Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 08.21.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on August 21

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @iavapressroom.

MUST READS

1) As vets await checks, VA workers get $24M bonuses

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Inspector General issued a report this week revealing that, while some severely wounded veterans face financial hardship waiting for their first disability payments, money has been flowing in the form of $24 million in bonuses to VA employees.  Per the report, thousands of employees with the Office of Information and Technology received the bonuses over a two-year period, some under questionable circumstances. The inspector general accused one recently retired VA official, Jennifer S. Duncan, of acting "as if she was given a blank checkbook" as awards and bonuses were distributed to employees of the department between 2007 and 2008.  Duncan also reportedly engaged in nepotism and took $60,000 in bonuses herself. In addition, managers improperly authorized college tuition payments for VA employees, some of whom were Duncan's family members and friends. That cost to taxpayers? Nearly $140,000.  Meanwhile, the inspector general also reported that a technology office employee became involved in an "inappropriate personal relationship" with a high-level VA official. The technology office employee flew 22 times from Florida to Washington, where the VA official lived. That travel cost $37,000.  In a statement, VA spokesperson Katie Robert said the "VA does not condone misconduct by its employees and will take the appropriate correction action for those who violate VA policy."

2) C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones

In a front-page feature today, the New York Times reports that a secret division at the North Carolina headquarters of Xe, the controversial military contractor formerly known as Blackwater, has assumed a role in the U.S. military's newest counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders.  Government officials and former employees indicate the division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft.  Previously, that work was performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency.  In addition, Xe employees are now also providing security at covert bases there.  On Thursday, the Times also reported the agency hired Blackwater in 2004 as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top Qaeda operatives.

3) Some Colleges Diss Vets' Experience

The Associated Press reports today that a surge of half a million veterans on college campuses this year as part of the new GI Bill is leading to a call for schools to re-examine their policies of declining to grant college credit for military training and service.  Currently, an estimated one in five colleges and universities do not give academic credit for military education, according to a recent survey of 723 schools by the American Council on Education that is believed to be the first systematic measure. Even more of the schools, 36 percent, said they don't award credit for military occupational training.  Veterans are raising concerns that current policy could mean they will have to spend more on tuition, stretch financial aid or GI Bill scholarships and delay their entry into the work force.  To calculate your GI Bill benefits and find the latest information on schools accepting military credit, visit NewGIBill.org.

4) Mullen to host virtual town hall – on YouTube

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, an avid Twitter and Facbeook user, issued an invitation Thursday to service members, family members or “anyone who cares about folks in the military” to video-record a question on any topic and submit it on YouTube by midnight, Eastern Standard Time, Aug. 31.  Mullen, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the top military adviser to President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will post his answers on YouTube.  “The chairman really wants to have a conversation with the troops akin to the way he does at all-hands calls at bases all over the world,” his spokesperson Navy Capt. John Kirby said. “He wanted that conversation to be as interactive as possible and reflective of what is on their minds.”  The effort coincides with the launch of www.defense.gov, a new Pentagon Web site loaded with links to social networking sites and aimed at encouraging viewers to “connect with us.”  The caveat?  Service members interested in posing a question to Mullen will have to do their recording on their own time. Access to YouTube and 11 other popular social networking sites from military computers has been banned since May 2007 because of what officials said was a drain on bandwidth in the .mil domain. A Pentagon review of that policy was launched in late July.  Click here to watch the promotional video about the virtual town hall.

AFGHANISTAN

Though it is still too soon to say how many Afghans actually cast ballots during Thursday's second-ever presidential election, spokesmen for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his principal challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, each insisted Friday that their men are leading.  The Karzai spokesman, Homayoun Hamidzada, did not give details but said turnout had been as high as 50 percent in parts of southern Afghanistan where Karzai has his principal base of support.  “What Karzai’s office is claiming is not correct,” said Sayyid Agha Hussain Fazel Sancharaki, a spokesman for Mr. Abdullah. He claimed early results Friday showed Abdullah with 62 percent of the votes, twice as many as Mr. Karzai.  United Nations officials, who were assisting in the process, said official returns could take up to a month if complaints of fraud or irregularities needed to be adjudicated.  Meanwhile, Council on Foreign Relations' President Richard Haas writes today that "no matter who is declared the winner, yesterday’s election is almost certain to leave the country even more divided."  Click here to read his editorial.

Across the border, intelligence officials said a U.S. drone fired a missile Friday into a suspected militant hide-out in Pakistan’s lawless northwest, killing 12 people in an attempt to take out a jihadist commander accused of attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.  There was no immediate word Friday whether Siraj Haqqani, an Afghan Taliban commander who operates on both sides of the border, was among the dead. Three women were killed, officials said.

IRAQ

Army Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, the U.S. commander in charge of training Iraqi security forces, said Thursday that the recent spate of deadly Baghdad bombings represents an obvious lapse in security and that he is frustrated with the pace of some of the training of Iraqi police.  Helmick told a Pentagon news conference U.S. trainers have built up Iraqi infantry and police forces but tasks such as developing forensic teams, logistical capabilities and intelligence are coming much more slowly.  "The easy part of all that is complete," he said. "We're getting to a very technical, costly part of that now. It's easy to build an infantrymen and an infantry unit. It's very, very difficult and it takes time to build an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technician."  Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Shiite politicians meanwhile blamed Saddam Hussein loyalists to the recent attacks, implying a political tilt to the violence ahead of January’s parliamentary elections.

Stateside, after a two-year hiatus, the Port of Philadelphia will be getting military cargo ships going to and returning from Iraq.  In 2004, Philadelphia was the fourth-busiest U.S. port and a key supply channel for Iraq; however, shipments dried up in 207 and went instead to Charleston, S.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Beaumont and Corpus Christi, Texas. Local officials estimate the economic impact to the region at $1.4 million for each military ship that loads and unloads trucks, Humvees, bulldozers, helicopters, and scores of containers with tents and supplies.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Cpl. Richard S. Weinmaster, a 20-year-old Marine from Cozad, Nebraska, was awarded the Navy Cross during a ceremony Thursday at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.  Weinmaster received the Navy's second-highest award for valor for his actions in combat July 8, 2008, in Helmand province, Afghanistan where during a squad ambush he used his body to shield both his fire team leader and several other Marines from the blast of an enemy grenade.  Though seriously injured, Weinmaster continued to carry out the attack, engaging enemy forces and forcing them to break contact before collapsing from the gravity of his wounds.”  Weinmaster is an automatic rifleman with 3rd Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Congress is in recess until September 8th.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate is on recess until September 8^th.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

August 28, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on the state of VA's services on Maui, to include an OIG report of the same.  10:00 a.m.; Maui Cultural Center (Vasquez)

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The House is on recess until September 8^th.

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.