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| Home Front: Politix |
| Putin and Lots More about EADS (refueling tankers' builder) |
| 2008-05-09 |
| H/T Captainsjournal.com There are links in the original Tainted Tanks EADS comes with a pernicious past. By David N. Bossie Dwight Eisenhower once observed, “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.” The danger of weakness in prosecuting the War on Terror brings to mind the wisdom of Eisenhower’s prescient observation. Consider the recent decision by the Department of Defense to award a $35 billion contract to build America’s fleet of refueling tankers to the French-owned European Aerospace Defense and Space Company (EADS). In one of the most colossal blunders of the struggle against the terrorists, we have handed over the future of a vital tool in the projection of U.S. power over to bureaucrats and politicians in Russia and France. ---------------------------------------- According to a New York Times report just last October, a French financial regulator turned over evidence of insider trading by senior EADS executives to prosecutors. The executives failed to inform the public about production delays in the A-380 jumbo jet while they quietly dumped their own stock. When the delays became public, unwitting shareholders watched their holdings plummet in value. The co-CEO and co-chairman of EADS resigned under pressure, and now some EADS executives may face indictments. Even more worrisome is the power grab by Vladimir Putin, who is buying up the depressed shares of EADS like a corporate raider. The prospect of the authoritarian Russian leader, whose political opponents are harassed and jailed while prying journalists turn up missing or murdered, having a heavy hand in EADS affairs is deeply troubling. Russia opposed the invasion of Iraq and has sought to undermine U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The most troubling aspect of the tanker contract is the danger it poses to U.S. national security. According to a report by the Center for Security Policy, EADS has been a leading proliferator of weapons and technology to some of the most hostile regimes in the world, including Iran and Venezuela. When the U.S. formally objected to EADS selling cargo and patrol planes to Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez, EADS tried to circumvent U.S. law by stripping American-built components from the aircraft. Chavez is now building an oil refinery in Cuba to keep Castro’s failed Communist state afloat, funding terrorists seeking the violent overthrow of Colombia’s government, and recently meddled in the presidential election in Argentina with secretly smuggled cash contributions. If EADS had its way, Chavez would now be advancing his anti-American designs in the Western hemisphere with U.S. technology and components. EADS entanglements with Venezuela make the Pentagon’s decision to waive the Berry Amendment, which prohibits the export of technology that might be developed during the building of the tanker to third parties, indefensible. Given the sophisticated radar and anti-missile capabilities of military tankers, this is no small matter. Such technology falling into the hands of state sponsor of terrorism would devastate our war fighters. There's lots more at the site! Including sales to Iran of military and possibly, some nuclear stuff. Scary stuff |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #2 A late posting @ seattlepi.com features this story:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/362552_tanker10.html Short version: Senators from several states are calling BS on the new EADS claim of creating 48k new jobs to assemble the tanker. originally they claimed 25k. These new numbers are, i think, in response to the serial ad campaign by Boeing "It doesn't add up." |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. (from home) 2008-05-09 22:56 |
| #1 Oh, and it should have gone to Boing? Corrupt corporate bastards, they deserved to lose. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-05-09 20:32 |