DEOMI News Highlights
DEOMI News Highlights is a weekly compilation of published items and commentary with a focus on equal
opportunity, equal employment opportunity, diversity, culture, and human relations issues. DEOMI News
Highlights is also a management tool intended to serve the informational needs of equity professionals and
senior DOD officials in the continuing assessment of defense policies, programs, and actions. Further
reproduction or redistribution for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions.
Federal oversight agency wants the military to screen for gambling addiction [Shawn Snow,
Military Times, 8 February 2017]
 Defense Department data shows that 514 active duty military service members and Coast Guard
and 72 Reserve members were treated for or diagnosed with a gambling disorder from 20112015, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
 Though this number represents only .03 percent of the active and reserve population, the GAO, a
federal agency that provides oversight and investigative services for Congress, wants the military
to get more serious about identifying and treating gambling addiction.
 Currently, the military does not provide annual screenings and its present medical screening
process does not include questions that could indicate susceptibility to gambling problems, as it
does for other addictive disorders. “They do not screen for gambling disorder because they focus
on mental-health disorders that are high risk to overall readiness, high volume, and have validated
measures for assessment,” according to the GAO report.
Federal oversight agency wants the military to screen for gambling addiction
No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says [Richard Sisk, Military.com, 8 February 2017]
 Despite rumors to the contrary, there’s nothing in the works at the Defense Department to revise
current rules opening combat roles to women who qualify, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel
Allyn said Tuesday [during a House Armed Services Committee hearing].
 Allyn, who spent much of his time at the hearing complaining that Army readiness is being
affected by budget cuts, said the current state of readiness of all the services could not be
maintained without having women able to fill roles that were previously closed to them.
 “We’re all achieving higher levels of readiness now that we are opening it up to 100 percent of
the population of America being able to contribute,” he said.
No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says
Top Marine: Heavy Drinking “Plays Into the Hands of Our Enemies” [Hope Hodge Seck,
Military.com, 7 February 2017]
 Gen. Robert Neller’s fragmentary order, or FRAGO, released Tuesday is the second he has issued
since he stepped into his role in late 2015, and it comes accompanied by a list of 25 tasks for
Marine commanders to improve training, rebuild infrastructure, and develop the service’s future
operational strategy.
 Neller writes that 152 Marines died in 2016—nearly the equivalent of a rifle company. Only one
of those deaths, that of Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, was a result of combat action. Tragically, suicides
accounted for 36 more. Others were caused by vehicle crashes and other accidents and “reckless
behavior,” Neller wrote.
 And a common denominator in Marines’ risky behavior, as well as illegal and violent acts
including domestic abuse, sexual assault, and hazing, is the presence of alcohol, Neller said.
Top Marine: Heavy Drinking “Plays Into the Hands of Our Enemies”
10 February 2017
Page 1
DEOMI News Highlights
Diversity
Meet Sgt. William Carney: The First African-American Medal of Honor Recipient
No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says
Secaucus transgender boy returns to Scouting
Study Finds Only Modest Gains by Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards
Women-in-service discussions take wrong approach [OPINION]
Human Relations
Soldier welcomes Afghan translator to U.S. with bear hug
Miscellaneous
The new Navy secretary is inheriting a mess: Here’s how the Navy wants to fix it
A threatened officer had an instant to shoot — or not. Police want you to watch him decide.
William A. Norris, Judge Whose Opinion Presaged Gay Marriage, Dies at 89
Misconduct
Army demotes former defense secretary’s 3-star aide after scathing IG investigation
Federal oversight agency wants the military to screen for gambling addiction
Top Marine: Heavy Drinking ‘Plays Into the Hands of Our Enemies’
Wounded Warrior Project cleared of “spending lavishly,” report finds
Racism
Could lies about Emmett Till lead to prosecution?
Religion
Despite complaints, ACC will not remove posters that assert faith’s importance
Don’t “detonate on patrol”: A Muslim cop sues NYPD, claiming colleagues harassed her for years
Suspect gets 30 years in Florida mosque fire
Under pressure from town, Belle Plaine City Council votes to restore cross to vets memorial
Wing commander’s prayer breakfast invite sparks IG complaint
Sexual Assault/Harassment
Marine colonel braces for court-martial
10 February 2017
Page 2
Diversity
https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1075726/meet-sgt-william-carney-the-first-africanamerican-medal-of-honor-recipient
Meet Sgt. William Carney: The First African-American
Medal of Honor Recipient
By Katie Lange
Defense.gov, February 8, 2017
Army Sgt. William H. Carney was the first of the nation’s 88
African-American Medal of Honor recipients, earning the medal
during the Union Army’s charge on Fort Wagner during the
Civil War. (Army photo)
WASHINGTON — Of the 3,498 service members who have
received the Medal of Honor throughout U.S. history, only 88
have been black.
In recognition of African American History Month, we're
sharing the stories of the brave men who so gallantly risked and
gave their lives for others, even in times when others weren't willing to do the same in return.
We'll start with the first black recipient of the award: Army Sgt. William H. Carney, who earned the honor
for protecting one of the United States' greatest symbols during the Civil War -- the American flag.
Born Into Slavery
Carney was born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1840. His family was eventually granted freedom and
moved to Massachusetts, where Carney was eager to learn and secretly got involved in academics, despite
laws and restrictions that banned blacks from learning to read and write.
Carney had wanted to pursue a career in the church, but when the Civil War broke out, he decided the best
way he could serve God was by serving in the military to help free the oppressed.
In March 1863, Carney joined the Union Army and was attached to Company C, 54th Massachusetts
Colored Infantry Regiment, the first official black unit recruited for the Union in the north. Forty other
black men served with him, including two of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass' sons.
Within a few months, Carney's training would be put to the ultimate test during the unit's first major
combat mission in Charleston, South Carolina.
Charge on Fort Wagner
On July 18, 1863, the soldiers of Carney's regiment led the charge on Fort Wagner. During the battle, the
unit's color guard was shot. Carney, who was just a few feet away, saw the dying man stumble, and he
scrambled to catch the falling flag.
Despite suffering several serious gunshot wounds himself, Carney kept the symbol of the Union held high
as he crawled up the hill to the walls of Fort Wagner, urging his fellow troops to follow him. He planted the
flag in the sand at the base of the fort and held it upright until his near-lifeless body was rescued.
Even then, though, he didn't give it up. Many witnesses said Carney refused to give the flag to his rescuers,
holding onto it tighter until, with assistance, he made it to the Union's temporary barracks.
https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1075726/meet-sgt-william-carney-the-first-africanamerican-medal-of-honor-recipient
Promoted for His Actions
Carney lost a lot of blood and nearly lost his life, but not once did he allow the flag to touch the ground. His
heroics inspired other soldiers that day and were crucial to the North securing victory at Fort Wagner.
Carney was promoted to the rank of sergeant for his actions.
For his bravery, Carney was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on May 23, 1900.
Carney's legacy serves as a shining example of the patriotism that Americans felt at that time, despite the
color of their skin.
As for the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment in which Carney served? It was disestablished
long ago, but reactivated in 2008. It now serves as a National Guard ceremonial unit that renders honorary
funerals and state functions. It was even invited to march in President Barack Obama's inaugural parade.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/08/no-plans-to-limit-women-in-combat-general-says.html
No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says
By Richard Sisk
Military.com, February 8, 2017
Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Daniel B. Allyn recognizes
Army Staff Sgt. Kendra Langsford for outstanding performance as
an intelligence noncommissioned officer at Camp Lemonnier, Jan.
16, 2017. (U.S. Air National Guard/Master Sgt. Paul Gorman)
Despite rumors to the contrary, there's nothing in the works at the
Defense Department to revise current rules opening combat roles to
women who qualify, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn
said Tuesday.
"There's been no conversation in the Pentagon about reviewing [or] revising the commitment that's been
made to gender integration," Allyn said in testimony during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Allyn was responding to questions from Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, who said she had heard
"rumblings that the [Trump] administration" with input from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs
Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford was "talking about reviewing, revising or appealing this policy" to have all
military occupational specialties open to women.
Speier asked, "Do you know about any efforts to do that, and doesn't that kind of fly in the face of having
the ready workforce we need if you're excluding women who are capable to engage in combat?"
Allyn, who spent much of his time at the hearing complaining that Army readiness is being affected by
budget cuts, said the current state of readiness of all the services could not be maintained without having
women able to fill roles that were previously closed to them.
"We're all achieving higher levels of readiness now that we are opening it up to 100 percent of the
population of America being able to contribute," he said.
Mattis raised concerns among advocates of gender integration, and possibly gave some encouragement to
critics, when he said at his Senate confirmation hearing last month that he might "look at it" if a field
commander came to him with a perceived problem about having women on the front lines.
However, he said, "The standards are the standards and, when people meet the standards, then that's the end
of the discussion on that."
"I have no plan to oppose women serving in any aspect in our military," Mattis said. "In 2003, I had
hundreds of Marines who happened to be women, serving in my 23,000-person Marine division. I put them
right into the front lines just like everyone else."
"If someone brings me a problem, I'll look at. But I'm not coming in looking for problems -- I'm looking for
ways to get the department so it's at its most lethal stance."
Richard Sisk can be reached at [email protected].
http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2017/02/07/secaucus-transgender-boy-returns-scouting/97608482/
Secaucus transgender boy returns to Scouting
By Abbott Koloff
NorthJersey.com, February 8, 2017
Joe Maldonado, the first openly transgender member of the Boy
Scouts of America, proudly shows off the uniform he received from
Kyle Hackler, leader of Cub Scouts Pack 20 of Maplewood/South
Orange. (Photo: Amy Newman/NorthJersey.com)
MAPLEWOOD — In a moment of historic significance, Joe
Maldonado put on a Cub Scout uniform on Tuesday night as he
became a member of Pack 20 in Essex County while his mother held
back tears — one week after the Boy Scouts of America changed its
national policy to allow transgender children to be scouts.
Scouting's decision to change its longtime policy came about a month after The Record reported that Joe
had been thrown out of a Cub Scout pack in Secaucus last year because he was born a girl. The
decision was at least in part a response to the national debate generated by that story.
“This is fun; I'm so proud," Joe, 9, said during the meeting. He said that the best part of the night was that
"I am accepted, and I'm actually in Boy Scouts."
The leader of Joe's new Scouting pack, which serves Maplewood and South Orange, said after the meeting
that Joe's presence was "historic" because he had become Scouting's first openly transgender member. He
praised Joe for showing "an immense amount of courage."
