Low Miles, Only Driven In One War

USAToday.com
September 28, 2013

By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today

Free to a good home in a bad neighborhood: pre-owned, carefully maintained, never-blown-to-smithereens Mine Resistant Ambush Protected truck.
As the Pentagon withdraws from Afghanistan and vows never to get involved in any long, deadly wars of occupation, it has a few thousand armored vehicles to spare. So it's been giving them away to local police departments — 75 of them since August, according to the Defense Logistics Agency.
MRAPs did their job saving the lives of thousands of troops from roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, they'll be hitting the mean streets of Columbus, Ohio, where campus police at The Ohio State University can presumably bust beer bashes with the behemoths. Cops in Madison, Wis., another Big Ten party town, can presumably do the same with theirs.
They're free. Mostly. Which is a pretty good deal considering a fully tricked-out MRAP with bomb-signal jammers, radios and a .50-caliber machine gun in the turret can run about $1 million.
But like buying a new car, there's a destination charge involved, according to Mimi Schirmacher, a spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency. If local police or state government pay shipping costs and justify the need, DLA is happy to put them behind the wheel of a 37,000-pound MaxxPro from Navistar.
Those needs include "active-shooter incidents, SWAT, and drug interdiction," according to Schirmacher.
A second life for the trucks is justified. Some are being cut up and sold for scrap in Afghanistan because they're deemed surplus and too costly to ship home. All told, the Pentagon spent $45 billion in a crash program to field them to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan where troops were dying daily when improvised explosive devices tore into thinly armored Humvees.
Former Defense secretary Robert Gates, who made their production the Pentagon's top priority in 2007, told USA TODAY the cost was well worth it.
"There is absolutely no question in my mind that thousands of troops are still alive today because they were riding in MRAPs when attacked by IEDs," Gates said. "I have heard that firsthand from countless troops on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Quite simply, MRAPs have saved thousands of lives and limbs."

Deputy Chief At StratCom Suspended

Omaha World-Herald
September 28, 2013

By Steve Liewer, World-Herald Staff Writer

Vice Adm. Tim Giardina has been suspended as deputy commander of the Bellevue-based U.S. Strategic Command, StratCom officials confirmed Friday.
StratCom's commander, Gen. C. Robert Kehler, suspended Giardina in early September from all duties that include oversight of nuclear materials or nuclear issues, or that require a security clearance, said Capt. Pamela Kunze, a StratCom spokeswoman.
She said Kehler also recommended that Giardina be reassigned to another command.
Kunze said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is conducting an investigation, but she declined to describe what it is about.
Giardina, 56, joined StratCom in December 2011, after a tour as deputy commander and chief of staff at the U.S. Pacific Fleet command in Honolulu.
A 1979 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Giardina became a career submarine officer. He commanded the attack sub USS Kentucky and was executive officer aboard the USS Hyman G. Rickover. He later commanded the entire fleet of 18 Trident ballistic-missile submarines.
He also was chief of staff of the Japan-based 7th Fleet and a joint task force supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Giardina had been scheduled to leave StratCom later this year. In July, President Barack Obama nominated Lt. Gen. James Kowalski to replace Giardina. Kowalski currently leads the Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., where he oversees the nation's Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear-capable B-2 and B-52 bombers.

