Shutdown Cost Military $600M, Layoffs Looming

 

Military.com

Oct 17, 2013

Military.com| by Richard Sisk

The government shutdown cost the Defense Department at least $600 million in lost productivity and left DoD at funding levels that could force layoffs next year for the furloughed civilian personnel who just returned to work, Pentagon Comptroller Bob Hale said Thursday.
"We haven't decided [on layoffs]," Hale said. "We're going to have to get smaller – that will mean fewer civilians. We're going to get smaller – I can't tell you how much."
Hale and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said at Thursday's Pentagon briefing their major concern was the impact on the morale of the uniformed military and the civilian workforce from the repeated political cliffhangers on fiscal matters and the Congressional gridlock over budgets.
"I'm a lot more worried about the morale effects," Hale said. Many civilian personnel now have the attitude that "I'm not so sure I want to work for this government," he said.
Hagel said the uncertainty was brought home to him in one of his recent private meetings with enlisted troops.
One of the troops told Hagel that his wife wanted to know if their family had a future in the military.
"Do we have a future? What is the future for me as an E-5," Hagel was asked.

Hagel said he did not have a good answer for the soldier, partly because the last-minute agreement in Congress that ended the shutdown and lifted the debt ceiling "did not remove the shadow of uncertainty that has been cast over our department."
Hagel referred to the continuing resolution passed by Congress that left the Defense Department at current funding levels through mid-January while also facing another $52 billion in cuts under the Budget Control Act's sequestration process.
Veterans groups echoed the warnings issued by Hale and Hagel.
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Think furloughs are done? Think again. Lasting shutdown could result in Pentagon sending workers back home

By Leada Gore | lgore@al.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on October 14, 2013 at 5:45 AM, updated October 14, 2013 at 7:33 AM

Think furloughs are over for most Department of Defense civilian workers? Think again.
Most of the DOD's civilian workforce was furloughed starting Oct. 1 when Congress couldn't reach a new appropriations deal before the start of the new fiscal year. Ninety-percent of those workers were recalled a week later after the Pentagon used a provision of the Pay Our Military Act to bring back employees whose positions directly supported military personnel.
However, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said an ongoing shutdown could tie the hands of those who are back on the job and make it impossible to do their work. If that happens, furloughs could begin again.
"The act provides appropriations for personnel; it does not provide appropriations for equipment, supplies, materiel, and all the other things that the department needs to keep operating efficiently," Hagel wrote in his memo recalling civilian employees. "While the act permits the Department of Defense to bring many of its civilian employees back to work, and to pay them, if the lapse of appropriations continues, many of these workers will cease to be able to do their jobs."
The cutbacks could be particularly severe for those working in acquisitions, contracts and logistics, as all but essential purchases are on hold.

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• Comptroller: Shutdown Cost DOD $600 Million in Productivity
• Shutdown Over, But Effects On Defense Dept Continue, Hagel Says

Malalai Joya on 12 Years of U.S.- Led Afghan War

freespeechtv·

Published on Oct 3, 2013

Ahead of next week's 12th anniversary of what has become the longest war in U.S. history, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the United States is seeking to sign an accord to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan for the indefinite future. The United States plans to pull out the bulk of its 57,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but the Pentagon wants to retain a smaller force of around 10,000 forces after 2014.

How Can Red Flags In The Instance Of A Government Employee With Security Clearance Be Missed?

Military.com News

How Can Red Flags Be Missed Like Navy Shooter's?

Sep 20, 2013

Associated Press| by Jack Gillum and Eric Tucker

WASHINGTON -- The government's sprawling system of background checks and security clearances is so unreliable it's virtually impossible to adequately investigate the nearly 5 million Americans who have them and make sure they can be trusted with access to military and sensitive civilian buildings, an Associated Press review found.

Case after case has exposed problems for years, including recent instances when workers the government approved have been implicated in mass shootings, espionage and damaging disclosures of national secrets. In the latest violence, the Navy Yard gunman passed at least two background checks and kept his military security clearance despite serious red flags about violent incidents and psychological problems.
The AP's review -- based on interviews, documents and other data -- found the government overwhelmed with the task of investigating the lives of so many prospective employees and federal contractors and then periodically re-examining them.
The system focuses on identifying applicants who could be blackmailed or persuaded to sell national secrets, not commit acts of violence. And it relies on incomplete databases and a network of private vetting companies that earn hundreds of millions of dollars to perform checks but whose investigators are sometimes criminally prosecuted themselves for lying about background interviews that never occurred.
"It's too many people to keep track of with the resources that they have, and too many people have access to information," said Mark Riley, a Maryland lawyer who represents people who have been denied clearances or had them revoked.
The Pentagon knows there are problems. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a sweeping review of all military security and employee screening programs. "Something went wrong," he said.

