The Political Conundrum!

This is David “pgpkeys” Downey, this site’s owner. I have never felt more pride in adding an entry than I do with this one. Pride that there are those out there that understand the value of the job that we, as soldiers, do. And the sheer humbleness that it brings forth from me is something I can not express. Let us all remember that Respect Costs Nothing.

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A pretty good video showing a firefight between tangos and A co, 1/508th ABN

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Tonight on You Served Radio we will be talking with NY National Guard LT. Amy Bonanno. Amy just returned from a one year tour in Afghanistan as part of Task Force Phoenix. She was the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the the southern Afghan region, based out of the volatile Kandahar region. We will be talking about her tour as a PAO, some of the things that happened then, like the prison break, Focused District Development Teams, and the famed Nick Meo affair. Also keeping in line with our theme of talking about the challenges of women serving in the military we will probably chat about what challenges and unique issues she saw versus her male counterparts.

We’ll also be talking with Dana Canedy, author of “A Journal For Jordan”. The book is based off the private journal of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King. In the book, 1SG King gives timeless advice from a father to his son in the form of a regular journal. When 1SG King was killed in Iraq, Dana published his journal for all generations to read.

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A riptide or rip current is caused after waves coming in from the ocean hit the beach. The receding water is referred to as a backwash, causing a rip current on the surface. The bigger the waves, the more dangerous the riptide becomes to swimmers. In a strong riptide, swimmers are at greater risk of being caught in the backwash. The ultimate consequence is drowning. Riptides occur on the surface and swimmers trapped in them have a chance to survive by relaxing and swimming across the current, parallel to the shoreline. Unfortunately, the natural tendency is to swim against the current directly toward shore. This places the swimmer at higher risk of tiring and drowning, which could be avoided had the swimmer swam across the current and out of the riptide. More harrowing is an undertow. Undertows are currents along the bottom of the backwash. They pull their victims down beneath the surface. A strong undercurrent can knock a swimmer down and drag that individual out to sea on the bottom of the ocean. This makes the risk of drowning far greater.

What is the relevance of this information to financial institutions?

Many financial institutions are currently treading water in an ocean of economic uncertainty. They are having enough trouble staying afloat without having to worry about riptides, or worse yet undercurrents. Regrettably, the waves hitting the banks attempting to stay afloat are growing larger and more violent making it more difficult for those institutions to tread water. Consequently, the resulting riptides and undercurrents are gaining momentum and becoming extremely dangerous.

As the financial crisis has worsened over the last six months, many thousands of bank employees have lost their jobs. As this situation continues to grow bleaker, the layoffs will continue. In addition to the alarming number of layoffs, financial institutions have had to slash budgets dramatically. These overwhelming resource reductions are placing financial institutions at greater risk for falling prey to dangerous riptides or worse, a fatal undertow.

Although financial institutions are being forced to downsize staff and budget because of the losses they are sustaining, it does not relieve them of their Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance and reporting obligations. Many of the people being let go from financial institutions are compliance professionals. The loss of talent and experience, coupled with likely diminished compliance functionality, could well be the next crippling blow causing one or more financial institutions to drown due to a catastrophic compliance breakdown.

The BSA requires financial institutions to establish and maintain a robust anti-money laundering (AML) program. An AML program has four mandatory requirements:

1. Development of internal policies, procedures and controls
2. Designation of a Compliance Officer
3. Ongoing employee training programs
4. Independent audit function to test programs

Essentially, financial institutions must have the ability to assess and mitigate risk. They must have the ability to monitor their systems for risk and to establish controls to ensure they meet all BSA reporting requirements, the most important of which are suspicious activity reporting and know your customer policies and procedures. The loss of highly qualified compliance professionals and the potential of decreased monitoring make it extremely challenging for financial institutions to adequately meet their reporting requirements. In many institutions, compliance professionals are not considered revenue generators, only cost centers. Therefore, a mindset could easily exist among senior business executives that compliance professionals are more expendable. This rationale is pervasive in the industry and incredibly flawed.

Compliance professionals may not be revenue generators. However, given the opportunity to perform and meet their obligations, they are revenue savers and/or loss preventers. If financial institution business executives follow their natural instinct and opine to cut compliance professionals because they are merely considered cost centers, then they will find themselves swimming against the riptide and will be more likely to drown in unnecessary business risk.

