Legion of Merit

The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued both to United States military personnel and to military and political figures of foreign governments. The Legion of Merit (Commander degree) is one of only two United States military decorations to be issued as a neck order (the other being the Medal of Honor) and the only United States decoration which may be issued in award degrees (much like an order of chivalry or certain Orders of Merit).[1][2]

The Legion of Merit is sixth in the order of precedence of U.S. military decorations, and is worn after the Defense Superior Service Medal and before the Distinguished Flying Cross. In contemporary use in the U.S. armed forces, the Legion of Merit is typically awarded to Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force general officers and colonels, and Navy and Coast Guard flag officers and captains occupying command or very senior staff positions in their respective services. It may also be awarded to officers of lesser rank and senior enlisted personnel, but these instances are less frequent and circumstances vary by service. The medal can be considered as "points" in some promotion systems, such as the Air Force, where it is counted as 7 points (out of a possible 25 points for decorations)


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Wikileaks files reveal secret US-Yemen bomb deal

The cables suggest Yemen's president insisted on taking responsibility for US air strikes
Continue reading the main story
Wikileaks Revelations

Cables at a glance
Britain still a useful US ally?
Has Wikileaks cost lives?
Bumpy ride ahead for US diplomats
US cables released by the Wikileaks website suggest that Yemen allowed secret US air strikes against suspected al-Qaeda militants.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh claimed raids were conducted by Yemen's military when they were in fact carried out by the US, according to the cables.

The files also reveal that Mr Saleh rejected an offer to deploy US ground forces in Yemen.

The US fears Yemen has become a haven for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The cables detail how Mr Saleh claimed responsibility for two US air strikes in December 2009, according to the Guardian .

A few days after the second attack on 24 December, Mr Saleh told the then head of US central command, General David Petraeus: "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours."

On 21 December, US ambassador Stephen Seche reported in a dispatch that "Yemen insisted it must 'maintain the status quo' regarding the official denial of US involvement."

Mr Seche quotes Mr Saleh as saying that he wanted operations to continue "non-stop until we eradicate this disease".

The messages are among more than 250,000 US cables obtained by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

The files are released in stages by Wikileaks, and details are also being published in the Guardian, the New York Times and other papers around the world that investigated the material.

'Bizarre'
According to the files released on Friday, Gen Petraeus had flown in to Yemen's capital Sanaa to tell Mr Saleh that the US would also allow its ground forces to be deployed in Yemen on counter-terrorism operations.

Mr Saleh rejected the offer, although he had told President Barack Obama's national security adviser, John Brennan, in September 2009 that he would give the US full access.

"I have given you an open door on terrorism," Mr Saleh is quoted in a US cable after the meeting with Mr Brennan.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is suspected of having launched a number of attacks on targets in the West, including failed plots to bomb several cargo airliners in October.

The cables also reveal Mr Saleh to be an erratic partner in negotiations, the Guardian reports.

US security officials who met Yemen's long-standing leader in the course of 2009 described him as "petulant" and "bizarre".

After one meeting with Mr Brennan, the US ambassador reported that Mr Saleh had been "in vintage form". Mr Seche wrote that the President was "at times disdainful and dismissive", while he was "conciliatory and congenial" on other occasions.

Mr Saleh told Mr Brennan that should the US not help Yemen, "this country will become worse than Somalia".







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