The following is from a comment (minus the political asides) that I entered on The Seattle Times website for the following article on the announcement of DOD proposed cuts in its defense contracting:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... uts06.html


This is an interesting story, in that Boeing seems to be more affected by the cuts. I may know a little more why that is in addition to the pros and cons of particular programs on the chopping block.

Boeing is a theoretically good company with an almost completely corrupted management. Truth is, Boeing has been stealing technology it does not own from the military side and using it on its commercial side, which the same corrupt executives that stole it then outsource to proscribed countries.

That is a simplistic view of the corruption. The reality is much more complex, however. The corruption is very, very deep, and any technology the government or a subcontractor or prime contractor places within Boeing's walls is not safe from such illegal theft and illegal disclosure.

And that may be why the DOD is "downsizing" Boeing's military side, because they are well aware of Boeing's continuing inability to keep their hands out of the export controlled cookie jar of technology it does not own and is prohibited from disclosing, which it then discloses to our potential enemies anyway.

At the 8/1/06 Boeing GSA (Global Settlement Agreement) hearings before the SASC (Senate Armed Services Committee), some senators seemed to express (carefully) that the 615 million dollar fine was perhaps too lenient for Boeing's crimes, and that perhaps debarrment from any further goverment contracting was really needed in response to Boeing's continual reoffending, but they couldn't do so because Boeing's defense business was so big that the country needed to do business with it, even in its dishonest state.

And these cuts may be the fallout from that meeting--the government making Boeing's defense side small enough (as republican's say) so it can then be "drowned in a bathtub," therefore solving Boeing's theft and illegal export of sensitive military technology wrongly entrusted to its corrupt executives forever.

I realize that these programs employ many people. Although some of them are the idiots like NoBS that post here and actually believe the misinformation they repeat constantly, many are good people who do great work and deserve their jobs. I used to work with many of them.

It would be sad if they have to suffer for the crimes of corrupt Boeing management, but corrupt Boeing management has long ago demonstrated that they care about their own parasitic and destructive jobs at the company far, far more than tens of thousands of the worker bees at Boeing that will lose their jobs because of the fallout of their own personal greed, corruption, and illegal export of military technology to proscribed countries.

The solution is obvious, but as everyone knows, often it is the corrupt management of a company that is hardest to remove before they succeed at bringing the whole company down via their numerous frauds. No one in Boeing management has been held accountable for these numerous ongoing frauds as of yet.

I was hired in on the military side of Boeing. Working on military programs can be hard work but very satisfying work because of the pride in helping your country protect itself. When your management steals that technology and illegally exports it, it doesn't make you feel that great about your companies' role in protecting the nation, however.

Of course, Boeing has been milking government contracts like cash cows for as long as I am aware of. 12 hour days 7 days a week even when there is nothing to do because Boeing supposedly got paid a set amount per the contract for every man hour worked. That abuse, also, should have been ended long ago, however the problems on the ABL and other programs Boeing has seem remarkably similar. Obviously, real oversight over these contracts must be restored.

Such abuse gives fodder to those who oppose military contracts as a matter of course.

I hope that Boeing soon hits the "eject" button on its management and saves its military side from drowning in the bathtub by irate government officials POed at their ongoing fraud, but the greed of those fraudsters never ceases to amaze me. They are parasites in the true sense of the word, not releasing hold of their host until it has died and they can no longer suck further blood from it.

The following is an interesting comment after mine from timmy3923:

Boeing use to be a company that had integrity and a quality product. But around the 1995-96 era and the inception of it's present senior leadership team, the company has turned to nothing more then a company that will do anything to keeps it's stockholders happy. To hell with quality or integrity, make money. That was when folks who helped build a good company and had been working there for 20+ years, bailed as they were disgusted with the direction the company was heading. My father was one of them and opted to take the early retirement that was offered at the time because he didn't want anything to do with where Sr. Management was taking the company and how they were going to do business. During that time frame, Boeing lost a huge amount of talent and has never recovered since.

It' a wonder how they keep the company going now, other then the legacy of work and engineering that was done for the 737, 767 and 747 airplanes. Since then it's been crap and not a wonder why Airbus is beating the pants off of them now.

The following is my response to his comment:

timmy3923--true, Boeing has set a whole new level of corruption in search of the almighty ever increasing bottom line than even Enron did. Your insight about when exactly this happened is valued. The 1997 production debacle and the McD merger helped exacerbate the corruption, as corrupt Boeing management solidified their belief then that the ends (profitability and stock price goals) justified the means (breaking every law).