Senators tell Marines to ease off MRAP whistleblower

[unhappycamper]

Senators tell Marines to ease off MRAP whistleblower
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today[br />Posted : Friday Sep 21, 2007 6:49:23 EDT

The Marine Corps must stop retaliating against a whistleblower who has exposed delays in fielding armored vehicles that protect troops from roadside bombs, two U.S. senators told the Corps in a letter released Thursday.

Franz Gayl has been targeted by his superiors for “adverse personnel action,” wrote Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Kit Bond, R-Mo. Gayl is the science and technology adviser to the deputy Marine commandant. He helped disclose “life-threatening” problems in the Pentagon’s efforts to field Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, the letter said.

~snip~

Marines in Iraq sought 1,169 MRAPs in February 2005. It took more than a year for the Marines to approve a request for large numbers of the vehicle. Conway has said the Marines delayed seeking more MRAPs because they believed armored Humvees were the best response to the threat of roadside bombs. Conway has also said there were not enough producers of MRAPs at the time to meet the Marines’ demand.

~snip~

Gayl has also criticized the Marines’ reluctance to field a nonlethal ray gun used for crowd control. The delay in fielding the device, Gayl has said, has cost the lives of many innocent Iraqis.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/09/gns_mrapwhistleblower_070921/



uhc comment: "the Marines’ reluctance to field a nonlethal ray gun used for crowd control." :wtf:

The first time our military publicly rolls out this non-lethal technology in Iraq, the world outcry will be enormous.