Pentagon Opens Inquiry Into Group to Aid Troops

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

The Pentagon is looking into complaints that Defense Department officials charged with building public support for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may have engaged in improper fund-raising activities and unauthorized spending, officials said Friday.

The inspector general is examining whether officials who run “America Supports You,” a three-year-old Pentagon program lauded by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, helped arrange a fund-raiser for a private foundation set up last December by former Bush administration appointees. The foundation raises money to help troops and their families. The inquiry is also looking into whether money used for “America Supports You” and other public outreach programs has been shifted improperly from Pentagon accounts intended for other purposes.

Internal memos and e-mail messages provided to investigators, copies of which were shared with The Times, suggest that Pentagon officials encouraged Mark Vahradian, a Hollywood film producer, to make the private foundation, called the “America Supports You Fund,” the beneficiary of a Los Angeles fund-raiser he is planning for later this year.

Pentagon employees are prohibited from soliciting on behalf of private organizations, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. But Mr. Whitman said the Defense Department does routinely refer members of the public to outside organizations, some of which are listed on a Pentagon Web site.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/washington/12pentagon.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1178938834-rj7DsnGauXf14FmiQwMK3w

[maddezmom]

1. K&R also was a campaign contributor to Guiliani

:kick:

[formercia]

2. Perhaps someone needs to look into the private organizations

that the Pentagon refers people to on their web site.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Take it for what is worth: the DOD IG is only good at whitewashing

DOD IG fumbled an earlier investigation into violations of the Anti-Deficiency Act by then-Comptroller and neocon extraordinaire, Dov Zakheim. Zakheim had misappropriated funds earmarked for Afghanistan reconstruction to the build up to the Iraq invasion, long before Congress even considered the IWR.