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TBR News October 22, 2009

The Slaughterhouse Informer A Compendiium of Various Official Lies, Business Scandals, Small Murders, Frauds, and Other Gross Defects of Our Current Political, Business and Religious Moral Lepers. Presenting a new magazine that contains material that is not found elsewhere and is very difficult to post on the Internet. The ‘Voice of the White House’ will appear in each issue containing material not found on TBR News for very obvious reasons.This publication will appear once a week, on Wednesday, every week, will be ten pages in length and is available by subscription only. The price is $5.00 a month and can be paid via PayPal or by check, sent to ‘Morris Productions, 3015 E. New York St. Ste A2-190, Aurora, Il 60504.’ If you don’t like it, and Bush supporters can read the Drudge Report for free, you can cancel at any time. TBR Ebooks Civil insurrection in America and government countermeasures: The official papers By Bradley Moscrip An in-depth study of official American plans to construct FEMA detention centers in America and specific recent U.S. Army domestic counterinsurgency plans. Here is a sampling of the ebook contents: Gun Control by Confiscation As the American general population is known to be the most heavily armed in the world, immediately upon the declaration of Martial Law and the execution by the military of counterinsurgency programs, it has been determined that the BATF, will begin the process of rounding up all rifles, pistols and so-called assault weaponry from the civil population. Lists of gun collectors obtained from firearms dealers, gun magazine subscription lists and other sources will be the basis for these mass confiscations. Gun owners will be supplied documentation by the BATF showing which pieces have been confiscated so that in the future, they will be told, they can recover their weapons when the state of emergency has passed. In actuality, weapons that do not have a high value or are not suitable for arming loyalist police forces, will be destroyed by order This study is available from tbrnews at $5.00 by PayPal The Voice of the White House Washington, D.C., October 21, 2009: “I am about to write a few words about a subject that is strictly off-limits almost everywhere. I have been thinking about this for some time and now that Bush is gone for good and his people with him, it is safe to address this issue without fear of reprisals. I am addressing the very serious problem we face with the state of Israel and its activities inside and outside of this country. By doing so, without doubt, there will be shrill cries of ‘anti-Semitism’ but this discussion is a focus on one narrow aspect of the Jewish community, the so-called Likudists’ or strong supporters of Zionism and the state of Israel. Many, many Jews in the United States, and elsewhere, are not pleased with the attitudes and actions of what are a small group of fanatics, based in a small and unimportant country. Most of the Jews I know are Americans who happen to be of Jewish heritage. The Likudists, on the other hand, are far right Zionists who live in the United States. Their full allegiance is to the Zionist movement and while they have the absolute right to believe what they wish, their inclusion in very important parts of the United States government had been very counter-productive insofar as the American people are concerned. Israel has been actively spying on this country for years, stealing its most important secrets, infiltrating the highest levels of the Department of Defense civil divisions, the Department of Homeland Security, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve, many significant so-called ‘think tanks’ and, during the Bush administration, the highest levels of our government. They have a significant presence in the CIA in the middle levels and in general, exert an influence over American foreign policy and its economic world to include most of the major banks and financial institutions. These people, many of whom know each other, have just one goal and that goal is to support the state of Israel in any way they can. Putting convicted traitors like Pollard and Franklin aside, the Israeli Mossad has infiltrated the sensitive NSA, the DoD, the CIA and other top agencies. They have not been able to penetrate the highest levels of the American military but have tried to do so for many years. In point of fact, the Generals and Admirals detest the American support of Israel because this blind support has led to a major war that has done terrible damage to the military both in deaths and injuries but also in damage to its vehicles, aircraft and weaponry. During the waning days of the slavishly pro-Israel Bush reign, Tel Avis was very actively trying to agitate an American military strike against Israel’s enemy, Iran. This has failed because the present administration has no intention of pulling Israel’s chestnuts out of a fire of their own making. The conduct of the IDF in Gaza against unarmed and completely innocent civilians is horrifying and it rivals the actions of the Germans against the Jews, the Japanese against the Chinese and the Turks against the Armenians. The so-called Goldstone UN report on Israeli atrocities has resulted in an uproar in Tel Aviv and also in Washington where the very (and overly) powerful Israeli lobbies have put great pressure on such American officials, elected and appointed, who will still listen to them. From my personal experience with these people, I suggest that if these rodents love Israel so much, we should shove them onto any means of transportation we can find and ship them back to the Mother Country. This would be a much healthier country without the Likudist fanatics, believe me.” US Vows to Stand by Israel over Gaza War Crimes Peres Condemns UN for 'Spreading Lies' October 21, 2009 by Jason Ditz Antiwar In a meeting today with America’s Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, Israeli President Shimon Peres condemned the UN for “spreading lies” in allowing the Goldstone Report’s consideration. The Goldstone Report details war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas during the January invasion of the Gaza Strip. Rice vowed that the United States would stand by Israel “as a loyal friend” and fight against the report in the UN Security Council. The UN Human Rights Council formally endorsed the report last week, with the US one of the few nations to vote in opposition to it. It has been referred to the Security Council, but the US is expected to use its veto power to prevent it from going any farther. The report’s contents are largely the same as those from human rights groups that investigated