The ROTC hasn’t been allowed at Columbia University for 43 years. But the school announced last Friday that it has begun an investigation into allowing ROTC back.

Friday, the Columbia University Senate released its comprehensive plan to investigate such a return. The plan includes open forums, a pan-undergraduate student poll and task force which will submit an opinion to the Senate. A vote is then expected in late March or early April about ROTC’s return. The plan was released a few days after the State of the Union, in whichPresident Obama called on colleges to “open their doors” to ROTC and military recruiters.

It’s a disgrace that elite leftist universities have been allowed to shut out the military for so long. Now that DADT has been repealed they have nothing left to whine about. A lot of the opposition to ROTC stems from a general hatred of the military rather than any particular policy. They just used DADT as a convenient excuse.

This article titled “Birther doctor who claimed Barack Obama born in Kenya faces jail term” was written by Ed Pilkington in New York, for The Guardian on Thursday 16th December 2010 01.36 UTC

A US army doctor faces up to three and a half years in jail after he was found guilty by a court martial yesterday of willfully missing a flight when deployed to Afghanistan because he doubts Barack Obama’s right to be president. The trial of Lt Col Terrence Lakin was a rallying point for the “birther” movement, conspiracy theorists who believe Obama has fraudulently taken over the presidency and is not a “natural born citizen”. Lakin posted a video on YouTube saying he had no choice “but the distasteful one of inviting my own court martial”.

On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to one of the two charges – failing to follow an order to meet with a superior and failure to report for duty at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He pleaded not guilty to the second count, relating to missing a flight to take him to the military base, but was convicted of that charge by the military jury.

Doubts about Obama’s legitimacy to be president have swirled around the further lunatic fringes of conservatism and the right-wing blogosphere since he became a serious contender for the White House in 2008. Prominent “birthers”, such as Orly Taitz, a California-based lawyer, claim that Obama was born in Kenya and that the birth certificate that Hawaiian officials possess showing that he was born in Honolulu on 4 August 1961 is a fake.

Lakin had hoped to turn his court martial into a trial over Obama’s legitimacy, but in September a military judge ruled that the president’s birth certificate was not an appropriate area for the court to consider.

At his hearing, Lakin told the jury that he had been “praying and soul searching. I believed there was a question that needs to be answered to ensure a valid chain of command. But I had asked every question, done everything else I could short of disobeying orders, without success.”

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This article titled “US air force blocks staff from websites carrying WikiLeaks cables” was written by Richard Adams, for The Guardian on Wednesday 15th December 2010 00.45 UTC

The US air force has blocked employees from accessing the websites of the Guardian, the New York Times and other news organisations carrying the WikiLeaks US embassy cables.

At least 25 sites that have posted WikiLeaks files had been barred, said Major Toni Tones of the US air force’s space command in Colorado. Tones said the action was taken in accordance with a policy that “routinely blocks air force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials”.

According to the Wall Street Journal, staff who attempt to access the blocked sites instead see an on-screen message saying: “Access denied. Internet usage is logged and monitored.”

While the US defence department has issued orders against visiting WikiLeaks or downloading classified documents from the site, it has not ordered a blanket ban on visiting news organisations reporting on the contents of the classified cables. The army, navy and marines have not sought to block access to any websites.

The air force’s move follows instructions by the government that staff should not access the cables, with the Library of Congress instituting a bar on accessing WikiLeaks’s website.

One member of the US armed forces could be celebrated for his part in the WikiLeaks drama. Berkeley city council is considering a resolution in support Bradley Manning, the army private accused of releasing the documents.

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The Pentagon released their year long study on the effects of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) today. 70% of the military personnel polled said repealing DADT would be positive, neutral, or of no consequence.

Here’s the full study:

It looks like once again the North Koreans are going to get away with committing an act of war against the Republic of Korea. How many ROK military personnel have to be killed by the North to warrant a military response? North Korea continues to raise the stakes because they never get any pushback.

They got away with sinking a South Korean Navy ship killing 86 sailors. That pretty much sent a signal to Kim Jong-IL that anything goes. So why not shell a South Korean village?

