Bergdahl swap deal was illegal, GAO says
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon broke the law when it swapped Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a prisoner in Afghanistan for five years, for five Taliban leaders, congressional investigators said Thursday.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said the Defense Department failed to notify the relevant congressional committees at least 30 days in advance of the exchange – a clear violation of the law – and used $988,400 of a wartime account to make the transfer. The GAO also said the Pentagon’s use of funds that hadn’t been expressly appropriated violated the Antideficiency Act.
“In our view, the meaning of the (law) is clear and unambiguous,” the GAO wrote to nine Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and various committees.
Judge ends major part of desegregation case
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A federal judge Thursday ended a large part of an Arkansas desegregation case rooted in the Little Rock Central High School crisis of 1957 but a lawyer for black schoolchildren said inequalities remain in the state’s largest district.
U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. signed an order that will halt payments the state of Arkansas has been making to three Little Rock-area districts to boost integration. The payments, which started in 1989 and have exceeded $1 billion, will end by June 30, 2018.
“Judge Marshall’s order marks the formal end of a decades-long journey toward equality for Pulaski County public school students,” Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in a statement. “With the settlement of this case, the State and the school districts in Pulaski County are working together for the benefit of our children, rather than standing as adversaries in the courtroom.”
Hagel expects Islamists in Iraq to regroup
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says U.S. airstrikes have helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces regain their footing in Iraq, but he expects Islamic State militants will regroup and stage a new offensive.
oint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey says it’s possible to contain the Islamic State militants, but it can’t be done permanently without going after the group in Syria. Speaking to reporters with Hagel, Dempsey said he wasn’t predicting U.S. airstrikes in Syria, but said the problem must be addressed diplomatically, politically and militarily by America and its regional partners.
Hagel said all options were on the table, including airstrikes into Syria.
USS Saratoga begins its final voyage
NEWPORT, R.I. – The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Saratoga left its port in Rhode Island on Thursday for its final journey to Texas, where it will be scrapped.
The ship departed Naval Station Newport and made its way down Narragansett Bay to the Atlantic Ocean. It is heading to the Esco Marine ship recycling plant in Brownsville, Texas. The Saratoga was supposed to leave Wednesday, but the voyage was postponed because of concern that storms were developing along the route.
Esco Marine is being paid a penny by the Navy to dispose of the Saratoga.
Associated Press
