Transcript of Pentagon Upheaval, Hamas Releases More Hostages, NY State Prisons

Upheaval at the Pentagon.

President Donald Trump fires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Top military lawyers are also out, as are more than 5,000 personnel. I'm Ayesha Rasko.

I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Hamas frees more Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The militant group has also returned the body of Sherry Bibas. Whose remains were initially misidentified in an earlier handover, we'll have the latest.

In New York State, the governor has deployed National Guard troops to help secure prisons.

That's amid protest by Corrections officers. Some are on strike. Cards of two prisons walked off the job last week.

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Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr, the second African-American to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is now out of a job.

He was fired last night by President Trump.

Trump has nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Cain as his replacement.

And Pierre Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman joins us with more details about this and other Department of Defense shakeups. Tom, thanks for being here.

Good to be with you, Scott.

What happened?

Well, it is stunning, but it actually was expected. Scott, there's been talk for weeks that General Brown would be fired, and a lot of this comes down to a sense the general was chosen for the post because of the color of his skin, not his ability. Now, again, he's a second African-American after Cole and Powell to hold the top military job. But Defense Secretary, Pete Hexet, wrote in his book, War and Warriors, that Brown should be fired because he was pushing diversity programs and questioned whether he got the job because of the color of his skin or his skill. Texas said he made the race card his biggest calling card. Now, Brown did make an emotional video after the death of George Floyd, recalling his discrimination he felt rising through the ranks in the Air Force. But Brown's an accomplished F-16 pilot, held numerous commands. Also, it was Trump during his first term who nominated him to become Air Force Chief.

Who's General Cain, man set to replace him?

General Cain Caine, he's an F-16 pilot like CQ Brown. He rose up through the ranks and met Trump while he was stationed in Baghdad back in 2018, '19. And Trump said Caine told him that ISIS could be defeated quickly, and Trump said he delivered. What's important to note, Scott, is that Brown came up with the strategy to defeat ISIS. He was going to treat it as a state, not as a terror group, or you provide air support to the Kurdish fighters on the ground. He went after their infrastructure, went after their banks. That's what ended the Islamic State. That's something that Trump never mentioned. And Dan Cain more recently spent time working at the CIA. Several people I spoke with at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill said they had to Google him. He's a retired three-star, so he'll have to come back on active duty, be promoted to four-star rank, and will need Senate approval.

Secretary Hegset also fired the top admiral in the Navy, Admiral Lisa Franketty, the first woman to hold the job. And that's, of course, along with a lot of other fireings. Tell us about that.

Well, again, Hegset said in his book, she was chosen because of her gender. She rose up the ranks herself, was commended a destroyer, two carrier, strike groups, and also the sixth Fleet that covers Europe and Asia. So again, this was expected as well. The sense was that her time was coming because, again, they saw her as a diversity hire as woke. But again, Scott, these admirals and generals, they follow policy. They don't come up with these diversity programs. They're following policy set by civilians, and now they're paying the price.

More than 5,000 civilians also being let go from the DOD, aren't they?

That's right. We'll see that next week. Roughly 5,400, we're told, throughout the Pentagon and also the defense agencies. That's the first tranche, we're told, of up to 55,000 civilian probationary workers who will be let go. The savings from these firings and other cuts to programs will be used to build more submarines, drones, and also missile defense.

Npr Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman, thanks so much for being with us, Tom.

You're welcome, Scott.

Today, another release of living Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

It's the last such exchange in the first phase of the ceasefire between Hamas in Israel.

And here's Kat Lonsdorff joins us now. Kat, thanks for being with us.

Hey, good morning.

What can you tell us about the hostages released today?

So the hostages released today are four men who had been captured in the October seventh, 2023 Hamas at attack on Southern Israel and held captive throughout the war. Then also two hostages that had been held in Gaza for around a decade. One is an Ethiopian Israeli man, and the other is Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel. Both of them had been taken captive after they had crossed into Gaza on their own years ago in separate incidents.

What were today's releases like?

In Gaza, it was a bit more complicated than other releases in the past. The six were released in three different locations throughout the Gaza Strip. But generally, the scene was similar to others that we've seen in this past month. The hostages were brought on a stage by a masked Hamas gunmen with a huge crowd of Palestinian onlookers before being released to the International Committee of the Red Cross and then driven to meet Israeli forces.

In exchange for these hostages, and the four bodies returned earlier this week, Israel has agreed to release more than 600 Palestinians from Israeli jails. What details do you have about that?

This is the largest release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees at one time during this ceasefire. Among them are prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, but also many who have been held in administration administrative detention without charge or sentences, including women and minors. More than 400 of them are Palestinians who had been detained in Gaza during the war, and they're going to be released back to Gaza. Others are being deported to Egypt.

Kat, there was a mixup with one of the bodies Hormas released earlier this week. It was supposed to be that of Israeli mother returned with the bodies of her two young sons who were slain, but it wasn't. What's the latest?

