Occupy the Pentagon

Wall Street is certainly a locus of appropriate focus for a movement that hopes to break the cycle of extreme disparity of wealth and income in our world, but the Pentagon may actually be a better place to contend. Why?

Without violence or the threat of violence, the global disparity--which was apparently not much of an issue to the American people until that class warfare worsened and came home--could not long exist. The gun and the bomb makes it all possible. When a thief finds your car unlocked and running and takes it, that is stealing. When he holds a gun to your head and makes you hand over the keys and then he drives off with it, that is robbery. The Pentagon is what makes robbery possible globally, whether it's robbery committed directly by US troops or robbery done by foreign troops merely supplied by the Pentagon.

The profits of war are not all in war materiels in the arsenals of the branches of the US military. When Congress authorizes "foreign aid" and that aid is bombers, jet fighters, cannons, bombs, bullets and exotic urban fighting weaponry supplied to our "allies," the war profiteers rake in obscene levels of profit from no-bid and cost-plus contracts. When Israel or Saudi Arabia buys weapons from our Pentagon, those weapons are all made by private contractors and are often produced at higher profit margins than anything else. But even when Congress just gives it away the private contractors profit enormously and in all cases the elites are enriched while the middle class pays for it all. Contractors and the military alike have many lobbyists clamoring for more more more and every time someone suggests a slowdown in Pentagon funding the military handwringers go into high whine, starting with Sec. Panetta.

Since military spending produces the fewest jobs per billion dollars spent, it is the Pentagon that robs jobs from Americans, keeps repressive governments in power elsewhere--usually repressive toward their own 99 percent--and thus is both the engine and the enforcer of the very situation that the Occupy movement is addressing. Some occupations are addressing this, e.g. Occupy Minnesota.

In reality or symbolically, it is time to Occupy the Pentagon. While occupying it, convert it to a peaceforce that can lead the defense of freedom from poverty and liberation from inequality. If it cannot be converted it should be defunded.

You the lobbyist for nonviolence

What the heck is a lobbyist? Oh, we know--it's one of those low-profile functionaries whose job it is to ask an elected official for support for legislation favorable to them. So, some guy waits in the--yes--lobby and asks to see the Congressman for a few minutes. When he gets his audience, he gives the House member a brochure of talking points, asks him to read it when he gets a chance, and to please support H.B. 7209, which would streamline licensing of interstate trade for grain futures. After he makes his pitch, the lobbyist walks to the next office of the next elected representative to make another call.

Right. Just some quiet and boring background activity to our humming, efficient, federal government, conducted by modest guys in boring, faded suits. Well, they actually make out pretty well. The average liberal arts professor with a doctorate in the US makes less than $80,000, while the average lobbyist earns close to $100,000. That is boosted greatly once a lobbyist leaves the nonprofits and government service behind and gets an office on K Street, then commanding annual salaries starting at more than a quarter $million--or, in the case of former Congress members, often in excess of a $million.

All this raises some questions, one would hope.

When are salaries incentives to work hard and when are they straight-up bribes for votes in the revolving door between industry and government?

Why are the salaries so huge?

How does this affect our democracy?

How does this affect our taxes and services?

How does this affect our security?

How does this affect our economy?

Who benefits?

Just one brief example is the $70 billion military aid pipeline to Egypt over the years, largesse voted for annually by Congress. Was it to benefit the Egyptian people? Hardly, it kept Hosni Mubarak, loyal to US interests, in power for three decades, a dictator who jailed journalists critical of him and tortured dissidents. But that aid was not just for Mubarak. The deal was that he would spend it on enriching the war profiteers, according to a story from Inter Press Service:

Specifically, the aid money pays for U.S.-designed Abrams tanks assembled in suburban Cairo under contract with General Dynamics. Boeing sells Egypt CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, Lockheed Martin sells F-16s fighter jets, Sikorsky Aircraft sells Black Hawk helicopters. Lockheed Martin has taken in 3.8 billion dollars from Egypt in the last few years, General Dynamics 2.5 billion dollars, Boeing 1.7 billion dollars, among many others.

