Nikki Haley Rips Defense Department Amid Tommy Tuberville Blockade: It 'Started This'

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim at the Defense Department for beginning a policy at the center of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on 300-plus military promotions in the Senate. (Check out Haley’s remarks in the video below.)

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, the former South Carolina governor said the department “never should have done” the policy that reimburses service members who travel to get an abortion in another state, which is what Tuberville is protesting with his holds.

National Defence gave minister more info on public opinion research than on ISIS operation, NATO

A new Liberal defence minister will inherit a self-conscious department that seems more than a little concerned about how it's perceved by the public.

 When Jason Kenney took over as national defence minister in February 2015, he was briefed with a thicker stack of papers about public opinion and media operations than about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Operation Reassurance and Operation Impact combined.

Embassy obtained the transition books for Mr. Kenney through an access to information request. Similar documents may be provided to a new minister when prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau names his Cabinet Nov. 4.

New Defense Department Manual Allows Journalists To Be Held As 'Unprivileged Belligerents'

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Defense Department guidelines allow commanders to punish journalists and treat them as "unprivileged belligerents" if they believe journalists are sympathizing or cooperating with the enemy.

The Law of War manual, updated to apply for the first time to all branches of the military, contains a vaguely worded provision that military commanders could interpret broadly, experts in military law and journalism say. Commanders could ask journalists to leave military bases or detain journalists for any number of perceived offenses.

House Directs Pentagon To Ignore Climate Change

WASHINGTON -- The House passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill on Thursday that would bar the Department of Defense from using funds to assess climate change and its implications for national security.

The amendment, from Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), passed in what was nearly a party-line vote. Four Democrats voted for the amendment, and three Republicans voted against it. The bill aims to block the DOD from taking any significant action related to climate change or its potential consequences. It reads:

No bugs found in former Nortel building, Defence officials now say

OTTAWA — The Conservative government says Defence officials have assured it that no listening devices have been found at the former Nortel campus, contradicting previous security concerns raised by both former Nortel and government intelligence employees.

Former Nortel employees have contacted the Citizen to say that the listening devices were found when Department of National Defence officials did their initial security sweeps of the facility, purchased for DND’s new home.

The sad story of Canada’s unmanageable military

Last year, as the F-35 fighter procurement process began to fall apart, troubling questions emerged concerning how good a job the military was doing keeping its civilian masters in-the-know.  Now, a new report has raised that troubling question again. Our civilian leaders can’t run the military if they don’t understand what’s going on inside it. And there’s reason to question whether they do.

Our military is impressive, but small. Most Canadians will never serve in it, will have no relatives in the military and will have no close friends in uniform. The military remains a vital part of Canadian society in some parts of the country (near bases, mainly). But most of us don’t know much about it, and that includes politicians.

Pentagon bans Towleroad, AMERICAblog sites for being “LGBT.” Coulter, Limbaugh ok.

It’s bad enough the United States Department of Defense censors Towleroad and AMERICAblog – banning the gay civil rights Web sites from being accessed on DOD computers – and it’s even worse that the Pentagon has no problem permitting their computers to access Ann Coulter’s and Rush Limbaugh’s hate-filled Web sites.

Defence Department Workers to Protest In Peter MacKay’s Riding

The Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) has been conducting an ad campaign across the country to raise awareness about the layoffs of DND civilian workers.

Union officials are now turning their attention to Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s region and will be hosting a press conference in Halifax on Friday, at 2:30 p.m. to outline their activities there.

“The event is an opportunity for the public to learn about significant cuts to civilian defence workers at military installations across the country and the impact on the communities like Halifax,” UNDE said in a statement.

Canadian War Department drones on with summer splurge

With student activists away for summer vacation, it was the perfect occasion in late July for Carleton University to celebrate a new $40-million war-training contract. In partnership with war manufacturer CAE, Carleton's Visualization and Simulation Centre will enable Canadian Forces to better practice, in the coarse but memorable phrase of former Canadian warlord Rick Hillier, the fine art of killing people.

In a moment that would have done Orwell proud, Carleton President Roseann O'Reilly Runte gushed: "This is about saving lives. This is about saving money." On hand for the announcement was Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who boasted this war-training partnership will advance "Canada's security interests and...Canadian values around the world."

