A sheriffâs department in Tennessee is the lucky recipient of a military-style mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle. This is a vehicle that the U.S. Army uses to weather improvised explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and mines.
âIt will be put to good use!!â the Greene County Sheriffâs Department replied.
Under the National Defense Authorization Act, the military can transfer excess equipment to local law enforcement agencies, largely for counter-drug and counter-terrorism activities. The big question, of course, is why police in Greene County, with a population of roughly 70,000, need a mine-resistant vehicle to fight the war on drugs. Are there a lot of land mines in Tennessee?
I didn't think there were very many mimes in Tennessee.
A sheriff’s department in Tennessee is the lucky recipient of a military-style mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle. This is a vehicle that the U.S. Army uses to weather improvised explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and mines.
“It will be put to good use!!” the Greene County Sheriff’s Department replied.
Under the National Defense Authorization Act, the military can transfer excess equipment to local law enforcement agencies, largely for counter-drug and counter-terrorism activities. The big question, of course, is why police in Greene County, with a population of roughly 70,000, need a mine-resistant vehicle to fight the war on drugs. Are there a lot of land mines in Tennessee?
Procurement scandals are common in the U.S. military and seldom the sort of thing anyone could make up. In the latest, as reported by the Washington Post, the U.S. Navy paid $1.6 million for firearm silencers valued at $8,000 – more than 200 times the manufacturing cost – and that most likely never should have been ordered in the first place.
The silencers emerged not from any longstanding armament firm but from Mark Landersman, a “hot-rod auto mechanic” in Temecula, California, who declared bankruptcy in 2012. Mark Landersman happens to be the brother of David Landersman, a retired Marine colonel and senior director for plans, policy, oversight and integration intelligence with the Navy.
As the allegations have it, David Landersman sent his brother links to a website with instructions about building silencers. David Landersman also secured a $2 million budget supplement for “studies, assessments and research.” He transferred the money to the CACI corporation, instructing it not to seek any competitive bids but to buy the silencers from a new company Mark Landersman had incorporated, supposedly unsurpassed in expertise.
Mark Landersman tapped his former machinist, Carlos C. Robles, to build 349 of the silencers, which he called “small-engine mufflers.” The manufacturing cost was $8,000 and the Navy paid $1.6 million. The silencers were untraceable and supposedly purchased for SEAL Team 6, but SEAL officials told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service they didn’t know anything about it.
Mark Landersman is the only person to be arrested and charged in the case. David Landersman and Lee Hall, another intelligence official under investigation, have been placed on administrative leave. In that deal they keep all their pay and benefits, do not perform any work, and essentially do whatever they like.
As the WashingtonPost noted, the Navy is also investigating Vice Admiral Ted “Twig” Branch, director of naval intelligence, and Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless, director of intelligence operations, in bribery scandal. According to allegations, they provided sensitive information to Singapore-based contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia in exchange for money and prostitute services. The investigations “expose how easy it can be for contractors and insiders to defraud the service of millions of dollars” and “call into question the Navy’s ability to prevent fraud.”
PPS/23: Review of Current Trends in U.S. Foreign Policy
Published in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Volume I, pp. 509-529. Transcribed by Russil Wvong.
One of two papers of a general interpretive nature relating to the world situation and the problems it presented for American policy written by George Kennan for Secretary of State George Marshall, the other being PPS/13...
"To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction."
