Webster article w/ GRF quote

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Gerry Faulhaber" <gerry-faulhaber () mchsi com>
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 11:01:00 -0500
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: NYT Webster article w/ GRF quote

... have fun with it, including IP if appropriate.

My contribution to the William Webster debate concerns his being a board
member of NextWave, and my opinion about how that association raises
questions about his suitability as the accounting watchdog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/05/business/05WEBS.html




November 5, 2002

Webster's Public Service Image Not Duplicated in Private
By ALEX BERENSON

s a public servant, William H. Webster has an impeccable résumé.

Mr. Webster, who last week became the head of a new government board that
will oversee the accounting industry, is the only person to have served as
the director of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central
Intelligence Agency. He has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a
special medal from the American Bar Association for outstanding leadership.

But outside Washington, Mr. Webster's record is less than perfect. Since he
retired from the C.I.A. 11 years ago to build a lucrative second career as a
corporate lawyer, Mr. Webster has repeatedly taken positions that critics
say have been at odds with his reputation.
<snip>

Mr. Webster's position on the board of NextWave Telecom has also raised
concern. Congressional investigators have said they will examine Mr.
Webster's role at NextWave in addition to his work at U.S. Technologies.
NextWave is a bankrupt wireless company whose main asset is a set of airwave
licenses that the company won in an auction from the government in 1996 but
never paid for. Since 2000, the Federal Communications Commission has been
trying to recover the licenses from NextWave and sell them to other
companies. NextWave has sued the government to keep the licenses.

"NextWave came in, and they got more licenses than anyone else," said Mr.
Faulhaber, the Wharton professor. "And then at their earliest opportunity,
they defaulted."

Mr. Webster knew or should have known that NextWave's actions were not in
the consumers' or the government's best interest, Mr. Faulhaber said. He
said Mr. Webster should not serve on the accounting board, which demands
someone whose reputation is above reproach.

"He may be a perfectly fine fellow," Mr. Faulhaber said. "But this is a
Caesar's wife situation."

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