“The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States.”
See those nice new looking incinerators? They cost you $5 million, but they’ve never been used. Instead troops are still relying on dangerous open-air burn pits for their trash.
“I didn’t think we knew what the hell we were doing.”
DOD Inspector General Finds $900 Million Spare Part Stockpile →
The Army bought nearly $900 million worth of spare parts for the Stryker armored fighting vehicle even as the parts became obsolete or unnecessary, according to a report by the Defense Department Office of Inspector General.
Including:
- $57 million worth of uninstalled, obsolete infrared equipment
- 9,179 small replacement gears, of which the Army only needed 15
Your Tax Dollars Fund Human Trafficking. Click Here to Do Something About it →
Thousands of foreign nationals working for U.S. government contractors and subcontractors are victims of human traffickers. Many of these workers have been lied to in regards to where they’ll work and how much they’ll get paid. Often, after they arrive, they live in squalid conditions and have their travel documents taken away, making them prisoners.
It’s unconscionable.
If you agree, then please send a letter to the federal agency in charge of writing the new anti-trafficking regulations. Demand that contractors and subcontractors be held accountable so that the thousands of workers who provide food and other necessary services to our soldiers and reconstruction personnel aren’t trapped in the horrors of modern-day slavery.
(Source: pogo.org)
When Acquisition Mistakes Hurt Defense →
The U.S. Air Force is buying 20 light support planes for the Afghan air force, but because of acquisition mistakes by the U.S. the planes may arrive after U.S. Air Force trainers have left the country.
And they will cost an extra $74 million. Read how it happened.
“Bad contracting is not just a waste of money, it can actually kill people here.”
John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Read the full interview with Sopko to get a glimpse at just how bad the situation is in Afghanistan, especially when it comes to private contractors.
(Source: hhttp)
“Between 2007 and 2012, the report said, the U.S. government did not have a reliable way of verifying that its Afghan providers were not buying from Iran as they supplied fuel worth nearly $1.1 billion to the Afghan army.”
“[I]f we ever got seriously hit [by terrorists], there is no doubt in my mind the guard force here would not be able to handle it, and mass casualties and mayhem would ensue.”
A “Mutiny” in Kabul: Guards Allege Security Problems Have Put Embassy at Risk
Private guards responsible for protecting what may be the most at-risk U.S. diplomatic mission in the world — the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan — say security weaknesses have left it dangerously vulnerable to attack.
In interviews and written communications with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), current and former guards said a variety of shortcomings, from inadequate weapons training to an overextended guard force, have compromised security there — security provided under a half-a-billion-dollar contract with Aegis Defense Services, the U.S. subsidiary of a British firm.
