Greed Zone: Freedom Village!

The U.S. military is pushing a five-year, $5 billion development plan to dramatically transform Baghdad's Green Zone, the secured enclave where the American Embassy and the Iraqi government is based, The Associated Press has learned. Hotels, a shopping center, condos and a soccer stadium are all envisioned in the plan. -- AP

See! Wasn't it just the other day that I was suggesting that we send the soldiers from the 82nd Airborne, who live in the Piss Barracks, to Baghdad to live in the $800 Billion Dollar Embassy. From my lips to Gods ears. Or in this case Navy wingnut and Freedom Village on The Euphrates (as I call it.) Military Liason, Captain Karnowski.

But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told the Associated Press.

For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a "zone of influence" around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy to serve as a kind of high-end buffer for the compound, whose total price tag will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.

"When you have $1 billion hanging out there and 1,000 employees lying around, you kind of want to know who your neighbors are. You want to influence what happens in your neighborhood over time," said Navy Capt. Thomas Karnowski, who led the team that created the development plan. --Associate Press

Here is what my neighbors have to do in order to use the facilities in their neighborhood, Captain. The story goes on to outline all the fun that this Captain, and Lt. Col. Monte Harner and other "American Officials" are having getting this "deal" together. It seems clear to me that there are still more than a couple of those idealistic theoconservative morons walking the halls of the green zone bunkers these days.

But here is my question. Just how much TAX PAYER money is being wasted on this bullshit, when decorated combat veterans have to walk through filth in order to use the bathroom?

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Number 5!

No dissassemble!

The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.

The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.

Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.

Less than a week after Chertoff accepted Project 28 on Feb. 22, the Government Accountability Office told Congress it "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future" developments.

A glaring shortcoming of the project was the time lag between the electronic detection of movement along the border and the transmission of a camera image to agents patrolling the area, the GAO reported. --AP

Uhm, yeah, cuz thats hard... typical. Not that I am pro fence, it's just that #5 was alive!

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Fatherland Security Lashes Out At IBM

IBM is restricted from bidding on any new contracts with the Federal Government. This was done at the behest of DHS.

IBM and several of its employees have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury on interactions between Environmental Protection Agency and IBM employees, a company spokesman said today.

The subpoenas, which were issued March 28 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, stem from an EPA investigation into allegations IBM improperly obtained information about a contract it was bidding on from EPA employees, said Fred McNeese, an IBM spokesman.

Earlier in the day Federal Times learned the EPA indefinitely suspended IBM from doing business with federal agencies. The suspension was posted on March 27 on a GSA Web site that lists companies barred from receiving federal contracts — Excluded Parties List System. --FederalTimes.com

Wow, it seems not a new day dawns that doesn't bring some new complete load of crap out of the Bush administration. So, if you are Halliburton, or KBR, or Blackwater, you can drive away with billions of the public coffers but cross some lickspittle sycophant at Homeland Security and watch your blue-chip stock plummet. Just goes to show you, make sure you bow to the Steroid-SS at the airport, if you refuse to OBEY, you do so at your own peril.

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Osprey can't maintain combat readiness levels in Iraq

run! its an Osprey!
I am sure it is no shock to anyone who reads this blog, but the Osprey which was recently deployed to Iraq, can't maintain combat readiness of more than 80%. Which is unacceptable. Combat Readiness is measured by the availability of the aircraft over time. The CH-47 Shithook Chinook, a multiple decade old helicopter, can maintain more than 85% and I am telling you some of those Chinooks are OLD. Yet this "State of the Art" $16 billion+ dollar troop killer can't seem to maintain even minimum levels required in Iraq.

... daily reports showed that its "readiness rates" had slipped to as low as 40 percent on one day -– 50 percent on two other days. Those lower rates were largely driven by a dearth of replacement parts when Corps officials saw how some components wore out faster in the desert climes of Iraq, where the sand is finer than almost anywhere in the U.S. -- CS Monitor

Two Ospreys were included for the first time in a well-established mission called "aeroscout," a sort of roving raid in which troops aboard helicopters search for insurgents by air. The ground troops commander scrubbed the mission when one Osprey needed to turn back to base because one of its four generators failed -- DallasNews.com

But wait taxpayers, thats not the killer. The flaw that was causing massive problems prior to deployment to combat. (Due to the engine air particle separator (blower) failing and starting fires.) Have been classified a design flaw and a permanent fix to the design of all Osprey is required. Read: 10's of millions of taxpayer dollars. This is separate from the issues coming up in this combat deployment.

DangerRoom blog over at Wired.com reports there is an upside. Due to the fact that no combat troops want to get anywhere near the freaking thing it has become Brass Taxi.

The Ospreys have become a favorite way to fly VIPs, such as generals. -- wired.com

Heh, indeed.

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Camp Lejuene: Osprey Spontaneously Combusts

An MV-22 Osprey helicopter caught fire during a training mission and had to land at Camp Lejuene Tuesday night, officials from Cherry Point said Wednesday.

No one was injured in the emergency landing, according to a Wednesday release from Cherry Point. The Osprey’s crew evacuated the helicopter after activating on-board fire suppression systems.

The fire started in the helicopter’s nacelle, a streamlined enclosure for an aircraft engine. Cherry Point authorities said it caused “significant damage” to the nacelle. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. -- DangerRoom

The Pentagon has its thumb up it's ass on these MRAP vehicles. They can't seem to get them bought and deployed. I guess there are not enough retired generals and golf buddies working at these truck makers yet. But they managed to deploy a swarm of Ospreys with forward units. Amazing how quick that shit happened. They only thing Rumsfeld ever did that was of any use at all was quashing this stupid Osprey program. It cropped back up like Afghani poppy production hours after he was ousted.

As the Bell-Boeing guy said when they deployed the Osprey:

"There was a feeling of great excitement and at the same time we were praying for the safety of all the Marines," Leder said.

Yea, me too.

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Absolutely Shocking Freaking News

I am sure you will be a fucking shocked as i was with this news.

BAGHDAD - The V-22 Osprey has arrived in a combat zone for the first time.

It was an epic trip for the tilt-rotor plane, one that took more than 25 years of development and cost 30 lives and $20 billion. Even the last short hop - from an aircraft carrier into Iraq - went awry, U.S. military officials said yesterday.

A malfunction forced one of the 10 Ospreys that were deployed to land in Jordan on Thursday. The Marines flew parts to it from Iraq and repaired it. After it took off again Saturday, the problem recurred, and it had to turn back and land in Jordan a second time, said Maj. Jeff Pool, a U.S. military spokesman in western Iraq. The Osprey finally was repaired and arrived at Asad air base in western Iraq late Sunday afternoon.

Maj. Eric Dent, an Osprey spokesman at Marine headquarters in Washington, declined to identify the problem.

"The nature of the malfunction was a minor issue, but our aircrews are top-notch when it comes to safety," Dent said in an e-mail. "Rather than continue, the aircrew opted to land at a predetermined divert location and further investigate the issue." -- philly.com

Yes.... uhm... "predetermined divert location", yes, its called the ground.

When is congress going to stand up to the Pentagon and put a stop to this death trap?

How many missions will this endanger in country? You can be sure no one will want to have this aircraft provide support for their operation. You can't trust it to be able to safely extract you or your men. I wouldn't fly in the thing and our soldiers shouldn't be forced to.

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Osprey lands safely!

Apparently its news that the Osprey landed safely on something



oh wait, thats the wrong link...

here it is, via defensetech

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