Greetings all!

I was spending some more quality time in the wee hours of the night researching again. A site popped up which seemed to be for pilots. It came up on a search on one of the whistleblowers I've been writing about in my postings. I was rather appalled with the level of misinformation or lack of information, yet vociferous commenting going on. I see some of this going on in a lot places with the targets being many different whistleblowers, but this one is the worst I've seen yet. Here is the letter I sent to the editor of this site:
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Letter sent to www.airliners.net on Sunday, 7-22-07

I just read comments on the story about Gerald Eastman on your site. Some of your members are very misinformed, or not informed at all about what they are commenting about. I spent quite a bit of time researching whistleblowers the past six months, including Mr. Eastman. In fact, I have researched both industry and federal and DOD whistleblowers, continue to do so, and found your site while doing that.

I would suggest to some of the worst offenders, before they begin tearing apart someone, they first read and learn about the situation, from all possible perspectives first. I would also note that for someone with little empathy, who perhaps has never found themselves labeled a whistleblower for trying to do their job, and then beat up for trying to do something about the problems or who has never tried to do something about the wrongdoing, and been frustrated every step of the way, while following first, the channels as the company expects you to do internally and then when that was unsuccessful, going step by step to the levels available to you, maybe this does not seem to be logical or believable. What Mr. Eastman, (and frankly a great number of other whistleblowers in industry and government) describe happens to them may seem incredulous, and perhaps even sound a bit paranoid, but I can tell you they are not really paranoid, but are responding to some very stressful, and twisted environments, and pressures. This incredulous stuff really happens and many have trouble believing it is possible until it happens to them.

I have several sites I have put information, which might be helpful to some of you in understanding what kind of wrongdoing is going on. One of them is http://whistleblowersupporter.typepad.com

I was going to leave this email as a post on your site, but found I could not do that as a member of the general public. I will leave it to you to pass this along to your site members, since it is apparent, some of them need to broaden their reading on some events and subjects such as this. In particular, this whistleblower, Mr. Eastman, in his naiveté was trying to follow channels to report violations of safety, which would potentially risk the lives of American citizens who must fly (military included in some cases) and the pilots who fly those commercial planes.

I can also tell you I looked into the FAA and DOT OIG area as well, and have found reason to be concerned about that also. In fact, I wrote to one of my state Senators, and she also found it concerning and opened up an investigation on it, which is ongoing now as we speak.

Read up on what's going on in the Justice Dept, the folks who are supposed to prosecute wrongdoing found by the other investigative oversight agencies, and it will make more sense to you why Mr. Eastman was unsuccessful getting justice done on his concerns.

I hope this will help some of the people who posted comments to rethink their comments. All of us can learn and it is going to take more of us expressing informed and accurate concerns, to get the problems which are causing some people to be labeled whistleblowers for doing their jobs, addressed and resolved fairly and equitably.

Help Needed for a Seattle Whistleblower!

One of the whistleblowers, Gerald Eastman, that I wrote about in some of my posts needs a good criminal attorney in the Seattle area. His website is www.thelastinspector.com

Some of you have been emailing asking if there is a legal fund to help pay for the attorney. A Legal Defense Fund has been set up to help Mr. Eastman pay for the much needed expert legal help. You may send checks, money orders, cash, etc. to this address for Mr. Eastman's attorney fees.

It is:

Gerald Eastman Legal Defense Fund Acct# 3578562784
Boeing Employees Credit Union (or just BECU)
P.O. Box 97050
Seattle, WA 98124-9750

The large Aerospace Giant that he has made allegations against (parts, safety inspection fraud etc.) and also formerly worked for, has decided to play hard ball ostensibly to shut him up and to frighten the rest of their employees so they won’t talk, not even to federal investigators. So they are making a very big example out of the whistleblower. If any more people who know things start talking it seems, they may have a lot to lose. So it appears they are aggressively going on the offensive. The company may have a lot to lose, considering the terms of the settlement and conditions I have been told they must meet, after the $615 million dollar fine they paid over two other cases not too long ago. (See previous postings regarding this.)

I was contacted by this whistleblower today to update me about his situation. The whistleblower was arraigned today, and charged on 16 counts of computer trespass. His plea was innocent. It would appear that King County Prosecutor’s office may be quite cozy with the very large Aerospace Company that the whistleblower reported for violations of safety standards and requirements. He has spoken to several attorneys but they all want a lot of money up front. (The one who approached him after the arraignment today told him he wanted $100,000 up front before he would even talk to him about the case.

This whistleblower has a wife and several children and has been unemployed and unable to get past the damage done to him by his company to get employment in his area of skill and expertise. Things are really difficult for his family. It would be a real travesty, if his old employer were able to derail justice for him in this matter as well as in the alleged activities involving safety of airplanes due to parts irregularities, failure to conduct inspections with integrity and some other issues. If they can do this, it does not bode well for any of us.

