Top U.S. weapons buyers bypassed normal procedures in an “inappropriate” rush to acquire $23.5 billion of Boeing Co. aircraft as refueling planes, the Pentagon's chief inspector said Tuesday.
Congress killed the deal last year after Darleen Druyun, the Air Force’s ex-No. 2 weapons purchaser, pleaded guilty to negotiating a $250,000-a-year job at Boeing while still overseeing billions in the company’s Air Force contracts.
Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz said at least one other criminal investigation linked to the deal was still under way, but gave no details in his 256-page report. He said the Defense Department was examining 14 contracts with which Druyun had been involved.
The Pentagon and Air Force had sought to pin all blame for wrongdoing on Druyun, now serving a nine-month federal prison term. She has admitted to inflating proposed payments to Boeing as a “parting gift” before joining the Chicago-based aerospace company, as well as steering other contracts to Boeing.
Schmitz said his investigation showed other officials at the Air Force, Pentagon and White House, as well as members of Congress, helped craft a deal that one Pentagon official in August 2002 described as “a bailout for Boeing.”
“She didn’t operate in a vacuum,” Schmitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing on his report. “There were people above, below and beside of her that allowed her to keep operating, without all the checks and balances.”
The report named former top Pentagon weapons buyer, Edward Aldridge, former Air Force Secretary James Roche, his weapons buyer, Marvin Sambur, and Druyun as the “primary decision makers” in the Pentagon and Air Force behind a flawed plan to lease and then buy up to 100 Boeing KC-767A tankers.
In addition, Michael Wynne, Aldridge’s deputy before being elevated to become his acting successor, should have revisited Aldridge’s decision to waive normal procedures for buying a major weapon system, but opted not to, the report said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner called the report a first step to “putting this regrettable chapter behind us,” but chided Schmitz for not using his subpoena power to interview Aldridge — a key player in pushing the deal. Schmitz said his aides were unable to reach Aldridge.
Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who spearheaded congressional scrutiny of the deal, told Reuters the report underscored the “incestuous nature” of the ties betweeen the defense industry, the military and Congress.
During the hearing, McCain suggested the committee use its own subpoena powers to force Aldridge to testify, but Warner suggested the committee send him a formal invitation first.
Wynne accepted responsibility for his failure to second-guess other players’ actions on the tanker deal, but said he did not do so because he was told by Aldridge that Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had made the decision to proceed.
Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez and Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper also apologized for the scandal, and particularly the unprofessional tone of many e-mails, some of which personally attacked McCain and his staff.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the report "totally inadequate” and challenged Schmitz’s decision to redact 45 passages at the White House’s request, shielding one or more officials who helped push the tanker lease plan.
E-mails previously disclosed by the Senate showed President Bush’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, weighed in on the deal shortly before the Pentagon approved the Air Force plan.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan defended the redactions, saying White House officials were outside Schmitz’a jurisdiction. He said Card was “simply as an honest broker to make sure that all views were represented.”
The report showed the Air Force worked with Boeing to craft language for what became an authorization to lease up to 100 Boeing tankers in the fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations Act. Congress approved the law after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks sent Boeing’s airliner sales slumping.
The congressional authorization then was used by the Air Force “to justify its inappropriate acquisition strategy” for the tankers, which are used to refuel warplanes in midair.
