Posted on December 2, 2008 by yojoe
Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich is facing a court-martial for his involvement in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, Iraq.
The prosecution in the court-martial of SSgt Wuterich had sought to subpoena portions of an interview he did with 60 Minutes. The military judge rejected the subpoena. The prosecution appealed the military judge’s ruling.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) ruled that the military judge abused his discretion in quashing the subpoena, and directed the military judge to review the tapes to determine their relevance. Court’s opinion here.
The case will resume at Camp Pendleton, with the military judge reviewing the tapes.
yojoe out
Filed under: Crime, GWOT, Haditha, Iraq, Law, Marine Corps, Military, Military Law, SSgt Frank Wuterich, UCMJ, USMC, War, War on Terrorism | No Comments »
Posted on December 1, 2008 by yojoe
As previously reported, here, the future of the Marine Corps’s Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) is in doubt. Now it is being reported that a Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) study recommends that,
the armed service cancel its EFV in favor of an armored combat vehicle better suited for post-9/11 land warfare. The EFV substitute would have to possess “some modest ability to traverse water obstacles,” Wood writes, and be combined with an air-cushioned landing craft-type vehicle to “better address the evolving anti-armor and precision-guided weapons” deployed by foreign regimes.
The recommendations are designed to help shape the Marines in light of changing threats, making them a more streamlined force.
The study also recommends that the Corps reduce the number of MV-22 Osprey aircraft, which made its first deployment to Iraq in Sept 2007, it plans to purchase,
Besides the EFV, Wood’s evaluation of a changing operational and threat environment, increasing budgetary pressures and the potential implications of distributed operations also led him to advise the Corps to revisit its decision to fully replace its CH-46E Sea Knights with MV-22s. A mix of MV-22s and a new helicopter replacement for the Sea Knight “would provide greater options and increased flexibility at less cost,” he says.
yojoe (in Corps mode) out
H/T:
Filed under: Business, MV-22 Osprey, Marine Corps, Military, Military Hardware, Military Technology, Science, Technology, USMC | No Comments »
Posted on November 29, 2008 by yojoe
ND had 9 total yards of offense in the first half. Not good Weis.
Filed under: Blog | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 26, 2008 by yojoe

Malcolm Gladwell has released his new book, Outliers: The Story of Success. Gladwell’s previous two books were Blink and The Tipping Point.
Gladwell’s writing concentrates on the social sciences and are written for the layman. Here is some Q&A about his new book:
1. What is an outlier?
“Outlier” is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience. In the summer, in Paris, we expect most days to be somewhere between warm and very hot. But imagine if you had a day in the middle of August where the temperature fell below freezing. That day would be outlier. And while we have a very good understanding of why summer days in Paris are warm or hot, we know a good deal less about why a summer day in Paris might be freezing cold. In this book I’m interested in people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.
2. Why did you write Outliers?
Read more »
Filed under: Books, Business, Science | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 26, 2008 by yojoe
Listening to Neil Cavuto on Fox News talking about the terror attack in Mumbai. He has used, numerous times, the best phrase of all time, to wit,
“Its like déjà vu all over again.”
yojoe out
Filed under: Language | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 25, 2008 by yojoe
Now, let’s go get those Vietcongs!
- Tugg Speedman
Tropic Thunder is the story of a group of actors making a Vietnam War movie. The story is told in a mocumentry style, think This Is Spinal Tap. The movie stars Robert Downey Jr., Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and has a cameo role played by Tom Cruise.
The movie is the story of the filming of the memoir of a Vietnam veteran, John “Four Leaf” Tayback. When the filming runs into some trouble, the director decides to film the movie guerrilla style. The director turns the actors lose in the jungle, where they encounter a heroine gang.
The movie plays on a number of Hollywood stereotypes.
- Tugg Speedman (Stiller) - action-movie star who thinks he is a better actor than he is.
- Jeff Portnoy (Black) - comedy actor famous for his fart movies, who is addicted to heroine.
- Kirk Lazarus (Downey) - multiple Academy Award winner, who undergoes surgery to portrays a black sergeant.
Read more »
Filed under: Celebrity News, DVD, Entertainment, Film, Movies, Video | Tagged: booty-sweat, DVD, tropic-thunder | No Comments »
List Of Stores Related To Guantanamo Bay And The Military Commissions
The Georgetown Law Center on National Security and the Law has a great compendium on stores related to the Military Commissions and the detainees at Guantanamo Bay:
Read more »
Filed under: 2008 Election, Crime, GTMO, GWOT, Guantanamo Bay, Law, Military, Military Commissions, Military Law, Political Commentary, Politics, War, War on Terrorism | Tagged: GTMO, Guantanamo Bay, Military Commissions | No Comments »