-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: April 23, 2007 8:32:01 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: OVER HALF of "Emergency Funding for Troops" Is PORK for
Neocons' "World War III"
The Congressional Research Service report says that over half
the items the Bush Administration included in its emergency
supplemental request "appear to be based on the costs of an
expanded war -- the 'longer war on terror.'
"No definition is given for the 'longer war on terror,' the
report says.
"Many of the ['emergency'] items proposed do not appear to be
truly urgent needs, strictly tied to operations [in Iraq and
Afghanistan], and are not likely to be executed within the fiscal
year."
Government Report Slams
"Emergency" War Funding Request
By Jason Leopold
Monday 23 April 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042307A.shtml
Nearly half of the $94 billion in emergency funding President
Bush says Congress needs to immediately make available to continue
to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would actually be used
to finance non-urgent items related to the so-called "longer war on
terror." The revelation once again casts further doubt on the
president's assertion that the Army will run out of funding this
month for US troops fighting in those regions, according to a
report issued by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress.
The president and officials at the Department of Defense appear
to be using a bulk of the emergency spending request sent to
Congress more than two months ago to pay for items unrelated to the
Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And moreover, using the emergency budget
request to escape Congressional scrutiny to finance measures deemed
controversial, according to the report, "Fiscal Year 2007
Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Other
Purposes," released earlier this month by the Congressional
Research Service.
"When the president submits an emergency supplemental request,
the authorizing committees are bypassed," said Ryan Alexander,
president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan federal
budget watchdog group. "The request goes directly to the
appropriations committees, and they are pressured by the need to
act quickly so that troops in the field do not run out of funds.
The result is a spending bill that passes Congress with perfunctory
review."
"Since 9/11, Congress has passed at least one emergency bill to
cover war costs, making supplemental spending the method of choice
for the majority of funding for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan,
and the war on terror," Alexander added. "Of the $510 billion spent
thus far, $331.8 billion (about 65 percent) has come from
supplemental spending legislation. If the so-called "bridge fund"
included in the fiscal year 2007 appropriations bill is included,
the total rises to $401.8 billion. That means nearly 80 percent of
all funding for these wars was the result of emergency and
supplemental spending, not regular budgetary means."
The total funds requested by the Defense Department for
emergency spending is $163.4 billion, including $70 billion already
provided as part of DOD's regular fiscal year appropriations plus a
new supplemental request of $93.4 billion.
"If enacted, DOD's funding would increase by 40 percent above
the previous year and would more than double from the FY2004
funding level," the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says.
A large portion of the emergency funding, according to the
report, would be used by the administration to pay for non-urgent
matters unrelated to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, calling into
question whether the supplemental request represents a true emergency.
According to a copy of the supplemental bill, $695 million in
emergency funding would be used to send an additional aircraft
carrier and Marine Expeditionary Force to the Persian Gulf, which
many critics interpret as sending a hostile message to Iran.
Furthermore, the Bush administration intends to use $10 million of
the supplemental to help the State Department finance the US-
established Alhurra Television (the free one) into 22 Middle
Eastern countries. The channel, which broadcasts a wide variety of
programs in Arabic from a studio in Springfield, Virginia, is seen
as a propaganda tool whose messages are controlled by the Bush
administration, according to a report in the Columbia Journalism
Review.
The report added that "the request asks for additional
authority for DOD to help Iraq restart factories that could be
controversial." However, when asked to elaborate, CRS could not
provide further details and Congressional representatives did not
return calls for comment.
The Congressional Research Service report says the non-urgent
items the administration included in its emergency supplemental
request and is asking Congress to pay for "appears to be based on a
new and expanded definition of war costs that permits the services
to fund not only operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the
'longer war on terror.'"
"There is no specific definition of the 'longer war on terror,'
now one of the core missions of the Department of Defense," the
report says. "This new guidance may be the primary reason for the
40 percent increase over [fiscal year] 2006 funding that DOD is
proposing for [fiscal year] 2007. The new definition constitutes a
significant shift from long-standing DOD financial regulations that
require that costs be necessary to carry out specific operations."
The Congressional Research Service report recommended that
Congress scrutinize the administration's funding requests, or
perhaps remove language from the proposed legislation entirely,
that goes above and beyond money needed to keep additional troops
on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Congress may want to consider whether this expanded definition
is appropriate for an emergency supplemental request intended to
meet urgent needs," the report added. "Many of the items proposed
in the [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental request may not appear to be
truly urgent needs, strictly tied to [Operation Iraqi Freedom] and
[Operation Enduring Freedom] operations, or likely to be executed
within the fiscal year."
Finally, the Defense Department has also included a request for
$500 million to expand its inventory of spare and repair parts, a
"reflection of DOD's decision to expand the scope of costs
permitted in supplemental requests to include costs of the 'longer
war on terror' and not just emergency war costs."
This week, the Democratic-controlled Congress intends to hammer
out the final details of the emergency legislation, HR 1591, and
send it to President Bush who said he would veto it because it
includes specific benchmarks for withdrawing troops from Iraq as
well as earmarks for agriculture and other issues some members of
Congress inserted into the legislation. However, even after the
bill was amended by both Houses late last month, the funding for
the administration's policies for the "longer war on terror" was
still left in place.
The report says that despite the rhetoric disseminated by Bush
and other White House officials about funds drying up this month,
the Pentagon has enough money to continue to fund the war until
June or July, while Congress and President Bush try and come to an
agreement about legislation lawmakers passed last month in which
money to fund the Iraq war going forward is contingent upon a clear-
cut exit date from the region. Bush has said he will veto the
measure, and has stated publicly that additional funding for the
war has now reached the point of urgency, a claim Congressional
researchers say is untrue.
"The Army is currently claiming that the supplemental needs to
be enacted by the end of April to avoid such problems. In this
year's bridge fund, however, Congress provided $28.4 billion to
meet the Army's operational needs, some $7 billion higher than last
year's bridge fund. The additional funds could reduce the pressure
to pass the supplemental quickly. Using DOD data, CRS estimates
that the Army could cover its operational costs until June or July
2007 by using war funds in the bridge, temporarily transferring
procurement funds to operations, and tapping monies in its baseline
budget that would not be needed until the end of the year," the
report says.
Jason Leopold is a former Los Angeles bureau chief for Dow
Jones Newswire. He has written over 2,000 stories on the California
energy crisis and received the Dow Jones Journalist of the Year
Award in 2001 for his coverage on the issue as well as a Project
Censored award in 2004. Leopold also reported extensively on
Enron's downfall and was the first journalist to land an interview
with former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling following Enron's
bankruptcy filing in December 2001. Leopold has appeared on CNBC
and National Public Radio as an expert on energy policy and has
also been the keynote speaker at more than two dozen energy
industry conferences around the country.
See what's free at AOL.com.
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
