Stars and Stripes 11.6.15

Volume 7, No. 46 ŠSS 2015

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2015

Paratroopers with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, conduct an exercise near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. See more on Page 4. Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

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VETERANS

VA chiefs plead the Fifth

Regional directors refuse to testify before House Committee on Veterans Affairs

BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — It took nearly two weeks to get a pair of controversial Department of Veterans Affairs officials to Capitol Hill for questioning, but it was the congressmen in the committee room who did most of the talking Monday.

“Upon advice of counsel, I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question,” Philadelphia VA Regional Office Director Diana Rubens said repeatedly under tough questioning from House Committee on Veterans Affairs Chair-

man Jeff Miller, R-Fla. Rubens and St. Paul, Minn., VA Regional Director Kimberly Graves, both accused by the VA Office of Inspector General of serious malfeasance, were seated next to the regional directors they are said to have pushed out of their jobs for financial gain.

The actions spurred a criminal complaint that the IG referred to the Department of Justice and the VA has recommended the directors be punished, though an official said the department won’t announce the punishments until the end of the week.

Rubens and Graves sat grimly through Miller’s questions about whether they had

manipulated the VA hiring system and the testimony of Los Angeles VA Regional Director Robert McKenrick and Baltimore VA Regional Director Antione Waller, who said they had been pressured into leaving the posts that Rubens and Graves filled.

“If VA put half of the effort into pushing for true accountability or protecting their employees who come forth as whistleblowers as they have for the individuals investigated in this IG report, then I honestly think the department would be in a much better place,” Miller said.

“VA exists for veterans, not for itself or the unjust enrichment of its senior employees.”

SEE PAGE 3

Diana Rubens, director of the Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del., regional offices of the Veterans Benefits Administration, and Kimberly Graves, background, director of the St. Paul, Minn., regional office, get up to leave a hearing on alleged misuse of the VA relocation program Monday on Capitol Hill. The women set next to regional directors they were accused of pressuring into leaving their posts. At left is Robert McKenrick, of the Los Angeles regional office; at right is Danny Pummill, principal deputy undersecretary for benefits.

JOE G ROMELSKI /Stars and Stripes

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VETERANS

Report: VA care hard to get for mental health problems

BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Navy veteran Dean Maiers broke down in tears last week as he told a panel of senators about his post-deployment struggles, which included a suicide attempt.

Speaking to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran said the VA treatment that he finally received saved his life, though the health system’s narrow appointment schedule made it difficult for him to find time to get help.

“It’s hard working a fulltime job and scheduling your life around the VA,” Maiers said.

The hearing came on the heels of a Government Accountability Office report that found VA officials are using two different wait-time standards for veterans seeking mental health evaluations and could be underestimating how long it takes to schedule those appointments because they lack consistent data.

The report was released last week and dovetailed with the

Senate committee’s hearing on veterans’ mental health, at which veterans talked about their continued struggles to get help from the VA. Former Marine Nicholas Karnaze, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said it took him one year to enroll in the VA system. When he did seek mental health care, he said he was bounced to two different phone numbers that both ended in voicemail. He didn’t get a call back.

“Some of my friends have given up hope” and paid for private care, Karnaze told the committee. “I, and many veterans like me, don’t have that luxury — I’m a small business owner, and at this time I can’t afford private health care.”

Some VA officials are following a policy that states veterans must receive mental health evaluations within 14 days of their requests while others believe the deadline is 30 days. The Veterans Health Administration has not stated which policy is correct, according to the report.

Drawing a parallel to the secret-wait-list scandal in Phoenix that sparked an

FROM PAGE 2

While Rubens and Graves, who also invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, said little, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits Danny Pummill said the two will face punishment. However, he said the decisions on their punishment are under appeal and VA will not release details until the appeals are resolved this week.

It’s the latest black eye for the VA. The department came under fire more than a year and a half ago with revelations of patients dying while lingering on secret wait lists at the Phoenix VA Medical Center. The scandal cost former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki his job, but many lawmakers have grown impatient with what they see as a slow pace of departmental reforms.

Rubens, Graves and three other employees appeared before the committee Monday night after the VA refused

ongoing, 1½-year scandal in veterans’ care, GAO Health Care Director Debra Draper said the VA tracked some appointments using a manually maintained list outside of the Veterans Health Administration scheduling system.

In Phoenix, some appointments were kept off the books to make wait times appear shorter and some patients died while languishing on the hidden wait lists.

