>From CounterPunch.CoM Behind the Revolving Door The Arms Pushers By Ken Silverstein Last November, Secretary of State Madeline Albright denounced the "unregulated and illegitimate" sale of small arms at a gathering of the International Rescue Committee. "It is a trade carried out by profiteers, abetted by corruption, creating a bottomless armory for rogue militias, criminal empires, and bands of thugs," the secretary thundered righteously. Albright's speech was part of a campaign by the Clinton administration to crack down on the illegal trade in firearms. But the administration is far less interested in cracking down on the legal trade in weaponry, and it's easy to see why. With exports valued at $26 billion in 1997, the US is the world's No. 1 weapons dealer, thus accounting for a 43 percent market share. The heart of the government's sales program is the Defense Security Assistance Agency, the Pentagon bureau that handles the government's Foreign Military Sales program. The DSAA has a staff of about 5,000 people working out of U.S. embassies and field offices in more than 100 countries. The DSAA receives a 3 percent commission per sale, which provides about 80 percent of its budget. DSAA racked up so much money from the 3 percent kickback that in 1992 Congress placed a $300 million cap on the funds the agency could accumulate in its account. The US military establishment is now trying to boost overseas sales even more. As part of that effort, deputy defense secretary John Hamre last year ordered a review of the Pentagon's foreign military sales program with an eye towards cutting red tape that slows shipments abroad. The "study group" heading up the review is composed of military officials, industry leaders and even representatives of foreign governments who purchase American weaponry. The study group has fallen to its task with vigor. A January 18 Defense News story about its progress said that the Pentagon is seeking to "break down bureaucratic barriers that have prompted many U.S. friends and allies to shop elsewhere for military goods and services...Officials at the Pentagon have engaged in massive introspection with an eye toward reinventing its costly, cumbersome and often condescending arms export system". A chief problem for the Pentagon, the story added, is that a buyer's market has developed in the post-Cold War period and "increasingly savvy and demanding international customers can often dictate the terms of a deal". Hence, an "attitudinal sea change" is needed so that weapons customers are "treated as partners rather than aid recipients". When it comes to peddling arms, the Pentagon gets plenty of help from private industry. And there are no better salesmen than the officials who previously worked at the DSAA. Of the agency's last ten directors going back to 1971, nine went on to work for the arms industry, and seven of those were employed by firms that sell weapons or military services abroad. To see how the revolving door in arms sales works, we offer here a post-government service career summary of former heads of the DSAA. 1/ Lieut. Gen. Thomas Rhame, September 1993 to August 1997: During his tenure, Rhame opened the spigot for funding to subsidize deals to former communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Rhame tried retirement directly after discharge, but says "you can only golf so many days a week". He soon took a vice president position at the Association of the United States Army, a private organization that lobbies the government to maintain "a strong national defense". 2/ Lieut. Gen. Teddy Allen, August 1990 to August 1993: The day after he retired from DSAA Allen took a job as a consultant to Hughes, offering them advice on sales to Egypt. Allen now consults for the ACI Group International, a firm that helps companies penetrate foreign markets by using its "access to government and...contacts to government and industry both here and abroad." 3/ Lieut. Gen. Charles Brown, October of 1987 to August of 1990: Soon after retiring, Brown took a post with Military Professional Resources Inc., a firm that trains foreign armies and instructs them in the fine art of buying US military equipment. Brown says the company hired him because it assumed he had strong international contacts from his days at DSAA. In 1995, Brown headed a Pentagon panel that looked to private industry to see what the Pentagon could learn about "streamlining and reorganization". Though Brown has now retired from Military Professional Resources Inc. and lives on his family cattle ranch in Rushville, Nebraska, he comes back to Washington three or four times a year to do consulting work for private firms. 4/ Lieut. Gen. Philip Gast, August 1982 to August 1990: Before heading to DSAA Gast served as the head of the U.S. Military Advisory group to Iran, where he helped funnel weaponry to the Shah's regime. He's now a vice president for international operations at Burdeshaw Associates, whose self-described mission is to help clients "compete and win in global defense and government markets". 5/ Lieut. Gen. James Ahmann, March 1982 to May 1982: Upon retirement, he became a vice president at BDM, a company headed by former Secertary of Defense Frank Carlucci. BDM's subsidiary Vinell trains the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a Praetorian Guard for the royal family. From BDM, Ahmann went on to work for Northrop and General Dynamics. 6/ Erich von Marbod, July 1981 to January 1982: Before taking his short-lived post at DSAA, von Marbod ran all US military assistance to Vietnam and next became the senior US defense representative to Iran, where he helped push the Shah into buying huge amounts of American weaponry. While at the DSAA, Marbod-along with Iran/contra figures Thomas Clines and Richard Secord-quietly became a partner in a shipping company called Eatsco. In 1980, that firm was found to have overbilled the Pentagon $8 million on arms shipments to Egypt. After retiring from government, Howard Fish, a predecessor at DSAA (see No. 8) hired von Marbod to work at the Paris offices of armsmaker LTV. 7/ Lieut. Gen. Ernest Graves, March 1978 to July 1981: The only head of the DSAA who didn't go on to work for the defense industry (other than a few freelance consulting jobs). Graves, who since retiring has worked as a military analyst at Georgetown's Center for Strategic and International Studies, says two weapons makers offered him jobs promoting overseas sales, but that he turned them down. "I just wasn't comfortable with the notion of trading commercially on relationships I had formed when I was working for the government," he says. 8/ Lieut. Gen. Howard Fish, August 1974 to August 1978: The classic revolving door story. Fish was a big backer of foreign sales while at DSAA, especially to the Middle East. After resigning he went to work for LTV and soon turned up in Malaysia where he was hawking the company's A-7 fighters. He next turned up as head of international marketing for Loral, and then took charge of the American League for Exports and Security Assistance, a trade group that lobbies for foreign sales. Fish left ALESA in 1997 and now serves as a consultant to Lockheed Martin. 9/ Vice Admiral Ray Peet, June 1972 to July 1974: After stepping down from the DSAA he worked for two defense contractors, Cubic Corporation and Teledyne Ryan, where now serves as vice president. 10/ Lieut. Gen. George Seignious, August 1971 to June 1972: In his post-DSAA career, Seignious became chairman of GRC International Inc., a defense and national security consulting firm. This revolving door from DSAA is typical of the unceasing migrations from the military and the private sector. Between 1992 and 1995, number 3,288 Pentagon employees - of whom 2,482 were officers with the rank of colonel or above made - the jump to industry. It's impossible to determine how fast the revolving door is now spinning because at the request of the Pentagon, Congress in February of 1996 repealed the law that mandated such reporting, a move that apparently was never noticed by the mainstream press.CP ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
