By Andrew Kreig / Project Director's Blog
A new WikiLeaks-enabled story about the European-defense contractor EADS underscores why authorities get furious when their secrets are revealed. Reuters reported March 8, “A litany of back-stabbing at Europe's top aerospace group is exposed in leaked U.S. cables, which show American diplomats avidly collecting details on the cracks in U.S. plane-maker Boeing's main rival.” Our Justice Integrity Project has long taken a keen interest in Europe-controlled EADS after learning that the decade-long dispute over a $35 billion Air Force Tanker contract was one of the reasons that the Bush Justice Department framed former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on corruption charges, as we recounted Feb. 25 here at Connecticut Watchdog. The Reuters story, even if has no mention of Alabama, does nothing to undermine the notion of corporate/political skullduggery at the highest levels. In a sense, it's generally congruent with several pointed opinion columns by scholars of solid conservative and national security credentials claiming the nation's problems have an important moral dimension. Listed below is a sample from just one day. Two of the authors – one a scholar and former Reagan official, and the other a longtime CIA analyst turned best-selling author – say our country is on unsustainable course.
To be sure, many Americans are now focusing primarily on economic survival because of the drastic cutbacks of well-paid jobs in our economy. Occasional modest increases in overall job growth cannot hide the economic debacle, especially when the job growth is primarily low-paid jobs and doesn't even count the vast numbers who have given up looking for work. Therefore, the most compelling news of the day may involve how U.S. taxpayer dollars are creating high-tech jobs. The Air Tanker contract, referenced above. is clearly the biggest prize. But the biggest surprise, at least to me, is the revelation that our nation is steering so much high-tech work to prisoners in the for-profit prison industry. Here’s the story and a few excerpts from a Wired Magazine article, “Prisoners Help Build Patriot Missiles.”
This week’s guest on the March 10 edition of my radio show MTL Washington Update will be Henry Scott, author of the new book Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential. An accomplished journalist and media entrepreneur, Scott will describe what prompted him to undertake a decade-long effort to document for the first time the inside story of the pioneering 1950s magazine, Confidential. The magazine 
oe, Joe DiMaggio, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Rock Hudson and Kim Novak. In doing so, it reported scandals involving such figures as “tawny temptresses,” “pinko partisans,” “lisping lads” and many more. Pioneering status and success came at great cost to its founders, but it changed the face of American journalism forever in a fascinating story that deserves to be remembered. 
As Swedish authorities push for a secret trial of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a noted human rights activist has repeatedly challenged the oft-praised fairness of his nation’s legal system and its media coverage. Dr. Marcello Ferrada de Noli built an illustrious career as a medical school professor after enduring torture in his native Chile. But he has worked almost tirelessly in his spare time for the past two months to expose what he regards as complacency among his fellow Swedes regarding the human rights abuses in his nation’s all-out effort to capture Assange, ostensibly because of sex allegations filed by a politically connected lawyer. 
evelations about those battles with Dr. Mark Feldstein, a professor and renowned investigative reporter who authored Poisoning The Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture. 
The hearing helped illustrate why the Justice Integrity Project was founded last year for non-partisan legal research and reform advocacy. Our courts continually resolve important and politically-charged issues, often with scant or biased coverage by the traditional media. No matter what one thinks of Sinclair or his allegations, a near-complete news blackout of a significant court case should not be the remedy. 
mid-air refueling tankers. 
ss the White House promised to give EADS what he called fair consideration. Later in the spring, President Obama promised to provide such fairness also in response to a specific request by European leaders, whose subsidies of EADS have sparked criticism at the World Trade Organization and elsewhere as a violation of fair trade. 
s week's award. "What that means is that, in the end, Boeing won on price," Loren B. Thompson, a defense policy analyst for the Arlington-based Lexington Institute, told the Washington Post. "Price consists of the cost of producing the plane, plus the cost of operating it over 30 years,” he continued. “The Airbus plane is so much bigger and burned over a ton more fuel per flight hour."
New York Times, 
Politico, 
Washington Post, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
Politico, 
Washington Post, 
Politico, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
Washington Post, 
Associated Press, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
