Air Force Ex-Offical Had Ties to Boeing During Contract Talks (WSJ$): “A former Air Force official who now works for Boeing Co. had several personal ties to the aerospace giant while she was negotiating on behalf of the government a controversial plan valued at over $20 billion to lease Boeing jetliners as airborne refueling tankers. Darleen Druyun, during her tenure as deputy acquisitions chief for the Air Force, agreed to sell her Virginia home to a Boeing attorney working on the tanker-lease arrangement, according to information compiled by a conservative nonprofit research group in Washington. In addition, her daughter and her son-in-law were and still are employed by the Chicago-based company... Ms. Druyun, 56 years old, left the Air Force in November 2002 and began working at Boeing in January in the newly created post of deputy general manager of missile-defense operations. The move made her the latest in a long list of Pentagon officials who have taken jobs at companies whose fortunes are made in large part through government contracts. Pentagon officials say there’s no law against taking such jobs....
“One January 2003 e-mail by Boeing’s Mr. Ellis said that David Jeremiah, a retired Navy admiral, and Ronald Fogelman, a retired Air Force general, ‘are consultants’ who were lobbying top Pentagon leaders on behalf of Boeing for the lease. But both men were also members of the Defense Policy Board, whose mission statement says it was established to provide the Defense Secretary with ‘independent, informed advice and opinion concerns matters of defense policy.’ When asked about the potential conflict, a Pentagon spokesman said having other commitments is ‘appropriate’ for members of the Defense Policy Board.”
