CNN Reporter Drew Griffin got it right:  The $435 million no-bid contract to Siga reported earlier by SFTT this week is a sham and yet another example of the blatant corruption in government and the cozy relationship that exists between political fund-raisers and career procurement officers in government.   Nevertheless, director and mouth-piece for Siga, Fran Townsend was able to do a convincing cover-up in a CNN interview with an obviously uncomfortable Anderson Cooper and a frustrated Drew Griffin, who had the good sense to not lose his cool.  In fact, Fran Townsend may actually believe what she is saying, which is even scarier.

As a result, Siga shares soared the next day as market-mover Fran Townsend proves once again that dishonesty and hypocrisy is SOP for beltway insiders and nobody can do a damn thing!

This is good news for the folks in our military procurement process who use many of the same tools as Siga to re-write test procedures, get more friendly testers and simply pretend to have a competitive bidding process when everyone knows the system is rigged from the get-go.    I don’t know who is buying Siga Shares, but it is probably the same people who sold Siga shares  short when CNN first announced it was releasing the story.  Nice trade!

When young men and women are dying on the field of battle, it is a shame that we reward their heroism with former public servants who gorge themselves at the expense of  hard-working folks who expect more of their leaders.