From 1986 until her retirement last year, Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe’s job with the California Army National Guard was to give away money — the federally subsidized student-loan repayments and cash bonuses — paid for by federal taxpayers nationwide — that the Guard is supposed to use to attract new recruits and encourage Guard members to reenlist…
For years, the auditor and other Guard officials alleged in interviews or internal documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee, California’s incentives program was operated as a slush fund that was doled out improperly to hundreds of soldiers with fabricated paperwork, scant supervision and little regard for the law…
Most student loan repayments, the documents show, were drawn from money designated for combat veterans. Yet a large portion of those funds went to Guard members who hadn’t served a day at war. Captains and majors were among those whom auditors think benefited improperly…
The documents show that by recruiters and officers up the chain of command overlooked or ignored her efforts. Some recruiters appear to have benefited personally…
On July 8, the managers who replaced Jaffe briefed Capt. Ronald S. Clark, a federal auditor who oversees funds spent by state Guard organizations, about her alleged lapses. A former police investigator, FBI agent and U.S. Secret Service officer, Clark has fought white-collar crime for years.
Still, he said, the scale and audacity of the corruption he encountered in reviewing the California program shocked him: Excluding $43 million in improper payments recently halted by Jaffe’s replacements, Clark estimated that $100 million was misspent. He called it “war profiteering.”
RTFA. Beaucoup examples, threads and tales of corruption.
Clark was intimidated enough by the extent of fraud throughout the Guard bureaucracy he wasn’t just worried about his investigations being stonewalled and blocked. Fearing for his life and the safety of his family, he contacted the FBI and the IRS – who took over his work and turned it into a criminal investigation.
Only $100 million? Peanuts.
What about the $2+ trillion in missing defense funds that was announced on September 10th, 2001.
This is small change compared what defense contractors siphon off and none of those corporate officers are in hand cuffs. Corruption is no endemic to American government. We could resort to mob violence or a general strike but Americans are to fat, lazy and stupid to go that route.
Wow. War profiteering: Giving tax dollars away for 24 yrs!
Where’s the Fox News sheeple report?
“War profiteering: Giving tax dollars away for 24 yrs!
#2 Improbus – I’m not one to chastise people for grammar but, if you’re going to call people stupid, you should endeavor to proofread your own words first. I count at least three typos in your three sentences.
Sign me: Fat, Lazy, Stupid and Not Going That Route.
@Maricopa
Byte me, I had a rough weekend and i am still a little out of sorts and hammered. I am still more coherent than Alfred.
I hope you feel better soon. You are definitely more coherent than Alfred, or ECA or half a dozen more I could mention – including me, often. Like I said, I don’t want to be the grammar police and your typos were minor. But, if you’re going to call someone stupid, you need to take extra care.
Drink lots of fluids, take two aspirin and call animby in the morning.
#3
what does it have to do with war?
it’s free money and people involved. those two things add up to fraud,
see welfare for examples
The rule of law only applies to the “little people”. That would be you and me. Try and enforce the law on people with real power and you will be met by guns, clubs and the full force of the police state. (*sarcasm*) God bless Amerika (*sarcasm*).
Check this out:
http://khaki.squarespace.com/
# Fox barely investigates anything though Bill O does claim to be going after the people that took the charity money for Haiti and kept it. Bill C. still has all he managed to collect the last I heard.
Has it ever even occurred to you wonder how people like the Clintons got the kind of money needed to throw a $3,000,000 wedding and yes I wonder about all politicians who get seriously rich in office or immediately after leaving office. The pay is good but it isn’t even remotely that good. Feel free to check out shrub, see how he’s doing and report back.
Now Dallas would you care to share where the lame media you adore has been on these issues and the student loan issue? On the take or just as blind, deaf, dumb and stupid as Fox?
A lot of these sleaze bags have made it absolutely clear they won’t out a crack pot or even a crook if the crack pot or crook claims to be a progressive nor will they hesitate to spread slander about those whose political views they disagree with.
#4–Maricopa==whats worse? Diverting the insight of a well crafted comment because of any errata, or contradicting your own premise from the start requiring readers to ignore the first half of your comment for what is obvious for all to see and judge by their own values?
Spelling, typos, grammar, usage = all irrelevant and the refuge of a scold. What are you, a substitute high school teacher, or an overworked, underpaid band aid dispenser in Northern Thailand?
Get focused on whats relevant and more important than your own nits.
#11=win
The key words here are “California” and “corruption”. They go hand in hand.
war is a racket
how much territory was plundered from iraq?
all of it
value on that land?
bigger than bill gates and larry combined
this man was following the same example that we all see
The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
Justice Brandeis
#14 are you on drugs?
NO land was plundered from anyone. The Iraqis still own it all and the oil under it.
Is anyone surprised?
For 25 years or more, we have been watching civic authorities sucking the life out of the community to ensure they have the best resources to do their job for our long-term benefit.
Sadly no-one mentioned those resources included cars, holidays, gambling sprees and so-on.
Hey – it might be late, but sign me up. Corruption is the new way to go.
@jman:
bwahahahaha
hey no land was plundered from anyone
hahhaha
hey they still own it all
hehehehe
You made my day!