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21 of 2011 – Most Significant Events of the Year

L J Furman, MBA — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:13:25 +0000

Tweet While it ain’t over till it’s over, 2011 is over. A lot that could have happened, didn’t. Obama didn’t resign, Donald Trump didn’t throw his hat into the ring or divorce his current wife and marry one or more Kardashians. Newt Gingrich threw his hat into the ring, but also didn’t divorce his current wife and marry one or more Kardashians. These are the most significant events of 2011.

Japan, March, 2011 . Nebraska, June, 2011. An earthquake triggered a tsunami which slammed Japan with a 30 foot wave, which shut down twelve nuclear reactors at three sites, triggering melt-downs in three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi site. We now see radioactive particles in food and soil in Fukushima Prefecture. The United States government recommended an evacuation of a 50 mile radius from the plant – this is a semi-circular no-man’s land of 3,927 square miles. It would be 7,854 square miles but the plant was on the coast and therefore half of this radioactive no-man’s land is in the Pacific Ocean. The environmental ramifications of radioactive materials spreading over Japan and flowing into the Pacific Ocean are not known (Popular Logistics click here, here, here), however, liabilities to TEPCO and Japan are estimated to $100 Billion (click here). In the United States, two nuclear power plants on the Missouri River, the Fort Calhoun and Cooper plants, were shut-down when the Missouri River flooded (Popular Logistics, here). Eight nuclear power plants from South Carolina to Connecticut were shut down in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck with an epicenter in Virginia August 23, 2011, and Hurricane Irene a few days later (Popular Logistics, here). In the words of Mycle Schneider, describing the World Watch Institute report he authored, “The industry was arguably on life support before Fukushima. When the history of this industry is written, Fukushima is likely to introduce its final chapter,” (click here). However, the three melt-downs at Fukushima, coupled with the melt-down at Chernobyl in 1986 and the partial melt-down at Three Mile Island in 1979, suggest a probability of one melt-down every 14 years.
South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont, August, 2011. Hurricane Irene covered an area of approximately 170,000 square miles, or about the size of California.”
Washington, DC, December. 2011. After 4,000 Americans were killed, about 50,000 were wounded, and $1 trillion was spent over 8 years, President Obama ended the American mission in Iraq that Congress authorized in October, 2002, President Bush started in March, 2003 and declared “Accomplished” in May, 2003 (for a timeline, click here).
Washington DC, Abbottabod, Pakistan, May, 2011, American soldiers, on orders from the White House, found and killed Osama bin Laden in a compound in Pakistan (NY Times, click here).
Yemen, In summer, 2011, American military forces, using a drone aircraft piloted from the ground via remote control, from the ground, targeted and killed Anwar al Awlaki, an American born Al Queda operative in Yemen (NY Times, click here).
The hacking group “Anonymous” broke into the computers of the security consulting group “Stratfor” and found 44,188 Encrypted Passwords, of which roughly 50% could be easily cracked. 73.7% of decrypted passwords were weak” (NPR, click here).
The “Stuxnet” computer worm virus, harmelss on PC’s runing MS Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and other computers, appears to have targeted centrifuges used in the Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. While the viruses were discovered in 2010, they became understood in 2011. The virus caused the centrifuges to spin out of control, wrecking themselves (NY Times, here, NPR here, CNET here, Wikipedia here).
The Arab Spring Tahrir Square and the almost peaceful revolt in Egypt, the bloody revolt in Libya and the strife in Syria that threatens, or promises, to topple Bashir al Assad.
The Demonstrations against the Keystone XL Pipeline outside the White House, which may lead the President to veto the pipeline.
Occupy Wall Street changed the dynamic of the economic argument in the United States. While the media seemed to ignore the protests at first, slowly, inexorably, the media started questioning the wealth of the 1% richest Americans and the transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1%. Popular Logistics began its coverage with Protesting Marked Cards and a Stacked Deck, on 9/22/11, here. As President Obama said, in the 2012 State of the Union, here, transcript here, “you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense. … We don’t begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it’s not because they envy the rich. It’s because they understand that when I get a tax break I don’t need and the country can’t afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference — like a senior on a fixed income, or a student trying to get through school, or a family trying to make ends meet. That’s not right. Americans know that’s not right. They know that this generation’s success is only possible because past generations felt a responsibility to each other, and to the future of their country, and they know our way of life will only endure if we feel that same sense of shared responsibility. That’s how we’ll reduce our deficit. That’s an America built to last. “
The Republican Congress lost a game of chicken in the July, and another in December, and extended Obama’s tax holiday to 154 million workers a pay cut of 2% of the first $108,000 for the first two months of 2012.
The Dow Jones plummeting in July on fears of a US government default, but ignoredit politics in December.
Fiscal chaos in southern Europe, in Greece, Spain, and Italy, threatens to destabilize the Eurozone.
Sale of LED lightbulbs bulbs for general home and industrial use at Costco, Home Depot, Lowes, and WalMart. These bulbs are expensive, but like PV Solar modules subject to economic forces like “Moore’s Law.” The price will drop as engineering and manufacturing improves, and as more people buy them. The units should last 10 or 20 years. They are instantly on; there is no warm-up time, are fully – and incredibly – dimmable, produce a very bright and beautiful light, do not contain methyl mercury, and use half the power, and produce half the heat, of a compact fluorescent and about 15% to 25% of the power, and with very little of the heat generated by an incandescent bulb. I wrote about my observations in LED Lamps – The Paradigm is Shifting, on 12/23/11, here. Republicans in Congress overturned the ban on incandescents, here, but the handwriting is on the wall.
Very quiet development of the “Public Option” in health care in California. See County-Run Health Plans Seek To Expand In California, here, and “California Group looking to put public option on the ballot,” here and here.
On May 27, 2011, NJ Governor Chris Christie pulled the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the only mandatory cap-and-trade program in the U.S., while promising to ban new coal-fired plants in the state. see Environmental Leader, New Jersey Quits RGGI, Bans Coal Plants, here.
Continued development of wind and solar energy in California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, NJ, Texas, Vermont.
When Exelon’s management for the Oyster Creek nuclear plant whined that operating it safely would cost too much money; NJ Governor Chris Christie said, with his characteristic aplomb, “Operate it safely, or close it.” Oyster Creek, the oldest operating nuclear plant in the United States, and the world, will close in 2019. Gov. Christie knows that by 2015 New Jersey will have enough solar power capacity to replace Oyster Creeks generation capacity during the day. He also knows that by 2020 there will be enough offshore wind generating capacity to replace Oyster Creek and one or two of the Salem and Hope Creek reactors. See Courier Post Online: “Owner: Oyster Creek nuclear plant to close on time in 2019” here.
The world lost a visionary in Steve Jobs, another visionary in Vaclav Havel, and a tyrant in Kim Jong Il.
The world population surpassed 7 billion.
Marlboro College graduated the second cohort of students with MBAs in Managing for Sustainability. The third cohort completed it’s academic work in December, 2011. This degree recognizes that people get things accomplished via the model of business, but businesses ought be managed with a long term view; that we must consider both the environmental ramifications of our actions, and the economic “externalities.” People are engaged in similar programs at the Presidio, Bainbridge, Antioch, Northwestern, Bard. (I am proud to say that I am a Marlboro Alum.)