This is outrageous. When is the ROK going to grow a pair and respond? If North Korea’s Navy had been crippled by the South after sinking that ship it’s unlikely last night’s provocation would’ve happened.

The North kidnaps South Korean fisherman, sinks warships, detonates nuclear bombs, and shells villages with no consequences beyond a stern letter from the UN.

It’s time for the ROK and the USA to show the DPRK that we’re not f*cking around anymore. The South has a state of the art military built by the US. The North has a vintage 1950’s military that lacks enough fuel to put jets in the air. We could decimate their Navy in 24 hours.

It’s a disgrace of biblical proportions that a broken down prison state like North Korea is able to threaten anyone. In my opinion, the west has a moral obligation to force regime change in North Korea. It’s a stain on the free world that we’ve allowed the grossest human rights violations since Nazi Germany to continue unabated in North Korea.

Kim Jong-IL makes Saddam Hussein look like The Pope. Iran is Disney Land compared to North Korea. The fact that a house of horrors like the DPRK could still exist in this world in 2010 is a disgrace to humanity.

This article titled “Barack Obama’s hopes for a nuclear-free world fading fast” was written by Julian Borger, diplomatic editor, for The Guardian on Tuesday 16th November 2010 20.36 UTC

Barack Obama’s hopes of reshaping US foreign policy stand on the brink of failure tonight, after two of his most cherished initiatives — nuclear disarmament and better relations with Moscow — were dealt serious setbacks.

According to a leaked Nato document seen by the Guardian, a move to withdraw US tactical nuclear weapons from Europe has been omitted from the alliance’s draft strategic doctrine, due to be adopted by a summit this weekend in Lisbon.

Meanwhile in Washington, a Republican leader in the Senate signalled that the nuclear arms control treaty Obama signed in April with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is unlikely be ratified this year. Most observers say that if the treaty – known as New Start – is delayed until next year, it will be as good as dead, as the Democratic majority in the Senate will be even thinner by then, following the party’s losses in the midterm elections.

Together the setbacks mark a new low point for Obama’s ambitions, set out in a landmark 2009 speech in Prague, to set the world on a path to abolition of nuclear weapons.

They also rob the president of the main concrete achievement so far in his bid to “reset” US-Russian relations. In the absence of progress in the Middle East or Iranian compromise over its nuclear ambitions, the developments threaten to eclipse Obama’s legacy in foreign policy.

“All this stuff was integrated – the nuclear package and the Russian relationship,” said Steven Clemons, policy analyst at the New America Foundation. “In terms of the long-term international significance it’s the most important thing Obama has done, and it has just come apart.”

In the latest draft of Nato’s “new strategic concept”, seen by the Guardian, nuclear weapons remain at the core of Nato doctrine, and an attempt to withdraw an estimated 200 American B-61 nuclear bombs from Europe, a legacy of the cold war, is not mentioned.

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium – who all have B-61 bombs on their soil – had pushed to have the tactical weapons removed, with the encouragement of supporters of disarmament in the Obama camp including the US ambassador to Nato, Ivo Daalder.

However, in a victory for France, which led a rearguard action against diluting nuclear deterrence in Nato doctrine, the draft strategic concept states that the weapons would only be removed as a trade-off with Moscow.

“In any future reductions, our aim should be to seek Russian agreement to increase transparency on its nuclear weapons in Europe and relocate these weapons away from the territory of Nato members,” the draft states. “Any further steps must take into account the disparity with the greater Russian stockpile of short-range nuclear weapons.”

Advocates of disarmament still hope the door to withdrawal could be left open in another strategic review, possibly next year.

But Daryl Kimball, the head of the Arms Control Association, said the Lisbon document represented a lost opportunity for the alliance.

“Nato does not need these weapons against any of the 21st century threats we face,” Kimball said. “The weapons raise the risk of nuclear terrorism, and their presence makes it harder to convince Russia to cut its own tactical arsenal.”

US and Russian negotiators had been expected to discuss tactical weapons in the next round of arms control talks, but those talks will almost certainly not take place if the New Start treaty is shelved.

The White House had hoped the Senate would ratify the treaty in its lame-duck session currently underway, before newly-elected Republican senators take their seats in January.

