OLIVER NORTH
Posted on 10/04/2007 9:10:41 PM PDT by jazusamo
Friday, October 5, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform purports to be concerned about transparency and accountability in government contracting. It sounds great, but from all indications, this is just a public relations gimmick to justify going after American companies in the midst of a war.
This week, the liberal California congressman took Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince to task over how the North Carolina-based company has carried out its State Department contracts in Iraq. The day after Prince testified, one of his civilian-piloted helicopters skillfully landed in a Baghdad street to medevac Poland's ambassador to Iraq, Edward Pietrzyk, after he was wounded by the blast of a roadside bomb. This lifesaving feat of airmanship earned no accolades from Waxman. If the Beverly Hills congressman really cared about government contracting, he would suspend his vendetta against Blackwater long enough to look into another looming contract controversy that could well cost Americans jobs, billions of dollars and, eventually, lives.
The top procurement priority for the U.S. Air Force isn't a stealth fighter or a new long-range bomber; it's a mundane aircraft, without which these combat planes are virtually useless. It's an aerial refueler -- dubbed the KC-X -- designed to replace more than 500, half-century-old KC-135 Stratotankers, based on Boeing's antique 707 commercial airframe. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says that by the end of the year, his service will decide between two competing bids from Boeing and Airbus for the first 179 new tankers, priced at $40 billion over 15 years.
On the surface, all this sounds fair enough. Competition, particularly for lucrative defense contracts, is supposed to keep costs down. On a level playing field, competition in a fair market should give taxpayers more bang for the buck. Unfortunately, in the case of the KC-X, the playing field may not be level, and the airspace is full of headwinds.
Though the competing aircraft are both based on commercial airframes -- Boeing's 767 and the Airbus A330 -- their tanker variants are hardly similar. Boeing's KC-767 has a smaller payload than the Airbus KC-30, but it uses a ton less fuel per flight hour and requires shorter fields for takeoffs and landings -- meaning the Boeing bird can land in more places -- a major factor in today's troubled world. However, these operational disparities pale in comparison to the problems the Air Force may inherit by tying itself to Airbus and its deeply troubled parent company, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.
As previously noted in this column ("Buy American," Jan. 19, 2007), EADS and Airbus have been cited numerous times for irregularities in aircraft manufacturing and sales. In a 2003 investigative report, The Economist singled out EADS/Airbus for massive fraud and bribery designed to boost sales to airlines in Switzerland, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India, Canada and Syria.
EADS/Airbus managers vowed then that they had improved the ethical culture at the European aerospace giant, but The Atlantic Times, an English-language newspaper published in Germany, maintained that EADS/Airbus was still being wracked by delays and turbulence. One industry insider told me at the time, "If anything, the use of schmiergelder ('grease monies') to facilitate sales became more rampant as Airbus sales tanked in 2006 and the vaunted Airbus 380 white elephant collapsed amidst design flaws and faulty wiring."
Now, more than eight months later, it appears that the corruption at EADS was even worse than critics imagined. Last week, while Waxman and his fellow Democrats in Congress were attempting to pillory Prince and Blackwater USA, the Autorite des marches financiers, France's stock market regulator, sent a criminal referral to a Paris prosecutor about possible insider trading by the former managers and top shareholders at EADS.
According to the French daily Le Figaro and The Associated Press, AMF regulators believe that 21 of EADS' senior officers and shareholders engaged in massive insider trading once they became aware of production delays, technical difficulties and profitability problems with the new Airbus A380 superjumbo and their mid-range A350 passenger jetliners. German prosecutors also are said to be investigating suspected insider trading at EADS.
The company filed a profit warning on June 13, 2006. Importantly, this is the same time frame in which EADS/Airbus was maneuvering to bid for the U.S. Air Force KC-X contract.
Those of us with long memories recall it was France that denied the U.S. Air Force overflight rights in April 1985, when we attacked Moammar Gadhafi's terror bases in Libya. While President Nicolas Sarkozy's new government in Paris is certainly more amenable to America than those of his predecessors, we have no assurances about his successors.