BBC investigation demonstrates that Iraq purchased fraudulent bomb detection devices

Jonathan Soroko — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:58:59 +0000

Via BBC News:

The BBC has conducted an investigation which demonstrated that Iraq purchased bomb detection devices in which the component purported to detect trace amounts of TNT was, in fact, “nothing but the type of anti-theft tag used to prevent stealing in high street stores.” Iraqi Interior ministry still backing ‘bomb detector’

According to the BBC,

Some Iraqi officials are insisting that a controversial bomb detection device works, despite a BBC inquiry in which experts said the item was useless.

Britain has banned exports of the ADE-651 and the director of the company selling them was arrested and bailed.(emphasis supplied)

But the device is still being used at checkpoints all over Baghdad.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, whose department bought $85m of the devices, said the ADE-651 had detected 16,000 bombs, including 700 car bombs.

“The thing is, the instrument is being operated by a user,” he said. “Not all those who use the instrument are fully trained, the user needs to be alert and adept at using it.”

There are allegations that failure of the ADE-651 may have been a factor allowing suicide truck bombs to pass through checkpoints on three occasions last year, leading to hundreds of deaths.

United States Military Reported Device Ineffective in June 2009

Sidney Alford, a leading explosives expert who advises all branches of the military, told the BBC programme the sale of the ADE-651 was “absolutely immoral”.