Kristie Maldonado, Joe's mother, said she was “proud of the fight” she had put up after she received a call
from a Northern New Jersey Council of Boy Scouts official last year and was told Joe would not be
allowed to continue to be a member of Pack 87 in Secaucus.
Kyle Hackler, the leader of his new pack, helped him put on his uniform and kerchief, and taught him the
Cub Scout salute and oath. The meeting was held at the Clinton Elementary school in Maplewood.
"This means you’re the same as Scouts all over the world,” Hackler said to Joe.
Kristie Maldonado sits with Cub Master Kyle Hackler after signing
an application for her son, Joe Maldonado, on right, the first
openly transgender member of the Boys Scouts of America, to join
the Boy Scouts following his first meeting with his new Pack #20 in
Maplewood on February 7, 2017. (Photo: Amy
Newman/NorthJersey.com)
Hackler had contacted The Record in December, after Joe’s story
was made public, and said he would petition the Northern New
Jersey Council to allow Joe to join his group. He said he was told
that the council deferred such decisions to the national organization. The Boy Scouts had overturned bans
against gay scouts and gay scouting leaders in recent years. But, in December, it said in a statement to The
Record that it would continue to use the gender on birth certificates to determine eligibility.
Last week, the Boy Scouts issued a brief statement changing its policy about an hour after Northern New
Jersey Scouting leaders called Maldonado and told her that Joe would be allowed to return.
http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2017/02/07/secaucus-transgender-boy-returns-scouting/97608482/
On Tuesday night, the Boy Scouts said in a statement that the organization "is pleased to welcome Joe and
the Maldonado family back into the Scouting community. Moving forward, the BSA will continue to work
to bring the benefits of our programs to as many children, families and communities as possible.”
Joe’s mother called Hackler last week to thank him for his support, and their conversation led to Joe
becoming a member of the pack on Tuesday night. Hackler said most parents were supportive when he told
them Joe would be joining.
Jessica Breen, a parent who lives in Maplewood, said she and other parents wanted to do something to help
Joe when they first read about him in December. “We said, ‘We have to reach out to this child,’” she said.
Her husband, Robert, said he was pleasantly surprised that the Boy Scouts changed their policy within a
month of Joe’s story being made public. “I thought it would happen in three to four years,” he said.
Kristie Maldonado was greeted warmly by most parents, with one woman telling her that she and other
parents were “super happy. You’re going to love it here.”
Joe Maldonado, the first openly transgender member of the Boy
Scouts of America, talks with Jonah Breen, a fellow Bear Cub
Scout, after Pack #20's meeting at Clinton Elementary in
Maplewood. Maldonado attended his first meeting with his new
pack on Tuesday, February 7, 2017. (Photo: Amy
Newman/NorthJersey.com)
But one parent, who declined to provide his name, approached a
reporter and said that he was not happy about the Boy Scouts’
change of policy.
Hackler introduced Joe as a new scout during the meeting but did not discuss his gender identity or explain
the presence of cameras and reporters. He said he expected parents to have private discussions with their
children.
Maldonado said that she decided to bring her son to Maplewood because she did not want to go back to
Secaucus, where Scouting officials told her some parents had complained last year.
“I never would have been able to just drop Joe off there and feel safe,” she said of the Secaucus pack. “I
know there are loving and caring people here,” she said of Joe’s new pack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/business/dealbook/fortune-500-board-directors-diversity.html
Study Finds Only Modest Gains by Women and Minorities
on Fortune 500 Boards
By Elizabeth Olson
The New York Times, February 5, 2017
Women and minorities occupy nearly 31 percent of the board seats of Fortune 500 companies, a small
increase over the last four years, a new study has found.
While that is the highest level in the six years of the study, white men continue to hold more than twothirds of the positions.
The data for 2016 — from the Alliance for Board Diversity, an association of groups promoting inclusion
of women and minorities in boardrooms, and Deloitte, a professional services firm — underscores that
companies have made only incremental progress in promoting diversity in boardrooms.
Corporate boardrooms with directors of varied backgrounds are still relatively unusual. Starbucks, the
Seattle-based coffee behemoth, drew public notice last month when it announced that it would add three
minority directors. If approved by shareholders, the expanded 14-person board will be 29 percent women
and 36 percent minorities.
Those percentages are seldom matched by other large companies, according to the new study, “Missing
Pieces Report: The 2016 Board Diversity Census of Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards.”
“With the current rate of progress, we aren’t likely to see the number of minorities and women increase to
our target of 40 percent representation until the year 2026,” said Ronald C. Parker, the chairman of the
Alliance for Board Diversity. “This is not acceptable. Corporations need to do more to keep pace with the
country’s changing demographics.”
Many companies, however, continue to turn to people who have had chief executive experience, and these
tend to be men. In addition, only a small number of board seats turn over in any given year — about 350
around the country — which makes it difficult to quickly increase the numbers of women and minorities.
The total number of Fortune 500 board seats last year was 5,440, down slightly from 5,463 in 2010.
Most boards range from nine to 11 people — which some companies argue is a reason for the lack of board
directors with more diverse skills than those conventionally accepted for board candidates. The relatively
low turnover — the average tenure is eight to 10 years — and the small number of companies that have
term limits also make the move to broader inclusion less rapid than advocates would like.
A possible bright spot for increasing diversity is that many board members are in their 70s, meaning they
are likely to step down in the coming years.
African-American men increased their presence in Fortune 500 boardrooms by 2 percent. Their female
counterparts increased their portion of seats by 18.4 percent. But the report also found that AfricanAmericans had the highest rate of serving on multiple boards.
This indicates, Mr. Parker said, “that companies are going to the same individuals rather than expanding the
pool of African-American candidates for board membership.”
Hispanics made a small net gain of six board seats, for a total of 188 seats, or 3.5 percent of the total —
compared with the 17 percent they represent in the United States population. Asians, including AsianAmericans, or Pacific Islanders occupied 167 seats, or 3.1 percent of the total.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/business/dealbook/fortune-500-board-directors-diversity.html
The numbers at Fortune 100 companies are higher in terms of diversity, Mr. Parker noted, with 35.9
percent of women and minorities, outpacing the nearly 31 percent for Fortune 500 companies. Even so, the
gains for women and minorities have been meager since the Alliance began collecting data for Fortune 100
companies in 2004. Thirteen years ago, the diversity figure was 28.8 percent. The study verified each
company’s total number of directors and board composition against Securities and Exchange Commission
annual filings.
The report mentioned several companies as being among the most diverse, including Prudential Financial,
PepsiCo, Aramark and Nordstrom. Those companies had at least one female director and a director who
was African-American, Asian, Hispanic or Latino.
More women are being recruited with technology skills as companies adjust to the current economy, said
Deborah DeHaas, the chief inclusion officer at Deloitte, who worked on the report.
Even so, women and minorities claimed few of the most powerful board seats, which include leading
committees on corporate audit, compensation or governance, Ms. DeHaas said.
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/commentary-women-in-service-discussions-take-wrong-approach
Women-in-service discussions take wrong approach
[OPINION]
By L. Burton Brender
Military Times, February 5, 2017
(Photo Credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
By the time she sat down with me, the sergeant had already put in a
more than full day.
She had been up for physical readiness training at 0630, worked 10
hours at her job as a ceremonies noncommissioned officer for the
National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and, after
finishing our talk, had set aside just enough time for a “quick” drive
to Las Vegas, two hours away, to attend to family before starting it all over again the next morning.
As tired as I knew she was, though, she had an air of energy. Of course, she couldn’t afford to let any
fatigue show in front of me, or the majority of her other colleagues.
“I have always had to outdo a male to get what I want,” said the 27-year-old motor transport specialist and
Orange County, California, native. It’s a remark that echoed what others like her have said for years: In the
military, being just as good as a man just isn’t good enough.
I had invited her and several other female soldiers stationed at Fort Irwin to speak with me about their
military service. Frankly, I had expected the entire conversation to go something along the lines of that
opening statement. In her next breath, though, the sergeant surprised me: she said we are looking at the
issue of women in the military all wrong.
By asking what challenges women face, I had framed the conversation with the implicit assumption that
being a woman in the Army is a shortcoming—and it’s a false assumption. According to the NCO, we must
replace our current dialogue with a better one, a conversation that focuses on who men and women are
together.
Joining her for our discussion were two female officers, one of whom pointedly said that men should stop
seeing women as threats. In her opinion, much of the antagonism toward expanded roles for women has
less to do with competence and more to do with the fear that traditionally masculine niches, and by
extension the worth of individual men, are being threatened.
It’s a fear based in utter nonsense, she said. For instance she, a happily married woman, was quick to say
that she appreciates masculinity in the Army, particularly that of her also-serving husband. To them, her
military service is not a challenge – if anything, it is a bond of common experience that strengthens their
relationship as a married couple and as compatriots in arms.
The other officer, a 31-year old first lieutenant, suggested a new tone regarding women in the military:
Focus on what they bring to the fight.
From her experience, female Army leaders are more inclined to “dig in” to complex problems, investing
additional time to understanding the heart of an issue before attempting to solve it. The sergeant concurred:
Based on her own interaction with two former female leaders, she admired them for seeming to more
intrinsically value critical thinking.
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/commentary-women-in-service-discussions-take-wrong-approach
In honest admiration, both the sergeant and first lieutenant agreed that rapid, forceful, intuitive decisionmaking, something they more associated with men, was an indispensable martial skill. However, the
lieutenant made it clear that only gender cooperation could tap into an organization’s true problem-solving
ability, saying in no uncertain terms, “We are better together.”
The other officer focused on leadership. She said she believes that women, by and large, seem to place a
higher premium on soldiers’ individuality. While the mission will always come first, the personal interests,
welfare and achievement of subordinates are very high priorities to female leaders.
In what she calls “seeing below the surface,” women tend to put substantial personal effort into learning
what motivates the individual. Far from being touchy-feely, she said that this allows women in leadership
positions to leverage personal strengths in ways that are extremely effective on their own and
complementary to the outward-focused leadership style traditionally attributed to male leaders. In her
opinion, combining the two in an environment of respect and interdependence, such as would be found in a
good staff or command team, allows organizations to achieve new heights of efficiency and mission
accomplishment.
