UPDATE:The WaPo is running the following correction to this story: "An earlier version of this story about campaign donations that Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III raised for Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton incorrectly identified three individuals as being among the donors Sargeant solicited on behalf of McCain. Those donors -- Rite Aid manager Ibrahim Marabeh, and lounge owners Nadia and Shawn Abdalla -- wrote checks to Giuliani and Clinton, not McCain. Also, the first name of Faisal Abdullah, a McCain donor, was misspelled in some versions of the story."

The Washington Post today has a revealing piece on Harry Sargeant III, the Florida-based defense contractor and a leading fundraiser for Sen. John McCain. Sargeant is a king in the world of political money bundling, where fixers like himself "coordinate" large numbers of small donations.

The Post looked into the donors Sargeant has recruited from southern California, and finds an interesting crew with very little interest in politics:

Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.

Sargeant's firm, International Oil Trading Co., drew headlines in May when it was revealed that IOTC was likely gouging the Pentagon in a contract worth up to $1 billion to ship aviation fuel to U.S. based in Iraq, the company's third Iraq contract. As Rep. Henry Waxman noted in a letter to IOTC:

According to a recent press account regarding International Oil Trading Company (IOTC), "For each gallon of jet fuel that is delivered to the U.S. military in Iraq, IOTC charges the Pentagon $1.08 over the market price." According to this account, the Pentagon confirmed that "IOTC was not the lowest bidder" for this contract.

Sargeant replied that "Everything we have done on this contract has been in the best interest of the military and the U.S. taxpayers."

Perhaps most illuminating is Sargeant's non-ideological approach to fundraising. Before he emerged as McCain's top money-man in Florida, Sargeant had also raised over $100,000 for competing GOP contender Rudy Giuliani -- and Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton. In many cases, the donors -- either because they were unaware of where the checks would end up, or because they were equally noncommittal in their political loyalties -- were the same for all candidates.

Thirteen of the donors [to Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist] resurfaced on Dec. 13, 2007, sending a combined $29,200 to Giuliani's campaign at a time when Sargeant was heading up fundraising efforts in Florida for the former mayor. Seventeen of them sent the maximum allowed, $2,300, to Clinton's presidential campaign on Dec. 24. And a dozen of them returned in March to write checks to McCain totaling $50,600.

Labels: charlie crist, defense contractors, Florida, harry sargeant, hillary clinton, iraq, john mccain, money and politics, rudy giuliani

We reported yesterday on Texas-based Exxon Mobil's second-quarter net profit of $11.7 billion -- the highest quarterly profit ever for a U.S. company without one-time gains.

But Wall Street was disappointed by a drop in output, sending the company's stock sliding by almost 5 percent after the earnings announcement. Investors are increasingly concerned about Exxon and other oil companies' access to oil and gas reserves.

And if one Congressman gets his way, their access to key overseas reserves would be limited further.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the former Democratic presidential candidate from Ohio, introduced the Oil for Iraq Liberation (O.I.L.) Act in Congress yesterday. The measure would prohibit Exxon and other U.S.-based oil companies from developing and investing in the petroleum resources of Iraq.

"The invasion of Iraq was about oil, but it didn’t result in more oil or cheaper gas," said Kucinich. "It resulted in war profiteering by oil companies who benefitted by keeping Iraqi oil off the market."

In May, Exxon and BP submitted no-bid contract proposals to the Iraqi oil ministry to provide technical services aimed at increasing production from Iraq's oil fields.

Labels: Dennis Kucinich, Exxon Mobil, iraq, iraq war, oil industry

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights was part of a legal team that last year filed suit against North Carolina-based private security contractor Blackwater for its role in the mass shooting of Iraqi civilians.

Now the nonprofit law firm is targeting three other contractors based in the South -- this time over torture inside Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Yesterday CCR announced that it was suing CACI International and CACI Premier Technology Inc. of Arlington, Va., along with an Alexandria-based division of L-3 Communications Corp. It's also suing three individual contractors: Adel Nakhla of Maryland, a translator with L-3, then known as the Titan Corp.; Timothy Dugan of Ohio, a CACI screener and interrogator; and Daniel E. Johnson of Seattle, also a CACI interrogator.

"Private military contractors and the individuals they employ cannot act with impunity," said CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher in a statement. "Contractors must act within the bounds of law and must be held accountable for their participation in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and the other facilities in Iraq. We believe their actions and the acts of torture of their employees clearly violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual, and the laws of the United States."

The lawsuits were filed in federal court on behalf of the following Iraqi civilians:

* Mohammed Abdwaihed Towfek Al-Taee, a 39-year-old taxi driver who alleges abuse during a nine-month detention and who later learned that he was probably turned in by a customer seeking U.S. payment for intelligence tips.

* Wissam Abdullateef Sa’eed Al-Quraishi, a 37-year-old who was allegedly hung on a pole for seven days and subjected to beatings, forced nudity, electrical shocks, humiliating treatment, mock executions and other forms of torture.

* Sa’adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a 36-year-old Arabic teacher and shopkeeper who was allegedly held for a year during which he was caged, abused, stripped and kept naked, and who for a time was hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

* Suhail Najim Abdullah Al-Shimari, a farmer who was held for more than four years and allegedly caged, menaced with dogs, subjected to beatings and electrical shocks, and threatened with death and being sent to a "far away" place.

CCR was founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South. Other firms involved in the lawsuit over contractor torture are Burke O'Neil of Philadelphia and Akeel & Valentine of Troy, Mich. For more details on the allegations, click here.

Labels: blackwater, CACI, center for constitutional rights, contracting, iraq, L-3, military, torture, virginia

Blackwater Worldwide CEO Erik Prince, President Gary Jackson, and spokesperson Anne Tyrrell traveled from the company's compound in Moyock, N.C. yesterday to the state capital, where they met with editorial board members, editors and reporters at the Raleigh News & Observer to challenge what they consider to be unfair media treatment, the paper reports.

