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To: Skywatcher who wrote (16084)	12/5/2003 11:09:30 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 48461

Boeing Investments Win Potent Friends By J. LYNN LUNSFORD Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Although it is under fire from many quarters for perceived ethical shortcomings, Boeing Co. may still have a large reservoir of goodwill in Washington that its newly appointed chairman and chief executive, Harry Stonecipher, can count on to help rebuild the reputation of the aerospace company. Like other big contractors that do much of their business with the Pentagon, Chicago-based Boeing has hired or given consulting contracts to several former top government officials. But more than most of its peers, the company also has invested heavily in funds run by venture-capital firms that either employ or are advised by well-connected Washington insiders who could conceivably carry the Boeing message to decision makers. In recent years, Boeing has committed to invest around $250 million in 29 or so venture-capital funds scattered around the world, the company said. One of its biggest commitments -- some $20 million -- is to Trireme Partners of New York. A principal in Trireme, which invests in homeland-security technologies, is Richard Perle, a former Reagan administration assistant secretary of defense who until March was chairman of the Defense Policy Board, which is a group of former high-level military officials and security experts that advises the defense secretary. Boeing's other big financial commitment -- again $20 million -- is to Paladin Capital Group, a Washington, D.C., firm that runs a homeland-security investment fund. R. James Woolsey, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a member of the Defense Policy Board, is a principal at Paladin. Messrs. Perle and Woolsey couldn't be reached for comment. Mr. Woolsey in March told The Wall Street Journal that he rejected any notion that contractors used their relations with Defense Policy Board members to influence Pentagon decisions. "I cannot recall a single contractor matter coming before the [advisory] boards I sit on," he said at the time. Mr. Perle stepped down as chairman of the Defense Policy Board in March after questions were raised over whether he had violated ethics laws by representing companies, including telecommunications company Global Crossing Ltd., that had dealings with the Defense Department. The Pentagon's inspector general determined that Mr. Perle hadn't violated the law and he remains on the advisory board as a member. In August, Mr. Perle, in his capacity as a member of the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, co-wrote an opinion piece that appeared in The Wall Street Journal arguing in favor of the Boeing tanker deal. He said that without the deal, "projecting and sustaining air power would not be possible." Some Boeing critics had questioned whether the company had ghost-written the op-ed piece. Boeing said yesterday that it had briefed Mr. Perle in his capacity at the American Enterprise Institute but that it "neither authored, nor placed" the piece, but did fact-check it. More>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107059586420671400,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us