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01.07.04, 19:21
Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks
Reports over a decade have warned of recruits with criminal pasts and of the
violent behavior of some active-duty service members.
By Ken Silverstein
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 1, 2004
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon was warned repeatedly going back a decade that it
was accepting military recruits with criminal histories and was too lenient
with those already in uniform who exhibited violent or other troubling
behavior.
Six studies prepared over 10 years by an outside expert at the Pentagon's
request found that too little was being done to discipline lawbreakers in
uniform or even identify problem recruits.
A 1998 study estimated that one-third of military recruits had arrest
records. A 1995 report found that one out of four Army career enlisted
personnel had committed one or more criminal offenses while on active duty.
Yet many were allowed to reenlist or received promotions. Some received good-
conduct medals or held top secret security clearances, the research found.
The 1995 study cited the case of one soldier who was promoted to sergeant
despite a record of behavior that included multiple assaults, drunk and
disorderly conduct, property destruction and obstructio n of justice.
As recently as last year, only a month before some of the worst abuses of
Iraqi detainees occurred at Abu Ghraib prison, one of the reports said some
troops were in positions "where destructive acts could have the most serious
consequences."
"An immediate problem faced by Defense is that there are military personnel
with pre-service and in-service records that clearly establish a pattern of
substandard behavior," the 2003 report said.
"These individuals constitute a high-risk group for destructive behavior and
need to be identified."
The September 2003 study, titled "Reducing the Threat of Destructive Behavior
by Military Personnel" and released to The Times with the Pentagon's
permission, was written by Eli S. Flyer, a former senior analyst at the
Defense Department and a longtime Pentagon consultant.
It examined recruiting of active-duty troops and misconduct by uniformed
personnel once they entered the armed forces. Military reservists undergo the
same screening process as active-duty troops, Flyer said.
Although the Pentagon adopted some new procedures, they were not adequate,
Flyer's most recent report said. The military services have resisted
improving screening procedures because that "would reduce applicant supply,"
the 2003 report said, alluding to problems some services have had in recent
years meeting recruitment goals.
"Critically important, development of applicant screening procedures to
identify individuals with behavior disorders has lagged, contributing to
suitability problems and destructive acts occurring later during active
duty," the report said.
Flyer's most recent study said steps needed to be taken to reduce the "wide
range of destructive acts committed by military personnel," including
sabotage, serial murder and rape.
The Army recently announced that it had opened investigations into at least
91 cases of possible misconduct by U.S. military personnel in Iraq and
Afghanistan. In addition to violent crim es committed against detainees, the
charges include assaults and thefts committed against civilians.
"One would hope Defense is doing a thorough investigation of their
backgrounds," Flyer said.
Flyer said Bill Carr, the Pentagon's acting deputy undersecretary for
military personnel policy, requested last September's report. Carr was not
available for an interview.
Curtis Gilroy, who oversees military recruiting as director of the Pentagon's
office of accession policy, said the screening process for recruits
was "pretty good" but acknowledged some shortcomings.
It is hard to "pick out all the bad apples," Gilroy said, "but we are
striving to improve the system and are doing so — from recruiters to the
military entrance processing stations to the initial training sites. We are
taking screening very seriously and will be more vigilant at all steps of the
recruiting and accession process."
One measure of the overall problem is provided by the record of a special
Defen se Department screening program called the Personnel Reliability
Program, or PRP, which is designed to ensure that only persons of sound
character were assigned to duty involving nuclear weapons. Between 1987 and
1990, three individuals approved by the PRP committed murders while on active
duty.
In a 1986 case, the Navy gave a PRP clearance to a man known to be a suspect
in an unsolved murder. Three years later, when the man was a fire control
technician on a nuclear submarine, he was charged in the murder of an elderly
couple while off duty. He was later convicted.
In an interview, Flyer said it was too early to know if the problems he found
could have contributed to the situation at Abu Ghraib or to other misconduct
cases that came to light in Iraq and Afghanistan, although at least two cases
involved veterans with checkered backgrounds.
Most of the names of those being investigated have not been released, but in
at least two high-profile cases men who are charged with committing cri mes
had entered the military despite previous problems.
Cpl. Charles A. Graner Jr., an accused ringleader in the abuse of Iraqi
detainees at Abu Ghraib, served in the Gulf War in a Marine reserve unit. He
reenlisted in the Army in 2001, joining a reserve unit at a time when
allegations of violent behavior had been made against him in two civil court
proceedings. His wife alleged in divorce proceedings in 2000 that he beat
her, and she obtained three "protection of abuse" orders against him, court
records show.
An inmate at a state prison where Graner worked filed a lawsuit against him
and other guards in 1999 for allegedly kicking and beating him, according to
court records. Graner denied abusing the prisoner. The case was dismissed in
2000 when the man, who by then had been released from prison, failed to
appear in court.
Graner's attorney in Texas, Guy Womack, did not return phone calls seeking
comment.
David Passaro is accused of beating a detainee in Afgha nistan so badly that
the man later died. Passaro joined the Army in 1992 and later became a
Ranger, after he was fired from the Hartford, Conn., Police Department for
allegedly assaulting a man during an off-duty brawl, police and court records
show.
At the time of the alleged incident in Afghanistan in 2003, Passaro was
working as a civilian contractor for the CIA. The indictment against him
charges that he beat an Afghan detainee, Abdul Wali, with his hands, feet and
a large flashlight during interrogation June 19 and June 20. Wali died the
next day.
Thomas McNamara, a North Carolina public defender who represents Passaro, did
not return phone calls.
Flyer worked at the Pentagon for 28 years, retiring in 1979 as staff director
for enlistment standards for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense. Since then, he has been hired by the Pentagon as an outside
consultant to write dozens of reports.
His 1998 report estimated that about one- third of recruits had arrest
records and many were not detected.
Potential recruits with a criminal record can enlist in the armed forces if
they receive a moral character waiver. Flyer's 1998 report said that of the
estimated 3.5 million recruits who entered the military service between 1978
and 1989, 300,000 had enlisted with a moral character waiver, most for a
criminal arrest record.
The report said that those enlisting with a moral waiver were more likely
than others to get into criminal trouble or be discharged for bad behavior.
The Pentagon addressed the use of moral character wa