February 3, 2010

Mullen Deserves Medal for Senate Testimony Backing Open Military Service by Gays

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Mullen Deserves Medal for Senate Testimony
Backing Open Military Service by Gays

 

Dana Milbank
The Washington Post
February 3, 2010

Mike Mullen’s 42 years in the military earned him a chest full of ribbons, but never did he do something braver than what he did on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

In a packed committee room, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff looked hostile Republican senators in the eye and told them unwelcome news: He thinks gays should be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces he commands.

“Speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do,” the nation’s top military officer told the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

To read the full story in The Washington Post, click here.

 

February 2, 2010

MinnPost – D.C. Dispatches: Franken Amendment on Rape Included in FY-11 Budget

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Franken Amendment on Rape Included in FY-11 Budget

 

Derek Wallbank
MinnPost.com
February 1, 2010

The White House has included Sen. Al Franken’s anti-rape amendment, which would prohibit Defense contracts of more than $1 million (a vast majority of them) from going to firms that required their employees to accept binding arbitration for claims of sexual or any other kind of harassment.

The Franken Amendment, as it has become known, was successfully attached to the Fiscal 2010 Defense Appropriations bill.

via MinnPost – D.C. Dispatches: Franken amendment on rape included in FY-11 budget and H-Minerva.

 

February 2, 2010

Dispute Over Marine Base Sours U.S. Ties With Japan

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Dispute Over Marine Base Sours
U.S. Ties With Japan

 

Eric Talmadge
The Associated Press (Chicago Tribune)
January 6, 2010

When the U.S. took over a Japanese airfield here in the closing days of World War II, it was surrounded by sugar cane fields and the smoldering battlegrounds of Okinawa. It is now the focus of a deepening dispute that is testing Japan’s security alliance with the United States and dividing its new government in Tokyo.

A large city has grown up around the base, and helicopters and cargo planes from the U.S. Marine Corps facility buzz so low over Futenma No. 2 Elementary School, whose playground fence borders the facility, that the windows rattle and teachers stop class until the aircraft are on the ground.

To read the full story in the Chicago Tribune, click here.

 

January 26, 2010

Army Leans Towards Suicide Ruling

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Army Leans Towards Suicide Ruling

 

Robert Gavin
Times Union
January 23, 2010

The mother of Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador, a Colonie, New York native slain in Iraq in November, said Friday she believes military investigators are “leaning toward” ruling her daughter’s death a suicide.

Tirador, 29, was killed November 4th, the victim of a gunshot to the back of her head while walking to an evening work shift on the U.S. military base Camp Caldwell in Kirkush, Iraq, near Iran.

To read the full story in the Times Union, click here.

 

January 26, 2010

Mayor-Elect of Okinawa Opposes U.S. Base

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Mayor-Elect of Okinawa Opposes U.S. Base

 

Martin Fackler
The New York Times
January 25, 2010

A candidate who opposes the relocation of an American air base on Okinawa won a crucial mayoral election on Sunday, raising pressure on Japan’s prime minister to move the base off the island, a move opposed by the United States.

The election in the small city of Nago could force Japan to scrap, or at least significantly modify, a 2006 deal with the United States to build a replacement facility in the city for the busy Futenma United States Marine air station.

To read the full story in The New York Times, click here.

 

January 21, 2010

California Marine Charged in Craigslist Rape

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Californian Charged in Craigslist Rape

 

William Browning
Casper Star-Tribune as posted in the Billings Gazette
January 20, 2010

Prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged a California man with five felonies in connection with allegations that he posted an advertisement on an Internet site requesting the rape of a Casper woman.

Jebidiah James Stipe is accused of posting the Craigslist advertisement that led to the brutal rape of a 25-year-old woman inside her Casper home on Dec. 11.

The 27-year-old Marine — who has been in custody since Dec. 16 — made his initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Tuesday. With his hands and ankles shackled, he wore a dark-green jumpsuit during the proceeding.

To read the full story as posted in the Billings Gazette, click here.

 

December 17, 2009

Japan Delays Decision on Moving U.S. Marine Base

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Itsuo Inouye / The Associated Press

Japan Delays Decision on Moving U.S. Marine Base

 

Martin Fackler
The New York Times
December 16, 2009

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s postponement of a decision on relocating an American military base on Okinawa may be the product of domestic political considerations as much as deeply held foreign policy principles, analysts here said on Tuesday. But it promises to put new pressures on Japan’s already strained ties with the United States, its closest ally.

To read the full story in The New York Times, click here.

 

December 9, 2009

KBR Worker Reportedly Raped at Base in Iraq

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KBR Worker Reportedly Raped at Base in Iraq

 

James Pinkerton
Houston Chronicle
December 9, 2009

An American woman working for Houston-based KBR at a U.S. military base in Iraq was reportedly raped and beaten so badly by a base worker she had to be hospitalized, and while KBR officials declined to provide details, they confirmed Wednesday they are cooperating in a military criminal investigation.

U.S. military officials in Iraq confirmed the Nov. 30 attack, but few details were available, including the woman’s hometown, her age or her current medical condition.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle web site, here.

 

November 10, 2009

Honoring Veterans with Military Sexual Trauma

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Honoring Veterans with Military Sexual Trauma

Pack_Parachute

Photo: packparachute.org

On November 11, 2009 in Seattle, WA, veteran organizations will honor veterans with Military Sexual Trauma (MST) at 2 pm at the Garden of Remembrance at Benaroya Hall on University St. and Second Ave. in downtown Seattle. This ceremony celebrating individuals with MST will be the first of its kind in the country.

Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans For Peace, VetWow and Pack Parachute Charity will participate in this ceremony, and hope to demonstrate the honor, respect and community they feel for veterans with MST.

To learn more about this event, visit the Pack Parachute web site, here.

 

November 8, 2009

News Reports – Nov. 8th Futenma Base Protest

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Futenma Base Protest

Photo: KYODO Photo - Japan Times

Raising their voices: Around 21,000 people join in protest against the planned relocation of a U.S. military airfield within Okinawa Prefecture in Ginowan in the prefecture on Nov. 8, 2009, ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan.

To read the full story at The Japan Times, click here.

 

Locals Protest Futenma Transfer Within Okinawa

 

Japan Today
November 9, 2009

Around 21,000 people protested against the planned relocation of a U.S. military airfield within Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan, in a sign of growing local frustration over the new Japanese government’s vague stance in reviewing the transfer plan.

The protesters called for the immediate closure of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station located in a downtown residential area of Ginowan and urged Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to reject the transfer of the facility to a coastal zone in Nago, northern Okinawa, in his talks with Obama slated for Friday in Tokyo.
   
Demonstrators braved the heat to pack into an open-air theater in a seaside park in Ginowan, central Okinawa, and adopted a resolution stating, ‘‘The small island of Okinawa doesn’t need a base any more. We oppose the construction of a new facility in the Henoko (district of Nago) and (Futenma’s) relocation within Okinawa.”

To read the full story at Japan Today, click here.

 

Thousands Protest at Japanese U.S. Air Base

 

Isabel Reynolds, Reuters
The Independent
November 9, 2009

Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa yesterday to demand that a US Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.

The row over the re-siting of the Futenma air base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan and sour defence ties between the two countries, seen as key in a region home to a rising China and an unpredictable North Korea.

To read the full story in The Independent, click here.

 

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