Blacked Out DoD MRAP Industrial Assessment

In a joke of a response, 30 out of 35 pages of the Defense Contract Management Agency's "Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Industrial Capability Assessment" were completely blacked out in the Defense Department's response to POGO's Freedom of Information Act request for the assessment.  Minimal information is contained in the 5 non-redacted pages which includes the title page. 

The redactions are due to exemption 4 -- trade secrets or commercial and financial information that is privileged or confidential -- and exemption 5 -- inter- and intra-agency communications protected by the deliberative process privilege.  POGO is considering an appeal -- it doesn't seem like 30 entire pages of the 35 page document should be completely withheld and that exemptions 4 and 5 were inappropriately used to black out entire pages instead of the specific information.  For example, it seems that specific information in sentences should be blacked out rather than the entire page, if the redactions were properly used to segregate unreleasable from releaseable information as the law mandates.

POGO does have to give the Pentagon some credit for the quick two week turnaround to POGO's request.  However, considering that this assessment is the only DCMA report specifically mentioned on its FOIA page, you'd think the DoD would be more willing to share its findings.

-- Nick Schwellenbach

Comments

[A military family]

Shut up Jonathon, it's people like you responsible for supporting this mess.

[KSBR Redux]

You're expectation shows too much logic and common sense.

The MRAP business is probably going under-wraps,because, as usual, the acquisitions from the multiple companies are being bungled by DoD and the Army, leaving the troops unprotected again. Yep, they really support our troops.

In WWII, industry was tuned up so much that it could build a Liberty ship in a week, or multiple B-17s in a day. Plants were quickly expanded and ran three shifts. Even government procurement offices worked around the clock when necessary.

We've seen none of this kind of hustle from government or industry in the present war. It's business as usual. The usual stakeholders have no complaints about it. The citizen taxpayers, troops, and military families haven't been asked.

[Jonathan Baum]

Excellent! There's a lot of stuff here that you don't need to know and the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan definitely shouldn't know!