Posted on 02/02/2014 6:01:11 PM PST by robowombat
Officers but not gentlemen: Pentagon's naughty list by Staff Writers Washington Jan 31, 2014
The Pentagon has tallied reports of a shameful litany of bad behavior among its officers and employees in a voluminous tome entitled "The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures."
From bribery to kickbacks to falsifying travel expenses, the document is designed as a guide -- and a warning -- to teach troops and civil servants about ethics laws.
Written in a breezy style free of bureaucratic jargon, the annual catalogue is updated every year with fresh examples of poor judgement and scams gone wrong.
Published by the General Counsel's Standards of Conduct Office, this year's edition includes the story of three generals and an admiral who extended an official trip to Tokyo by a day so they could enjoy a round of golf -- at a cost to taxpayers of about $3,000.
That case was listed under the heading: "A Swing and a Miss for Senior Officers Using Government Funds on Golf Outing."
In another entry dubbed "The Ultimate Deceit," one submarine officer tried to end an extramarital affair by staging his own death, arranging for his mistress to receive a false notice that he had died while on duty.
"Upon receipt of the letter, his mistress showed up at the Commander's house to pay her respects, only to be informed, by the new owners, of the Commanders reassignment and new location," it said.
The officer lost his command.
Much of the 163-page encyclopedia is devoted to bribery, usually involving a civilian or officer with authority over lucrative government contracts.
In a case at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, a US Army Major James Momon took $5.8 million in bribes from five firms in return for awarding them major contracts for supplying bottled water and other items to various bases.
For the military, ethics has come in for a renewed focus after a spate of embarrassing incidents linking top officers to illegal gambling, heavy drinking and adulterous affairs.
The encyclopedia has numerous examples of civil servants across the federal government trying to steal or cheat their way to extra cash, including immigration agents, lawmakers' aides and Internal Revenue Service tax collectors offering special favors in return for bribes.
A case featuring two workers at the Veterans Affairs administration offered a new take on "government red tape:" the two were accused of taking kickbacks from a company supplying red tape to their office.
The authors say they came up with the encyclopedia as a way to educate senior officials about ethics rules without a boring summary of regulations.
"Our goal is to provide DoD (Department of Defense) personnel with real examples of Federal employees who have intentionally or unwittingly violated the standards of conduct," says the introduction.
"Some cases are humorous, some sad, and all are real."
The latest edition, which was issued in July, was first spotted by the Foreign Policy website. The Pentagon tends not draw attention to the encyclopedia, but a spokesman said: "The document is pretty specific and speaks for itself."
Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale said the book is "a good tool for anyone charged with teaching -- and enforcing -- the high ethical standards rightly demanded of those in public service."
Alas, nothing like this has every happened before.
“Over here, look...”
Meanwhile the cockroaches scurry about on the other side of the room unnoticed.
And replace it with - what. I don't think they've thought that far ahead.
America, contrary to popular perception, is a remarkably corrupt country. The efforts taken to legitimise what would be de-facto corruption elsewhere can be astonishing to witness.
The simplest common corruption would be doctors pushing (”prescribing”) new medication to unwitting patients at the behest of Big Pharma, for veiled kickbacks. The areas most inflicted by this corruption, in medicine, pertains to psychology and psychiatry.
Spouse the EPA, DOJ, et al have such a guide?
This post will attract some very strange comments, citing this as evidence of the PURGE, pointing to an elaborate conspiracy to destroy the officer corps, etc., etc.
But the fact that the military is diligent in uncovering these criminal or immoral acts and takes action against the guilty stands in stark contrast to what happens to evil doers in other branches of government. The public trust in our military will end when the military quits running these types out of the ranks.
This is all part of the military reshuffle. God only knows who is manning our missile silos now after the latest “scandal”?
To a point I agree. Where I differ is that they have no plan.
IMO, they’ve had a detailed plan for decades. They want to utterly destroy the military industrial complex, plus the military and it’s headquarters the Pentagon.
How it must have frustrated the Left on 09/11/2001, to have something as wanted as what took place, and them not able to jump up and down and celebrate.
