» 2011 » September Ms Sparky

L-3 & CACI may be off the hook in Abu Ghraib torture scandal

Posted on: September 22nd, 2011 at 2:30 am — by Forseti

U.S. court dismisses Iraq contractor torture cases

James Vicini – (Reuters) - WASHINGTON – September 21, 2011 – A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday dismissed lawsuits claiming employees of two defense contractors conspired to torture and abuse Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and at other locations.

The court ruled for CACI International Inc, which helped conduct interrogations at Abu Ghraib, and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc, which provided translators to the U.S. military for questioning Iraqi detainees at various sites.

One lawsuit was filed by 72 Iraqis while the other was brought by four Iraqis.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, held the claims were pre-empted by federal law and must be dismissed. It also cited a ruling in 2009 by a U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., in a similar lawsuit against the two companies.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Politics, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Abu Ghraib, CACI International, L-3 Communications, Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari, Susan Burke, Wissam Abdullateff Sa'eed Al-Quraishi. No Comments »

Iraq: We Lost $1.2 Billion in Equipment Going in; How Much Will We Lose Getting Out?

Posted on: September 21st, 2011 at 6:39 am — by Forseti

Dina Rasor – (Truthout | Solutions) – September 21, 2011 – On December 31, 2011, the United States has committed to the government of Iraq that they will be removing their troops and contractor personnel. The US State Department will remain in a diplomatic role with limited Department of Defense (DoD) personnel and some State Department-hired private security personnel for protection.

Beyond the sticky diplomatic implications of this transfer, the DoD has a complicated task to wind down its giant footprint in Iraq. It will require a delicate and well-prepared withdrawal to get all the troops, contractors, equipment, and other assets out of the giant bases and turn the bases over to the Iraqi government while preventing attacks from insurgents and looting of US government assets.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) just released a detailed report [4] saying, in their ever so polite way, that the DoD and the State Department don’t have the information and tools to pull this off. The benign title of the report to Congress (“IRAQ DRAWDOWN: Opportunities Exist to Improve Equipment Visibility, Contractor Demobilization and Clarity of Post-2011 DoD Role”) doesn’t project the startling troubles they outline inside the report that threaten this withdrawal.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, KBR, KBR Contract, LOGCAP III - KBR. Tags: CENTCOM, Contractor Managed Government Owned (CMGO), Dina Rasor, DoD*, Donald Rumsfeld, DOS*, GAO, Halliburton, Iraq, KBR, LOGCAP, LOGCAP III, POGO, USAID, USF-I. 2 Comments »

Trial begins for Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle in arms trafficking scheme

Posted on: September 20th, 2011 at 5:31 am — by Forseti

Jury seated in Navy SEAL’s arms smuggling trial

Update 10-7-2011-Nicholas Bickle found guilty on 13 counts

Jeff German – (Las Vegas Review-Journal) – September 19, 2011 – A federal prosecutor told a jury Monday that Nicholas Bickle abused the power of the Navy SEAL uniform he wore to court on the first day of his arms smuggling trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Smith said the government “brick by brick” would “build a wall of evidence” against the San Diego-based SEAL accused of smuggling machine guns, other weapons and explosives into the country from the Middle East for his own profit.

But Bickle’s San Diego defense lawyer, James Pokorny, told the jury that the government’s chief witnesses, not Bickle, will emerge during the trial as the real bad guys in the arms smuggling scheme.

“This is a case about lies, drug use and hidden agendas,” Pokorny said. “The facts that you are going to hear in this case will cause you to be filled with doubt.”

All three of Bickle’s former co-defendants — Omar Aguirre, 35, and Andrew Kaufman, 36, both of Las Vegas, and Richard Paul, 35, of Colorado — pleaded guilty in the scheme and agreed to testify against Bickle.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, U.S. Navy. Tags: Andrew Kaufman, ATF, International Traffic in Arms Regulations, NCIS, Nicholas Bickle, Omar Aguirre, Richard Paul, SEAL Team 5, Transformers Dark of the Moon. 3 Comments »

USACE employee Thomas Aram Manok pleads guilty to Iraq bribery charges

Posted on: September 19th, 2011 at 9:33 am — by Forseti

Thomas Manok (photo LinkedIn)

Execute USACE Army Corp of Engineers projects as part of rebuilding Iraq program. Manage public work, military base and Iraqi infrastructure building construction projects. Mentor and train Iraqi Engineers to step up to the Western techniques in financial and financial project schedule management. ~LinkedIn Profile