As I finished the interviews that night, all three soldiers seemed to converge on a common theme: Our
conversation must change. Specifically, there is no longer any question whether women can perform in the
harshest realms of the military – they already do – nor is it anything but foolishness to ask which gender is
better suited to the realities of war, as both are equally, if differently, suited.
Army Maj. L. Burton Brender (Photo Credit: Courtesy Army Maj.
L. Burton Brender)
Everyone who cares about this issue must be intellectually humble
enough to admit that men and women need each other. As the
lieutenant put it, to be the best versions of ourselves, to create the
best military that we can, we must “work together not as threats, but
as partners.”
Editor's note: This is an opinion piece. The writer is not employed by Military Times and the views
expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Military Times or its editorial staff.
Army Maj. L. Burton Brender is the G3 Chief of Operations at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin,
California. He is an associate member of the Military Writers Guild and the co-author of the book of poetry
In Cadence, and blogs at yobousensou.blogspot.com.
Human Relations
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0c9ab945ae4943159bd396e9d9b55dea/solider-welcomes-afghan-translator-usbear-hug
Soldier welcomes Afghan translator to U.S. with bear hug
By Julie Watson and Marcio Sanchez
The Associated Press, February 8, 2017
Army Capt. Matthew Ball, right, prepares to hug his former
interpreter Qismat Amin, as Amin arrives from Afghanistan, at San
Francisco International Airport Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, in San
Francisco. Ball welcomed Amin to the United States after buying
him a plane ticket to ensure he would get in quickly amid concerns
the Trump administration may expand its travel ban to Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A soldier welcomed his Afghan
interpreter to the United States on Wednesday after buying him a
plane ticket to ensure his quick arrival amid concerns the Trump administration might try to expand its
travel ban to Afghanistan.
Army Capt. Matthew Ball yelled "Qismat!" as he ran and then hugged Qismat Amin at San Francisco
International Airport in a series of emotional embraces that marked the end of a yearslong battle to get the
translator out of his war-torn country.
"I'm so happy," Ball told The Associated Press after welcoming Amin. "Yeah it feels great. I'm happy to
see him. I'm sort of overwhelmed. He's here. It's been a long time."
The interpreter waited nearly four years for his special immigrant visa. He lived in hiding after receiving
death threats from the Taliban for helping American troops.
His visa arrived two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending the nation's
refugee program and temporarily halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Afghanistan was not among them, but U.S. officials said shortly after the order was signed that the list
could be expanded to include other countries. The ban has since been placed on hold while it's being
debated in the courts.
A supporter holds a sign for U.S. Army interpreter Qismat Amin,
who would later arrive from Afghanistan, at San Francisco
International Airport Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, in San Francisco.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Ball bought Amin a $1,000 plane ticket to San Francisco to get him
to the U.S. as soon as possible.
Amin has said he was nervous he would not feel welcome after
Trump's order because he is an immigrant and Muslim. But those
fears faded after he arrived to Americans holding signs that read "Welcome to America" and "Welcome
Home."
"Right now, I don't know what to say. I forgot my words," he said. "Actually this has made me much, much
stronger, seeing people with the welcome signs. I feel like I got a huge family right now, and I got a big
family in Afghanistan. But right now I got a way bigger family than I ever expected."
Ball, a law student at Stanford University, led a letter campaign with fellow students, including many
veterans, lobbying Congress to inquire about why it was taking so long for Amin to get a visa.
More than 13,000 Afghans and their immediate family members have been waiting to get a special
immigrant visa for aiding the U.S. mission, according to the U.S. State Department.
Congress approved an additional 1,500 visas in December and extended the program until the end of 2020,
but advocates say the number is woefully inadequate.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0c9ab945ae4943159bd396e9d9b55dea/solider-welcomes-afghan-translator-usbear-hug
Ball said the U.S. government should speed up the years-long visa process for interpreters and cultural
advisers in Afghanistan because their lives are at risk after helping U.S. troops.
America's longest war, which began in response to 9/11, has grinded into its 16th year. Afghan soldiers and
police have been suffering heavy casualties in their battle against a resilient Taliban insurgency, while U.S.
forces continue to hunt down al-Qaida and Islamic State militants.
Army Capt. Matthew Ball, right, smiles next to his former
interpreter Qismat Amin, after Amin arrived from Afghanistan, at
San Francisco International Airport Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, in
San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Ball said Amin protected his life during a yearlong mission in one
of Afghanistan's most dangerous areas.
The former Army ranger, who is now in the Reserves, said he is
happy he was able to return the favor by helping Amin get to safety.
Amin will live at Ball's home in Palo Alto for now.
Amin planned to call his mom to let her know he had arrived safely. Then he wanted to head to the beach to
see the ocean for the first time.
___
Watson reported from San Diego.
SEE ALSO:
DoD Welcomes U.S. Decision to Allow Iraqis on Special Visas to Enter Country [Defense.gov, 2017-0203]
Miscellaneous
https://www.navytimes.com/articles/the-new-navy-secretary-is-inheriting-a-mess-heres-how-the-navywants-to-fix-it
The new Navy secretary is inheriting a mess: Here's how the
Navy wants to fix it
By David B. Larter
Navy Times, February 4, 2017
(Photo Credit: MC3 Matt Brown/Navy)
Businessman Philip Bilden is on deck to become the next Navy
secretary after eight years of declining readiness inside the world’s
most advanced fleet and profound cultural shifts inside the
traditionally hide-bound Navy.
Under former Secretary Ray Mabus, the Navy made a policy of
directing money away from operations and maintenance in order to
keep funding shipbuilding, an effort to arrest the precipitous decline of the fleet’s size, which has dropped
from more than 500 ships at the end of the Cold War to today’s 274.
At the same time Mabus pushed hard for major cultural shifts inside the fleet, including the inclusion of
women in combat roles in the Navy and Marine Corps, unisex uniforms, gender-neutral ratings titles and
opening the services to transgender service members.
Mabus's initiatives require long-term institutional commitments and it’s unclear how they will evolve under
Bilden, who has spent most of his career as a Hong Kong-based venture capitalist with HarbourVest
Partners, a global private-equity investment firm.
Donald Trump’s preliminary marching orders are to build the fleet from 274 ships to 350. But Navy leaders
have already indicated that their first priority is to fix training and readiness which have taken hits while the
service has endured budget cuts and crushing demands for its forces overseas.
The Navy’s leadership is lining up behind a unified message: fix our fleet, focus on war fighting, then grow
the Navy.
Navy leaders have been banging the drum on declining readiness for years since across-the-board budget
cuts in 2013 began eating into the money the Navy had to train its sailors and maintain its complex and
hard-used equipment. In May, Navy Times sister publication Defense News reported that in 2016 the Navy
shorted its operations and maintenance budget nearly a billion dollars, pushing off needed maintenance for
ships.
US Navy Faces $848 Million Ops & Maintenance Shortfall
In a recent speech, the vice chief of naval operations bemoaned the toll robbing maintenance funds had
taken on the fleet.
“This long war we’re in and emerging or re-emerging threats have raised the stakes and kept us on the field
longer than our bullpen is able to stay healthy,” Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of naval operations said.
“Deferred maintenance is insidiously taking its toll on the long-term readiness of our fleet.”
Trump wants a bigger Navy — but the Navy wants its fleet fixed first
On the cultural side, Bilden comes to the Navy after years of internal change that began with the repeal of
Don't Ask Don't Tell in 2011 moved more recently to the integration of women into combat jobs. To many
Navy leaders, the conversations around complex social issues were becoming a distraction from the Navy’s
core mission, especially while ships and aircraft were beginning to show troubling signs of decay.
“In eight years we went from ‘let’s not talk about gay people’ to complex conversations of gender identity
and bathrooms,” said retired cruiser skipper Capt. Rick Hoffman. “We leap-frogged 10 years of social
growth in the Navy and people from leadership all the way down to the deck plates did not know what to
make of it.”
https://www.navytimes.com/articles/the-new-navy-secretary-is-inheriting-a-mess-heres-how-the-navywants-to-fix-it
The future of much of the social changes inside the Navy remains murky. The Trump administration has
signaled it plans to maintain the Obama administration’s commitment to inclusive policies towards gay,
lesbian and transgender people, but influential voices in and around the Navy are pushing for a return to
focus on fighting and defeating adversaries.
“I think I represent a lot of active, retired and former sailors when I say we welcome a balanced approach
to running the Navy,” said retired four-star Adm. Robert Natter, who was the Navy’s fleet boss from 20002003.
Natter said he supported leadership’s push to plus up the maintenance and training budget, a position
supported by another former fleet boss retired Adm. John Harvey, who led Fleet Forces Command from
2009-2012.
Harvey said the heavy demand from big DoD for the Navy’s capabilities has been stressing the Navy’s
declining resources, especially since they have not had sufficient time and resources to reset.
“My mantra at Fleet Forces Command was always the wholeness for the fleet for the long term,” Harvey
said. “That always runs into the insatiable demand for everything that Navy brings to the combatant
commanders. It has to be clear that to make these wonderful ships, aircraft and submarines available for the
long term you have to pay attention to maintenance. And for our people to perform correctly you have to
pay attention to training.”
Inside the Navy and the Defense Department, a debate has been ongoing between those who argue the
Navy needs enough ships, including less capable ones such as the troubled Littoral Combat Ship, to provide
presence globally. Others argue that having fewer, more capable ships, such as Virginia-class attack
submarines and high-end destroyers, are necessary to fight and defeat complex enemies.
The promised influx of money from the incoming Trump administration was a unique opportunity to set the
Navy up with both the capacity it needs to put ships all over the globe providing presence and the capability
to go toe-to-toe and defeat complex enemies such as Russia and China, Harvey said.
“A 350-ship fleet sound about right to me,” Harvey said. “This is our chance to get it all right, to get the
right capabilities and the right capacity.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/07/an-officer-had-an-instant-to-shoot-athreat-or-not-police-want-you-to-watch-him-decide/
A threatened officer had an instant to shoot — or not. Police
want you to watch him decide.
By Amy B Wang
Washington Post, February 7, 2017
The dash cam video gets shakier as the police car
approaches what appears to be the end of a cul-desac. All around, sirens are blaring. In the
background, an officer’s voice can be heard
declaring the predicament of a suspect who soon
comes into focus.
“He’s at a dead end,” the officer says. “He’s at a
dead end.”
In the video, a man is seen standing in the
driveway next to the open door of a truck, legs planted wide in a shooting stance. He faces the police cars
closing in on him, pointing what looks from afar like a gun at one officer in particular.
