Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres revealed

It has been revealed  reports Guardian, that the Pentagon sent a US veteran of the "dirty wars" in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres to get information from insurgents. 

These units conducted some of the worst acts of torture during the US occupation and accelerated the country's descent into full-scale civil war.

Colonel James Steele was a 58-year-old retired special forces veteran when he was nominated by Donald Rumsfeld to help organise the paramilitaries in an attempt to quell a Sunni insurgency, an investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic shows.

There is no evidence that Steele or Coffman tortured prisoners themselves, only that they were sometimes present in the detention centres where torture took place and were involved in the processing of thousands of detainees.

The Guardian/BBC Arabic investigation was sparked by the release of classified US military logs on WikiLeaks that detailed hundreds of incidents where US soldiers came across tortured detainees in a network of detention centres run by the police commandos across Iraq. Private Bradley Manning, 25, is facing a prison sentence of up to 20 years after he pleaded guilty to leaking the documents.

Samari claimed that torture was routine in the SPC-controlled detention centres. "I remember a 14-year-old who was tied to one of the library's columns. And he was tied up, with his legs above his head. Tied up. His whole body was blue because of the impact of the cables with which he had been beaten."

Read more about it at: The Guardian

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China Can Shut Down All The Telecom Gear It Sold To The US: Ex Pentagon Analyst

Chinese companies apparently have a covert capability to remotely access communications technology sold to the United States and other Western countries and could "disable a country's telecommunications infrastructure before a military engagement," according to former and current intelligence sources.

The Chinese also have the ability to exploit networks "to enable China to continue to steal technology and trade secrets," according to the open source intelligence company Lignet, which is comprised of former U.S. intelligence analysts.

Read more: Business Insider

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Pentagon shift may bring woman soldiers closer to combat

The recent move by Pentagon to open thousands of military jobs including medics and intelligence officers to women in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, may involve employment of women closer to the fighting and rekindle the debate on women in combat.

Under new rules set to be unveiled on Thursday, the Defense Department would continue to prohibit women from serving in infantry, armor and special operations units whose main function is to engage in front-line combat, defense officials said.

Read more: Reuters

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Pentagon admits deployment of Elite US Commando Team near Iran

As it is, military blogs are buzzing about Spencer Ackerman's story at Danger Room where he reports that a new "elite commando team" is operating in the Gulf region.

Ackerman spoke with military sources that say the team, called Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Coordinating Council (JSOTF-GCC), is on the ground to instruct local troops in special operations. This is the first time the U.S. has acknowledged the existence of the team.

Read more: Business Insider

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Pentagon prepares for new cold war with China

[ via World War 4 Report ] 6 Jan

As already reported in major news networks before, President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey released an unclassified version of the defense strategic guidance Jan. 5 at a Pentagon press conference. The document, entitled "Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense", calls for $487 billion in proposed defense budget cuts over the next 10 years, amounting to some 8% of the Pentagon's base budget.

World War 4 Report adds: Invoking terrorism and unrest in the Middle East, the document states that "the United States will continue to take an active approach to countering these threats," but states in the next paragraph, "we will of necessity re-balance toward the Asia-Pacific region." It explicitly recognizes China as a new rival:

Over the long term, China’'s emergence as a regional power will have the potential to affect the. .... the growth of China’'s military power must be accompanied by greater clarity of its strategic intentions in order to avoid causing friction in the region. The United States will continue to make the necessary investments to ensure that we maintain regional access and the ability to operate freely in keeping with our treaty obligations and with international law.

Read more: World War 4 Report
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Pentagon Adopts New IT Strategy "under Pressure"

Information Week / Government 28 Nov

The CIO of the Department of Defense has devised an ambitious IT plan that aims to help the military branches cope with billions of dollars in budget cuts. 

The new plan aims to replace the military's branch-specific systems and networks with a more efficient, and ultimately more capable, enterprise model.

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