Good for Beth Daley in her presentation at the July 12 hearing for Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). (http://www.pogo.org/p/government/gt-070712-osc.html) Thank you Ms. Daley and Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

In the recommendations, It seems after about 30 years of ineffectiveness, and countless numbers of federal employees who've suffered at the hands of perhaps a combination of hostile and inept OSC/MSPB officials and employees, giving them even another 2 years is not only unwise, but seems almost criminal. I personally would see the virtue in a Congressional watchdog, investigations group and would have perhaps more faith in that group's ability to be sure it was done ethically and as per law, but only if adequate funding is provided to do the job. I do not believe that there is much trust of our government at this point to do the right thing, either by the citizens or the federal employees, as both groups have had to learn the hard way what it feels like to be betrayed repeatedly.

I recognize the description of it turning in a long running game of whack-a-mole. I have seen this occur in many governmental offices or agency groups over the years, while serving as a state employee, and Leadership trainer. I have previously been sent in to do an intervention and training with school groups where due to the repeated use of similar tactics by school district administration, there was little hope of directly and efficiently fixing the problems.

Why don't things magically "get better?" We are dealing with real human beings here. The longer they have had to work on under negative, to the extreme of being treacherous, management operations, the harder it is for them to get over the abusive experiences, and to react in a "normal" way to requests for honest feedback, analysis and criticism. The abuse heaped on by devious managers and perhaps even policy makers, or executives, triggers a self-protection/survival response. People just shut down. Some, if they can leave, are often even less likely to try to right the wrongs in their next work place. Others, either unable or no longer maintaining enough initiative to leave, merely become ghosts who perform the minimum and keep their heads low, generally trying to avoid seeing any more problems, or turning the other way, and doing what they know will help them survive, pretend the corruption and wrongdoing does not exist until they can retire and get away.

I have observed similar unfortunate patterns of behavior in more than one relative's career experiences with the federal government. One passage in Beth Daley's testimony struck a chord.

I quote:

"Ironically, the complaint seems to have spurred more retaliation and prohibited personnel actions within the OSC. High-level OSC staff inappropriately attempted to interfere with the investigation on several occasions, and have conducted themselves in a manner that is intimidating to employees. On January 30, 2007, a high-level OSC
Official sent an email to all of the OSC's employees outlining a series of procedures for the investigation, which, in effect, would allow managers to monitor who was interviewed by the OPM IG. THIS SEEMED TO BE AN ATTEMPT TO FIND OUT WHO THE AGENCY'S INTERNAL CRITICS WERE. The contents of the email revealed a startling lack of acumen concerning proper procedures for handling sensitive investigations."

I observed this same kind of very negative and punitive end run on the employees of Defense Security Service, after years of problems in the Defense Department. At around the same time, or a bit after managers were tasked with sessions on "Reinvention" of the government and the agency, some local/regional employees were also brought back for meetings in smaller technical work groups. Those employees who were able to suspend their distrust of upper management based on years of negative experiences, worked very hard to try to meet their mission. All of this was still not going well though, due to a continuing pattern of negative attitudes and behavior on the part of managers at various levels.

Someone brought in Carol Haave, then Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Policy) C3I, when the Defense Security Service was under the leadership of General Charles Cunningham, (2001-2002 approximately), allegedly to help. She sent out a survey. She specifically asked what was wrong with DSS and how could it be fixed? There was much debate among employees in our local area, and undoubtedly across all regions about what this meant and what it was about.

The way that she had written her communications, and the survey, Ms. Haave obviously (to me as someone who teaches inclusive leadership skills) had at least grasped the surface appearance of knowing what "Inclusive Leadership" looked like and seemed to be making the standard steps to include the field office employees in real identification of problems and possible solutions. She said the right things and asked the right questions. Some, but not all employees overcame their fear and distrust and took the time to answer the survey as honestly and as constructively as they could, hoping they could trust and believe that the DSS and DOD upper management really was, after all they'd been through, going to listen to them and help solve the no small number of problems which were crippling the agency's effectiveness.

