Congressional Record: November 19, 2004 (Senate)
Page S11536-S11542
Investigation Into Air Force Leasing of Boeing Aerial Refueling Tankers
Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I intend to address the Senate for a
period of time today. I believe I have as much as an hour under
postcloture debate, but I will be discussing an issue I have been
involved in for some 3 years now and have not reached a conclusion,
although certainly enormous progress has been made in trying to address
this issue.
But during these 3 years since the appropriators slipped a $30
billion rider in the fiscal year 2002 Defense appropriations bill, a
lot of strange and unusual things have happened, I am sad to say, that
are a very damming commentary about the way the Pentagon in general and
the Air Force in particular conducts its business.
I am going to tell a story that has not, as I said, reached its end.
But it has uncovered the very strong likelihood, because of the
confession by Ms. Druyun in Federal court when she pled guilty, that
there could be many billions of dollars of the taxpayers' money that
were wasted, criminally treated, and misused because of the decisions
made by Ms. Druyun. The question is, How could Ms. Druyun have done all
this by herself? Did she have accomplices or was the system in the
Pentagon so broken that one individual
[[Page S11537]]
could make contracting decisions which entailed tens of billions of
dollars, and in this case may have cost the taxpayers of America
millions and even billions of dollars as well?
Nearly 3 years ago, behind closed doors, the Appropriations Committee
slipped a $30 billion rider in the fiscal year 2002 Defense
appropriations bill. This rider authorized the Air Force to lease from
Boeing up to 100 767s for use as aerial refueling tankers. Before the
rider appeared in the bill, Air Force leadership never came to the
authorizing committees about this issue. In fact, tankers have never
come up in either the President's budget or the Defense Department's
unfunded priority list. The Air Force's tanker lease program was born
of a virgin birth.
The rider was, in fact, the result of an aggressive behind-the-scenes
effort by the Boeing Corporation with considerable assistance from
senior Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun and others. After
the President signed the bill into law, the Air Force embarked on
negotiating with Boeing a lease that would have cost the taxpayers
around $6 billion more than an outright purchase of these aircraft
would have.
Soon after Air Force Secretary Jim Roche submitted to the four
Defense committees a report on plans to lease these tankers from
Boeing, three out of the four authorizing committees summarily approved
the lease without even looking at the contract. Two did so without even
holding a single hearing.
Much to his credit, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John
Warner held the line and refused to authorize the proposal, as did the
ranking member, Senator Carl Levin. Through the hearings and
investigations that followed, we unearthed a crushing body of evidence
on how much a folly the proposal actually was.
Throughout 2002 and in the beginning of 2003, even agencies within
the Defense Department and the Air Force, including Program, Analysis
and Evaluation, the Office of Management and Budget, and even the Air
Force's own General Counsel's Office raised salient concerns about
aspects of the proposal. These concerns, however, would not get in the
way of Air Force leadership.
Rather than resolve these concerns, Air Force proponents continued to
aggressively push the deal in the press. A Wall Street Journal
editorial entitled ``John McCain's Flying Circus,'' published on the
very same day as the tanker hearing we had in the Commerce Committee,
is particularly notable. It was obviously drafted with considerable
help from the Office of the Air Force Secretary. In it, tanker
proponents accused me of ``trying to prevent approval by running up my
own Jolly Roger'' and brazenly exaggerated the Air Force's need for
tankers by describing how, during Secretary Roche's visit to Tinker Air
Force Base, he ``peeled back the skin of a tanker being refurbished and
found the metal underneath disintegrating before his very eyes.''
By this time, Air Force leadership's aggressive press campaign was
well underway. On April 25, 2002, Secretary Roche's special assistant,
William Bodie, told Secretary Roche that he:
saw Rudy deLeon [who heads Boeing's Washington office]--
And, by the way, he has rotated back and forth between the Congress
and defense corporations and the Defense Department--he:
saw Rudy deLeon at the Kennedy Center and politely asked the
Great White Arab Tribe of the North [which is what these
folks called Boeing] to unleash their falcons on our behalf
for once. I talked to [defense analyst] Loren [Thompson], who
is standing by to comment to this reporter about the national
security imperatives of tanker modernization. [Editor of
Defense News and Air Force Times] Vago [Murandian] is also
standing by. I will get with [Assistant Air Force Secretary
for Acquisitions Marvin] Sambur first thing to rehearse
talking points.
Get that, ``to rehearse talking points'' with the editor of Defense
News and Air Force Times and defense analyst Loren Thompson: We will
get with you before we talk to the reporter.
Among the falcons that Boeing ``unleashed'' was an op-ed that
subsequently appeared in Vago Muradian's Defense News. This piece,
which strongly endorsed Boeing's tanker lease, was supposedly written
by former Commander-in-Chief for U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral Archie
Clemins. However, Admiral Clemins has admitted, and Boeing's e-mails
reflect, that it was in fact ghost-written and placed by Boeing.
As this indicates, rather than address salient concerns regarding the
tanker deal raised by their own staff, Air Force leadership focused on
using the press, which Mr. Bodie described as ``3rd Party support at
its best'' to perpetuate the fiction that ``the lease was the exact
opposite of a Boeing `bailout.' '' Among the spin that lease advocates
fed the press, were statements like, ``[I] will not succeed in blocking
a 767 lease because tanker replacement is critical and [I] have offered
no alternatives to leasing.''
