IG Report Names Names, Says USAF Almost Guilty Of "Major Violations"

Air Force officials were in such a hurry to approve the Boeing 767 tanker lease/purchase deal that, had the deal not fallen through in the midst of a scandal, they would have committed "major legal violations" just to get the $23 billion deal done.

That word comes in a new report to Congress from the Pentagon's inspector general, which says the Air Force "demonstrated neither best business practices nor prudent acquisition procedures to provide sufficient accountability for the expenditure of $23.5 billion." The report was quoted by the New York Times.

As ANN reported earlier this month, the 270-page Pentagon postmortem said Air Force negotiator-turned-Boeing executive Darleen Druyun wasn't the only one to blame in the tanker scandal. Druyun is now serving time in a federal prison for trading that Boeing job for her support in the tanker negotiations.

The plan to replace aging KC-135 tankers with modified Boeing 767s fell through after it was severely criticized as being far too generous to Boeing. Now, Boeing has to once again compete for the contract, with Airbus promising to build a US manufacturing plant if it's awarded the tanker deal.

In the IG report -- and in testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday -- the former acquisitions chief for the Pentagon, Edward "Pete" Aldridge, Jr. (right), was blasted for failing to properly oversee the lease/purchase contract. Aldridge refused to be interviewed for the Pentagon IG report. He continues to maintain his silence as he now serves on the Board of Directors at Lockheed-Martin.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), an early and vocal critic of the tanker deal, said Aldridge flat-out lied when, in approving the project, he said a Pentagon leasing committee had given its support. In fact, the report said, the leasing board never met on the issue.

What You Don't See

The report was heavily edited, leading one Democrat -- Michigan Senator Carl Levin -- to harshly criticize what he sees as White House interference. Levin wants to know more about the role President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, played in pushing the tanker deal through the approval process.

Omission of this information makes the report so incomplete as to be misleading," Levin told the Times.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Card wasn't using undue influence in the deal. Rather, McClellan said, Card acted as an "honest broker" during the negotiations.

Apologizing For The Raspberries

The report also criticized General John Jumper, USAF Chief of Staff, and acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez, for internal USAF emails that were sharply critical -- and sometimes mocking -- of Sen. McCain.

Called on the carpet, Jumper (below, right) told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "My apologies to the members of the committee, and especially to Senator McCain, especially for the tone of some of the e-mails that were reported in the Pentagon inspector general's report." Jumper called the comments "unprofessional and not worthy of a great Air Force."

Indeed, the entire process was criticized as unworthy of " a great Air Force." Sen. John Warner (R-VA) said Pentagon attempts to saddle weapons procurer Druyun with the entire blame were really attempts to hide a much deeper problem.

"Druyun did not operate in a vacuum," Warner told the Times. "[A]t a minimum, it appears that the acquisition chain of the Air Force, and perhaps the Department of Defense, was seriously inadequate."

FMI: www.af.mil