GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets

[David]

60 Minutes


Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline, and an investigation is underway.

But the 343rd isn't the first outfit to be put in harm's way without proper equipment, and commanders in Iraq acknowledged that the unit's concerns were legitimate, even if their mutiny was not.

With a $400 billion defense budget you might think U.S. troops have everything they need to fight the war, but that's not always the case.

Correspondent Steve Kroft talks to a general, soldiers in Iraq, and their families at home about a lack of armored vehicles, field radios, night vision goggles, and even ammunition - especially for the National Guard and reserve units that now make up more than 40 percent of U.S. troops.

In this report, Kroft also talks to Sen. John McCain about how pork-barrel politics have shortchanged troops on the ground.

Every couple of weeks Karen Preston gets a telephone call from her son Ryan who is serving in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.

But Karen Preston has been worrying a lot ever since last summer when Ryan returned home on leave and showed her these photos of the unarmored vehicles his unit was using for convoy duty in Iraq.

Lacking the proper steel plating to protect soldiers from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades, they had been jerry-rigged with plywood and sandbags.

"They were called cardboard coffins," Preston says.

There have been more than 9,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq so far ? more than 8,100 wounded and 1,100 killed. Nearly half of those casualties are the result of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs in military jargon. Yet the U.S. military still lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American lives.

Specialist Ronald Pepin, who serves in Baghdad with the New York National Guard, says, "They have no ground plating. So if you hit something underneath you, then it's going to kill the whole crew, you know? And that's just something you have to live with."

Staff Sgt. Sean Davis from the Oregon National Guard was critically wounded last June when his unarmored Humvee hit an IED outside of Baghdad. He suffered shrapnel wounds, burns, and was unable to walk for six weeks.

Davis said his Humvee was armored with plywood, sandbags, and armor salvaged from old Iraqi tanks.

He considers himself lucky that he wasn't killed in the blast. His friend and fellow guardsman Eric McKinley, who was riding in the same vehicle, wasn't so fortunate. The 24-year-old Army specialist died of his wounds. His father Tom said his son was supposed to have been discharged from the Oregon National Guard a few months before his death, but was held over because of the war.

McKinley says his son would have stood a lot better chance of surviving had his vehicle been fully armored.

"Our troops need to be protected over there to the best ability that we can protect them and it's not being done," he says.

The Department of Defense denied a 60 Minutes request for an on-camera interview to explain the situation. But responding to a written question about vehicles traveling dangerous routes in Iraq being armored with plywood and sandbags, the Army told us, "As long as the Army has a single vehicle without armor, we expect that our soldiers will continue to find ways to increase their level of protection."

60 Minutes went to a man more familiar with the problems facing the Oregon National Guard than anyone else ? its commanding general, Ray Byrne. General Byrne was somewhat reluctant to talk when 60 Minutes showed him pictures of his men's Humvees and trucks, armored with plywood and sandbags.

"If you have nothing then that's better than nothing. The question becomes then again when ? when are they going to receive the full up armored Humvees? And I don't have that answer," says Gen. Byrne.

"It distresses me greatly that they do not have the equipment. I don't have control over it. The soldiers don't have control over it. The question becomes, 'When is it going to be available? When is it going to be available? When will they have it?'"

There are still no good answers to those questions. Most of the vehicles in Iraq arrived there without armor plating, because the Pentagon war planners didn't anticipate a long, bloody insurgency.

But 18 months after President Bush declared an end of major combat, the Pentagon is still struggling to provide the equipment needed to fight the war.

Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, a Democrat whose district includes Gen. Byrne's National Guard, complained to the secretary of defense. She says she thinks the vehicles are not fully armored yet because military planners didn't anticipate an insurgency.

"We didn't have enough armored vehicles," she says. "They weren't manufactured."

Congress has appropriated additional money for armored trucks and Humvees, over $800 million in the current defense bill.

The Army told 60 Minutes they will have produced 8,100 fully-armored Humvees by March.

However, production is lagging behind the urgent need, and the Pentagon's interim solution is shipping so-called "add-on armor" kits to Iraq, where they are being bolted on to thousands of vehicles.

But most of those add-ons don't protect the bottom of the vehicle, leaving them vulnerable to an explosive device.

And it isn't the only equipment problem facing soldiers in Iraq.

Oregon guardsman Sean Davis told us that his unit was short ammunition and night vision goggles, and lacked radios to communicate with each other.

He says guardsman were using walkie-talkies that they or their families purchased from a sporting goods or similar store. "And anybody can pick up those signals, you know," he says. "And we don't have the radios that we need."

