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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration issued new rules Friday designed to allow the FBI to pursue potential national security threats with the same vigor and techniques used against common criminals. Civil libertarians said the guidelines will come at a cost to constitutional protections. The rules, to take effect Dec. 1, are a roadmap to the FBI's transformation. The bureau made its reputation many decades ago by successfully pursuing bank robbers. The Justice Department says it wants to ensure that the FBI can now meet the biggest threats of the 21st century: national security and terrorism. The roadmap consolidates once-separate...

Australian Army chief Peter Leahy has moved to reassure infantry troops frustrated that they are not seeing enough combat. The exclusion of Australia's infantry troops from frontline conflicts, including in Iraq, has left many feeling "ashamed of wearing their Australian uniform", Army Major Jim Hammett has written. The infantry, which makes up about a third of the army's combat forces, had not been assigned offensive actions since the Vietnam War and the special forces were seeing all the combat, he wrote. In a separate article cited by Fairfax newspapers, Captain Greg Colton, second in command of the Sydney-based 3rd Battalion...

I have really tried to accept things, but I have finally reached my point. Disclaimer, Mods, please move this wherever necessary. I have been watching "Carrier" on PBS plus a few other documentaries lately on our military and I am embarrassed. When did our military people turn into baby machines looking for a reason out because of a child they should not have had? They teach new parent classes on a ship, how about a class on how not to be a parent when you can't be one? And don't whine when you get deployed because you miss your kids....

We're in trouble. We're in danger of losing more wars. Our troops haven't forgotten how to fight. We've never had better men and women in uniform. But our leaders and many of our fellow Americans no longer grasp what war means or what it takes to win. Thanks to those who have served in uniform, we've lived in such safety and comfort for so long that for many Americans sacrifice means little more than skipping a second trip to the buffet table.

EVIDENCE FROM INVESTIGATION OF 1992 RUBY RIDGE MATTER ONLY SUFFICIENT TO CHARGE ONE OFFICIAL WITH CRIMINAL CONDUCT Disciplinary Penalties Being Weighed for Others WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After an exhaustive investigation involving hundreds of interviews and the review of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, the Justice Department announced today that the available evidence does not support further criminal prosecutions of FBI officials arising from the August 1992 incidents, at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and their aftermath. In October 1996, E. Michael Kahoe, Chief of the FBI's Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section, was charged with, and later pleaded guilty to,...

Now that Marcus Luttrell's book "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10" is a national bestseller, maybe Americans are ready to start discussing the core issue his story brings to light: the inverted morality, even insanity, of the American military's rules of engagement (ROE).

The executive officer - second-in-command on USS Underwood, the frigate working in the British-controlled task force with HMS Cornwall - said: “The unique US Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self-defence but also an obligation to self-defence. They [the British] had every right in my mind and every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken. Our reaction was, ‘Why didn’t your guys defend themselves?’”…

Rules of engagement (ROE), highly criticized as being too restrictive and sometimes endangering our troops, have been "clarified." "There were unintended consequences with ROE for too long," Petraeus acknowledged. Because of what junior leaders perceived as too harsh punishment meted out to troops acting in the heat of battle, the ROE issued from the top commanders were second-guessed and made more restrictive by some on the ground. The end result was unnecessary - even harmful - restrictions placed on the troops in contact with the enemy. "I've made two things clear," Petraeus emphasized: "My ROE may not be modified with...

Reducing civilian casualties is noble, but tying soldiers' hands puts them at risk. As part of President Bush's troop surge now under way in Iraq, he insisted that Iraqi leaders "lift needless restrictions on Iraqi and coalition forces." That's an important step, but a deeply ironic one, because it overlooks other unreasonable restrictions imposed on US soldiers – by the US government. In 2005, the Pentagon amended its Standing Rules of Engagement (ROE). The new rules make it harder for US troops to boldly counter hostile acts, and they specifically allow commanders to limit the right of soldiers to defend...

n order to ensure that the additional combat troops being deployed to Iraq can achieve their objectives, we must change the current restrictive rules of engagement (ROEs) under which they are forced to operate. The current ROEs for Baghdad -- including Sadr City, home of the Mahdi Army -- have seven incremental steps that must be satisfied before our troops can take the gloves off and engage the enemy with appropriate violence of action. (1) You must feel a direct threat to you or your team. (2) You must clearly see a threat. (3) That threat must be identified. (4)...

Marine Sgt. Jeremiah Workman struggles at times with the memories behind the dark-blue and white ribbon he now wears on the chest of his uniform. Marine Sgt. Jeremiah Workman, of Richwood, receives the Navy Cross Medal from Brig. Gen. Richard T. Tryon The ribbon exemplifies honor and bravery, but it also reminds the 23-year-old of three fallen friends who didn’t make it home from Iraq. Workman, a native of Richwood, Ohio, was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during a battle in Fallujah in 2004. The medal, bestowed on 14 Marines since 2001, is second in prestige only to...

