Lawmakers outraged as allegations against soldier said to include sexual assault, forced prostitution

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The allegations against the latest military official accused of sexual assault include claims that he may have arranged for a woman to engage in prostitution, sources say. 

The charges have sparked outrage on Capitol Hill, as it emerged the accused soldier, whose name has not been made public, was assigned as a coordinator of a battalion-level sexual assault prevention program at Fort Hood. He has been suspended from all duties but has not been charged with any crime. 

It is the second time in the last month that a military official who led a sexual assault prevention unit was accused of sexual assault. 

The nature of the accusations is still unclear. A source on Capitol Hill told Fox News the investigation includes allegations of forcing one woman into prostitution and sexually assaulting two others. 

A defense official told The Associated Press the allegations include a claim that the soldier may have arranged for one of the women to have sex for money. This official said it's not yet clear whether the woman was forced into that arrangement. 

George Little, spokesman for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said Hagel has informed President Obama about the accusations against the Army sergeant first class, and Obama made clear he wants the behavior stopped. 

Little told reporters that Hagel's staff is working on a written directive that will spell out steps aimed at resolving a problem that has outraged lawmakers. 

"The president has made very clear his expectations on this issue," Little said. 

Lawmakers are calling for changes in the wake of the allegations. 

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., on Wednesday called for Hagel to create a tougher review process for individuals applying for sexual assault prevention unit positions. 

"This crisis has reached a breaking point that requires more than the traditional process for filling military jobs," they wrote in a letter Wednesday. 

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement: "This latest incident clearly demonstrates that the military's efforts to prevent sexual assault are failing miserably." 

The case, along with another one involving an Air Force officer, highlights a problem that is drawing increased scrutiny in Congress and expressions of frustration from Hagel. 

"This is sickening. Twice now, in a matter of as many weeks, we've seen the very people charged with protecting victims of sexual assault being charged as perpetrators," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said. 

Hagel said he was directing all the services to retrain, re-credential and rescreen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters, Little said after Tuesday's announcement that the Army sergeant was accused of pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates. 

The soldier was being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. No charges had been filed, but officials say they expect them fairly soon. 

Little said Hagel was angry and disappointed at "these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply." He said Hagel had met with Army Secretary John McHugh and ordered him to "fully investigate this matter rapidly, to discover the extent of these allegations and to ensure that all of those who might be involved are dealt with appropriately." 

The Fort Hood soldier had been assigned as an equal opportunity adviser and coordinator of a sexual harassment-assault prevention program at the Army's 3rd Corps headquarters when the allegation arose, the Army said. 

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said in a statement he was "outraged and disgusted by the reports out of Fort Hood." 

Just last week an Air Force officer who headed a sexual assault prevention office was himself arrested on charges of groping a woman in a Northern Virginia parking lot. 

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said his panel was considering a number of measures to counter the problem, including changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and will act on them next month. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she intends to present new legislation on Thursday to overhaul the military justice system by removing chain-of-command influence from prosecution of sex abuse crimes. 

The Pentagon is struggling with what it calls a growing number of sexual assaults across the military. In a report last week, the Defense Department estimated that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, based on survey results. 

Of those, fewer than 3,400 reported the incidents, and nearly 800 of those simply sought help and declined to file formal complaints against their alleged attackers. 

There also is an ongoing investigation into more than 30 Air Force instructors for assaults on trainees at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, as well as the recent arrest of the Air Force's head of sexual assault prevention on charges of groping a woman. 

An Arlington County, Va., police report said Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman's breast and buttocks in a parking lot earlier this month. The woman fought him off and called police, the report said. A judge has set a July 18 trial date for Krusinski. 

Such cases and two recent decisions by officers to overturn military juries' guilty verdicts in sexual assault cases has precipitated a storm of criticism on Capitol Hill. 

McCaskill is holding up the nomination of Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms, tapped to serve as vice commander of the U.S. Space Command, until McCaskill gets more information about Helms' decision to overturn a jury conviction in a sexual assault case. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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New IRS scandal revives past allegations against agency

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WASHINGTON –  The IRS’s admission it targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny has drawn political condemnation but it isn’t the first, second or third time the agency has been accused of playing fast and loose with the law.