Separately, Congress has asked the inspector general at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to investigate how a clearance was awarded to Aaron Alexis, the Navy IT contractor who killed 12 people Monday inside a Washington Navy Yard building before he was shot to death by authorities. Just weeks ago, the Navy had warned employees under its new "insider threat" program that all personnel were responsible for reporting suspicious activity that could lead to terrorism, espionage or "kinetic actions" -- a military euphemism for violence.
"The clearance piece of this is one, I think, we very clearly have to take another look at," said Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Navy Yard itself reopened for normal operations on Thursday, but it was hardly business as usual. Returning employees said they felt unsettled. Workers who streamed by the red brick wall of the Navy Yard in the early morning sun said it was too soon to talk about the week's violence.
FBI Director James Comey said investigators were still working through video evidence, but fresh details of the shootings were emerging.
Comey said Alexis entered the Navy Yard in a vehicle, parked in a deck across from Building 197, entered carrying a bag, went into a fourth-floor bathroom and came out carrying a Remington 870 shotgun. The shotgun was cut down at both ends -- the stock sawed off and the barrel sawed off a bit -- and ammunition was stowed in a cargo pocket on the outside of his pants.
Almost immediately Alexis started to shoot people on the fourth floor with no discernible pattern, Comey said. Alexis also went down to the lobby, shot a security guard and took the guard's handgun, continuing his shooting until he was cornered later by a team of officers and killed after a sustained gunfire exchange.
Comey said there was no evidence that Alexis fired shots down into the atrium despite initial accounts from witnesses at the scene.
"It appears to me that he was wandering the halls and hunting for people to shoot," he said.
Alexis had worked for a Florida-based IT consulting firm called The Experts. He had been refreshing Pentagon computer systems, holding a military security clearance that would have expired five years from now.


Read More Here

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U.S. ready to strike, France 'ready to punish' ,MPs to vote on military action and Syria vows to defend themselves

kgw.com

U.S. ready to strike; Syria vows to repel attackers

by Associated Press

Posted on August 27, 2013 at 6:26 AM

Updated today at 12:26 PM

WASHINGTON D.C.(AP) - U.S. forces are now ready to act on any order by President Barack Obama to strike Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday.
The U.S. Navy has four destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea positioned within range of targets inside Syria, as well as U.S. warplanes in the region, Hagel said in an interview with BBC television during his visit to the southeast Asian nation of Brunei.
Obama asked the Pentagon to give him "all options for all contingencies," Hagel said, and "we have done that."
Syria's foreign minister said Tuesday his country would defend itself using "all means available" in case of a U.S. strike, denying his government was behind an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus and challenging Washington to present proof backing up its accusations.
The United Nations said that its team of chemical weapons experts in Syria delayed a second trip to investigate an alleged poison gas attack near Damascus by one day for security reasons.
Walid al-Moallem, speaking at a press conference in Damascus, likened U.S. allegations that President Bashar Assad's regime was behind a purported poison gas attack to false American charges that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of that country.
"They have a history of lies - Iraq," he said. Al-Moallem spoke a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said there was "undeniable" evidence of a large-scale chemical attack likely launched by Assad's regime.


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• Kansas City Star
  

France 'ready to punish' Syria over gas attack

August 27

]The Associated Press
]
PARIS — French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that his country is prepared to take action against those responsible for gassing people in Syria.

]

Kenzo Tribouillard | AP Photo French President Francois Hollande delivers his speech during a conference with France's ambassadors, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Tuesday Aug. 27, 2013. Francois Hollande said France is prepared to take action against those responsible for gassing people in Syria.

"France is ready to punish those who took the heinous decision to gas innocents" in Syria last week, Hollande said at a conference with France's ambassadors. He did not elaborate.
"I have decided to increase our military support to the National Syrian Coalition," the main Syrian opposition group in exile, he also said.
France, one of Europe's biggest military powers, has not specified what preparation it is taking for any possible international action against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.


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Syria crisis: MPs to vote on military action as US and Britain plan to attack Assad

Nicholas Cecil

Published: 27 August 2013

Updated: 16:29, 27 August 2013
David Cameron today announced Parliament’s recall over the Syria crisis as Britain and America plan military strikes against president Bashar Assad’s regime for an alleged chemical weapons attack.
MPs were summoned back to Westminster from their summer break four days early for a debate and vote on Thursday on a military response to the reported killing of hundreds of civilians with a nerve agent attack on the outskirts of Damascus.
Syrian opposition figures were reportedly told by Western envoys at a meeting in Istanbul that military strikes could be launched within days.
Breaking with tradition, the Prime Minister took to Twitter to make the announcement: “Speaker agrees my request to recall Parliament on Thurs. There’ll be a clear Govt motion & vote on UK response to chemical weapons attacks.”
The move is a major gamble by Mr Cameron because if he is defeated, it would be very difficult for him to use British military assets against Assad’s forces suspected of carrying out the attack.

