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Throughout the top of the struggle in Afghanistan, U.S. navy leaders flocked to the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan to embrace its president, Ilham Aliyev, regardless of a report from the U.S. Embassy evaluating the mustachioed strongman to mafia bosses in “The Godfather.”
Setting apart issues about Azerbaijan’s tradition of corruption, Pentagon officers persuaded Aliyev to open his nation’s borders and airspace to crucial U.S. and NATO provide routes to Afghanistan. In change, U.S. officers promised a better diplomatic partnership with Aliyev and steered $369 million in protection contracts to Silk Manner Airways, an Azerbaijan cargo service that U.S. investigators say was managed by the federal government.
Two U.S. Air Drive generals — Duncan McNabb and William Fraser III — who oversaw the provision routes from 2008 to 2014 later tried to money in on their Azerbaijan connections. Upon retiring from lively obligation, the four-star generals negotiated priceless consulting offers with Silk Manner Airways, in line with paperwork obtained by The Washington Put up underneath the Freedom of Data Act. One among them stood to earn $5,000 a day.
The Pentagon and State Division usually rubber-stamp requests from retired U.S. navy personnel to work for overseas powers or firms managed by overseas governments, having accredited greater than 95 % of purposes since 2015. However when the Air Drive realized about McNabb’s and Fraser’s enterprise ventures in Azerbaijan, officers flagged them as a possible embarrassment and a danger to nationwide safety, the paperwork present.
The case triggered a chronic inside battle between the retired generals and R. Philip Deavel, a civilian Air Drive lawyer who feared that the consulting offers may set off a scandal.
Different Air Drive officers repeatedly sought to stop the dispute from turning into public. Between 2016 and 2021, The Put up submitted 4 separate FOIA requests that ought to have produced data in regards to the case, however the Air Drive both didn’t reply or stated it couldn’t discover any paperwork.
This yr, the Air Drive lastly launched greater than 400 pages of data — however solely after The Put up sued in federal courtroom and introduced written proof from one other company that the generals’ conduct in Azerbaijan had generated an investigation.
The information present an unusually detailed take a look at how two high-ranking U.S. navy commanders tried to revenue from overseas relationships solid throughout wartime, and on the Pentagon’s struggles to police such conduct.
The paperwork reveal that Air Drive intelligence officers objected to the Azerbaijan enterprise offers for causes that stay labeled. In the meantime, Deavel, who because the director of the Air Drive Overview Boards Company was chargeable for reviewing such preparations, raised moral issues as a result of the U.S. navy had given intensive enterprise to Silk Manner Airways whereas McNabb and Fraser managed the provision routes by Azerbaijan.
In a 2015 confidential memo, Deavel warned his superiors that “we should always do nothing that will trigger Congress or the media to query whether or not the lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} flowing to Silkway are solely for legitimate nationwide safety wants.” The lawyer added that it’d appear to be McNabb and Fraser knew “{that a} perk of workplace is a profitable advisory contract from Silkway upon retirement.”
The retired generals pressed Air Drive officers to approve their consulting offers anyway.
At one level, in line with the 2015 memo, Fraser warned that if the U.S. authorities prevented him from working for Silk Manner, it will face “blow-back” from Azerbaijan, and that Aliyev’s authorities may even block U.S. and NATO provide routes to Afghanistan in retaliation.
‘Azerbaijan was the important thing’
20 years of U.S. wars in Afghanistan and the Center East have created a thriving job marketplace for American veterans making an attempt to revenue from their abroad deployments.
Fraser and McNabb are amongst greater than 500 retired U.S. navy personnel who’ve sought federal permission over the previous eight years to just accept jobs as consultants or contractors for overseas governments, in line with a Put up investigation. A lot of the jobs originate in international locations recognized for human rights abuses and political repression.
McNabb and Fraser, now each 70, amassed a mess of overseas contacts whereas main the U.S. Transportation Command (Transcom), the navy’s big logistics arm chargeable for transferring troops and provides across the globe.
McNabb, an Air Drive Academy alumnus, headed the command from 2008 to 2011. Fraser, a Texas A&M graduate, succeeded him and held the job till retiring in 2014.
As commanders, their main problem was transporting materiel to landlocked Afghanistan, a logistical nightmare. Iran blocked entry from the west. Pakistan provided entry from the south and east for truckers prepared to drive arduous routes over mountains and thru deserts, however typically closed its border checkpoints when tensions rose with Washington.
