March 21, 2012

Lockheed F-35 Overruns Top $1 Billion (for 63 aircraft) Government Auditor Finds

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-20/lockheed-f-35-overruns-top-1-billion-government-auditor-finds.html


Lockheed F-35 Overruns Top $1 Billion, Government Auditor Finds
By Tony Capaccio - Tue Mar 20 19:00:00 GMT 2012

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)’s first 63 F-35 fighter jets are exceeding their combined target cost by $1 billion, showing the Pentagon’s costliest program lacks a reliable design and efficient manufacturing, according to U.S. congressional auditors.

The Pentagon is absorbing $672 million and Lockheed Martin the remaining $328 million in added costs for the aircraft in the first four production contracts, the Government Accountability Office said in prepared testimony today for a House Armed Services Committee hearing on tactical aviation. The committee is conducting the first oversight hearing on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the fiscal 2013 budget.

“The long-stated intent that the Joint Strike Fighter would deliver an affordable, highly common fifth-generation aircraft that could be acquired in large numbers could be in question,” Michael Sullivan, the GAO’s director of acquisition management, said in the statement.

The testimony previews the GAO’s annual report on the Defense Department’s most costly weapons program, which is to be published next month. The GAO’s findings and the Pentagon’s annual test report, issued in January, are the two primary sources that lawmakers and the public have for assessing the military’s and Lockheed Martin claims for the F-35.



unhappycamper comment: BTW, that's $1 billion dollars for the first 63 aircraft, not the entire batch of 2,443 F-35s.

March 17, 2012

Air Force to further discipline former supervisors in Dover mortuary controversy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/air-force-to-discipline-former-supervisors-in-dover-mortuary-scandal/2012/03/16/gIQAVxmLHS_story.html



Senior Airman Andrew Helmkamp/U.S. Air Force - Col. Robert Edmondson, left, the former Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center commander, will have harsher penalties imposed on him and another supervisor after a federal probe found they retaliated against (sic)



Air Force to further discipline former supervisors in Dover mortuary controversy
By Craig Whitlock, Published: March 16

The Air Force said Friday it will impose harsher penalties on the former commander and chief deputy of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary after a federal probe found they retaliated against subordinates for reporting systematic problems there, including cases in which body parts were lost.

The Air Force declined to specify what action it will take against Col. Robert Edmondson, the former commander, and his civilian deputy, Trevor Dean, saying only that it had begun disciplinary proceedings that will last into next month. Previously, Edmondson had been issued a letter of reprimand; Dean had been placed in a lesser, non-supervisory position.

~snip~

The firings came shortly after the two whistleblowers protested an order to saw off the fused arm bone of a dead Marine so he could fit in his dress uniform and casket. One of them, James G. Parsons Sr., an embalming technician, filed complaints about the incident, saying it amounted to mutilation.

“This has probably been the worst two years of my life,” Parsons said in an interview Friday. His firing was overturned after the Office of Special Counsel intervened on his behalf. He said that he was pleased the Air Force had decided to discipline his former bosses, but that he was “anxious to see” their final punishment and whether it sticks.

March 14, 2012

Psychologists Paid by Guantanamo's Masters Will Never Dismantle Their House of Torture

http://www.truth-out.org/dismantling-masters-house-psychologists-and-torture/1331577268

Psychologists Paid by Guantanamo's Masters Will Never Dismantle Their House of Torture
Tuesday 13 March 2012
by: Roy Eidelson, Truthout | News Analysis

Amid disturbing reports that psychologists were involved in the abuse and torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) met in the summer of 2005. Over two days, they considered whether the Bush administration's no-holds-barred "enhanced interrogation" policies crossed ethical boundaries for military psychologists. Six of the nine voting task force members were on the payroll of the military/intelligence establishment, and several of them worked in the chains of command when and where instances of abuse and torture had reportedly occurred. So, we should not be surprised by the task force's conclusion that psychologists play an important role in keeping detainee interrogations "safe, legal, ethical, and effective." This assessment affirmed, nearly verbatim, the military's own description of Behavioral Science Consultation Team (BSCT) psychologists - a description that had been provided to the task force in writing before their deliberations even began.

