Report: 70% of Retired US Generals Take Jobs With Defense Corporations

About 70 percent of retired three-and-four star generals took jobs with defense contractors or consultants, according to a report released Monday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Brave New Foundation. Huffington Post:

The report found that 76 out of 108 top generals took such jobs from 2009 to 2011, and a few continued to advise the Department of Defense while on the payroll of contractors. The report cited Gen. James Cartwright, who was elected to a paid position on Raytheon’s board of directors while serving on the Defense Policy Board. Adm. Gary Roughead also served on the board while joining the board of Northrop Grumman, earning $115,000 per year.

While this kind of legalized corruption is the essence of the revolving door associated with the military-industrial complex in the United States, this number has actually declined slightly in recent years.

In a Boston Globe review conducted in 2010, it was found that “750 of the highest ranking generals and admirals who retired during the last two decades” moved “into what many in Washington call the ‘rent-a-general’ business.” “From 2004-2008,” the report found, “80 percent of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives” in our massive military-industrial complex. Among the Globe findings:

  • Dozens of retired generals employed by defense firms maintain Pentagon advisory roles, giving them unparalleled levels of influence and access to inside information on Department of Defense procurement plans.
  • The generals are, in many cases, recruited for private sector roles well before they retire, raising questions about their independence and judgment while still in uniform. The Pentagon is aware and even supports this practice.
  • The feeder system from some commands to certain defense firms is so powerful that successive generations of commanders have been hired by the same firms or into the same field. For example, the last seven generals and admirals who worked as Department of Defense gatekeepers for international arms sales are now helping military contractors sell weapons and defense technology overseas.

Here is the Brave New Foundation video put out with the report:

32 thoughts on “Report: 70% of Retired US Generals Take Jobs With Defense Corporations”

  1. Do these guys have any morality, ethics, and above all honor ? The military is supposed to be this thing about honor, integrity etc. Worse, the weapons are sold and used to kill innocent civilians ala Israel. Militarism has killed my country.

    1. Hey pal…it's never been about "honor"…read Smedley Butler, America's most decorated US Marine hero…

      Jerr aus Berlin

    2. Military virtue includes lying and deceit. Military honor is shooting someone in the back.

      Military justice is to justice is what military music is to music and military honor is to honor or worse of all what military service is to service..

      1. Whores are self-employed small business people trying to get by in spite of governmental harassment. The sort of people Republicans claim to support until they were taken over by the warfare wing of the Democratic party.

  3. The more charismatic ones show up on TV to be interviewed. And of course, they all say "stay the course" and that more money is needed for "defense." Sadly, their corporate titles are not displayed under their names printed on the screen.

  4. I'd say the story here is the 30 per cent who found something else to do. I'm really sort of scared to find out. Prolly not full-time volunteers with helping charities, like the retirees I know, huh?

    'Honor'.

  5. From time a youth enters school, and even before in majority of homes, they are told lies about nations history and indoctrinated into believing they owe those freedoms to the military.
    We pay homage to battles and the men that excell in battles on a daily basis in todays US and have forgotten, as if most of populace ever knew them. the ideals upon which the nation is based.
    Thete is no sepetation between a military service man and the military industrial for there is no seperation in government and the military or industrial scientific and financial they are now all “The System.”
    That it not thpught off as being an honorable trait to act witin that system bythe few is an example of how vorrupt the system truly is.
    Yet the nations peoples themselves put in place the system they live not under but within.
    You cannot have an honorable system of government when the damn populace does not have a clue what the word “HONOR”means.

  6. Pingback: Report: 70% of Retired US Generals Take Jobs With Defense Corporations ~ Antiwar « Stop Making Sense
  7. Pingback: Report: 70% of Retired US Generals Take Jobs With Defense Corporations | 9/11 - A Cheap Magic Trick

  8. WELL I SAW WHERE A 4 STAR GENERAL GOT DEMOTED TO A 3 STARR, RETIREMENT DROPED TO $228,000.00 FROM $328,000.00 PER YEAR, i GUESS THEY NEED MORE WHORE MONEY HA. WHY DO WE NEED SO MANY GENERALS?

    HOW MUCH DOES A ENLISTED MAN OR WOMEN GE ? AROUND $20-30,000.00 THE BALANCE HAS NEVER BEND CORRECT. DAN HORN

  10. While this kind of legalized corruption is the essence of the revolving door associated with the military-industrial complex in the United States, this number has actually declined slightly in recent years.

  13. Pingback: The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives | USA COINTELPRO VICTIM OF THE PATRIOT ACT
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  15. While this kind of legalized corruption is the essence of the revolving door associated with the military-industrial complex in the United States, this number has actually declined slightly in recent years.

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  27. Rand Paul yanl?s? müdahale yanl?s? imparatorluk ona Ron Paul al?nan çapraz destek bir çok mal olacak duruyor. Sava? kar??t? hareket o günkü kurultaylar? tek seçenek olarak onu destekledi Örne?in, Ron Paul, Denver ?ehir bölge komiteleri süpürüldü. Bu destek müdahalecilik ve sonra ba?ka bir 'dü?man' sürekli ?eytanla?t?rmaya Ron Paul'un daha 'mainstream' görü?lerine çevirmek olmaz. Rand Paul Ron Paul in?a etmeye ba?lam??t? coaltion devam edemiyor.

  29. That's the spirit! And the level of discourse I'd expect on a website founded after Clinton went to war against Serbia.
    I wonder just how many of you Rockwell/Paul fans realize you're being played and used to support nefarious causes.

  30. Looking at Dugin in the paper is very interesting. Dugin has a romantic streak, and if one can get past it, his thoughts are very insightfull. Putin's own understanding of the modern human's yearning for tradition and stability, for natural conservativism as opposed to the revolutionary urges of American neoconservatives — is somewhat rooted in Dugin's understanding of history and the contemporary humans.

  31. Dugin's insight is based mostly on the tradition of Orthodox Christianity, the only Christian thought left in the world that does not confer on humans to interpret good and evil, and hence dependant on politics.

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