Kansas’s next Senator, Todd Tiahrt (who I still think needs to buy an extra vowel for his last name from Vanna White) has a very interesting column at Human Events today. It’s well worth considering.
Washington is full of hyperbolism. We often talk about something being the best, the worst, or the most scandalous. Some of these statements are true; most are not. So when a government official told me that the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), also the parent company of Airbus, is “the most corrupt corporation in the world,” I was initially skeptical.
Given EADS’ growing role as a Pentagon supplier and a competitor for the Air Force’s $100 billion KC-X Next Generation Aerial Refueling tanker, I felt responsible to closely examine EADS’ dealings around the world. What we found was deeply concerning and confirmed what I had been told: EADS has a long history of corruption and bribery around the globe that has cost thousands of high-paying, high-quality American jobs.
The American people should not be forced to finance corrupt companies. Even more so, we should not be outsourcing our vital national security tools, such as the tanker, to corrupt foreign companies. But given our obscure corruption laws and outrageous government policy when it comes to foreign competitors, the United States not only gives EADS a pass on its corrupt practices, but extends special benefits not even American companies receive.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Tiahrt Should Be Honest
mead Thursday, January 14th at 6:16PM EST (link)Boeing has a huge presence in Kansas and is in competition with EADS/Northrup Grumman over the $100 Billion KC-X contract. I don’t find that anywhere in Tiahrt’s article.
Further, is he suggesting that the entire Alabama delegation is enabling foreign corruption by supporting the EADS bid?
The KC-X bid is ugly and that is shown by the fact the process was started over. But Tiahrt is not speaking from any grand position of wanting what is right for the American taxpayer, he simply wants Boeing to get the contract so he can campaign on those jobs. That is the same thing the guys in Alabama are doing by supporting the EADS/Northrup bid. However, they are not resorting to this level of dishonesty…yet.
Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.
www.tenmilestonowhere.com
EADS is so corrupt
jfindl2 (Diary) Thursday, January 14th at 6:56PM EST (link)that due to a previous tanker deal their CFO had to be terminated and was sentenced to prison, their CEO resigned, and they had to pay a record $615 million fine. Oh wait, that was Boeing. Yep due to the tanker deal they struck previously all of the above happened to Boeing. Funny how Tiahrt fails to mention it.
I’m a little retread, short and stout. I have no life, I reregister and pout.
Exactly and on point
SteveLA (Diary) Thursday, January 14th at 7:04PM EST (link)Darleen Druyun could not be reached for comment.
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Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests
Inefficiency is a bigger problem with EADS than corruption...
juumanistra (Diary) Friday, January 15th at 12:31AM EST (link)Regardless of Boeing’s foibles, discussed above, it must be remembered that EADS is basically the result of the Common Agricultural Policy for European defense contractors. So we should not be surprised if EADS is riven with corruption, though of more pressing concern is the fact that EADS hasn’t been able to bring a headline project in on-time and on-budget in…well, a very long while.
The Eurofighter was the better part of a decade behind schedule, the A400M’s five years behind schedule and facing scrapping, and the MRTT — which the KC-45 is to be derived from — has yet to finish its rollout and has faced at least one cancellation, from India, which cited rising costs associated with its prolonged development cycle. Galileo, the EU’s darling rival to Navstar and on which EADS is a major contractor, has been stuck in technical limbo for a decade due to the inability to get the technology in order or find a workable business model. And while not EADS-specific, Airbus’s white elephant A380 was also years late in getting its flight certifications due to serious engineering flaws that needed addressing.
So while I applaud my future senator’s interest in EADS, methinks he’s missed the more pressing concern with the Grumman/EADS project. (Though I do wholly concur with the previous posters that a good deal of his interest is motivated at least in part by concerns of those down in Sedgwick County and its environs.)