Private Groups Foot the Bill for Pentagon Travel - Strict Rules for Congressional Trips Don't Apply

from The Washington Independent: http://washingtonindependent.com/46236/private-groups-foot-the-bill-for-pentagon-travel


The drudgery of military life can be difficult to overcome at times, and so it can be helpful to decamp to new and exotic locations to break the routine. And when travel opportunities are work-related, it can take an abstemious person to resist temptation. An Army major and Walter Reed Army Medical Center doctor named Jerome Buller understandably left the dreariness of late February in Washington in 2006 for a meeting on female urology in the Bahamas, held in the city of Freeport, where the weather hovers around the high 70s that time of year.

The cost for Buller’s five-day Bahamanian meeting, according to a trove of Pentagon travel documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, was $2,699. The bill, however, was footed by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, a non-profit that supports advancements in military medicine and receives funding from, among other sources, the Defense Department. Walter Reed’s communications department did not respond for comment. Everything about both Buller’s trip and the Foundation’s sponsorship of his travel is entirely legal, as a recent Pentagon memorandum on travel benefits affirms, and it would be hard to find some kind of quid pro quo at a medical conference. But the trip is an example of the hand-in-glove relationship between private organizations that do business with the Department of Defense and the department’s employees — where, to the concern of watchdog organizations, private interests frequently open their wallets to foot the travel costs of Pentagon officials, uniformed officers and department-funded civilians in order to maintain good relationships with the Pentagon.

Boeing, for instance, is one of the largest of all U.S. defense contractors, earning billions annually from a myriad of Pentagon contracts. According to the Center for Public Integrity’s newly created online database of Pentagon travel documents, Boeing paid for at least 37 officials’ travel expenses to various locations between 1998 and 2007, including a trip by seven enlisted airmen to the 2002 Asian Aerospace 2002 Airshow in Singapore. The total cost of the trip: $12,278. Boeing produces numerous aircraft for the Air Force, including the F-15E Strike Eagle and, along with Lockheed Martin, the F-22 fighter jet that Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently canceled.

“They’re sowing seeds,” said defense reform advocate Winslow Wheeler of the Center for Defense Information of contractors who foot the bill for junior officers’ and enlisted men and women’s travel. “Some of these lieutenants and captains will be colonels and above, and they want to make sure they’ve got their hands in their pockets . . . ”

read more: http://washingtonindependent.com/46236/private-groups-foot-the-bill-for-pentagon-travel

. . . the retort is that Obama is the CIC.

I think that the degree that he's delegated the planning and implementation of his broad principles to so many Bush holdovers has made the Pentagon's occupation and WOT hawks more influential and consequential than they should be in this Democratic administration.

Merry-Go-Round and you can’t see the transfer of money when the riders are out of view on the opposite side.

DOD
. U.S. Citizens pay for the DOD.
. The DOD gives money to the Henry F. Jackson Foundation.
. The Henry F. Jackson Foundation pays for DOD staff who are already being paid by the citizens to get an extra trip from us.

A circuitous route – right into the tummies of DOD staff.

That’s the DOD – here is a parallel in Congress:

. U.S. Citizens pay taxes.
. Congress assigns money – some goes to NED.*
. NED gives money to the Cuban American National Foundation.
. CANF pays for covert activities against Castro and other tricks of propaganda and some staff make a nice income including their broadcasting businesses.
. CANF gives a part of the money they receive to Congresspeople – a circuitous route for our taxes – right into the pockets of Congress.

Talk about transparency – it’s only transparent when you know the clues.

“When accused of buying influence, Mas responds repeatedly that the practice of U.S. democracy includes having a powerful lobby and being able to give "contributions" to political leaders. Where does CANF get its funds? First, it collects $5,000 to $10,000 (sometimes more) per year from its wealthy members. CANF also collects money from that same Congress to whose members it donates. In 1983, two years after the founding of CANF and at the initiative of the Reagan Administration, Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy to promote "democratic" institutions around the world. NED has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to CANF front groups--the European Coalition for Human Rights in Cuba, for example."

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/canf.htm

Why a Merry-Go-Round? To hide it all from US, you and me. Congress knows, but pretends not to. {Phooie on transparency. The U.S. learned (legendary) Banana Republic strategy and perfected it. Based on non-transparency in Banana Republic countries - everyone knows - not so in this country. Few know.

P.S. Great article - even includes background on the activities of Luis Posada Carilles who is trying to get a postponement in his little legal problem with immigration. He is one of the sanctioned U.S. terrorists, but no one is charging him or even investigating him for his acts of terrorism and we have never detained him or tortured him.... because.... he is a U.S. sanctioned terrorist - paid for by the citizens. Blows up commericial airline with a sports team on it. No one cares. He is well protected by the U.S. Government.

Our government leaders demand the ultimate from citizens - purity in obeying laws or ultra serious punishment. They are as more corrupt than the Banama Republics because they pretend to be upright representatives.

The truth hurts.