In today’s monetary crisis, many financial institutions are taking responsible steps to reduce unnecessary overhead. There are a number of internal institutional redundancies, where reductions are justified. This is particularly true where fraud, security and/or AML programs overlap by virtue of having been stove piped or having been duplicated as the result of mergers or acquisitions, resulting in redundant functions. In those instances, compliance resource reductions are generally more justifiable. However, compliance staff reductions must be assessed for the potential risk of inability to adequately meet BSA reporting and monitoring requirements.

The two elements of the AML program mandatory requirements that are most susceptible to budget cuts are training and internal controls. Training budgets have probably been sliced to the bone, as one of the easiest places to cut. How can compliance professionals continue to learn about the nuances of money laundering, emerging trends, and to adequately understand terrorist financing, if they do not receive appropriate training? Likewise, internal controls and monitoring capabilities have likely been reduced to more minimal levels. Any reduction in controls and/or monitoring capabilities place financial institutions at greater risk of vulnerability. How much compliance risk are these institutions willing to accept in order to meet budget reduction demands?

A troubling reality exists. Budget cuts have not escaped the attention of fraudsters, money launderers, and most problematic, terrorist financiers. The best of these bad guys know how to identify systemic weaknesses and exploit them for their nefarious purposes. They must be salivating at the opportunity in front of them.
In spite of the massive problems the financial crisis is causing financial institutions, there are two questions they better come to terms with:

1. How far are they willing to cut their compliance programs and risk non-compliance with BSA reporting requirements?
2. Do they have a belief that the regulators will give them a pass from BSA reporting requirements because of the perilous position they are already in?

Before answering these questions, financial institutions should come to the realization that they could be swept up in a dangerous riptide or undertow. Will they swim across the tide and reach safety or will they swim against the tide and drown. It will be interesting to see the choices they make as this unprecedented financial crisis plays out.

A riptide or rip current is caused after waves coming in from the ocean hit the beach. The receding water is referred to as a backwash, causing a rip current on the surface. The bigger the waves, the more dangerous the riptide becomes to swimmers. In a strong riptide, swimmers are at greater risk of being caught in the backwash. The ultimate consequence is drowning. Riptides occur on the surface and swimmers trapped in them have a chance to survive by relaxing and swimming across the current, parallel to the shoreline. Unfortunately, the natural tendency is to swim against the current directly toward shore. This places the swimmer at higher risk of tiring and drowning, which could be avoided had the swimmer swam across the current and out of the riptide. More harrowing is an undertow. Undertows are currents along the bottom of the backwash. They pull their victims down beneath the surface. A strong undercurrent can knock a swimmer down and drag that individual out to sea on the bottom of the ocean. This makes the risk of drowning far greater.

What is the relevance of this information to financial institutions?

Many financial institutions are currently treading water in an ocean of economic uncertainty. They are having enough trouble staying afloat without having to worry about riptides, or worse yet undercurrents. Regrettably, the waves hitting the banks attempting to stay afloat are growing larger and more violent making it more difficult for those institutions to tread water. Consequently, the resulting riptides and undercurrents are gaining momentum and becoming extremely dangerous.

As the financial crisis has worsened over the last six months, many thousands of bank employees have lost their jobs. As this situation continues to grow bleaker, the layoffs will continue. In addition to the alarming number of layoffs, financial institutions have had to slash budgets dramatically. These overwhelming resource reductions are placing financial institutions at greater risk for falling prey to dangerous riptides or worse, a fatal undertow.

Although financial institutions are being forced to downsize staff and budget because of the losses they are sustaining, it does not relieve them of their Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance and reporting obligations. Many of the people being let go from financial institutions are compliance professionals. The loss of talent and experience, coupled with likely diminished compliance functionality, could well be the next crippling blow causing one or more financial institutions to drown due to a catastrophic compliance breakdown.