And for their trouble, nothing changed for the better. Ms. Haave, instead of showing leadership and using the information gained in the survey answers to help address issues, took the information and scuttled off into DSS and DOD management leaving DSS employees in limbo, and anxious. Employees felt they once again had been deceived and assumed that the those who honestly pointed out the problems were now probably on a "trouble-maker" list. Life and work in the agency in fact continued to go down hill. Even more employees felt betrayed. The "reinvention" process by the way, seems to have been a handy way to open the door to some special interests within the DSS, and connected to defense contractors, to have some influence in changing things to better serve the interests of those parties, not the best interests of DSS doing the job with integrity as citizens would expect them to do, in protecting our government and country.

My comments are referenced to the situation ably described by the Project on Government Oversight’s (POGO) Beth Daley in her testimony at the Office of Special Council (OSC)/Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) hearing July 12, 2007.
(http://www.pogo.org/p/government/gt-070712-osc.html)

It is a good that talk and dialogue continues regarding the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) and the environment for whistleblowers in the federal government. However it is important to realize that the sum total effect of the inactivity of real accomplishment means that real people’s lives are being affected, and in some cases, ruined and families torn apart. One federal employee over the course of his/her career conducted a number of serious investigations with regard to the inappropriate handling and mishandling of classified national security information and technology.

In one investigation, the Investigator was called in by a Security Specialist from the Dept. of Energy (DOE), to investigate the refusal of DOE management to take their investigative findings seriously. The Department of Defense (DOD) Investigator was dispatched along with a second DOD Senior Security Specialist, to investigate the allegations. The DOD Investigator met with a DOE scientist, and the DOE Security Specialist, making the allegations. The DOE scientist, and Security Specialist provided sworn statements and documented evidence was provided to the DOD investigator and Senior Security Specialist.

Upon return to the DOD field office, the Investigator and the Senior Security Specialist wrote a classified report of findings (administrative inquiry). What had been shared with the DOD was a DOE security program out of control. The evidence documented critical nuclear weapons design information (CNWDI), and fissionable nuclear material being improperly stored at a DOE facility. The report was appropriately classified, and appropriately forwarded through channels to the DOD headquarters. Several weeks later, the DOD field office received a telephone call from one of the DOD headquarters personnel who had read the report. The comment made to the DOD investigator and Senior Security Specialist was: And what do you expect me to do with this?

The field office said that they expected it to be briefed to the DOE Director, believing that the problem was extremely serious, and when disclosed, would be addressed and fixed by the DOE Director. At that point, the DOD headquarters individual said: If you think that DOD headquarters is gonna walk over to the director of the DOE and brief her on the fact that she has fissionable nuclear material being improperly stored, you’re out of your “God damned mind.”

The effect of this DOD management level person’s refusal to do his job was that good people within the DOE that wanted to do the right thing were left swinging in the wind. For the past 10 years, these people’s lives have been holy Hell. The scientist was forced to relocate to another DOE facility; one much more remote to his/her family, by DOE and commutes back to his/her home several times a year, time permitting. The DOE Security Specialist that tried to do the right thing, and when all appropriate channels failed within the DOE, then reported it to the DOD, found that DOD miserably failed them also. For the past 10 plus years, that person’s career has been lost; their life has been ruined. They have lost almost everything they owned. And nothing has changed. It’s time to get past just talking about this. It is time to DO something.

Boeing to pay $615 million to avoid trial
By Leslie Wayne The New York Times TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2006

