RAND: Army Can Boost Mission Success by Better Managing Environmental Considerations

By better managing environmental issues during deployments, U.S. Army units can gain tactical and strategic advantages that will help in combat and post-conflict operations, and boost overall mission success, according to a recent RAND Corporation study.

The study finds that commanders have not usually given environmental concerns high priority during planning, despite the effect environmental conditions can have on troop health, safety and security, and the importance they have for the local population.

Researchers recommend that Army leaders give more weight to strategic, operational and tactical aspects of environmental considerations during planning and operations, and develop comprehensive standards and best practices to address environmental issues during contingencies, an announcement of the study says.

This is consistent with the Army's new counterinsurgency doctrine, which highlights the importance of environmental improvements (especially sewage, water and trash) to gain support of the local population.

U.S. experience in Iraq suggests that providing clean water, electricity, sewage and trash management can tip the balance between the local residents supporting the U.S. mission or the insurgency, according to the study. Public opinion surveys suggest that Iraqis care about these issues almost as much as security.

Environmental considerations encompass anything related to the environment that affects the planning and execution of military operations or is affected by those operations. They include (but are not limited to) clean water, sewage-related infrastructure, soldier health, compliance with environmental laws, sustainability, protection of historical and cultural sites, and management of agricultural and natural resources.

“Perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of environmental considerations is the role that they can play in achieving U.S. national objectives in counterinsurgency and stability operations,” says report co-author David Mosher, a researcher at RAND, a non-profit research organization.

In countries where environmental conditions and infrastructure are severely degraded, clean drinking water, effective sewage and trash systems, and viable farmland are crucial to local inhabitants. Providing these things can influence whether inhabitants support the local government and U.S. goals and objectives.

“Commanders and planners can take steps in the combat phase to preserve existing environmental infrastructure and resources that will be vital once combat has ended,” Mosher says. “Determining what to preserve will demand that leaders and planners take a strategic view of the operation, including what the end result ought to be.”

The Army also can have a positive influence on the environment. In operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans, U.S. soldiers have helped to build wells, sewage treatment plants and other water infrastructure systems, which were beneficial to both U.S. soldiers and local communities, said report co-author Beth Lachman.

In Iraq, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping to restore the Mesopotamian Marshlands that are significant to both regional and migratory bird species, and the local economy.

Environmental issues can also affect soldier health and safety, the costs of an operation, the logistical burden of supporting forces, and diplomatic relations. The study finds that long deployments and extended post-conflict operations like those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans expose U.S. forces to a variety of environmental problems. At one base camp in Afghanistan, legacy pollution problems caused short-term respiratory illnesses for U.S. soldiers until the problem was identified and addressed.

The relationship between the Army and the environment is a two-way street, according to the study. On the one hand, soldiers and operations affect the environment; on the other, the environment affects soldiers and operations, especially because many contingency operations are often conducted in locations that have significant legacy pollution and other environmental problems, according to study authors.

The study finds that base camps raise a host of environmental issues. In most contingencies over the last 20 years, U.S. forces have remained in theater much longer than expected. As a result, base camps that were hastily constructed for temporary use are occupied for many years and often have inadequate environmental systems and procedures, such as insufficient waste management.

Pollution from base camps can affect relations with locals, cause health problems for soldiers, and require costly cleanup efforts. The authors state that Army leaders should anticipate longer stays and design and build base camps accordingly, RAND says.

Operations that require less fuel, water and other resources, and produce less waste, will reduce the logistics burden. A well-designed, efficient base camp can reduce the resources required to sustain it and free logistics assets to support U.S. troops or reduce the number of convoys that must travel along dangerous roads, the report finds.

Environmental conditions can also extend beyond national borders because air and water pollution may travel great distances, affecting diplomatic relations with countries that could be crucial to the mission's success.

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Examination Reveals Adolescent Reaction to Iraq War

University of Cincinnati researchers are reporting what they call a significant pattern among Iraqi adolescents and their reaction to the war in Iraq – the higher the perceived threat of the war, the higher the teens reported their self-esteem. The findings – from a 2004 survey of 1,000 Iraqi adolescents in 10 neighborhoods in Baghdad – are reported in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

Steve Carlton-Ford, a University of Cincinnati associate professor and co-author of the study, says the findings give a rare look at the impact of war on adolescents, explaining that, in general, sociologists and psychologists are examining how war affects small children. Carlton-Ford adds that in the cases of young children, conflict-related events typically lower a child’s psychological well-being. The survey of Iraqi teens was conducted in 2004 by co-author Morton Ender of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who supervised field surveys with the U.S. Army in the neighborhoods surrounding Baghdad. The study is also authored by UC doctoral student Ahoo Tabatabai.