He apparently also worked for ECC and was the Deputy Program Manager for Stanley Baker Hill (SBH), in Iraq, prior to landing the USACE gig. I hope the DoD, DoJ and FBI are reviewing his dealings at SBH & ECC too! ~Forseti

Former Army Corps of Engineers Employee Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes from Iraqi Contractors

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – September 19, 2011 – A former employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to receive bribes from Iraqi contractors involved in the U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Director in Charge James W. McJunkin of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Thomas Aram Manok, 50, of Chantilly, Va., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia. Sentencing has been scheduled for Dec. 9, 2011. Manok faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Ignorance is waste and other news

Posted on: September 18th, 2011 at 7:27 am — by Forseti

A culture that has allowed massive waste of taxpayers’ dollars has become business-as-usual at the Department of Defense. Particularly in today’s fiscal environment, this cannot be tolerated. If this is not corrected, the Department’s ability to continue defending the Nation and to provide for its national security will be compromised. Taxpayers simply will not tolerate the continuing waste of their resources in light of the debt we face and our competing budgetary needs. ~Senator John McCain, (R-AZ) – Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)

Government Ignores Law Limiting Executive Salaries of Contractors
Noel Brinkerhoff – (AllGov) – September 18, 2011 – United States law demands that the government limit the amount of executive salaries earned by companies with federal contracts. But the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy has not set the limit for fiscal year 2011, and the amount that government contractors’ top executives are making has more than doubled since the 1990s. That’s not sitting well with some lawmakers.

In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), along with Representative Paul Tonko (D-New York), urged the White House office to set a ceiling on “the maximum salaries top contractor employees can receive by the end of fiscal 2011.”

“At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, and millions more are taking home paychecks that don’t go as far as they used to, we ask you to determine the executive compensation benchmark for 2011,” wrote the lawmakers. “The American people deserve to know exactly how much government contractor executives will charge the taxpayer for their salaries this year.” (Click HERE for article)

Former and Current Soldiers and Recruiter Indicted for Allegedly Obtaining Recruiting Bonuses Through Fraud Scheme
(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – September 16, 2011 – Six current and former members of the U.S. military have been charged a 41-count indictment in San Antonio for allegedly defrauding various U.S. military components and their contractor of approximately $127,000 by fraudulently obtaining recruiting bonuses, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Tamimi, the unlucky “13th defendant” settles with the U.S.

Posted on: September 16th, 2011 at 5:12 pm — by Forseti

Saudi Arabia-Based Tamimi Global Company to Pay U.S. $13 Million to Resolve Criminal and Civil Allegations of Kickbacks and Illegal Gratuities

KBR Subcontractor Provided Dining Services in Iraq and Kuwait

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – September 16, 2011 – Saudi Arabia-based Tamimi Global Company Ltd (TAFGA) has agreed to pay the United States $13 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company paid kickbacks to a Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. (KBR) employee and illegal gratuities to a former U.S. Army sergeant, in connection with contracts in support of the Army’s operations in Iraq and Kuwait. The civil matter was handled by the Justice Department’s Civil Division, and the criminal matter was handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois.

The U.S. alleges that employees of TAFGA paid kickbacks to KBR to obtain subcontracts awarded under LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) III – KBR’s prime contract with the U.S. Army to provide logistical support to the military in conflicts abroad, including Iraq and Afghanistan. LOGCAP III is the third generation of contracts under the program. KBR performs its obligations under the contract largely through subcontractors such as TAFGA.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Camp Victory, the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, getting ready to close

Posted on: September 15th, 2011 at 5:26 pm — by Ms Sparky

Annie Gowen (Washington Post) – CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – September 12 – An unlikely quiet hangs over Camp Victory these days, broken only by a rare blast of rocket fire.

This base — the headquarters of the U.S. military in Iraq — was once a city unto itself, teeming with 46,000 troops and four-star generals plotting their next moves from Saddam Hussein’s old palaces.

In a few short months, the American military presence here will be history; the tanks, weapons, computers and personnel all shipped out; the gates locked and the keys turned over to the Iraqi government.

Already, only 24,000 troops remain on the base, and the amenities that once made this the most American of outposts in Iraq — the Cinnabon, Subway and Burger King kiosks, as well as the PXs that sold everything from microwaves to thong underwear — are rapidly closing.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, GOV. CONTRACTORS. Tags: Brig. Gen. Bradley A. Becker, Camp Victory, Iraq Drawdown, Victory Base Complex (VBC). 1 Comment »

« Older posts « Rep. Tierney says penalty for Afghan contractors too small

Newer posts » Tamimi, the unlucky “13th defendant” settles with the U.S. »