U.S. Justice Department Moves To Block Lawsuits By Military Families

Reuters

Quietly, U.S. Moves To Block Lawsuits By Military Families -- The Atlantic

Why is the Justice Department trying to make it more difficult for service members and their families to sue the government for medical malpractice?

Politicians and bureaucrats of all persuasions typically trip over themselves when it comes to praising the values and virtues, the courage and the sacrifice, of America's military families. East Coast. West Coast. Red State. Blue State. Democrats. Republicans. It doesn't matter. Everyone wants to stand up in public and say that brave and stoic military families should get the best that America can offer (cue the applause). Take the First Lady herself, Michelle Obama, who has worked consistently with and for these families since 2009.

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My Comment: Hint to all of my American readers .... just as the Justice Department is trying to make it more difficult for service members and their families to sue the government for medical malpractice, the same will be for the general public when the full force and impact of 'Obamacare' comes into being.

Major U.S. Defense Programs Will Not Be Cut In An Election Year

Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the DoD's 2013 budget plan did not proportionately cut the U.S. military services as it has in the past. (James J. Lee / Staff)

Pentagon Punts On Major Program Cuts -- Defense News

Platforms Face New Threats After Elections.

The U.S. Defense Department’s fiscal 2013 budget plan to cut $259 billion from spending over the next five years is unlikely to damage America’s defense industrial base largely because it sidesteps major program cuts in a presidential election year, according to analysts.

Part of the justification for leaving the larger programs in place, analysts said, is the potential to use them as bargaining chips during upcoming negotiations over sequestration, the $500 billion in automatic budget cuts that would take effect in January 2013 absent agreement to a broader debt deal between Congress and the Obama administration.

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My Comment: In my readings and analysis of reactions to the proposed U.S. Defense budget cuts .... I cannot help but feel that many Generals and defense officials are hoping that President Obama is defeated in November, and that a new President will not follow through on budget cuts and force reductions. It seems that everyone is on hold, waiting for the results of the 2012 President (and Congressional) elections to decide on what to do next.

Hmmmm .... my prediction .... these cuts are going to happen regardless of who is in the White House.

Is This Former CIA Agent A Betrayer Or Whistleblower?

Ex-CIA Officials Assail ID Of Agents -- Washington Times

They see betrayer, not whistleblower.

Former intelligence officials use “reprehensible” and “egregious” to describe the alleged acts of a former CIA officer charged by the government with betraying his own when he revealed the identities of two overseas operatives to the media.

These former officials reject the image of John Kiriakou as a high-minded “whistleblower” who sought to expose official wrongdoing or a botched intelligence operation.

Mr. Kiriakou took his leaking to a more dangerous level, they say, by explicitly telling one reporter the name of a current CIA covert officer and giving the name to three journalists of another CIA hand - the analyst who interrogated Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other top al Qaeda figures, according to Justice Department documents.

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My Comment: Leaking the names of CIA officials is a huge breach of security and an act of betrayal .... if these claims of the US Justice Department can be proven in a court of law .... Mr. Kiriakou is heading for some serious jail time.

U.S. Intelligence Officials To Be Grilled By Congress Tuesday Morning

Top U.S. Spies To Face Grilling On Taliban, Iran Talks -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The possible release of detained Taliban leaders is likely to join Iran's nuclear ambitions at the top of a busy agenda when the top seven American intelligence chiefs testify before the Congress this week.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper -- as well as the heads of the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Counterterrorism Center and State and Homeland Security department intelligence units -- will be grilled on "worldwide threats" at a pair of open hearings.

The hearings -- before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and its House of Representatives counterpart on Thursday -- are an annual ritual. But they offer a rare opportunity for legislators publicly to raise sensitive national security topics that are usually discussed only in secret briefings.

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Update: Questions for the intelligence community -- Walter Pincus, Washington Post

My Comment: I am looking forward to updating this story tomorrow when their meeting before the Senate Intelligence Committee is over.

Picture Of The Day

MORNING MAINTENANCE
A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle receives early morning maintenance on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Jan. 28, 2012. The aircraft provides close air support to coalition forces. The crew and aircraft are deployed from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, S.C. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Harwood

Gulf Arabs Are Thinking Of The Unthinkable

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Gulf Arabs Have Plans Against Hormuz Closure: Official -- Yahoo News/Reuters

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Coastguards and naval forces of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) group of Arab countries have contingency plans for a possible attempt by Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a Kuwaiti maritime official said on Monday.