The current system means VA medical centers might implement appointments inconsistently, “potentially posing serious risks to veterans needing mental health care,” the report states.

VA officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he is “appalled” at the continued barriers to veterans receiving mental health care.

“There’s not a topic in my view that is more important than mental health for our veterans,” he said. “As in the civilian world, mental health is often overlooked, given less attention than it should be.”

President Barack Obama

to make staff available for a hearing on Oct. 21. VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson wrote in a letter to Miller that making the employees appear could endanger their right against selfincrimination and hamper ongoing criminal investigations.

That led the committee to vote to issue subpoenas, compelling the employees to appear or be held in contempt and face possible incarceration.

The committee also recently subpoenaed VA documents.

The VA IG investigation found Rubens and Graves gamed the department’s hiring system to create vacancies in locations where they wanted to move and take jobs with fewer responsibilities while maintaining their salaries.

“I do believe I was pressured,” McKenrick said in response to a question from Miller on the circumstances surrounding his reassignment to Los

CARLOS BONGIOANNI /Stars and Stripes

Marine veteran Nicholas Karnaze testifies Oct. 28 before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs in Washington. issued an executive order in 2012 directing the secretaries of the VA, Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, Education and Homeland Security to take steps to improve mental health care for veterans as well as active-duty, Guard and Reserve troops. The order, which preceded the revelations of the current veterans’ health care crisis, also created the Military and Veterans Mental Health Interagency Task Force.

The recommendations in

Angeles.

Between them, Rubens and Graves also received roughly $400,000 in moving expense reimbursements as part of a VA program to entice candidates into hard-to-fill jobs, despite apparently seeking the positions. That bill earned the ire of lawmakers and rank-and-file VA employees, and the VA suspended the program in the face of the report.

Former VA Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey, who was in charge of 20,000 employees, was also implicated in the scheme and originally subpoenaed but resigned under pressure before the hearing. The committee then withdrew her subpoena.

Despite the accusations against them, Rubens and Graves are still on the job. In an email last week obtained

by Stars and Stripes, Rubens highlights what she claims are improvements in customer service at the

the GAO report include that the Veterans Health Administration should clarify the maximum allowable wait times for veterans to receive a mental health evaluation, VA Secretary Bob McDonald should set policy for how appointment scheduling should be managed, and the VA undersecretary for health should set standards on how VA medical centers calculate wait times. druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes

Philadelphia and Wilmington (Del.) Regional Offices.

“I can’t say that I think we are ready to rest on our laurels,” she wrote. “… we will continue to look for ways to improve performance for our Veterans, family members and survivors, but we will also continue working to make the Philadelphia and Wilmington Regional Offices places we can all be proud to come to.”

Kristen Ruell, a Philadelphia VA Regional Office employee who has testified about malfeasance at the office, said Rubens is hurting morale for rank-and-file workers.

“People are depressed because employees have been fired for less and they don’t understand how she’s still making decisions,” Ruell said in a phone interview with Stars and Stripes.

Stars and Stripes staffer Catherine Giordano contributed to this report druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes

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COVER STORY

Army Alaska feeling the chill from DOD

BY TARA COPP Stars and Stripes

FAIRBANKS, Alaska he Army’s only extremecold-weather airborne brigade is prepared to fight in the Arctic. But first they must fight for their existence.

The soldiers of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, are drilled in survival skills.

They learn not to wear camouflage paint in the cold because it can mask frostbite.

They are taught that firing a weapon when it’s 20 to 40 degrees below zero could kick up an ice fog that reveals their position. And as paratroopers, they jump in all white from pairs of C-17s above the Arctic Circle, assemble on the icy mass below and drill.

“We are the only unit that has this extreme-cold-weather capability across the Army,” said Lt. Col. Alan Brown, spokesman for Army Alaska.

But the brigade is slated to be cut under the Army’s plan to trim its force to 450,000 soldiers by 2017, a decision that would eliminate 59 percent of the Army personnel assigned there.

Since 2010, the Army has seen its budget shrink from

T

‘ It’s the strategic location of being on top of

the world. It allows us to respond more quickly — our flight time is simply that much shorter.

’

Lt. Col. Alan Brown spokesman for Army Alaska $144 billion to a requested $126 billion for 2016. During the same time, the Army has reduced its force from 566,000 in 2010 to 490,000 in 2015, according to Defense Department figures.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the cuts reflect “a decision the Army made as part of its overall posture adjustments to accommodate the budget it has and set priorities.”

