I find it horrifying that this is the best article I have found on the Military Industrial Complex and it is in playboy...7 long pages. It is a must read here is the link. PDF
There have been a couple of great documentarys on the subject. Why We Fight And Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers Must Watch Viewing.
Update: There was Smedly Butler, who wrote War is a Racket in 1935. An absolute must read. He stoped a Coup a true american Hero... Protecting us from the Racket...Way before Ike's MIC speech.
This article deals with Lockheed Martin as you can see. But they have some great other information. The Ties That Bind Calls out some of the flagrant lobbyists and how/what they did and how much they made in 2004.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says it's time to "drain the swamps" of Washington D.C. What she's attacking -- in part -- are the incestuous links between legislators, lobbyists and private sector companies looking for government pork. It won't be easy. Here's a quick look at some of the iron triangle interconnections at other defense firms also making a killing in the current war climate.
They go on to call out each company how much they made in 2004, Defense Products, and their Bedfellows. Among them: Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics Corporation, and Halliburton.
Now back to the main article.
That's how D.C. works. Many of the people making decisions have been in and out of the same set of revolving doors connecting government, conservative think tanks, lobbying firms, law firms and the defense industry. So strong is the bond between lobbyists, defense contractors and the Pentagon that it is known in Washington as "the iron triangle." And this triangle inevitably gets what it wants. Why? Because in the revolving door system, a defense contractor executive can surface as an official in the Department of Defense, from which position he can give lucrative contracts to his former employer, and his prospects for an even better paying job in the private sector brighten. Former aides to members of congress become handsomely paid lobbyists for the companies they were able to help in their position on Capitol Hill. Such lobbyists can spread their corporate-funded largesse to the friendliest members and their aides on the Hill. And so on.
We need to stop this revolving door.
Of course, all the frothing at the mouth about lobbyists, money and special interests can seem from outside the Beltway as much ado about nothing. The government hands out contracts. The beneficiaries or those who want to be beneficiaries buy steak dinners for the officials who hold the purse strings. Big deal. The problem, though, is that, upon closer scrutiny, this is not how the system works. It's actually much more sinister than that, allowing the interests of America to be subverted by the interests of corporate America. As you'll see here, your elected officials did not deliberate on how best to protect their constituents, decide bombing Iraq was the best way and then order some provisions and weapons. On the contrary, this is the story of how Lockheed's interests, as opposed to those of the American citizenry, set the course of U.S. policy after 9/11.
Get that Lockheed Martin set the policy for US. A private company with their own goal to make money.
"It used to be just an airplane company," John Pike, a military analyst and director of GlobalSecurity.org says about Lockheed Martin. "Now it's a warfare company. It's an integrated solution provider. It's a one-stop shop. Anything you need to kill the enemy, they will sell you."
They also will tell you who the enemy is. And whether it was seamless or serendipitous, Stephen Hadley, referred to by The New York Times as one of the more significant Lockheed operatives in the Bush White House, was there to tie it all together.
They really name some names here. It is a 7 page article with great links and helps show us it wasn't only Halliburton who made so much money. They money is flowing and these guys get paid with our money. It goes on to tell the story of Lockheed Martin's history....
Lockheed learned a number of things from the L-1101 experience. First and foremost, it didn't pay to compete in the private sector. Instead, the company shifted gears; these days 80 percent of its business comes from federal government contracts. Moreover, Lockheed would load the government with its own people and then hire former defense department employees, creating a revolving door that would guarantee friends in the right places. That goal, of course, has been achieved and sustained.
Also in the wake of the L-1011 debacle, Lockheed's business practices became aggressive in the extreme. It charged the Pentagon $646 for a toilet seat and delivered C-5A transport planes -- that cost millions of dollars -- without installing thousands of essential parts. It paid bribes to foreign officials to help unload planes no one wanted, including giant long-distance transports to Indonesia, the Philippines, Brazil and Italy, until the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 made such actions illegal.
They have been corrupt bastards for a long time.
Lockheed also learned never again to miss out on the chance to gobble up other defense contractors or merge with them on favorable terms. After developing the F-22 (later known as the F/A 22) with General Dynamics and Boeing, Lockheed took over General Dynamics' Forth Worth aircraft division. And in 1995, it made the decision that would change the face of the industry. Lockheed would merge with Martin Marietta, which itself had gobbled up the aerospace division of General Electric.
Gobble Gobble Gobble Buy the competition to increase your power.