the conflict, in which over 1,000 Palestinian civilians were slain. Israel has insisted that the author, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, is an “anti-semite” for penning the report, and the government has insisted its backers in the UN are also anti-semites which seeks to see the Jews slaughtered. The Goldstone Report on Gaza September 23, 2009 by Roane Carey The Nation The recently released UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission on the December-January Gaza conflict, released on the eve of Barack Obama's attempt to jump-start comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, was but the latest in a series of investigations, most of them by human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Like its predecessors, the so-called Goldstone report, named after chief investigator Richard Goldstone, is devastating in its critique of Israeli actions: indiscriminate use of firepower; deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian structures, including hospitals, schools, mosques, water and sewage plants, and rescue vehicles; use of white phosphorus munitions in built-up areas; use of human shields; abusive treatment of detainees; imposition of a blockade on Gaza before and after the attack itself--the report concludes that Israel violated international humanitarian law, committed "grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons," and war crimes, possibly even crimes against humanity. The courageous Israeli journalist Gideon Levy summed it up well in Haaretz: it was "an unrestrained assault on a besieged, totally unprotected civilian population which showed almost no signs of resistance during this operation." Perhaps most damning of all was the testimony of some thirty Israeli veterans of the operation gathered by the organization Breaking the Silence, published in a booklet in July and cited by the Goldstone report. According to the booklet's introduction, "The majority of the soldiers who spoke with us are still serving in their regular military units and turned to us in deep distress at the moral deterioration of the IDF.… The stories of this publication prove that we are not dealing with the failures of individual soldiers, and attest instead to failures in the application of values primarily on a systemic level." The testimony is chilling: "Fire power was insane"; "if you see any signs of movement at all, you shoot. These, essentially, were the rules of engagement. Shoot if you like"; "Houses were demolished everywhere.… We didn't see a single house that was not hit"; "whole neighborhoods were simply razed because four houses in the area served to launch Qassam rockets"; "You know what? You feel like a child playing around with a magnifying glass, burning up ants. Really. A 20-year-old kid should not be doing such things to people." Predictably, the Goldstone report was met by a wave of angry denunciations from the Israeli government--which had refused to cooperate with the investigators--and most of the Israeli media. The mainstream media here have downplayed the investigation's significance; news coverage has been sparse, and not one major US daily has seen fit to editorialize on it (unless you count a nasty little screed from the New York Daily News calling the report a "blood libel against Israel"). And US pundits and politicians--including UN ambassador Susan Rice, who called it "unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable"--have been overwhelmingly critical. But it's not so easy to dismiss these findings. For one thing, the nearly 600-page report is carefully documented and comprehensive, and is based on field visits, public hearings, almost 200 individual interviews, photos, videos, satellite imagery and a review of more than 300 other reports. For another, its head, Goldstone, is one of the most respected and experienced international jurists, having served as a justice on South Africa's Constitutional Court and chief UN prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. And then there are Goldstone's personal connections: he's Jewish and, according to his daughter, herself an ardent Zionist who lived in Israel for six months, he's "a Zionist and loves Israel." Indeed, she said of her father, who serves on the Board of Governors of Hebrew University, "I know that if he thought what he did would not somehow be for the sake of peace for everyone in Israel or that it would have hindered such efforts, he would not have accepted the job." Before taking it on, Goldstone insisted on expanding the mission's mandate so that it cover Palestinian acts; far from being one-sided, the report concluded that Hamas rocket and mortar barrages on southern Israel were "indiscriminate attacks upon the civilian population," acts that "would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity." International law expert (and Nation editorial board member) Richard Falk has concluded that "no credible international commission could reach any set of conclusions other than those reached by the Goldstone Report on the central allegations." Falk points out that there are good reasons for Israel's panicked reaction. In addition to the report's balance and the credibility of its chief, Goldstone recommends that Israel and Hamas carry out serious, comprehensive investigations of their own into the alleged crimes, and that if they do not do so within six months, the UN Security Council should consider referring the matter to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. That's highly unlikely, given US veto power in the Security Council. But the report will further diminish Israel's reputation and will probably strengthen the growing international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. In his column on the report, Gideon Levy darkly concludes, "On the eve of the Jewish New Year, Israel, deservedly, is becoming an outcast and detested country. We must not forget it for a minute." Ex-FBI Translator Claims Spying at DoD October 21, 2009 by Bryant Jordan Military.com\| After seven years of forced silence, a government whistleblower is opening up on what she learned while working as a Turkish translator for the FBI in the wake of 9/11. In sworn testimony to attorneys on Aug. 8, Sibel Edmonds described a Pentagon where key personnel helped pass defense secrets to foreign agents or provided them names of knowledgeable officials who were vulnerable to blackmail or co-option. And firmly rooted in this espionage program in the 1990s, according to Edmonds’ deposition, were two men who, with the election of George W. Bush as president in 2000, found themselves in the Pentagon: Douglas Feith, who would head the Office of Special Plans, and Richard Perle, who