IAVA Daily Brief 10.28.09

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom [1].

MUST READS

1) October deadliest month for US in Afghan war [2]

October has been the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the start of the war in 2001, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday. The death of eight troops in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday pushed the October death toll to 53, topping the previous high of 51 deaths in August, officials said. The death of the eight troops, in addition to those related to Monday’s helicopter crashes did nothing to slow the momentum to send more troops to Afghanistan [3]. Sen John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, announced he would support a decision to "send some additional troops.” Kerry said Gen. McChrystal's call for more than 40,000 additional troops "reaches too far, too fast," but did appear to search for a middle ground.

2) More Delays Possible in GI Bill Payments [4]

Up to 14,000 students may not receive living stipends Nov. 1 as the Veterans Affairs Department continues to dig out of a backlog of claims for the Post-9/11 GI Bill — but there will be no more emergency payments for those who don’t get paid on time.  Patrick Campbell of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said it appears VA’s worst problems in processing education benefits claims for the fall semester are over, although he remains concerned about how the $3,000 emergency payments are deducted from payments — some veterans may have received more advance money than they will receive in monthly living allowances if their campus is considered a low-cost area. In order to prevent future delays, next month the Veterans Affairs Department will deploy an automated tool [5] that will make a "big difference" in the processing of claims for education benefits for veterans attending college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told Nextgov late last week. The tool will provide increased functionality and additional automation for processing education claims. Meanwhile, at an event on Monday, Assistant VA Secretary Tammy Duckworth apologized to college students [6] waiting on their delayed checks to pay the rent and buy textbooks and said they are taking a number of steps to try to speed up the process.

3) U.S. official explains resignation over Afghan War [7]

Matthew Hoh emphasizes that he's not "some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie." After all, he is a former Marine captain who has seen combat up close and strongly believes "there are plenty of dudes who need to be killed." When he joined the Foreign Service earlier this year he eventually became the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban stronghold. But a month ago, he became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war. In a four-page letter of resignation, Hoh explained that he believes the American presence in Afghanistan is fueling the insurgency. Senior U.S. officials reacted to the letter, and many asked him to stay. Even the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, offered him jobs, but he eventually declined them all, saying there's no need for Americans to be fighting in what is essentially a civil war. "I realize what I'm getting into … what people are going to say about me," he said. "I never thought I would be doing this."

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban gunmen stormed a guesthouse in central Kabul on Wednesday morning, killing six United Nations employees [8] and two Afghan security officials. One of those killed was an American security guard who battled the attackers as they came through the front gate in the predawn hours, according to an American who was staying in the guest house and who joined in the gun battle before shepherding 25 other residents to safety.

President Obama’s advisers are coalescing around a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers [9], administration officials said Tuesday, describing an approach that would stop short of an all-out assault on the Taliban while still seeking to nurture long-term stability. Obama has yet to make a decision, but as officials described it, the debate is no longer over whether to send more troops, but how many more will be needed to guard the most vital parts of the country. The question of how much of the country should fall under the direct protection of American and NATO forces will be central to deciding how many troops will be sent. At the moment, the administration is looking at protecting Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Herat, Jalalabad and a few other village clusters, officials said. The first of any new troops sent to Afghanistan would be assigned to Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual capital, seen as a center of gravity in pushing back insurgent advances.

NATO-led forces have recovered the remains [10] of three American military contractors from the wreckage of a U.S. Army reconnaissance plane that crashed two weeks ago in the rugged mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, the military said Tuesday. The plane went down less than two weeks after insurgents overran a coalition outpost the same province, killing eight American troops in one of the war’s deadliest battles for the U.S.

President Obama is scheduled to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday as part of his reassessment [11] of the military strategy in Afghanistan, a White House spokesman said Tuesday. The meeting - which is scheduled to take place at the White House - will give the chiefs of staff, each representing one branch of the military, an opportunity to describe directly to Obama the impact on the military if a large number of additional forces are sent to Afghanistan, two unnamed military sources told CNN's Barbara Starr.

