Kleptocracy Nation: Retired Generals and Admirals working for defense contractors/ Boston Globe

From Bryan Bender at the Globe:

Former officers and specialists say the defense industry’s political might is getting a new boost from an accelerating flow of retired generals and admirals.
The Department of Defense... runs an exclusive job service to teach soon-to-retire generals how to land jobs in the defense industry. And military firms routinely recruit elite officers while they are still in uniform.

In rare cases, generals have gone so far as to establish their own consulting firms before retirement...
The defense industry pays large sums to the retired flag officers it hires. For the rapidly growing corps of consultants, fees reach thousands of dollars a day; monthly retainers can run between $20,000 and $50,000 for individual clients. The busiest and most influential retired generals are earning millions of dollars a year, according to industry sources...

Intense competition for contracts is helping drive the industry’s insatiable desire for influential and well-connected insiders.

So is the burgeoning business of outsourcing war...