Dana Liebelson

Reporter

Dana Liebelson is a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She contributes regularly to The Week. Previously, she worked for the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), covering defense and open government issues. Her work has also appeared on TIME's Battleland, Truthout, OtherWords and Yahoo! News. In her free time, she plays electric violin in an Indie rock band.

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CHART: How Taxpayer Dollars Were Wasted on Afghanistan's Electrical Grid

—By Dana Liebelson

| Wed Dec. 19, 2012 11:32 AM PST

One important part of the US reconstruction effort in Afghanistan is beefing up the country's power grid, run by the state-owned utilities company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat. As of July 2012, only a third of Afghanistan had access to regular power, and a former UN advisor for Afghanistan told NPR that "energy remains a huge constraint for development of the country."

The United States is pouring tens of millions of dollars into the country to help the country commercialize its electricity, but a portion of that money is being squandered. A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), released on Tuesday, shows that expensive electrical equipment purchased by the Pentagon is sitting unused in a warehouse near Kandahar. SIGAR also found that USAID paid a contractor $5.76 million contractor for a contract that was never completed.

SIGAR John F. Sopko wrote that both of these issues "warrant immediate attention." Here's the breakdown of the numbers:

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Watch: Gun Reform Advocates Beg Obama to "Take Some Leadership"

Hours after a gunman slaughters 27 in Newtown, Connecticut, advocates gather at White House to say the time has come for sensible gun laws.

—By Brett Brownell and Dana Liebelson

| Sat Dec. 15, 2012 8:40 PM PST

A group of gun violence prevention advocates happend to be visiting Washington, D.C. the morning of the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school shooting. They were attending a training session at the New Organizing Institute (NOI) when news of the mass shooting began streaming in. At about 1:30PM EST the group decided they would organize a vigil in front of the White House.

They began connecting with progressive organizations such as CREDO, MoveOn, and Moms Rising to encourage others to join them in urging President Obama to do something about gun violence in this country. At around 4:30PM EST, shortly after the President's emotional address on the shooting, the group had assembled approximately 100 people in front of the White House.

Andy Pelosi (no relation to the former Speaker of the House) was one of the organizers-in-training. He lives about 20 minutes from Newtown and has two elementary school-age daughters. Standing in front of the White House he told reporters, "We're always told, 'Just wait, just wait, tomorrow's the day to talk about it'." Apparently the White House was listening. John Carson, the White House Director of the Office of Public Engagement, came out to talk with attendees about their concerns and requests.

Also in attendence were Barbara Elsas, a pre-school teacher, and Linda Finkel-Talvadkar, a retired principal. Since July 30, a few days after the mass shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie theather, they've spent every Monday morning walking up and down Pennsylvania Avenue holding signs and talking to visitors about gun violence. We were also pleased to learn that they find Mother Jones' timeline of mass shootings useful. "We set this timeline out on the sidewalk and people from all over the world and all over the United States stop and look at that timeline," Finkel-Talvadkar said.

Nationwide action continues today, as organizations such as MoveOn, are calling for candlelight vigils to end gun violence. Evan Sutton of NOI told Mother Jones, "Expect more direct action in the next couple of days. On Capitol Hill and the D.C. NRA offices."

Here's a summary of our mass shooting reporting:

VIDEO: "Big Write-Offs Will Inspire You," Top AIG Exec Raps About Bailout

With AIG finally clear of the US government that saved the company, watch the head of one of its affiliates get down.

—By Dana Liebelson

| Fri Dec. 14, 2012 4:13 AM PST

Today the US Treasury is expected to sell the last of its stock in the American International Group (AIG), marking the end of the $182 billion bailout that rescued the company. But the AIG brass did not always seem appreciative of the government assistance. Just look at Robert Gifford, president and CEO of AIG Global Real Estate, which oversees $8.4 billion of real estate in various countries. At a 2010 holiday party for AIG employees held at a restaurant in New York City, Gifford rapped, to the tune of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," about working at AIG and having to deal with the government. Mother Jones obtained a copy of the video. Watch:

Read the full lyrics as circulated at AIG.

In this video, first reported (but not posted) by the New York Daily News in August, Gifford raps, "I was hanging out all comfy, at my crib in bed. Now I have endless meetings with...the Fed." He pokes fun at AIG's foreign branches. And he tells the crowd, "Big write-offs will inspire you." In a longer version of the lyrics, sent to AIG employees in an email obtained by Mother Jones, Gifford describes his lifestyle, which doesn't sound too bad: "Later it Karaoke, drinkin' soju till I'm smoked...Crusin' to Tokyo, Hong Kong. It's a blast." He adds, "Check out my threads, dawg, I'm Gucci, my junk real good. Check out my bling-bling, so iced out, so Hollywood."

AIG spokesman James Ankner declined to comment to Mother Jones on the rap, but he confirmed to the Daily News that the party had taken place as described and cost $6,500.

The party occurred the same year AIG chairman Harvey Golub said that pay limits for the salaries of top managers, imposed as part of the bailout, made "little business sense." And one year after CEO Robert Benmosche told AIG employees, "If you want me, you can have me, but you've got to pay. And you have to pay a lot, not because I need the money."

