October 8th, 2009
“Yet the C-17′s excellence is one of those facts that is indisputably true but irrelevant to the issue at hand, like the assertion that Roman Polanski makes great movies.”
— Los Angeles Times columnist
October 2nd, 2009
Last night we kicked off the DC Labor FilmFest’s Whistleblower Film Series with “The Pentagon Wars“— based on the book of the same title by Colonel James G. Burton — which tells the story about the development of the “Unsinkable Bradley Fighting Vehicle.” Colonel Burton is charged with testing the Bradley and pushing it into production as quickly as possible. The problems that he encounters include a bureaucracy that values weapons, industry, and promotions over the troops they’re supposed to serve. Burton discovers psuedo-tests being performed rather than genuine live-fire testing — and no one with authority in the Pentagon who’s willing to take the career risk to push to do otherwise. There are also sheep.
The film is a dark comedy, because, really, is there any other genre that can depict a defense procurement program? See Acquisition as Deterrent to understand more about what I mean, and, oh, our investigations page.
*SPOILER ALERT* Col. Burton’s whistleblowing led to the performance of a live test that revealed significant design problems, including toxic vapors inside the vehicle that resulted when the armor was penetrated by threat weapons. Significant changes to the vehicle were made as a result, doubtlessly saving many lives when the vehicle was used in the first Gulf War. But the epilogue of his story shows why whistleblower protections are so desperately needed: for his work, Col. Burton was forced to retire, and many of the people who tried to prevent him from performing live-fire tests got exactly what they wanted: they were promoted and/or went through the revolving door to find profitable jobs working for the defense industry. Extending the epilogue beyond this film, Tom Devine from the Government Accountability Project (GAP) reminded the audience that the same kind of retaliation against whistlelbowers is still happening at the Pentagon, citing the ongoing retaliation against whistleblower Franz Gayl, who blew the whistle on problems with the Pentagon’s rapid acquisition system that were causing delays in getting enough Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs) into the field.
In the discussion afterward, Col. Burton said he gets many calls from whistleblowers asking for advice. There were several whistleblowers in the audience, including at least one that traveled hundreds of miles to be there because he wanted to meet the man that inspired him. But Col. Burton told the audience that while people must do what they believe in, no matter what whistleblower protection laws are passed, no one should blow the whistle unless they think they can withstand the worst thing the system and the bureaucracy can do to you. “After the press and Congress are long gone, the system will get back at you,” he said. “There will be retribution afterwards. If you can’t handle it, don’t do it.”
Col. Burton’s right. But the only chance whistleblowers have to then get justice from the system is by having real protections — beginning with jury trials to hear about cases of retribution. Check out our website for more information, and hope to see you at future films, which will be showing — for free and open to the public — every Thursday in October.
October 2nd, 2009
Last week, we learned that POGO Program Editor Danni Downing was reading Berkeley Rice’s The C-5A Scandal: An Inside Story of the Military-Industrial Complex. Since then, Danni has been circulating choice passages from the book around the office, reminding us of the climate of defense contracting and procurement in the 1960s and ’70s. For your consideration:
“Is the Federal Government so intimidated by its contractors that it must continue to dole out public money for new contracts, regardless of whether or not they are needed, so that the contractors will not default on the old contracts? Do defense contractors have such a stranglehold on the Government that it is really they, not us [Congress], who control the public purse strings?”
Senator William Proxmire, 1969, speaking about Lockheed and the C-5A airlifter. The Congressional Record, September 9, 1969, pp. S10327-S10328 (p. 181 in Rice’s book).
“This happens all the time….When things are going well, the companies stress the idea of free enterprise, with no need for government regulation. But when things aren’t going well, they suddenly become a ‘close partner’ with the government, and wait it to bail them out. All they have to do is threaten to collapse, and the government pours in more money.”
Earnest Fitzgerald in an interview with Berkeley Rice, p. 190.
