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Insider Played D.C. For Millions

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The New York Times

Published: October 12, 2008

WASHINGTON - They huddled in a quiet corner at the US Airways lounge at Ronald Reagan National Airport, sipping bottomless cups of coffee as they plotted to turn America's missile defense program into a personal cash machine.

Michael Cantrell, an engineer at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., along with his deputy, Doug Ennis, had lined up millions of dollars from Congress for defense companies. Now, Cantrell decided, it was time to take a cut.

"The contractors are making a killing," Cantrell said he recalled thinking at the meeting, in 2000. "The lobbyists are getting their fees, and the contractors and lobbyists are writing out campaign checks to the politicians. Everybody is making money here - except us."

Within months, Cantrell began getting personal checks from contractors and later returned to the airport with Ennis to pick up a briefcase stuffed with $75,000. The two men eventually collected more than $1.6 million in kickbacks, through 2007, prompting them to plead guilty this year to corruption charges.

Cantrell, who is awaiting sentencing on conspiracy and bribery charges, readily acknowledges concocting the crime. But what has drawn little scrutiny are his activities leading up to it.

It Was About Connections

Thanks to important allies in Congress, Cantrell extracted nearly $350 million for projects the Pentagon did not want.

Cantrell's story, pieced together from federal documents and dozens of interviews, is a remarkable account of how a little-known, midlevel Defense Department insider who spent his entire career in Alabama skillfully gamed the system.

Determined to save his job, Cantrell often bypassed his bosses and broke department rules to make his case on Capitol Hill. He enlisted contractors to pitch projects that would keep the dollars flowing and paid lobbyists to ease them through. He cultivated lawmakers, who were eager to send money back home. And when he ran into trouble, he could count on his powerful friends for protection from Pentagon officials who provided little oversight and were afraid of alienating lawmakers.

"I could go over to the Hill and put pressure on people above me and get something done," Cantrell explained about his success in Washington. "With the Army, as long as the senator is not calling over and complaining, everything is OK. And the senator will not call over and complain unless the contractor you're working with does not get his money. So you just have to keep the players happy and it works."

'There Is Just Too Much Inertia'

Cantrell's division was a small part of the national missile defense program, an effort that has cost the United States more than $110 billion since President Reagan unveiled his Strategic Defense Initiative 25 years ago. Today, the missile defense effort is the Pentagon's single biggest procurement program.

The Army declined to discuss the Cantrell case. J. Richard Fisher, one of Cantrell's former bosses, said: "The system needs to change. But it is not likely to do that. There is just too much inertia - and too much self-interest."

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