Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan Laundered in Investigation of Boeing Ties



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The Pentagon watchdog's office, Patrick Shanahan, Acting Secretary of Defense, was held incommunicado in an investigation into whether he had used his influence at the Ministry of Defense to favor Boeing , his former employer.

The results, released Thursday, suggest that President Trump could appoint Shanahan to the position of Pentagon leader. Shanahan, who had served as deputy secretary of defense, was appointed interim interim on Jan. 1 after defense secretary Jim Mattis resigned to protest Trump's policy.

The investigation was launched in March after weeks of reports to the Defense Department's Acting Inspector General's Office, Glenn Fine, that Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, had sought out other Pentagon officials. to buy more Boeing products and criticize its competitors.

Shanahan, questioned by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.) During a hearing of the Armed Forces Committee of the Senate, said on March 14 that he would support an investigation, one of which was open the next day.

The findings of the Inspector General, reported for the first time Thursday by the Associated Press, indicate that Shanahan "has fully respected its ethical agreements and ethical obligations."

"While Shanahan regularly referred to his previous experience of the sector at meetings, witnesses interpreted it and told us that he did so to describe his experience and to improve government management of programs. of the DoD, rather than promoting Boeing or its products, "the report said.

The Inspector General – an independent official who reviews programs and people to detect fraud, waste and abuse as well as violations of ethics – interviewed Shanahan and 33 other witnesses. The watchdog office also examined more than 7,300 pages of documents, including 1,700 classified, according to the report.

Witnesses included Mattis, the Pentagon's top generals and other senior appointed officials who had regular contact with Shanahan.

Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, spokesman for Shanahan, said in a statement that Shanahan had always complied with the agreements on ethics and that he "remained focused on re-equipping the company. 39, army for competition between major powers, the execution of the national defense strategy and the provision of the highest possible level. quality care for our military and their families. "

A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the problem, said the report validated the Pentagon's measures to prevent conflicts of interest.

"It's very difficult to get around the firewalls," Shanahan promulgated as the department's No. 2 officer, said the defense official. "The staff has taken a too conservative approach to any matter that may give the impression of an irregularity."

The release of the report raises the question of whether Trump will appoint Shanahan as Defense Secretary and how quickly. Shanahan took over at a tumultuous time: Mattis resigned with the hope that he would remain in office until February to allow a smooth transition. Instead, Trump forced him out a few days after getting angry at the negative media coverage.

The situation left the Pentagon in rare circumstances without specifying who would be its next leader. On Thursday, Shanahan was the longest serving interim defense secretary in US history, serving for 112 days. Bill Clements, who held the position for 39 days under President Nixon in 1973, and William Howard Taft IV, who held him for 60 days in 1989, were the only two acting Pentagon leaders.

If confirmed, Shanahan will assume the duties of a department with many vacant positions, including Deputy Secretary of Defense, the position for which he was confirmed, and Secretary of the Air Force. He will inherit from a Defense Department that is increasingly criticized for failing to describe the unclassified bases of his operations, to have avoided in camera meetings with the media for more than 300 days and further restrict access to senior commanders in war zones.

Shanahan has adopted a low-key style as an acting Defense Secretary, implementing the national defense strategy that Mattis unveiled last year with a focus on preparing for a "state of the art". Great Power competition "against China and Russia, as opposed to counter-insurgency fighting in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. .

"No change in priorities, no change in strategy," he told reporters in January. "It's really, you know, going faster in implementation and execution."

Among the priorities that Shanahan insisted on was the Space Force, a new military service he supported, as well as other Pentagon leaders, after the skepticism that such a move was a good idea before Trump supported it. . Shanahan argued that space is increasingly challenged and needs more specific attention within the Pentagon bureaucracy.

"Space needs a lawyer," he told a demonstration at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in March. "The lawyer will be the space force."

Shanahan spent more than three decades at Boeing, where he managed the commercial and defense air transport programs. Among them were the 787 Dreamliner, the company's missile defense system and its rotorcraft aircraft, including the Osprey, Apache and Chinook aircraft.

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