If you are an attorney or can recommend an attorney, please let me know by leaving a comment on this post. I will email or phone the references to him immediately.

Remember if you have any knowledge of wrongdoing in a defense contractor or the federal government you can make a report to several organizations to ask for help. I have listed several of these in earlier posts. POGO (Project On Government Oversight) even has an anonymous report form, where you can contribute tips or specific information anonymously. Please consider doing this if you are aware of wrongdoing, fraud, or? Your name will not be used. Your tips or reports may very well help someone else as well as you, if you make this effort. You can go to www.pogo.org and then go to Report Fraud or Wrongdoing. There is an area to click to report anonymously. If you are willing to stand up, then there is another form to fill out so they can have you work with them to right the wrong.

Thank all of you for your help and support of this whistleblower!

Boeing may have a history of ignoring their employees, belittling their concerns, and exacting retribution on those who won’t be quiet. Here are some collected articles on or related to that topic.

How Safe Is Your Plane?

http://www.skypressoffice.co.uk/SkyNews/news/showarticle.asp?id=2033&year=2006#

Ethics Challenge

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=71995

Boeing Employees File Whistleblower Suit

http://quitam.blogspot.com/2005/05/boeing-employees-file-whistleblower.html

A Surge in Whistleblowing….and Reprisals

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0216/p01s01-uspo.html

“Blowing the Whistle”

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/Norburn.html

“Boeing Whistleblowers Say Planes Must Be Grounded”

http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/10/flightrisk2.html

“Whistleblowers Accuse Boeing of Corner-Cutting on Parts”

http://business.knowmoremedia.com/2006/04/whistleblowers_accuse_boeing_o.html

Ethics in computing (NY State University) http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/basics/whistle/study.php

“Claims of faulty 737 parts belittled, whistleblowers say: U.S. didn’t assess allegations against Boeing, newspaper says”

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/267021_boeing18.html

And, last a little dark humor...

Doing Boeing

http://doingboeing.blogspot.com

Ex-Boeing worker accused of leaking data
By Elizabeth M. Gillespie, AP Business Writer | July 10, 2007

SEATTLE --A former Boeing Co. worker accused of downloading sensitive internal documents and leaking them to reporters was charged Tuesday with 16 counts of computer trespass.

Gerald Lee Eastman was arrested in May 2006, briefly jailed and subsequently fired from his job as a quality assurance inspector in Boeing's Seattle-area propulsion division, the company confirmed.

In a statement of probable cause, a Seattle police detective said Eastman, while employed at Boeing, downloaded hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that contained information he did not have authority to access and shared some of it with reporters at The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Police said Eastman told investigators he "was disgruntled with the Boeing Company because he had brought several issues related to inspection of parts to the company, and to the (Federal Aviation Administration).

"He contended that none of his concerns were addressed to his satisfaction by either the company or the FAA, and that he continued to try to get his concerns heard and rectified to his satisfaction," court documents said.

Boeing spokesman Tim Neale countered, "We always take those types of allegations seriously and have processes in place to follow them up."

The Associated Press' efforts to reach Eastman for comment were not immediately successful Tuesday.

He told The Seattle Times he was disappointed the charges had been filed. "What I did was allowable for Boeing policy," Eastman told the paper.

Boeing started investigating Eastman after someone in the company's human resources office received an e-mail asserting that Eastman had been downloading highly sensitive files for more than two years and providing information to The Times.

A search warrant later served on Eastman's home revealed he had more than 320,000 pages of Boeing-related documents that included proprietary information.

Detectives said they found correspondence between Eastman and reporters from both of Seattle's daily newspapers and that each paper published stories based on information that investigators found on Eastman's personal computers and media storage devices.

However, David McCumber, managing editor at the Post-Intelligencer, said the paper never received any documents from Eastman or published any stories based on information from him, and that its aerospace reporter does not recall ever talking to or receiving any e-mails from Eastman.

Prosecutors say The Times began publishing a series of stories revealing sensitive internal information about Boeing aircraft design and business plans beginning in 2003, but the only story mentioned in court papers was a May 2006 Times piece about Boeing's research on low-cost and environmentally friendly airplanes.

In an e-mailed statement, Suki Dardarian, a managing editor at The Times, said the paper "does not comment on who may or may not be a confidential source."

Police said Eastman was granted unfettered access to Boeing's computer systems because of his duties as a quality assurance inspector, but company policy limits access to data deemed relevant and necessary for employees to perform their jobs. Authorities claim Eastman accessed documents that were not related to his work duties.

