Harvard expert nominated for key Pentagon post
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- President Obama late this afternoon nominated Harvard professor Ashton B. Carter, a leading authority on arms control, to take on a surprising new role, according to top administration officials -- as the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer.
The choice of Carter to run the office that oversees hundreds of billions of dollars for new weapons and research -- and the focus of intense lobbying by defense firms, retired generals, and members of Congress -- has been rumored for weeks. And word of his pending nomination has already sparked concern within the defense industry and some of the Pentagon bureaucracy.
But that may be exactly what Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates want.
Unlike most of his predecessors selected to be under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Carter has no professional ties to America's arms makers or manufacturing industry, nor has he spent his career in government procurement. Instead, from his perch at Harvard's Kennedy School, Carter has been criticizing the Pentagon for buying too many armaments it doesn't need, decrying what he calls a lack of discipline and "failure to take account of cost growth in weapons systems and defense services."
A trained scientist with a doctorate in theoretical physics and a degree in Medieval history, Carter's advocates say the long-time Harvard professor and national security specialist is being chosen because his combination of technical expertise and knowledge of defense strategy will be needed to make what Gates calls "difficult choices" about which weapons programs to invest in and which ones to terminate.
"He is not being brought in to help the defense industry thrive," said Loren Thompson, president of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., think tank. "He is being brought in to decide what we need and what we can do without."
At a "fiscal responsibility summit" at the White House today, Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee last year, highlighted serious cost overruns in the Pentagon budget as part of cutting the federal deficit, and said "tough decisions" on procurement need to be made as the country also pays for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"This is going to be one of our highest priorities," Obama replied.
Almost immediately after rumors surfaced that Carter was being considered for the high-profile job, Pentagon contractors and military procurement officials began waging a whisper campaign to raise doubts about the choice.
Some of them contend that Carter requires a special waiver from Obama in order to hold the post, citing an obscure law that asserts the candidate should have acquisition experience. (By contrast, the White House had to grant an ethics waiver to allow William Lynn III to become Gates's deputy because he was so close to the industry, having been a lobbyist for Waltham-based Raytheon.)
One former Pentagon acquisition chief and industry executive said he believes such experience is crucial to doing an effective job. "Having been in a factory and understanding the development process is what we were looking for," said the former official, who asked not to be identified because he was criticizing a presidential appointee.
But former Secretary of Defense William Perry, who drew up the original qualifications for the post as a member of the so-called Packard Commission in the 1980s, believes the language is being misused by those opposed to Carter's nomination and who fear he will buck the status quo.
The intent, he said, was to ensure the job wasn't filled by a political ally of the president with little or no experience in military matters, said Perry, who hired Carter for a top Pentagon policy position in the 1990s.
"Having held that job and supervised two different people who had that job I think I am pretty qualified to say who is qualified," Perry said in an interview. "My judgment is that a waiver is not required for Ash."
His mini-biography, provided by the White House, is below:
Dr. Ashton Carter, Nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Department of Defense
Carter, a physicist and current Chair of the International & Global Affairs faculty at the Kennedy School, served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1993 to 1996. He directed military planning during the 1994 crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program; was instrumental in removing all nuclear weapons from the territories of Ukraine, Kazakstan, and Belarus; directed the establishment of defense and intelligence relationships with the countries of the former Soviet Union when the Cold War ended; and participated in the negotiations that led to the deployment of Russian troops as part of the Bosnia Peace Plan Implementation Force. Dr. Carter managed the multi-billion dollar Cooperative Threat Reduction (Nunn-Lugar) program to support elimination of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of the former Soviet Union, including the secret removal of 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Kazakstan in the operation code-named Project Sapphire. Dr. Carter also directed the Nuclear Posture Review and oversaw the Department of Defense's (DOD's) Counterproliferation Initiative. He directed the reform of DOD's national security export controls. In 1997 Dr. Carter co-chaired the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Group with former CIA Director John M. Deutch, which urged greater attention to terrorism. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy to William J. Perry in the North Korea Policy Review and traveled with him to Pyongyang. In 2001-2002, he served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and advised on the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Carter was twice awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award given by the Department. In addition to his current position at the Kennedy School, Carter is Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford Universities.
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Another hack, surprise......the Kennedy school teaches how to sebd in the allies....then let em swing (Bay o Piggies)....and we'll take oue nukes out of Turkey if you take yours out of Cuba....oh please.......did he take his helicopter maintenance lessons from cousin Jimmy?
As long as Carter is competent we will be fine. There has been too much of the old buddy system in defense anyway. I hope that he has a pleasing personality because there are going to be many aggressive legislators as well as lobbyists to deal with.
If the arms merchants are against him, I'm all for him. This industry is a racket and everyone knows it. Read "Boyd" or "Voltaire's Bastards"; or "The American Way of War" or watch "Why We Fight"...unpeeling the corruption and the fool's errands is probably impossible---but worth a shot. I never understood why this industry isn't treated like the pariah's of the cigarette companies. Most of them are NOT making kevlar to protect out boys, they are making missles to kill---sometimes our boys.
This is change we can believe in, and I think Ike, who warned of the military-industrial complex, would be pleased.
I work with Harvard Professors, they are very eloquent and intellectual. However, they have another side, they tend to lack common sense and Harvard is an OLD BOYS CLUB, lastly, they love to take care and protect themselves, only.
It's interesting.... I'm more impressed with Obama's choices for foreign and military policy posts than those for economic policy posts. Full disclosure: I lean conservative and Republican most of the time.
