The U.S. attorney general should investigate whether officials from the Defense Department and the Army broke federal law to further the DOD's plan to close Fort Monmouth, five New Jersey lawmakers said Wednesday.
In a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, the lawmakers call for an investigation into new evidence that high-level officials withheld key information from a federal base closing panel in 2005 that would have contradicted the Army's recommendation to shutter the fort.
The legislators ? Reps. Rush D. Holt, Frank J. Pallone Jr. and Christopher H. Smith and Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez ? ask Mukasey to look into whether the officials ""deliberately and in violation of federal law withheld or otherwise sought to skew data presented to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure commission.''
The call for a criminal probe comes just after Sunday's Asbury Park Press story revealing that a high-level DOD official called off an audit of information that could have blown up the Army's recommendation to close Fort Monmouth.
"I think these guys broke the law and they should be called to task,'' Pallone said. And Smith, the only Republican among the five, said: "This is as smoking gun as it gets.''
The letter refers to the Press story, which revealed that Craig College ? the Army's deputy assistant chief of staff for Installation Management ? told an Army Audit Agency official in an e-mail to not review new cost information that had been submitted by Fort Monmouth.
That information showed that the real cost to operate the fort was $50 million annually, not the $95 million annual cost figure that was being used by DOD. The numbers could have resulted in a nearly $1.5 billion cost estimate to shutter the fort, or nearly double the estimate that was being used to justify its closure.
But College in the e-mail called off the audit of the new information, saying the information could be used against the Army's case to close the fort.
Documentary evidence
That e-mail, the letter reads, "provides documentary evidence that suggests that College knowingly encouraged the distribution of false cost estimates'' to the Base Realignment and Closure commission that ultimately recommended shuttering the post.
"The fraudulent cost estimates offered to the Commission and the Congress, along with the effort to withhold relevant data from the Commission, call into question the entire BRAC process as it pertained to the Fort Monmouth closure decision,'' the letter reads. "Those deceitful actions have resulted in massively increased costs for taxpayers .?.?. and could place in jeopardy the continuity of Army communications and intelligence support to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.''
The 2005 BRAC commission supported then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's recommendation to close Fort Monmouth and move most of its mission to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. The fort employs 5,000, supports another 22,000 and annually pumps #3.2 billion into the state's economy.
Holt said College's e-mail makes it appear there was some tampering with the process.
"As I read that internal communication, it certainly seems deceitful and probably would encompass legal violations,'' Holt said. "We want the attorney general to check that out.''
College's e-mail drew incredulity from Smith, who said he believes the Army and the DOD had predetermined that Fort Monmouth would close "and don't let the facts get in the way.''
College's e-mail drew incredulity from Smith, who said he believes the Army and the DOD had predetermined that Fort Monmouth would close "and don't let the facts get in the way.''
"This process has been one shock and dismay after another,'' Smith said. "This is a serious exclusion of data. There should be a penalty. You can't violate the law with impunity.''
No response from DOJ
It is not known whether Mukasey will take up a probe. Calls to the Department of Justice were unreturned Wednesday.
"As the layers of the decision to close Fort Monmouth are peeled back, what seem to be pretty blatant attempts to skew the process against the base may be revealed,'' Menendez said in a statement. "I believe these reported actions must be thoroughly examined.''
But even if an investigation found criminal wrongdoing, it is difficult to say what that might mean for the future of Fort Monmouth, legislators said.
"This would just be more ammunition,'' Pallone said.
1 comment:
Now are we surprised. As we hear Generals lie under oath and we know Rummy is an out right liar. This was done to hurt NJ because of the lack of votes for Republicans, plus they needed to steal the money. There actions would weaken the Military but it was done to clean house and give soldiers jobs. Yes the old get rid of the employees based on lies and hire new people at base pay. The Military tried tried the buy out for people with high paying jobs it didn't work, so now we see the plan of lies, with the help of high ranking officials.
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