By James Carroll
Louisville Courier-Journal

We now know what the Pentagon wants to do with military bases in Kentucky, Indiana and the rest of the nation.

And so the review and final recommendations for base closings and reorganizations fall to the independent Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

Doing business with the commission, however, apparently is going to be a challenge, at least until it buys some more telephones.

Starting two weeks ago, we began dialing the commission offices. Haven't gotten through yet. The line -- we assume there's just one -- is always busy. Tried in the morning, in the afternoon, even into the evening. Just that annoying busy tone.

No e-mail address for the commission yet, either. And no Web site.

The press and the public didn't quite get all the documentation from the Pentagon on Friday explaining why it wants to close some bases and shuffle around functions and units among other facilities.

There actually are a dozen volumes giving detailed analyses and rationales for the Defense Department's decisions.

Reporters got volume 1. The second volume is classified and won't be released, but the base closing commission will have use of it on some restricted basis. That leaves volumes 3-12.

Defense Undersecretary Michael Wynne explained that the remaining volumes are coming, but they "currently are undergoing a security review."

Wynne's name has been in the Kentucky media a bit lately.

His full title is undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. That includes not only the base-closing process but also oversight of the chemical weapons disposal program.

It was Wynne who tangled with Congress early last month over his plans to delay destruction of chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot and at a similar facility in Pueblo, Colo.

And it was Wynne who sent a memo later last month that reversed course and released all the money he was going to withhold from Blue Grass and Pueblo.