The Pentagon may ask the U.S. Congress to rewrite the Endangered Species Act to exempt military training exercises from restrictions to protect sea turtles, desert tortoises, and other rare critters. Defense Department documents leaked to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility propose that the secretary of defense be able to “grant exemptions for reasons of mission readiness.” PEER said a military official was the source of the documents. But a Pentagon spokesperson said yesterday that he couldn’t find anyone at the DOD who was familiar with them.
