Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) the committee’s ranking member, penned a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, complaining that DOD’s policies on when it is appropriate to wear a uniform are not being followed and cited a May 10 “rally” in favor of elevating National Guard status by legislators and some two dozen Army and Air National Guard general officers, reports CongressDaily. They asked for Rumsfeld’s ruling as to whether the event violated an October 2005 policy that rules out uniform wear at political events. According to reporter Megan Scully, Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Lemke, who is president of The Adjutants General Association of the United States, Guard officials were unaware of the new policy. Lemke also told Scully that the May event was a press conference not a political rally.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.