SHOW: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT 6:00 PM EST December 10, 2004
Senator Speaks Out Over Top Secret Program
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, December 10. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion is Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
Tonight after a firestorm of bipartisan protests, the Pentagon has ordered more armored Humvees for our troops. An additional 100 armored Humvees will be delivered to the Army each month.
Incredibly, the manufacturer of those armored Humvees has been saying for several weeks that it can produce more vehicles. But the Pentagon took action only after a National Guard soldier publicly complained.
Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.
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JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Army is moving to buy more armored Humvees and see if other production lines can be accelerated, just two days after a pointed question from this soldier put Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the spot about the lack of armor for military vehicles.
Army officials say they were surprised to hear from news reports that Armor Holdings of Jacksonville, Florida, was prepared to sell the Pentagon 550 armored Humvees a month, because originally, the Army was told it could only get 450 because of commitments to other customers.
Pentagon officials say the new Army secretary, Francis Harvey, who was sworn in less than a month ago, called the CEO of the company directly, and is negotiating to buy all the Humvees the company can supply, which is up to 100 more a month.
Another company, ArmorWorks of Tempe, Arizona, says it could double production of armor plates that can be added to existing Humvees.
MATT SALMON, PRESIDENT ARMORWORKS: We produce 300 kits a month. We could be doing 600 kits a month. So when you hear language from the Pentagon that we're doing everything humanly possible, I'm telling you that the industry base is being underutilized.
MCINTYRE: But the Army says it already has a backlog of armor kits and can't install them any faster.
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MCINTYRE: Just to be clear, Lou, it's not clear the Army will be able to get those extra Humvees anytime soon. The negotiations are still going on, and now it turns out that the company says in order to deliver the extra 100, they would have to retool the assembly line and stop its commitments to other customers. But that's something that could take weeks or months.
Meanwhile, the Army has set up a special armor task force to take a look at all the contracts to see if any of the production can be accelerated at other companies or if there are other ways to get armor to the battlefield faster.
DOBBS: It's remarkable, Jamie, when you put this in historical context. The United States was producing a Liberty ship every single day in world war ii when we were a nation of just under half what we are today.
How in the world is the Pentagon, the leadership in Washington, both parties, the White House, the Senate, the House, how in the world do people explain this kind of inaction and the fact that it required a soldier standing up in a town hall meeting with the secretary of defense for someone to even at least act like they're taking action? MCINTYRE: Well, you know, the Army would tell you that this issue is a lot more complicated than it seems. It's an industrial base question. That is, the requirement for this kind of armor three years ago was very small. There just were very few companies making it, and they all have suppliers and people who they have to work with. It just takes time to ramp up that production.
The Army says they were taken aback when they heard this company say they could produce more. And they're now calling them on that claim, and they're discovering, once again, it's a little more complicated. They might not be able to get the extra vehicles as fast as they want.
But there's a new Army secretary in charge. He's Rumsfeld's guy. He's described as a can-do former CEO who knows enough to pick up the phone and call the top guy at the company and try to get answers.
So the Pentagon is insisting they're going to try to cut through as much red tape as they can.
DOBBS: It's remarkable that there are only two companies in all of the United States, the world's only superpower, that can produce these kits and these armored Humvees. That speaking to the issue you raised, and that is a significant question about our industrial base.
Jamie, thank you very much. Jamie McIntyre, our senior Pentagon correspondent.
Three more American troops have been killed in Iraq. A U.S. Marine was killed in combat in al-Anbar province. That's west of Baghdad. And in the northern city of Mosul, two soldiers were killed in an accident involving two helicopters at an airfield. Twelve hundred and 87 Americans have now been killed in Iraq.
Elsewhere in Iraq, insurgents launched more attacks against Iraqi National Guardsmen. A roadside bomb in Baqubah exploded as an Iraqi National Guard patrol was passing by. Three Iraqi civilians were wounded in that explosion.
All but lost in the negotiations and the ultimate passage of the intelligence reform legislation is a simmering controversy over a spy program that elected officials can't talk about publicly, at least with any specificity.
It's a so-called black program that cannot be named, the budget of which can't be disclosed, and whose likely effectiveness can't be discussed, at least openly.
Two leading senators, however, are now declared opponents of this mysterious program.
National security correspondent David Ensor has the report.
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DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mystery concerns a top-secret, multibillion-dollar program, which a knowledgeable source says involves a future potential type of spy satellite.
This week, a heated debate over the program burst into the open on the floor of the U.S. Senate with a key senator saying he'll fight to stop funds for a Bush administration program that he would not describe.
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: My decision to take this somewhat unprecedented decision is based solely on my strenuous objection, shared by many in our committee, to a particular major funding acquisition program that I believe is totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security.
ENSOR: Dangerous, aides explained, because it sucks up black- budget money better spent elsewhere.
Fellow Democrat Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement, quote, "The original justification for developing this technology has eroded in importance due to the changed practices and capabilities of our adversaries."
Spy satellites act as both eyes and ears for U.S. intelligence. No one will say what the controversial program seeks to do. But outside experts say possibilities include radar satellites to target a battlefield as planes and UAVs now do, or stealthy spy satellites, designed to look to an adversary like space debris.
JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: The challenge, then, is to make the signature of the satellite so small that, rather than looking like a satellite the size of a city bus, it looks like a small Coke can-sized space debris, and it blends in with the other 8,000 pieces of space junk out there.
ENSOR (on camera): Knowledgeable sources say the problem is these secret programs cost so much money that when you fund one, you block others. That is why there's been such sharp debate about a program shrouded in mystery.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
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