TV News LIES

For the growing number of soldiers and Marines whose genitals are damaged or destroyed by blasts from improvised explosive devices while in combat, the Pentagon has decided it will not provide some critical reproductive health benefits.

To put it bluntly, if you are sent to war and an IED blast blows off your testicles, the U.S. government will not pay for your wife to have in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination using donated sperm.

The jury of two officers and five enlisted airmen found Staff Sgt. Luis Walker guilty on 28 counts, including adultery, violating regulations and committing sexual crimes against female trainees, most of whom reported to him at Lackland, in San Antonio, the Air Force’s lone basic training school.

At least 11 other instructors in the Air Force’s basic training system, nine from the same squadron, are under investigation in the widening case, which is the focus not only of a criminal probe but also a major policy review by a two-star general. At least 31 female recruits have been identified as possible victims.

When Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali and civilian Will Behrens wanted to seal their commitment in a civil union in New Jersey, they chose a venue that nine months ago would have been unthinkable: a military base.

The grooms said their vows on June 23 before 150 guests at the chapel at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst — the first time a civil union or gay wedding has been held in such a facility in the United States.

A newly leaked US Army Military Police training manual for “Civil Disturbance Operations” outlines how military assets are to be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest.

The primary function of military assets will be focused around, “breaking up unauthorized gatherings and by patrolling the disturbance area to prevent the commission of lawless acts,” states the document, adding, “during operations to restore order, military forces may present a show of force, establish roadblocks, break up crowds, employ crowd control agents, patrol, serve as security forces or reserves, and perform other operations as required.”

Thirty-four women and men appear on camera in the documentary “Invisible War,” which opens in theatres June 22, to discuss being raped in the military. Statistics flash on the screen: 20 percent of women are sexually assaulted while serving in the United States military.

An estimated 500,000 women have been assaulted in the last 20 years. In fiscal year 2009, 3,230 women reported sexual assault, and the Department of Defense estimates that 80 percent of women never report — meaning their own numbers indicate 16,150 women were assaulted that year. An estimated one percent of male servicemembers are sexually assaulted in the military each year, or around 20,000 men.

Defense contractor KBR is being sued by Oregon National Guard members who say they were exposed to a carcinogenic chemical in Iraq, attorneys said.

The most contentious motion to be argued at hearings this week in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., concerns allegations KBR deliberately concealed knowledge sodium dichromate was present at the Qarmat Ali, Iraq, water treatment plant it was contracted to repair. Members of the Oregon National Guard, on duty in Iraq, were assigned in 2003 to guard the plant during repairs, and have allegedly suffered health problems from exposure to the chemical, The Portland Oregonian reported Monday.