The Treasury Department is claiming a $22.7 billion profit on the AIG bailout. But Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general of the government's bailout program for AIG, warns, "incentivizing in the future the exact same types of behavior that led to the last crisis and will almost certainly cause the next." And possibly lead to other corporate rap parodies.

As AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche wrote in a letter to his colleagues on Tuesday, "Take a bow, because today marks our second act."

Defense Contractors Don't Want to Say When They've Been Hacked

Shhh—defense companies aren't too excited about a new rule that would make them reveal their security breaches.

—By Dana Liebelson

| Thu Dec. 13, 2012 4:03 AM PST

In 2009, it came to light that hackers had successfully broken into the most expensive Pentagon weapons program of all time, the F-35 fighter jet, by gaining access to computers allegedly belonging to the defense contractor BAE Systems (the contractor part came out later). There had "never been anything like it," one unnamed official told the Wall Street Journal. The intruders were later confirmed to be Chinese spies, and lo and behold, in 2012 China rolled out a stealth fighter that looked suspiciously like the F-35. Was it a coincidence?

It took several years for all of the details of the F-35 breach to be unearthed. (The first hack took place in 2007, wasn't publicly reported until 2009, and BAE Systems' alleged role didn't come out until 2012.) But a new amendment to the defense budget, introduced by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), would prevent contractors from not disclosing when they've been hacked. The amendment would require defense contractors to report to the Pentagon when spies and hackers successfully scale their firewalls. And the contractors don't appear to be happy about it.

Some of the contractors' grievances were aired in Politico on Monday. Trey Hodgkins, a senior vice president at TechAmerica, a trade association, said that contractors are already participating in a voluntary information-sharing program, and they "are likely to fight the change."

Mother Jones contacted four major defense contractors: KBR, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and L-3 Communications. Only Jennifer Allen, a spokesperson for Lockheed Martin, responded—with a non-comment comment. "We are reviewing the cybersecurity amendment in the recently passed Senate version of the defense authorization bill, and will watch it closely," she said.

Lawyers who work in contracting law are already spelling out arguments against the amendment, making the point that it doesn't specify whether it applies to classified or unclassified information that has been breached. Kate Molony, an associate at Crowell & Moring, writes that it "raises significant questions for those that it seeks to regulate." Elizabeth Ferrell, a lawyer at McKenna Long & Aldridge, calls it an "ambiguous legislative reporting requirement."

But in fact, contractors already have to report some of this information. The Pentagon's Defense Security Service releases regular reports on technology hacking in the defense industry. According to Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, even though reporting is voluntary, DSS can get this information in part because recently "DOD has been adamant about inserting a clause in contracts that mandates reporting of security breaches." He adds that the new amendment would create a uniform standard for everyone, and "the government can use this information to defend against threats."

Richard Bejtlich, who used to work for General Electric and is now the chief security officer at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, says there are already well-defined reporting requirements for contractors who work with classified information. He adds that extending those requirements to companies that work with unclassified information could be a good thing for taxpayers. "In the private sector, if you're doing work for another company, you have to tell them if there's a breach that involves their data," he says. "It's just good customer service."

Wanna Smuggle Money out of Afghanistan?

—By Dana Liebelson

| Wed Dec. 12, 2012 3:33 PM PST

Cash-counting machines in Kabul.

You may have heard that Afghanistan has something of a corruption problem, with billions of dollars flowing out of the country annually even as the US and international community pour money into reconstruction efforts. Instead of curbing the exodus of illicit cash, however, the Afghan government is apparently making it easier to smuggle money out of the country, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

By designating certain officials "VIPs" or Very VIPs, the government is allowing certain individuals to bypass security at Kabul's airport (and possibly sneak huge amounts of cash out of the country in the process). According to SIGAR, the Afghan government has even constructed a special VIP entryway that, in addition to circumventing security, also allows these individuals to forgoe the "bulk current counters." These machines—which the US government purchased for $117,275—are supposed to record currency serial numbers and help law enforcement detect and investigate financial crimes. But, SIGAR found, they are not even being used correctly. Instead of tracking serial numbers, these machines were just being used to count the money.

Among those who have faced allegations of money laundering are relatives of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In 2010, a Western official accused Karzai's late half-brother, Ahmed Wali, of laundering money for drug-runners, according to The New York Times. (Ahmed Wali, who had faced myriad charges of corruption, was killed in 2011 by a member of his security team.) Another of the president's brothers, Mahmoud, has been linked to the Kabul bank scandal, in which $900 million in loans disappeared. (President Karzai himself stepped in to block US anti-laundering efforts in 2011 by banning US Treasury officials who were trying to protect Kabul Bank from fraud).

According to the Congressional Research Service, an estimated $4.5 billion was secreted out of Afghanistan in 2011; to put this in perspective, the country's entire GDP was $20.34 billion that year. As SIGAR John F. Sopko noted in the report, proper controls "are particularly critical for a country fraught with corruption, narcotics trafficking, and insurgent activity." That seems like an understatement.