While Air Force leadership was focused on pushing the deal in the
press, analyses from several independent bodies, including the Defense
Department's Office of the Inspector General, the Government
Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the
Congressional Research Service, the National Defense University, the
Center for Naval Analysis, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and
others criticized almost every aspect of the program. Perhaps most
notably, a Defense Science Board Task Force, vetted for conflicts with
industry only after my insistence, concluded that the need to replace
the current tanker fleet was not urgent. The Task Force's finding
debunked the numerous representations Air Force leadership made to the
contrary. Indeed, the Defense Science Board suggested that the Air
Force's case on corrosion was virtually cut from whole cloth. Air Force
leadership repeatedly cited this case as the biggest reason for having
taxpayers pay Boeing billions more than necessary.
About 2 months ago, Ms. Druyun was sentenced to 9 months in prison on
public corruption charges. Her crime: negotiating the $30 billion deal
with Boeing while negotiating with Boeing for a job. Ms. Druyun's
sentencing occurred months after Boeing's board of directors fired her
and former Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears for misconduct arising
from the tanker negotiations. Boeing's Chief Executive Officer Phil
Condit soon left the company under a cloud of suspicion.
In court papers accompanying her sentencing, Ms. Druyun admitted to
overpricing Boeing's 767s as a ``parting gift'' to Boeing. She admitted
that she did this to ``ingratiate herself'' with her future employer
and help secure employment for her daughter and future son-in-law at
the company. Astonishingly, Ms. Druyun also admitted that she similarly
harmed the United States on behalf of Boeing on several other major
defense programs, including the NATO AWACS, C-130 AMP, and the C-17
programs. How much taxpayers were fleeced remains unclear. These
contracts were in the billions. But this matter remains under
investigation by the Justice Department and other authorities. The
scope of these investigations seems to widen almost weekly. Ultimately,
it is likely that Ms. Druyun's misconduct cost taxpayers an
astronomical sum.
In yesterday's paper, Lockheed is bringing suit against Boeing for
allegedly having involvement with bid rigging on other contracts as
well.
Over the past few weeks, Air Force leadership has tried to delude the
American people into believing that all of this happened because of one
person, and that because no one else has been hired for her position,
the problem has been solved. I don't buy it. I simply cannot believe
that one person, acting alone, can rip off taxpayers out of possibly
billions of dollars. This appears to be a case of either a systemic
failure in procurement oversight, willful blindness, or rank
corruption. Either way, full accountability among Air Force leadership
is in order.
Just this week, Secretary Roche and Ms. Druyun's old boss, Assistant
Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisitions Marvin Sambur, announced
their resignations. But, among Air Force leadership, nor one has
assumed responsibility for this debacle. Ms. Druyun is, perhaps
grudgingly, accepting responsibility for her role. To some extent,
Boeing has accepted responsibility for its. The Justice Department and
others are continuing to ferret out others who may be responsible.
However, accountability among Air Force leadership has been almost
nonexistent. It seems that it is business as usual. Air Force
leadership remains content laying all the
[[Page S11538]]
blame at the feet of a single individual, Darleen Druyun. I'm not
buying it.
Just on the Tanker Lease Proposal, the conduct of Air Force
leadership has been unacceptable. First, Air Force leadership was never
interested in doing a formal ``analysis of alternatives'' for the
multibillion dollar tanker program. Such AOAs are typically always done
for major defense programs.
Second, Air Force leadership misrepresented to Congress how bad
corrosion afflicted the current tanker fleet. They did this to devise a
reason why taxpayers needed to lease new tankers from Boeing, rather
than simply buy them at a much lower cost.
Third, according to independent analyses, Air Force leadership
overstated ``operation and supply'' cost-growth estimates for the
current tanker fleet. This too was done to artificially bolster the
case that the current fleet needed to be replaced immediately, at a
dramatically higher cost.
Fourth, Air Force leadership repeatedly misrepresented that its
proposal was merely an ``operating lease.'' Their plan was to slip the
program in the budget at a relatively modest initial cost, only to have
actual costs balloon in the intervening years. We now know that this
was done to conceal the Tanker Lease Proposal's real budgetary impact.
By the way, they also had plans that the money to fund in the later
years, known as outyears in Pentagonese, that would be taken from the
other services' budget.
Fifth, according to the Defense Department's Inspector General, the
commercial procurement strategy that Air Force leadership used in the
tanker proposal (and, incidentally, the C-130J program) placed the
Department at ``high risk for paying excessive prices,'' and precluded
``good fiduciary responsibility for DoD funds.''
Sixth, the Inspector General found that, when the specifications for
the tanker were being developed, Air Force leadership let Boeing tailor
those specifications to Boeing's proposed tanker. They were not
tailored to the operational requirements of the warfighter. They should
have been. Yet, Air Force leadership allowed an Air Force briefer to
tell the Joint Staff that the tanker ``operational requirements
document'' was not tailored to Boeing's aircraft. The Defense
Department Inspector General, however, found that it was.
I could go on, but I'll stop here for now. As I've gone into many of
these points in excruciating detail in my letter to Secretary Rumsfeld
on July 28, 2004, I'll simply ask for unanimous consent to have my
letter printed into the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
July 28, 2004.