NEW YORK Boeing, the second- largest U.S. military contractor, has agreed to pay $615 million under a tentative deal with federal prosecutors that will allow the company to avoid criminal charges, according to Boeing and senior Justice Department officials. The agreement, which is expected to become final in a few weeks, would end a three-year investigation into wrongdoing by Boeing employees and would require the aircraft maker to pay $565 million to cover civil claims and $50 million to end a criminal inquiry. Senior Justice Department officials said Monday that they believed this to be the largest fine ever imposed on a military contractor. While avoiding criminal charges, Boeing will agree to "accept responsibility," those officials said, for the actions of its employees. One case involved the theft of proprietary data from the largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin. The other involved Boeing's hiring of a former air force official who had overseen Boeing contracts at the Pentagon. Boeing will also be monitored by the Justice Department for a two-year period and be required to maintain a federal ethics and compliance program as well as cooperate with investigators in any future inquiries. Should Boeing violate these provisions, it could be prosecuted and fined as much as $10 million, according to the settlement. "Boeing does accept responsibility for the actions of its employees," said the senior Justice Department official, who added that the $615 million figure reflected "money that was lost to the government due to Boeing's illicit activities." The company declined to comment other than to issue a statement saying that "Boeing will accept responsibility for the conduct of its employees and make additional commitments regarding ongoing compliance." News of the settlement was first reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal. "This is a heck of a penalty," said Howard Rubel, an aerospace analyst with the brokerage firm Jefferies. "But it has eliminated the 'bad citizenship' knock from being on the company. It pushes into the past things that were done in the past. And it gets rid of the uncertainty that a defense contractor could have been convicted of fraud or a felony." Settlement of the charges also reflects efforts by the Boeing chief executive, W. James McNerney, who was hired last year after the two previous Boeing chief executives resigned under fire. McNerney responded to the ethical controversies by reorganizing the company's military business, putting a new emphasis on training and pressing for a resolution of the government investigations. "McNerney inherited a company in crisis," said Loren Thompson, a military industry analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research group. "There was a danger that all these controversies would distract the company from getting business. His top goal was to eliminate these distractions. To announce that this controversy is behind them would be a major breakthrough." The settlement grew out of two investigations into the company. In one, Boeing employees were found to have stolen thousands of pages of proprietary documents from Lockheed in the late 1990s and used them to help bid for government rocket-launch business. The Pentagon penalized Boeing by stripping it of $1 billion in rocket launch business in 2004. In March, Boeing was allowed to bid for rocket-launch business after a 20-month suspension, the longest for any major military contractor. In the other case, Boeing was found to have improperly recruited an air force contracting official, Darleen Druyun, while she was still at the Pentagon, where she was overseeing billions of dollars in Boeing business. Druyun later admitted to steering contracts to Boeing to help her get a job with the company. Druyun was fired from Boeing and then pleaded guilty to conflict-of-interest charges and was sentenced to a nine- month prison term. Michael Sears, who as chief financial officer of Boeing had met with Druyun to recruit her, was also fired and later imprisoned. Those scandals also led to Philip Condit's resignation as chief executive. His successor, Harry Stonecipher, was fired last year after an extramarital affair with a Boeing employee. McNerney has taken several steps to clean up the company. He let Boeing's in-house counsel, Douglas Bain, make a blistering presentation to Boeing executives at an Florida meeting this year about unethical behavior. He restructured the military division to provide for greater accountability. A U.S. Circuit Court judge, J. Michael Luttig, is replacing Bain, who is retiring. And Boeing's board recently altered the company's executive compensation plan to put more emphasis on ethical behavior. NEW YORK Boeing, the second- largest U.S. military contractor, has agreed to pay $615 million under a tentative deal with federal prosecutors that will allow the company to avoid criminal charges, according to Boeing and senior Justice Department officials. The agreement, which is expected to become final in a few weeks, would end a three-year investigation into wrongdoing by Boeing employees and would require the aircraft maker to pay $565 million to cover civil claims and $50 million to end a criminal inquiry. Senior Justice Department officials said Monday that they believed this to be the largest fine ever imposed on a military contractor. While avoiding criminal charges, Boeing will agree to "accept responsibility," those officials said, for the actions of its employees. One case involved the theft of proprietary data from the largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin. The other involved Boeing's hiring of a former air force official who had overseen Boeing contracts at the Pentagon. Boeing will also be monitored by the Justice Department for a two-year period and be required to maintain a federal ethics and compliance program as well as cooperate with investigators in any future inquiries. Should Boeing violate these provisions, it could be prosecuted and fined as much as $10 million, according to the settlement. "Boeing does accept responsibility for the actions of its employees," said the senior Justice Department official, who added that the $615 million figure reflected "money that was lost to the government due to Boeing's illicit activities." The company declined to comment other than to issue a statement saying that "Boeing will accept responsibility for the conduct of its employees and make additional commitments regarding ongoing compliance." News of the settlement was first reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal. "This is a heck of a penalty," said Howard Rubel, an aerospace analyst with the brokerage firm Jefferies. "But it has eliminated the 'bad citizenship' knock from being on the company. It pushes into the past things that were done in the past. And it gets rid of the uncertainty that a defense contractor could have been convicted of fraud or a felony." Settlement of the charges also reflects efforts by the Boeing chief executive, W. James McNerney, who was hired last year after the two previous Boeing chief executives resigned under fire. McNerney responded to the