Families can get their own sites for free, and keep them as long as the sponsor is on active duty. The nonprofit network, Websites for Heroes, is funded by donations from individuals and corporations.

The network is secure, password-protected and requires little bandwidth. Last year, when officials blocked access to some popular social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube on Defense Department computers, they cited the need to guarantee bandwidth availability for mission-critical functions.

Moseley was summoned to an early morning meeting with Mullen to discuss a report on the Air Force’s problems handling nuclear weapons. The report, by Navy Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of naval nuclear propulsion, convinced Defense Secretary Robert Gates that senior officials should be held accountable.

Moseley resigned in response.

At the same time, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England was dispatched to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to meet with Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne, sources said, where he was expected to ask for Wynne’s resignation.

It is not clear how quickly these changes could take effect, and other senior officers could still be relieved in the wake of the Donald report.

What do you think should happen in cases such as this? Criminal prosecution? Tell us what you think....

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A local woman said she was trying to buy time from creditors when she claimed her daughter died in the Air Force in Iraq.

A paid obituary appeared in The Post and Courier of Charleston earlier this month for Lt. Melissa Hope Grant.

Melanie Grant of North Charleston claimed to be the woman’s mother. But she now admits she made up the entire story. Grant said she thought creditors would give her a break if they knew her daughter died in the military.

The Post and Courier received the obit and a photograph from a local funeral home. The funeral home’s general manager said he never suspected anything unusual. He said two women claiming to be aunts of the deceased visited the home and gave him information.

Grant said neither woman is a relative, and the photo was from a bridal magazine.

WASHINGTON — Forty-one House members are calling on the Defense Department inspector general to investigate a public relations effort that relied on retired military officers to defend the Bush administration’s Iraq war policies.

“When the Department of Defense misleads the American people by having them believe that they are listening to the views of objective military analysts when in fact these individuals are simply replaying DoD talking points, the department is clearly betraying the public trust,” the lawmakers wrote in a joint letter to Defense Department Inspector General Claude M. Kicklighter on Friday.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who organized the letter, said it was important for the inspector general to find out how high-ranking officials within the Pentagon were allowed to operate a program aimed at deceiving the American people.

“Not only must the Inspector General now account for what it did and did not know about this state-sponsored propaganda effort, but they must also explain why, if they knew about the propaganda campaign, it was allowed to proceed,” DeLauro said. “Additionally, we are calling for the Inspector General to launch an investigation to ensure no detail surrounding this program remains hidden.”

Three other House democrats from Connecticut signed the letter: Reps. Joe Courtney, John Larson and Chris Murphy.

Retired officers who acted as military analysts for major news outlets were given plum access to the Pentagon, with regular briefings by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a sponsored trip to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

The lawmakers are seeking information on whether the inspector general investigated the program or senior officials involved in the program. The House members also want to know if the inspector general considers the program to be illegal.

The operation, which has been halted, was first reported by The New York Times.

The same investigation that revealed Air Force officials steered a $50 million Thunderbirds multimedia production contract to a well-connected company discovered other questionable deals by the 99th Contracting Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

The Defense Department inspector general’s nearly two-year investigation turned up evidence, including statements by squadron members, that:

å Private firms performed work before contracts were awarded;

å Contracting personnel backdated documents; and

å Officials eliminated competition for a favored vendor by funneling money to it through a Native Alaskan corporation, according to the IG report released April 17.

The IG subsequently launched in July a separate, more thorough audit of eight contracts worth $57.2 million awarded by the 99th Contracting Squadron between 2003 and 2005. The audit results will be released in late May, said IG spokesman Gary Comerford.

Comerford would not say how many of the contracts had irregularities, but the IG report includes evidence of potential problems with at least five contracts related to the Thunderbirds.

Air Force officials at the Pentagon declined to comment for this story, but a memo sent to reporters April 17 points out that senior leaders have taken many steps since 2005 to improve the contracting process. Those include requiring legal review of all source selection documentation and contract awards above $500,000; requiring all contract information be retained; warning Air Force contract officials to avoid conflict of interest and maintain impartiality; requiring clearance from Air Force acquisition headquarters if the senior MajCom contracting official is the source selection authority; providing more avenues for people to raise red flags if they see problems, and other measures.