Hon. Donald H. Rumsfeld,
Secretary, Department of Defense
The Pentagon, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Secretary: I am concerned about how the Analysis
of Alternatives (AoA) for the Tanker Lease Proposal will be
conducted. In particular, I am concerned about the
participation of Air Force leadership in the AoA, and the
involvement of the Air Force's federally funded research and
development center (FFRDC)--RAND, which I understand is
spearheading this effort.
The conduct of Air Force leadership regarding the Tanker
Lease Proposal has been unacceptable. Frankly, its
credibility on the recapitalization of the tanker fleet has
been fundamentally called into question. Notably, many of the
problems that the Department of Defense Office of the
Inspector General (DoD-OIG) found in the Tanker Lease
Proposal are similar to those it recently found in the
multibillion dollar C-130J procurement program. Bases for my
concern about the participation of Air Force leadership in
the AoA include, but are not limited to, the following.
First, the Air Force has provided Congress inaccurate
information in an attempt to justify its original proposal to
lease 100 Boeing KC-767As. For example, Air Force Secretary
Jim Roche has repeatedly advised Congress that, in the
existing KC-135 fleet, ``corrosion is significant, pervasive,
and represents an unacceptable risk.'' Secretary Roche has
also emphasized to Congress increased operating costs in the
current fleet as a basis for entering into the tanker lease.
Air Force leadership has indicated that these elements create
an ``urgent'' need to recapitalize the fleet. However, as you
of course know, the DSB task force concluded that the Air
Force's claims of unmanageable corrosion problems and cost
growth were overstated. As such, the task force also
concluded that ``[t]here is no compelling material or
financial reason to initiate a replacement program prior to
the completion of the AoA and the MCS.'' Thus, the task force
jettisoned the ``dominant reason'' Secretary Roche first
cited in his July 10, 2003, report to Congress as the basis
for having taxpayers pay billions of dollars more for leasing
tankers than they would for buying them. The Air Force's
representations on this issue remains a matter of continuing
investigative concern.
In another example, to comply with the original authorizing
statute, the Air Force misrepresented to Congress that its
proposal to lease 100 Boeing KC-767 tankers was merely an
operating lease. This would have obviated the requirement
that the White House obtain advance budget authority for the
whole lease proposal. But, the DoD-OIG and Program Analysis
and Evaluation (PA&E), as well as the Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) and the General Accounting Office (GAO) found
that the procurement of these tankers is, in fact, a lease
purchase. In addition, facts surrounding the original lease
proposal made it clear that the transaction was a lease-
purchase: under the original proposal, the Air Force conceded
that the DoD is ``committed to earmark[ing] an additional $2B
in FY08 and FY09 for the purchase of aircraft covered by the
multi-year program under the terms of the proposed contract''
to head off a funding spike over the Future-Years Defense
Program.
Second, the DoD-OIG and the NDU concluded that the Air
Force's commercial item procurement strategy ``prevented any
visibility into Boeing's costs and required the Air Force to
use a fixed-price type contract . . . The strategy also
exempted [Boeing] from the requirement to submit cost or
pricing data. The strategy places the Department at high risk
for paying excessive prices and precludes good fiduciary
responsibility for DoD funds.'' The NDU similarly concluded
that ``[i]n a sole source, monopoly commercial environment,
the government is not served well with limited price data''
and suggested that the Air Force neglected its fiduciary/
stewardship responsibilities.
Notably, the DoD-OIG arrived at similar conclusions
regarding the Air Force's mismanagement of the C-130J
procurement program. In particular, the DoD-OIG found that,
because the C-130J was improperly acquired as a commercial
item, the Air Force did not have contractor-certified
information on contract prices, costs, or profits, and
therefore was ``limited'' in its ability to protect the
Government against possible overpricing.
Third, the DoD-OIG and the NDU also concluded that the
operational requirements document (ORD) for tankers was not
tailored, as it should have been, to the requirements of the
warfighter, but rather to closely correlate to the Boeing KC-
767A. The DoD-OIG found that senior Air Force staff directed
that the ORD closely correlate to the Boeing KC-767A that was
being developed for a foreign government, in anticipation of
the authorizing legislation. This is particularly troubling
where, according to an internal Boeing document regarding the
ORD, Boeing planned to ``establish clearly defined
requirements in ORD for the USAF Tanker configuration that
results in an affordable solution that meets the USAF mission
needs and will prevent an AOA from being conducted.'' Under
the current proposal, the first 100 tankers produced will not
be capable of, among other things, interoperability with
Navy, Marine, or coalition assets, or simultaneously
refueling more than one receiver aircraft. Rear Adm. Mark P.
Fitzgerald, USN, recently suggested that in theater, such a
limitation restricts the Navy's long range striking
capability and fosters a needlessly risky aerial refueling
environment.
Notably, with respect to the C-130J procurement program,
the DoD-OIG similarly found that, while the Air Force
conditionally paid Lockheed Martin about $2.6 billion, the C-
130J is not operationally suitable or effective and cannot
perform its intended mission. Furthermore, to date, 36
deficiency reports that ``could cause death, severe injury or
illness, major loss of equipment or systems, or that could
directly restrict combat or operational readiness'' have been
received.
