Wartime Contracting Panel Seals Records for Next 20 Years

[Octafish]

What is our government hiding? The truth about their employers owners?



New World Order Symphony by James Cianciaruso

Wartime Contracting Panel Seals Records for Next 20 Years

Noel Brinkerhoff
AllGov.com Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Established by Congress to investigate and expose government waste, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan has decided to not reveal its volumes of materials to the public for another two decades.

After three years of work, the commission officially shut down last week, having concluded that the U.S. misspent between $31 billion and $60 billion in contracting for services in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it won’t allow its records to be opened for public review at the National Archives until 2031, because some of the documents contain “sensitive information,” according to one official.

Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, told The Wall Street Journal that the 20-year term “seems like a long period of time, particularly for a commission whose whole purpose is to improve accountability and expose waste.”

SOURCE w/lotsalinks: http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Wartime_Contracting_Panel_Seals_Records_for_Next_20_Years_111025

No two ways about it: Secret Government is un-democratic and un-American.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. exactly the wrong decision at the worst possible time

[Octafish]

5. In a democracy, criminality is never rewarded.

And yet...

Defense Dept. Gave $431 Billion to Contractors After They were Convicted of Fraud

Noel Brinkerhoff
AllGov.com Saturday, October 22, 2011

In the nation’s capital, crime does pay for defense contractors.

The Department of Defense has admitted that it has rewarded hundreds of companies convicted of fraud with new deals that totaled more than $1.1 trillion.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who requested the information from the Pentagon, said, “The ugly truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.”

Examples include Lockheed Martin, which in 2008 paid $10.5 million to settle charges that it defrauded the government by submitting false invoices related to the Titan IV space launch vehicle program. The following year Lockheed pulled in $30.2 billion from the Defense Department.

CONTINUED...

http://www.allgov.com/Where_is_the_Money_Going/ViewNews/Defense_Dept_Gave_431_Billion_Dollars_to_Contractors_After_They_were_Convicted_of_Fraud_111022

If it weren't for Bernie Sanders shining a light on these traitors, I'd write it is most disheartening to hope things change and they never do.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. There is no defense for this.

Yay Obama. :puke:

[Octafish]

7. Fraudulent Defense Contractors Paid $1 Trillion

It's like in the John Wayne Western, "The War Wagon," where the Native American tells Kirk Douglas he has learned the ways of the white man:
"Grab all you can. Any time you can."

Fraudulent Defense Contractors Paid $1 Trillion

Senator Bernie Sanders
October 20, 2011

Hundreds of defense contractors that defrauded the U.S. military received more than $1.1 trillion in Pentagon contracts during the past decade, according to a Department of Defense report prepared for Sen. Bernie Sanders. He called the report "shocking." He said aggressive steps must be taken to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted. "The ugly truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," said Sanders. "With the country running a nearly $15 trillion national debt, my goal is to provide as much transparency as possible about what is happening with taxpayer money."

The report detailed how the Pentagon paid $573.7 billion during the past 10 years to more than 300 contractors involved in civil fraud cases that resulted in judgments of more than $1 million, $398 billion of which was awarded after settlement or judgment for fraud. When awards to "parent" companies are counted, the Pentagon paid more than $1.1 trillion during the past 10 years just to the 37 top companies engaged in fraud.

Another $255 million went to 54 contractors convicted of hard-core criminal fraud in the same period. Of that total, $33 million was paid to companies after they were convicted of crimes.

Some of the nation's biggest defense contractors were involved.

For example, Lockheed Martin in 2008 paid $10.5 million to settle charges that it defrauded the government by submitting false invoices on a multi-billion dollar contract connected to the Titan IV space launch vehicle program. That didn't seem to sour the relationship between Lockheed and the Defense Department, which gave Lockheed $30.2 billion in contracts in fiscal year 2009, more than ever before.