Rise In Deadly Attacks On Shiites In Iraq Stirs Anger At Government

New York Times
September 28, 2013
Pg. 4

By Tim Arango

BAGHDAD — As Satar Jabar mourned the death of his mother last week, three explosions struck the funeral tent, killing nearly 100 people, including his young son and two of his brothers.
“I feel like I lost my life, my home,” Mr. Jabar said as he received mourners in his home Wednesday afternoon in Sadr City, the gritty and sprawling neighborhood where the attack occurred. “They destroyed everything.”
As visitors recited Koranic verses and sipped tea, angry residents gathered around the corner at the site of the attack, with its charred truck and burned buildings, and demanded that the attackers be executed.
“We want to execute them here,” Mr. Jabar said.
The attack on the funeral last weekend was the deadliest single terrorist strike in recent memory in Iraq, and it has consumed Sadr City, home to a vast Shiite underclass loyal to the radical and politically powerful cleric Moktada al-Sadr, with grief. It has also set off waves of anger toward a government that the people here increasingly view as incompetent and corrupt, even illegitimate, adding to the isolation of a Shiite leadership already struggling to contain growing Sunni unrest.
As anger grew in the community, with groups of people gathering at the attack site and putting up barriers to block traffic, traces of government authority vanished. Security forces withdrew from the center of the neighborhood, with men in black outfits that identify them as militiamen granting access to certain areas. Workers in government buildings — a court, a health center, a Ministry of Education office, schools — went home after protesters demanded they leave.
Rumors circulated that public executions were imminent, and many of the gathered residents expected that they would be carried out. But, in fact, four suspects captured by local militiamen had already been turned over to the government.
The Shiite-dominated central government, led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, is battling an increasingly deadly Sunni insurgency that is morphing into a bloody sectarian fight reminiscent of the country’s civil war of several years ago. The violence is relentless and daily: on Thursday morning bombs struck public markets in two areas near Baghdad, one predominantly Shiite, the other Sunni, killing more than two dozen people.
As the government tries to put down the Sunni insurgency, it now faces rising unrest among members of the country’s Shiite majority, who are becoming more determined to take up the fight themselves. This is perhaps expressed most vividly in the sentiments stirring Sadr City, home to many former fighters in Mr. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, who had largely put down their weapons in recent years and put their faith in the political process.
But now that their community faces a deadly streak of terrorist violence, and believes the government incapable of protecting them, that is changing, demonstrated by the protests and unrest this week in Sadr City.
“The whole city is angry,” said Razak Jassim, 43, a friend to Mr. Jabar who joined him in mourning on Wednesday.
“We are all boiling here,” Mr. Jabar said. “We are all waiting for an order from Moktada.”
By that he meant an order from Mr. Sadr to rise up against both the government and the Sunni community. If such an uprising came, it would destabilize Iraq further and could, perhaps, lead the country back to the dark times of the sectarian civil war that gripped it in 2006 and 2007.
But so far Mr. Sadr, who became a kingmaker in Iraqi politics after the 2010 elections by supporting a second term as prime minister for Mr. Maliki, has urged caution. For instance, after militiamen in Sadr City arrested the four suspects in last weekend’s terror attacks, locals said, he refused calls for public executions and ordered the men turned over to the government.
Mr. Sadr may be cautious, for now, but Asaib al-Haq, another powerful Shiite militia that is a rival to the Mahdi Army and also draws some support in Sadr City, has remobilized. Like other Shiite militias here, it has sent many fighters to Syria to help the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose leadership is dominated by an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but it has also become stronger on the streets of Iraq.
The group, which is backed by Iran and split off from the Sadrist movement several years ago and was responsible for many deadly attacks on the American military when it was here, has seen its political wing welcomed into the government by Mr. Maliki. And as the security forces have proved ineffective in stemming attacks by Sunni insurgent groups, the group’s armed unit, according to militiamen, is increasingly working in secret with the government.
“We don’t do anything until the government asks us,” said one of the group’s leaders, who gave his name as Abu Abdellah. “We have a direct connection with the leaders of the security forces.”
In supporting Asaib al-Haq, Mr. Maliki has apparently made the risky calculation that by backing some Shiite militias, even in secret, he can maintain control over the country’s restive Shiite population and, ultimately, retain power after the next national elections, which are scheduled for next year. Militiamen and residents of Shiite areas say members of Asaib al-Haq are given government badges and weapons and allowed freedom of movement by the security forces.
But other powerful Shiite factions, including the Sadrists, who model their movement after Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are rivals to Asaib al-Haq, whose government support has inspired deep resentments among the followers of Mr. Sadr. It has also sparked frequent street clashes between Asaib al-Haq militiamen and gunmen loyal to Mr. Sadr, which could presage a deadly fight for Shiite dominance in Iraq.
Echoing the sentiments of many of Mr. Sadr’s followers, Karar Hassan, 46, who lost a son in last weekend’s attacks in Sadr City, said this week: “We have had enough killing. Now it is our turn to take action.”
Hamid Khalaf, 37, who joined the protesters in Sadr City, said: “We will not be fooled again by government promises. We gave up our arms and put our faith in the security forces, and all we got was more death and more instability. We tell Maliki that this is your last chance. We will make a coup against your government or you will have to kill us all.”
Sadr City is, in many ways, a community consumed by death, and notions of vengeance. Green, white and yellow banners honoring local men killed fighting in Syria are draped from walls at traffic intersections. Outside the homes that line the narrow and dusty streets are black banners with pictures of victims, some of them children, of terrorist attacks here.
A poster, hung by protesters, read, “We don’t want water, or electricity, we just want to see the execution of our son’s killers.”
As Mr. Jabar walked along his street on Wednesday he pointed to a neighbor’s house.
“Someone was killed here,” he said.
He pointed to another.
“And here also.”
Yasir Ghazi, Duraid Adnan and an employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.