Department of Defence looking for contractor to fix fire safety problems ahead of release of audit

The Defence Department has failed to deal with problems affecting its fire protection systems in facilities across the country and is now scrambling to hire a company to handle the issue before an auditor general’s report on its poor performance becomes public, according to a leaked DND email.

DND is worried the auditor’s findings will cause embarrassment since the department has known about the problems with fire protection equipment and systems for the last three years, according to the document.

Defence Department keeping tabs on opposition critics

It seems National Defence has been keeping close tabs on what NDP and Liberal critics are saying about Afghan detainees, the F-35 and other issues of concern to the department.

In the aftermath of the May 2011 federal election, Defence Department officials drew up profiles of each of the Liberal and NDP critics “of interest to National Defence.”

What the Cabinet shuffle really means

Prime Minister Harper’s cabinet shuffle last week was trivial and disappointing. That’s the conventional view. In fact, it was significant and tells us a lot about the Prime Minister’s thinking.

A week ago no one would have suggested that Julian Fantino would be promoted from his position of Associate Minister of National Defence. He was considered to be largely incompetent on his key file – defending the government’s corner on their highly controversial decision to acquire F-35 fighter aircraft.

In fact, Fantino did about as well as anyone could have with the cards he was dealt. The real mistake was putting Fantino, the most inexperienced politician in the Conservative caucus, in charge of cleaning up the F-35 mess, the most acute political headache for the Harper government. It was akin to sending someone who had never played poker into a Las Vegas casino with a bag of money, a smile on his face and a sucker sign on his back.

Defence budget is 'solid,' MacKay says

Defence Minister Peter MacKay was suffering from a bout of double pneumonia last Thursday when Canada's military budget was chopped by more than one billion dollars by the Harper government.

But with the help of a third round of antibiotics, the defence minister sounded unexpectedly cheerful and upbeat when reached by telephone before visiting Halifax's Irving Shipyard, where some new warships for the Royal Canadian Navy are to be built.

Some have looked at the defence cuts as a case of the glass being half-empty and a sign that the Harper government was backing away from its fairly robust stance on security and defence spending. MacKay's perspective was that the glass was half-full and would rise again.

"The budget at National Defence is solid and I expect it will continue to grow year-byyear," after the cuts, the minister said, explaining that an annual escalator clause of two per cent, written into the Canada First Defence Strategy of 2008, remained in place. Although the overall defence budget was being cut by about 5.5 per cent, "Why that clause is important is that it sees our budget rise in the coming years," he said. "It is still in effect, absolutely ... I believe defence is on very solid footing."

No core capabilities of the armed forces had been cut as result of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's austerity budget, MacKay said, adding that "it is on the civilian side of the shop where this is going to be felt, first and foremost."

Grits seek to lift veil on investigation

The Liberals are pressing the Commons government operations committee to publicly investigate allegations of shoddy construction work and contracting practices at Defence Construction Canada.

Liberal MP John McCallum proposed a motion for the probe at a public meeting of the committee Monday, but said he's braced for any debate on the motion to be done behind closed doors and opposed by the Conservatives.

A report recently given to the defence committee by the Union of National Defence Employees suggests taxpayers are paying for shoddy work at Defence Department buildings and are being overcharged by private contractors for services in military installations across the country. The work is being handled by Defence Construction, a Crown corporation that's part of the Public Works and Government Services portfolio.

With a majority, the Conservatives have been able to force issues that used to be discussed at public meetings to behind closed doors.

"The allegations are serious and certainly we think merits investigations," said McCallum.

Tough times call for stress balls; Defence Dept. orders 20,000 squeezable toys

OTTAWA - These are stressful times at National Defence.

Belt-tightening. Uncertainty. Maybe even pink slips.

Throw in a Cold War-style spy saga, and it's enough to push even the most unflappable worker to the breaking point.

So what does top brass do to keep its staff sane?

Order 20,000 stress balls. Orange ones.

The department needs the squeezable rubber stress-relievers on the double. The deadline for the order is the end of March — just in time for the start of the new fiscal year.

The next Conservative budget is expected to cut deep. Departments and agencies have been ordered to trim their budgets by five to 10 per cent in the hope of saving the government $4 billion annually by 2014.