The visit was part of a public-relations campaign the private security contractor launched last fall after Blackwater employees guarding a State Department convoy in Baghdad were involved in the shooting deaths of 17 civilians. That incident remains under federal investigation and is also the target of a lawsuit.

Also on the agenda was Blackwater's recent request that a U.S. federal court apply Islamic Shari'a law to a lawsuit brought by the widows of three U.S. soldiers who died in a crash of one of the company's planes in Afghanistan four years ago. Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways of Florida initially argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed since the company was acting as a government agent and soldiers can't sue the government, but the courts rejected that argument. Now it argues the suit should be dismissed because Shari'a law -- not U.S. law -- applies.

Here's my transcript of N&O Executive Editor John Drescher questioning Prince and Tyrrell about the Shari'a request. You can follow along with the audio recording online here, where there are also other audio recordings from yesterday's discussion:

JD: I've read your motion to dismiss in the McMahon v. Presidential Airways case. My question for you is why do you want Shari'a law to apply in this case?

EP: Ah, I couldn't comment as to the details of, ah, of that motion to dismiss. I mean, it was a choice of law venue. It was actually a question raised by, uh, by the judge in one of the original hearings, so this is responding to an inquiry from the judge -- from the, uh, from the federal judge himself.

JD: OK. But, but why -- OK. So you respond to the question, but your answer is not we want this heard in an American courtroom, you want it heard in Afghanistan under Shari'a law. Why would you want that?

AT: That may well be a question for our lawyers.

EP: Yeah, I'm not able to render judgments on that one. It's way over my head.

JD: Really?

EP: That's big-time lawyers going on.

JD: Well, I'm not a big-time lawyer.

EP: I'm not -- we're not, either.

JD: I'm a citizen who read the case, and North Carolinians are very patriotic. We're going to write on a motion you all have filed, so you need to know where my line of questioning is. Very patriotic people. It's hard to read -- to be honest with you, it's hard to read that brief as American citizens and not be insulted by it. Here you have an American company operating a plane with six Americans on it that crashed in Afghanistan. As far as I know, there's no Afghanistan citizen involved in this in any way, shape or form.

EP: Where did the crash occur? In Afghanistan.

JD: Correct. But remember all the parties here are flying under FAA regulations.

EP: Right.

JD: And so, so what you're saying is you no longer want to have this case heard by an American judge and an American jury under American law. You want it heard under Shari'a law? Under Islamic law?

EP: Here's, but here's the glitch. That contract was flown in Afghanistan supporting, under operation and control of the U.S. military. Um, and uh, you know, the trial lawyers try to characterize it as a, uh, air taxi, air charter for hire. It's impossible to fly an FAA Part 135 mission there, because there's no nav[igation] aids, there's no flight service station, there's no published approach procedures, there's no radar control. There's none of those things, none of those elements that you would expect to have in a FAA-sanctioned organization. That was a battlefield support mission, flown on a battlefield, in a foreign country.

JD: That's not what the Air Force says. The McMahon case is purely private litigation, which the United States has no interest in.

EP: I think there are some other statements from a number of general authors that would beg to differ with that.

Who is the architect of this curious legal strategy? The company's chief counsel is Joseph Schmitz, who served as Defense Department Inspector General from 2002 until he left to join Blackwater in 2005. He's the son of John Schmitz, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California who was expelled from the far-right John Birch Society for "extremism," and the brother of Mary Kay Letourneau, a former schoolteacher who served several years in prison for statutory rape involving a teenage student to whom she's now married.

Joseph Schmitz is also a member of the Knights of Malta -- a Catholic military order that was involved in fighting Islamic rule of the Holy Land during the Crusades.

(Photo of "I Support Blackwater" T-shirt from the company's online store, which also offers a Christmas-themed onesie for infants.)

Labels: blackwater, contracting, iraq, news and observer

There have been fresh developments in two high-profile cases of dog abuse by men in uniform -- incidents that just happened to be caught on camera.

Last week, an administrative law judge in North Carolina issued an advisory ruling calling for reinstatement with back pay for a state Highway Patrol trooper fired after being filmed via a colleague's cellphone kicking his police dog while it was tied to a loading dock. The judge ruled that the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety acted improperly when it fired Trooper Charles Jones without giving him a chance to explain his actions.

Jones has said he was trying to get the Belgian Malinois named Ricoh to let go of a fire-hose toy it had been given as a reward for finding drugs during an exercise. The trooper maintained that his actions were not abusive and that Highway Patrol trainers had routinely subjected the dogs to rough treatment. Ricoh is now retired and living with another trooper.

Judge Fred Morrison called on North Carolina to stop using dogs for law enforcement unless it obtains animals that have already been trained and assigns them to troopers who've also been trained. In addition, the judge said the state should give troopers written instructions for handling their dogs. The ruling now goes to the State Personnel Commission for a final decision.

And in an update of a story we reported on earlier this year, the U.S. Marine Corps has announced it will expel one man and discipline another for their involvement in dog abuse caught on camera in Iraq. A videotape that surfaced on the Internet in March showed one smiling Marine tossing a puppy over a cliff while the person operating the video camera laughs and a voice says, "That's mean, Motari."

USMC Base Hawaii announced that Lance Corporal David Motari is being processed for separation from the Corps. He also received undisclosed non-judicial punishment along with San Diego-based Sgt. Crismarvin Banez Encarnacion. According to a USMC statement:

The Marine Corps conducted a thorough investigation as soon as it learned of the event and acted as swiftly as possible. The actions seen in the Internet video are contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine and will not be tolerated. The vast majority of Marines conduct their duties with honor and compassion that makes American people proud.

The Humane Society of the United States praised the USMC for its actions in the case. It also reiterated its call for call for a broad animal cruelty prohibition in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Since mid-2005, the HSUS and its international affiliate have written to the U.S. Defense Department four times about incidents of animal cruelty linked to Americans in combat zones. HSUS has raised concerns about the well-documented connection between animal cruelty and human violence, including battery and sexual assault.