The latest scandal has effectively revived past allegations of partisan behavior at the IRS, with some lawmakers as well as the alleged victims calling for those complaints to now get a second look. The unresolved cases include claims of media leaks on private donor information during last year’s presidential race and other instances of political profiling.

"This whole episode reinforces and confirms the American people’s worst fears about big government run amok,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News. 

"The startling revelations give real credibility to numerous reports over the last year that the IRS 'inadvertently' released donor information from conservative groups -- and that information ended up in the hands of political opponents," Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who is pressing the Treasury Department and IRS for more details on those past cases, said in a statement.  

The newest allegations of the IRS overstepping its authority only feed into claims that those within the powerful agency routinely disregard the law and use their authority to intimidate and target at will. 

The latest startling claim came Tuesday from an unexpected source -- ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning progressive journalism group -- which said the same Cincinnati IRS branch accused of targeting conservative groups released nine confidential applications of conservative groups to them last year. 

Critics had long questioned how ProPublica got that information. ProPublica put the speculation to rest on Tuesday. The media outlet said it had requested 67 applications for nonprofits in 2012. They were given 31. Of those, nine had not been approved and therefore should not have been made public.

ProPublica ultimately published six of them, despite late-breaking objections from the IRS -- the agency apparently told the organization that it should not have received the confidential applications. 

Considering this and other cases, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney took some heat Tuesday after he told reporters that nobody in the Obama administration had targeted conservative groups in the past. 

Many questioned the statement and pointed to a 2010 incident involving Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee told reporters on Aug. 27, 2010 that Koch Industries, a billion-dollar energy company run by the politically influential Koch brothers, paid no income taxes.

The tax records of Koch Industries -- a private company – would not have been public information and therefore should not have been known to Goolsbee. At the time, the Obama team backpedaled and said the information was made public in two places – which turned out to be untrue. Then the Obama administration said Goolsbee had misspoken and that he had guessed the company’s confidential tax information.

At the time, the IRS had promised to look into the Goolsbee gaffe but a report was never publicly released.

A source familiar with the situation suggested to FoxNews.com Tuesday that Goolsbee’s comments were a “calculated” attempt by the administration to insert Koch’s name into his discussion about companies that don’t pay taxes.

Accusations of improper IRS behavior surfaced again in 2012 when a prominent anti-gay marriage group accused the agency of leaking private tax files that listed then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney's group as a contributor. The National Organization for Marriage documents were later published by a group whose president was tied to the Obama re-election campaign.

NOM claimed that someone from the IRS fed the liberal Human Rights Campaign documents listing its 2008 contributors. On that list was a $10,000 donation from Romney’s political action committee. The Human Rights Campaign then published the documents online, saying it had uncovered one of the group’s “top secret donors,” and accused Romney of attacking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.

The donation came as NOM and other conservative groups were fighting for the Proposition 8 measure banning gay marriage in California. 

Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation said they, too, were targets of the IRS.

“We endured politically-motivated audits under both the Carter and the Clinton administrations,” Heritage senior media associate Kim McIntyre told Fox News. “Back then, Washington’s ‘enemy lists’ were restricted to well-established groups. But targeting fledging Tea Party groups is different.”

McIntyre questioned whether smaller groups targeted by the IRS can even afford to fight back and says that “expensive audits could very well strangle them in a cradle. Bringing the weight and resources of the federal government to bear against small organizations threatens not just punishment, but extinction.” 

Some say the allegations against the IRS are not a surprise given the agency’s storied past of mean-spirited power plays that stretch back to President Franklin Roosevelt -- accused of using his political sway to get the independent agency to lean on his critics.  

President Kennedy’s administration authorized the “Ideological Organizations Project” that went after conservative organizations, while President Johnson was accused of promising tax favors in exchange for votes.

Claims of shady moves made by IRS saw a sharp rise in the 1960s and 1970s. Some say the agency has not been able to shake off the bad rap.

The IRS now says that its latest program of flagging conservative groups for additional scrutiny was inappropriate, but not partisan. An inspector general report unveiled Tuesday urged the IRS to clean up its operation, and Attorney General Eric Holder also announced he had “ordered an investigation” into the IRS controversy and that his office was “examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations.”