A voice cuts through the chaos. “Drop the gun!” it yells. “Drop the gun!”
It is ostensibly at this point, halfway through the 33-second video, that the Grand Prairie Police Department
asks its rhetorical question.
“What kind of decisions do we as police officers make?” the department posted to Twitter on Monday,
along with the clip above. “This video will show one of them. What would you have done? #Awareness”
The dash cam footage showed the end of a rare police chase on Jan. 20 in Grand Prairie, a Texas city in
between Dallas and Fort Worth, police said.
Jeff Payne, the officer seen in the video, described to NBC 5 News the tense moments that “seemed like
forever” as he decided whether to fire his weapon.
“[The suspect] got out, put his hands out like he had a gun and started yelling, ‘I’m gonna shoot you, I’m
gonna shoot you,’ ” Payne told the news station. “My first thought was, ‘Crap, I’m about to get shot.’ ”
Payne told the news station that time seemed to slow down as he took a closer look at the suspect’s hands
— and realized the man was not holding a gun after all.
It was then that Payne unleashed Jurek, his canine partner, who sprinted over to the suspect and bit his
hands until he dropped his weapon, Grand Prairie police spokesman Lyle Gensler told The Washington
Post.
What had appeared to be a gun was actually a flashlight and a pocket knife, Gensler said.
“Honestly, I think that I probably almost killed that guy, and if it hadn’t been for that split second, I
probably would have,” Payne told NBC 5 News afterward.
Gensler said the situation was unique for the department, which has seen an average of one officer-involved
shooting per year over the last five years. On top of that, police chases that end with a standoff are unusual
in Grand Prairie, he added. (“I can’t remember where this has happened before,” Gensler said.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/07/an-officer-had-an-instant-to-shoot-athreat-or-not-police-want-you-to-watch-him-decide/
After reviewing the footage — even though the suspect was taken into custody “without incident” — the
department decided to upload the video to social media as an example of a lesser-seen side of policing:
situations in which officers must make split-second life-or-death decisions, and ultimately de-escalate.
“In this case, Officer Payne at first used the appropriate use of force by drawing his weapon on something
he perceived to be a threat to him,” Gensler said. Once he saw that it was not a gun, he had to adjust
quickly. “It was still a threat, but now he’s got to de-escalate that level of force … as fast as he possibly
can, and he did.”
There is no single, universally agreed-upon definition of “use of force,” and every situation — as well as
responding officer — is different, according to the National Institute of Justice, an agency of the U.S.
Department of Justice that researches criminal justice issues. Because of that, “situational awareness is
essential,” the agency says on its website.
“An officer’s goal is to regain control as soon as possible while protecting the community,” the agency
says. “Use of force is an officer’s last option — a necessary course of action to restore safety in a
community when other practices are ineffective.”
While the group does not maintain a national database of incidents in which police use excessive force, it
notes a Bureau of Justice Statistics report that found the complaint rate for police use of force in “large”
departments was 6.6 complaints per 100 sworn officers.
In 2016, police shot and killed 963 people, roughly the same number as the year before, according to a
Washington Post database tracking such deaths. A handful of those cases have prompted intense
demonstrations. In most fatal shootings, officers say they were confronted by people with guns, and in
about half of the cases, these people fired at the officers.
Those high-profile shootings have been scrutinized as the number of police officers killed in the line of
duty has risen. According to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
Fund, 135 officers died in the line of duty in 2016, the highest level in five years. Of those deaths, 64 were
firearms-related, a significant increase from 2015 figures. The nonprofit group’s midyear report noted a
troubling increase in some of those deaths occurring in “ambush” attacks.
Last month, a group of 11 national police organizations added “de-escalation” to a new model policy on
use of force.
Gensler said the Grand Prairie department, which has about 270 officers, has trained in de-escalation
techniques “from day one.” He said they hoped law enforcement from across the nation would watch and
learn from the video.
“In our profession, we are, unfortunately, sometimes required to use lethal force with the factual
data confirming the vast majority of these types of uses of force are justified,” Grand Prairie Police Chief
Steve Dye said in a statement. “However, many times police officers do not use lethal force when they are
justified to do so. While the lethal uses of force consistently garner much attention, I believe it is equally
important for the public to see when our well-trained officers are expertly utilizing a lower level of force
than would have been justified.”
Mark Berman contributed to this article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/william-norris-dead-federal-judge-gays-in-military-ruling.html
William A. Norris, Judge Whose Opinion Presaged Gay
Marriage, Dies at 89
By Sam Roberts
The New York Times, January 30, 2017
Judge William A. Norris in an undated family photo.
William A. Norris, the federal judge who ruled in 1988 that the Constitution’s
equal protection clause guaranteed that gay people could serve in the military — a
decision that presaged the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage —
died on Jan. 21 in Los Angeles. He was 89.
The cause was heart failure, his wife, Jane Jelenko, said.
In the 1988 case, Judge Norris — sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, as part of a three-judge panel — issued a 60page concurring opinion in the court’s 2-to-1 ruling striking down the Army’s ban
on gay soldiers. It was the first time a federal appeals court prohibited a branch of the armed services from
excluding people on the basis of sexual orientation.
Judge Norris wrote that the Army’s ban would apply even to those who desired homosexual contact but
engaged in no sexual act, while heterosexuals who engaged in homosexual acts while intoxicated might not
come under the ban.
“If a straight soldier and a gay soldier of the same sex engage in homosexual acts because they are drunk,
immature or curious, the straight soldier may remain in the Army while the gay soldier is automatically
terminated,” the decision said.
“In short,” it concluded, “the regulations do not penalize soldiers for engaging in homosexual acts; they
penalize soldiers who have engaged in homosexual acts only when the Army decides that those soldiers are
actually gay.”
The majority on the court said that the military rules violated the Fifth Amendment, which bars
discrimination by the government without compelling justification.
Calling the ban just as legally offensive as previous laws against interracial marriage, Judge Norris wrote:
“Laws that limit the acceptable focus of one’s sexual desires to members of the opposite sex, like laws that
limit one’s choice of spouse (or sexual partner) to members of the same race, cannot withstand
constitutional scrutiny absent a compelling governmental justification.”
A few months later, however, the full appellate court nullified the panel’s ruling. It voted, 7 to 4, to uphold
the right of a former soldier, Sgt. Perry J. Watkins, to serve because the Army had repeatedly allowed him
to re-enlist knowing that he was gay. But its narrow ruling skirted the constitutional question.
Still, in a statement issued after Judge Norris’s death, the appeals court’s senior circuit judge, Raymond C.
Fisher, called his opinion “visionary” because it was “vindicated” in 2015 when the United States Supreme
Court affirmed same-sex marriage as a constitutional guarantee of “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.”
Sergeant Watkins was not found to have engaged in any specific sexual acts, and the Army never argued
that his job performance had been impaired, but its regulations were changed in 1981 to require that all gay
people be discharged. Sergeant Watkins was discharged in 1984.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/william-norris-dead-federal-judge-gays-in-military-ruling.html
Among Judge Norris’s more than 400 other opinions was a 1990 ruling overturning the singer Wayne
Newton’s $5.2 million libel award against NBC. The case stemmed from Mr. Newton’s purchase of a Las
Vegas casino. NBC News reported in 1980 that he had financial problems at the time and that he had
testified falsely before the state’s gambling board.
In finding for NBC, Judge Norris said the facts as NBC reported them were beyond dispute.
“The media should not fear that its journalists’ professional judgments will be second-guessed by juries
without benefit of careful independent review,” he wrote.
William Albert Norris was born on Aug. 30, 1927, in Turtle Creek, Pa., near Pittsburgh, the son of English
immigrants.
His father, George, arrived on the ocean liner Lusitania on one of its last voyages before it was torpedoed
by a German U-boat during World War I. He became the editor of The Turtle Creek Independent, a local
newspaper. Judge Norris’s mother, the former Florence Clive, escaped what her son described as a
Dickensian childhood in England and survived her trans-Atlantic voyage after its canny British captain
hoisted an American flag as a German submarine approached.
After a stint in the Navy, Judge Norris graduated from Princeton in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree and then
from Stanford Law School. He clerked for the Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children, Barbara, Don, Kim and Alison Norris, all from an
earlier marriage to Kitty Hagen; four stepchildren, David Jelenko, Jill Bauman, James Weister and Joni
Martino; a sister, Dorothy Lankford; and two grandchildren.
Judge Norris was at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968 when Senator Robert F. Kennedy was
assassinated, and sought to calm the stunned crowd that had gathered to celebrate Kennedy’s victory in the
California presidential primary. He served as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission under
Mayor Tom Bradley and was founding president of the board of what became the Museum of
Contemporary Art.
He was nominated to the federal appeals court in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter and retired in 1997.
Misconduct
https://www.armytimes.com/articles/army-demotes-secdefs-former-3-star-aide-after-scathing-iginvestigation
Army demotes former defense secretary’s 3-star aide after
scathing IG investigation
By Michelle Tan
Army Times, February 9, 2017
(Photo Credit: DoD)
The former senior military aide to then-Defense Secretary Ash
Carter will retire as a brigadier general, the Army announced
Thursday.
The move against Maj. Gen. Ronald Lewis was directed by
former Army Secretary Eric Fanning, Army spokeswoman
Cynthia Smith said in a statement.
The Defense Department inspector general substantiated allegations that Lewis misused his government
and travel charge card for personal expenses, made false official statements about that misuse, and engaged
in conduct unbecoming an officer on multiple occasions, Smith said in the statement.
Lewis also has been reprimanded by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Allyn, she said.
According to the IG investigation, which was released in October, Lewis used his government credit card at
strip clubs or gentlemen's clubs in Rome and Seoul, South Korea, drank in excess and had "improper
interactions" with women during business travel with Carter. The 50-page report shows Lewis spent more
than $1,000 on champagne and drinks and includes conflicting statements that Lewis made to investigators
explaining the outings, and on several occasions quotes his acknowledgement that he was drunk or drank to
"more than moderation," the Associated Press reported.
Lewis, whom Carter fired nearly a year before the investigation was released, submitted a written rebuttal
slamming the investigation, saying the IG assembled an inaccurate and inflammatory case based on
innuendo and had failed to "find the truth."
