LOCKHEED MARTIN: FIRST IN FEDERAL FUNDING, FIRST IN GOVERNMENT FRAUD Global Revolution 1: American Revolution 2: Day 23: Communication 1 9 Oct 2011 (g1a2d0023c1) Part 1 of 4: Lockheed Martin, First in Federal Funding Lockheed Martin is by many measures the U.S. government's top contractor, raking in $16.7 billion in new contracts related to "IT products and services, systems integration, telecommunications, professional services and engineering services" in 2010 alone: http://tinyurl.com/4vc7aez And that is only a fraction of what they bank as the top defense contractor at the Pentagon, where on any given day they announce billions in new contracts awarded to Lockheed Martin and other members of the Military Industrial Complex: http://www.defense.gov/Contracts/archive.aspx Part 2 of 4: Lockheed Martin, First in Government Fraud Lockheed Martin also ranks #1 in the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD) of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) - a toothless Washington watchdog - with 57 documented cases of fraud and other illegal activities since 1995: http://www.contractormisconduct.org/index.cfm Lockheed Martin routinely pays fines, penalties and settlements measured in the millions. That may create a false sense of accountability in the public's eye, but with trillions in federal contracts at stake it's a small price to pay: http://tinyurl.com/3oa3osr Part 3 of 4: For Lockheed Martin, Uncle Sam is Much More Than Just a Valued Customer "When Lockheed Martin wanted to sell C-130 military transport planes to the government of Chad in early 2007, the U.S. embassy in N'Djamena was ready to lend a hand. Nevermind that, by the embassy's own reckoning, the Chadian government probably could not afford the planes, was dishonest about their purpose and planned to use the aircraft to crush a pro-democracy rebellion. 'Our conclusion is that, like it or not, our interests line up in favor of allowing the sale in some form to go forward,' the then-ambassador wrote to the State Department." http://tinyurl.com/4db7pbd Part 4 of 4: For Americans, Lockheed Martin is Much More Than Just a Defense Contractor "Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation, is shadowing you? No? Then you haven't been paying much attention. Let me put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it." "True, Lockheed Martin doesn't actually run the U.S. government, but sometimes it seems as if it might as well. After all, it received $36 billion in government contracts in 2008 alone, more than any company in history. It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. It's involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service." "Oh, and Lockheed Martin has even helped train those friendly Transportation Security Administration agents who pat you down at the airport. Naturally, the company produces cluster bombs, designs nuclear weapons, and makes the F-35 Lightning (an overpriced, behind-schedule, underperforming combat aircraft that is slated to be bought by customers in more than a dozen countries) - and when it comes to weaponry, that's just the start of a long list. In recent times, though, it's moved beyond anything usually associated with a weapons corporation and has been virtually running its own foreign policy, doing everything from hiring interrogators for U.S. overseas prisons (including at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq) to managing a private intelligence network in Pakistan and helping write the Afghan constitution." http://tinyurl.com/4wdh66z Related Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/HTV-2_DARPA_Lockheed_Martin_BOONDOGGLE.jpg Related Video: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/297069-1 ### I AM NOT ANONYMOUS. I AM AN AMERICAN. I am not just a Consumer. I am a Citizen. I will no longer be labeled Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative, Demopublican or Republocrat. I will no longer follow Puppets labeled Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative, Demopublican or Republocrat. I am the People. And I am coming for the Puppetmasters. I am part of the 99 Percent. And I demand the following: 1. End the Fed. 2. Reverse Citizens United. 3. Repeal PATRIOT Act. 4. Expose 9/11 Truth. 5. End Profit Wars. 6. Refund Taxpayer Trillions. 7. Imprison the Kleptocrats. 8. Single Term Limits. ### LABELS (A POEM OF PROTEST) "Democrat", "Republican", The parties of the system; Puppets both, for sale their votes, No character or wisdom. "Liberal", "Conservative", For change or status quo? Pick either one, the change is none, All charlatans and whores. Far "Left" we place the Anarchists, Libertarians claim far "Right"; Yet both decry the government: False continuum brought to light. For oil, "We" bomb their mud huts, Strip them bare, then offer "Aid"; And fake their retribution as Pretext--a false flag raised. Unarmed hundred thousands killed By weapons of "Defense", While rights are lost for "Freedom" sake-- On profit, all depends. With stroke of pen, the "Patriot" Act, And patriots' gifts are taken; Then "Citizens United" leaves Our citizens forsaken. We protest loss of liberties, Put "World Wide Web" to use; Cloudmark Authority censors