Professional psychology has made valuable contributions to national security through collaborative efforts with government agencies - and it will undoubtedly continue to do so. But does anyone truly believe that crucial determinations about psychological ethics should ever be guided by the views and agenda of the secretary of defense or the director of the CIA? The many glaring flaws associated with the PENS Report are especially revealing since the APA is, after all, an organization of psychologists. It's, therefore, very unlikely that the task force organizers were somehow unaware of the potent psychological influences of power differentials on group dynamics; of authority structures and conformity pressures on independent decision-making; and of self-interest on objective, unbiased analysis. It's far more likely the organizers knew exactly how to create the conditions that would reliably produce the outcome they sought.

Today, a grassroots campaign is underway calling on the APA to annul the PENS Report. This call for annulment is ultimately inseparable from important issues of accountability and transparency. Audre Lorde's reminder that "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" is helpful in describing the challenge. The key leadership of the APA today includes several high-level staff members who were central figures in the PENS task force fiasco. Similarly, two current board members were also on the board in 2005 when it approved the PENS Report in an emergency session. At a time when the destructive and corrupting consequences of too much power in too few hands have never been more apparent in corporate boardrooms on Wall Street (and elsewhere), how much different is the situation at APA headquarters?

In the six years since the PENS Report was issued, APA leadership has never encouraged a thorough reconsideration of the task force's deliberations or the report's conclusions. And they have never, even in hindsight, expressed regret for any decisions made - despite the fact that the passage of time has repeatedly brought to light further evidence that psychologists acted as planners, consultants, researchers and overseers to abusive and torturous detainee interrogations. Sadly, APA instead has relied on stonewalling and obfuscation. Why was the PENS Report put to an "emergency" vote of the board alone, rather than bringing it before the Council of Representatives which, according to the APA, "has sole authority to set policy"? Why was the head of the Practice Directorate given a lead role in the PENS proceedings even though his spouse had been one of the psychologists at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center? Were representatives of the military/intelligence sector involved in the actual selection of members for the APA task force? Why were the identities of task force members not included in the report itself and not made readily available to the press or to APA's membership? And so on. Even at this late date, official answers to these and other longstanding questions would be welcome.

March 14, 2012

Lewis-McChord lt. colonel charged with hiring hitman to kill wife, boss

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/14/141755/lewis-mcchord-lt-colonel-charged.html

Lewis-McChord lt. colonel charged with hiring hitman to kill wife, boss
Stacia Glenn | The (Tacoma) News Tribune
Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2012

After violence found Army Lt. Col. Robert Underwood as a child, he seemed to gravitate toward it.

A series of warnings in recent weeks might have helped prevent the slayings of his estranged wife, girlfriend and commanding officer at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and possibly even a terrorist attack on the State Capitol.

~snip~

Underwood’s wife has a restraining order against him for herself and their two teenage daughters. She said she has contacted Underwood’s commander multiple times because of threatening emails and Facebook messages.

~snip~

An officer noted that Underwood’s commander, Reed, had called police and warned that Underwood’s threat regarding the Capitol should be considered valid. The officer also wrote that Underwood was paying for six attorneys for the divorce and “put it all together and he is ready to snap.”



unhappycamper comment: IMO, this was caused by PTSD and tours in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

March 10, 2012

China rockets forward in race to moon

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/08/world/asia/florcruz-china-space/index.html?hpt=ias_c2




Long March-3B carrier rocket blasts off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on December 20, 2011.

China rockets forward in race to moon
By Jaime A. FlorCruz, CNN
March 9, 2012 -- Updated 0247 GMT (1047 HKT)

Beijing (CNN) -- Watch out, America. China is steadily catching up in space.

Between June and August this year, China plans to launch its manned Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and then rendezvous and dock with a space lab which has been orbiting the earth since September.

Three astronauts will undertake the voyage, but one of them will not board the space lab. He will remain inside the spacecraft as a precautionary measure in case of emergency.

It will be China's first crew expedition involving manual docking.



unhappycamper comments: It appears that CNN's tack to the right is the culprit.

Lesley (aka Wolf) and the rest of the talking heads have successfully dumbed down CNN reporting to the point you need to check a fucking (real) history book before you can believe anything they say.