(The photo of Jones kicking Ricoh is a screen-capture of a cellphone video shot by another state trooper and posted to the Raleigh News & Observer Web site. The screen shot of the Marine and puppy was taken from a YouTube video that has since been removed for violating the site's posting policies.)

Labels: animal cruelty, criminal justice, friday dogblogging, Humane Society of the United States, iraq, military, north carolina, North Carolina Highway Patrol, soldiers' mental health, U.S. Marine Corps

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow titled "Closing Legal Loopholes: Prosecuting Sexual Assaults and Other Violent Crimes Committed Overseas by American Civilians in a Combat Environment."

Representatives of the departments of Justice, State and Defense are scheduled to testify. So is Mary Beth Kineston, a former employee of Houston-based contractor and Halliburton spinoff KBR, who alleges she was sexually assaulted in Iraq by one KBR coworker, groped by another -- and then fired after complaining about the company's treatment of women. Kineston won a small arbitration award from the company for her ordeal.

But others have had a difficult time finding any justice. Among them is "Lisa Smith," the pseudonym for a woman who worked for KBR as a medic and alleges she was drugged and raped by a KBR coworker and a soldier; her harrowing story was recently detailed by reporter Karen Houppert for The Nation. The radio show Democracy Now! interviewed Smith and Houppert today as well as Jamie Leigh Jones, another KBR worker who alleges she was sexually assaulted by fellow employees; Smith says she will also testify as part of tomorrow's hearing, at which she will reveal her true identity.

Labels: contracting, criminal justice, iraq, Jamie Leigh Jones, KBR, rape

The U.S. State Department has renewed its Iraq security contract with Blackwater Worldwide despite the FBI's still-unfinished investigation into last year's massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square by employees of the North Carolina-based mercenary firm. The deal, which was up for renewal on May 7, has been extended for another year.

The announcement came Friday during a press briefing with acting Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory B. Starr, who said:

One of the principal recommendations of the Secretary of State’s panel review of the September 16th Nisour Square incident in Baghdad was that upon completion of the FBI’s investigation, the Embassy would submit its recommendation on whether the continued services of Blackwater are consistent with the overall U.S. mission in Iraq. Until that time and after careful consideration of the operational requirements necessary to support the U.S. Government’s foreign policy objectives in Iraq, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security requested the exercise of option year three of task order 6 beyond May 7th, 2008.

In essence, I have requested and received approval to have task order 6, which Blackwater has to provide personal protective services in Baghdad, renewed. And it is that simple.

Asked what would happen should the FBI find Blackwater criminally liable for the mass shooting, Starr replied:

We always -- we can terminate contracts with the convenience of the government if we have to. And if that was the decision, that we had to terminate the contract, we could terminate the contract.

Many Iraqis reacted to the news with anger, among them a traffic policeman assigned to Nisour Square who said the FBI questioned him in Turkey about the incident. The policeman, whose name was withheld for security reasons, told Reuters:

"I went to Turkey and testified about what I saw, but all my efforts were in vain when I heard the news..."

During the press briefing, when asked whether the Blackwater contract extension had the approval of the Iraqi government, Starr answered that the company is "operating with the concurrence of the Iraqi government." But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reacted with anger to the contract extension and said his government was not consulted. Reports CNN:

"No judicial action has been taken and no compensation has been made," al-Maliki said Sunday. "Therefore, this extension requires the approval of the Iraqi government, and the government would want to resolve the outstanding issues with this company."

(P.S. For more on this topic, check out today's Democracy Now! interview with journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.)

Labels: blackwater, contracting, iraq

The Nation published a story today about another case involving a woman working for Texas-based defense contractor KBR who alleges she was gang-raped in Iraq. Lisa Smith, the pseudonym of a 42-year-old paramedic from Texas, claims she was drugged and then sexually assaulted by a U.S. soldier and a fellow KBR employee in January, shortly after she arrived in Iraq. As in the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, another KBR employee from Texas who's been outspoken about her alleged gang-rape by coworkers, the company has been less than supportive -- even confiscating Smith's computer as "evidence" shortly after she e-mailed an attorney for help.

Sexual violence against women contract workers in Iraq appears disturbingly widespread. Reporter Karen Houppert notes that one Houston firm has 15 clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment and related retaliation complaints against KBR, its former parent company Halliburton, and KBR shell company Service Employees International Inc. In addition, Jones has been contacted by 40 U.S. contractor employees who say they've been the victims of sexual assault or harassment. And as Houppert points out, justice has proved elusive for these women:

Most of these complaints never see the light of day, thanks to the fine print in employee contracts that compels employees into binding arbitration instead of allowing their complaints to be tried in a public courtroom. Criminal prosecutions are practically nonexistent, as the US Justice Department has turned a blind eye to these cases.

Last October, the House passed a bill that requires the FBI to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by U.S. contractors and allows them to be tried under American jurisdiction. However, the Senate has not yet taken any action on the measure.

Labels: contracting, criminal justice, iraq, Jamie Leigh Jones, KBR, rape

As the Institute has documented again and again, the South is the region most linked to, and most impacted by, the Iraq war and U.S. foreign policy. Southern states provide more of the troops, are home to more bases, and draw more military contracts than any other region of the country.

That's why it's been such a blow to the Bush administration that the public in most Southern states, like the rest of the country, have swung so heavily against the war (I'm looking for a good recent poll; here's one the Institute conducted in 2006).

