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Watchdog: Pentagon wasted millions on Italian planes later sold as scrap, no one held accountable

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The U.S. Air Force wasted $549 million on faulty Italian-made cargo planes for the Afghan government and no one involved in the deal has been held to account, according to a new report by a government watchdog. Neither a former U.S. Air Force general who was heavily involved in the project nor the company that sold the flawed aircraft to the Pentagon has faced prosecution over the program, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in the report obtained by NBC… (www.yahoo.com) Más...

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SpaceRanger
Our tax dollars at "work."
serdyfsx12
JOE SERDYNSKI 9
How big is the revolving door for Pentagon brass ? ? ?
w7psk
Ricky Scott 5
Pretty sad, when I was in I saw many people leave on retirement Friday, and come back to the same job as a Civilian on Monday
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 4
And it's not just the military. I worked at a big ten university, and they laid someone off, and hired them, for three times the wage, the next month. They had to 'down size' the department, yet had a huge budget for 'consultants'. They figured out a way to keep them, and make them happy. The 'excuse' for paying them so much more was to 'keep them', and to 'protect them', because the normal university employee protections don't apply for consultants who are considering 'at will' employees. The excuse didn't float well with others in the department. Eventually they rehired him, yet his pay was still high for his position.

Weird...

He must have known where some bodies were buried? It's a good job if you can get it.

I also worked at the Coast Guard air base as a teen. We had to wash officers dishes and silverware twice. A waste of time, and water. Yeah, the 'military' knows how to waste money. LOTS OF IT...
patpylot
patrick baker 14
$549,000,000, more or less, is well above the threshold to court martial the general, to go after the the vendor, and to seek to recover the funds. The light of day now shines on this, and some prosecutor needs somebody's ass yesterday. If the genius general happens to be retired, go after his retirement pay and whatever he skimmmed under the table. NO mercy....
serdyfsx12
JOE SERDYNSKI 3
Good one ! ! !
stansdds
In my sarcastic voice: No big deal, it's just money and we will print more of it.
MrTommy
MrTommy 6
And grab more of it from hard working Americans who actually WORK for a living.
donn72
Donn Avers 4
They were not "faulty". They were scrapped "to minimize impact on drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan." The four remaining aircraft are stored at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Still a shame though. they are really nice planes
mmc7090
mmc7090 4
Hmmmm China has been trying to tie the knot with technology offers to Italy and even corrupted the Vatican. Probably a lot more to the story here beyond Google. Remember the Covid-19 outbreaks early 2020 in Italy tied to lots of travel itineraries inbetween.

[This poster has been suspended.]

JoeG3
You mean like Ferraris or Lamborghinis?
TiredTom
Tom Bruce 0
coast guard is "using it" as well a a number of nations around the globe
monstrok
John Clark 3
Oh Yahoo.news... welcome to 2014! https://www.businessinsider.com/a-486-milllion-blunder-in-afghanistan-2014-10
A10Thunderbolt
Alan Sanderson 2
The General is just following the example of the senior US Senator, his Committee charged with keeping big pharma under control, who retired from his WELL PAID government job only to take a 10x raise to go to BIG PHARMA and work for the Enemy.....Such, "I'M m gonna get mine" is often their retirement plan. SCUM.
loubearr
loubearr 2
Well written. You are 100% correct.
stephenjshaner
s s 2
Bigger government please. Let's get it even bigger.
devsfan
ken young 2
Meanwhile the politicians angrily demand from is new taxes and they propose to increase existing taxes.
Those on the political left point their finger while shrieking at us that we are greedy because we don't want more if our earnings to be confiscated
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 1
BULLSHIT!!!

The 'right' showers the rich with tax cut after tax cut, and the share of the cost of government has been shifted to the middle and lower classes steadily, year after year.

The Bush tax cuts, the trump tax cuts, the reclassification of investment income, the creation of dark money political funding, the classification of campaign contributions as 'speech'. All of it to magnify the power, and increase their money. The ultra rich control the government, and it's gotten worse. Many, too many, of the previous administration's cabinet were rich people that *bought* their positions. And ambassadorships are routinely *sold* to rich donors too.

Money is the problem in American government. It pollutes the whole system. If anything the ultra rich NEED to be taxed more. Make it so they CAN'T *buy* the government they want. Their money warps the country. It touches most of what the government does. It's why we don't have universal healthcare, or a 'living wage'.
segulin
Tim Segulin 3
Unfortunately America's titular democracy will always remain a plutocracy unless all elections are publicly funded and private direct donations or work in kind become illegal. I don't expect this to ever happen because the moneyed interests and industrial lobbies who profit from purchasing influence over the US Federal and state governments will scream that their Constitutional rights would somehow be violated and quite likely a heavily politicized Supreme Court would find in their favor. Pity, but I think that;s just the way it is.
tongo
Dan Grelinger -2
Another "I want YOUR money! bastion of liberality" When will such cries of selfishness ever end?

