Virginia senator backs aide, right to bear arms

WASHINGTON — One day after his aide was arrested for carrying a loaded pistol into a Senate office building, Sen. Jim Webb on Tuesday called the incident "unfortunate" and offered a ringing endorsement of the right to bear arms.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Virginia Democrat said, it has been "a more dangerous time" for people in government. "I believe that it's important for me, personally, and for a lot of people in the situation that I am in, to be able to defend myself and my family," Webb said.

Webb's aide, Phillip Thompson, was arrested Monday when, according to Capitol police, he tried to enter a Senate office building with a loaded handgun and two magazines of ammunition. Police said the weapon was inside a briefcase Thompson placed on an X-ray belt. Thompson said the gun and magazines belonged to Webb, although Webb said he had not given them to Thompson.

Thompson was charged Tuesday with one felony count of carrying a pistol without a license and was released without bond.

Judge dismisses Rumsfeld torture suit

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First had argued that Rumsfeld and top military officials disregarded warnings about the abuse and authorized the use of illegal interrogation tactics that violated the constitutional and human rights of prisoners. But Hogan ruled that Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job.

Surgeon general warns about morale

The Army's new acting surgeon general said Tuesday she is concerned about long-term morale because the military lacks money to hire enough nurses and mental-health specialists to treat thousands of troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"When the original plans were made, we did not take into consideration we could be in a long war," said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock. She became surgeon general earlier this month after Kevin Kiley was forced to resign in a scandal over poor treatment of war-wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"We have not been able to do the hiring," Pollock told a House Armed Services subcommittee. She testified at the first of two congressional hearings Tuesday on veterans care during which lawmakers expressed impatience with the Bush administration's efforts.

Jury selection begins in trial over secrets

Jury selection began Tuesday in Santa Ana, Calif., in the federal trial of a former engineer at a major U.S. defense contractor accused of stealing military secrets for China.

Federal prosecutors have portrayed defendant Chi Mak as a foreign agent who used his position to steal some of the most advanced and closely guarded naval technology in the world, including silent-running propulsion systems that can make submarines virtually undetectable. Defense attorneys argue Mak is a devoted American who would never harm his adopted country.

Mak, 66, who has been a U.S. citizen since 1985, is charged with conspiracy to export U.S. defense secrets to China, possession of property in aid of a foreign government and failure to register as a foreign agent. He faces more than 50 years in prison if convicted.