ROCKET RACKET: HOW THE NEW MISSILE DEFENSE SCAM IS SCREWING THE PUBLIC, AGAIN. Whistleblower fired. Part 2
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After a few conversations, Baker says, he was able to clear things up, and he assumed it had all been a misunderstanding. But then, on March 13, Grant called him again, asking about rumors that Baker had somehow angered three Army colonels by behaving inappropriately. Again, Baker says, he was surprised. He had never met two of the three colonels in question, he says. And once again, Baker says, he was able to clear things up in the course of a few conversations, and everything seemed fine.
Then, on the morning of March 15, Baker says he received another phone call from Grant. This time, he says, he was told he'd been taken off the missile-defense contract. He was instructed not to go to work and told to turn in his security credentials and his keys to COLSA's local headquarters, where his office and his work computer were located.
Baker says Grant told him the orders came from Thomas DeVanney, a deputy to Gen. Holly. Two days later, Baker says, Grant called again -- this time from a pay phone -- and told Baker he'd been "under a lot of pressure" to get rid of him, and that the orders had originated from Holly himself.
Grant declined to comment on the circumstances of Baker's departure, citing the fact that the matter is under federal investigation. However, he praised Baker. "He was a productive employee," Grant said. "He did good work. He did everything I asked him to do and more. I found him to be honest, forthright and congenial."
A March 15 e-mail message from Grant to Baker supports the notion that outside pressures were involved. "I am also angry and feel I have let you down," Grant wrote. "I should have been able to protect you, but could not. ... You were not fired from COLSA. We were directed to have you stop charging to the GMD contract."
The Missile Defense Agency, in a written statement, denied the agency had been involved. "The information we have is that Mr. Baker resigned from his job with [COLSA]," the agency's statement read. "We cannot comment on personnel actions taken by private firms. ... No MDA official played any role in Mr. Baker's current status with his company."
Baker did indeed resign from COLSA -- but that was after he had been taken off the missile-defense contract, which was the only work he was being paid to do, he notes.
The Missile Defense Agency, meanwhile, claims in its written statement that Holly "immediately referred Mr. Baker's allegations to the DoD IG [the Department of Defense Inspector General]," and that "Holly also appointed a member of his staff to look into Mr. Baker's allegations of fraud, waste and abuse. This evaluation is still underway."
The battering ram
Many details of the government contracts, including budgets and timelines, could not be officially verified, due to the refusal of SY Technology to discuss Baker's allegations, and the very limited statements from military agencies regarding his claims.
Individuals with insider knowledge of the issue did, for the most part, also refuse to comment, several of them expressing unease about the topic. And most of Baker's documentation was on a computer hard drive to which he lost access upon being fired, he says.
However, his claims that missile-defense contracts are being improperly awarded are backed by an attorney representing one of SY Technology's contracting rivals, DESE Research of Huntsville. The attorney, Howell Roger Riggs, has been trying to build a legal case against SY Technology, claiming that a cozy relationship between SY Technology and the Space and Missile Defense Command is putting DESE out of business.
Riggs has presented in court the controversial allegation that Garner is receiving "payoff" for supporting his successors at the Space and Missile Defense Command during a lengthy feud between the command and U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, which came to a head last year.
The fight was over the future of a proposed project known as the Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite weapon, an orbiting "battering ram" designed to knock enemy satellites out of the sky. Successive leaders of Space and Missile Defense Command -- beginning with Gen. Garner -- had lost faith in the weapon's potential and tried to halt its development. Smith, who still believed in the project, fought their efforts and in 2000 asked the General Accounting Office to examine whether they had taken funds intended for the project and diverted them to other uses. The accounting office found that the command had indeed misspent some of the funds.
In another move, Smith also used his powers to temporarily block the retirement of one of Garner's successors at the command, Gen. John Costello.
Smith's interventions angered Garner, who by then had become president of SY Technology. Garner later lashed out at Smith, in an August 2001 article in the National Journal, in which he accused Smith of having abused the powers of his office.
In February of this year, Riggs suggested in U.S. District Court in Alabama that the sole-source Site Activation Command contract being negotiated with SY Technology was "payoff" for Garner's show of loyalty to Costello and his old command.
