Republicans kill soldiers to reward top donor
Soldiers for Truth reports
that the Pentagon has ordered all US soldiers to stop using any body armour not provided by the army itself — even though there are serious issues with the standard body armour.
The Pentagon even went so far as to threaten soldiers with the loss of death benefits if they continue to wear their own body armour:
The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin [body armor] and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.
Why all this fuss? Because the company that provides the army with body armour is
part owned by a top Republican donor, occams hatchet found:
Foster Preiss, war profiter.
Yep, it turns out that the company that has the exclusive contract to supply body armor to the Army and Marines is home to a very heavy-hitting Republican campaign donor. Foster Friess, individually and through various family members, has contributed more than $575,000 to Republicans in the previous three campaign cycles, and has chunked in $51,000 so far for 2006.
That $88,000,000 in Armor Holdings stock held by Friess Associates LLC? Before the Iraq war began, it would have been worth about $30,000,000. No wonder he’s throwing money the Republicans’ way.
I would like to believe that the fact that our soldiers have been forbidden from buying or wearing non-standard-issue body armor that will save their lives, has nothing to do with any of this. But I’m having a hard time shaking the thought.