Overall, the Southern press has also been harshly critical of the war. Here's a sampling this week from some of the South's biggest newspapers (note: many have yet to weigh in):

"It's hard to argue that the lives of Iraqis are better ... Five years on, regrettably, we have our shock and awe. Shock that the Iraq invasion fell so woefully short of improving Iraqis' lives. Awe in the failure of the Bush administration to address mistakes sooner."
- Dallas Morning News (house editorial), 3/19/08

"When the price of a gallon of gasoline and a loaf of bread both hit $5, and a full-blown recession has a chokehold on the country, how many Americans will be willing to keep pouring billions and trillions down the rat hole of a pre-emptive war of choice in the wrong place, for the wrong reasons?"
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (McClatchy Tribune), 3/17/08

"There were no weapons of mass destruction. We were not greeted as liberators. The war did not pay for itself. The smoking gun was not a mushroom cloud. There was no connection to 9/11. The course we stayed led over a cliff ... The war that was supposed to pay for itself was recently projected to cost us $3 trillion -- that's trillion, with a ''t,'' that's a three followed by 12 zeroes, that's three million millions. And American forces have sustained more than 33,000 casualties, including 4,000 dead and 13,000 wounded too severely to return to action."
- Miami Herald (Leonard Pitts, Jr.), 3/19/08

"Of course, attention must be paid to accomplishing whatever can still be salvaged and to extricating as many of our troops as soon as consistency with those goals allows. And, of course, it is imperative that each presidential candidate outline coherent, realistic plans that they would pursue if elected to the White House. But it is possible to look in both directions. Indeed, it is essential if the nation and its leaders are to glean lessons from this debacle that reduce the risk of a repetition."
- Louisville Courier-Journal (house editorial), 3/19/08

"Five years, gone. Gone, as well, are nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers; tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians; the infrastructure of the nation of Iraq; and global goodwill for the U.S. as the world's top power ... The White House claims success, even as it insists we must stay in Iraq for years to come. Americans should not accept this contradiction. The Iraqi government will not begin to take responsibility for its people while the U.S. calls the shots, and Americans' presence is increasingly considered unwelcome. For the sake of the heroic American soldiers' lives and everyone's economic future, let's make 2008 the beginning of the end of this war."
- Nashville Tennessean (house editorial), 3/19/08

As Editor and Publisher notes, many opinion pages across the country (although less so in the South) expressed reservations about the Iraq war from the beginning. Now, in many quarters, the opposition is full-throated.

Labels: iraq, newspapers, public opinion

In last week's installment of Friday dogblogging, we brought you a feel-good story about a program that rescues dogs that have become companions of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. This week we have a sad report about soldiers' alleged mistreatment of animals.

The U.S. military is investigating the posting to YouTube of a video that shows a Marine in full combat gear apparently throwing a puppy off a desert cliff. The Web site has removed the video for violating its terms of use, but it reportedly captured the black-and-white animal yelping as it flies through the air.

The man in the video is stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, which is leading the investigation. According to a statement posted to the base's Web site:

MCBH learned of the video Monday morning and immediately began an investigation to confirm the authenticity of the video and the persons responsible for the video. The investigation will be thorough and will examine each person involved. Upon completion of the investigation, it will be reviewed by each Marine's commander who will determine the appropriate action to take in each case.

The Humane Society of the United States sent a letter about the incident to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- the fourth that HSUS and Humane Society International have sent to the Defense Department since mid-2005 about instances of animal cruelty linked to Americans in the war zone. In an earlier missive, HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle asked the department to insert an explicit prohibition and punishment for animal cruelty into the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In the latest letter, Pacelle asked Gates to take steps to raise awareness of the relationship between cruelty to animals and socially maladapted behavior:

Such instances of cruelty are objectionable in their own right, but take on special urgency as we welcome American military personnel home from the war zone. While only a few incidents of this kind have come to light, we worry about the psychological stability of those who could perpetrate such vicious acts against the most vulnerable of creatures.

The incident has also provoked viciousness in some of those concerned about the puppy's welfare. The Marine shown in the video and his extended family have received threats of death and physical violence, with his sister telling the press that the family is "living in a nightmare."

The Marine Corps invites people concerned about the incident to visit its Web site here, click on the e-mail link at the bottom of the page, and leave a comment. Those comments, it says, will be compiled in a database "for use regarding this situation."


In other dog news, the last state in the nation without felony dogfighting laws has finally passed a law imposing tough penalties for the crime. Think that state was in the South, where some have claimed dogfighting is an intrinsic part of the culture?

If so, think again. It was Wyoming.

Labels: animal cruelty, criminal justice, friday dogblogging, iraq, military, soldiers' mental health

This Valentine's Day, a black and white border collie arrived at Dulles Airport from Iraq, where he had been found months earlier by Sgt. Edward Watson during a patrol. Weak and malnourished, the shivering puppy looked near death, but Watson gave it water and a portion of his rations and wrapped it in a blanket. To his delight, the animal rallied back to health and bonded with Watson and his fellow soldiers, who named him Charlie after their company. The dog became their mascot and morale booster, a symbol of love and compassion in the midst of violence.

But when it came time for Watson's company to move to a different location, they couldn't take Charlie along. Eventually the crisis came to the attention of the SPCA International, which helped coordinate the dog's transport to the United States -- a complex and costly process involving veterinary exams, behavioral evaluations, vaccinations, quarantines and a flight that can cost as much as $1,200. Watson is scheduled to fly back to the United States next month, and after a three-month stay at Fort Bragg in North Carolina will return home to Phoenix and reunite with Charlie.

Meanwhile, the effort to save Charlie from a life as a homeless dog in a war zone has turned into an ongoing program called Operation Baghdad Pups, which aims to keep U.S. soldiers from being separated from the animals that have become their companions. Other dogs rescued by the program include Liberty, who was adopted by U.S. soldiers after a house raid in which the owner was detained, and K-Pot, who was found tangled in razor wire. The program is accepting donations to help rescue other soldiers' adopted dogs; for more information, visit www.baghdadpups.com.

(Photo from www.baghdadpups.com)

Labels: friday dogblogging, iraq, military, soldiers' mental health, spca

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today into the allegations of Jamie Leigh Jones, a young Texas woman who claims she was drugged and gang-raped by her fellow KBR/Halliburton employees in Iraq -- and then imprisoned and threatened with the loss of her job after reporting the incident to her bosses. KBR has denied the allegations.

