Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater

President Bush nominated Schmitz for the Pentagon IG position in June 2001, where he would be “responsible for conducting independent and objective audits and investigations of defense programs and impartial investigations of the allegations of misconduct by senior officers and civilian department employees.” 60The confirmation did not go smoothly, however. Schmitz’s appointment was held up by Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During an October 2001 committee hearing, Levin questioned Schmitz about a letter he wrote to the right-wing Washington Times newspaper in 1992—three days before the presidential election between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. “Clinton practically confessed to being a security risk during the Vietnam War,” Schmitz wrote. “Now the same Bill Clinton wants to be commander in chief, but he won’t even talk about his organizing anti-war activities in England and then traveling to Moscow at the height of the Vietnam War. The KGB apparently knows more about the shady side of Bill Clinton than the American people ever will. The American people deserve better.” 61Schmitz signed the letter with his official rank of lieutenant commander, U.S. Naval Reserve. 62“Now, that was signed with your rank in the Reserves, which is the issue here,” Levin said to Schmitz during the hearing. “It’s not the views, whatever one thinks of those, but the fact that you signed it as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy Reserve.” 63Schmitz responded, telling Levin, “The letter was merely a venting exercise. It was not a reflection of my judgment at the time and it certainly is not a reflection of my judgment today.” Careful with his words, Schmitz said, “The way the newspaper published my letter and highlighted my military rank obviously raises issues. I regretted it at the time and I regret it today. I learned a very good lesson for which I am now a better man. And, more importantly, I will be a much better inspector general for having learned that lesson if I am confirmed.” 64Levin also took issue with Schmitz’s stated desire to remain on the board of a group called US English, Inc., while serving as Inspector General. “This is an organization that believes no government business should be done in any language other than English,” Levin said. “Why would you think it would be appropriate for you as inspector general to remain on the board of an advocacy group that is—obviously takes positions that would be an anathema to at least some members of the military?” After a lengthy defense of the organization, during which he accused Levin of holding a “common misconception,” Schmitz said, “It’s just a practical issue. If you want to succeed in the United States, you ought to learn English.” 65Schmitz was required to resign from US English (which he had done just prior to the hearing) to be confirmed as Inspector General, which he was in March 2002.

Joseph Schmitz would be the top U.S. official in charge of policing the biggest corporate war bonanza in history during its most explosive period. His job description identified his mission as the “prevention of fraud, waste, and abuse in the programs and operations” of the Pentagon. 66But unlike other IGs, the Pentagon’s reported directly to Rumsfeld, creating what some critics say was an inherent conflict of interest—one that was compounded by Rumsfeld’s ultracontrolling style. The Inspector General position should ideally be filled by an official determined to comb through the system looking for impropriety, corruption, and cronyism. Instead, what the Administration got in Schmitz was an official who seemingly admired the very parties he was supposed to be monitoring, not the least of whom was Rumsfeld himself. During his time at the Pentagon, Schmitz offered the following remarkable exaltation of his boss at the National Wrestling Coaches Association Coaches Clinic in St. Louis, during a speech entitled “Wrestling with Discipline: Life Lessons in Leadership:”

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld—my boss—is another former wrestler. He was famous for his grit and discipline on the mat. People still tell stories about the time when Don Rumsfeld dislocated his shoulder during a wrestling match. He was behind on points but he refused to quit. With one arm, he managed to take down his opponent—three more times—and emerge victorious from the contest. Secretary Rumsfeld’s iron discipline is legendary within the five walls of the Pentagon. He never allows distractions, changing public opinion, or wishful thinking to mar his focus. He is so totally focused at the task at hand that he leaves others in awe at how much he can achieve on a given day. This former wrestler too, it can be said, reigns over himself. Reigning over ourselves—and answering only to God—is the key to living a virtuous, honorable, and purpose-driven life. 67

Schmitz carried around Rumsfeld’s famed twelve principles in his lapel pocket, of which the first sentence was, “Do nothing that could raise questions about the credibility of DoD.” 68Under Schmitz’s watch, corporate profiteers, many with close ties to the administration, thrived as they burned through resources ostensibly allocated for the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan. “Schmitz slowed or blocked investigations of senior Bush administration officials, spent taxpayer money on pet projects and accepted gifts that may have violated ethics guidelines,” according to an investigation by T. Christian Miller of the Los Angeles Times . 69Miller reported that investigators working under Schmitz were so concerned about his loyalties that, at times, they stopped telling him whom they were investigating—substituting letter codes for individual names during weekly briefings—in fear that Schmitz would tip off Pentagon superiors. 70“He became very involved in political investigations that he had no business getting involved in,” a senior official in Schmitz’s office told the Times . 71“I’ve seen this office become involved in many questionable projects despite strong and persistent opposition from senior staff,” said Iowa Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley at the end of Schmitz’s tenure. “It appears to me that this has created a lack of respect and trust, and has resulted in an ineffective Office of the Inspector General.” 72

In March 2003, a year after Schmitz took over as the Pentagon IG, and just as the Iraq invasion was beginning, he found himself responsible for investigating a scandal that rocked one of the key architects of the administration’s Iraq policy: Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative activist, founder of the Project for a New American Century and chair of the Defense Policy Board. Perle was close to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and had an office right next to Rumsfeld’s at the Pentagon. 73As the Iraq invasion was getting under way, the New York Times and The New Yorker magazine revealed that Perle was using his position to lobby for corporate clients in their dealings with the Defense Department. 74“Even as he advises the Pentagon on war matters, Richard N. Perle, chairman of the influential Defense Policy Board, has been retained by the telecommunications company Global Crossing to help overcome Defense Department resistance to its proposed sale to a foreign firm,” the Times reported. 75Noting that Perle was “close to many senior officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who appointed him to lead the policy board,” the Times revealed that Perle stood to make $725,000 from Global Crossing if the government approved the sale. The Pentagon and FBI opposed the sale because it would “put Global Crossing’s worldwide fiber optics network—one used by the United States government—under Chinese ownership.” 76In legal documents obtained by the Times , Perle blatantly peddled his Pentagon position to explain why he was uniquely qualified to help Global Crossing. “As the chairman of the Defense Policy Board, I have a unique perspective on and intimate knowledge of the national defense and security issues that will be raised” in the review process, Perle wrote. 77