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Court strikes blow against the Obama administration on union poster rule

From the beginning, the Obama administration has demonstrated a willingness to expand federal powers in unprecedented and highly controversial ways in order to serve its own political agenda. 

But, in the past few months the administration has suffered two major set-backs—all because it has taken a bullish attitude in thumbing its nose at the Constitution. 

First, a federal court of appeal held that President Obama violated the law in making appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) without consulting Congress as required by the Constitution. And now a federal court has struck down a pro-union rule that the Obama administration’s NLRB illegally adopted without Congressional authorization—in express violation of federal law.

America's courts are sending a clear message to the White House: You, Mr. President, are not above the law.

We have seen the Obama administration take increasingly cavalier legal positions on a whole host of regulatory issues over the past four years. 

Remember that the administration pushed for enactment of the Affordable Care Act with a “vote first, ask questions later mentality.” And that nearly resulted in the Supreme Court striking down the entire health care law when the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and 26 state attorney generals challenged his administration’s authority to enforce a constitutionally dubious mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance. 

The administration may have narrowly survived our challenge to the health care law, but NFIB is continuing to hold President Obama's feet to the fire—or to the original meaning of the Constitution as the case may be.

Even the New York Times recently noted “an increasingly deliberate pattern by the administration to circumvent lawmakers…” But now that NFIB and other industry groups are finding success in fighting the administration’s most brazen attempts to circumvent the Constitution, the president is going to have to begin operating within the letter of the law. 

After all, the courts are sending him a clear message: You, Mr. President, are not above the law.
NFIB’s victory Tuesday is a perfect example. 

Last year President Obama’s NLRB voted to adopt the so called “Poster Rule.” The Poster Rule would have required business owners to prominently display posters giving employees “notice” of their rights under federal labor law. But, NFIB obtained an injunction to prevent NLRB from enforcing the rule, and Tuesday succeeded in striking it down completely.

In court the NLRB defended its actions arguing that the Poster Rule was necessary because some employees do not know their rights. But, even if it were true that employees are ignorant of their rights—a premise we disputed all along, especially given the availability of information in the Internet age—our point has always been that President Obama and his NLRB cannot create a rule simply because it would be a convenient way to address a political issue. Moreover, as we successfully argued in striking down the Poster Rule, the Constitution prohibits federal agencies from creating rules in violation of federal statutes.

In the Poster Rule case the NLRB was acting without statutory authorization from Congress, and in express violation of federal statutes. And in the NLRB recess appointment cases, the President was acting beyond the powers authorized to him in the Constitution. 

The bottom line is that our government cannot suspend or ignore constitutional rules—or lawfully enacted statutes—for expedient or pragmatic reasons. But, now President Obama and his NLRB advisors are learning this lesson the hard way. Of course, that’s what happens when you ignore the Constitution.

Karen R. Harned, esq. is executive director of the NFIB's Small Business Legal Center.

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North Korea warns military cleared to wage nuclear attack against US

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  April 3, 2013: South Korean Marines pass by K-55 self-propelled howitzers during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea.AP

An unnamed spokesman for the North Korean army is warning the U.S. that its military has been cleared to wage an attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons in the latest of the country's escalating warnings. 

North Korea has railed for weeks against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for a February nuclear test.

The spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency that troops have been authorized to counter U.S. aggression with "powerful practical military counteractions."

National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden called the threats "unhelpful and unconstructive."

"It is yet another offering in a long line of provocative statements that only serve to further isolate North Korea from the rest of the international community and undermine its goal of economic development," she said. "North Korea should stop its provocative threats and instead concentrate on abiding by its international obligations."

The Pentagon said Wednesday it was deploying a missile defense shield to Guam to protect the U.S. and its allies in the region in response to the increasingly hostile rhetoric. 

The land-based missile defense system includes a truck-mounted launcher, tracking radar, interceptor missiles, and an integrated fire control system. The Pentagon said the system will boost defenses for American citizens in Guam, a U.S. territory, and U.S. forces stationed there.

On Wednesday, North Korea barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North.

The Kaesong industrial park started producing goods in 2004 and has been an unusual point of cooperation in an otherwise hostile relationship between the Koreas, whose three-year war ended in 1953 with an armistice. Its continued operation even through past episodes of high tension has reassured foreign multinationals that another Korean War is unlikely and their investments in prosperous dynamic South Korea are safe.