When McNabb took cost of Transcom, he informed The Put up in a latest interview, considered one of his first duties was to attempt to open another provide path to Afghanistan from the north that bypassed Russia. The one possible possibility was to cross the territories of a number of former Soviet republics, together with Azerbaijan, a rustic the scale of Portugal that’s sandwiched between Russia and Iran.
In November 2008, McNabb made his first worldwide journey as Transcom commander to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital on the Caspian Sea, to see if he may win help from Aliyev and his authorities for brand spanking new sea and floor provide routes in addition to expanded overflight rights.
“Azerbaijan was the important thing,” McNabb recalled within the interview. “Of us don’t notice how crucial that was.”
Aliyev had dominated Azerbaijan for the reason that 2003 dying of his father, Heydar, a former KGB boss who turned president shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Corruption flourished underneath the Aliyevs, with the CIA describing it as “pervasive” and the State Division calling it “systemic.”
Ilham Aliyev wore tailor-made fits, spoke fluent English and favored pleasant relations with the US and NATO. However he was illiberal of political dissent and challenges to his household’s energy.
In a labeled 2009 diplomatic cable made public by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the U.S. Embassy in Baku described Aliyev as “a combination” of Michael and Sonny Corleone, the fraternal mobsters of “The Godfather” novel and film.
“His objective seems to be a political surroundings wherein the Aliyev dynasty is unchallenged,” the embassy wrote. Aliyev later appointed his spouse, Mehriban Aliyeva, as vp.
McNabb stated Aliyev’s authorities was open to the proposed navy provide routes however needed one thing in return. At first, Azerbaijani officers insisted the US must pay tariffs to make use of their nation’s airspace, although they later relented. “I needed to inform them we don’t pay anybody,” McNabb stated.
The provision routes paid off for Azerbaijan in different methods, nonetheless. Silk Manner Airways, looking for to interrupt into the U.S. market, acquired $269 million in U.S. protection contracts throughout McNabb’s three-year tenure at Transcom to switch provides from Europe to Afghanistan and Iraq, in line with Air Drive data.
McNabb didn’t play a direct function within the contracting course of. However he met with Silk Manner officers and stated he as soon as hosted a Silk Manner government for dinner at his dwelling at Scott Air Drive Base in Illinois. “They did do lots of missions and so they did do lots of good work,” he stated.
He estimated that he visited Azerbaijan 5 – 6 instances as Transcom commander to maintain the provision routes to Afghanistan buzzing. By the height of the struggle in 2010, about one-quarter of U.S. and NATO nonlethal provides — gas, meals and building materials — transited by Azerbaijan.
Retirement and a job provide
McNabb retired from the Air Drive in December 2011 and settled in Arlington, Va. Eighteen months later, he stated, officers with Silk Manner Airways contacted him a few attainable enterprise enterprise.
Duncan
McNabb
• Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, 2008-2011
• Vice chief of employees, U.S. Air Drive, 2007-2008
Silk Manner needed to modernize its operational management heart at Heydar Aliyev Worldwide Airport in Baku. The agency invited McNabb to return to Azerbaijan in June 2013 for a go to and provided to rent him as an adviser, he stated.
McNabb agreed. That month, he stated, he arrange a consulting agency, Ares Mobility Options, partnering with a retired Air Drive colonel and a captain within the Navy Reserve who had labored within the airline trade. Ares signed a contract with Silk Manner that paid a month-to-month retainer of $10,000 plus bills, paperwork present. Below the deal, McNabb was anticipated to journey to Baku each three to 5 months to work for a couple of days at a time.
Based on federal regulation, retired U.S. navy personnel — outlined as those that served at the very least 20 years in uniform — and reservists are required to acquire permission from their department of the armed forces and the State Division earlier than they settle for something of worth from overseas powers or firms managed by overseas governments.
Silk Manner Airways was considered one of 23 subsidiaries of a personal holding firm, Silk Manner Group LLC, that had come to dominate the aviation sector in Azerbaijan after the partial privatization of the nation’s state-owned airline.
McNabb stated he thought Silk Manner Airways was wholly non-public so he didn’t search federal authorization at first. “This was not with the federal government,” he informed The Put up. U.S. investigators would disagree.
Like McNabb, Fraser made Azerbaijan a precedence throughout his tenure as Transcom chief.
