Fleecing of America: America Supports You.mil Uses Tax Payer Money Tree for Special Events

DOD/IG finding – America Supports You.mil (ASY) misused taxpayer dollars to pay for ASY Special Events.

ASY paid the Pentagon PR Firm, Susan Davis International (SDI) $3.6 million (or more) to organize ASY special [propaganda] events to attract media coverage to promote
or “brand” the program. [Translation of promoting or brand is PROPAGANDA.]

Pentagon investigators were able to identify that about $3.6 million was spent to gain media coverage to promote the ASY program. These special events include the Freedom Walk, the Memorial Day parade, and the Intrepid Concert.

This is the continuation of an in-depth, multi-post expose on what the Department of Defense Inspector General found distasteful about America Supports You.mil operations and fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

To read the introduction and earlier post on this topic go to these LINKS:

• AmericaSupportsYou.mil Survives Investigation by the Pentagon
• Link to Actual DOD/IG Report on America Supports You Irregularities
• Specific Findings of America Supports You IG Report
• DOD Inspector General Finds that America Supports You Solicited Support from Corporations in Violation of Pentagon Conduct and Ethics Rules
• DOD Inspector General finds that America Supports You.mil paid celebrities for their support
• America Supports You.mil Bought Mainstream Media Support in violation of DOD ethics rules.

Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired

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TO THOSE AMERICANS WHO SINCERELY SUPPORT OUR TROOPS WITHOUT GETTING PAID TO DO SO

HAVE A GREAT VETERANS’ TODAY DAY – TODAY AND EVERY DAY.

DOD/IG Findings: America Supports You IG Report -Table 3 shows the cost of ASY special events that could be identified by Pentagon investigators was only $3,576.554. In the scheme of the overall Defense Budget that is almost less than it costs DOD to continue maintaining the Selective Service System, our government is afraid to use = more taxpayer waste.

Freedom Walks Cost Money – They are not FREEdom Walks [Freedom sure is not free when American tax payers need to pay $2,576,807 bucks for the honor of believing that slogan. Paying for freedom slogans somehow cheapens what WE are doing in Iraq and elsewhere.]

The National Freedom Walk was created by the ASY program. The National
Freedom Walk has been held annually since September 2005 to honor the victims of September 11, 2001, and the troops.

[The National Freedom Walk would have had less partisan political significance and motivation if it were held solely for supporting our troops and military families, who got and get far less compensation than civilians killed during 9/11. One only need to look as far as compensation to victims at the Pentagon compared to victims in New York to see disgusting discrimination in the value of lives. By 2006/2007 the direct connection with September 11 made the National Freedom Walk more of a propaganda display and pro-war demonstration to retain a link between 911 and Iraq that never existed – Major Hanafin].

In 2007, the National Freedom Walk had about 10,000 participants and there were a total of 230 Freedom Walks held throughout the world [meaning military bases where our troops and families are stationed not actual host nation sponsored Freedom Walks. Not all nations supported our troops occupying Iraq], which included all 50 states and 10 foreign countries. The Deputy Assistant Secretary [Bush appointee and former Senior Manager of several Defense Industry Giants, Gordon England], used SDI to organize and coordinate the National Freedom Walk in Washington, D.C., as well as secure entertainment and purchase logistics support for the event.

WE will hear more about the fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption of Rumsfeld right-hand man Gordon England, who among other sins oversaw DOD’s unlawful public endorsement of his former employer Bell Helicopter Company at the Armed Forces Bowl. I have no problem with endorsing the Defense Industry, but using U.S. taxpayer dollars to do so is not only hypocritical but sacrilegious.]

SDI also solicited community groups and schools to put on Freedom Walks in
their towns.

Table 4 shows the breakdown of the $2.6 million in expenses for the Freedom Walk by fiscal year.

