Murtha, 12 Colleagues Back a Murky $160 Million Request

Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for US military spending next year is $160 million intended to help Mexico's police buy US-made first-responder radios. It is a major purchase that one radio manufacturer got rolling, 12 members of Congress formally requested and a powerful defense appropriations chairman championed, according to records and congressional staff members. But details of the plan to pump Pentagon money into Mexico's crime-fighting efforts are cloaked in vaguely worded language in the House defense bill. The program is one of many congressional requests in the measure, which also includes 1,080 projects worth $2.7 billion tacked on at lawmakers' request.