U.S. AIR FORCE NATIONAL GUARD HISTORICAL PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. AIR NATIONAL GUARD
An F-106 Delta Dart of the 144th Fighter Interceptor Wing fires a Genie air-to-air missile at the William Tell aerial gunnery competition at Tyndall AFB, Florida, 1980.

An Air National Guard F-86D/L interceptor fires its 2.75-inch "Mighty Mouse" rockets. Jet fighters closing with jet bombers at over 1,000 miles per hour at night or in bad weather could not count on hitting their target with machine guns, even with the aid of radar and early computers. Before the advent of guided air-to-air missiles, many U.S. interceptor types were armed with unguided rockets fired in large salvos in an effort to increase the probability of a hit.

 

RECENT U.S. NAVY PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. NAVY
120922-N-KF309-027 BAY OF BENGAL (Sept. 22, 2012) Sailors assigned to Riverine Squadron 2 (RIVRON) 2 and Bangladesh navy sailors assigned to Special Warfare Diving and Salvage Command (SWADS) ride in a rigid-hull inflatable boat during a non-compliant boarding exercise. SWADS and RIVRON 2 are participating in Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral military exercises between the U.S. Navy and the armed forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Clay Doss/Released)

120922-N-KF309-015 BAY OF BENGAL (Sept. 22, 2012) A Bangladesh navy sailor from Special Warfare Diving and Salvage Command (SWADS) sweeps the deck during a non-compliant boarding exercise aboard the Bangladesh navy shore patrol vessel BNS Sangu (P-713) along with Sailors assigned to Riverine Squadron (RIVRON) 2 and Marines assigned to Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team Pacific (FASTPAC). SWADS, RIVRON 2, FASTAC and BNS Sangu are participating in Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2012. CARAT is a series of bilateral military exercises between the U.S. Navy and the armed forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Clay Doss/Released)

COMMANDER OF NATO FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN PRAISES SURGE

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Allen: Surge Bought Time for Afghan Forces to Grow, Mature
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2012 - The goal of the just-completed U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan was not to defeat the Taliban, but to provide Afghan security forces the time needed to develop, the commander of NATO forces in the country said today.

And, Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen added, it succeeded.

Allen spoke to NBC's Lester Holt this morning and stressed the coalition campaign in Afghanistan has allowed Afghan soldiers and police to develop their capabilities.

The sacrifices made by coalition service members have given Afghan national security forces, "the wherewithal, ultimately, to create security in this country so that governance can take root, the rule of law can be embraced and economic opportunity and development can move forward," Allen said.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced Sept. 21 that the drawdown of the 30,000 additional U.S. forces deployed as part of the surge was complete. From January 2010 to today, officials said, the Afghan government has added 85,000 more soldiers to the ranks and 50,000 police. Seventy-seven percent of Afghan army units are rated in the top three levels of capability, up from 52 percent in 2010, officials added. The gains for police -- a boost from 47 percent to 59 percent – are not as dramatic, they acknowledged, but they noted that the police had farther to go to reach that capability level.

But the threat of insider attacks remains in Afghanistan, Allen said, and it has his full attention.

"We're going to work as ... hard as we possibly can, around the clock, to understand the problem," he told Holt. "And I think we've got a good grip on it now."

Eliminating the threat will require close cooperation with Afghan government partners, he said. "See, the Taliban, in infiltrating the ranks of the [Afghan security forces], recognize that this is an opportunity for them to try to split us apart," the general said. "We're going to work very hard to prevent that from happening."

Allen said he probably will recommend bringing more American troops home from Afghanistan, and that he expects to make his recommendation to U.S. leaders before the end of the year once his evaluations of the situation are complete.

"I'll evaluate the nature of the insurgency," he said. "I'll evaluate the progress that we have made with the Afghan national security forces. We'll look at the operational environment we think we'll face in 2013. And the combination of all of those will permit me to make a recommendation."

A DEDICATED SOLDIER: OVERCOMING INJUREIES TO CONTINUE TO SERVE

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Army Sgt. Matthew Maddox reviews operational reports with another soldier in eastern Afghanistan, Sept. 21, 2012. Maddox is on his second deployment with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Alisha Gredzlik

Face of Defense: Soldier Overcomes Injuries to Continue Serving
By Army Spc. Alisha Gredzlik
115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Sept. 24, 2012 - For Army Sgt. Matthew Maddox, 9/11 brings memories of his fifth-grade music class, where he first heard the news that would begin his path toward the Army.

Eleven years after those attacks, Maddox is serving his second tour in Afghanistan. But his journey has not been easy.

Maddox joined the Army when he was 17, and left for training just a month after graduating from high school.

"I had my mind made up," he said. "This was what I had wanted to do since the fifth grade -- since 9/11."

After basic training, Maddox was assigned to Vicenza, Italy, at the headquarters of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. In late 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan. After six months, he headed home to California on mid-tour leave, never suspecting that he would not return to finish his tour. On May 26, 2010, at his home in Wallace, Calif., Maddox was run over by a grading tractor.

"I broke my left tibia, left femur, pelvis, tailbone, right orbital eye socket and suffered nerve damage to my right leg," Maddox said. "I couldn't walk for three months."

He spent the next 18 months recuperating in California on "hospital status," still in the Army, but at home working on a full recovery. Yet it was nowhere near the end of his military career.

On Jan. 3, 2011, Maddox reported back to Italy for a medical evaluation board. Instead of leaving the Army, he fought to extend his service and deploy again with the unit. After 18 months of rehabilitation and fighting for a spot in the fires platoon, Maddox finds himself on his second deployment to Afghanistan with the 173rd to settle what he calls unfinished business.

"I wanted to come back and finish a whole deployment. That was my personal goal. I wanted to finish what I started," he said.

Now serving as a fire support specialist in Afghanistan, Maddox tracks the status of the 173rd's artillery and mortar systems and their fire missions across two provinces. As a newly promoted sergeant with four soldiers working for him, he has to ensure their success as well as his own.

His enlistment will come to a close at the end of this deployment, but Maddox said he still sees a future with the military and plans to retire with the Army.

"When I get home I am joining the California National Guard, and I am going to apply for the California Highway Patrol to follow in my father's footsteps," he said.

Having rebuilt himself from the ground up, Maddox retains a positive attitude that he passes along to other soldiers.

"If you take pride in what you do and feel like there is more for you to accomplish, then it is worth it," he said. "It is an experience everyone should endure. I have no regrets."

SENATOR CARL LEVIN'S STATEMENT ON OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS

FROM: U.S. SENATOR CARL LEVIN'S WEBSITE:
Opening Statement at PSI Hearing: Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code

Thursday, September 20, 2012

America stands on the edge of a fiscal cliff. This challenge lends new urgency to a topic this subcommittee has long investigated: how U.S. citizens and corporations have used loopholes and gimmicks to avoid paying taxes. This subcommittee has demonstrated in hearings and comprehensive reports how various schemes have helped shift income to offshore tax havens and avoid U.S. taxes. The resulting loss of revenue is one significant cause of the budget deficit, and adds to the tax burden that ordinary Americans bear.

