Culling the Troops

The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years.

[...]

The data reveals stark differences between the military services and underscores the strains that long, repeated deployments to the front lines have had on the Army's soldiers and their leaders.

It also reflects the Army's rapid growth in the middle part of the decade, and the decisions to relax standards a bit to bring in and retain tens of thousands of soldiers to fill the ranks as the Pentagon added troops in Iraq and continued the fight in Afghanistan.

[...]

For enlisted soldiers, the numbers have seesawed over the past 13 years, hovering near 9,000 at the start of the decade and falling to 5,706 in 2007. Since then, the number has climbed again.

[...]

More than 1,400 cases each year involved a "serious offense" or civil or criminal court case.

[...]

[S]candals included the demotion of Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward for lavish, unauthorized spending; sexual misconduct charges against Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair; and episodes of gambling and drinking by other general officers.

[...]

More recently, there have been cheating allegations against Air Force nuclear missile launch officers and a massive bribery case in California that has implicated six Navy officers.

  alJazeera

Generals? Officers? How does that square up with the claim that the problem comes from lax recruitment? Sounds like maybe the rot starts at the top.

Attacking the Messenger

The main stream media is salivating to publish and repeat any inkling of anti-Snowden material. (It is certainly easier than asking how the Intelligence Community leaders, secret court, and Presidents of both parties signed off on surveillance that violates the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of innocent Americans.)

While the original piece didn't include a statement from Snowden's legal representative, to his credit, Michael Isikoff of NBC updated the article today to include a statement from me:

In response to a request for comment, Jesselyn Radack, a legal adviser to Snowden in the U.S., said, “Edward Snowden stands by his denial on Jan. 23. NSA has a documented history of scapegoating innocent employees for its own failures, … manufacturing evidence against them and misleading Congress.”

[...]

The fact that NSA finds time to write a memo to Congress about accountability for the public finding out about NSA waste and illegality, but cannot give a clear answer to simple oversight questions like "does the NSA collect data on millions of Americans?" should call into question all of NSA's defensive smears of the messenger that are really transparent attempts to distract from the message.

  Jesselyn Radack

In related news:

They may not be trying to figure out how to curtail privacy abuses, but they are definitely on top of how to avoid hiring another Edward Snowden.

 The GAO recently published a report on their efforts to “improve civilian IC [intelligence community] elements' or their respective departments' ability to mitigate risks associated with the use of contractors.”

Shorter GAO report: We don’t know how many there are or how much they are costing us, but we found out that many of them may be redundant or unnecessary. All agencies need to fix this.

 Full report.

John Kiriakou Update

UPDATE 2/23:  I am seeing lots of articles and reports about John Kiriakou lately, but none mention the claim below.  So perhaps it is a fake.  I'll keep on the lookout.

Recall the CIA torture whistleblower who is behind bars for his efforts, John Kiriakou.

This looks like some very good news.  If true, and it looks legit, kudos to both Warden Kirby and human rights advocate Jude Fleming.

 

 

Kiriakou's letter to Ed Snowden.

Kiriakou's letter from prison.

Video prior to imprisonment:

The Supid - It Hurts

The nation that put the first man on the Moon is failing to make the grade today when it comes to basic knowledge of the solar system and other fundamental scientific insight.

[...]

Out of a total of nine questions on subjects related to physical and biological sciences, the average score in [a recent] survey was a narrowly passing 6.5 correct answers, according to a survey of 2,200 Americans conducted by the National Science Foundation.

For example, only 74 percent correctly answered that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

  RT

Galileo turns in his grave.  Too little fundamental science and much fundamental religion?

Meanwhile, fewer than half (48 percent) of study participants were aware that human beings evolved from earlier species of animals.

I don’t think it’s a matter of awareness. It’s a matter of belief.

Or could I be wrong?

According to the test, more than 90 percent of Americans are of the opinion that scientists are "helping to solve challenging problems" and are "dedicated people who work for the good of humanity."

Also, nearly 90 percent said the benefits of science outweigh any of its potential dangers.

[...]

The question of academic quality has become a hot political issue as a number of international tests show Americans falling behind.

No problem. Americans are the world’s consumers. In a global society, we don’t need the scientists. We just buy (or steal – hey, hey, NSA) their product.

A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that Americans scored far below average and higher than only two of 12 other developed comparison countries, Italy and Spain.

What are those guys doing?

Re: Greenwald's Negative Reaction to the Book "Snowden Files"

[Glenn] Greenwald’s more abrasive side surfaces when the subject turns to a Guardian book, The Snowden Files, by Luke Harding, published in early February. “It is a bullshit book,” he says. “They are purporting to tell the inside story of Edward Snowden but it is written by someone who has never met or even spoken to Edward Snowden. Luke came here and talked to me for half a day without [my] realising that he was trying to get me to write his book for him. I cut the interview off when I realised what he was up to.”

At the time of our lunch, Greenwald had only read extracts from Harding’s book, which he thought put far too much emphasis on some youthful anonymous online posts that Snowden once wrote. Later, after reading the whole book, he would tell me by email that it did not trash Snowden.

