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Pentagon's 'Dragon lady' But now sentenced to prison for favouring Boeing over Lockheed
NYTimes via Electric New Paper ^ | 11OCT04 | New York Times

Posted on 10/10/2004 1:09:16 PM PDT by familyop


HE had long insisted that her work decisions were strictly professional.

Then, she failed a lie-detector test.

Finally, Darleen Druyun, the No 2 weapons buyer for the US Air Force, admitted that her weapons-buying decisions were influenced by a desire to curry Boeing's favour for herself and her family.

The career of Druyun, once the most powerful woman in the Air Force, is over.

Last week, she was sentenced to nine months in prison, for having steered billions of dollars in air force contracts for four critical weapons systems to Boeing and for having overpaid the company.

In 2001, when the Lockheed Corp lost a US$4 billion ($6.7b) contract to Boeing to upgrade the electronic controls of the C-130 transport plane - a plane that Lockheed itself had designed and built for the Pentagon since the 1950s - military contractors were stunned.

HARSH BLOW

The person handing Lockheed that harsh blow was Druyun, who had the authority to pick and choose among bids for multi-billion-dollar military contracts.

So strong was Druyun's reputation for morally correct behaviour that no-one questioned her decision.

Today, Lockheed is once again in shock. It turns out that it was competing in a rigged game - one in which Druyun now says she favoured Boeing out of gratitude for its hiring of her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend.

Last year, Druyun had also left her civilian position in the Pentagon to take a job at Boeing.

Druyun's downfall has wide consequences for the US$140 billion Pentagon contracting industry, and its political ramifications lead all the way to the White House, where three top administration officials are under investigation.

In addition, Druyun's actions are now the subject of potential lawsuits and a possible reopening of many of Boeing's contracts.

Analysts predict that Boeing could be subject to an outside monitor and forced to pay substantial fines.

The full extent of Druyun's pro-Boeing bias came as a surprise at her sentencing hearing in court last week.

Previously, Druyun's only known misdeed was that she had negotiated a US$250,000 job at Boeing while overseeing Boeing Air Force contracts.

Court papers now show that Druyun, while still at the Pentagon, met in secret with Boeing executives to protect her daughter, a Boeing employee who had received a poor performance review.

After that revelation, Boeing's former chief financial officer, Mr Michael Sears, who negotiated Druyun's employment contract, was fired.

In her three-decade career, Druyun's reputation for toughness as she rose in the male-dominated Pentagon was so strong that she was nicknamed the 'Dragon Lady'.

Many recounted how generals quivered under her attacks. - New York Times.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Alaska; US: District of Columbia; US: New York; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: alaska; boeing; c130; chicago; corruption; darleendruyun; defense; districtofcolumbia; douglas; dragonlady; feminism; grifter; grumman; illinois; jeffbezos; kansas; lockheed; mafia; michaelsears; midwest; midwestern; napalminthemorning; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; pentagon; seattle; tedstevens; washington; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; wichita; wot
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To: sharkhawk
Exactly. This was a fraud in a grand scale. If this is'nt folonious I don't know any white collar crime that is.

She should be impoverished and jailed for years not months. So should her brat and her boy friend. The way I look at it their whole Boeing salarys are proceeds of a criminal conspiracy and should be forfit. They can pay the judgements from their net worth and/or flipping burgers into their 80s.

Make an example of her and her family.

21 posted on 10/10/2004 1:26:52 PM PDT by Dinsdale
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To: FreedomCalls

Martha Stewart insn't in a pleasant place..I saw a program on the prison...She should have kept her mouth shut and might have gotten the better places.


22 posted on 10/10/2004 1:28:57 PM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry has been AWOL on issues of national security for two decades)
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To: Perdogg

Linda Daschle is up little Tommy's dirty eyeballs with Boeing. The search below will show her long time involvement with Boeing.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Linda+Daschle+Boeing&ei=UTF-8&fl=1&vl=lang_en&x=wrt&meta=vl%3Dlang_en


23 posted on 10/10/2004 1:31:50 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (When will the ABCNNBC BS lunatic libs stop Rathering to Americans? Answer: NEVER!)
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To: mabelkitty
If this catches on (and it will if Bush gets another term), all government agencies will have to be monitored under these laws and more largesse and corruption will be exposed.