U.S. multinational corporations benefit from the security and stability of the U.S. economy, the productivity and expertise of U.S. workers and the strength of U.S. infrastructure to develop enormously profitable products here in the United States. But, too often, too many of these corporations use complex structures, dubious transactions and legal fictions to shift the profits from those products overseas, avoiding the taxes that help support our security, stability and productivity.

The share of federal tax revenue contributed by corporations has plummeted in recent decades. That places an additional burden on other taxpayers. The massive offshore profit shifting that is taking place today is doubly problematic in an era of dire fiscal crisis. Budget experts across the ideological spectrum are unified in their belief than any serious attempt to address the deficit must include additional federal revenue. Federal revenue, as a share of our economy, has plummeted to historic lows – about 15 percent of GDP, compared to a historic average of roughly 19 percent. The Simpson-Bowles report sets a goal for federal revenue at 21 percent of GDP.

The fact that we are today so far short of that goal is, in part, due to multinational corporations avoiding U.S. taxes by shifting their profits offshore.

More than 50 years ago, President Kennedy warned that "more and more enterprises organized abroad by American firms have arranged their corporate structures aided by artificial arrangements … which maximize the accumulation of profits in the tax haven … in order to reduce sharply or eliminate completely their tax liabilities." So this problem is not new.

But it has gotten worse, far worse. What is the result? Today, U.S. multinational corporations have stockpiled $1.7 trillion in earnings offshore.

It is not a pretty picture. It’s unacceptable. Today we will try to shine a light on some of the transactions and gimmicks that multinationals use to shift income overseas, exploiting tax loopholes and an ineffective regulatory framework.

We will examine the actions of two U.S. companies – Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard – as case studies of how U.S. multinational corporations, first, exploit the weaknesses in tax and accounting rules and lax enforcement; second, effectively bring those profits to the United States while avoiding taxes; and third, artificially improve the appearance of their balance sheets.

The first step in shifting profits offshore takes place when a U.S. company games the transfer pricing process to sell or license valuable assets that it developed in the United States to its subsidiary in a low tax jurisdiction for a price that is lower than fair market value. Under U.S. tax rules, a subsidiary must pay "arm’s length" prices for these assets, but valuing assets such as intellectual property is complex, so it’s hard to know what an unrelated third party would pay. These transactions transfer valuable intellectual property to wholly owned subsidiaries. Multinational companies and the legions of economists and tax lawyers advising them take full advantage of this situation to set an artificially low sale price to minimize the U.S. parent company’s taxable income. The result is that the profits from assets developed in the United States are shifted to subsidiaries in tax havens and other low tax jurisdictions.

It is generally accepted that the transfer pricing process is widely abused and has resulted in significant revenue loss to the U.S. government. In a 2010 report, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation wrote that a "principal tax policy concern is that profits may be artificially inflated in low-tax countries and depressed in high-tax countries through aggressive transfer pricing that does not reflect an arms-length result from a related-party transaction."

Here is a chart depicting Microsoft’s transfer pricing agreements with two of its main offshore groups. As we can see from the chart, in 2011 these two offshore groups paid Microsoft $4 billion for certain intellectual property rights; Microsoft Singapore paid $1.2 billion, and Microsoft Ireland $2.8 billion. But look what those offshore subsidiaries received in revenue for those same rights: Microsoft Singapore group received $3 billion; and Microsoft Ireland, $9 billion. So Microsoft USA sold the rights for $4 billion and these offshore subsidiaries collected $12 billion. This means Microsoft shifted $8 billion in income offshore. Yet, over 85% of Microsoft’s research and development is conducted in the United States.

Another maneuver by Microsoft deserves attention: its transfer pricing agreement with a subsidiary in Puerto Rico. Generally, transfer pricing agreements involve the rights of offshore subsidiaries to sell the assets in foreign countries. The U.S. parent generally continues to own the economic rights for the United States, sell the related products here, collect the income here, and pay taxes here. However, in the case of Microsoft, it has devised a way to avoid U.S. taxes even on a large portion of the profit it makes from sales here in the United States.

Microsoft sells the rights to market its intellectual property in the Americas (which includes the U.S.) to Microsoft Puerto Rico. Microsoft in the U.S. then buys back from Microsoft Puerto Rico the distribution rights for the United States. The U.S. parent buys back a portion of the rights it just sold.

Why did Microsoft do this? Because under the distribution agreement, Microsoft U.S. agrees to pay Microsoft Puerto Rico a certain percentage of the sales revenues it receives from distributing Microsoft products in the United States. Last year, 47% of Microsoft’s sales proceeds in the U.S. were shifted to Puerto Rico under this arrangement. The result? Microsoft U.S. avoids U.S. taxes on 47 cents of each dollar of sales revenue it receives from selling its own products right here in this country. The product is developed here. It is sold here, to customers here. And yet Microsoft pays no taxes here on nearly half the income. By routing its activity through Puerto Rico in this way, Microsoft saved over $4.5 billion in taxes on goods sold in the United States during the three years surveyed by the Subcommittee. That’s $4 million a day in taxes Microsoft isn’t paying.

It’s also important to note that Microsoft’s U.S. parent paid significantly more for just the U.S. rights to this property than it received from the Microsoft Puerto Rico for a much broader package of rights.

That’s the first step: shifting assets and profits out of the U.S. to a low tax jurisdiction. Next, we move to a second realm of tax alchemy, featuring structures and transactions that require a suspension of disbelief to be accepted.

Once again, the basic rule is pretty straightforward. If a company earns income from an active business activity offshore, it owes no U.S. tax until the income is returned to the United States. This is known as deferral. However, as established under Subpart F of the tax code, deferral is not permitted for passive, inherently mobile income such as royalty, interest, or dividend income. Subpart F should result in a significant tax bill for a U.S. parent company’s offshore income. Once the offshore subsidiaries acquire the rights to the assets, they sublicense those rights and collect license fees or royalties from their lower tier related entities – exactly the kind of passive income that is subject to U.S. tax under the anti-deferral provision of Subpart F. But this straightforward principle has been defeated by regulations, exclusions, temporary statutory changes and gimmicks by multinational corporations, and by weak enforcement by the IRS.

On January 1, 1997, the Treasury Department implemented the so-called "check-the-box" regulations, which allow a business enterprise to declare what type of legal entity it wanted to be considered for federal tax purposes by simply checking a box. This opened the floodgates for the U.S. multinational corporations trying to get around the taxation of passive income under Subpart F. They could set up their offshore operations so that an offshore subsidiary which holds the company’s valuable assets could receive passive income such as royalty payments and dividends from other subsidiaries and still defer the U.S. taxes owed on them.

