Blog Post

IAVA Daily News Brief 06.22.12
Posted by Gretchen Andersen on June 22 2012

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings that IAVA is tracking. Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom and click here to get the News Brief delivered to your inbox every morning. 

MUST READS

1.) Financial Titans Make Push to Hire War Vets

IAVA, Veterans on Wall Street (VOWS) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted its second-annual conference and career fair Thursday on Wall Street. The job fair was one of 400 hiring events that the Chamber of Commerce is planning this year as part of its Hiring Our Heroes campaign, which aims to help 500,000 veterans and military spouses get hired by the end of 2014. You can read more about the job fair with IAVA's presence and an interview with Paul Rieckhoff, here.

2.) The Invisible War: When Soldiers Rape Soldiers

“The Invisible War,” a documentary about sexual assaults and rape in the military, opens this Friday nationwide. The film details brave servicewomen speaking out against officials and the military who cover-up many of the assaults. Directed by Kirby Dick, the film won the Festival Audience Award for documentaries at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

3.) Report urges more combat pay for junior troops

According to the Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, an influential study required by law every four years, the current system of pay is unfair for the younger enlisted troops who face the most danger on combat deployments. The QRMC’s recommendations — which would require approval from Congress — call for two major changes to today’s pay plan.

AFGHANISTAN

• In an interview with Reuters, Sec. Panetta disclosed that only a "small handful" of the roughly 20 Al Qaeda leaders of core groups and affiliates remained on the battlefield and that Saudi Arabia - the birthplace of late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - was reporting a drop-off in recruitment.
• Taliban insurgents killed 18 people — most of them civilians — in an attack Friday on a hotel just north of Kabul, Afghan officials said.

IRAQ

• Today in Baghdad, two bombs killed 14 people and wounded more than 100 in a market, authorities said. This has been the second-deadliest month in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew at the end of last year.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• An Army appeals court has denied a request for public access to military court records in the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning.
• Today the militaries of South Korea and the U.S. staged what they called their largest joint, one-day, live-fire exercise since the war.
• U.S. military and intelligence officials are so frustrated with Pakistan's failure to stop local militant groups from attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan that they have considered launching secret joint U.S.-Afghan commando raids into Pakistan to hunt them down.

THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION

• IAVA staff and veterans joined Red White and Blue for the OAR concert on Fox & Friends this morning.
• More than 70,000 vets and military spouses have found jobs, making President Barack Obama's goal for industry to hire 100,000 by the end of 2013 likely to be achieved.
• Five wounded warriors -- ages ranging 31- 64 -- with a self-described total of four good legs among them are gaining ground in their assault on Alaska’s formidable Mount McKinley, North America’s tallest peak.
• University of Utah’s American West Center has interviewed 33 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as part of the Saving the Legacy project, which aims to gather oral histories of the wars.
• Vietnam veterans are reaching out to veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with post traumatic stress and other problems.
• Carl Pine describes the respect he has for U.S. Army CPT Andrew Salmo, an outstanding officer who he said is a great leader for his troops -- and America.  

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said he doesn’t plan to try and reinstate “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) if Republicans were to take the Senate and Mitt Romney won the White House in November.
• American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars are split on a House bill that would expand reemployment rights for veterans.
• Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that he expects Congress to “kick the can down the road” by delaying the dramatic defense budget cuts set to start in January.
• The Pentagon is making plans to send U.S. military aircraft to Yemen.

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.

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