Word: fitzgeralds
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Should there be a time limit for protecting whistle-blowers' jobs? The Bush Administration seems to think so. Case in point: Ernie Fitzgerald, the Air Force cost analyst who in 1969 told Congress about $2 billion in cost overruns on the C-5 cargo plane, prompting President Nixon to tell officials to "get rid of that son of a bitch." A court order saved Fitzgerald's job, but he says it's under threat again. Fitzgerald, 79, tells TIME his role has eroded under President Bush. His reports on how much aircraft should cost "have been ignored" by superiors...
...service says it offered Fitzgerald two new jobs, including one advising "on the latest cost and schedule performance-management techniques." He rejected both, saying, "It strips me of authority and the ability to initiate work." Some Air Force officials think Fitzgerald has a "persecution complex"; one tells TIME that history isn't to blame for his latest woes: "There are very few people in the Air Force today who know about his work...
...Force Chief of Staff, recently told Congress that the wholesale jettisoning of "cost estimators, engineers [and] program managers" led to the service's procurement scandals, which forced the Pentagon to take control of major aircraft purchases. Moseley pledged "to get the right people back into that process." Fitzgerald, for one, says he's ready to help: "I have unfinished business here." --By Mark Thompson
...discuss notes from a conversation with Cheney aide I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby that turned up after her Sept. 30 testimony. Meanwhile, lawyers for possible indictment targets are boning up on the Espionage Act, used to charge Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon papers, say people close to the probe. Fitzgerald would face fewer hurdles proving a case under the statute, which bars transmitting "information relating to the national defense" to anyone not entitled to receive it, than under the more exacting Intelligence Identities Protection Act. But national-security lawyer Kate Martin says, "Civil libertarians have always objected to [the Espionage...
...prepares for his fourth grand-jury appearance, the federal probe into who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the media is believed to be wrapping up. But the investigation has taken a toll on White House aides, many of whom now fear that the special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, is intent on issuing indictments. "Fitzgerald's office, although very professional, has been very aggressive in pursuing people," the adviser said. "These guys are bullies, and they threaten...