The authors found that despite obvious threat to the adolescents’ sense of security, the youth were coping fairly well in 2004, with self-esteem levels comparable to that of Palestinian youth. “In the presence of conflict-related trauma one generally observes lower levels of psychological well-being (e.g., PTSD, grief reactions), and sometimes lower self-esteem,” write the authors. “Our results, however, are consistent with a body of theory and research that predicts self-esteem striving and higher self-esteem among the individuals who face indirect threats to central components of their social identities (rather than directly facing traumatic war-related events). In other words, in a situation where we observe a broad social context involving the presence of foreign forces (a clear violation of Muslim principles) combined with general violence throughout Baghdad and Iraq, we also observe a heightened sense of self, at least to the extent that one’s self is tied to one’s nation.”

The study suggests future surveys of adolescents under conditions of armed conflict to track their self-concept as they become young adults.

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Some Brain Injuries May Reduce Likelihood of Post-Traumatic Stress

A new study of combat-exposed Vietnam War veterans shows that those with injuries to certain parts of the brain were less likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The findings, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Naval Medical Center, suggest that drugs or pacemaker-like devices aimed at dampening activity in these brain regions might be effective treatments for PTSD.

PTSD involves the persistent reliving of a traumatic experience through nightmares and flashbacks that may seem real. Twenty percent to 30 percent of Vietnam vets (more than 1 million) have been diagnosed with PTSD, and a similar rate has been reported among Hurricane Katrina survivors in New Orleans. Public health officials are currently tracking the disorder among soldiers returning from Iraq. Yet, while war and natural disasters tend to call the greatest attention to PTSD, it's estimated that millions of Americans suffer from it as a result of assault, rape, child abuse, car accidents, and other traumatic events.

Previous studies have shown that PTSD is associated with changes in brain activity, but those studies couldn't determine whether the changes were contributing to the disorder or merely occurring because of it.

Jordan Grafman, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of NIH, turned to the Vietnam Head Injury Study (VHIS) to make that distinction. The VHIS is a registry of Vietnam veterans who sustained penetrating brain injuries (which are less common in Iraq compared to concussion brain injuries). It has received support from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans of Affairs and NIH, and is currently supported by NINDS.

"If we could show that lesions in a specific brain region eliminated PTSD, we knew we could say that the region is critical to developing the disorder," says Grafman. The results of his study appear online in Nature Neuroscience.

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Bush's War of Diminished Expectations

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Overstretched Military Lead to Mental Health Problems

Prolonged periods of deployment among Britain’s armed forces is associated with mental health problems, finds a study published on bmj.com.

Deployment is an essential ingredient of military life. However, research shows that an increase in the pace of military operations “operational tempo” may have an effect on health and place strain on families.

The UK armed forces have recommended deployment levels called the harmony guidelines, reflecting the need to balance rest and recuperation with deployment. In times of simultaneous major operations, such as those in Iraq and Afganistan, this tool is helpful for monitoring overstretch as a measure of over-commitment.

So a study carried by Professor Roberto Rona and colleagues at King’s College London, set out to assess whether deployments above these guidelines (calculated as 13 months or more in a three year period) have an effect on psychological health.

They studied the number and duration of deployments in the last three years of a random sample of 5,547 regular military personnel. Mental health and alcohol use were assessed using recognised scoring methods.

Other outcomes included intentions to stay in the military and problems at home during and after deployment.

All analyses were adjusted for factors such as age, gender, rank, marital status and service. Further adjustments were made for role in theatre (combat or support), type of deployment (war or peace enforcement operations), and time spent in a forward area in close contact with the enemy.

They found that those who were deployed for 13 months or more over a three year period were more likely to have symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder and problems at home during and after deployment. This was particularly apparent in those with direct combat exposure. The prevalence of severe alcohol problems also increased with longer deployment.

There was no association between duration of deployment and intention to stay in the military.

The relation between number of deployments and psychological symptoms was less consistent and there was no link between number of deployments and problems at home.


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Distance Learning: Adviser In Iraq Talks About Online Education

Talk about distance learning. Judy Kenney is a human resources specialist in Iraq. She's also pursuing a PhD at capella university.

