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	<title>U.S. &#187; Nick Schwellenbach &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>U.S. &#187; Nick Schwellenbach &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com</link>
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		<title>Fear of Reprisal: The Quiet Accomplice in the Military&#8217;s Sexual-Assault Epidemic</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2013/05/09/fear-of-reprisal-the-quiet-accomplice-in-the-militarys-sexual-assault-epidemic/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2013/05/09/fear-of-reprisal-the-quiet-accomplice-in-the-militarys-sexual-assault-epidemic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 12:17:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nation.time.com/?p=119649</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An estimated 26,000 people in the U.S. military were victims of sexual assaults in 2012, a substantial increase from an estimated 19,000 in 2010, according to an analysis of a Department of Defense (DoD) survey (sexual assaults are defined broadly from rape to &#8220;unwanted sexual touching&#8221;). In absolute numbers, men suffer from more sexual assaults, the DoD estimates, but that&#8217;s because the uniformed military has far more men; relative to their numbers, women disproportionately are targets of sexual violence. But of those estimated 26,000, there were only 3,374 sexual assault reports last year. A reason for the difference is a lack of reporting by a majority of victims—indeed the DoD survey found that two-thirds of female victims do not report the assaults against them (there was no corresponding data for male victims). The New York Times wrote that it’s possible that “many victims continue not to report the crimes for fear of retribution or a lack of justice under the department’s system for prosecution.” The survey backs up the retribution thesis for at least some of the non-reporting. The survey found that among the one-third of women who reported sexual-assault allegations to a military authority, 62% suffered retaliation for speaking up. Here is how the reprisals they faced broke down: – 3% experienced professional retaliation only. – 31% experienced social retaliation only. – 2% experienced administrative action only. – 26% experienced a combination of professional retaliation, social retaliation, administrative action, and/or punishments. – 38% did not experience any retaliation. Victims are often being further victimized when they say something about the crime that was committed. Reprisal against the victim is the opposite of justice &#8212; the opposite of what should happen when a crime is reported. The case of Marine Private Stephanie B. Schroeder is an example of the combined retaliation the 26% of respondents said they faced. Her rank was reduced, pay decreased, and she faced an administrative discharge &#8212; all on top of being forced to work alongside her attacker for a year after she alleged he raped<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=119649&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Military Justice</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/military-justice/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/163144016.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Women Attend Marine Boot Camp At Parris Island, South Carolina</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">schwell2011</media:title>
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		<title>An Army Ranger Helps Syrian Refugees</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2013/01/08/an-army-ranger-turned-refugee-helper/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2013/01/08/an-army-ranger-turned-refugee-helper/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:05:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nation.time.com/?p=100855</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Peter Kassig is a former U.S. Army Ranger who deployed to Iraq in 2007. I met this 24-year-old Indiana native while taking an entry-level Arabic course in Beirut last year. Since then, Peter has gone on to help Syrian refugees in a Lebanese hospital and recently started his own aid group called Special Emergency Response and Assistance &#8212; SERA. SERA’s main focus right now “is providing Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Syria with medical assistance, medical supplies, and clothing for refugees, and non-perishable food as well as cooking fuel, cooking stoves,” and other supplies, according to its Facebook page. It wants to specialize in bringing in critical supplies to people in particularly dicey circumstances, which is an understatement when used to describe the refugee landscape within Syria. There are estimates that there are over 2.5 million internally displaced persons within the country, and nearly 500,000 who have left. The group recently finished its first week-and-half-long operation inside Syria. With just over $2,000 raised from donations, SERA set out to supply Syrian refugees in the north of the country with blankets. But the group soon realized that was not a pressing need when compared to the increasingly dire food situation. So SERA purchased two cooking stoves, 20 45-kilogram propane fuel tanks, a ton of rice and other food, and loaded it all into a truck its members drove across the border into Syria. They delivered it directly to the people in a Syrian refugee camp, according to Kassig’s debrief on the operation. “We learned first-hand through this process just how difficult it is to get supplies into Syria,” Kassig wrote, expressing frustration with delays. “Innocent lives were lost in the days we were in the area of Qah Refugee camp attempting to deliver aid.” While pledging to improve their effectiveness, Kassig wrote that he was inspired by the people in the camp: “I did not meet a single man woman or child who could not muster a smile and a message of strength and hope that was nothing short of earth-shatteringly<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=100855&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/syria-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/dsc0000053-e1357513448816.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">schwell2011</media:title>