“It could result in people being killed in the dozens, if not hundreds,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press news agency reported that in June 2009, the US military distributed a study using laboratory testing and X-ray analysis that found the ADE-651 ineffective.

“The examination resulted in a determination that there was no possible means by which the ADE-651 could detect explosives and therefore was determined to be totally ineffective and fraudulent,” Major Joe Scrocca, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, told AP in an e-mail.

Iraqi Interior ministry still backing ‘bomb detector’ (BBC)

Let’s state the obvious:

The United States provided the Iraqis with very timely intelligence (June 2009) that these devices were useless – and that therefore reliance on them was dangerous.
The British seller would seem, in a time of war, knowingly selling defective defensive gear to coalition forces, to have not only committed fraud -but also perhaps treason and sabotage.
The Iraqi government was warned 19 months ago – but continues to use them. The best that can be hoped for is that this was the result of a corrupt conspiracy. If, in fact, it’s a reflection of the competence of Iraqi government officials – a government for which the United States is, to a large extent, morally responsible – by what right do we withdraw, leaving the Iraqi people in the hands of a government incapable of using critical, clear intelligence not overnight – but in over a year? If corruption is the cause, at least there’s some possibility it’s one group of people, rather than the whole lot.

Not much to hope for.

Negligence at KBR Killed Americans

L J Furman, MBA — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:20:06 +0000

KBR, through negligence, kills Americans in Iraq. Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh, serving in Iraq was killed while taking a shower in his barracks in Baghdad . (Military.com.)

An Army investigation called the electrocution death of a U.S. Soldier in Iraq a “negligent homicide” caused by military contractor KBR Inc. and two of its supervisors

black swan full video download

Sgt. Maseth was one of several soldiers killed by electrocution in the shower.

KBR, the firm once owned by Haliburton, the oil services firm once run by Dick Cheney, built the barracks, installed the shower, and apparently connected the electrical wiring to the plumbing, in violation of building codes and common sense and without oversight.

Q: Why is an oil services firm supporting a military operation?

A: Because, according to Alan Greenspan, it’s a war for oil (click here).

Q: Will KBR be held accountable?

A: I certainly hope so.

13 killed, others injured, hundreds of fires caused by defective KBR electrical work in Iraq; Pentagon responds anemically, and is less than forthcoming to Congress

Jon — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:55:28 +0000

James Risen reports in the Times of July 18th (Electrical Risks at Iraq Bases Are Worse Than Said) that

Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

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During just one six-month period — August 2006 through January 2007 — at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military’s largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007. Electrical problems were the most urgent noncombat safety hazard for soldiers in Iraq, according to an Army survey issued in February 2007. It noted “a safety threat theaterwide created by the poor-quality electrical fixtures procured and installed, sometimes incorrectly, thus resulting in a significant number of fires.”

Electrical problems were the most urgent noncombat safety hazard for soldiers in Iraq, according to an Army survey issued in February 2007. It noted “a safety threat theaterwide created by the poor-quality electrical fixtures procured and installed, sometimes incorrectly…”

Electrical problems were the most urgent noncombat safety hazard for soldiers in Iraq, according to an Army survey issued in February 2007. It noted “a safety threat theaterwide created by the poor-quality electrical fixtures procured and installed, sometimes incorrectly…”

The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for American troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a “systemic problem” with electrical work.

But the Pentagon did little to address the issue until a Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, was electrocuted in January while showering. His death, caused by poor electrical grounding, drew the attention of lawmakers and Pentagon leaders after his family pushed for answers. Congress and the Pentagon’s inspector general have begun investigations, and this month senior Army officials ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by KBR.

“We consider this to be a very serious issue,” Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday in an e-mail message, while declining to comment on the findings in the Army documents.

Heather Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, would not comment about a company safety study or the reports of electrical fires or shocks, but she said KBR had found no evidence of a link between its work and the electrocutions. She added, “KBR’s commitment to the safety of all employees and those the company serves remains unwavering.”

Read the rest of Mr. Risen’s post here: Electrical Risks at Iraq Bases Are Worse Than Said.

Of course, this calls KBR’s competence and integrity into question; more disturbingly, it calls into question the Department of Defense’s ability to to correct errors, particularly in connection with politically well-connected contractors – even when its soldiers and civilians are at risk.