They see the United States as the world’s only problem. Get rid of the U. S. military and global influence, and all will be peaceful.
These folks have learned nothing from history, and will wind up forcing us all the endure the same old pain to learn what they don’t know all over again.
I wish the POS, SOB, MO FO, lying, scheming, scum sucking slime bag bastard, A hole rats would be held to the same standard. Alas, we live in Obama world, it is NEVER going to happen. How I despise these MO FOs.
Published by the General Counsel’s Standards of Conduct Office, this year’s edition includes the story of three generals and an admiral who extended an official trip to Tokyo by a day so they could enjoy a round of golf — at a cost to taxpayers of about $3,000.
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They should have hired a defense attorney who could argue they were simply (and loyally) following the (positive) example of their commander-in-chief! /sarc
Bump.
I have thought for years that there must be a kickback system for prescribing doctors to profit from all the drugs that are advertised on TV with suggestions to “ask your doctor” about all these new and different names.
In recent years targets for blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar have been lowered and I have long suspected that the real reason was to sell the drugs. A lot of people probably should be on trial for pushing prescription drugs that have done far more harm than good. I have even heard of one doctor who is supposed to have told patients they need to keep their blood sugar between 70 and 100. My personal experience has been that when mine drops below 85 I have trembling, weakness, cold sweats and just general inability to do anything. I think the best range to be in is 90 to 100 but I would much rather be at 140 or even higher than below 85. I suspect that before dropping to 70 I would be laid out flat in an ambulance headed for an emergency room unless I should be unfortunate enough to be alone somewhere and then I would probably pass out. I have been warned by doctors and nurses that low sugar is much quicker in doing damage and even being life threatening than high blood sugar and I have had personal experience with people who become impossible to live with and even violent if their blood sugar drops a little too low, yet I keep hearing lower and lower target recommendations.
As far as cholesterol is concerned I have done some research of my own and I am far more afraid of the medicines prescribed for high cholesterol than I will ever be of my cholesterol. I advise anyone to be very, very, cautious about taking medicines to lower cholesterol. There was even one medicine that was advertised for a time on TV with an on screen disclaimer saying that there was no evidence that it would lower the risk of heart attack, stroke or death.
The military is like a cocoon, the men become infants because everything is decided for them, even what furniture is in their quarters. All that is left is conquest; even Ike had a dick problem
Actually he had a problem with committing infidelity if ms. Summersby is to be believed. He was the product of a religiously observant middle class Protestant home in the late 19th century. Infidelity was considered damnable them.
Patton, on the other hand, was the product of a very upper class family in which the men were expected to have dramatically individualized personalities. He had many lady friends including Ms Dietrich who also shared her charms with the young and handsome MG James Gavin.
Infidelity is still considered damnable by observant Catholics
Everything you said.
I travel often, and widely.
If I need medical care, I take it from doctors I trust. I will not voluntarily submit myself to a system where I don’t know the doctor, unless it’s an emergency.
Regarding cholesterol, there is a theory propounded that cholesterol levels are linked to the body’s requirement to repair blood vessels. Those cholesterol and fat deposits are “scar” tissue intended at healing / patching damage to the blood vessels. Fighting cholesterol, according to this theory, is to impair the body’s repair mechanism whilst ignoring the underlying cause for the damage - inflammation.
The pharmaceutical industry-doctor nexus is less interested in curing ailments, it wants patients to have a subscription model imposed on them - lifelong, if possible. Between that and the “ever greening” of patent-expired drugs, it’s a mafia out there. I have seen this at its worst in psychiatry. They seek to address a “chemical imbalance in the brain” with exotic drug concoctions, whose dosages are based on the prescriber’s whim - they have no scientific quantification of the “imbalance” they claim to exist, and if they did, is not routinely used or implemented. And millions of patients (mostly women, because they are more expressive toward the shrink) get to be experimented with wild, crazy drugs. Check out how many of them balloon in size after getting onto psych meds.
$3000 for an extra day to play golf
Well, as long as they don’t let their wive stay an extra week in Hawaii to celebrate her birthday
Active Duty/Retiree ping.
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