After a nearly 40-year career in the U.S. Navy, Adm. David E. Jeremiah retired and now serves on a long list of boards of defense-related companies and supports the work of a key right-wing pro-Israel group, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. At the same time, he is still advising the U.S. government. From 1990 to 1994, Jeremiah was the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and before that (1987-1990) was commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Jeremiah served alongside Richard Perle on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee (DPB) and has also advised the Defense Science Board; he was a member of the controversial 2000 Donald Rumsfeld-chaired Space Commission, which advocated weaponizing space to preempt a "space Pearl Harbor."
Jeremiah has been a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) since George W. Bush appointed him to the group in October 2001; Bush also designated him as a member of PFIAB's Intelligence Oversight Board. The PFIAB, a 16-member body, "provides advice to the president concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, of counterintelligence, and of other intelligence activities" (see White House, PFIAB). The board, which operates separately from the intelligence community, could be considered due some portion of blame for the disastrous U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, actions that were predicated on the White House's reliance on faulty intelligence.
Jeremiah's career is an archetypal example of the powerful influence wielded by the U.S. military-industrial complex. At the same time that he served (and continues to serve) the U.S. military and government in a variety of advisory capacities, Jeremiah also advised (and continues to advise) a wide array of defense contractors, including Northrop Grumman, the MITRE Corporation, the Standard Missile Company, Todd Shipyards Corp., and ManTech International, among others.
According to Bill Hartung of the World Policy Institute, Jeremiah worked behind the scenes as a paid Boeing consultant to push through a controversial U.S. Air Force plan that would give Boeing a sweetheart deal to lease refueling tankers (The Record, December 15, 2003). According to The Hill, under the deal, which led to investigations by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the Senate Finance Committee: "The Air Force would lease 100 modified 767 tankers for a cost of $16 billion. With an option to buy, the deal could run to $21 billion. Total costs to the service could total at least $30 billion when replacing the infrastructure that now houses the current refueling fleet of KC-135Es is factored in. The cost of leasing versus buying has been the chief complaint of opponents. In August, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that buying the planes outright would save the service more than $5 billion" (The Hill, September 3, 2003).
The Hill also reported that the Senate Commerce Committee had obtained memos detailing the lobbying effort that went into pushing the deal through. "For example, retired Gen. Ronald Fogleman, a former Air Force chief of staff, and retired Adm. David Jeremiah, a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are listed as consultants in the effort. A Jan. 23 internal Boeing e-mail describes both as 'engaging on [Office of the Secretary of Defense] circles,' and notes that each is a member of the Defense Policy Board, which advises the Pentagon on defense policies." According to the Washington Post, Jeremiah denied playing any role in pressuring officials when he was queried about the e-mails (Washington Post, October 27, 2003).
Perle, who at one point was Jeremiah's DPB colleague, was also involved in the Boeing scandal. Soon after his Trireme investment firm received millions of dollars in cash from the aerospace giant, Perle began advocating in op-ed pieces that failure to push through the tanker leasing deal could jeopardize U.S. security. Commenting on this situation, Hartung remarked: "Does it bother [Donald] Rumsfeld that two of Perle's colleagues on the Defense Policy Board, retired Adm. David Jeremiah and retired Air Force Gen. Ronald Fogelman, have simultaneously been working as paid consultants to Boeing [and] promoting the lease deal?" (The Record, December 15, 2003). Other of Jeremiah's DPB colleagues during President George W. Bush's first term included Kenneth Adelman, Eliot Cohen, Newt Gingrich, Fred Ikle, Ruth Wedgwood, Pete Wilson, James Woolsey, and the late Philip Merrill (Center for Public Integrity).
Jeremiah also is a member of the advisory board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), an influential advocacy group that connects retired U.S. brass to their counterparts in Israel as part of its lobbying efforts to promote arms deals and a pro-Likud stance in the Palestinian territories.
In the same year that he retired from the Navy, 1994, Jeremiah became president of Technology Strategies and Alliances, which describes itself as "a veteran-owned small business based in Burke, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, and a short distance from key government agencies and corporate Washington offices." Another member of the Technology Strategies and Alliances team is John S. Foster, a longtime member of the U.S. weapons complex who, like Jeremiah, has long been closely tied with both the government and the defense industry.
Jeremiah is a financial supporter of the man who appointed him to his PFIAB post—George W. Bush—donating $2,000 to the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. Though he is based in Virginia, Jeremiah gave $500 each in 2006 to three Washington State campaigns (in separate districts): incumbents Rep. Dave Reichert (a Republican) and Rep. Norm Dicks (a Democrat) who both won, and Republican hopeful Douglas Roulstone, who lost. That Jeremiah should donate to a Democrat is perhaps not surprising, given that Dicks' district contains the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and Jeremiah is on the board of Todd Shipyards Corp. (See NewsMeat.com for campaign contribution information.)
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Affiliations
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs: Member, Board of Advisers
Government Service
White House Intelligence Oversight Board: Member
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board: Member
White House: Presidential Representative, Australian-American Friendship Week, 2002
Defense Department: Defense Policy Board, Member
National Reconnaissance Office Advisory Panel: Member
National Defense Panel: Member
Defense Science Board: Task Force Member
Rumsfeld Space Commission: Member until 2001
Joint Chiefs of Staff: Vice Chairman, 1990-1994
Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet: 1987-1991
Private Sector
Technology Strategies & Alliances Corp.: Board Chairman
Litton Industries: Former Member, Board of Directors
Boeing: Consultant
Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK): Former Member, Board of Directors
Getronics Government Systems: Member, Board of Directors
Geobiotics LLC.: Member, Board of Directors
GSE Systems, Inc.: Member, Board of Directors
Standard Missile Co.: Member, Board of Directors
Texas Instruments: Member, Advisory Board
ManTech International: Member, Advisory Board
Northrop Grumman Corporation: Member, Advisory Board
MITRE Corporation: Member, Board of Trustees
DigitalNet Government Solutions: Board Member
Wackenhut Services Inc.: Board Chair
Todd Shipyards Corp.: Board Member
Education
University of Oregon: B.A., Business Administration
George Washington University: M.A., Financial Management
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