Human Terrain "teams" deemed worthless or worse

Army plows ahead with troubled aid program
By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 18, 2013

A $250 million Army program designed to aid U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has been riddled by serious problems that include payroll padding, sexual harassment and racism, a USA Today probe has found.

As the Pentagon plans for sizable budget cuts beginning next month, the Army is planning to use the teams in other potential hot spots around the world despite the allegations outlined in an unreleased Army investigation obtained by the newspaper and in subsequent interviews.

The program, known as the Human Terrain System, sends civilian social scientists overseas to help U.S. troops better understand the societies in which they are operating, avoid bloodshed and smooth relations with local populations.

A 2010 Army investigation shows the program was plagued by severe problems, including:

• Team members were encouraged to maximize their pay and comp time by inflating time sheets.

• Allegations of sexual harassment and racism were made against the government contractors who recruited and trained Human Terrain teams and a soldier who worked in the program.

• The program relied on unaccountable contractors and inadequate government oversight.

• Many commanders deemed worthless — or worse — the reports the teams produced. In one case, the commander of a brigade combat team in Iraq told the Army investigator that he “relied very little on his (Human Terrain team) and viewed them as incapable and of little value. He never looked at his team’s products and believed their survey efforts actually created anxiety among the local Iraqi populace.”

The problems drew the attention of Gen. Martin Dempsey, then the commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Dempsey, now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in an April 2010 memo that the Human Terrain System program needed government oversight of “all phases including recruiting, training, organizing, deploying and redeploying, and in all aspects of employment including hiring and compensation.”
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