ethical controversies by reorganizing the company's military business, putting a new emphasis on training and pressing for a resolution of the government investigations. "McNerney inherited a company in crisis," said Loren Thompson, a military industry analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research group. "There was a danger that all these controversies would distract the company from getting business. His top goal was to eliminate these distractions. To announce that this controversy is behind them would be a major breakthrough." The settlement grew out of two investigations into the company. In one, Boeing employees were found to have stolen thousands of pages of proprietary documents from Lockheed in the late 1990s and used them to help bid for government rocket-launch business. The Pentagon penalized Boeing by stripping it of $1 billion in rocket launch business in 2004. In March, Boeing was allowed to bid for rocket-launch business after a 20-month suspension, the longest for any major military contractor. In the other case, Boeing was found to have improperly recruited an air force contracting official, Darleen Druyun, while she was still at the Pentagon, where she was overseeing billions of dollars in Boeing business. Druyun later admitted to steering contracts to Boeing to help her get a job with the company. Druyun was fired from Boeing and then pleaded guilty to conflict-of-interest charges and was sentenced to a nine- month prison term. Michael Sears, who as chief financial officer of Boeing had met with Druyun to recruit her, was also fired and later imprisoned. Those scandals also led to Philip Condit's resignation as chief executive. His successor, Harry Stonecipher, was fired last year after an extramarital affair with a Boeing employee. McNerney has taken several steps to clean up the company. He let Boeing's in-house counsel, Douglas Bain, make a blistering presentation to Boeing executives at an Florida meeting this year about unethical behavior. He restructured the military division to provide for greater accountability. A U.S. Circuit Court judge, J. Michael Luttig, is replacing Bain, who is retiring. And Boeing's board recently altered the company's executive compensation plan to put more emphasis on ethical behavior. NEW YORK Boeing, the second- largest U.S. military contractor, has agreed to pay $615 million under a tentative deal with federal prosecutors that will allow the company to avoid criminal charges, according to Boeing and senior Justice Department officials. The agreement, which is expected to become final in a few weeks, would end a three-year investigation into wrongdoing by Boeing employees and would require the aircraft maker to pay $565 million to cover civil claims and $50 million to end a criminal inquiry. Senior Justice Department officials said Monday that they believed this to be the largest fine ever imposed on a military contractor. While avoiding criminal charges, Boeing will agree to "accept responsibility," those officials said, for the actions of its employees. One case involved the theft of proprietary data from the largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin. The other involved Boeing's hiring of a former air force official who had overseen Boeing contracts at the Pentagon. Boeing will also be monitored by the Justice Department for a two-year period and be required to maintain a federal ethics and compliance program as well as cooperate with investigators in any future inquiries. Should Boeing violate these provisions, it could be prosecuted and fined as much as $10 million, according to the settlement. "Boeing does accept responsibility for the actions of its employees," said the senior Justice Department official, who added that the $615 million figure reflected "money that was lost to the government due to Boeing's illicit activities." The company declined to comment other than to issue a statement saying that "Boeing will accept responsibility for the conduct of its employees and make additional commitments regarding ongoing compliance." News of the settlement was first reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal. "This is a heck of a penalty," said Howard Rubel, an aerospace analyst with the brokerage firm Jefferies. "But it has eliminated the 'bad citizenship' knock from being on the company. It pushes into the past things that were done in the past. And it gets rid of the uncertainty that a defense contractor could have been convicted of fraud or a felony." Settlement of the charges also reflects efforts by the Boeing chief executive, W. James McNerney, who was hired last year after the two previous Boeing chief executives resigned under fire. McNerney responded to the ethical controversies by reorganizing the company's military business, putting a new emphasis on training and pressing for a resolution of the government investigations. "McNerney inherited a company in crisis," said Loren Thompson, a military industry analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research group. "There was a danger that all these controversies would distract the company from getting business. His top goal was to eliminate these distractions. To announce that this controversy is behind them would be a major breakthrough." The settlement grew out of two investigations into the company. In one, Boeing employees were found to have stolen thousands of pages of proprietary documents from Lockheed in the late 1990s and used them to help bid for government rocket-launch business. The Pentagon penalized Boeing by stripping it of $1 billion in rocket launch business in 2004. In March, Boeing was allowed to bid for rocket-launch business after a 20-month suspension, the longest for any major military contractor. In the other case, Boeing was found to have improperly recruited an air force contracting official, Darleen Druyun, while she was still at the Pentagon, where she was overseeing billions of dollars in Boeing business. Druyun later admitted to steering contracts to Boeing to help her get a job with the company. Druyun was fired from Boeing and then pleaded guilty to conflict-of-interest charges and was sentenced to a nine- month prison term. Michael Sears, who as chief financial officer of Boeing had met with Druyun to recruit her, was also fired and later imprisoned. Those scandals also led to Philip Condit's resignation as chief executive. His successor, Harry Stonecipher, was fired last year after an extramarital affair with a Boeing employee. McNerney has taken several steps to clean up the company. He let Boeing's in-house counsel, Douglas Bain, make a blistering presentation to Boeing executives at an Florida meeting this year about unethical behavior. He restructured the military division to provide for greater accountability. A U.S. Circuit Court judge, J. Michael Luttig, is replacing Bain, who is retiring. And Boeing's board recently altered the company's executive compensation plan to put more emphasis on ethical behavior.
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Boeing may pay $615 million to close federal contracting investigations
By Jenny Mandel jmandel@govexec.com
May 15, 2006