It's enough to make any bureaucrat sweat.

A notice posted on a website that advertises government contracts doesn't say why National Defence needs so many stress balls, or why they have to be orange. It only says the balls are a "promotional item."

The contract will go to the lowest bidder from a list of pre-qualified companies.

The department didn't immediately answer questions about the order.

The small rubber balls are popular giveaways at trade shows. They're also an essential part of any cubicle inhabited by a repetitive-stress-injury-fearing office worker.

It wouldn't be the first time the department has passed out the malleable toys to its staff.

In October 2010, on International Conflict Resolution Day, soldiers at 8 Wing Trenton were encouraged to stop by a kiosk on the base to "pick up a stress ball, and partake of the cake that will commemorate this auspicious day," according to a military newsletter.

This week has certainly been a stressful one over at National Defence.

One of its naval officers is accused of passing secrets.

Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle is now in custody after being charged with communicating information to a "foreign entity."

The government has so far refused to confirm or deny reports that the foreign power Delisle is accused of sharing information with could be Russia.

Original Article
Source: Winnipeg Free Press 
Author: Steve Rennie 

Political players calling the tune on DND's move

On Oct. 19, 2010, the Department of Public Works and Government Services planned to hold an event at the old Nortel campus on Carling Avenue to announce that the federal government had agreed to buy the sprawling collection of office buildings and move 10,000 Department of National Defence workers out of downtown.

A set of talking points prepared for the event said: "Consolidating the majority of its NCR (National Capital Region) operations onto the Campus will reduce operational and accommodation costs, strengthen departmental security, and enable the DND/CF to work more efficiently and effectively."

This is likely all true. The government of Canada got a good deal here, picking up 400 acres of land, 12 big buildings containing more than two million square feet of office space for $208 million. It should be cheaper to consolidate DND operations there, moving workers from 48 different locations around the city.

DND thought it had a good news story.

At 5: 50 p.m. on Oct. 18, though, a Public Works official sent out an email to 10 officials: "We have just been advised by our Minister's office that the announcement has been cancelled and will not go forward tomorrow morning as planned."

Defence officials hid cost of Nortel campus renos

Senior Defence Department officials kept the multimillion-dollar price tag for renovating the Nortel campus under wraps, worried the public, media and parliamentarians might raise concerns about the bill if they found out about the cost.

Last week, the Citizen reported DND will spend more than $600 million on preparing the Nortel site to be its main location in Ottawa. That is on top of the $208 million the government spent to purchase the Carling Avenue campus.

In an email statement, DND officials claimed they did not know the cost of refitting the Nortel location.

But documents obtained by the Citizen show DND not only knew about the cost a year ago, but senior officials ordered references to it removed from public statements and documents.

Some officers say such tactics are just the tip of the iceberg of DND efforts to keep information from the public. They point to recent examples, including the decision not to inform Parliament about plans to spend $477 million on a U.S. military satellite.

While it is common for ministers to keep close tabs on information being released to the public, media and Parliament, officers say efforts by the Conservative government and Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office have reached new levels of control. The main effort is to reduce the “risk” to the minister of questions being raised in the Commons or embarrassing articles in the media, they say.

DND to spend $630 million preparing Nortel campus

OTTAWA — The Defence Department plans to spend more than $630 million preparing the Nortel campus as the new home for 10,000 of its employees, according to documents obtained by The Citizen.

That cost is on top of the $208 million the federal government paid to buy the campus at 3500 Carling Ave.

The Defence Department is looking at moving into the site over the next five to seven years, transferring around 10,000 civilian and military personnel located at other offices in Ottawa and Gatineau to the new site.

The costs to prepare the site involve everything from creating new offices to installing secure computer networks. A new operational command building will also be located at the site. The Nortel complex has 12 buildings.

Defense on the Chopping Block

In the disgusting spectacle of the talks between President Obama and the Republicans on cutting spending, there’s one bright spot: the Department of Defense is facing serious cuts.

If one were serious about reducing the deficit without either slashing entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security or raising taxes one penny, here’s a simple solution: cut Pentagon spending by one-third, and voilà! There’s $2 trillion in deficit reduction right there. (By contrast, the protracted and ugly talks between the White House and Congress are projected to reduce the deficit by somewhere between $2.5 trillion and $4 trillion, depending on whose plan you look at.)

