usmilitary

2011年6月27日星期一

Next Pentagon chief will formally end gay ban: Gates (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A formal end to the ban on gays serving openly in the US military will likely come by late July or early August, outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates told AFP on Thursday.

Gates, revising his earlier forecasts, said in an interview that final approval to end the prohibition would be left for his successor at the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, who is due to take over from Gates on July 1.

Congress voted to repeal the ban in December and Gates had said previously that he might be able to sign off on the change before he steps down at the end of the month.

The new law requires the Pentagon to make any necessary changes and then the prohibition would end 60 days after the defense secretary, the top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen and President Barack Obama certify that the military is ready to move ahead.

"I will not certify," said Gates, but added he had launched preparations to pave the way for the move.

"What I have done is earlier this week met with the service chiefs and the service secretaries and we began what I would call the pre-certification phase of this," he said.

With a large percentage of the force having undergone training to adjust to the new rule, the chiefs of the armed services will now confer with their officers to check if the military is ready for the change, he said.

The chiefs, Gates said, will be asking "are we ready to proceed with this, are you confident that good order and cohesion and discipline will be maintained, and content that people have been trained adequately and so on."

Based on that exercise, the chiefs will then deliver their conclusions to the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Obama, he said.

Gates said he sought to start preparations in his final weeks in office to ensure the issue could be taken up by his successor next month without any delays.

"I wanted to get this started because when Mr Panetta comes in he's obviously going to have a lot of things on his plate.

"And I was concerned that if I didn't get this started it might be delayed several weeks until he was able to get to it and inform himself about it."

He added: "I think our hope would be that we would be in a position, and I underscore the word hope, to provide the certification sometime in the last half of July, early August."

Lawmakers voted to end the prohibition after the Pentagon issued a study that found a solid majority of troops were not bothered by the prospect of lifting the ban and that the military could implement the change without a major disruption or upheaval.

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US pair charged with Fort Hood-style massacre plot (AFP)

SEATTLE, Washington (AFP) – Two US men were charged Thursday with plotting to attack a Seattle military center with machine guns and grenades in the hopes of killing more people than a single gunman achieved in the deadly 2009 attack at Fort Hood.

Their aim was to inspire other Muslims to carry out similar attacks and one was allegedly caught on tape saying "Imagine how fearful America will be, and they'll know they can't push the Muslims around."

The men, who are reportedly converts to Islam, planned to use machine guns and grenades in order to kill as many people as possible in a military processing center that also houses a day care facility.

They were caught because a person the men recruited to join them contacted police to report the plot and agreed help with an FBI sting.

The charges were announced just hours after a US Marine reservist arrested near the Pentagon with an explosives component was charged in five late-night shootings at military installations that caused $100,000 in damage.

They come amid rising concerns about so-called home-grown terrorism in the United States.

"This is one of a number of recent plots targeting our military here at home," said Todd Hinnen, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

"Driven by a violent, extreme ideology, these two young Americans are charged with plotting to murder men and women who were enlisting in the Armed Forces to serve and protect our country."

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, aka Joseph Anthony Davis, 33, of Seattle, and Walli Mujahidh, aka Frederick Domingue, Jr., 32, of Los Angeles, were arrested late Wednesday after taking possession of machine guns they planned to use in the attacks.

The guns had been rendered inoperable as part of the sting operation, officials said.

"This is a sobering reminder of our need to be vigilant and that our first line of defense is the people who live in our community," US Attorney Jenny Durkan said in a statement.

"We were able to disrupt the plot because someone stepped forward and reported it to authorities."

The Seattle Times reported that the men are "self-radicalized" converts to Islam who had no known ties to Al-Qaeda or other terrorism groups.

A spokeswoman for the US attorney's office declined to comment on their background except to say that they are US citizens.

Charging papers said that Abdul-Latif has at least two felony convictions for robbery while Mujahidh has no convictions under either of his names.

Abdul-Latif allegedly approached the 'confidential source' -- who has an extensive criminal history -- for help on May 30 because he didn't have any weapons experience.

He initially said he wanted to drive a van through the guard gate at nearby Fort Lewis and kill soldiers in retaliation for the actions of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, the charge sheet said.

He later decided to target the processing center because many potential victims would be unarmed, it said, adding that he planned to make a DVD with the title "the reason we killing your people."

Mujahidh, who arrived in Seattle on Tuesday after taking a bus up from Los Angeles, allegedly said he would prefer being killed by police during the attack than ending up in jail and that he didn't care if he killed civilians along with soldiers.

