Senior Air Force purchasing official found dead (Charles Riechers)

Reuters via Breitbart ^ | October 15, 2007 | Andrea Shalal-Esa

[RDTF]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force's No. 2 acquisition official, facing scrutiny for a temporary job arranged by the service while he awaited Senate confirmation, was found dead at his home in an apparent suicide, according to an internal Air Force memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

"Mr. Riechers was found deceased in his home, cause of death appears to be suicide, time of death is unknown," said the memo, which was issued late Sunday.

Charles Riechers became the principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition at the Air Force in January 2007 after working two months for defense contractor Commonwealth Research Institute.

The Air Force had no immediate comment.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Riechers was hired by Commonwealth Research Institute at the request of the Air Force while Riechers was out of work and awaiting Senate confirmation for his new position. The job paid $13,400 a month.

Commonwealth Research Institute has close ties to the Pentagon and has received hundreds of millions of dollars in military grants and contracts in recent years, according to the October 1 Post report.

"I really didn't do anything for CRI," Riechers told the newspaper. "I got a paycheck from them."

-snip-

[RDTF]

for reference:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1904796/posts

Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract (Murtha connection)
The Washington Post ^ | Oct 1, 2007 | Robert O’Harrow Jr

Posted on 10/01/2007 8:20:31 AM EDT by RDTF

[xcamel]

Arkancide-By-Proxy ???

[RDTF]

ping

[Jigajog]

Told the AF that they needed a new pistol - just won’t listen. Those 9mm will kill you, better to be armed with a .45 caliber.

[Sword_Svalbardt]

Interesting - the old fall on your sword routine.

[SeaHawkFan]

Seems like corrupt public officials have learned something from Enron’s Ken Lay’s death. If you are dead before conviction and appeals, all you assets are protected for your surviving family members; including survivor benefits.

[VOA]

bump for publicity

[sodpoodle]

Interesting statistics:

U.S. Active duty military numbers for 2007 1,332,300

U.S. Prison population numbers for 2006 2,245,189

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/appendix/mil.pdf

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm

What is wrong with this American portrait?

[VOA]

"I really didn't do anything for CRI," Riechers told the newspaper.
"I got a paycheck from them."

Note to self.
Anytime I get a $13,400 monthly check from an entity that I'm actually
not doing anything for...
something just ain't right.

(I ain't knocking the US military...but something may just not be
right here.
OR the MSM is trying to "out" a common arrangement of convenience
that's gone on for decades...but is suddenly "criminal" during
the Dubya Administration.)

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

[Doogle]

...sorta MSM telling a story to knock the military about contracts..... It's call "pay to play"..been going on since money could be folded and put in your pocket. Don't remember the MSM acting surprised when it became public that Hillary's husband was taking MILLIONS from some Dubai company wanting to run shipping ports in the US... oh yeah that silly thing, oh yeah, I remember she has a temporary memory thing going on when ever she gets caught red handed...HSU,Chinese Red Army donations,stolen FBI files,Vince Foster,....the list goes on.

[petitfour]

“No way in hell he committed suicide.”

Weird. The guy makes no bones about being paid for work he wasn’t doing while he was in fact working at the Pentagon. He didn’t do anything wrong. So who did?

[RDTF]

this story has a smell - my gut feeling is it’s not what it seems

[SaltyJoe]

I found an interesting detail in those numbers. The similarity is that both crime and military service in America are voluntary. If we were other nations throughout History, both the army and the criminal population would be one and the same figure. Those in prisons would actually be sheeple used as slave labor. God Bless America.

[sodpoodle]

“””both crime and military service in America are voluntary”””

Very astute. Also disappointing that voluntary military service is not as popular as crime. I suppose we could subtract the aged prison population. Then it gets to be a real statistical nightmare - calculating re-enlistment, recivitism, or, maybe it’s a wash.

Thanks for your response.

[sodpoodle]

“””both crime and military service in America are voluntary”””

Very astute. Also disappointing that voluntary military service is not as popular as crime. I suppose we could subtract the aged prison population. Then it gets to be a real statistical nightmare - calculating re-enlistment, recivitism, or, maybe it’s a wash.

Thanks for your response.

[art_rocks]

It takes too long for the chair?

[Dizzy Lizzy]

This is a shock. My husband used to work with him. He never seemed like he would be the type to commit suicide. How sad for his family.

[dakine]

From the Times:

“Conspiracy theorists love to speculate on the power and influence of the military-industrial complex in the United States, but the US Air Force appears to need no help in creating scandal.

Charles Riechers, deputy head of the air force’s multibillion-dollar procurement budget, is believed to have committed suicide amid controversy over his links to a defence contractor.”

....Pemco Aviation, another defence company, amended a legal challenge to a contract won by Boeing to mention CRI and its parent Concurrent Technologies. Pemco is challenging a $1.2 billion contract awarded by the USAF to Boeing for the maintenance of air-refuelling tankers. Reuters said yesterday that Pemco was claiming that Boeing had close ties to Concurrent Technologies, so there might have been a conflict of interest in the hiring of Mr Riechers. “

An ol’ “follow the money”....