A couple of weeks after taking command, he flew to Baku in December 2011 to debate the Afghanistan provide routes with Aliyev and different Azerbaijani officers. Over the following three years, Fraser met with Aliyev twice in Azerbaijan and as soon as in New York, in line with Azerbaijan’s authorities.
Transcom additionally continued to do appreciable enterprise with Silk Manner Airways, with the agency receiving a further $100 million in U.S. protection contracts, in line with Air Drive data.
In April 2014, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the US visited Scott Air Drive Base in Illinois to tour Transcom headquarters.
The ambassador, Elin Suleymanov, met with Fraser, who was nearing the top of his time in command.
Throughout the go to, the diplomat famous that “there are a lot of alternatives for future navy and industrial cooperation” between the US and Azerbaijan, in line with a U.S. navy press launch.
A ‘going price’ of $5,000 a day
Fraser retired from the Air Drive two months later, on July 1, 2014. Inside days, in line with Air Drive data, he acquired a job provide from Silk Manner Group — the company father or mother of Silk Manner Airways, Silk Manner West Airways, Silk Manner Financial institution and different companies with the Silk Manner title.
William
Fraser III
• Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, 2011-2014
• Commander, Air Fight Command, 2009-2011
In contrast to McNabb, Fraser sought advance permission from the Air Drive to work for Silk Manner. In Fraser’s utility, dated Aug. 25, 2014, he wrote that “I’m not conscious of any connection to the Azerbaijan authorities” and that he didn’t suppose he wanted federal approval.
Fraser stated he sought authorization anyway as a result of a Transcom ethics counselor had suggested him to take action. In a memo, the counselor famous that “the diploma to which the Azerbaijan authorities owns and/or controls [Silk Way Group] has been the topic of media hypothesis previously.”
The reference was to a 2010 investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — an abroad broadcaster owned by the U.S. authorities — that reported that Aliyev’s 21-year-old daughter was one of many house owners of Silk Manner Financial institution.
In his foreign-employment utility to the Air Drive, Fraser gave few specifics in describing his proposed duties with Silk Manner Group, writing that he “could be a advisor/advisor offering material experience” and would “assist develop future enterprise alternatives.” He stated his “going price” as a advisor was $5,000 a day.
The appliance instantly drew scrutiny on the Pentagon. Deavel’s employees concluded that, opposite to Fraser’s assertion, there have been sturdy indications that the federal government of Azerbaijan managed Silk Manner Group.
In the meantime, the Air Drive Workplace of Particular Investigations performed a separate evaluate and submitted a labeled report back to Deavel. Whereas particulars of the evaluate stay a secret, the investigative company stated it had “nationwide safety issues” about Silk Manner, in line with an unclassified memo summarizing the report.
That was sufficient for Deavel. He denied Fraser’s utility on Sept. 30, 2014. “Finally, I can’t discover the proposed relationship in the most effective pursuits of the US,” he wrote.
Fraser didn’t quit. Two days later, he referred to as Deavel and requested what he wanted to do to steer the Air Drive to alter its determination.
In a memo recounting the dialog, Deavel wrote that the dialogue was “a little bit awkward,” partly as a result of it was uncommon for him to get a name from a four-star common, and partly as a result of he had based mostly his determination on the labeled report.
On the cellphone, he informed Fraser in regards to the existence of the labeled report, however stated he couldn’t focus on particulars. He defined that the labeled materials “did trigger me concern in regards to the actions of his proposed employer and whether or not approving this compensated relationship posed dangers to the fame of the Air Drive,” in line with Deavel’s memo.
Nonetheless, Fraser pushed for approval. He informed Deavel “that he knew the appliance was hazy and lacked specifics,” and requested if he may resubmit it with extra data which may make approval extra doubtless.
Fraser additionally made some feedback that Deavel took as a warning, paperwork present. The final stated he believed there could be “blowback for the US” if the Air Drive didn’t let him work for Silk Manner, in line with Deavel’s memo.
Particularly, Fraser famous that Azerbaijan had simply renewed Transcom’s overflight rights and entered a strategic safety relationship with the US. He stated Azerbaijani officers “would see a denial as inconsistent with these partnership agreements.”
Fraser additionally urged Deavel to contact the State Division’s desk officer for the Caucasus area, who he stated would vouch that the overall’s employment with Silk Manner “was helpful for American pursuits” in Azerbaijan.
