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Pentagon deputy undersecretary for international technology security Jack Shaw has been forced to resign, the LA Times reports:
Some of you may remember Shaw's name from the al Qaqaa missing high explosives case just prior to the elections. Shaw had commented on the record in a Bill Gertz Washington Times article that the Russians were likely involved in the removal of the explosives.A senior Defense official placed under investigation by the FBI on allegations that he tried to steer Iraqi reconstruction contracts toward friends has been removed from office, Pentagon officials confirmed Friday.
John A. "Jack" Shaw, the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for international technology security, was ordered to leave after refusing to sign a letter of resignation, the officials said. His last day was Friday.
"He was asked to discontinue his service," a senior Pentagon official said.
Shaw, whose activities were detailed in the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, was one of a few high-ranking U.S. officials who drew the scrutiny of investigators looking into how billions in taxpayer dollars were being spent in Iraq to rebuild that country.
Shaw allegedly tried to steer two contracts, one involving telecommunications and a second involving dredging at an Iraqi port, to companies linked to longtime friends or clients of longtime friends.
After the allegations against him surfaced last spring, Shaw responded with a report of his own, charging that one of the U.S. officials accusing him had taken bribes in a conspiracy to place Iraq's cellular phone network under the control of a former Saddam Hussein ally.
But Shaw seems to believe he's a victim of revenge for investigating an Iraq cell phone deal allegedly benefiting friends of the office of Doug Feith:
Shaw portrayed himself as a whistle-blower who was being unfairly asked to resign for having highlighted problems with the cellular phone licensing process.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Shaw expanded on the accusations made in his previous report, charging that Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith, his former law partner L. Marc Zell and Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress party, were also involved in the conspiracy.
He also charged that Lawrence DiRita, the Pentagon's top spokesman, was organizing a "smear campaign" against him, according to an e-mail obtained by The Times. He threatened DiRita that, if forced to step down, he would unleash "Iran Contra II," a reference to the scandal that roiled the Reagan administration.