Secretary of Air Force James G. Roche resigns.

[Simeon Salus]

Is it just me, or are a lot of folks jumping ship here?

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2004/nr20041116-1543.html

No. 1174-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 16, 2004
Secretary of The Air Force James G. Roche Resigns

Secretary James G. Roche today submitted his resignation as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force. Secretary Roche had advised Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in early October of his intention to complete his service at the end of the first Bush administration.

“Jim Roche has led the Air Force during an important period in history,” said Secretary Rumsfeld. “Combined with his distinguished career with the United States Navy, Secretary Roche has served our country capably and with honor. I thank him for his service and wish him all the best.”

Secretary Roche plans to depart January 20, 2005, or sooner if his successor is confirmed by the Senate before then.

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. I think the ocean's getting a bit body heavy.

I'd love to see statistics on "mid-term" turnover when a president is re-elected. My instinct tells me this is unusual, but I'd like to see that verified by historical numbers.

[Beetwasher]

2. Resignations Are Normal, But NOT Like This and NOT w/ a CIA Purge

This is a veritable FLOOD in a few days...Usually, I believe they are spaced out a bit more...

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. That's what I thought.

This is f*ing scary.

[PurityOfEssence]

7. The CIA purge is truly a coup

Intelligence gathering is supposed to be non-partisan and not subject to policy; sensors are merely for acquiring data and giving a first glance of assessment.

EVERYTHING is political with these people, as Rand Beers, John DiIulio and others have pointed out. As such, overwhelming all dissent in the spook world is nothing short of an attempt at complete dominance.

So where is John Poindexter these days?

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Can't give ya firm links but this isn't unusual

Clinton had, I think, seven. Reagan had six. Both had smaller cabinets, however, so the percentage of turnover is higher this time.

But no, on balance, this is not ususual.

What seems odd to me, however, is how fast the announcements are coming and how quick for key post appointments.

[Simeon Salus]

14. I found some firm links

Reagan had seven. (Attorney General, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, Treasury)

Clinton had seven. (Commerce, Defense, Energy, HUD, Labor, State, Transportation)

So far Bush has six. (Agriculture, Attorney General, Commerce, Education, Energy, State)

www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/cabinettable.pdf

Did I miss anything?

[PittLib]

3. So I guess we're changing horses...

just not the horse's ass.

[Ima]

11. Name base worth a look

http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_ROCHE_JAMES_G

[Simeon Salus]

5. NY Times doesn't have anything yet, so this must have hit right after work

but I found this...

NATIONAL DESK | September 26, 2004, Sunday

Influence Is at Issue In Military Contract

( Reuters ) 201 words
Late Edition - Final , Section 1 , Page 29 , Column 4

DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF 201 WORDS - Air Force Secretary James G. Roche contacted his former employer Northrop Grumman last year to help a brother of a top White House aide try to land a job, the company said ... Mr. Roche's intervention came as he sought the aide's support for a multibillion-dollar lease of 100 Boeing...

No link. I found it while searching the Times site.

[suegeo]

6. So was Roche in charge of the A.F. stand down on 9.11?

Someone had to be in charge of getting the airforce to stand down on 9.11.

Maybe it wasn't Roche, but maybe this dork can explain to me why I should accept the poor (non) response of the airforce on the morning that the Reichstag was set on fire. Oh, excuse me, after the communists flew airplanes into our buildings, or whatever they're trying to get us to believe now.

[Simeon Salus]

8. From Official Biography

http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?name=James+Roche

Prior to this appointment, Secretary Roche held several executive positions with Northrop Grumman Corp., including Corporate Vice President and President, Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman in 1984, he was Democratic Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

Secretary Roche's previous military service spanned 23 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring with the rank of captain in 1983. As a naval officer, his assignments included Principal Deputy Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff; Senior Professional Staff Member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; and Assistant Director for the Defense Department's Office of Net Assessment. He commanded the USS Buchanan, a guided missile destroyer, and was awarded the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy for the Navy's most improved combat unit in the Pacific in 1974.

Secretary Roche has served as a member of the Secretary of Defense's Policy Board and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Dr. Roche has been awarded various campaign ribbons and military medals.

[Ima]

9. I wonder

if he is going back to Northrop Grumman Corp.

[MSgt213]

10. More then likely he will be selling the DoD all sorts of shit by mornin

[Simeon Salus]

12. I guess he had nowhere up to go...

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041115-124102-1142r.htm

"For months, the Senate Armed Services Committee refused to act on the nomination of Air Force Secretary James G. Roche to succeed Mr. White. Finally, Mr. Roche bailed out."

So unless he went into the private sector, he was going nowhere fast, and the war isn't getting any lovelier anytime soon.

[saigon68]

15. They are looking forward to 2008

Rove and company are aleady planning the next election. Their New Neocon pro-corporation team is being put into place.

[Simeon Salus]

16. Wahington Post jumps in...

Roche, Top Aide Plan to Resign Air Force Posts
Secretary, Acquisitions Chief Are Criticized on Boeing Deal

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 17, 2004; Page A11

Air Force Secretary James G. Roche and the service's senior weapons acquisition manager plan to resign before the start of the second Bush administration, senior Defense Department officials said yesterday.

Roche and Air Force assistant secretary for acquisitions Marvin R. Sambur were involved in the past three years in a scandal-ridden proposal to lease new fuel tanker aircraft for the Air Force from the Boeing Co. The lease program has been blocked by Congress, and two top officials from Boeing and the Air Force have pleaded guilty in federal court to ethics violations; related investigations are underway.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said neither Roche nor Sambur was pushed and that both were leaving "on their own volition. . . . Both have served well." In a statement, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Roche "led the Air Force during an important period in history. . . . I thank him for his service and wish him all the best."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55154-2004Nov16.html

[maddezmom]

17. and more on Roche from WP: Air Force Pitch for Boeing Detailed

Air Force Secretary James G. Roche asked a lobbyist for Boeing Co. to use the company's Washington contacts to "quash" a deputy undersecretary of defense and make him "pay an appropriate price" for objecting to the Air Force's decision to lease Boeing 767 tanker aircraft, according to e-mails released yesterday by a Republican senator critical of the tanker deal.




Roche also pressured independent military cost analysts who questioned the high price of the lease, described other internal Pentagon (news - web sites) critics as "animals," and ridiculed executives at European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) and its Airbus division, the consortium that offered a competing plan, the e-mails show. He told his top public relations aide to "blow . . . away" the EADS chairman for raising questions about the Air Force decision to work with Boeing.


At one point in the three-year Air Force campaign for the lease, Roche e-mailed a friend at Raytheon Co., "Privately between us: Go Boeing!"


Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) (R-Ariz.), who has conducted an equally vigorous campaign against the lease, said in releasing the internal Pentagon communications in a speech on the Senate floor that the missives reflect a "systemic Air Force failure in procurement oversight, willful blindness or rank corruption."

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=716&e=16&u=/washpost/20041120/ts_washpost/a63815_2004nov19