Over 80 percent of four-star retirees work in arms industry, study finds - The Washington Post
Category: News & Politics
Via: sparty-on • 7 months ago • 4 commentsBy: Missy Ryan (Washington Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The findings underscore the close relationship between the U.S. defense sector and its top military brass, a trend that has drawn scrutiny in Congress
By Missy RyanOctober 4, 2023 at 1:41 p.m. EDTLockheed Martin branding at a 2018 airshow in Britain. (Toby Melville/Reuters)Listen4 minShareComment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
More than 80 percent of four-star officers retiring from the U.S. armed forces go on to work in the defense industry, a new study has found, underscoring the close relationship between top U.S. brass and government-contracted companies that has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
Twenty-six of 32 four-star admirals and generals who retired from June 2018 to July 2023 were later employed in roles including executive, adviser, board member or lobbyist for companies with significant defense business, according to the analysis from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a think tank that advocates restraining the military'srole in U.S. foreign policy.
"The revolving door between the U.S. government and the arms industry, which involves hundreds of senior Pentagon officials and military officers every year, generates the appearance — and in some cases the reality — of conflicts of interest in the making of defense policy and in the shaping of the size and composition of the Pentagon budget," authors William Hartung and Dillon Fisher wrote in the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post before its publication.
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The analysis includes former officers employed by consulting firms with clients in the defense industry and financial firms with significant investments in that sector. Many of the employers cited in the report also have nondefense business interests.
The findings shed new light on a phenomenon examined in a 2021 report from the Government Accountability Office, which found that 14 major defense contractors, mostly weapons companies, employed 1,700 former senior officials or acquisition officials in 2019.
The GAO concluded that while defense contractors benefit fromthe practice, it could "affect public confidence in the government" by creating a perception that military officials may favor a company they see as a future employer.
A separate pattern was documented in a 2022 Washington Post investigation that explored the lucrative business deals hundreds of former military officers have conducted with foreign governments.
While former Pentagon officials face some restrictions on post-government employment, they are not prohibited from working for weapons or defense companies.
The Quincy Institute's findings come as some in Congress seek to impose additional constraints, including a longer cooling-off period before senior officials can be employed by certain contractors and tighter rules for employment by foreign governments.
A report this year issued by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) showed that, last year, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon were among the companies that employed lobbyists who once served as senior military officials, lawmakers or congressional staffers. Warren has argued that such relationships warrant closer scrutiny because of the scale of the Pentagon's business with defense companies: The Defense Department accounted for some 60 percent of all federal government contracts in 2021, according to Warren's report.
A Senate proposal from Warren, along with a parallel House bill from Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), would prohibit former top officials from working for big defense companies within the first four years after they leave the military and ban sitting officials from holding stock in companies that receive more than $100 million in Pentagon contracts.
Warren, in a statement to The Post this week, said that someofficials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, had made public pledges not to work for the defense industry after leaving the Pentagon. "The revolving door between the Pentagon and the defense industry severely undermines public confidence and our national security," she said.
The Quincy Institute found that patterns of post-government employment for four-star officers have evolved over time, in that retirees are often now employed with start-ups or companies that finance arms manufacturers in addition to traditional large defense contractors.
Former four-stars cited in the report include Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., who became a Lockheed Martin board member after stepping down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who became a senior adviser at SpaceX — which launches military satellites as part of its business — after retiring from his post leading the U.S. Northern Command.
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The report's authors make their own recommendations, including a full ban on former four-stars' employment with companies that receive $1 billion a year or more in Pentagon contracts; the expansion of required disclosures by companies that hire former officials; and expanding the definition of what activities qualify as lobbying.
The Quincy Institute's supporters including the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Open Society Foundations.
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An unholy alliance that is screwing tax payers.
This needs to stop.
But why?
Congress just passed over 78 billion in military aid to Ukraine and Israel. Two never ending sinkholes for US tax payer dollars.
Doesn't sound like Congress or the White House has any interest in ending the unholy alliance between the military and defense sector when they are making so much stronger.
The geopolitical issues involved here are much complex than just six figure pension brass profiting off such decisions but yes. It most definitely is intertwined.
Love me some mad dog Mattis for example but he is one of them as well. Makes one wonder.
Many of those same 4 stars are the ones that appear on the news networks as "experts" and "testify" to Congress.
They love to push the whole "domino" affect.
Whether it is Korea, Vietnam, Serbia, Iraq, Libya, or now Russia.
When they run out of countries they can turn groups like Al Qaeda, ISIS/ISIL, Hamas, Hezbolla, the Houthi- hell even sub divisions of the groups.
Anything to keep the gravy train flowing to the companies that arm most of the planet.
We will never run out of threats- even if we have to arm, train, and finance them.