Watchdog: Leaked photos show troops fly in squalor Nick Juliano

Published: Tuesday July 22, 2008





Print This Email This A government watchdog has uncovered pictures that suggest US troops on their way to battlefields in Afghanistan travel in squalor while top military and government officials are cocooned in "comfort capsules" with reclining leather seats and flat-screen TVs. Last week, the Project on Government Oversight asked for photos of the dilapidated airline seats; it wasn't long before pictures of torn, moldy, stained seats started rolling in. POGO did not identify the source of its photos, but it said they were taken at Al Udeid Airbase in Afghanistan. The watchdog, which focuses on exposing waste, fraud and abuse in the US government, recently worked with the Washington Post to expose an Air Force program to spend money earmarked for the War on Terror to upgrade luxury cabins used to ferry top officials. Internal e-mails POGO obtained through a public records request showed "that Air Force generals frivolously blew hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars because they didn't like the color of seat belts, carpet, leather and wood used in work and living space units being developed for use on cargo planes," the group says. In its request for the photos, POGO said it was "aware" of deplorable conditions in troop transport seats and noted that a program aimed to "remedy the current deplorable state of these seats ... is moving too slowly," as opposed to the plans to upgrade the cabins for top brass, which were known as Senior Leader Intransit Comfort Capsules. The Post noted that the Air Force already provided top-notch arrangements for VIP travel before seeking the new cabins. The Air Force already has two trailers, known as Silver Bullets, that can be loaded aboard large transports for use by top military and civilian officers, plus a fleet of about 100 planes specifically meant for VIP travel. But McMahon, who is now the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, said the new program was started because the service ferried more "senior travelers" to distant regions after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and identified a "gap" in its capability. The existing trailers already seem pretty cozy. UK's Metro obtained some pictures of a modified Airstream trailer that took First Lady Laura Bush to Afghanistan recently. "With wood panelling, plush grey carpet, comfy leather seats and, most importantly, thick window shades, Mrs Bush could forget she was anywhere near the War on Terror being played out below the clouds," Miles Erwin wrote for Metro.