Finally – the odd inconsistency of using local Iraqi contractors, who can scarcely be thought responsible to comply with American building codes, unless given training by KBR – while the State Department and other government agencies don’t generally hire Iraqis as interpreters within the Green Zone – because of their uncertainty about trusting Iraqis, Arabic speakers from other countries are recruited. Does this not raise the question of whether KBR’s mendacity – and the Pentagon’s indifference and passivity – created opportunities for sabotage?

Tags: KBR, sabotage, Iraq, outsourcing, emergency housing

Fiscal Impropriety, Abuse of Power, Incompetence

L J Furman, MBA — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:34:19 +0000

The New York Times published three articles in one day about fiscal impropriety, abuse of power, or incompetence of the Bush Administration. On the front page, James Risen writes “Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir.” Charles Smith says he was fired from his job with the Army for refusing to approve paying more than $1 Billion to KBR after “Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion.” Smith, an employee of the Army for 31 years, was quoted in The Times saying “the money going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn’t going to do that.” This is another case of firing the whistle-blower. As a patriot, it makes my blood boil. According to Risen, the Pentagon has recently awarded KBR a 10 year, $150 Billion contract in Iraq, which indicates that we will be in Iraq for another 10 years. Eric Lichtblau wrote “Grand Jury Said to Look at Attorneys’ Dismissals” that Justice Deptartment Prosecutors are using a grand jury to investigate criminal accusations that grew from the dismissals of nine United States attorneys. Some employees in the civil rights division of the Justice Department have said that they were given a “political litmus test.” The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Bradley Schlozman, acting head of the civil rights division may be the subject of a “grand jury referral” focusing on perjury charges. Schlozman admitted to Congress that he had bragged about his success in politicizing the Justice Department. Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General, may also have committed perjury in his testimony about wireless eavesdropping by the National Security Agency. As a patriot, this too makes my blood boil. The Government of the United States has always been subordinate to The Law, not The Party. This is the United States, not Communist China, Soviet Russia, Baathist Syria, or Saddam’s Iraq. The Times also carried Judge Backs “White House in Dispute over E-Mail” a story by the Associated Press reporting the decision, by Judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly, that the White House Office of Administration is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Since its creation, in 1978, the Office of Administration has responded to Freedom of Information requests. The White House has acknowledged problems with it’s e-mail system, while saying that any missing e-mail messages can be found on backup tapes. In a related matter, a judge is considering whether to instruct the Executive Office of the President on steps it must take to safeguard electronic messages. I am not a lawyer, however, I think that Judge Kollar-Kotelly is wrong. If she is making law, as a judicial activist, at least she is doing so legally. These articles are reproduced below.