Three Air Force personnel — including Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Goldfein, the vice director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon — were reprimanded in February for their roles in steering the $50 million contract, awarded in December 2005, to Strategic Message Solutions, a firm headed by Ed Shipley, a longtime friend of the Thunderbirds, and Gen. Hal Hornburg, who had retired Jan. 1, 2005, as commander of Air Combat Command.

The investigation into the multimedia contract expanded when evidence of problems with other contracts cropped up. It is not yet known whether the subsequent, broader audit will lead to more disciplinary action or criminal prosecution. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Las Vegas originally declined to prosecute in May 2007 because of lack of evidence, but the IG report notes that further evidence and documents have been obtained since then.

A closer look

One of the deals scrutinized by IG investigators was a $128,000 contract in 2004 to upgrade the sound system used at Thunderbird shows.

The contract drew investigators’ attention because it was awarded to Chugach McKinley, a Native Alaskan-owned firm, on Sept. 2, 2004, a day before the company even submitted a proposal for the project, according to the IG report.

Contracting personnel, whose names were blacked out of the IG report for privacy reasons, told investigators that Hornburg — who was then still ACC commander — and Brig. Gen. Gregory Ihde, then commander of the 57th Wing at Nellis, had wanted to give the work to Framework Sound, a California-based sound production studio that had done work for Nellis before but which had no direct ties to Air Force personnel. Ihde retired from the Air Force on Jan. 1, 2007.

Ken Dahlinger, Framework’s owner, told investigators an Air Force official informed him his company could not be awarded a sole-source contract because the amount was more than $100,000, according to the report.

Instead, Dahlinger told investigators, the contract would be awarded to Chugach McKinley, which could legally be awarded sole-source contracts of any size because it is a Native Alaskan-owned business. Chugach McKinley would then subcontract the work to Framework Sound, Dahlinger was told.

Framework performed the work and was paid $120,000 of the $128,000 contract amount, Dahlinger told investigators. Chugach McKinley kept the remaining $8,000 “for just shuffling papers and subcontracting the work,” according to the report.

A contracting officer with the 99th told investigators “that ... Ihde ... informed him that directions came down from General Hal Hornburg, the ACC Commander, to award the contract to the Alaska company to avoid competition.”

Dahlinger told investigators Ihde sent him an e-mail saying “the money was flowing through the Eskimo company.”

Dahlinger declined to discuss the contract with Air Force Times, saying only, “I didn’t do the funneling.”

Ihde did not return phone calls requesting comment and Hornburg declined to comment, but Ihde told investigators that neither he nor Hornburg played a role in awarding the contract to Chugach McKinley.

The report also says Tim Hopper, a retired Air Force colonel and former vice commander of the Air Warfare Center, “seemingly played a go-between role in the contract awarded to Chugach McKinley.” Hopper is president of Chugach Industries, a corporate sister company of Chugach McKinley.

Barney Uhart, president of Chugach Alaska Corp., the parent corporation of both companies, confirmed that Hopper brought the Air Force contract to Chugach and that the Air Force directed the company to subcontract the work to Framework Sound, but he said the company did nothing wrong.

“It was obvious to us that the Air Force was in a time crunch and requested assistance to meet their timeline,” he said in an e-mail, a reference to the Air Force’s desire to get the new sound system in for the next Thunderbirds season. “I have reviewed the IG’s report and am dismayed at some of the comments regarding Chugach’s performance ... on this contract. Had the IG’s office contacted Chugach during their investigation, we would have provided the documentation to support our participation.”

At least three smaller contracts awarded by the 99th Contacting Squadron showed irregularities, including companies performing work before contracts were awarded and backdating supporting documentation, according to the report.