If YOU'RE against money, then never have any. And be satisfied with it.
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 1
"When will such cries of selfishness ever end?"

When more people like Bill Gates' father start saying 'TAX US MORE!'

Bill Gates' very own father said, in public and LOUDLY, that the government should tax people like him more. He was serious too.

People like Betsy DeVos don't need 11 yachts. They don't need a 200,000 square foot 'cottage', and the certainly don't need the phone numbers of politicians on their phones so they can 'consult' on upcoming legislation, and support their warped version of democracy.

(While almost every other country was providing monetary support to their citizens, America wasn't)

The 1% are the selfish, and the 0.01% are ruthless about making sure that no one gets a slice of their pie. Do you know your enemy? I seriously doubt it. Tucker Carlson makes an 8 figure salary from Fox News to tell you to hate liberals, gays, women, minorities, and whoops up 'cancel culture', and how the rioters were somehow 'justified', and the election was 'stolen'.

He works very hard for his money. He is devoted to it, and he, and all like him are killing this country.

If you are so sure that the .01% of this country love you so much, go down to Mar-a-lago and tell trump he owes you a membership in his private club. You helped get him 'reelected', right? Be sure to let me know how that goes.

The working people in this country have helped put themselves UNDER the table, when before, they had a seat at it. Do you know your enemy?
VMGR352
"Scrapped". Chopped up, demo'd, parted out, recycled for metals?
VMGR352
Never mind. The general made about 40 grand on the metal.
marqurc
For those interested in reading the DoD report on this epic failure and when/how that happen, enjoy:

https://media.defense.gov/2013/Jan/31/2001712800/-1/-1/1/DODIG-2013-040.pdf
A6SEA
Bill Butler 1
It's one thing to move into the political arena to note a particular fact, reason, circumstance as to why a certain event occurred. But the hated and vilification that drips into this AVIATION! forum is really depressing. If you can't carry on a discussion calmly then please limit your attendance here to reading only.
jjt123
John Timms 1
Probably gonna get worse before it gets better. Sad.
I sat as a contractor oversee person while in th us military 40 yesrs ago. The things that went on you could righra book on. I saw food companirs being awarded contracts for sophisticated electronic systems that they had no idea about how they worked.
carste10
carste10 1
Just think of it as another form of foreign aid.

paulgilpin1953
paul gilpin 0
$549 million = rounding error
augerin
Dave Mathes 0
...is anyone on this forum really surprised?...
jbaugh3
john baugh -2
The Pentagon bought junk airplanes for an exorbitant price. They later bought factory new aircraft for the AFghan AIr Force and we paid the bill. This al happened during the Obama- Biden administration
treesor
Ted Reesor 4
Actually the article states that the planes were purchased in 2008. Wasn't that when Bush was president?
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 0
Nice try, Sparky...

This happened in 2008.

George W. Bush
43rd President of the United States
In office
January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009

'Dubya' was STILL PRESIDENT when this happened. Get your facts straight, genius...
tongo
Dan Grelinger 5
Nice try, Sparky2. The purchase order was written in 2008, but the program was determined to have failed by 2014. This article is about the prosecution that should have occurred as a result of the failure. When did it fail. Obama administration (Jan 2009 - Jan 2017)

"Get your facts straight, genius."
tipo159
Alan Perry 2
Try again:

“The Department of Justice accepted the cases for potential prosecution in 2016 but told SIGAR in May 2020 that both cases would be too difficult to prosecute successfully, the report said.”

Whose Justice Department accepted the case for potential prosecution? Whose Justice Department declined to prosecute?
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 0
Whose administration was staffed by full time prostitutes for industry? Ohh...

Trump!!!

Did he get a kickback? I'm not a betting man, but I'd say it's a safe bet he did, or Jared did...
tjhess74
thomas hess 0
I have pictures of myself standing next to these planes when I was there in 2011-2013. We knew back then why the planes were benched. If only people truly knew the amount of fraud, waste, and abuse that occurs overseas (and at home also), they would burn D.C. to the ground. It's all a huge waste.
RLMGR
Rod McNeil 0
TiredTom
Tom Bruce 0
AF took the planes so the army wouldn't get them...and then pulled them out of service...coast guard got some of them
staphory
Chris Phillips 1
Wrong program. That was the C27J program.
The Air Force had that plane and mission shoved down its throat. It got the C27J because that’s the aircraft the Army insisted upon. The C27J could not handle the mission and Lockheed and its Italian partners couldn’t supply spares in a timely manner.
The local air guard unit (186 ARW MSANG) got a few when their was supposed to change and had a very difficult time keeping the few that had airworthy.
TiredTom
Tom Bruce 1
isn't the coast guard using the C27J??? have 5 of them in Sacramento station?
GBCUA1K
Greg Cotten -1
Someone is saying.... fuhgeddaboudit!
jeliop
John Eliopoulos -4
Watchdogs are scumbags and traitors.
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 0
If we had more watch dogs, this wouldn't have ever happened.

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