would become chairman of the Defense Advisory Board. "They were 100 percent directly involved," Edmonds told Military.com. "They were not in the Pentagon [in the late 1990s] but they had their people inside the Pentagon." One of those people, she said, was Larry Franklin, an Air Force officer assigned to the Office of Special Plans who, in 2003, passed classified information to representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Office, or AIPAC. By then Feith was leading the OSP. Edmonds cautioned that she does not know if these practices are continuing, since she was fired by the FBI in April 2002 after pressing for an investigation into an attempt by a colleague to recruit her for an organization that was itself a target of FBI surveillance. Perle, today a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and board member for or adviser to other think tanks, including the National Institute for Neareast Affairs and the Center for Security Policy, emphatically denied Edmonds’ claims in an interview with Military.com. “This woman is a nutcase. Certifiable,” Perle said. “She makes wild accusations. She was fired from her job, and has been on a vendetta against … imagined demons ever since.” Feith, in an email to Military.com, said: “What I’ve read on the Internet about Ms. Edmonds’s claims about me is wildly false and bizarre.” Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh declined comment, saying any investigation into such allegations would be carried out by the FBI. An FBI spokesman said the bureau’s policy is not to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. Edmonds, who has degrees from George Washington University and George Mason University, speaks Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani. She got into the world of FBI investigations and counter-intelligence after 9/11, when the FBI contacted her about coming to work as a Turkish translator. In short order she was on the job and translating documents going as far back as the mid-90s, as well as assisting special agents in the field who were monitoring both “foreign entities” and the public officials linked to them. But not long after she joined the bureau another Turkish translator came on board – Malec Can Dickerson. And in December 2001 Dickerson and her husband, Douglas, then an Air Force major, tried to recruit her to join American Turkish Council -- an organization that was actually being monitored by the FBI. Also, according to Edmonds, Douglas Dickerson had previously worked with Grossman in Turkey and, though assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, was working for Feith’s OSP and also as a coordinator with the State Department on the Turkey Republics in Central Asia. Edmonds reported the attempted recruitment, but no action was taken. She said she soon found evidence that Malec Can Dickerson included false information on her FBI job application. Again, no response from officials, she said. When the FBI finally did act, in March 2002, it was to fire her. When she appealed her termination and eventually sued, the Justice Department, then under John Ashcroft, invoked a “state’s secret’ privilege to prevent her from talking about what she knew. When Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, looked into her case and found it credible, Ashcroft invoked the same gag order on them. The Justice Department’s own Inspector General’s report was barred from release by Ashcroft, though when an unclassified version finally became available in 2005 it concluded that “many of Edmonds’s core allegations relating to the co-worker [Malec Can Dickerson] had some basis in fact and were supported by either documentary evidence or witnesses other than Edmonds.” And though the Justice Department’s IG found the evidence didn’t prove that the co-worker had disclosed classified information, it said the FBI should have investigated the claims more thoroughly. Since being fired, Edmonds founded the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, made up of current or former federal employees or contractors who have exposed waste, and abuse in government operations. Edmonds made her testimony in connection with a complaint filed with the Ohio Elections Commission by U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, against her 2008 opponent, David Krikorian. Krikorian, who ran as an independent, claimed in a political ad that Schmidt took “blood money” from the Turkish government to deny the Armenian Holocaust at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in the first part of the 20th century. Krikorian’s lawyers wanted Edmonds to testify about pressure that Turkish lobbyists have brought to bear in the U.S. to keep politicians from discussing the attempted genocide. Earlier this month the commission concluded that Krikorian’s “blood money” allegation showed a reckless disregard for the truth, since there was no evidence that money donated to Schmidt by a Turkish-American political action committee came from the Turkish government, according to a report by The Associated Press. The commission did not make any findings regarding Edmonds’ testimony. One of Edmonds’ believers is John M. Cole, a former FBI counterintelligence analyst and author of “While America Sleeps: An FBI Whistleblower's Story.” Cole, who worked for the bureau 18 years and now works for the Defense Intelligence Agency at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., said the pattern of espionage described by Edmonds is familiar to him. “In the 1990s I was responsible for Western Europe and Israel [counterintelligence cases],” Cole told Military.com. “We did have ongoing investigations of officials in the State Department and also the Department of Defense.” And he said cases did extend outside the Pentagon, to various Air Force Bases and the RAND Corp. – something Edmonds also stated in her testimony. Cole said he could not identify the people investigated or detail the cases, nor could he say whether anyone named by Edmonds figured into any of his cases. After seven years of silence, Edmonds said she was glad to be able to finally divulge some of what she had been forced to keep in, but she doubted any government agency would seriously pursue her claims. There is no indication the current Justice Department is reopening an investigation, she said, and neither politicians nor mainstream media have shown an interest. “I did it [testified] under oath,” she said. “I have a very successful financial life, I’ve been married 18 years. I have a family, I have a daughter, I have lot to lose. I’d have to be either mentally insane or someone who doesn’t have anything to lose, [who] just makes allegations and lies under oath,” to claim these things if