Surprise! Helmets for Troops Substandard, So Bush Administration Orders More
Prepare to be disgusted.
At a time when a new acronym, TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), has entered the American lexicon because of injuries sustained to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times reports that not only are many combat helmets being given to our troops substandard, and not only was there a lawsuit about it, but the government actually placed an order with the same company for more helmets just days before the suit was settled.
A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit saying it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including those for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Twelve days before the settlement with the Justice Department was announced, the company, Sioux Manufacturing of Fort Totten, was given a new contract of up to $74 million to make more armor for helmets to replace the old ones, which were made from the late 1980s to last year.
The issue at the heart of the suit were two former employees of the company who maintained (and never were disproved) that Sioux was not weaving their Kevlar at the mandated 35 by 35 thread per square inch count, but 34 by 34, and making up the weight difference by just applying more hardened resin. I think in anyone's book, that would be considered reason enough to never place a contract with the same company again. But, what's worse, that extra resin makes the helmets more brittle, which doesn't give the necessary head protection to the troops.
In the suit, it seems like everyone at the company knew what they were doing:
In the evidence in the suit were hundreds of daily inspection records showing repeated violations of the weaving standards, as well as tape recordings of six managers and employees' admitting covering up violations.
In a conversation Mr. Kenner secretly taped, Rhea Crane, quality assurance officer, worried "if we ever had someone get killed, and they decided to investigate because they thought maybe the helmet wasn't any good.""If we ever got audited," she said, "you know what they would do to us. Shut us down and fine us big time. Probably never see another government contract."
Oh, you think so, Mrs. "Quality Assurance Officer?" Well, lucky for you all at Sioux Manufacturing, the Bush administration is on the scene, where substandard products for the troops are awarded with MORE contracts! We've truly entered the Bizarro World.
Thankfully, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has taken up the case and written to Congress to investigate this matter. We at VoteVets.org fully support their call for an investigation, and we'll be doing more in the coming days to support their efforts.
There have been many, many things wrong with how the wars have been waged. I don't think I need to go through a litany of them. But, to me, there is no issue more tragic than how Donald "The Army You Have" Rumsfeld, and this administration have been absolutely and totally irresponsible -- indeed wreckless -- in how they go about protecting our troops at the most basic levels, from body armor, to Humvee armor, and now, to helmets.
As always, you can read more about this, and how the troops and veterans see this, at VetVoice.com
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"If we ever got audited," she said, "you know what they would do to us. Shut us down and fine us big time. Probably never see another government contract."
What we should do is put their own helmets on the managers & QA idiots from this company and let those with Traumatic Brain Injury use these a**h*les for target practice.
I think that this administration has about used the military like a(pick term), and he and his pals are intending to profit by it. Massively. And, if you've been following the news, they have in fact done just that. I hope somebody's keeping notes on all the ways and means the war profiteers have conducted their business, starting with Uncle Dick, and My Pet Oil Company.
I'm not even sure that fraud and larceny are sufficiently descriptive. Daddy WarBush...
This stuff has been going on since WW2, and was prevalant big time in Vietnam. Take a first look at the politicians that appropriate the money in their didtrict and then follow it both way, down to the finished produc's quality and cost, and upwarsds to the parent company and the loby money they spend. What is really going to be interesting is when it all crashes in the next presidency and how the MIC is going to take over the Government because of the devestation of the whole system, as well as the troops, and a draft gets re-instituted and congress finally acknowledges the budget has to include the "War on Terror" and that it is exceeeds 2 trillion a year, for what? and for Who?.
Follow the money. Vietnam started out under a Democrat who allowed war profiteering. Iraq under a Republican who allows massive war profiteering. And you expect something to happen? Something did. The company was awarded another contract. There is your answer. Keep up your pipe dream. The Party counts on you to maintain your illusion.
To Veri: Maybe you need to research the commission that Harry Truman chaired during WWII that prosecuted war profiteers to a fare-thee-well.
Make John Edwards Attorney General and turn him loose!
These people should be in prison.
And yet the republicans think they are pro-military? These guys...rep
Yeah, but think of all the pensions they're saving on.
A Democratic Congress controls the purse strings. Instead of legislating proper consequences in government contracting, they continue to allow substandard equipment to reach our soldiers. Much like the previous Republican Congress.
And you think there are major differences between either "party"? I almost could laugh if it were not for troops dieing in the field.
While I agree with you that the Democratic Congress has NOT DONE ENOUGH to affect change in the war, or in profiteering, or in policy, it is absolutely OBTUSE to insinuate that they haven't tried. The narrow margin of POWER that they hold in the House, and the logical fallacy that they hold the majority in the Senate (i.e. Leiberman being a Democrat), has resulted in the ability of the remaining Republican Minority to "stonewall", "delay", "defer" and "deny" much of the Democratic efforts to affect change, or to "over-ride" a (P)residential Veto.