Gen. Byrne says stories about families in Oregon having to go out and buy for their sons and daughters radio equipment, body armor, GPS gear, computers and night vision goggles because they weren't being issued are true.

He said some Guard units are also using Vietnam era M-16 assault rifles, which he calls adequate for state duty but not acceptable for duty in Iraq. There is also a bullet shortage for training, he says.

It bothers him, but "there's nothing I can do about it," he says.

"If I was making the decisions, I would readjust," he says. "The soldier on the ground should be a focus. When that's taken care of you can take care of other stuff."

The Army acknowledged to 60 Minutes that there is a shortage of radios in Iraq and a shortage of bullets for training, and says both are in the process of being remedied. There have also been problems with maintenance and replacement parts for critical equipment like Abrams tanks, Bradley personnel carriers and Black Hawk helicopters.

Winslow Wheeler, a long time Capitol Hill staffer who spent years writing and reviewing defense appropriations bills, thinks he knows one reason why those shortages exist, after looking at the current Defense budget. Army accounts that pay for training, maintenance and repairs are being raided by Congress to pay for pork-barrel spending.

Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork bill."

Wheeler, who has written a book called "The Wastrels of Defense," says congressmen routinely hide billions of dollars in pet projects in the defense bill.

And buried in the back of this one, Wheeler found a biathlon jogging track in Alaska, a brown tree snake eradication program in Hawaii, a parade ground maintenance contract for a military base that closed years ago, and money for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration.

By law, these projects can't be cut, so Pentagon bookkeepers will have to dip into operations and maintenance accounts to pay for them.

"They do all kinds of things that adds up to: 'We're basically eating our own young to support the war,'" he says.

According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Armed Services Committee who speaks out against pork-barrel spending, there is a total of $8.9 billion of pork in this year's defense bill, which would go a long way toward upgrading all the equipment used by the National Guard.

"I don't think that this war has truly come home to the Congress of the United States," McCain says. "This is the first time in history that we've cut taxes during a war. So I think that a lot of members of Congress feel that this is just sort of a business-as-usual situation."

"The least sexy items are the mundane - food, repair items, maintenance ? there's no big contract there," says McCain. "And so there's a tendency that those mundane but vital aspects of war fighting are cut and routinely underfunded."

It is not a comforting thought for families with loved ones in Iraq, who lack armored vehicles, radios or things they need to stay alive. It's on Karen Preston's mind every time she talks to her son.

"He's very pro-military, as am I," she says. "I just want them to have the best equipment."

Some armored vehicles have now been shipped to her son's unit, but without protection on the bottom of the vehicle, an insurgent's explosive is just as deadly.

Specialist Pepin on the New York Guard says, "It's kind of like an act of faith. When you get in your vehicle, you just hope, you know. Say a little prayer before you go out."

This weekend, Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee wrote to 60 Minutes saying, "The Army has made great strides in improving the capabilities of all units deploying to Iraq as the nature of the conflict has changed." He noted the president approved spending $840 million to improve the armor on Humvees in Iraq.

[MORTARDUDE]

I missed this.... Thanks for posting this !!! Halliburton has ripped off the government for enough Billions of $$$ to give every soldier all the gear they would ever need. A disgusting situation !!!!

Larry

[revwardoc]

I heard that the FBI is currently investigating Halliburton about their getting "no-bid" contracts regarding the Iraq situation. Let's see now, VP Dick Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton. Coincidence? Nah! Impossible...right?

[MORTARDUDE]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...halliburton_dc


New Audit Critical of Halliburton Work in Kuwait

Thu Oct 28, 2:51 PM ET Top Stories - Reuters


By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root, the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq (news - web sites), could not account for over a third of the items it handled in Kuwait under a work order for the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, said an audit released on Thursday.




The audit by the Inspector General for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said a random sample of 3,032 records of items valued at more than $3.7 million, projected KBR could not account for 42.8 percent, or 1,297, of these goods.


Items that could not be accounted for included three generators valued at more than $172,000 and seven vehicles valued at over $219,000, the audit found.


The auditors recommended the military's Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), which disagreed with the finding as did KBR, should reevaluate KBR'S property control system.


While the numbers are small in the context of billions of dollars of work being done by KBR in Iraq, they add to criticism of the company run by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) until he joined the race for the White House in 2000.


KBR is bogged down in a billing dispute with the U.S. military over its logistics contract in Iraq and the company's lucrative work there has become a focus by the Democrats in the buildup to next Tuesday's election.


Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall disputed the audit's findings and said the facts showed KBR had done a good job.


"KBR disagrees with both the methods and conclusions of the CPA audit," she said, calling these old allegations that were being recycled just one week before the election.


"KBR operates an approved government property control system that has stood the test of time, even under the stresses of supporting the U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and the challenges of property control in a war zone," said Hall.


MILITARY DISAGREES


The audit looked at one work order given to KBR on March 6, 2003, to provide logistics and support for the CPA's offices in Iraq. Kuwait was the central location for receiving items subsequently forwarded to Iraq.


"KBR did not properly control CPA property items. Further, the KBR property records were not sufficiently accurate or available to properly account for CPA property items," said the audit.


The Defense Contract Management Agency said in a response attached to the audit the sample size was not representative of the work KBR was doing. "KBR's Property Control System meets contract requirements and is in compliance," said DCMA.


DCMA also said it had sent specialists to Iraq and Kuwait to track down missing items and had found them.


However, the auditors said they disagreed with these comments and said its sample of randomly selected property records was representative, adding the DCMA did not provide any information or documentation to back their claims.


"We continue to believe that the KBR property control system should be reevaluated and that an accurate property control system should be performed."


KBR's Iraq contracts have brought in $5.2 billion in revenues so far this year and about $8.8 billion since the start of the war last year.

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6358641/


Behind the Halliburton investigation
Lawyer for the contracting officer who alleged misconduct speaks to MSNBC's Chris MatthewsTRANSCRIPT
Updated: 1:00 p.m. ET Oct. 29, 2004The FBI has opened an investigation into whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton, the company Vice President Cheney led before joining the White House.

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Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers chief contracting officer, went public last weekend with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded a Halliburton subsidiary no-bid contracts in Iraq. Her attorney Stephen Kohn joined "Hardball with Chris Matthews" to talk about the role his client played in the whole matter.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, "HARDBALL" HOST: Who is Bunny Greenhouse?

STEPHEN KOHN, BUNNATINE GREENHOUSE'S LAWYER: Bunny Greenhouse is the highest-ranking government, federal employee bureaucrat with final authority on contracts. Or one of the highest ranking. She's not political at all.

MATTHEWS: Now, what does she assert is being done wrongly here? What was wrong about this contract that was led to Halliburton?

KOHN: Well, the allegations concerned the length of the contract, the fact that it was for five years. It concerns the renewal of the contracts. It concerns the integrity of the Army's contracting process.

And let me tell you what was happening there?Bunny's job was to make sure that small businesses and minority-owned businesses could compete for contracts. When she would see problems in terms of the award of a contract, failure to follow regulations, things that may appear to be a bias or improprieties, it was her job to question it.

She did that. And she reported it on the contracting documents where she would raise her concerns. She was ordered not to disclose that information on the contracting documents. If she didn't put it on those contracting documents, as they went up the chain of command, no one would know about the problems.

MATTHEWS: Who gave her that order, Steve? Who was it in the Defense Department?

KOHN: Her supervisors?I don't want to mention names, but that was the supervision, said you are not to write on the contracting documents.

MATTHEWS: Was the person who gave her that order not to provide that information, which you believe relevant to the decision making by the Pentagon, was that person a political appointee?

KOHN: I can't answer that question.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, the defense of the administration with regard to Halliburton and these huge contracts that it gets led, is that the jobs are so big, they require such economies of scale, that it would be simply a process?it wouldn't serve any useful purpose to have a bidding procedure? There's no other company as big as Halliburton that could actually compete with it. What do you say to that?

KOHN: Well, again, without responding on the merits, I will say that Bunny's job was to ensure that the regulations and rules were followed, and that there was fair competition. And she made disclosures that they weren't being followed.

MATTHEWS: Why do you believe the FBI is acting on this allegation and beginning this investigation, right now, this week before the presidential election? Why are they acting now?

KOHN: I would certainly hope it is for the very reason why Bunny raised her concerns when she did. It doesn't matter. When you're a federal civil servant, you do your job. If it's the day before the election or four years or three years before an election, that should not enter the equation at all. You have a job to do, and you do it.

MATTHEWS: Speaking of that job to do, does the FBI office responsible for this investigation, were they operating?are they operating at this moment under the direction of the FBI director, Mr. Mueller? Did they take this on their own?

KOHN: I have absolutely no idea. Bunny Greenhouse, when she wrote to the secretary of the Army, asked for a full investigation to her allegations, and we welcome the involvement of the FBI. We also think there should be a bi-partisan congressional inquiry into this Army contracting and all the problems.