they were not true. Edmonds claims that much of the Pentagon information found its way into the hands of both Israeli and Turkish operatives through the State Department, courtesy of Marc Grossman, then assistant secretary of state for political affairs, the third-highest ranking member at State. As she described in her Aug. 8 testimony, “certain people from Pentagon would send a list of individuals with access to sensitive data, whether weapons technology or nuclear technology, and this information would include all their sexual preference, how much they owed on their homes, if they have gambling issues, and [Grossman] would provide it to these foreign operatives, and those foreign operatives would go and hook those Pentagon people.” Robert S. Tyrer, co-president of The Cohen Group, a Washington lobbying firm where Grossman is now a vice chairman, told Military.com in an email that Edmonds’ allegations against the former ambassador “are completely untrue and ludicrous.” According to Edmonds, those sought out by Turkish and Israeli agents might actually be working outside the Pentagon. As a result, she testified, the foreign operatives managed to put on their payroll individuals "on almost every major nuclear facility in the United States, RAND Corporation and ... various Air Force labs that develop certain weapons technology." And the Defense Department wasn’t the only power center targeted by foreign agents and their U.S. helpers, she says. On Capitol Hill, she said, the late congressman Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., disclosed “highest level” intelligence and weapons technology to both Israel and Turkey. The foreign operatives, themselves, Edmonds told Military.com, were motivated by both nationalism and profit. After providing Israeli or Turkish interests with what they wanted from pilfered secrets, she said, they might offer what was left to the highest bidder. “There is a black market for everything, including for nuclear-related information, weapons technology,” she told Military.com. “Of course some of these people [operatives] are ‘double-dipping.’” US scientist Stewart Nozette charged with trying to sell secrets to Israel Stewart Nozette, a scientist who worked for NASA and had a top-level government security clearance, is charged with trying to sell US secrets to Israel after an FBI sting operation. October 20, 2009 by Ilene R. Prusher The Christian Science Monitor Jerusalem - Israeli officials declined to comment Tuesday on the arrest of US scientist Stewart David Nozette on espionage charges. According to an FBI criminal complaint, Mr. Nozette was passing classified information to agents he believed were working for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, but were really undercover US officers. He was arrested on Monday. The complaint does not accuse him of spying for Israel, but it did reveal that Nozette believed he had already been working for Mossad through a front organization in the past. According to the document, he told an undercover agent whom he believed to be from Mossad, "I thought I was working for you already. I mean, that's what I always thought. [The foreign company] was just a front." That company has been identified in the Israeli press as Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), which is owned by the Israeli government and is the country's largest aerospace and defense company. From November 1998 through January 2008, Nozette worked as a technical consultant for IAI, answering questions posed by the company once a month in return for payments totaling about $225,000 over a decade. Israeli officials said there was no reason to comment on the issue, pointing out that he hasn't been accused of spying for Israel. Israel Radio reported Tuesday that senior government officials said in response to the developments that Israel does not gather intelligence in or spy on friendly states. *Spying on friends?* The issue of whether Israel conducts espionage activities in the US has continued to be a sore point in relations between Jerusalem and Washington, however, and has been seized on in particular by US critics of what has been described as the "special relationship" between the US and Israel. That tension is based on suspicion, not fact, says Yossi Melman, Israel's leading journalist on espionage and intelligence issues, who works for the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. "There is a very firm commitment and very strict instructions to all Israeli officials going to America which says, 'Don't even get close to something that would smell of collecting information,'" says Mr. Melman, author of Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. But the FBI doesn't believe it, he adds. "There is a sense of deep suspicion in the department of FBI which deals with counter-espionage, especially when it comes to Israel." Such suspicion is a byproduct of the Jonathan Pollard affair in the late 1980s, Melman believes. "They are looking at Israel's record of 40 years, in which Israel was regularly spying in America – in other words, the Pollard case wasn't an isolated one – and they won't believe that Israeli no longer spies on American soil or against Americans," he says. Mr. Pollard, a former American intelligence officer who was convicted in 1987 of spying for Israel, is serving a life sentence in a US prison. Though when he was arrested Israel denied he had spied for them, Israeli officials eventually gave Pollard citizenship and acknowledged in 1998 that he had been an Israeli asset. Israel maintains that it has not conducted any spying activities in the US since the Pollard affair. *FBI traps* The FBI "has clearly tried to trap Israelis and Israeli diplomats, to see if they are really committed to the idea of not spying," says Melman. Melman says that this climate of suspicion has been fed by the surfacing of other cases. In one last year, 85-year-old former army engineer Ben-ami Kadish was convicted of spying for Israel for 20 years during the same time when Pollard was active. Both Pollard and Kadish had the same handler, Yosef Yagur. Mr. Yagur had worked for the company that became IAI. In 2006, Lawrence Franklin, a former defense department official, pled guilty to passing information about Iran to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the main pro-Israel lobby in the US. Before the FBI cornered Nozette, he had quipped that if the US government ever tried to prosecute him for a criminal offense, he would go to Israel or another foreign country and "tell them everything" he knows, according to court papers that cite an unnamed colleague. A former White House expert, Nozette had helped discover evidence of water on the moon, worked in various