"This is my way of getting rid of sins, man... I got so many of 'em," Mujahidh allegedly said in the secret FBI tapes.

Abdul-Latif said he didn't feel comfortable killing children but wanted to make sure the attacks were severe enough to garner a lot of attention.

"We're not only trying to kill people, we're trying to send a message," he allegedly said. "We're trying to get something that's gonna be on CNN and all over the world... That's what we want."

Both men face up to life in prison if convicted of the terrorism and weapons charges.

The November 5, 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas left 13 people dead and 29 wounded. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan -- an American-born Muslim on Palestinian descent -- is charged in the attack.

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Va. man charged in 2010 DC-area military shootings (AP)

LEESBURG, Va. – A Marine Corps reservist arrested in a security scare near the Pentagon last week was charged Thursday in a series of pre-dawn shootings at the Pentagon and other military buildings in the Washington area last year.

Yonathan Melaku, 22, of Alexandria, has been in custody since early Friday, when he was caught after fleeing from police while trespassing inside Arlington National Cemetery after dark. His behavior and possessions prompted immediate suspicion from authorities, who closed the highways leading to the Pentagon during the Friday rush hour and launched an intensive investigation.

Federal prosecutors said in court documents Thursday that they found bomb-making materials in Melaku's backpack and later found a typewritten list of potential bomb components inside his home. Investigators also found a video he took of himself firing shots outside the National Museum of the Marine Corps last fall and repeatedly saying the Arabic words "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is Great."

"That's what they get. That's my target. That's the military building. It's going to be attacked," he said in the video, which shows him firing shots out the passenger-side window at the museum, according to court papers.

Melaku lists his religion as Muslim in military papers, according to a Marine Corps spokesman.

He has been a Marine reservist since September 2007 but has never deployed overseas. The Marine Corps has initiated procedures to kick him out of the Corps, and Melaku is not objecting, said spokesman Lt. Col. Francis Piccoli.

Military records for Melaku do not show any violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Piccoli said. But Melaku did miss mandatory training exercises from Oct. 14 through Oct. 17. The first shooting, at the Marine Corps museum, occurred on Oct. 17. Melaku made up some of the drills he missed and continued to report for monthly assignments after October, Piccoli said.

Investigators said Melaku was carrying a backpack last Friday with a quantity of ammonium nitrate, which is widely used in explosives and is available commercially as fertilizer; a spiral notebook containing references to al-Qaida, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden; spent 9 mm shell casings; work gloves; a head lamp; and cans of spray paint.

The ammonium nitrate was contained in plastic bags marked "AN," though authorities said the substance was inert.

Ballistics evidence shows that a 9mm handgun was used in last year's shootings, and the spent shell casings in Melaku's backpack were the same brand as those used in last year's shootings, according to an affidavit.

Inside his bedroom, authorities found a numbered list of items — including an alkaline battery, battery connector for 9 volt, LED light, and epoxy or super glue — consistent with producing a bomb.

At a news conference Thursday, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride said it was possible Melaku could face further charges.

Investigators say forensic evidence links Melaku to five shootings last October and November, including at a U.S. Coast Guard recruiting office and a Marine Corps recruiting sub-station. He was charged in two of the shootings, outside the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

The FBI said at the time that the shooter was likely someone with a gripe against the military.

If convicted of all the charges already filed, Melaku would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison and a maximum of life.

Melaku was "not on our radar prior to Friday's events," said James McJunkin, the assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington field office. It appears Melaku had intended to carry out some sort of vandalism in the cemetery, McJunkin said. Authorities believe he was acting alone.

The federal charges, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, allege two counts each of damaging federal property with a gun and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He did not make an initial court appearance on those charges Thursday, and a hearing that had been scheduled in state court on unrelated larceny charges was canceled.

The charges were announced as federal authorities in Seattle arrested two men in a plot to use machine guns and grenades in an attack on a military recruiting station that also houses a daycare.

Homeland Security officials do not think it is likely there will be coordinated terrorist attacks against military recruiting and National Guard facilities, according to a May 31 assessment by the department, the National Guard Bureau of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division, the U.S. Army Recruiting Command and other organizations.

The agencies did agree, however, that lone offenders or groups will continue to try to launch attacks against these facilities, according to the assessment, marked "for official use only" and obtained by The Associated Press.

An official has said Melaku has no known ties to al-Qaida or any other terrorist organization.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Jessica Gresko contributed to this report from Washington.

