President Obama appointed Ashton Carter to oversee Pentagon weapons purchasing. Politico tried to paint his choice as puzzling, claiming Dr. Carter is an outsider to the defense industry. Funny, his bio says:
Now Change Means No Change from W. The Blue team can send immense chunks of business to their corporate friends. No wonder the Reds are so spitting mad.
Dr. Carter is currently Senior Partner for Global Technology Partners, a defense oriented investment firm. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the MITRE Corporation, and the Advisory Boards of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories and the Draper Laboratory. He is a consultant to Goldman, Sachs, Inc. and Mitretek Systems, Inc. on international affairs and technology matters, and speaks frequently to business and policy audiences. Dr. Carter is also a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Physical Society, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the National Committee on U.S., China Relations.Dr. Carter knows how to advise corporations wanting to make money off the Pentagon. What about his defense industry knowledge? The same bio notes:
A longtime member of the Defense Science Board and the Defense Policy Board, the principal advisory bodies to the Secretary of Defense, Dr. Carter continues to advise the U.S. government as a member of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's International Security Advisory Board, co-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Policy Advisory Group, a consultant to the Defense Science Board, a member of the National Missile Defense White Team, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control.The Pentagon has corporatists in key purchasing positions. Global Technology Partners has Ashton Carter in a plum spot, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The Carlyle Group had Dov Zakheim in the Commission on Wartime Contracting on Afghanistan and Iraq. Dov works for Booz, Allen, Hamilton, a Carlyle affiliate. I smell a PEU, private equity underwriter.
From 1993 to 1996, Dr. Carter served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, where he was responsible for the national security policy on arms control in the states of the former Soviet Union, for countering arms proliferation worldwide, and for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal and missile defense programs. He was twice awarded the Department of Defense's Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award given by the Pentagon, and was also awarded the Defense Intelligence Medal.
Now Change Means No Change from W. The Blue team can send immense chunks of business to their corporate friends. No wonder the Reds are so spitting mad.