To make sure it is as corrupt as possible, the man hosting Major General Mohamed Said Elassar, assistant to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian minister of defense, last year when the Major General came to Washington, was former US Republican Louisiana Congressman Bob Livingston, also former chair of appropriations. If we read about this chicanery in another country we would snort up our sleeves at the obvious flaunting of influence and erosion of democracy.

We need you to be a lobbyist for nonviolence, for clean government, and an end to the fleecing of the taxpayer by those who wrap themselves in the American flag to conceal sacks of riches that result in oppression and bloodshed all around the world. Voting is the first baby step of democracy. Call, petition, write and visit elected officials. Help organize citizen demonstrations at their public appearances. Show them that the citizen lobby can work too. The war system has the money and we have the potential people power, if we decide to use it. They will continue until we stop them. Just say no to all military aid to anyone.

Keep fear alive! Keep fear alive!

Corporations have taken not just the right to influence lawmaking—with fifty-six paid lobbyists now in Washington for every elected officeholder—but even the right to initiate and organize lawmaking to benefit them.

--Frances Moore Lappé, Democracy’s edge (p. 90).

The most egregious lobbying sector is the so-called defense industry, from high-tech death devices to milspec MREs. I'd call them the Fear Profiteers and I know there is a hip-hop song there for someone with different talents than I.

No US administration is immune--indeed, none ever strays far from the golden triangle of DoD, Congress and corporate war profiteer lobbyists. Obama started early with the appointment of a senior vice-president of huge war profiteering Raytheon as the one who would guard the taxpayer. The henhouse has a revolving door and the foxes just keep slipping through. The politicians use complex bait-and-switch to add Pentagon pork to any legislative menu. Watch what happens, for instance, with New Start. The Rs have their undies in a bunch because of the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, so they say that's it for New Start. If it does pass, watch how much missile defense money is inserted. In the inimitable words of Reagan's Director of OMB, David Stockman, "The hogs are really feeding now." Oink.

Since I write about the Pentagon, I signed up for their news releases. This is the daily list of contracts from a couple of days ago. These people are simply massive, and bear in mind this is just one day. This is the flow daily--I include all of one day's so you can get the heft of this, from actual weapons to the massive amount of everything it takes to run a war machine:

Contracts for December 17, 2010
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:00:00 -0600

FOR RELEASE AT
5 p.m. ET No. 1159-10
December 17, 2010

CONTRACTS

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Chevron Global Aviation, Houston, Texas, is being awarded a maximum $395,880,657 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other locations of performance are Utah and California. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0452).

Valero Marketing and Supply Co., San Antonio, Texas, is being awarded a maximum $249,772,596 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is California. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0464).

Equilon Enterprises, dba, Houston, Texas, is being awarded a maximum $239,513,274 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is California. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0458).

Tesoro Hawaii Corp., Kapolei, Hawaii, is being awarded a maximum $234,539,106 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0454).

Western Refining Co., El Paso, Texas, is being awarded a maximum $111,863,194 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0461).

Petro Star, Inc.*, Anchorage, Alaska, is being awarded a maximum $104,438,609 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other locations of performance are in Valdez, Alaska, and North Pole, Alaska. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Jan. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0453).

BP West Coast Products, LLC, La Palma, Calif., is being awarded a maximum $78,630,310 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Naval distillate fuel. Other location of performance is in Washington. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0462).

U.S. Oil Trading, LLC, Tacoma, Wash., is being awarded a maximum $72,957,924 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is Washington. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0463).

ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing Co., Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a maximum $50,663,932 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Naval distillate fuel. Other location of performance is California. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0465).

Sinclair Oil Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah, is being awarded a maximum $38,603,925 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0457).

Navajo Refining Co., LLC, Artesia, N.M., is being awarded a maximum $25,758,380 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. Other location of performance is Moriarty, N.M. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0459).

Paramount Refining Corp.*, Paramount, Calif., is being awarded a maximum $12,318,424 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0455).

Montana Refining Co.*, Great Falls, Mont., is being awarded a maximum $10,686,928 fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation fuel. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The original proposal was Web-solicited with 20 responses. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0456).

ARMY

AM General, LLC, South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Dec. 15 a $211,474,506 firm-fixed-price contract. This award will provide for 1,263 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles of various models. Work is to be performed in South Bend, Ind., with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army TACOM Contracting Center, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-10-C-0405).