The loss to the U.S. Treasury is enormous. During its current investigation, the Subcommittee has learned that for Fiscal Years 2009, 2010 and 2011, Apple has been able to defer taxes on over $35.4 billion in offshore passive income covered by Subpart F. Google has deferred over $24.2 billion in the same period. For Microsoft, the number is $21 billion.

In March 1998, a little over a year after it issued the check the box regulations, the Treasury Department issued a proposed regulation to end the check the box option. The proposal was met with such opposition from Congress and industry groups that it was never adopted. In 2006, in response to corporate pressure to protect this lucrative tax gimmick, Congress enacted the "Look through Rule for Related CFCs," which excludes certain passive income, including interest, rents and royalties, from Subpart F. This provision is currently up for extension.

Now we come to a third level of tax gimmickry. After multinational corporations transfer their assets and profits offshore and place them in a complex network of offshore structures to shelter them from U.S. taxes, some still want to bring those earnings back to the United States without paying taxes.

A U.S. parent is supposed to be taxed on any profits that its offshore subsidiaries send to it. If a foreign subsidiary loans money to a related U.S. entity, that money also is subject to U.S. taxes.

But once again, that simple concept is subverted in practice. The tax code includes a number of exclusions and limitations in the rule governing loans. Short term loans are excluded if they are repaid within 30 days, as are all loans made over the course of a year if they are outstanding for less than 60 days in total. This exclusion allows offshore profits to be used for short term lending – no matter how large the amount – without being subject to U.S. tax.

What’s more, if a CFC makes a loan to a related U.S. entity that is initiated and concluded before the end of the CFC’s quarter, the loan is not subject to the 30 day limit, and doesn’t count against the aggregate 60 day limit for the fiscal year. In addition, the IRS declared that the limitations on the length of loans apply separately to each CFC of a company. So when aggregated, all loans for all CFCs could be outstanding for more than 60 days in total.

Companies have used these loopholes to orchestrate a constant stream of loans from their own CFCs without ever exceeding the 30 and 60 day limits or extending over the end of a CFC’s quarter. Instead of being a mechanism to ensure taxes are paid for offshore profits returned to the U.S., the rule has become a blueprint on how to get billions of dollars back into the U.S. tax free.

Take a look at Hewlett-Packard. It has used a loan program to return offshore profits back to the United States since as early as 2003-2004. In 2008, Hewlett-Packard started a new loan program called the "staggered" or "alternating" loan program. Funding for the loans came mainly from two H-P sources, or pools: the Belgian Coordination Center ("BCC") and the Compaq Cayman Holding Corp ("CCHC"). The loans from these two offshore entities helped fund HP’s general operations in the U.S, including payroll and repurchases of HP stock.

HP documents indicate that the lending by these two entities was essential for funding U.S. operations, because HP did not have adequate cash in the U.S. to run its operations. In 2009, HP held $12.5 billion in foreign cash and only $0.8 billion in U.S. cash and projected that in the following year that it would hold $17.4 billion in foreign cash and only $0.4 billion in U.S. cash.

The loan program was designed to enable Hewlett-Packard to orchestrate a series of back to back to back to back loans to the U.S. and provide a continuous stream of offshore profits to the United States without paying U.S. taxes. In fact, Hewlett-Packard even changed the fiscal year and quarter ends of one of the lending entities. That way, there could be a continuous flow of loans through the whole year without extending over the quarter end of either of the lending entities.

Just look at the loan schedule that was outlined in a Hewlett-Packard document. Every single day is covered by a loan from a CFC. In FY 2010, for example, HP’s U.S. operations borrowed between $6 and $9 billion, primarily from BCC and CCHC, without interruption throughout the first three quarters. There does not appear to be a gap of even a single day during that period where the loaned funds of either BCC or CCHC were not present in the U.S. A similar pattern of continuous lending appears for most of the period between 2008 through 2011.

And what were the loans used for? One Hewlett-Packard power point characterized the loan program as "the most important source of liquidity for repurchases and acquisitions." That doesn’t sound like a short term loan program. It was closely coordinated by the Hewlett-Packard Treasury and Tax Departments to systematically and continually fund Hewlett-Packard’s U.S. operations with billions of dollars each year since 2008, and likely before that. This loan program is the ultimate example of form over substance. In fact, this is so blatant that internal Hewlett-Packard documents openly referred to this program as part of its "repatriation history" and a "repatriation strategy" – contrary to the notion that this was a short-term loan program.

This scheme mocks the notion that profits of U.S. multinationals are "locked up" or "trapped" offshore. Rather, some of them have effectively and systematically been bringing those offshore profits back by the billions for years through loan schemes like the one described here, and doing so without paying taxes.

The IRS has stated that the substance – not just the form - of offshore loans should be reviewed. So it will also be interesting to hear from the IRS about this loan scheme, and from H-P’s auditors at Ernst & Young who approved it.

The subcommittee has examined a fourth level of offshore shenanigans. It involves an accounting standard known as APB 23, which among other things addresses how U.S. multinationals should account for taxes they will have to pay when they repatriate the profits currently held by their offshore subsidiaries.

Under APB 23, when corporations hold profits offshore, they are required to account on their financial statements for the future tax bill they would face if they repatriate those funds. Doing so would result in a big hit to earnings. But companies can avoid this requirement and claim an exemption if they assert that the offshore earnings are permanently or indefinitely reinvested offshore. Multinationals routinely make such an assertion to investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission on their financial reports.

And yet, many multinationals have at the same time launched a massive lobbying effort, promising to bring these billions of offshore dollars back to the United States if they are granted a "repatriation holiday," a large tax break for bringing offshore funds to the United States. On the one hand, these companies assert they intend to indefinitely or permanently invest this money offshore. Yet they promise, on the other hand, to bring it home as soon as Congress grants them a tax holiday. That’s not any definition of "permanent" that I understand.

While this may seem like an obscure matter, it is a major issue for U.S. multinational corporations. A 2010 survey of nearly 600 tax executives reported that "60 percent of the respondents indicate that they would consider bringing more cash back to the U.S. even if it meant incurring the U.S. cash taxes upon repatriation, if their company had to record financial accounting tax expense on those earnings regardless of whether they repatriate."

In 2011, more than 1,000 U.S. multinationals claimed this exemption in their SEC filings, reporting more than $1.5 trillion in money that they say is or is intended to be reinvested offshore.

This build up has started to create some problems for many companies. With such a large percentage of their earnings offshore – and a lot of those designated as indefinitely reinvested - they need to figure out ways to finance operations here in the United States without drawing on those earnings. But as the amount of earnings stashed overseas has reached $1.5 trillion, and the need for financing grows back home, there is a real question whether companies can continue to defend their assertions that they have legitimate plans and the intent to continue to indefinitely reinvest those funds, and billions and billions more, overseas.