positions over the years for NASA and the US Department of Energy, and held security clearances considered top secret. The court papers say that as part of the sting operation, an FBI agent contacted Nozette posing as a spy for the Mossad. When the scientist and undercover agent met later in the day at a hotel, Nozette told the agent he had access to much of what the "US has done in space." As part of the operation, he received an Israeli passport under an alias. Basic Medicare Premium to Rise 15% Next Year October 19, 2009 by Robert Pear New York Times WASHINGTON — The basic Medicare premium will shoot up next year by 15 percent, to $110.50 a month, federal officials said Monday. The increase means that monthly premiums would top $100 for the first time, a stark indication of the rise in medical costs that is driving the debate in Congress about a broad overhaul of the health care system. About 12 million people, or 27 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, will have to pay higher premiums or have the additional amounts paid on their behalf. The other 73 percent will be shielded from the increase because, under federal law, their Medicare premiums cannot go up more than the increase in their Social Security benefits, and Social Security officials announced last week that there would be no increase in benefits in 2010 because inflation had been extremely low. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, urged the Senate to approve a bill, already passed by the House, to block the scheduled increase in Medicare premiums. “We are in tremendously difficult economic times, and seniors are being hit particularly hard,” Ms. Sebelius said. “The last thing seniors need right now is a substantial increase in their Medicare premiums, and many seniors will see such an increase if no action is taken.” Among those who face higher premiums next year are new Medicare beneficiaries, high-income people and those whose Medicare premiums are paid by Medicaid. Premiums can be as high as $353.60 a month, or more than $4,200 a year, for Medicare beneficiaries who file tax returns with adjusted gross income greater than $214,000 for an individual or $428,000 for a couple. The higher premiums will impose “an additional and significant burden” on states, which help pay Medicaid costs, along with the federal government. The House bill was passed, 406 to 18, on Sept. 24. Among those who voted against it was the Democratic leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who said he saw no need to help multimillionaires at a time when the nation was struggling to rein in entitlement programs. While lawmakers considered whether to freeze Medicare premiums, a handful of senators met behind closed doors on Monday to work out a compromise health care bill to cover the uninsured. One participant, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, said senators were considering new ideas to finesse disagreements over whether the government should offer its own health insurance plan, in competition with private insurers. Under one proposal, he said, the government would create a public plan, but states could “opt out” if they wanted to devise and operate their own insurance programs. The meeting, convened by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, included Mr. Baucus and Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who presided over the health committee when it approved a sweeping health care bill in July. Mr. Reid said he hoped to take a compromise bill to the Senate floor early next month. But that assumes rapid progress in negotiations and a quick analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, to confirm whether the 10-year cost of the bill is under the $900 billion ceiling set by President Obama. The Finance Committee approved a detailed outline of a sweeping health care bill last week. Mr. Baucus formally introduced the bill, a 1,502-page document, on Monday. The Senate is debating a separate bill to prevent deep cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. The bill would not offset any of the costs, estimated at $247 billion over the next 10 years. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said: “Of course, we need to fix doctors’ reimbursement. But it needs to be paid for. We can’t just add a quarter-trillion dollars to the national debt.” Democrats said the bill simply recognized political reality. In recent years, they said, Congress has repeatedly stepped in to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, and it is likely to do so in the future. Pensions: the Next Casualty of Wall Street by Mark Brenner LaborNotes Nobody wants to admit it, but the next casualty of the Wall Street meltdown will probably be your golden years. For years corporations have been trying to choke the life out of traditional pensions, working hard to get out from under the risk—and the cost—of providing for their retirees. Between last year’s credit crunch and changes to federal pension laws, they may get their wish. Nearly $4 trillion worth of retirement savings were wiped out in the first weeks of the 2008 financial freefall. Half of the drop was concentrated in traditional pension plans, also known as defined-benefit plans. While most workers in these plans haven’t had their monthly benefits cut, unlike the 46 million people riding the stock market with 401(k) defined-contribution plans, the storm clouds are gathering. Labor needs a strategy to protect what we’ve won. But holding our ground requires moving from defense to offense. If the pension crisis is going to be solved for union members, it has to be solved for everyone. UNCOMFORTABLE ARITHMETIC Even before the financial crisis, traditional pensions were a vanishing breed. Thirty years ago more than a third of the private sector workforce had traditional pensions. Last year that number was down to 16 percent. Driving the decline were employers looking to get off cheap, eliminating pensions entirely when they could get away with it, and when they couldn’t, shifting to 401(k)s. These programs were legalized in 1978 and were originally designed to supplement traditional pensions. Now they’re choking them out like kudzu. Corporations got a great deal, paying about half what they used to towards their workers’ retirement by the ’90s. Even more important—as anyone who has opened their 401(k) statement recently can attest—the move shifted risk off companies and onto us. Traditional pensions were a collective solution to a collective problem. Young and old contributing together smoothed out insecurity for all. Now it’s just you and the stock market—with far less in your pocket. Even before the crash, studies showed that 401(k)s leave workers with 10 