A human resource specialist in Iraq is a senior civilian personnel advisor and uses their expert knowledge of civilian personnel activities for staffing, classification, training, management-employee relations; employee benefits, entitlements and allowances; and other key personnel tasks.

Kenney is balancing all of that crucial work on behalf of the U.S. military in a combat theater with an education at Capella -- an accredited online university. In all, Capella serves more than 19,000 students in all 50 states and 56 countries.

Kenney was the recent focus of one of Capella's ongoing "Inside Online Education" podcasts. The roughly 15-minute podcasts offer a look at Capella, its students and faculty. Listeners can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed at capellacommons.com/rss/. They are also available via subscription from iTunes. The Kenney podcast is No. 14.

This was a sponsored post.

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Iraqis Launch Independent Radio and Television Station

With jumper cables and a 12-volt battery, a Saddam-era radio station roared to life last week and now four Iraqis are doing what has never been done as they launch independent radio and television in war-torn Iraq.

"We respect the Maliki government and all religious leaders," says Rafed Mahmood, general manager of the Independent Radio & Television Network (IRTN). "But our voice is independent. No one tells us what to say."

Four Iraqis -- two Sunnis and two Shia -- say they are looking to become the voices of sectarian reconciliation, unity and freedom. Their 3000kw Italian radio transmitter is cabled up the 350-meter tower that the Japanese built for hanged Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 1986.

"The terrorists are nothing more than criminals. They promise thepeople safety and protection but only deliver death," says Mahmood of those committing violence in Iraq. "It's time for Iraqis to stand up and say enough. We must fight for our own freedom."

On March 25th, IRTN launches their UHF television broadcasts.

"Bush and Blair are freedom fighters," says Samir Kamies, television station manager. "The sons and daughters of America and Britain have died on our soil for our freedom. We are grateful but soon they must go home. Now every Iraqi must stand up for freedom."

U.S. State Department Global Outreach advisor Paul McKellips has been living with the Iraqis at the media compound since February 3rd. "Programming blocks, news shows, cultural programs and new techniques forcamera and editing. They chose the substance. I help with style," he says.

Donia Abdul Lateef says she dropped out of law school as violence in Diyala Province escalated. The 20-year old Shia woman hopes to inspire young girls and women of all ages to pursue college and find careers in Iraqi business and government.

IRTN radio is on the air 14-hours a day and reaches nearly 11 million Iraqis, the broadcasters say. They launched their website this week and hopethat through a combination of advertising sales, licensing and eCommerce they can generate enough revenue to sustain their operations.

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Islamic Charity and Five Individuals Indicted

The U.S. branch of an international Islamic charity and five of its officers, employees or associates have been indicted for illegally transferring funds to Iraq, laundering money, stealing federal funds, and obstructing tax laws by, among other things, falsely denying that a procurement agent of Osama bin Laden had been an employee of the charity, Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security Kenneth Wainstein, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Bradley Schlozman, and Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division Joseph Billy announced.

The charity named in the 33-count indictment is the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), formerly known as the Islamic African Relief Agency-USA. IARA is an Islamic charitable organization headquartered in Columbia, Mo., that was officially formed in 1985 and closed in October 2004, when it was identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization, the Justice Department says.

Also charged in the indictment are Mubarak Hamed, 50, of Columbia, Mo., a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan who served as executive director of IARA; Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, Mo. and currently of Iowa City, Iowa, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARA's board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 54, of Columbia, Mo., a citizen of Iraq and a former fund-raiser for IARA; Khalid Al-Sudanee, 55, a citizen and resident of Jordan and the regional director of the Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency (also known as the Islamic Relief Agency, or ISRA); and Abdel Azim El-Siddiq, 50, of Palos Heights, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Sudan and formerly vice president for international operations for IARA, the Justice Department says.

"Today's indictment paints an alarming picture of theft, money laundering, and fraud by the U.S. branch of an international charitable organization. These charges demonstrate our resolve to thoroughly investigate and prosecute any charities that abuse their tax-exempt status to engage in wide-ranging criminal activity," says Wainstein.

"The FBI will continue to work closely with our law enforcement andintelligence community partners to ensure charitable donations are notmisused for criminal purposes," says Billy.

The indictment, which was returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, March 6, was unsealed and made public upon the arrest and initial court appearance of several co-defendants, the Justice Department says.