While Jones courageously testified before the committee, no one from the Justice Department bothered to show up. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski sent a letter [PDF] yesterday to Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) explaining that the Department was unable to testify because of its "pending investigation" into the incident, which occurred more than two years ago.

But Conyers wasn't buying it. As he said in his prepared statement:

Simply put, it is unacceptable for our own Department of Justice to refuse to testify today. The letter they sent me last night does not begin to respond to the tragedy and injustice that we are looking at now. The department claims to be committed to law enforcement in Iraq, but 1) they will tell us nothing about what is being done in Ms. Jones’ case; 2) they cannot give us even one example of a prosecution where the victim was a civilian contractor employee in Iraq; and 3) they cannot describe any steps they have taken to ensure that such Americans in Iraq can report crimes by contractor employees there to federal law enforcement and that prompt investigation and prosecution will occur. The American people and this committee have the right to demand justice and accountability, and I intend to see that that is exactly what we get.

Also testifying before the committee was U.S. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), who played a key role in Jones' release after she was allegedly locked up by KBR. In his testimony, Poe reported that his office has heard from three other women who say they have suffered similar experiences. They include Tracy Barker, the wife of an Army Airborne sergeant who was recruited at Fort Bragg, N.C., to work for KBR/Halliburton in Iraq. She claims she was sexually assaulted there by a State Department employee who still works at the State Department today; the Justice Department has declined to prosecute that case. Barker also submitted testimony [PDF] to the committee in which she stated:

In short, when I initially arrived in Iraq I was exposed to a sexually hostile, physically threatening and verbally abusive environment. Although I reported the violations properly ... I was retaliated against and lost my job. I was eventually transferred to a dangerous and extremely hostile camp where I endured extreme sexually hostile conditions by my immediate supervisor and was attacked by a State Department employee. Due to the lawlessness that exists in Iraq I have not had a proper opportunity to seek justice in the criminal or civil arena.

Likening Iraq to the Wild West where no one seems to be in charge, Poe called for the law to intervene and restore order.

Labels: contracting, criminal justice, iraq

A U.S.-based legal team today filed a civil lawsuit [PDF] against Blackwater USA, the North Carolina-based private security contractor whose employees were involved in a Sept. 16 Baghdad shooting incident that at last count left 17 Iraqis civilians dead and wounded 22. The team includes the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and the law firms of Burke O'Neil and Akeel & Valentine.

The suit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of an injured survivor, Talib Mutlaq Deewan, and the families of three men -- Himoud Saed Atban, Usama Fadhil Abbass, and Oday Ismail Ibraheem -- who were killed in the incident. The suit claims that Blackwater violated U.S. law and "created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life."

The complaint alleges that Blackwater violated the federal Alien Tort Statute in committing extrajudicial killing and war crimes, and that the company should be liable for claims of assault and battery; wrongful death; intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress; and negligent hiring, training and supervision. It also names as defendants Blackwater Security Consulting LLC, a holding company called The Prince Group LLC, and Blackwater founder Erik Prince.

"This senseless slaughter was only the latest incident in a lengthy pattern of egregious misconduct by Blackwater in Iraq," said plaintiffs' attorney Susan L. Burke. "At the moment of this incident, the Blackwater personnel responsible for the shooting were not protecting State Department officials. We allege that Blackwater personnel were not provoked, and that they had no legitimate reason to fire on civilians. We look forward to forcing Blackwater and Mr. Prince to tell the world under oath why this attack happened, particularly since a Blackwater guard tried to stop his colleagues from indiscriminately firing."

Founded in 1997 by Prince, a former Navy SEAL and son of an auto-parts billionaire, Blackwater has close ties to the Bush administration. For example, its vice chairman is J. Cofer Black, who served as the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism from December 2002 to November 2004, resigning from that post shortly after President George W. Bush was elected to a second term, and its former outside counsel is Fred Fielding, who now serves as White House counsel. Besides working in Iraq, Blackwater also had a $73 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to guard federal workers on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Labels: blackwater, iraq

The U.S. House of Representatives today overwhelmingly approved legislation that would end the ability of U.S. military security contractors to operate with impunity in war zones. Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) introduced the measure in June, but it gained traction after an incident last month in which guards with North Carolina-based contractor Blackwater USA killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians.

The final vote on H.R. 2740 was 389 to 30 -- a strong show of bipartisan unity against the White House. In a statement (pdf) released yesterday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said the administration "strongly opposes" the bill on the grounds that it would "give rise to extensive litigation on jurisdictional issues," impede "necessary national security activities and operations," divert "scarce law enforcement resources," and "burden" the Department of Defense with supporting criminal investigations.

The administration's opposition comes even though Price's measure is not as tough as rival legislation sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- and even though it has the support of the private security industry lobby.

Of the 30 lawmakers who voted against the measure, all were Republicans and half were from Southern states: Rodney Alexander (La.), Richard Baker (La.), Joe Barton (Texas), Charles Boustany (La.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Michael Burgess (Texas), Nathan Deal (Ga.), Sam Johnson (Texas), John Linder (Ga.), Jim McCrery (La.), Jeff Miller (Fla.), Tom Price (Ga.), Mike Rogers (Ala.), Pete Sessions (Texas) and Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.).

During House debate, Price noted that -- unlike members of the regular armed forces -- thousands of armed U.S. civilians in Iraq are not held responsible for actions that could damage the U.S. mission and national security interests:

"Our military is the best fighting force in the world today, in large part because it is structured in a way that demands accountability, discipline, and unity of action," Price said. "But there is no clear chain of command for contractors, little in the way of standards for training and vetting personnel, and no legal accountability for misconduct."

The measure now goes to the Senate, where the Democratic leadership has pledged prompt passage.

