President Obama’s Gulf Oil Disaster Oval Office Speech Gives Prescription for Reform of Ongoing Boeing/FAA Corruption Similar to the Oil Industry/MMS Corruption Partly Responsible for the Disaster

President Obama’s Oval Office speech to the nation on June 15th was notable in itself, but it is also notable for another reason—it contained an outline of what should be a major part of the action needed to finally correct the Boeing/FAA corruption that places millions more lives at risk than the Oil Industry/MMS fraud ever did.

From the transcript of that address to the nation:

And you can watch the video at this link.

Remarks by the President to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill

Oval Office

8:01 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  

…Tonight I’d like to lay out for you what our battle plan is going forward:  what we’re doing to clean up the oil, what we’re doing to help our neighbors in the Gulf, and what we’re doing to make sure that a catastrophe like this never happens again… 

The third part of our response plan is the steps we’re taking to ensure that a disaster like this does not happen again.  A few months ago, I approved a proposal to consider new, limited offshore drilling under the assurance that it would be absolutely safe –- that the proper technology would be in place and the necessary precautions would be taken…

One place we’ve already begun to take action is at the agency in charge of regulating drilling and issuing permits, known as the Minerals Management Service. Over the last decade, this agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility -- a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.  

When Ken Salazar became my Secretary of the Interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency. But it’s now clear that the problem there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow. And so Secretary Salazar and I are bringing in new leadership at the agency -- Michael Bromwich, who was a tough federal prosecutor and Inspector General. And his charge over the next few months is to build an organization that acts as the oil industry’s watchdog -- not its partner. 

So one of the lessons we’ve learned from this spill is that we need better regulations, better safety standards, and better enforcement when it comes to offshore drilling.

END

8:18 P.M. EDT

The part of the address that is so uber-appropriate to the urgently needed reform of eerily similar levels of corruption between Boeing and the FAA is repeated as follows:

“Over the last decade, this agency (the MMS) has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility -- a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.  

When Ken Salazar became my Secretary of the Interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency. But it’s now clear that the problem there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow. And so Secretary Salazar and I are bringing in new leadership at the agency -- Michael Bromwich, who was a tough federal prosecutor and Inspector General. And his charge over the next few months is to build an organization that acts as the oil industry’s watchdog -- not its partner.”

This passage is a key guide on what must be done to reform endemic Boeing/FAA Management corruption before it costs even more lives. 

It will take only one more Boeing airliner crash as a result of the noted corruption to far exceed the death toll of the MMS involved mine disaster and the BP oil rig explosion disaster.

Only a few key words need to be changed, and President Obama’s Administration could use the exact same procedure to investigate and reform ongoing Boeing/FAA Management corruption that endangers millions of people every day: 

“Over the last decade, this agency (the FAA) has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility -- a philosophy that says corporations like Boeing should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. FAA Management subverting their public safety duties while at the FAA for the benefit of Boeing were later hired by Boeing for multiples of their already high FAA salaries. Boeing showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations by corrupt FAA Management.  

One of our very first acts needs to be to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency. But it’s now clear that the problem there runs much deeper, and the pace of reform needs to be done with a sense of urgency that the endangered public safety from the corruption requires. And so (fill in name of uncorrupted official to handle reform—anybody but Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, who was a bad choice for the post and is too business oriented to be trusted with such crucial reform) and I are bringing in new leadership at the agency – (enter name of new FAA Administrator) who was a tough federal prosecutor and not from the DOT Inspector General’s office, which has been implicated in covering up the noted Boeing/FAA corruption. And his charge over the next few months is to build an organization that acts as the transport aircraft manufacturing industry’s watchdog -- not its partner.” 

There it is—the prescription for Boeing/FAA Management corruption reform before it costs even more lives, the outline of which the President gave in the BP Oil spill address.

BP and MMS may be in the news as bad guys of the moment, but they don’t remotely compare to the level of fraud and number of lives in jeopardy from the corrupt Boeing/FAA Management relationship negating safety and letting largely uninspected as required commercial airplanes and their military derivatives deliver riddled with defects to customers.

Let’s hope the Obama Administration sets its sights on the corrupt FAA Management next after MMS. Without a corrupt FAA Management, Boeing would not be able to get away with the corrupt Quality Management System and other undeserved delegations it has gotten as a result of corrupt FAA Management letting Boeing have those things for a plum job at Boeing or an industry association after retirement at 20 years (or less if the offer is good) as essentially a Boeing Management mole within the FAA hierarchy. 

Certainly, intentional noncompliance at Boeing has everything to do with Boeing subverting its quality system both legally and illegally under such always approving “FAA management eyes.” The disposal of my report pretty much uninvestigated (which would have stopped Boeing QA Management corruption forever if in fact it was actually investigated thoroughly and impartially) shows the same corruption as at the oil industry/MMS exists between Boeing and FAA Management. And the same fix as President Obama detailed above could separate the joined at the hip corruption going on between Boeing and FAA Management, finally restoring the required impartiality and competence of the FAA that could finally make Boeing build airplanes per quality, safety, and conformity requirements. Passenger and crew safety would then actually be ensured, and would not depend on mere luck as it does now.

And, with FAA Management still to this moment so utterly corrupt and biased toward enabling Boeing and industry corruption, all delegations of any kind given by them to Boeing are bogus. As a first step in any unbiased reform of FAA Management corruption, they should all be rescinded, the FAA reformed, and then all work done under them verified independently by new ethical FAA employees.

Then, and only then, should such delegations be considered ever again for Boeing—but with a major change from prior FAA corrupt practices—only given to Boeing when they demonstrate they actually are compliant enough and have enough integrity to deserve such delegations. Not, as in the past, with FAA officials delegating FAA functions to corrupt Boeing Management just because Boeing Management wanted it, and it was a mutual goal of “working together in corruption” Boeing and FAA Management.

The Oil Industry/MMS fraud is far from unique. The Boeing/FAA fraud has potentially far more dire consequences as noted. And as G. Florence Scott proves in her excellent blog:

"Such industry/agency fraud is more the norm than the exception, even endangering national security, as I've noted elsewhere that some of Boeing's frauds I've detailed and blew the whistle on have.

Hopefully Obama will "pick the low hanging fruit" in picking which of the many agencies corrupted over the past ten years need reform to act like their mandated roles as watch dogs--not just as employment agencies for connected agency officials to prove their deference to Boeing over the public interest of safety like the FAA is today.

That "low hanging fruit" corrupt agency for reform that would save many lives and route out some of the worst corruption is no surprise--it's the FAA. And the Transport Airplane Directorate (TAD) at the FAA would be a very good place in the agency to start."