Yup! These could "pay" for Bush's tax cut.

FWIW, this is the reason I am always against raising taxes and for tax cuts. There will always be more funds for "investment" in reducing government largesse and corruption, than in squeezing more out of the taxpayer.

24 posted on 10/10/2004 1:32:41 PM PDT by elbucko ( Feral Republican)
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To: familyop
The career of Druyun, once the most powerful woman in the Air Force, is over.   .....

Statement:

  This US Government employee was not a member of the US Air Force.


Buddy B

25 posted on 10/10/2004 1:33:09 PM PDT by Buddy B
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To: elbucko

Shay's is on to something (and so is Mr. Bush).
By going after these agencies, he knows that we can, in fact, get our tax cuts and more.
I have read where the Pentagon (bureacrats) is not happy about cuts, and that will be the next one that gets a going over.


26 posted on 10/10/2004 1:37:20 PM PDT by mabelkitty (W is the Peoples' President ; Kerry is the Elite Establishment's President)
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To: Grampa Dave; All

Linda Daschle's involved? Wow! All see Grampa Dave's post #23.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1240972/posts?page=23#23

Thanks. Here's another one.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/194292_boeinglockheed08.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Friday, October 8, 2004

Boeing military scandal grows
Lockheed weighs legal action over contracts

By LESLIE WAYNE
THE NEW YORK TIMES

When the Lockheed Corp. lost a $4 billion contract to The Boeing Co. in 2001 to upgrade the electronic controls of the C-130 transport plane -- a plane that Lockheed itself had designed and built for the Pentagon since the 1950s -- the tight-knit world of military contractors was stunned.

The person handing Lockheed that harsh blow was Darleen Druyun, the No. 2 weapons buyer for the Air Force, with the authority to pick and choose among bids for multibillion-dollar military contracts. So strong was Druyun's reputation for hard work and rectitude that no one questioned her startling decision.

Today, Lockheed is once again in shock, but for different reasons. It turns out that it was competing in a rigged game -- one in which Druyun, who left her civilian position in the Pentagon last year to take a job at Boeing, now says she tilted in Boeing's favor out of gratitude for its hiring of her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend.

Lockheed is now talking with its lawyers, and the Pentagon and its extensive network of military suppliers is caught up a scandal that only grows by the day.

The career of Druyun, once the most powerful woman in the Air Force, of course, is over. Last week, she was sentenced to nine months in prison for having steered billions of dollars in Air Force contracts for four critical weapons systems to Boeing and for having overpaid the company as well.

Her downfall has wide consequences for the $140 billion Pentagon contracting industry, and its political ramifications lead all the way to the White House, where three top administration officials are under investigation in the case.

In addition, Druyun's actions are now the subject of potential lawsuits, all-but-certain congressional hearings, an expansion in ongoing federal investigations, a possible reopening of many of Boeing's contracts and additional scrutiny of the Pentagon's procurement process and the individuals who oversee it. Boeing has said it is cooperating in all federal investigations.

"This is just awful," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group, a military consulting firm in Fairfax, Va. "She was trading the keys to the kingdom."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., predicted that "there will be more shoes dropping" before the scandal ends. One of those shoes may have fallen Wednesday night. Air Force Gen. Gregory Martin withdrew his nomination for one of the highest positions in the military -- commander for the Pacific and East Asia -- after a blistering attack by McCain in a hearing over Martin's close ties to Druyun.

Many of the affected parties are still reeling from Druyun's admission that she favored Boeing on the four Air Force contracts: a controversial aerial refueling tanker plan, a NATO airborne early warning and control system and a C-17 cargo plane contract, as well as the transfer of the C-130 work from Lockheed.

Although many industry analysts do not see any immediate upheaval, they predict that eventually Boeing could, among other things, be subject to an outside monitor and forced to pay substantial fines.

Some independent experts are already saying that, at a minimum, some contracts should be reopened.

"Lockheed has been jumping up and down for years saying that she had been favoring Boeing over them," said Danielle Brian, executive director at the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington non-profit that studies weapon systems.

The full extent of Druyun's pro-Boeing bias came as a surprise at her sentencing hearing in court Friday. Previously, Druyun's only known misdeed was that she had negotiated a $250,000 job at Boeing while overseeing Boeing Air Force contracts.

