Air Force Official Commits Suicide

This is one of those tragedies that really seem to be hiding something bigger:

Air Force's No. 2 weapons buyer found dead

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force's No. 2 acquisition official, facing scrutiny for a temporary job arranged by the service while he awaited Senate confirmation, was found dead at his home in an apparent suicide, according to an internal Air Force memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

"Mr. Riechers was found deceased in his home, cause of death appears to be suicide, time of death is unknown," said the memo, which was issued late Sunday.

Charles Riechers, principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition, was working on the Air Force's highest priority weapons programs, including a $40 billion aerial refueling tanker that is due to be awarded late this year or early next, and a $15 billion combat search and rescue helicopter.

People do not normally commit suicide while they are waiting for a Senate confirmation. So what is going on here?

Like many similar questions, this one may go unanswered and be condemned to conspiracy theory hell.

The article mentions this:

[...]The Washington Post reported on October 1 that Riechers was hired for two months by defense contractor Commonwealth Research Institute at the request of the Air Force while Riechers was out of work and awaiting Senate confirmation for his new position. The job paid $13,400 a month.

$13,400 A MONTH! I don't know about you, but that is a lot of money to me. He must have been doing some important work for defense contractor CRI:

[...]"I really didn't do anything for CRI," Riechers told the newspaper. "I got a paycheck from them."

Or not.

So let me get this straight. A guy who is the Air Force's No. 2 acquisition officer was getting $13,400 per month from a defense contractor. Then, he kills himself two weeks after this conflict of interest is revealed to the public.

Now, I'm no lawyer, but Riechers' conflict of interest has to be illegal:

[...]Riechers' predecessor, Darleen Druyun, served nine months in jail in 2005 for violating federal conflict of interest laws by taking a job with Boeing while still overseeing billions of dollars of its work for the Air Force.

So it is illegal.

Well, I am sure Bush's Department of Justice will get right on this... oh, wait, they won't do anything. It is Bush's culture of corruption that allowed this to happen in the first place (and in the second place and in a whole bunch of other places). It's all part of their "free market" idealogy. See, the "free" in free market means "free" to break the law and enable corruption if it helps the greedy corporations get more money at the expense of American taxpayers.

Well, I am sure the Congress will do something about this... oh, wait, I forgot how busy they were capitulating to the worst President in U.S. history on Iraq and FISA and SCHIP.

So, carry on. Nothing to see here. Our government is too busy screwing us out of our hard-earned cash and giving it to corporate welfare programs. It's too busy stealing from the poor to give to the rich. It's too busy racking up record levels of debt that our grandchildren will be slaves to.

It doesn't have time to weed out corruption, establish a fair market economy, eliminate corporate welfare, and give us what this country actually needs like an exit stratagy from Iraq, a universal public health care program, and a serious plan to end the threat of global warming.

::sigh::

Look, we don't have to put up with this. We can change our country for the better if we all work together. We, the people, are supposed to be in charge of this country, and corruption occurs easily when we aren't paying attention and aren't demanding better from our representatives in government. We are their bosses, not the other way around.