OC Chief retires after 30 years of service; reflects on time in Afghanistan

Published Dec. 15, 2010

Dale Holmes retired last month after 30 years of federal service. He served as Louisville District’s Chief of Counsel beginning in 2000. The following excerpt is from an oral history interview taken shortly before Holmes retired. In the interview, Holmes discusses his deployments to Afghanistan, including a detailed account of an undercover sting operation that netted the biggest fraud scheme in Corps history; an unnerving flight into Kabul, Afghanistan, with his wife; some words on ethics; and some final thoughts about retiring. Louisville District historian John Neville conducted the interview.

 

Neville: You deployed to Afghanistan. Can you talk about that experience?

You deployed to Afghanistan. Can you talk about that experience?

Holmes: Yes, it was certainly some of the most interesting work I did. A lot of contract work and a lot of fraud work. I took part in the largest fraud case involving the Corps. It involved our former chief of contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The chief of contracting is a pretty important position in the Corps. She was on the take, taking bribes from a Lebanese firm. She got them hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts awarded. (The U.S. government) paid off claims and modifications as a result of all those bribes. She got her sister working for that company, and they engaged in a three-year-long scheme. I was involved in ending that and getting her prosecuted. She got more than five years in federal prison. Her sister got more than two years in prison. The president of the company, a Lebanese citizen, did about a year in federal prison. We terminated a number of their contracts in Afghanistan. They forfeited $25 million in claims they had pending against us, some of which were likely bogus but would’ve been paid had the sister remained in power. We did it all through an undercover sting operation.

Yes, it was certainly some of the most interesting work I did. A lot of contract work and a lot of fraud work. I took part in the largest fraud case involving the Corps. It involved our former chief of contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The chief of contracting is a pretty important position in the Corps. She was on the take, taking bribes from a Lebanese firm. She got them hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts awarded. (The U.S. government) paid off claims and modifications as a result of all those bribes. She got her sister working for that company, and they engaged in a three-year-long scheme. I was involved in ending that and getting her prosecuted. She got more than five years in federal prison. Her sister got more than two years in prison. The president of the company, a Lebanese citizen, did about a year in federal prison. We terminated a number of their contracts in Afghanistan. They forfeited $25 million in claims they had pending against us, some of which were likely bogus but would’ve been paid had the sister remained in power. We did it all through an undercover sting operation.

One of our engineers worked closely with us and the FBI agents in Afghanistan that are on the International Contract Corruption Task Force. He wore a wire, and the sister tried to bribe him to cover up the continuing scheme she was operating since the chief of contracting retired from our organization. This scheme started back in 2006 and ran through 2009. We made a big high-profile arrest in Kabul. We arrested the sister and Lebanese company’s president. We lured them in with a demand for a meeting with our commander, threatening to terminate their contracts. The director of the FBI and the U.S. attorney general have a Gulfstream jet that flies them all over the world. It’s used to arrest high-value targets. So they flew it from Washington to Bagram and the FBI agents made the arrest when these people came in for our meeting. (The agents) put them on the Gulfstream and flew them to Alexandria, Va., where they were arraigned in federal court. That happened in April 2009, the last week I was there. It was a rather tense time for us.

There was concern this whole undercover thing was going to be blown, and there’s no extradition treaty with the Lebanese. We were fearful the sister was going to figure this out. We still had half a dozen contracts pending with the company; they were grossly behind and they stopped working on some of them. My clients wanted me to terminate them immediately for non-performance, but of course we had to hold off on that because of this undercover operation. We collected the bribes and got the evidence to support the criminal case. It was an exciting time right at the end of my career. I really had a career case.

I personally nominated the undercover agent for an award because he did a wonderful thing. He received the Declaration for Exceptional Civilian Service award from the Secretary of the Army. He was offered to go into the witness protection program. We brought down a major international crime operation. They had been awarded over a quarter of a billion dollars through this corrupt scheme of bribing our employee and the sister, and they had been awarded millions of dollars in contract claims that were probably not valid and many of those contracts were not performed in a timely manner. I wrote the victim impact statement that was filed in federal court during the sentencing explaining the impact of her corrupt behavior on our contracts and on the war efforts. I personally signed the letter and sent it off to the federal judge in New Orleans. He actually quoted from it during the sentencing hearing in New Orleans and he threw the book at this lady and she paid more than a half million dollars in restitution, and the company paid restitution. Everybody pleaded guilty without trial because we pretty much had the evidence on them.

The scheme certainly was a huge impact on the mission. There were road jobs that were delayed by this company, a commando training facility where we were training the Afghans to do commando raids and take over a lot of those critical efforts to capture some of the leaders of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Several of those projects were slowed down because this company was not pursuing them vigorously. I’m proud I played a role in that.

I convinced the Department of Justice that they should indict, not just these individuals, but the company and company officials because if you don’t do that, then when all this unfolds, they’re going to claim, "We’re shocked that these people were corrupt." When in reality, it was their business model to bribe our people and the president of the company was fully aware and endorsed this behavior. So they did. They indicted the company, and it pleaded guilty, and the president pleaded guilty. Even though he was not an American citizen, he was taking American dollars and if you do that corruptly, then you’re subject to American justice.