But she had long maintained that this conflict had not tainted her professional judgment.

Only after failing a lie detector test did Druyun finally admit that her weapons-buying decisions were influenced by a desire to curry Boeing's favor for herself and her family.

Court papers show that Druyun, while still at the Pentagon, met in secret with Boeing executives to talk about a job and to protect her daughter, a Boeing employee who had received a poor performance review. After that revelation, Boeing's chief financial officer, Mike Sears, who negotiated Druyun's employment contract, was fired. He is now cooperating with prosecutors.

The new evidence of Druyun's wrongdoing challenges just about every assumption Washington insiders held about her. In her three-decade career, Druyun's reputation for toughness as she rose in the male-dominated Pentagon was so strong that she was nicknamed the "Dragon Lady."

By next week, Lockheed will have to decide whether to lodge a protest under federal contracting law with either the Air Force of Congress' budget watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, or through the courts.

"We haven't decided what we are going to do," said Thomas Jurkowsky, a Lockheed spokesman, who pointed out that Litton Systems had succeeded in overturning a tainted contracted during the "Ill-Wind" military procurement scandals of the mid 1990s.

If the Air Force determined that Boeing's C-130 contract was fraudulently awarded, it could, in theory, terminate the contract and seek to recover all money paid to Boeing, said Steven Schooner, co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington University. As a practical matter, however, Schooner doubts that would happen.

"Would I bet on it? No," he said. "But this is the most dramatic case in two decades, and the most egregious one in the modern era of procurement."

At the White House, the Justice Department is continuing a review of e-mail exchanges among three top administration officials involved in one of the contracts Druyun negotiated -- a controversial $23.5 billion aerial refueling tanker proposal that has since been sidetracked over questions about its value.

Druyun admitted giving Boeing a sweetheart price on the tanker deal as a "parting gift," according to court papers, as well as giving Boeing proprietary data from a rival bidder, the Airbus European consortium. EADS North America, a unit of Airbus' corporate owner, which is already engaged in a competitive feud with Boeing, said it is also considering some form of legal action, yet to be determined.

At the Air Force, spokesman Douglas Karas said an internal review of Druyun's contracts that began last December would be expanded by the new revelations. Already, a $100 million payment to Boeing that Druyun negotiated and now has admitted in court papers was too high is being renegotiated. That payment was for Boeing's work on the NATO airborne early warning system.

Druyun's latest admissions could not have come at a worse time for Boeing. The company is currently operating under a ban that prevents it from bidding on new Air Force contracts to launch rockets, after it was discovered that Boeing employees had stolen up to 25,000 proprietary Lockheed documents. The Air Force also stripped Boeing of $1 billion in rocket contracts.

After the Druyun scandal erupted late last year, Boeing Chief Executive Phil Condit resigned. A number of Boeing employees, including James Albaugh, who runs the company's defense unit, have met with federal prosecutors.

An official close to the U.S. Attorney's Office said Albaugh is not a target of its investigation.


27 posted on 10/10/2004 1:37:22 PM PDT by familyop (Essayons)
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To: Dinsdale
Make an example of her and her family.

Let the three of them drive trucks in Iraq.

28 posted on 10/10/2004 1:43:06 PM PDT by elbucko ( Feral Republican)
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To: familyop
That women can be as rotten as men, unfortunately, is the nature of mankind. "Power corrupts"! Nothing has changed.
29 posted on 10/10/2004 1:45:48 PM PDT by RAY (They that do right are all heroes!)
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To: familyop

Hopefully some 527 bill boards showing the connection between Linda Da$$hole, Boeing and this Dragon Lady can magically appear all over little Tommy's playground state before the election.


30 posted on 10/10/2004 1:46:12 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (When will the ABCNNBC BS lunatic libs stop Rathering to Americans? Answer: NEVER!)
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To: mabelkitty
Shay's is on to something (and so is Mr. Bush).

Let's hope so. I dislike tax wasters as much as I dislike tax raisers.

31 posted on 10/10/2004 1:46:38 PM PDT by elbucko ( Feral Republican)
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To: elbucko

Yep let them drive trucks with armor nor weapons in Iraq and no protection from our warriors.

Put Momma Dragon Lady on the point truck to and from the various hell holes in Iraq.