Pentagon: Fresh Look At Stopping Insider Attacks

Yahoo.com
September 27, 2013

By Robert Burns, Associated Press

WASHINGTON--A pair of deadly attacks on U.S. soldiers by uniformed Afghan troops has prompted American commanders to take a fresh look at measures designed to prevent such insider attacks, the No. 2 Pentagon official said Friday.
Ashton Carter, the deputy secretary of defense, said in an interview with a small group of reporters that the review was ordered after an attack Saturday that killed three U.S. soldiers and another on Thursday that killed one. Both happened in the eastern Afghanistan province of Paktia, although details are scarce.
Insider attacks were alarmingly common in 2012 but have happened far less often since a series of preventive measures were adopted by U.S. and coalition troops late last summer.
"We're checking to see whether people have relaxed in some way" on the preventive measures or whether the latest attacks are simply a "statistical spike," Carter said in the interview in his Pentagon office.
On Friday the Pentagon identified the soldier killed in Saturday's insider attack. He was Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Baysore Jr., 31, of Milton, Pa.
The three killed in Saturday's attack were identified Tuesday as Staff Sgt. Liam J. Nevins, 32, of Denver; Staff Sgt. Timothy R. McGill, 30, of Ramsey, N.J., and Spc. Joshua J. Strickland, 23, of Woodstock, Ga.
During a visit to Afghanistan last week, Carter met with Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top American commander in Kabul, as well as other U.S. and Afghan officials.
Carter said in the interview that the Obama administration believes that a U.S.-Afghan security agreement that has been in negotiation for months must be completed by October. "It would be a tragedy" if it was not completed by then, he said, because the U.S. military needs time to plan for whatever post-combat mission that President Barack Obama might decide is necessary. U.S. and coalition troops are scheduled to finish their combat mission in December 2014.