According to CNN, the most dangerous threat for U.S. troops [12] in Afghanistan has come from roadside bombs. IEDs in Afghanistan are the "number one threat," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and account for "70 to 80" percent of casualties according to Lieutenant Gen. Thomas Metz, director of the military's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. Wired Magazine estimates [13] that the Pentagon is sinking almost a billion dollars into new tools to stop these low-tech threats, like sensors and software that can detect minute changes on the ground, along with dozens of other initiatives.

IRAQ

The Islamic State of Iraq [14] said it carried out the suicide bombings that killed at least 155 people and was the deadliest attack in Baghdad in more than two years. It is the same group that claimed responsibility for the August bombings of two government ministries that killed more than 100 people. The Islamic State of Iraq is "an umbrella group within the Arab country that comprises a militant coalition in which al-Qaida is a leading member," explains the Associated Press. 

Iraq’s political parties failed to agree on election laws [15] on Tuesday, despite a proposed deal put together by the nation’s top political figures the day before. The stalemate was another blockage in negotiations that have dragged on for weeks, threatening national elections scheduled for Jan. 16. The official deadline for passing the election laws was Oct. 15. Elections can still be held on time if the parties agree on terms this week, but not much later, said Said Arikat, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, which proposed guidelines to break the logjam among the parties. “This is really crunch time,” Mr. Arikat said. “We have everything in place to conduct an election on time. With every passing day, it becomes more difficult.” Any postponement in the elections carries the potential for slowing the withdrawal of American troops.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

A senior lawmaker is pushing for a joint Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department study of breast cancer rates [16] in service members and veterans to determine if there is a link to military service. Citing anecdotal evidence that men and women in the armed forces suffer higher rates of breast cancer, Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, the chief sponsor of a bill ordering the study, said the 18-month effort he is proposing would be a “first step to determining if breast cancer is service-connected.”

Army Secretary John McHugh, who spent 17 years in Congress as a Republican lawmaker before being asked to head the Army by a Democrat administration, finds himself at the center of debate over President Barack Obama’s pledge to try to repeal the military’s ban on service [17] by openly gay men and women. When asked, specifically, if lifting the gay ban would be the serious disruption to the military predicted by those who oppose the president, McHugh said there is reason to think there would not be turmoil. “Anytime you have a broad-based policy change, there are challenges to that. In the Army’s case, the Army has a big history of taking on similar issues and having predictions of doom and gloom that did not play out,” he said.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai [18] for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home. The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama will sign the $681 billion defense policy bill [19] today, ending concerns over a possible veto because the bill authorizes an alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, which the administration opposes. The 2010 defense authorization bill that Obama will sign includes a 3.4 percent pay raise for all service members, as part of a $164 billion military personnel budget. Among some of the personnel-related provisions, the bill authorizes a temporary increase of 30,000 soldiers for the Army, creates a new payment for the caregivers of catastrophically injured service members who need an attendant so they are not hospitalized or institutionalized, and extends eligibility for Tricare Standard health insurance to reserve component “gray area” retirees who have not yet reached age 60. A White House announcement says that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and key members of Congress will be on hand to watch as Obama signs his first defense budget into law.

Congress has approved some new absentee voter rules [20] that by the 2010 general elections should make it easier for deployed service members to receive and return ballots in time to have them counted. The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, or MOVE Act, folded into the larger 2010 defense authorization bill, makes five changes to remove barriers to voting. Congress gave final approval to the bill on Thursday and The White House indicated that President Obama will sign the measure today.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate will convene at 9:30 a.m.

SENATE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST
No issues today

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

November 5, 2009  Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Hearing on cooperation between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service.  10:00 a.m.; 418 Russell

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES


The House will convene at 10:00 a.m.

HOUSE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST
No issues today

HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST



October 28, 2009  Full Veterans‚ Affairs Committee Markup of Pending Legislation  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST



November 4, 2009   Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Hearing:   “Gulf War Illness: What Lies Ahead for Veterans?”  10:00 a.m.; Cannon 334
November 5, 2009   Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Hearing:  Adaptive Housing Grants  1:00 p.m.;  334 Cannon HOB
November 19, 2009  Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health Hearing:  Review of VA Contract Health Care: Project HERO  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon

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