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No trace of Agent Orange found in S.Korea after dumping claim (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) – Investigators looking in to claims that a large amount of the defoliant Agent Orange was buried at a U.S. military base in South Korea have found no trace of the toxic chemical, the U.S. Army said on Thursday.

South Korean and U.S. experts have been working to determine the validity of testimony by ex-servicemen in May that they had buried the toxic herbicide at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, about 300 km (200 miles) southeast of Seoul, in 1978.

The U.S. military has moved swiftly to address concerns that the chemical may have contaminated the soil.

The speedy response stands in contrast to what many Koreans saw as a sluggish U.S. reaction to the accidental deaths of two school girls hit by a military vehicle in 2002.

The deaths fueled a surge of anti-American sentiment that helped the campaign of a liberal presidential candidate who, at the end of that year, defeated a conservative opponent who was considered pro-U.S.

"To date, no evidence of Agent Orange has been discovered either on Camp Carroll or in the adjacent community," the U.S. 8th Army said in a statement.

The finding were the result of "non-intrusive" surveys using radar and magnetometer on the locations identified in the testimony and tests on water samples taken from areas outside the camp, it said. Results of tests on water samples from wells on the base have yet to be released.

Further tests were scheduled through mid-July and more might be conducted later, it said.

Agent Orange was used to clear vegetation during the Vietnam War and was also used years later on the Demilitarised Zone border dividing the Korean peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The herbicide is suspected or causing serious health problems, including cancer, and birth defects.

The U.S. military has said a large amount of chemicals was buried at Camp Carroll but they had been removed more than 30 years ago.

South Korea has been investigating a separate report of toxic chemical dumping in the 1960s by the U.S. military at an old base near the capital.

The United States has about 30,000 soldiers in South Korea defending the U.S. ally from North Korea.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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DOD lacks policy, oversight on military sexual assault: report (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – No evidence exists that the Department of Defense office mandated to oversee military sexual assault investigations does so, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

"The take-aways are that the DOD should step it up and fulfill their oversight responsibilities," Brenda Farrell, the GAO Director of Defense Capabilities and Management told Reuters on Thursday.

In 2005, the DOD established the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program (SAPR) to address military sexual assault, after studies found such assaults were highly under reported.

For fiscal year 2010, 3,158 incidents were reported, a slight decrease from FY2009, but the trend over the prior three years had been an increase in reported cases from when the program was launched.

For the 2,594 completed sexual assault investigations in FY2010, the DOD's Inspector General's Office conducted no oversight according to the study, which Farrell directed.

Though the IG Office has been required by statute since 2006 to create a policy on sexual assault prevention and response, the GAO found that five years later, no such policy exists.

That has resulting in inconsistent development of procedure for investigating sexual assault incidents among the various military services, said the report, released on Wednesday (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-579?source=ra).

The GAO, a government watchdog body, also found no monitoring exists to assure personnel pursuing sexual assault allegations meet competency standards.

DOD Inspector General Gordon Heddell said in a statement emailed to Reuters: "We take the matter of sexual assaults very seriously ... while we concur with the GAO recommendations, we disagree with the characterization that the DoD IG has not performed its responsibilities."

FUNDS FOR TRAINING

In addition to personnel, the DOD allocates funding above the military services' operating budgets toward sexual assault prevention. SAPRO provided the military with nearly $3 million in FY2009 and 2010 to improve training on prosecution of sexual assault cases.

The report stated that such resources are not being used effectively. In examples noted by the GAO, only the Air Force requires its investigators to consult available experts during a sexual assault investigation.

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command will immediately assess a case as founded or unfounded before referring it to the primary steps of the investigation process.

"The (IG Office) has not performed these responsibilities, primarily because it believes it has other, higher priorities," the report states, such as an increase in demand for its services from overseas operations and the government's current budget challenges.

The GAO analyzed DOD and military service policies and procedures relevant to sexual assault, and interviewed senior officials in the DOD and military and civilian lawyers from April 2010 to June 2011.

Some people interviewed for the report said ambiguities in the Uniform Code of Military Justice make such cases more difficult to prosecute and may cause unwarranted acquittals.

"The GAO has been directing the military to improve its handling of sexual assault cases for many years now, and has traditionally met with the same kind of sluggish response we see here," said Professor Helen Benedict of Columbia University, who has written extensively on women in the military and sexual assault.

"I'd like to see the government push for sexual assault cases to be handled in civilian courts ...The military has had long enough to get its act together over sexual assault ... and it's failed."

