Senior Air Force purchasing official found dead

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force's No. 2 acquisition official, facing scrutiny for a temporary job arranged by the service while he awaited Senate confirmation, was found dead at his home in an apparent suicide, according to an internal Air Force memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

"Mr. Riechers was found deceased in his home, cause of death appears to be suicide, time of death is unknown," said the memo, which was issued late Sunday.

Charles Riechers became the principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition at the Air Force in January 2007 after working two months for defense contractor Commonwealth Research Institute.

The Air Force had no immediate comment.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Riechers was hired by Commonwealth Research Institute at the request of the Air Force while Riechers was out of work and awaiting Senate confirmation for his new position. The job paid $13,400 a month.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/airforce_death_dc;_ylt=AoLstslwlMZKg2wPP3YD4A6s0NUE

[ret5hd]

1. So there's an opening for a $13,400 a month job, eh?

And all you have to do is keep from getting offed by the CIA?

[quiet.american]

2. I remember this story -- apparently he did no work at all for the $13,400/month.

How horrible though, that he's been found dead....

[Up2Late]

20. Nice work, if you can get it...

...not worth dying for though.

Add another "mysterious death" to the Bush Body Count.

[Ghost Dog]

24. --> WaPo Oct 1:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001402.html

"I really didn't do anything for CRI," said Riechers, now principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. "I got a paycheck from them."

The article observes:

Riechers's job highlights the Pentagon's ties with Commonwealth Research and its corporate parent, which has in recent years received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants and contracts from the military, and more than $100 million in earmarks from lawmakers.

Commonwealth Research and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies, are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as tax-exempt charities, even though their primary work is for the Pentagon and other government agencies. In a recent report Concurrent, also based in Johnstown, Pa., said it was among the Defense Department's top 200 contractors, with a focus on intelligence, surveillance, force readiness and advanced materials.

...

Concurrent and its subsidiaries receive grants and contracts for an eclectic variety of other activities, including support of faith-based initiatives and specialized welding work. Last year, Commonwealth Research got a $45 million sole-source arrangement to provide reports to the National Security Agency, CIA and other intelligence agencies.

IRS rules allow charitable organizations to engage in a wide range of activities, including services for the federal government. Commonwealth Research's president, Frank W. Cooper, said the company qualifies as a charity because it provides services both locally and to the federal government. He said it also serves as an educational institution.

But Marcus Owens, former director of the exempt organizations division at the IRS, said Concurrent and Commonwealth Research appear to be "providing the sorts of services that are commonly provided by business organizations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin and others, and not charities."

/...

Hmmm. Tax-free military (intelligence) contracting and jobs for the boys, huh. Hmmm.

[Peace Patriot]

34. "...faith-based initiatives and specialized welding work"?!?

The imagination goes wild.

[Crazy Dave]

3. Or "How Did Specialist Ciara Durkin Die?"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/04/world/main3328739.shtml

[angstlessk]

4. did he shoot himself three times in the back of the head as now

seems to be the new trend in suicides of high profile profligates?

[Gman]

12. Don't forget, using ratshot

a la Cliff Baxter.

[KittyWampus]

5. What a poorly worded and reported story. Purposely so? Why say MR Riechers

Is the Air Forces #2 Acquistion official a civilian?

What was he doing at the temp job?

Why was he under scrutiny for that job?

Why does the Air Force arrange for temp jobs anyway?

[TroglodyteScholar]

23. It's true that in civil service a LOT of people get just stuck in positions...

...they know nothing about b/c it's easier to move people around than it is to fire them. But you don't just stumble and find yourself in any major acquisition position. You either have to work bigtime or know people or both, you know.

[Supersedeas]

29. guess they don't see a need to dig deeper...

[alstephenson]

6. WTF??? eom

[soothsayer]

7. well, well, the plot thickens.

[earth mom]

8. WTF?!

:tinfoilhat:

[Trillo]

9. The framing in this article regarding Reicher's check from CRI

as "not serious" is rather qurious.

All the hoopla over the years about most welfare recipients being addled drug addicts, but the lack of MSM disccusion of either corporate welfare or payment from corporations under contracts requiring no work seems a rather large hypocrisy. The desire to keep those types of relationships regarding high-level welfare recipients quiet would seem a Big Money Big Motivator.

But by all means, it's not a serious enough scandal to typically rise to alleged suicide....

One more avenue of investigation of what I will call "dirty corporate money" is now closed down. RIP Reichers.

[supernova]

10. Why is an acquisitions officer worth 13.5K/month?

That's F*ing ridiculous. Who was paying him hush money and why?

