Top Air Force Official Dies in Apparent Suicide (Tanker Competition)

[lovuian]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/us/16contract.html?ex=1350187200&en=f38c8519216efbe1&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — The second-highest-ranking member of the Air Force’s procurement office was found dead Sunday in an apparent suicide, Air Force and police officials said Monday.

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A retired Air Force officer, Mr. Riechers (pronounced REE-kers) had a record of accomplishment in aviation and electronic warfare and had received commendations for his role as a manager in Pentagon purchasing. The Air Force’s procurement programs have been handicapped for years by accusations of favoritism, inefficiency and technical shortfalls, and Mr. Riechers’s new role in the procurement office was supposed to have been repairing the damage.

Instead, his death appears likely only to call renewed attention to those problems.

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Payments to Mr. Riechers totaling $26,788 were confirmed by Mary Bevan, a spokeswoman for the Concurrent Technologies Corporation, the parent of Commonwealth Research, or C.R.I.
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recent questions focusing narrowly on Mr. Riechers, the Pentagon and the Justice Department are conducting criminal investigations into the possibility of bribery and other offenses involving some $6 billion in contracts to provide essential supplies to American troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.

Criminal activity aside, Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing this month that far too many weapons acquisitions had been plagued by “cost increases, late deliveries to the war fighters and performance shortfalls.”

Mr. Levin said 25 of the Pentagon’s major defense acquisition programs had experienced cost overruns of at least 50 percent. And he expressed concern about an “alarming lack of acquisition planning across the department.”
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So this is about 40 billion in contracts not 13,000 dollars

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1192526223114750.xml&coll=3
Key Air Force figure involved in tanker competition is dead
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he newspaper said Riechers was employed by Commonwealth for two months but did no work for the company. Instead, he worked for Payton on projects including the tanker contest, which pits Boeing Co. against Northrop Grumman Corp. for a $40 billion contract that could bring a tanker assembly complex to Mobile.

"I really didn't do anything for (Commonwealth)," Riechers told The Post. "I got a paycheck from them."

The Air Force defended the arrangement, saying Monday that it "identified an opportunity to gain immediately from Mr. Riechers expertise."

Commonwealth and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies Corp., have received hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts from the Pentagon in recent years, The Post reported. The company, registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit charity, also has received more than $100 million in earmarks from lawmakers
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OMG its registered under a nonprofit charity OMG

[lovuian]

1. From the Front Page of the 'Post' -- To a High-Profile Suicide

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003658688

NEW YORK Exactly two weeks ago, a front page story in The Washington Post by Robert O'Harrow, Jr. began: "While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews.
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"Riechers said in an interview that his interactions with Commonwealth Research were limited largely to a Christmas party, where he said he met company officials for the first time. 'I really didn't do anything for CRI,' said Riechers, now principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. 'I got a paycheck from them.'"

Flash forward to tonight, in the same paper: "The Air Force's second-highest-ranking procurement official was found dead Sunday night at his Virginia home in an apparent suicide, an internal Air Force memo said.

"Charles D. Riechers, 47, principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisitions, 'was found deceased in his home, cause of death appears to be suicide, time of death is unknown,' according to the memo, sent late Sunday by the Air Force Operations Center in the Pentagon."
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Isn't the AirForce so nice they get jobs where you don't have to work

[lovuian]

3. US Air Force arms buyer's autopsy could take weeks

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1635361620071016

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Determining the cause of death of the U.S. Air Force's second-highest-ranking weapons buyer may take several weeks, the medical examiner's office said on Tuesday.

Charles Riechers, 47, was found dead at his Virginia home on Sunday in an apparent suicide, an internal Air Force memorandum said.

Nancy Bull, district administrator for the northern regional office of Virginia's chief medical examiner, said it could be weeks before the cause of death is known. "Sometime the tests do take that long," she said. "The results are still pending."
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Riechers' ties to Commonwealth Research, registered as a nonprofit in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, sparked new questions last week about a disputed $1.2 billion contract awarded to Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for depot maintenance of the KC-135 refueling tanker fleet.

Pemco Aviation Group (PAGI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday amended its protest to the Government Accountability Office over the contract, which fell under Riechers' purview. It raised questions about any conflict of interest because of purported ties among Commonwealth, its corporate parent, Concurrent Technologies, and Boeing.
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Why commit suicide?

Russian point of view
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/feedback/16-10-2007/98912-us_air_force-0
Charles D. Riechers was 'found dead of apparent suicide' after coming under the scrutiny of the United States Senate for alleged payments being made to him by the Commonwealth Research Institute, whose parent company is Concurrent Technologies, and which is headed by the secretive Neocon financier of America's top War Leaders, Daniel R. DeVos.

These reports to the Kremlin, however, state that Mr. Riechers' 'suicide' was, most likely, due to his involvement in the American Neocon plot to secret US nuclear missiles outside of the control of the
US Air Force to be used for an attack upon Iran,
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Lots of speculation out there
Apparent suicide but not official pending the autopsy

[lildreamer316]

2. OMG indeed. WTF!!!! n/t

[lovuian]

4. Oh look Reicher was into some heavy money (Navy Times)

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/airforce_riechers_071015/

A civilian Air Force acquisitions official has died.

Charles D. Riechers, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management, was found dead in his home late Sunday night by Loudoun County, Va., police responding to an unattended death call, according to Kraig Troxell, a spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Riechers’ body was discovered by friends who called in the incident, Troxell said.A Virginia state medical examiner performed an autopsy Monday morning, but could not release any other information.

An Air Force internal communication announcing Riechers’ death said that the cause of death appeared to be suicide. The sheriff’s office is investigating the cause of death and could not confirm the appearance of a suicide.

But the Air Force released an official statement Oct. 15, saying Riechers had “passed away this weekend,” and that “details of this incident are under investigation by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
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According to the Air Force Oct. 15 statement, “he was key advisor for the Air Force’s highest priority acquisition programs such as KC-X, CSAR-X, Next Generation Bomber, and 5th Generation Fighters. His extraordinary technical expertise and his polished leadership style were well respected in the Pentagon. His work there led to many successes in Air Force Acquisition Transformation including progress on high-level initiatives such as Open Architectures, Directed Energy Programs, Alternate Fuels Programs and process improvements to increase the speed, agility, and cost effectiveness of major acquisition programs.”

Riechers was the subject of an Oct. 1 Washington Post report citing a two-month contract he received from Commonwealth Research Institute, a tax-exempt nonprofit that works in various capacities supporting the Pentagon. The story revealed that Riechers had almost no interaction with CRI during his employment there, and that his contract was arranged at the request of the Air Force.
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Again I can't freakin believe it
tax exempt nonprofit OMG!!!
who in the hell gets thats status