Court-Martial Trial Practice BlogThe Boston Globe has a piece and copy of a letter from Senator John Kerry to the Secretary of Defense. In that letter Senator Kerry says:
Secretary Robert M. Gates
1400 Defense Pentagon
Sen. Kerry requests
Articles Tagged with other than honorable discharge
Up periscope
Coast Guard reports indicates that:
Rear Adm. Gary T. Blore, commander of the Thirteenth Coast Guard District, has relieved Capt. Fredrick G. Myer from his duties as commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Portland, Ore., Friday, citing alleged misconduct due to a violation of military regulations, specifically unauthorized use of a government computer.
Specifically, Capt. Myer was found, during an investigation, to have repeatedly viewed pornographic and other restricted internet sites on a government computer.
Rapper case unwrapped
Here at truthout is a different perspective on the rapper case.
According to Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, an Oakland-based organization dedicated to supporting military objectors like Hall, he was not jailed for the song, but was instead jailed "in retaliation for his formal complaint of inadequate mental health services available to him at Fort Stewart. The Army used an angry song that Spc. Hall, a combat veteran of the Iraq War suffering from post-traumatic stress, had produced criticizing the stop-loss policy as the pretext."
What put the 34-year-old New York City native in the brig were, according to Paterson, Hall’s persistent assertions of inadequate mental health care that culminated in a December 7 complaint to the Army Investigator General. Just five days after that, Hall was charged with violating "good order and discipline" at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and was shipped out of the country for a court martial in Kuwait.
Rapper case wrapped up
It appears that the case of the “rapper” charged with making threats through rap songs and his website has been resolved. For some weeks the case drew criticism from supporters and the public and the military attitude to free speech issues. Something that we are seeing again in regard to LTC Lakin and Sgt Gary Stein the Marine on the left coast and his MySpace page.
On the rapper, Army Times reports:
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Saturday that top brass decided to discharge Hall instead of taking him to trial in part because he admitted his guilt.