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		<title>Elites Still Bypassing Measures to Combat Money Laundering</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/12/afghan-elites-still-bypassing-measures-to-combat-money-laundering/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/12/afghan-elites-still-bypassing-measures-to-combat-money-laundering/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:56:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nation.time.com/?p=97890</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Machines that count huge stacks of cash and are used to identify money laundering are not being used when &#8220;very important persons&#8221; and &#8220;very very important persons&#8221; leave Afghanistan via Kabul International Airport (KBL), according to a new Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report. In 2011 alone, an estimated $4.5 billion was spirited out of Afghanistan to places like Dubai, where many of the ruling Afghan elite have bank accounts and there is a significant amount of bank secrecy. This massive outflow of cash, much of it provided by the U.S. and other nations, fuels concerns there is quite a bit of money laundering and bulk cash smuggling, &#8220;tools often used to finance terrorist, narcotics, and other illicit operations,&#8221; SIGAR reports. The outflow also means much of the money that should be spent developing post-war Afghanistan, including its security forces, justice system, and infrastructure is instead being pilfered to enrich well-connected bandits. Perhaps this shouldn&#8217;t be much of a surprise: Afghanistan is in a three-way tie with Somalia and North Korea as the most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International&#8217;s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index. Bulk-currency counters are a key means of detecting and preventing money laundering and cash smuggling, especially in a cash-based society where fewer than 5% of Afghans use banks and 90% rely on the more informal hawala system. The counters bought by the Kabul International Airport can count 900 bills a minute, record serial numbers, create databases of cash movements, and are designed to report all this to Afghanistan&#8217;s Central Bank&#8217;s Financial Transactions and Records Analysis Center of Afghanistan (FinTRACA). SIGAR found that &#8220;more than 1 year since our last visit to KBL, the cash counters are still not being used for their intended purpose, and VIPs continue to bypass key controls.&#8221; Even though the machines worked, and Afghan officials were trained to use them, SIGAR never observed any use of the machines, which are being stored in a &#8220;small closet-like area.&#8221; The counters were not connected to Internet, defeating one of their<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=97890&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/12/afghan-elites-still-bypassing-measures-to-combat-money-laundering/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/afghanistan-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/screen-shot-2012-12-11-at-8-56-16-am.png?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">schwell2011</media:title>
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		<title>More Bad News for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter?</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/11/more-bad-news-for-the-joint-strike-fighter/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/11/more-bad-news-for-the-joint-strike-fighter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:03:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nation.time.com/?p=97816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back in March, we broke the news that the Pentagon&#8217;s oversight office was taking a gander at the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, estimated to cost potentially $1.5 trillion to develop, buy and operate over several decades (the Pentagon is so desperate to bring down the estimated cost to operate the plane they&#8217;re even hiring contractors to work on that!). The plane is the future of Air Force, Marine and Navy aviation, who plan to buy close to 2,500 of them: it&#8217;s the lone fighter in the pipeline. The auditors&#8217; report &#8212; on F-35 quality assurance management (essentially how they identify and prevent problems) &#8211; isn&#8217;t out yet, but some of their findings were contained in a one-paragraph summary in a report to Congress that came out this week. Turns out it wasn&#8217;t all rosy: In February 2012, DoD IG initiated the F-35 AS9100 Quality Management System assessment to review conformity to specified quality management system(s), contractual quality clauses, and internal quality processes and procedures for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. As of September 2012, more than 190 findings were identified and four notices of concern sent to the F-35 Program Office. All findings were accepted and will be addressed and implemented to the maximum practicable extent.  While it&#8217;s not good news that problems were found, we don&#8217;t know how serious they are. Whatever the case, it&#8217;s good that the Defense Department inspector general is taking a look at this mammoth and important program.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=97816&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/11/more-bad-news-for-the-joint-strike-fighter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Procurement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/procurement/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sdd_lripa_002.jpeg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">schwell2011</media:title>
