Grand Theft Pentagon
Tales of Corruption and Profiteering in the War on Terror
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Common Courage Press
November 2005
360 Pages / $19.95
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Grand Theft Pentagon tells the scandalous story of how some of the
world's mightiest and must ruthless corporations exploited the
tragic events of 9/11 to make billions upon billions in the form
of government contracts with the connivance of the Bush administration.
In a riveting work of investigative reporting, Jeffrey St. Clair
shines a merciless searchlight into some of the murkiest corners
of the Pentagon, exposing the sweatheart deals between the defense
department and its favorite coterie contractors: Boeing, Bechtel,
Halliburton and the Carlyle Group.
Among the many explosive revelations
in Grand Theft Pentagon is a first--hand account from an emissary
to Afghanistan of how the Bush administration refused an offer
by the Taliban to turn over Osama Bin Laden and his top leadership.
They wanted total war  instead.
First on Afghanistan, then Iraq. In shocking detail, St. Clair
unveils how the Bush administration hired a team of marketing
and PR executives to sell their fraudulent war claims to a panic--striken
public, a complicit congress engorged with arms PAC money and
a gullible national press corps. Here you will find scathing
portraits of the enablers of this corrupt system---- from George
Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, to Senators Ted Stevens and the pseudo--maverick
John McCain---- and the war profiteers themselves, from DynCorp
and Lockheed to the devious machinations of the RAND, Corp and
Magnequench, the missile company that outsourced its work to
China.
In the wake of 9/11, the Pentagon was
handed a blank check, which it used to resurrect some of the
most baroque relics of the Cold War, from the B--2 steath bomber
and the F--22 fighter to the most fanciful of all boondoggles,
the $80 billion Star Wars missile defense system. In this hard--hitting
exposé, St. Clair shows, through the use of the Pentagon's
own damning internal documents, that none of these big ticket
weapons systems are needed and that none of them has ever worked
as advertised. Indeed, these destabilizing arms programs have
backfired, hurling the nation to the brink of bankruptcy and
sparking a new global arms race.
From the war room at the White House
to the board room of Halliburton, Grand Theft Pentagon is a harrowing
trip through the new imperial order, where the weapons companies
make a killing, while the citizens of the world cower under the
shadow of perpetual war.
Advance Acclaim for Grand Theft Pentagon
In days of yore in London town the pickpocket,
technically known as the "file," never worked alone.
He or she was preceded by the "bulk", a belligerent
fellow good at starting fights, the perfect condition for the
file industriously to ply the trade. Daniel Defoe explained their
maneuvers back then; Jeffrey St. Clair explains the shenanigans
of the bulk and file nowadays. Lockheed, Halliburton, Bechtel
play the file; Vietnam, Somalia, Kosovo, Gulf I and Gulf II the
work of the bulk. St. Clair names them --the outsourcers, the
stuntmen, the war profiteers, the arms dealers, the fat cats,
executive fixers, and neo--cons. Alternatively, the file in smoother
operating mode would team up with the "buttock", an
expert at distracting the public by charms or promises of eternal
salvation. Today's buttocks are perception managers, PR gurus,
spin meisters, information warriors, psy--operators, fundamentalists,
and con men. Certainly, stuff happens, as Donald "the File"
Rumsfield said. St. Clair tells us how and why in phraseology
worthy of Tom Paine, with an attitude that would bring a smile
to Mark Twain, and with the scholarly exactitude of an actual
criminal indictment. It's a brilliant book for our hideous times--
comic, reforming, rousing. Heave the rascals out, buttock, bulk,
and file!
Peter Linebaugh, author of The
London Hanged and co-author The
Many-Headed Hydra.
With brilliance and grace, suitable outrage
and humor, Jeffrey St Clair throws open the Pentagon
and its pervasive culture of corporate corruption much as
a century ago Lincoln Steffens exposed the disgrace of meat
packing and more. As with Steffens' government and business predators,
the rot and madness will no doubt go on, but after
St. Clair's equally enduring work, we can never say we didn't
know why it happened--or how it all smelled.
Roger Morris, former National Security
Council staffer, author of Partner's
in Power: the Clintons and Their America.
Jeffrey St. Clair's Grand Theft Pentagon
is a brilliant account of how trillions of dollars go into the
pockets of arms makers and how the Pentagon's preeminent claim
on the budget has become a huge trough for them. This is the
best book on how the defense system really functions, who gains-and
how we all lose thereby. Extremely well written and full of convincing
cases and insight, this book should be read by everyone who wants
to know how-and why--America operates.
Gabriel Kolko, Distinguished Professor
Emeritus at York University, author of Anatomy
of a War and Another
Century of War.