It is unclear how long North Korea will prevent South Koreans from entering the industrial park, which is located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong and provides jobs for more than 50,000 North Koreans. The last major disruption at the park amid tensions over U.S.-South Korean military drills in 2009 lasted just three days.

North Korea has already begun construction at a shuttered plutonium reactor that it is vowing to restart and it could be back in operation sooner than expected, a U.S. research institute said Wednesday.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies has analyzed recent commercial satellite imagery of the Nyongbyon nuclear facility, where the reactor was shut down in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement. A cooling tower for the reactor was destroyed in 2008.

The analysis published on the institute's website "38 North" says that rebuilding the tower would take six months, but a March 27 photo shows building work may have started for an alternative cooling system that could take just weeks.

"Pyongyang may be poised to prove wrong conventional wisdom that it will take months to restart its reactor, and in the bargain it is also showing us that they mean business by accelerating the process of producing more material for nuclear weapons," said Joel Wit, 38 North editor and a former U.S. State Department official.

North Korea also said it would restart a uranium enrichment plant. Both facilities could produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

The new construction at the reactor began in the six weeks between February 7 and March 27, when another aerial image showed no building going on, 38 North says.

The analysis says the construction could be aimed at connecting the reactor to a pumping station that serves an adjacent light-water reactor that is still under construction. The light-water reactor still appears more than a year away from becoming operational but its pumping station appears from aerial imagery to be complete, it says.

But restarting the plutonium reactor would also depend on the availability of fresh fuel rods. According to 38 North, North Korea is believed to have a supply of rods, but many of them may need adapting for use in the reactor.

The North's plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down as part of international nuclear disarmament talks in 2007 that have since stalled. Once it is up and running, the reactor is capable of producing six kilograms of plutonium a year -- enough for one or two bombs, the analysis says.

The North has already conducted three underground nuclear tests. Plans to restart the reactor and ramp up production of atomic material underscore worries about its progress in developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could target the United States. It is still believed to be years away from achieving that.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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DR. KEITH ABLOW: Moore's flawed rationale means his photo would motivate public against obesity

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Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore wants photographs of the children slaughtered in Newtown, Conn., at the Sandy Hook Elementary School to be released for public consumption.  

His rationale is Americans will be so horrified by the carnage inflicted by Adam Lanza that they will demand gun control and effectively silence the NRA.

From a psychological perspective, Moore is arguing we traumatize Americans with grotesque images to such an extent that any rational argument about what caused the Sandy Hook tragedy ends, and people follow along with his absurd notion that guns and ammunition were what resulted in children dying there, rather than the obvious fact that our failed mental health care system is to blame.

To review the actual facts, Adam Lanza was a mentally ill man who lived in the windowless basement of his mother’s home.  Inexplicably, she not only failed to secure her legally obtained firearms, but taught him to be a marksman.

 Yet, this one-in-a-million scenario, which depended far more on Lanza never getting all the help he needed and being locked in a complex, unhealthy relationship with his mother (whom he shot to death), is heralded as a reason by Moore to violate the U.S. Constitution and take people’s right to bear arms away from them.

Moore apparently doesn’t care that showing photographs of dead, murdered children to the public would expose millions of children to those images, and might inflict the kind of psychological trauma upon them that contributes to making them shut down, lose empathy and become capable of violent acts themselves.  

Moore apparently doesn’t understand that using dead children as a prop to make political points and elevate his political position is a failure of empathy and act of brazen narcissism.  

Because the political underpinnings of what really happened to make this country defend human rights and free people from tyranny would be just as irrelevant to him as the underpinnings of what really happened in Newtown, where our shattered, shoddy mental health care system was again on display—as it was in Aurora, Colo., where James Holmes, who was also mentally ill, killed 12 people; and as it was near Tucson, Ariz., where Jared Lee Loughner, who was mentally ill, shot 19 people, killing six and severely wounding Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Here’s a psychiatrist’s advice for Moore:  Heart disease kills almost 600,000 people per year in the United States.  There are about 30,000 deaths from handguns.  Most of those are suicides due to depression.  

