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Jeffrey St. Clair

Grand Theft Pentagon :Tales of Corruption and Profiteering in the War on Terror Paperback – July 1, 2005

by Jeffrey St. Clair (Author)

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“Jeffrey St. Clair is the Seymour Hersh of environmental journalism.”—Josh Frank

From the F-22 fighter jet and B-2 bomber to the Stryker tank and Star Wars, Grand Theft Pentagon chronicles how the Pentagon shells out billions to politically wired arms contractors for weapons that don’t work for use against an enemy that no longer exists. St. Clair shows how many of the biggest arms contracts were literally inside jobs, negotiated by Pentagon generals who later went to work for the very same corporations that were awarded the contracts.

The co-founder of Counterpunch and author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature, Jeffrey St. Clair lives in Portland, Oregon.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey St. Clair is an award-winning investigative journalist, co-editor of political newsletter CounterPunch and author of nine books, including Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press, Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature and Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia.

Product details

Item Weight : 1.19 pounds
Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1567513363
Publisher : Common Courage Press (July 1, 2005)
Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 8.9 inches
Language: : English

Best Sellers Rank: #2,831,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,162 in Government Management
- #10,289 in Business Education & Reference (Books)
- #17,775 in U.S. Political Science

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17 ratings

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shannon taylor

Not very interesting

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2019

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I thought I would like this account of Italy during occupation of the USA during WWII, but it is not really interesting, the characters never do anything interesting enough to write about, the author assumes his readers all speak French or Italian and writes frequently in those languages, but his writing is basically lacking anything really interesting. Too bad I was expecting something with more grit and more action.

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Retired Reader

Stop Thief !

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2010

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This book is primarily of historical interest and consists of articles written by Jeffrey St. Clair between 2001 and 2005. It is an enjoyable read because St. Clair is a very facile writer. Yet it is also a terminally superficial book that provides polemics rather than a reasoned examination of the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) and its acquisition process.
St. Clair makes some quite serious accusations against President George W. Bush and his national security establishment. These are controversial and the jury is still out concerning whether these accusations have merit or not. Certainly his arguments seem persuasive, but this may be because so many senior members of that establishment such as Vice President Cheney and SecDef Donald Rumsfeld are apparently naturally secretive and unpleasant folks. Indeed President Bush himself often appeared to be indifferent or incompetent in dealing with the many challenges that occurred during his eight year administration. History will have to judge all of this.
The main theme of the book is the wholesale looting of the DOD by unscrupulous contactors; well this is a complicated issue. There is ample evidence that the DOD wastes millions if not billions of dollars on ill-conceived, badly managed programs. There is also ample evidence that large and small contractors representing the private sector made substantial amounts of money on even failed programs. The question which St. Clair should have asked, but didn't was why this was so. He seems to believe it was caused by collusion between greedy contractors and stupid or venal generals or high level DOD officials. There is of course some truth in this as there is in that much of the waste is due to corrupt or incompetent members of congress.
Yet the issue is more complicated than this. Not all general officers in the U.S. Military are corrupt, venal or stupid. Most are quite patriotic and more than a few are highly intelligent. The same can be said for contractors who of course are driven by the bottom line, but who are also genuinely interested in providing for the defense of the U.S. and supporting its military. The villains that St. Clair finds throughout both DOD and the defense industries are largely phantoms. Yet the tales of waste and inefficiency are true.
So what is the problem? Some (this reader included) would argue that the problem is with the DOD requirements and procurement systems both of which are badly designed and poorly executed. The senior DOD officials can be faulted for an utter failure in leadership while the U.S. Officer Corps can be faulted for being unable to come to grips with the DOD requirement and procurement cycles. At the same time private contractors should be more proactive in guiding the cycles towards realistic goals in the form of practical weapons platforms and other programs.
This book nibbles at the surface but fails to take a real bite of this issue.

7 people found this helpful

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Stephen Kriz

Essential Reading for Tea Partiers

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2010

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Jeffrey St. Clair's, Grand Theft Pentagon, should be required reading for everyone who thinks their tax dollars are being wasted. They are! And the biggest waster of tax dollars is the Pentagon! This is not consistent with most right-wing thinking but the facts are irrefutable. Billions of dollars are squandered or outright stolen on weapons systems that don't work, services that aren't done and projects that have no point. While this book needs better editing (there are several misspellings and grammatical errors), the window it opens into defense contractor fraud and the squandering of the American Treasury is invaluable. Read this book if you care about the future of this country!

4 people found this helpful

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Just Matt

delightful

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2007

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snappy prose, compelling evidence, one of the great muckrakers.

the people who imply that the book is written by a knee jerk pacifist have not been paying attention. The article on the Warthog, and others demonstrated not only the man's opposition to waste and corruption, but the fact that the man genuinely cares about having a functioning military for DEFENSE purposes.

The points he raise cannot be simply dismissed out of hand, why keep spending so much money on cold war era weapons when our old enemy no longer exists/

8 people found this helpful

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Stephen Snyder

Every American Should Read This Book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2007

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If it bothers you that half of every discretionary tax dollar goes to the military in some form or another (DOE, NSA, off-budget "black programs", etc. etc.) or that we spend more on defense and security than the rest of the world combined, then read this book! It's a phrase that is often overused, but this is definitely "a book every American should read." As a southerner originally from a very hawkish, pro-military state who thought that high military spending was necessary for jobs and community growth as well as security, this made my blood boil. We are essentially accomplishing none of those things--as evidenced by the fact that the world's most expensive military can't defeat small third-world countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan devastated by 20+ years of war and/or sanctions. Ever wonder why? The authors make clear that the level of the combined pentagon/congressional/corporate corruption not only puts the mafia to shame, but is threatening our democracy and our national security in very profound and frightening ways. Read this and prepare to be outraged. Perhaps this will spur action ensuring that enlisted servicemen and women will no longer need welfare to make ends meet while billions are funneled to defense contractors? My only complaint is the horrendous job of proofreading and copy-editing this book received (none?). Otherwise, this deserves to be on the bestseller list.

7 people found this helpful

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