‘Uncategorized’ Archives
Why the Levee Broke: The War in Iraq?
Interesting connection by columnist Will Bunch. Funding cuts for upgrading the levees in 2004 as the cost of Iraq continued climbing, the president requested less than 20 percent of what the Army Corps of Engineers wanted for bolstering the walls along Lake Pontchartrain. According to a Feb. 16, 2004, New Orleans CityBusiness story, that Bunch dug [...]
Defense Company CEOs Rake in the Money:
From the liberal think tank, United for a Fair Economy: Defense CEO versus Military Pay Defense spending boom has boosted military contractor CEO pay by 200 percent since 9/11 CEO pay among large US companies as a whole increased from 2001 to 2004 by only about 7 percent on average. By contrast, the defense contractor CEOs' average compensation [...]
Karpinski Blames Contractors for Abu Ghraib Torture
Interesting comments by former Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski about the contractors working at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq when incidents of were occuring in fall 2003. She was technically in charge at that time and after being reprimanded, she was demoted to Colonel for her failure to properly supervise the prison guards. Karpinski [...]
Who Sends Whom to War: The List
From an circulating e-mail. It is certainly selective. Democrats: * Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71. * David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72. * Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72. * Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade. * Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy [...]
trillion dollar war
Waging the trillion-dollar war By Linda Bilmes The New York Times MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2005 CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts The human cost of the more than 2,000 American military personnel killed and 14,500 wounded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan is all too apparent. But the financial toll is still largely hidden from public view and, like the suffering of [...]
Biologicial and Chemical Weapons
The scavenger hunt in Iraq proved futile, but the threat of terrorists getting their busy little hands on these gruesome weapons of mass destruction appears to be alive and kicking in Russia, according to The Moscow Times: Earlier this summer, the chief of the Defense Ministry's nuclear safety and security department said there was a constant [...]
It’s All About Oil
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/21OIL.html?pagewanted=1&hp Is this why Halliburton was hired for the RIO contract -- to gain visibility into the oil fields? http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/21OIL.html?hp But will such a situation really come to pass? That depends on Saudi Arabia. To know the answer, you need to know whether [...]
Soldiers’ Tales
High impact theater swept into the Washington, DC, area last night: "The Sand Storm: Stories From the Front." The play places front-and-center those who are part of the collateral damage: soldiers struggling to make sense of it all. Through a series of gripping monologues by U.S. Marines fighting in Iraq during the opening days of the invasion, it [...]
Halliburton Manager Pleads Guilty to Kickback
Reporting about the quiet case of Glenn Powell pleading guilty yesterday to taking a kickback of more than $100,000 from an Iraqi contractor leaves one wondering what unnamed Iraqi company put up the bribe. Powell worked for KBR from October 2003 until Jan. 6, 2005 when KBR claims to have discovered his wrongdoing and relieved him of his [...]
