Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.
MUST READS
(1) US wants faster training in Pakistan [1]
AP reports today that the Pentagon is looking at plans to significantly accelerate and expand [1] the training of Pakistan's military in a key move to improve their ability to confront insurgents along the Afghanistan border. According to a senior defense official, the U.S. is in early talks with Pakistani leaders to develop a program that could increase the number of U.S. special operations trainers in that country, with a goal to slash the training time by as much as half for more than 9,000 members of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps. Training of the 14 battalion-size units of the Frontier Corps could take at least four years. In testimony before the Senate Armed Servces Committee on Thursdsay, Defense Secretary Robert Gates [2] said efforts to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban depends on successfully ridding Pakistan of them: "For all of Pakistan's history, India has been the existential threat," he noted. "I think actually it was only with the Taliban's going too far and moving their operations into Buner, just 60 miles or so from Islamabad, that for the first time they really got the attention of the Pakistani government."
(2) Pentagon to examine wiring in Afghanistan [3]
Ahead of an additional 21,000 troop deployment to Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s internal watchdog has reportedly sent inspectors to U.S. military bases in the country to examine the electrical wiring. The decision comes amid controversy over the role of U.S. defense contractors in Iraq, at least three U.S. service members have been electrocuted while taking showers due to faulty wiring.
(3) Obama Restarting Gitmo Tribunals [4]
President Obama is expected to announce Friday that he will restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a trial system he once said the Bush administration had abused, but with new legal protections for terror suspects. The military trials will remain frozen for another four months as the administration adjusts the legal system that is expected to try fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees at the U.S. naval detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Thirteen detainees - including five charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - are already in the tribunal system.
(4) Vet advocate accused of being Marine faker [5]
The Colorado Veterans Alliance has voted to disband after members accused its founder Rick Duncan of fabricating an identity as a former Marine captain who served three tours in Iraq and was at the Pentagon on 9/11. Richard Glen Strandlof, 32, who used the name Rick Duncan, founded the organization two years ago; however, Marine Corps officials confirmed this week there is no record of Richard Glen Strandlof or Rick Duncan serving in the Marines. Police arrested Strandlof on Tuesday night on an outstanding traffic warrant from El Paso County. He is in custody at Denver City Jail on $1,000 bond.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban insurgents attacked a prison [6] in eastern Laghman province before dawn Friday, sparking a gunbattle with guards during which one prisoner was killed and another escaped. Separately, Afghan security officials said NATO war planes [7] attacked and killed 22 Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on Friday as they gathered outside the provincial capital Lashkar Gah to attack the town.
Nearly two weeks after a U.S. airstrike against militants in Farah Province, some Afghan villagers are coming forward to verify denials by U.S. military officials that the bombings did not kill 147 people as estimated by an Afghan human rights watch group. Others maintain that the Taliban had already left the village of Granai before the bombings began. Read their interviews with the New York Times here [8].
Days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Lt. General Stanley McChrysal [9] will takeover as U.S. commander in Afghanistan, experts argue that big changes in the counterinsurgency fight are ahead. “Look for [unclassified] special operations forces, particularly Special Forces, to play a greater and more visible role in ‘hearts and minds’ and foreign internal defense. Also look for a more visionary approach to the [counternarcotics] problem,” explained a senior defense official.
IRAQ
The Department of Defense announced Thursday that a Maj. Steven Hutchinson [10], a 60-year-old Vietnam War veteran, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Sunday becoming the oldest Army soldier to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to his family, Hutchinson served in Vietnam and wanted to re-enlist immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks. He served in Afghanistan for a year before deploying to Iraq in October, heading a 12-soldier team that trained the Iraqi military along the country's southern border.
MILITARY AFFAIRS
In an interview today, security analysts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are warning that the government's magnanimity in offering a new Post-9/11 GI Bill [11] will create a military exodus as many servicemembers choose college over the battlefield.
U.S. Navy officials confirmed Thursday more than a dozen new cases of the so-called swine flu [12], bringing the total number of stricken sailors to 47. The majority of cases remains on the San Diego-based amphibious transport dock Dubuque, which has confirmed 28 cases.
INSIDE WASHINGTON
In a 368-60 vote on Thursday, the House approved a $97 billion war-funding supplemental [13] for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several anti-war Democrats and conservatives - including House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA)- voted against motions to bring the bill to the floor citing the pricetag. Aside from funding the wars in Iraq and Afghaistan, the bill seeks emergency funding for the pandemic flu, the U.S. Capitol Police, wildfires and nuclear non-proliferation initiatives. It does not include money to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) wrote a letter [14] to VA Secretary General Eric Shinseki on Thursday expressing alarm that almost one-third of veterans who may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV through contaminated equipment at a VA facility in Miami have not responded for testing. Ros-Lehtinen noted that nearly 28 percent of the veterans in Miami who were notified that they might be infected still have not responded for testing, compared with only 6 percent and 5 percent at two other VA facilities in Georgia and Tennessee.
CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE
THE SENATE
The Senate will convene at TBA.
FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST
THE HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES
The House will convene at TBA.
COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST
Links:
[1] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVPbub8VOAC4aCFDofQWcUJods0AD986HG380
[2] http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/14/Gates-Pakistan-key-to-Afghanistan-success/UPI-77061242344121/
[3] http://militarytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_military_afghanistan_electrocutions_051409/
[4] http://www.military.com/news/article/obama-restarting-gitmo-tribunals.html
[5] http://militarytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_marine_accused_faker_051409/
[6] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD986GK8G0
[7] http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5izxPzBNDQyp4ls3tvNtqtGFSrhTw
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/world/asia/15farah.html
[9] http://militarytimes.com/news/2009/05/military_mcchrystal_afghanistan_051409w/
[10] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hh0PCEPOESA8H1axTbpoNCPHedogD986AIBO0
[11] http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0515/p02s03-usmi.html
[12] http://militarytimes.com/news/2009/05/navy_swine_flu_051409w/
[13] http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-war-funding-bill-clears-hurdle-2009-05-14.html
[14] http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1049309.html