Tuesday , April 22, 2008

CAIRO, Egypt —

The comments reflected the increasing criticism by Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri against Iran, which al-Zawahiri has accused in recent messages of seeking to extend its power in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and through its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

Al-Zawahiri spoke in a two-hour audiotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site, in which he replied to hundreds of questions submitted on the Internet by Al Qaeda sympathizers. One of the questioners asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 suicide airplane hijacking against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Zawahiri accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting the rumor. "The purpose of this lie is clear — (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.

"Iran's aim here is also clear — to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq," he added. Iran cooperated with the United States in the 2001 U.S. assault on Afghanistan that toppled Al Qaeda's allies, the Taliban.

Al Qaeda has previously claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, but al-Zawahiri's accusations of Iran in his answer underlined his increasing denunciations of Iran, which he did not often mention in past messages until recent months. The anti-Iranian rhetoric could reflect an attempt to exploit majority Sunnis' fears of Shiite Iran's influence in the region and depict Al Qaeda as the main force opposing it.

Answering questions about Iraq in Tuesday's tape, al-Zawahiri said the Iraqi insurgent umbrella group led by Al Qaeda, called the Islamic State of Iraq, is "the primary force opposing the Crusaders (the United States) and challenging Iranian ambitions" in Iraq.

As he often does in his messages, al-Zawahiri denounced the "Crusader invasion" of Iraq, referring to the Americans, but in Tuesday's tape he paired it with a mention of "Iranian complicity" or "Iranian agents."

The authenticity of the audio could not be independently confirmed. But the voice sounded like past audiotapes from the terror leader, and the posting where it was found bore the logo of Al-Sahab, Al Qaeda's official media arm. It was the second of two messages answering questions to al-Zawahiri that were posted to Islamic militant Web sites earlier this year.

In the latest tape, al-Zawahiri was also asked if the terror group still had plans to attack Western countries that participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and subsequent war. "My answer is: Yes! We think that any country joined aggression on Muslims must be deterred," he replied.

In response to a question signed by the Japanese news agency Kyodo asking if Japan remains a target because it once had troops in Iraq, al-Zawahiri said "Japan provided help under the banner of the crusader coalition ... therefore it participated in the Crusader campaign against the lands of Islam."

"Our Islamic faith urged us to resist the injustice and aggression even if they were the most powerful on earth. Should Japan take a lesson from this?" he said. Japan deployed non-combat troops to southern Iraq in 2003 to carry out reconstruction work. It withdrew its troops from Iraq in 2006 and now conducts airlifts to help supply U.S.-led forces in that country.

Al-Zawahiri spoke on a wide range of issues, even global warming — which he said reflected "how criminal, brutal and greedy the Western Crusader world is, with America at the top."

He predicted that global warming would "would make the world more sympathetic to and understanding of the Muslims' jihad (holy war) against the aggressor America."

Asked if there are any women in Al Qaeda, the terror leader answered simply: "No." In a follow-up answer, he said: "there are no women in Al Qaeda jihadi group, but the women of the mujahedeen are playing a heroic role in taking care of their houses and sons."

In several parts of Tuesday's audio message, Al-Zawahiri claimed that Taliban took over 95 percent of Afghanistan and is sweeping Pakistan as well.

"Residents of the provinces and various regions welcome the Taliban and urge them to come to purify their regions of corruption; this is the secret of Taliban quick deployment and gripping control of 95 percent of Afghanistan," he said.

"The Crusaders and their agents in Pakistan and Afghanistan are starting to fall," al-Zawahiri said.

In another answer Tuesday, al-Zawahiri said it was against Islamic religious law for any Muslim to live permanently in a Western country because in doing so they would "have permanent stay there under the laws of the infidels."

Al Qaeda's media arm, Al-Sahab, announced in December that al-Zawahiri would take questions from the public posted on Islamic militant Web sites and would respond "as soon as possible." Queries were submitted on the main Islamist Web site until the cutoff date of Jan. 16.

Col. Kenneth Sampson remembers fondly trudging through security checks with Afghan clerics at Bagram Air Base.

The U.S. Army chaplain knew the process could be tedious and even demeaning, so he made a point to tag along to provide moral support.

