http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/environment-alberta-thailand.html

Oil Spills blacken Today’s Environment from Alberta to Thailand: Wind and Solar are Way Better!
Posted on 08/03/2013 by Juan Cole

1. High pressure steam injection as a technique of getting oil out of the ground has gone very wrong in Canada:





2. A leaking pipeline in Thailand is the 4th worst oil spill in that nations history.




3. Capetown, South Africa beaches are in danger from a further round of oil spilling from a beached Turkish oil vessel. Attempts to destroy it with controlled explosions have gone round, releasing further petroleum into the ocean this summer after it had soiled beaches last September.




4. Indonesia’s coral reefs are threatened by a tanker spill in the east of the country:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/02/60-u-s-military-members-fired-in-pentagon-sexual-assault-review/

60 U.S. military members fired in Pentagon sexual assault review
By Reuters
Friday, August 2, 2013 19:42 EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sixty people have been removed from jobs as military recruiters, drill instructors and victims counselors as a result of screenings ordered following a jump in the number of sexual assault in the U.S. armed forces, officials said on Friday.

The Army said 55 people had been suspended from their positions since screenings ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel began last month. The screenings are continuing, with the service hoping to complete 20,000 by October 1, a spokesman said.

~snip~

The report coincided with a spate of high-profile assault cases, including some involving drill instructors and people charged with helping sexual assault victims.

The 60 people were removed from their positions for a variety of reasons, ranging from alcohol-related concerns to unwanted sexual contact to other conduct that raised questions about their suitability for the jobs, officials said.

http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130731/NEWS01/307310019/Editorial-Justice-can-t-secret

http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-downplays-prospects-cancelling-f-35-bomber-021300734.html



Pentagon downplays prospects of cancelling F-35, bomber
By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Thursday downplayed concerns it could cancel the F-35 fighter and a new stealth bomber, after leaked documents from a budget review suggested the programs might be eliminated as one way to deal with deep budget cuts.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday that finding $500 billion in budget cuts required by law over the next decade, on top of $487 billion in cuts already being implemented, required tough trade-offs between the size of the military and high-end weapons programs.

Pentagon briefing slides shown to various groups mapped out those tradeoffs in stark terms, indicating that a decision to maintain a larger military could result in the cancellation of the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 program and a new stealthy, long-range bomber, according to several people who saw the slides.

Defense officials later stressed there were no plans to kill either program, noting that dismantling the F-35 program in particular would have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. military services and 10 foreign countries involved in the program, which is already in production.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/31/198216/military-contemplates-how-to-trim.html



Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned that the Pentagon may have to mothball up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order more sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress does not act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014.

Military considers cutting 25% of Army personnel, Marines to trim budget for sequester
By Kate Irby | McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted on Wednesday, July 31, 2013

WASHINGTON — The military faces one of two options in order to meet mandatory across-the-board budget cuts, says Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel: chopping the number of personnel or limiting its technological edge. That might mean reducing as much as 29 percent of soldiers, 18 percent of Marines and three Navy carriers through 2019.

~snip~

Currently, there are about 535,000 Army personnel, 182,000 Marines and 11 Navy carriers. The review suggests cutting that to as few as 380,000 Army personnel, 150,000 Marines and eight Navy carriers.

The other option, which Hagel described as a “decade-long modernization holiday,” would involve curtailing research and development funding, reducing special operations forces and slowing technological growth.

“I believe what we’re going to find is that we will edge slightly, probably, towards capability, because we have to keep our industrial base alive and we have to keep focusing on new technologies that will take care of us in the future,” Navy Adm. James Winnefeld said. “But we have to keep an eye on the capacity that might be required to fight a war today.”



Elsewhere:

http://breakingdefense.com/2013/07/31/hagel-outlines-bold-painful-pay-benefits-force-structure-cuts-to-meet-sequester/

Hagel Outlines Bold, Painful Cuts to Army, Carriers, Pay, Benefits To Cope With Sequester
By Colin Clark on July 31, 2013 at 3:12 PM

~snip~

Here are the options Hagel outlined for the Army. The least painful option would bring the Army down to 420,000 and 450,000 in the active component and between 490,000 and 530,000 in the reserves. The Air Force could cut up to five tactical aircraft squadrons “and cut the size of the C-130 fleet with minimal risk.”

~snip~

For those who think the Defense Secretary may be playing the game his predecessor Leon Panetta did, crying wolf and being left to look a bit foolish when the world did not end when sequestration came into effect, Hagel said during the press conference that he told his people they must not exaggerate, adding he didn’t want anyone coming back and saying the Pentagon had oversold the impact of sequestration.

But William Hartung, head of the arms and security project at the Center for International Policy, didn’t buy that, saying Hagel’s actions “are too little, too late. Key questions like changes in military compensation — and even how to cut the $52 billion in FY 2014 — have yet again been kicked down the road.” Hartung accused Hagel of of understating DoD’s “ability to make sensible procurement cuts by protecting systems like the overpriced, under-performing F-35 combat aircraft.”

Hartung concluded that the SCMR and Hagel’s speech today “is that this is a more low key version of ‘the sky is falling’ rhetoric favored by former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. A 10% cut over ten years will still leave us with over $5 trillion in spending over that time period, and a budget well above the Cold War average.”



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