This Congress may be blamed for a great many true "failings", but to claim that the Democratic Representatives and Senators have not "made the effort" to accomplish the "Voters intent" is a misrepresentation of reality.
The true "FAULT" lies with US, the VOTERS who have not put the full weight of our support behind the Democratic legislation that HAS BEEN PROPOSED, and allowed the Republicans to continue to block and deny the passage of that legislation.
To Veri: Maybe you also need to educate yourself about how our system of government functions. All the laws necessary to prosecute crooked government contractors have been on the books throughout this disastrous war. The executive branch gets to make the contracts through the various departments of the executive branch, notably the DOD. It is also the executive branch that is charged with applying and enforcing the laws. That would be the DOJ.
Congress is limited to passing the executive branch's budget, and before this administration usurped the power of the legislative branch, Congress had the power of oversight of how the executive used its powers. Until the new Congress took office in Jan. 2007, the Republicans controlled both houses and shut down every attempt of the Democratic minority to perform any oversight. Since then, there have been oversight hearings galore. Just ask any Republican.
Are you under the impression that Congress has the power to terminate a specific government contract? The only power that Congress could exercise that might affect this particular issue would be to cut or end funding for the war. That might prevent further outrages like the contract for substandard helmets; it would also leave our troops in the field without any support or a way to get home.
Substandard equipment, for exhausted front line troops from political "chicken-hawk" defense lapdogs who donate heavily to the Republican cause and reap obscene profits. This despite paying out "settlements" of over $2M.
All paid for with money the government doesn't have and now must compete with bankrupt homeowners for. We're in a classic circle jerk here folks.
Classic circle-jerk is right. The Democrats pretend to have major differences between themselves and the Republicans. Well, those differences are not so great. On some social issues, yes. On the major policy issues, no.
That, and The Party is in this for the money. Let the peasants die while the go home to their multi-million dollar mansions and cushy after-Congress jobs.
Can't wait until Hillary goes over all these government contracts the Bush monkeys approved..
And do what? She has voted to support bush and his lying war without reading the intel before the vote so what makes you think she will go over anything and do anything right?
Hillary/Jeb Bush 2008! Now that would be classic. Comical. And a true reflection of the political nature of the Republicans and Democrats.
Dream on. Hillary has received more contributions from the defense industry than any of the other candidates - twice as much as repub. John McCain in fact. Do you think there are no strings attached to those dollars?
I believe old Abe Lincoln had a harsh method of dealing with the business weasels who shafted the Union's military purchases during the Civil War. But then Abe was personally outraged at the thought of HIS troops getting shoddy gear AND at the US government getting bilked of treasure as well.
Bush likes to refer to Lincoln a lot but he really does not understand the man. He can't. Lincoln had wisdom. He was a statesman in the real sense of the word. Bush is an emotionally retarded Oedipal nightmare. He's the anti-Lincoln and he may have destroyed what's left of Lincoln's once honorable Republican Party.
epu
Thank you EPU, I was a Republican once. Because of Lincoln, and Ike, abolitionism and the notion of civil liberties and civil rights. The Republican Party is no more. I refer to their successors, pretenders, as the Fourth Reich, ... and soon I hope that party is a memory as well.
To the Nascar, Stars and Bars, and Fundamentalist Crowd, ... you have been defrauded, bamboozled and made fools of. You thought these "Conservatives in Shiny Silk Suits" ever gave a tinker's damn about you or me? They are Carpetbaggers worse than anything the South ever saw.
You see, this time they are taking the whole enchilada, and heading to Paraguay and Dubai. North, South East and West, ... and the Bush's and Cheney's all gonna be comfy forever while we are paying their bar bill!
Oh, ... and don't ever think we Fellow Americans are ever gonna listen to you and your "Family Values" crap again. Tell Dobson, Reed, Bennett and all the rest that you are tired of getting stuck with the tab, sending your kids to die in stupid wars, and losing your homes to loan shark mortgage brokers.
Now, ... Can we start our Republic over again?
Another sleeper has awoken.
It's because of truth like this that the Congresspersons, all of them, "Support the Troops(TM)" with lip service, but never with votes, impeachment or investigations with special prosecutors.
Go CREW!
Makes the voters happy. They'll either vote Republican or Democrat thereby endorsing this farce of a two-party government.
Jon, one of Murphy's, "Rules of Combat" is:
"Remember. Your weapon was built by the lowest
bidder."
Hate to be a comment hog, but even THAT'S not true. In this age of no-bid and cost-plus contracts, the weapons AREN'T built by the lowest bidder! (At least we'd be saving some money!) They're built by the HIGHEST bidder with the most government LOBBYISTS and CONTACTS! That is what adds insult to injury (literally)!