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ATF, U.S. Military Team To Defeat Roadside Bombs

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced that it has expanded its program to help the U.S. military combat the use of improvised explosives devices (IEDs) by terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. IEDs, or homemade, roadside bombs, are a top killer of U.S. troops in combat.

The expanded program, under a Department of Justice initiative, includes detailing an ATF special agent certified explosives specialist to the military's Joint Improvised Explosive Device DefeatOrganization (JIEDDO) Joint Center of Excellence (JCOE) at Ft. Irwin,Calif., and assisting in the training of military bomb technicians before they deploy overseas in post-blast explosives investigations and homemade explosives.

Under a memorandum of agreement signed late last year by ATF acting Director Michael Sullivan and JIEDDO Director Montgomery Meigs, the ATF detailee will be the Department of Justice's representative to JCOE and provide technical instruction for the roles ATF and other Justice Department components play in the Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell (CEXC) in Iraq and the Terrorist ExplosiveDevice Analytical Center (TEDAC) in the United States.

CEXC provides immediate, in-theater technical exploitation and operational analysis of the IEDs that insurgents have used againstmultinational forces, and assists in the development of measures and procedures to counter the insurgent bombing campaign. TEDAC exploits and analyzes the returning IED components, confirming the intelligence received by CEXC for assessment and eventual sharing with law enforcement and U.S.allies.

"This agreement and the military's decision to have ATF assist intraining its bomb techs further strengthens the collaboration essential to winning the war against terrorism," Sullivan said. "We're proud to be ableto share our well-established expertise in explosives training and investigations with our comrades in uniform."

Since 2001, ATF's National Center for Explosives Training and Researchhas trained almost 6,000 bomb technicians and investigators in explosivedisposal and investigative techniques. ATF also provides explosivestraining to the new Iraqi Police Service and at the International Law Enforcement Academies in Botswana, El Salvador, Hungary and Thailand.


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Newsweek Cover: Failing Our Wounded

Recent revelations about the decay and mismanagement at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., were especially shocking because it is one of the most prestigious U.S. military hospitals. But a Newsweek investigation--which focused not on one facility but on the services of the Department of Veterans Affairs, a sprawling 235,000-person bureaucracy--found that the VA system is unprepared for the scope of the task at hand and ahead.

Around 50,000 service members so far have been banged up or burned, lost limbs or sacrificed something less tangible inside them in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And a new study projects that at least 700,000 moreveterans from the global war on terror will flood the system in the coming years. In the March 5 cover story, "Failing Our Wounded" (on newsstands Monday, February 26), national security correspondent Dan Ephron and Assistant Editor Sarah Childress paint a grim portrait of an overloaded bureaucracy cluttered with red tape; veterans having to wait weeks or months for mental-health care and other appointments; families sliding into debt as VA case managers study disability claims over many months, and the seriously wounded requiring help from outside experts just to understand the VA's arcane system of rights and benefits.

Tonia Sargent, whose husband, Kenneth--a Marine master sergeant who had been in the corps for nearly 18 years--nearly died in a sniper attack in Najaf in 2004, says no one ever sat her down and explained the benefits and how to access them. Her husband's brain injury made him often incapable of understanding his own care. Key decisions fell to her alone. It's a "don'task, don't tell system," she says. The Sargent's story, and the stories of many other veterans, is raising concerns that the United States is failing to meet its most basic obligations to those who fight its wars, Newsweek says.

"In no way do I diminish the fact that there are veterans out there who are coming in who require treatment and maybe are not getting the treatment they need," White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto tells Newsweek. "It's real and it exists."

Dr. Michael Kussman, the VA's acting under secretary for health tells Newsweek that the department is trying to reach veterans earlier, as they approach their date of discharge, and that he does not believe Iraq and Afghanistan are straining resources severely.

"The impact on the VA so far has been relatively small," Kussman says. "It has not kicked the system over in our budget and in our ability to absorb it."

But the number of veterans has to grow and critics worry the VA is in a state of denial. In a broad sense, Newsweek reports, the situation at the VA seems to mirror the overall lack of planning for the war. "We know the VA doesn't have the capacity to process a large number of disability claims at the same time," says Linda Bilmes, a Harvard public-finance professor who last month released a 34-page study on the long-term cost of caring for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans' support groups and even some former and current VA insiders believe there's a reluctance in the Bush administration to deal openly with the long-term costs of the war, Newsweek says.

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Poor Contracting Hindering Iraq Reconstruction

The Department of Defense (DOD) effort to reconstruct Iraq following the U.S. invasion is being hampered by poor contracting with companies and inadequate security, a government watchdog agency says.