The New York Times, nytimes.com, June 17, 2008

Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — The Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops. The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations. Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Mr. Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. “They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn’t justify,” he said in an interview. “Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn’t going to do that.” But he was suddenly replaced, he said, and his successors — after taking the unusual step of hiring an outside contractor to consider KBR’s claims — approved most of the payments he had tried to block. Army officials denied that Mr. Smith had been removed because of the dispute, but confirmed that they had reversed his decision, arguing that blocking the payments to KBR would have eroded basic services to troops. They said that KBR had warned that if it was not paid, it would reduce payments to subcontractors, which in turn would cut back on services. “You have to understand the circumstances at the time,” said Jeffrey P. Parsons, executive director of the Army Contracting Command. “We could not let operational support suffer because of some other things.” Mr. Smith’s account fills in important gaps about the Pentagon’s handling of the KBR contract, which has cost more than $20 billion so far and has come under fierce criticism from lawmakers. While it was previously reported that the Army had held up large payments to the company and then switched course, Mr. Smith has provided a glimpse of what happened inside the Army during the biggest showdown between the government and KBR. He is giving his account just as the Pentagon has recently awarded KBR part of a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq. Heather Browne, a spokeswoman for KBR, said in a statement that the company “conducts its operations in a manner that is compliant with the terms of the contract.” She added that it had not engaged in any improper behavior. Ever since KBR emerged as the dominant contractor in Iraq, critics have questioned whether the company has benefited from its political connections to the Bush administration. Until last year, KBR was known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the Texas oil services giant, where Vice President Dick Cheney previously served as chief executive. When told of Mr. Smith’s account, Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it “is startling, and it confirms the committee’s worst fears. KBR has repeatedly gouged the taxpayer, and the Bush administration has looked the other way every time.” Mr. Smith, a civilian employee of the Army for 31 years, spent his entire career at the Rock Island Arsenal, the Army’s headquarters for much of its contracting work, near Davenport, Iowa. He said he had waited to speak out until after he retired in February. As chief of the Field Support Contracting Division of the Army Field Support Command, he was in charge of the KBR contract from the start. Mr. Smith soon came to believe that KBR’s business operations in Iraq were a mess. By the end of 2003, the Defense Contract Audit Agency told him that about $1 billion in cost estimates were not credible and should not be used as the basis for Army payments to the contractor. “KBR didn’t move proper business systems into Iraq,” Mr. Smith said. Along with the auditors, he said, he pushed for months to get KBR to provide data to justify the spending, including approximately $200 million for food services. Mr. Smith soon felt under pressure to ease up on KBR, he said. He and his boss, Maj. Gen. Wade H. McManus Jr., then the commander of the Army Field Support Command, were called to Pentagon meetings with Tina Ballard, then the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for policy and procurement. Ms. Ballard urged them to clear up KBR’s contract problems quickly, but General McManus ignored the request, Mr. Smith said. Ms. Ballard declined to comment for this article, as did General McManus. Eventually, Mr. Smith began warning KBR that he would withhold payments and performance bonuses until the company provided the Army with adequate data to justify the expenses. The bonuses — worth up to 2 percent of the value of the work — had to be approved by special boards of Army officials, and Mr. Smith made it clear that he would not set up the boards without the information. Mr. Smith also told KBR that, until the information was received, he would withhold 15 percent of all payments on its future work in Iraq. “KBR really did not like that, and they told me they were going to fight it,” Mr. Smith recalled. In August 2004, he told one of his deputies, Mary Beth Watkins, to hand deliver a letter about the threatened penalties to a KBR official visiting Rock Island. That official, whose name Mr. Smith said he could not recall, responded by saying, “This is going to get turned around,” Mr. Smith said. Two officials familiar with the episode confirmed that account, but would speak only on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their jobs. The next morning, Mr. Smith said he got a call from Brig. Gen. Jerome Johnson, who succeeded General McManus when he retired the month before. “He told me, “You’ve got to pull back that letter,”’ Mr. Smith recalled. General Johnson declined to comment for this article. A day later, Mr. Smith discovered that he had been replaced when he went to a meeting with KBR officials and found a colleague there in his place. Mr. Smith was moved into a job planning for future contracts with Iraq. Ms. Watkins, who also declined to comment, was reassigned as well. Mr. Parsons, the contracting director, confirmed the personnel changes. But he denied that pressure from KBR was a factor in the Army’s decision making about the payments. “This issue was not decided overnight, and had been discussed all the way up to the office of the secretary of defense,” he said. Soon after Mr. Smith was replaced, the Army hired a contractor, RCI Holding Corporation, to review KBR’s costs. “They came up with estimates, using very weak data from KBR,” Mr. Smith said. “They ignored D.C.A.A.’s auditors,” he said, referring to the Defense Contract Audit Agency. Lt. Col. Brian Maka, a Pentagon spokesman, disputed that. He said in a statement that the Army auditing agency “does not believe that RCI was used to circumvent” the Army audits. Paul Heagen, a spokesman for RCI’s parent company, the Serco Group, said his firm had insisted on working with the Army auditors. While KBR did not provide all of the data Mr. Smith had been seeking, Mr. Heagen said his company had used “best practices” and sound methodology to determine KBR’s costs. Bob Bauman, a former Pentagon fraud investigator and contracting expert, said that was unusual. “I have never seen a contractor given that position, of estimating costs and scrubbing D.C.A.A.’s numbers,” he said. “I believe they are treading on dangerous ground.” The Army also convened boards that awarded KBR high performance bonuses, according to Mr. Smith. High grades on its work in Iraq also allowed KBR to win more work from the Pentagon, and this spring, KBR was awarded a share in the new 10-year contract. The Army also announced that Serco, RCI’s parent, will help oversee the Army’s new contract with KBR. “In the end,” Mr. Smith said, “KBR got what it wanted.”