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		<title>Mistletoe the Line: Watch Out for Those Contractor (Bah!) Holiday Parties (Humbug!)</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/04/mistletoe-the-line-watch-out-for-those-contractor-bah-holiday-parties-humbug/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/12/04/mistletoe-the-line-watch-out-for-those-contractor-bah-holiday-parties-humbug/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:44:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nation.time.com/?p=96970</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tired of getting those questions about contractors participating in holiday office parties and what kind of gifts can be exchanged between and among employees? If so, you&#8217;re in luck as the Defense Department&#8217;s Standards of Conduct Office has some of the answers for common situations faced by Pentagon employees in its just-released Holiday Guidance memo. Here&#8217;s one scenario: If a contractor employee is having a personal party and invites Government personnel, normally Government personnel must decline, since the food, drink, and entertainment is a gift from a prohibited source. Several exceptions may permit attendance, however. Under the $20 rule, if the average cost per guest does not exceed $20, Government personnel may accept. (However, if the cost per guest is $40, the &#8220;I won&#8217;t eat more than $20 worth of food.&#8221; defense will not work.) [emphasis added] But don&#8217;t be confined by the guidance if your situation doesn&#8217;t mesh with what&#8217;s in the memo. Big Santa&#8217;s holiday missive ends on this cheery note: Have a wonderful holiday season. Please remember that this guidance only highlights common questions, and does not cover every situation. If you are unsure, contact your ethics counselor. Happy Holidays!<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=96970&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Defense Contractors</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/defense-contractors/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/5316252396_3a9a7ac062_b.jpeg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">101225-A-2774H-03</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">schwell2011</media:title>
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		<title>Down in the Weeds with the Pentagon&#8217;s Auditors</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/11/20/down-in-the-weeds-with-the-pentagons-auditors/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/11/20/down-in-the-weeds-with-the-pentagons-auditors/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:50:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nation.time.com/?p=94686</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the floor of the Senate last week, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa continued banging the drum on what he calls weak oversight by the Defense Department Office of Inspector General and the Pentagon’s continuing challenges with achieving private sector-style accounting. “This story is about a difficult audit where the inspector general apparently got a bad case of weak knees and caved under pressure,” Grassley said. “The inspector general dropped the ball on an audit that should be a critical component in Secretary Panetta’s effort to bring the Defense Department into compliance with the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act.” His remarks were little noticed outside of the rarefied circles of Pentagon auditors and accountants. They essentially boiled down to whether or not the inspector general should have formally issued a report saying it didn’t agree with a private-sector auditing firm’s audit of a Pentagon agency’s financial statements (now you understand why it was little-noticed). Annual financial statements are required by the CFO Act of 1990. While a handful of Defense Department agencies have received a thumbs-up (&#8220;unqualified&#8221; or &#8220;clean&#8221; audit opinions) from independent auditors who’ve examined their financial statements, most of the Pentagon and the Defense Department overall cannot produce financial statements that pass muster under current requirements. This is what critics mean when they say the Pentagon doesn&#8217;t know where the money is going. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, or DFAS, has long received clean audit opinions on its financial statements. For instance, in late 2008, DFAS boasted that it &#8220;has received its ninth consecutive unqualified (clean) audit opinion from our independent auditors.” Those independent auditors are at Urbach Kahn &#38; Werlin (UKW) and they have issued those audit opinions for the last decade, according to a Grassley staffer. The cost of those audits alone by UKW clock in at about $1 million per year. But Grassley cast some doubt on this seemingly sterling record, and on the defense secretary’s new initiative to get the entire department in compliance with the CFO Act. “The kingpin of his initiative &#8212; the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=94686&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2012/11/20/down-in-the-weeds-with-the-pentagons-auditors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Military Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/military-spending-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/134366690.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">134366690</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">schwell2011</media:title>
