Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician,government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford,and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the oldest secretary of defense. Additionally,Rumsfeld was a four-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969),director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970),counselor to the president (1969–1973),the U.S. Representative to NATO (1973–1974),and the White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as secretary of defense,he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies.
Enron Corporation was an American energy,commodities,and services company based in Houston,Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth,both relatively small regional companies. Before its bankruptcy on December 2,2001,Enron employed approximately 20,600 staff and was a major electricity,natural gas,communications,and pulp and paper company,with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years.
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense,the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces,and is a high-ranking member of the federal cabinet. The secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the president of the United States,who is the commander-in-chief. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a defense minister in many other countries. The secretary of defense is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate,and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.
The XM2001 Crusader was to be the United States Army's next-generation self-propelled howitzer (SPH),designed to improve the survivability,lethality,mobility,and effectiveness of the artillery as well as the overall force. It was initially scheduled for fielding by 2008. United Defense was the prime contractor;General Dynamics the major subcontractor. In early May 2002,Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld canceled the US$11 billion program because he considered it neither mobile nor precise enough. The prototype SPH vehicle is on display at the cannon park at Fort Sill.
Gordon Richard England is an American politician and businessman who was the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and twice served as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Leon Edward Panetta is an American politician and government official who has served under several Democratic administrations as Secretary of Defense (2011–2013),director of the CIA (2009–2011),White House Chief of Staff (1994–1997),director of the Office of Management and Budget (1993–1994),and as a U.S. Representative from California (1977–1993).
Joseph Edward Schmitz is an American lawyer,former inspector general of the United States Department of Defense and a former executive with Blackwater Worldwide. After working as a watchdog at the Pentagon for three and a half years,Schmitz resigned to return to the private sector. Although allegations questioning his stewardship of the inspector general's office surfaced nine months after his resignation,he later claimed that a high-level review board,the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency,cleared him of wrongdoing in 2006. He was named one of Donald Trump's foreign policy advisors for his 2016 presidential campaign.
Jason Arthur Leopold is an American senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News. He was previously an investigative reporter for Al Jazeera America and Vice News. He worked at Truthout as a senior editor and reporter,a position he left after three years on February 19,2008,to co-found the web-based political magazine The Public Record,Leopold's profile page on The Public Record now says he is Editor-at-Large. Leopold returned to Truthout as Deputy Managing Editor in October 2009 and was made lead investigative reporter in 2012 before leaving Truthout in May 2013. He makes extensive use of the Freedom of Information Act to research stories.
John Robinson Batiste is a retired officer of the United States Army,author,and the co-founder of Batiste Leadership.
Kenneth Lee Lay was an American businessman who was the founder,chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the largest bankruptcy ever to that date. Lay was indicted by a grand jury and was found guilty of 10 counts of securities fraud at trial. Lay died in July 2006 while vacationing in his house near Aspen,Colorado,three months before his scheduled sentencing. A preliminary autopsy reported Lay died of a heart attack caused by coronary artery disease. His death resulted in a vacated judgment.
State of Denial:Bush at War,Part III (ISBN 0-7432-7223-4) is a 2006 book by Bob Woodward that examines how the George W. Bush administration managed the Iraq War after the 2003 invasion. It follows Woodward's previous books on the Bush administration,Bush at War and Plan of Attack. Based on interviews with a number of people in the Bush administration,the book makes a number of allegations about the administration.
William James "Jim" Haynes II is an American lawyer and was General Counsel of the Department of Defense during much of 43rd President George W. Bush's administration and his war on terror. Haynes resigned as general counsel effective March 2008.
Michael Joseph Montelongo was nominated by President George W. Bush as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management. He was formerly a Senior Project Manager with Cap Gemini Ernst &Young in Atlanta,Georgia,and has been with Ernst &Young since 1999. He was previously Chief of Staff and Director of Small Business Services for BellSouth Telecommunications,Inc. From 1995 to 1996,he was a Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and,from 1994 to 1995,he served as Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Hon. Montelongo served as Chief of Staff and General Manager of Operations General Management at Fort Bliss,Texas,from 1992 to 1994 and was a Senior Analyst and associate professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,NY from 1988 to 1991. He is a twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Army,a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy,and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation,an American energy company based in Houston,Texas. When news of widespread fraud within the company became public in October 2001,the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm,Arthur Andersen –then one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world –was effectively dissolved. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history at that time,Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure.
The Pentagon military analyst program was a propaganda campaign of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that was launched in early 2002 by then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke. The goal of the operation is "to spread the administration's talking points on Iraq by briefing retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts;a Pentagon spokesman said the Pentagon's intent is to keep the American people informed about the so-called War on Terrorism by providing prominent military analysts with factual information and frequent,direct access to key military officials. The Times article suggests that the analysts had undisclosed financial conflicts of interest and were given special access as a reward for promoting the administration's point of view. On 28 April 2008,the Pentagon ended the operation. A DoD Inspector General investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the DoD.
Michael Bruce Donley is a United States government official who is the director of administration and management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense since May 2021,having served in the same position from 2005 to 2008. In the Bush and Obama administrations,Donley served as the 22nd secretary of the Air Force,amongst other positions. Donley has 30 years of experience in the national security community,including service on the staff of the United States Senate,White House and The Pentagon.
Raymond Francis DuBois Jr. is a private consultant in national security and defense policy and also a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,a nonpartisan think-tank in Washington,D.C. At CSIS he focuses on international security policy,civil-military relations,defense management reform,and Joint Professional Military Education. His expertise is in Defense Department organization,management and reform;land forces tactical and non-tactical systems;international and domestic installations and environmental issues;base realignment and closure;National Guard and Reserves issues;stability operations and reconstruction;continuity of business operations and crisis management. He was a member of the Defense Health Board and its NCR BRAC Health Systems Advisory Committee in 2006 to 2009. DuBois was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Stabilizing Fragile States. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the United States Institute of Peace,a member of the Princeton University ROTC Board of Directors. He has spoken at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University,at the European Forum Alpbach 2008 in Austria,at the Marine Corps University,Quantico,Virginia,and before audiences of the National Defense Industry Association and the Association of the United States Army.
Kathryn "Kathy" Ruemmler is an attorney who formerly served as Principal Deputy White House Counsel and then White House Counsel to President Barack Obama. Previously a partner at Latham and Watkins co-chairing its white-collar defense group,Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs in 2020 as a Partner and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. In 2021,she was promoted to Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel.
Eric Kenneth Fanning is an American public servant who is the current President and CEO of Aerospace Industries Association and served as the 22nd Secretary of the Army,holding office from May 18,2016 to January 20,2017. Prior to his appointment as Secretary of the Army,Fanning was the 24th United States Under Secretary of the Air Force. He was the first openly gay head of any service in the US military.
Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and manufacturing executive who served as the 27th United States secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party,he had previously served as the 23rd U.S. secretary of the Army from November 2017 to July 2019.