Case in point: "China is steadily catching up in space". The United States no longer has a working civilian space program, so anytime anyone puts a man in space they are "catching up". D'oh.

March 9, 2012

Marines Will Depend on Army, Allies, Private Sector To Get Ashore

http://defense.aol.com/2012/03/08/marines-will-depend-on-army-allies-private-sector-to-get-ashor/



While the Marines are famous for amphibious landings, they depend on Army assets (shown here) for large-scale logistics.


Marines Will Depend on Army, Allies, Private Sector To Get Ashore
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: March 8, 2012

Going back to the future ain't easy. After a decade largely spent waging land wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. Marine Corps wants to reemphasize large-scale amphibious operations, like its recent "Bold Alligator" exercise. But to do that in the face of rising threats, shrinking budgets, and limited assets, they're going to have to rely not only on their traditional partners in the U.S. Navy but increasingly on the Army, friendly nations, and even the commercial sector for logistical support to get them ashore.

"As time goes on, we're going to get driven to more commercial solutions," Marine Lt. Col. Dutch Bertholf, a Joint Staff planner, told participants at the Marine Corps' annual "Expeditionary Warrior" wargame, as he displayed a slide showing the projected decline in the Navy's logistics fleet after 2020. Already, he noted, "we got to see this a bit in Haiti," where the U.S. hired contractors to bridge the gap in earthquake response until its over-committed military assets could arrive. "Part of the future will be looking at commercial industry to help us out...especially as we become more fiscally challenged," he said: Commercial shippers use tugs, barges, and other equipment to move goods all the time, including through the kind of austere or non-existent port facilities that the Marines expect to encounter in Third World countries, and the government can hire them as needed without having to pay the ownership cost.

The Corps' interest in help from foreign militaries was also strongly in evidence at Expeditionary Warrior. The fictional scenario included key roles for Spanish and Australian forces, while a glance around the real-life participants revealed uniforms not just from traditional allies like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan but also from Singapore, Brazil, and even Finland. "We're doing several things here a little bit different this year," said Brig. Gen. John Bullard, deputy chief of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, in a roundtable with reporters. "First off, it's an unclassified wargame. We did it in an unclassified venue [in large part to] pull in a lot of international officers and international participation."

Then there's the Army, itself a foreign culture as far as some jarheads are concerned. While the Army has signed over its share of the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) program to the Navy, it retains its own fleet of boats, landing craft, and even a 313-foot-long small ship called the Logistics Support Vessel (LSV). "The Army's going to hold onto its watercraft," Bertholf said in a response to a question about potential consolidation. There are two reasons: First, the Army has a huge logistical role in supporting the other services; second, it needs to deal with lakes and rivers that the Navy may not reach.

March 9, 2012

After a decade, Afghan forces don't trust Americans

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/08/141237/after-a-decade-afghan-forces-dont.html




A billboard for Afghan National Security Forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, says, "We are tireless servants of our people and country," and, "Through the efforts of Afghans and with the cooperation of the United States of America, Afghanistan today has more than 150,000 national army personnel and more than 110,000 police officers."


After a decade, Afghan forces don't trust Americans
By Jon Stephenson and Ali Safi | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, March 8, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan soldiers and police say the recent burning of Qurans by U.S. personnel has seriously undermined their trust in their American counterparts, suggesting that the decade-long campaign to win hearts and minds has not only failed but also threatens the Obama administration's exit strategy.

"We are tired of the Americans here," said Mohammad Aziz, 20, a Kabul police officer. "We don't want them to stay because they keep insulting our religion."

The crisis of confidence has called into question the viability of the U.S.-led mission to have international soldiers and advisers train Afghan forces and hand security responsibilities to them before the end of 2014. The Afghans' abilities to safeguard their country against Taliban and other threats remain uncertain, and international trainers already have been forced to restrict their contact with Afghans after the violent backlash from the Quran incident.

"It has created a gap between us and the Americans," said Col. Rozi Khan of the Afghan army's commando brigade. "There is no trust between us."



unhappycamper comment: I doubt there will be helicopters landing on the Embassy roof this time, but the withdrawal of American Forces from Afghanistan will be fugly.