He did take responsibility for several inappropriate actions, including charging nearly $1,800 on his
government credit card at what he called a "dance club" in Rome. In an embarrassing set of circumstances,
Lewis said, he tried to use his personal debit card at the club, but it didn't work, so he had to walk back to
his hotel with a female employee of the club, and wake up a Defense Department staff member to get his
government card to pay the bill. He said he paid back the charges when he returned to the U.S.
The report goes on to say Carter was unaware of Lewis' conduct until he was told about it.
Under federal law, officers retire at the highest grade in which they served satisfactorily, Smith said, adding
that the Army secretary makes retirement grade determinations for all brigadier generals and major
generals.
The demotion will cost Lewis about $20,000 a year in retirement pay, giving him roughly $80,000 after
taxes in his initial year, according to the Army.
Lewis is a West Point graduate who was the Army's chief of public affairs before he was tapped to serve as
Carter's senior military assistant. Lewis had reached the three-star rank of lieutenant general while working
for Carter, but was demoted to major general after he was fired in November 2015.
https://www.armytimes.com/articles/army-demotes-secdefs-former-3-star-aide-after-scathing-iginvestigation
A career Air Cavalry officer, Lewis spent a lot of time at the Pentagon between deployments. He served as
an adviser on Carter's transition team, and he has filled the role of military adviser to Carter twice before —
first when Carter was the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics in 2011, and
then when Carter took over as the deputy secretary of defense.
Lewis deployed to Afghanistan in early 2012, serving as the deputy commanding general for support for
the 101st Airborne Division. He also commanded the 101st Airborne's 159th Combat Aviation Brigade on
a previous deployment to Afghanistan, and led units from the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/federal-oversight-agency-wants-the-military-to-screen-forgambling-addiction
Federal oversight agency wants the military to screen for
gambling addiction
By Shawn Snow
Military Times, February 8, 2017
(Photo Credit: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
Defense Department data shows that 514 active duty military service
members and Coast Guard and 72 Reserve members were treated for or
diagnosed with a gambling disorder from 2011-2015, according to a
Government Accountability Office report.
Though this number represents only .03 percent of the active and reserve
population, the GAO, a federal agency that provides oversight and
investigative services for Congress, wants the military to get more serious about identifying and treating
gambling addiction.
Other organizations have placed the number of at risk active duty service members much higher. The
National Council on Gambling Problem says 36,000 active duty troops meet the criteria for gambling
addiction.
"Previous surveys found average rates of gambling problems among active duty personnel at 5%,
approximately twice the average civilian rate," Executive Director Keith Whyte told Military Times.
Adding to the dilemma, nearly 3,000 slot machines are available to soldiers deployed to bases around the
globe, accumulating roughly $539 million in profits between 2011 and 2015, according to the GAO report.
"At the very least, this jackpot comes with an obligation to minimize harm related to gambling addiction.
When DoD promotes and profits from slot machines they have a high obligation to take extensive measures
to treat military personnel who develop gambling problems," Whyte said.
Currently, the military does not provide annual screenings and its present medical screening process does
not include questions that could indicate susceptibility to gambling problems, as it does for other addictive
disorders. “They do not screen for gambling disorder because they focus on mental-health disorders that are
high risk to overall readiness, high volume and have validated measures for assessment,” according to the
GAO report.
However, gambling disorders can have a resounding impact on military operations. “The preoccupation
with gambling, financial hardship and increased risk of suicide can pose a risk to individual readiness,” the
report argues. The service branches provide guidance on substance abuse for medical and non-medical
staff, "however, it refers only to problematic substance use," GAO said.
The GAO recommends annual screenings to identify gambling addiction and updating policy guidance.
DoD and Coast Guard officials have agreed to update its guidance on gambling disorders but have rejected
calls for annual screenings, citing the low prevalence of gambling addiction in the military. "It is
impractical to screen for every low prevalence disorder," DoD officials said in a response to the GAO
report.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/07/top-marine-heavy-drinking-plays-into-hands-ourenemies.html
Top Marine: Heavy Drinking ‘Plays Into the Hands of Our
Enemies’
By Hope Hodge Seck
Military.com, February 7, 2017
Consolidated Substance Abuse Counseling Center aboard Marine
Corps Base Quantico educates military personnel and their family
members on the dangers of illegal alcohol abuse.( Photo By: Sgt.
Rebekka Heite)
The commandant of the Marine Corps is calling on his troops to
'drink less, read more and PT smarter' in a new message to the
force.
Gen. Robert Neller's fragmentary order, or FRAGO, released Tuesday is the second he has issued since he
stepped into his role in late 2015, and it comes accompanied by a list of 25 tasks for Marine commanders to
improve training, rebuild infrastructure and develop the service's future operational strategy.
But his message to Marines is more personal.
Neller writes that 152 Marines died in 2016 -- nearly the equivalent of a rifle company. Only one of those
deaths, that of Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, was a result of combat action. Tragically, suicides accounted for 36
more. Others were caused by vehicle crashes and other accidents and "reckless behavior," Neller wrote.
"We are better than this," he wrote. "We must do a better job of looking out for each other."
In an interview with Military.com this month, Neller said he wanted to develop a greater awareness among
Marines about the prevalence of these preventable deaths in the force.
"Most Marines in their unit, their battalion, their work section, they don't know. They just see the world
through their soda straw," he said. "I'm trying to make everybody understand, 'Hey, look, you're part of
something bigger than yourself, and we all have equity on this.' "
And a common denominator in Marines' risky behavior, as well as illegal and violent acts including
domestic abuse, sexual assault and hazing, is the presence of alcohol, Neller said.
In his FRAGO, the general calls Marines' heavy drinking, tobacco use and poor eating habits "self abuse"
that "plays into the hands of our enemies." Troops should also re-examine their physical fitness programs,
he said, balancing cardio and weight exercises, and "put down the electronics, get off the couch" more
often.
In tackling hard drinking among troops, Neller told Military.com he knows he is targeting what has long
been an established element of Marine Corps culture. Marines love to recall that the service itself was born
in a bar, established at Philadelphia's Tun Tavern in 1775.
"It's tough, because that's part of the culture," Neller said. "But the logic to me is, 'Hey look, you're a
professional. You may go to war. Why would you want to do anything that would sub-optimize any bit of
your performance?' "
Neller said he doesn't plan to tell troops how much they should drink or set any limits, but is asking them
instead to examine their lives and ask if their habits are keeping them from being successful.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/07/top-marine-heavy-drinking-plays-into-hands-ourenemies.html
The commandant is also asking troops to read more, advising in the FRAGO that building a sharp mind is
as challenging and labor-intensive as working up to 20 pullups.
He called on Marines to read at least five books from the Commandant's Professional Reading List and
consider pursuing a higher education degree. One of his tasks for commanders develops the point further,
calling on Marine Corps Combat Development Command to examine the possibility of developing a higher
education plan for staff noncommissioned officers, allowing them to earn bachelor's or associate's degrees
while on active duty.
Neller wrote that the Corps will also promote the use of the Career Intermission Program, an option to
pause a military career to pursue other opportunities that has yet to gain popularity among Marines.
In the interview, Neller said the service is working with colleges local to major Marine Corps bases to get
enlisted professional military education to count for degree credit, and to develop paths for troops to get
their degrees.
"The Marines I've talked to are interested in advancing their education, whether that be officer or enlisted,"
he said. "And as part of a retention thing if nothing else, I think … it's good for us to facilitate that or
encourage it. And when they're in, I think it's logical that they're going to be more effective in performing
their duties as a Marine [with higher education]."
Neller's last order to Marines in the FRAGO: Have more fun, of the constructive variety. He wants troops
to spend more time socializing and exploring their environment, rather than staying in the barracks during
their down time. Learn to surf, he suggested, or take up a new language. And, he added, lean into the
hardship that comes with tough Marine Corps training.
"Embrace the 'suck' and laugh about it with your fellow Marines," he wrote. "The hardships that we suffer
together build cohesion. They will be the moments we remember the most after we hang up the uniform."
Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
SEE ALSO:
Top Marine’s 2017 to-do list: better PT, fixing aviation and cracking down on ‘general jackassery’ [201702-07]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/02/08/wounded-warrior-project-cleared-ofspending-lavishly-report-finds/
Wounded Warrior Project cleared of ‘spending lavishly,’
report finds
By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
The Washington Post, February 8, 2017
Soldier Ride is sponsored by the Wounded Warrior Project and
provides injured troops the opportunity to reclaim their confidence
and strength through cycling. (Army Staff Sgt. Brooks Fletcher/U.S.
Army Europe Public Affairs Office)
After months of investigation, the Better Business Bureau has
cleared the Wounded Warrior Project, one of the nation’s largest
veterans charities, of “lavish spending,” and gave the nonprofit
organization its seal of approval.
The bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance report found that Warrior Project spending has been “consistent with its
programs and missions.”
Last March, the Wounded Warrior Project fired its top administrators amid news reports that the charity
was spending millions in donations intended for veterans on a swanky convention in a five-star hotel along
with other parties and employee perks and high salaries.
At the time, two of the organization’s leaders, who were let go, were making $473,015 and $369,030,
respectively, in 2013, the last year for which tax documents are readily available. The Better Business
Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance suspended the charity’s seal designation, and donations fell off with donors
uncertain about how their money would be spent. About 85 employees were laid off in September from the
organization, which now has 500 employees.
One source of contention was over media reports that said the organization had spent $3 million on that
“all-hands” Colorado conference, but Wounded Warrior said last March that the expense was less than $1
million.
Likewise, the Better Business Bureau said its review found that the cost was less than $1 million. The
investigations found that based on the 415 staff members, the cost was about $440 per day per employee
for the five-day conference, including hotel rooms, food, travel and conference space, according to Stars
and Stripes, which first reported the news.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, who took over the Wounded Warrior Project in July, said in
an emailed statement that he is “pleased to see the Better Business Bureau’s report validating our impact
and commitment.”
In a previous interview, he said he understood how the Colorado conference appeared from the outside.
The Wounded Warrior Project no longer holds such events and already has increased the scrutiny on
spending for travel and all expenses, he said, adding that he would be paid less than those before him, with
his salary at $280,000.
“This year the non-profit WWP will hit a milestone by providing meaningful resources to our 100,000th
wounded warrior,” he wrote. “And we are humbled and honored to provide continued support to these
warriors and their families for many years to come.”
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux is a National staff writer who covers veterans, veterans' affairs and the culture of
government. She's an award-winning former foreign correspondent who covered Africa and India for nearly a
decade. She also covered immigration, crime and education for the Metro staff.
