing about war

Recently, a man got in touch with me who works for the defence services contractor QinetiQ. He wanted to complain about the way it was run. The company, in his view, suffers from “managerialism”.

Managerialists, he says, are “a group who consider themselves separate from the organisations they join”. They are not interested in the content of the work their organisation performs. They are a caste of people who think they know how to manage. They have studied “The 24-hour MBA”. There is a clear benefit from their management, for them: they arrange their own very high salaries and bonuses. Then they can leave quickly with something that looks good on the CV. The benefit to the company is less clear.

I also spoke to a former senior employee of QinetiQ. He corroborated my informant’s points with gusto. He said managerialists were particularly unsuited to industries such as QinetiQ’s, where scientific knowledge is all. He put it simply: “People who are making bits of technology, or servicing them, should know about technology.”

Skills are not infinitely transferable. “You used to be the editor of a broadsheet newspaper,” he said to me. “How do you think a former chief executive of Ford would perform if he suddenly came and edited a national title?” (or, he politely didn’t say, if the reverse were to happen).

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May 5, 2012

10 years of war – for what? by Patrick J. Buchanan

“America has no designs beyond an end to al-Qaida safe havens,” said Obama in Bagram. “Our goal is not to build a country in America’s image, or to eradicate every vestige of the Taliban.” But if those are our goals, had we not achieved them all by early 2002? What, then, were we fighting for – these 10 years?

“My fellow Americans, we have traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war,” said Barack Obama from Bagram Air Base.

“Here in the predawn darkness, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. The Iraq War is over. The number of troops in harm’s way has been cut in half, and more will be coming home. … The time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end.”

Interesting comment, that last.

If “the time of war” is at an end, does that rule out U.S. military action in Syria or war on Iran?

Setting aside the 14,000-mile round trip to Afghanistan to do an end zone dance on the anniversary of Seal Team Six’s dispatch of Osama bin Laden, Obama seems to have boxed in his Republican rivals.

His assurance that our wars are ending and our troops are coming home reflects the national will. And his partnership agreement with President Hamid Karzai and pledge that a U.S. force will remain to train the Afghan army and prevent al-Qaida’s return inoculates him against the charge that he is cutting and running.

Yet the New York Times was disappointed.

Obama had not said how the United States is to train the Afghan army to defeat the Taliban by 2014, nor how we can get Karzai to deal with the pervasive corruption and incompetence of his government.

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May 4, 2012

Obama’s military madrassas

The Pentagon review will have a chilling effect on military students. Graduate-level seminars are designed to promote the free exchange of ideas. Now officers may be unwilling to have frank discussions because of the potential that expressing the wrong ideas, even as a means of spurring debate, could be a career-ender.

America’s top-line military schools are supposed to be cutting-edge centers of strategic education. But say a bad word about Islam there, and it could end your career.

On April 24, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a memo expressing concern that “academic institutions within the Department of Defense may be presenting material … which goes well beyond merely presenting alternative intellectual viewpoints on radicalism to advocating ideas, beliefs and actions that are contrary to our national policy, inconsistent with the values of our profession, and disrespectful of the Islamic religion.” The memo ordered a thorough screening of course curricula and outside speakers with a view toward “cultural sensitivity, respect for religion and intellectual balance.” Disciplinary action could be taken against academics whose courseware is judged somehow to be offensive. Outside speakers could be blacklisted.

The review was ordered after a student complained about the content of an elective – “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism” – taught at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va. The class was highly regarded by students, yet one slide in one briefing presented the view that America is at war with Islam – a politically incorrect notion that’s never permitted to be uttered, written or thought. “The course is called ‘Perspectives on Radicalism,’ ” a former senior-level military professor told The Washington Times, “but they only want the official perspective. Graduate school is supposed to be education, not indoctrination.”

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May 3, 2012

Diversity Is Strength! It’s Also…Unarmed American Soldiers Dying In Afghan “Green On Blue” Shootings

Canadian General Mike Day is saying that that means that the Afghans who killed Coalition soldiers — most of the dead were Americans — weren’t acting according to any plan. They just hated foreigners, or Americans, or Christians, or white people, or for that matter, black people, and murdered them.

It was big news in March when an American Army sergeant being held in the deliberate killings of some Afghan civilians.

Barack Obama apologized for the killings for which Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is being held—revising and extending his previous apologies for videos featuring actual terrorists who had been shot and…urinated on by Marines, and some Korans that had wound up in an incinerator.

But this incident was actually unusual. The usual thing is for Afghan soldiers to murder American Armed Forces personnel.

Last week, there was incident in which Staff Sgt. Andrew T. Brittonmihalo was killed, and three of his comrades wounded, by an Afghan Special Forces soldier who was supposed to be an ally. [SF staff sgt. killed in Afghanistan, Army Times, April 30, 2012]

This week, the Associated Press has an exclusive report saying US not reporting all Afghan attacks (By Robert Burns, April 30, 2012). But many of us had already realized that.

This kind of murder is what the Army now calls a “Green on Blue” incident—in which a treacherous Afghan “ally” murders Coalition soldiers. Canadian General Mike Day has been quoted saying that “Since 2007 there had been 43 ‘green on blue’ incidents where Afghan soldiers shot and killed coalition soldiers…” Day also claims that investigation shows that “[L]ess than 20 per cent of them have any connection to the insurgency at all.”

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May 1, 2012

Court conspires to deny justice to decorated veteran

Recently, State Senator Steven Oroho’s staff conducted an investigation and the Superior Court of New Jersey, which lost the transcript, could not provide an explanation as to how a court transcript from within its own courthouse had disappeared.