Finally, Boeing documents suggest that the Air Force
allowed Boeing to modify the requirements in the ORD while it
was being developed. These documents also reflect that the
Air Force induced the Joint Requirements Oversight Council
(JROC) into approving and validating the corrupted ORD by
falsely representing that it was not tailored to a specific
aircraft. This is of continuing investigative interest to the
Committee.
Interestingly, as a result of the commercial specifications
of the C-130J not meeting user needs, the Air Force (and
Marine Corp) decided to ``revise its requirements document''
to reduce the initial capabilities required and to satisfy
operational requirement deficiencies through block upgrade
programs at the Government expense. I am very concerned about
this.
I understand that RAND (the Air Force's FFRDC), and Project
Air Force in particular, is spearheading the AoA. Generally,
the Air Force, specifically Dr. Sambur, is ``the overall
sponsor'' for Project Air Force activities. However, having
argued against the need for an AoA as early as November 2002,
according to a recently produced internal DoD e-mail, Dr.
Sambur has apparently prejudged its outcome:
``A formal AoA will cost money, delay the program two
years, and still come up with the same answer we have today.
There are only a few aircraft that can serve as tankers, they
are already in production, and so analyzing their respective
capabilities and costs won't take long--in fact, it's already
been done and the results passed to OSD. What's left to
study?''
[[Page S11539]]
As I originally indicated in my letter of March 12, 2004,
Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley
similarly touted the Air Force's proposal to lease and buy
Boeing 767s during recent budget hearings. In particular,
General Moseley provided ``opinion'' testimony suggesting
that the KC-767 tanker is the Air Force's only viable option.
For example, in testimony before the Projection Force
Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, General
Moseley specifically rejected re-engining remaining KC-135Es
(as the DSB task force recommended); modifying used aircraft
(for example, DC-10s, also as the DSB task force suggested);
using contractor support services (as the GAO recently
opined), and other options that your office's AoA guidance
specifically required the Air Force to examine. While General
Moseley attempted to explain away his testimony as ``personal
opinion,'' at no time was he asked to provide his personal
opinion and at no time during his testimony did General
Moseley indicate that he was conveying a personal opinion.
Considering General Moseley's role as the chairman of the Air
Force Steering Group for Project Air Force and, respectfully,
despite your assurances in your March 17, 2004, letter, I
remain concerned that the Air Force and RAND have effectively
prejudged the outcome of the AoA regarding the Tanker Lease
Proposal.
Several recently produced internal DoD e-mails call into
question whether the ongoing AoA will be conducted
objectively. For example, in an e-mail, dated August 15,
2003, from Secretary Roche to Dr. Sambur and Acting
Undersecretary Wynne, Secretary Roche dissuaded the OSD and
Air Force staff from initiating an AoA. In this e-mail,
Secretary Roche said the following:
``Agggggg, stop the nonsense! Don't even begin to start an
unnecessary AoA at this point. All this would do is give the
enemies of the lease an excuse from DoD to delay the 'lease,
and really honk off the Appropriators. Let's see what comes
out of conference, damn it! If the lease is approved then we
can talk about how to decide on the recapitalization of the
other 400 airplanes, but there is no rush here.''
Soon thereafter, Acting Secretary Wynne responded, ``I
agree with Jim, [sic] What started this flurry of activity?
I'd hate for our story to change.'' The foregoing does not
inspire confidence that the current AoA will be conducted
properly.
My concern that RAND, in particular, may have prejudged the
outcome of the AoA is underscored by its conclusion regarding
tanker recapitalization in a recent report. In a December
2003 report entitled ``Investigating Optimal Replacement of
Aging Air Force Systems,'' RAND, in particular Project Air
Force, found--without the benefit of an AoA--that ``it
appears to be optimal to replace the KC-135 by the end of the
decade.'' Apparently relying on Air Force data and analysis
that was ultimately rejected by the DSB task force, this
conclusion comes unacceptably close to prejudging the outcome
of the AoA and is inconsistent with the conclusions of the
Air Force's own Economic Service Life Study; the GAO; and,
most recently, the DSB task force, all of which found that
the current fleet is viable through 2040. In light of the
relationship between the RAND and the Air Force, as described
above, there can be no assurance that RAND will conduct the
AoA here with the desired independence.
My concerns appear to be reflected in a recently released
internal DoD e-mail from Eric Coulter, Deputy Director for
Theater Assessments and Planning at Program, Analysis and
Evaluation (PA&E) to Nancy Spruill, co-chairperson of the
Leasing Review Panel Working Group, dated August 7, 2003:
``I do not support RAND as the sole source or lead to
conduct the Congressionally-directed independent tanker AoA.
First, its [sic] sad that it takes Congress to direct the
Department to do something it should do on its own. We've
been Wingto get the AF to conduct an AoA for several years,
but could never get AT&L's support to direct one. The AF
clearly wanted to postpone it for as long as possible to
delay the issue of recapitalizing the fleet. Now the
Department is playing catch up. That said, [the Institute for
Defense Analyses (IDA)] has more experience to conduct this
type of effort. In fact, [Air Mobility Command] relies on IDA
to do a lot of its mobility analyses both for airlift and
tankers. I believe the Department will get a better, more
objective product than we would from RAND. I hope we're not
letting IDA's cost review of the tanker lease color our
opinion. Please convince me otherwise.''
I am also concerned about the fact that Project Air Force
may have received as much as $50 million for FY03 and FY04
and is expected to get at least another $25 million for FY05.
