I am writing to you on behalf of my husband, along with approximately 100 American Citizens (Linguists) serving our Military in Kuwait. They work for GLS (global linguist solutions) as Arabic interpreters supporting the Army in Kuwait. As of March 4th, 2013, they have been blacklisted in Kuwait and have been told they cannot leave the country; blacklisting is for people who have broken Kuwaiti law. However in our case this occurred due to a dispute over the contract between GLS and Al Shura, (a sponsor company which issues their working visas in Kuwait), the contract was awarded to another company instead and the people of Al Shura are retaliating against the linguists.The employees impacted by this issue have been told numerous times that the issue is being worked on. They cannot exit Kuwait due to the charges filed against them by Al Shura (sponsoring company); the charge is “absconders”, which is not true because they have been working with the Army and Al Shura has a letter from the Military stating that. If they were to exit Kuwait, they have to go through the deportation process, to include imprisonment, interrogation by a Kuwaiti Criminal Investigation division and a ban them from entering any Gulf country (GCC) for 2-5 years, then they will have to get an appeal for the case and have the Kuwaiti government look into the case and perhaps award them a judgment in their favor.Several linguists have experienced this deportation process, and were jailed for at least a week before they were flown home. Since this problem has occurred my husband has been waiting very patiently for permission to take vacation leave to come home, he and his colleagues are in a Military instillation and are not allowed to go to the city for medical or any other reason, Military Medical Facilities on the instillation are not allowed to tend to them if it’s not life, limb or eyesight. They have also been asked to stop work, they are living in tents (under barbaric conditions) and being treated like refugee’s in internment camps, they are not working, not going to the city and living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, they are very tense and depressed; some have serious issues at home and need to go either for good or on vacation, some have asked to quit and GLS is not able to release them because they are trapped in Kuwait. They accepted this job knowing that they would be able to return home to see their families at no risk, they have been told several times that this problem will be resolved but the dates are continually delayed. They are left on the instillation just to wait for an answer as to when they will be cleared to continue to do what they were hired to do, until then they are just sitting, roaming about losing their sanity in the extreme heat along with all this confusion. If they attempt to leave, they have been warned by GLS that they would be arrested.Please petition Congress on their behalf.
An Army judge in Texas just made a somewhat unconventional ruling in the trial of Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan: She refused to let him plead guilty. Why? It would enable him to avoid execution. Apparently, the Army would not be satisfied to see this alleged mass murderer simply go to jail for a few decades. It appears the prosecution is out for blood.
The situation is a little bit dicey, when you think about it. After Hasan’s lawyers made it very clear that Hasan would plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty, Col. Tara Osborn made it very clear that that wasn’t going to happen on Wednesday when she ruled out any guilty pleas. Since it’s against Army rules to plead guilty to a capital offense, the defense abandoned its original plan of pleading guilty to 13 counts of premeditated murder and instead asked the court to allow Hasan to plead guilty to 13 counts of unpremeditated murder, a charge that does not carry the death penalty.
On Wednesday, the judge said no way since that “would be the functional equivalent of pleading guilty to a capital offense.” Ditto to pleading guilty to the 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. That would complicate a not guilty plea to the murder charges.
This is a real “no mercy” sort of situation isn’t it? However, the general public probably has little doubt whether Hasan was the one who ran around Fort Hood, Texas in 2009 shooting his fellow soldiers and screaming “Allah Akbar.”
Hasan is suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others, and it’s become glaringly apparent that the Army is not going to give him a break in court. This lastest move is an especially powerful one on the judge’s part. The United States military hasn’t executed a prisoner since 1961, so one might say this is the trial of a generation. The Army intends to do it right.
State media say army raid to free workers held at gas plant, which reportedly left dozens of hostages killed, is over.
At least 30 hostages and 11 members of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group have been killed when Algerian forces stormed a desert gas plant to free the captives, Reuters news agency quoted an Algerian security source as saying.
Eight Algerians and seven foreigners, including two British, two Japanese and a French national, were among the dead, he said.
Algerian state television reported earlier that four foreigners had been killed after the end of the operation was announced late on Thursday.
Communication Minister Mohamed Said said troops had been forced to act after talks with the kidnappers failed.
He said many fighters had been killed in the operation at the In Amenas gas field.
Earlier, a spokesman for the group holding the hostages said 34 of the captives had been killed along with 15 kidnappers as a government helicopter attacked a convoy transporting hostages and their captors.
