Claire McCaskill (D-MO) takes on the military-industrial complex

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

McCaskill Takes On Military Industrial Complex

Friday 25 July 2008

A Governmental Accountability Office report has found that Defense Contract Audit Agency officials and major defense contractors successfully pressured Pentagon auditors to hide damaging facts about the performance and costs of weapons systems.

A scathing report accusing government auditors of corruption, issued by the government's top investigative body, prompted a freshman senator to call for firings "by nightfall" on Thursday.

In her first term, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), a former prosecutor and Missouri state auditor, has taken the lead in figuring out whether the US military gets what it pays for from contractors.

In an impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate, McCaskill outlined the findings of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, which found that Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) officials and major defense contractors successfully pressured Pentagon auditors to hide damaging facts about the performance and costs of weapons systems.

The DCAA has "gotten caught in what could be the biggest auditing scandal in the history of this town, and I'm not exaggerating here. I will guarantee you, as auditors around the country learn about this, they're going to have disbelief and raw anger that this agency has impugned the integrity of government auditors everywhere by these kinds of irresponsible actions," McCaskill said.

McCaskill fired off letters to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and DCAA Director April G. Stephenson, demanding accountability and a full explanation of the issues the GAO report raised. In a July 11 letter, Stephenson said that DCAA did not agree with the "totality" of the report but was addressing some of the issues raised.

The GAO, the top nonpartisan governmental investigative body in Washington, DC, looked at 14 audits performed by the 4,000-member DCAA, the internal government audit team that is supposed to oversee contracting for the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies. Zero of the 14 audits met government standards.

snip

According to GAO investigators...private companies and people in the Pentagon conspired to conceal wasteful and fraudulent activity by contractors at the cost of the US taxpayer.

snip

"You know, the Department of Defense has been on the high risk list of this government for more than a decade. Scandal after scandal has rolled out of the Department of Defense on contracting ... I took a trip to Iraq just on contract oversight with an auditor's eye, meeting with the people that oversee the contracts in Iraq ... I think we burned up more than $150 billion in just pure contracting abuse," McCaskill said during her speech, adding, "and all this time that we have been wasting hundreds and billions of dollars, the fox was in the chicken coop."

The rest here:

http://http//www.truthout.org/article/mccaskill-takes-on-military-industrial-complex

[baja]

How long before she has an "accident" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.........

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Yep.

Stay out of small planes and Arkansas motel rooms, Senator McCaskill.

[mhgaffney]

Let us hope the good senator succeeds in prying open the lid on this Pandora's box of corruption and deceipt.

Indeed, let us hope the Senator succeeds where the director of the GAO failed. Recall, recently, the GAO chief resigned -- in frustration -- after repeated failed efforts to focus attention on the scale of the problem. The GAO judged the Pentagon books so far gone that the US military couldn't even fail an audit.

Recall, on the eve of 9/11 Sec of Defense Rumsfeld acknowledged the true scale of the problem. By that point it was already in the neighborhood of 2-3 trillions -- unaccounted for.

Incredibly, bright and early the next morning (on 9/11) as the "terror attack" hit unfolded -- Rummy abandoned his post -- and walked out of the Pentagon -- even as his command staff was trying in vain to reach him -- for a photo op on the law helping the wounded.

Rummy was the national command authority -- yet left his post and was incommunicado for nearly an hour. Incredibly, the US media never even noticed.

Of course Rummy was on the job the next day (Sept 12) when he appeared on Capitol Hill to badger Carl Levin and the rest of the Senate to cough up uncounted more billions for the military industrial complex.

Talk about a mafia style shake down. With all of America scared sh*tless about Arab terrorists shooting at us from behind every rock and tree -- the Congress gave the Pentagon a blank check to do whatever it pleased.

Now in 2008 the disastrous results are becoming more obvious with every passing day.

Even so -- eight years after 9/11 -- the clowns and knee jerks on this board still don't get it.

As Einstein once said: "Only two things are infinite -- the cosmos -- and human stupidity..."

MHG

[W*GS]

The Three Stooges of the Apocalypse have spoken...

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Wow - I'll bet the Defense Contract Audit Agency officials and those defense contractors are glad W*GS isn't defending them.

:D

[Tombstone RJ]

We always have to be watchful of the military industrial complex. I hope the senator can help resolve any indescretions by the Pentagon and its military contractors. I remember back in the 1980s (the Reagan years) when the military industrial establishment was wasting billions of dollars of tax payers money by over charging the US government. I think there was a study done back then that showed the break down cost of a ship that was being built for the Navy and it came out to like $50 per nut or bolt on the ship. Insane money.

This IS the type of work a senator needs to do, in order to protect the American taxpayer. If this abuse is happening, hopefully she will cast a huge light on it and get the American taxpayer fully informed, and demanding change.

I don't mind having the best for our military, they deserve the best. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit around and let the multi-billion dollar companies screw me out of money in order to justify their profits.