“I felt at the gut level that we were building bridges with fellow people of faith,” Sampson said. “I was wearing a cross on my helmet. I liked to think that the mullahs … could relate on some sort of spiritual level.”

Those same bonds sometimes put the chaplain in an uncomfortable spot.

“If you’re seen by the (U.S. Army) intelligence community as being in touch, they’re asking you, ‘Who are the leaders you’ve been talking to? Is this a good guy or a bad guy? What are your opinions about so-and-so?’ ” Sampson recalled. “I drew the line early on. I was not going to give that kind of information.”

Military chaplains increasingly do more than counsel young troops bound for combat, pray over the wounded and hold memorial services for the dead.

Today a chaplain is just as likely to break bread with local clerics or give a commanding officer advice about local culture and theology — perhaps about the exalted status of a particular detainee. But as those clergy become conduits of information about the battlefield, their standing as non-combatants becomes clouded.

Chaplains are seen by the U.S. military as a largely untapped resource — a cadre of people schooled in the ways of faith and better able to extend olive branches to local leaders than their combat-oriented comrades.

The temptation to use them as tactical assets is especially strong in Iraq and Afghanistan, where religious leadership so often trumps all other rank.

Army Capt. Masaki Nakazono recalls serving as a chaplain in Iraq and sitting down in 2006 with Subhi Al Hiti, a renowned Muslim scholar in the town of Hit. Before the meeting, the religious elder had viewed American troops with a jaundiced eye. But by the end of a talk with Nakazono, in which the American chaplain made an earnest argument that the soldiers meant to help Iraqis, the old man was tearing up.

“With two men of God,” the chaplain said, “there’s more openness and honesty because of the level of respect. … After that he was at least a non-factor in helping the insurgency.”

The Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth has prepared a handbook that emphasizes the advantages of enlisting chaplains as part of the effort to win over the hearts and minds of civilians, particularly in the Muslim world. It also deals frankly with the hazards that can come if chaplains are misused. It warns against chaplains acting as free-lancing diplomats, and warns against their commanders compromising the clergy by turning them into accidental intelligence officers.

“Our enemy has said this is a religious war, so the chaplain is being pulled into a different role,” said Col. Steven Mains, the director of the Leavenworth center. “They have been able to sit down with imams and sheikhs and have relationships that would take the commander many more visits.”

The center’s handbook cites an instance in 2003, in the early stages of the Iraq war after the relatively drawn-out fight for Nasiriyah.

“Local leadership bypassed senior officers and went straight to the chaplain,” the handbook notes. “The (Army) interpreter explained that the local leadership approached the chaplain because he was the one wearing the cross and therefore clearly in charge.”

The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins, a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.

It was published by the university's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center.

"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," says the report's opening line.

A high-ranking Air Force official involved in a controversy that included a local company was found dead Sunday at his Virginia home.

Charles D. Riechers, 47, principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisitions, was found dead of an apparent suicide, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. The Post said an Air Force memo said the cause of death was unknown pending an autopsy, but there were no obvious signs of foul play.

Riechers was the subject of an Oct. 1 article in The Washington Post examining his employment at Richland Township-based Commonwealth Research Institute, a nonprofit that conducted intelligence work for the Air Force. CRI is a subsidiary of Concurrent Technologies Corp.

The story said that, last year, while waiting to be confirmed for his current position, the Air Force arranged a job for Riechers at CRI but said he did not work for the firm. Instead, Riechers said he worked for Sue C. Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition.

CTC Vice President Ed Sheehan told The Tribune-Democrat when the story broke that Riechers was working through CRI on a project of “a sensitive nature’’ for a “final deliverable (product)” to the Air Force. In that sense, Sheehan maintained, Riechers was working for the Air Force.

The Post article said Riechers, who spent two months as a senior technical adviser for CRI, earned $26,788 between late November and the end of January. The story raised concerns among contracting experts about the arrangement as well as the nonprofit status of CRI and CTC.

The Post said an anonymous source said Riechers came under pressure last week over a procurement program he oversaw to provide maintenance for a fleet of refueling tankers.