"Supreme Court hears an Army reservist’s case involving exposure to burn pits in Iraq" PBS NewsHour 3/29/2022
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case that questions whether sweeping legal immunity for states trumps guarantees for America’s veterans. John Yang introduces us to a Texan who served his country, and now finds himself in a legal battle for his old job.
"Remembering ‘warrior statesman’ Colin Powell" PBS NewsHour 11/5/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Friday at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., family, friends and colleagues of the late Secretary of State Colin Powell gathered to memorialize him. Presidents Biden, Obama and Bush, and another Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were among the guests. His loved ones reflected on who he was as a statesman, friend and father.
WATCH LIVE: Colin Powell's funeral at the Washington National Cathedral (3:27:04)
"What Happened to Members of the Military Accused of Storming the Capitol on January 6?" by Steve Beynon and Konstantin Toropin, Military.com 11/5/2021
At least five service members allegedly were part of the deadly pro-Trump mob that assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, leaving behind a ransacked house of government and injured police.
The attack shook the core of democracy in America, with looting and violence as Congress certified the presidential election results. The sudden unrest forced lawmakers to hide in offices and barricade doors as rioters chanted threats.
Ten months later, the military is finally starting to take action against some of the identified participants of the event. But most of those accused appear to still be in uniform, serving the country they allegedly attacked.
The five service members are a diverse group. There are two officers, along with three enlisted. Four are in the Army and National Guard, and one is in the Marine Corps. Common to all five are pending federal charges for their actions around and inside the Capitol, and the lack of a clear and decisive response from military leaders.
"I think the way the military is handling insurrectionists, treating them with kid gloves, is another great example of how broken the system is," Kristofer Goldsmith, an Army veteran and CEO of Sparverius, an intelligence firm that researches online extremism and disinformation campaigns, said in an interview. "There's no excuse for insurrection; it should be treated as the most serious crime someone who swore an oath to the Constitution can commit."
Pentagon officials have been adamant that they are working swiftly to weed out extremists from military service, and that all appropriate action has been taken to discipline service members who participated in the Jan. 6 attack while court cases are ongoing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is "comfortable that the civilian and military leadership of each of the services are working through appropriately each of these cases," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told Military.com on Oct. 27.
The Pentagon has struggled with extremism in the ranks, or even to understand the scope of the issue, as troops become attractive targets for recruitment to radical causes. The issue is highlighted by the services' slowness in punishing or discharging those allegedly involved in the Capitol mob.
The most decisive response from military leadership so far came in the case of Army Sgt. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who was demoted to private and booted from the force in June. The discharge came almost half a year after his arrest on Jan. 17, according to Army records. Hale-Cusanelli is also the only defendant of the five to still be incarcerated pending his trial.
Personal photos surfaced of Hale-Cusanelli apparently mimicking Adolf Hitler. "As indicated by multiple co-workers, [Hale-Cusanelli] shaved his facial hair into a 'Hitler mustache,' which he wore on duty" while working at a Navy base in New Jersey, according to court filings.
Meanwhile, both of the officers arrested, Army Capt. Mark Sahady and Marine Corps Maj. Christopher Warnagiris, are still serving.
Although he was arrested in January, Sahady's lawyer tells Military.com that he is now being processed out of the Army.
Warnagiris, who was arrested in May, had a hearing at the end of September where he had to argue his case for staying in the service, a Marine Corps spokesman said. The service would not provide any more information on Warnagiris' status beyond confirming the hearing and saying that the board’s recommendations are currently under review.
The responses stand in contrast to how quickly and decisively the military often handles infractions of its own policies or laws. For example, soldiers who are caught with marijuana in their system are supposed to be processed out of the force immediately, according to Army regulations.
The National Guard is seemingly the only service that hasn't begun to give alleged rioters the boot, but it is keeping an eye on federal investigations of accused soldiers. However, the military does not need to wait for a conviction in civilian courts to move on with a discharge.
Cpl. Jacob Fracker, a Virginia Guardsman, is in a non-drilling status, meaning he isn't reporting to his unit during the investigation into his involvement in the Capitol riot. Cotton Puryear, a Virginia Guard spokesperson, said more evidence is needed to remove Fracker from the force, though he admitted in social media posts to being part of the mob and posted a photo of himself inside the building during the assault.
"Virginia National Guard attorneys have reached out to civilian law enforcement to request they share any evidence that will not prejudice the ongoing civilian criminal process. Anything provided will be evaluated to determine if it is sufficient to proceed with an administrative separation board," Puryear told Military.com in a statement. "If there is sufficient evidence, the [Virginia National Guard] will pursue an administrative discharge action against Fracker."
The National Guard declined to disclose details on the other soldier who allegedly participated in the Capitol riot, Pfc. Abram Markofski, a Wisconsin Guardsman. Maj. Gretel Weiskopf, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin National Guard, cited privacy concerns and would not say whether Markofski has conducted drills with his unit. It is unclear why Wisconsin chose to withhold that information, but Virginia did not.
Markofski's unit was part of the Guard's massive response to secure the Capitol after it was overrun. Officials would not confirm or deny whether Markofski was a part of that mission, despite his alleged role in the riot.
"Let me be clear: Extremism is not tolerated in any branch of the U.S. military," Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a statement to Military.com when pressed on the service's claims of taking extremism seriously while troops alleged to have stormed the Capitol to disrupt Congress have been allowed to remain in its ranks.