Do we really want our next generation of aerial tankers to be built in a place that could cut off the flow of parts in the midst of a crisis? Do we want a company with a dubious ethical culture such as EADS getting such a contract? If Waxman is sincere about government reform, he needs to adjust his sights and put EADS/Airbus in his crosshairs.
Oliver North is the founder and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance and author of The Assassins .
I pulled this list from my response to the below linked article by J.B. Williams. If you missed it, Waxman is the second from the bottom of the list of Commie’s. I doubt his sincerety to do what is right for our Military as Oliver North suggests he should.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1905874/posts
Co-Chairs
Hon. Lynn Woolsey
Hon. Barbara Lee
Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson
Hon. Raul Grijalva
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver
Hon. Hilda Solis
Hon. Mazie Hirono
Hon. Phil Hare
Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders
House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie
Hon. Tammy Baldwin
Hon. Xavier Becerra
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo
Hon. Robert Brady
Hon. Corrine Brown
Hon. Michael Capuano
Hon. Julia Carson
Hon. Donna Christensen
Hon. Yvette Clarke
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay
Hon. Steve Cohen
Hon. John Conyers
Hon. Elijah Cummings
Hon. Danny Davis
Hon. Peter DeFazio
Hon. Rosa DeLauro
Hon. Keith Ellison
Hon. Sam Farr
Hon. Chaka Fattah
Hon. Bob Filner
Hon. Barney Frank
Hon. Luis Gutierrez
Hon. John Hall
Hon. Maurice Hinchey
Hon. Michael Honda
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson
Hon. Hank Johnson
Hon. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Hon. Marcy Kaptur
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick
Hon. Dennis Kucinich
Hon. Tom Lantos
Hon. John Lewis
Hon. David Loebsack
Hon. Carolyn Maloney
Hon. Ed Markey
Hon. Jim McDermott
Hon. James McGovern
Hon. George Miller
Hon. Gwen Moore
Hon. Jerrold Nadler
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton
Hon. John Olver
Hon. Ed Pastor
Hon. Donald Payne
Hon. Charles Rangel
Hon. Bobby Rush
Hon. Linda Sanchez
Hon. Jan Schakowsky
Hon. Jose Serrano
Hon. Louise Slaughter
Hon. Pete Stark
Hon. Bennie Thompson
Hon. John Tierney
Hon. Tom Udall
Hon. Nydia Velazquez
Hon. Maxine Waters
Hon. Mel Watt
Hon. Henry Waxman
Hon. Peter Welch
hp/site/article/95
When in doubt - Buy American.
Thanks, I doubt Waxman’s ability to do anything positive for our military, he’s too busy with all his “gotcha” investigations to be bothered.
You're exactly right, especially in this case.
> When in doubt - Buy American.
If your country has the ability to build its own instuments of war, Buy from your own country. Today’s ally might become tomorrow’s enemy. Wouldn’t the the first time in the history of the world that had ever happened, ay.
Send all those truckloads of money over to France to enrich European shareholders and employ european aircraft engineers and laborers? That’s just plain nuts.
America should buy American, and let the frogs keep their jolly aeroplane.
Let’s be fair - Saying EADS is a cultrue of corruption is the pot calling the kettle black. Boeing didn’t have clean hands on the first Tanker go-around, either.
As for the tanker competition, there is a need for a tanker that can service in-theater aircraft, and that is best served by the KC-767. There is also a need for an aircraft that can escort a squadron overseas and carry the basic spares package with it, and that is currently served by the KC-10. The KC-30 may be able to replace the KC-10 in that role, or perhaps a future KC-777 would be required.
In any case, with the UK and Australia already buying the KC-30, it is not the high risk aircraft this article makes it out to be. It will be converted from a green airframe in the United States, the engines will be US in origin, and most of the avionics will be US. Any one of a dozen maintenance companies can support the airframe in 20 years, just as today we have Boeing building new wings for the Fairchild A-10.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!
ROFL!!!!!!
That's funny, Ollie!
bump
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