GM GDLS Defense Group LKC, JV, Sterling Heights, Mich., was awarded on Dec. 15 a $72,840,590 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. This award will provide battle damage-assessment and repair services and materials required to support Strykers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Work is to be completed in Sterling Heights, Mich.; Shelby Center, Mich.; Auburn Warehouse, Wash.; Anniston, Ala.; Germany; Iraq; Kuwait; Qatar; and London, Canada, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-07-D-M112).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Fla., was awarded on Dec. 15 a $48,766,679 firm-fixed-price contract. This award will provide logistical support for the AH-64 Apache modernized and legacy target acquisition designation sight assembly and pilot night vision sensor assembly system. This includes repair and maintenance of line replaceable units and line replaceable modules to support the Apache's sensors flying hours program. Work is to be completed in Orlando, Fla., with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The Aviation & Missile Command Contracting Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-07-C-0058).

Conti Federal Services, Inc., Edison, N.J., was awarded on Dec. 15 a $21,727,500 firm-fixed-price contract. This award will provide for development of the hurricane protection project at the east and west of Algiers Canal in Plaquemines Parish, La. Work is to be performed in Plaquemines Parish, La., with an estimated completion date of Nov. 9, 2011. The bid was solicited on the World Wide Web with four bids received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, New Orleans, La., is the contracting activity (W912P8-11-C-0016).

Mahaffey Fabric Structures, Memphis, Tenn., was awarded on Dec. 15 a $16,528,634 firm-fixed-price contract. This award will provide for rotational logistical life support training for leaders and the establishment of life-support structures and services at sites located throughout the Fort Polk training areas. Work is to be performed in Fort Polk, La., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 14, 2010. The bid was solicited over the Internet with nine bids received. The U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9124J-11-D-0006).

Woolpert, Inc., Dayton, Ohio, was awarded on Dec. 15 a $14,847,015 firm-fixed-price contract. This award will provide for the investigation of capability enhancements, including higher-flying platforms, improved imagery resolution and accuracy, improved processing and sensor payloads for improved collection rates. Work is to be performed in Arlington, Va.; Alexandria, Va.; and Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 14, 2011. The bid was solicited on the World Wide Web with one bid received. The U.S. Army Geospatial Center, Contracting Office, Alexandria, Va., is the contracting activity (W5J9CQ-11-C-0007).

BAE Systems, Ordnance Systems, Inc., Kingsport, Tenn., was awarded on Dec. 15 a $9,127,949 firm-fixed-price contract. This award provides funding for 90 percent engineering design on the Area A to Area B Acid Facility Relocation Project at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant. Work is to be performed in Kingsport, Tenn., with an estimated completion date of Feb. 1, 2012. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, RICC, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (DAAA09-98-E-00006).

NAVY

DZSP 21, LLC, Philadelphia, Pa., is being awarded a $93,156,864 modification P00022 under a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract (N40192-10-C-3000) to exercise the second award option period for base operation support services for the Joint Region Marianas. The work to be performed provides for general management and administration services; command and staff (public affairs office); public safety (safety and contingency); port operations; ordnance; material management; galley; facilities management & engineering services; sustainment, restoration and modernization; facilities services; utilities (potable water, waste water, electrical and steam and demineralized water); base support vehicles and equipment; and environmental. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $494,204,389. Work will be performed at various installations in the United States territory of Guam, and is expected to be completed December 2011. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Marianas, Guam, is the contracting activity.

AT&T Mobility, LLC, Hanover, Md. (N00244-11-D-0002); Sprint-Nextel, Reston, Va. (N00244-11-D-0003); T-Mobile USA, Inc., Bellevue, Wash. (N00244-11-D-0004); and Verizon Wireless, Laurel, Md. (N00244-11-D-0005), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award task order contract to provide wireless service and devices to the Navy. The maximum dollar value, including the base period and one six-month option period, for all four contracts combined is $96,000,000. These four contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed in various continental United States locations, and is expected to be complete June 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This requirement was awarded through full and open competition via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online and Federal Business Opportunities websites, with five offers received. The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.

Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, is being awarded a $31,609,158 firm-fixed-price delivery order against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-07-G-0008) to exercise an option for on-site flight test management, flight test engineering, design engineering, and related efforts to support Naval Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Squadron flight and ground testing of the MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Md. (43 percent); Philadelphia, Pa. (36 percent); and Fort Worth, Texas (21 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

Straub-Martin, JV, Bonsall, Calif., is being awarded a $16,359,978 modification under a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N62473-09-C-1228) for the design and construction of bachelor enlisted men quarters at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms. The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of additional solar energy photovoltaic (PV) systems, solar PV lamps, and advanced metering to include energy improvements and other ancillary items required to have the complete usable facility complying with acceptable codes, criteria, laws and regulations including federal, state and local environmental requirements. The total contract amount after exercise of this modification will be $118,768,252. Work will be performed in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and is expected to be completed by August 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.

3 Phoenix, Inc.*, Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a $14,492,631 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-07-C-6274) to provide engineering services to support software development, procurement of commercial off-the-shelf products, and hardware/software integration in support of Navy submarine and surface ship systems. This effort is for Phase III of a Small Business Innovative Research topic number N04-138, "Real-time Data Fusion and Visualization Interface for Environmental Research Data." These services will be rendered as needed to support the Navy's initiative to maintain the pace of performance improvement through judicious use of lower power electronics, advanced algorithm design, and innovative applications of open software and hardware. This requirement includes system engineering, architecture design, software engineering, prototyping, integration, and test activities. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Va. (35 percent), Wake Forest, N.C. (35 percent), and Hanover, Md. (30 percent). Work is expected to be completed by December 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Harper Construction Co., Inc., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $12,222,122 modification under a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N62473-09-C-1205) for the design and construction of recruit barracks at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of induction lighting and additional solar energy photovoltaic panels, to include energy improvements and other ancillary items required to have the complete usable facility complying with acceptable codes, criteria, laws and regulations including federal, state and local environmental requirements. The total contract amount after exercise of this modification will be $72,556,608. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed by November 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.

Applied Research Associates, Inc., Albuquerque, N.M., was awarded on Dec. 14 an $8,019,992 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for requirements analysis for human injury and treatment modeling tools. The contractor will determine the requirements and identify scenarios for use in demonstrating, a computer modeling tool for predicting human injury incapacitation, and medical response requirements associated with blast attacks in shipboard environments. This contract contains options which, if exercised, will bring the cumulative value of the contract to $11,678,148. Work will be performed in Albuquerque, N.M., and is expected to be completed December 2011. With options exercised the completion date is December 2014. Funds in the amount of $5,000 will expire at end of current fiscal year. The contract was procured under Office of Naval Research Broad Agency Announcement 10-001. Because the announcement was issued electronically via the internet, the number of potential offerors who received the solicitation is not available. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00014-11-C-0061).

Osage of Virginia, Inc.*, Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a maximum $7,488,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for wastewater treatment at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The work to be performed provides for management, supervision, tools, materials, supplies, labor, and transportation necessary to perform processing (both mechanically and chemically) dry dock industrial wastewater and ship's bilge water at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, for discharge to the Virginia pollution discharge elimination system. Task order #0001 is being awarded at $117,500 for wastewater treatment at Norfolk Naval Shipyard at the time of award. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by September 2011. All work on this contract will be performed in Portsmouth, Va., and is expected to be completed by September 2015. Contract funds for task order #0001 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with two proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N40085-11-D-0009).

AIR FORCE

Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., was awarded an $87,952,000 contract which will acquire the radar system improvement program/mission navigation system upgrade installation and checkout for the Japan Air Self Defense Force AWACS fleet of four aircraft. At this time, $47,000,000 has been obligated. ESC/HBSKI, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-01-D-0016; Delivery Order 0072).

*Small business

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/Contracts/

Media Contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public Contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/questions.aspx or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

Who can keep track of this sloshing $billions? No one. Not the administration, not Congress, not the Pentagon itself and certainly not the ones who pay for it all--the American workers. It will take the American voters to change this. Nothing wrong with the government spending money, but fewer jobs are created with Pentagon spending than in any other sector of the economy or the federal budget. If we want some actual, real, economic security we will start to stop this.

References

Lappé, Frances Moore (2006). Democracy’s edge: Choosing to save our country by bringing democracy to life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.