Politics – Ms Sparky

Politics Archive

U.S. paid to maintain inoperable Afghan police vehicles, audit finds

By Forseti | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Reports & Investigations

(Video from Automotive Management Services Website)

Wasteful spending on Afghanistan’s security has continued to plague the U.S. government, with the latest revelation of nearly $7 million spent to maintain police vehicles that either were destroyed or inoperable. ~Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov

Ernesto Londoño – (The Washington Post) – January 17, 2013 – The U.S. government paid $6.8 million for maintenance of more than 7,000 Afghan police vehicles that had been destroyed or were out of commission, according to an inspector general report released Thursday.

Read the remainder of this entry »

Tags: Afghanistan, Automotive Management Services, John F. Sopko, NATO, SIGAR

A “Mutiny” in Kabul: Guards Allege Security Problems Have Put Embassy at Risk

By Ms Sparky | Filed in Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Reports & Investigations, Security Contractors

Adam Zagorin – (POGO) – January 17, 2013 – Private guards responsible for protecting what may be the most at-risk U.S. diplomatic mission in the world — the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan — say security weaknesses have left it dangerously vulnerable to attack.

In interviews and written communications with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), current and former guards said a variety of shortcomings, from inadequate weapons training to an overextended guard force, have compromised security there — security provided under a half-a-billion-dollar contract with Aegis Defense Services, the U.S. subsidiary of a British firm. “[I]f we ever got seriously hit [by terrorists], there is no doubt in my mind the guard force here would not be able to handle it, and mass casualties and mayhem would ensue,” a guard serving at the embassy wrote in a late November message to POGO.

“[I]f we ever got seriously hit [by terrorists], there is no doubt in my mind the guard force here would not be able to handle it, and mass casualties and mayhem would ensue.”

In July, dissatisfaction boiled over when more than 40 members of the embassy’s Emergency Response Team signed a petition Read the remainder of this entry »

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Tags: Aegis, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, ArmorGroup, DoS*, POGO, Samuel Brinkley, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Thomas R. Nides, Wackenhut

Army drops suspension of contractor in criminal probe

By Forseti | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Reports & Investigations

The Army reversed the suspension Nov. 15, allowing Camille Chidiac to bid for new federal contracts, including an extension of the propaganda contract in January.

Photo Leonie Industries’ Website

Tom Vanden Brook – (USA Today) – WASHINGTON — December 30, 2012 – The Army has lifted its suspension of the owner of its top propaganda contractor in Afghanistan, despite the Pentagon’s ongoing criminal investigation against him for late tax payments, treatment of his Afghan employees and an online smear campaign he launched against USA TODAY.

The Army had suspended Camille Chidiac, co-owner of Leonie Industries, in May after he admitted to setting up disparaging social media and web sites against two journalists from the newspaper. At the time, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered “appropriate action” taken against Chidiac, according Pentagon press secretary George Little, who called his actions “intolerable.”

The Army reversed the suspension Nov. 15, allowing Chidiac to bid for new federal contracts, including an extension of the propaganda contract in January. The Army, in a statement from spokesman Matthew Bourke, decided that Chidiac should be reinstated because the Army concluded that he conducted the smear campaign on his own time without Leonie’s resources. Chidiac put his ownership stake in a trust in an agreement reached with the Army. That prompted the Army to lift its suspension of Chidiac, according to Bourke.

Read the remainder of this entry »

Tags: Camille Chidiac, DoD Contractors, George Little, Leonie Industries, Lt. Gen. Scott Black, Matthew Bourke, POGO, Rep. Hank Johnson, Retired General's Club, Scott Amey, USA Today

KBR November Litigation Round-Up

By Ms Sparky | Filed in CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, KBR, KBR Contract, KBR Investigations, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, Politics, Qarmat Ali Lawsuits, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali

NEIL GORDON – (POGO) – November 26, 2012 – November has been a very bad month for defense contractor KBR.

KBR is the federal government’s primary logistics support contractor in Iraq, receiving tens of billions of dollars in business from the Department of Defense over the last decade, much of that under the U.S. Army’s monopolistic Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) III contract.

In early November, an Oregon federal jury returned an $85.2 million verdict against KBR for exposing military personnel to toxic chemicals at an Iraqi water treatment facility in 2003. The jury found that KBR had “acted with reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm and conscious indifference to the health, safety, and welfare” of the plaintiffs. A case raising similar claims is pending in KBR’s hometown of Houston, Texas, and will soon go to trial.

Read the remainder of this entry »

Tags: Anthony J. Martin, False Claims Act, First Kuwaiti, LOGCAP III, Neil Gordon, POGO, Qarmat Ali, USACE

Star Creeps: Petraeus & the Price of the Top-Heavy Pentagon

By Forseti | Filed in A Soldiers Story, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Reports & Investigations

Ben Freeman – (POGO) – November 21, 2012 – In addition to extramarital affairs and “flirtatious e-mails,” the General Petraeus sex scandal highlighted another of the Pentagon’s dirty little secrets – generals live like billionaires, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

As the Washington Post reported on Saturday, these perks “befitting a billionaire,” include, “palatial homes, drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.”

Lavish perks bestowed to generals increase with higher ranks, as Raymond Dubois, former DoD director of Administration and Management from 2002 to 2005, told Air Force Times. “A four-star has an airplane. A three-star often doesn’t…Can a three-star get an airplane when he needs it? Not always. Does a four-star get an airplane when he needs it? Always. Many times he’ll already have a G5 sitting on the runway, gassed up. There are the kinds of costs that are fairly significant when you add them all up,” according to Dubois.

Read the remainder of this entry »

Pages: 1 2

Tags: Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), DoD Contractors, Gen. David Petraeus, Gen. John R. Allen, Raymond Dubois, Retired General's Club, Secretary Robert Gates, Sen. Tom Coburn