This situation is also creating a dilemma for their auditors, who sign off on those assertions and plans. In one document, an auditor at Ernst & Young wrote to a colleague:

"Under the APB 23 exception, clients are presumed to repatriate foreign earnings but do not need to provide deferred taxes on those foreign earnings that are ‘indefinitely or permanently reinvested.’ … If Congress enacts a similar law and companies repatriate earnings that it previously had needed to be permanently reinvested in foreign operations, what effect does that second repatriation have on a future assertion that any remaining earnings are indefinitely or permanently reinvested. An assertion of indefinite or permanent investment until Congress changes the law allowing cheaper repatriation again doesn't sound permanent."

The issue he raises isn’t theoretical. Another chart provided by one of the expert witnesses we will hear from today shows what happened to the indefinitely re-invested earnings of the S&P 500 companies after the repatriation holiday was passed in 2004. It shows that the total amount of permanently re-invested earnings declined by $84 billion after the repatriation bill passed. Then, as soon as the repatriation period ended, the total amount of offshore earnings these companies claimed as permanently or indefinitely reinvested skyrocketed again – increasing by 20 % or more in almost every year since 2005.

What does that say about the true intent of those companies? To me, it says this money isn’t held offshore for permanent reinvestment. It’s there to avoid taxes.

Yet, the auditors who must pass off on the validity of a company’s assertion, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have appeared to go along.

This is an issue we will discuss with them today.

The bottom line of our investigation is that some multinationals use our current tax system to engage in shams and gimmicks to avoid paying the taxes they owe. It is a system that multinationals have used to shift billions of dollars of profit offshore, and avoid billions of dollars in U.S. taxes, to their enormous benefit. Who are the losers in this shell game? There are many:
The U.S. government, which provides the services and security that help many of those multinational corporations grow and prosper, and then watches them shift their profits offshore to avoid paying taxes;
Other citizens and business who must shoulder a greater tax burden;
domestic industries that do not exploit the tax code to shift profits offshore and avoid U.S. taxes;
the integrity and viability of our tax system.
So today we will take a detailed look at how this system works, the legal contortions on which it is based, its gimmicks and charades, and hopefully, we'll generate some enthusiasm to fix it.

BIG GAME OUTFITTER CONVICTED OF BAITING FOR ELK AND DEER WITH SALT

Photo:  Bull Elk.  Credit:  Wikimedia.
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, September 20, 2012

Colorado Big Game Outfitter Convicted of Six Lacey Act Violations

WASHINGTON – Big game hunting outfitter Dennis Eugene Rodebaugh, 72, of Meeker, Colo., was convicted by a federal jury in Denver today of six charges of violating the Lacey Act, announced the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

According to the indictment, Rodebaugh operated a Colorado big game outfitting business called "D&S Guide and Outfitter" beginning in 1988, offering multi-day elk and deer hunts to many non-resident clients in the White River National Forest for between $1,200 and $1,600. The indictment alleged that each summer between 2002 and 2007, the defendant outfitted numerous clients, on hunts in which deer and elk were shot from tree stands near which Rodebaugh placed hundreds of pounds of salt each spring and summer as bait. The placement and use of bait to aid in the taking of big game is unlawful in Colorado. The interstate sale of big game outfitting and guiding services for the unlawful taking of big game with the aid of bait constitutes a felony violation of the Lacey Act.

Each of the six felony counts on which the defendant was convicted carries a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine. Rodebaugh also agreed to forfeit two all terrain vehicles and a utility trailer used in the commission of the six Lacey Act crimes.

This case was investigated by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney J. Ronald Sutcliffe and Trial Attorney Mark Romley, of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

REMARKS AT THE CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE

Remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative

16 CONVICTED OF COMMITTING FEDERAL HATE CRIMES PEPETRATED ON AMISH PERSONS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, September 20, 2012

Jury Convicts 16 Defendants on Federal Hate Crimes Charges for Religiously-Motivated Assaults on Members of Amish Community

A jury in Cleveland today convicted 16 people, all residents of Ohio, of federal hate crimes arising out of a series of religiously-motivated assaults on practitioners of the Amish religion, the Justice Department announced.

The convictions stem from a series of separate hate-crime assaults that occurred in four Ohio counties between September and November 2011. In each assault, defendants forcibly removed beard and head hair from practitioners of the Amish faith with whom they had ongoing religious disputes. In three of these hate-crime assaults, defendants invaded the homes of these practitioners and restrained their movements while shearing their hair, causing pain and other physical injuries. The manner in which Amish men wear their beards and Amish women wear their hair are symbols of their faith, according to trial testimony.

Samuel Mullet Sr., 66; Johnny S. Mullet, 39; Daniel S. Mullet, 38; Levi F. Miller, 54; Eli M. Miller, 32; Emanuel Shrock, age unknown; Lester Miller, 37; Anna Miller, age unknown; Linda Shrock, age unknown; Emma J. Miller, age unknown; Kathryn Miller, age unknown; and Lovina Miller, age 32, all of Bergholz, Ohio; Raymond Miller, 27; Freeman Burkholder, 31; Elizabeth A. Miller, age unknown; and Kathryn Miller, age unknown, all from Irondale, Ohio; and Lester Mullet, 27, of Hammondsville, Ohio, were found guilty of conspiring to violate the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which prohibits any person from willfully causing bodily injury to any person, or attempting to do so by use of a dangerous weapon, because of the actual or perceived religion of that person.

The jury also convicted various groups of defendants with four hate crime counts against eight specific victims, and found that such hate crimes involved kidnapping. The jury also convicted Samuel Mullet Sr., Lester Mullet and Eli Miller with concealing or attempting to conceal various items of tangible evidence. Finally, the jury also convicted Sam Mullet of making false statements to the FBI.

Judge Dan Aaron Polster scheduled a sentencing hearing on Jan. 24, 2013. The defendants face terms of up to life in prison.

"The violent and offensive actions of these defendants, which were aimed at beliefs and symbols held sacred by this country's Amish citizens, are an affront to religious freedom and tolerance, which are core values protected by our Constitution and our civil rights laws," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Those laws prohibit the use of violence to settle religious differences and the Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division will vigorously enforce those laws."

Samuel Mullet Sr., is the Bishop of the Amish community in Bergholz, Ohio, while the remaining defendants are all members of that community. Mullet Sr., exerted control over the Bergholz community by taking the wives of other men into his home, and by overseeing various means of disciplining community members, including corporal punishment, according to trial testimony.

As a result of religious disputes with other members of the Ohio Amish community, the defendants planned and carried out a series of assaults on their perceived religious enemies. The assaults involved the use of hired drivers, either by the defendants or the alleged victims, because practitioners of the Amish religion do not operate motor vehicles. The assaults all entailed using scissors and battery-powered clippers to forcibly cut or shave the beard hair of the male victims and the head hair of the female victims, according to the indictment.

