Pentagon plans to arm more stateside troops
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will allow more U.S. troops to be armed while stateside and called for other security measures to be put in place following the attack in Chattanooga, Tenn., that killed five service members.
The decision was outlined in a two-page memo released at the Pentagon on Thursday. Mr. Carter in the memo said the ambush, in which an armed gunman opened fire at two military facilities, illustrates the threat posed to service members in the United States by homegrown violent extremists.
Mr. Carter’s memo authorizes commanders and civilian directors to “arm qualified DoD personnel for security, law enforcement and counterintelligence duties.” But it adds that those who are not engaged in law enforcement, such as military police, also may be armed “based on the threat and the immediate need to protect DoD assets and lives.”
Ruling on detainees
WASHINGTON — The United States military may continue to hold a Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of being a Taliban fighter even though President Barack Obama has repeatedly said that the United States’ war in Afghanistan has ended, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The 14-page ruling was a rare judicial attempt to resolve legal questions that may have implications for years to come. Under the laws of war, when a war ends, wartime prisoners must be released.
The judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled that regardless of what Mr. Obama has said about the status of the war in Afghanistan, there continues to be fighting between the United States and the Taliban. As a result, Judge Lamberth said, the government retains the legal authority to detain enemy fighters, including Taliban members, to prevent them from returning to that fight.
Lion killing investigated
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the federal endangered species law, said it’s investigating the killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe by an American dentist.
The agency said it’s gathering facts, and has asked Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist, to contact them. Efforts to reach him have been unsuccessful.
Cecil was collared and monitored as part of an Oxford University research project. Dr. Palmer said in a statement to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis that he believed he had legally hunted the animal.
Biden pushes Iran deal
WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden met House Democrats in hopes of securing their support for the nuclear accord with Iran, as the White House confronts a tougher than expected fight to ensure that the deal survives congressional review.
The administration is bracing for an all-out effort in lawmakers’ home districts by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobbying group, to press for rejection of the agreement.
Also in the nation …
A rapidly spreading brushfire burning in parched timberland north of San Francisco, Calif., has forced the evacuation of 500 people and destroyed several buildings less than 12 hours after it broke out, fire officials said on Thursday. … Police worked Thursday to identify two white males who were caught on a surveillance camera laying Confederate battle flags neatly on the ground near the Atlanta church of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.