Washington Navy Yard Gunman's Employers Point Fingers Over His Record

Reuters.com
September 27, 2013

By Phil Stewart and Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters

WASHINGTON--Two defense contractors who employed Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis are pointing fingers at one another after keeping him on the job despite his mental health problems.
The dispute this week led contractor Hewlett-Packard to cancel its work with Florida-based subcontractor, The Experts, which hired Alexis to do information technology work on U.S. Navy bases.
Authorities on federal contract law say the finger-pointing may have broader implications if families of the 12 victims of the Sept. 16 shootings file lawsuits. Alexis was killed by police in a gun battle.
HP wrote in a letter to The Experts CEO Thomas Hoshko, obtained by Reuters, that it "has lost all confidence in The Experts' ability to meet its contractual obligations and serve as an HP subcontractor."
The Experts fired back a note saying it "had no greater insight into Alexis' mental health than HP."
The Navy asked HP in a Sept. 23 letter to report back this week about any "adverse information" it provided or did not provide so far about Alexis.
A Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said federal regulations require contractors to report adverse information, which includes "any information that adversely reflects upon the integrity or character of a cleared employee."
A U.S. Senate committee has scheduled a hearing on Monday that will explore how Alexis secured a clearance that he used to enter Navy installations. A 2007 background investigation allowed him to gain clearance after joining the Navy Reserve.
In August, just weeks before the shooting, a Newport, Rhode Island police report showed that Alexis told police he was hearing voices in a hotel while there on a business trip.
HP, in severing ties to The Experts, said the company failed to respond appropriately to Alexis' mental health issues.
In its response, The Experts said HP had a site manager closely supervising Alexis, including when he was in Rhode Island.
Worked at several military sites
Before the shooting, Alexis had been sent to military installations in Little Creek, Virginia, Newport, Rhode Island, Cherry Point, North Carolina and the Washington D.C. area, according to a letter from Hoshko to the Navy obtained by Reuters.
Alexis arrived in the Washington area on Aug. 25, staying at two different hotels before moving to a Residence Inn in Washington D.C. on Sept. 7. He remained there until the shooting, the FBI said.
It said that on Sept. 16, he passed through Navy Yard security, parked in an employee garage and entered Building 197 with a sawed-off shotgun in a backpack. The weapon had phrases scratched into it, including "End to the torment."
The FBI said Alexis thought for months he was being controlled by ultra-low frequency waves.
The Experts acknowledged that it pulled Alexis off his Newport assignment for a few days rest. But the company allowed him to return to work after speaking with people with whom Alexis had been in contact.
"Alexis' performance after he returned to work was satisfactory," a source close to The Experts said.
The Experts CEO Hoshko, in a letter Thursday to staff who were affected by the Navy Yard shooting, said: "I truly believe we have continued to meet all our obligations and know that our valued and trusted employees have done nothing wrong."
Monday's Senate hearing will examine the limits of background investigations.
The investigation of Alexis did not pick up on his use of a firearm in Seattle in 2004 to shoot out a car's tires.
Frederic Levy, a suspension and debarment lawyer at McKenna Long and Aldridge, said "there is no bright line" on what precise kinds of employee behavior have to be reported to the government.
For example, a person suffering mild depression due to family problems may be getting weekly professional help. That does not necessarily need to be reported.
"There is a point in time where I think that mental instability would trigger a reporting requirement," he said.
Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said acting too precipitously against an employee with mental issues may trigger a discrimination lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"Companies are put into kind of a Catch-22 these days," he said. "They've got this very narrow knife edge to run between on the one hand protecting everyone and on the other hand not violating the Americans with Disabilities Act."

