Jim Miklaszewski
From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski
Defense and military officials tell NBC News that White House Press Secretary
Robert Gibbs will announce that
President Obama will seek to delay the release of hundreds of photos which reportedly depict the abuse of prisoners by U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gen.
Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq met with President Obama at the White House yesterday to ask the administration not to release the photos. Defense officials say Odierno is "vehemently opposed" to the release, because he fears it could create a widespread "backlash" against military forces in both war zones. According to one official, "It would put a bull's eye on the backs of our forces."
According to military officials, many of the photos are similar to the infamous prisoner abuse photos out of Abu Ghraib prison, but many of these photos reportedly include mug shots of prisoners who appear to have been badly beaten during their capture or interrogation.
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From NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski
With President
Obama abroad for the G-20 summit, U.S. officials tell NBC News the North Koreans today have begun fueling a Taepodong-2 missile. The North Korean government says the missile is intended for satellite launch into space.
The officials say now that the fueling process has begun, the missile could be launched as early as tomorrow.
While precise timing is impossible, the last test launch of a Taepodong-2 came at 3:30am, Korean time, 2:30 pm ET.
From NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski
Pentagon officials are carefully deflecting questions today about House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's flying habits on military aircraft.
The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has posted a series of e-mails from Pelosi staff members with stern complaints whenever the speaker does not get the specific G-5 plane she prefers.
"This is totally unacceptable. The Speaker will want to know where the planes are," said one email.
In another, a staffer wrote, "This is not good news and we will have some very disappointed folks as well as a very upset Speaker."
Another email complained of Pelosi canceling trips at the last minute, which rack up excessive time and money in plane and food preparations.
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From NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube
A senior defense official confirms that five Chinese ships "aggressively maneuvered" and shadowed a U.S. Navy surveillance ship yesterday.
The Chinese vessels moved into "dangerous proximity" to the USNS Impeccable, "in an apparent coordinated effort to harass the U.S. ocean surveillance ship," which was operating on a routine mission in international waters, the senior defense official says.
A written statement from the U.S. Defense Department says the Chinese vessels surrounded the USNS Impeccable, and that two of them closed in to within 50 feet and began waving Chinese flags and telling the U.S. ship to leave the area.
Video: Chinese ships allegedly harassed a U.S. Navy ship in international waters.Unaware of the Chinese ships' intentions, the USNS Impeccable sprayed its fire hoses at one of the vessels to defend itself. Chinese crewmembers "disrobed" to their underwear, and continued to move closer, coming within 25 feet of the USNS Impeccable, officials said.
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From NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube
The Pentagon's semi-annual report on Afghanistan, which shows a sharp increase violence in Afghanistan, will be released at 1 p.m. ET today.
The report primarily covers events through Aug. 28th of 2008, but will include some update numbers through the end of the year.
Video: A suicide bomber dressed as an officer kills 21 people at a police training facility in southern Afghanistan on Monday.
Below is the most recent report from military commanders in Afghanistan obtained by NBC News nearly two weeks ago, which may be more complete than today's formal Pentagon report.
A startling new report from U.S. and NATO forces obtained by NBC NEWS shows that overall violence in Afghanistan has not only skyrocketed but the enemy attacks have become more deadly.
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From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski
U.S. military officials confirm that a military judge at Guantanamo Bay has refused the
Obama administration's request to suspend the military commission proceedings for one of the detainees for 120 days.
The judge is presiding over the case of Abd Al Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi accused in the October 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 American sailors. The officials could not immediately comment on why the judge refused to suspend the proceedings.
The officials point out that the administration's request was to suspend legal proceedings in 14 separate cases now in progress before the military commissions, and this judge's ruling pertains only to Nashiri's case.
From Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube
Suicides among soldiers in the U.S. Army rose to an alarming number in 2008, NBC News learned today.
While the Army continues to investigate at least 17 deaths as possible suicide, they have already confirmed that at least 125 soldiers took their lives last year.
That is up from 115 in 2007; 102 in 2006; and 87 in 2005.
Video: The Army says it's working hard to change the military stigma attached to suicide so soldiers can get more help.