The New York Times, nytimes.com, June 17, 2008

Grand Jury Said to Look At Attorneys’ Dismissals

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON— Justice Department prosecutors are using a grand jury to investigate criminal accusations that grew out of the dismissals of nine United States attorneys, signaling a new stage in one aspect of the inquiry, lawyers in the case said Monday. A lawyer connected to the case said a federal grand jury had recently begun to examine statements by Justice Department officials about hiring decisions in the civil rights division, where some employees said they were subject to a political litmus test. “The issue was lying, whether the people caught up in this told the truth or not,” said the lawyer, who insisted on anonymity because grand jury proceedings are secret. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Justice Department lawyers had brought what is known as a grand jury referral focusing on possible perjury by Bradley J. Schlozman, who was acting head of the civil rights division in 2003. He later became the interim United States attorney in Kansas City, Mo., where the former prosecutor said he had been forced out over political disagreements with Washington. Mr. Schlozman admitted to Congress last year that he had bragged about his success in bringing conservative Republican lawyers into the civil rights division. Justice Department officials declined to comment on Monday. Mr. Schlozman also declined to comment, and his lawyer said he had not been informed that he was the target of any criminal investigation. “We haven’t been contacted by the Department of Justice regarding this, and other than that we have no comment,” the lawyer, William Jordan, said. Mr. Schlozman originally told a Senate committee last June that while he was acting United States attorney in Kansas City, a Justice Department supervisor “directed” him to bring an indictment in a voter fraud case against a liberal group. Days later, in a letter trying to “clarify” his remarks, he said that the decision to bring the indictment was his and that he took “full responsibility” for it. The grand jury inquiry is believed to focus on Mr. Schlozman’s Senate testimony. While prosecutors’ use of a grand jury to gather sworn testimony and records does not necessarily portend any criminal charges, this is the first time any aspect of the inquiry has advanced to the point of a criminal investigation. Since last year, two branches of the department, the Inspector General’s office and the Office of Professional Responsibility, have been investigating the firings and related charges of politicization in hiring. The inspector general has the power to refer possible criminal accusations to prosecutors for possible charges. The investigation led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. A lawyer for Mr. Gonzales, George J. Terwilliger III, said Monday that the grand jury referral was “unrelated to anything connected to Judge Gonzales.” Noting that Mr. Gonzales has promised to cooperate with all Justice Department investigations into the resignations, Mr. Terwilliger said, “He continues to make good on that commitment.” He declined to discuss Mr. Gonzales’s contacts with investigators, but said, “There’s no criminal investigation involving Judge Gonzales and the United States attorneys.” Congressional Democrats said Mr. Gonzales might have perjured himself in his testimony about wireless eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, a program that the inspector general is also reviewing. Asked whether there was any criminal investigation involving Mr. Gonzales’s testimony about the eavesdropping, Mr. Terwilliger said, “I’m not going to get into other things.” Mr. Gonzales’s former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, who instituted the ousters, was also at the heart of the inquiry. His lawyer, Bradford Berenson, said Mr. Sampson had answered questions from the inspector general’s investigators in two interviews last fall but had “not heard back from them.” Mr. Berenson added, “We have no reason to believe that any sort of referral has been or will be made with regard to Mr. Sampson.”

The New York Times, nytimes.com, June 17, 2008

Judge Backs White House in Dispute Over E-Mail

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled on Monday that a White House office did not have to make public its records about millions of e-mail messages that may be missing. The judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Federal District Court here, said the White House Office of Administration was not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, allowing the White House to maintain the secrecy of an internal paper trail about its problem-plagued e-mail system. The decision came in a lawsuit filed against the Bush administration by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private watchdog group that has been trying to determine the extent of the White House’s e-mail problems for more than a year. The functions of the Office of Administration “are strictly administrative,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly said in her ruling. She said that the Office of Administration had no authority over others in the executive branch and that it was dedicated exclusively to providing services to the executive office of the president. Since its creation in 1978, the Office of Administration has responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. But the Bush administration reversed that policy in August 2007 after this lawsuit was filed. The citizens’ group and another private group, the National Security Archive, have also sued the executive office of the president over the possibly lost e-mail messages, asserting that the office, by failing to ensure preservation of electronic records, has not complied with legal obligations. In that case, a judge is considering whether to instruct the executive office of the president on steps it must take to safeguard electronic messages. The White House is seeking to have that lawsuit thrown out. The White House has acknowledged problems with its e-mail system, while saying that if any e-mail messages are missing, they can be found on backup tapes.

