{"id":176844,"date":"2020-03-07T19:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/03\/07\/back-loaded-bribery\/"},"modified":"2020-03-07T19:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T00:58:00","slug":"back-loaded-bribery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/03\/07\/back-loaded-bribery\/","title":{"rendered":"Back Loaded Bribery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, retired a few months ago, and now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/joint-chiefs-chair-retires-immediately-becomes-paid-f-35-cheerleader\/\">has secured a lucrative sinecure with Lockheed-Martin hawking the F-35 mistake jet<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">In 2015, things weren\u2019t looking great for the Marine Corps\u2019 F-35B fighter jet. Reports from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/products\/GAO-15-429T\">Government Accountability Office<\/a> (GAO) and <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170614031744\/http:\/www.dodig.mil\/pubs\/report_summary.cfm?id=6424\">Department of Defense inspector general<\/a> had found dozens of problems with the aircraft. Engine failures, software bugs, supply chain issues, and fundamental design flaws were making headlines. The program was becoming synonymous in the press with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2013\/9\/19\/4748464\/inside-the-f-35-fighter-jet-the-pentagons-1-5-trillion-boondoggle\">\u201cboondoggle.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Lockheed Martin, the program\u2019s lead contractor, desperately needed a win.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Luckily for Lockheed, it had a powerful ally in the commandant of the Marine Corps, General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pogo.org\/database\/pentagon-revolving-door\/people\/joseph-f-dunford\/\">Joseph Dunford<\/a>. Five years later, Dunford would be out of the service and ready to collect his first Lockheed Martin paycheck as a member of its board of directors.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>On September 30, 2019, Dunford, the military\u2019s highest ranked official, stepped down from his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He had served in the Marine Corps since 1977, working his way up to the highest tier of the armed services over 42 years.<\/p>\n<p>Just four months and 11 days later, he joined the Pentagon\u2019s top contractor, Lockheed Martin, as a director on the board.<\/p>\n<p>In announcing Dunford\u2019s hire, a January <a href=\"https:\/\/news.lockheedmartin.com\/2020-01-24-Lockheed-Martin-Elects-Joseph-F-Dunford-Jr-to-Board-of-Directors\">press release<\/a> from Lockheed Martin quotes CEO Marillyn Hewson: \u201cGeneral Dunford\u2019s service to the nation at the highest levels of military leadership will bring valuable insight to our board.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Dunford\u2019s consistent cheerleading of the F-35 and his subsequent hiring at its manufacturer create the perception of a conflict of interest and raised the eyebrows of at least one former senior military official. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere he is having been an advocate for it, having pressed it, having pushed for it \u2026  and now he\u2019s going to work for the company that makes the aircraft, that just, to me, stinks to high heavens,\u201d retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as special assistant to Colin Powell when he led the Joint Chiefs, told POGO.  <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This should be illegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, retired a few months ago, and now has secured a lucrative sinecure with Lockheed-Martin hawking the F-35 mistake jet: In 2015, things weren\u2019t looking great for the Marine Corps\u2019 F-35B fighter jet. Reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Department of Defense inspector general &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[817],"class_list":["post-176844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}