Follow @emily_wax
Racism
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2017/02/06/could-lies-about-emmett-tillbe-prosecuted/97557668/
Could lies about Emmett Till lead to prosecution?
By Jerry Mitchell
The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, February 6, 2017
Emmett Till's 1955 killing continues to resonate, with three books released on his
death the past two years. (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)
Carolyn Bryant has admitted she lied when she testified in 1955 that Emmett Till
touched her — a lie she repeated to the FBI a decade ago.
Lying to the FBI is a crime. So is obstruction of justice. Both carry up to five years
in prison.
But experts say it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prosecute the 82-yearold woman now because the five-year statute of limitations has run out.
“It appears that time has once again robbed us of justice in the Emmett Till case,”
said former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, who successfully prosecuted the Ku Klux
Klan’s 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls.
Keith Beauchamp, whose documentary, “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” helped inspire the FBI
to reopen the case in 2004, said he would like to see the FBI investigate this new revelation.
“There must be some accountability here,” he said. “This is the murder of a 14-year-old boy that sparked
the American civil rights movement. At least we should pursue the truth.”
Alvin Sykes, president of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, whose work also helped inspire the FBI to
reopen the case, said that now that Carolyn Bryant “has started talking, we’ll see if we can keep her
credibly talking.”
Sykes, the architect of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, said he has opened lines of
communication with authorities “to determine if we have one best chance to find out the whole truth by
prosecutorial or alternative non-prosecutorial methods.”
In the end, he said, “the truth must rule.”
In 1955, an all-white jury acquitted Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, of murdering Till — only
for them to confess months later to Look magazine they had indeed beaten and killed the 14-year-old teen
from Chicago.
Before that trial ended, Carolyn Bryant took the witness stand for her husband and testified outside the
presence of the Tallahatchie County jury.
She said that about 8 p.m. on Aug. 24, 1955, “a n----- man,” whom she identified as Till, “came in the store
and he stopped there at the candy case.”
She said instead of putting the money in her hand, Till grabbed her hand with a strong grip and said, “How
about a date, baby?”
She jerked her hand loose and went to the back of the store, where she said her sister-in-law, Juanita
Milam, was living.
Then she said Till caught her by the waist and remarked, “What’s the matter, baby? Can’t you take it?”
She said she struggled to break free of his grip and that he said, “You needn’t be afraid of me.”
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2017/02/06/could-lies-about-emmett-tillbe-prosecuted/97557668/
She said he reassured her that he had been “with white women before.”
She testified that she was “scared to death” and that “this other n----- came in the store and got him by the
arm” and said, “Come on, let’s go.”
While leaving, Till said goodbye, she testified.
She explained that she called out for Milam to watch her as she ran out the door to retrieve the pistol under
the driver’s seat in Milam’s car.
She said she heard Till whistle and then saw him leaving in a car.
After the FBI's reopening of the case in 2004, she spoke to an FBI agent. (She had divorced Roy Bryant
and remarried, carrying the last name Donham.)
She repeated the story about Till she had previously testified to, telling the agent that “as soon as he
touched me, I started screaming.”
She told the FBI that she didn’t tell her husband, Roy, about what happened because she was worried he
would beat Till up. She said she also asked Milam not to tell her husband, J.W., “because I didn’t intend to
tell Roy, because I was afraid of what they would do.”
But when the FBI questioned Juanita Milam, she revealed that she wasn’t at the store as Carolyn Bryant
had claimed and that she “would not have been babysittin’ for her.”
Notes obtained by The Clarion-Ledger reveal that Carolyn Bryant gave a different story when she first
spoke to defense lawyers in 1955, saying Till “insulted” her, but mentioned nothing about touching her.
Tim Tyson, author of the new book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,” said Monday that she told him her
testimony about a physical assault by Till was "not true."
“Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” Tyson quoted her as saying.
He said she gave no reason for the story she told, although he suspects she contrived it from her husband's
family and lawyers. In 1975, she divorced her husband, Roy, for his habitual cruelty.
Tyson said he hasn’t heard from the FBI regarding the matter.
“Perjury is the only crime to which she confesses, and my lawyer says the statute of limitations on perjury
is two years,” he said. “The FBI declined to prosecute her, and I expect that is where this will stay, but, of
course, I am not a lawyer.”
He said she did tell him that her then-brother-in-law, Melvin Campbell, was the one who shot Till.
Campbell was never prosecuted and is now deceased.
Three years after the FBI reopened the Till case, a majority-black grand jury in Greenwood declined to
indict her in connection with Till’s killing.
“District Attorney Joyce Chiles and her assistant, Hallie Gail Bridges, worked really hard and did
everything in their power to see justice done for Emmett Till, but the evidence was not quite strong enough
or quite fresh enough,” said retired Assistant U.S. Attorney John Hailman of Oxford, who worked on the
case.
Beauchamp said he believes that Carolyn Bryant should have been indicted for manslaughter involving
culpable negligence. “She knew the danger Emmett Till would be in and did nothing to stop it,” he said.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2017/02/06/could-lies-about-emmett-tillbe-prosecuted/97557668/
In an editorial Monday, The New York Times wrote that her admission that she lied “raises anew the
question of why no one was brought to justice in the most notorious racially motivated murder of the 20th
century, despite an extensive investigation by the FBI.”
Since 1994, 24 men, many of them former Klansmen, have been convicted in these civil rights cold cases.
Last year, Congress reauthorized the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which has been
expanded to include cold cases through the 1970s.
Devery Anderson, author of "Emmett Till: The Murder That shocked the World and Propelled the Civil
Rights Movement," said the Till killing became "much more than simply an historical event," his name
invoked any time a black male dies under unjust or questionable circumstances.
"This is in keeping with Mamie Till-Mobley's quest that her son not die in vain," Anderson said. "We think
of Emmett Till to show far far, and sadly, how little we have come since 1955. He has become the nation's
most salient wake-up call."
Carolyn Bryant has written about her experiences in the Till case in an unpublished memoir, “More Than a
Wolf Whistle: The Memoir of Carolyn Bryant Donham,” which won’t be available for public inspection at
the University of North Carolina archives until 2036 or until she dies.
If Mississippi authorities or the FBI decided to reopen the Till case, they could become interested in the
contents of that memoir.
In 1988, a grand jury in Hattiesburg subpoenaed an interview that one-time Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers
gave the Mississippi Department of Archives and History with the understanding it wouldn’t be public until
his death.
Months later, a jury convicted Bowers of ordering the 1966 murder of Vernon Dahmer, and he was
sentenced to life in prison.
The Clarion-Ledger’s publication of excerpts of that interview helped lead to the reopening of the case
against Edgar Ray Killen, who was convicted in 2005 of orchestrating the Ku Klux Klan's killings of three
civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in 1964.
Beauchamp said he believes it’s extremely important to know what Carolyn Bryant has revealed in her
memoir.
“I believe that there’s information that could clear up loose ends in the case as well as reveal information
that could help us understand what happened,” he said. “It can also confirm all who were involved,
including those who covered up the murder.”
Contact Jerry Mitchell at (601) 961-7064 or [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
SEE ALSO:
Black Lives, White Lies and Emmett Till [The New York Times, 2017-02-06]
Religion
https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/acc-langley-posters-complaint
Despite complaints, ACC will not remove posters that assert
faith’s importance
By Kent Miller
Air Force Times, February 7, 2017
A poster on display at Air Combat Command headquarters,
Joint Base Langley-Eustis, includes words about the importance
of faith that were included in a 1955 Air Force Manual. (Photo
Credit: Courtesy of Military Religious Freedom Foundation)
A pair of posters that focus on the importance of faith, which
have been on display at Air Combat Command headquarters at
Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, for years, will not be
altered — despite recent complaints about them — according to
command officials.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation had contacted the
base about removing the posters after complaints from the
Langley community. In addition to objections to the faith-based
message of the posters, which quote a 1955 Air Force Manual,
the foundation's president and founder, Mikey Weinstein, also
complained that the posters only referenced male and not
female airmen.
Weinstein said MRFF filed the complaint of behalf of 16 Air
Force officers, NCOs and civilians. The complainants included
nine women, according to Weinstein. He said four are
Christians and the others are Jewish, Muslim, atheist,
agnostic, humanist or secularist.
One of the complainants said the posters "clearly advocate a higher value in religious airmen over nonreligious airmen, and communicate a necessity for religious faith to be successful as airmen. Both photos
quote from AF Manual 50-21, dated August 1955 — the heart of the Red Scare when being non-religious
was viewed as a trait of Communism and hence a threat."
In addition, the complainant said, "one of the quotes on these photos hearkens back to the days of male
dominance in the Air Force, and is not appropriate."
The posters in question show the Statue of Liberty and the lights that went up after 9-11 at the site of the
World Trade Center in New York.
The text below one of the photos reads, in part: "Men cannot live without faith, except for brief moments of
anarchy or despair. Faith leads to convictions — and convictions lead to actions. It is only a man of deep
convictions, a man of deep faith, who will make the sacrifices necessary to save his manhood."
Command officials say the posters are appropriate.
"Air Combat Command officials have reviewed one complaint about a display of posters in one of our
buildings and decided to leave the display unaltered," said Col. Edward Sholtis, an ACC spokesman. "The
posters do not officially endorse, disapprove of, or extend preferential treatment for any faith, belief or
absence of belief, which is the standard established by regulation that would warrant action."
https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/acc-langley-posters-complaint
Sholtis added that the posters are "historical, two in a series of seven" that quote various sections of a 1955
Air Force Manual.
A poster on display at Air Combat Command headquarters,
Joint Base Langley-Eustis, includes words about the importance
of faith that were included in a 1955 Air Force Manual. Photo
Credit: (Courtesy of Military Religious Freedom Foundation)
"Although we do not have a record of when the posters were
first displayed, they have been there at least six years and
perhaps up to 20 years," he said. "The literal meaning of the two
quotes identified in the complaint — the importance of personal
faith in a broad sense and the importance of an individual's
rights and freedoms — are appropriate and consistent with
established traditions of using historical documents to promote
reflection and inspiration."
Weinstein responded to the decision by saying the displays
perpetuate fundamentalist Christian values and male supremacy
and "seriously degrade good order, morale, discipline and unit
cohesion."