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said Wednesday it is looking into the unauthorized release of a photo purportedly taken by an American drone aircraft showing scores of Taliban militants at a funeral in Afghanistan. NBC-TV claimed that U.S. Army officers wanted to attack the ceremony with missiles carried by the Predator drone, but were prevented under rules of battlefield engagement that bar attacks on cemeteries. Lt. Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman with the U.S. military in Kabul, said the photograph was released to the network by someone who did not have the clearance to hand it out. "It is an...

September 13, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Taliban terror leaders who had gathered for a funeral - and were secretly being watched by an eye-in-the-sky American drone - dodged assassination because U.S. rules of engagement bar attacks in cemeteries, according to a shocking report. U.S. intelligence officers in Afghanistan are still fuming about the recent lost opportunity for an easy kill of Taliban honchos packed in tight formation for the burial, NBC News reported.

The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) has called on Israel to reevaluate its military rules of war in light of Hizbullah's "unconscionable use of civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques and the like as human shields, cannon fodder and weapons of asymmetric warfare." The RCA made the statement at the end of a three-day solidarity mission last week in conjunction with Emunah, the modern Orthodox women's organization, during which a contingent of RCA rabbis toured the North and South, visiting the injured and gathering impressions of the extent of the damage caused by the warfare. Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of...

"Moral Cowardice Prevents Winning the War Thursday December 23, 2004 "IRVINE, CA--The blame for the murder of 19 Americans in Mosul yesterday lies not only with the insurgents who initiated the attack, but also with the Bush Administration's suicidal policies, said Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute. "The insurgency would have been crushed long ago, and yesterday's attack averted, were it not for America's altruistic policy of placing the lives of Iraqi civilians above its own self-defense. "America must destroy the insurgency if we are to implement a non-threatening government in Iraq," said Dr. Brook. "This can be done, but...

Ever hear about the Battle of the Humvee? That's what I'm calling a May skirmish fought by soldiers of the 37th Armored Regiment's 2nd Battalion in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. In what became a six-hour firefight, Americans battled followers of Moktada al-Sadir to secure the hulk of a burning Humvee. It's not that our soldiers fought because the flaming wreck amounted to a tin can's worth of military value. They fought, as Capt. Ty Wilson of Fairfax, Va., explained to The Washington Post, because "We weren't going to let them dance on it for the news. Even (with)...

Rules of War Enable Terror By Alan M. Dershowitz May 28, 2004 THE GENEVA Conventions are so outdated and are written so broadly that they have become a sword used by terrorists to kill civilians, rather than a shield to protect civilians from terrorists. These international laws have become part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. Following World War II, in which millions of civilians were killed by armed forces, the international community strengthened the laws designed to distinguish between legitimate military targets and off-limit noncombatants. The line in those days was clear: The military wore uniforms,...

In early 1944, Allied forces in World War II faced a decision that is now disturbingly common in Iraq: What to do with enemy forces using holy sites as defensive positions? German troops were entrenched behind the Gustav Line, south of Rome, and defending the key city of Cassino from the heights of Monte Cassino, and its famous and revered sixth-century monastery. The Allies made a fateful, though ultimately militarily successful, decision: Using hundreds of American bombers, they destroyed the Abbey of Monte Cassino, clearing the way for eventual Allied success in piercing the Gustav line in May 1944, taking...

  General: Marines Not Hampered by Rules of Engagement By Kathleen T. RhemAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 16, 2004 – Marines surrounding the volatile Iraqi town of Fallujah may be in an offensive operational pause, but that doesn't affect their ability to defend themselves, a top U.S. Central Command officer said today in Doha, Qatar. Marines moved into the city west of Baghdad in force after four U.S. contractors were killed and their bodies mutilated there March 31. Iraqi government officials since have brokered a cease-fire. A pause in offensive operations doesn't mean Marines can't act proactively to...

Marines inside Fallujah today observed terrorist forces using ambulances to transport weapons. Marines in the city witnessed an ambulance back up to a mosque inside Fallujah. Occupants from the vehicle subsequently carried weapons into the mosque.

Marines Prepared, Trained for Iraq Mission, Says Commander By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 8, 2004 -- Although the rules of engagement specifically identify mosques as protected structures, Iraqi insurgents forfeited that protection when they used a mosque in central Fallujah, Iraq, April 7 to launch attacks on U.S. forces, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade told reporters at Camp Pendleton, Calif., today. Marine Maj. Gen. Keith Stalder said that when a platoon-size group of enemy forces occupied the mosque and the grounds immediately surrounding it and fired on Marines, that mosque lost the...