Walt Gillette, vice president of airplane development for Boeing's 787 program, estimated that if only a portion of the information Eastman accessed and copied got into the wrong hands, it could potentially cost Boeing $5 billion to $15 billion, court documents said.

Neale said he could not confirm whether Boeing had suffered any actual losses as a result of the leaks, and noted the case prompted changes in the company's security system.

"We have tightened our security system so that in today's environment someone could not obtain sensitive documents in the same manner he did," Neale said.

Eastman, who was a precision assembly inspector at Boeing from 1987 until he was fired, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday. He faces a standard range of about three and a half years to nearly five years in prison if convicted on all counts.

McCumber said he fears the case could discourage whistleblowers from telling their stories.

"I think it might have a chilling effect on other people who see safety issues or wrongdoing within their companies," McCumber said. "I'm not advocating theft, of course, but I would hate to think that people who have information in the public interest wouldn't come forward. I hope that doesn't happen."

Gerald Eastman's Website: www.thelastinspector.com

Boeing



Aside from 747s, Boeing makes "smart" bombs, F-15 fighters, and Apache helicopters. Boeing has paid tens of millions in fines for selling flawed parts that led to thousands of unnecessary landings and at least one fatal crash and has been plagued by scandals connected to the company’s influence-peddling.

CEO: Jim McNerney
Military contracts 2005: $18.3 billion
Total contributions for the 2004 election cycle: $1,659,213*

America’s largest exporter, Boeing is also the Pentagon’s second largest contractor, eclipsed only by Lockheed Martin. Revenue from military goods now outstrips Boeing’s earnings from commercial sales by $5 billion a year.

The world's largest aerospace company has a role in all three of the Pentagon’s advanced fighter plane programs: the F-22 Raptor, the Joint Strike Fighter/F-35, and the F-18 and it makes both F-15 fighter and Apache helicopters. Caught knowingly selling flawed parts for the Apache that led to thousands of unnecessary landings and at least one fatal crash, Boeing has paid tens of millions of dollars in fines. Boeing also oversees many of the Pentagon’s missile defense programs, operates the Space Shuttle, makes the guidance systems for the Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles and builds precision munitions such as the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER), Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM), Brimstone and Harpoon missiles, and JDAM "smart" bombs. Boeing’s JDAM (joint direct attack munitions) kit fits over a "dumb" missile and coverts it into a satellite-guided weapon using movable fins and a satellite positioning system to make a “smart” bomb. But there’s a downside: the precision JDAMs have repeatedly missed their targets in Iraq and Afghanistan, hitting both civilians and US soldiers.

The lobbying efforts of Boeing, and the revolving door between the US government and the Chicago-based giant, are legendary. But Boeing’s influence-peddling finally turned sour in December 2003 when Boeing CEO Philip M. Condit was forced to resign in the wake of revelations of that the company negotiated the hiring of top Air Force procurement official Darlene Druyun while Druyun was setting up a lucrative $27.6 billion leasing deal of Boeing’s 767 air-refueling aircrafts over a period of ten years. The deal, which went through despite controversy, will cost taxpayers up to $10 billion dollars more than if the Air Force has purchased the aircrafts outright.

But Boeing still has a lot of well-connected people looking out for its interests. John Shalikashvili, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is on the Boeing board. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Rudy de Leon heads up Boeing's Washington office. After September 11th Boeing beefed up its political connections by hiring former Senator Bennett Johnson (D-LA) and former Rep. Bill Paxon (R-NY). Former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Boeing's senior vice president for international relations, uses his forty years of experience to generate business for Boeing with foreign governments and corporations. Richard Perle, former Chairman and current member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, is another important Boeing ally within the corridors of power. So it should come as no surprise that Boeing has provided Perle’s venture capital firm, Trireme Partners, with $20 million. Two other Defense Policy Board members also work as consultants for Boeing: the Air Force’s General Ronald Fogelman and former Navy Admiral David Jeremiah.

Boeing ranks number sixty six in the Center for Responsive Politics’ list of the 100 biggest political donors since 1989. Over the nineties, Boeing handed out $7.6 million in Political Action Committee (PAC) and soft money contributions. During the 2002 election year, Boeing gave $909,134 in PAC contributions and $700,482 in soft money donations and its contributions added up to more than $1.5 million during the 2000 elections.

*Source: opensecrets.org

Links

Boeing
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Society of Professional Engineering Employees of Aerospace (SPEEA)
Voices in the Wilderness
Taxpayers for Common Sense


Fencing the Border: Boeing's High-Tech Plan Falters
by Joseph Richey, Special to Corp Watch
July 9th, 2007

Boeing is behind schedule in building a high-tech "virtual fence" on the Arizona border between the U.S. and Mexico. Critics say that this new surveillance system will not resolve immigration issues and may create new problems.