Become the Media
Abookamongstthemany
Posts: 8,209
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/28/barracks.bragg/index.html
Dad's video of run-down barracks sparks military response
(CNN) -- The U.S. military is promising action to address conditions in a barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a soldier's father posted images on YouTube showing a building that he said "should be condemned."
A soldier battles overflowing sewage in the Fort Bragg barracks shortly after coming home from Afghanistan.
"This is embarrassing. It's disgusting. It makes me mad as hell," Ed Frawley said of the building where his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, had to live upon his return this month from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Frawley said Monday that Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody called him to say he shares Frawley's anger and that "there's no excuse." Cody said he would not want his own sons or any troops to return to such conditions, Frawley said.
Frawley's 10-minute video shows still photos from throughout the building, which appears to be falling apart and filled with mold and rust.
Paint -- which Frawley said is lead-based -- is chipping. Ceiling tiles are missing. A broken drain pipe allows sewer gas into the building, while another one has tissues stuffed into it in an apparent effort to stop the gas from coming in.
Photos from the communal bathroom show some of the most disgusting images. In one, a soldier stands in a sink to avoid what Frawley describes as 3 inches of sewage water that filled the floor when toilets overflowed. Video Watch the run-down conditions that soldiers have been living in »
At times, "sewage water backs up into the sinks in the lower floors of these barracks," Frawley said in his narration. "The soldiers have to tell one another who's taking a shower when they turn the sinks on, or the person taking the shower gets scalded with hot water."
Frawley said the Army promised to have new barracks ready when his son's unit, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, returned.
"The conditions depicted in Mr. Frawley's video are appalling and unacceptable, and we are addressing the concerns he expressed," said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, in a written statement.
"Our paratroopers are our most valuable resource, and our commitment is to their well-being. Our actions now must represent the best we can do for our soldiers."
"Fundamentally, we acknowledge these conditions are not adequate by today's standards," he added. "The images in Mr. Frawley's video are alarming, and our soldiers deserve the best conditions we can provide as an institution."
Officials at the base invited the media into the barracks and acknowledged that there are serious problems.
Earnhardt said the building had been mostly unused during the 15 months Frawley and his unit were away. Fort Bragg has a massive construction project under way to create housing, but it is behind schedule, Earnhardt said.
The buildings used by the 82nd Airborne are about 50 years old, he said.
Earnhardt said the incident with the overflowing toilet took place the first day after the unit's return and has been addressed.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole is among government officials who have responded to the video. In a written statement, she called living conditions in the barracks "unacceptable" and said the situation "must be immediately corrected."
advertisement
Ed Frawley said he is "hoping no one gets fired. I just want to see it get fixed."
"They have the slowest contractors in the world," he said, adding that people in jail live "in better conditions."
Dad's video of run-down barracks sparks military response
(CNN) -- The U.S. military is promising action to address conditions in a barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a soldier's father posted images on YouTube showing a building that he said "should be condemned."
A soldier battles overflowing sewage in the Fort Bragg barracks shortly after coming home from Afghanistan.
"This is embarrassing. It's disgusting. It makes me mad as hell," Ed Frawley said of the building where his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, had to live upon his return this month from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Frawley said Monday that Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody called him to say he shares Frawley's anger and that "there's no excuse." Cody said he would not want his own sons or any troops to return to such conditions, Frawley said.
Frawley's 10-minute video shows still photos from throughout the building, which appears to be falling apart and filled with mold and rust.
Paint -- which Frawley said is lead-based -- is chipping. Ceiling tiles are missing. A broken drain pipe allows sewer gas into the building, while another one has tissues stuffed into it in an apparent effort to stop the gas from coming in.
Photos from the communal bathroom show some of the most disgusting images. In one, a soldier stands in a sink to avoid what Frawley describes as 3 inches of sewage water that filled the floor when toilets overflowed. Video Watch the run-down conditions that soldiers have been living in »
At times, "sewage water backs up into the sinks in the lower floors of these barracks," Frawley said in his narration. "The soldiers have to tell one another who's taking a shower when they turn the sinks on, or the person taking the shower gets scalded with hot water."
Frawley said the Army promised to have new barracks ready when his son's unit, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, returned.
"The conditions depicted in Mr. Frawley's video are appalling and unacceptable, and we are addressing the concerns he expressed," said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, in a written statement.
"Our paratroopers are our most valuable resource, and our commitment is to their well-being. Our actions now must represent the best we can do for our soldiers."
"Fundamentally, we acknowledge these conditions are not adequate by today's standards," he added. "The images in Mr. Frawley's video are alarming, and our soldiers deserve the best conditions we can provide as an institution."
Officials at the base invited the media into the barracks and acknowledged that there are serious problems.
Earnhardt said the building had been mostly unused during the 15 months Frawley and his unit were away. Fort Bragg has a massive construction project under way to create housing, but it is behind schedule, Earnhardt said.
The buildings used by the 82nd Airborne are about 50 years old, he said.
Earnhardt said the incident with the overflowing toilet took place the first day after the unit's return and has been addressed.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole is among government officials who have responded to the video. In a written statement, she called living conditions in the barracks "unacceptable" and said the situation "must be immediately corrected."
advertisement
Ed Frawley said he is "hoping no one gets fired. I just want to see it get fixed."
"They have the slowest contractors in the world," he said, adding that people in jail live "in better conditions."