And also:
“From top to bottom, the military procurement system has a built-in bias favoring the industry point of view. Industry executives on DoD advisory commissions “help” set procurement policy. Top DoD officials are customarily drawn from the executive ranks of the defense industry, spend a few years at the Pentagon, and then return to the industry laden with inside knowledge and contacts.” (p. 211)
“[The C-5A affair] raises certain questions about the nature of “free” or “private” enterprise in the defense industry….To what extent is the defense industry “free” enterprise if companies can tie themselves into huge contracts, without the threat of competition, despite shoddy performance and gross mismanagement? … Unfortunately, most of what happened to the C-5A happens to all military procurement programs. C-5As will continue to happen unless the public demands a change in the system. Until then, the public will have no choice but to continue paying the bills.” (pp. 212-213)
Keep those pearls of wisdom coming, Danni!
— Bryan Rahija
September 23rd, 2009
We’ve seen the people of POGO demonstrate their athletic prowess — now it’s time for them to share their scholarly leanings. Each staffer was asked to provide the book they are currently reading, or the last book they read, along with a short review. The result was an eclectic list of biographies, novels, histories, science fiction tales, and yes, even a book on contracting in the 1970s. Without further ado, the POGO September reading list:
Abby Evans, Development Associate
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
Self-help, philosophy, literary criticism, biography, and history all wrapped up into one deliciously witty, quick read.
Danni Downing, Program Editor
The C-5A Scandal: An Inside Story of the Military-Industrial Complex, by Berkeley Rice
A narrative of how the defense procurement system actually worked–or didn’t work–in the 1970s. The major points of this thirty-year-old story still sadly hold true today.
Ingrid Drake, Investigator, Director of the Congressional Oversight Training Series (COTS)
Pulitizer: A Life, by Denis Brian (father of our Executive Director)
When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina by W. Lance Bennett, Regina G. Lawrence, Steven Livingston
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
Pamela Rutter, Web Manager
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
American Classic. I’m revisiting 9th grade American literature! 
My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
The Watercooler post about the Julia & Julie movie inspired me to read! Maybe I’ll learn a couple tricks about cooking too!
Neil Gordon, Investigator
Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson
The story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and Isaac Cline, a meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Service who bears some responsibility for the massive loss of life.
Marthena Cowart, Director of Communications
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
First published in 2007, it has become a international best-seller. This a very French novel: tender and satirical in its overall tone, yet most absorbing because of its reflections on the nature of beauty and art, the meaning of life and death.
Chris A. Pabon, Director of Development
The Surrogates, by Brett Weldale.
In the near future, people interact with each other through cybernetic surrogates. Movie with Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell comes out this fall.
Danielle Brian, Executive Director
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson
Mandy Smithberger, National Security Investigator
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women who Created Her, by Melanie Rehak
I never even really read Nancy Drew growing up, but as Supreme Court nominees, etc, keep dropping her name as an inspiration, it seemed like a fun read. It’s kind of the lower culture, abbreviated companion to Elaine Showalter’s A Jury of Her Peers.
Ned Feder, Staff Scientist
So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government, by Robert G. Kaiser.
The way the lobbyists triumphed — not just because of their own cleverness and their payouts, but because Congress is poorly equipped to resist. Fascinating story.
Bryan Rahija, Blog Editor
The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño
From the Chilean Jack Kerouac, a eulogy for founders of a punk rock poetry movement.
Feel free to chime in with other recommendations in the comments!
— Bryan Rahija
September 17th, 2009
“Usually, of course, you don’t need to dance around the fact that your policy change will save taxpayers giant sacks of cash. But you do on national security. Saving money there, after all, is pretty much like sending Osama bin Laden a great big check.”
— Ezra Klein at The Washington Post, on the difficulties of curtailing defense spending
September 11th, 2009
“In a nutshell, the S.E.C. staff was not capable of finding ice cream at a Dairy Queen.”
- Harry Markopolos, a Boston-based fraud investigator, describing his opinion of the S.E.C.’s oversight abilities.
September 11th, 2009
Hang around the POGO office long enough and you’ll notice that POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian credits her Smith College education when she thinks she’s done something great (and Florida public schools on those rare occasions when she screws up). Yesterday Smith College announced that they’ve formed a mutual admiration society with Danielle by awarding her the Smith College Medal “to recognize women who exemplify in their lives and work ‘the true purpose’ of a liberal arts education.” 