However, he conceded that given the importance of the Arctic, the Pentagon’s strategy there is under review.

“There is an operational-requirements process underway, ” Carter said on a plane en route to Alaska.

If the brigade is cut, the military will lose one of its critical Arctic and Pacific rapid-response assets, which has raised questions whether this is the right time to reduce this capability.

“The United States is just now coming to grip

with the fact it is an Arctic nation,” said Bill Popp, president of Anchorage’s Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit that promotes the city’s commerce by attracting businesses.

“In terms of icebreakers, shoreside facilities in the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean — we are way behind compared to Russia.”

The brigade isn’t only the sole extreme-cold-weather brigade in the Army, it’s also the Army’s only airborne brigade in U.S. Pacific Command.

The unit can reach most places to conduct a forced entry in the Pacific, and some European locations, in nine hours or less.

“Given the current circumstances, Alaska is a strategic location,” Popp said, in light of increased unpredictability by North Korea and rising tension with China.

“It’s the strategic location of being on top of the world,”

Brown said. “It allows us to respond more quickly — our flight time is simply that much shorter.”

If the brigade is cut to a battalion, “we won’t be able to do as much or have as much capability,” he said.

Popp said the cut seems to be “based only in budget and not in the strategic vein that it should be done.”

Anchorage is a city of 301,000 people. Based on the city’s early analysis of the impact, it would lose about 6,100 residents — the troops cut, plus their estimated 3,500 dependents.

The Army is still reviewing the proposed cuts. Under the plan, 2,631 soldiers from the brigade would be cut, leaving a lighter Airborne Task Force of 1,000 troops at the base.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino said the reduction was not a cut, but an Army move to transition the brigade “to a smaller element and retain its airborne capability.”

“The Army is reviewing the planned transition,” Buccino said, noting the unit will be kept intact in the short term so it can participate in a February 2016 joint readiness training session. copp.tara@stripes.com Twitter:@TaraCopp

Paratroopers and a Humvee assigned to U.S. Army Alaska’s 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion drop onto Malemute Drop Zone at Joint Base ElmendorfRichardson, Alaska, in April 2013.

JUSTIN C ONNAHER /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

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MILITARY

Auto finance company is ordered to repay $2.28M

BY T YLER H LAVAC Stars and Stripes

A court has ordered an Ohio-based auto-finance company that specializes in loans for servicemembers to repay about $2.28 million for engaging in illegal debt-collection practices, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Oct. 28.

The order requires Ohiobased Security National Automotive Acceptance Co., which operates in more than two dozen states, to give refunds or credits to servicemembers and other consumers, the statement said. The lender must also pay a $1 million penalty that will go to the CFPB’s civil penalty fund, used to “make payments to people harmed by the illegal actions that give rise to civil penalties and who aren’t

expected to otherwise get full compensation,” according to the agency’s website. “(SNAAC) took advantage of military rules to put enormous pressures on servicemembers to pay their debts,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said while announcing the lawsuit in June. “For all the security they provide us, servicemembers should not have their financial and career security threatened by false information from an auto loan company.”

SNAAC exaggerated potential disciplinary action that servicemembers would face for not making payments on time, contacted or threatened to contact servicemembers’ commanding officers, falsely threatened to garnish wages or misled servicemembers about

the legal consequences of not paying a debt, the statement said. A separate court order bans SNAAC from continuing to use such tactics.

The CFPB has a history of taking aggressive action against companies that have targeted servicemembers with illegal practices.

In December, the agency, in conjunction with attorneys general from North Carolina and Virginia, filed a consent order in federal court requiring Freedom Stores Inc., Freedom Acceptance Corp. and Military Credit Services LLC to return $2.5 million to consumers and pay a $100,000 civil penalty for using illegal tactics to collect debts from servicemembers. hlavac.tyler@stripes.com

USAREUR widens curbs on DOD travel to Turkey Stars and Stripes

U.S Army Europe has imposed a ban on travel to Turkey

by Defense Department personnel, given growing security concerns in the country.

All military and civilian workers, including those with dual citizenship, are prohibited from unofficial travel through Nov. 9, USAREUR announced on its Facebook page.

Official travel requires general officer approval.

After Nov. 9, unofficial and official travel — including ship-to-shore travel from cruises in Turkey — will also require general officer approval, USAREUR said.