"ACC senior leadership is compromising the integrity of its
solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution, which
includes the No Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
and the No Religious Test prohibition of Clause 3, Article VI of
the Constitution," he said. "The male supremacy triumphalism
violates the Equal Protection guarantees of both the 5th and 14th amendments."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/07/dont-detonate-on-patrol-a-muslim-copsues-nypd-claiming-colleagues-harassed-her-for-years/
Don’t ‘detonate on patrol': A Muslim cop sues NYPD,
claiming colleagues harassed her for years
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
The Washington Post, February 7, 2017
Police officers listen as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD
Commissioner Jim O’Neill conduct a news conference on Jan. 4. (Mary
Altaffer/Associated Press)
Danielle Alamrani is an observant Muslim, a New York police officer and
a realist. She knew when she decided to wear her hijab with her uniform,
not everyone in the public would greet her with fist bumps and
glad tidings.
But even she was surprised by the years of verbal and physical attacks by her fellow officers after she
started wearing that very public display of her Islamic faith, her attorney said.
Officers have tried to rip her hijab off, called her a “Muslim b—-” and a “moving target,” her lawsuit says.
During role call before one shift, a supervisor joked that Alamrani should try not to “detonate on patrol.”
Even worse, according to her lawsuit: Her employers turned a deaf ear when she reported the harassment.
“You do expect police officers to have thicker skin and be able to deal with other people,” said Alamrani’s
attorney, Jesse C. Rose. “But you don’t expect them to have do that with their own colleagues.”
One of the lowest points of her ordeal, according to her lawsuit, came on Christmas Day 2012.
She was in the precinct headquarters when two fellow officers “physically attacked her and attempted to rip
her Hijab off of her head,” her lawsuit says. “They were screaming that nobody liked (Alamrani),” and
referred to her as “Muslim b—-” and said, “I will punch you in the face.”
One of the officers involved in the attack was the liaison for the Equal Employment Office — the person
Alamrani is supposed to talk to if she experiences religious discrimination.
Alamrani is suing the city of New York, its police department and several of its officers, claiming years of
discriminatory harassment and attacks.
The NYPD declined to comment for this article, directing calls to the City Law Office, which did not
respond to messages.
Of NYPD’s 34,500 officers, about 1,500 are Muslim, according to the Muslim Officers Society. Alamrani
is one of two women on the force who wear hijabs with their uniform.
She became an officer in 2006 and a Muslim a year later. But the vitriol increased in 2008 when she began
wearing her headscarf at work. She was granted an official religious accommodation to wear a hijab on
duty on May 13, 2009.
[A black police officer complained about racism. He says his department retaliated by firing him.]
Some officers and supervisors warned her about her attire. It was a safety hazard, they said. She could be
targeted. A sergeant “intimated that the ‘bosses’ were complaining about it and then told her that she
should not wear the Hijab,” the lawsuit says.
Before she started donning the headscarf, she had regular patrol duties and a partner, Alamrani’s lawsuit
says. Afterward, she was given desk duty, security posts and jobs guarding prisoners. The assignments had
an effect on her paycheck “as a vast majority of overtime is earned due to arrests made on patrol.”
In 2012, she went through the department’s official channels to stop the harassment and receive equal
treatment. Later that year, the attack happened, the lawsuit says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/07/dont-detonate-on-patrol-a-muslim-copsues-nypd-claiming-colleagues-harassed-her-for-years/
And over the next few years, the harassment intensified. Her lawsuit claims an officer responding to a noise
complaint at her home illegally detained her and her children for eight hours “just to harass her.”
The stress forced Alamrani into early retirement, but she came back in the summer of 2015 and “found that
she was being discriminated against in a worse fashion.”
“The comments became much worse at this point due to international issues and other common
misconceptions about Muslims,” the lawsuit says. Her colleagues called her “ISIS,” “terrorist,” “Taliban”
and “Jihad.” “This daily abuse was more than any reasonable person would tolerate.”
[Mugshots showing Muslim women without hijabs were ‘a form of public shaming,’ protester claims]
It reached a boiling point on Nov. 19, 2015, according to the lawsuit. Alamrani was at the gun range, and
an officer there took pictures of her and posted them on Facebook.
Many of her colleagues who saw the post “began deriding her and made comments such as ‘f—— disgrace.
… Many comments included threats of violence,” the lawsuit alleges.
Her attorney said NYPD is expected to receive the lawsuit this week.
In December, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD threw their support behind a female Muslim
officer after a man called her “ISIS” and threatened to slit her throat. ISIS is another name for the Islamic
State.
The officer, Aml Elsokary, was not injured in the incident, which happened while she was off-duty and
wearing her hijab. The man who made the threats was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment and
menacing as a hate crime, The Washington Post’s Sarah Larimer reported.
“Now, it makes no difference to me whether she was off duty or on duty at the time. She serves this city,”
de Blasio said at a news conference following the incident. “She is an example of everything we would
want from our fellow citizens — a commitment to others, a commitment to service, a willingness to do
something greater than herself. And what does she get for it? Threats to her life and bigotry. Taunts. We
can’t allow this. It’s unacceptable in this city, it’s unacceptable in this nation.”
Lt. Adeel Rana, the president of the Muslim Officers Society, said he feels rising anti-Islamic sentiment has
made Muslim officers a target both inside and outside the department.
“It doesn’t help with the whole environment where everything is anti-Muslim, anti-Islam,” he told The
Post. “Bottom line is people that serve in the NYPD are humans also. They have their own biases.”
He encouraged MOS members to have an open dialogue with non-Muslims and to keep an open mind.
“Of course, you can’t change people’s mind-sets,” he said. “Anytime you start something outside the
normal culture, there is going to be resistance. We encourage all our members to follow how strongly they
believe in their faith.”
___
Cleve Wootson is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post.
Follow @CleveWootson
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f2d12590c83f45c8ac7231bba148f1ae/suspect-pleads-no-contest-floridamosque-fire
Suspect gets 30 years in Florida mosque fire
By Terry Spencer
The Associated Press, February 6, 2017
In a Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016, file photo, Farhad Khan, who has
attended the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce for more than seven
years, shows members of the media its charred remains, in Fort
Pierce, Fla. Joseph Schneider, an ex-convict who investigators say
confessed to setting fire to the mosque tied to the Orlando nightclub
shooter, pleaded no contest to those charges, Monday, Feb. 6, 2017.
(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — An ex-convict who posted antiIslamic rants online pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday for setting fire
to a mosque that the Orlando nightclub shooter attended occasionally.
Joseph Schreiber, dressed in a burnt orange jumpsuit, his wrists and ankles shackled, pleaded no contest
during Monday's hearing before Circuit Judge Steven Levin. A no contest plea is treated the same as a
guilty plea. Schreiber answered Levin's questions in a clear, unwavering voice before sentencing. He was
also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution although damages exceeded $100,000. Because he was declared a
habitual offender, he could have received a life sentence.
He had confessed to detectives that he set fire to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce last Sept. 11, the 15th
anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The damage to the mosque was so extensive that the leaders
recently announced that it will move.
Omar Mateen was killed by police after opening fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that
left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded, making it the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Mateen
professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. His father is among roughly 100 people who regularly
attend the mosque.
Schreiber, who is Jewish, posted on Facebook last July that "All Islam is radical" and that all Muslims
should be treated as terrorists and criminals.
Prosecutor Steve Gosnell said Schreiber, 32, confessed to detectives that he set the fire, saying he believed
Muslims "are trying to infiltrate our government" and that "the teaching of Islam should be completely,
completely illegal."
Before he was sentenced, Schreiber read a written statement entitled "From the Mountaintops, Stop the
Killings" where he said the fire was not caused by hate but by his anxiety. He feared that Florida could be
the site of another 9-11, Boston Marathon bombing or Pulse nightclub shooting, he said.
"My message is this to all the Muslim communities on the face of the Earth — make peace with America
and make peace with Israel and stop the killings, stop the attacks," he said.
Schreiber then turned to a man he thought was the mosque's imam and apologized. Mosque member
Mohammad Malik whispered "thank you" in return.
"In the Islamic faith and in all faiths, we believe that God is merciful and just as we want to be forgiven by
him we should also forgive," Malik said after the hearing. "I believe he was misled. Misled by fear
mongering, misled by false information" about Islam. He said the "bright spot" of the fire is that the local
Jewish and Islamic communities are now communicating.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f2d12590c83f45c8ac7231bba148f1ae/suspect-pleads-no-contest-floridamosque-fire
Rabbi Bruce Benson, who leads a local Reform synagogue, said he has been meeting with Schreiber
regularly since his arrest and believes he is remorseful. Benson said he believes Schreiber subconsciously
set the fire just before midnight because no one would be there.
"From the first day I spoke to him, he was thankful no one was hurt," Benson said. "He didn't do this on a
Friday afternoon when Mr. Malik and the parishioners were there. He wasn't trying to do this to hurt
people. For some reason, he was trying to make a statement."
Schreiber was previously sentenced twice to state prison for theft, according to records from the Florida
Department of Corrections. The records show he served his first sentence from March 2008 to July 2009
and his second from June 2010 to August 2014.
Last September, a former inmate who served time with Schreiber at the faith-based Lawtey Correctional
Institution, described Schreiber as being a "couple cans short of a six-pack."
Ralph Alfonso said Schreiber joined a Messianic Jewish group he led because he was looking for a place to
fit in. Messianic Jews follow Jewish law and the Torah but also believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He
said Schreiber sometimes would say something negative about Muslims, but "we would tell him that's not
what we believe, that it is not godly."
A surveillance video from the mosque showed Schreiber driving up to the mosque on a motorcycle and
approaching the building, possibly talking on a cellphone. Gosnell said Monday that investigators now
doubt he was talking on his phone and, if he was, they were never able to determine with whom.
He carried a bottle of liquid and some papers and left when there was a flash. The first 911 calls were made
about 45 minutes later, after the fire had spread to the attic. It took about four-and-a-half hours for
firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
http://www.startribune.com/under-pressure-from-town-belle-plaine-city-council-votes-to-restore-cross-toveterans-memorial/413042913/
Under pressure from town, Belle Plaine City Council votes
to restore cross to vets memorial
Council was under public pressure after city removed the cross last month.
By Liz Sawyer
Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 7, 2017
A cross was removed from a kneeling soldier at the veterans
memorial park in Belle Plaine, Minn. Advocates for the cross have
been placing new ones at the park and guarding them throughout
the day. (Carlos Gonzalez - January 24, 2017, Belle Plaine, MN). A
group of flag-toting Belle Plaine residents has taken it upon
themselves to keep guard over the small town's veteran's memorial,
rebelling against city's decision to remove a cross from a fallen
soldier's grave marker.