No such thing as the "lowest bidder" when it comes to government contracts anymore! Only "most connected bidders" need apply.
Isn't corporate Fascism wonderful? I'm sick to death of the cannon fodder mentality that is so acceptible to the Bushies.
may be built by a no bidder
There have been many, many things wrong with how the wars have been waged. I don't think I need to go through a litany of them. But, to me, there is no issue more tragic than how Donald "The Army You Have" Rumsfeld, and this administration have been absolutely and totally irresponsible -- indeed wreckless -- in how they go about protecting our troops at the most basic levels, from body armor, to Humvee armor, and now, to helmets.
Oh brave sir, if that WERE only the extent of it! But we also have lovely stories (if one cares to dig them up, because they certainly aren't in the MSM) of raw sewage dripping from the ceilings of newly constructed buildings! And soldiers fed and forced to bathe in tainted/diseased water because the contractors didn't bother to assemble the water purifiers that were just SITTING THERE waiting to be used. And ice delivered to soldiers in trucks that previously sat in the desert sun full of putrefied dead bodies, and countless other examples. And ALL of it overcharged and overpriced! And STILL these criminally negligent companies get more no-bid and cost-plus contracts! It's disgusting and it boggles the mind, for sure! Where is the outrage? We are treated to the screeching-heads at full throttle over a botched joke about President Bush's ineptitude in all things (C'mon - even I still got the joke) for weeks on end, but NOTHING, not a peep about the fleecing of the tax payers and the harm to the soldiers by all these mercenary companies and their shoddy services!
This really is bizarro world. We all slid into a parallel universe of war and incompetence sometime in 2000, and I don't like it. Nosir, I don't like it one bit!
Oh, also I would suggest an EXCELLENT movie to watch if you want a humorous live-action example of the ineptitude and craziness that is the Military Industrial Complex and Weapons Market based on the true story of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle's design and construction. Called "Pentagon Wars" and starring Carey Elwes and Kelsey Grammar - It's funny, true, and puts this whole business in a context that's easy to understand - and abhor! Check it out. Great movie!
And those who vote for a Republican or Democrat do like it. Give the swill to Mikey (American Voter). He'll eat anything.
For crying out loud...thi
Yes. And the Number Two man in the White House should have NOTHING to say about HIS OWN freakin' company (Halliburton/KBR) fleecing taxpayers and delivering substandard work that costs lives. He shouldn't care AT ALL. And shouldn't mention ONE word about it. And this has NOTHING to do with the WH.
Pull the other one, it's got bells on.
Yeah, like Reagan's $800 toilet seats and $600 hammers...
Anyone taken a look at the cost of a pen or wash rag in the supply book for the military lately? You would be shocked. Of course, I believe it is now a classified supply book. Unfit for public consumption.
And, for crying out even louder, the word is "reckless", not "wreckless". "Wreckless" might mean something like impotent or not working, whereas "reckless", of course, means regardless of caution.
Old Rome and then Constantinople heralded their declines and falls by losing the ability to recruit an army from their own citizenry and relying on mercenaries.
But, then, aren't we really trying to bring about America's fall? These walls against Mexico are nothing but terrorism and hatred breeders. "Make them stay behind their walls--who cares if they select their OWN WTC?"
JRR This is a for profit war. And that mission continues to be accomplished. The troops are only fuel for the 100 year fire. So long as the region is kept unstable, optimum crude production will remain stifled and the $100 per barrel benchmark will be the mean.
Follow the money in every great crime. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Join Operation Restore Trust.
Wrong! It has everything to do with the WH. No contractor not building to specs has been even fined. They know as long as they contribute to the party, they're safe...and it's business as usual.
It seems to be about "winning" in Iraq. Despite
recent speeches from Bush, reality seems to
indicate the troops in the trenches are not part
of any plan. They can stay for 3 tours of duty
with substandard equipment, come home for a
month, and be shipped out again. Something
definately wrong with the picture.
IEDs blow upward, not down. The troops would need to wear helmets of the medieval type, enclosing the entire head.
The kind we use now are good for deflecting overhead shrapnel and nearly spent bullets.
You forgot sideways. Explosively formed penetrators do not care which way they are detonated. Up, down, sideways. Angled in between these three orientations. They do their job and don't care.
Not that it excuses any deficiencies that might have occurred in fulfilling contracts, but Sioux Manufacturing is an ant among elephants. Many of the costliest weapons systems purchased by the Pentagon in recent decades have proven severely flawed or even worthless. But of course that is rarely mentioned by the news media, which are more interested in parroting the saber-rattling of our jingoistic national leaders, who often leave office to become lobbyists for those same defense contractors.
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