:tinfoilhat:

[Akoto]

11. $13.5k a month? Sweet zombie Moses.

Must be nice to make some peoples' entire yearly income in under half a year!

[Pawel K]

13. Someone died from suicide? Clearly Bush did it. nt

:sarcasm:

[havocmom]

14. Hmmm

House cleaning?

[Canuckistanian]

15. He was cleaning his knife

Then, a tragedy occurred.

[AlCzervik]

16. story from Wapo on Oct. 1st.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001402.html

[EVDebs]

17. Any connections to the murders of military finance personnel mentioned on DU lately ?

Any possibility of murder made to look like suicide ?

[Megahurtz]

18. Hmmmm......

"suicide" indeed! :tinfoilhat:

[kurth]

19. Blackwater

[City Lights]

21. Is it me, or are high-profile suicides increasing as of late? eom

[tom_paine]

22. Holy Shit! The Bushies are cutting ties like Jimmy in Good Fellas

"And when they found Carbone's body in the meat truck, it took them three days to thaw out the body just to do the autopsy."




This must have been what the back pages of the German papers inthe early 30s must have been like (only much worse, the Nazis WERE much more violent than the Bushie variant), alll those suicides and suspicious deaths, one right after the other and every one seemingly more transparent in it's audacity.

Wow. I sure never wanted to get a close-up view of a nation turning into a Tyranny.

But we've all got front-row seats.

[Didereaux]

25. Procurement Official Questioned About No-Work Deal Found Dead

Source: Washington Post

Procurement Official Questioned About No-Work Deal Found Dead
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 16, 2007; Page A06

The Air Force's second-highest-ranking procurement official was found dead Sunday night at his Virginia home in an apparent suicide, an internal Air Force memo said.

...
The article said that while waiting to be confirmed for his Pentagon post, the Air Force arranged a job for Riechers at the Commonwealth Research Institute but said he that did no work for the firm. Instead, Riechers said he worked for Sue C. Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition.
....
The Air Force defended the arrangement, saying Riechers did work in support of the Air Force through a Commonwealth Research Institute contract.
"During his two month employment with CRI, Mr. Riechers was employed in a scientific and engineering technical assistance capacity to the Air Force and made recommendations that were instrumental in engineering our acquisition transformation and continuing the Air Force's modernization of our aging fleet," Lt. Col. Edward Thomas, an Air Force spokesman, said in a statement. Riechers retained "our full support" after the newspaper report and subsequent questions from the Armed Services Committee, he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501754.html?hpid=topnews


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501754.html?hpid=topnews

---

Officials seem to be unable to get there stories co-ordinated. A Vince Foster or British Scientist David Kelly moment?

[jgraz]

26. Someone needs to start tying these deaths together

The number of suspicious deaths surrounding the BCF is well beyond any tinfoil hat theories. Won't anyone truly investigate this?

[tom_paine]

30. Because to do so would cause a person to commit suicide pretty quick, apparently

perhaps like that Texas Federal Invetsigator who did so, and shortly was found dead by "suicide" of drowning herself in her pool.

Naturally, I just went and did a Google News search. What surprise, no results found.

As with people living in nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, we areleft with samizdat in place of a Free Press, which does not exist in Amerika.

Here's what the samizdat says:

http://tomflocco.com/fs/DeathsFoulPlayQuestions.htm

[benh57]

27. Bill Clinton did it

Breaking on freeper news in 5...4...3..

[Supersedeas]

33. wonder if there is any connection to the nuclear weapons shipment

[liberalla]

28. This just stinks!

Please somebody, PLEASE!
Just connect the dots!

"I really didn't do anything for CRI," said Riechers, now principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. "I got a paycheck from them."

I didn't do anything for them either. Where's my paycheck?

[yardwork]

31. Another one?

Regular rash of "suicides" lately.

[dkofos]

32. Not another shot in the back of the head suicide I hope.

[Peace Patriot]

35. This may be why our 'Democrats' in Congress are such cowards (--in addition to

the rightwing Bushite-corporate control of election outcomes, with 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting). Anybody gets out of line, they get whacked--and everybody in DC knows it.

This guy with the "no work" salary was obviously being bribed, but for WHAT? That is the question. And by whom? And what went wrong with their "tool"? Did he get a conscience? Did he simply know too much? Or was he a key player in a scheme that was threatened with exposure, and had to be eliminated?

We might as well be living inside "The Sopranos." That's what we've got for a government. Time to get rid of the rigged voting machines and hold real elections, don't you think?