Meanwhile, there was another development today in the growing Blackwater scandal that highlights what security contractors could face if they are not held accountable under U.S. law. According to the Associated Press, the official Iraqi investigation into last month's mass shooting of civilians by Blackwater forces has been submitted to the government -- and it recommends that the guards face trial in Iraqi courts. Reports the AP:

The investigation maintained, as Iraqi authorities have throughout, that the Blackwater guards had not been fired on when they unleashed the fusillade. It said no shots were fired at Blackwater personnel throughout the incident.

The report also concludes that a total of 13 civilians were killed in the Sept. 16 incident, and it says that Blackwater should be required to compensate the victims' families.

In other Blackwater news, the FBI has taken over the official U.S. investigation into the Sept. 16 incident from the State Department in the wake of revelations that the person who wrote its initial report on the incident was actually a Blackwater contractor. Fortunately, though, Blackwater employees won't be the ones guarding the FBI investigators, as was originally supposed to be the case, raising concerns of a potentially life-threatening conflict of interest. Instead, federal guards will be protecting the agents.

Labels: blackwater, iraq, politics

With anger mounting over the actions of Blackwater USA's mercenary forces in Iraq, political leaders are taking action.

Today, John Edwards -- presidential candidate and former U.S. senator from Blackwater's home state of North Carolina -- put forth a plan to end the current system of outsourcing security missions to private contractors. Unveiled at a media forum in New Hampshire, Edwards' proposal would transfer most security missions currently performed by contractors back to military command, limit the circumstances under which security contractors can be engaged, and bring all security contractors within the Pentagon's chain of command.

Edwards also said he would ask Congress to pass legislation prohibiting campaign contributions by applicants for and recent recipients of security contracts and prohibit former government officials from working as contractors for five years. Blackwater founder and CEO Erik Prince and other company executives are generous contributor to Republican causes and politicians and have close ties to the Bush administration.

"The recent incidents of violence involving Blackwater contractors in Iraq, including the shooting of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad last month, have caused tremendous damage to America's battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqis," said Edwards. "These incidents hurt America's moral standing, both in Iraq and around the world. And they serve as a tragic reminder of how the Bush Administration has outsourced our military responsibilities to corporate contractors and political cronies who operate outside of the rules of engagement and without any meaningful oversight."

For details on Edwards' plan, click here.

Meanwhile, Congress is expected to pass legislation tomorrow (H.R. 2740) introduced by Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) that would ensure all contractors working for the United States in the war zone are accountable to U.S. criminal law. Senate leaders have said they also plan to approve the measure and send it to President Bush.

Labels: blackwater, iraq, politics

That's what journalist Jeremy Scahill said about North Carolina-based military security contractor Blackwater during an interview last night on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, was commenting on new revelations that the State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of gunning down Iraqi civilians was actually written by Darren Hanner -- a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail.

An article that appeared yesterday in the online magazine Salon.com backed up Scahill's charge by detailing the Bush administration's extensive ties to Blackwater. They include Blackwater founder and CEO Erik Prince's generous donations ($300,000 between him and his wives) to Republican candidates and political action committees, Blackwater Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Joseph Schmitz's former Bush-appointed position as the Defense Department's Inspector General, Blackwater Vice Chair J. Cofer Black's job as director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center at the time of the 9/11 attacks, Blackwater Vice President for Intelligence Rob Richer's former position as head of the CIA's Near East division and the man who in 2003 briefed President Bush on the growing Iraq insurgency, and Blackwater's former outside counsel Fred Fielding's current role as White House counsel. In addition, the company's current outside counsel is Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, was on President Bush's short list to replace William Brennan on the Supreme Court and served as U.S. solicitor general under Bush's father.

Which renders rather ironic Republican charges that the congressional investigation into Blackwater's behavior in Iraq is "partisan."

BLOGGING BLACKWATER: If you're interested in following the growing Blackwater scandal in detail, you should add to your reading list "Blackwater Current," a new blog by Raleigh News & Observer investigative reporter Joe Neff. He has covered the company extensively since 2004, when his series "The Bridge" chronicled the death of four of the company's contractors in Fallujah.

Labels: blackwater, contracting, iraq, militarism, politics

It's not only the Iraqi government that wants North Carolina-based security firm Blackwater USA kicked out of Iraq for its involvement in the recent shooting deaths of eight Iraqi civilians. CODEPINK, a national women's peace group, will second the call at a protest that will take place at 3 p.m. today in Washington, D.C.

The action comes in response to an incident that took place on Sunday, Sept. 16 in Baghdad, when an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade led employees of the security contractor to begin shooting indiscriminately, resulting in the civilian deaths. The Iraqi government has revoked Blackwater's operating license, but the Bush administration is trying to reverse the decision.

The protest will begin at the headquarters of the International Peace Operations Association, which has been defending Blackwater, one of its members. It will make its way to the State Department, where participants will demand it cancel all contracts with the company. According to a CODEPINK statement:

"As a private contractor, Blackwater is subject to virtually no oversight and its employees literally get away with murder," said retired colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, who will lead the march. "The State Department has given Blackwater $678 million in contracts since 2003 to guard U.S. personnel in Iraq, instead of using the State Department's internal Diplomatic Security. We demand that the State Department cancel its contract with Blackwater and instead hire government employees for security who can be held accountable for their actions."

The State Department says it is investigating the incident, but U.S. lawmakers including Congressman David Price (D-N.C.) have raised questions about whether the agency has the authority to take action, the Raleigh, N.C. News and Observer reports:

Price has been trying to figure out for two years which U.S. or international laws might apply to private security contractors working in Iraq. The answer is important, he said, because if the United States has a way to prosecute suspected crimes, that helps its case that the Iraqi government need not bring suspects to court.

"There seems to be a potential conflict brewing about the applicability of Iraqi law," Price said in an interview. "So assuming that there is something here that deserves investigation, and possibly prosecution, then how willing and able the United States is to deal with it is a very important issue and will have a lot to do with the credibility of any case we make against Iraqi prosecution."

Price has sponsored legislation that would clearly place private contractors under the aegis of military law overseas and strengthen congressional oversight of security contractors.

