Three Bush officials probed in Boeing tanker deal

[JoFerret]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=3&u=/nm/arms_boeing_tanker_dc

[Trajan]

1. Easy Nuff to post ... right ? ...

Three Bush Officials Probed in Boeing Tanker Deal

1 hour, 29 minutes ago - Reuters


By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department (news - web sites) is reviewing the actions of three top administration officials over a $23.5 billion Air Force plan to acquire 100 Boeing Co. tankers, documents obtained by Reuters on Tuesday show.

Last week, former No. 2 Air Force arms buyer Darleen Druyun was sentenced to nine months in jail after she admitted giving Chicago-based Boeing a rival's secret data and inflating weapons deals to ingratiate herself with her future employer.

Druyun's admissions have redoubled the efforts of federal prosecutors to get to the bottom of a scandal that has already cost two top Boeing officials their jobs and cast fresh doubt on what critics call a sweetheart deal for Boeing.

White House officials last month asked the Justice Department to probe any conflict of interest involving Air Force Secretary James Roche and Robin Cleveland, associate director at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

-snip-

Hmmmmmm ? .. perhaps fodder for criminal investigations of major Pentagon leaders when the GOP are tossed out of power next month ? ...

[KDLarsen]

3. This sentence interests me

Last week, former No. 2 Air Force arms buyer Darleen Druyun was sentenced to nine months in jail after she admitted giving Chicago-based Boeing a rival's secret data and inflating weapons deals to ingratiate herself with her future employer.

The only real rival that Boeing had (after buying out McDD), is Airbus - so I'm wondering what kind of data she could have been leaking to Boeing. And if those data are restricted to the tanker programme or if they also contain data on the host aircraft itself (IIRC Airbus was pitching a A330 conversion - the main rival to Boeing's 7E7 program).

I smell a SERIOUS lawsuit coming from Airbus in the near future.

In other related news, I was happy to see Embraer (of Brazil) being rewarded a contract to another branch of the US military (coast guard I think - I have the specific branch somewhere). Really goes to show that the US doesn't have to go all-Boeing.

[tekriter]

4. Actually, the new information concerns other contracts besides tankers...

such as the avionics modernization of the C-130 that Boeing won over Lockheed, who built the plane. There was also an admission by Druyun that she gave an AWACs update contract to Boeing to help her daughter keep her job, and that several contracts were given to Boeing even though they did not have the low bid.

These old contracts might not be re-negotiable, but nothing can keep the US government from punishing Boeing by not allowing them to receive new contracts for a while.

And if you were Lockheed you would have a whole boatload of lawyers preparing your damage suit against Boeing.

[Elginoid]

5. Which could all combine to ring the death knell for Boeing...

hey- who ever thought that Arthur Andersen would disappear so quickly?

I worked for United 14 years ago(where does the time go?), and at that time, their plan was to become an "all-Boeing" fleet- supposedly saving themselves a lot of money in maintenance, and mechanic-training...

it didn't last long...within less than a year they were signing deals with Airbus.

but would Boeing get a bailout ala Chrysler, or a liquidation like Arthur A.?

[lancdem]

2. I guess this explains why news of that 3-year-old investigation

of Hillary's Senate campaign was leaked today, huh?

[struggle4progress]

6. kick for crooks in government

:kick:

[Thor_MN]

7. Make the sentance fit the crime

Stream them from a tanker boom and and let some fighters
"probe" them again.

[David Zephyr]

8. Kick.