 

Strike plan: HMS Tireless, armed with cruise missiles, could be heading to Syria. David Cameron cut short a trip to Cornwall The Commons vote will not be legally binding but Downing Street stressed the Government would “respect Parliament’s view”.
The military response will be led by America and US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said his country was “ready to go” once the decision is taken on what kind of action to launch.
Russia, Assad’s key ally, and Iran are warning against attacks on his forces.
Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem also vowed the regime would use “all means available” to defend itself, again denying “utterly and completely” that state forces carried out the alleged chemical weapons atrocity.
MPs and international law experts are divided over the legality of any military strike on Syria without the backing of the UN Security Council.
But the Government has insisted that any military action will abide by international law.
Mr Cameron, who cut short a holiday in Cornwall to return to London, will also have to persuade many of his backbenchers and Labour that intervention in Syria, even if limited, is in Britain’s national interests.
Inspection: UN inspector, right, speaks to a man about the alleged chemical weapon attack during a visit to a hospital Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander stressed Labour would not give the Government a “blank cheque” but hinted at support if it was aimed at preventing the further use of chemical weapons.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is backing a “strong response”.
The Prime Minister will tomorrow chair a meeting of the National Security Council which will discuss the military options and their legal backing.
In his latest call with world leaders, Mr Cameron spoke today to Australian premier Kevin Rudd who also pointed the finger of blame at the Assad regime.
Downing Street stressed the military response would be “proportionate”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman added: “We are currently looking at what the correct response should be and as part of that, our armed forces are making contingency plans.
“In terms of end game, this is about looking at how we deter the use of chemical weapons because this is something that is completely abhorrent and against all international law.”
Limited missile strikes against Assad’s forces are seen as the most likely military action despite warnings against such attacks from Russia and Iran.
HMS Tireless: could be sent to Syria HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar class submarine armed with cruise missiles, was reported in Gibraltar at the weekend, and could be deployed off the Syrian coast, along with US Navy warships.


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Russia, " any attempt to impose a no-fly zone using F-16s and Patriots from Jordan would be illegal."

U.S. puts jets in Jordan, fuels Russian fear of Syria no-fly zone

White House says Syria no-fly zone would be costly, difficult

Fri, Jun 14 2013

• Syrian opposition representative: "We need tanks, air jets..."

By Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT | Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:55pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, and Russia bristled at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria.
Washington, which has long called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pledged military support to Syrian rebels this week, citing what it said was the Syrian military's use of chemical weapons - an allegation Damascus has denied.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a Jordanian request for American F-16s and Patriot missiles to remain in the Western-backed kingdom after a joint military exercise there next week, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Western diplomats said on Friday Washington was considering a limited no-fly zone over parts of Syria, but the White House noted later that it would be far harder and costlier to set one up there than it was in Libya, saying the United States had no national interest in pursuing that option.
Russia, an ally of Damascus and fierce opponent of outside military intervention in Syria, said any attempt to impose a no-fly zone using F-16s and Patriots from Jordan would be illegal.
"You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
The idea of a no-fly zone was endorsed by Egypt, the biggest Arab nation. President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist more distant from Washington than his deposed military predecessor, made a keynote speech in Cairo throwing Egypt's substantial weight more firmly than before against President Bashar al-Assad.
Despite their differences, the United States and Russia announced in May they would try to convene peace talks involving the Syrian government and its opponents, but have set no date.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said chemical attacks by Syrian forces and Hezbollah's involvement on Assad's side showed a lack of commitment to negotiations and threatened to "put a political settlement out of reach".
Kerry had not previously expressed such pessimism about prospects for the conference, which has run into many obstacles.
These include disarray in the Syrian opposition and military gains by the Syrian army and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies against rebels who have few ways to counter Assad's air power.
The involvement of Hezbollah fighters on the side of Assad, a fellow ally of the main Shi'ite power Iran, has galvanized Arab governments, including Egypt, behind the rebels, who mostly follow the Sunni version of Islam that dominates the Arab world.
That has hardened sectarian confrontation across the region, which some Arabs hope might be softened by the election of the moderate Hassan Rohani as Iran's president - though few believe he can truly influence Tehran's supreme leader.
Mursi, addressing thousands of cheering supporters at a stadium gathering organized by Egyptian Sunni clerics, demanded Hezbollah pull out of Syria and, after his Muslim Brotherhood joined calls for jihad against Assad and his Shi'ite allies, the president said Cairo had now cut diplomatic ties with Damascus.
Egypt's powerful, U.S.-backed army seems unlikely to involve itself in Syria, but religious passions are running high and more Egyptian volunteers could travel to join the rebels.

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• U.S. puts jets in Jordan, fuels Russian fear of Syria no-fly zone (dailystar.com.lb)
• Egypt to aid Syrian rebels (dailynewsegypt.com)