This financial relationship between the Air Force and RAND
renders RAND unsuitable for conducting the AoA on this
multibillion dollar procurement proposal.
Given the foregoing, I respectfully suggest that the Air
Force not enter into an agreement to procure aerial refueling
aircraft until an entity independent of the Air Force--on the
basis of a study not funded directly or indirectly by the Air
Force--completes the AoA.
As always, I appreciate your consideration.
Sincerely;
John McCain,
Chairman.
Mr. McCAIN. What I would like to do now is discuss documents,
belatedly produced by the Defense Department, that underscore the need
for accountability among Air Force leadership regarding the tanker
lease proposal. While the total number of documents that the Defense
Department has produced remains unsatisfactory, the few that have been
produced are compelling.
On February 5, 2002, Air Force Secretary Roche personally assured me,
in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the tanker
program, that he ``believed in competition,'' and ``would come back to
Congress'' if another competitive proposal was particularly good.
Secretary Roche's e-mails, however, suggests that he is indeed a man
who allows his personal animus to stifle competition. For example, on
September 5, 2002, Darleen Druyun wrote to Secretary Roche, ``I read
with disgust the article on Airbus tankers from the new EADS CEO of
North America. What BS . . . should not have been surprised at the
slime . . . his day of reckoning will come hopefully.''
Secretary Roche answered, ``Oy. I agree. I had hoped you would have
stayed and tortured him slowly over the next few years until EADS got
rid of him!''
This is from the guy who says he believes in competition. His
personal contempt for one defense contractor, and particularly its CEO,
is clearly reflected in his other e-mails.
For example, on August 7, 2002, when Secretary Roche learned that
Ralph Crosby, with whom Secretary Roche once worked at Northrop
Grumman, was appointed to the head EADS' North American operations,
Secretary Roche wrote to his special assistant, William Bodie:
Well, well, we'll have fun with Airbus.
The day after, William Swanson at Raytheon asked Secretary Roche:
Did you see the notice on Ralph in EADS?
Secretary Roche responded:
Right. Privately between us: Go Boeing! The fools in Paris
and Berlin never did their homework. And, Ralphie is the CEO
and chairman of a marketing firm, for that's all there is to
EADS, North America. The [Air Force] has problems with EADS
on a number of levels. The widespread feelings about Crosby
and the Air Staff, Jumper especially, will only make their
life more difficult. Smiles.
On September 4, 2002, Mr. Bodie wrote Secretary Roche complaining
about statements EADS issued about its tanker proposal:
We don't have to turn the other cheek, you know. I'm ready
to tell the truth about Airbus' boom, footprint, and
financial shortcomings. But maybe we should sleep on it.
In response, Secretary Roche wrote:
No, sir, save it and blow him away. He admits they were not
technically qualified! And, we keep their record of bribes as
our trump card!
This is the Secretary of the Air Force communicating with an
assistant of his saying ``we keep their record of bribes as our trump
card.'' Remarkable.
Taken together, these documents inject serious doubt into Secretary
Roche's commitment to competition in contracting, about which he
assured me in congressional testimony.
During hearings on the controversy in the Senate Commerce Committee
and the Senate Armed Services Committee, I expressed concern about
Secretary Roche asking Boeing to pressure dissenting elements within
the Office of the Secretary of Defense into playing ball on tankers.
However, in congressional testimony, Secretary Roche categorically
denied this. For example, at a September 3, 2003, Commerce Committee
hearing, I asked Secretary Roche about a Boeing e-mail dated 23 June
2003, ``Subject: Roche Meeting 23 June 2003.'' In particular, I asked
Secretary Roche:
Do you have any recollection whatsoever of telling . . .
anyone . . . from Boeing to put pressure on [Acting Assistant
Secretary for Acquisitions] Mike Wynne to convince [Program
Analysis, and Evaluation] to write a new letter essentially
undoing the first letter [which criticized the proposal]?
After significant waffling, Secretary Roche responded:
No, sir. I talked to [PA&E Director] Ken Krieg, and in
fact, I told him, ``Don't bother writing another letter.'' We
understood these were his arguments.
Again, on September 4, 2003, at a hearing before the Senate Armed
Services Committee, I asked the same question to Secretary Roche:
[[Page S11540]]
Do you have any recollection whatsoever of telling . . .
anyone . . . from Boeing to put pressure on Mike Wynne to
convince PA&E to write a new letter essentially undoing
the first letter?
I might say that the first letter from this part of the Pentagon was
very critical of the tanker lease deal. This time Secretary Roche
testified:
I did not ask them to put pressure [on Wynne].
Finally, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on
March 2, 2004, Secretary Roche adamantly denied asking the Boeing
company to put pressure on Mike Wynne. Secretary Roche said:
I've told you there was no pressure. . . .[I] certainly did
not tell them to pressure anybody.
Secretary Roche's e-mails, however, paint a very different picture.
From Boeing's e-mails, here is what we know. In a June 23, 2003, e-
mail to Jim Albaugh, who is head of Boeing's defense subsidiary, Boeing
executive Thomas Owens described a meeting during which Secretary Roche
expressed serious concerns about this letter from Mr. Ken Krieg. Mr.
