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Military court upholds death sentence in 2003 ‘fragging’ case – Stripes
WASHINGTON — The nation’s highest military court has affirmed the conviction and death sentence for Hasan K. Akbar, who admitted killing two fellow U.S. soldiers at the start of the Iraq War.
In a closely split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rejected claims by Akbar that his original defense team was ineffective. Akbar argued at trial that he was mentally ill when he killed two and wounded 14 in the March 2003 attack in Kuwait.
“We conclude that if there ever was a case where a military court-martial panel would impose the death penalty, this was it,” Judge Kevin A. Ohlson wrote.
The court’s 3-2 decision leaves Akbar one of six military men to be facing execution at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kan. Though he had launched a wide-ranging challenge to his conviction and sentence, a big part of the case decided Wednesday dealt with his claim of ineffective counsel.
“With the benefit of appellate hindsight, we could dissect every move of these trial defense counsel and then impose our own views on how they could have handled certain matters differently and, perhaps, better,” Ohlson noted. “However, that is not the standard of review we are obligated to apply.”
via Military court upholds death sentence in 2003 ‘fragging’ case – Stripes.
Good.
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One Direction, NASA, Patricia Lynn, and modern all weather attack.
You should probably mute this, but play “name that plane” and spot the non-T-38 plane in the video.
That’s the WB-57F Canberra, used by NASA for high altitude atmospheric research. It was originally used by the USAF to collect atmospheric samples during nuclear testing. Collecting samples of radioactive particles after a nuclear blast, physicists can tell a great deal about how effective a device was. We collected samples both of our own devices, and those of the Soviet Union, and indeed everyone else’s.
The WB-57 was derived from the RB-57, which was something of a poor man’s alternative to the U-2. A basic B-57 bomber was converted with vastly larger wings and upgraded powerplants to give it a much higher operational ceiling. Unfortunately, as the U-2 discovered in May of 1960, the SA-2 Guideline had an even higher ceiling.
The basic B-57 itself was built by Martin, being derived from the British English Electric Canberra bomber.
The first major variant operational with the USAF, the B-57B, served in Vietnam as a day/night interdiction/strike aircraft, and even flew some strikes against North Vietnam in the early years of the war. Increasing air defenses there meant it was soon withdrawn from use up north, but it soldiered on for a few more years providing air support in South Vietnam, eventually being replaced by newer tactical aircraft.
To find targets for those tactical aircraft meant aerial reconnaissance, and a lot of it, particularly against the NVA’s logistical trail, the Ho Chi Mihn Trail. A lot of RF-101 Voodoo and RF-4 Phantom sorties were flown, but results, particularly at night, were less than great. And so Project Patricia Lynn was started. A handful of RB-57Es were deployed to use infra-red cameras locate targets. It was very effective, with some estimates that 80% of the usable aerial reconnaissance came from Patricia Lynn.
Martin B-57E-MA 55-4237 Da Nang AB South Vietnam 3/4 front view at Da Nang AB, South Vietnam, in January 1964. Aircraft was originally B-57E (S/N 55-4264). This aircraft was lost on Oct. 25, 1968. (U.S. Air Force photo)
The adaptability and flexibility of the B-57 also lead to a couple of experiments with using sensors such as Low Light Level Television and infrared line scanners to allow the crew to see targets at night in real time, rather than having to wait for IR film to be developed.
That impressive real time capability lead to the ugly, but impressive B-57G. With LLTV, IR and a laser rangefinder/designator built in, the B-57G was the first truly effective precision night attack jet. It was the first jet to have a built in capability to self designate targets for laser guided bombs at night. The cutting edge technology meant they were maintenance nightmares, and had poor availability rates, but when they worked, they showed just how effective night attack sensors and precision guided weapons could be.
Switching back to the big wing WB-57 for a bit, let’s talk about networked warfare for a bit. More and more, we rely on datalink networks to provide a picture of the battlefield. But that raises to problems. Not all datalinks are compatible, and most are line of sight only. That lead to the development of BACN, the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node. BACN is both a relay and a translator, allowing various networks to work together. And since line of sight increases with altitude, it was first deployed aboard the WB-57, and operationally used in Afghanistan in 2012.
The WB-57s have returned to NASA, and a third has recently been added to the fleet. Not bad for a design the British first flew in 1949.
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U.S Marines ‘take down’ armed gunman onboard a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris | Daily Mail Online
A crazed gunman, who opened fire with an assault rifle onboard a high-speed train was detained by a group of US Marines who were travelling on the service.