The BSA requires financial institutions to establish and maintain a robust anti-money laundering (AML) program. An AML program has four mandatory requirements:

1. Development of internal policies, procedures and controls
2. Designation of a Compliance Officer
3. Ongoing employee training programs
4. Independent audit function to test programs

Essentially, financial institutions must have the ability to assess and mitigate risk. They must have the ability to monitor their systems for risk and to establish controls to ensure they meet all BSA reporting requirements, the most important of which are suspicious activity reporting and know your customer policies and procedures. The loss of highly qualified compliance professionals and the potential of decreased monitoring make it extremely challenging for financial institutions to adequately meet their reporting requirements. In many institutions, compliance professionals are not considered revenue generators, only cost centers. Therefore, a mindset could easily exist among senior business executives that compliance professionals are more expendable. This rationale is pervasive in the industry and incredibly flawed.

Compliance professionals may not be revenue generators. However, given the opportunity to perform and meet their obligations, they are revenue savers and/or loss preventers. If financial institution business executives follow their natural instinct and opine to cut compliance professionals because they are merely considered cost centers, then they will find themselves swimming against the riptide and will be more likely to drown in unnecessary business risk.

In today’s monetary crisis, many financial institutions are taking responsible steps to reduce unnecessary overhead. There are a number of internal institutional redundancies, where reductions are justified. This is particularly true where fraud, security and/or AML programs overlap by virtue of having been stove piped or having been duplicated as the result of mergers or acquisitions, resulting in redundant functions. In those instances, compliance resource reductions are generally more justifiable. However, compliance staff reductions must be assessed for the potential risk of inability to adequately meet BSA reporting and monitoring requirements.

The two elements of the AML program mandatory requirements that are most susceptible to budget cuts are training and internal controls. Training budgets have probably been sliced to the bone, as one of the easiest places to cut. How can compliance professionals continue to learn about the nuances of money laundering, emerging trends, and to adequately understand terrorist financing, if they do not receive appropriate training? Likewise, internal controls and monitoring capabilities have likely been reduced to more minimal levels. Any reduction in controls and/or monitoring capabilities place financial institutions at greater risk of vulnerability. How much compliance risk are these institutions willing to accept in order to meet budget reduction demands?

A troubling reality exists. Budget cuts have not escaped the attention of fraudsters, money launderers, and most problematic, terrorist financiers. The best of these bad guys know how to identify systemic weaknesses and exploit them for their nefarious purposes. They must be salivating at the opportunity in front of them.
In spite of the massive problems the financial crisis is causing financial institutions, there are two questions they better come to terms with:

1. How far are they willing to cut their compliance programs and risk non-compliance with BSA reporting requirements?
2. Do they have a belief that the regulators will give them a pass from BSA reporting requirements because of the perilous position they are already in?

Before answering these questions, financial institutions should come to the realization that they could be swept up in a dangerous riptide or undertow. Will they swim across the tide and reach safety or will they swim against the tide and drown. It will be interesting to see the choices they make as this unprecedented financial crisis plays out.

The Army has ended an additional re-enlistment bonus that targeted soldiers whose contracts were set to expire this fiscal year after exceeding its retention goal.

There was the time the Iraqis spent millions of dollars on ammunition from Romania, only to discover that it was defective or didn't fit their U.S.- or Russian-made weapons. Or when the Iraqis bought portable kitchens which didn't work in the field.

A U.S. soldier has been found guilty of participating in gang initiation rituals that caused the beating death of another soldier near a base in Germany.

During last week’s You Served Radio show, we ran a little over our 2 hour time window because CJ and I had a civil but not necessarily agreeing discussion about the possibility of allowing photos of coffins returning home. There has been quite a bit of discussion about this topic over the last few weeks and quite a bit of disagreement going on. You can read some disagreement going on and a lot of mixed feelings over the topic. You can read some of that here, http://www.military.com/news/article/quarrel-stirs-on-flagdrapped-coffins.html.

I support the media having access, however with parameters and rules. First let me address why, which is because I think the American people need to see the honors that are bestowed on our fallen by all people.

Did you know that as per the embed rules for embedded reporters, they are allowed to video and photograph a soldier dying on the battlefield but are not supposed to video or photograph a “Ramp Ceremony”. A “Ramp Ceremony” is the ceremony that happens when a fallen soldier of any ally is moved onto the plane for their final flight home out of the combat theatre. When I was at Baghram Air Base a few times while going out on leave or coming home, there were several Ramp Ceremonies that occurred. When they happen (regardless of the time of day) the loudspeakers announce it and call everyone out to the main road (Disney Way) to render honors as soldiers are taken to the flight line.