So, I suggest that, rather than releasing the pictures of slaughtered children, which will traumatize tens of millions of American children, he should release a naked photograph of himself.

Because, by his rationale (which I do not share), a full view of his obese torso could motivate people to stop drugging themselves with copious amounts of food and might put an end to a fair amount of heart disease.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team. Dr. Ablow can be reached at info@keithablow.com.

Dr. Keith Ablow

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Obama signs expanded Violence Against Women Act

President Obama signed expanded protections for domestic violence victims into law Thursday, renewing a measure credited with curbing attacks against women a year and a half after it lapsed amid partisan bickering.

The revitalized Violence Against Women Act also marked an important win for gay rights advocates and Native Americans, who will see new protections under the law, and for Obama, whose attempts to push for a renewal failed last year after they became entangled in gender politics and the presidential election.

"This is your day. This is the day of the advocates, the day of the survivors. This is your victory," Obama said. "This victory shows that when the American people make their voices heard, Washington listens."

As Obama prepared to put his pen to the new law, new government data underscored both the progress that has been made and the enduring need to do more.

The rate of sexual violence against women and girls age 12 or older fell 64 percent in a decade and has remained stable for five years, the Justice Department said in a survey released Thursday. In 2010, women and girls nationwide experienced about 270,000 rapes or sexual assaults, compared with 556,000 in 1995.

The survey also showed that rapes and sexual assault rates involving women have plateaued while violent crime rates overall have declined. Women's advocacy groups called the report proof that the Violence Against Women Act and heightened awareness of the problem by police has had a positive effect.

Still, 1 in 5 women will be raped during their lifetime, said Obama, asserting a continued need for action nearly two decades after the bill's original passage in 1994.

"It didn't just change the rules, it changed our culture. It empowered people to start speaking out," Obama said.

The law authorizes some $659 million a year over five years for programs that strengthen the criminal justice system's response to crimes against women and some men, such as transitional housing, legal assistance, law enforcement training and hotlines. One element of this year's renewal focuses on ways to reduce sexual assault on college campuses. It also reauthorizes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, adds stalking to the list of crimes that make immigrants eligible for protection and authorizes programs to reduce the backlog in rape investigations.

After twice being renewed with little resistance, it was something of a surprise in 2011 when lawmakers let the act expire. At the crux of the election-year clash were disagreements about expanded protections for gays and lesbians, Native Americans and illegal immigrants.

Sensing a political advantage, Senate Democrats offered an expanded law that specifically protects gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender Americans and gives tribal authorities the power to prosecute non-Indians for abuse committed on tribal lands. Republicans saw the move to load a popular bill with controversial elements as a provocation and objected to the Native American provisions on constitutional grounds. Democrats rejected a Republican alternative, arguing it didn't go far enough.

Continued resistance became less tenable for the GOP after its less-than-stellar performance among women voters in November's election. In February, House Republicans capitulated and allowed a vote on an almost identical version of the bill, which passed 286-138. It was the third time in two months that House Speaker John Boehner let a Democratic-supported bill reach the floor despite opposition from a majority of his own party -- a clear sign that Republicans wanted to put the issue behind them.

"When I see how quickly it got done, I'm feeling -- it makes me feel optimistic," Obama said sarcastically as he signed the bill Thursday.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden offered special thanks to Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who supported the renewal despite opposition from many in her party.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Eric Holder and members of the House and Senate from both parties joined Obama for the signing ceremony. Biden, who wrote and sponsored the original law in 1994, credited survivors who brought attention to the issue by speaking out despite the pain of reliving the attacks they endured.

"It brings it all back like a very bad nightmare," Biden said.

It was just days after the weddings that the assaults started, recalled Diane Millich, a Native American and advocate who introduced Biden. She said her ex-husband would mock her defenselessness by calling tribal police and sheriffs, who refused to act until he showed up with a gun.

"All the times I called the police and nothing was done only made my ex-husband believe he was above the law and untouchable," she said.

Linda Fairstein, the former chief sex crimes prosecutor for New York County, said domestic violence remains a huge problem in many Native American and ethnic communities, where women have been less able to seek recourse.

"This gives access to tens of thousands of victims who have just been denied access to the criminal justice system," Fairstein said in an interview.

