The Pentagon inspector general since March 2002, Stephen Schmitz, recently quit to join the parent company of Blackwater USA, a private security company working in Iraq.
That would hardly be more than another eye-brow-raising revolving-door story, except that the LA Times reports that he resigned "amid accusations that he stonewalled inquiries into senior Bush administration officials suspected of wrongdoing."
Apparently Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is on the watchdog's tail, investigating allegations that he blocked two criminal investigations -- one involving John "Jack" Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary of Defense for international technology security, whose office was in charge of monitoring weapons sales to Iraq.
The Times' T. Christian Miller previously reported that Shaw conducted unauthorized investigations of Iraq reconstruction efforts and used their results to steer lucrative contracts to friends and business clients, w/o competitive bids.
According to Senator Grassley, senior criminal investigators in Schmitz' office had "specific and credible evidence" of wrongdoing by Shaw in the bag, but instead of pressing charges Schmitz referred the case to the FBI, where it has since stalled ever since. Sounds like a strategy the Bush administration has used to rabbit-hole other potential scandals.
It's also not the first time Schmitz has gotten into hot water with Grassley. In April, he cancelled a $16,000 trip to Germany after Grassley complained that the junket wasn't a good example to be setting as the Pentagon's "top cop on waste."
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the resignation has nothing to do with the criminal investigations. Maybe he's simply sick of trying to carry out an impossible job. After all, attacking Pentagon waste is kind of like hauling debris away after a hurricane -- where do you start? It's a job that will get to you one way or another.
But insiders say Schmitz didn't take the mission all that seriously. E.g. POGO's sources say Schmitz' staff are fed up from being assigned talks such as looking for inspirational quotes.
Here are a couple we suggest they pass along to Schmitz before he clears out his desk on Friday:
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Ah, me! it's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst of all." - Sherlock Holmes