Five of the six GCC members - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Kuwait - rely on the world's most important energy shipping lane being open to export most of their oil or gas.

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My Comment: They are going through the motions, but no one (Iran included) wants to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Self-Guided Bullet Spots, Steers and Nails Its Target

Video: Self-Guided Bullet Spots, Steers and Nails Its Target -- Danger Room

The U.S. military has been after self-guided bullets for years. Now, government researchers have finally made it happen: a bullet that can navigate itself a full mile before successfully nailing its target.

The breakthrough comes courtesy of engineers at Sandia National Laboratory, owned by Lockheed Martin. They’ve successfully tested a prototype of the bullet at distances up to 2,000 meters — more than a mile. The photo above is an actual image taken during one of those tests. A light-emitting diode was attached to the bullet, showing the amazing pathway that the munition made through the night sky.

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My Comment: Snipers are going to love this tech.

Iran Claims To Develop Laser-Guided Artillery Rounds

Iran Says Has Made Laser-Guided Artillery Shells -- Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it had manufactured laser-guided artillery shells that were capable of spotting and hitting moving targets with a high degree of precision, state-run television reported.

Iran does periodically unveil military advancements, but this latest report comes as tension between Iran and the West escalates over Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

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More News On Iranian Claims of Developing Laser-Guided Artillery Rounds

Iran claims production of laser-guided artillery shells -- Washington Post/AP
Iran says it has laser-guided artillery rounds -- AFP
Iran Unveils Laser-Guided Smart Munitions -- Arutz Sheva
Laser-guided smart-bombs: Made in Iran -- RT
Iran unveils new smart weapons system called "BASIR" -- Press TV (Iran)
Iran unveils smart laser-guided projectile -- Tehran Times (Iran)

Iran Is Not Impressed With America's Show Of Might In The Persian Gulf

Threat: The USS Abraham Lincoln and USS John C. Stennis during the handover in the Arabian Sea. The departure of the USS John C Stennis prompted Iran to warn the Americans not to send any more carriers

Iran Ground Force Commander: U.S. Wouldn't Dare Attack Us -- Haaretz

Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdasta says America and its allies are 'fearful of the Iranian forces and nation'; U.S. Defense Secretary warns that Iran only a year away from producing a nuclear bomb.

The Iranian army's ground force commander said Monday that the United States and its allies would not dare launch an attack on the Islamic Republic, Iran's state-run Press TV reported.

"They are fearful of the Iranian forces and nation," Press TV quoted Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan as saying.

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My Comment: They know that the U.S. does not have the political will for a conflict with Iran .... hence the mocking from the Iranian commander.

Is President Obama's Counterterrorism Policy Wrong?

President Barack Obama leaves a presidential coin at the gravesite of 19-year-old Medal of Honor recipient, Specialist Ross McGinnis, who is one of two Medal of Honor recipients memorialized at Arlington Cemetery from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The President was at Arlington Cemetery to give Veterans Day remarks, November 11, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Drones Are Not Enough -- Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard

Getting counterterrorism policy wrong.

Has Barack Obama been a good counter-terrorist president? On the left, and even on the right, we usually hear a resounding “yes”: Obama has maintained, sometimes amplified, the programs that really keep us safe (predator drones, expansive use of domestic intercepts, unsavory intelligence liaison relationships, and rendition). Some on the left may be disturbed by the president’s actions, but their moral indigestion is contained by the belief that Obama is still better than George W. Bush. And after SEAL Team Six went for the kill in Abbottabad, the right posed few questions about the action, or the way the administration and the Central Intelligence Agency have characterized the supposedly diminishing al Qaeda threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The two leading Republican presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, aver that the president appears weak, especially to the regime in Tehran. But apart from highlighting how weak presidents tempt our enemies, they have not really questioned Obama’s counterterrorist credentials.

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My Comment: Drones may not be enough .... but politically .... in Washington .... they are good enough for now. Unfortunately .... my gut is telling me that in the future we are going to pay for this shortness of vision.