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BRAC: Suppressed Internal Papers Disclosed

The decision of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission to shut down certain Department of Defense laboratory facilities was allegedly based on a record that was selectively altered to exclude certain relevant information. Some of the suppressed data have been recovered.

In January 2008, Members of Congress asked the Attorney General to Investigate the BRAC Recommendation to Close Fort Monmouth.

A December 2007 document collection presents an overview of the allegations. See Pentagon Officials Withheld BRAC Data to Protect Proposals That Failed Legal Requirement. (The Federation of American Scientists does not specifically endorse the conclusions of this document.)

An unofficial Synopsis summarizes the argument that crucial data were suppressed and introduces several of the key official documents:

• The final report of the Technical Joint Cross Service Group on DoD laboratories, dated May 10, 2005, with the complete text of Appendix A (267 pages) on current and future excess capacity at the labs.
• The official version of the TJCSG Report, dated May 20, 2005, as it was presented to the BRAC Commission -- with 254 pages missing from Appendix A.
• A "lessons learned" analysis by Don J. DeYoung, a TJCSG member, dated November 29, 2005.
• An email message from the Office of Secretary of Defense describing the removal of most of Appendix A of the TJCSG Report on asserted security grounds.

Update, November 2009: DoD Inspector General Report on BRAC Cost Estimates for Closing Fort Monmouth, NJ, September 21, 2009

Update, February 2011: DoD Inspector General Report on Alleged Misconduct by Dr. Ronald Sega, September 22, 2009, and analysis of the IG report by Don J. DeYoung, December 30, 2010

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On July 21, 2005, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner wrote to the Department of Defense to request a copy of all papers written by defense analyst Don J. DeYoung concerning the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

In a July 25, 2005 response, acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England forwarded six papers by Mr. DeYoung.

But two other sharply critical internal papers by DeYoung were not released to the Senate Armed Services Committee. They were obtained by the Federation of American Scientists and are provided here.

An explanatory introduction -- which is not an official document -- puts the two DeYoung papers in context.

"Shadows on the Wall: The Problem with Military Value Metrics" is a critique of the bias in military metrics that favors the largest DoD laboratories and centers in the realignment process. (1.5 MB PDF file).

"Defending the Technical Infrastructure Proposals of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Round" finds significant methodological flaws in the proposed consolidation of DoD technical facilities that "if implemented, will contribute toward a degradation of national defense capabilities."

See also the Technical Joint Cross Service Group, Analyses and Recommendations, Volume XII, 19 May 2005.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dod/brac/index.html
Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Updated February 13, 2011