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		<title>Some Egyptians Leery of U.S. Military Money&#8217;s Impact on Their Election</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/06/12/some-egyptians-leery-of-u-s-military-moneys-impact-on-their-election/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/06/12/some-egyptians-leery-of-u-s-military-moneys-impact-on-their-election/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:03:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Defense Contractors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pentagon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Procurement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://battleland.blogs.time.com/?p=76144</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[CAIRO &#8212; Behind the uncertainty swirling around the planned run-off election for Egypt&#8217;s new president lies serious domestic anger among some parts of its population towards Egypt&#8217;s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Widely known as the SCAF, that&#8217;s the military junta that has been running the country since President Hosni Mubarak stepped down last year after thousands of Egyptians protested his three-decade long rule. Throughout Egypt&#8217;s capital, graffiti in public spaces make this clear, ranging from the common &#8220;F*ck SCAF&#8221; to more sophisticated illustrations. During a Friday protest in Cairo&#8217;s Tahrir Square, many protestors told me that the SCAF is one of the reasons why democracy is still struggling to take root here in this nation of over 80 million. Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and one time Egyptian presidential hopeful, took to Twitter to say the interim constitution put in place by the SCAF in March 2011 gives the SCAF the power to &#8220;define the powers of the presidency&#8221; and &#8220;a veto on declaration of war,on army laws &#38; full power on arms deals.&#8221; He said the SCAF &#8220;will become a state within a state.&#8221; He called for a constitution that makes it &#8220;clear that army is part of executive branch &#38; subject to oversight &#38; accountability.&#8221; The Egyptian parliament will attempt to assemble a new group of constitution-writers Tuesday, although liberal Egyptian groups walked out on a constitutional meeting on Sunday. They argue that Islamist groups were attempting to take seats reserved for secular political parties. This walkout could throw a monkey wrench into the drafting of a new constitution, Al Jazeera reported. The previous constitutional committee was dissolved in April after a court said it did not adequately represent Egypt&#8217;s diversity, and was too dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups. The failure of this earlier group to draft a new constitution is the reason why the SCAF&#8217;s provisional constitution is still in place. One young activist I spoke with expressed his view that SCAF&#8217;s desire to maintain the status quo &#8212; and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=76144&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2012/06/12/some-egyptians-leery-of-u-s-military-moneys-impact-on-their-election/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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	<primary_category>Arms sales</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/arms-sales-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/img_19221.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>U.S. Still Grappling with Human Trafficking by War Zone Contractors</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/05/14/u-s-still-grappling-with-human-trafficking-by-war-zone-contractors/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/05/14/u-s-still-grappling-with-human-trafficking-by-war-zone-contractors/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 12:12:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Logistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pentagon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Procurement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troops]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://battleland.blogs.time.com/?p=73820</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Congressional hearings and recently-introduced legislation have put the spotlight on the issue of U.S. taxpayer-funded labor trafficking, and the abuse of third-country nationals overseas by U.S. military contractors. One of the leading associations of U.S. overseas contractors has devoted the latest issue of its journal to the topic of trafficking – a sign that the contractor community is well-acquainted with the topic. “The U.S. Congress’s newfound interest in addressing the problem of labor trafficking is certainly welcome, given that the issue has long plagued U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq,” writes Doug Brooks, president of the International Stability Operations Association, in the May/June issue of its Journal of International Peace Operations. Even as the U.S. military has departed from Iraq and plans are for a drawdown in Afghanistan, U.S.-funded contractors and subcontractors continue to have a presence in these countries and other places in the region, such as Kuwait. With the likelihood that the U.S. will continue to rely heavily on a labor force recruited from South Asia and other regions for work ranging from construction to laundry to food service, the abusive practices that can occur in this globalized labor supply chain are still a concern. Laura Lederer, who was involved in the George W. Bush administration’s anti-trafficking efforts, authors one of the articles in the issue. “DOD has responded quickly and efficiently when human trafficking has been found in DOD labor contracts, taking measures to address particularized problems,&#8221; she writes, &#8220;but to date, DOD’s response has been largely reactive.