The U.S. military budget, and the add-on war budget, and the total of the two have all been headed upwards for years and have been headed upwards for the past year and a half. Yes, I know, all you hear about is the one airplane that the so-called Secretary of Defense doesn't want but that Congress insists on giving him anyway. But he and the President have twice asked for a larger overall budget and twice been given it. And almost none of it has anything to do with defense.
It's Not a "Defense" Department
Israel shakes down China
According to The New York Times, "In February, a high-level Israeli delegation travelled to Beijing to present classified evidence of Iran’s atomic ambitions.Then they unveiled the ostensible purpose of their visit: to explain in sobering detail the economic impact to China from an Israeli strike on Iran — an attack Israel has suggested is all but inevitable should the international community fail to stop Iran from assembling a nuclear weapon.
F.D.A. Faults 5 Companies on Genetic Tests
The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on 23andMe and other companies that sell genetic tests directly to consumers.The F.D.A. sent letters this week to five companies involved in that business, saying their tests are medical devices that must receive regulatory approval before they can be marketed.
Federal judge calls Guantanamo inmate's detention 'unlawful'
A federal judge has forcefully put Yemeni citizen Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Odaini on the path to freedom after eight years of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In a 36-page opinion formally released Thursday, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. called Odaini's continued detention "unlawful" and said he'd "emphatically" grant Odaini's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
2 US soldiers, at least 11 civilians killed in Afghan blast
At least 11 civilians and two US soldiers have been killed in violence across southern Afghanistan as Taliban fighters step up attacks ahead of a planned operation by Nato forces in the south.
Nine of the civilian deaths occured when a roadside bomb struck a minibus in the city of Kandahar on Friday.
Psychiatrist of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Commits Suicide
Moshe Yatom, a prominent Israeli psychiatrist who successfully cured the most extreme forms of mental illness throughout a distinguished career, was found dead at his home in Tel Aviv yesterday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note at his side explained that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been his patient for the last nine years, had “sucked the life right out of me.”
Doctors seek probe of alleged CIA torture experiments
Human rights groups filed a complaint seeking an investigation into allegations that CIA-led medical personnel conducted research experiments on terror detainees after the September 11 attacks.
Physicians for Human Rights, which released the report this week outlining allegations of illegal human subject research and experimentation on detainees, said it filed the complaint Wednesday with seven other organizations with the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections.
$713 Million WTC Health Settlement A 'Very Good' Deal: Judge
A federal judge who held up an effort to settle thousands of lawsuits filed by 9/11 responders exposed to World Trade Center dust dropped his opposition Thursday after the deal was redrafted to give more money to sick workers and less to their lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Hellerstein gave his enthusiastic endorsement to a new settlement that could pay as much as $713 million to about 10,000 police, firefighters and construction workers.
Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn't about security
As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.
Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.
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