In addition, DOD employees traveling in Turkey “should avoid public protests, demonstrations, rallies or other large gatherings to the greatest extent possible,” USAREUR said.

“They should remain alert to suspicious behavior and be aware of their surroundings at all times.”

The decision expands travel

restrictions already in place.

Since August, the military has restricted all travel to southeastern Turkey, where general officer approval has been required for official and unofficial visits.

“Before making travel plans to Turkey, whether for official reasons or vacation, DOD personnel should talk to their organization’s security or antiterrorism officers,” USAREUR said.

In September, the Defense and State departments offered dependents of personnel stationed at Incirlik Air Base and nearby Adana the option of returning to the States and the Air Force suspended families of servicemembers moving to Incirlik.

Those moves followed Turkey’s decision to allow the U.S. to fly fighter jets and drones out of Incirlik as part of the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. news@stripes.com

DODEA math, reading scores among top in US

BY STEVEN BEARDSLEY Stars and Stripes

Students at military-run schools were among the top performers in this year’s national reading and math assessment, known as the “Nation’s Report Card.”

On average, fourth- and eighthgrade students within the Department of Defense Education Activity scored higher in reading proficiency than their peers across the nation, tied only with Massachusetts and New Hampshire, according to results released last month from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Fourth-grade math scores in DODEA schools ranked second in the country, tied with seven other states, while gaps between white and minority students remained among the lowest nationwide, a likely result of DODEA’s unique student population.

“We are pleased to be among the top performing states in the nation on the NAEP assessments for fourth- and eighth-grade reading and mathematics,” DODEA Director Thomas Brady

said in a statement.

A yardstick for K-12 subject knowledge, the assessment on reading and math proficiency is administered to fourth- and eighth-grade students every two years. The results are frequently cited to compare school systems and to judge student aptitude nationwide.

Math scores slipped nationwide this year for both grades, and they also fell for eighth-grade reading. Reading scores in grade 4 remained statistically unchanged.

DODEA was one of only three systems to improve its fourth-grade reading scores from the previous test, in 2013. It also improved in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade math. Eighthgrade reading scores remained unchanged from the previous test.

The assessment showed room for improvement elsewhere, including proficiency in certain subjects. The percentage of eighth-graders considered at or above proficiency in math remained flat. DODEA schools also showed low rates of advanced proficiency in grade 4 math, espe-

cially when compared with other top performers on this year’s test.

DODEA runs 172 schools for children of military and civilian personnel stationed worldwide with the Defense Department. Although it faces challenges unique to a military population, including stresses caused by parental deployment and the turmoil of regular family moves, DODEA also benefits from its demographics.

The system has some of the narrowest gaps between white and minority scores in several categories, including between white and black students in fourth-grade math and white and Hispanic students in fourth-grade math and reading.

Sandra Embler, DODEA research and data chief, said the system’s schools don’t see the extremes of other districts across the U.S. DODEA schools are evenly integrated, meaning achievement gaps are less likely to show up by racial groups. Families have almost identical benefits and support systems because of their common connection to the military.

“I guess all our students are a little

bit more toward the average,” Embler said. “When you don’t have extremes, the differences between them are smaller than when you have these extremes between wealthy and poor.”

Brady said in the statement that he was pleased with the system’s progress in recent years and the increased testing participation by students with disabilities.

Improving math instruction and curriculum has been a particular focus for DODEA. Three years ago, the high school math curriculum was expanded and began requiring students to complete four math credits in order to graduate.

The system is also in the process of changing its curriculum to align with Common Core standards, which have generated criticism across the U.S. SAT math scores among high school seniors in the system remain lower than national averages, although DODEA has closed the gap in recent years.

Stars and Stripes reporter Jennifer Svan contributed to this report. beardsley.steven@stripes.com Twitter: @sjbeardsley

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PACIFIC

What’s next with tensions over the South China Sea?

BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes

China will likely ramp up its efforts to expand and militarize disputed islands in the South China Sea — an area critical to the global economy — as a result of the U.S. Navy’s more assertive patrols in the region, China experts say.

And while many analysts applaud the Navy’s more robust approach with so-called “freedom of navigation” operations, there’s little agreement about whether such ANALYSIS patrols will lead to armed confrontation in the South China Sea, where more than $1.2 trillion in U.S. trade passes annually.

Some believe the relationship between the two nations, whose economies are deeply entwined, has matured to the point that dialogue will defuse tensions and potential conflict.