The man is understood to have been overheard loading the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle in the toilet by the un-armed Marines.
Three people were injured when the man opened fire, but he was soon forced to the ground and detained.
Holy cow! That’s some serious bassassery there. Well done, Marines. In the finest traditions of the service!
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Tails Through Time: The Atomic Neptunes: The Navy’s Interim Nuclear Bombers
Not often realized in aviation history is the key role naval personnel played in the development and the deployment of the first atomic bombs that closed out the Second World War. In March 1943, Navy captain William Parsons was assigned to the Manhattan Project’s Ordnance Division as he had had prior experience in the development of the proximity fuse for anti-aircraft shells. While he also contributed to the design of the atomic bomb’s proximity fuse, he ultimately became responsible for the planning and execution of the US Army Air Force’s use of the bombs against Japan.
via Tails Through Time: The Atomic Neptunes: The Navy’s Interim Nuclear Bombers.
Here’s a really good look at both the airplane and mission, and some of the political background of the nuclear strike mission itself.
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Navy begins LRASM, F/A-18 integration testing | NAVAIR – U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command – Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Research, Development, Acquisition, Test and Evaluation
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md.—The Navy began initial integration testing of its Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Aug. 12 at Patuxent River’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 facility.
The program’s flight test team conducted missile load and fit checks using a mass simulator vehicle, designed to emulate LRASM, in preparation for the first phase of airworthiness testing with the F/A-18 E/F scheduled to begin later this month.
The LRASM is based on the existing JASSM-ER, with a different seeker head and warhead, so it should be a fairly low risk program. Of course, there’s always something (JASSM-ER had surprisingly difficult development, even though it was based on an existing system).
Importantly, it’s nice to see the Navy finally getting serious about Anti-Surface Warfare again. It has been too reliant on the aging AGM-84 Harpoon for too long.
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181 rounds of 25mm- F-35A
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When a Plane Crash Has a ‘Happy Ending’ – The Atlantic
Photographer Dietmar Eckell has traveled across four continents to photograph mangled aircraft that share a miraculous history: No one perished in any of these crash landings. “This series is not about wrecks that are not worth recovering,” Eckell said. “It is about heroes — the pilots who turned disasters into miracles and saved many lives.” The resulting collection of images and interviews, compiled in the book “Happy End,” present the viewer with disjointed images of bruised cabins and pristine landscapes. “While most planes get scrapped in junk yards — these found a place to ‘rest in peace,’” he said. “They are worth documenting … before nature takes them back.”
via When a Plane Crash Has a ‘Happy Ending’ – The Atlantic.
The Avro Shackelton is really neat.
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AP: High-level Federal Employees Used Work Internet Systems to Join Ashley Madison
As night follows day, you knew this was coming…. From the Associated Press via Fox News:
The AP traced many of the accounts exposed by hackers back to federal workers. They included at least two assistant U.S. attorneys; an information technology administrator in the Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an investigator and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a government hacker at the Homeland Security Department and another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a U.S. counterterrorism response team.
Hackers this week released detailed records on millions of people registered with the website one month after the break-in at Ashley Madison’s parent company, Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc. The website — whose slogan is, “Life is short. Have an affair” — is marketed to facilitate extramarital affairs.
Many federal customers appeared to use non-government email addresses with handles such as “sexlessmarriage,” “soontobesingle” or “latinlovers.” Some Justice Department employees appeared to use pre-paid credit cards to help preserve their anonymity but connected to the service from their office computers.
But who is slickwillie42dPrez@clintonemail.com ? Whoever he is, at least he didn’t use a gummint server….
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First Female Ranger School Graduates: ‘We Had Our Guards Up, But No Chips on Our Shoulders’ – Real People Stories, Military and Soldiers : People.com
The Army’s first females to graduate Ranger School knew they faced skeptics going into the course, but proceeded undaunted to the end, the graduates told the press Thursday afternoon. The two women – Captain Kristen Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver – appeared alongside fellow Ranger School graduates at Ft. Benning, Georgia, to talk about their experiences in the Army’s famed small units tactical course.
Both Griest and Haver said they understood that many people neither believed they could complete the course nor wanted them there.
“We had our guards up, but no chips on our shoulders,” said Haver, a military police officer from Orange, Connecticut. The women knew that they had to prove to their fellow students that they could be trusted. “Every time we accomplished something, it gave us a foothold as part of the team.”
Friend of the blog SKK (it’s not a Russian weapon!) gives the female Ranger School grads a writeup in People magazine.
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Here’s a fun little moto vid.
The ENJJPT is the Euro NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program.
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