NEW- Stanley McChrystal built a corporate empire in the years after he was dismissed as the top general in Afghanistan, making millions from businesses, governments and universities
The eight generals who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan btwn 2008 and 2018 have served on more than 20 corporate boards.
But McChrystal is the runaway leader, serving on at least 10, earning $1.3m from JetBlue and even more from a vehicle co that sold equipment for the war
That company, Navistar International, agreed this spring to pay $50 million to settle claims it defrauded the Marines by inflating the cost of a truck used in Afgh + Iraq.
McChrystal was on the board’s finance cmte at the time of the initial complaint but said he knew nothing
McChrystal has been embraced by some of the world’s biggest companies, which bring him in to run leadership training and serve on their boards.
Here’s how a former Deutsche Bank executive described the reasoning to me
McChrystal is also sought after by universities for high-dollar speaking engagements.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln was facing a budget crunch in 2013 when it agreed to pay the retired general $80k for a keynote address and cover the cost of a private jet, per FOIA’d emails
OK, here’s a timely hook
McChrystal’s boutique consulting firm has secured lucrative contracts with state and local governments for covid consulting, incl Virginia, Missouri, Boston
As cases surged, Virginia’s health dept. spent $1,000 alone on McChrystal’s management manual
I wrote a separate story last month about how management consultants took over the U.S. vaccination drive.
With one exception (a principal with edu/homelessness experience), the McChrystal Group consultants did not have public health expertise. Some were Yale grads who played on the football team
Marty Walsh, Biden’s labor secretary, hired McChrystal Group for covid response when he was Boston mayor. The secretary’s spokeswoman didn’t respond to a Q about whether the services, incl. one-on-one coaching, were useful. Walsh recently dined at McChrystal’s home
Why does any of this matter in the context of the war and its end?
For some veterans, it’s about accountability for a failed mission and the need to re-examine whether tactics applied there should be exported to other arenas
I spoke to McChrystal for more than an hour over Microsoft Teams. Here’s (some of) what he said.
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The Saudis tightly regulate water in the desert nation. So the kingdom’s largest dairy company is using water without restrictions in the American Southwest instead.
Now @katiehobbs staff want her to end part of the deal
Arizona passed on an early chance to find out how much water the Saudi company was pumping on state-owned land. For nearly a decade, it was in the dark. Only after the state threatened to cancel Fondomonte's leases last month did the company disclose washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/…
@krismayes: “We can’t afford to do dumb things with our water anymore. And allowing a Saudi corporation to stick a straw in the ground and pump millions of gallons of water to grow alfalfa for their cows in the Middle East is nothing short of outrageous.” washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/…
Nikki Haley's campaign touted $11 million raised since she launched in Feb. Saturday's filings show she double-counted across various committees making transfers to one another and only brought in about $5 million into her main campaign committee
Mike Lindell, who financed the failed case that led to the sanctions, told @yvonnewingett this evening that the plaintiffs had “more evidence than any case in history”
Masters summed up the Dem strategy, saying in an Aug. 19 radio interview: “They’re trying to nuke me, you know, they’re trying to kill the baby in the crib here." washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
And while Kelly's campaign was pummeling Masters on TV, Mitch McConnnell and Peter Thiel were feuding over which one would pick up the tab for Masters washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
Our story on the Claremont Institute, home to John Eastman. Once marginal, Claremont became Trump’s version of Heritage or AEI for past Republican presidents washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07…
Claremont was founded by students of the conservative political philosopher Harry Jaffa. The think tank’s current leaders still invoke Jaffa a lot
But Jaffa’s son told me his father had harsh words for Claremont, which he said had become “neo-confederate” washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07…
When Claremont alum got invited to join the Trump campaign in 2016, views varied. Darren Beattie was game. Michael Buschbacher, a DC lawyer, said Trump was antithetical to Claremont’s mission.