Deavel was bowled over however noncommittal. He informed Fraser he “didn’t need to shoot from the hip” about whether or not he may change his thoughts. However he stated he’d focus on the case with different Air Drive attorneys.
Reached for remark, Fraser declined to debate the matter with The Put up. “I don’t see the worth in speaking about one thing that occurred almost eight years in the past,” he stated in an e-mail.
In a 2015 submitting with the U.S. Division of Transportation, Silk Manner Group stated it was “100% owned” by one other non-public agency, Silk Manner Growth LLC. That entity, in flip, was listed as being 95 % owned by Zaur Akhundov, the founding father of Silk Manner Airways.
In a written response to questions from The Put up, Silk Manner Airways stated that it “has at all times been industrial, non-public and has by no means been associated to the state or politics” and that it sought to rent McNabb and Fraser for his or her experience in transportation and logistics. The corporate added that “it under no circumstances supposed, implied or wanted to supply ‘payback’ for a longstanding” contractual relationship with Transcom.
Silk Manner described Akhundov as “the last word helpful proprietor” of the agency and stated “he has by no means acted” as a proxy or trustee for different shareholders.
Like father, like son
Fraser resubmitted his utility to the Air Drive in November 2014. This time, he specified that he would seek the advice of for Silk Manner West Airways as an alternative of the Silk Manner holding firm. He stated his duties could be to “enhance their information and understanding of U.S. industrial markets and present U.S. industrial provide chains.”
One factor Fraser didn’t point out on his utility was that his son, William Fraser IV, additionally labored within the aviation enterprise in Azerbaijan.
William Fraser IV, a former U.S. Marine sergeant who goes by the nickname “Mac,” had taken a job two years earlier as an assistant to the president of Azerbaijan Airways, the state-owned service, as a public relations and strategic communications specialist.
Mac Fraser stated he additionally labored half time for Silk Manner West Airways — the corporate that now needed to rent his father for $5,000 a day. Mac Fraser left Azerbaijan Airways to just accept a full-time job with Silk Manner West Airways as a Houston-based advertising supervisor in March 2015, in line with his LinkedIn profile.
In an e-mail change with The Put up, Mac Fraser stated he was unaware his father had acquired a suggestion to work for Silk Manner West Airways across the similar time he did.
“As I perceive it, upon retiring from lively obligation my father forged a large web and entertained plenty of gives from plenty of completely different firms,” he wrote. “Whereas I contemplate ours to be a close-knit household, I couldn’t even start to take a position who any of these firms have been.”
Knowledgeable that the Air Drive had blocked his father from working for Silk Manner, Mac Fraser replied: “That’s all information to me and WAY above my pay grade.”
“Me and my father have by no means crossed paths professionally and his enterprise is totally separate and other than mine,” he added.
Mac Fraser declined to say how he got here to work for firms based mostly in Azerbaijan. His LinkedIn profile notes no earlier skilled expertise within the nation.
In contrast to his father, Mac Fraser was not required to hunt federal approval for his jobs in Azerbaijan as a result of he served within the U.S. navy for under 4 years. The regulation limiting foreign-government employment applies solely to U.S. veterans who served for at the very least 20 years, as a result of they obtain a navy pension and might be recalled to lively obligation.
Nationwide safety issues
After Gen. Fraser submitted his second utility, Deavel checked out his declare that the State Division thought his job with Silk Manner could be “helpful for American pursuits,” in line with the case information.
State Division officers contradicted the overall’s assertion and stated they weren’t pushing for his job to be accredited. In addition they stated they “strongly disagree[d] with Gen. Fraser’s evaluation” that there could be “diplomatic ‘blow-back’ from the Authorities of Azerbaijan” if U.S. officers rejected his consulting gig, paperwork present.
The State Division shocked Deavel with a second revelation. Officers informed him one other retired four-star Air Drive common — McNabb — had knowledgeable the State Division’s desk officer for Azerbaijan that he was working for Silk Manner Airways. It was the primary time anybody had notified the Air Drive about McNabb’s consulting job in Azerbaijan.
Deavel knowledgeable different Air Drive officers that they’d one other potential downside on their arms. Not solely had McNabb not utilized for federal permission however the Workplace of Particular Investigations’ nationwide safety issues about Silk Manner would most likely apply in his case, too.