However, the administration still needed some Republican support to get the 67 votes required for ratification. In a last-ditch move last week, it offered to spend an extra bn (£2.5 bn) on modernisation of the existing nuclear arsenal — an effort to placate the Republican whip, Jon Kyl.

However, Senator Kyl issued a statement tonight saying he still did not think the treaty could be passed in the lame-duck session, “given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to Start and modernisation.” Some Democrats were still hoping tonight the statement could be a bluff aimed at extracting yet more funding for America’s nuclear labs. Others, however, saw it as a slammed door, and a reflection of Republican determination to make Obama a one-term president and erase his legacy.

Paul Ingram, head of the British American Security Information Council (Basic), said Obama’s radical vision of “a world without nuclear weapons” laid out in his Prague speech was now fading.

“I wouldn’t say it was dead. It’s in emergency resuscitation,” Ingram said.

“If there is hope no, it’s not coming from Washington. The leadership of this is not going to come from Washington.”

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This article titled “British military interrogators may be charged as war criminals” was written by Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor, for The Guardian on Wednesday 10th November 2010 06.00 UTC

The Ministry of Defence is at the centre of a new crisis over the abuse of prisoners after it was disclosed yesterday that a number of British military interrogators may be charged as war criminals.

The development comes after videos submitted as evidence to a high court case appeared to show members of a military intelligence unit threatening, abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees at a secret prison near Basra.

Three men have been referred to the director of service prosecutions (DSP) after an investigation – which is thought to have centred on the video films – considered whether they had breached the International Criminal Court Act.

The referral to the DSP was accompanied by “a recommendation that he consider charges under the 2001 act”, Philip Havers QC, counsel for the MoD told the high court yesterday. He said that article 8 of the act prohibits a number of actions as war crimes, including “committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment”.

In the original case, the high court was being asked by lawyers representing 222 Iraqi men detained by British forces to order a public inquiry to examine their allegations of systematic and brutal mistreatment.

As well as the three men who have been referred to the DSP, a number of other military interrogators – some of them reservists with the Territorial Army or the Royal Navy and RAF reserves – are also under investigation. There is the possibility that they too could face war crimes charges.

Any prosecutions would be almost unprecedented. In 2006, one British soldier pleaded guilty to a war crime charge arising out of his mistreatment of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi hotel receptionist who was tortured to death by British troops in Basra three years earlier. He was jailed for a year and expelled from the army. Six of his comrades were cleared of a number of serious charges. No other member of the British armed forces has ever been convicted of a war crime.

Faced with the possibility of more servicemen being accused of war crimes, MoD officials have been increasingly concerned in recent days about the damaging effect such charges would have upon the morale and reputation of the services.

The MoD has been unable to explainwhy the films were made, or why training material used to instruct would-be interrogators in techniques that appear to breach the Geneva conventions was not disclosed to the court.

The investigation into alleged war crimes is being undertaken by a military police team known as the Iraq historical allegations team (IHAT).

An MoD spokesman said: “We have acknowledged that if these allegations do prove to be true then they could be prosecuted as war crimes under the international criminal court. That is why we have set up IHAT, to investigate allegations thoroughly.”

While acknowledging that members of the armed forces could face war crimes trials, the MoD stressed tonight that the allegations remain unproven. “If untrue, making such serious allegations falsely would be a heinous slur on members of the army,” the spokesman said. Nevertheless, the IHAT investigators have clearly concluded there may be sufficient evidence to justify war crimes charges. The 1,253 video and audio recordings that interrogators made themselves are thought to be central to the military police investigation.

Last month the Guardian reported that trainee interrogators have been told that they should employ techniques that include threats, sensory deprivation and enforced nakedness in an apparent breach of the Geneva conventions. Training materials drawn up secretly in recent years tell interrogators they should aim to provoke humiliation, insecurity, disorientation, exhaustion, anxiety and fear in the prisoners they are questioning, and suggest ways in which this can be achieved.

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This article titled “Britain and France to seal defence pact” was written by Richard Norton-Taylor, security editor, for The Guardian on Tuesday 2nd November 2010 00.05 UTC

British and French planes could be flying from each other’s aircraft carriers before the end of the decade and tests on nuclear warheads will be conducted jointly under treaties to be drawn up at a summit in London between David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy.

