Tag Archives: Military

Military Accidentally Ships Live Anthrax To Labs

The Centers for Disease Control scrambled Wednesday to find where the military accidentally shipped live anthrax virus.

As many as 18 labs around the country have been sent shipments of live anthrax when they should have received inactive or dead virus for research purposes.

And in Korea, officials say that 22 Air Force personnel may have been exposed to anthrax and are now undergoing treatment as a precaution.

Jason McDonald of the Centers for Disease Control said that most of the labs are private but a few are operated by government and public institutions.  The shipments were sent from the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to California, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

One of the samples arrived at Osan Air Base in Korea leading to the possible infections of military personnel.

“There is absolutely no excuse. Not for the shipping institution. Not for receiving institutions that failed to confirm inactivation upon receipt,” Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert at Rutgers in New Jersey said. “Both should lose, irrevocably, authorization for work with active or inactivated select agents.”

The incorrect shipment was discovered by a laboratory in Maryland.

Marine Officer Court Martialed For Refusing To Remove Bible Verse

A U.S. Marine has been found guilty of disobeying a “lawful order” of a superior officer because she would not remove a Bible verse that she had taped onto her computer and desk.

Former Marine Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling has posted Isaiah 54:17, “no weapon formed against me shall prosper,” on her computer along with other Bible verses that she used for inspiration.

Her staff sergeant ordered her to remove the verses but Sterling refused, saying she had the First Amendment right to have those verses at her workstation.  The next day, they had been removed by someone else.

She defended herself at trial and was found guilty of showing disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer, four instances of disobeying a lawful order of a noncommissioned officer, and failing to go to her appointed place of duty.

An appellate court said because she shared the desk with another Marine, she cannot claim the order violated her religious freedom.

“The military judge found that the signs verbiage was biblical in nature, that the desk was shared with another Marine, and the signs were visible to other Marines who came to the appellant’s desk for assistance,” the court ruling states. “The implication is clear — the junior Marine sharing the desk and the other Marines coming to the desk for assistance would be exposed to biblical quotations in the military workplace.”

“It is not hard to imagine the divisive impact to good order and discipline that may result when a service member is compelled to work at a government desk festooned with religious quotations, especially if that service member does not share that religion,” the court ruling continued.

The Liberty Institute has now stepped in and is defending the rights of Sterling.

“If a service member has a right to display a secular poster, put an atheist bumper sticker on their car, or get a Star of David tattoo, then Lance Corporal Sterling has the right to display a small Bible verse on her computer monitor,” Mike Berry of the Liberty Institute said to the Christian Post. “If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo, or go to church on Sunday.”

“Restricting a Marine’s free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional.”

The Liberty Institute noted that no one else was using Sterling’s desk when the incident took place, meaning the appellate court ruled with a false basis.  They also say that Sterling’s rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Boko Haram Repelled After Surprise Attack

Nigerian military officials imposed a curfew in Maiduguri after Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram launched a surprise attack.

Witnesses say the streets are empty in the town with all schools, markets and hospitals shut down.  The army claims the action is in place to protect the city.

The terrorists were fought off by a coalition of military troops and local residents.  The terrorists reportedly focused on taking over a heavily fortified army base.

Maiduguri is the largest city in north-eastern Nigeria with around two million citizens.  The town had been a base for Boko Haram until recent military victories drove the terrorist group out of villages and into the woods.

Military officials called it the strongest attempt by the terrorists to recapture the town since March declaration by the government that all major towns have been cleared of the terrorist group.

A leader of the civilian troops told AFP news agency that the terrorists suffered “serious casualties” before they withdrew.

The Army says that Boko Haram has now planted land mines around the border of the game reserve where they are hiding after being driven out of the cities.

Threat Condition Raised At Military Bases

Security conditions at U.S. military bases were raised overnight because of potential threats of a jihadist attack.

The official move from U.S. Northern Command comes hours after FBI Director James Comey said there are thousands of ISIS followers in the United States.

“We have a general concern, obviously, that ISIL is focusing on the uniformed military and law enforcement,” Comey told reporters Thursday.  “It’s like the devil sitting on their shoulders, saying ‘kill, kill, kill.”

“We have the same concern about the potential threat posed by violent homegrown extremists,” said Captain Jeff Davis, spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command which oversees all U.S. military installations in the continental U.S.

CNN reported that an official confirmed “Force Protection Bravo” status, defined as an “increased and predictable threat of terrorism.”  The last time military bases in the homeland had this condition for any significant length of time was the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“We are doing this as a prudent measure due to a lot of things in the news lately,” Davis said. “While this change is not tied to a specific credible threat, recent events have led us to recognize the need to take prudent steps to ensure that our security measures can be increased quickly.”

FBI director Comey said the biggest problem is that these people “go dark” like Elton Simpson, one of the two terrorists who attempted the Texas Mohammed Cartoon contest attack.

“The haystack is the entire country,” Comey said. “We are looking for the needles, but increasingly the needles are unavailable to us. … This is the ‘going dark’ problem in living color. There are Elton Simpsons out there that I have not found and I cannot see.”

Nepal Death Toll Over 4,000

The death toll in the massive Nepal earthquake and aftershock has passed the 4,000 mark and local officials say it’s likely to continue a fast rise over the next few days.

Almost every member of the Nepalese military has been dispatched for search and rescue operations with focus on villages that have been inaccessible due to debris and damage.

Officials have now confirmed at least 7,000 people have been injured as a result of the quakes.  The hospitals are full and tent surgical theaters and treatment tents have been set up in the parking areas and open fields near the hospitals.

The Nepalese government has sent out an emergency call for “tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses and 80 different medicines”.

The United States announced Monday an additional $9 million in relief supplies for the rescue effort.  China, India and Pakistan have sent emergency response teams to the region.  International aid agencies say that Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand have also contributed to the rescue efforts.

The United Nations World Food Program said they are preparing a “large, massive operation” for the region.

A spokesman for World Vision released a somber statement to the press.  Matt Darvas said that some villages that were on mountainsides could be completely buried by rock falls.  Some of the villages that are wiped out had up to 1,000 residents.