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CounterPunch
January
10, 2003
Army Secretary
Thomas White:
Dead Man Walking in the Pentagon?
By JASON LEOPOLD
Secretary of the Army Thomas White, the former
vice chairman of Enron, may have avoided the scandals that brought
down his former colleagues at the one-time energy behemoth, but
White's got bigger problems these days that could make him the
latest Bush appointee to be forced out of office just as the
nation prepares to go to war with Iraq.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times quoted
a senior defense official as saying that White is a "dead
man walking" because of his frequent run-ins with his boss,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield.
White has been so tarnished by the Enron
scandal and his use of an Army aircraft for personal business
that he is a "dead man walking," the senior defense
official told the Times.
Moreover, senior defense officials said
this week that Rumsfield still holds a grudge against White for
going behind his back and telling members of Congress that the
Army supported the now cancelled $11 billion Crusader artillery
program, a weapons system that Rumsfield said publicly last year
needed to be cancelled so the military could invest in other
futuristic weapons systems.
Since then, White has complained that
Rumsfield has left him "out of the loop" and barely
spends time with him on other ideas White has developed to transform
the military, the Times reported.
"That is a sign that you're on your
way out," one defense official said.
When President Bush appointed White Army
Secretary last year, White was promised the ability to make his
own autonomous decisions. But over the past seven months, White's
views on how to reform the military are being ignored by Rumsfield,
the Times reported.
"The service secretaries were brought
in as corporate guys and told they would be given broad discretion
with their guidance," another senior military official told
the Times "That's not what happened. Instead they get these
little love notes from Rumsfeld's office saying $509 million
is gone here or there."
Democrats and some Republicans in Congress
have also criticized White for a plan to contract out more than
214,000 military and civilian jobs because it could pose a threat
to national security. White decided last October that people
in the private sector could perform the jobs of 58,727 military
personnel and 154, 910 civilian employees better. The move, which
White said would focus more of the military's resources on national
defense, could affect more than one in six Army jobs around the
world and follows two earlier waves of privatization over the
past 20 years, according to the Washington Post.
The plan has been widely criticized by
Army managers that officials were forced to push back a decision
until Feb. 20.
A senior defense official said this week
that White could be replaced before an all-out war with Iraq
begins, although that appears to be highly unlikely. The Washington
Post reported in late November that former Congresswoman Tillie
Fowler, now a Washington, D.C. lawyer, is the likely candidate
to replace White as Army Secretary.
Fowler serves on Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board, which provides the Pentagon
with independent advice on long-term planning and long- and short-range
projects assigned by Rumsfeld. She also was named to Chief of
Naval Operations Vernon Clark's Executive Panel, which advises
the Navy's top-ranking admiral on sea power. Fowler's name was
tossed around in 2000 to head the Navy under President Bush,
a post that was assigned to Gordon England. England has been
tapped as the deputy secretary for the Department of Homeland
Security.
David Gilliland, Fowler's former chief
of staff, said no one has approached Fowler about the job. The
White House did not acknowledge any plans to search for a new
secretary. "We don't confirm, deny or speculate on future
appointments," White House spokesman Jeanie Mamo said Tuesday.
Jason Leopold
can be reached at: jasonleopold@hotmail.com
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