During each assault, the defendants restrained and held down the victims. During some of the assaults, the defendants injured individuals who attempted to intervene to protect or rescue the victims. Following the attacks, some of the defendants participated in discussions about concealing photographs and other evidence of the assaults, according to evidence presented at trial.

"From day one, this case has been about the rule of law and defending the right of people to worship in peace," said Steven Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "Our nation was founded on the bedrock principle that everyone is free to worship how they see fit. Violent attempts to attack this most basic freedom have no place in our country."

"This case is an excellent example of cooperation between the many law enforcement agencies that investigated these crimes, along with the prosecution team from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice," said Stephen Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI – Cleveland Field Office. "The FBI is committed to investigating hate crimes, including those perpetrated against people motivated by bias toward religion as in this case, or other areas protected by our civil rights statutes."

This case was investigated by the Cleveland Division of the FBI and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Getz and Bridget M. Brennan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio and Deputy Chief Kristy Parker of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The prosecutor’s and sheriff’s offices from Holmes, Carroll and Jefferson counties also provided significant assistance in the investigation and prosecution of this case.

UNITAS ATLANTIC 2012

FROM: U.S. NAVY
120921-N-QG393-186 PEARL HARBOR (Sept. 21, 2012) The guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for a 10-month deployment to the western Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tiarra Fulgham/Released)

120921-N-ZE938-060 CARIBBEAN SEA (Sept. 21, 2012) The Mexican patrol ship ARM Independencia (PO-163), foreground, at sea with the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely (DDG 107) and the British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dauntless (D-33) during a drone exercise for UNITAS Atlantic 2012. UNITAS Atlantic 2012 is an annual naval exercise hosted by Fourth Fleet and consists of naval forces from 13 different partner nations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Frank J. Pikul/Released)

STRONG AS STEEL BUT, LIGHT AS PLASTI: U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense.

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Combined Force Kills 2 Insurgents, Seizes HeroinCompiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2012 - An Afghan and coalition security force killed two insurgents and seized several pounds of heroin during an operation in search of a Taliban leader in the Zharay district of Afghanistan's Kandahar province today, military officials reported.

As the security force approached the Taliban leader's suspected location, an armed group of insurgents displayed hostile intent toward the Afghan and coalition troops, officials said. The security force identified the lethal threat and engaged, killing two insurgents.

The security force also detained four suspected insurgents and seized a firearm as a result of the operation, officials said.

Officials said no civilians were harmed during the operation.

In other operations today:

-- An Afghan-led, coalition-supported force detained some suspects during an operation to arrest a Taliban leader in the Zharay district of Kandahar province. The Taliban leader is suspected of being a specialist in the use of improvised explosive devices and is linked to IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

-- An Afghan-led, coalition-supported force detained some suspects and seized firearms and ammunition during an operation to arrest a Haqqani leader in the Khost district of Khost province. The Haqqani leader is linked to IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout the region.

In operations yesterday:

-- A combined force arrested a senior Taliban weapons dealer, killed an armed insurgent, detained two suspects and seized firearms in the Talah wa Barfak district of Baghlan province. The detained weapons dealer was a senior Taliban leader in the district's insurgent network and arranged the purchase and distribution of rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and explosives.

-- Afghan special police detained two suspects and recovered a machine gun, ammunition and two chest rigs in the Narhin district of Baghlan province.

-- A combined force killed two armed insurgents, including the leader of a Taliban attack cell, during a precision airstrike in the Sayyidabad district of Wardak province.

-- An Afghan-led, coalition-supported force arrested a Taliban IED expert and four other suspects in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province.

-- In the same district, a combined force detained a suspect during an operation to arrest a Taliban leader.

-- Afghan Special Police and coalition forces seized IED-making materials, a motorcycle intended for use in a suicide IED attack, a machine gun, grenades and ammunition in the Shinkai district of Zabul province.

-- A combined force detained four suspects and seized several firearms and IED-making components during a search for a senior Taliban leader in the Waghaz district of Ghazni province. The Taliban leader is believed to be responsible for IED attacks and suicide operations throughout the Waghaz district, as well as commanding dozens of insurgent fighters.

In Sept. 22 operations:

-- Recruits under supervision of Afghan Local Police and coalition forces killed a number of enemy insurgents in Shaghowlay village, located in the Qara Bagh district. The police recruits and coalition forces were fired upon while conducting a patrol through the village. After repelling the attack, the Afghan police met with a local religious leader, who indicated the Taliban had been using a local mosque as a staging area for attacks. Upon inspection, the police found two rocket-propelled grenades and a motorcycle near the mosque. An additional search yielded two assault rifles, a machine gun, two grenades and loose ammunition. There were no civilian causalities during the engagement.

-- Afghan Special Police and coalition forces recovered weapons and narcotics in separate operations in Nimroz province. The first operation, in the Zaranji district, resulted in the seizure of 1,250 pounds of dry opium and ammonium nitrate, a banned fertilizer insurgents use to make explosives. In the Chakhansr district, an Afghan-led force recovered 1,234 pounds of opium, 230 pounds of heroin and a machine gun. The combined force also detained two people suspected of moving weapons and narcotics across southern Afghanistan. All of the drugs were destroyed.

-- In the Gardez district of Paktia province, a combined force arrested a Haqqani network weapons dealer, detained other suspects, seized weapons accessories and confiscated counterfeit IDs.

-- A combined force in the Gelan district of Ghazni province arrested a Taliban intelligence facilitator suspected of gathering information on Afghan and coalition operations and providing it to Taliban leaders for planning and conducting insurgent attacks.

4 CHARGED IN DETROIT FOR ALLEGED $24.7 MILLION MEDICARE FRAUD SCHEME

Photo:  Detroit GM Building.  Credit:  Wikimedia.
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, September 20, 2012

Five Individuals Charged in Detroit for Alleged Roles in $24.7 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Four Additional Defendants Were Previously Charged for Their Roles in the Scheme

WASHINGTON – Five individuals were charged in court documents unsealed today in the Eastern District of Michigan for their participation in a Medicare fraud scheme involving purported home health and psychotherapy services, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

According to court documents, the scheme allegedly involved a total of more than $24.7 million in fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare for purported home health care and psychotherapy services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided.

Court documents allege that the defendants are operators, employees and marketers associated with home health care and psychotherapy clinics operating in and around Detroit. Defendants charged in court documents unsealed today include: Mohammed Sadiq, 65, Troy, Mich.; Jamella Al-Jumail, 23, of Brownstown, Mich.; Firas Alky, 40, of Shelby Township, Mich.; Clarence Cooper, 53, of Detroit; and Beverly Cooper, 58, of Detroit.

