Friday, May 13, 2005

US Knowingly Sends Troops Faulty Body Armor

Body Armor Issued Despite Warnings
The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that military ballistic experts had urged the Marines to reject after tests revealed life-threatening flaws in the vests, an eight-month investigation by Marine Corps Times has found. ...

According to a government memo, the vests failed tests because of "multiple complete penetrations" of 9mm pistol rounds and other ballistics or quality-assurance tests. ... Many of the vests were issued to Marines in Iraq.

Government ballistics expert James MacKiewicz, in a memorandum rejecting two lots of vests on July 19, 2004, said his office "has little confidence in the performance" of the body armor. ... Instead of heeding MacKiewicz' warning, the Marine program manager for the vests, Lt. Col. Gabriel Patricio, and Point Blank's chief operating officer, Sandra Hatfield, signed waivers that allowed the Marines to buy and distribute the vests.
As Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque puts it: "Well, there's your goldang liberal press for you, these commie terror-symps at the Marine Corps Times. Don't these anti-Americans know that body armor doesn't have to stop bullets -- it just has to make money! Get with the program, jarheads!"

The Navy Times has a lengthy article about this travesty, but -- what a shocker -- the mainstream news has ignored this story almost completely.

USAToday has the main story linked above. It's dated May 8. Looking at Google's News Search, not one major US paper (except for, strangely, the conservative Washington Times) thinks this story is worth even a paragraph or two.

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