DOD has relied extensively on private contractors to undertake major reconstruction projects and provide support to its deployed forces in Iraq, but these efforts have not always achieved desired outcomes, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO is the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.

Further, the Iraqi government must be able to reduce violence, sustain reconstruction progress, improve basic services, and make a positive difference in the daily lives of the Iraqi people, GAO says.

"The challenges faced by DOD on its reconstruction and support contracts often reflect systemic and long-standing shortcomings in DOD’s capacity to manage contractor efforts. Such shortcomings result from poorly defined or changing requirements, the use of poor business arrangements, the absence of senior leadership and guidance, and an insufficient number of trained contracting, acquisition and other personnel to manage, assess and oversee contractor performance, the GAO says in a new report. "In turn, these shortcomings manifest themselves in higher costs to taxpayers, schedule delays, unmet objectives, and other undesirable outcomes."


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U.S. Troops, Vets Not Getting Care They Need, Playboy Says

American troops fighting in Iraq and Iraq war veterans are not receiving the mental health care they deserve, specifically when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to an investigative report for Playboy magazine.

Journalist Mark Boal spoke with numerous mental health experts, government sources and former military personnel who paint adisturbing picture about the government's handling of PTSD, according to Playboy.

Boal found that the Department of Defense (DOD) diagnoses about 2,000 cases of PTSD a year. Yet according to a landmark study conducted by Army researchers and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, PTSD rates for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are running between 10 and 15 percent. That means one would expect to see the military diagnosing 13,000 to 20,000 cases of PTSD, Playboy says.

Former government officials agree there is a problem, according to Playboy.

"PTSD is being underdiagnosed on a fairly wholesale level," Playboy quotes Dr. Robert Roswell, a former undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as saying.

Sources in the Pentagon and former officials of the VA, doctors working for the VA and DOD are being pressured to limit diagnoses of PTSD in order to save the military money and manpower, reports Boal.

Budget pressures may be the motivation to discourage diagnoses of PTSD, according to the Playboy article, which reports that when the DOD submitted a war budget to Congress, the line item for mental health casualties was simply left blank.

"DOD never prepared for a long war; it never prepared for anoccupation," says one senior congressional staffer, according to Playboy. "Now we're seeing the third thing it didn't anticipate: what to do with the soldiers when they come home. Now they really don't have the money."

Boal discovered politics may also be a factor, Playboy says.

"The soldier has tremendous symbolic power in American politics. Healthy, happy soldiers bespeak a just war. Like the amputees and flag-draped coffins the administration hides from public view, such soldiers are antithetical to the hawkish goal of mitigating the costs of the conflict," writes Boal."The critical difference is that mental illness isn't always obvious and is therefore easier to sweep under the rug."

As one congressional staffer puts in the Playboy story, "It's much easier to deny the reality of mental illness than it is to deny the spinal cord injury of some guy sitting in a wheelchair."

When questioned for the piece, Pentagon and VA officials vigorously denied there is a policy to underdiagnose PTSD, Playboy says.

"That would be immoral and unethical," Playboy quotes Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the assistant secretary of defense for troop readiness as saying.

Officials attribute the low rates of diagnosis to a reluctance on the part of military doctors to "stigmatize the person or bring harm to their careers" by labeling them with PTSD according to Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Charles Engel, the director of the deployment health clinic center at Walter Reed Medical Center. "It's out of respect for the patient that they don't make the diagnosis."

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O'Connor: Iraq Study Was 'So Out Of My Field'

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor admits to initially feeling a little out of her element when she was invited to join the Iraq Study Group to offer new alternatives to U.S. involvement in Iraq.

"I wasn't sure I should do it,"she tells Newsweek in an exclusive interview in the current issue. "It was so out of my field of judging. I don't know anything about the military."

President Bush has all but rejected the study group's recommendations but O'Connor is unwilling to criticize Bush.

"There are probably no perfect answers," she tells Assistant Managing Editor Debra Rosenberg in the February 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 5).

O'Connor also talks about her decision to retire. In the spring of 2005, with Chief Justice William Rehnquist publicly battling thyroid cancer, the two justices discussed timing. "We talked a little bit,"O'Connor recalls. "I was concerned about whether he had an intention to step down since his plans might have altered my own. It's hard for the nation to grapple with two [retirements] at once," she says. "He indicated he didn't want to step down." So she realized she had to go first.