Four defendants charged in the superseding indictment were previously charged and arrested in May 2012 for their roles in the scheme. Defendants previously charged include: Sachin Sharma, 36, of Shelby Township; Dana Sharma, 29, of Shelby Township; Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, aka Tony, 52, of Brownstown; Felicar Williams, 49, of Dearborn, Mich.

The superseding indictment charges all defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud; Sachin Sharma with five counts of health care fraud; Sachin Sharma, Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, Williams, Sadiq, Alky and Clarence Cooper with one count of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks; and Jamella Al-Jumail with one count of destruction of records in a federal investigation. The superseding indictment also seeks forfeiture from all defendants.

According to the superseding indictment, from January 2007 through April 2012, the defendants operated a large network of purported home health care and psychotherapy companies in the Detroit area through which they conspired to defraud Medicare.

According to court documents, Sachin Sharma, Dana Sharma, Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, Williams, Jamella Al-Jumail, Sadiq, Alky and other alleged co-conspirators incorporated home health care, psychotherapy and other medical service companies to carry out the scheme, including Reliance Home Care, LLC; First Choice Home Health Care Services Inc.; Associates in Home Care Inc.; Haven Adult Day Care Center LLC; Swift Home Care LLC; ABC Home Care Inc.; Accessible Home Care Inc.; and Be Well Home Care LLC. The defendants, along with co-conspirators, allegedly submitted Medicare enrollment applications to permit these companies to bill Medicare. Sachin Sharma, Abdul Malik-Al-Jumail, Sadiq, Alky and others allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to recruiters, including Williams and Clarence Cooper, to obtain Medicare beneficiaries’ information, which could be used to fraudulently bill Medicare for purported services provided by the companies they operated and controlled. The defendants then allegedly caused these companies to bill Medicare for home health and psychotherapy services, even though these services were not medically necessary and were often not provided.

According to the superseding indictment, the defendants caused Reliance, First Choice, Associates, Haven, Swift, ABC, Accessible and other home health, psychotherapy and medical services companies to submit approximately $24.7 million in claims to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary and/or not provided. In addition, Jamella Al-Jumail is charged with destroying records relating to Accessible’s Medicare billings upon learning of the May 2012 arrest of Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, her co-conspirator and father.

Clarence and Beverly Cooper, Sadiq and Jamella Al-Jumail were arrested yesterday.

The case is being prosecuted by Fraud Section Assistant Chief Gejaa T. Gobena and Trial Attorney William G. Kanellis. The investigations were conducted jointly by the FBI and HHS-OIG, as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Criminal Division's Fraud Section.

ICP-conferentie bij ESA op 28 september

ICP-conferentie bij ESA op 28 september

FEMALE BODY ARMOR

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Army Spc. Gilliann Campbell gets strapped into her female body armor for prototype testing at Fort Campbell, Ky. U.S. Army photo by Megan Locke Simpson

Deploying Soldiers Test New Female Body Armor Prototype
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

NATICK, Mass., Sept. 17, 2012 - Female soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., preparing for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan are getting a chance to weigh in on the latest innovation in personal protective equipment: body armor designed specifically to fit them.

Any woman who has deployed to the combat zone can tell you what's wrong with wearing the improved outer tactical vest – military-speak for body armor –it's designed for a man's body.

"Women were having a real problem with the fit of the IOTV," said Lynn Hennessey, lead designer for the female body armor prototype being tested at Fort Campbell. "The size extra-small was too large for 85 percent of the females, so they weren't getting a good fit. It was too loose and too long."

That left vulnerabilities where the body armor left gaps, particularly under the arms. But it also made the vests uncomfortable enough to affect performance, Hennessey explained.

In some cases, women were reporting bruising on their hip bones because the side plates dragged down to their hips, she said. "And when they were sitting down, it was riding up to their chins, because the torso was so long."

This kind of feedback, both anecdotal and through a formal process of surveys and focus groups, led the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center here to launch a program to design female-specific body armor.

The program kicked off in January 2011, with prototypes now undergoing testing by members of the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team.

To design the new vests, the design team studied anthropometric data – a series of measurements to reflect the size and shape of female soldiers' bodies, with a particular focus on the bust, torso length and shoulders.

"Females are not small males," said Beverly Kimball, project engineer for female Army aviation combat uniforms also being developed at Natick. "We have specific proportions that require designs for fit and function for uniforms as well as equipment."

The Natick team came up with eight different sizes of female body armor, in two different lengths, to accommodate the force. Although the vests use the same protective plates as the generic body armor, the side plates are slightly scaled down to fit the new contours.

During the initial fit tests, 120 female soldiers at Fort Campbell, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.; Fort Benning, Ga.; and an Army Reserve Center in Milford, Mass., gave the prototypes a resounding thumbs-up.

"It was immediate love," Hennessey said. "As soon as they put them on, they would say, 'I can't believe this is the same body armor. Because of the fit, it felt so much lighter and so much better balanced."

But even before those first 24 prototypes were fielded, Hennessey and her team already were at work improving them. She added darts to the side and bottom of the vest to draw it closer to the body and provide better coverage. She made minor improvements to the buckles to make them fit together better, and incorporated some of the improvements from the third-generation unisex body armor.

Of the 100 second-generation female body armor prototypes, 19 were issued to Fort Campbell soldiers in mid-August.

Soldiers who participated in the test are assigned to a female engagement team that will interact closely with the Afghan population, particularly women, when they deploy later this year. The plan, Hennessey explained, was to let the soldiers get accustomed to wearing the new body armor and then to train in it for about five weeks. This week, they are wrapping up a human factors evaluation that includes such things as weapons firing and climbing in and out of vehicles – all of the things the soldiers are likely to do in combat.

The project team will assess the feedback to determine if the female body armor is ready for fielding throughout the Army.

Army officials hope to produce 3,000 of the new vests and to field them to an Army brigade to be selected next year as a major step in that direction.

"This is a project that will have a direct impact on the soldiers who wear this," Hennessey said. "It will make them a lot more comfortable – but even more important, safer and more effective."

MANAGING MILITARY CHANGE

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Dempsey Discusses Importance of Embracing, Managing Military Change By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2012 - Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey thinks one of the most important questions military leaders need to answer is how to best adapt changes to strategy to match changes in the world.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke today at the inaugural Gen. Bernard W. Rogers Strategic Issues Forum here, sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army.

Dempsey said it seems change is happening more quickly now. "Therefore, we've got to be quicker on our feet, and we've got to be more willing to make changes that provide what the nation needs in its military dimension and power," he said.

The general noted the changes in the military over the past decade. The biggest, from the Army's standpoint, was the change from deploying divisions to deploying brigade combat teams. The service did this "to meet the needs of the combatant commanders," he said. "The point is (this change) showed a level of adaptability that we began to think about right after Desert Storm and culminating in the experience in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The Army is proving adaptable in being able to deploy exceedingly smaller pieces of itself, the chairman said. He posited that for now the smallest unit deployed is a brigade, but in the future it may be smaller.

