The New York Times reports that a former investigator with Congress’ Government Accountability Office (G.A.O) is blowing the whistle on his own office, as well as the Bush administration’s oversight of the contracters building elements of the national missile defense shield:
A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.
The investigator, Subrata Ghoshroy of the Government Accountability Office, led technical analyses of a prototype warhead for the antimissile weapon in an 18-month study, winning awards for his “great care” and “tremendous skill and patience.”
Mr. Ghoshroy now says his agency ignored evidence that the two main contractors had doctored data, skewed test results and made false statements in a 2002 report that credited the contractors with revealing the warhead’s failings to the government.
The agency strongly denied his accusations, insisting that its antimissile report was impartial and that it was right to exonerate the contractors of a coverup… And Mr. Ghoshroy’s assertions raise new questions about the Boeing Company’s military arm, the main contractor for the troubled $26 billion system of interceptor rockets now being installed in Alaska and California. The system’s “kill vehicles” are to zoom into space and destroy enemy warheads by force of impact. [Link]
Mr. Ghoshroy seems to have a strong background in defense weaponry and is currently at Harvard’s Kennedy School:
Until his arrival at the Belfer Center, Mr. Ghoshroy was a Senior Defense Analyst at the U.S. General Accounting Office, which he joined in 1998. Mr. Ghoshroy’s primary responsibility has been to provide independent technical advice to GAO staff and managers on GAO evaluation of weapons systems that employ sophisticated technology. In this capacity, Mr. Ghoshroy has contributed among others to reviews of National Missile Defense, Airborne Laser, Land Warrior, and Joint Tactical Radio. [Link]As you would expect, the GAO is calling Ghoshroy a “disgruntled employee,” despite the same issues being previously raised by what must have been other disgruntled employees:
The dispute over its reliability began a decade ago. Nira Schwartz, a senior engineer in 1995 and 1996 at the military contractor TRW, told her superiors that the company had falsified research findings meant to help kill vehicles differentiate incoming warheads from clouds of decoys.
In April 1996, Dr. Schwartz filed a suit under the False Claims Act, a federal law that allows heavy fines against contractors who lie about their government work. TRW strongly denied her accusations.
She subsequently singled out the prototype kill vehicle’s first flight test, in June 1997, arguing that the contractors falsified data from it. The flight cost $100 million.
TRW was a Boeing subcontractor. Boeing, in turn, was competing against other companies to build the overall kill vehicle. Both denied any impropriety.
In 2000, Senator Grassley and Representative Berman asked the G.A.O. to examine Dr. Schwartz’s charges.
Mr. Ghoshroy became the main technical analyst. Born in India, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Northeastern University in 1973. He worked at Princeton, for military contractors and for the House National Security Committee in Washington before joining the accountability office in 1998 as a senior defense analyst.
Almost immediately, Mr. Ghoshroy recalled, the G.A.O. team found signs of a coverup — for instance, disturbing charts buried at the back of an upbeat report.
The stakes rose in January 2001 as George W. Bush took office, having pledged to deploy antimissile arms “at the earliest possible date.” [Link]
from ike eisenhower’s farewell speech.
The point of course is that the military industrial complex has made many people rich and at a humbler level, provided employment to many – with political donations and votes tilting the head of the elected representatives – is it any surprise these things happen again and again.
On another note, whatever happened to political leaders, listening to whom was equal parts refreshing and stimulating.
one reason why i welcome ignatieff throwing his hat in the canadian political arena.
on another note, i lament the role of the scientist as an instrument of destruction. This man is promoting a meat farm to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can listen to the interview on CBC here.
really guys, this has happened once too many times now that the thread dies after me … i mean… give me a sympathy nod for heck’s sake… i’m getting a bad complex and risk going into the sm kill-file for being a general killjoy.
dont you think there is something interesting to discuss here – better things to invest in than missiles and nuclear warheads… ? what about einstein’s relationship with the bomb? what about the us turning a blind eye to von braun’s nazi history ? what about the politics of contract allocations among civilian agency like nasa and a military program? is this boondoggle just business as usual?
hi dhaavak,
If I write on how we should be investing in public education and health and not missile defense, I know I’m going to be assailed with distorted Realist rhetoric (no, I don’t mean realistic, I mean Realist) saying what’s the point of having a public school or good medical care if it’s going to be nuked by the next terrorist who passes by blah blah blah.
OHHH! Character assassination alert! I had no idea the title “senior technical analyst” fell into the “relatively low-level” category. Now I know Ghoshroy’s onto something.
Nira Schwartz has a website dedicated to this topic. I’m still wading through it, but it seems worth taking a look at.
Gosh, Abhi!! Be realistic! Don’t you see that this is why those evil-doers must be stopped? Why their reign of terrrer must end?
What is this world coming to when you can’t put some pork on your buddy’s table and pocket some chits from defense contractors all because the damn enemy refuses to have weapons of mass distruction? I mean, c’mon!! BOX-CUTTERS?? There was more yellowcake at Dubya’s last birthday then they found in Iraq!
See, this way? We piss ’em off real good, see? And when it’s all really gone down the tubes there, and we can’t think of any more excuses to funnel money to Haliburton “private contractors” and we finally say that we’ve done our best and it’s up to the Iraqis, and we get our boys back home?
See by then, they’ll know how to fight like the enemy is supposed to, right? And someone over there in one of them A-rab countries is sure to lob a scud our way…and then?!
We’ll be prepared!! With our totally awesome missile-shield, dude!!!
Spending $250 billion on a missile defence system which will not prevent a Topol-M attack!
Sorry dhavaak!I hate it when that happens to me too. I’m just too fried to think of anything clever to say.
Govt. spending money on things that don’t work, contractors fudging results, political pressure and decisions being made for the top disregarding the truth,etc. is nothing new in the acquisition business. It is a HARD fight to ensure Federal Aquisition Regulations, other laws, and DOD directives are followed and enforced appropriately.