JAG CENTRALThe world's first weblog devoted to military justice and military law issues.
Monday, March 28, 2005
MONDAY'S NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS
From the New York Times: In Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) news, Some Creditors Make Illegal Demands On Active-Duty Soldiers:
In other news, Sudan Opposes U.N. on War Crimes ("Sudan would reject any United Nations resolution calling for the prosecution of Sudanese suspected of war crimes in a court abroad, the foreign minister said Sunday. The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a French draft resolution that would send people suspected of war crimes in the Darfur region to the International Criminal Court. The Bush administration opposes the International Criminal Court out of a concern that it could bring politically motivated legal actions against Americans abroad.") BIAS WATCH: The Clinton Administration also opposed the ICC. Also, this Letter to the Editor accusing the Guantanamo tribunals of being "Kafkaesque."
From the Washington Post: A bizarre military mud-wrestling story ("Ten members of an Army military police unit should be disciplined for staging a mud-wrestling match at Camp Bucca, a U.S. military prison in Iraq, an investigation concluded. It is up to Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, the Army Reserves commander, to decide how to discipline the three female guards who wrestled, six sergeants who encouraged them, and a soldier who let one of the women change in his quarters. The reservists were from the Tallahassee-based 160th Military Police Battalion, authorities said.").
From USA Today: Memo Clears Senior Air Force Officers in Sex Assault Scandal ("The Air Force has come under sharp criticism for a top-level memo that clears senior Air Force officers of any responsibility for the sex-assault scandal at the Air Force Academy. Peter Teets, acting secretary of the Air Force, sent the memo last week to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after announcing he would resign, effective Friday. He said he reviewed the findings of the Defense Department's inspector general and a report of an independent commission."). Also, this related op-ed ("Ask a question, and the Pentagon can drown you in numbers.").
Sgt. John J. Savage III, an Army reservist, was about to climb onto a troop transport plane for a flight to Iraq from Fayetteville, N.C., when his wife called with alarming news: "They're foreclosing on our house."
Sergeant Savage recalled, "There was not a thing I could do; I had to jump on the plane and boil for 22 hours."
He had reason to be angry. A longstanding federal law strictly limits the ability of his mortgage company and other lenders to foreclose against active-duty service members.
But Sergeant Savage's experience was not unusual. Though statistics are scarce, court records and interviews with military and civilian lawyers suggest that Americans heading off to war are sometimes facing distracting and demoralizing demands from financial companies trying to collect on obligations that, by law, they cannot enforce.
In other news, Sudan Opposes U.N. on War Crimes ("Sudan would reject any United Nations resolution calling for the prosecution of Sudanese suspected of war crimes in a court abroad, the foreign minister said Sunday. The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a French draft resolution that would send people suspected of war crimes in the Darfur region to the International Criminal Court. The Bush administration opposes the International Criminal Court out of a concern that it could bring politically motivated legal actions against Americans abroad.") BIAS WATCH: The Clinton Administration also opposed the ICC. Also, this Letter to the Editor accusing the Guantanamo tribunals of being "Kafkaesque."
From the Washington Post: A bizarre military mud-wrestling story ("Ten members of an Army military police unit should be disciplined for staging a mud-wrestling match at Camp Bucca, a U.S. military prison in Iraq, an investigation concluded. It is up to Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, the Army Reserves commander, to decide how to discipline the three female guards who wrestled, six sergeants who encouraged them, and a soldier who let one of the women change in his quarters. The reservists were from the Tallahassee-based 160th Military Police Battalion, authorities said.").
From USA Today: Memo Clears Senior Air Force Officers in Sex Assault Scandal ("The Air Force has come under sharp criticism for a top-level memo that clears senior Air Force officers of any responsibility for the sex-assault scandal at the Air Force Academy. Peter Teets, acting secretary of the Air Force, sent the memo last week to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after announcing he would resign, effective Friday. He said he reviewed the findings of the Defense Department's inspector general and a report of an independent commission."). Also, this related op-ed ("Ask a question, and the Pentagon can drown you in numbers.").