He is a superb choice. He may be an academic, but it is precisely his intellectualism that will thwart the pigs in the procurement trough. Washed each day by gifts and money, the lobbyists have their pull primarily because of their connections, and some are not very smart--e.g. Trent Lott, a cheerleader at Miss, quit the Senate to become a full time porker. The military-industrial complex has spent a lot of money on maintaining the pig farm. Expect to hear a lot of squealing when they find they aren't in charge any more.
that's great Obama but how bout getting the labor secretary through first.
Where was the scrutiny when W was handing out positions to his completely unqualified supporters?
"Brownie, your doin" a great job!"
FTGOP
I think this is known as "adult supervision." As Sue C accurately noted this is not a recent phenomenon. It is, however, a very real problem for those not embedded in the reality based society. Quite fortunately Obama is actively recruiting reality based people for his administration. We can only hope it is not too late.
Great. We should sever the unholy ties between the Pentagon and the defense industry and treat it like a normal business that can either give taxpayers a good deal or not.
Now just forget about this legal black hole crap at Bagram prison!
Seriously impressive resume. Glad to have real thinkers in charge, instead of political cronies and the former CINC with his "gut decisions."
Great another "educated" pinhead.
You left out this part of his bio (from Global Technolgy Partners website):
Dr. Carter is currently Senior Partner for Global Technology Partners, a defense oriented investment firm. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the MITRE Corporation, and the Advisory Boards of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories and the Draper Laboratory. He is a consultant to Goldman, Sachs, Inc. and Mitretek Systems, Inc. on international affairs and technology matters, and speaks frequently to business and policy audiences. Dr. Carter is also a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Physical Society, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the National Committee on U.S., China Relations.
Talk about change -- yippee!!! This is his most exciting pick yet!
Secretary Perry did not hire Ash Carter at the Pentagon. Carter was the ASD (ISP) from the beginning of the first Clinton Administration, when Les Aspin was SecDef. Aspin left by December, and was replaced by Perry, but Carter had already been in his job for months.
The Iraq War doesn't cost $10 billion a month because our boys are shooting $100 bills out of their rifles -- it's because of fat, bloated, cost-plus, no-bid defense contracts. I remember 20 years ago we all made fun of $20 nails and $700 hammers. Well, it's still happening, only nobody on TV makes fun of it because the networks are all owned by federal contractors!
We need someone in that job who will root out the waste and the corruption. How can *any* truly patriotic American not be in favor of weapons that work and getting value for our money? Good for President Obama, and good for America!
A pretty frightening choice for the good old boys from the mighty Miltary-Industrial Complex!
What an awesome job Dr. Carter has before him. But perhaps...just perhaps...he can make a dent in the massive edifice that government and industry together have created. Whether he can tear it down to a level that even President Eisenhower would have felt comfortable with is questionable, but I applaud the effort.
Great choice, President Obama!
Ashton Carter sounds like a fantastic pick!
Change is what we voted for, I applaud Obama's choices. Lets hope we can save America. Also, lets hope we won't always have to go begging to China fo loan us money to survive.
Great choice. Someone who'll say no to the greedy defense industry hacks when they try to cram unnecessary diabolically expensive systems down our throats. And good lord knows, they sure do.
Reagan's useless Star Wars system has been handed down now for generations and has cost us a total of around 120 billion dollars, and we still don't have it down. Never will. It's like "trying to shoot a bullet."..
Real, fearless and direct Diplomacy is much less expensive and much more effective. Nice to finally have a real Commander in Chief for a change.
Defense Contractors worried because he can't be bribed? Or because they haven't found his price, yet?
They are all corrupt. just my 2 cents.
This is FANTASTIC NEWS!!!!
Finally we can get the Pentagons budget cut by billions that it doesn't NEED or USE! The $1,000 toilet led will be no more. These people have been running amuck for WAY TO LONG.
President Eisenhower in his last speech warned us about the danger of the Industrial Military Complex, it has come to fruition. For the last two decades the greedy defense contractor’s hacks running up the defense budget by HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS on machinery that is obsolete or doesn’t work (space defense shild)
I hope Carter can clean house!
If you need to cut a budget, the biggest pieces of the pie are the places to start.
You don't need weapons systems on the shelf looking for a war to justify their use, or a conflict which gets spinned a certain way because people want to show their hardware off. Look, China has under 400 nuclear weapons and a comparable number of delivery vehicles. Yet, because of how they've managed their economy, they have us at the moment at a huge strategic disadvantage. We don't need 'shock and awe'. We bankrupted ourselves as well as the Soviets in the Cold War. It's time for reckoning.
This is absolutely fantastic news and Dr. Ashton Carter is truly a superb choice. He is brilliant, yet pragmatic, he is totally objective and highly analytical. He will do what should have been done in the Pentagon many years ago. We as a country are so lucky to have him in this role. Yeahhhh!!!!
All career persons in acquisiton positons in DoD are now required to have level III certification for positons as the Project Manager (Colonel, or Navy or Civillian equivalent) as do many subordinate managers. Level III can be certified in several subgroups, e.g. Project Management, Financial Manegment, etc.. This positon oversees, as opposed to supevises, all of them so should have the same certification. Unfortunately this may not apply to Presidential Appointees but they, in my view, should at least have cummesurate job expierience.
Great choice of a brilliant mind combined with real world experience.
Could you help me. By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
I am from Arab and now study English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Infection funds to correct your men absolutely as it lacks your managers."
Best regards ;), Norma.