The Marine Corps declined an opportunity to comment about the speed at which it has handled potential discipline of the Marine who allegedly took part in the attack on the Capitol.
Austin ordered an "extremism stand-down" in March and issued a stark warning to the force that extremist ideology can "tear the fabric" of the military.
Then, in April, he announced tougher screenings for new recruits, as well as a new extremism working group and several commissions to study the size of the problem of extremism within the ranks. However, outside groups such as Rand Corp. have argued that the Pentagon doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to deal with the problem. A report published in September argued that re-tooling existing programs to tackle extremism could be more effective.
The Pentagon moves were prompted partly by revelations that the Capitol mob also consisted of dozens of military veterans. One estimate showed more than 10% of defendants in the attack are veterans and those with a background in combat arms made up the majority.
During the stand-down, commanders had to talk about extremism with their formations and its impact on the force and national security. Some troops have said that the conversations were helpful, while others saw it as yet another check-the-box training event that didn't have buy-in from units.
Many of those involved in the riot appeared to have the false belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Numerous state audits, lawsuits and investigations found no evidence of widespread election fraud, and several of Trump's lawyers are facing disciplinary action for including false fraud claims in court filings.
Still, no good data exists on the scope of extremism in the ranks and the reach of such misinformation, which has created a gap in ongoing efforts to counter the problem, Todd Helmus, a behavioral scientist at Rand, told Military.com in an interview.
Right-wing extremism appears to be the most common of radical ideologies troops can fall into, and is the top concern among most experts. Helmus said it can be tough for top brass to address while not appearing partisan.
"This is going to be a challenge for the military. The data shows far-right extremism is a larger problem," he said. "They're going to have to deal with conservative communities. But any sort of effort that looks like it's targeting conservatism ideology is going to be counterproductive."
There's scant evidence veterans or service members are particularly vulnerable to misinformation. However, bad actors, including militia groups that were present during the siege, such as the Oath Keepers, target troops and veterans for their combat and leadership skills, according to Goldsmith.
Helmus said the key will be giving troops an opportunity to de-radicalize, which could mean counseling from supervisors or mental health care, after they have fallen victim to disinformation and conspiracy theories on social media.
Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger also told reporters this week that social media is another challenge for screening recruits, even as background checks are becoming more thorough.
"I think this is going to be the tension -- between their individual rights and protections as U.S. citizens versus what we want to discover about their interests and how it might fit in with being a service member," Berger said.
Five service members have been charged thus far with participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Below is a full accounting of the current status of their cases, 10 months after the riot took place.
1. Maj. Christopher Warnagiris
Charges: Civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; act of violence in the Capitol grounds; parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Plea: Not Guilty
The most senior military member allegedly found at the Capitol that day was Marine Corps Maj. Christopher Warnagiris. According to prosecutors, security camera footage showed him "violently" entering the Capitol building after pushing through a line of police officers. Once inside, the Marine officer held the door open for others, at one point pushing a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was trying to close the door.
Warnagiris was arrested for his actions on May 13 but, on June 21, a Marine Corps spokesman told Military.com that the artillery officer was still working at his post at Quantico, Virginia. On June 30, he pleaded not guilty to nine charges.
More than four months after his arrest, the Marines held a Board of Inquiry for Warnagiris from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 in which the officer had to argue for his right to stay in the Corps. Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Ryan Bruce said that the board has made a recommendation to the general who oversees Warnagiris, but he would not say what that recommendation was or when a decision on his service would be made.
Military.com reached out to Warnagiris' lawyer, Marina Medvin, several times but did not receive a reply before publication. She previously noted that DC federal court rules limit what attorneys can say about pending cases.
2. Army Reserve Capt. Mark Sahady
Charges: Entering or remaining in restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building
Plea: Not Guilty
Sahady, an Afghanistan war veteran who serves in the Army Reserve's 302nd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts, received a letter of reprimand and is currently being processed out of the Army, according to his attorney. A timeline for his dismissal is unclear. A spokesperson with the Army Reserve declined Military.com's request for additional information.
According to a criminal complaint, Sahady made multiple posts on a now-suspended Twitter account with statements spreading the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen and that people needed to gather in D.C. for retaliation.
On Dec. 20, weeks before the Capitol siege, investigators say Sahady posted a tweet saying it is "important that millions of Americans show up in DC on January 6 to support the legitimate President, Donald Trump, and show Democrats what they will be facing if they continue to try and steal the Presidency."
When someone on Twitter asked about transportation, Sahady replied, 'we have 7 buses coming," adding there was space left for additional personnel.
On Jan. 4, Sahady tweeted, "January 6 -- Washington, DC -- It begins." The following day, another Twitter account posted a photo, which law enforcement alleges is Sahady on a bus giving a thumbs up, presumably en route to Washington, D.C.
A Department of Justice press release on Sahady noted that he "is the vice president of an organization called 'Super Happy Fun America,' which allegedly purports to advocate for the 'straight community.'"
Sahady's lawyer, John Kiyonaga, told Military.com in an email that, in his several years as an Army prosecutor, he "never saw such administrative action on a civilian criminal charge prior to conviction."
3. Army Reserve Sgt. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli
Charges: Civil disorder; aiding and abetting; obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; impeding ingress and egress in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Plea: Not Guilty
Hale-Cusanelli enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2009 as a human resources specialist and served in the 174th Infantry Brigade, out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.
