Video: Firefight Between Coalition Forces And Anti-Afghan Forces

Video of firefight captured by UAV.

Haditha Update: LtCol Jeffrey Chessani Charges Dismissed

In a hearing on 17JUN08, a military judge, Col Stephen Folsom, USMC, dismissed all charges against LtCol Jeffrey Chessani. Col Folsom ruled that the decision to charge LtCol Chessani was a product of unlawful command influence (UCI). Col Folsom ruled,
the participation of Col. John Ewers as an investigator and report writer in the [...]

SecDef Sends More Prdator and Reaper Drone Aircraft To Iraq

SecDef Gates orders more UAV to Iraq.

President Bush To Be Prosecuted For War Crimes: Possible Death Penalty

From Legal Blog Watch comes this story,

The Massachusetts School of Law at Andover will convene a conference in September to lay plans to prosecute President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes. “This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred,” says MSL’s dean Lawrence Velvel [...]

Haditha Update: LtCol Chessani Charges May Be Dropped

Defense lawyers for LtCol Jeffrey Chessani believe all charges may be dropped. They base this on a signal from the military judge, Col Folsom, who previously scheduled a hearing for two days and has now changed the session to last one hour. At this session the military judge will rule on the motion [...]

Haditha Update: Lt Grayson Not Guilty

Lt Andrew Grayson was acquitted on 4JUN08.
According to reports:
Cheers erupted as the seven-officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. The verdict came just five hours after deliberations began.
Two Marines still face courts-martial [...]

Civilian Contractor: First To Be Tried By Court-Martial

Alaa “Alex” Mohammad Ali is a civilian contractor charged with stabbing another civilian contractor. Alex will be the first civilian tried under the 2006 amendment to the UCMJ.
Alex is a citizen of both Iraq and Canada. He was hired as a interpreter by the U.S. Military. Alex will be provided with a [...]

Guantanamo Bay Military Prison: Not So Easy To Close

The call to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay has emanated from may groups, including Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. The only problem with this call to action, is what to do with the detainees that are currently housed there. As [...]

Haditha Update: Trial Set For Lt Andrew Grayson

The court martial of Lt Andrew Grayson is set to begin on 28MAY08. Lt Grayson charges for dereliction of duty, false official statement, and obstructing justice. All of the charges relate to his failure to investigate the events surrounding the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq.
yojoe out
For more on Haditha:

Haditha
Haditha Update: History [...]

Haditha Update: Chessani Judge Finds Unlawful Command Influence

In a hearing aboard Camp Pendleton, a military judge, Col Folsom found that “top Marine Corps officers were unlawfully influenced by a general’s legal adviser when they decided to file criminal charges against a colonel whose troops killed two dozen civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha in 2005″
This ruling came in the court-martial of [...]

Air Force Wants New Drone

From the best technology-military blog Danger Room, comes the story of the Air Force’s desire to replace the Reaper with a new “hunter-killer” drone. MQ-9 Reaper first deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2007. It looks like the Air Force wants some of the $500 million budgeted for drone aircraft.

yojoe (in drone [...]

Waterboarding Used On Utah Telemarketer

Chad Hudgens is a telemarketer for Prosper, Inc. His supervisor had an idea for building morale and improving sales: subject one of the telemarketers to waterboarding. Yes, the supervisor decided it was a good idea to use the technique that has been the center of controversy in the War on Terrorism and the Military [...]