For those of you unfamiliar with the selection process, this award is a big deal. The vetting process takes years — the Board of Trustees wanted so many updates they were close to making the holiday card list — and, frankly, it made the Obama administration’s vetting process look haphazard in comparison. But perhaps the best part is the referral Smith chose to recognize Danielle:
“Praised for her “take-no-prisoners” approach to exposing fraud, waste and corruption among government agencies and contractors, Brian works with whistleblowers and government insiders, Capitol Hill decision-makers, agency policymakers and the media. She has also worked to fortify government oversight systems through training congressional staff in oversight techniques and bolstering the federal Inspectors General.”
This week Danielle is in Sweden, but we can’t wait for her to come back for us to celebrate!
– Mandy Smithberger, Smith ’08
September 3rd, 2009
Machiavelli taught those seeking to expand their power to be suspicious of mercenaries. Trying to revive Italy back to its former greatness would be done under the auspices of nationalism, not profit. Any employee could quit a job when the waging of war became too costly. But a soldier had a sense of duty, predicated on the refusal to desert or stand down. While doctrines of war might curb the level of atrocities to be encountered, a soldier’s rifle could not quake when confronted by them. In the empire before him, Plato recognized that one could place more confidence in pride and ego than a paycheck, and that an army of lovers would be the most formidable. A coward has no claim to the body of another.
But the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have exposed the weakness in the American currency. The contract of citizenship was only strong enough to pool together tax dollars to fund agreements of indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity to guard embassies and military camps. Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) wanted to renegotiate the citizens’ contract into a draft, believing that forced service would be the only mechanism for real scrutiny of the decision to go to war. The loss of lives shaded by poverty certainly didn’t. Democratic theorists also worried about the checkbook war. The democratic mandate was weaker when made out of coin and paper—and given our debt, even much of this was an imaginary deficit of resources. Without a more personal stake navigating the roadside bombs, no one would bother to even check the balance. And as policymakers discuss increasing troop levels in Afghanistan, no one seemed concerned by the certain overdraft fees to come.
In Kabul, this resulted in guards that acted as though no one was watching them—because, for the most part, no one was until the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee called upon the State Department and ArmorGroup. Months prior to the hearing, the State Department had sent the contractor letters complaining about draining labor practices that left the embassy vulnerable, especially since many of the guards lacked sufficient proficiency in English to express just how overworked they were. An official from Wackenhut, the new managers of the ArmorGroup contract, assured the Senators and the State Department that they would improve the performance of the contract. But they could not resist complaining that the firm’s bid for the contract—which had beaten out the new managers when it was initially awarded—was so low that even adequate contract performance cost Wackenhut a million dollars a month and nearly 20 employees from the Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to fill labor shortages.
But a recent letter from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) raises concerns as to whether there is any parental supervision in Kabul, from either Wackenhut or the State Department. E-mails and pictures depict an atmosphere that is more bathhouse than embassy or military base. Vodka shots crash down employees’ buttocks in one photo. Another depicts a guard allowing urine to stream down his pant leg and splash an Afghan national.
Those that speak English are referred to as expats, but they lack the aesthetic grace one imagines of the artists who flee America for Parisian cafes that will let them smoke indoors. Instead, the place that serves as their mess hall is patrolled by supervisors swilling and strutting in their underwear. One Afghan national reported a stripped down supervisor seized his face and told the reader of the Koran how he could be better utilized biblically.
On Monday, General McChrystal told Defense Secretary Gates that the situation in Afghanistan is grave. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said American failures in the Muslim world are a consequence of focusing more on message than actions to build credibility. As a result, our troops and diplomats are largely distrusted. On this line of credit, Thomas Ricks noted, our checkbook lessened the aversion to our actions in the Iraq War because it was only then that Iraqis could become shareholders in the profits to be gained by our occupation. In Afghanistan, the Congressional Research Service reports that civilian contractors outnumber the troops there by highest ratio in America’s military history. It’s not yet clear how good our line of credit will be there.