“I think the most likely thing is that the two countries will look ahead and see that their interests and good relationship and other things are important and positive, which will keep it from reaching a crisis,” said Eric McVadon, a retired Navy admiral and senior adviser at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, a nonpartisan think tank.

After a flurry of statements

by Chinese officials condemning the patrols, China’s military posted photos on its navy’s website of fighter jets training from an unidentified airstrip in the South China Sea. Experts believe the jets took off from Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, near the coast of Vietnam, according to the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper.

The fighter flights served as a warning that U.S. allies, such as Japan and Australia, should not conduct similar freedom of navigation operations— known

as FONOPs — military expert Ni Lexiong told the Post. Australia is reportedly considering such patrols in the Spratly Islands, another South China Sea chain claimed by China and disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Brunei and Indonesia have had conflict over sea boundaries as well.

The U.S. will continue sailing through the region, U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris said Tuesday during a visit to China, although he emphasized that Navy ships will avoid military confrontation. Defense Department officials said ships will go within 12 nautical miles of disputed islands roughly eight times a year.

Some analysts view all this as expected turbulence in the superpowers’ relationship.

“Rhetorical condemnation aside, I think the reactions of both sides following the FONOPs shows just how stable the U.S.-China military relationship currently is,” said Jeffrey Becker, an analyst in the China Studies Division at CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization in Arlington, Va. In the past, no one would have been surprised had China suspended military-to-military engagements with the U.S. on

C LIFF O WEN /AP

U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris walks past a photograph last month showing an island that China is building on in the South China Sea. The Navy’s challenge to China’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea was not designed as a military threat, Harris said Tuesday. the spot, he said. “Yet ... the two navies agreed to continue to maintain dialogue, which I think reflects just how far the military relationship has come.”

In fact, China had a readymade opportunity for such retaliation during Harris’ visit to China, where he met with his counterpart and other military officials. Long in the works, the trip went ahead despite the recent tensions.

There also was no conflict two years ago when the U.S. flew B-52 bombers through China’s newly announced Air Defense Identification Zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea, said Zack Cooper, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“I think there won’t be any significant change in the South China Sea,” he said.

However, some China experts expect a lot more tumult ahead — and possibly armed conflict. China is in deep distress over a faltering economy, said Gordon G. Chang, author of the 2001 book, “The Coming Collapse of China.”

“This is a regime that for more than three decades based its legitimacy on the continued delivery of prosperity, and with the economy falling apart, the only remaining basis for legitimacy is nationalism,” he said. “And Chinese nationalism is causing friction in this arc of nations, from India in the south to South Korea in the north.”

Anyone who believes armed conflict can’t happen between China and the U.S. is “daft,” Chang said.

“Of course neither side wants an armed conflict, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one,” he said. “All you have to do is look at history to see that there are many times that nations don’t want to go to war but they end up doing so.”

As a result of the recent tensions, China might “intensify its build-up on those fake islands,” said Mohan Malik, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, referring to China’s dredging of sea sand to create artificial islands. “This gives China the perfect pretext, if it was looking for one, not to slow down its construction or fortification of islands, but also to put the blame on the U.S. for making China do that.”

The new FONOP patrols also give the hawks within China’s People’s Liberation Army a chance to “up the ante,” he said. At a time when the Chinese economy has significantly slowed, the Communist Party leadership — particularly President Xi Jinping — does not want to appear weak domestically, and redoubling efforts in the South China Sea could be a demonstration of resolve, he said.

Navigational control over the South China Sea is a contest between the U.S. and China that has become contentious at times, said Patrick M. Cronin,

senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank.

The Chinese will try to drive a wedge between the region and the United States, while the U.S. will hold up China’s “assertive unilateral behavior” as a wedge between China and its neighbors, he said.

Malik agreed, saying Beijing’s goal is to bring about a decisive shift in the regional balance of power. China is attempting to convince neighboring countries that the balance of power has already shifted its way and that their interests lie in cutting bilateral deals — on China’s terms.

China will attempt to frustrate American efforts in the South China Sea with pressure in multiple forms, “from diplomacy and public messaging to assertive activities on land and on and over the sea,” Andrew S. Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, wrote in an essay published last week on chinafile.com.

“China may accelerate fortification of the features it occupies — likely a long-held objective in search of a justification,” Erickson wrote. “This would be a counter-productive policy, since it would drive the wedge deeper between China and its neighbors.” olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

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MILITARY

Defense secretary outlines security measures at bases

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Ash Carter has directed the military services to implement new protective measures, including arming more troops, to bolster security at small, off-installation sites in the wake of the deadly attack in Chattanooga.