O'Connor retired so she could spend more time with husband John, battling Alzheimer's disease. O'Connor has had to place her husband at a care facility near their Arizona home.

"It's such a miserable disease. It's so sad. It's so hard. I did the best I could," O'Connor says. "He wants me there all the time."

It's been a difficult transition, says former Sen. Alan Simpson, a family friend. "It's tough to go home at night and no longer have this warm,witty guy there," he says of O'Connor.

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U.S. Civilian Translator Sentenced for Offering Bribes

A former U.S. Army civilian translator was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to bribe a senior Iraqi police official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor of the District of Columbia announced.

Faheem Mousa Salam, 29, of Livonia, Mich., a U.S. citizen, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Judge Richard Leon.

Salam was arrested on March 23, 2006 at Dulles International Airport outside Washington upon his return from Iraq, and pleaded guilty on August 4, 2006 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Salam admitted that in January 2006, while working in Baghdad as a civilian translator for a U.S. Army subcontractor, he offered a senior Iraqi police official $60,000 in exchange for the official's assistance in facilitating the purchase of 1,000 armored vests and a sophisticated map printer for a sale price of approximately $1 million. Salam requested the official use his position with the Iraqi police force to coordinate the sale of the material to the multinational Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT), an organization designed to train the Iraqi police and border guard in Iraq.

Salam admitted that he later made final arrangements with an undercover agent of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction who was posing as a procurement officer for CPATT. Salam admitted that during the subsequent discussions with the undercover agenthe offered a separate $28,000 to $35,000 "gift" to the agent to process the contracts.

At sentencing, the government argued that Salam was motivated by greed and the prospect of financial gain, rather than any desire to provide the Iraqi troops with equipment; in fact, Salam made no attempt to check the brand names, quality or source of the vests, demonstrating that his motives were anything but altruistic, prosecutors say.


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Nearly 200,000 Veterans May Be Homeless Tonight

Americans say they want to "support the troops." But what about the veterans?

Nearly 200,000 veterans may be homeless on any given night and twice that many veterans experience homelessness during the year, according to a report released by a coalition of advocates for homeless persons.

The report released finds that affordable, permanent housing coupled with supportive services provides a powerful tool for preventing and ending homelessness among veterans, particularly thosewho confront chronic disabling health problems such as mental illness, substance addiction and HIV/AIDS.

Homeless male veterans are more likely to be homeless for an extended period of time than homeless male non-veterans, the report, titled "Ending Homelessness Among Veterans Through Permanent Supportive Housing," says.

The report notes that 32 percent of homeless male veterans reported that their last homeless episode lasted 13 or more months compared to 17 percent of male homeless non-veterans.

Homeless housing and service providers reported that they are already serving returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans at local emergency shelters, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-financed transitional housing programs and local permanent supportive housingprojects. Participants noted that while it is too soon to have a complete picture, evidence suggests that unique risk factors for homelessness and mental illness will confront veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

These factors include a housing market that is far tighter and morecostly than it was in the Vietnam era. Expert observers also contend thatthe nature of the current conflicts, including the near-complete blurring of combat versus non-combat zones, will generate higher rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mental health traumas. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association documented that 19 percent of soldiers who served in Iraq screened positive for the signs and symptoms of a mental health disorder.

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Former DOD Contractor Sentenced in Bribery, Fraud, Money Laundering Scheme in Iraq

A former US Department of Defense (DOD) contractor was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.6 million for his role in a bribery and fraud scheme involving contracts in the reconstruction of Iraq, Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher of the U.S. Justice Department Criminal Division announced today.

Robert Stein, 52, of Fayetteville, N.C., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. The judge also sentenced Stein to three years of supervised release.

Stein was arrested in Fayetteville on Nov. 14, 2005, and pleaded guilty on February 2, 2006, to being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of machine guns, bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority --South Central Region (CPA-SC) in al-Hillah, Iraq.

"Robert Stein will now spend nine years in jail for exploiting hispublic position and accepting bribes for contracts during the rebuilding ofIraq," says Fisher. "The Department of Justice will protect the integrity of the federal contracting process byaggressively prosecuting fraud, bribery and other crimes that taint missions as critical as the reconstruction of Iraq."