The treaties, which could also lead to a joint expeditionary force, are the result of months of planning by officials, encouraged by the two leaders. Unlike the original entente cordiale, which was the product of mutual concern about a hostile power before the first world war, the latest treaty is the product of hard-headed pragmatism, designed to maximise each nation’s military capabilites while saving money.

Officials were given a huge boost by pressures on the British and French defence budgets, which will leave each country with just one carrier able to take aircraft. The coalition government last month gave the go-ahead to two new large carriers for the navy, but planes will be able to fly from just one – the Prince of Wales – in 10 years’ time.

French Rafale warplanes could fly from the Prince of Wales and British US-built Joint Strike Fighters could be flown from the French carrier, the Charles de Gaulle. The ships will be maintained and refitted in their home countries.

Officials said the unprecedented British-French defence and security co-operation treaty would be a decades-long commitment. As well as synchronising aircraft carrier deployments, it will pave the way to a “combined joint expeditionary force” at brigade level under a British or French commander.

The joint force would consist of troops already in each country’s national armies and would only come together in the event of a crisis or emergency. Any decision to deploy the force would be taken jointly by the two governments, which would have “political control” over it, officials said.

The treaty will set up joint training for pilots – especially on the European-built A400M military transport that both countries are buying – co-operation on submarine technologies, mine counter-measures, satellite communications and air-to-air refuelling. The two countries’ arms industries will co-operate on developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and high-tech missiles as well as other weapons systems.

A separate treaty on nuclear co-operation will combine the work testing nuclear warheads conducted at the Atomic Weapons Research establishment at Aldermaston, in Berkshire, and at its French equivalent at Valduc, in Burgundy. Aldermaston will concentrate on developing technology while Valduc will do the computerised testing. Britain and France have different kinds of nuclear warheads and officials emphasised that the proposed cooperation would be limited to simulated construction and safety tests which, officials noted, cost a great deal of money.

They described the treaties as marking “a new phase of tactical co-operation between two sovereign countries”. Although Britain and France already co-operated on defence, these would go far deeper and have what was described as a much “harder practical edge” than existing arrangements between the two countries. The US is said to have welcomed today’s moves.

• This article was amended on 2 November 2010. The original referred to Valduc in Brittany and French Rafaele warplanes. These have been corrected.

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This article titled “US air force told to reinstate lesbian in death knell for ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’” was written by Richard Adams, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 24th September 2010 22.35 UTC

The name Margaret Witt may join the canon of US civil rights’ pioneers, after a federal judge ruled that the decorated flight nurse – discharged from the US air force for being a lesbian under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy – should be given her job back as soon as possible.

In his ruling [pdf], US district judge Ronald Leighton concluded: “The application of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ to Major Margaret Witt does not significantly further the government’s interest in promoting military readiness, unit morale and cohesion.”

Leighton also ruled that Witt’s rights under the US constitution’s fifth amendment had been violated, and that she should be restored to her position “as soon as is practicable”.

The Spokesman-Review reported that after announcing his ruling in the court in Tacoma, Leighton looked at Witt and said: “I hope you will request reinstatement.” Witt later replied that she would “absolutely” seek to rejoin. That would make her the first person to do so since the policy barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the US military was imposed in 1993.

The judge’s ruling is the latest body blow to DADT, coming only two weeks after a federal judge in California declared that DADT was unconstitutional, saying the ban violated the first and fifth amendment rights of homosexuals and harmed the effectiveness of the armed forces.

Witt joined the air force in 1987, was promoted to major in 1999 and later worked as a flight nurse with the 446th reserve air evacuation squadron, responsible for transporting injured and wounded soldiers in flying intensive care units.

But in 2003 Witt began a relationship with a married woman, whose husband later outed her to the air force. That sparked a military inquiry and after a hearing in 2006 Witt was discharged from the air force.

Witt’s first attempt to challenge her discharge through the courts was knocked back in 2006, by Leighton. But in 2008 her case was allowed to go forward after a federal appeals court panel ruled that the military can’t discharge service members for being homosexual unless it could prove that it furthered military goals.