ANY SOLDIER; US, British, German, Canadian, Dutch, it does not matter what nationality are rendered these honors. It is truly an emotional and awesome sight. This is what people need to see. This is what Americans need to see so it not just another headline like this “Afghan bomb kills 4 US troops”.

By showing not only the Ramp Ceremony in country but also at home, the American people will see that there are names, faces, families, and many other people impacted by every single soldier lost. If you have seen the HBO Movie “Taking Chance” (http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/) that I have talked about on this blog several times, then you will know what I mean. That movie premiered last Saturday and I wanted to wait until that movie was out before posting this entry. If you watched that movie and you have a beating heart, then there is no way you didn’t cry some tears. There is no way you did not get a strong lump in your throat. There is no way you didn’t feel very proud of your military and country after the movie was over. Kevin Bacon did a awesome job representing LTC Strobl and the movie got the message out that I think was intended.

In “Taking Chance” you see how not only the people working on Dover AFB show honors but how people all across America showed honors to PFC Chance’s coffin. Do you think it was the first time those people knew that there was a war going on, or maybe that we lost a US service-member in war? No Way! But it was probably the first time for many to be part of the honors by personally witnessing it.

In December of 2004 I had the painstaking tasks of bringing home one of my soldiers, SGT David Roustum, for one final trip home. Dave was killed on November 20th, 2004 in Iraq and the early days of December his body finally came home. As we stood on the tarmac of the Buffalo Airport with full military honors and the family standing by to receive their loved one home, the windows of the terminal was packed with people. The scene in Taking Chance where the people leaving the plane stop and watch the casket leave the plane reminded me of this moment back in 2004. It brought back a lot of painful, but proud memories. I remember standing in my Class-A uniform on the tarmac on that cold day and looking out of the corner of my eye up to the windows of the terminal and seeing hundreds of people who stopped what they were doing, who didn’t worry about making their flight or leaving the terminal to be with family. They forgot what they were doing or where they had to be.

They saw the father fall on the end of the flag-covered casket as it came down the conveyor. They saw brave and strong warriors weep for their brother. They saw family with stone faces covered in tears. They were in awe, they were in pause for a brief moment to not only pay honors themselves, but to witness how the military pays honors to its own. I am sure those people have never forgotten that day in the airport, at least I hope they never do.

All the American people need to see that. They need to see how those that work on Dover line up every time a hearse leaves the base and render honors. The American people need to see how proud many of us are of our fallen, regardless of branch, regardless if we knew them or not.

I don’t think that journalists should be allowed to video or take pictures of a soldier bleeding out on the battlefield, but they should be allowed to video and take pictures of the honors we present to our warriors who have sacrificed all.

You can view a Canadian Ramp ceremony below.

Now to address some of the rules and policies that I think should be followed are the following (I am sure there are more that apply, but these are what initially stand out to me):

1. No cameras mounted in C17s to take impersonal pictures of a plane full of coffins.

This serves no purpose and in my opinion it does not demonstrate anything or hold any journalistic value.

2. The family must approve ahead of time for the media to take pictures or video. They must also say when it must stop (i.e. From plane to Mortuary affairs, or until it leave base or all the way to the family, or all the way until it is put in the ground, etc.)

3.The family can change their mind at any time and when they do the journalist must back off and are not allow to spout 1st Amendment violation accusations.

4. If at anytime a news organization violates these rules or it is determined later that they were disrespectful in their presentation, they would be barred from every covering these events in the future.

The above post was written over the weekend, and was going to post this week. However it looks like the Pentagon it changing its policy as of today (02/26/09) so I am amending this post and adding the link below. I am wondering if they are tapping into my blog site and getting ideas from the Bouhammer, or maybe listening to You Served Radio.

Pentagon changing policy

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/26/ap-pentagon-allow-media-coverage-returning-war-dead/

If you have an opinion about this matter, please leave a comment and let me and others know.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.