to 33 percent of what traditional pensions provide. Given the 30-year squeeze on wages, most people haven’t saved much either, which explains why more than half of all 401(k) participants have less than $75,000 when they retire. WHAT’S IN STORE? Even for those with superior defined-benefit plans, the last 20 years have been rocky. Companies spent much of the 1990s gaming the system, siphoning off pension funds to pad the bottom line. At the start of this year the nation’s defined-benefit pension plans had only about 75 percent of what they owed participants. Companies may need to contribute as much as $100 billion to cover these gaps. Although Congress waived compliance with new pension rules this year (see page 9), the law will eventually take effect, and will force employers to cover these pension gaps. Rather than clean up their act, more and more employers are looking for the exit. By April of this year nearly a third of America’s largest companies had frozen their pension plans. Many others are invoking the nuclear option, declaring bankruptcy as a way to unload their pension plans on the taxpayers. Unfortunately, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), established in 1975 to backstop private sector pensions, is already reeling from a decade of high-profile and expensive pension defaults at companies like United Airlines and steelmaker LTV. Nine of the 10 largest pension defaults in history occurred since 2000, leaving the PBGC with a deficit of $11 billion at the end of 2008. That gap could swell to more than $100 billion over the next few years, amounting to a backdoor bailout for big corporations, and a bitter pill for abandoned retirees. Workers at Republic Steel saw first hand how it works when they had their pensions cut by $1,000 a month in 2002 by the PBGC and then cut again in 2004. Five workers from the Lorain, Ohio, plant committed suicide after the first time their pension was diminished. In the second round of cuts, retirees like Bruce Bostick, former grievance chair for USW Local 1104, saw their retirements fall from $1,047 a month to $125. The situation for public sector workers isn’t much better. Although 80 percent of public employees have traditional pensions, those benefits are now in the cross-hairs of conservative and liberal politicians. Two-thirds of public sector pension plans are underfunded—to the tune of $430 billion—and state and local budget crises are pitting taxpayers against public employees from California to Maine. ANCHORING RETIREMENT For nearly 20 years the various financial bubbles—from the dot-com frenzy of the 1990s to the recent housing market run-up—papered over the urgent need to address the faltering retirement system. Wall Street’s collapse last year revealed how the current patchwork of retirement plans is failing almost everyone. As with health benefits, union workers with stable pensions increasingly find themselves on an island of security in a sea of uncertainty. But the water is rising rapidly. As the debate over the auto bailout and state budget crises revealed, defending your own decent pension is tough work when half the workers in the country don’t have any retirement at all. The PBGC—which has been swimming in red ink since 2002—is currently set up to pay less than half of what people were promised. If the funding gaps widen, it could fall to pennies on the dollar. There will be calls to bail the PBGC out—which needs to happen—1.2 million people now depend on it. A sensible demand is to make it function more like the FDIC, by guaranteeing 100 percent of pension benefits up to a reasonable threshold. But reform can’t stop there. If it does, workers are on the same path as before the economic collapse, with a temporary reprieve. Employers will still seek to drive union workers down to non-union standards and dump more risk onto individuals. We need to return to the original vision of Social Security: a program that (like in Western European nations) can actually pay for most of your old-age living expenses. $400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan By Roxana Tiron - 10/15/09 The Hill The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan. The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week. Pentagon officials have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate. “It is a number that we were not aware of and it is worrisome,” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense panel, said in an interview with The Hill. “When I heard that figure from the Defense Department, we started looking into it.” The Pentagon comptroller’s office provided the fuel statistic to the committee staff when it was asked for a breakdown of why every 1,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan costs $1 billion. The Obama administration uses this estimate in calculating the cost of sending more troops to Afghanistan. The Obama administration is engaged in an internal debate over its future strategy in Afghanistan. Part of this debate concerns whether to increase the number of U.S. troops in that country. The top U.S. general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, reportedly has requested that about 40,000 additional troops be sent. Democrats in Congress are divided over whether to send more combat troops to stabilize Afghanistan in the face of waning public support for the war. Any additional troops and operations likely will have to be paid for through a supplemental spending bill next year, something Murtha has said he already anticipates. Afghanistan — with its lack of infrastructure, challenging geography and increased roadside bomb attacks — is a logistical nightmare for the U.S. military, according to congressional sources, and it is expensive to transport fuel and other supplies. A landlocked country, Afghanistan has no seaports and a shortage of airports and navigable roads. The nearest port is in Karachi, Pakistan, where fuel for U.S. troops is shipped. From there, commercial trucks transport the fuel through Pakistan and Afghanistan, sometimes changing carriers. Fuel is then transferred to storage locations in Afghanistan for movement within the country. Military transport is used to distribute fuel to forward operating bases. For many remote locations, this means fuel supplies must be provided by air. One of the most expensive ways to supply fuel is by transporting it in bladders carried by helicopter; the amount that can be flown at one time can barely satisfy the need for fuel. The cheapest way to transport fuel is usually by ship. Other reasonable methods to provide fuel are by rail and pipeline. The prices go up exponentially when aircraft are used, according to congressional sources. The $400 per gallon reflects