In another case, Northrop Grumman paid $62 million in 2005 to settle charges that it "engaged in a fraud scheme by routinely submitting false contract proposals," and "concealed basic problems in its handling of inventory, scrap and attrition." Despite the serious charges of pervasive and repeated fraud, Northrop Grumman received $12.9 billion in contracts the next year, 16 percent more than the year before.

A Sanders provision in a defense spending bill required the report and directed the Department of Defense to recommend ways to punish fraudulent contractors. The Pentagon said sanctions already are in place. "It is not clear, however, that these remedies are sufficient ... to deter and punish fraud when it is detected." That tone was different than what the Pentagon said in a preliminary report last January, which declared that ‘the department believes that existing remedies with respect to contractor wrongdoing are sufficient."

Said Sanders: "It is clear that DOD's current approach is not working and we need far more vigorous enforcement to protect taxpayers from massive fraud."

Under another Sanders provision in a separate law, a government-wide federal contractor fraud database was opened to the public earlier this year. Access to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System had been limited to federal acquisition officials and certain members of Congress. The DOD promises to ramp up monitoring of this database to ensure its contractors' fraudulent actions are accurately and fully disclosed.

SOURCE with links...

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=57672667-8958-44d9-936e-074de29f9be3

The nation can use some solid leadership about now. And not just in huntin' down and killin' our former allies.
We need to go after the "domestic" enemies the oath of office talks about.

[Donnachaidh]

3. it's looking more and more like we need to disinfect this government

jesus h. christ on a cracker. :grr:

k&r

[DCKit]

4. I'm screaming in my head, as well.

Too fucked up for words.

[Zyzfyx]

13. Which government?

The official one or the plutocracy?

[opihimoimoi]

6. Is there a valid reason??? Bodes ill......Clarity is essential for Sanity

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. well, there's this election thingie coming around, and

you wanna bet that these miscreants may want to reward those who protect them from their own crimes?

[opihimoimoi]

15. Hmmmm, something smells in.........

[jeff47]

17. Yes...

Assuming "Sensitive information" means classified, 20 years is one of the standard time frames for declassification.

However, they probably could have separated the classified and unclassified parts of their report.

[TBF]

8. Gov't Contractors have been known as "beltway bandits" for a long time -

but this may be a new low.

[ThomCat]

9. Wasn't this administration supposed to be the most Transparent

in history or something?

We seem to get a lot of talk about progressing towards transparency, but then the actual results we keep getting are a lot more secrecy. Let's cheer for every announcement about transparency, and seal everything away where nobody can see it!

[gratuitous]

10. But the administration's approval rating is 78% among liberal Democrats

At least, that's what Gallup says, even if it doesn't really tell us how they identify "liberal" Democrats or explain what "approve" means. But I have it on very good authority that it means we don't have a leg to stand on to criticize the Obama administration. Unless we're really conservatives, or something.

Who said "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had been repealed? I suppose as a good liberal, I have to "approve" of this.

[uponit7771]

16. WOW, when a person is so hate it makes them irrational they start to being ignored ."commission" =..

...Obama admin?

[Fumesucker]

11. Mistakes were made..

We'll let you know what those mistakes were and maybe even who made them..

In twenty years...

:rofl:

[AntiFascist]

14. K&R n/t

[Kaleko]

18. Secret Government is in its death rattles.

This is the information age. The growth of knowledge through the worldwide web is an unstoppable power.

[Festivito]

19. Oh! So, we don't need to improve accountability for 20 more years. /nt

[woo me with science]

20. This is part of a very disturbing pattern.

K&R


Obama seeks permission to lie about Freedom of Information requests, even to the courts:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2185303

Obama freezes reporters out of fundraising event
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2182932&mesg_id=2182932

Seventy percent increase in censorship requests to Google by US government or police
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/25/google-transparency-report-released

ACLU issues report on Obama and core liberties
http://politics.salon.com/2011/09/07/liberties_3/singleton

[woo me with science]

21. Kick. nt