CJTF-7 Public AffairsBAGHDAD, IraqRelease #040112gAnti-coalition forces violate law of war in attacks RAMADI, Iraq – On two separate occasions within four days in the vicinity of Fallujah anti-Coalition forces have staged attacks that violate the Law of War concerning medical transports and medical facilities. On Thursday, Jan. 8, an American UH-60A “Blackhawk” medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopter near Fallujah crashed after it was hit by enemy fire. The Geneva Convention specifically states in Article 21, “medical vehicles shall be respected and protected.” Protocol I of Article 26, which is accepted as customary international law, extends this protection to medical aircraft recognized...

Soldiers 'have clear rules of engagement' 6 January 2004 AMSTERDAM — Despite the shooting death of a suspected Iraqi looter, Defence Minister Henk Kamp said on Tuesday the orders of violent engagement for Dutch marines in Iraq will remain unchanged. The minister said the rules under which troops may use violence are completely clear and that the shooting incident was no reason to modify them. Kamp said the orders adequately equipped the soldiers to carry out their tasks. Furthermore, the minister said in a letter to the Lower House of Parliament, the Tweede Kamer, that he intends to maintain...

  AL GORE'S ENDORSEMENT of Howard Dean was anything but polite. A more diplomatic politician would have praised Dean's major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination--Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, John Edwards, Wesley Clark--as esteemed colleagues and said they were all capable of being president (including one selected by Gore himself as his 2000 running mate). Instead the former vice president dismissed the whole bunch as "great candidates." "Only one" candidate for the 2004 nomination, said Gore, had stepped forward as he had and come out early, loudly, and extravagantly against President Bush's decision to invade Iraq. "Our...

November 26, 2003: The armed opposition in Iraq are taking advantage of speed and rules of engagement to defeat America's high tech weapons. Several teams of Iraqis are moving around near coalition bases at night and firing a few mortar shells, then slinking away and hiding their mortar and ammunition. The weapon used is usually a Russian made 82mm mortar. This weapon weighs about 80 pounds, but can be broken down into three pieces (the heaviest weighing 29 pounds, the lightest 22). Each 82mm mortar shell weighs about seven pounds (and contains about 14 ounces of explosives). The mortar has...

A US military investigation has concluded that the crew of a US tank acted properly when it fired on a Baghdad hotel filled with foreign journalists April 8, killing two television cameramen, US officials said.The investigation found that the tank fired at the Palestine Hotel because of reports a spotter was coordinating Iraqi fire from there, an official said.A Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters television, 35-year-old Taras Protsyuk, and a Spaniard working for the Spanish television network Telecinco, 37-year-old Jose Couso, were killed by the shell blast.Three other Reuters television journalists were wounded in the incident, which came amid heavy...

Iraq eye-opener for Aussie lawyer By Peter Wilson, Europe correspondentAugust 04, 2003 AS more Australian soldiers prepare to leave Baghdad, Major Penny Cumming is grateful she reached the Iraqi capital in time to see the receiving end of the punishment dished out by coalition forces. The Australian army lawyer spent the war advising coalition commanders on the legality of their bombing targets in Iraq, and says she will leave Baghdad this week satisfied the coalition respected the rules of war. "Coming to Baghdad has helped me to confirm in my own mind we did our job properly and that the...

by Daniel PipesNew York PostJuly 22, 2003 "Since the events of 9/11," observes Lee Harris, America's reigning philosopher of 9/11, "the policy debate in the United States has been primarily focused on a set of problems - radical Islam and the War on Terrorism, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."We sense that these three problems are related, Harris notes in an article at TechCentralStation.com, but we can't quite figure out how. He proposes a subtle link between these seemingly disparate issues - and it's not specifically...

LEADERSHIP: Rules of Engagement in Iraq Threaten Army Troops July 8, 2003: Marine and Army troops in Iraq are upset over Rules of Engagement (ROEs) being implemented by Army commanders. While Marines are allowed to carry their weapons, both rifles and machine-guns, ready to use, Army units, especially non-combat ones (including Military Police) are being increasingly restrictive rules regarding the use and handling of weapons. Unlike the Marines, Army convoys do not display any weapons, making it appear as if the convoy is unarmed. For the Marines, this is madness. Marine convoys bristle with weapons, making it clear what will...

A crowd of angry ex-Iraqi soldiers swarmed a convoy of coalition troops in Baghdad protesting the fact that they haven’t been paid in over three months. This is despite the fact that L. Paul Bremer III, the authority in the reconstruction, disbanded the Iraqi military almost immediately upon taking his position there. What is evident is that there is a culture clash that is resulting in deaths on the Iraqi side. Perhaps they should stop for a moment and realize it isn’t business as usual anymore. Iraqi’s, both civilian and ex-military, have to come to the realization that the coalition...

