Second Obama Nominee for TSA Withdraws in Scandal
Last Friday, retired Army Major General Robert A. Harding withdrew his nomination to serve as the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after a week of intense questioning from senators.
Robert Harding spent his life in the military, serving at the highest levels of military intelligence. He was the U.S. Army’s deputy G2 for intelligence and the director for operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also served as the Department of Defense’s senior Human Intelligence (HUMINT) officer. After 33 years of military service, Harding retired in 2001.
In 2003, he founded a defense and intelligence contracting company based in Virginia called Harding Security Associates. Almost immediately, the retired major general began securing lucrative defense contracts in a post-9/11 world.
Harding Security Associates provided private security at the White House. It provided consulting services for the Department of Homeland Security, including a contract with the TSA. But when it was awarded a $6 million contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency — in an office Harding was formerly affiliated with — the suspicious contract was subsequently the subject of a federal audit.
While not quite passing the smell test for many TSA-nominee watchers, Harding technically had done no wrong, and confirmation hearings continued following the revelation. However, senators soon learned that Harding’s company had overbilled the Pentagon by $1.8 million on one contract. The company had already agreed to pay the money back, but the ice around the military-man-turned-defense-contractor grew thin.
Senators wanted to know: What had the taxpayers been overbilled for? It turned out the $1.8 million became severance payments made to 40 employees — all of whom had worked as interrogators at Abu Ghraib.
Large cracks began to appear in the ice around retired Major General Harding. He admitted to “making mistakes” regarding the overbilling.
Last week, the Senate discovered that the career military officer won a $99.7 million contract in 2008 from the Army on the grounds that Harding Security Associates was a “veteran-owned” and “black-owned” company, and that Harding was a “service disabled vet.” The ailment that Harding claimed made him qualify as “disabled” was sleep apnea. Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow broke this story, which many believe shattered the ice around Harding and forced him to withdraw his nomination.
In a statement released by the White House late Friday evening, Harding said:
Distractions caused by my work as a defense contractor would not be good for this administration nor the Department of Homeland Security.
Oddly, the White House had nothing to say about their nominee’s shameful disability claim. Previously, the White House stated that it was unaware that Harding’s company had sent employees as interrogators to Abu Ghraib, but that Harding Security Associates had done nothing wrong in doing so and that Harding’s employees were not involved in the abuse scandal.
The president’s spokesman, Nicholas Shapiro, now only said:
The president is disappointed in this outcome.
What outcome is Obama disappointed in? The questionable business practices of his nominee, or the abilities of his own vetting team?
In January, President Obama’s first TSA nominee, Erroll Southers, withdrew his nomination after it was revealed Southers had used a federal criminal database to access private information about his ex-wife’s boyfriend when he worked for the FBI.
The TSA remains without a leader for the foreseeable future, and one does not need to suffer from sleep apnea to toss and turn over this.
This is par for the course in Military circles. Most of the procurement system is managed by corruption, embezzlement, bribery, rigged bidding, and favoritism. I testified in a court case in 2003 after a Military officer embezzled 70% of Defense contract funds into their personal accounts and the pentagon basically refused to acknowledge a crime even occurred.
It was the DOJ that was forced to bring action, the officer filed bankruptcy to hide the crime but it was too late, and ended up being charged with Bankruptcy fraud as well. The officer was forced to repay embezzled funds and serve 14 months in prison, no thanks to his Corrupt buddies at the Pentagon
It is a perverse and corrupt system, the USA would do well to destroy the current system and replace with civilian managed procurement.
Re: #1
It’s sometime called “reciprocal back-scratching”.
Silly me. I had sleep apnea due to a deviated septum and I went and had surgery to correct it. Had I known I could have got $99 million dollars, I would have changed strategy.
The entire federal government has serious problems, including the civilian agencies, so you are just kidding yourself if you believe that it’s somehow curable by a “civilian managed procurement system.”
What enabled this man were all of the set asides put in there for political reasons:
1) Minority set-aside contracts.
2) Veteran set-aside contracts.
3) Disabled set-aside contracts.
Add to those some of the others like “woman-owned business” and “small business set aside.”
Those were created **by civilians** to use the Department of Defense’s contracting system, by far the largest in the federal government, as a way of getting money to “the right groups.”
Transportation Security Administration. One of the most important branches of local, state and the federal government, and yes, the UN has ever seen. Now, what heck is its purpose again? Oh yeah, they make sure our highways are properly locked up when they close for the day dont they?
#4 Mike T:
Totally 100% agree with you. It will be very difficult for any Obamaconman to get approval . . . there has just been to much ripoff, theft, fraud, lies . . . the most astonishing thing is . . . even with all the set-assides . . . they still tell lies to steal from each other. The entire program of government contracting from the local levels to the fed level is rife with corruption and scandal.
With the short-list of elite Obama candidates hoping to cash-in even more by the racial connection, we have to wonder where they’ll turn next? Has to be a candidate in Chicago.
Quoting Alex:
“It is a perverse and corrupt system, the USA would do well to destroy the current system and replace with civilian managed procurement.”
Your comment reeks of naivety; civilian companies are as guilty, if not more so in swindling the government – you have simply substituted one title for another without addressing the dishonesty that corrupts the hearts of men, in general.
Hey, Tyler520… have you ever done business with the Feds? Minority-owned, etc., do get special treatment and many shop for an employee and share ownership to qualify for the deals. Tough to compete with them when the contracting officer prefers them and looks-for and encourages “friends” to bid. Been there, seen it and had minority-owned business contract with us after they won a bid without having the capabilities they bid. It’s all an expensive and prejudiced game. Lots of losers; the biggest losers are the taxpayers.
The guy might have been a crook but except for those few cases that can be corrected by surgery Apnea is a disability. A very small percentage of Apnea cases are caused by a deviated septum.
Dwall, the point isn’t that sleep apnea isn’t a chronic and difficult condition, it’s that he listed it as a service related condition, and that seems a bit difficult to credit unless he, oh, had a facial wound.
Does every nominee have to be black? 2 nominess to head TSA. Both black. Both inappropriate for position because of moral transgressions! 13 of 15 recess appointees were minority. What up wif dat?
Sleep apnea is a serious chronic condition that besides the fact you can’t sleep normally, can lead to hypertension, stroke, and a lot of other conditions that ultimately shorten your life (see Reggie White). In many people it is not treatable by surgery.
I disability does not have to be combat related.
It is a service related condition because you were diagnosed while on active duty and the compensation is to defray the continuous financial expense that goes with treating this life-long disability. It’s no different than any other chronic illness that a military service member develops during a career.
I promise, if you had the choice of not having this disability and not having the money, you would forego the money every time.