ILSM Looks at a Suicide

This one is by ILSM…

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Frank Rich in the Oct 21 2007 New York Times editorial reports on the suicide of Charles D. Riechers as a result of running his automobile in a closed garage.

Mr. Riechers was nominated to replace Darleen Druyun as the second ranking procurement official in the US Air Force. Druyun you might recall was sentenced to 9 months prison time for shady dealings with Boeing while in her Air Force job, and arranging post service retirement.

Riechers issues were much less and far more common in the highly contracted war machine. All he did was accept a couple of months pay in his new office in Air Force as a temporary contractor, while the company billed his hours somewhere else. It is not unique for a company to bill an employees hours for work not done, at rates far higher than could be justified.

Riechers problem was he was going to be confirmed and someone blew the whistle. The situation is quite ordinary and widespread.

Rich concludes with a reference to another alleged suicide this one directly related to corruption in Iraq.

“Col. Ted Westhusing, an Army scholar of military ethics who was an innocent witness to corruption, not a participant, when he died at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head while working for Gen. David Petraeus training Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in 2005.”

“I cannot support a man that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars,” Colonel Westhusing wrote, abbreviating the word mission. “I am sullied.”

Westhusing is absolutely correct, working for the broader DoD contracting scam leads to corruption and depends on continuously advancing lies.

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This one was by ILSM.