Krieg is the Director of Program Analysis, and Evaluation at the Office
of the Secretary of Defense. His letter was key. In that letter,
Director Krieg concluded that the original Boeing proposal failed two
key Government accounting rules and, therefore, violated the
authorizing legislation.
According to Mr. Owens's e-mail, Secretary Roche ``ask[ed] [Boeing]
to put pressure on [Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Acquisitions] Mike Wynne to convince PA&E to write a new letter
essentially undoing the first letter.''
Soon after, Dr. Sambur wrote Secretary Roche regarding the PA&E
letter saying:
Boss, this is getting ridiculous.
Secretary Roche wrote to Acting Assistant Secretary Wynne as follows:
Ever since Pete--
They are talking about former Assistant Secretary Aldridge--
left, the bureaucrats who opposed the 767 lease have come out
of the woodwork to try to kill it--yet, once again, Mike, I
won't sign a letter that makes the case that we shouldn't
lease the planes. Ken Krieg's memo attached is a cheap shot,
and I'm sure has already been delivered to the enemies of the
lease on the Hill. It is a process foul. And Ken needs to be
made aware of that by you! I can't control the corporate
staff on acquisition issues. Mike, this is their way of
asserting dominance over you. I know this sounds wild, but
animals are animals. Pete had beaten them down. Now, they're
taking you on. I'm sorry. Expecting professional behavior
from them is something I gave up on a while back. Among other
things, they are about to embarrass SecDef--
That is Secretary of Defense--
who having approved the lease, will now have to explain why
his staff is destroying the case for it. I'll do whatever I
can to help you, Mike, but [it's] your job to get the
corporate staff under control. If not now, then they will
overrun you whenever you ``don't behave'' according to their
desires. This is a game they played for years. [They] and OMB
are trying to set the Air Force up to be destroyed by Sen
McCain with OSD--
Office of Secretary of Defense--
and OMB--
Office of Management and Budget--
arguments. As you might imagine, I won't give them the chance, but I
will make it clear who is responsible to Don [Rumsfeld]. I
refuse to wear my flack jacket backwards!
This is after testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee
that Secretary Roche never put any pressure on anybody. This is
remarkable.
Subsequently, Assistant Secretary Wynne reprimanded Director Krieg.
In response to an e-mail from Director Krieg that attempted to clear
the air, Secretary Roche rather disingenuously answered:
Kenny, I love you, and you know that. I think you have been
had by some members of the famous PA&E staff. You never
should have put what you put in writing. It will now be used
against me and Don Rumsfeld.
Other e-mails corroborate that Secretary Roche suggested to Boeing
that it lobby the Office of the Secretary of Defense to undercut
Program Analysis and Evaluation. For example, a December 17, 2002, e-
mail from Boeing's top lobbyist Andy Ellis to Rudy deLeon, who heads
Boeing's Washington office and served as a Deputy Defense Secretary in
2000 and 2001 described ``some quick notes from Jim [Albaugh]'s meeting
today. It instructed, ``Please do not re-distribute this e-mail.'' The
e-mail memorialized what was said during ``[a] meeting with Sec.
Roche'' as follows:
PA&E now a problem on tankers--arguments include price, 767
footprint and prospects for ``used 767s.'' Boeing needs to do
more on behalf of tankers in the Office of Secretary of
Defense. PA&E working to convince Aldridge to delay--reengine
while doing an analysis of alternatives. We should vector
hill support for tankers at Aldridge. . . . said he is very
comfortable with the price air force has on tanker, and very
comfortable with overall deal. It is the right time to do
this deal. He is waiting until early January to push on the
Office of Management and Budget--wants to deal with the next
congress, not the current. . . . Boeing needed to work White
House and especially Office of Secretary of Defense.
That is from the Secretary of the Air Force.
Other e-mails recently produced by the Department of Defense
corroborate the shocking dynamic whereby Secretary Roche apparently
orchestrated efforts against tanker lease critics within the Office of
the Secretary of Defense. For example, in a May 7, 2003, e-mail, Paul
Weaver, a Boeing lobbyist and former Director of the Air National
Guard, wrote Secretary Roche as follows:
Rudy [DeLeon] called me and said that Marv Sambur was
getting beat up by Mike Wynne again concerning the $125
million number per aircraft. Rudy would like to know if he
needs to do anything like calling in the big guns to help
out. I told him I would query you to get your advice.
In response, Secretary Roche wrote:
It's time for the big guns to quash Wynne! Boeing won't
accept such a dumb contract form and price, and Wynne needs
to ``pay'' the appropriate price!
Now, that is the Secretary of the Air Force talking about another
member of the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
Program Analysis and Evaluation:
Wynne needs to ``pay'' the appropriate price.
I wonder what he was talking about.
These e-mails call into serious question whether Secretary Roche was
truthful in testifying that he had not directed Boeing to pressure
tanker lease critics within the Office of the Secretary of Defense to
play ball.
During last year's hearings, we released e-mails indicating that
Secretary Rumsfeld's policy analysts may have been improperly lobbying
the Office of the Secretary of Defense in support of the tanker lease
proposal. Another set of e-mails, only recently produced, give a fuller
picture of this issue. For example, in an October 9, 2002, e-mail,
Darleen Druyun wrote Secretary Roche and Dr. Sambur saying:
I would like to informally brief [Defense Science Board
Chairman] Bill Schneider on tanker leasing when he gets back
from Germany. I had briefed him during the transition about
the idea of leasing as a viable acquisition alternative. He
has apparently had a positive conversation with Wolfowitz on
leasing and is interested in quietly helping us.