It should be above board, open and aggressive. And so we welcome this as a positive first step, but we don't think it should be something that is just done privately in a criminal investigation. I think the American people have a right to know how their taxpayers' dollars are spent and how contracting has been done in critical places like the Balkans or Iraq.

MATTHEWS: Do you have any political interest in this matter?

KOHN: Absolutely not. Just so you know, when it was time to represent Linda Tripp, when her rights, as a Department of Defense employee were violated, when they went into her files illegally, we more than were glad and proud to represent her. She was viewed as a partisan. She was viewed as someone hurting a Democrat. Did not matter. Linda Tripp had a right and Bunny Greenhouse has rights.

MATTHEWS: Does Bunny Greenhouse have any interest in the defeat of this president, President Bush?

KOHN: Absolutely not. She is a federal civil servant. She is not a political appointee. Absolutely none.

MATTHEWS: Steve, you've been familiar with this case for how many, how many weeks now? When did you first come into this case as counsel to Bunny Greenhouse?

KOHN: A number of months ago.

MATTHEWS: You've had time to think about it. What is its public policy implications? I mean, think big right now. There is a lot of people watching right now and listening to your voice. Explain to them why this is a significant matter for the country.

KOHN: It's a significant matter because you have a whistle-blower with the courage to step forward and give the American people information they need. I hope that people put down their partisanship and say, ?Thank you for giving us that information,? and let everyone evaluate it how they will, investigate it how they will. But whistle-blowers need protection.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Steve, you talked about renewal of contracts. You talked about length of contracts. The integrity of the Army Corps of Engineers contracting processing. What does that mean to the average taxpayer?

KOHN: This is billions of dollars, but it is also, I think, an issue of ethics. If you're a small business, you have the right to compete, and you have the right to know that in large contracts, that the Army or any other government agency is handing out, that your interests will be protected. That was Bunny's?one of her main jobs.

MATTHEWS: Your client, Bunnatine Greenhouse, is she still the chief contracting officer of the Army Corps?

KOHN: To the Army's credit, we asked that she not be removed during this investigation. And they've agreed. She still maintains that position, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that she does maintain that position, because if she is removed, the American people will never know the truth. There will be a chilling effect. No witness will come forward. And the truth will never get out.

MATTHEWS: Thank you very much, Stephen Kohn, who is counsel for the whistle-blower Bunnatine Greenhouse, who's chief contracting officer for the Army Corps of Engineers.

[MORTARDUDE]

Just like Vietnam ? YES !!!! LBJ lied about the reasons for going in, and in fact reversed JFKs orders to withdraw ( read the book "Kill Zone ", conjured up the Tonkin Gulf incident, sole sourced all the weapons contracts, ( remember the original M-16 without the right kind of barrel ? ), and made sure his friends from Kellogg, Brown, and Root ( now Halliburton ), (who had bankrolled him in the 1930s for his first Washinton congressional runs).... got all the big FAT money from his Southeast Asian criminal enterprsie ( from 1964 - 1975 ) that most of us were caught up in....


I would like to see a coherent response from Joy, Superscout, and all of the rest of you Republican die-hards, who seem to wear inter-galactic blinders...who may never do the physics, connect the dots, and FOLLOW THE DAMN MONEY !!!!


Larry

P.S. : How could you look a parent in the eye who has lost a son or daughter and justify the continuing inadequate equipment, after over 18 months in country ?????

[Tamaroa]

I personally think this is a lot of BS!! I once served on a tug where we would plug up rusted through holes with bags of concrete as we were under way.

In fact at one point, we were told that the boat was so old and decrepid that if it was a civilian boat we would not be allowed to leave the dock. But since we were Coasties we were supposed to know what to do when we had troubles and we had plenty of them.

It galls me to think what would have happened to us had we refused to go to sea in that rust bucket which by the way lasted another quarter century after I left it.

Bill

[Gimpy]

What Larry & rewardoc said!

[MORTARDUDE]

Where is the BS ??? ..Our sons and daughters dying because all the money they need for equipment is going in Dick Cheney and his cronies pockets.....Geez

Larry

[Tamaroa]

Where is the BS ??? ..Our sons and daughters dying because all the money they need for equipment is going in Dick Cheney and his cronies pockets.....Geez

That's another thing. I am only referring to this country's tradition of GI's making do with whatever they get and not whining about it.

I seriously doubt if Halliburton money was diverted from DOD funds for the soldiers and if it was Bush himself should go up on charges.

Bill