John “Jack” Cunningham

I’m John ‘Jack’ Cunningham and I brought allegations of legal malpractice charges and attorney ethics violations against the law firm Maynard and Truland, who had represented me during a court action two years ago. I have alleged gross negligence, dubious billing practices and misstatements to the Court. My evidence included the law firm’s invoices, contract, attorney certifications, letters, documents and sworn statements.

Robert Correale, an attorney with Maynard and Truland, represented his law firm in my legal malpractice grievance in Superior Court. At that time, I learned that Correale was serving on the extremely influential New Jersey Supreme Court’s local attorney ethics committee of the district.

Correale was listed on Maynard & Truland’s own website that he was the vice-chairman of this specific Supreme Court committee. The current director of this state agency admits Correale was a member of the district but denies Correale was vice-chairman.

Against the objections of Correale, Sussex County Superior Court Judge Ronald Graves determined that the evidence presented by me warranted that the civil case be brought to the Superior Court Law Division for pursuit of damages. When I brought the case to life, the Superior Court’s transcript containing Judge Graves determination was unexplainably missing. My civil case was later dismissed for lack of merit.

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April 26, 2012

Marine Corps discharges sergeant for Facebook posts critical of Obama

SAN DIEGO – The Marine Corps said Wednesday it has decided to discharge a sergeant for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook.


April 13, 2012: Marine Sgt. Gary Stein speaks with reporters in front of the federal court building in San Diego. The Marine Corps has decided to discharge the sergeant for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook.

A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.

Sgt. Gary Stein will get an other-than-honorable discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating the policies, the Corps said.

The San Diego-area Marine who has served nine years in the Corps said he was disappointed by the decision. He argued that he was exercising his constitutional rights to free speech.

“I love the Marine Corps, I love my job. I wish it wouldn’t have gone this way. I’m having a hard time seeing how 15 words on Facebook could have ruined my nine-year career,” he told The Associated Press.

Gary Kreep, an attorney for Stein, said he would pursue administrative appeals within the Marine Corps but anticipates the effort will fail. He said he planned to file an amended complaint in federal court.

“As long as he wants to pursue this, we will be supporting him,” said Kreep, who is executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, an advocacy group.

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April 22, 2012

Judicial Watch Sues U.S. Air Force for Records on Costs of Michelle Obama’s Aug 2010 ‘Whirlwind’ Vacation to Spain

“That this lavish trip may be a source of embarrassment for the Obamas is not a sufficient reason to stonewall the release of records. Evidently, American taxpayers were stuck with a sizable bill so Mrs. Obama could tour around Spain with her family and friends. This administration, as a supposed steward of taxpayer dollars, has an obligation to disclose the full costs of the Obama family’s luxury trip,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a lawsuit on March 5, 2012, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the United States Air Force to obtain records detailing Michelle Obama’s controversial August 2010 vacation to Spain. Overall, Judicial Watch is seeking information pertaining to the costs to taxpayers for this vacation as well as any indication of official business conducted by Mrs. Obama while she was in the country (Judicial Watch v. USAF (No. 1:12-cv-00345)).

Specifically, Judicial Watch seeks access to the following records pursuant to its August 25, 2011, FOIA request:

i. All records concerning mission taskings of First Lady Michelle Obama’s August 2010 trip to Spain;

ii. All records concerning transportation costs for Mrs. Obama’s August 2010 trip to Spain; and

iii. All passenger manifests (DD-2131) for Mrs. Obama’s August 2010 trip to Spain.

The U.S. Air Force acknowledged receiving Judicial Watch’s request on August 30, 2011 and was required by law to respond by October 13, 2011, at the latest. However, at the time of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit, the Air Force has neither released responsive documents nor indicated why these documents should be withheld. The Air Force has also failed to indicate when a response is forthcoming.

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April 21, 2012

Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all

Mr Janabi, speaking in a two-part series, Modern Spies, starting tomorrow on BBC2, says none of it was true. When it is put to him “we went to war in Iraq on a lie. And that lie was your lie”, he simply replies: “Yes.”


Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi

A man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq – starting a nine-year war costing more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of pounds – will come clean in his first British television interview tomorrow.

“Curveball”, the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi’s lies used to justify the Iraq war.

He tries to defend his actions: “My main purpose was to topple the tyrant in Iraq because the longer this dictator remains in power, the more the Iraqi people will suffer from this regime’s oppression.”

The chemical engineer claimed to have overseen the building of a mobile biological laboratory when he sought political asylum in Germany in 1999. His lies were presented as “facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence” by Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, when making the case for war at the UN Security Council in February 2003.

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April 18, 2012

Arrest made after body found in Riverside during search for missing Marine wife

Marine Louis Ray Perez, 45 was arrested Sunday on an unrelated charge of possessing a stolen AR-15 rifle from Camp Pendleton. He remained jailed on $500,000 bail and has refused to cooperate with investigators.


Brittany Dawn Killgor,e who was reported missing Saturday, April 14, 2012.

Authorities arrested a woman Tuesday for investigation of murder after finding a body in their search for the missing wife of a U.S. Marine.

The body has not yet been identified as 22-year-old Brittany Killgore, who has been missing since Friday night, San Diego County sheriff’s Capt. Duncan Frasier said.

Police provided no details on a possible motive or any evidence that led to the arrest.

Police arrested 27-year-old Jessica Lynn Lopez at a motel in San Diego. She was under guard at University of California, San Diego Medical Center with unspecified injuries.

Frasier said she would be taken to jail and booked on suspicion of murder after treatment.

Police say they were also investigating another Marine, Louis Ray Perez, 45, the last person seen with Killgore. Authorities have not disclosed the nature of their relationship.

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