Defense contractor Boeing Co. tentatively has agreed to avoid criminal charges and pay $615 million to settle two federal investigations into contracting scandals at the company, Justice Department officials said Monday.Boeing would pay $565 million in civil claims and another $50 million to close the criminal investigations but make no new admissions of wrongdoing, gaining immunity from prosecution if the company and its senior executives stay out of legal trouble for two years, according to senior Justice Department officials. The settlement would allow some mid-level company officials to be prosecuted, but senior executives would be shielded, the department said.If the two sides iron out details of the arrangement as anticipated over the next few weeks, the settlement would close investigations into contracts connected with Darleen Druyun, a former senior Air Force acquisition official who served nine months in jail after pleading guilty to giving the Chicago-based defense contractor preferential treatment in exchange for a job there and other favors. Michael Sears, then a Boeing senior executive, was fired and served four months' jail time for his role, and company chairman Phil Condit resigned.Boeing also is being investigated in connection with improperly obtaining documents from its Bethesda, Md.-based rival Lockheed Martin. The papers were used to win a contract related to government rocket-launches and may have been used to win additional business with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Some of the company's contracts were rescinded as a result and awarded to Lockheed at a higher cost, the Justice Department officials said.The officials said both cases had criminal and civil penalty components. The $565 million civil penalty was designed in part to recapture government costs associated with restructuring Boeing's contracts and recompensing other government losses associated with the cases, they said.A Sunday Wall Street Journal report on the settlement cited anonymous sources in noting that the Justice Department earlier had sought heftier penalties of $750 million and felony pleas by the company, but those were gradually whittled down to the present arrangement as higher-ranking Department officials became involved in the long negotiations.Under the provisional settlement terms, Boeing would be subject to enhanced ethics and compliance supervision for two years, and violation of the terms would allow the government to reopen the cases for prosecution or assess up to $10 million in additional fines, Justice officials said.But Boeing has recently shown some signs of an increased focus on ethical conduct. The company's chief executive officer, president and chairman, Jim McNerney, has expanded executive compensation criteria to include integrity and ethical leadership considerations, The Wall Street Journal reported. And last week, former federal appeals court judge J. Michael Luttig resigned from the bench to become chief counsel and senior vice president of the company.If finalized, the Boeing settlement would be one of the largest defense-related agreements reached with the federal government. Charles Miller, a Justice spokesman, said the department had reached a $1.7 billion agreement with HCA-The Healthcare Co., a hospital chain, to settle civil and criminal charges of falsely billing a government program for medical claims, and had reached several large settlements with pharmaceutical companies. But he and other senior officials were not aware of any defense settlements larger than the one currently on the table.Boeing officials confirmed the settlement announcement.Boeing Agrees to Pay $615 Million SettlementRecord Penalty Would End 3 Years of Federal Investigations Involving 2 CasesBy Renae MerleWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, May 16, 2006; A10Boeing Co. has reached a tentative $615 million settlement to end federal investigations into its illegal hiring of a high-ranking Air Force official and the use of a rival's proprietary documents to win government work, the Justice Department said yesterday.The settlement would represent the largest penalty ever paid by a defense contractor, but for Chicago-based Boeing it would also end three years of investigations and uncertainty that have haunted the aerospace and defense giant. Under the deal, Boeing avoids criminal and civil charges.Though it will not have to acknowledge any corporate wrongdoing, "Boeing has agreed to accept responsibility for the conduct of its employees in these matters," according to a Justice Department statement.The agreement would also put Boeing on a sort of probation. If the company fails to comply with the terms of the agreement over the next two years, including reporting misconduct, Boeing could face criminal prosecution for the original incidents and an additional fine of up to $10 million, senior Justice Department officials said. That could also be triggered if an "executive management employee" commits any of a series of federal crimes covered by the agreement.The deal is expected to be completed and signed in the next few weeks.Boeing's ethics troubles began when it admitted in 2003 that several employees had thousands of pages of rival Lockheed Martin Corp.'s proprietary documents during a 1990s competition to launch government satellites. Bethesda-based Lockheed accused Boeing of using the stolen documents to cheat. The Air Force barred the company from competing for such work for a year, the longest suspension of a large defense contractor.The Justice Department settlement would cover that case as well the one that quickly followed: Later in 2003, Boeing' fired its then-chief financial officer, Michael Sears, for illegally negotiating a job for Air Force official Darleen A. Druyun while she was overseeing billions of dollars of the company's work. Druyun later said that for years she had favored the company in her decisions.Sears and Druyun pleaded guilty and served several months in prison. That case led to a wide-ranging review of Boeing contracts overseen by Druyun and the loss of a $20 billion contract to sell refueling planes to the Air Force.The cases have caused years of turmoil at the firm. In addition to the firing of Sears, Boeing's former chief executive Philip M. Condit resigned in December 2003 and was replaced by Harry Stonecipher. Stonecipher was forced to resign a year later after admitting to an affair with an employee and was replaced last year by W. James McNerney Jr., the former head of 3M Co.The deal would mark a high point for McNerney, who has begun a quiet campaign to restore Boeing's image. While his predecessor Stonecipher was more vocal, saying at one point that his job was to convince people that Boeing is not full of a "bunch of crooks," McNerney has been more subtle. He recently lured J. Michael Luttig, the federal appeals court judge who was on President Bush's short list for the Supreme Court, as general counsel, and late last year introduced a new executive compensation system that added ethics to the measurements of performance.Serious negotiations between Boeing and federal prosecutors began last year and intensified as the government faced a possible deadline to file charges, sources have said. The tentative settlement, which includes $50 million to cover civil charges and $565 million to resolve potential civil claims, is lower than the $750 million many in the Justice Department advocated, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. Boeing had $2.57 billion in profit last year and more than $5 billion in cash.Doug Bain, a Boeing senior vice president, confirmed the tentative settlement in a statement and said an agreement should be signed in a few weeks."You can't minimize the size of the settlement. It's a big deal," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. "We're really glad the government is upping the ante for misconduct, but our jury's out on whether this is going to make it painful enough for Boeing or any other government contractor to avoid misconduct."Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.

