The foxes are guarding the hen house with billions under review by the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, writes Eli Clifton. And the potential conflicts of interest start at the top.
Jane Harman, speaking as CEO of the Wilson Center on the future of American foreign policy at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2020. (World Economic Forum, Christian Clavadetscher, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Earlier this month, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees named eight commissioners who will review President Joe Biden’s National Defense Strategy and provide recommendations for its implementation.
But the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, which is tasked with “examin[ing] the assumptions, objectives, defense investments, force posture and structure, operational concepts, and military risks of the NDS,” according to the Armed Services Committees, is largely comprised of individuals with financial ties to the weapons industry and U.S. government contractors, raising questions about whether the commission will take a critical eye to contractors who receive $400 billion of the $858 billion FY2023 defense budget.
The potential conflicts of interest start at the very top of the eight-person commission. The chair of the commission, former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), sits on the board of Iridium Communications, a satellite communications firm that was awarded a seven-year $738.5 million contract with the Department of Defense in 2019.
“Iridium and its Board members follow Iridium’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and all rules and regulations applicable to dealings with the U.S. government,” Iridium spokesman Jordan Hassin told Responsible Statecraft.
A Jan. 11 press release announcing the commission’s roster cited Harman’s current board memberships at the Department of Homeland Security and NASA but made no mention of her Iridium board membership, which paid her $180,000 in total compensation in 2021. Harman held 50,352 shares in Iridium, now worth approximately $3 million, in March 2022, according to the company’s disclosures.
Support CN’s
Winter Fund Drive!
“The members of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy each hold long records of ethical public service and national security leadership,” a Senate Armed Services Committee spokesperson told Responsible Statecraft. “The commissioners have committed to adhering to all government ethics policies to prevent any potential conflicts of interest. Congress will provide responsible oversight throughout the Commission’s work.”
That oversight will be complicated, judging by the financial ties to government and defense contractors held by six of the eight commission members.
“Lets face it, the National Defense Strategy and the Commission on the National Defense Strategy are flipsides of the same coin,” Mark Thompson, national security analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, told Responsible Statecraft. “Both are heavily infected by Pentagon spending and Pentagon contractors.”
“These folks have a vested interest in spending more,” said Thompson. “In Washington’s national security community, the way you get credibility is to work at think tanks funded by defense contractors or serving on boards of defense contractors.”
Indeed, Thompson’s characterization of who has “credibility” appears to be reflected in appointments to the Commission.
Commission member John “Jack” Keane serves on the board of IronNet, a firm that describes itself as providing “Collective Defense powered with network detection and response (NDR), we empower national security agencies to gain better visibility into the threat landscape across the private sector with anonymized data, while benefiting from the insight and vigilance of a private/public community of peers.”
The firm’s 2022 second quarter report made clear that IronNet is dependent on government contracts.
March 10, 2020: Army General Jack Keane receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump. (White House, Andrea Hanks)
“Our business depends, in part, on sales to government organizations, and significant changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of such government organizations could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations,” the report said.
Keane received $210,751 in total compensation from IronNet in their fiscal year ending January 31, 2022.
Ties to contractors extend beyond the commission members who serve on corporate boards.
Another commission member, Thomas Mahnken, serves as president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, a job that paid him $394,924 in 2019, the last year in which financial disclosures are available. Major weapons firms, and some of the government’s biggest contractors, are listed as funders of the center, including Aerojet Rocketdyne, BAE Systems, General Atomics, General Dynamics, L3 Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing.
Thomas Mahnken speaking at a U.S. Naval War College forum in 2015 in Newport, Rhode Island. (U.S. Navy, Richard M. Wolff)
Similarly, commission member Roger Zakheim serves as Washington director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, a job that earned him $495,500 in 2020, the last year for which financial disclosures are available.
Major defense contractors play an outsized role in funding the foundation, including: Boeing, General Dynamics, BAE Systems, Anduril, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Raytheon, Leonardo DRS, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Thales.
Finally, employees of two major tech companies with government contracts were appointed to the commission: Alissa Starzak, vice president and global head of policy at Cloudflare and Mariah Sixkiller, general manager of strategic defense at Microsoft.
Last year, Cloudflare told investors, “Our business depends, in part, on sales to the United States and foreign government organizations which are subject to a number of challenges and risks.”
When reached for comment, a Cloudflare spokesperson told Responsible Statecraft, “Alissa Starzak is one of the country’s leading experts at the intersection of national security and cyber security.”
“Cloudflare is proud of the contributions that she is making to the Commission. All Cloudflare internal policies and all government ethics policies have been satisfied to prevent any potential conflict of interest,” said the spokesperson.
March 3, 2016: U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on a tour of the Microsoft Cybercrime Center in Seattle as part of a trip to strengthen ties between the Department of Defense and the tech community (DoD, Tim D. Godbee)
Microsoft, for its part, is the recipient of billions of dollars in cloud computing contracts from the Department of Defense. The company declined to comment on Sixkiller’s appointment.