March 8, 2012

Waffle House Executive Pushes Georgia Anti-Picketing Law That Would Put Founding Fathers In Jail

http://www.republicreport.org/2012/waffle-house-executive-pushes-georgia-anti-picketing-law-that-would-put-founding-fathers-in-jail/




Waffle House Executive Pushes Georgia Anti-Picketing Law That Would Put Founding Fathers In Jail
Zaid Jilani 3.8.2012 at 9:51 AM

To many in the South, Waffle House is a family-friendly restaurant that serves up some of the best grits and hashbrowns around. But behind that iconic sunny yellow sign is a corporate agenda aimed at stripping Americans of their rights.

State Senator Don Balfour of Snellville, Georgia — a Waffle House vice president who serves on the board of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce — is pushing a bill in his state’s legislature that would effectively outlaw picketing outside of private homes. Although the bill is aimed at suppressing union protests at the “private residences” of business executives, its scope is actually much further reaching.

The bill is written to make it illegal for picketers to take part in actions that would be “interfering with the resident’s right to quiet enjoyment.” But historically, one group of activists took part in protests aimed at private residences intended exactly to disrupt the peace to make their point: the Founding Fathers.

Prior to the Revolutionary War, Sam Adams and other Founding Fathers formed a group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the Stamp Act and similar oppressive legislation. The Sons of Liberty regularly protested outside of the homes of British colonial officials, including the homes of tax collectors. If Balfour and Georgia’s Big Business titans have their way, these protests would be illegal, and Adams and many of the other Founding Fathers would’ve been arrested.

March 8, 2012

PTSD: A Cancer of the Spirit

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/08




PTSD: A Cancer of the Spirit
by Robert C. Koehler
Published on Thursday, March 8, 2012 by CommonDreams.org

Can we squeeze the glory out of the word “war”? Can we talk about savage irrationality and lifelong inner hell instead? Can we talk about the wreckage of two countries?

Can we talk about spiritual cancer?

In the extraordinary documentary On the Bridge — an unstinting look at the reality of war and the terror of PTSD, directed by Olivier Morel — each of the six Iraq vets who opens his or her heart in the course of the film has a moment of deep, almost unbearable silence at the end, staring into the camera and through the camera at the viewer . . . and at the nation they are committed to waking up. In that silence, those are the questions that begin to emerge.

On the Bridge bares the deep psychic wounds of America’s returning vets — “I liken (PTSD) to the comedic scene of opening a closet and stuff keeps falling out,” Jason Moon said at one point — but it does much more than that as well. It puts these wounds into context: We are the aggressor nation, not simply at the geopolitical level, invading and occupying a nation and commandeering its resources, but at human level, with American GIs routinely dehumanizing and brutalizing Iraqis on the streets and in their homes.

March 8, 2012

Industry, Unions Step Up Pressure To Block Automatic Defense Cuts

http://defense.aol.com/2012/03/07/industry-unions-step-up-pressure-to-block-automatic-defense-cut/


Industry, Unions Step Up Pressure To Block Automatic Defense Cuts
By Otto Kreisher
Published: March 7, 2012

WASHINGTON: The aerospace industry and its largest union have started a new campaign to pressure Congress and the administration to prevent sequester, which they say could result in the loss of more than one million jobs from aerospace, defense and related activities.

The new drive, kicked off with a news conference today (3/7), is called "Stop the Clock." It includes the gimmick of distributing a small computerized clock that counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the automatic cut of $1.2 trillion in government spending -- more than half in national security, aerospace and homeland security funds -- would kick in.

~snip~

Retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, now head of Deloitte's defense sector, said the threatened cut of more than $500 billion in defense funds would hurt national security at a time of rising threats from China and Iran. Because most of the funding cuts would have to come from procurement and research and development, the impact would be particularly harmful, given the advanced age of Air Force aircraft and decline in the traditional U.S. technological superiority.

AIA officials also warned that further cuts in FAA funding would stop work on the already delayed next generation air traffic control system, which could block the expected growth in commercial aviation. (The state-by-state data is available at www.secondtonone.org)