Although the Violence Against Women Act has been credited with helping reduce domestic violence incidents by two-thirds since its inception, advocates were careful not to suggest that the problem has become any less urgent. Some questioned the accuracy of the new Justice Department data and whether the decline really represented fewer women reporting attacks.

"Having worked in the field, I don't think things are that much better for women," Fairstein said. "That's why these protections are so important."

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US missile shield defends against ballistic threats

A missile flies toward U.S. air space in the dark of night. The threat is detected from outer space, and a missile soars in response out of the Pacific Ocean -- and within minutes the threat is vaporized.

This is no movie: It’s just an ordinary day for the U.S. Navy, which is actively testing the might of a system designed to keep the homeland safe.

Using space-based satellite sensors orbiting the Earth, the Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMD) recently achieved its first live-fire medium-range ballistic missile intercept.

In mere minutes the target was vaporized, one missile striking another like a bullet hitting a second bullet in flight.

Aegis-equipped ships can simultaneously attack targets on land, ships and submarines, all while automatically unleashing defenses against enemy aircraft and missiles threatening the fleet, forces or homeland. And the system will remain robust despite budget cuts from sequestration: On Tuesday, March 5, Lockheed Martin was awarded a five-year, $100.7 million contract to maintain and upgrade the Aegis combat system.

Testing
In the wee hours of Valentine’s Day at 4:10 a.m. ET, the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii launched a medium range ballistic missile that headed northwest over the Pacific Ocean -- the 30th test of the system since 2002.

Up in outer space, the Space Tracking and Surveillance System detected and tracked the “threat.”  It sent the data back down to Earth to the USS Lake Eerie out at sea.

The ship processed the threat data and launched a Raytheon-made SM-3 Block IA missile, a defensive weapon that can destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

In mere minutes the target was vaporized, one missile striking another like a bullet hitting a second bullet in flight. The impact is like a 10-ton truck traveling at 600 mph colliding with a wall, Raytheon says.

Ballistic Missile Threat
Over the past five years, more than 1,200 ballistic missiles have been added to the world’s arsenal, according to the Missile Defense Agency. The total outside the United States, NATO, Russia and China has now risen over 5,900 missiles.

The MDA estimates that hundreds of missiles and launchers are within range of deployed U.S. forces right now.

Advanced ballistic missile technology is now far more widely available to countries hostile to the U.S., and the threat of hostile non-state groups is growing.

Iran’s short and medium range missile stockpile has grown, for example. In August 2012, Iran revealed a new upgraded short-range ballistic missile called Fateh-110 or Conqueror.

In 2009, the Revolutionary Guards tested the Shahab-3 and Sajjil rockets, believed to have ranges of approximately 1,240 miles, meaning they could strike targets in Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.

North Korea’s Taepodong-1 could reach Japan and South Korea -- as well as U.S. bases, like Okinawa in the region. The Taepodong-2 has a 25 percent greater range, and if eventually successful could reach the U.S. homeland. Its first launch in 2006 appeared to be a failure and its second appearance in 2009 fared no better.

But a leaked 2011 U.N. report seemed to suggest Iran and North Korea were swapping notes on ballistic missile development.

U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System
American missile defense technology is designed to meet ballistic missile threats at all ranges from short to long, thanks to a “layered defense.”

The BMD system has three main components: detection, interception, and a communications and battle management network.

For target detection and tracking, there are networked sensors and ground- and sea-based radars in addition to the space-based sensors.

Ground- or sea-based interceptors launch missiles to destroy the target.

The third piece, the network, provides commanders with links between the sensors and the interceptor missiles.

Space-based detection and tracking is particularly important because it allows a larger area to be defended. It also enables threats to be intercepted at a longer range than if only ground-based detection systems were used.

Almost one year ago in April 2011, the first successful use of the space-based sensors was demonstrated.

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense is the sea-based component of BMD.

To defend the homeland, Aegis ships patrol, detect and track ballistic missiles. The ships provide data to other Navy BMD ships and ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptors like Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

As of November 2012, there were 26 Aegis BMD combatants, comprising cruisers and destroyers, assigned to both the Pacific and Atlantic Fleet.