He was demoted from sergeant to private and booted from force in June, according to Army records.
Federal authorities say Hale-Cusanelli admitted to entering the Capitol and encouraging the mob to "advance" -- giving verbal and hand signals to direct the rioters. Hale-Cusanelli told a federal informant that the mob could have taken the entire building if they had more men, according to court documents. He also admitted to picking up a flagpole and flag he observed another rioter using "like a javelin" against a Capitol Police officer, describing it as "a murder weapon."
He worked at Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, which prompted the Navy to conduct its own investigation, in which "the majority" of his colleagues interviewed described him as a white supremacist and anti-semitic, who was potentially violent. He also wore a Hitler mustache to work.
One Navy petty officer told investigators that Hale-Cusanelli said, "Hitler should have finished the job." That petty officer said they considered Hale-Cusanelli "unstable," adding that he made the work environment uncomfortable. Investigators said that Hale-Cusanelli told another petty officer that, "Jews, women, and blacks were on the bottom of the totem pole."
When investigators inquired about why Hale-Cusanelli's poor conduct wasn't handled, a contractor said they feared for their safety.
On Jan. 6, federal authorities say Capitol Police hit Hale-Cusanelli with pepper spray as he advanced into the building with the mob. He admitted to law enforcement that he then encouraged others to "advance" past law enforcement. Rioters began to push and shove police officers; after 30 seconds, the mob broke through and advanced up the building's steps toward the front doors, where Hale-Cusanelli recorded a video yelling, "Trump won!"
Military.com reached out to Hale-Cusanelli's lawyer several times but did not receive a reply before publication.
While the Army Reserve has made moves to kick out soldiers accused of assaulting the Capitol, the National Guard has been much slower in doling out meaningful punishment against at least two of its soldiers.
4. National Guard Cpl. Jacob Fracker
Charges: Obstruction of an official proceeding; aiding and abetting; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds.
Plea: Not Guilty
In now-deleted social media posts, Cpl. Jacob Fracker, an infantryman with the Virginia National Guard, posted a photo of himself and another individual in the Capitol during the siege and wrote, "LoL to anyone who's possibly concerned about the picture of me going around... Sorry I hate freedom?...Not like I did anything illegal...y'all do what you feel you need to..."
The posts were cited in his criminal complaint.
Fracker was a police officer in Rocky Mount, Virginia, but was fired for his role in the attack. He is being charged by federal authorities alongside Thomas Robertson, who federal law enforcement says took the photo with Fracker in the Capitol.
Robertson, an Army Reserve veteran, served in the same police department as Fracker. During the summer, while awaiting trial, authorities say Robertson purchased 34 firearms, despite a judge's order to stay away from weapons. During an FBI search of his home, they also found a partially assembled pipe bomb and "large amounts of ammo," according to court documents.
Despite the fact that Fracker, who is assigned to 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, has admitted to being a part of the Capitol mob on social media, posted photos from inside the Capitol, and lost his civilian job over his actions, the Guard hasn't removed him from the force.
Fracker's case is ongoing, but the military doesn't need a conviction to take action. Troops often are swiftly removed for infractions such as using marijuana or offenses that break military rules, but not the law, such as being overweight.
Military.com reached out to Fracker's lawyer several times but did not receive a reply before publication.
5. National Guard Pfc. Abram Markofski
Charges: Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; violent entry or disorderly conduct; parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Plea: Guilty to Demonstrating in a Capitol Building.
Markofski, an infantryman who serves in the Wisconsin Guard's 1st Battalion, 128 Infantry Regiment, is set to be sentenced Dec. 3.
Federal prosecutors say he and a friend traveled to Washington, D.C., from Madison, Wis., to attend the rally held by Trump, where the former President told his supporters to march on the Capitol and "never concede." He also informed his backers that if they "don't fight like hell," they "aren't going to have a country anymore."
Markofski admitted to federal authorities to being in the Capitol for 40 minutes after Capitol Police warned him to leave, court documents say.
Military.com reached out to Markofski's lawyers several times but did not receive a reply before publication.
-- Travis Tritten contributed to this story.
COMMENT: I am a retired USN and Vietnam Vet (22yrs) and when I signed up I knew that some of my civilian freedoms were given up. The military told me how to groom my hair, what clothing I could ware (on and off duty), how I may behave as representative our military, and more. So for these military persons to state 'freedom' for their behavior at a Insurrection against our Government is totally wrong.
"Our Next War in Afghanistan Is Already Looming. And It May Be Even Harder." by Travis Tritten and Stephen Losey, Military.com 9/30/2021
The dangers that kept the U.S. in Afghanistan for so long are already accumulating again, little more than a month after the last troops left in a chaotic withdrawal.
The al-Qaida terrorist group that drew America into the country two decades ago is poised to come back under the ruling Taliban regime, or it never left at all, depending on whom you ask.
It may be only one to two years before the group could again threaten the U.S. homeland, according to a conservative estimate the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA disclosed in September. Then, there was the last spasm of violence before the complete pullout of U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- a suicide bombing that killed 13 troops that was attributed to a competing terrorist group, the Islamic State-Khorasan [ISIS-K].
