Posted on 06/25/2016 8:30:29 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
A veteran U.S. diplomat who pushed for the nuclear deal with Iran, which allowed Boeing to sell $25 billion worth of planes to state-owned Iran Air, did not disclose that he was paid by Boeing during the time he advocated for the agreement, The Daily Beast reported Wednesday.
Thomas Pickering, a former ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, and the United Nations who served under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was an employee of the Boeing Corporation from 2001 to 2006, after which he continued his association with the company as a paid consultant until the end of 2015.
During the debate over the nuclear deal, Pickering testified before Congress, lobbied individual lawmakers, and published numerous articles promoting the deal. The Daily Beast could not find any records of him disclosing his ties to Boeing, a company that sought to benefit from the deal.
Neil Gordon, an investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, told The Daily Beast that Pickering should have disclosed his ties to Boeing. “I think it’s necessary for the public debate,” he said. “It’s necessary for the public to fully realize the participants’ financial interests. Some of them might have a direct financial stake in a particular outcome.”
On June 16, 2014, Pickering testified before the House Armed Services Committee in favor of the nuclear deal and against imposing new sanctions on Iran. In the biography provided to the committee, Pickering only recounted his military and government service, not any business ties. He also co-authored an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2014 and an article for Tablet in 2015 advocating for the deal without disclosing his connection to Boeing. (In the latter article, Pickering dismissed concerns that Iran would use the funds it gained to sanctions relief to fund terrorist groups or the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In fact, Iran has increased its defense budget by 90% since the implementation of the deal.)
An investigation by the Washington Free Beacon earlier this year revealed that Boeing had a team of 11 lobbyists to promote the deal. Boeing may have spent up to $4,956,000 on its broader lobbying efforts in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to its disclosure forms; one of the subjects it worked on was “U.S.-Iran Relations.”
Boeing’s decision to sell aircraft to Iran has been heavily criticized. Reps. Peter Roskam (R – Ill.) and Jeb Hensarling (R – Texas) sent a letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg last week arguing that “American companies should not be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian Regime.” Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned that Iran’s history of using civilian aircraft for military purposes could make Boeing complicit in Iran’s support for Assad, including the regime’s war crimes. If the plane sales are determined to have aided the abuses of the Assad regime, the company could become subject to sanctions.
Talk about crony capitalism,,, it is all rigged. Big government + big business working hand in hand to support themselves.
These articles need to be catalogued and maintained carefully. For the day of reckoning.
And we will never hear a word of this on the DNCmedia.
To criticize this would be to open the door to criticizing the Clintons. Therefore, DNCmedia must remain silent.
The Daily Beast?
I thought they were a Left Wing publication, and above such ‘mundane’ type news.
At least for another 7 months.
....and our intrepid community organizer deigned to warn Briton not to leave the EU....
Pickering is the George Soros of diplomacy!! he also “cleared” Hillary of Benghazi!!!
I believe this will be determined to be completely against the ethics charter of the Boeing company. Keep an eye on this because Boeing will also want to do business with the US. (And this would seem to be a clear conflict of interest.)
BTW, there has long been an association between Boeing and the Democrat party. Likewise Lockheed Martin seems to do well under a Republican administration. With exceptions for break through systems from time to time.
In other news liberals complain of big business influence on America.... nope, crickets.
Jail him.
My agency paid 20% more to upgrade old equipment than it would have cost to buy an even more advanced model. An OIG investigation resulted from it, but our comptroller is still with us and we still completed most of the contract.
Against the ethics charter for Boeing, completely in line with recent practices like the 767 leased tanker deal.
But will this get a small fraction of the coverage of Valerie Pflume? A nobody.
This guy is career State Department. He rose to the ambassador level in 1974 as ambassador to Jordan and went through post after post for the next 26 years before going out to lobby.
Insider and ready to honor any side.
Pickering also chaired the State Department Accountability review board that examined Benghazi and failed to interview Hillary.
Thomas Pickering.. .the guy “hired” to investigate Benghazi.
The lease did not happen.
The BUY happened, after the Air Force told Boeing that if they offered a 777-version the extra size would count against them, whereas when the Europeans proposed the huge Airbus as their bid, they were given extra points for its size.
And sensitive discussions revealed the Europeans wanted Airbus to win, not just for jobs, but for the leverage it would provide against the US—The US does something the Europeans didn’t like, they withhold essential part. Manufactured in Alabama, sure, but the majority of the parts came from Europe.
A national strategic asset like a tanker is not something we should turn over the unreliable, socialist, muslime-loving Europeans.
No man has greater contempt for Boeing than me, but in this case, I have to admit the KC-46 buy is the right thing to do.
Tim Keating is chief of their Wash DC operations, a long time democRAT operative.
When a republican takes the White House he will be replaced by a republican crony.
I’ll have to show this to my husband. As soon as we heard about the Boeing deal, he said it was tied in to the Iraq agreement. Yes, as Trump said, the system is rigged.
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