But the real question is: to whom are these many contractors accountable? Inherently governmental functions are so defined because they are central to the government’s mission. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of State insist that contractors have been essential to help our war efforts, but generally we do not thank contractors for their service, considering their paycheck to be sufficient payment.
We rightfully profess gratitude to the military, who remain because it is an offense to the country they are there to serve to do otherwise. But even before ArmorGroup’s bonfires lit the screen, the turnover for the guards that spoke English was nearly 100 percent. As these guards were replaced, no one wondered why they refused to stay. No one asked, because until recently, no one cared.
– Mandy Smithberger, POGO Investigaor
August 21st, 2009
Senate Staffer Paul Thacker has been a panelist on POGO’s Congressional Oversight Training Sessions and a guest speaker for our Brown Bag Lunch Series. He recently wrote in with this pop culture commentary:
You may have seen ads for the Meryl Streep and Amy Adams movie called “Julie and Julia.” Everyone knows who Julia Childs is, but few know Julie Powell. Well, here goes…
About six years ago, I went out for drinks with a buddy, Eric Powell. Eric and I worked together at Discover Magazine and we met up at the Half King, which is a bar/pub sort of east of 10th Ave, somewhere in the twenties. We were shooting the breeze over some bourbon, talking journalism shop, when Eric told me about his wife. Julie was hating her job and had started a blog. Every night when she got home, she ran through another recipe from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and then posted the results. If she drank too much while cooking, well, the posts were somewhat in their coherence.
I was never a fan of Childs, but as a freelancer whose workmates included a cat and three house plants, I kept the Food Network on during the day to keep my sanity. Plus, I was working at a restaurant part-time in the West Village, partly for extra money, but also just to meet people outside my housebound existence. We talked some more about his wife’s cooking when I told Eric that it seemed like a interesting story. Eric seemed a little uncertain at the time, but I thought it was great and pitched the story to an editor.
A few weeks later, I showed up at their apartment with a bottle of wine and interviewed Julie for the Christian Science Monitor. Four months later, Amanda Hesser did a similar story for the Times. As Eric later told me, “If you want to get a book contract, get a story in the Times.” The New York Times story kicked up a bidding war for Julie’s book, which eventually led to the current movie.
Probably the best thing about it all was eating that night at Eric and Julie’s. It was the first time I had eaten Beef Burgundy, a surprisingly easy recipe. I fell in love with that dish and have made it several times for dinner parties that I’ve thrown. The movie and book have gotten good reviews, but I’m sure that the movie will take great liberties with reality.
You can read Paul’s original article on Julie Powell here. Paul followed up with this addendum:
By the way, a friend just emailed and said that there’s a scene where the CSM reporter along with Childs’ editor cancel at the last minute while going to the Powell residence. I had totally forgotten that, but she did cancel. It was raining like crazy. But obviously, I didn’t. That’s the night I interviewed her for the story.
August 11th, 2009
Here at POGO we’re into Extreme Sports, like working until the very last minute when you have to pee so bad that you run to the bathroom dodging obstacles and running over slow people. We also like to take a 347 word document and edit it down to 250 words without losing its meaning.
So when we interview interns, we look for Extreme athletes. (Most people don’t realize this, but we hired Nick Schwellenbach only due to his ability to maneuver a moped and his athleticism in diving into blowup pools; Michael Smallberg we got for his professional wrestling experience and his ability to grow a Stan Van Gundy mustache; and Jake Wiens was attractive to us for his city bike-piloting skills.) So when POGO had a chance to snag Eric Orenstein as an intern we were all like, yeah he’s a big deal in the kayak world, but can he comma up?
Well recently EO placed second in the Great Falls Race held locally on the Potomac River. The race is part of the Potomac Whitewater Festival, an annual event held to raise awareness about environmental issues in the Potomac Watershed. (Incidentally, there is no truth to the rumor that they could only get two people to enter such a race.) EO fits nicely into the POGO family.
Eric comes to POGO from Colorado College.