This is the head of the Defense Science Board, who is supposed to be
making decisions about weapons systems and other acquisitions, and he
is ``interested in quietly helping us.''
If you give the nod we will use the same charts we used to
brief Gingrich which was very positively received by him.
Secretary Roche responded:
Please do. Thanks much.
This e-mail, and others I have released, raise serious questions
about the undue influence that industry exerts on procurement decisions
in the Pentagon. What is striking here is that in this case, Air Force
leadership seems to have been deep in the middle of it.
To what I have described already, add the doctoring of documents
produced to Congress. After SASC, Senate Armed Services Committee,
staff returned from their visit from Tinker Air Force Base in October
2003, they asked for some placards that reflected unusually low failure
rates associated with component parts of the KC-135s maintained there.
That is the present Air Force fleet of tankers. Shockingly, what the
Senate Armed Services Committee staff received were altered versions of
what they asked for. I conveyed my concerns about these doctored
documents directly to Secretary Roche. In Secretary Roche's February
27, 2004, response to me, he conceded that the information that the
Senate Armed Services Committee requested was intentionally deleted. In
particular, he explained:
[[Page S11541]]
As those placards featured ``Tinker-only'' information, and
because our installations and logistics professionals strive
to present a complete and timely picture of our fleet, they
amended the placard file by omitting the ``Tinker-only''
occurrence factors.
To add insult to injury, the explanation that the Air Force
leadership provided to the press about what happened was different
entirely. Furthermore, we have yet to learn who in Secretary Roche's
office directed that the information that Congress asked for be
doctored before it was delivered.
It seems that whatever documents Air Force leadership did not doctor,
they improperly withheld.
For example, on Friday, September 10, 2004, the White House Counsel's
Office and the Office of Management and Budget brought to my staff's
attention a very troubling e-mail stream between Secretary Roche and
senior OMB official, Robin Cleveland. After Darleen Druyun went to work
for Boeing, Ms. Cleveland, the Associate Director for National Security
Programs, represented the Government in negotiating with Boeing on the
tanker lease proposal.
In this e-mail stream beginning on May 9, 2003, Ms. Cleveland asked
Secretary Roche to help her brother get a job at Northrop Grumman. The
e-mail said:
Jim, this is my brother's [Peter Cleveland's] stuff. I
would appreciate anything you can do to help with NG--
that means Northrop Grumman--
He is an incredibly hard working, disciplined guy--worked
full-time, with two little kids, putting himself through law
school at night. I would be grateful. Thanks very much. Robin
About half an hour later, Secretary Roche gave Mr. Cleveland's resume
and cover letter, and, under color of his office and title, vouched for
him to Steve Dyslas, a Northrop Grumman executive:
I know this guy. He is good. His sister (Robin) is in
charge of defense and intel at OMB. We used to work together
in senior staff. If Peter Cleveland looks good to you, pls
[sic] add my endorsement.
A few minutes later, Secretary Roche wrote Ms. Cleveland in an e-
mail:
Be well. Smile. Give me tankers now. (Oops. Did I say that?
My new deal is terrific.)
Now, the person who is responsible for overseeing the national
security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, the watchdog
of all the budgetary issues in America, that one specifically charged
with overseeing tankers, asked the Secretary of the Air Force to get
her brother a job. He, under his title and name, contacts the defense
corporation that does business with the U.S. Air Force and asks them to
give Ms. Cleveland's brother a job, and then after sending it, sends an
e-mail back to Ms. Cleveland:
Be well. Smile. Give me tankers now. (Oops. Did I say that?
My new deal is terrific.)
On May 15, 2003, Ms. Cleveland responded to her brother in an e-mail
entitled: ``Interview at NG,'' saying, ``Great. Hope it works before
the tanker leasing issue gets fouled up.''
Until these e-mails were brought to our attention by the White House,
we never even knew about them. In a meeting with me on September 13,
2004, White House Counsel Judge Alberto Gonzales told me that someone
in Secretary Roche's office concluded that these e-mails were a joke
and therefore they did not need to be produced.
That has to be taken in the context that they told me that they would
give me these e-mails as part of our oversight responsibility. The
Secretary of the Air Force decided the e-mails that I just cited were
not relevant to the tanker deal. So if there is some level of mistrust
that exists between me and my office and the Secretary, maybe that
clears up that degree of mistrust a little bit.
Given all the scandal and controversy surrounding the tanker lease
proposal, and especially given the keen interest that Chairman Warner
and I have expressed regarding potential Air Force misconduct, the
unilateral decision made by Air Force leadership to withhold this
document is profoundly disturbing.
Keeping a defense contractor's ``record of bribes'' as a ``trump
card''; ``torturing'' a defense contractor ``slowly''; pressuring
dissenting elements within the Office of the Secretary of Defense whose
job it was, particularly in the absence of a Defense Acquisition
Board--in other words a formal analysis--to vet this procurement
program; signing off on a plan to get the chairman of the Defense
Science Board to ``quietly help'' on the tanker lease inside the OSD;
doctoring and improperly withholding documents requested by Congress:
this is the picture that we are getting on what happened with the
tanker proposal, and we have received only a few documents from 6 out
of 30 people we have asked for. This is the picture we are getting, but
no one among Air Force leadership stands up to assume responsibility.
