Our latest scandal comes from NASA.

An FBI-led watchdog agency has opened an investigation into multiple
complaints accusing NASA Inspector General Robert W. Cobb of failing to
investigate safety violations and retaliating against whistle-blowers. Most
of the complaints were filed by current and former employees of his own
office.

Written complaints and supporting documents from at least 16 people have
been given to investigators. They allege that Cobb, appointed by President
Bush in 2002, suppressed investigations of wrongdoing within NASA, and
abused and penalized his own investigators when they persisted in raising
concerns.

The complaints are being reviewed by the Integrity Committee of the
President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency. The complaints describe
efforts by Cobb to shut down or ignore investigations on issues such as a
malfunctioning self-destruct procedure during a space shuttle launch at the
Kennedy Space Center, and the theft of an estimated $1.9 billion worth of
data on rocket engines from NASA computers.

In documents obtained by The Washington Post and in interviews, NASA
employees and former employees said Cobb’s actions had contributed to a lack
of attention to safety problems at NASA.

The petitioners also said Cobb had disregarded the inspector general’s
mandate to root out “waste, fraud and abuse” and caused dozens of longtime
NASA employees to leave the IG’s 200-person office and seek investigative
work elsewhere.

Article continues

here.

I encourage you to follow the link and read the entire article. It is amazing
that in an agency such as NASA someone would be willing to ignore safety
complaints. Even worse is the fact that you would retaliate against people that
raise safety concerns. Perhaps this is the reason Bush didn’t reaffirm his goal
of the U.S. going to Mars.

But how did Cobb get his job? Well take a look at his bio on
NASA’s
website:

Following nomination by President George W. Bush and confirmation by the
United States Senate, Robert W. Cobb took office as NASA’s Inspector General
on April 22, 2002. As Inspector General, Mr. Cobb is a member of the
President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency He also served as an
“observer” to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which examined the
February 1, 2003, loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew.

Mr. Cobb was previously Associate Counsel to the President. In this role,
he handled the administration of the White House ethics program under the
supervision of the Counsel to the President and was responsible for
administration of the conflict of interest and financial disclosure
clearance processes for candidates for nomination to Senate-confirmed
positions.

O.K. He was appointed by Bush should be warning number one. Even more
alarming is the fact that he handled the ethics program for the White House. So
the man who handled the ethics program for the same White House that employed
Scooter Libby and still employs White House is now the target of an
investigation for something that is unethical. To quote Jon Stewart – “Oh sweet
irony”.