No Deadline For Talks With Korea On OPCON Transfer: Pentagon Official

Yonhap News Agency
September 28, 2013

By Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap

WASHINGTON--A senior Pentagon official said Friday there is no deadline for ongoing consultations over South Korea's request for another delay in its acceptance of operational control (OPCON) of its troops in the event of war.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will discuss the issue in next week's talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, in Seoul, the official told reporters on background.
"There is no deadline here. I don't expect any decisions (during the upcoming meeting) on this issue," he said.
Hagel is scheduled to leave for Seoul on Saturday for the annual Security Consultative Meeting between the allies.
Seoul's call for pushing back the date for the OPCON transition, now slated for December 2015, has emerged as a major alliance issue.
The Park Geun-hye administration cites increased North Korean threats as the reason for its request.
South Korea handed over its operational command to the U.S.-led U.N. troops shortly after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul regained peacetime OPCON in 1994.
It initially agreed to take back OPCON in time of a war in 2012, but the previous South Korean administration suggested a delay following the North's deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in 2010. Washington accepted the offer.
The Pentagon official said the U.S. will deal with Seoul's request in the spirit of alliance and in an amicable way as it did three years ago.
In the upcoming trip to the region, the official added, Hagel will also bring a message for South Korea and Japan with regard to Washington's push for stronger trilateral military cooperation.
"Yes, we will raise this. we will talk about this," he said.
The Obama administration views South Korea and Japan as linchpins of its regional security posture. It hopes to boost tripartite defense cooperation to cope with North Korea's threats and handle other security issues in the region.
Apparently presenting a setback to the push, however, relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured in recent years amid a row over their shared history.
The official said trilateral cooperation has been relatively good on the military front despite historical and diplomatic disputes.
"The security baseline is something that we need to keep going even when times are tough on the political side," he said.
Washington contends improved political ties between the neighboring nations would help strengthen trilateral defense cooperation, he added.
This is Hagel's first trip to South Korea as Pentagon chief. He is staying four days, an unprecedentedly long stop for a defense secretary.
He is scheduled to meet President Park Geun-hye, tour the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas and preside over the U.S. Forces Korea change of command ceremony. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is scheduled to replace Gen. James Thurman as leader of the 28,500 troops.
This year, South Korea and the U.S. celebrate the 60th anniversary of their alliance dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War.
On Wednesday, the secretary is flying to Japan for the so-called two-plus-two talks to be joined by Secretary of State John Kerry.

No Deadline For Talks With Korea On OPCON Transfer: Pentagon Official

Yonhap News Agency
September 28, 2013

By Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap

WASHINGTON--A senior Pentagon official said Friday there is no deadline for ongoing consultations over South Korea's request for another delay in its acceptance of operational control (OPCON) of its troops in the event of war.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will discuss the issue in next week's talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, in Seoul, the official told reporters on background.
"There is no deadline here. I don't expect any decisions (during the upcoming meeting) on this issue," he said.
Hagel is scheduled to leave for Seoul on Saturday for the annual Security Consultative Meeting between the allies.
Seoul's call for pushing back the date for the OPCON transition, now slated for December 2015, has emerged as a major alliance issue.
The Park Geun-hye administration cites increased North Korean threats as the reason for its request.
South Korea handed over its operational command to the U.S.-led U.N. troops shortly after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul regained peacetime OPCON in 1994.
It initially agreed to take back OPCON in time of a war in 2012, but the previous South Korean administration suggested a delay following the North's deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in 2010. Washington accepted the offer.
The Pentagon official said the U.S. will deal with Seoul's request in the spirit of alliance and in an amicable way as it did three years ago.
In the upcoming trip to the region, the official added, Hagel will also bring a message for South Korea and Japan with regard to Washington's push for stronger trilateral military cooperation.
"Yes, we will raise this. we will talk about this," he said.
The Obama administration views South Korea and Japan as linchpins of its regional security posture. It hopes to boost tripartite defense cooperation to cope with North Korea's threats and handle other security issues in the region.
Apparently presenting a setback to the push, however, relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured in recent years amid a row over their shared history.
The official said trilateral cooperation has been relatively good on the military front despite historical and diplomatic disputes.
"The security baseline is something that we need to keep going even when times are tough on the political side," he said.
Washington contends improved political ties between the neighboring nations would help strengthen trilateral defense cooperation, he added.
This is Hagel's first trip to South Korea as Pentagon chief. He is staying four days, an unprecedentedly long stop for a defense secretary.
He is scheduled to meet President Park Geun-hye, tour the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas and preside over the U.S. Forces Korea change of command ceremony. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is scheduled to replace Gen. James Thurman as leader of the 28,500 troops.
This year, South Korea and the U.S. celebrate the 60th anniversary of their alliance dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War.
On Wednesday, the secretary is flying to Japan for the so-called two-plus-two talks to be joined by Secretary of State John Kerry.