The defense does not plan to present any evidence when a military hearing resumes next week for the Army psychiatrist charged in last year’s deadly Fort Hood shootings, the lead defense attorney said Tuesday. John Galligan said the government had offered “no surprises” in presenting its case against Maj. Nidal Hasan during two weeks of testimony in October.

Army Times reports.

An Army sergeant accused of masterminding a plan to kill Afghan civilians for sport used manipulation and intimidation to lead other soldiers into acts of unspeakable cruelty, an Army prosecutor told a military hearing Tuesday. But the defense attorney for Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs said the government has no physical evidence against the 25-year-old from Billings, Mont. — only the statements of other soldiers, many of whom also are charged in the case.

Kate Wiltrout at Virginia Pilot reports on a command response on the USS SAN ANTONIO case.

For Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kearns, the outcome of last week’s court-martial is crystal clear. Kearns, former executive officer of the troubled amphibious transport dock San Antonio, was found not guilty of criminal negligence related to the death of a sailor who drowned last year in the Gulf of Aden. For the man who opted to send Kearns to trial, the ramifications of the case are more murky.

Admiral Harvey presents an interesting contrast between legal and criminal responsibility for a senior officer, and the maxim that a captain should go down with his ship. While to XO may have been acquitted as a matter of criminal law, it appears that he is guilty as a matter of Navy philosophy of command responsibility.

The XO of USS SAN ANTONIO

has chosen to go to a court-martial on charges he was negligent on the day a sailor was lost at sea last year. If convicted, Lt. Cmdr. Sean D. Kearns, now assigned to a staff job at the U.S. Navy’s Second Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, would be the second person publicly reprimanded for a role in the death of Petty Officer 1st Class Theo-philus Ansong on Feb. 4, 2009. The San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock ship that’s the first of its kind, was operating in the Gulf of Aden and preparing to transfer sailors to another U.S. ship nearby. Ansong, 34, was in an 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boat that flipped while it was being lowered by crane from the San Antonio into the water. Three sailors were thrown from the small boat; two were rescued. Ansong’s body was never recovered.

The former CO received a letter of reprimand in May 2010 at flag mast.

The defense counsel has said that the defense will be based on a known design flaw in the ship which:

made lowering a small boat into the water more challenging than on other classes of ships, such as destroyers. There are now five San Antonio-class ships in the fleet. “We are aware that they are encountering the same problems and difficulties,” he said. After Ansong’s death, the Navy rolled out a series of changes in how ships in the class should change their standard operating procedures when dealing with small boats, he said.

A senior chief who was censured by the Secretary of the Navy for hazing sailors under his command may retire with a full pension, Navy officials say. Since it was announced last October, the terms of Michael Toussaint’s retirement have come under scrutiny that is unprecedented for an enlisted sailor. The senior chief petty officer, who from 2005 to 2006 led a Bahrain-based canine unit that was plagued by widespread documented abuse, denied much of his alleged misconduct in February during a retirement board hearing, a proceeding normally reserved for commissioned officers. The case will soon go to the desk of an assistant secretary of the Navy, who faces a choice: to approve the unanimous recommendation of the three board members who said Toussaint deserves to retire with a senior chief’s pension; or to take a harder line and reduce him to a lower pay grade, as government lawyers had sought to do during the hearing.

And the Virginia Pilot online reports:

A Marine staff sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday to mistreating 17 male subordinates by touching them in the groin, repeatedly making offensive sexual comments and gestures, and accusing them of being gay. . . . judge sentenced him to a year in confinement, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge. In exchange for McCoy’s guilty plea, the government dropped 24 other charges against him, including 14 counts of sexual misconduct and three counts of assault.

Federal Computer Week has this post about Facebook.

The National Guard Bureau is giving guard members specific guidance on how to control their privacy settings on Facebook and what to avoid publishing on social media sites.

And on a different note, Stars & Stripes reports that:

Citing “serious” crime in the area, Yokota’s base commander on Tuesday banned troops, dependents and Defense Department civilians from six bars in the already restricted entertainment district near Yokota’s main gate.