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Change is good
« November 2003 | Main | January 2004 »
and the Corps of Engineers will no longer supervise such contracts.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just weeks after Pentagon auditors said Halliburton may have overcharged taxpayers to import oil to Iraq, the Defense Department is removing the Army Corps of Engineers from its role in supervising the program.
The Defense Energy Support Center, which buys fuel for the military throughout the world, will supervise the shipments and choose new contractors to replace Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company.
The CoE had awarded the contract to supply oil to our military in Iraq to Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, under an existing contract with no bids. The price was nearly double the price of Irai fuel. A draft audit estimated the overcharge at 61 million US$
The new body overseeing the imports, the Defence Energy Support Center, said it would seek to put competitively awarded contracts in place as soon as possible.
The Pentagon said the change was not linked to doubts over the KBR deal. The CoE says the change in supervision has been in the works for months.
The new body overseeing the imports, the Defense Energy Support Center, said it would seek to put competitively awarded contracts in place as soon as possible.
Houston-based oil services giant Halliburton - run by Dick Cheney until he successfully ran for the office of Vice President in 2000 - strongly denies wrongdoing.
The CoE, which previously oversaw the oil imports, will remain in charge of up to $2bn worth of contracts to rebuild Iraq's oil industry.
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Taking oil to Iraq (which has the world's 2nd largest reserves underground) might seem like "taking coals to Newcastle" (as the old phrase goes), but actually there's a shortage of fuel at the pumps in Iraq. Smugglers have recently been draining Iraq of up to a fifth of its daily gasoline supply while sabotage and refinery breakdowns have limited production to only about 60 percent of what it was a year ago, according to a senior official with the Iraqi Oil Ministry.
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I suspect this is a harbinger of more competitive bidding in general for Iraqi contracts, now that the Democrats have made contracting such a high-profile issue.
Knight Manufacturing builds this 7.62mm "MkII Mod 0" for the Navy Seals. It's based on the Stoner SR-25. Here's a spec page.
You can buy one from Excalibur or Impact Online for about $7K
(assuming these web pages are up to date and the rifles are available - call if interested).
In Afghanistan in early '02, Marines in the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit tested the hand-built M14 Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR).
The DMR was the creation of several precision weapons repairmen from Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Va. They coupled older match-grade M-14 rifle barrels, already in service, with a modern, fiberglass stock that offers the shooter an ergonomic pistol grip. The 7.62mm barrels were also retrofitted to accept a suppressor. The weather-resistant stock had a scope rail to accommodate different sights. Spacer plates and adjustable cheek pieces were incorporated into the design to allow an individual shooter to custom fit the 36-inch long, 15-lb. rifle. [a bit heavy] The DMR has a maximum effective range of 1,000 meters and accepts a 20-round magazine.
Here's a photo of one being fired in a Marine training exercise in Africa:
If you have some $ left over from Christmas, you can buy one:
Marine EOD units use M14s in Iraq to destroy land mines:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29, 2003 - Proving that disaster knows no politics, U.S. service members are delivering humanitarian aid to Iran in the wake of an earthquake that has left an estimated 25,000 Iranians dead.
20K lbs of medical supplies were landed at Kerman two days after the quake, and that's just the beginning.
Army Times photo shows US crewman in front of C-130 carrying supplies to Iran
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami thanked "anybody who has offered assistance, including the Americans." But he downplayed talk that Washington's contribution -- among the largest from nearly 30 nations -- would thaw the two nations' frostly relations. "Humanitarian issues should not be intertwined with deep and chronic political problems," Khatami told reporters in the provincial capital, Kerman. "If we see change both in tone and behavior of the U.S. administration, then a new situation will develop in our relations."
That's OK, Moh. We're doing it out of the goodness of our hearts, to help the people, not to get on your good side.
Wonder what self-serving motives our detractors will ascribe to this?
The Congress has legislated another round of base realignments and closures (BRAC) in 2005.
The 1993 and 1995 base closings and realignments were designed to reduce military capacity in the post-Cold War era. Previous BRACs have cut the armed forces in half, but they have reduced the bases and military personnel by only about 30 percent. SoD Rumsfeld wants to reduce the military infrastructure by as much as 25 percent, or about 100 bases nationwide. Forces in almost every state are gearing up to fight for their bases, in a process which has really just begun and will not conclude until late 2005.