Under that looming terrorism threat, former defense officials, lawmakers and experts believe a new U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan is likely, maybe even inevitable, in what could be an echo of the withdrawal a decade ago from Iraq that cleared the way for the rise of the Islamic State and years of horrific attacks, killings and more war.
"We are going to have to send U.S. military forces back in some form to Afghanistan," said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. "I don't have a crystal ball -- I don't know if that is six months or six years -- but the disaster in Iraq took three years to unfold."
Then-President Barack Obama declared the Iraq war over in 2011. Over the next three years, the Islamic State group grew into a Mideast regional power with control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. It sponsored attacks in the U.S. and around the world, slaughtered ethnic minorities, and released videos of the beheadings of aid workers, tourists and journalists, including American James Foley, in a display of barbarity that swiftly drew recruits to form a pseudo-state before American forces returned.
Afghanistan, where more than 800,000 U.S. troops fought over four presidencies to ensure it wasn't a terrorist plotting ground, could be the site of the next war on terrorism. But this time, the military may face even tougher conditions, with the region's remote geography, a lack of bases on the ground, a Taliban regime in control of government, and allies who led a quick initial invasion victory 20 years ago either missing or in exile.
The Pentagon insists it can take out terrorist threats with "over the horizon capabilities," or long-distance surgical strikes. But there is skepticism over the effectiveness of such strikes, which would be carried out by troops and aircraft stationed more than a thousand miles away. A botched drone strike on Aug. 29 as the U.S. evacuated Kabul showed how such strikes can go wrong -- 10 civilians, including seven children, killed by mistake due to bad intelligence collected from the air.
"I would love to say we have this magic ability to reach in and kill any bad guy, and maybe we'll kill a few of them," Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air Force veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan, said in an interview. "But man, we run the real risk of just creating more enemies than we do killing them."
New World or Old Safe Haven
The White House sought to turn the page on the war and shift focus as the dust settled in Kabul, even as concerns grew.
President Joe Biden gave an address Aug. 31, telling the country that he "ended 20 years of war" and that the terrorist threat held at bay for so many years by a U.S. military presence had moved elsewhere. It was an effort to explain a military-led withdrawal and evacuation that saw desperate Afghans clinging to a plane departing Kabul, the deadly suicide bombing, and finally the tragic U.S. airstrike that killed only civilians.
"This is a new world. The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan," said Biden, pointing to Syria, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.
Biden's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie would later testify on Sept. 28 to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they recommended maintaining troops in the country.
But the Pentagon would instead keep an eye on the region from afar, Biden said in his address. Afghanistan was a priority, but no longer a top priority.
On the same day as Biden's address, al-Qaida released a statement praising what it called a Taliban victory over the "filth of the Americans," according to a translation posted by the Long War Journal, a publication of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The United Nations Security Council had reported in June that large numbers of al-Qaida fighters and other extremists aligned with the Taliban remained in Afghanistan. The group was present in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces but was laying low and minimizing communication with Taliban leaders to avoid international attention, the U.N. reported.
"In many ways, we're in the exact same place we were 20 years ago, and that is with a Taliban-al-Qaida safe haven in Afghanistan," Bowman said.
Top Pentagon officials acknowledged the terror group, which plotted the 9/11 attacks, still had a presence in Afghanistan during hours of questioning from the Senate committee on Sept. 28. The group's original leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. special operations raid on a Pakistan compound in 2011.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there were still "remnants" in the Taliban-ruled country, and Milley told the committee al-Qaida exists and wants to regroup from there to strike the U.S.
"Folks, we are going to pay for what we just did," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said during the hearing. "I got young kids, y'all got kids and grandkids, and we're going to be back in there fighting."
Few Levers Left to Pull
Any U.S. military return to Afghanistan would likely require a major emergency, something akin to the Islamic State group's surge through Syria and northern Iraq in 2014, said retired Gen. Joe Votel, who served as head of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, and also led Army Rangers in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Public horror and outrage fueled a years-long U.S. air campaign, which was assisted by a small number of ground troops working with local Syrian and Iraqi forces. A military presence remains in Iraq, but Biden ordered the combat mission to end this year.
"I could definitely see us responding to a threat [in Afghanistan], and I would certainly hope that we would," Votel said in an interview.
But he said any military operations are likely to focus more narrowly on specific targets there, rather than trying to solve conditions in the country that created them. The U.S. poured $2.3 trillion into rebuilding Afghanistan over the 20-year war in hopes of creating a functioning democratic government, according to Brown University's Cost of War project, though that government and its security forces crumbled within days during the Taliban advance over the summer.
Over-the-horizon capabilities, the airstrikes carried out from distant bases, are now the first line of defense, mainly because military options are otherwise limited following the withdrawal.
"We have very few levers in Afghanistan right now because we've completely pulled out," McKenzie said in his Senate testimony.
The U.S. military lost its ground base in Kabul, the partnership with elite Afghan commandos who were the most effective of the U.S.-trained troops, and much of its intelligence feed, making what was set to be a difficult mission over a remote, landlocked country even harder, said William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.
"Whether we like it or not, we are now in a race, and the race is between the Salafi jihadists' predictable efforts to build external attack capacities and our efforts to establish an acceptably effective over-the-horizon counter-terrorism capability," said Wechsler, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism during the Obama administration.
Lack of Intel and Hard Geography
Austin told the Senate that the military's use of over-the-horizon strikes is fairly common and effective. He pointed to a September airstrike in Syria that the Pentagon said killed an al-Qaida terrorist leader.