&#8221; Brooks points some of the blame at the U.S. government. “Some well thought-out laws and regulations already on the books have been under-enforced for years by the governmental entities running the missions,” Brooks says. In late March, one of the Defense Department’s top enforcers testified before a House subcommittee hearing on trafficking and contractors. Retired Ambassador Kenneth P. Moorefield, a deputy inspector general at the Defense Department, explained some of the difficulties in investigating and prosecuting contractor-related trafficking-in-persons, also known as TIP. “There have been systemic obstacles which have hindered<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=73820&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2012/05/14/u-s-still-grappling-with-human-trafficking-by-war-zone-contractors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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	<primary_category>Defense Contractors</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/defense-contractors/</primary_category_link>
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		<title>Update: About That F-35 Audit</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/03/06/update-about-that-f-35-audit/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/03/06/update-about-that-f-35-audit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:17:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Air Force]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Navy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pentagon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://battleland.blogs.time.com/?p=68493</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week, Battleland broke the news that the Pentagon watchdog is chewing over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. We&#8217;ve now got some more details from the Department of Defense Inspector General: I asked why the audit, and why now. The IG spokeswoman told me: &#8220;As part of its oversight mission, the DoD IG frequently reviews programs to ensure that the appropriate processes are in place to achieve a quality product.&#8221; But the JSF program is more important than most. &#8220;The F-35 contract is not only global in scope, but it is one of the largest Acquisition Category 1 programs ever undertaken by the Defense Department. In this project, DoD IG will assess conformity to specified quality management system(s), contractual quality clauses, and internal quality processes and procedures.&#8221; Auditors will be scrutinizing the Pentagon program office&#8217;s oversight of JSF quality assurance as well as digging into the operations of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and at least two other currently-unspecified subcontractors from now until at least the end of August, according to an audit announcement letter linked above.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=68493&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Procurement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/procurement/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/cf-1_flight_test.jpeg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>Surprise! Pentagon Watchdog Checking Out F-35 Program</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/03/02/surprise-pentagon-watchdog-checking-out-f-35-program/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/03/02/surprise-pentagon-watchdog-checking-out-f-35-program/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:13:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nick Schwellenbach</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Air Force]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Battleland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Navy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Procurement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weapons]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://battleland.blogs.time.com/?p=68260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Department of Defense Inspector General&#8217;s March newsletter contains this nugget: Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) Quality Assurance Assessment. The objective of this assessment is to assess the quality management system for the Joint Strike Fighter procured by DoD from Lockheed Martin Corporation. The assessments will be performed on-site at Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE, and various sub-contractor facilities. Specifically, the assessment will focus on conformity to specified quality management system(s), contractual quality clauses, and internal quality processes and procedures. Typically it&#8217;s been my experience that the IG won&#8217;t embark on projects willy-nilly. The latest annual Pentagon test and evaluation report noted high failure rates of some of the parts on the F-35B variant, although many of the fixes to the problems are redesigns, so the problems themselves may not be due to a lack of quality assurance. It&#8217;s possible this assessment is a move by the IG to the engage in preventative oversight of the $380 billion program to help keep it on track, rather than in reaction to something it has discovered. We&#8217;ve tapped the IG&#8217;s staff for more insight into what&#8217;s going on.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nation.time.com&#038;blog=20157722&#038;post=68260&#038;subd=timemilitary&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Weapons</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://nation.time.com/category/weapons-2/</primary_category_link>
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