Labels: contracting, iraq, north carolina

The Associated Press reports that more than 10,000 soldiers from Fort Campbell Kentucky's 101st Airborne Division are among 35,000 troops put on notice to prepare for deployment to Iraq later this year.

Troops from the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart Georgia, the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Polk Louisiana, and support troops from a Fort Thomas Kentucky Army Reserve engineer battalion are also included in the call-up.

According to the article, a Pentagon spokesperson said that the "decision gives the Pentagon the capability to carry the buildup to the end of the year" and would "give commanders in Iraq the flexibility they need to complete the mission there," but:

The announcement, said Whitman, has "nothing to do" with a decision to extend the troop buildup. He said the Pentagon "has been very clear that a decision about the duration of the surge will depend on conditions on the ground."

The call-up involves 10 brigades who would serve up to 15 month tours of duty. They are:

the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Germany; the 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga.; the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky.; the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment from Fort Hood, Texas; the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored from Germany; 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division from Fort Polk, La.; 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Hawaii and the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood.

In related news, the Pentagon also announced that it is deploying the 101st Airborne's HQ staff and its 4th Brigade to Afghanistan next year in order to "maintain a heightened level of U.S. troops in Afghanistan well into 2008" to fight the reorganized Taliban resistance. They will replace 82nd Airborne personnel.

Labels: iraq, peace and security

In five weeks, the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry of the 82nd Airborne, based at North Carolina's Fort Bragg, has lost 18 soldiers in Iraq.

The squadron went into Diyala province with 330 troops. Now, the casualties have some so quickly and so fast that, as Kara Honbarger -- wife of a deployed squadron chaplain and mother of three -- told the Raleigh News & Observer, "we get nervous when the doorbell rings."

The N&O followed up today by telling more about the nine soldiers who died this week:

Nearly all of them came from small towns scattered across the United States. They were killed in a village so small it doesn't appear on most maps of Iraq.

One of the nine men had been a professional bull rider before enlisting in the Army. Some had fathers who had been in the military. One said he wanted to serve in Iraq to help the kids, and another kept asking his mother to send crayons, candy and toys to hand out. [...]

Kevin Gaspers(First Lieutenant, 26, Hastings, Neb.): Gaspers is described by friends as a country boy with a patriotic streak and a sense of humor.

Ryen King (Specialist, 19, Bowersville, Ga.): [When asked why he joined the Army, Ryen said:] "I need to serve and establish myself on my own." In e-mail to his father April 5, King, 19, wondered what life might have been like had he not joined the military but instead gone straight to college.

Garret Knoll (Private First Class, 23, Bad Axe, Mich.): His job -- saving lives as an Army medic -- made sense because he loved life so much. "He was a happy-go-lucky kid," Brady said. "He was very friendly. One thing I remember is his sense of humor. He was very sharp, very witty. And he had a nice circle of friends." ... Knoll had been a soldier less than a year. His grandmother said he had been in Iraq just two months.

Kenneth E. Locker Jr. (Staff Sergeant, 28, Wakefield, Neb.): He had shrapnel in his neck and hearing loss from a land mine explosion last fall, but Locker stayed in Iraq, where he felt the children needed him ... "He said, 'Dad, do you know why I'm over there?' " Ken Locker Sr. said. '"I'm over there for the children, that they might have a safer world to live in.'"

Randell Marshall (Sergeant, 22, Fitzgerald, Ga.): Marshall joined the Army in February 2005. Just more than two years later, he had decorations including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. "He was a hard-core paratrooper," Sgt. Josh Meismer, who served with Marshall in Iraq, said in a statement. "He was a professional bull rider before joining the Army, and he took that determination into his job in the unit."

William Clint Moore (Staff Sergeant, 27, Benson, NC): "He wanted to serve God and his country. That's all he ever talked about doing," said Moore's sister, Leanne Benson of Benson.

Brice Pearson (Sergeant, 32, Phoenix): At 32, Pearson was the oldest soldier to die in the attack, and the only one from a large city, Phoenix. He hadn't been in the Army any longer than many of the younger soldiers, joining in 2004 ... "Brice didn't talk about work much off duty, but he always wanted to know how his guys were doing."

Michael J. Rodriguez (Specialist, 20, Sanford, NC): With a father who served in the Army and a mother who was in the Air Force, Rodriguez moved many times. Stone said he always knew where he'd end up: in the military. And though he confessed in phone calls with Stone to daydreaming about hiking in the Smokies or fishing in the Holston River in East Tennessee, he told his mother he believed in what he was doing in Iraq.

Michael Vaughan (Sergeant, 20, Otis, Ore.): Last month when he was home in Otis, Ore., on leave from Iraq, Vaughan said that he didn't want to return. "He had seen enough," his father, George Vaughan, told The Oregonian. "He wanted to come home and go to school." "He said it was crazy, more or less," said [friend] Jesse Branum. "He said he saw a lot of things that you wouldn't believe, was how he put it."

The toll of the loss to Fort Bragg and the state can't be measured in dollars and cents. But it's part of the escalating impact of war on North Carolina, even as state leaders try to expand the state's dependence on military dollars.

Labels: iraq, north carolina, peace and security

As you've probably heard by now, the Iraq Supplemental Funding bill which also includes provisions to begin troop withdrawals was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday by a 218 to 208 vote, largely along party lines. The Senate has just passed the bill today by a vote of 51-46, also mostly along party lines.

The bill will now make its way to the White House for Bush's promised veto, possibly on the fourth anniversary of his famous "Mission Accomplished" speech.

Looking at the AP roll call for yesterday's House vote, Southern* Representatives voted against the bill 83 to 53, with three not voting.

Four Southern Democrats "crossed over" to vote against the bill. They were Barrow and Marshall from Georgia, Taylor from Mississippi, and Lincoln Davis from Tennessee. (Lewis of Georgia voted against the bill, but for a different reason, see below.) Only one Southern Republican, Jones of North Carolina, "crossed over" to vote for the bill.