 

Neville: How did serving in Afghanistan change you on a personal level?

How did serving in Afghanistan change you on a personal level?

Holmes: I felt more patriotic during and after the process than I’ve ever felt in my life. I was in Afghanistan on one of the 9-11 anniversaries. We had a candlelight vigil ceremony. It reminded you of that episode, that attack, and it felt like you were part of that war effort, and fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the people who launched those attacks. We were building roads to get the troops out to find them and kill them, and help sustain the Afghan government so they could do those things so we could depart the country. Much of what you did directly supported those efforts—building those facilities, the infrastructure for the country and the infrastructure for the military that was actually doing the fighting. It taught you something about your character because it was hard work.

I felt more patriotic during and after the process than I’ve ever felt in my life. I was in Afghanistan on one of the 9-11 anniversaries. We had a candlelight vigil ceremony. It reminded you of that episode, that attack, and it felt like you were part of that war effort, and fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the people who launched those attacks. We were building roads to get the troops out to find them and kill them, and help sustain the Afghan government so they could do those things so we could depart the country. Much of what you did directly supported those efforts—building those facilities, the infrastructure for the country and the infrastructure for the military that was actually doing the fighting. It taught you something about your character because it was hard work.

You never had a day off. You worked 10-12 hours a day with more work than you could possibly get done under immense stress. Getting anything built in Afghanistan is extremely hard. There is no infrastructure. There is no construction industry. There is no engineering industry. You’re bringing in international companies. There’s an insurgency going on. Their workforce isn’t educated in western construction. They can build a stonewall... but building a CMU block building with rebar and plumbing is a different story.

There’s a basic drug use problem. Ninety-four percent of the world’s opium and heroin come from there, and it’s heavily used by the population. The Taliban is there trying to mess with the projects, so security was an issue. Workers weren’t getting paid and subcontractors weren’t getting paid. Money was moving to the Taliban for the corruption of Afghan officials. All of those problems made it incredibly difficult to get all this incredibly important work done

You were in the middle trying to solve almost insolvable problems, and it beats you down physically and psychologically. But, it was very rewarding. By the time you were done with it, you really felt like you accomplished something. And the cases I was involved in, we cleaned up our corruption problems, and we can’t demand the Afghans to clean up theirs, if we can’t clean up ours.

 

Neville: How was the flight into Afghanistan? I hear the methods to avoid enemy fire can turn your stomach.

How was the flight into Afghanistan? I hear the methods to avoid enemy fire can turn your stomach.

Holmes: Kabul is in a bowl with mountains all around it. It’s at a plateau at 6,200 feet elevation with mountains that extend up several thousand feet above that. The United Nations flew in a humanitarian flight and we flew in on it. They weren’t shooting planes out of the sky. They were not that sophisticated in Afghanistan as they were in Iraq. However, it was a pretty crude aviation system in Afghanistan. It was a very dangerous place to fly. Many planes crashed. On my second tour, my wife took a job and went over as well. When we flew in on that U.N. plane in August 2009, the pilot engaged in aerial maneuvers that are not allowed by the FAA in America (laughing). He banked that old dilapidated 707 at angles that you would not want to be at (laughing). It wasn’t a corkscrew landing, but we circled the city twice in that 707, and she commented, "Oh my gosh, are we gonna die in this landing." It’s a difficult place to move around. But you had to fly a lot; it got so dangerous that a lot of the driving in up-armored SUVs was not allowed. You had to move in aerial assets, helicopters or planes. It’s definitely an adventure you never forget.

Kabul is in a bowl with mountains all around it. It’s at a plateau at 6,200 feet elevation with mountains that extend up several thousand feet above that. The United Nations flew in a humanitarian flight and we flew in on it. They weren’t shooting planes out of the sky. They were not that sophisticated in Afghanistan as they were in Iraq. However, it was a pretty crude aviation system in Afghanistan. It was a very dangerous place to fly. Many planes crashed. On my second tour, my wife took a job and went over as well. When we flew in on that U.N. plane in August 2009, the pilot engaged in aerial maneuvers that are not allowed by the FAA in America (laughing). He banked that old dilapidated 707 at angles that you would not want to be at (laughing). It wasn’t a corkscrew landing, but we circled the city twice in that 707, and she commented, "Oh my gosh, are we gonna die in this landing." It’s a difficult place to move around. But you had to fly a lot; it got so dangerous that a lot of the driving in up-armored SUVs was not allowed. You had to move in aerial assets, helicopters or planes. It’s definitely an adventure you never forget.

Holmes last words: It’s been an interesting career. I have no regrets. Should I have stayed longer and waited a few more years? My wife thinks so, but I don’t (laugh). You fight too many legal battles, you get tired to the point you say, "You know what, I don’t know how many more legal battles I got in me. I think I’m done."

It’s been an interesting career. I have no regrets. Should I have stayed longer and waited a few more years? My wife thinks so, but I don’t (laugh). You fight too many legal battles, you get tired to the point you say, "You know what, I don’t know how many more legal battles I got in me. I think I’m done."