"Over-the-horizon operations are difficult but absolutely possible, and the intelligence that supports them comes from a variety of sources and not just U.S. boots on the ground," Austin told the Senate committee on Sept. 28.
But Retired Gen. John Allen, now the president of the Brookings Institution, said that type of intelligence is crucial for such operations. Allen was the NATO International Security Assistance Force commander in Afghanistan, and also served as special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, the U.S.-led group of nations that fought the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
"Over-the-horizon targeting implies that you have eyes on the target, you've got some form of boots on the ground or intelligence development capability that's on the ground," Allen said in a Middle East Institute discussion Sept. 16. "We have none, we've basically given it up."
The last U.S. airstrike [video] of the Afghanistan war, which mistakenly killed 10 civilians in a home near the Kabul airport, illustrated how horribly wrong operations overseen from abroad can go.
After receiving conflicting intelligence about the home being used by ISIS-K for a planned attack drawn from video captured by six Reaper drones watching from above, a strike team located abroad launched a Hellfire missile that killed an aid worker as well as seven children.
"I would reject a parallel between this operation and an over-the-horizon strike against an ISIS-K target, again, because we will have an opportunity to further develop the target and time to look at pattern of life," meaning long-term monitoring of targets, McKenzie said in a Sept. 17 briefing admitting the botched strike. "That time was not available to us because this was an imminent threat to our forces."
During the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, the presence of special operators on the ground was key to targeting the enemy.
But the withdrawal and the loss of the Kabul airport and Bagram airport, one of the most capable and advanced in the region, has hobbled the ability to insert troops if needed and has put any U.S. aerial operations up against the difficult geography of the country.
"The distances here are considerable, and it's hard to cover the distances and sustain these efforts when you have a dynamic threat on the ground," Votel said.
Iran airspace is a no-go for the military, and Allen said Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely try to block any attempts by the U.S. to set up operating bases in the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that box in Afghanistan in the north.
U.S. military strikes could then be dependent on Pakistan giving clearance to fly through its territory. But Islamabad may feel pressure to ally with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, leaving access an open and troubling question as its relationship with the U.S. evolves post-withdrawal, according to Allen.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether arrangements have been made with Pakistan for the U.S. to use its airspace for over-the-horizon strikes.
As intelligence and access have grown harder, the U.S. also faces a third challenge: the loss of local partners. Indigenous forces were key in both the early days of the Afghanistan war and the operations against the Islamic State in the Middle East.
Afghanistan's Northern Alliance opposition in the Panjshir Valley proved capable in 2001 and gave the U.S. military a toehold. A fledgling anti-Taliban resistance in Panjshir has now been snuffed out as would-be opposition leaders fled into neighboring countries.
The strategic difficulties with continuing military operations in Afghanistan, and the grim terrorism assessments, came as Congress and the Pentagon wrestled with the legacy of the 20-year war.
"I don't think it's pre-ordained that we're going to have to go back," Austin told senators.
The question is what would prompt the military to go back in, and whether it would take another attack on the U.S. homeland, Kinzinger said. Or would it require a steady drumbeat of attacks and atrocities like those committed by the Islamic State in the vacuum left in northern Iraq and war-torn Syria during the last decade?
"I think it's one thing to reintroduce troops into Iraq like we did, but Afghanistan is a whole different thing," Kinzinger said. "That's a frightening idea."
"Final Troops Withdraw from Afghanistan, Ending Evacuation -- and the War" by Stephen Losey and Steve Beynon, Military.com 8/30/2021
The U.S. military's evacuation from the main airport in Kabul has ended -- along with the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan.
U.S. Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie said Monday the last C-17 Globemaster III took off minutes before midnight Kabul time -- the beginning of Aug. 31, which was the United States' deadline for withdrawal. For the first time since late 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, there are now no U.S. service members in Afghanistan.
"There's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure," McKenzie said. "We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out, but I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out."
Reports of celebratory gunfire from the Taliban surfaced online after the final C-17 took off from Kabul.
The final weeks of the war were among the military's hardest, as thousands of troops rushed in to hold Hamid Karzai International Airport as the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed with shocking speed and the Taliban rapidly filled the void.
The unprecedented airlift effort to rush to safety Americans and Afghan allies -- the largest noncombatant evacuation operation in U.S. military history -- saw some 123,000 people evacuated in all. Since Aug. 14, more than 79,000 civilians were ferried out by the U.S. military on one flight after another -- primarily C-17s, their massive cargo bays at times packed with hundreds of refugees.
The evacuation effort saw the last flag-draped coffins from the war arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The final U.S. casualties came Aug. 26, when a suicide bomber struck at the airport's Abbey Gate, packed with U.S. troops and many Afghans trying to get through. The bomber killed 13 troops -- 11 Marines, a sailor and a soldier, wounded more than 20 other troops, and killed or wounded hundreds of Afghans.
It marked one of the deadliest days of the war for the U.S., with less than a week to go, and brought the final toll of service members killed there to 2,461. There were also more than 20,000 troops wounded in Afghanistan.
"My heart is broken over the losses we sustained three days ago," McKenzie said.