(For purposes of this report. "Southern" includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. These states have a total of 139 representatives, with 58 Democrats and 81 Republicans.)

It's not clear why the war in Iraq is a partisan issue, especially at this point, other than blind loyalty to the President and the party he leads. (Just as it isn't clear why global warming, the energy crisis, poverty, civil rights and others are partisan issues, but those are stories for another day.)

At any rate, this is essentially political theater at this point, surrounding a highly-charged partisan showdown with the President. So you would expect the voting to be mostly along party lines. What you might not expect is for any Southern Democrat to side with supporters of the war considering the fact that the South bears a disproportionate share of the burden for the war.

Here's what two of them had to say:

Barrow of Georgia: "That's no way to fight a war." (There's also some circular logic regarding "acts of Congress.")

Lincoln Davis of Tennessee: " I have been clear with leadership from day one that I can't support a bill with a day certain for withdrawal without waiver provisions."

And from the principled vote against the whole mess:

Lewis of Georgia: "I will not and cannot in good conscience vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

Labels: iraq, peace and security, Southern Politics

In the most contentious debate to open among progressives since Democrats took control of Congress this year, Rep. Nancy Pelosi successfully navigated a $124 billion package to finance war in Afghanistan and Iraq, while also requiring that combat operations cease by September 2008.

The House passed the measure 218-212, largely along party lines. Five of the 14 Democrats voting "nay" came from the South; the list appears to be evenly split among progressives who opposed it because they wanted the U.S. out faster, and conservatives who thought the bill should include no timetable with withdrawal:

John Barrow, Georgia
Dan Boren, Oklahoma
Lincoln Davis, Tennessee
Dennis Kucinich, Ohio
Barbara Lee, California
John Lewis, Georgia
Jim Marshall, Georgia
Jim Matheson, Utah
Mike McNulty, New York
Mike Michaud, Maine
Gene Taylor, Mississippi
Maxine Waters, California
Diane Watson, California
Lynn Woolsey, California

North Carolina had two other notables: (1) one of only two Republicans who opposed the bill -- Rep. Walter Jones -- a long-time critic of the war) and (2) one of only three reps to miss the vote entirely -- Rep. Mel Watt (D) -- who came late and said he was one of the progressives who was persuaded to vote "yes."

The Democratic leadership prevailed, but the real fight is just beginning. As expected, Bush has promised to veto the bill. Since Pelosi and the Democrats don't have the votes to override a veto, the victory will be short-lived -- and another round of battle commenced.

Democrats also have to confront the vote's fallout among their anti-war base -- many of whom mobilized heavily to defeat the war spending measure (with notable exceptions like MoveOn) -- as well as the world community. As Marcus Raskin, founder of the Institute for Policy Studies, pointed out in a recent editorial, the people of Iraq have little interest in U.S. political maneuvering -- they just want the U.S. out of their country, now:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki doesn't want additional American troops in Baghdad. Indeed, he wants the United States out as quickly as possible. A September 2006 poll conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes revealed that 7 out of 10 Iraqis want the United States to leave within a year. Iraq's infrastructure is in ruins, the environment, the water and sanitation systems are virtually destroyed, and violence between groups and within groups rage, exacerbated by the lingering U.S. presence.

Even worse, the bill passed by the Democrats today endorses the Bush administration's position on one of the biggest issues facing Iraq: who will profit from the country's oil wealth. As Ken Silverstein of Harper's points out:

[A]bout halfway through the 80-page supplemental bill is a section that demands that the Iraqi government enact “a broadly accepted hydro-carbon law that equitably shares oil revenues among all Iraqis” by this fall. That sounds perfectly fine, but the law in question turns out to be one that the Bush Administration and American energy firms have been pushing for years and that, as Antonia Juhasz of Oil Change International explained last week in a New York Times op-ed, would allow international companies to take control of much of Iraq's oil “for a generation or more,” with no requirements to reinvest earnings in the country.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) tried in vain to have the language removed, leading Steve Kretzmann of Oil Change International to say:

The Democrats say they're determined to not “let the perfect be the enemy of the good” with this bill. But we're unclear as to how giving the Bush Administration and Big Oil exactly what they want most in Iraq, at the expense of Iraq's future, can be seen as good.

Labels: iraq, peace and security, Southern Politics

Facing South readers know that the South has deep military ties, and no state feels it more than North Carolina. Billboards everywhere declare the state is "the most military-friendly state in America," part of a state PR campaign to expand bases and lure more defense dollars to the state.

State officials like Gov. Mike Easley and Lt. Gov. Beverly Purdue (both Democrats) tout the economic benefits of a war economy -- but what does the state lose in the bargain?

On the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, the Institute for Southern Studies/Southern Exposure has released a new report -- "North Carolina at War" -- that examines the social, economic and political costs of increasing the state's dependence on military dollars and becoming more entangled with foreign adventures abroad. Read the full report here (pdf); you can also read a news clip about the report from the Raleigh News & Observer here.

Here are some of the costs North Carolina leaders aren't talking about:

Labels: iraq, north carolina, peace and security

Shocking stories of the "shameful" treatment of veteran soldiers are reverberating across the country, but it hits an especially sore nerve in the South. As the Institute has shown in several reports, military bases and production have shifted South, and the region's share of veterans has also dramatically grown.

From 1990 to 2000, while the number of veterans nation-wide had declined by almost 4%, the South was the only region where the number of veterans increased, by 5%.

The Census lumps several states into the "South" that we wouldn't (DC, Maryland, Oklahoma), but that doesn't affect the trend lines -- most of the growth in the Southern veteran population happened in states like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

These numbers are pre-Afghanistan and Iraq. A large share of the troops in these wars were deployed from Southern bases including Fort Benning, GA; Fort Bragg, NC and Fort Hood, TX. Their return is dramatically increasing the veteran population in the South -- and the load on the overburdened and failing system to help them.