Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has candidly criticized the military’s handling of sexual assault in the ranks. She has called to task general officers on Capitol Hill and backed bipartisan reforms that would add protections for victims and hold offenders accountable. She also put a permanent hold on the nomination of an Air Force three-star who granted clemency to an officer convicted of sexual assault. Yet McCaskill has raised the ire of a prominent advocacy group for military victims of sex crimes — not once but twice in the last month. In late June, Protect Our Defenders accused the lawmaker of minimizing a…
Browsing: Washington
Taking our “Here’s Why” from the paper to the blog. An explanation for why something is the way it is in the Air Force/military. The façade of the Supreme Court. The Taj Mahal. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. All iconic landmarks. All composed of marble. An iconic building to military personnel and the world’s largest office building — the Pentagon — could have been made out of marble, but building planners said, “No way.” Why? According to the Pentagon tours website, the Pentagon has no marble because “it was built during World War II, and Italy, the source of marble, was…
The same day military victims of sexual assault testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, NBC News aired an interview Wednesday with the woman whose accusation ultimately led to the court-martial conviction in November of an Air Force lieutenant colonel based at Aviano, Italy. In a twist that critics say undermines the military’s effort to stamp out sexual assault, Lt. Col. Craig Wilkerson’s conviction was overturned by Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin in late February after reviewing the evidence presented at the court-martial. The dismissal, a power which military commanders have held since 1775, has drawn sharp criticism from…
The military justice system gives a commander the power to nullify the verdict of a military jury, as is the case with a former inspector general whose conviction for sex assault was tossed by a three-star general. In this week’s edition, Air Force Times explains how much power the convening authority has and how often clemency is granted in sex assault convictions. In other news, the Air Force has adopted a new test for synthetic marijuana, known as “spice,” that detects the substance six to eight weeks after it was ingested. You can read how an Air Force Academy cadet…
The military justice system gives a commander the power to nullify the verdict of a military jury, as is the case with a former inspector general whose conviction for sex assault was tossed by a three-star general. In this week’s edition, Air Force Times explains how much power the convening authority has and how often clemency is granted in sex assault convictions. In other news, the Air Force has adopted a new test for synthetic marijuana, known as “spice,” that detects the substance six to eight weeks after it was ingested. You can read how an Air Force Academy cadet…
Congress is taking a vacation next week — on the eve of what’s been called the biggest potential fiscal disaster to hit the nation in decades, when massive, across-the-board budget cuts begin wreaking havoc on the Pentagon and all other federal agencies. Talk about whistling past the graveyard. The sequestration ax adds big drama to this particular hiatus. But it’s hardly unusual for House and Senate lawmakers; the congressional work schedule has withered on the vine for years. At this writing, there have been 32 regular “workdays” so far this year — Monday through Friday, federal holidays excluded. The House…
