more on Phony ethics charges shouldn't distract from the nation's defense. BY RICHARD PERLE

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu>
Organization: UMBC http://umbc.edu/
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 09:14:11 -0500
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Phony ethics charges shouldn't distract from the nation's
defense. BY RICHARD PERLE

While I agree that it's reasonable for government officials (paid or
not) to interact with their peers in business and industry, I am
still unsettled by our current situation.  One thing in Perle's
article bothered me quite a bit.  He said:

> ... But there are ways to ensure that advice does not advance personal
financial
> interests, and they are reflected in rules that apply to the many
thousands
> of individuals serving on hundreds of boards which advise government at
all
> levels. The two key rules are simple and flow from a familiar principle:
> that public office should not be used for private gain.
>
> The first rule is full disclosure of the financial interests of the
adviser.
> This is accomplished by annual filings of the board member's business
> interests, sources of income, clients, share holdings and the like. ...

The board member's disclosures are private, reviewed by the Pentagon
and not released to the public or even to the other boad members.

Saturday, I watched an interesting interview on Bill Moyers
television show NOW (http://www.pbs.org/now/) with Charles Lewis of
the Center for Public Integrity (http://www.publicintegrity.org/)
which just released a report "Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of
the Defense Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors"
http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=513&L1=10&L2=10&L3
=0&L4=0&L5=0

The interviewee pointed out that it has been very difficult for
reporters to find out what the ties are between the Defense Policy
Board and industry because the required disclosures are not made
public:

   "Members of the board disclose their business interests annually to the
   Pentagon, but the disclosures are not available to the public. "The
   forms are filed with the Standards of Conduct Office which review the
   filings to make sure they are in compliance with government ethics,"
   Pentagon spokesman Maj. Ted Wadsworth told the Center for Public
   Integrity."

In Hersh's New Yorker article, he wrote that he talked to members of
the board who did not know about and were surprised by Perle's
connections (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030317fa_fact):

   "Four members of the Defense Policy Board told me that the board, which
   met most recently on February 27th and 28th, had not been informed of
   Perle's involvement in Trireme. One board member, upon being told of
   Trireme and Perle's meeting with Khashoggi, exclaimed, "Oh, get out of
   here. He's the chairman! If you had a story about me setting up a
   company for homeland security, and I've put people on the board with
   whom I'm doing that business, I'd be had" -- a reference to Gerald
   Hillman, who had almost no senior policy or military experience in
   government before being offered a post on the policy board. "Seems to
   me this is at the edge of or off the ethical charts. I think it would
   stink to high heaven."

Reporters have had to ferret out the connections directly from original
sources.  To be effective, I think disclosures should be public.

A particularly egregious seeming connection was that of Chris
Williams, one of four registered lobbyists on the Defense Policy
board, and the only one to lobby for defense companies. (from
http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=513&L1=10&L2=10&L3
=0&L4=0&L5=0)

   Williams, who served as a special assistant for policy matters to
   Defense Secretary Rumsfeld after having been in a similar capacity for
   Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), joined Johnston & Associates after leaving
   the Pentagon. Although the firm had represented Lockheed Martin prior
   to Williams' arrival, the firm picked up two large defense
   contractors as clients once Williams was on board: Boeing, TRW and
   Northrop Grumman, for which the firm earned a total of more than
   $220,000. The firm lobbied exclusively on defense appropriations and
   related authorization bills for its new clients. Johnston & Associates
   is more often employed by energy companies; its founder, J. Bennett
   Johnston, is a former Democratic senator from Louisiana who chaired
   the Energy Committee.

An article in the Washington Post on Friday quotes Charles Lewis of
the Center for Public Integrity as saying:

   "To the public, it looks like you have folks feathering their
   nest. . . . I'm shocked and awed by audacity of who has been selected
   and who is serving on this board," Lewis said. "There really is a tin
   ear when it comes to ethical-appearance considerations."



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