Sorry. I think the issue is that the American people may want the heads of the pond scum involved in this filthy business on a platter. I have a son who served in the Gulf AND Bosnia, and I'm really angry .I'm with the earlier poster: we need to define treason in this millenium.

Fair use etc http://www.capitolhillblue.com/a/ap.washington/20000228/38bb14ba.287a.2/index.html

Pentagon Backs Use of Chemical Suits Feb 28, 2000 7:37 PM By JOHN M. DONNELLY WASHINGTON (AP) - A top Pentagon official on Monday defended the military's decision to give U.S. forces in Bosnia potentially defective suits designed to protect soldiers from chemical or biological weapons. ``At no time did we ever put our military forces in jeopardy,'' Army Lt. Gen. Tom Glisson said. ``I'm confident the testing we did and the ones we issued were good.'' At a hastily arranged news conference responding to an Associated Press report about the defective suits, Glisson said 120,000 were issued for use in Bosnia but he did not know how many were actually used. Members of Congress demanded more information about the defective suits and why the Pentagon waited five years after discovering the defects to take them out of use. A new Pentagon inspector general report criticizes the Defense Logistics Agency for not acting swiftly enough to take the suits out of the inventory after criminal investigators had begun to look into allegations the company was intentionally producing poor-quality merchandise and even after testing had confirmed ``major'' problems in the very lot of suits that was sent to Bosnia. This month the military told its installations worldwide not to use any of the suits except for training. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the House Armed Services research and development subcommittee, said he would ask the Pentagon for a briefing on the matter and if not satisfied with the responses would demand hearings. ``It's not just the cost involved,'' Weldon said. ``But the potential impact to men and women in uniform is impossible to calculate .... There should be some type of punitive action taken.'' The suits cost $49 million for 778,000, not all of which were defective. Because of the criminal investigation, in 1994, the Pentagon froze the issuance of 173,000 suits made under a 1992 contract with New York City-based Istratex, Inc., Glisson said. The quality of 607,000 suits made under a 1989 contract was never questioned, Glisson said, although he acknowledged that those suits did not undergo the same scrutiny by criminal investigators. The inspector general's report said the defects included holes, tears and stitching irregularities. Though Glisson called the problems ``cosmetic,'' an Army guidance document for chemical warfare soldiers says: ``The BDO (battle dress overgarment) becomes unserviceable if it is ripped, torn, fastener broken or missing'' or other problems occur. ``The holes in these protective suits show the holes in the Pentagon's procurement process,'' said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. ``It's alarming that it took two inspector generals' reports and five years for the Pentagon to finally stop use of these dangerous suits.'' Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., said, ``This latest disclosure of mismanagement at the Department of Defense is outrageous. Unlike other instances whrere reports have shown that DoD simply loses major inventory items, this mistake actually threatens lives of American soldiers. I expect someone to be held accountable for this situation, which puts our soldiers at risk of harm and evidently wastes millions of taxpayer dollars.'' The U.S. military issued for use in Bosnia 120,000 chemical-protective suits from the lot at issue, though the Pentagon knew the company that made the garments was under criminal investigation since 1994 for ``discrepancies'' in the manufacture of cold-weather parkas for the military, Glisson said. In 1999, company officials were indicted on fraud charges in connection with the chemical protective suits. Last fall, several top executives pleaded guilty to lesser charges. The logistics agency, which manages Pentagon inventories, satisfied itself in 1996 through its own testing that the chemical suits - charcoal-lined camouflage pants and jackets - made by Istratex were functional for use in Bosnia, Glisson said. Those tests turned up ``cosmetic'' flaws, Glisson said. Criminal investigators said they actually were major. According to military regulations ``major'' problems are serious but not grave enough to trigger pulling the items from the shelves. Defense criminal investigators have said they told the logistics agency as early as 1995 about concerns that the company was producing low- quality chemical gear. It was not until three years later that the Pentagon conducted a followup study by the suits' Army designers - requested by the investigators - that revealed ``critical'' problems that had not been previously discovered. The tests found critical flaws in seven suits out of 500, he said, enough for the military to send out a worldwide warning this month. In the Bosnia crisis, Glisson said, the military had a dire need for the suits. ``I don't know how many of the 120,000 are still out there,'' he said of the suits issued for Bosnia. The agency has 334,000 in a stateside depot. The military has 4 million suits of this sort available, so the loss of the Istratex number from the active inventory will not have an effect on the readiness of forces to fight in a chemical or biological environment, Glisson said.

-- charlie (cml@workmail.com), February 28, 2000

Answers

This is disgusting and criminal! Hope somebody gets hung for this one!

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), February 28, 2000.

Nazi did the same. All for the good you know. What a lot of crap!

-- ET (bneville@zebra.net), February 28, 2000.

Did ya'll read earlier today about the Brit UN troops who were toting around defective H&K SA80's? Some 300,000 of these automatic weapons were being recalled. Like the witch said when Dorothy doused her..."What a world!! What a world!"

-- Jay Urban (Jayho99@aol.com), February 28, 2000.

The DOD has known for years that the chemical detection gear doesn't work. The sniffers would only go off when a concentration of gas 1000 times higher than deadly was detected in the Gulf. Of course, there is no US battlefield alarm for bio weapons. Apparently, the Gulf War Syndrome group is applying the heat. This is more disinformation.

-- goldenokie (garland@clnk.com), February 28, 2000.

When have they treated the soldiers well? During the A-bomb tests when they were parked on ships nearby with no protection? When the vets marched on the White House at the start of the Depression to get what they had been promised and they were knocked down? They have always been treated as disposable by TPTB. I saw a story on the poor level of health care afforded combat vets. What about this deal over anthrax vaccine? Crminal behavior? For sure!

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 28, 2000.

Have to agree with goldenokie. Classic disinformation.

Also, does anyone remember the reports that, e.g., Brit CBW detectors were going off continually during the Scud attacks, U.S. troops detectors were silent?

Yeah, it's 'let's establish a scapegoat' time.

-- redeye in ohio (not@work.com), February 29, 2000.

A couple of people posting above seem to think the article is about defective CW detection gear. Actually it is about defective CW protection gear-- specifically, protective clothing.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 29, 2000.