Government IT Review; Lockheed vs. Boeing
Cynthia L. Webb
Washington Post
June 11, 2003

The use and purchase of technology by governments has created a multi-billion-dollar sector, involving some of the world's biggest companies and scores of smaller companies serving niche markets. After Sept. 11, 2001, the so-called government IT sector attracted even more attention, as governments started spending more on security technology and as a battered tech sector reoriented itself to serve a growing and relatively more stable marketplace.

Battle of the Aerospace Titans

Lockheed Martin has filed a lawsuit claiming that rival Boeing stole proprietary Lockheed documents to beat them out of a lucrative rocket contract in 1998. "The 150-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Orlando, Fla., is the latest twist in an unusual, high-profile battle that has rocked the normally insular defense industry," The Wall Street Journal reported today.

"The dispute, sparked by a wrongful-termination suit by two former Boeing employees, already has generated federal probes, including a criminal investigation by the Justice Department , and prompted Boeing to revise its explanations for a separate Air Force review. The complaint alleges a systematic effort by Boeing to secure internal Lockheed documents, including costs estimates and technical details, during the height of a bitter face-off over a major U.S. government rocket contract to launch spy and other satellites."
"Boeing is aware of the lawsuit. We will respond to it appropriately in the appropriate legal venues," Boeing spokesman Daniel Beck told The Washington Post . Boeing "said in newspaper advertisements this week that some employees 'behaved unethically' during the competition. In 1999, Boeing fired two employees and suspended another for possessing Lockheed documents. The three -- Kenneth Branch , Larry Satchell and William Erskine -- are defendants in the lawsuit. They could not be reached yesterday." The Post covered Boeing's ads earlier this week .