When the United States gives military aid to its allies, the benefits accrue to Lockheed Martin, too. Israel, for example, spends much of the $1.8 billion a year it receives in military aid from the U.S. on planes and missile systems from Lockheed -- and that's in years when it is not actively at war with Hezbollah. Lockheed's market is worldwide, selling F-16 fighters, surveillance software and other equipment to more than 40 countries. The United Arab Emirates, forced to give up its deal to run American ports through its state-run Dubai entity, has been a major customer, spending more than $6 billion on F-16 fighters in 2000 as it looked forward to the Bush presidency. No wonder Bush threatened to veto legislation barring the ports deal.
Stevens has boasted that Lockheed Martin not only creates the technology, it makes military policy as well. He told The New York Times in November of 2004 that Lockheed stands at "the intersection of policy and technology," which, he observed, "is really a very interesting place to be. We are deployed, entirely in developing daunting technology" that "requires thinking through the policy dimensions of national security as well as technology." He acknowledges "this is not a business where in the purest economical sense there's a broad market of supply and demand."
And although he may shine his own shoes, Stevens is paid $7 million a year, not counting bonuses and stock options. In 2002, Stevens left Bush's aerospace commission, becoming a member of the influential Council on Foreign Relations, and Jackson left Lockheed Martin to work on the Project on Transitional Democracies and the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Stevens and Jackson were tag team wrestlers, Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, of Team Lockheed. And, increasingly, the distinction between Lockheed Martin and the government began to blur as the war in Iraq became inevitable.
Now for how they helped at the UN. UPDATED
In February of 2003, Jackson helped draft a declaration for the 10 Eastern European foreign ministers -- all countries up for NATO membership and associated with Jackson's expansion efforts -- that became known as the "Vilnius Ten," rebuking French President Jacques Chirac's opposition to attacking Iraq. The declaration stated: "The newest members of the European community agree that we must confront the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and that the United Nations must act now." Jackson achieved this success when he attended a dinner party at the Slovak embassy in Washington and told assembled diplomats from the countries, according to The American Prospect's John B. Judis, that signing the declaration would help win U.S. approval of their membership.
We will let you in NATO if...
Update2:We need at least one other Major country...how about the UK.
Bush couldn't go into Iraq without a major ally and Lockheed knew it. To sweeten the pot for Blair, Lockheed dragged BAE Systems (British Aerospace) into the F-35 deal. When BAE still struggled prior to the war (Goldman Sachs reported that BAE would have to cut its dividend), Lockheed began renegotiating the contract -- with the new version unveiled in 2005, giving BAE billions more to be paid "as needed." This put BAE back on its feet, able to build the Typhoon jet fighter for sale to Saudi Arabia in a $70 billion deal, saving 10,000 BAE jobs and 4,000 Rolls-Royce jet engine building jobs.
Thanks LakeThomas for pointing this one out. 14k jobs is all it took?
Now if you haven’t yet go over to playboy and read it all. It is amazing. The military-industrial complex needs oversight. This IS the new Congresses job. With what is going on with Cunningham Prosecutor Forced Out Stating Job performance as the reason http://www.signonsandiego.com/... .
"This office has clearly made a priority of investigating and prosecuting white collar offenses and has had occasional success doing so," he said. "One would think that would be valued by any administration, even if it meant fewer resources were devoted to routine and repetitive border crimes."
We need to subpoena these criminals. I hope this congress is up to the job. I know it wont be easy, but it is very needed. And prosecutors like Carole Lam need to be protected She got a couple of these criminals locked up and President Bush wants to fire her...Total BS.
Look at this from USA today. Iran gets army gear in Pentagon sale The war profiteers sell off all the f-14's that have recently been decommissioned... guess who is the only country flying them...Iran! Why are the parts for sale?
Money
Update: http://www.atimes.com/...
It is a good read too
Meanwhile, the American people are sidetracked into a debate over the grim consequences of a "premature" withdrawal of US troops from Iraq: further deterioration of the raging civil war, the unraveling of the "fledgling democracy", the resultant serious blow to the power and prestige of the United States, and the like.
Such concerns are secondary to the booming business of war profiteers and, more generally, to the lure or prospects of controlling Iraq's politics and economics. Powerful beneficiaries of war dividends, who are often indistinguishable from the policymakers who pushed for the invasion of Iraq, have been pocketing hundreds of billions of dollars by virtue of war.