Jeffrey St.Clair's invaluable book is
a vivid profile of the sordid deals brokered by warmomger politicians
and war-profiteer corporations. With the skill of a high-class
barber he uncovers all the bald patches of the imperial administration.
Tariq Ali, author of Bush
in Babylon and The
Clash of Fundamentalisms
Only by reading "Grand Theft Pentagon"
will the reader know that it is the height of flattery to call
it merely thievery. The Pentagon, Congress, defense corporations,
and to its undying shame the mainstream press are
not just helping each other steal our money, they are trashing
our security and raping our liberty. Examine this must read book,
and weep for your country.
Winslow T. Wheeler, former national security
advisor to US Senate Armed Services Committee, author of The
Wastrels of Defense.
Bribery, kickbacks, no-bid contracts,
selling war, selling torture, buying politicians, pervasive sleaze.
It's all here in grim detail in Jeffrey St. Clair's powerful
chronicle of the theft of the U.S. defense industry by rapacious
war profiteers and the increasing militarization of U.S. policy
and U.S. society. This is a sad tale of the financial, political,
and moral corruption that now characterizes so much of America,
left as well as right.
Kathleen Christison, former CIA analyst,
author of Perceptions
of Palestine.
Jeffrey St. Clair is a muckracker par
excellence. Muckracking tends to date quickly; old scandals are
no longer scandalous. What makes St. Clair's work so compelling,
and so likely to endure, is his focus on people, the villains
and the very few heroes of the piece.
St. Clair does not caricature; he feels
his subjects like a novelist. George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld
come alive in all their creepiness, but when the curtain falls
it is Bunnatine Greenhouse, the unsung Halliburton whistleblower,
who gets center stage. St. Clair brings ample research and devastating
argument to his attack on indecent powerbrokers. In the end,
though, it is his humanity that illuminates the tale.
Michael Neumann, professor of philosophy
at Trent University, author of The
Case Against Israel.
Jeffrey St. Clair's stalwart and scathing
indictment of the war criminals running this country should inspire
readers to do all they can to cease complicity with this lawless
crowd. Grand Theft Pentagon builds a case for U.S. people to
stop collaborating with these rulers and their callous disregard
for the non-rich and non-white.
Kathy Kelly, co-founder Voices in the
Wilderness, author of Other
Lands Have Dreams.
"This book should become a text
in political science and public administration courses at every
university. It is an invaluable guide to understanding the institutionalized
corruption built into US policy."
Saul Landau, professor of Digital Media
at Cal-Poly, Pomona, author of Pre-emptive
Empire.
"Jeffrey St. Clair is the Seymour
Hersh of environmental journalism."
Joshua Frank, author Left
Out!
Grand Theft Pentagon
Table of Contents
Opening Statement:
Versailles on the Potomac
Part One: Capitalism's Last Utopia
1. The Duke and the Enterprise
2. Bush Was Offered Bin Laden, But Wanted a War
3. How to Sell a War
4. No Bid, No Sweat
5. Contract Casino
6. Torture Air, Incorporated
Part Two: the Enablers
1. High Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush
2. How Bush Won (and Lost) His Wings
3. They Call Him Star Child: Rumsfeld and Star Wars.
4. Meet Rumsfeld's Enforcer: Stephen Cambone
5. The Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear War: John McCain
6. King of the Hill: Ted Stevens' Empire
Part Three: the Profiteers
1. Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton
2. Lockheed and Loaded: The Company That Runs the Empire
3. Straight to Bechtel: "More Powerful Than the US Army"
4. The Saga of Magnequench
5. When War is Swell: the Bush Crusades and the Carlyle Group
6. Boeing and Nothingness
7. How the Rand Corp. Concocted the Colombian War
Part Four: Larcenies: Grand and Grander
1. The F-22: Tiffany's on Wings
2. Haywire: the New Navy Fighter Bombs Test
3. The Predator: Flying Blind
4. Use 'Em or Lose 'Em: Tiny Nukes are Better Nukes
5. Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in the Patriot Missile
6. Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the Generals Hate the A-10
7. My Corporation Tis of Thee: the General, GM and the Stryker
8. Hey Brother Can You Spare a Million?: How Neil Bush Succeeded
in Business Without Really Trying
9. It's a Family Affair: How Uncle Bucky Made a Killing
10. Bunker Busters and City Levelers
Part Five: Pie in the Sky
1. How to Restart the Arms Race in the Name of Saving the World
2. Of Sibbers and Penetration Aides
3. Star Wars Comes to Alaska
4. Treaty's End
5. Star Wars Goes Online...Crashes
Closing Statement
Looting by Contract
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
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