32 posted on 10/10/2004 1:47:29 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (When will the ABCNNBC BS lunatic libs stop Rathering to Americans? Answer: NEVER!)
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To: familyop

Good to see someone getting caught for expecting "good service". ::cough:: ::cough::


33 posted on 10/10/2004 1:55:58 PM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: familyop; All
That's right... Bring Boeing down! Airbus will thank you!
34 posted on 10/10/2004 2:02:57 PM PDT by need_a_screen_name
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To: familyop

So, is this a good time to buy Boeing stock?


35 posted on 10/10/2004 2:05:40 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and establish property rights)
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To: familyop

Years ago, I was a contractor at the Pentagon, and "Mrs. Dryun" was notorious for wanting it HER way, and no other. To the point where she'd literally rip into anyone who DARED refer to her as "Ms." Druyun. . .

Nice to see that in the end, she got hers. . .


36 posted on 10/10/2004 2:07:44 PM PDT by Salgak (don't mind me: the orbital mind control lasers are making me write this. . .)
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To: joesnuffy

No, there are checks and balances and accountability. That's why she's going to prison.


37 posted on 10/10/2004 3:14:24 PM PDT by Log
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To: All
NY Times Probes Daschle Spouse Lobbying; Argus Leader Skips Story
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
June 11, 2003

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Tuesday's New York Times reported on a $20 billion Pentagon plan to lease air refueling tankers from the Boeing Company. The newspaper cited that liberal and conservative groups opposed to the arrangement called it a "sweetheart deal" that must be approved by Congress. The article pointed out that Boeing has hired lobbyist Linda Daschle, the wife of the Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to represent the company.

South Dakota's largest newspaper, the Argus Leader, is not reporting the story today. In fact, the Argus Leader never prints a story about the lobbying of Linda Daschle. In recent weeks, Executive Editor Randell Beck has been quoted as saying that this is because the Argus Leader doesn't report on the wives of candidates.

The Argus Leader did write a 1995 editorial critical of Marianne Gingrich, wife of the House Speaker, Republican Newt Gingrich, for taking a position with Israel Export Development Company. The newspaper wrote, "The spouses of U.S. leaders should be held to a high standard: Not only should they avoid impropriety, they should avoid all appearances of impropriety."

In 1990, the South Dakota newspaper published a thirty-six paragraph article about Harriet Pressler, wife of Republican Sen. Larry Pressler that suggested the senator had used his office to help his wife's real estate business. By contrast, the recent purchase of a $2 million Washington, DC home by Sen. Daschle and his wife is mentioned by the paper in only five sentences.

Last week, South Dakota businessman Neal Tapio accused the Argus Leader and its political reporter David Kranz of covering up a long association between the senator and Kranz that goes back 30 years. The Argus Leader has refused to acknowledge or disclose that relationship. Tapio implies that the newspaper's reporting has been skewed in favor of the powerful senator and against his critics.

Linda Daschle's lobbying has long been a source of potential conflict of interest issues. Her firm's clients include American Airlines, a recent recipient of billions in taxpayer funds to keep the company in business. Another client, L-3 International, a manufacturer of baggage screening equipment, won a lucrative contract from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2000. Mrs. Daschle had been an official with the FAA before joining the lobbying firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell.

None of this makes it to the pages of the Argus Leader. Even the Daschles' refusal to make their income tax returns public didn't get a notice from the same publication that aggressively pursued Harriet Pressler a decade ago.

When Kranz was with the Mitchell Daily Republic in 1982, he wrote an opinion piece that praised Mr. Daschle for releasing his income tax returns and criticized his opponent Clint Roberts for not doing so. Kranz wrote, "We believe it is the obligation of a candidate to produce the financial health as represented in his federal income tax returns."

Kranz has yet to call for the release of the Daschles' returns that would reveal a combined income estimated at $6 million.

Copyright © 2003 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

38 posted on 10/10/2004 4:49:04 PM PDT by familyop (Essayons)
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To: familyop

How shocking! Corruption in the defense acquisition community. This criminal bitch is just the tip of the iceberg. Let's hope this is a trend, and few more get theirs. The extent to which taxpayer dollars are wasted on biased contract awards with absolutely no accountability is sickening.


39 posted on 10/10/2004 5:16:41 PM PDT by MCH
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To: Natural Law

figures.


40 posted on 10/10/2004 5:53:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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