DEA has 106 planes, so why did it charter private jet for chief?

[babylonsister]

This has got 'fishy' written all over it.

DEA has 106 planes, so why did it charter private jet for chief?

By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers


The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration took a private chartered jet to Bogota, Colombia at a cost of more than $123,000 instead of flying one of the agency's 106 government planes.


WASHINGTON — The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes.

The DEA paid a contractor an additional $5,380 to arrange Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart's trip last Oct. 28-30 with an outside company.

The DEA scheduled the trip as the nation was reeling from the worst economic crisis in decades and the national debt was climbing toward $10 trillion. Three weeks later, lawmakers slammed chief executive officers from three automakers for flying to Washington in private jets as Congress debated whether to bail out the auto industry.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/62276.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I wonder how much we'd get for those 106 planes

if we shut down the whole Goddam DEA.

[babylonsister]

2. It's sad, but I so don't trust them to be doing the right thing, ever. nt

[remoulade]

3. That's kinda funny, that plane in the picture looks like an old ATR like the one that crashed

in northern Indiana a few years ago. I can't imagine why they'd use that instead of a jet...??
Weird.

[TahitiNut]

6. It sure does.

[remoulade]

7. Actually pretty decent planes but hardly what I'd think a big cheese DEA guy would use

not especially fast or good on range. Hmm
\

[defendandprotect]

13. "Big Cheese" . . . ? Sounds like royalty . . . and we're against it--!!!

[liberal renegade]

4. What a crock!

Just another branch of the federal government wasting billions of dollars in taxpayers money.

You can still score any drug anywhere in America 24-7 365 days a year.

Will they ever declare victory?

[csziggy]

5. Right after we win the War on Drugs, we'll win the War on Global Terrorism

:sarcasm:

[catnhatnh]

8. I'll bet the other 106 have no seats...

just cargo straps or steel d-rings in the floor for manacles, never mind the open bar he wanted....

[nebenaube]

9. Well, if you are going to bring back 7 tons of coke....

You'd need something that big.

[babylonsister]

11. You went just where my brain was. nt

[FatDave]

15. Mine too.

Black ops gotta be funded somehow.

[DLnyc]

18. Precisely

[KeepItReal]

10. First Class ticket from DC National to Bogota: $2479

...with a 7 day advance purchase on Continental.

No further comment.

[defendandprotect]

12. Why isn't the guy flying with one of our national airlines . . . ???

[remoulade]

14. That's actually a good question except the USA is one of a very few nations that doesn't have

a national airline. Most of those few are in the Americas.

[defendandprotect]

16. Aha . . . still leaves a lot of flights traveling to and from our airports which would beat

the $123,000 price tag for his flight --

[ensho]

17. well the neo cons did leave booby traps behind

in every Dept.