A tragic story about how an inexperienced Blackwater flight crew who crashed their plane in Afghanistan killing 6 including Lt. Col. Michael McMahon who at the time was the highest ranking soldier to die in the war.
(If you are having problems viewing this video on MsSparky.com click HERE to view it and the show transcript at the CBS site.)
One sure would think so……..
IG: Single Staffer Assigned To Oversee $2.5 Billion Dyncorp Iraq Contract
TPMMuckraker Justin Elliott | January 25, 2010, 9:33AM
It’s hardly news that U.S. government contracts in Iraq have been a mess of fraud, abuse, and lax oversight for years. But a new Inspector General report that reveals the State Department assigned just one oversight officer to a $2.5 billion police training contract still manages to shock.
The report (.pdf) released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction is the second study in the past few years that showed lax or nonexistent oversight on the large police training contract of Virginia-based Dyncorp.
The IG concluded that “over $2.5 billion in U.S. funds are vulnerable to waste and fraud” — an assertion the State Department disputes.
The BBC outlines the state of oversight on the contract: (Read the rest of the story here…)
David Isenberg
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: February 21, 2010 03:08 PM
The biggest portion of U.S. private military contractors has always been, by far, on the logistics, not the weapons bearing security side.
These contractors deliver fuel and supplies, construct bases, prepare meals at the DFAC (Dining Facility), clean laundry, provide interpreters, and a host of other unglamorous but vital jobs.
Most of the time they do it very well, under very difficult conditions. Many of their supporters herald this as an unprecedented achievement in American military history. Such a view has long been the sound bite for which Doug Brooks, head of the International Peace Operations Association, a leading industry trade group, is best known for, i.e., “We have the best supported, supplied military in any military operation in history.” Indeed, if you search online for Doug Brooks and that phrase you get 1,400,000 hits.
That is why this article in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week grabbed my attention. It described how numerous returning veterans have reported leukemia, lymphoma, congestive heart problems, neurological conditions, bronchitis, skin rashes and sleep disorders — all of which they attribute to burn pits on dozens of U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Items burned in the pits have included medical waste, plastics, computer parts, oil, lubricants, paint, tires and foam cups, according to soldiers and contractors. (Read the rest of the story here…)
By Matthew Hansen – Staff Writer
Omaha World Herald – February 21, 2010
Sgt. Klayton Thomas looked every bit the poster boy Marine as he strode into a military hospital last September to get his back checked.
He taught karate and earned his abs in the gym. He had survived a 2007 deployment to Iraq, even thrived during his prolonged stay in the middle of the then-treacherous Sunni Triangle. He rarely drank. He didn’t smoke. Life seemed perfect on this mid-September Thursday, if only his back would stop aching. The 25-year-old Columbus, Neb., native thought he had wrenched it playing soccer. Three months and 10 days later, he died in hospice care.
This much is known: Thomas succumbed to an unstoppable lung cancer that crushed his vertebrae, blitzed his bones and invaded his brain, dumbfounding doctors who had spent their entire careers treating the disease.
His death leaves a medical mystery, one similar to those posed by hundreds of other American military personnel battling exotic cancers or struggling with rare respiratory problems.
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This mystery begins in the unlikeliest of places: Iraqi “burn pits” — large, primitive landfills where contractors set trash aflame, causing ever-present black smoke to drift over dozens of U.S. military bases.
Health experts, a high-powered defense lawyer, Congress and even the president have taken notice, asking questions like Klayton Thomas’ parents and doctors asked in the weeks after he fell ill.
Why would an otherwise healthy young nonsmoker contract a cancer that generally haunts older smokers? Why did this cancer spread like wildfire when experts say its normal path can take years?
Simply put: Why did Sgt. Klayton Thomas die?
“We were scared to death when he went to Iraq, scared of a mortar attack, an IED,” said his mother, Connie Thomas of Columbus. “But nothing like this. Not in our wildest dreams.” (Read the rest of the story here…)
Buh, bye, BK (Barracks Patrol Report No. 1)
Under The Radar
by The Barracks Patrol – Military.com
February 19, 2010
Attention on the net: You got the Barrack Patrol here, bringing you the best of what we hear and what you tell us about. (And, as always, confidentiality is GUARANTEED — not too many places around this here U.S. military that you get one of those … or at least one of those you want.)
And most of the chatter on our freq the last few days has been about Big General Mac’s order to shut down all the fast food joints and other “Hey Joe” establishments around the FOBs in the ‘Stan Suck. The reaction to said order has turned into a battle royale (with cheese) of sorts between two camps: The Trigger Pullers versus the FOBbits.
Now the Trigger Pullers, who, unlike the FOBbits have actually discharged their weapons in anger, are happy for a warm meal, period, never mind one served up by a good ole’ American franchise like KFC. So when they amble back from a patrol for a little down time and see the “world within a world” that is the FOB they tend to wonder where the priorities are with the guys running the show. (These are the guys who were pinned down the day before without air support because of too few drones in theater or whatever, so you’ll have to forgive them when the sight of a Baskin-??Robbins with all 31 flavors gets them a bit steamed under the Kevlar.) Suffice it to say that the Trigger Pullers are okay with Gen. Mac’s order. Instead of Whoppers, they want more bullets. As Trigger Puller “Lawman” told us: “Only at the FOB would you have to worry about Soldiers gaining weight in the middle of a war.” (Read the rest of the story here…)
This amazing video was done by a small production compnay in the UK called Myrtle Productions. The song is entitle Coming Home and is sung by The Soldiers. The amazing art is done by Michael G Reagan founder of the Fallen Heroes Project. I have blogged many times about Micheal’s work. For those who are not familiar, Michael is a world renowned portrait artist who now draws almost exclusively portraits of Fallen Heroes who have died in the fight against terrorism. He presents these portraits as a gift to the families free of charge. He’s been getting a lot of recent media coverage in the United Kingdom because not all the Fallen Heroes are from the US. I urge you to follow the link to the Fallen Heroes Project site and donate generously. (Read the rest of the story here…)
Updated: 2/12/2011 Robert Wade Prince pleads guilty and is sentenced (click HERE)
Updated: 2/20/2010 see below for link to original complaint
The idiot in this article is Robert Wade Prince.
Defense contractor arrested on Houston flight after ‘international disturbance’
February 15, 9:44 PM
Robert Wade Prince (taken Sept 2009)
(Houston) — Police are calling it an ‘international incident’ in the sky on a flight that was headed for Houston on Sunday, and now a defense contractor is facing at least 2 federal charges.
Houston Police officers say they were called to the gate to meet the arriving flight from Amsterdam, and they found two Federal Air Marshals with a Texas man under arrest.
According to the incident report on file with HPD, the passenger is identified as an employee of Kellogg Brown & Root and he will appear before a federal magistrate this week to answer to charges of Assault on a Federal Officer and Interference with a Flight Crew, both federal felonies.
Police who interviewed passengers from the flight say the passenger was horribly drunk when he started yelling and groping the female passenger in the seat next to him. (Read the rest of the story here…)
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