Military Officers

The spasm of violence that has shaken the country since copies of the Koran were dumped in a trash incinerator at a U.S. military base is emblematic of a culture war among Afghans themselves, one that is likely to grow more intense as the Western military presence wanes. Five days of chaotic street battles have left more than 30 people dead, including two U.S. military officers killed Saturday in a heavily guarded Afghan government ministry. The unrest over the desecration of the Muslim holy book illustrated not only the depth of religious fervor felt by many here, but also a visceral distaste for Western behavior and values among a far broader swath of Afghan society.

The Egyptian military stamps itself as protector of the nation, but behind this carefully tended mythology the army controls a multibillion-dollar business empire that trades in products not normally associated with men in uniform: olive oil, fertilizer, televisions, laptops, cigarettes, mineral water, poultry, bread and underwear. Estimates suggest that military-connected enterprises account for 10% to 40% of the Egyptian economy. It is an opaque realm of foreign investments, inside deals and privilege that has grown quietly for decades, employing thousands of workers and operating parallel to the army's defense industries.

The Egyptian military stamps itself as protector of the nation, but behind this carefully tended mythology the army controls a multibillion-dollar business empire that trades in products not normally associated with men in uniform: olive oil, fertilizer, televisions, laptops, cigarettes, mineral water, poultry, bread and underwear. Estimates suggest that military-connected enterprises account for 10% to 40% of the Egyptian economy. It is an opaque realm of foreign investments, inside deals and privilege that has grown quietly for decades, employing thousands of workers and operating parallel to the army's defense industries.

The spasm of violence that has shaken the country since copies of the Koran were dumped in a trash incinerator at a U.S. military base is emblematic of a culture war among Afghans themselves, one that is likely to grow more intense as the Western military presence wanes. Five days of chaotic street battles have left more than 30 people dead, including two U.S. military officers killed Saturday in a heavily guarded Afghan government ministry. The unrest over the desecration of the Muslim holy book illustrated not only the depth of religious fervor felt by many here, but also a visceral distaste for Western behavior and values among a far broader swath of Afghan society.

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.

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.

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.

To his followers, L. Ron Hubbard was bigger than life. But it was an image largely of his own making. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge put it bluntly while presiding over a Church of Scientology lawsuit in 1984. Scientology's founder, he said, was "virtually a pathological liar" about his past. Hubbard was an intelligent and well-read man, with diverse interests, experience and expertise. But that apparently was not enough to satisfy him.

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.

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.

Appearing in a military courtroom Friday for the first time, accused WikiLeaks source Army Pfc. Bradley Manning said he understood the charges against him in a criminal case that involves one of the largest leaks of classified material in U.S. history. The pretrial proceeding got bogged down in legal maneuvering when Manning's civilian lawyer, David Coombs, argued that the presiding military officer could not be impartial because he is also a federal prosecutor. Coombs said Army Reserve Lt. Col. Paul Almanza should step aside because he is the deputy chief prosecutor of the child exploitation and obscenity section of the criminal division of the Department of Justice.

A Chilean judge is seeking the extradition of a former U.S. military officer to face murder charges in the 1973 slaying of freelance journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman, a case dramatized in the Oscar-winning film "Missing," court sources confirmed Tuesday. Judge Jorge Zepeda wants former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis, whose whereabouts were not immediately clear Tuesday, to face trial in Chile for his alleged involvement in the deaths of Horman and U.S. student Frank Teruggi.

An American-born terrorist who carried out a deadly shooting in front of an Arkansas military recruiting station pleaded guilty to his crimes in an Arkansas courtroom Monday, earning a life sentence without parole and avoiding the death penalty. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 26, a convert to Islam, had previously confessed to the 2009 crime, in which he drove to the recruiting office in Little Rock and fired numerous rounds, killing one Army soldier and wounding another. Police said he told them he did so to protest the U.S. military and "what they had done to Muslims in the past.

In one of his last major addresses before his retirement this month, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that NATO's sometimes shaky air campaign in Libya had "laid bare" the shortcomings of the alliance, which he said was facing "collective military irrelevance" after years of inadequate defense spending by most of its members. In March, the alliance unanimously backed the decision to go to war in Libya to protect civilians from forces loyal to Moammar Kadafi, but Gates noted that fewer than half of NATO's 28 members were participating in the military operation and fewer than a third are conducting airstrikes against ground targets.

The Obama administration admitted defeat in its efforts to prosecute the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks before a civilian jury in New York City, announcing that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others would be tried by a military commission at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The decision, announced Monday by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., marks a sharp political setback for President Obama, who had repeatedly pledged to use civilian courts to try "high-value" terrorism suspects.

His words leave little doubt about his role. It is his punishment that remains uncertain. Four years ago, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not only brazenly portrayed himself as mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The senior Al Qaeda operative also bragged to a U.S. military tribunal that he had directed other major terrorist attacks around the globe. Mohammed claimed responsibility for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, for the "shoe bomber" attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner in 2001, for the deadly bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia, for planned assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II and President Clinton, and for aborted attacks in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

The Chinese Communist Party completed its leadership reshuffle Tuesday by approving a 22-member Politburo that includes six new members--all supporters of China's top leader Deng Xiaoping and none of them military officers. The Politburo appointments were announced after a brief meeting of 330 full and alternate members of the party's new Central Committee.

The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic slaughter that eventually killed an estimated 800,000 people. Theoneste Bagosora, 67, is the highest-ranking military officer convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The former colonel's prosecution is viewed as a significant step in efforts to punish war crimes.

The Obama administration says the goals of its bombing campaign in Libya are crystal clear, but it has tied itself in knots trying to explain them. This isn't a war, White House spokesman Jay Carney said last week, "it's a time-limited, scope-limited military action. " "What we are doing is enforcing a [United Nations] resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis and setting up a no-fly zone," said national security aide Ben Rhodes.

The Iraqi government announced Monday that it would shut down a controversial jail that has been dogged by allegations of abuse. The jail in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, called Camp Honor, fell under the nominal supervision of the Justice Ministry. But it was actually controlled by two elite security branches affiliated with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's military office, the Baghdad Brigade and Counter-Terrorism Bureau. The detention center had its own investigators and barred families and lawyers from visiting.