The Islamic State's Afghanistan branch, ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the attack. The U.S. responded with two drone strikes: one on Friday that killed two people the military claimed were ISIS organizers, and one on Sunday it said targeted a car in Kabul carrying explosive material intended for another attack. The latter airstrike may have resulted in up to 10 civilian casualties, according to reporting by The New York Times that was not immediately disputed by the Pentagon.
ISIS-K and the Taliban are in the midst of their own war, prompting a pseudo-alliance between the U.S. and the Taliban, who have been killing one another for 20 years. McKenzie described the Taliban as "pragmatic," saying the terror group had a vested interest in the U.S. leaving quickly, thus motivating it to try and facilitate a smooth withdrawal by securing areas outside of the airport.
He added that diplomatic efforts to help remaining U.S. citizens and eligible Afghans who want to leave will continue, though the military's role in the evacuation process is done.
Just as the evacuation began, the desperation of some Afghans hoping to escape impending Taliban rule caused an accident that pushed the White House to send in more troops to secure the airfield. On Aug. 16, many desperate Afghans ran onto the airport's grounds and surrounded a C-17 that had just landed to unload equipment. The C-17's crew, concerned about the crowd of people approaching the aircraft, opted to take off again. Afghans ran alongside the plane and clung to its sides, some falling to their deaths, and the body of one Afghan was later found in the aircraft's landing gear.
Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, and U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson were among the last U.S. officials to leave Afghanistan. They departed on the final C-17 flight, covered by what McKenzie described as "overwhelming U.S. airpower overhead, should there have been any challenge to our departure."
At the peak of the airlift last week, C-17s were taking off roughly every 45 minutes, and more than 19,000 people were flown out on a single day. On average, the military evacuated more than 7,500 civilians per day, McKenzie said.
The U.S. military evacuated more than 6,000 American civilians, which the Pentagon said represented the majority of those who wanted to leave. The military estimated that only a few hundred wishing to leave remain.McKenzie said the civilian evacuation ended about 12 hours before the final withdrawal. Some equipment was brought out on the final flights, but other equipment -- such as the Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar, or C-RAM, system and various aircraft and vehicles -- was left behind permanently disabled.
The sudden collapse of Afghanistan's American-backed government, and the emergency evacuation triggered by the deteriorating security situation, have drawn both political attacks for opponents of the Biden administration, and finger-pointing within. Roughly 2,500 U.S. troops had remained in Afghanistan when the Trump administration left office, a number the Biden administration reduced to about 650 before the Taliban easily conquered Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden quickly mobilized 6,000 troops, including the 10th Mountain and 82nd Airborne Division, to secure the airport and aid in the evacuation that followed.
"No words from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and accomplishments of those who serve, nor the emotions they're feeling at this moment," McKenzie said. "But I will say that I'm proud that both my son and I have been a part of it."
IMO: Being retired US Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Vet, people who help our enemies by revealing information that may help them are committing Treason, regardless of their misguided reason, and 45 months is no where near the sentence he should get. As for whistleblower laws, our military national security should override the concerns of prison time for whistleblowers, if they break their oath they pay the consequences, especially when they plead guilty.
"Former Airman Who Leaked Details of Drone Program Sentenced, Will Serve Prison Time" by Oriana Pawlyk, Military.com 7/27/2021
A former Air Force intelligence analyst who said he was compelled to speak out against the military’s use of drones after witnessing firsthand their effect on civilian casualties has been sentenced to 45 months in prison for leaking classified information.
U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady convicted Daniel Hale of Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday for leaking the top secret information to a reporter. Hale pleaded guilty to violating the 1917 Espionage Act in April.
Hale, who served in the Air Force between 2009 and 2013 deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in 2012. There he supported the National Security Agency and used his skills to track down cell-phone signals hunting enemy combatants in the field, according to the Associated Press. He was honorably discharged in 2013, the same year he reached out to an unidentified reporter, according to the original indictment.
O’Grady confirmed during the sentencing hearing that the leaks were made to the Intercept.
He then leaked more than a dozen documents while working as a contracted analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2014 and 2015. The documents provided a counterpoint to U.S. claims that the drone program prioritized avoiding civilian casualties.
In an impassioned 11-page letter to O’Grady, Hale spoke of his depression and post traumatic stress disorder he has suffered in the wake of his intelligence work.
"Not a day goes by that I don't question the justification for my actions," Hale wrote. “What possibly could I have done to cope with the undeniable cruelties that I perpetrated?"
The prosecution argued that Hale’s leak, however, made its way into an internet manual used by Islamic State fighters, jeopardizing military tactics and operations.
“You are not being prosecuted for speaking out about the drone program killing innocent people,” O’Grady, the judge, said Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia. “You could have been a whistleblower … without taking any of these documents.”
Lisa Ling, a former Air Force technical sergeant who worked with the drone program, told Military.com that unless the U.S. government creates more adequate ways for whistleblowers to come forward, leaks will continue to come from the intelligence and military communities.
“We all believe the public has a right to know what’s done in our name,” said Ling, who was honorably discharged in 2012 and spoke out against drone warfare in the 2016 documentary, "National Bird."
Ling believes the system meant to protect whistleblowers is broken, cheating the individuals who want to do public good. “And the Espionage Act should be repealed -- it shouldn't be used for whistleblowers,” she said.
The World War I-era act was intended to punish those spying on behalf of any enemy or a foreign actor, but its scope has expanded over the years to include the prosecution of those who leak highly sensitive information that could harm national security.