Table 4. Freedom Walk Expenses by Fiscal Year: FY2005 = $816,063, FY2006=$1,045,673, FY2007=$715,017, and Total = $2,876,807

Memorial Day Parades

Since 2005, [how humorous when Memorial Day was recognized as a National Remembrance Day decades before the advent of ASY.mil] the National Memorial Day Parade has been held each Memorial Day in the nation’s capital to honor the current Service members and veterans of the United States military.

[One would think that Veterans organizations that passionately support America Support Bush.mil would question this DOD/IG definition of Memorial Day Parades? Memorial Day, unlike Armed Forces Day or Veterans Day per se, is to honor all current service members plus past and present veterans of the U.S. military, not just current veterans or troops. That gives one the false impression that once a Veteran dies he/she no longer counts on Memorial Day, it is just another retail sales day, and that defeats the whole purpose in having Memorial Day.]

Congressional Requirements – What Congressional Requirements?

DOD/IG mentions Congressional Requirements but then drops it. What congressional requirements require the use of our tax dollars to fund a partisan political program?

According to SDI, in 2006, a congressional requirement [this alone deserves and warrants a Congressional Investigation] sought to bring Service members representing all branches of the military to participate. Deputy Assistant Secretary England, [the former Defense Industry top executive at General Dynamic and Martin- Lockheed, and a Fort Worth, TX native born in Baltimore], took on the responsibility of authorizing payment for this congressional requirement and used its [his] contractor and Washington Headquarters Service to pay for the event.

Each service member was allowed to bring one guest and they were issued official Government travel orders that covered the mode of travel and per diem [as if it were a TDY duty assignment. I’m all for reimbursing us troops for mission-essential temporary duty or never-ending deployments but for propaganda displays – Hold the Phone. American taxpayers and those troops not invited to this partisan shindig should be OUTRAGED!]

DOD/IG discovers FRAUD in duplicate or unused hotel rooms charged by Marriott and paid by our tax dollars.

However, lodging expenses were not covered by the travel orders because SDI entered into agreements with Marriott to obtain [more expensive] rooms for the Servicemembers. However, our review of lodging charges has uncovered [FRAUD] duplicate or unused hotel room charges being paid by DoD.

[The deeper one digs into this manure pile the more stomach-turning the stench gets]. The travel costs and per diem were paid by Washington Headquarters Service through a Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request to the participating Military Department. [Thus, the services cooperated in this FRAUD without question].

Table 5 categorizes the expenses paid for the Memorial Day Parade.

Table 5. [at left] 2006 Memorial Day Expenses of $834,711 to market patriotism. The idea that one needs to spend money to get patriotic support obviously falls short of understanding and underrates the intellect of the American electorate. American voters support our troops without having to pay for the honor of doing so. Voters are more concerned about our economy anyway – War and Our Troops came in a close second.]

DOD/IG was unable to obtain complete documentation to support actual travel and
per diem expenses from the Coast Guard and Air National Guard.

The $3,750. tax payer’s ASY Float

The ASY program also entered a float in the 2006 Memorial Day Parade. The float was purchased by its contractor, SDI, for $3,750.

Figure 6 [at left] America Supports You Memorial Day Parade Float. Price tag to U.S. taxpayers $3,750.

Intrepid Concert [price tag to U.S. taxpayers $165,000+. Country-Western entertainers paid over $ 51,126 to perform for our troops in One Concert.

ASY public release photo at left shows a U.S. taxpayer-funded Pentagon advertisement endorsed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as he used ASY to promote the War on Terror and support our troops at our expense. Just as it is hard for DOD investigators to get documentation and receipts from private entertainment companies that fold as support for the war dies, finding a photo of an Intrepid Concert logo or banner is near impossible even with a Google search.

ASY has begun removing photo evidence from their website open source files. Mainstream media photos of ads are copyright, so I decided not to use them. The ad at left was paid for by you and me. How many of the US passionately support our troops but not Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Gordon England, or the corrupt administration and policies they represent? Why should WE fund America Supports Bush or America Support Obama using our troops as a front?

DOD/IG Finding: Susan Davis International was paid by America Supports You.mil more than $165,000 in taxpayer dollars to put on the Intrepid Concert held on May 28, 2005, at the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum as part of Fleet Week 2005 in New York City.