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Hail, Hail!!!
No shit (pun intended). I don't know how anyone can claim that Bush or either Dems or Reps support our troops. This is just one more fucked up example of the government not supporting our troops. The best way to support our troops is to get them/keep them out of harms way, and then provide them with human standards of living. Jesus.
Seems like a pretty simple concept, right? "I Support Our Troops" does not mean having them live in moldy barracks. Where are those BILLIONS of dollars that get appropriated to the 'War On Terror' going?
My guess... towards the trainning of future terrorists (a.k.a. Iraqi Security Forces) by U.S. personel who are force to trudged through raw sewage between their bunk and the Mess Hall in North Carolina.
...
And let me add the pre-emptive idiot/moron/asshole response.... "No one put a forced them to enlist".
Hail, Hail!!!
what day was it where those conditions would be adequate???
i know, they can build a super wal-mart, condos/apartments and other places in no time!
it's disgusting, you keep thinking it can't possibly get any worse, there's no way we could shit on our vets any more than we already do....cutting their hazardous duty, family separation allowance, cut their health care, especially for reservists...shortly before going to war, not giving them adequate protection when they were sent and left in a war/occupation/violent baby sitting gig, feeding them spoiled meat while they are in iraq or afghanistan, dirty, contaminated water....and then give these companies it fucking bonuses????? walter reid....when the fuck does it end?
i bet the ppl in guantanamo live in better conditions
ppl say a vote against funding the occupation would be 'throwing the troops under the bus'???? they've already been thrown even w/ all the fucking money that's been siphoned into it...that bus has been dragging them for a while now
from almost a year ago:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/13/3138/
How much money is being spent just on mercenaries remains largely classified. Congressional sources estimate the United States has spent at least $6 billion in Iraq, while Britain has spent some $400 million. At the same time, companies chosen by the White House for rebuilding projects in Iraq have spent huge sums in reconstruction funds - possibly billions on more mercenaries to guard their personnel and projects.
The single largest U.S. contract for private security in Iraq was a $293 million payment to the British firm Aegis Defence Services, headed by retired British Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, who has been dogged by accusations that he is a mercenary because of his private involvement in African conflicts. The Texas-based DynCorp International has been another big winner, with more than $1 billion in contracts to provide personnel to train Iraqi police forces, while Blackwater USA has won $750 million in State Department contracts alone for “diplomatic security.”
At present, an American or a British Special Forces veteran working for a private security company in Iraq can make $650 a day. At times the rate has reached $1,000 a day; the pay dwarfs many times over that of active duty troops operating in the war zone wearing a U.S. or U.K. flag on their shoulder instead of a corporate logo.
*** how do they have so much money to pay private security but so little for our military????***
....These services are provided through companies like KBR and Fluor and through their vast labyrinth of subcontractors. But many other private personnel are also engaged in armed combat and “security” operations. They interrogate prisoners, gather intelligence, operate rendition flights, protect senior occupation officials and, in at least one case, have commanded U.S. and international troops in battle.
In a revealing admission, Gen. David Petraeus, who is overseeing Bush’s troop “surge,” said earlier this year that he has, at times, been guarded in Iraq by “contract security.” At least three U.S. commanding generals, not including Petraeus, are currently being guarded in Iraq by hired guns. “To have half of your army be contractors, I don’t know that there’s a precedent for that,” says Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating war contractors.
.....While Iraq currently dominates the headlines, private war and intelligence companies are expanding their already sizable footprint. The U.S. government in particular is now in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. According to a recent report in Vanity Fair, the government pays contractors as much as the combined taxes paid by everyone in the United States with incomes under $100,000, meaning “more than 90 percent of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to [contractors] rather than to the [government].”
Some of this outsourcing is happening in sensitive sectors, including the intelligence community. “This is the magnet now. Everything is being attracted to these private companies in terms of individuals and expertise and functions that were normally done by the intelligence community,” says former CIA division chief and senior analyst Melvin Goodman. “My major concern is the lack of accountability, the lack of responsibility. The entire industry is essentially out of control. It’s outrageous.”
RJ Hillhouse, a blogger who investigates the clandestine world of private contractors and U.S. intelligence, recently obtained documents from the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) showing that Washington spends some $42 billion annually on private intelligence contractors, up from $17.54 billion in 2000. Currently that spending represents 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget going to private companies.
Perhaps it is no surprise then that the current head of the DNI is Mike McConnell, the former chair of the board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the private intelligence industry’s lobbying arm. Hillhouse also revealed that one of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence documents, the Presidential Daily Briefing, is prepared in part by private companies, despite having the official seal of the U.S. intelligence apparatus.
....Empowered by their new found prominence, mercenary forces are increasing their presence on other battlefields: in Latin America, DynCorp International is operating in Colombia, Bolivia and other countries under the guise of the “war on drugs” - U.S. defense contractors are receiving nearly half the $630 million in U.S. military aid for Colombia; in Africa, mercenaries are deploying in Somalia, Congo and Sudan and increasingly have their sights set on tapping into the hefty U.N. peacekeeping budget (this has been true since at least the early 1990s and probably much earlier). Heavily armed mercenaries were deployed to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while proposals are being considered to privatize the U.S. border patrol.
and from a month earlier
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060407J.shtml
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) of the House Intelligence Committee estimates that 40 cents of every dollar spent on the occupation has gone to war contractors.
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way