In 2008, the author was appointed as Japan's Minister of Defense, a post that oversees the 270,000 members of the Japanese Army, Navy, and Air Force -- Japan's self-defense forces -- as well as thousands of civilian defense officials within the ministry. Since she was the first woman ever to hold that office in Japanese history, she believes that her appointment opened up great new opportunities for Japanese women. Her appointment came about in an abrupt way. Achieving gender equality in Japanese politics has been a long and difficult process that has taken many decades. Today, women can vote or run for office in Japan as easily as they breathe, but under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, promulgated in 1889, Japanese women were almost suffocated. People now consider women like h...
The Israeli destruction of all of the transformers of Gaza's only power plant on June 28 is a crime under international humanitarian law, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli organization concerned with human rights in the Occupied Territories, in a report issued last month. While affirming Israel's right to protect itself, B'Tselem argues that destroying the power plant was an attack against the civilian population and hence a war crime. The attack followed the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas. Military action in the Gaza Strip has been justified to stop rocket attacks on Israel, but, as B'Tselem points out, the destruction of the power plant has no impact on the ability of groups in Gaza to launch rockets. It describes the destruction as an "act of vengeance. B'Tselem calls on Isr...
... issue a directive forbidding the Israeli Defense Force from attacking "civilians and civilian objec...
DAYTON -- Adding civilian talent to the government's defense acquisition work force and increasing scrutiny of program costs and contractor performance will help ensure wiser spending of taxpayer dollars, a senior Defense Department official said. Ashton B. Carter, undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, cited the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 as an example for defense acquisition professionals attending a Dayton conference Tuesday, April 20.
The push for ethical federal contracting is nothing new, but it's taking a different turn. Uncle Sam is directing his attention to the private sector, looking to turn contractors into their own ethics police force. In November 2007, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulation Council filed a proposed change to the Federal Acquisition Regulation at the request of the Justice Department. The Justice Department says that while contractors have taken steps toward establishing corporate compliance programs, few have actually responded to the invitation of the Department of Defense that they report or voluntarily disclose suspected instances of fraud. While the overall effectiveness and fairness of the proposed change still is a matter of debate, stakeholder...
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders Thursday, holding them to account in a historic Pentagon shake-up after embarrassing nuclear mix-ups, one of which involved Utah's Hill Air Force Base. Gates announced at a news conference that he had accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne -- a highly unusual double firing.
Recent events serve as a reminder of how menacing behavior from Iran and Syria keeps the Middle East on a hair trigger. On Tuesday, Israel learned that Hezbollah was rapidly rebuilding its military capabilities and preparing for renewed conflict with Israel. The next morning, a London-based Arab newspaper reported that Syria was concentrating troops and tanks along its border with Lebanon and had massed troops in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in preparation for an Israeli attack. Syrian officials denied the report and suggested that Israel and the United States were conspiring to divert attention from their own problems. The question remains shrouded in mystery. On Wednesday, the Israeli government's security cabinet ordered that gas masks be distributed to the public. Two days from now, the I...
...Israeli defense officials also maintain that Egypt's reopening of ...
In 1948 a B-29 bomber crashed in Georgia. The widows of three civilian defense contractors aboard the plane sued the Air Force. The Pentagon refused to release the report of the accident investigation and other documents relating to the aircraft, insisting that any disclosures about its mission and the confidential equipment aboard would, in effect, compromise national security. In 1953 the suit was effectively blocked when the Supreme Court, without examining the documents, upheld the Air Force in a ruling that became the "state secrets" privilege. In 2000 the documents were declassified and found to contain no mention of secret equipment or a secret mission. The cause of the crash was faulty maintenance.
Very few people have access to a lengthy report on the Air Force's mistaken delivery of missile fuses to Taiwan or other handling of nuclear-related materials. So it's impossible to know if the ouster of the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders by Defense Secretary Robert Gates was just and appropriate or if Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Mosley were scapegoats for the grave errors of others. Gates has sent a strong message that military leaders are ultimately accountable for problems that arise under their command. He should be commended for taking this tough stand.
WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders Thursday, holding them to account in a historic Pentagon shake-up after embarrassing nuclear mix-ups. Gates announced at a news conference that he had accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne a highly unusual double firing.
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