Carter called for the services to work more closely with local law enforcement agencies, install improved mass warning systems, and to arm “appropriately qualified individuals at select off-installation facilities” that require greater than normal protection.

Additionally, Carter directed security surveys to be conducted at the Defense Department’s roughly 7,000 off-installation sites, including recruiting stations, reserve centers and ROTC units. Funds would be prioritized for sites that need physical security upgrades.

The new policies are the result of a largescale review of force protection requested

by Carter following the July 16 attack in which Mohammed Abdulazeez killed four Marines and a sailor at a recruiting station and reserve center in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The new measures must be put in place by April, with deadlines for some of them coming before the end of 2015, he said.

“To perform our mission, we must protect our people, installations and facilities from threats, while remaining open and engaged, and we must develop cost-effective, rapidly-fielded solutions to protect our people,” Carter

Defense Secretary Ash Carter testifies on Capitol Hill on Oct. 27 before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

K EVIN WOLF/AP

wrote in a memo to top uniformed and civilian leadership dated Oct. 2 and obtained Oct. 29 by Stars and Stripes.

Military leaders have described “lone wolf” attacks by homegrown violent extremists, such as Abdulazeez or 2009 Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, as among the greatest potential threats servicemembers face in the United States.

In May, Navy Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command, raised force protection measures for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Gortney said recently he did not foresee lowering the protection level soon because of the potential threat from such homegrown extremists, including ones influenced by the Islamic State.

Such attacks, Carter wrote in the memo, “can occur with little or no warning.”

But the mass arming of troops at their home stations is not the answer, Carter and other military leaders have said.

Despite pressure from some lawmakers, the Pentagon has been reluctant to allow all servicemembers, including recruiters, expanded access to service or personal firearms.

Existing DOD policy, issued in 1992, allows military commanders and leaders to arm qualified personnel “not regularly engaged in law enforcement duties” based on threat conditions.

Carter’s memo acknowledged that some “trained and qualified” servicemembers should be armed. He asked the services to publish guidance on implementing such policy and to report those decisions to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“These measures that DOD components have taken thus far, along with those approved by this memorandum, will mitigate the risk we face,” Carter wrote. “There is no such thing as perfect security, but we can and must improve the safety of our people at thousands of sites.” dickstein.corey @stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

US, Russia test communications of jets over Syria

BY COREY DICKSTEIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — U.S. and Russian aircraft intentionally flew within close proximity to each other in skies over Syria on Tuesday to test communications established in a recent agreement between the two nations, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

The pre-planned exercise over south central Syria ensured the communications guidelines established in the flight safety agreement announced Oct. 20 would work, said Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

“This test was a prudent measure solely to ensure that, in the event coalition aircraft encounter a Russian aircraft during operations in Syria, one of the established and agreed upon modes of communication in the agreement functioned,” Smith said. “This test assured that the first time this mode of communication was used would not be during an unplanned encounter.”

The agreement set guidelines for distances between aircraft, radio frequencies for U.S. and Russian pilots to use and a communication line on the ground between the two air operations.

A single U.S. fighter jet and a single Russian fighter jet approached each other, tested their communications abilities, and flew away, Smith said. The exercise lasted about three minutes.

Tensions have been high between the U.S. and Russia since Russia began a bombing campaign in Syria in late September. The U.S. has been conducting its own bombing campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria since September 2014. Defense officials have said U.S. and Russian aircraft have come within close proximity of each other over Syria several times.

‘ This test was a

prudent measure solely to ensure that, in the event coalition aircraft encounter a Russian aircraft during operations in Syria, one of the established and agreed upon modes of communication in the agreement functioned.

’

Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith Pentagon spokeswoman Initially, Russia indicated it would target Islamic State positions, but the majority of its strikes have occurred outside of areas where the militants are known to be, U.S. officials have said. Russian airstrikes have been aiding Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime against rebel forces in a nearly 5-year-old civil war.

Last week, a senior U.S. defense official said the U.S. intended to strengthen its bombing campaign in Syria in the coming months. President Barack Obama approved adding air power — about one dozen F-15 fighter jets — to southern Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base where 12 A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft were deployed last week. The White House also announced it would send less than 50 special operations troops to Syria to advise and assist indigenous forces on the ground fighting the Islamic State. dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

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AFGHANISTAN

What do you get for $766 million?