Christina Hellmich, an expert in international relations at Reading University in London, talks to Al Jazeera about the hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant and al-Qaeda’s role in the region.
The Masked Brigade said its fighters seized the workers on Wednesday in retaliation for Algeria letting France use its airspace to launch operations against rebels in northern Mali , but security experts said the raid appeared to have been planned well in advance.
The fighters came from Libya, according to the Algerian interior minister.
“According to the information we have, the terrorist group which attacked the In Amenas site came from Libya,” Dahou Ould Kablia told Algeria’s Arab-language daily Echorouk .
Kablia had said on Wednesday that the kidnappers were from the region, denying that they came from Libya, 100km from the gas plant, or from Mali as some of them claimed.
Meanwhile, Reuters cited a security source saying two Libyans were among the fighters killed in the military operation, along with Egyptians, Tunisians, a Frenchman and Malian.
APS said nearly 600 Algerian workers and four foreign hostages – two Britons, a Frenchman and a Kenyan – had been freed during the operation. The Irish foreign ministry said an Irish man had also been freed.
Several countries whose nationals were among those taken hostage were critical of Algeria’s military operation to free the captives.
Japan urged the Algerian government to put an “immediate end” to the operation.
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the US administration was “concerned about reports of loss of life and are seeking clarity from the government of Algeria”.
Britain was not given prior notice of the Algerian government operation to release hostages and would have preferred to have been informed, Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman said.
‘Brutal aggression’
The fighters, communicating through media in neighbouring Mauritania, said they had dozens of men armed with mortars and anti-aircraft missiles in the compound and had rigged it with explosives.
“We hold the Algerian government and the French government and the countries of the hostages fully responsible if our demands are not met, and it is up to them to stop the brutal aggression against our people in Mali,” read one statement carried by Mauritanian media.
A Briton and an Algerian were killed on Wednesday, after fighters launched an ambush of a bus carrying employees from the gas plant to the nearby airport.
The In Amenas gas field is jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s Sonatrach.
France launched a major offensive against the rebel group Ansar al-Dine in Mali on January 11 to prevent them from advancing on the capital, Bamako.
Algeria had long warned against military intervention against the rebels, fearing the violence could spill over the border
Cuts to the number of full-time military personnel would “risk the safety of the nation”, Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu has warned.
The Archbishop said he does not believe reservists can form the ‘backbone’ of the British armed forces.
In an interview with British Forces Broadcasting Service, Dr Sentamu criticised the government’s plans to increase reliance on reservists.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said the Army will have to lose 20,000 regular soldiers by 2020.
The Ministry of Defence declined to respond to Dr Sentamu’s comments.
During his Christmas message to servicemen and women serving overseas, the Archbishop said his “greatest anxiety” was the way in which the cuts were being carried out.
“These defence cuts need to be done with far, far greater sensitivity because we live still in a world that is very fragile and there are people out there still, wanting to do harm to… many, many people.
“To replace professionally trained, full time serving soldiers with part-timers, I’m afraid, for me. I don’t think that can be the backbone of the British army,” he added.
Dr Sentamu called for the cuts to be carried out with ‘greater sensitivity’
Under government plans, the Territorial Army will double in size from 15,000 to 30,000 and be known as the Army Reserves while the number of full-time soldiers in the British Army is set to fall from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2020.
Army, Royal Navy and RAF reservists will receive more training and increased opportunities for promotion in exchange for having to make a greater commitment to regular training and deployment.
Responses to a consultation on the proposal will form part of a government White Paper to be published in the new year on the future role of reservists.
The Archbishop also paid tribute to the work of British forces in Afghanistan, adding that he continued to pray daily for the troops serving away from home, whom he described as “the bravest of the brave”.
In the past, Dr Sentamu has questioned whether British troops are being cared for properly by the government.
In 2009, he challenged whether troops serving in Afghanistan were getting the treatment they deserved from Whitehall under the terms of the military covenant.
The covenant is an informal understanding between the government, society and service personnel, under which the nation is expected to support troops and provide fair treatment, respect and reward in return for the sacrifices associated with a life in the military.
In 2008, the Archbishop raised £100,000 for the families of troops serving in Afghanistan by a sponsored parachute jump.
Dr Sentamu has close ties to the Yorkshire Regiment who lost 10 soldiers this year serving in Afghanistan.
~~Defender of Faith~Guardian of Truth~~ 