Yeah, so this was the body of Shiri Biba, who had been captured with her husband and two young sons on October seventh, 2023. And together, the family had become a symbol in Israel of the hostage struggle. Hamas says Shiri and her two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Hamas supposedly released their bodies on Thursday, like you said. But when they were taken to a forensic lab here in Israel, it was found that the woman's body was not Shiri. It was an unidentified woman. Hamas then gave a different body back to Israel late last night. That body was then positively identified as Shiri. The forensic examiner here in Israel found that all three, Shiri and her two young sons, had been, quote, murdered, but did not provide further details or evidence as to how.

This is the last scheduled release of hostages who are alive from Gaza in the first phase of the agreement. What's next?

So there are four more bodies set to be released next week in this first phase, but there are still dozens of hostages in Gaza. It talks for the next phase of the deal. They were supposed to start weeks ago, and they haven't started yet. Hamasah said it's ready to, quote, engage immediately in negotiations, but the situation here in Israel is really complicated. Several far and the right members in Israel's government want the war to resume. Meanwhile, most of the Israeli public want the ceasefire to continue and the rest of the hostages to be released. Here's 43-year-old Liat Elert. She talked to NPR producer Ete Stern this morning. In a crowd of people gathered in Tel Aviv in support of the hostages.

If you're walking around here and seeing all the people here, the people of Israel voting with their hands, feet, whatever they can do and doing everything they can in their power to bring those hostages back home.

Many of the Israelis we talked to today had a similar sentiment. They want this war to be over, and they want the rest of the hostages released.

And here's Kat Lonsdorff in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much, Kat.

Thank you.

Prison guards, protesting working conditions they say are unfair and unsafe have been on strike across New York State since Monday.

Inmates say they feel abandoned and unsafe.

There have been other developments this week. A group of correctional officers were charged in a fatal beating of an inmate.

North Country Public Radio's Emily Russell joins us. Emily, thanks for being with Good morning, Scott. What has prompted the prison strikes in New York this week?

Well, corrections officers say they're overworked, they're understaffed, and they say they face dangerous conditions on the job. The strike started at a few prisons Monday morning and has spread to 38 of the state's 42 prisons. I should note, it's actually illegal for New York state employees to go on strike, but that hasn't stopped this one. Corrections officers are making a number of demands. A key one is to repeal the halt Act, which limits their use of solitary confinement. We talked to a retired Corrections Officer, Gregory King, at the strike outside the prison in Danamora this week. Inmates now don't have any repercussions for their actions.

The flow of fentanyl and other drugs within the facility is out of control, so it's becoming unsafe for everybody that's working in there.

Governor Kathy Hochul has deployed 3,500 New York National Guard troops to help secure prisons during the strikes.

I gather the tension's also on the rise of two prisons in Northern New York this week. What happened there?

Well, part of the issue with these officers striking has been that the ones working inside these prisons don't have many people to relieve them. Now, it's a little unclear what exactly happened at these prisons, but in Ogdensburg, we know that there were officers who were on duty who, vacated their posts Wednesday night and left inmates unsupervised for hours. That's according to the State's Department of Corrections. A similar thing happened at one of the prisons in Malone on Thursday.

What are you able to hear from inmates and groups that speak for them?

Well, they say inmates are the ones suffering because of the strikes. The state has canceled visits at all prisons. Advocates say that adds a layer of isolation on top of the push to allow officers more leeway with solitary confinement. I talked to Thomas Gantt. He served 25 years behind bars and now works for the Center for Community Alternatives. That's an advocacy group in New York City.

The answer isn't to continue to lock people away and confide them. The answer is to give programs, to give skills, not just teaching a person how to mop and sweep a floor, but give them more contemporary skills.

Gantt and a number of other advocates think that prison strikes are an attempt to distract from something else that happened this week, the arrest of officers charged with fatally beating an inmate back in December.

Emily, please remind us about that incident and how it might figure into this week's rest.

Yeah. Back in December, several corrections officers at a prison near Utica, New York, fatally beat an inmate. His name was Robert Brooks. Body camera footage shows Brooks in handcuffs as officers punch and kick and choke him. His death was ruled a homicide. On Thursday, six officers were charged with murder. Three others were charged with manslaughter for not intervening. Every officer arraign this week has pleaded not guilty.

How has the governor of New York responded to all this?

Well, in the case of Robert Brooks, Governor Hochul said in a statement that corrections officers had been, quote, rightfully charged with murder. As for the strikes, the state has tried to meet some of the demands. It has temporarily suspended parts of the Halt Act, so giving officers more flexibility to use solitary confinement. Mediation talks are set to begin on Monday between state officials and the union that represents corrections officers. All of this has happened the same week the governor is dealing with a few other big shoes, one being New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Justice Department's involvement in his corruption case. Then President Donald Trump moved to reverse the city's congestion pricing plan. It's been a chaotic week in New York, to say the least.

North Country Public Radio is Emily Russell. Emily, thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks, Scott. That's up first for Saturday, February 22nd.

I'm Ayesha Rosco.

I'm Scott Simon.

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