The shrinking G.I. Bill

Jon — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:30:01 +0000

The Post World War II G.I. Bill paid 100% of tuition for veterans. Plus other benefits. Now it maxes out at $800 month. As U.S. Senators Jim Webb and Chuck argued in “A Post-Iraq G.I. Bill,”The New York Times, November 8, 2007: “[i]t is hardly enough to allow a veteran to attend man community colleges.

“In terms of providing true opportunity, the World War II G.I. Bill was one of the most important pieces of legislation in our history. It paid college tuition and fees, bought textbooks and provided a monthly stipend for eight million of the 16 million who served. Many of our colleagues in the Senate who before the war could never have dreamed of college found themselves at some of the nation’s finest educational institutions.
Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey went to Columbia on the G.I. bill; John Warner of Virginia to Washington and Lee and the University of Virginia Law School; Daniel Inouye of Hawaii to the University of Hawaii and the George Washington University Law School; and Ted Stevens of Alaska to the University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard Law School.
College costs have skyrocketed, and a full G.I. Bill for those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan would be expensive. But Congress has recently appropriated $19 billion next year for federal education grants purely on the basis of financial need. A G.I. Bill for those who have given so much to our country, often including repeated combat tours, should be viewed as an obligation.
We must put together the right formula that will demonstrate our respect for those who have stepped forward to serve in these difficult times. First-class service to country deserves first-class appreciation.
Senators Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel, A Post-Iraq G.I. Bill
, The New York Times, November 9, 2007.

U.S. forces may have (illegal) chemical weapons capability in Iraq

Jon — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:40:12 +0000

Wikileaks has a report, “U.S. Military Equipment in Iraq (2007),” based on leaked documents, outlining the array and cost of equipment held by United States forces in Iraq: [photopress:M33A1_500_x_193_via_Wikileaks.jpg,full,pp_image] Important points (on our first reading) include: Chemical and biological weapons portable facilities

The United States has been caught with at least 2,386 low-grade chemical weapons deployed in Iraq. The items appear in a spectacular 2,000 page leak of nearly one million items of US military equipment deployed in Iraq given to the government transparency group Wikileaks . The items are labeled under the military’s own NATO supply classificationChemical weapons and equipment. In the weeks prior to the March 19, 2003 commencement of the Iraq war, the United States received a widely reported rebuke from its primary coalition partner, the United Kingdom, over statements by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that the US military might use CS gas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Subsequently Washington has been quiet about whether it has deployed CS gas and other chemical weapons or not, except to deny, then admit, to using white phosphorus during the gruesome 2004 assault on Fallujah as “a smoke screen” and “an incendiary” — uses not technically covered by the Chemical Weapons Convention. ^[2] The use of chemical weapons such as CS gas for military operations is illegal. The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, drafted by the United Kingdom and ratified by the United States, declares “Each State Party undertakes not to use riot control agents as a method of warfare”. It only grants permissible use to “law enforcement including domestic riot control.”
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Riot control agents, according to former Clinton Administration National Security Council analyst Elisa D. Harris, speaking to the New York Times, are cited explicitly because they have a history of escalating misuse leading into uncontrolled chemical warfare. They given special treatment under the convention in a number of ways. They are uniquely and explicitly:

defined (Art. II.7),

prohibited for use as a method of warfare (Art. I.5),

required to be declared (Art. III.1(e)),

cited in Art. X.8(b) on investigation and assistance if used against a State Party, and

permitted for a purpose not prohibited by the Convention, namely, “law enforcement including domestic riot control purposes” (Art. II.9(d))

^[3] Most items on the Chemical weapons and equipment list were registered via the US Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, 5183 Blackhawk Rd, Gunpowder, Maryland. ^[4] There is the M33A1, as pictured above, a high pressure backpack CS/CR gas or liquid dispenser and the M254, its high pressure loading kit. On April 11, 2003 the US military TACOM contracting office put out a tender solicitation for 75 to 225 units. ^[5] The most numerous item on the chemical weapons equipment list is a vehicle mounted gas canister launcher, the “DISCHARGER GRSCL XM7″, used to launch 66mm smoke and CS gas grenades…. Link to Chemical Weapons section of “U.S. Military Equipment in Iraq (2007).

Cholera in Iraq

Jon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:14:52 +0000

In mid-2003, the World Health organization reported on cholera in Iraq:

rom 28 April to 4 June 2003, a total of 73 laboratory-confirmed cholera cases have been reported in Iraq : 68 in Basra governorate, 4 in Missan governorate, 1 in Muthana governorate. No deaths have been reported.

