Warner Whines About Base Closures

Warner: Defense Closures 'Rigged'
By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wed Aug 24, 1:00 AM ET

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner (R) said that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a senior aide improperly manipulated the national base realignment plan announced earlier this year to compel the movement of more than 20,000 defense jobs away from the Washington area.

Two years before the Pentagon revealed its base closing plan May 13, in a stream of memos and internal records, top department officials were saying that "thinning of headquarters in the National Capital Region remains a[n] objective," according to Warner.

Raymond F. DuBois, Rumsfeld's principal aide for personnel and organizational planning, guided planners in an April 1, 2004, meeting: "The Secretary of Defense wants to reduce footprint and headcount in the [region] . . . -- Moving activities from the [region] is good but moving activities beyond the 100-mile radius of the Pentagon is better," according to minutes of his remarks cited by Warner.

Warner, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Defense Department acted improperly by singling out one area of the country for cutbacks. He added that he did not know the reasoning behind the 100-mile limit.

He said Rumsfeld's team used the base realignment process to achieve other goals, specifically, unrelated real estate management goals. Congress intended the base-closing procedures to focus on one issue: efficiency -- or, in Pentagon jargon, "military value."

"In simple terms, the military value model was rigged," Warner said, citing a final report in which Pentagon planners adopted criteria that prejudged all leased space as less desirable than owned buildings and the concentration of activities near Washington "as a negative."

DuBois said the Pentagon followed proper procedure in determining the Washington area closures. DuBois, now acting undersecretary of the Army, said Warner's arguments are "well-crafted" but leave out key points. "Decisions were made with respect to leased space in Northern Virginia consistent with military value as well as cost savings -- the two most important criteria," he said.

Well Gee-whiz John, how dare they decide that it is better to keep the bases that we own rather than the ones we are leasing. You aren't perchance one of our landlords are you? Oh I know that's a cheap shot, but you might as well be, you certainly are not as concerned about national security as you are pork for your state.

Full Story: Warner Whines

What do you think?

To leave your opinion click on the word "COMMENT(S)" below