Meanwhile, some right- and left-leaning public interest groups have sent a letter to congressional members, asking them to look into a $16 billion contract for the Air Force to lease 100 tankers from Boeing, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported today. The letter, according to the newspaper, says the contract "appears to be a profligate waste of taxpayer dollar" and "says Congress cannot ignore separate investigations by the Justice Department and the Air Force into allegations that Boeing improperly obtained secret documents from competitor Lockheed Martin Corp. to win a $1.88 billion contract for rockets to launch military satellites into space."

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Note: Lockheed prevailed on this case, and Boeing paid $615 million, as a consequence.

Especially with the break of many stories this week of the charging of Boeing Whistleblower, Gerald Eastman, it is appropriate to remind everyone that Whistleblower protections are not very good at this point in time. Most Whistleblowers are reporting wrongdoing because they feel responsible and duty bound to do so. Life can and usually does become very ugly fast for those who have the courage and resolve to stand up to the wrongdoers. This is especially true for Federal and Defense Department Whistleblowers. And it is important to remember that the Justice Department is a huge hinge pin for all whistleblower cases when they enter our legal system, as if the courts are not represented by judges that can make good law decisions, and cannot remain in good accord with the U.S. Constitution, we don't have much to help or protect us, and our legal system and our rights and our way of life suffers.

Please look under the Boeing Whistleblower catagory of this blog, and see the other cases nationwide of complaints or whistleblower cases that concerned faulty parts, and construction for planes the past few years. Mr. Eastman is not an isolated case, but is in good company. He is experiencing pretty heavy duty retribution for his commitment to seeing through concerns about airplane and safety inspections at The Boeing Company, which is not only devastating him, but his family as well. Because the Boeing Company is pressing 16 counts of computer trespass, Mr. Eastman is having to seek an attorney to defend himself against criminal charges in King County, and also still seeks to see justice done on his whistleblower case regarding airplane safety and inspection problems. Mr. Eastman has been unemployed, thanks to the actions of his company, for an extended amount of time and the financial stress of all of this is profound. If anyone can suggest a lead on an experienced and really good attorney for both the defense on the criminal charges pressed by Boeing and also the whistleblower case, please leave a comment, or you may contact me at flyover_27@yahoo.com

You may also show support for Mr. Eastman, by writing to The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, expressing your concerns, and/or make reports of additional information that you might be aware of to http://www.pogo.org (You may do this anonymously if necessary.) You may read more about Mr. Eastman's struggle at http://www.thelastinspector.com And you may email him directly from that site as well.

To help whistleblowers in general, please take moment and contact your elected officials, particularly your elected Senators to the U.S. Senate and let them know you value protecting whistleblowers, and want S. 274 brought out of a hold status and brought to a vote in the Senate. (The house already passed the equivalent of this bill.) It is the Senate holding it up now. Until this and other bills that grant whistleblower protections to Federal and Defense Department whistleblowers as well as corporate whistleblower protections we currently have, we will not be able to candidly confront and resolve these problems, and courageous individuals will continue to be harassed and suffer outrageous acts of retribution at the hands of the wrongdoers.

In addition, for Federal Employees, the Office of Special Counsel and the Merit Sytems Protection Board are also necessary gates in the complaint process. The effectiveness of these two entities has been criticized and in doubt lately. (Please see other posts on this topic on this site and sign a peition or find out how else you can help make the laws and the OSC and MSPB useful and effective. You can also read about these entities at www.POGO.org and other advocate sites.

Also check in to the U.S. House of Representatives, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Henry A. Waxman, Chairperson. There are many cases currently listed under investigations and there are many more that have not been announced on their website yet. Please write them if you have something of significance to report. http://www.house.gov Click on Commitees on the upper left hand list, and then go to the bottom of the page to click on email the comittee.

Also, if you are a concerned about corruption or wrongdoing, and are afraid to openly report it, you may go to http://www.pogo.org and go to Report Corruption, and click on Report Anonymously to make an anonymous report. They really do read these, and organize them in files to be used when they are working on an investigation on a particular topic. Your tip could make a difference!