  Financial Times

In fact, the book is very complementary of Snowden and also of Greenwald.

I am a huge Greenwald fan, in spite of his sometimes abrasive arrogance, and have been following him since he first began blogging. I think Glenn gets his dander up fairly readily and started complaining about the book based on what he THOUGHT it was going to be. He made a couple of snide remarks on his Twitter account when the book was first published, but I haven’t seen anything since.

I also think the “youthful posts” from Snowden that Greenwald objected to were interesting and informative to the development of Snowden the whistleblower. It has made me change my view of Snowden to something which I think is probably more realistic: a somewhat (if not very) arrogant young tech geek (his name on Ars Technica forums was “TheTrueHOOHA”) traveling the world, in a high-glamour high-security game of intrigue, yet with a good deal of moral integrity, who suddenly had the wool removed from his eyes.

I think an apology for Greenwald’s first comments about the author would not be inappropriate, but I don’t see Greenwald as the apologetic type.

Disappeared Drone Activist Released

Karim Khan told Al Jazeera on Friday that he had been kept handcuffed and blindfolded in what he called a "torture cell" for eight days, standing on his hands and feet.

He said he had been punched, slapped and beaten with a stick and a leather strip. The activist also said he was hung upside down at certain points, and that the soles of his feet were beaten with the leather strap.

Khan was abducted on the outskirts of Islamabad on February 5, just days before he had been due to testify before European parliamentarians about US drone attacks.

He said he was set free in the town of Tarnol, near the city of Rawalpindi, in the early hours of Friday.

[...]

The activist said he had no idea who was responsible for his abduction, and did not cast blame on intelligence agencies, which had been suspected of holding him.

[...]

Khan told Al Jazeera he would fly to Europe be part of the delegation briefing parliamentarians and that he would continue his work for the sake of "innocent people" who are killed by drones and "labelled as terrorists".

  alJazeera

Though Khan was not able to identify the men who had detained him, a court on Wednesday had ordered the government to produce him by February 20 or provide the reason for his detention.

[...]

Last month, a new law was passed allowing the security forces to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without disclosing their whereabouts or the allegations against them.

[...]

“He was questioned about names and people in Waziristan. Many names he did not know about. He was questioned about his drone work, and was told not to speak to media otherwise they will come back for them.”

  Tribune.pk

But She Might Have Responded

[...]

Ben Wizner, a lawyer for the ACLU who represents Snowden, did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment.

  NBC

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Here's to You

This Is Your Government Addicted to Secrecy

[Attorney General Eric] Holder, in his April declaration, restated his own new state secrets policy, that “[t]he Department will not defend an invocation of the privilege in order to: (i) conceal violations of the law, inefficiency, or administrative error; (ii) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency of the United States Government”. Then he did exactly what he had said he wouldn’t do.

[...]

For nine years, the U.S. government refused to let a Stanford PhD student named Rahinah Ibrahim back in the country after putting her on the no-fly list for no apparent reason. For eight years, U.S. government lawyers fought Ibrahim’s request that she be told why. Last April, despite his promise in 2009 to do so only in only the most extreme cases, [Holder] tried to block Ibrahim’s case by asserting the state secrets privilege, declaring under penalty of perjury that the information she wanted “could reasonably be expected to cause significant harm to national security.”

Last week, a federal judge publicly revealed the government’s explanation for Ibrahim’s long ordeal: an FBI agent had “checked the wrong box,” resulting in her falling under suspicion as a terrorist.

  Intercept

Disappeared

A Pakistani court has ordered the country’s intelligence agencies to produce a prominent anti-drone campaigner, who was abducted last week, by February 20, or to categorically state that they are not holding him, the activist’s lawyers say.

[...]

[Karim] Khan had been due to fly to Europe on February 15, on a trip that would see him testify before members of the European Parliament in Brussels, UK legislators in London and the International Criminal Court in The Hague, on the US' use of drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

[...]

On Tuesday, Khan’s case was raised with the Pakistani government by the Dutch government, UK legislator Tom Watson, and German MP Hans-Christian Strobele.

"I am extremely concerned for the safety of drone victim and journalist Karim Khan whom I invited to speak to MPs this month […] Given the timing, I am concerned that there may be a connection between his disappearance and his intention to speak to members of parliament.”

  alJazeera

There may be.

Zarmeeneh Rahim, another member of Khan’s legal team, argued that Khan’s abduction erodes faith in peaceful, legal means of redress in Pakistan.

"The issue with a case such as Karim’s is that the perception seems to be that people of Waziristan are either collateral damage in the fight against militants, or once they have become victims of drone strikes, they become perpetrators of violence themselves. In Karim Khan’s case, he was a violent victim of a drone strike, his son and brother were killed, and yet he chose to fight through the courts, and peaceful and legal means of protest," she told Al Jazeera.

And I’m sure it will be noted by those living there what that got him.

UPDATE:  http://youwillanyway2.blogspot.com/2014/02/disappeared-drone-activist-released.html