Though retired general officers are banned from soliciting business from their former commands, SY Technology has received lucrative contracts from the Space and Missile Defense Command since Garner joined the firm. According to the company's own Web site, its annual revenues have more than quadrupled since the former general joined, from $14 million in 1997 to $65 million last year.
The two generals who have headed the Space and Missile Defense Command during most of that time -- Costello and the current commander, Gen. Joseph Cosumano -- have both been close personal friends of Garner's for at least 20 years, Garner testified in a court deposition in February. Riggs provided the Independent with portions of the official transcript from the deposition.
Riggs' allegation that Garner may be receiving "payoff" is the sole aspect of this story on which SY Technology would comment. Mike Fees, the company's attorney, dismissed the accusation.
"It simply is not so," Fees said.
Riggs' allegation should be viewed in light of the fact that he's litigating against SY Technology, Fees suggested.
Gen. John Costello, former commander of the Space and Missile Defense Command
"The role of a lawyer in a lawsuit is often to advocate positions and articulate arguments that a judge often determines are illegitimate and lack merit," Fees said. "We believe that the judge will do that in this case."
In his February deposition, Garner himself denied using personal relationships to land contracts.
"I do not go to my friends for business," Garner said, according to the transcript. "I get business from my friends, but it's not solicited by me. It's given to us because of the quality of our company."
Deja vu
In another twist to the story, a civilian employee who worked on the anti-satellite weapon project for the Space and Missile Defense Command, Steve Tiwari, said he was also subjected to allegations of harassment in retaliation for going up against missile-defense commanders.
Tiwari, who shared Sen. Smith's enthusiasm for the anti-satellite weapons project, has claimed that he was pressured by his commanders to oppose it. He refused. In 1999, he was accused of sexually harassing a female co-worker and of misappropriating funds. Like Biff Baker, he was taken off his project.
The allegations were "absolutely, totally false," says Riggs, who also represents Tiwari.
After several investigations, Tiwari was eventually cleared and put back on the project, which ended up being transferred to another military agency. Tiwari, who is of Asian descent, is now suing the government, claiming racial discrimination.
Riggs, commenting on the parallels between Tiwari's case and Baker's, says he believes people at the Space and Missile Defense Command "engage in a pattern of using these kinds of investigations to destroy the careers of civilians who don't toe the line."
A member of Smith's staff, who is also familiar with Tiwari's case, recently met with Baker. The staff member, who requested anonymity, says he was struck by the similarities in how the two were treated.
"It was almost hearing the same story from a different individual," the staff member said.
Working very hard
Since being fired, Baker has contacted numerous federal agencies and politicians, asking for a thorough investigation into missile-defense contracting practices. He has met with Sen. Allard, whose staff confirmed last week that it is still looking into Baker's allegations.
"We have been working very hard on that case," said Sean Conway, Allard's press secretary. Allard's office has asked the General Accounting Office and the Department of Defense Inspector General to investigate, and the various offices have had "numerous phone conversations" with one another about the case, Conway said.
Baker received a preliminary response from the Inspector General's office on May 31, stating that he wasn't entitled to whistleblower protection under federal law because he worked for a subcontractor, not a prime contractor. The federal whistleblower law "only protects employees of prime contractors," wrote Jane Deese, the office's director of special inquiries.
However, Deese wrote, Baker's allegations of fraud, waste and abuse have been forwarded to other Pentagon agencies for further investigation.
Baker says he also repeatedly contacted Colorado Springs Congressman Joel Hefley, but received no response. Hefley's failure to ever acknowledge his correspondence prompted Baker to decide that he would challenge Hefley in this fall's election, Baker says. He is now running against the Republican Hefley as a Libertarian.
Hefley -- who received $2,000 in campaign contributions from SY Technology executives in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics -- also declined to comment to the Independent.
Meanwhile, staff in Sen. Smith's office are watching the matter with great interest, said the staff member who met with Baker.
"The more we hear, it doesn't sound right what's going on down there," he said, referring to the Space and Missile Defense Command's operations in Huntsville. "We want a fair review of the practices going on down there."
Baker, who resumed teaching part-time at Colorado Technical University, says he isn't suing anyone or seeking any compensation. All he's asking for, he says, is a thorough review of missile-defense contracting practices, and accountability for anyone who may have broken the law.
"I'm morally offended that the taxpayers are being screwed out of all this money," Baker said. |
