Military Officers

It was one of the most baffling mysteries of the World War II era. How did convicted war criminal Hermann Goering manage to poison himself as U.S. soldiers prepared to hang him? A dozen competing theories have swirled for nearly half a century about how the onetime Nazi second in command was able to commit suicide despite around-the-clock surveillance of his military prison cell.

The first civilian to run the military's $10-billion-a-year retail business is working to bring the enterprise into the modern age. The CEO of the Dallas-based Army & Air Force Exchange Service, Tom Shull, is the first retailer to hold the post. It had been held by military officers on a two-year basis for 117 years. Shull, 61, was named to the position last year and his tenure doesn't have a time limit. There had been many complaints about the service in the comments section of Military Times.

MEXICO CITY - The case against six Mexican military officers accused of colluding with the Beltran Leyva drug cartel may be falling apart as federal prosecutors under new President Enrique Peña Nieto have reportedly admitted they lack sufficient evidence to back up the government's allegations. The prosecutors' statement to a federal judge presiding over the criminal case was included in court documents obtained by the newspaper Reforma and published Tuesday. A representative of the Mexican attorney general's office would not comment.

WASHINGTON - Survivors of sexual assault in the military urged lawmakers to require independent review of claims, taking the final authority out of the hands of high-ranking officers who have in some cases reversed decisions by military juries. That, they testified in a Senate hearing Wednesday, is the best way to end widespread underreporting of sexual assaults in the military. In the first Senate examination of sexual assault in the military in nearly a decade, the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel weighed a range of potential solutions to a long-standing problem that permeates every branch of the military.

the basic element of NATO's structure is the national authority of its 19 members. Representatives to NATO present and vote on proposals based on the policies of their respective governments. For Operation Allied Force, NATO's campaign in Yugoslavia, the chain of command for day-to-day operations is as follows:

In Mexico's drug war, Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito racked up crime-fighting credentials worthy of the Dark Knight, making record seizures of drugs and weapons and forcing out top Baja California law enforcement officials he accused of corruption and of having links to organized crime.

BEIRUT - Two former Turkish generals and a retired admiral were among more than 300 ex-officers sentenced to prison terms Friday in a controversial case that highlighted tensions between Turkey's civilian government and the long-powerful military. The three ex-commanders were convicted in Istanbul, Turkey, of being the ringleaders of a complex plot to "overthrow the government by force" almost a decade ago and were initially sentenced to life in prison, Turkish news reports said.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica retired 13 top military officers, including indicted war criminal Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, a former army chief, the state-run Tanjug news agency said. But Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, the current army chief and longtime ally of former President Slobodan Milosevic, was not on the list.

Three military officers accused of ordering the slaying of a Guatemalan human rights activist went on trial in her stabbing death. Myrna Mack was stabbed 27 times outside her Guatemala City office Sept. 11, 1990. In 1993, Sgt. Noel de Jesus Beteta was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the killing. Three years later, Gen. Edgar Augusto Godoy and retired Cols.

Four former top-echelon military officers, one a political party leader and former prime minister, were arrested today and charged with treason in a failed coup on Sept. 9. Police identified the four as Kriangsak Chomanand, a former supreme commander; his one-time deputy, Krasae Intharatna; Serm Nanakorn, another former armed forces supreme commander, and Yod Thephasadin, former deputy army commander in chief.

The news of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death this week was striking not because it came as a surprise. Rather it was because his death ignited a bitter debate over what the populist leader's lasting legacy will be at home and abroad. To his supporters, Chavez was a force for good who made them a priority, who established government programs to combat poverty and illiteracy. But to his critics, he was little more than an old-style Latin American caudillo , or strongman, who mismanaged the country's vast oil wealth and allowed inflation and crime to spiral out of control.

MEXICO CITY - The case against six Mexican military officers accused of colluding with the Beltran Leyva drug cartel may be falling apart as federal prosecutors under new President Enrique Peña Nieto have reportedly admitted they lack sufficient evidence to back up the government's allegations. The prosecutors' statement to a federal judge presiding over the criminal case was included in court documents obtained by the newspaper Reforma and published Tuesday. A representative of the Mexican attorney general's office would not comment.

FT. MEADE, Md. - Pfc. Bradley Manning swiveled in the witness chair, smiling and occasionally talking over his lawyer. In his Army dress-blue uniform, he appeared even younger than his 24 years. It was difficult to reconcile the bespectacled Manning's relaxed, almost chatty demeanor with the vast charges against him - perpetrating one of the biggest leaks of classified material in U.S. history. Manning is accused of providing the anti-secrecy Internet group WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and classified war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq while based in Baghdad as a military intelligence analyst in 2009 and 2010.

Gen. William “Kip” Ward, who was found by investigators to have improperly spent thousands of dollars on lavish travel and other expenses, will retire as a three-star general, one step below the four-star rank he held when he was head of the U.S. Africa Command, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Defense. The decision to demote Ward was announced as official Washington is dealing with the resignation of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus as CIA director because of an extramarital affair.

BEIRUT - Two former Turkish generals and a retired admiral were among more than 300 ex-officers sentenced to prison terms Friday in a controversial case that highlighted tensions between Turkey's civilian government and the long-powerful military. The three ex-commanders were convicted in Istanbul, Turkey, of being the ringleaders of a complex plot to "overthrow the government by force" almost a decade ago and were initially sentenced to life in prison, Turkish news reports said.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - “Wow!” said Elaine Brye of Winona, Ohio. “What's a mom like me doing in a place like this?” Brye was not planning a turn on stage at the Democratic National Convention when she sat down last December to write a Christmas card to First Lady Michelle Obama. It was “just a mom-to-mom note to say thank you for caring,” Brye said Tuesday night as she introduced Obama. “The first lady not only read my letter, she invited my husband and I to the White House. It was an amazing experience.

A major and two lieutenants of the Liberian army were arrested in the besieged capital city of Monrovia and charged with the murder of 12 people, including a township mayor. Authorities said some of the bodies had been mutilated. Leftist guerrillas now control most of the country and have been threatening Monrovia.

Taiwanese prosecutors charged a former navy commander in chief and eight other retired officers with corruption for their purported roles in multibillion-dollar arms scandals that have shaken the military. Prosecutors indicted six retired officers on corruption charges over the purchase of six French-made frigates in 1991, according to a copy of the indictment. Retired Adm.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Rep. Paul Ryan went deep into military country Thursday to make the case that President Obama is threatening national security by presiding over huge planned cuts in defense spending -- cuts that Ryan himself helped create as a member of Congress. Speaking to an audience near Ft. Bragg dominated by military contractors, retired military officers and their families, Ryan insisted that he voted for the budget bill that resulted in the so-called sequester in 2011 despite strong objections over its planned cuts to the military.