us For "messaging abuse". They label us to finger-point, With labels, "They" deride us; Their labels keep us all at bay, For with labels, "They" divide us. IronBoltBruce ### JOIN THE GLOBAL REVOLUTION! Occupy Wall Street: http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution https://occupywallst.org/ Occupy DC: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/october2011 http://october2011.org/ Occupy LA: http://www.livestream.com/owslosangeles http://occupylosangeles.org/ Occupy Together: http://occupytogether.org/ Watch these Videos: http://tinyurl.com/kleptocracytutorial Take this Pledge: http://wp.me/p19dS3-9o ### PUBLIC NOTICE: No talking heads on Comcast/GE's NBC/CNBC/MSNBC speak for us. No talking heads on Murdoch's Faux News speak for us. No talking heads at the Kleptocracy's Compliant News Network (CNN) speak for us (no matter how dull, deliberate or subtle their delivery). No talking heads in the lamestream media speak for us, period. And neither do ANY of the 537 bought-and-paid-for Kleptocracy puppets in Washington DC who will soon be joining our legions of unemployed!
Nice little throw-away. Lots of propaganda, no real information. So tell me then, what is your solution to fix it? Who will create the systems that Lockheed is building at this time? Joe-Bob's Missile Repair and Garage? And I loved that information you call "Fraud". Did you bother reading more? For one, you say it has more contracts then any other, then you say it has more cases of misconduct allegations. Wow, big surprise there. Well, what are those contracts for? Well, some are for some of the major aircraft they build or maintain, including the F-16, F-22, F-35, and C-130. Another segment is the fire control equipment, like radars. Then there is the space division, which builds satellites for the DoD, NOAA, and NASA. And until it was grounded this year, they were one of the major companies responsible for the maintenance of the shuttle fleet. They also build many other things, from the PATRIOT missile, air traffic control computers, video surveilence systems, and the Trident II missile. They are also the company that provides the "real time tracking" information for the US Postal Service. They also do the live monitering for the Department of Fish & Wildlife animal monitoring system (the radio collars are obsolete, they now do it with GPS). And they are the largest single provider to the DoD. However, they only ammount to 8% (that's right, 8%) of DoD contracts. And on average, their total number of contracts with the US Government number at around 4,600 a year. OK, 4,600 a year. And that "fraud" study has been tracking them since 1995 when the company was created. That is 16 years. And how many cases have they come up with? 57 That's right, 57 cases of "misconduct" in 16 years. From a company that does over 4,000 contracts a year. What fraction of 1% is that? And what is the "misconduct"? Well, they are all kinds of things, from air violations in California, to the cleaning of sites that were abandoned decades ago by companies that were merged to create LM in the first place. Then there is self-reported overbilling (I like that one, they report an accounting error themselves), then there is a case of LM charging to much rent to the FAA (Wait, that was done by a part of IBM that LM bought, and was before they bought them). Then there is the interesting case of Kenneth Phelps, a treasurer for the LM employee PAC. It seems that he embezzled funds from the PAC. Then another, where they bought Loral Metals, a Florida metal working company. But when they bought it, they also assumed responsibility for a clean-up and waste dumping investigation that Florida was already conducting. Then there is the Moses Lake clean-up. This is a bombing range that was used from 1942-1966, and is now in the process of being cleaned up. Seems that Lockheed was one of the major users of the range 50+ years ago, so now they have to clean it up. It is all well and good to throw out allegations like you have. However, you shouuld also be aware that some of us actually have brains, and take the time to research such claims. And the data is not very hard to find out. And interestingly enough, even though Lockheed gets the most government contracts, and the most in cases of misconduct according to this report, they actually rank #3 in the amount of charges related to their misconduct. Boeing has nearly 3 times as much in fines, and Northrop almost 50% more. And Raytheon, which does half as much business as Lockheed and has half the cases of misconduct has a fine bill that is 75% of Lockheed's. In short, when you look at your charges, there is really not much there. I see them paying for a lot of things that was done by companies years before Lockheed even bought them. I see other things that they even reported themselves. And at least one case where it was an embezzlement done upon them by an employee (like that never happens!). OK, so you have thrown out your coprolite. Now what is your solution? Oh, and dump the GD "tinyurl" links, I and a lot of others never click on those because of cases of drive-by pop-ups, spam, and other such garbage. Give us the real links or do not even bother.