The case was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, with Witt’s lawyers arguing that her sexuality never caused problems in the unit, and that her firing actually hurt military goals such as morale, unit cohesion and troop readiness. Several members of her old unit told the judge that they would welcome Witt back.

Judge Leighton noted that during her service in the military, Witt received the meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, the Aerial Achievement Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and numerous other awards and commendations, along with high performance reviews.

In a statement from the bench, Leighton said to Witt:

You have been and continue to be a central figure in a long-term, highly charged civil-rights movement. That role places extraordinary stresses on you, I know. Today, you have won a victory in that struggle, the depth and duration of which will be determined by other judicial officers and, hopefully soon, the political branches of government.

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This article titled “US officials in Iraq face uphill task without troops” was written by Ewen MacAskill in Washington, for The Guardian on Thursday 19th August 2010 21.00 UTC

Thousands of American civilian officials poised to take over from the US military in Iraq next month face a daunting range of obstacles in nation-building that include reduced security, cutbacks in their budget and the continued failure of the Iraqis to form a government.

The US state department has never in its history had to take on such a monumental exercise independent of troop support. Although the last full US combat brigade has now crossed from Iraq to Kuwait, a hugely important symbolic moment, the department is not due to formally take over from the military until 1 September. At that point, the mission the US labelled Operation Iraqi Freedom, which has been in use since the 2003 invasion, gives way to Operation New Dawn.

As the military role winds down, the state department’s role is set to increase. One of the biggest concerns it faces is that while 50,000 “non-combat” troops are to be left in Iraq as back-up for Iraqi forces, they will not provide security for US civilians engaged in reconstruction projects.

The state department will have to recruit thousands of private security contractors, increasing the existing force of 2,700 to 6,000-7,000, to provide protection. This comes in spite of the problems in the past created by the private security firms, in particular Blackwater (now renamed Xe), which gained a reputation as being trigger-happy.

The state department will also have to buy expensive equipment or persuade the financially stretched Pentagon to donate it. It wants to almost double its helicopter fleet in the country to 29, increase the number of armoured cars to 1,320 and add 60 mine-resistant vehicles.

State department spokesman PJ Crowley said: “We are ending the war … but we are not ending our work in Iraq. We have a long-term commitment to Iraq.”

Chris Hill, the outgoing US ambassador to Iraq, expressed optimism this week in Washington that the state department would fulfil its new role but admitted: “It is not easy.”

Crowley also predicted that the Iraqi government – which remains unformed since elections in March – would eventually come together. The inability of the Iraqi political elite to form a government means that many of the tasks the US military planned to hand over to the Iraqis will now be added to an already over-burdened state department.

One of its biggest concerns is how much money Congress, less interested in Iraq as it has dropped off the national agenda and sceptical about what some see as the failing war in Afghanistan, is prepared to continue pouring into Iraq.

The state department, in the face of budget cuts, is drawing up plans for reduced operations in Iraq that include scaled-back police training, one of the tasks it is to inherit from the US military.

The formal hand-over from the military will take place at a ceremony presided over the senior American commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno.

Major Chris Perrine, a Pentagon spokesman, said today: “On September 1, Operation Iraqi Freedom will end and Operation New Dawn will begin, and the transition from a US defence-led effort to a department of state-led effort.”

Perrine said the departure of the combat brigade meant there were 56,000 US troops left in Iraq, of which 6,000 would be gone by the 31 August deadline for reducing the force to 50,000.

Still embarrassed by former president George Bush’s premature declaration soon after the 2003 invasion of “mission accomplished”, US military and diplomatic officials were extra careful today to avoid claiming that combat had ended. “I don’t think anybody declared the end of the war as far as I know. There’s still fighting ahead,” said Geoff Morell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman.

The state department is considering reducing the number of reconstruction teams as a way of scaling back. It requested .8bn for Iraq for the coming financial year, a figure subsequently slashed by the House and Senate.

Members of Congress say that Iraq, with its huge oil reserves, should take a bigger share of the financial burden, but state department officials believe it will be eight to 10 years before Iraq is self-sustaining financially.

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