Instead, what we get from Air Force leadership is deeply troubling
statements in the press about how rosy things are. For example, in a
recent op-ed appearing in Defense News, Dr. Sambur describes the
current acquisition process as ``healthy'' and ``on track.''
Hoping that Air Force leadership will ``get it'' now may perhaps be
too much, when they didn't ``get it'' then. In that context, I find
particularly troubling an e-mail from Air Force Under Secretary Teets
to Secretary Roche sent just 3 days after Boeing announced the firing
of CFO Michael Sears and Vice President Darlene Druyun. In it, Under
Secretary Teets writes:
Jim, I think it is important for you to know all I know
about the situation surrounding the tankers . . . Late
Tuesday afternoon I talked to Marv Sambur and got his
assurance that a thorough review of the Darlene situation had
been completed and there was no way Darlene had any influence
on our plan for tankers. Furthermore, Marv said that a letter
had been prepared for the DepSecDef to send over to the SASC
indicating same, and notifying them of our intent to proceed.
So two people are fired by Boeing because of information that has
come to light about improper behavior and later the individual pleads
guilty in court--in fact, both of them have now pled guilty in court.
Ms. Druyun has confessed that she rigged the contracts as a ``parting
gift to Boeing'' in behalf of her daughter and son-in-law's employment.
Meanwhile, the Under Secretary of the Air Force writes to the
Secretary of the Air Force that he talked to Marv Sambur, the Assistant
Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, and got his assurance that
``a thorough review of the Darlene situation had been completed and
there was no way Darlene had any influence on our plan for the
tankers.''
I am amazed. I am amazed.
One thing is for sure: the final chapter on the tanker lease proposal
cannot be closed until all the stewards of taxpayers funds who
committed wrongdoing, are held accountable. In order to get a full
accounting of what happened on the tanker lease proposal, I will
continue to insist that all the documents that the Senate Armed
Services Committee has asked for, be produced--no matter how long it
takes
In closing, Air Force Doctrine Document 1-1 on Leadership and Force
Development contains a section setting forth the Air Force's core
values. There are three: integrity, service before self, and excellence
in all they do. The first, integrity, includes the indispensable
characteristics of accountability, responsibility, honesty, and honor.
When it comes to Air Force leadership's conduct regarding the tanker
lease proposal and related congressional probes, I must however ask:
where is the accountability and the responsibility; where is the
honesty and the honor; where have these core values been over the past
3 years, and where are they now? To eschew accountability here is to do
a profound disservice to the good men and women who wear the uniform of
the United States Air Force honorably, capably, and proudly.
For those in the public interested in what I have discussed today, I
will be posting all of these documents on my website,
www.mccain.senate.gov.
In closing, the scandal continues to widen. Yesterday one of the
competitors of Boeing alleged that information was leaked by Ms.
Druyun, and the CEO of Boeing. I don't know if it is true. I doubt if
it is true. I have no way of knowing. But the scandal continues to
unfold. As I said, we have only received a small percentage of the
documents and e-mails that we have asked for.
This is a very sad chapter. I was asked last week by a reporter for
the Air Force Times if this was personal with me, this issue I have
discussed on the Senate floor for the past half hour or so.
[[Page S11542]]
It is personal in this respect. It is personal that I had the
privilege of serving in the U.S. military and wearing the uniform. I
believe we always expect not only the same standard but a higher
standard of conduct of the men and women who wear the uniform, and the
vast majority, 99 and 44/100 percent of the men and women who wear the
uniform conduct themselves with the highest degree of honor, courage,
and integrity. But here we have individuals who have, obviously,
behaved in a less than honorable fashion. That is why it is necessary
we get to the bottom of this.
Next year, beginning January, we are going to have to look at the
whole procurement process as it works today in the Department of
Defense, because we have just found out that Ms. Druyun, in her guilty
plea, said she was involved in rewarding Boeing on several other
contracts, not just the Boeing tanker lease. We have no idea how much
money that is. But it brings a profound question here: How could one
person do this? How could one person alone in the whole Pentagon--I
have forgotten how many thousands of people work there--have done this
and they not know about it? If they didn't know about it, what kind of
a system is it that allows such a thing to take place, over a period of
years?
I deeply regret having been involved in this. But I also remind my
colleagues that the way this thing started was the insertion in an
appropriations bill that was one line that no member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee had any knowledge of nor did the Senate Armed
Services Committee have a single hearing on before this appeared as a
line item in an appropriations bill. That is not the way to do
business.
I would allege to you right now, if it had gone through the normal
authorization process perhaps this whole scandal wouldn't have unfolded
the way it did because we would have had a hearing. We would have
scrutinized the proposal. We would have gone through the normal
process. Instead, we spent 3 years fighting a rearguard action and
through the sheerest kind of luck, in many respects, we are able to
identify this wrongdoing.
I hope we can get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible and
find lessons learned, find out how much money we can reclaim, if
necessary, on behalf of the taxpayers, so that if, indeed, Ms. Druyun's
statement is true--and I have no reason not to believe what she
confessed to, that she issued a number of contracts that were
detrimental to the cause of the American taxpayer--we can reform the
system so this kind of thing can never happen again.
I yield the floor.