May. 14, 2003 At Oxford, Arabs and Jews would fight as gentlemen, By Shmuley Boteach In the 11 years that I served as rabbi to the students of Oxford University, I was aware that I had been given the opportunity to influence some of the world's future leaders. But the news this week that Prof. Noah Feldman of NYU Law School was chosen by the Pentagon as the American adviser to help draft an Iraqi constitution gave me particular delight. Noah was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford for two years with whom I studied, argued, and played squash. I can...

"One gets the impression that U.S. military dominance is now so overwhelming," writes David Brooks in The Weekly Standard, "that the rules of conflict are being rewritten." Indeed they are. In both the Afghanistan war of 2001 and the Iraq one now concluding, traditional features of warfare have been turned upside-down. But it's not just an American phenomenon; the same rewriting also applies in Israel's war against the Palestinians. Some of the changes include: ** Who is the enemy: War used to be aimed against a whole country; during World War II, for example, whole peoples were vilified "Huns," "Japs")....

Toogood Reports [Tuesday, April 8, 2003; 12:01 a.m. EST]URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/ It will be years before the whole story of the taking of Baghdad comes out. Indeed, according to the Iraqi information minister, "There is no any existence of American solders in Baghdad," so maybe we're not even going to take the city. After all, a few million Americans — most notably staffers at the New York Times — prefer to believe Saddam's people over our own. Some people may believe the war footage we are seeing on TV 24/7 was shot by the U.S. Information Ministry, in India or New...

The Political Life The strong grow weak through inhibitionAs American troops face Iraqi soldiers, they confront an enemy whose major defense is our reluctance to use the force we have if there is a significant danger that we will kill innocent civilians. No better example can be found of what Henry Kissinger called the process by which “the weak grow strong through effrontery, and the strong grow weak because of inhibitions.” By stationing tanks inside hospitals, dressing as civilians, driving regular cars, and hiding inside the homes of ordinary people, Iraqi soldiers are deploying their most fearsome weapon: our own...

George Monbiot Tuesday March 25, 2003 The Guardian Suddenly, the government of the United States has discovered the virtues of international law. It may be waging an illegal war against a sovereign state; it may be seeking to destroy every treaty which impedes its attempts to run the world, but when five of its captured soldiers were paraded in front of the Iraqi television cameras on Sunday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, immediately complained that "it is against the Geneva convention to show photographs of prisoners of war in a manner that is humiliating for them". He is, of...

Treatment of POWsBy Andrew G. BostomFrontPageMagazine.com | March 28, 2003 Earlier this week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmad al-Hadithi  was quoted as saying that the already brutalized US POWs captured in southern Iraq would,  "be treated according to the principles of Islam"..Unfortunately, this statement is not reassuring at all. The classical Baghdadian jurists Abu Yusuf (from the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, d. 798) and al-Mawardi (a Shafi’ite jurist, d. 1058) were prolific, respected scholars who lived during the so-called Islamic "Golden Age" of the Baghdadian-Abbasid Caliphate. They wrote the following, based on their interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunna...

<p>CAMP VIPER, Iraq -- Marine Sgt. Steven Zakar said he saw boys about 7 years old armed with AK-47 rifles standing in front of Iraqi troops on the banks of the Euphrates River.</p> <p>Marine Cpl. Stephen Hammond said he saw a hospital replete with fake patients and doctors used as a headquarters for Iraqi forces.</p>

<p>Once Iraq is liberated from Saddam Hussein, one of the most critical challenges facing the allied coalition will involve creating a legal mechanism for trying war crimes and serious human rights violations committed by the deposed dictator and others accused of serious crimes.</p>

WASHINGTON - The late British military historian Sir Basil Liddell Hart wrote that "the difference between a military operation and a surgical operation is that in a military operation the patient is not tied down." In Iraq, "the patient" has refused to cooperate with the operation. Instead, the Iraqis have turned to classic guerrilla warfare, drawing lessons and tactics from wherever they can find them: Mogadishu, Bosnia, Kosovo, the old Soviet Union, even Vietnam. As American Army and Marine front-line divisions draw closer to Baghdad, the supply columns strung out behind them are having to fight their way forward...

JEDDAH, 25 March 2003 - The decades of suffering by the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation, the war in Kosovo and now the attack on Iraq " these and many other armed conflicts raise the issue of human rights in wartime. After World War II, guidelines were set to protect the lives of innocent civilians at times of conflict and define the rights of all human beings at all times and everywhere. These guidelines were articulated by the countries that won the war and that had recently relinquished their control, grudgingly, over the countries they colonized for centuries. The concepts...