LAT: Scrutinizer Finds Self Under Scrutiny(Pentagon watchdog investigated)

[DeepModem Mom]

The Scrutinizer Finds Himself Under Scrutiny
Joseph Schmitz, for three years in charge of investigating waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon, is now the focus of complaints.

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — When Joseph E. Schmitz took over as the Pentagon's inspector general in 2002, the largest watchdog organization in the federal government was under fire for failing to fully investigate a senior official, falsifying internal documents and mistreating whistle-blowers. He publicly pledged to clean it up.

Three years later, similar accusations now surround Schmitz.

Schmitz slowed or blocked investigations of senior Bush administration officials, spent taxpayer money on pet projects and accepted gifts that may have violated ethics guidelines, according to interviews with current and former senior officials in the inspector general's office, congressional investigators and a review of internal e-mail and other documents....

***

The case has raised troubling questions about Schmitz as well as the Defense Department's commitment to combating waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers' money, especially in politically sensitive cases....

***

Schmitz, who resigned on Sept. 10 to take a job with the parent company of defense contractor Blackwater USA, is now the target of a congressional inquiry and a review by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, the oversight body responsible for investigating inspectors general, according to the documents and interviews....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-schmitz25sep25,0,6671209.story?coll=la-home-nation

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[Hand]

2. Ah, the witty Juvenal...

Appropriate, since he lived (and died) in Nero's time...
:hi:

[moobu2]

3. WoW this is an oxymoran

“the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency”

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Is this Schmitz related to the late Rep. John G. Schmitz?

John G. Schmitz was infamous as a member of the John Birch Society who was a member of the House of Representatives in the 70s. A real "Family Values" guy who cheated on his wife and carried on a sexual relationship with his daughter Mary Kay over a period of some time.

You may have heard of his daughter. She once married a guy named Letourneau; and more recently, a guy named Villi Falau.

--p!

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Very closely related -- he's his son. From the article:

"Schmitz comes from a family that is no stranger to controversy. His father was the ultraconservative Orange County congressman John G. Schmitz, who once ran for president but whose political career ended after he admitted having an affair with a German immigrant suspected of child abuse. Schmitz's sister is Mary Kay Letourneau, the Washington state teacher who served more than seven years in prison after a 1997 conviction for rape after having sex with a sixth-grade pupil with whom she had two children. After Letourneau's release from prison, she and the former pupil, now an adult, married each other."