Politics Today

1. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard all met or exceeded their recruiting goals for fiscal year 2003, which ended Sept. 30. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8407076.htm?1c

2. In the Air Force, retention is so high that re-enlistment incentives are being cut. They currently have 16,600 more people then they are authorized to have by Congress.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=20585&archive=true

3. Navy re-enlistment rates are at an all-time high, ranging from 62% of first-term sailors to 89% of those with 10 to 14 years of service.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=2649

3. The National Guard's first term re-enlistments is 141%. The goal was 65%. The goal for "career" soldiers, was set at 85%, but are now at 139% re-enlistment. Retention is highest among soldiers who just returned from Iraq.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8422418.htm?1c
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=20800&archive=true

4. The Army Reserves re-enlistment is down to 93.4% of the goal, but is "not large enough to provoke alarm," because they are currently overstaffed with 5,000 more soldiers than authorized by Congress. They attribute the shortfall to a lack of bonuses which the National Guard offers and the lack of some benefits that full time soldiers are entitled to. They are asking the Army to address these inequities to increase rention.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=20800&archive=true

5. The Army came up 1,000 short in it's re-enlistment goal, which is based on previous reenlistment numbers. Some stories say they have made 96% of their goal while others say they're at 99% and expected to be over 100% by the end of the year. It looks like to me like the 96% figure is a combination of the full time and Reserve units while the 99% figure is without the Reserves included.

All of the divisions that have been operating in Iraq over the last year have met their recruiting and re-enlisting goals, so the USA Today headline, 'Iraq duty deters re-enlistment,' isn't accurate.

The areas where the army is falling short are helicopter pilots and special forces because their skills are in such high demand in the private sector. The Pentagon is considering various incentives to increase their retention. Also, they are anticipating that the re-inlistment figures will begin to decline, so they are adding 30,000 more troops during the next couple of years.

Not only did the Army meet its new recruitment goal, but so many people were applying that they raised their entry requirements.

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=59873&SecID=2
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/200448.asp
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040401-115508-9161r.htm
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&e=18&u=/usatoday/20040416/ts_usatoday/iraqdutydetersreenlistment
http://www.wtvo.com/Global/story.asp?S=1733279

Here is a story about the relistment figures in 82nd Airborne, a division that has been deployed to Iraq for 2 years. They have already met goals for retention for fiscal year '04 which is over in September.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031774822880&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099

By BRIAN BLOMQUIST

April 16, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - New questions surfaced yesterday about 9/11 commissioner Jamie Gorelick's potential conflicts of interest after it was revealed she was more deeply involved in anti-terror efforts than has previously been known.
Records obtained by The Post show that Gorelick, while serving in a top job at the Justice Department, met every two weeks with George Tenet, then the No. 2 official at the CIA, and headed then-Attorney General Janet Reno's national-security team.

Gorelick's own description of her counter-terrorism duties under Bill Clinton is contained in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1995.

But they are not mentioned in her official biography on the 9/11 commission Web site.

Gorelick is already facing calls for her resignation after it was learned she penned a Justice Department memo that some officials say hindered the fight against terrorism by limiting information-sharing by agencies.

In the 9/11 hearings, Gorelick recused herself only from questioning Reno, her former boss, but she was active in grilling Tenet and several other top CIA officials who were all at the agency when Gorelick was the chief liaison between the CIA and the Justice Department.

Asked whether her role in the Justice Department posed a conflict of interest for Gorelick - who is scrutinizing the terror policies under Clinton and Bush - a 9/11 commission official responded, "She was appointed by Sen. [Tom] Daschle. We didn't do the vetting. He did."

House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) has asked Gorelick to step down based on her memo defending the so-called "wall" separating law-enforcement investigators and intelligence operatives.

Gorelick didn't return a phone call for comment.

According to a Republican staffer on the 9/11 commission, growing public and pundit outrage over commissioner Jamie Gorelick's failure to disclose the existence of a Justice Department memo, had chairman Gov. Tom Kean asking Gorelick yesterday morning if she would think about stepping aside.

"The word is she was asked whether she might consider it and she flat out shut him down," said the staffer. "We're in an extremely difficult spot on this."

Gorelick's conflict of interest came to light on Tuesday afternoon, when a newly declassified 1995 Justice Department memo written by her when she was serving as Deputy Attorney General was presented to the commission by Attorney General John Ashcroft during public testimony. The memo, which mandated policy that, as it turned out, made it almost impossible for counter-terrorism investigators to pursue the 9/11 plot before it unfolded, surprised Gorelick's fellow commissioners and staff because, staffers said, she never disclosed its existence to any of them.

Kean's quiet attempt to press the issue on Gorelick's situation comes at a time when there were mounting calls for the former Clinton political operative to step aside from not only the House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner but families of 9/11 victims concerned that the commission's report would be tainted by her presence.

Those families were also calling for Gorelick to be called before the committee to explain her role in devising a legal impediment that contributed to the intelligence and law enforcement failures to combat and prevent terrorist acts.

---->>>>But according to former Clinton staffers, it's doubtful Gorelick will budge. "She's on that commission for a reason, and it isn't because of her brilliant legal mind," says a former DNC and Clinton White House staffer. "She's there to make sure Bush and his team look as bad as possible and to protect the Clintons and Reno."<<<<----

It isn't just Gorelick who is now in hot water. Based on their remarks on Wednesday and Thursday, both Kean and fellow commissioner, former Sen. Slade Gorton are taking heat from 9/11 families for telling critics during TV interviews to stay "out of our business."

Those remarks came in response to questions about Gorelick's conflict of interest.

"We've got to get these guys out of the limelight," says the Republican 9/11 staffer. "Kean has enjoyed the media spotlight a little too much. Remember, most of these guys are has-beens. They haven't experienced this much attention in years. In a matter of two days they have managed to undo six months of good work that was done under the radar screen. A few more days of this and the commission's work will be tainted."

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6438

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This commission is past tainted. It is a circus, a joke. The liberal portion of the commission doesn't care about the families who don't have it out for the president. This is all about bashing Bush and how best to prop it up by only giving voice to those victims' families who hate Bush. Yup. This commission is nothing but political grandstanding from the left. As far as I'm concerned, should this commission continue with this tack and in this hostile manner against nonliberals, its findings will become irrelevant. I have yet to hear how our country will be best served by policies designed to prevent terrorists from infiltrating our country and throwing it into turmoil.

Not really. All branches have more than exceeded their goals except the Army. Some stories are reporting that the Army is at 96% of goal while others say 99%.

It looks like the 96% figure is a combination of reserve and full time units and the 99% figure is for the full time ones.