After weeks of public pressure, the Belle Plaine City Council
reversed itself and voted Monday to allow the erection of a cross it had ordered removed from Veterans
Memorial Park after complaints that it violated the separation of church and state.
For nearly a month, a rotating guard of citizens occupied the park each day, toting American flags and their
own handmade crosses. Many argued that the symbol, in the context of a fallen soldier tribute, was secular
rather than religious.
More than 100 residents, who marched across the street from the local VFW to council chambers, squeezed
their way into Monday’s meeting to persuade officials to bring the cross back.
“The residents feel a sense of duty,” said Andy Parrish. “Our veterans defended us and it’s our duty to
defend them.”
Nearly an hour of debate passed before the council narrowly approved the proposal 3-2 to designate a
“limited public forum” at the park, which would accommodate up to five displays — religious or not — as
long as they honor military veterans.
It was a victory for the townspeople, many of whom argued that their religious freedom had been infringed
upon when the cross was removed in early January. It will soon be returned to the memorial for fallen
veterans.
The saga began in August when Belle Plaine resident JoAnne Gill filed a police report questioning whether
it was legal to include a cross attached to the silhouette of a kneeling soldier at a comrade’s headstone. The
Freedom From Religion Foundation also objected, arguing that a cross in a public park violates the
constitutional separation of church and state.
Belle Plaine residents learned of the city’s decision to remove the cross in early January. It outraged
members of the Veterans Club and galvanized the small town 45 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
Hundreds of crosses were erected on front lawns and displayed in private businesses to pressure city
leaders.
The Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation requested that the city reject the public
forum proposal on the grounds that it aims to restore a Christian symbol to the park.
“The park shouldn’t be opened up for groups to put up any displays they want; it disrupts the purpose,” said
Rebecca Markert, an attorney with the foundation. “It’s sort of inviting a circus to a solemn place.”
Markert said the group will consider further legal action and submit its own “Atheists in Foxholes”
monument.
http://www.startribune.com/under-pressure-from-town-belle-plaine-city-council-votes-to-restore-cross-toveterans-memorial/413042913/
At Monday’s meeting, officials weighed the risk of defending the city in a lawsuit. Some council members
feared that if the foundation sued, and the League of Minnesota Cities failed to back Belle Plaine, then any
legal costs would go to the city.
“You elect us to protect your interests and your dollars,” said Councilman Paul Chard, who voted against
the restoration of the cross. He worried aloud about having to raise taxes as a result of a court battle. “When
I hear that something is gonna cost me a lot of money, that scares me.”
Doug Wardlow, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, a large Christian legal nonprofit,
represented the pro-cross contingent for free. He told leaders he was confident the policy was
“constitutional and sound.”
Parrish, a vocal proponent of the cross, convinced some of the council members that, should a lawsuit arise,
groups like Alliance Defending Freedom would support them — and send a message that “Belle Plaine
won’t be bullied.”
[email protected]
612-673-4648
bylizsawyer
https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/maxwell-prayer-breakfast-invitation-acc-posters-ig-complaints
Wing commander’s prayer breakfast invite sparks IG
complaint
By Kent Miller
Air Force Times, February 3, 2017
(Photo Credit: Airman 1st Class Deana Heitzman/Air Force)
A wing commander's prayer breakfast invitation to his subordinates
has resulted in an inspector general's complaint from the Military
Religious Freedom Foundation.
More than 40 people at Maxwell Air Force Base contacted the
foundation after Col. Erik Shafa, commander of the 42nd Air Base
Wing, used his commander's box to send a message to everyone in the wing, inviting them to the Feb. 23
Maxwell Air Force Base National Prayer Breakfast.
On behalf of those clients, Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, filed
a third-party complaint with the 42nd Air Base Wing IG, claiming the invite constituted a clear violation of
Air Force Instruction 1-1, Section 2.12, Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause.
It states: "Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for their own free exercise of
religion, including individual expressions of religious beliefs, and the constitutional prohibition against
governmental establishment of religion. They must ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be
construed to be officially endorsing or disapproving of, or extending preferential treatment for any faith,
belief or absence of belief.
Because the wing IG reports to Shafa, the complaint was later transferred to the Air University IG on
Maxwell.
One of the foundation's clients, a former airman and now an Air Force civilian on base, said Shafa's
message was "terrible for morale."
"The National Prayer Breakfast is very Christian-focused," said the civilian, who did not want to be
identified due to fear of reprisals. "I mean they might let a Muslim say a prayer or a Jewish rabbi, but Maj.
Gen. Dondi Costin [Air Force chief of chaplains] is going to be there giving his Christian perspective. It's
all Christian, Christian, Christian.
"What do you do when you are in the military and your commander says, 'hey, I invite you to this thing?' ...
Well, the implication is that you go. It's not one of those invitations that says, if you would like to or
perhaps if you are interested. It's very much giving the implication that you are expected to participate or at
least understand that he thinks its important and that's where he stands on the issue."
The civilian who spoke with Air Force Times identifies as an atheist, but Weinstein said the people who
brought complaints to his organization about the prayer breakfast invite included Air Force officers,
enlisted personnel, civilians, Air University students and permanent party.
"Our 43 MRFF clients come from the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Islamic and Jewish faith traditions, as
well as those MRFF clients who identify as atheist, agnostics, secularist and humanists," he said.
Michael Ritz, chief of media operations at Maxwell, said that "per standard procedures the inspector
general does not identify complaints or complainants. However, all IG complaints are taken seriously and
are investigated with the utmost care, rigor and protection of information."
https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/maxwell-prayer-breakfast-invitation-acc-posters-ig-complaints
He did acknowledge, however, that Weinstein had corresponded with 42nd Air Base Wing leadership to
express his dissatisfaction with the invite.
"The Air Force places the highest value on the rights of its personnel in matters of religion and facilitates
the free exercise of religion by its members," Ritz said. "Our airmen are sworn to protect our rights and
liberties as Americans, including the right of all airmen to practice their religious faith or to practice no
faith at all."
He noted that "the National Prayer Breakfast is a historical, interfaith and clearly voluntary event, which
has been observed across the U.S. government since 1953."
The civilian complainant argued that the voluntary nature of the Maxwell event would have been much
more clear if the invite had come from the base chaplains, who are not in the chain of command, rather than
the commander.
"The invitation itself said, 'Col. Eric Shafa invites you to this event,' so it's extremely clear that this is
coming from the commander himself," the civilian and former airman said. "He expects us to go there, and
he expects us to understand that he thinks it is an important thing for people to go and partake in this
Christian event."
Those not inclined to attend the event worry that their ability to advance in rank will be affected, and that
they won't get opportunities to excel and stand out, the civilian said.
"I don't think you will be punished if you are not there, but I think it is implicit that if you don't support this
type of event you won't ever become part of the inner circle," the civilian said.
The civilian added that "the only thing that should matter is the job you do, but then when you throw things
like religion into the mix, such as with these prayer breakfasts, it really throws everything up in the air. It
leads to a complete lack of unit cohesion, and it really makes me not respect my leaders at all."
Sexual Assault /
Harassment
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/marine-colonel-to-plea-not-guilty
Marine colonel braces for court-martial
By Jeff Schogol
Marine Corps Times, February 7, 2017
(Photo Credit: Cpl. Adam B. Miller/Marine Corps)
A disgraced Marine colonel in the brig at Camp Lejeune wants his
day in court.
Col. Daniel H. Wilson, the former operations officer for II Marine
Expeditionary Force, will plead not guilty to sexual assault and
other charges stemming from separate alleged incidents, his civilian
attorney told Marine Corps Times.
Wilson, 55, is accused of inappropriately touching a young girl
under the age of 10, inappropriately touching a woman and fraternizing with a female officer while
overseas, said Phillip Stackhouse, the San Diego attorney.
Wilson “categorically denies” the charges that he sexually assaulted a child, Stackhouse said.
The daughter of a family friend told her mother that Wilson inappropriately touched her, and the girl
subsequently told civilian authorities from Onslow County in North Carolina, Stackhouse said.
“There’s no objective, physical evidence at all,” Stackhouse said.
Marine colonel held in the brig waives hearing on sex assault charges
Separately, Wilson is accused of trying to give alcohol to the girl and her sister, said Stackhouse, who
called the charge “silly.”
“The allegation is: The families were all together and one of the girls comes up to him and says, ‘Hey, what
are you drinking?’ – and he’s drinking Scotch,” Stackhouse said. ‘He says: “Apple juice. Do you want
some?’ – and everybody laughs.”
Stackhouse said the flaws in the government's case against Wilson go beyond the lack of physical evidence.
“There’s inconsistent statements in the allegations. There’s also suggestibility in the interview of the
children," he said.
Marine Corps officials at Camp Lejeune have declined to discuss the details of the allegations against
Wilson and they have also declined to release the charge sheet outlining the specific charges.
Wilson was initially charged in November. In January, after additional allegations of misconduct came to
light, commanders at Camp Lejeune ordered him into pre-trial confinement.
Wilson also denies that he sexually assaulted a former friend of his wife while the three of them were on a
trip to South Carolina, Stackhouse said.
“They were down there for three or four nights total,” he said. “The allegation is on that first night that he
inappropriately touched her on more than one occasion. Now, she stayed with them a second night, a third
night, a fourth night, came back to North Carolina from South Carolina with them.”
Marine colonel in Camp Lejeune brig faces new charges
Stackhouse claims the woman did not mention the alleged assaults during the rest of their trip and only
made the allegation against Wilson after getting into a “personal disagreement” with Wilson's wife two
weeks after they returned.
“Again, no physical evidence whatsoever to support her claim,” Stackhouse said.
On the fraternization charges, Wilson has been accused of having “overly familiar” relationship with a
female Australian military officer, Stackhouse said.
Wilson’s attorney plans to ask a military judge to release the colonel from pre-trial confinement,
Stackhouse said. Wilson will also request a jury trial.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/marine-colonel-to-plea-not-guilty
Wilson was initially charged in November with sexual abuse of a child; assault consummated by battery on
a child under the age of 16; failure to obey a general order or regulation and conduct unbecoming of an
officer.
When an investigation uncovered new allegations of misconduct, Wilson was sent to the brig on Jan. 13
and later charged with sexual assault, assault consummated by battery and absence without leave.