Within the navy, it takes braveness to say no to a four-star common, even one who’s retired. Deavel needed to verify he had the backing of his superiors. He wrote a “Excessive Curiosity Notification” memo that was labeled “**SENSITIVE AND PRE-DECISIONAL**” and despatched it up the chain of command.
Deavel supplied a recap of his earlier denial of Fraser’s request to work for Silk Manner and ticked off the explanation why it was problematic.
He famous that the State Division agreed that the federal government of Azerbaijan successfully managed Silk Manner and its subsidiaries. State Division officers, he emphasised, had expressed “disappointment that Gen Fraser, as a retired 4 star, wouldn’t voluntarily withdraw the request and search post-retirement alternatives elsewhere,” in line with the memo.
Deavel additionally reported that the Workplace of Particular Investigations had shared its labeled report with different federal intelligence companies and that all of them concurred with the nationwide safety issues about retired U.S. navy personnel working for Silk Manner.
Additional, Deavel described how he had not too long ago realized that McNabb was working as a Silk Manner advisor with out federal approval, which “causes me even larger concern” given Silk Manner’s U.S. protection contracts. Deavel reported that Transcom had awarded 2,230 cargo airlift missions to Silk Manner throughout McNabb’s tenure, plus 1,117 missions whereas Fraser was in command, for a complete price of $369 million.
Deavel stated he wasn’t questioning the necessity for the airlift missions however warned that Congress and the media may see the generals’ subsequent consulting offers as “payback.” Because of this, he stated, he was planning to reject Fraser’s reapplication until his bosses instructed him in any other case.
None did. On Jan. 9, 2015, Deavel wrote a terse letter denying Fraser’s employment with Silk Manner as “not in the most effective pursuits of the Air Drive.”
When contacted by The Put up, Deavel declined to remark instantly on the case, besides to say that he stood by all his selections.
“I’m not going to run from my tasks to do what’s proper for the US,” stated Deavel, who retired as director of the Air Drive Overview Boards Company in 2016. “You need to look past whether or not a call will likely be standard with the retired common officer membership.”
A failure to hunt permission
Whereas that marked the top of Fraser’s push to seek the advice of in Azerbaijan, the Air Drive nonetheless wanted to resolve what to do about McNabb.
The case bounced across the highest ranges of the Air Drive till June 2015, when the Air Drive inspector common opened an investigation to find out whether or not McNabb had dedicated misconduct by working for Silk Manner Airways with out federal approval.
Three investigative officers interviewed McNabb on the Pentagon on Oct. 23, 2015. The retired common stated that he hadn’t completed something mistaken and that he had by no means come throughout any proof that Silk Manner Airways was underneath the management of the federal government of Azerbaijan.
“While you go browsing and whenever you discuss what Silk Manner does, it simply stated it’s a personal enterprise,” he stated, in line with a transcript of the interview. “I had a really intensive intel community that will take a look at particularly overseas carriers that will be going out and in of locations, and I by no means had something that stated that this was managed by the federal government.”
Throughout his interview with investigators, McNabb was argumentative at instances and questioned why nobody within the Air Drive had ever informed him he ought to apply for federal permission to work for Silk Manner.
“If anyone thinks I must, please simply inform me,” he stated. “I’m chagrined that anyone would suppose that I’d not attempt to reside as much as the entire ethics guidelines.”
Investigators famous that he had been briefed in regards to the guidelines on foreign-government employment shortly earlier than his retirement and that it was his duty to adjust to the regulation.
In his interview with The Put up, McNabb stated that he was conscious Fraser was additionally making an attempt to work for Silk Manner, however that they didn’t coordinate their efforts. He stated he mistakenly assumed that solely Fraser wanted to use for federal permission as a result of Fraser was working for Silk Manner primarily in the US.
He denied that his consulting job with Silk Manner was a reward for the U.S. protection contracts awarded to the corporate when he headed Transcom. “Completely not,” he stated.
The Air Drive inspector common’s workplace accomplished its investigation into McNabb in November 2015 and concluded that he had violated the regulation by failing to hunt permission for foreign-government employment.
There is no such thing as a felony penalty for breaking the regulation, however the navy can withhold retirement pay from those that achieve this.
McNabb confirmed that the Protection Division docked his pension however declined to say how a lot.
“It was sufficient,” he stated. “I paid.”
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