Hale’s case has been compared to Reality Winner, who until recently was serving a 63-month sentence at a Fort Worth, Texas, federal prison after pleading guilty to leaking classified NSA information on Russia's alleged efforts to undermine the 2016 election -- a topic that has dominated national discourse and brought to light the challenges of safeguarding the voting process.
Prosecutors said at the time it was the longest sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized distribution of government information to a media outlet. Similar to Hale, Winner was a former Air Force language analyst aiding pilots targeting enemy combatants in the Middle East. She also was found guilty of violating the Espionage Act in 2018.
“I am so relieved that Daniel Hale did not receive as harsh of a sentence as my daughter,” Billie Winner-Davis, Reality’s mother, said Tuesday.
Winner last month was freed from the detention center and entered a residential reentry process. She has not been pardoned.
“It breaks me to know he was sentenced to prison though,” Winner-Davis said. “I don't believe he, nor any whistleblower, belongs in prison.”
More attention should be focused on the U.S. lethal actions abroad, argued Ling.
“It's always ‘a bad thing’ when somebody has a document that the public should have a right to know [about],” Ling said.
“If you look at a lot of the whistleblowers who come in who have come out, a lot of them have been involved or touched the drone program to include Edward Snowden,” she added. “Why is that? And why are we not interrogating the drone program? Why are we interrogating the whistleblowers?”
"Gone but not forgotten: A tribute to fallen American soldiers" PBS NewsHour 5/31/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: We close tonight with a special tribute to the brave soldiers who gave their lives for our country. It comes from "The President's own" United States Marine Corps band performing "Taps," and is narrated by Judy Woodruff.
"On the ground with Yemeni soldiers battling Iran-allied rebels" PBS NewsHour 5/3/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Three months ago, President Biden ended American military involvement in the war in Yemen and reversed President Trump's decision to designate the Houthis a terrorist organization. But soon after, as special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports, the Houthis launched an offensive east from the capital Sana'a, towards the city of Marib, the last stronghold of Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.
"Extremism in the ranks: some at the January 6 Capitol riot were police, active military" PBS NewsHour 3/13/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Right-wing extremists have infiltrated the ranks of the military and law enforcement, as watchdogs and counterterrorism experts have been warning for years — and some were present at, and later arrested for participating in, the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. NewsHour Special Correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reports on the ongoing effort to root extremists out, as part of our ongoing initiative, “Exploring Hate: Antisemitism, Racism, and Extremism.”
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| A soldier aims an XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement weapon system at Aberdeen Test Center, Md. Army photo |
Despite all the disruptions of 2020, Army modernization officials have tested new, longer-range and more precise infantry weapon systems. They also announced efforts that could lead to future machine guns, precision grenade launchers and possibly even hand-held directed energy weapons.
Soldier lethality is a key Army modernization priority, one that has gained momentum since the service unveiled a strategy in 2017 to equip combat units with a new generation of air and ground combat systems.
Soldier lethality is a key Army modernization priority, one that has gained momentum since the service unveiled a strategy in 2017 to equip combat units with a new generation of air and ground combat systems.
In the short term, the Army wants to field new squad-level weapons to close-combat units and a set of high-tech goggles that projects a sight reticle in front of soldiers' eyes.
Soldier lethality is a key Army modernization priority, one that has gained momentum since the service unveiled a strategy in 2017 to equip combat units with a new generation of air and ground combat systems.
The service announced long-term efforts to develop new belt-fed, crew-served weapons, as well as to begin thinking about what infantry weapons will look like decades from now.
Soldier lethality is a key Army modernization priority, one that has gained momentum since the service unveiled a strategy in 2017 to equip combat units with a new generation of air and ground combat systems.
Here's a look at five weapons-related programs Military.com has reported on this year:
1. Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)
In October, Army modernization officials finished the third soldier touch point (STP) in which troops evaluated the first ruggedized version of IVAS. The Microsoft-designed goggles are intended to provide a heads-up display that offers infantry troops situational awareness tools to help them navigate, communicate and keep track of other members of their unit day and night.
But IVAS is also designed to enhance troops'' marksmanship with a tool known as Rapid Target Acquisition. A special thermal weapons site mounts on the soldier's weapon and projects the site reticle into the wearer's field of view via Bluetooth signal. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division involved in the STP said it took some adjustment to learn how to shoot with IVAS, but most said they were easily hitting 300-meter targets from a standing position. If all goes well, the IVAS is slated to be ready for fielding sometime in 2021.
2. Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW)
The Army is in the final phase of evaluating NGSW rifle and auto rifle prototypes, chambered for a new 6.8mm round, that are slated to start replacing the 5.56mm M4A1 carbine and the M249 squad automatic weapon in infantry and other close-combat units in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
Textron Systems, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc., and Sig Sauer have delivered prototype systems and ammunition that have gone through STPs. Each vendor's design is unique and fires a different version of the 6.8mm ammunition. The Army plans to select a single firm to make both the weapons and ammunition in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
The NGSW weapons are so promising that U.S. special operations units such as the 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces units are expected to adopt them, as well as conventional units.
3. Precision Grenadier
Army weapons officials announced in November that the service is pursuing a longer-term effort to arm some infantry squad members with a precision, counter-defilade weapons system designed to destroy enemy hiding behind cover. Currently, two infantrymen in each squad are armed with an M4A1 carbine with an M320 40mm grenade launcher to engage counter-defilade targets, but weapons officials have long wanted something more sophisticated.
