Posted on 04/19/2006 9:37:35 AM PDT by pabianice
The Pentagon says an officer known for her integrity used her post for personal gain.
When Jay Garner arrived as the first U.S. administrator in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, he chose a highly decorated Air Force colonel named Kimberly D. Olson as his right arm because he considered her among the best America had to offer. One of the first female pilots in the Air Force, she was a hard-charger with an unblemished reputation for honesty, a high profile in the Pentagon and a commitment to the U.S. goal of creating a democracy in the Middle East.
Today, Olson is at the center of accusations of audacious impropriety in the corruption-plagued reconstruction of Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"Pentagon investigators say that a decorated Air Force colonel known for her integrity used her high-level administrative post in Iraq for personal gain during the early corruption-plagued reconstruction efforts. One of the first female pilots in the Air Force, Col. Kimberly D. Olson was accused of profiting from the post-invasion chaos by using her position to benefit a private security firm that she helped operate, according to interviews and government documents. Olson, 48, spent more than a year fighting the case, but ultimately agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges. She was reprimanded and allowed to resign from the Air Force with an honorable discharge and no reduction in rank. She is appealing a three-year ban against receiving government contracts." -- Defense News
(Allowed to retire with honorable discharge and rank. A male would have been dismissed from the service. "What double standard?")
A male Officer would be dismissed, an NCO would be serving time.
Let off with a slap on the wrist after being caught with her hands in the cookie jar, and she can't wait three years to get back to the cookie jar? In a sense, it's a double standard. Men are making big rocks into little ones at Levenworth for less.
Still, she shows the same greed and arrogance as a male crook does, so I guess some form of equality has arrived.
Rumsfeld's fault
What will that make, eight disgruntled ocifers.
These retired Generals are just like all those in DC. DC is the most corrupt place on the face of the earth and all they are about is milking the average American tax payer for all they can and passing it out to their cronies. They operate like the Mafia!
"I'll have all the privileges, but please hold all the responsibilities. And make it snappy, please."
This crap is wearing thin, and when the SHTF, all these worthless sacks of parasitical excrement will have hell to pay.
Sounds like someone we know to be the smartest woman in the world.
I didn't know Colonel Allen West was a woman. He got the same deal--retirement in lieu of court-martial.
If you take her statements as at least as credible as a bureaucracy trying to defend/justify its actions...she did not take any money nor make any money from all this, which leaves us with her trying to follow her boss's legal orders.
Not saying she's innocent, but it could be.
Oh, and she was an AF staff weenie, how does that make her a commander?
Now come on, we are having a WONDERFUL woman-hating time here on FR this afternoon
:)
If she used her position to put money in her own pockets which it seems she did, she needed to be thrown out.
And she is appealing?!
Please re-look at my earlier...her statments, assuming any degree of correctness, the on-going support of Garner, and the "evaporation" of the court martial render the charges dubious at best.
If she did pocket money, I'll join the firing squad, but this article suggests a certain stench is wafting about.
A Comptoller in the Pentagon setting up her own Defense contracting firm is highly illegal. Later she steered contracts to her own firm. She should be going to the slammer.
re: And she is appealing?! I cant say, I have not seen her picture yet :)
LOL!
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