US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Thursday he has ordered a review into the mistreatment of US war dead and whether whistleblowers who balked at the mishandling of the remains were retaliated against.
Seeking to allay concerns over revelations of mismanagement at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary, Panetta said US Air Force Secretary Michael Donley has been asked to examine whether sufficient punishment had been meted out to the three supervisors held responsible, who were penalized for the abuses, but not sacked.
“I want to make certain that we have taken all appropriate disciplinary action here and for that reason, that’s why I’ve asked the secretary to review that,” Panetta told reporters.
He also said he wanted the air force to look into allegations that employees who alerted authorities of the sloppy handling of remains at Dover were targeted with reprisals from managers.
A government investigative agency, the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC), was looking into the allegations and once it completed its work, the air force secretary was expected to review the findings, Panetta said.
“This is a serious issue,” he said.
Panetta said he had “directed Secretary Donley to report back to me, once the OSC investigation is complete, to ensure that all appropriate action has been taken in light of that report.”
The secretary of defense said the Pentagon had to be held “fully accountable.”
Panetta faced tough questions two days after the air force acknowledged “gross mismanagement” at the Dover mortuary, with body parts missing in two cases and other remains mishandled.
All US service members killed in combat abroad are transported to the Dover base, where they are identified and prepared for transfer to their families. Since 2003, the mortuary has received the remains of more than 6,300 dead troops, mostly from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
US Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told lawmakers earlier on Thursday that remains left over from the embalming process at Dover were cremated and placed in a landfill until the air force halted the practice in 2008. Human remains are now buried at sea, but the news has further angered some military families.
Panetta said he was first briefed on the problems at Dover when took office in July, when the air force was still investigating the case and he said the families involved deserved an apology.
“Listen, absolutely we should apologize. If we haven’t handled those remains properly, then it is our responsibility and we do owe those families an apology,” he said.
However, Panetta appeared confused about some details of the case, saying he was unaware that families were not informed of the problem until last weekend.
The OSC has sharply criticized the air force for failing to notify families months ago and that top air force officials generally failed to “acknowledge culpability.”
The return of troops killed on foreign battlefields carries special symbolism in a country where less than 1 percent of the population serves in the all-volunteer force, which has been stretched to the limit in 10 years of war.
“None of us will be satisfied until we have proven to the families of our fallen heroes that we have taken every step possible to protect the honor and dignity that their loved ones richly deserve,” Panetta said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the