During the past decade, the Army tried to field the XM25 Counter-Defilade Target Engagement System -- a semi-automatic, shoulder-fired weapon that used 25mm high-explosive, air-bursting ammunition. XM25 stirred excitement in the infantry community but, in the end, the complex system was plagued by program delays that led to its demise.
The Army is currently conducting the Platoon Arms and Ammunition Configuration (PAAC) study -- scheduled to be complete by 2024 -- which will look at the enemies the service will face in the future and help guide weapons officials to a new counter-defilade weapon sometime in 2028, Army officials say.
4. Next-Generation Medium and Heavy Machine Gun
Army weapons officials also announced in early November that the service wants to eventually replace the venerable 7.62mm M240 and the .50 caliber "Ma Deuce" M2 with next-generation machine guns. But Army officials said that the decision to move forward on such a program will depend on the future performance demonstrated by the NGSW once it's fielded. The PAAC study will also help to guide decisions on what the next-gen medium and heavy machine guns would look like, according to Army officials.
The Marine Corps is working the Army on the next-gen machine gun effort but is also assessing a .338 Norma Magnum machine gun -- that U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is developing -- to potentially replace the M240s in Marine rifle companies.
5. Machine Gun Suppressors
The Maneuver Battle Lab at Fort Benning, Georgia, live-fire tested a promising M240 sound suppressor from Maxim Defense during Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) 2021, which began in late October. Benning officials said this is the first year that a machine gun suppressor has created excitement in the maneuver community.
Other suppressors in past tests have not been able to stand up to the heat and audible roar produced by the 7.62mm M240. Finding a durable, affordable suppressor that can dampen the sound signature of an M240 would make it more difficult for enemies to locate and target machine gun teams from a distance, Benning officials say.
When the AEWE concludes in early March, Battle Lab officials will compile a report detailing the performance of equipment tested. If testing continues to go well, the Battle Lab may recommend that the Maxim suppressor undergo further testing for possible fielding, according to Benning officials.
Looking further into the future, it will likely be a long time until infantrymen are armed with the blaster weapons like those carried by Stormtroopers or Han Solo in the "Star Wars" saga, but Army weapons officials have already started thinking about it.
"We are working on the Next Generation Squad Weapon ... but then what's the next weapon after that?" Col. Rhett Thompson, director of the Soldier Requirements Division at Benning, said during the National Defense Industrial Association's Armaments, Robotics and Munitions conference in early November.
"Does it fire a round? Instead of a magazine with ammunition, is it some sort of energy capacity ... or is it something more directed energy or something else?" he said. "That is really what we are getting at as we get further out there, and some of that is kind of fun to think about."
"Marine 2-Star Under Investigation for Racial Slur Has Been Relieved of Command" by Gina Harkins, Military.com 10/20/2020
Excerpt
A Marine general officer was removed from a high-profile post overseeing troops in Europe and Africa as an investigation continues into claims that he used a degrading term about Black people in front of his troops.
Maj. Gen. Stephen Neary was relieved as head of Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa on Monday by the service's top general. Commandant Gen. David Berger lost trust and confidence in Neary's ability to lead, the service announced Tuesday.
Neary did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his relief. He remains under investigation after reportedly using the N-word while his Marines were conducting physical training while listening to rap music outside the command's headquarters in Germany, Stars and Stripes reported earlier this month.
After the word was used in one of the songs, Neary asked junior Marines how they would feel if he said it, a lance corporal told the paper. Black, white and Latino Marines "were jolted when the general said the word," according to Stripes, which spoke to individuals who witnessed the event.
"He lost respect right there," a Marine told the paper.
Though the investigation into the allegations remains ongoing, Capt. Joe Butterfield, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, said the probe's initial findings led Berger to lose confidence in Neary's ability to lead the command.
Neary assumed duties as commander of Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa in July. The command oversees hundreds of Marines assigned to locations across Europe and Africa.
Col. James Iulo will serve as the acting commander until a replacement is determined, according to the Marine Corps. Information about Neary's current assignment was not immediately available.
The investigation follows a military-wide effort to end racism in the ranks as cities across the country continue seeing protests following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody earlier this year.
The Marine Corps in June became the first service to officially ban Confederate flag displays on base, and Berger said last month that signs of racism in the service must immediately be rooted out.
"Nothing crushes cohesion faster," he said at a September event hosted by Defense One. "... It just starts to tear apart the fabric at the tactical level. We can't have that."
Defense Secretary Mark Esper in July outlined a series of steps each service should take to eliminate discrimination, prejudice and bias in the ranks.
"Hard work remains, and we will continue to learn as we move forward," Esper said.
SUMMARY: The U.S. has reached a short-term agreement with the Taliban that could pave the way for ending the war in Afghanistan that has endured for nearly 20 years. Under the plan, U.S. forces and the Taliban agree to a temporary cessation of violence and a phased approach to the withdrawal of American troops. But is the Afghan government on board? Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff from Munich to discuss.
SUMMARY: President Trump and U.S. military leadership clashed this weekend over the case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a highly decorated Navy SEAL accused and acquitted of war crimes but convicted of posing in a photograph with a dead militant’s body. The controversy ultimately led to the firing of the secretary of the Navy. William Brangham talks to The Wall Street Journal’s Nancy Youssef.