The concert featured country-western entertainers Chely Wright and the band Montgomery Gentry. SDI worked with Intermedia Production Group to handle all of the entertainment and production needs for the concert. The total concert cost was $165,036, which included approximately $15,000 in performer airfares; $15,651 for hotels; and $20,475 in management fees and performance salaries. Neither SDI nor Intermedia Production Group, which dissolved in 2006, was able to provide us with supporting documentation of charges paid by DoD. [Evidently, SDI and now-defunct Intermedia Production Group, felt someone in the Pentagon was asking too many questions about America Supports Bush.mil].

According to Pentagon investigators, “the problem with obtaining adequate documentation and level of review by DoD contracting officer representatives (COR) is discussed in more detail in finding C.” [WE will get to that finding eventually]

Major Hanafin’s commentary really begins HERE:

What perpetrators and proponent’s of ASY hope for is that given the rain drop size of tax payer waste [on par with what the Pentagon spends on the Selective Service System], the millions spent on this Pentagon Pork program are peanuts compared to the overall Defense Budget that folks look at in terms of billions.

Put another way, ASY hoped its funding would be lost in the billions [like the Selective Service System] so that no one would pay attention or question the value or return on a taxpayer dollar that ASY [and the Selective Service System] provide the American taxpayer.

For us troops and military families out there, note that the majority of the budget has always, and continues to be spent on weapon systems or big-ticket weapon R&D [a whopping 68% in Readiness & Support, and Strategic Modernization what against Al Qaeda or the Taliban Air Force and Navy? This of course BENEFITS Deputy Secretary Gordon England’s buddies at Lockheed-Martin, Bell Helicopter, General Dynamics and the list goes on and on. However, personnel always gets the short end of the stick. Unless we support partisan political policies then we get our TDY to propaganda displays illegally paid for by tax payers] While only 4% is spent on Family Housing & Family Support Facilities and a meager 28% on pay and healthcare.

What’s wrong with this picture? More to the point, where exactly did American Supports You. Mil funding fit into this unbalanced chart that favors Deputy Secretary of Defense England and friends, which includes friends in Congress that have Defense Industries in their states and districts?

I would humbly assess that the few millions wasted on ASY came out of the smallest 4% and/or 28% spent on military families and the US. That folks is money taken away from US! Mr. England, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Barber may call that smoke screen supporting our troops, but wouldn’t you agree that’s disgraceful and unpatriotic?

This gets a little less confusing than trying to explain the differences between wasted appropriated funding and non-appropriated funding or what proceeds from Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) goes toward paying for whatever In other words, next time I spend money at the BX or Commissary, I will wonder if my contribution to MWR will instead be going to some Washington Ad Agency [SDI] to continue selling the War on Terror or buy support for me.

The solution is simple – no more Defense Contracts for propaganda purposes at American taxpayer expense regardless of the shame or good intentions of doing so. This is about all I could stomach for yet another in-depth look behind the scenes and fleecing of America by America Scams You.mil.

My next blog post will be a breakdown of how much of our tax dollars was spent on selling Patriotism, yes, just ask any VSO or other group that (cough) supports our troops, and they cannot deny that PATRIOTISM sells. How many of our organizations do not have a Veterans, Troops, or Patriotic Store?

Frankly, it’s one thing when we do it, but when corporate America gets in the Act, the country-western entertainment world gets in the act, and when it becomes government policy to spend tax dollars on selling Patriotism. I would think MOST real Americans would have a problem with that AND still support US troops.

Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired

PS: Some readers may take offense or believe I’m being inaccurate when I id myself as one of the Troops. Well blank you, having given near 30 of my years on earth to US troops, retired from the military, WE should consider each and every one of us as ONE OF THE TROOPS!!! Controversy, debate, or differences over Iraq makes younger troops no different, special, or unique from all of US because support is a given freely without charge.

Robert L. Hanafin

Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.

My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.

I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.

I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.