The other change is the proficiency of integration of kinetic and non-kinetic effects. There has been an explosion in the capabilities of information operations since 2001, he said. This includes building provincial reconstruction teams, partnering with Department of State, working with the U.S. Agency for International Development and working with international organizations.

All services "need to understand what we need, how do we measure it, and then how do we ensure it is integrated so we don't have a thousands flowers of information operations blooming out there that could, in some cases, create information fratricide," he said. "We're keen to understand and learn for the last 10 year's application of soft power."

Change has also occurred in the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance world. The chairman praised the Air Force for its work on this, noting that the service now has trained more pilots for unmanned aircraft than for piloted ones. Unmanned aircraft capability was miniscule in 2001, and today there is an insatiable appetite for it.

The cyber domain has also grown to be a key capability and a glaring vulnerability for the military, Dempsey said.

Finally, there are changes in special operating forces. This capability has grown from roughly 33,000 in 2001 to up around 70,000 in the near future.

All these changes form a cornerstone for the Joint Force in 2020.

Dempsey made the point that many of the capabilities of the Joint Force of 2020 are around today. "We have to recognize that about 80 percent of the force of 2020 already exists," he said. Part of this is because of budget cycles and program duration.

"It's that other 20 percent that I want to focus our attention on," he said. "In so doing, if we can get that 20 percent to be dramatically different and allow that to wash back over the other 80 percent, then the whole force becomes better."

The military must think about integrating command and control architectures, cyber-capabilities, ISR and special operations forces.

"We've got this agreement that the best information and the most important intelligence comes from the bottom up, not from the top down," he said. "The mindset that we build these structures around the soldier (and go) up is beginning to pay benefits to us by enabling (those occupying) the edge."

And that falls right in with changes in strategy. Dempsey said in the first 25 years of his service the idea was to mass the force and "disaggregate" it as necessary. "I think we will see in the future that we will build the force intending for it to be disaggregated and then only massing it as necessary," he said. "It's a reversal of the paradigm in which I grew up."

HIDDEN MAGNETIC PORTALS AROUND EARTH

 

RECENT U.S. NAVY PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. NAVY
Sailors assigned to the Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) man the rails during her commissioning in Galveston, Texas. Fort Worth will proceed to her homeport in San Diego next week. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mike James (Released) 120922-N-MM874-005

Aviation boatswain's mates refuel an AV-8B Harrier jet aircraft assigned to Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 542 on the flight deck aboard the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) during flight operations. The Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is participating in a certification exercise. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael Russell (Released) 120920-N-KB563-091

FORMER CIO OF STANFORD FINANCIAL GROUP SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS IN PRISON

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Former Chief Investment Officer of Stanford Financial Group Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Obstruction of Justice

WASHINGTON – Laura Pendergest-Holt, 39, the former chief investment officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group, was sentenced today to 36 months in prison for her role in obstructing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into Stanford International Bank (SIB), the Antiguan offshore bank owned by convicted financier Robert Allen Stanford.

Today’s sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas; FBI Assistant Director Ronald T. Hosko of the Criminal Investigative Division; Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration Phyllis C. Borzi; Chief Postal Inspector Guy J. Cottrell from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); and Chief Richard Weber, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge David Hittner in the Southern District of Texas. In addition to her prison term, Holt was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Judge Hittner noted that Holt did not have the ability to pay a fine.

In January 2009, the SEC sought testimony and documents related to SIB’s entire investment portfolio. Although she was incapable of testifying about the vast majority of that portfolio, Holt nevertheless agreed to testify before the SEC. In her guilty plea, Holt acknowledged that her eventual appearance and sworn testimony before the SEC was a stall tactic designed to frustrate the SEC’s efforts to obtain important information about SIB’s investment portfolio. Holt admitted she took this action intentionally and corruptly, knowing that her testimony would impede the SEC’s investigation and help SIB continue operating.

Holt was remanded into custody today.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Houston Field Office, USPIS, IRS-CI and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. The case against Holt is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Varnado of the Southern District of Texas, Deputy Chief Jeffrey Goldberg of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Fraud Section Trial Attorney Andrew Warren. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Costa of the Southern District of Texas and Fraud Section Deputy Chief William Stellmach were also involved in this case.

The Justice Department thanks the SEC for their assistance and cooperation in this matter.

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE

ANG, USAFE Leaders visit Safe Skies 2011
Air National Guard F-16C Fighting Falcons fly in formation with a Ukrainian SU-27 over Mirgorod Air Base, Ukraine, July 22, during Safe Skies 2011. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Charles Vaughn)

 
C-37

The C-37A is a twin-engine, turbofan aircraft acquired to fill the worldwide special air missions for high-ranking government and Defense Department officials. There are nine C-37s in the Air Force inventory, of which one is assigned to the 86th Airlift Wing, 309th Airlift Squadron, at Chievres Air Base, Belgium, to support the U.S. Air Forces in Europe mission.

MALI NATIONAL DAY

Mali National Day
U.S. STATE DEPTRTMENT

Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC
September 22, 2012
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send best wishes to the people of Mali as you celebrate the 52nd anniversary of your independence this September 22. The United States stands with you as you work for peace and security, restoration of Mali's territorial integrity, and a return to democratically-elected government. The United States looks forward to many years of continued friendship.


ADDITIONAL: FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATEPROFILE

Geography
Area: 1,240,278 sq. km. (474,764 sq. mi.); about the size of Texas and California combined.
Cities: Capital--Bamako (pop. 1,728,444). Other cities--Segou (200,000), Sikasso (192,000), Mopti (103,428), Gao (65,000), Kayes (65,000), Timbuktu (38,000).
Terrain: Savannah and desert.
Climate: Semitropical in the south; arid in the north.

People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Malian(s).
Population (2011 est.): 14.1 million.
Annual population growth rate (2011 est.): 2.61%.
Ethnic groups: Manding (Bambara or Bamana, Malinke) 52%, Fulani 11%, Saracole 7%, Mianka 4%, Songhai 7%, Tuareg and Maur 5%, other 14%.
Religions: Islam 90%, indigenous 6%, Christian 4%.
Languages: French (official) and Bambara (spoken by about 80% of the population).
Education: Enrollment--91% (primary, 2008). Literacy--26%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--111/1,000. Life expectancy (2011 est.)--52 years.
Work force (4 million): Agriculture 70%; services 15%; industry and commerce 15%.

Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: September 22, 1960.
Constitution: Approved by referendum January 12, 1992.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state and commander in chief of the armed forces), prime minister (head of government). Legislative--National Assembly is the sole legislative arm of the government; currently consisting of 147 members. Judicial--Supreme Court with both judicial and administrative powers.
Political parties: Mali is a multiparty democracy. Sixteen political parties are represented in the National Assembly; others are active in local government.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
Administrative subdivisions: Eight regions and capital district.
Central government budget (2009): Revenues--$1.451 billion; expenditures--$2.232 billion; $781 million deficit.

Economy
GDP (2010 est.): $9 billion.
Avg. annual growth rate (2010 est.): 4.5%.
Per capita income (2010 est.): $691.
Annual skilled worker's salary: $1,560.
Avg. consumer price inflation rate (2009): 2.2%.
Natural resources: Gold, phosphate, kaolin, salt, and limestone currently mined; deposits of oil, bauxite, iron ore, manganese, lithium, and uranium are known or suspected.
Agriculture, livestock, and fishery (32.9% of GDP): Products--millet, sorghum, corn, rice, livestock, sugar, cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), and tobacco.
Industry (21.3% of GDP): Types--food processing, textiles, cigarettes, fish processing, metalworking, light manufacturing, plastics, and beverage bottling.
Services (45.8% of GDP): Telecommunications, construction.
Trade (2009): Exports--$2.079 billion: cotton and cotton products, gold, livestock, fish, tannery products, groundnuts. Major markets--France, Switzerland, Italy, Thailand, Cote d'Ivoire, and Algeria. Imports--$2.292 billion: petroleum products, foodstuffs, machinery and spare parts, vehicles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, textiles. Major suppliers--France, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, China, U.S. ($31 million), Germany, and Japan.

Coursing through parched, landlocked Mali, the Niger River flows north through an ancient sand sea before turning sharply east to skirt the edge of the dune-striped Sahara; it then heads south, through Niger, Benin, and Nigeria, to the Gulf of Guinea. At the confluence of the Bani and Niger Rivers in Mali lies a vast Inner Niger Delta the size of Belgium and composed of narrows, twisting waterways, lagoons, and tiny islands (some of which are shown here).

HISTORY

Malians express great pride in their ancestry and pride themselves on a long history of peaceful coexistence among ethnic groups. Mali is the cultural heir to the succession of ancient African empires--Ghana, Malinke, and Songhai--that occupied the West African savannah. These empires controlled Saharan trade and were in touch with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern centers of civilization.

The Ghana Empire, dominated by the Soninke or Saracole people and centered in the area along the Malian-Mauritanian frontier, was a powerful trading state from about A.D. 700 to 1075. The Malinke Kingdom of Mali had its origins on the upper Niger River in the 11th century. Expanding rapidly in the 13th century under the leadership of Soundiata Keita, it reached its height about 1325, when it conquered Timbuktu and Gao. Thereafter, the kingdom began to decline, and by the 15th century, it controlled only a small fraction of its former domain.

The Songhai Empire expanded its power from its center in Gao during the period 1465-1530. At its peak under Askia Mohammad I, it encompassed the Hausa states as far as Kano (in present-day Nigeria) and much of the territory that had belonged to the Mali Empire in the west. It was destroyed by a Moroccan invasion in 1591. Timbuktu was a center of commerce and of the Islamic faith throughout this period, and priceless manuscripts from this epoch are still preserved in Timbuktu. The United States and other donors are making efforts to help preserve these priceless manuscripts as part of Mali's cultural heritage.

French military penetration of the Soudan (the French name for the area) began around 1880. Ten years later, the French made a concerted effort to occupy the interior. The timing and resident military governors determined methods of their advances. A French civilian governor of Soudan was appointed in 1893, but resistance to French control did not end until 1898, when the Malinke warrior Samory Toure was defeated after 7 years of war. The French attempted to rule indirectly, but in many areas they disregarded traditional authorities and governed through appointed chiefs. As the colony of French Soudan, Mali was administered with other French colonial territories as the Federation of French West Africa.

In 1956, with the passing of France's Fundamental Law (Loi Cadre), the Territorial Assembly obtained extensive powers over internal affairs and was permitted to form a cabinet with executive authority over matters within the Assembly's competence. After the 1958 French constitutional referendum, the Republique Soudanaise became a member of the French Community and enjoyed complete internal autonomy.

In January 1959, Soudan joined Senegal to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent within the French Community on June 20, 1960. The federation collapsed on August 20, 1960, when Senegal seceded. On September 22, Soudan proclaimed itself the Republic of Mali and withdrew from the French Community.

President Modibo Keita--whose party Union Soudanaise du Rassemblement Democratique Africain (US/RDA) had dominated preindependence politics--moved quickly to declare a single-party state and to pursue a socialist policy based on extensive nationalization. A continuously deteriorating economy led to a decision to rejoin the Franc Zone in 1967 and modify some of the economic excesses.

On November 19, 1968, a group of young officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member Military Committee for National Liberation (CMLN), with Lt. Moussa Traore as President. The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms but for several years faced debilitating internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought.

A new constitution, approved in 1974, created a one-party state and was designed to move Mali toward civilian rule. However, the military leaders remained in power. In September 1976, a new political party was established, the Democratic Union of the Malian People (UDPM), based on the concept of democratic centralism. Single-party presidential and legislative elections were held in June 1979, and Gen. Moussa Traore received 99% of the votes. His efforts at consolidating the single-party government were challenged in 1980 by student-led, anti-government demonstrations, which were brutally put down, and by three coup attempts.

The political situation stabilized during 1981 and 1982 and remained generally calm throughout the 1980s. The UDPM spread its structure to cercles and arrondissements (administrative subdivisions) across the land. Shifting its attention to Mali's economic difficulties, the government approved plans for cereal marketing liberalization, reform in the state enterprise system, and new incentives to private enterprise, and worked out a new structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, by 1990, there was growing dissatisfaction with the demands for austerity imposed by the IMF's economic reform programs and the perception that the President and his close associates were not themselves adhering to those demands.

As in other African countries, demands for multiparty democracy increased. The Traore government allowed some opening of the system, including the establishment of an independent press and independent political associations, but insisted that Mali was not ready for democracy. In early 1991, student-led, anti-government rioting broke out again, but this time government workers and others supported it. On March 26, 1991, after 4 days of intense anti-government rioting, a group of 17 military officers arrested President Traore and suspended the constitution. Within days, these officers joined with the Coordinating Committee of Democratic Associations to form a predominantly civilian, 25-member ruling body, the Transitional Committee for the Salvation of the People (CTSP). The CTSP then appointed a civilian-led government. A national conference held in August 1991 produced a draft constitution (approved in a referendum January 12, 1992), a charter for political parties, and an electoral code. Political parties were allowed to form freely. Between January and April 1992, a president, National Assembly, and municipal councils were elected. On June 8, 1992, Alpha Oumar Konare, the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA), was inaugurated as the President of Mali's Third Republic.