CONGRESS DOES NOT WANT TO SPEND MILLIONS TO REPAIR THE FAILING GRID, NOR DOES CONGRESS WANT TO SPEND A FEW MILLION TO FEED HUNGRY KIDS OR THE NATION'S HOMELESS, NOR TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF RETURNING VETERANS, NOR WILL CONGRESS HELP LOW INCOME FAMILIES FIND FUNDING TO SEND THEIR KIDS TO COLLEGE, SOLVE UNEMPLOYMENT, IMPROVE OUR TOXIC ENVIRONMENT OR WORK ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES, BUT THE PENTAGON AND CONGRESS HAVE MADE SURE THAT AFGHANISTAN HAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE GAS STATION ON THE PLANET!
NOT ONLY HAVE THEY WASTED 43 MILLION TAXPAYER BUCKS ON AN AFGHAN GAS STATION, NEITHER THE BLOODY PENTAGON NOR CONGRESS WILL SAY WHY THEY DID THAT!
NOR WILL THEY SAY WHAT ANOTHER $750 MILLION, YES, $750 MILLION, WAS SPENT ON IN AFGHANISTAN BY THE SAME "TASK FORCE"!
"Overhead costs alone for the project in Afghanistan’s came in at $30 million, a figure that remains unaccountable because of an uncooperative federal agency, according to John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
His report released this week cited a flurry of unwarranted costs that he said could be criminal. But the Pentagon has apparently stonewalled attempts by his outfit to obtain information on the spending.
“One of the most troubling aspects of this project is that the Department of Defense claims that it is unable to provide an explanation for the high cost of the project or to answer any other questions concerning its planning, implementation or outcome,” he wrote, in a letter to the Office of Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
[FULL PDF DOCUMENT <HERE>.]
At issue is spending by the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations, known as TFBSO or the Task Force, which ended in March 2015. But most alarming, according to Sopko, is the DOD's failure to answer questions about the $800 million program and its claim the Task Force's employees no longer work for the DOD.
"I have never in my lifetime seen the Department of Defense or any government agency clam up and claim they don't know anything about a program," said Sopko, a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Obama in 2012 to watch over spending in Afghanistan.
[HE ALSO MENTIONED THAT NO ONE KNOWS IF THE STATION IS EVEN IN OPERATION SINCE ITS LOCATION IS IN A DANGEROUS PLACE THAT CANNOT EASILY BE MONITORED.]
In 2011, Central Asian Engineering was awarded a $3 million contract to build the natural gas station on land owned by Afghanistan’s government.
The report said it spent $42,718,739 over a three-year period.
More than $12 million of the figure was slated “to supervise the initial operations of the CNG station.”
Overall, the project should have cost between $200,000 and $500,000, the report noted.
“It’s hard to imagine a more outrageous waste of money than building an alternative fuel station in a war-torn country that costs 8,000 percent more than it should, and is too dangerous for a watchdog to verify whether it is even operational,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a senior members of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, in a statement. “Perhaps equally outrageous however, is that the Pentagon has apparently shirked its responsibility to fully account for the taxpayer money that’s been wasted.”
McCaskill lodged complaints against the federal government for funding the construction of a $36 million command post in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a facility that was never used.
This is not Sopko’s first investigation into misplaced money by the federal government. In October last year he wrote Secretary of State John Kerry to call attention to the purchase of three mobile television trucks donated to Afghan television networks, which were given out two years late at a total cost of $6 million.
The purpose of the vehicles was to broadcast live sports like soccer, cricket and buzkashi, Afghanistan’s national sport, similar to polo, in which men on horseback drag a headless goat for points.
HOW IS DRAGGING A HEADLESS GOAT SIMILAR TO POLO?
AND WHY SHOULD AMERICAN TAXPAYERS PAY FOR THAT?"Who's in charge? Why won't they talk?" Sopko asked. "We have received more allegations about this program than we have received about any other program in Afghanistan."
AND WHY SHOULD AMERICAN TAXPAYERS PAY FOR THAT?"Who's in charge? Why won't they talk?" Sopko asked. "We have received more allegations about this program than we have received about any other program in Afghanistan."
IN ANOTHER CASE, 2 YEARS AGO...The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid $5.4 million for shoddy trash incinerators that were delivered years behind schedule and never used, leaving soldiers at an Afghanistan base with no other option than to keep burning waste in open-air pits, according to an internal probe.
The base where the units were sent -- Forward Operating Base Sharana in southeastern Afghanistan -- was turned over to the Afghan government in October. According to the report, officials now expect the unused incinerators to be salvaged for “scrap.”
ANOTHER $500 MILLION WASTED ON REFURBISHED AIRCRAFT LEFT SITTING ON AIRFIELDS, ABANDONED.THAT WAS IN 2014.
NOTHING EVER CAME OF THAT "PROBE" EITHER, AND AMERICANS DID NOT GET BACK A PENNY OF THEIR MONEY FOR ANY OF THOSE!
A U.S. government watchdog agency is asking the Air Force to explain why it destroyed 16 aircraft initially bought for the Afghan air force and turn them into $32,000 of scrap metal instead of finding other ways to salvage nearly $500 million in U.S. funds spent on the program.
HOW MANY PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT ALL THIS WASTE?
HOW MANY DO YOU THINK MIGHT CARE THAT BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS ARE BEING FLUSHED DOWN MIDDLE EAST SEWERS?
IF WE DARE BELIEVE 2 OR 3 OF OUR CONGRESSMEN, AND DOZENS OF WATCHDOG GROUPS, THAT WASTE RUNS INTO THE TRILLIONS, NOT BILLIONS...TRILLIONS HAVE BEEN SPENT IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, LIBYA, SYRIA, YEMEN, SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR ...LONG LIST OF NATIONS WE PUMP AMERICAN MONEY INTO AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN.
MUST BE JUST FINE WITH MOST AMERICANS...IT'S BEEN GOING ON SINCE ABOUT 1952 OR SO.
HOW MANY DO YOU THINK MIGHT CARE THAT BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS ARE BEING FLUSHED DOWN MIDDLE EAST SEWERS?
IF WE DARE BELIEVE 2 OR 3 OF OUR CONGRESSMEN, AND DOZENS OF WATCHDOG GROUPS, THAT WASTE RUNS INTO THE TRILLIONS, NOT BILLIONS...TRILLIONS HAVE BEEN SPENT IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, LIBYA, SYRIA, YEMEN, SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR ...LONG LIST OF NATIONS WE PUMP AMERICAN MONEY INTO AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN.
MUST BE JUST FINE WITH MOST AMERICANS...IT'S BEEN GOING ON SINCE ABOUT 1952 OR SO.
IKE WAS SURELY GENEROUS TOWARD IRAN, WHO WAS OUR PAL BACK THEN.
IT WON'T STOP AS LONG AS AMERICANS DON'T RAISE HELL OVER BEING SHAFTED BY THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL THIEVES...AND REALIZE THIS HAS HAPPENED WITH THE BLESSINGS OF CONGRESS, OF COURSE.
IT WON'T STOP AS LONG AS AMERICANS DON'T RAISE HELL OVER BEING SHAFTED BY THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL THIEVES...AND REALIZE THIS HAS HAPPENED WITH THE BLESSINGS OF CONGRESS, OF COURSE.
ACCOUNTABILITY...LOOK THAT UP SOMETIMES, SEE WHAT IT MEANS.
SOUNDS LIKE WE MIGHT WANT SOME OF THAT ACCOUNTABILITY.
SOUNDS LIKE WE MIGHT WANT SOME OF THAT ACCOUNTABILITY.
ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS DEMAND IT...
No comments:
Post a Comment