Stein admitted to participating in a complex bribery, fraud and money-laundering scheme while serving as the comptroller and funding officer forthe CPA-SC. From December 2003 through December 2005, Philip Bloom, a U.S. citizen who owned and operated several companies in Iraq and Romania, Bruce Hopfengardner, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, and numerous public officials, including several high-ranking U.S. Army officers, conspired to rig the bids on contracts being awarded by the CPA-SC so that all of the contracts were awarded to Bloom. In return, Bloom provided the public officials with over $1 million in cash, SUVs, sportscars, a motorcycle, jewelry, computers, business class airline tickets, liquor, future employment with Bloom, and other items of value.

In addition, Bloom laundered over $2 million in currency that Stein and his co-conspirators stole from the CPA-SC that had been designated to be used for the reconstruction of Iraq. Bloom then used his foreign bankaccounts in Iraq, Romania and Switzerland to send the stolen money to Stein, Hopfengardner and other public officials in return for the awarded contracts. In total, Bloom received over $8.6 million in rigged contracts.

During the course of the conspiracy, Stein and other co-conspiratorsstole U.S. currency and funneled those funds to Bloom in order to purchase illegal controlled weapons which they converted to their own personal use in the United States, including assault rifles, silencers, and grenade launchers.

Stein has cooperated with the government's ongoing investigation.

On March 10, 2006, co-conspirator Bloom, pleaded guilty to relatedcharges of conspiracy, bribery and money laundering in connection with thesame scheme as Stein. Bloom is scheduled to be sentenced on February 16,2007.

On August 25, 2006, co-conspirator Hopfengardner pleaded guilty to related charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering inconnection with the same scheme as Bloom and Stein.


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Majority Leader: Iraq Needs a Peace Conference

The violence within Iraq could benefit from a peace conference such as that in Dayton, Ohio in 1995 that helped solve the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Democratic majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Many scholars have called for a Dayton-like peace conference, an idea I support," says Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland. "Frankly, it is time for the president to accept that we are no longer involved in a nation-building exercise. We are involved in a conflict resolution, and there is no better means for resolving such conflicts, especially escalating civil wars that run the risk of becoming genocide, than to convene an international conference to achieve a cessation of violence and advance reconciliation."

President Bush has called for an increase of more than 20,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, a move opposed by Hoyer and other Democratic leaders in Congress.

Sectarian violence has surged in Iraq over the last year, prompting some to say Iraq is in civil war. U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew strongman Saddam Hussein. Moer than 3,000 U.S. service personnel have lost their lives in Iraq.

Organizing a peace conference for Iraq would also help United States' reputation abroad, Hoyer says.

"I urge the president to do this. I would propose that the conference be carried out under U.N. auspices with robust involvement from various Iraqi factions, neighboring countries, key Middle East nations, the European Union and others with the hope of brokering deals on securing Iraq's borders, disbanding militias, finalizing the constitution, establishing divisions of power and oil resources and other outstanding issues," Hoyer says.






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Newsweek Poll: Bush Standing Hits All-Time Low

U.S. approval for President Bush has hit a record low level despite pitching policies in his recent televised State of the Union address, according to a new Newsweek poll.

President Bush's job approval rating hit an all-time low in theNewsweek Poll at 30 percent. Sixty-one percent of all those polled says they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time; just 30 percent are satisfied.

Sixty-seven percent of those polled believe Bush's decisions about policy in Iraq and other major areas are influenced more by his personal beliefs regardless of the facts, while just 22 percent say his decisions are influenced more by the facts. And 71 percent say Bush will not have enough support over the next two years to make a difference in getting things done in Washington; just 21 percent say he will. The public is split on whether or not Congress is likely (42%) or not likely (48%) to give serious consideration to the proposals Bush made in the State of the Union address about energy, health and other domestic policy.

Fifty-three percent of all those polled say they think history will see Bush as a below average president; 30 percent say average and 14 percent say above average. And 58 percent of all those polled say at this point in time, they personally wish that Bush's presidency was over; 37 percent do not feel that way.

In deciding whether to vote Democratic or Republican in the 2008 presidential election, among registered voters, 31 percent say their view of Bush will be very important; 17 percent say it will be somewhat important and 15 percent say not too important.


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U.S. To Step Up Iraq Reconstruction Alongside Troop Surge

The U.S. government will boost its Iraq reconstruction efforts in Baghdad and Anbar Province alongside President Bush's intended troop surge in Iraq, says a senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and coordinator for Iraq.

President Bush says he will deploy more than 20,000 troops to deal with the violence gripping Iraq.

The State Department, meanwhile, will also immediately begin "deploying greater resources alongside our military in Baghdad and Anbar" in Iraq, says Ambassador David Satterfield.

