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New policy keeps heat on deserters in Japan

By Travis J. Tritten and Hana Kusumoto, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, August 14, 2009

The U.S. military in Japan has been more aggressive in charging and tracking deserters since a fugitive sailor stabbed a taxi driver to death last year, military legal staff and investigators said.

Since then, a dozen servicemembers have been charged with desertion and five remain at large, according to figures supplied by U.S. Forces Japan, Japanese police and local bases.

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Navy stepping up drug testing program Stars & Stripes reports.

Sailors will face increased random drug tests as a result of recent changes to the Navy’s drug prevention program. The changes remove the requirement for an annual unit sweep. However, they mandate a minimum of four tests per month that must include at least 15 percent of a command’s members.

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How many times do we hear it from clients, especially appellate clients — “I got my discharge, it’s an honorable, what do I do?”

ACCA has decided that issue for Estrada, in United States v. Estrada.

Appellant argues her receipt of an administratively-issued honorable discharge prior to the convening authority’s approval of her adjudged bad-conduct discharge remits the punitive discharge and renders it a nullity. After considering the assignment of error and the applicable service regulations, we specified the following related assignment of error:

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Professor Colin Miller has a comment today on his blog about United States v. Matthews, 68 M.J. 29 (C.A.A.F 2009) He illustrates that Mil. R. Evid. 606 mirrors the federal rule but has the additional exception for “command influence” in the Members deliberation room.

Chain Of Command: Military Case Reveals Interesting Exception To Military Rule Of Evidence 606(b).

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An American war resister one step away from being extradited to the United States has learned she’ll get to stay in Canada a little longer. 

A judge has ordered a new pre-removal risk assessment for Kimberly Rivera, a 27-year-old mother of three who deserted the U.S. army in 2007 because of her opposition to the war in Iraq.

(The Canadian Press)

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Monday, August 10, 2009:  Fourth Circuit affirms CIA contractor detainee abuse conviction, Andrew Morgan


[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] on Monday affirmed [opinion, PDF] the conviction of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] contractor on assault charges related to the abuse of an Afghan detainee [JURIST report]. The court found that the district court had properly exercised maritime and territorial jurisdiction [18 USC § 7 text] over the actions of David Passaro [JURIST news archive] while he was employed by the CIA at Asadabad Firebase [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] in Afghanistan. Although the court rejected the construction of "military … mission" used by the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina [official website] as too narrow, the duration and nature of the site’s use, and improvements made to the fortification lead the Fourth Circuit "to conclude that it possesses all the qualities of a permanent U.S. military base abroad, albeit on a smaller scale …."

h/tip JURIST

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Here’s the trial lawyers guide to those difficult to read, hard to interpret, and impossible to reconcile appellate decisions.

Attribute Everything Mysterious To ‘Quantum Flux’

A reading of Gabriel Fournier’s The Eclipse Of Infinity reveals that the new science-fiction novel makes more than 80 separate references to "quantum flux," a vaguely defined force the author uses to advance the plot, resolve conflict as needed, and account for dozens of glaring inconsistencies.

 

/hat tip the Onion, one of my favorite newspapers.

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Lynndie England of Abu Ghraib fame will be speaking about her autobiography this Friday, 14 August 2009, at noon, at the Madison Building of the Library of Congress , Room LM139.

LCPA Veterans Forum
August 14, 2009, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
LM 139 First floor James Madison building
Lynndie England discusses her biography "Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World." Contact: (202) 707-5034

/tip Jim Klimaski

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Here is a neat website that allows you to calculate a deadline and due dates.  Not an application, so there’s nothing to install on your computer or iPhone or BB – and for the overhead conscious it’s free.

WolframAlpha.

There’s a free download which will allow you to have a widget in your Vista sidebar, or you can add to your Explorer or Firefox

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