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November 26, 2001
Alexander
Cockburn
Harry
Potter and Terrorism
November 25, 2001
Ralph Nader
The Crisis
in Leadership
Sam Bahour
Israel's
Choice
November 24, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
He Who
Has
the Guns Rules
November 23, 2001
Phyllis
Pollack
Long
Live The Clash
Cockburn/St. Clair
The Press
and
the Patriot Act
November 22, 2001
Oscar
Gonzalez
A
Homeland Thanksgiving
November 21, 2001
CounterPunch Wire
Rep. Chambliss
Calls for Arrest of Every Muslim That Enters Georgia
Tom Turnipseed
Broadcasting
and Bombing
David Price
Academia Under
Attack
Molly
Secours
Modern
Day Witch Trials
Tariq Ali
Killing
Mr. Biswas
November 20, 2001
Sam Bahour
Plain
Truths About Palestine
Michael Ratner
Moving Toward
a
Police State
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 19, 2001
Edward
Said
Suicidal
Ignorance
November 18, 2001
John Farley
Shame on You,
Chelsea!
Kalpana
Sharma
Flower
Power:
A Blow for Peace
Tony Mauro
The Quirin
Ruling:
FDR's Horrible Precedent for Bush's Terror Courts
C.G. Estabrook
American
Crusades
November 17, 2001
Zoltan Grossman
It Ain't
Over Til It's Over
November 16, 2001
Rick Giombetti
Rep.
McDermott and
the Decay of Liberalism
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Voices
of Muslim Feminists
Mokhiber/Weissman
Kill,
Kill, Kill
November 15, 2001
George
Monbiot
Blasting
Our Way
Toward Peace
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens
Mind-Meld
and Hot Bodies
Steve
Perry
Afghan
Puzzle Palace
RAWA
We Do Not Accept
the Northern Alliance
November 14, 2001
Jensen/Mahajan
The
Press Must Press Harder on Afghanistan
David Vest
The Great Unificator
Harry
Browne
Preventing
Future Terrorism
November 13, 2001
Peter Mahoney
Veteran's
Day, 2001
Rep. Ron
Paul
Expanding
NATO
Is a Bad Idea
November 12, 2001
Robert Jensen
Goodbye to
All That...
Patriotism
Nancy
Oden
My
Day at the Airport
CounterPunch Wire
East Timor
10 Years
After the Massacre
C.G. Estabrook
Instead
of Terror
Alexander Cockburn
Wide World
of Torture
November 11, 2001
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland
Insecurity: The Politics of Terror in America
November 10, 2001
Grover Furr
Seeking an Opposition
to the Afghan War
Bruce
Kyle
Anatomy
of a Green Smear:
Backstabbing Nancy Oden
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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November 26,
2001
Boeing's Sweet Deal
By Jeffrey St. Clair
Boeing may have lost out to Lockheed in it's bid
to build the Joint Strike Fighter, one of the most lucrative
contracts in Pentagon history, but no one should mourn for the
defense giant. The Pentagon needs a plump Boeing as much as Boeing
needs Pentagon largesse. In this spirit, it's no surprise that
Congress is poised to quietly hand Boeing a big consolation prize
in the form two unprecedented contracts that will give the company,
which has recently fled Seattle for Chicago, a bailout that will
total more than $10 billion.
One would allow the purchase of 60 Boeing
C-17 cargo aircraft under a special "commercial" provision
that shields the deal from any financial oversight, long dream
of both Pentagon acquisition hawks and defense contractors. The
other contract calls for the Pentagon to lease at least100 Boeing
767 tankers at a cost that is nearly $7 billion more than if
the aircraft were purchased outright. These are the kinds of
contracts that created front-page scandals during the 1980s.
But these days the press, in full war mode, barely bats an eyelash
over.
This C-17 commercial proposal would allow
the Air Force to bypass important pricing oversight that is only
intended to be lifted for items which are truly commercial and
therefore regulated by "forces of the free market".
A $200 million outsized military cargo carrier with 173,300-pound
capacity is scarcely an item where the price tag is determined
by bracing forces of competition.
Originally, the senate frowned upon this
extraordinary deal and failed to include the provision in its
Defense Authorization Act, despite a desperate lobbying effort
from Boeing. Then the Pentagon sprang into action. In an October
26, 2001 letter sent to Armed Services Committee Chairman Senator
Carl Levin, Pentagon acquisitions chief E.C. "Pete"
Aldridge urged that the language be reinserted to "provide
sufficient flexibility" for the Department of Defense. By
the way, October 26 is the same day that the Pentagon announced
its decision to award the $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter contract
to Lockheed/Martin.
So far Senator Levin has refused to bow
to the tag team efforts of the Pentagon and Boeing. But Levin
is getting heat from all sides, including inside his own party,
to capitulate. Senator Patty Murray, the Democrat from Washington
state, is one of those carrying Boeing's water on the Hill, even
though the company abandoned her state earlier this year, laying
off 90,000 employees. "We could lose our ability to build
airplanes in this country if Boeing's production plants are kept
rolling," Murray said.
Over on the House side, Boeing's interests
are being zealously advanced by Rep. Norm Dicks, another Washington
Democrat. "I've never seen Boeing as interested in anything
as this deal," Dicks said.
The plan to lease 100 converted Boeing
767 air refueling aircraft for a period of 10 years has all the
hallmarks of an even bigger boondoggle. The Office of Management
and Budget estimates that the lease plan would cost $22 billion,
while purchasing the aircraft outright would cost just over $15
billion.
But it doesn't stop there. In the perverse
logic of defense contracts, the more complications the better.
The B-767 plan also requires an additional handout from taxpayers,
as modifications to existing hangers would be necessary to house
B-767s and would cost an estimated $600 million.
Why in the world would Congress go along
with such blatant pork barrel? Leave it to Boeing's PR whizzes
to come up with a unique sales pitch. Boeing has airlifted its
top executives to DC last week in a feverish lobbying blitz.
There the men from Boeing told key congressional that the deal
was needed to get the ailing airline industry back on its feet
by the "creating a multibillion military market for the
company's popular civilian aircraft including the 767."
"These two handouts are being characterized
as good business practices when in fact the U.S. taxpayers are
paying more to get less," said Danielle Brian, Executive
Director of the Project On Government
Oversight, the defense watchdog group. CP
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