Trustees of a Pentagon funded think tank, the Institute for Defence Analysis (IDA), have concluded that their own President, the disgraced former EDO Corporation director, Admiral Dennis C. Blair, was acting in 'conflict of interest' when he oversaw the writing of a report for the US government that led to the extension of the multi billion dollar F22 Raptor production programme, which financially benefitted contractor EDO Corp, and his own shares in the company.The trustees of IDA have now forced Blair to resign his position as President of the institute.
Admiral Dennis C. Blair had denied the allegations of corruption but the trustees of IDA investigated the matter and decided otherwise.The Washinton Post reported Wednesday that former EDO Corporation director Admiral Dennis C. Blair, who had resigned from the EDO board in late July after allegations of conflict of interest broke, has now resigned as President of the Pentagon funded think tank the Institute for Defence Analysis (IDA) that was also implicated.
Background on story here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/07/346211.html
The development casts a shadow over the who F22A Multiyear extension that is costing the US taxpayer billions of dollars of dollars, and has been seen by critics as an example of the corruption at the heart of US military industrial procurement.
The news confirms an increasing public perception of EDO as being at the heart of a web of corrupt and unethical activities, notwithstanding its deep involvement in the arms trade. In the UK last year the company attempted to criminalise anti-war protests outside their factory leading to an expensive failed law suit, and British national press criticism. The legal costs, declared in EDO's 1st quarter SEC report of 2006, forced the company to declare a loss for the first time in several years,damaging the company's share value which has dropped over 20%, or $100 Million dollars since April 2006.
Meanwhile protesters in the UK plan to march through the city of Brighton on Saturday 14th September 2006 to deliver a petition to the city council calling for the closure of EDO's factory in the area. See http://www.smashedo.org.uk
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Washington Post Coverage.
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Defense Institute Head Resigns
Seats on Contractors' Boards Seen as Conflict of Interest
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; Page D03
The head of a Pentagon-funded research organization has resigned after the group's trustees concluded that his simultaneous service on the boards of two defense contractors was contrary to its conflict-of-interest policies.
Asked to resign from the corporate boards, retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair chose instead to leave his positions as president and trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit company that has long provided the Defense Department with independent technical advice on large weapons systems.
The resignation followed controversy in July over Blair's involvement in the drafting of a report by the institute last year on the F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet that has experienced a series of cost overruns and technical problems. Blair was then on the board of EDO Corp., an F-22 subcontractor, and his dual roles provoked criticism by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Blair's resignation was announced in a memo circulated to the institute's 800 employees Monday by John M. Palms, a former president of the University of South Carolina who is chairman of the IDA's board of trustees. Palms said, without naming the companies, that the trustees knew about Blair's membership on the boards of EDO and Tyco International Ltd. at the time he was hired in 2003.
"We did not require that he resign those memberships because, like Admiral Blair, we did not believe that either company's interests would be impacted by IDA's work," Palms wrote in the memo. "With the passage of time, it became clear that Admiral Blair's continuing participation on those boards created the appearance of a conflict of interests."
An IDA official said Palms was referring to news media and congressional attention surrounding Blair's membership on the EDO board, which Blair said on July 26 he would give up. Two days earlier, he had said in an interview that he saw no conflict and was unaware of any policy barring such a tie.
Blair's involvement in the IDA's work on the F-22 report remains the subject of a probe by the Defense Department's office of inspector general initiated at the request of Warner and McCain.
Background on story here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/07/346211.html The development casts a shadow over the who F22A Multiyear extension that is costing the US taxpayer billions of dollars of dollars, and has been seen by critics as an example of the corruption at the heart of US military industrial procurement.
The news confirms an increasing public perception of EDO as being at the heart of a web of corrupt and unethical activities, notwithstanding its deep involvement in the arms trade. In the UK last year the company attempted to criminalise anti-war protests outside their factory leading to an expensive failed law suit, and British national press criticism. The legal costs, declared in EDO's 1st quarter SEC report of 2006, forced the company to declare a loss for the first time in several years,damaging the company's share value which has dropped over 20%, or $100 Million dollars since April 2006.
Meanwhile protesters in the UK plan to march through the city of Brighton on Saturday 14th September 2006 to deliver a petition to the city council calling for the closure of EDO's factory in the area. See
http://www.smashedo.org.uk ---
Washington Post Coverage.
---
Defense Institute Head Resigns
Seats on Contractors' Boards Seen as Conflict of Interest
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; Page D03
The head of a Pentagon-funded research organization has resigned after the group's trustees concluded that his simultaneous service on the boards of two defense contractors was contrary to its conflict-of-interest policies.
Asked to resign from the corporate boards, retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair chose instead to leave his positions as president and trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit company that has long provided the Defense Department with independent technical advice on large weapons systems.
The resignation followed controversy in July over Blair's involvement in the drafting of a report by the institute last year on the F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet that has experienced a series of cost overruns and technical problems. Blair was then on the board of EDO Corp., an F-22 subcontractor, and his dual roles provoked criticism by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Blair's resignation was announced in a memo circulated to the institute's 800 employees Monday by John M. Palms, a former president of the University of South Carolina who is chairman of the IDA's board of trustees. Palms said, without naming the companies, that the trustees knew about Blair's membership on the boards of EDO and Tyco International Ltd. at the time he was hired in 2003.
"We did not require that he resign those memberships because, like Admiral Blair, we did not believe that either company's interests would be impacted by IDA's work," Palms wrote in the memo. "With the passage of time, it became clear that Admiral Blair's continuing participation on those boards created the appearance of a conflict of interests."
An IDA official said Palms was referring to news media and congressional attention surrounding Blair's membership on the EDO board, which Blair said on July 26 he would give up. Two days earlier, he had said in an interview that he saw no conflict and was unaware of any policy barring such a tie.
Blair's involvement in the IDA's work on the F-22 report remains the subject of a probe by the Defense Department's office of inspector general initiated at the request of Warner and McCain.