Military bases have a huge economic impact upon the local and state economy where they are based. Some are logically where they are, and some were part of some political pork deal many years ago. Some become obsolete as the military changes. States are very aggressive in protecting their bases from closures. California, Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas have the most active military-base retention programs, according to the California Research Bureau.
You're probably reading and hearing about concerns regarding some base near where you live. I grew up in Georgia and now live there again, so my focus is on Georgia. Consider it a case study in how aggressively states approach this matter. [I don't mind if you stop reading now if you're not interested.]
TAKE GEORGIA FOR EXAMPLE
There are 13 military bases in Georgia. They have an estimated annual economic impact of $22 billion. [Somewhat related is the fact Georgia is ranked 6th in prime defense contracts.] They employee a total of 120,000 people. An additional 400,000 Georgians work in military-related jobs. This means the livelihood of one out of eight working adults and their families depends on the health of Georgia's military installations. Warner Robbins AFB is the state's largest industrial employer with 26K civilian employees. In past years, Georgia was considered a political heavyweight not to be trifled with on base closings because Sen. Sam Nunn of Perry, now retired, chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee. It has escaped the previous four rounds of base closings unscathed since 1988, but things might be different now that Sen. Nunn is retired. Georgia has had a standing committee (the Georgia Military Affairs Coordinating Committee, or GMACC) since 1994 (when it was set up to fight the previous closing initiative). It has hired a Washington consulting firm, Hurt, Norton & Associates, to assist in its planning. Gov. Sonny Perdue has fully supported the Georgia committee and provided $500,000 in seed money above its $300,000 annual budget. The money is to help develop community task forces around each of the bases to work with military leaders to improve the value of the facilities.
Two related bases on the scrutiny list are Ft. McPherson and its satellite, Ft. Gillem in the Atlanta area. They are home to the US Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), Third United States Army, and United States Army Reserve Command (USARC), among other things.
U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) is the largest major command in the Department of the Army and comprises the Army component of U.S. Atlantic Command. FORSCOM supervises the training of more than 760,000 active and reserve soldiers to provide a strategic, power-projection ground force capable of responding rapidly and successfully to crises worldwide.
Ft. Mac has been called the "Southern Pentagon" but CentCom at MacDill AF Base near Tampa, which is a unified combatant command, involving multiple branches, might have a strongly claim to that unofficial title. Donald Rumsfeld is targeting single-service commands.
Fort Gillem is home to First U. S. Army, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (Atlanta Distribution Center), 3D Military Police Group (CID) United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, 2nd Recruiting Brigade, 52nd Ordnance Group and the Equipment Concentration Site for the 81st Regional Support Command.
The First U.S. Army trains and mobilizes Reserve and National Guard units in the eastern US:
Like the unbiased link says:
Both Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem are small in area, but they are giants in the defense picture due to the many headquarters and tenant organizations. Forts McPherson and Gillem serve and support a number of "internal" audiences: Active Duty and Reserve Component soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, Department of Defense civilians, military retirees and family members.
Here's the official web page.
Ft. Mac and Ft. Gillem are very accessable to the Atlanta Airport south of Atlanta, which has many direct flights to virtually every major city in the area served by the command.
Confused about how the Army is organized and by all these names and acronyms? This might help you. (Don't go there unless you're really interested and have the time.)
[Most reading this could probably care less where these commands are located. Why am I interested? My Dad worked as a civilian at Ft. Gillem, then called Atlanta Army Depot, for most of my youth. I used to love visiting the base and some awesome Army Surplus stores nearby. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was really hopping. If you want your son (and maybe daughter - didn't work for my sisters) to grow up loving all things military, expose him to these things early in life. The Germans understood this. That's why they had special military schools for selected boys who were deemed potential soldiers.]
Atlanta Army Depot (now called Ft. Gillem) opened in 1941 in Conley, GA (they now say it's in Forest Park, which swallowed up Conley) which was then considered well south (and slightly east) of Atlanta, but has since been swallowed up by greater Atlanta:
Here's the original sign:
You can order this shirt, if you like.
A military.com article lays out possible legal defenses.
Just two pages, officer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.
In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."
It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.
I'd think the CIA World Factbook would also be a useful resource for a world terrorist, looking around for the next target.
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