The Department of ‘DOD charged the taxpayer Defense isn’t sure American $43 million for what

BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — The “world’s most expensive gas station” might still be operating — or maybe not. The Department of Defense says it has no current information about the taxpayer-funded project, nor any of the others that were part of its $766 million program to stimulate economic development in Afghanistan.

According to letters between the top government watchdog in Afghanistan and a DOD official, the Pentagon has had no oversight of outcomes for its Task Force for Business and Stability Operations programs since the task force ended in March. The correspondence is included in a scathing report released Monday from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction about a gas station in northern Afghanistan that investigators say cost 140 times what it should have.

“DOD charged the American taxpayer $43 million for what is likely the world’s most expensive gas station,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko said in an email response to Stars and Stripes.

“DOD spent nearly $800 million ... but now they claim no one knows anything about it.”

The compressed natural

is likely the world’s most expensive gas station. ’

John Sopko Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction

gas station, built in the city of Sheberghan, was part of a plan to persuade Afghan drivers to switch from gasoline and to encourage international companies to invest in Afghanistan’s nascent natural gas industry.

The original contract to build the station was for $3 million.

SIGAR’s report says similar gas stations in Pakistan cost about $300,000.

“The Sheberghan facility is yet another example of this Administration’s reckless spending,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in an email to Stars and Stripes. “DOD has no explanation or documentation as to why it cost a massive $43 million to construct a compressed natural gas station in Afghanistan.”

The DOD did not respond to a request for comment.

Sopko began the review in May. In a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Sopko said, “On its face, this project does not seem feasible for several

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Courtesy of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko said the compressed natural gas filling station in Afghanistan cost 14 times what it should have. reasons.” He went on to ask questions on how much revenue the station has provided to the Afghan government, who provides oversight for the station, and whether there was a feasibility study. A defense official responded June 17, saying the program had closed about three months earlier and Carter’s office could no longer answer questions about it.

“With respect to the detailed questions that you have posed regarding the Downstream Gas Utilization project, the closure of the TFBSO in March 2015 and departure of all of its employees have resulted in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) no longer possessing the personnel expertise to address these questions or to assess properly the TFBSO information and documentation retained by (Washington Headquarters Services) in the OSD Executive Archive,” Prin-

This publication is a compilation of stories from Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent newspaper authorized by the Department of Defense for members of the military community. The contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including the Defense Department or the military services. The U.S. Edition of Stars and Stripes is published jointly by Stars and Stripes and this newspaper.

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© Stars and Stripes, 2015

cipal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Brian McKeon wrote in the response to Sopko.

In more recent letter dated Oct. 9, McKeon said defense officials would allow SIGAR officials to view task force documents “with appropriate security safeguards; such safeguards are necessary due to SIGAR’s actions that revealed Personally Identifiable Information in an unrelated incident,” though he does not specify the incident.

SIGAR officials say Defense Department officials would only allow investigators to view documents under DOD supervision and that the Defense Department Freedom of Information Act office would have to redact documents before releasing them.

“We continue to provide complete and unfettered access to TFBSO documents to SIGAR through the reading room managed by the Washington Headquarters Services,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Sowers said in an email response to Stripes.

“Further, we have offered to assist SIGAR in locating and contacting any former TFBSO personnel they wish to interview.”

The legislation that created the special inspector general’s office does not call for officials to redact documents before releasing them to investigators. SIGAR officials said that DOD’s response to their request was the first time the

Defense Department made that demand, which Sopko declined, calling accusations of mishandling personal information in a separate investigation “a red herring.”

“Under the circumstances, DOD’s position that it has no knowledge about this $800 million program is startling and unconvincing,” according to the report. “It is also a major concern because TFBSO was DOD’s principal vehicle for stimulating private sector investment in Afghanistan to build a stable and growing economy.”

This is not the first controversy to dog the task force, which began in Iraq in 2006 and moved to Afghanistan in 2009. Its goal was to help Afghanistan harness its substantial untapped natural resources, which the task force said were potentially worth $1 trillion.

In December, SIGAR said it was reviewing reports of “imprudent spending” and “profligate travel by employees and contractors,” including months-long gem training programs in India and trips to Paris and Milan.

A SIGAR report released in April said nearly $500 million in U.S. investment in Afghanistan’s natural resource industries was at risk because of poor coordination between the task force, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes

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