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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Bush DOD Official Returns to Business

Gordon England, the former deputy secretary of defense who replaced the controversial Paul Wolfowitz in 2005, has returned from whence he came. England came to the Bush administration from the defense industry, and at the end of the administration he passed back through the revolving door joining government and industry.
But the military-industrial complex is not what is used to be. Over the last eight years a new complex has emerged. It’s no longer simply a realm occupied by just Pentagon and defense contractors.
During the Bush administration the intelligence and security businesses have exploded with federal contracts, spurring the creation and evolution of corporations that depend on three income streams: defense, homeland security, and intelligence contracts.
Upon leaving government, England became president of E6 Partners, which is an international business company that has a “special emphasis in the defense and security sectors.” England’s two partners in this startup consulting firm also passed back through the revolving door to the private sector after leaving high positions at the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, where they specialized in technology and procurement.
England recently made the news when he was appointed to the board of CACI International. CACI is a major homeland security, intelligence, and military contractor, which has been reaping in hundreds of millions of new contracts in the last year.
Not only does England bring his experience and contacts as deputy defense secretary to the private sector. He is also an attractive addition to the emerging defense/homeland security/intelligence complex because of his former position as secretary of Navy during the first George W. Bush administration.
England came to government from industry. His industry experience before being tapped by President Bush to be Navy secretary included being vice president at General Dynamic, president of Lockheed Ft. Worth, and space engineer at Honeywell.Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) awarded Secretary of Navy England its Henry M. Jackson Service Award.
JINSA is a Washington, DC policy institute that represents the interests of Israel’s right-wing Likud party and the Israeli military, and it is closely associated with the U.S. neoconservative camp and U.S. military contractors.
Next: Intelligence Contracting Extends Far Beyond Blackwater

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