it shouldnt be suprising alot of the fraud waste and abuse come from government contractors. i have front row seats to it everyday
Fine, no more jets, no more missles, no more GPS, no more space program, no more PATRIOT missile system, no more stealth, no more cargo aircraft, no more carriers, no more nothing. Lets just strip our military down to an 18th century militia army one only calls up if a hundred million chinese land on the coast of California and to save money we'll make sure they armed with the best muzzle loaders money can buy. That'll show the world we mean business! Geez people are so DENSE. Isolationists suck. Without Lockheed-Martin we might as well build trebuchets and ballistas.
So our only choices are being conned by criminals or using trebuchets and ballistas? The fix is easy. Cut Lockheed Martins budget in HALS, and if they do not produce working hardware at the same level as promised now, we start weekly waterboarding (its not "torture", right?) for every failure to meet a weekly goal, and after 6 months we start executing for treason, starting at the CEO and working down the executive tree. It is not the WORLD that needs to know we mean "business", its the defense contractors.
Oh I see. So you endorse the creation of a Soviet-style Dictatorial State against any sector of the economy you dislike. Thank you for clearing that up for me.
Lockheed Martin has experienced its ups and downs. Traditionally, it has competed with Boeing, and it tried to distinguish itself from other manufacturers by using Skunkworks as its model - small teams of engineers having as much free hand as possible and having full free access to other engineer's offices and workshops. Lockheed would also set up its engineering offices right next to workshops to maximize communication and feedback between staff involved in theoretical and practical, hands on aspects of its projects. Apparently, Lockheed hates 'bean counters' i.e. air force officers charged with overseeing projects at the contractor's plants and holding engineers financially accountable for every last penny spent. I wouldn't be surprised if Obama gave a slight preferential treatment to Lockheed over Boeing, one to compensate it for the miggity F-22 contract given all the time, money and resources Lockheed spent on it, and second because there was a small love affair in progress between this company and the Democrats going back to the Carter's administration when Carter cancelled several programs including the B-1 to pool resources behind the B-1 Stealth. Lockheed back in 1976 claimed that B-1 was already obsolete and Carter seemed to have agreed. If Lockheed got a lucky break now, it's a turnaround from the company's fortunes in the last 20 years since it lost contract to Northrop's B-2.
The reason that Lockheed gets so many contracts is that it is a highly diverse corporation, and works on a huge number of different systems. If you look at Boeing, almost everything they do deals with aircraft. Lockheed on the other hand works on aircraft, missiles, tanks, ships, radar, rockets, optics, night vision devices, robotics, logistics, maintenance, computer systems, radios, and a great many other areas. Their single higher end contracts are generally for smaller amounts then Boeing's, but they have many many more of them, in many areas that Boeing has never had any interest.
So I guess it's a more diverse company with a wider portfolio. They derived lessons from the early 90s aviation industry crunch and developed a strategy to modestly satisfy their shareholders independently of the economic cycles. That way they don't need to go through large layoffs and re-hiring. And I meant to say F-117 rather than B-1 Stealth.