Of course, no one is seriously considering slashing the DOD budget by a third. But serious cuts are likely, as much as $900 billion, or about 15 percent of the projected $6 trillion in military spending over the next decade. And it’s got hawks and neoconservatives up in arms.

Reality Check: Budget Cuts Inevitable at the Department of Defense

There’s an inevitability to the coming decline of US power and influence worldwide, as the American economy shrinks relative to the economic power of other countries, as America’s allies in places like Egypt strike out on their own, and as the size of the US military declines because the United States can no longer afford to spend upwards of $700 billion on defense.

Still, there are those who believe that the United States must maintain, and even increase its spending at the Pentagon, even as more and more Republicans are prepared to throw the military under the bus to save money. Take, for instance, Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post, who pens an op-ed in today’s paper titled: “What’s happened to America’s leadership role?” Hiatt, a reliable hawk who’s helped steer the Post into indefensibly pro-defense positions, including support for the wars in Afghanistan and Libya, accuses President Obama of surrendering the US leadership role by refusing to take the lead in battling Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and by backing a modest drawdown in Afghanistan:

“Obama has said it is a strategic imperative to fight the Taliban to a standstill and train an Afghan army that can keep the nation at peace. But then how can it make sense to set a withdrawal schedule irrespective of whether those goals are achieved? The message, again, is that domestic considerations take precedence over global responsibilities.”

More worryingly, Hiatt attacks Obama for his semi-isolationist comment, during his Afghan policy address last week, in which Obama declared: “America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.” If only that were true: if only the president was really committed to an industrial policy at home, enhancing America’s competitiveness by investing massively in education, job training, R&D, infrastructure and so on. But to my mind, getting our troops out of Afghanistan, albeit at a turtle’s pace, is better than nothing. But it’s too much for Hiatt. The Post editor goes on to berate the Republicans for being willing, too, like Obama, to cut military spending. And Hiatt criticizes Obama on the same score:

“At home [Obama] pocketed $400 billion in budget cuts offered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and then demanded $400 billion more over 10 years. Those cuts may be achievable without harming U.S. leadership, but Obama doesn’t know that to be true. By setting the fiscal target, and having the Pentagon adjust strategy accordingly, he sends a message that deficit reduction matters most.”

On page 1, interestingly enough, the Post reports that in the current (now stalled) budget talks, the GOP is ready to slash spending at the DOD, though by how much isn’t clear. But the article’s lede reads:

 “As President Obama prepares to meet Monday with Senate leaders to try to restart talks about the swollen national debt, some Republicans see a potential path to compromise: significant cuts in military spending.”

Hiatt claims that the rest of the world is eternally grateful to the United States for making the world safe, including its ability to use its military power to maintain “open and safe sea lanes,” although China and other countries dependent on the Middle East for energy might not agree. Indeed, in an accompanying unsigned editorial that sounds very much like it, too, was written by Hiatt, the Post urges Obama to get tough with China over Beijing’s claim to sovereignty in the South China Sea—the very same “sea lanes” that Hiatt says the world is so happy about having the United States exercise its military dominance! Says the imperial-sounding editorial:

“[China’s] menacing language makes clear why the United States needs to exert its influence. Up to one-third of global trade passes through the South China Sea, so preserving freedom of navigation is a  ‘national interest,’ as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton put it last year. As important is checking China’s impulse to bully its neighbors, including not only friendly but weak democracies such as the Philippines but also Japan, which has its own maritime disputes with Beijing.

“The Obama administration has made gestures in this direction. In addition to Ms. Clinton’s statement—which she repeated last week—Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged recently that ‘five years from now the United States’ influence’ in Asia will be ‘as strong if not stronger than it is today.’ After meeting with Mr. del Rosario, Ms. Clinton said the United States was committed to the defense of the Philippines and to providing it with weapons, though she would not comment on the U.S. response to a potential attack by China in the South China Sea.”

I have news for the Post, and for ex–Secretary of Defense Gates. Five years from now, US influence in Asia will far less than it is today. Not only that, but China and Vietnam are quietly negotiating a deal over who owns what in the South China Sea, without needing to call in the United States.

Origin
Source: The Nation