Link A recently unclassified report from the Pentagon from 1998 has revealed an investigation into using laser beams for a few intriguing potential methods of non-lethal torture. Some of the applications the report investigated include putting voices in people’s heads, using lasers to trigger uncontrolled neuron firing, and slowly heating the human body to a point of feverish confusion - all from hundreds of meters away.

Wouldn’t just participating in such research constitute a war crime?

No, really. No one.

hrough April 2006, DOD has reported about $273 billion in incremental costs for GWOT-related operations overseas—costs that would not otherwise have been incurred. DOD’s reported GWOT costs and appropriated amounts differ generally because DOD’s cost reporting does not capture some items such as intelligence and Army modular force transformation. Also, DOD has not yet used funding made available for multiple years, such as procurement and military construction. GAO’s prior work found numerous problems with DOD’s processes for recording and reporting GWOT costs, including long-standing deficiencies in DOD’s financial management systems and business processes, the use of estimates instead of actual cost data, and the lack of adequate supporting documentation. As a result, neither DOD nor the Congress reliably know how much the war is costing and how appropriated funds are being used or have historical data useful in considering future funding needs.  Read more 

Look, I’ve been here what? Ten days? And already, I’ve met more queer servicemembers or former servicemembers than I can easily relate. It’s a simple fact: gay people love the uniform in equal proportion to everyone else, perhaps more so. If they join to ’travel to new places, meet new people, and kill them’ or because there are significant social, professional, and financial benefits to doing so, it hardly matters. This shit has got to stop:

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has issued a statement warning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of the US Military to use caution when posting personal information online or using the Internet in other ways to convey such information.

The SLDN warning came in the wake of an Associated Press article which described military officials and their reviewing of “official and unofficial blogs and other Web sites.” Military bloggers who are deployed, according to the AP, are required to let commanders know about their site. Such sites are monitored quarterly.  Read more 

I’m having a typical Friday the 13th, so forgive the DU link. I’m sure this doesn’t surprise you.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Internal military documents released Thursday provided new details about the Defense Department’s collection of information on demonstrations nationwide last year by students, Quakers and others opposed to the Iraq war.

The documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, show, for instance, that military officials labeled as “potential terrorist activity” events like a “Stop the War Now” rally in Akron, Ohio, in March 2005.  Read more 

It’s funny, I spend so much time on the Internets and I missed this:. Given the Constitution is dead, I’m not surprised. But still, let’s all don the foil and imagine why this should be:

Author: Michelle Chen
Community Evaluator: Tim Ogburn
Student Researcher: Rachelle Cooper and Brian Murphy

The Department of Defense has been granted exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In December 2005, Congress passed the 2006 Defense Authorization Act which renders Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) “operational files” fully immune to FOIA requests, the main mechanism by which watchdog groups, journalists and individuals can access federal documents.  Read more 

The 2nd in a series.

Well, well.

Just off the wires; (do they still have wires?)

As reported in the NY Times:

In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees

In a sweeping change of policy, the Pentagon has decided that it will treat all detainees in compliance with the minimum standards spelled out in the Geneva conventions, a senior defense official said today.

The new policy comes on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling last month invalidating a system of military tribunals the Pentagon had created to try suspected terrorists, and just before Congress takes up the question of a replacement system in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.

As part of its decision, the court found that a key provision of the Geneva conventions, known as Common Article 3, did apply to terror suspects, contradicting the position taken by the Bush administration.

The Pentagon memo allowing detainees the protections of Article 3 was first reported today by The Financial Times.

Mighty interesting. But please, don’t even begin to think this battle is won.  Read more