In a last-ditch effort to block a controversial US$20 billion proposal by the US Air Force to lease a fleet of Boeing 767 aerial tankers, Senator John McCain's office has released documents showing a high-level lobbying campaign by the Air Force and Boeing to fend off critics as well as potential competitors.
The documents, made public over the holiday weekend and first reported in The Washington Post and elsewhere, come as two Senate committees are planning to hold hearings this week on the US$20 billion leasing plan, which McCain has long criticized as corporate welfare.
In releasing the documents, which include Boeing and Air Force e-mail messages and internal memos culled from some 8,000 documents, he is trying to show that the Air Force and Boeing assisted each other in structuring the program, promoting it in Washington and setting requirements so that no other competitors could qualify.
Much of this new information was to be examined yesterday at a Senate Commerce committee hearing to be led by McCain. Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee, whose members generally have a more positive view of the proposed lease, will also hold hearings on the plan, which is intended to replace aging aerial refueling tankers with a fleet of 100 specially outfitted Boeing 767s.
The documents, congressional staff members said, raise questions about whether the Air Force overreached in assisting Boeing. They show that one top Air Force official, who now works for Boeing, gave the company important financial data about a competing bid from Airbus. In addition, the documents show how the Air Force relied on Boeing to provide it with arguments that could play well with influential members of Congress as well as in the White House and with the news media.
Boeing's relationship with the Pentagon is coming under increasing fire. Last month, Boeing was sanctioned by the Air Force for having obtained 25,000 proprietary Lockheed Martin documents and using them to win Pentagon satellite contracts. Boeing was denied government business estimated to be worth US$1 billion.
One of the more revealing memos among the newly released documents showed that Darleen Druyun, then the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management, told Boeing to "keep in mind" that an Airbus bid was US$5 million to US$17 million cheaper per airplane than a basic Boeing 767. The information was disclosed in an April 1 meeting of Air Force and Boeing officials after Boeing had been selected over Airbus.
Druyun is now deputy general manager of Boeing's missile defense systems. If the information given by Druyun was proprietary, she could possibly be in violation of the US Trade Secrets Act as well as other federal regulations.
In a statement, Boeing on Tuesday defended Druyun as a "truly tough negotiator." The company declined to comment specifically on the memo, but said Druyun was using the April 1 meeting as "an opportunity to send us a clear message that we needed to sharpen our pencil."
A member of the Commerce Committee staff, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said McCain, its chairman, and some other committee members saw it otherwise.
"Generally, the documents tell a story of the extent to which the Air Force overreached to assist Boeing," the staff member said. "The program was signed off by the Air Force when the outcome was determined from the start with help from Boeing."
One of the internal Boeing e-mail messages described a meeting between Boeing lobbyists and members of the staff of Air Force Secretary James Roche. It shows the head of Air Force acquisitions, Marvin Sambur, turning to Boeing for help: "He [Sambur] indicated that the USAF is desperately looking for the rationale for why the USAF should pursue the 767 tanker NOW ... It was clear he was looking to find a path forward."
Other memos provided a bird's-eye view of a powerful lobbying effort by the Air Force and Boeing. A Boeing lobbyist, after meeting with top Air Force officials, said the Air Force "urged us to have our friends on Hill, think tanks, etc. get more visible/vocal" with pro-tanker arguments. It contended that Roche, the Air Force secretary, was particularly keen on anything Boeing could do "especially if it helps drown out McCain."
Another memo delineated other elements of this lobbying campaign, including enlisting the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, a strong supporter of the plan, to talk to President Bush and other White House officials. It also described an effort to line up unions in a plan that Boeing said was "aimed at executive branch as well as Congress."
"We are in touch with Andy Card and White House political operation," a Boeing lobbyist wrote in a memo to James Albaugh president of a Boeing division; Card is the White House chief of staff.
"They see increased pressure and realize a political downside to not moving forward with tankers," the memo continued.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique