Author: Tom Huxton

http://tinyurl.com/y8plpxb5

FORT HOOD, Texas — Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist convicted in the November 2009 shooting rampage that left 13 dead and 31 wounded, was sentenced to death Wednesday by a military jury.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, saying Hasan’s murderous rampage at the sprawling military base here left tragic and devastating loss for victims and loved ones.

Hasan, 42, was convicted last week on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 charges of attempted premeditated murder. He appeared expressionless upon hearing the verdict, which came less than two hours of deliberations.

The death sentence required a unanimous verdict by the jury of 13 military officers. At minimum, Hasan faced life imprisonment. Still, while Hasan could be the first serviceman executed by the military since 1961, the appellate process could take years.

Before an execution date is set, there will be automatic appeals at military courts for the Army and the armed forces, said Victor Hansen, a military law expert at the New England School of Law. Hasan could also ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case and file motions in federal court. Moreover, the president must eventually sign off on a military death sentence, which would be carried out by lethal injection.

Family members of Hasan’s victims supported the sentence.

 

Posted for your comment from BBC because I can barely understand the horror of this sort of thing.

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Venezuela crisis: Helicopter launches attack on Supreme Court

Venezuela’s Supreme Court has been attacked by grenades dropped from a helicopter in what President Nicolás Maduro called a “terrorist attack”.

Footage on social media shows a police helicopter circling over the city before shots and a loud bang are heard.

The police officer said to have piloted the stolen aircraft issued a statement denouncing the “criminal government”. His whereabouts are unknown.

It comes after mass protests against the political and economic crisis.

The Supreme Court is regularly criticised by the Venezuelan opposition for its rulings which bolster Mr Maduro’s hold on power.

Who flew the helicopter?

The police officer identified himself as Oscar Pérez in video statements posted on the social media platform Instagram.

Appearing in military fatigues and flanked by armed, masked men in uniform, he appealed to Venezuelans to oppose “tyranny”.

Man identifying himself as Oscar Pérez makes statement

It is generally an exercise in futility trying to predict if some new twist in Venezuela’s long-running crisis is a “turning point” for the country.

There have been scores of seemingly decisive moments over the past few months – from the initial decision to strong-arm the national assembly, to the latest death of a teenage protester in Caracas – that quickly faded into the general malaise afflicting the oil-rich nation.

However, the sight of an apparently disaffected member of the security forces dropping grenades on the Supreme Court and allegedly firing on government buildings is extreme, even by Venezuela’s standards.

Whether “Oscar Pérez” is indeed part of a coalition of like-minded “military employees, policemen and civilians” or just a rogue policeman is hard to say.

Certainly President Maduro was quick to dub the incident “a terrorist attack” and used it as a reason to “activate” the armed forces to keep the peace.

Preventive Maintenance Monthly

http://tinyurl.com/zjc8bjx

PS Magazine
During World War II and its aftermath, the Army’s prevailing attitude was that vehicles, weapons, and equipment were to be used, worn out, and replaced. The Korean War made it clear that the “use it up and replace it” attitude was flawed because Army materiel had not been maintained and did not function as needed early in that conflict.

As a result, the Army decided to emphasize preventive maintenance as the principal means of improving Army materiel readiness. Army leaders remembered a World War II publication, Army Motors, which used a few cartoon characters to discuss maintenance problems, and decided to use it as the model for a new publication. In June 1951, the first issue of , PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, was published using the cartoon format. Popularly known as PS magazine, it was eventually classified as a monthly technical bulletin (TB), TB 43–PS–series.

Today, Soldiers recognize magazine as a tool to get the latest PMCS actions for their equipment. magazine is a pioneer in the instructional use of cartoon characters, and 60 years of continuous publication validates the usefulness of cartoon sequential art as an information medium. magazine characters and talking vehicles deliver maintenance, supply, and logistics information to the Soldiers, Army civilians, and contractors who work in companies and battalions—the units that actually own, operate, and maintain the Army’s equipment.

Occasionally, Soldiers write to the PS magazine staff and ask what official publication their commanders can reference to implement what was published in the magazine. What is the magazine’s source of information?

The answer is PS magazine. It is an official Army technical bulletin and is as reliable as any other technical publication. Unfortunately, some people don’t take it seriously because of the cartoon characters. However, all PS magazine articles are cleared twice by Headquarters, Department of the Army, the Army Materiel Command, life cycle management commands, the Department of Defense, or the Army equipment proponent. The proponent subject-matter expert for each piece of equipment addressed in the magazine agrees with the PS magazine article and concurs that its instructions should be implemented by field-level units.

Readers of PS come away with the conviction that preventive maintenance is preferable to equipment breakdowns. The slogan of the magazine goes right to the heart of the matter and asks each Soldier individually, “Would you stake your life, right now, on the condition of your equipment?”

The U.S. military’s stats on deadly airstrikes are wrong. Thousands have gone unreported
By: Andrew deGrandpre and Shawn Snow, February 5, 2017
In 2016 alone, U.S. combat aircraft conducted at least 456 airstrikes in Afghanistan that were not recorded as part of an open-source database maintained by the U.S. Air Force, information relied on by Congress, American allies, military analysts, academic researchers, the media and independent watchdog groups to assess each war’s expense, manpower requirements and human toll. Those airstrikes were carried out by attack helicopters and armed drones operated by the U.S. Army, metrics quietly excluded from otherwise comprehensive monthly summaries, published online for years, detailing American military activity in all three theaters.

Most alarming is the prospect this data has been incomplete since the war on terrorism began in October 2001. If that is the case, it would fundamentally undermine confidence in much of what the Pentagon has disclosed about its prosecution of these wars, prompt critics to call into question whether the military sought to mislead the American public, and cast doubt on the competency with which other vital data collection is being performed and publicized. Those other key metrics include American combat casualties, taxpayer expense and the military’s overall progress in degrading enemy capabilities.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military activity in all three war zones, indicated it is unable to determine how far back the Army’s numbers have been excluded from these airpower summaries. Officials there would not address several detailed questions submitted by Military Times, and they were unable to provide a full listing of annual airstrikes conducted by each of the Defense Department’s four military services.

“It is really weird. We don’t track the number of strikes from Apaches, for example” said a U.S. military official with knowledge of CENTCOM’s internal data collection and reporting. The official, who spoke to Military Times on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal procedures, was referring to AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, which the Army has used prolifically in combat over the last 15 years, most recently in support of American allies battling the Islamic State.

Much more at the link

 

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Some number-cruncher got assigned a task with no data to work with (typical)

What’s worse is that the final report will run for years and cost millions