Beltway Bandits at Work In the Pentagon

An exclusive look at how cozy relationships led to insider trading on defense contracts

More than 200 subpoenas. As many as 100 defense contracts subject to cancellation. Tens of billions of dollars at stake. All last week, the revelations coming out of the FBI and Naval Investigative Service probe code- named Operation Ill Wind continued to mushroom into the biggest and most important Pentagon scandal ever.

At the heart of the mess lies the so-called Iron Triangle, the web of cozy relationships among Pentagon officials, defense consultants and military contractors. The scandal has shed light not only on a few suspected of corruption but on an entire system that seems tailor-made for cheating. It has...

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