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From 17 May to 4 June 2003, the daily surveillance system of diarrhoeal disease cases in the four main hospitals of Basra reported a total of 1549 cases of acute watery diarrhea. Among these cases, 25.6 % occurred in patients aged 5 years and above.

Link.

Here’s the WHO’s more recent report:

Since the cholera outbreak was first detected in Kirkuk, Northern Iraq, on 14 August 2007, it has spread to 9 out of 18 provinces across Iraq. It is estimated that more than 30 000 people have fallen ill with acute watery diarrhoea, among which 3 315 were identified as positive for Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium causing the disease. A total of 14 people are known to have died of the disease. The case-fatality rate has remained low throughout the outbreak indicating that those who have become sick have been able to access adequate treatment on time.
The disease is continuing to spread across Iraq and dissemination to as yet unaffected areas remains highly possible. Epidemiological curves are still rising in the provinces from which the majority of laboratory-confirmed cases have originated, Kirkuk (2309) and Sulaymaniah (870). An increasing number of cases of acute watery diarrhoea has also been reported in Diala, a province neighbouring Baghdad. Although V. cholerae has not yet been laboratory confirmed, the clinical symptoms indicate the presence of cholera. The numbers of cases are remaining stable in Basra, Baghdad, Dahuk, Mosul and Tikrit. However, a case has now been confirmed in Wasit, a province that has previously been unaffected by the outbreak.

Link.

Mark Drapeau’s December 4th Op-Ed in the Times, no longer behind the pay-to-read wall:

The threat is bad enough in the overcrowded communities of poor countries, but epidemics thrive in war zones. In dense areas like Baghdad or refugee camps, the Vibrio cholerae bacterium spreads quickly via untreated water or raw sewage. Latrines in these places often adjoin living quarters, making the spread of germs almost inevitable, and mothers commonly scavenge for leftover food to feed children — food that may be mixed with contaminated water or feces.
It’s no coincidence that Iraqi areas with the filthiest water and most raw sewage are breeding grounds for both V. cholerae and insurgents. In a perverse feedback loop, insurgents in these places are more likely to become ill, but conditions for the surrounding populace simultaneously deteriorate, increasing support for the insurgency. Another perverse circumstance is that chlorine is often used to treat cholera-infected water, but because insurgents have started using chlorine trucks in bombing attacks, restrictions on chlorine distribution have led to reduced water treatment and possibly increased the prevalence of cholera.

War and sickness are inextricably intertwined. Large groups of men living at close quarters on scant sleep are perfect carriers. Indeed, microbes have had a larger effect on the outcome of wars than many care to admit, from smallpox outbreaks in the French and Indian War to the pandemic influenza in World War I. As Clausewitz (who died from cholera in 1831) might have said, war is the continuation of disease by other means.

In Iraq, of course, it’s not only insurgents and civilians who are at risk of disease. Given the asymmetric nature of conflict, which group do we expect to be more affected by an epidemic: large, centralized conventional military forces or small, agile insurgent units? The answer is that a 10 percent loss within a 5,000-member brigade is far more devastating than losing two members of a 20-man terrorist cell. And suicide bombers don’t call in sick.

Link to “A Microscopic Insurgent,” by Mark Drapeau.

Suicide Bomber on Bike Kills 29 Iraqi Policemen; highest-ranking American to be injured in Iraq evacuated to hospital in Germany

Jon — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:27:51 +0000

From Alissa J. Rubin’s piece in this morning’s Times,Suicide Bomber on Bike Kills 29 Iraqi Policemen

Police training in the provincial capital of Baquba turned into a blood bath on Monday when a suicide bomber on a bicycle set off his explosive vest in the midst of policemen, killing 29, the local police said. A suicide bomber killed seven people just north of Baghdad, and the United States military said a brigadier general had been wounded by a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad, according to The Associated Press. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, the highest-ranking American officer to be hurt since the invasion in March 2003, was evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. His wounds were not life-threatening, The A.P. said.

That a brigadier general was hurt may be worth noting for the fact that it took so long to happen in a war without a “front.” The combination of bicycle and suicide vest, however – I don’t think it’s entirely unprecedented. Butit may well make life in Baghdad even more dangerous for bicyclists, as those in the field become more cautious about bicycles. This in a country where – among all the other dangerous things – people are in harm’s way filling vehicle fuel tanks.