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Unarmed Minuteman missile launched from Calif. (AP)

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – An unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile blasted off early Wednesday on a test flight from California to a target in the Pacific Ocean, but a communications problem forced the launch command to be issued by ground control rather than an airborne launch control system, the Air Force said.

The ICBM roared out of a silo at 6:35 a.m. PDT and its re-entry vehicle reached a target near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands after an approximately 30-minute flight over 4,200 miles of ocean, a base statement said.

The launch command was supposed to have been sent by an E-6B Mercury jet from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., but a communication issue during the countdown required the command to be sent from Vandenberg control instead, the Air Force said. The E-6B is a four-engine derivative of the Boeing 707 that serves as an airborne command, control and communications platform.

The Air Force said there were also unscheduled countdown holds Wednesday due to bad weather downrange and detection of boats at times in the launch hazard area.

Col. Keith Balts, the 30th Space Wing vice commander, said in a statement that the launch team trains for the types of scenarios it faced Wednesday morning. The range operations were safe and the launch was successful, he said.

Vandenberg regularly tests ICBMs to collect data on the weapons' accuracy and reliability. The Minuteman 3 used in the test had been pulled off alert from its silo near Minot Air Force Base, N.D.

Another Minuteman 3 launch is scheduled July 27 from Vandenberg, located on the coast about 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

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US, Japan delay plan to shift Okinawa bases (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and Japan scrapped a 2014 deadline for a controversial shift of a US base in Okinawa, but stood firmly behind the plan in the face of opposition in both countries.

The future of the Futenma air base on the subtropical island has bedeviled ties between the Pacific allies for years, and both governments have been eager to push ahead on a 2006 deal instead of restarting exhaustive negotiations.

In a joint statement after top-level talks, Tokyo and Washington said the relocation "will not meet the previous targeted date of 2014" but renewed their commitment to complete the project "at the earliest possible date."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meeting with their Japanese counterparts, also confirmed plans to move 8,000 Marines and some 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam.

Under the 2006 agreement between previous governments, the United States planned to shut the flashpoint Futenma base in Okinawa, which has long been a source of grievance as it lies in a crowded urban area.

The Japanese and US leaders on Tuesday endorsed building a replacement base with V-shaped runways at Henoko on an isolated stretch of beach elsewhere on the strategically located island.

A number of activists on Okinawa demanded that the base be removed entirely from the island, the often reluctant host to half of the 47,000 US troops based in Japan under a post-World War II treaty.

US senators recently moved to force the Pentagon to consider a new option, saying the current plan is too costly and politically unrealistic when Japan should be focusing on the rebuilding from its massive earthquake.

Gates said the effort led by Senators Jim Webb and Carl Levin, members of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, "is really a manifestation of growing congressional impatience about the lack of progress."

"We both reaffirmed the US government's commitment to the 2006 realignment plan, but at the same time emphasized the importance of concrete progress over the course of the next year," Gates told a news conference with Clinton.

The center-left Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in a historic 2009 election and pledged to review the Futenma deal. The party's first prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, quit within a year after the Obama administration refused to budge.

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa called the delay on Futenma "the cost entailed in democracy" and said he would keep trying to persuade skeptical Okinawans.

"The purpose of the US realignment is to maintain deterrence and to reduce the local burden, so we will be making maximum efforts with the United States to achieve both objectives," Kitazawa said.

Under an alternative plan drafted by Webb, a former Marine who represents Virginia, Futenma would be closed and its air assets largely shifted to Okinawa's existing Kadena Air Base.

Webb also proposed shifting some of the existing air assets from Kadena to elsewhere in Japan and Guam, a solution he said would ease both congestion and costs in Okinawa.

Webb called Tuesday's statement on the base realignment "predictable" and voiced confidence that the US Congress would block funding for the move to Guam until the Pentagon studies alternatives.

The delay in the current Futenma plan "underscores the importance of resolving US basing realignments in a more realistic manner for the good of our alliance and for our strategic posture in East Asia," he said.

The two countries in their statement hailed post-earthquake defense cooperation and took a new step by agreeing to allow export of a joint missile shield the allies have been building together to face the North Korean threat.

Japan, officially pacifist since World War II, ended a ban on arms exports in 2005. Under Tuesday's agreement, the United States has the right to export the next-generation Standard Missile 3 system.

Prospective buyers may include Australia, South Korea and members of the European Union as they share strict guidelines against transfers to third countries, Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Satoru Satoh said.

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