The MDA and the Navy are working together to increase the number of Aegis ships.

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

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Chicago's efforts against illegal firearm possession may face Statehouse obstacles

As Chicago leaders push for a statewide mandatory minimum prison sentence of three and a half years for illegal firearm possession in Illinois, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy made the case for urgency Monday by telling the story of an arrest this week in which police checked on a convicted felon and discovered he had a stolen and loaded Cat-9 9mm handgun.

McCarthy went through other tales of SWAT teams and cops bursting in on convicted felons to find .38 caliber Smith and Wessons, .45 caliber Glocks, .357s, and 38 specials. The guns typically are loaded, impossible to register and illegal -- both in how they are purchased and that they are in the possession of habitual, violent criminals.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, McCarthy and District Attorney Anita Alvarez are calling for legislation to toughen the penalty for illegal firearm possession, as well as so-called truth-in-sentencing laws, intended to prevent convicts from being released after serving just a fraction of their time and returning to their violent lifestyle.

“By increasing penalties and requiring criminals to serve their punishment, we not only protect our children, our families and our communities but we also prevent the impulsive retaliatory killings that plague our neighborhoods," McCarthy said.

The catch is that such laws need to be passed by the state Legislature in Springfield, where the success of Emanuel's agenda will depend on his powers of persuasion.

"When you commit a serious gun offense, you should serve the time. The victims deserve it. The public demands it, and the criminal justice system should deliver it," Emanuel said.

Emanuel may not be accustomed to the reception his push may get from downstate lawmakers.

Illinois prisons are so badly overcrowded that six of them have inmates bunking together in the gym. On top of that, the governor of the cash-strapped state announced the closure of two prisons. AFSCME union members are protesting because the understaffed guards are at risk. Their protest is punctuated by news that guards were attacked at Menard Correctional Center and the Pinckneyville Correctional Center.

Stiffer sentences will mean more prisoners staying longer, and downstate Illinois will help foot the bill for Chicago’s problem.

"It's an unfunded mandate, and you know the state of Illinois has a budget problem of course. We're trying to cut corners and do everything we can to balance the budget," Democratic State Sen. Gary Forby said.

The bill containing the increased penalties desired by Chicago’s leaders has been drawn up. It is in Springfield waiting to be assigned to a committee.

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Former rep appeals in suit against pro-life group over election loss

A former Ohio congressman who sued the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List for contributing to his election defeat has appealed after a U.S. District Court judge ruled against him last month. 

The move by former Rep. Steve Driehaus appeared to come as a surprise to the Susan B. Anthony List, which effectively declared victory in the case after the ruling in late January. President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement it is "frustrating" to see Driehaus pursue the case "knowing that he should never have started this legal battle in the first place." 

The former congressman evidently disagrees. 

In the unusual case, which Driehaus launched two years ago, the Ohio Democrat tried to hold Susan B. Anthony List accountable for spreading "lies" about him -- ultimately inflicting, he claimed, "reputational" and "economic" harm when he was defeated. 

The defamation case itself raised questions about the limits of rapid-fire ads, billboards and other campaign literature in a political race. In this case, Driehaus complained that the Susan B. Anthony List unfairly accused him of voting for taxpayer-funded abortions when he backed the federal health care overhaul. Driehaus campaigned as a pro-life Democrat. 

Last month, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black had dismissed the case. He determined that in the area of political campaigns, where the "principles of free speech and truth collide most violently," truth must be determined in the "marketplace of ideas" -- not the courts. 

Black wrote that associating a political candidate "with a mainstream political position, even if false, cannot constitute defamation." 

The congressman's original complaint cited statements dating back to August about his record on abortion. Among them was a set of billboards the Susan B. Anthony List planned to put up in October claiming he voted for "taxpayer-funded abortion." At the time, Driehaus filed a complaint with the state election board over the billboards, which did not go up, claiming they broke a state law prohibiting false statements. That battle dragged on until, after the election, Driehaus dropped the complaint and instead filed the defamation suit. 

The ex-congressman claimed he was going after the group because, according to him, they crossed the line and lied. 

"The First Amendment is not and never has been an invitation to concoct falsehoods aimed at depriving a person of his livelihood," his original complaint said. 

The court filing this past Thursday appeals the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

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