what in Pentagon parlance is known as the “fully burdened cost of fuel.” “The fully burdened cost of fuel is a recognition that there are a lot of other factors that come into play,” said Mark Iden, the deputy director of operations at the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), which provides fuel and energy to all U.S. military services worldwide. The DESC provides one gallon of JP8 fuel, which is used for both aircraft and ground vehicles, at a standard price of $2.78, said Iden. The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, told a Navy Energy Forum this week that transporting fuel miles into Afghanistan and Iraq along risky and dangerous routes can raise the cost of a $1.04 gallon up to $400, according to Aviation Week which covered the forum. “These are fairly major problems for us,” Conway said, according to the publication. The fully burdened cost of fuel accounts for the cost of transporting it to where it is needed, said Kevin Geiss, program director for energy security in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment. And moving fuel by convoy or even airlift is expensive, according to the Army news release from July 16, which quoted Geiss. In some places, Geiss said, analysts have estimated the fully burdened cost of fuel might even be as high as $1,000 per gallon. Energy consumed by a combat vehicle may not even be for actual mobility of the vehicle, Geiss said, but instead to run the systems onboard the vehicle, including the communications equipment and the cooling systems to protect the electronics onboard. Some 8o percent of U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan are due to improvised explosive devices, many of which are placed in the path of supply convoys — making it even more imperative to use aircraft for transportation. According to a Government Accountability Office report published earlier this year, 44 trucks and 220,000 gallons of fuel were lost due to attacks or other events while delivering fuel to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan in June 2008 alone. High fuel demand, coupled with the volatility of fuel prices, also have significant implications for the Department of Defense’s operating costs, the GAO said. The fully burdened cost of fuel — that is, the total ownership cost of buying, moving and protecting fuel in systems during combat — has been reported to be many times higher than the price of a gallon of fuel itself, according to the report. The Marines in Afghanistan, for example, reportedly run through some 800,000 gallons of fuel a day. That reflects the logistical challenges of running the counterinsurgency operations but also the need for fuel during the extreme weather conditions in Afghanistan — hot summers and freezing winters. With the military boosting the number of the all-terrain-mine resistant ambush-protected vehicles (M-ATVs) in Afghanistan meant to survive roadside bombs, the fuel consumption will likely rise even higher, since those vehicles are considered gas-guzzlers. The Pentagon comptroller’s office did not return requests for comment by press time. The Afghan Death Toll: October 2009 36 October 22, 2009 by Brian Harring October 1, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Ross E. Vogel, III, 27, of Red Lion, Pa., died Sept. 29 in Kut, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 67th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, Fort Gordon, Ga. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Alex French IV, 31, of Milledgeville, Ga., died Sept. 30 in Kwhost, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using an improvised-explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, Lawrenceville, Ga. The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Sept. 29 in Jolo Island, the Philippines, from the detonation of an improvised-explosive device. The soldiers were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Wash. Killed were: Sgt. 1st Class Christopher D. Shaw, 37, of Markham, Ill. Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III, 26, of Bethany, Okla. October 3, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Russell S. Hercules Jr., 22 of Murfreesboro, Tenn., died Oct. 1 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire He was assigned to the 4^th Battalion, 101^st Aviation Regiment, 159^th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101^st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Ryan C. Adams, 26 of Rhinelander, Wisc., died Oct. 2 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle using rocket-propelled grenade fire. He was assigned to the 951st Engineer Company (Sapper), Wisconsin Army National Guard, Rhinelander, Wisc. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Roberto D. Sanchez, 24 of Satellite Beach, Fla., died Oct. 1 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1^st Battalion, 75^th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield Ga. October 4, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 2 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked their unit using small arms fire. Killed were: Sgt. Aaron M. Smith, 25, of Manhattan, Kan. He was assigned to the 2^nd Battalion, 87^th Infantry Regiment, 3^rd Brigade Combat Team, 10^th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. Pfc. Brandon A. Owens, 21, of Memphis, Tenn. He was assigned to the 118^th Military Police Company, 503^rd Military Police Battalion, 16^th Military Police Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C. October 5, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Thomas D. Rabjohn, 39, of Litchfield Park, Ariz., died Oct. 3 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated during an attempt to disarm it. He was assigned to the 363rd Explosive Ordnance Detachment, Coolidge, Ariz. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Paul E. Andersen, 49, of Dowagiac, Mich., died Oct. 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his camp using indirect fire. He was assigned to the 855th Quartermaster Company, South Bend, Ind. October 7, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maj. Tad T. Hervas, 48, of Coon Rapids, Minn., died Oct. 6 at Contingency Operating Base Basra, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 34th Infantry Division, Rosemont, Minn. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. The Department of Defense announced today the death of eight soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 3 in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their contingency outpost with small arms, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect fires. They were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Vernon W. Martin, 25 of Savannah, Ga. Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, 27, of Tucson, Ariz. Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, of Applegate, Calif. Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk, 30, of South Portland, Maine. Sgt. Michael P. Scusa, 22, of Villas, N.J. Spc. Christopher T. Griffin, 24, of Kincheloe, Mich. Spc. Stephan L. Mace, 21, of Lovettsville, Va. Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson, 22, of Reno, Nev. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Kevin O. Hill, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., died Oct. 4 at Contingency Outpost Dehanna, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms and indirect fires. He was assigned to the 576th Mobility Augmentation Company, Fort Carson, Colo. Army Releases September Suicide Data The Army today released suicide data for the month of September. Among active-duty soldiers, there were seven potential suicides. One has been confirmed as a suicide, and six are pending determination of the manner of death. For August, the Army reported 11 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, four have been confirmed as suicides and seven remain under investigation. There were 117 reported active-duty Army suicides from January 2009 through September 2009. Of those, 81 have been confirmed, and 36 are pending determination of manner of death. For the same period in 2008, there were 103 suicides among active-duty soldiers. During September 2009, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were seven potential suicides. Among that same group, from January 2009 through September 2009, there were 35 confirmed suicides. Twenty-five potential suicides are currently under investigation to determine the manner of death. For the same period in 2008, there were 40 suicides among reserve soldiers who were not on active duty. Over the past year, the Army has engaged in a sustained effort to reduce the rate of suicide within its ranks. This effort has included an Army-wide suicide prevention stand-down and chain teach for every soldier; the implementation of the Army Campaign Plan for Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention; the establishment of both a Suicide Prevention Task Force and Suicide Prevention Council; a long-term partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health to carry out the largest ever study of suicide and behavioral health among military personnel; and more than 160 specific improvements to Army suicide prevention policies, doctrine, training and resources. “Whether it’s additional resources, improved training or ensuring those in our Army community can readily identify the warning signs of suicidal behavior, all our efforts often come down to one soldier caring enough about another soldier to step in when they see something wrong, “ said Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, Director, Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. “Soldiers will be willing to do that if they know help is available, if they believe there is no stigma attached to asking for that help, and if they are certain that Army leaders remain absolutely committed to the resiliency of our entire Army Family.” Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact Military OneSource or the Defense Center of Excellence (DCOE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Outreach Center. Trained consultants are available from both organizations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Military OneSource toll-free number for those residing in the continental U.S. is 1-800-342-9647, their Web site address is: http://www.militaryonesource.com. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource Web site for dialing instructions for their specific location. The DCOE Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil . The Army's most current suicide prevention information is located at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/default.asp . October 9. 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, N.M., died Oct. 7 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., of wounds suffered Sept. 8 when insurgents attacked his unit in the Ganjigal Valley, Afghanistan, using small arms and indirect fire. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. October 12, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. George W. Cauley, 24, of Walker, Minn., died Oct. 10 in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device on Oct. 7 in Helmand province. He was assigned to the 114th Truck Company of the Minnesota Army National Guard in Duluth, Minn. October 13, 2009- The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Lance Cpl. Alfonso Ochoa Jr., 20, of Armona, Calif., died Oct. 10 while supporting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Aaron J. Taylor, 27, of Bovey, Minn., died Oct. 9 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Marine Wing Support Squadron 372, Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. October 17, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Christopher M. Rudzinski, 28, of Rantoul, Ill., died Oct. 16 near Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 293rd Military Police Company, 385th Military Police Battalion, 16th Military Police Brigade (Airborne), Fort Stewart, Ga. The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 16 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device. The soldiers were assigned to the 143rd Infantry Detachment, Austin, Texas. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Chris N. Staats, 32, of Fredericksburg, Texas. Spc. Anthony G. Green, 28, of Matthews, N.C. October 19, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 15 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 569th Mobility Augmentation Company, 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Glen H. Stivison, Jr., 34, of Blairsville, Pa.; Spc. Jesus O. Flores, Jr., 28, of La Mirada, Calif.; Spc. Daniel C. Lawson, 33, of Deerfield Beach, Fla.; and Pfc. Brandon M. Styer, 19, of Lancaster, Pa. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pfc. Daniel J. Rivera, 22, of Rochester, N.Y., died Oct. 18 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. October 20, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Michael A. Dahl Jr., 23, of Moreno Valley, Calif., died Oct. 17 in Argahndab, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. October 21, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Lance Cpl. David R. Baker, 22, of Painesville, Ohio, died Oct. 20 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Bradley Espinoza, 26, of Mission, Texas, died Oct. 19 in Qwest, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.