A senior defense official tells NBC that the Army will release the final numbers at a roundtable tomorrow, and that they will include all possible suicides in their figure. That means they will report upwards of 145 total suicides last year.
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From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has signed a deployment order to send a combat aviation brigade, about 3,000 troops, to Afghanistan in early 2009.
The brigade, from the 82nd Airborne, will fulfill one of the critical deficits for U.S. forces in that country right now -- helicopters.
Last week, Gates said he expects to have three more brigade combat teams in Afghanistan by "summertime." A senior defense official said that the combat aviation brigade is not among those brigades mentioned by the secretary (one brigade, the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, deploys there in January).
So, with the addition of this aviation brigade, the three BCTs Gates spoke about last week, and the logistics forces needed to support all of these new troops, the U.S. now plans to send between 21,000 and 25,000 new troops to Afghanistan in 2009.
That nearly doubles the number of U.S. boots on the ground there now, which stands at 31,000.
From NBC's Pete Williams, at the U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In its opinion today, granting rights to the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, the court admits it is doing something it has never before been done -- finding that non-US citizens, detained by the U.S. in foreign territory, have constitutional rights. But the court said, there's never been anything like Guantanamo in U.S. history.
VIDEO: Enemy or not, the Supreme Court has ruled that foreign terror suspects have the constitutional right to challenge their detentions. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
The court's five-member majority also says that for now, things at Guantanamo will go on as they are, that the current military commission systems there "remain intact."
But what this does mean is that all the detainees there have the right to get lawyers who can go into the federal courthouse here in Washington and argue that each of them is wrongly held.
So today's ruling is not a get out of jail free card, nor does it change the situation on the ground in Guantanamo. But for the first time since these detainees were captured and transferred to Guantanamo, they will now have the legal -- constitutional -- right to get federal judges in the U.S. to review their cases. For that reason, today's ruling is a game-changer.
Pentagon to respond; has said ruling would be a setback
From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, at The Pentagon
The Pentagon plans to issue a response later to today's Supreme Court decisions which say detainees held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts.
Pentagon officials had said such a ruling would be a serious setback to the military commission hearings, and would essentially freeze the trial process for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 other 9/11 defendents arraigned only last week in a mlitary commission hearing at GTMO.
Perspective from the Senate
From NBC's Ken Strickland, on Capitol Hill
In September of last year, a majority of senators voted to allow Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention in court, similar to today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. But because Senate rules required 60 votes for the measure to proceed -- proponents had 54 votes -- the amendment died.
Leading the charge to grant the detainees habeas corpus rights were Sens. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the bipartisan leaders of the Judiciary Committee. Other republicans who joined the Democrats were Dick Lugar (R-IN), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Olympia Snowe (R-MA) and John Sununu (R-NH).
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
Clinton issued a sharp critique of a U.S. Army policy in a letter from her Senate office, requesting “the immediate reversal of an Army policy that requires repayment of enlistment bonuses by medically discharged wounded soldiers.”
The letter is in response to a local TV news report in Pittsburgh yesterday. She calls the policy “outrageous,” that “soldiers have earned their bonuses” and “it shocks the conscience that the Army could demand that wounded soldiers return their enlistment bonuses.” The letter continues, and touts her work on the Armed Services Committee.
But NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski explains to First Read that it is actually already “against Army policy to require repayment for enlistment bonuses from soldiers wounded in service,” said Miklaszewski, NBC News' Pentagon correspondent. “The incident that popped up in a local news story in Pittsburgh, on FOX and on MSNBC last night was the result of bureaucratic confusion over the soldier's wounded status and an incorrect determination of his discharge. The decision to request repayment was in error and has since been reversed.
“The local report from KDKA in Pittsburgh that claimed thousands of medically discharged soldiers are being forced to repay their enlistment bonus is wrong. The KDKA reporter said he got his information from a local congressman, who confused an earlier issue in which 2,005 wounded soldiers did not receive their full pay for a brief period of time. Another typical bureaucratic bungle, which was also corrected. The KDKA reporter never sought any clarification or reaction from either the Army or Pentagon before running the story, according to Army officials."