"The centerpiece of this effort will be our expansion of our Provincial Reconstruction Teams," Satterfield says. "We will double our PRTs from 10 to 20, adding more than 300 new personnel. We will expand our PRTs in three phases with the first phase occurring over the next three months to complement our enhanced military efforts. In that time, we plan to co-locate nine new PRTs – six in Baghdad and three in Anbar – with Brigade Combat Teams engaged in security operations."

The PRTs Iraq will also include US Agency for International Development advisers, as well as civil affairs officers and bilingual advisors from the Department of Defense, Satterfield says.

PRTs will support local moderate Iraqi leaders through targeted assistance (e.g. microloans, vocational education and grants) to foster new businesses, create jobs and develop provincial capacity to govern in an effective and sustainable way, Satterfield says. PRTs will continue to play a leading role in coordinating several U.S. programs funded by the Congress, including Iraqi Provincial Reconstruction Development Councils (PRDC) and USAID’s local governance, community stabilization, and community action programs, he says.

"We intend to complete all three phases of our PRT expansion by the end of the calendar year," Satterfield adds, noting however that completion will be dependent both on the timing of, and level of funding appropriated in, the fiscal year 2007 supplemental appropriation measure to fund the Iraq war, as well as "circumstances on the ground in Iraq."

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Latest Harris Iraq Poll: 'We're Not Winning, We're Not Losing'

The latest Harris Poll of U.S. attitudes on the situation in Iraq war shows that many U.S. adults hold the attitude of "we're not winning and we're not losing." However, while this suggests the U.S. adult public thinks that perhaps things aren't quite as negative in the war in Iraq, other data within this same survey still paints a very negative picture. Most of the numbers are nearly as low as they have ever been in the course of more than three years.

A slight majority (52%) believe that we are not winning, but we are not losing either. However, almost three times as many feel we are losing (29%)as compared to just 10 percent who think we are winning. There are significant differences by political party. Many Republicans (57%) agreethat we are neither winning nor losing, though 23 percent of Republicans believe we are winning and 11 percent think we are losing. Conversely,about half of Democrats (49%) think we are losing and 43 percent think we are neither winning nor losing.

In this survey conducted just before the State of the Union address, seven in 10 (70%) U.S. adults give President Bush a negative rating on his handling of Iraq, while only a quarter (26%) give him positivemarks. These are virtually identical to a November 2006 assessment when President Bush also received a 71 to 26 percent negative rating.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll survey of 2,337 U.S. adults conducted online between January 11 and 18, by Harris Interactive.

In the past few weeks, President Bush has also embarked on a major campaign to see his new Iraq policy of sending in more troops. The "sell" may be working somewhat as more people (27%) now accept the premise of sending more troops to Iraq for a few months. In November, a lower 19 percent agreed with this. However, that being said, over four in 10 (44%) U.S. adults think a timetable should be set for the withdrawal of US troops from the Iraq war. This is down from November, when 51 percent felt this way.

Furthermore the main trends are:

* By 67 to 16 percent, a clear majority still believes that there is a civil war in Iraq now. This has not changed since November 2006 when 68 percent to 14 percent felt this way;

* A 55 percent majority now believes that the situation for U.S. troops is getting worse and only 13 percent think it is getting better. In November, a 58 percent to nine percent majority felt this way;

* A 46 percent to 37 percent plurality (compared to 46% to 36% in November) now believes that "taking military action against Iraq" was the wrong thing to do;

* A 61 percent to 19 percent majority is "not confident" that U.S. policy in Iraq will be successful, compared to a 63 percent to 17 percent majority in November.

The public is split between those who believe that "it was a mistake to take military action in Iraq in the first place" (40%; down from November's 42%) and those who think it "was the right thing to do but that things have gotten off course" (41%; virtually unchanged from 40% in November). Only a small minority (12%; similar to November's 13 percent) believes that it "was the right thing to do and things are going reasonably well."

This survey finds that attitudes toward events in the Iraq war are still highly polarized by party. Fully 67 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of independents think that taking military action in Iraq was "a mistake inthe first place," but only 12 percent of Republicans feel this way. On the other hand, 57 percent of Republicans (compared to 24 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of independents) believe invading Iraq "was the right thing to do, but things have gotten off course there." Further, 26 percent of Republicans, but only two percent of Democrats and nine percent of independents, believe it was the right decision "and things are going reasonably well."

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