Did you know that your hard earned tax dollars were going to a program in which the U.S. military embeds senior officers in private companies to ostensibly learn business practices? Did you know this has been going on for the better part of 30 years and that a disproportionate number of these embeds go to major arms contractors like Boeing and Lockheeed Martin where they return, essentially as free lobbyists, to make their case for the companies’ programs and contact preferences before top brass in the E-Ring?
Brett Heintz is a Security and Foreign Influence research assistant at the Quincy Institute. He and another colleague, Ben Freeman, recently published a report— a very well researched report, entitled, Subsidizing the Military-Industrial Complex: A Review of the Secretary of Defense Executive Fellows (SDEF) Program. A pretty innocuous title, you might say, but what they found is much more compelling, and not in a good way. He joins us to talk about it today.
More from Brett Heinz:
The military is embedding officers in corporate America
How the DC Metro is a tool for the military industrial complex
How Lockheed's $7.9B stock buyback bonanza is paid for by you