The appointment to the commission of individuals with deep ties to the contracting and weapons sectors is also consistent with campaign contributions to the chairs of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
SASC chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) counts General Dynamics employees as the top source of campaign contributions over his entire political career, and HASC chairman Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.) saw Lockeed Martin employees as his top source of campaign funds in the past election cycle.
Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, during a hearing on the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2023 budget, April 7, 2022. (DoD, Lisa Ferdinando)
As the defense budget creeps toward $1 trillion, voices who will bring a critical eye to the NDS, and the enormous costs associated with the strategy, are unlikely to be found within the newly appointed commission.
“The nation’s security is an important responsibility, but the subordinate question is whether we’re doing it in the best way possible,” said Thompson. “It seems that the NDS commission is going to give us more of the same.”
IronNet, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, and the Reagan Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
Eli Clifton reports on money in politics and U.S. foreign policy. He previously reported for the American Independent New Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Support CN’s
Winter Fund Drive!
Donate securely by credit card or check by clicking the red button:
What’s all this talk about defense? Defend against what? Don’t these people realize that Godzilla was just a movie? Or are they expecting an attack by a group of disgrunted Arabs, plying their way on the Atlantic in ancient LCVPs, the heads of their camels above their gunnels, intent on laying siege to Washington? Enough of this nonsense about defense.
Microsoft is a cyber crime.
They feel untouchable which reflects the current state of madness in America.
It is my view that Hartman benefited immensely from her unbridled support of Israel throughout here career in government. We could always take a long look at where her support came from and who she unabashedly apologized for.
She was an “untouchable”, look around at who always get those “sweet assignment in government. I’m thinking it wasn’t what she knew but as one can see it was who she knew.
I have no problem calling her out on this, simply examine Mr. Clifton’s comments, in addition to the awards the CIA has bestowed upon her. and the Defense Distinguished Service Metal she received in 1998.
Her wiki , see U.S. Representative 2000-2011, states that “During her long public service career, Hartman has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues.” If she was considered an expert she must take her share of blame for failure after failure
I kept a keen eye on this women for years and I wouldn’t have trusted her to watch my dog.
In my humble opinion she represents the epitome of the perfect functionary of the DeepState.
Thanks CN
You know we hear much propaganda about so called nation security “experts”. Two example Ms. Hartman and Clint Watts.
Judging from the current condition of this country I’s say these “experts” are vastly over rated !
Robert: Yes, thank you. Good point. The “revolving door” of government service.
Foxes. Henhouse. This article’s subhead got it right.
Further, I wish the author had put “defense” in single quotes, denoting a falsehood. Defending the US has near-zero to do with a bloated military establishment awash in corruption.
How do we know?
Exhibit A: The Pentagon has never passed an audit.
Exhibit B: No one has ever forced it to.
Exhibit C: No official urges a return to the military establishment’s original, historic name: the United States Department of War (1789-1947) — because funding it at today’s grotesque levels would be all but impossible.
About this audit, Ira I heard that the figures of this went up in smoke and ashes of building 7 of the world trade center. This building didn’t suffer a plane attack but went down just like the other two. Makes one wonder.
The WEF is the people who control the governments, look who gets invited, it is the deep state crowd making decisions on the golf course, and Democracy is the cover. Big money taking care of big money. They are the people who will decide whom we can vote for to positions that count. They control the international institutions that count, including the UN. All they value is money and power.
I remember some years ago, too long to remember, a disaster film I saw which was called Soylent Green and, if my memory serves me well, it was one of many disaster films of the time. The lead character was the disillusioned Charlton Heston who played the lead actor and was in company with the lead actress – whose name which now forgets me.
There was the conversation between the two of them. The female actress, whose name I cannot remember, berated Heston for his cynicism and world-weariness. She would rebuke him (Heston) arguing for a better world, for a better, and more rational world – to which Heston would reply that the actual World Stinks.
Well, I can’t – unfortunately – help thinking that Heston was right; like most of us, we wanted him to be right, but unfortunately, cynicism won the day. So, the great universal bloodletting cycle looks like its time has come.
Adieu my friends and colleagues the lunatics seem to have taken a hold of the asylum.
What frail little boat of reason is attempting to circumnavigate the armadas of irrationalism which has been unleashed by their masters?
“Earlier this month, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees named eight commissioners who will review President Joe Biden’s National Defense Strategy and provide recommendations for its implementation.”
Here’s my “alternative” list of commissioners – I think they’d do better:
Donald Duck
Grouch Marx
Mel Brooks
Hollywood
Bollywood
George Carlin
Hunter S Thompson
That’s only seven. Anyone got the “pièce de résistance” for number eight?
Zelensky …
That made me LOL. Thankyou
Jesus Christ Super Star II aka Julian Assange.
That’s a good one Garrett.
Excellent and helpful information to set up a howl about this clearly unethical array of so called evaluators filling up the trough for their own personal engorgement. Sickening. As if there exist no one with the brains, experience and expertise to evaluate this budget items free from financial payback.
It’d be great fun if massive student loan debtors could oversee the Dept of Education and the entire private student loan industry.
Excellent point