[lbo-talk] Plundering Homeland Defense to fund Iraq

[Michael Pollak]

http://www.juancole.com/2003_09_01_juancole_archive.html#106489017491301103

   September 30, 2003: Posted 9:00 am
   Homeland Defense Funding Plundered for Iraq

   For those who believe that the Iraq War was a major detour from the
   War on Terror, there is excellent evidence for it if any investigative
   reporters wanted the story. Major funding for anti-terrorism science
   programs in the US, already appropriated and given out in contracts,
   to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, has been diverted to
   Iraq funding. The US is as vulnerable today to a dirty bomb as it was
   on September 10, 2001. But a high-tech program that would allow the
   detection of neutrons could have made us safer. That program has been
   mothballed for the time being by Tom Ridge; it is being alleged by my
   correspondent that the money is going instead to prop up the fragile
   US presence in Iraq.

   I received the following from a source I consider impeccable. It is
   appalling.

   "An angry scientist at one of the national laboratories gave me some
   (non-classified) insight into how the Iraq war is being financed.
   The Department of Homeland Defense allocated half a billion dollars to
   a project called the Tri-Lab Initiative, which offered grants to teams
   at Los Alamos, Sandia, and White Sands for homeland defense research.
   Proposals were made, ranked, and granted funds. For example, something
   called VLAND would have used techniques developed for the purest of
   pure science--neutrino research--to create truck-sized neutron
   detectors to detect hidden nuclear weapons. Apparently, the contracts
   were signed because new staff was hired. But the money never came, and
   the responsible Homeland Defense officials stopped replying to calls
   and emails. The labs have been paying the new staff out of normal
   Department of Energy funds intended for pure scientific research. The
   homeland defense projects that were funded are doing nothing. The only
   exception are projects funded by the Air Force, but the national
   laboratory scientists prefer civilian funding due to concerns about
   academic freedom.

   Clearly, what has happened is that funds intended for other purposes
   have been diverted to pay for the Iraq war. None of this is
   classified, but government scientists are prohibited from using
   government resources--i.e., their computers or their email account--to
   make it public."