www.stopjaygarner.com

Stop Jay Garner

No matter our feelings about the war, all of us hope for a better future for the people of Iraq. A future where Iraqis can make their own destiny and be free from war, terror and political oppression.

Yet currently the task of overseeing the transition to democracy in Iraq will fall on the shoulders of a man who was chosen by the Bush Administration in secret. Without a confirmation hearing or even a press interview.

His name is Jay Garner. And he's the wrong guy for the job.

As the President of weapons maker SY Coleman (owned by L-3 Communications) Jay Garner is no man of peace. In fact, he's already inflamed the entire Middle East.

Sign your name to the following letter to the U.S. Congress, urging them to investigate Jay Garner.

Here's the problem with Jay Garner

Garner is a weapons dealer, not an experienced diplomat.

Garner is still, despite his post in the Middle East, the President of SY Coleman, which provides technical support for missile systems currently in use in the Iraq war. No matter your feelings about this war, appointing a weapons maker to the role of peacemaker is a recipe for whipping up anti-American feeling in the Middle East.

To give you a flavor of Garner's style, here's what he wrote in Army magazine: "While the idea that lasers could be used effectively to conduct lethal engagements was promoted vigorously during the heyday of President Reagan's Star Wars program in the 1980s, the reality of using high-energy lasers in killing systems has finally come of age."

He told the New York Times that "If President Bush had been president we would have won" the Vietnam war (April 15, 2003).

Garner exemplifies the revolving door between the Pentagon and weapons dealers.
Garner, who owns a million-dollar home in Orlando, Florida, made money by doing business with his former military command.

Garner and SY Coleman will soon be sued by competitor DESE Research, which claims that Garner slandered DESE executives in meetings with military contracting officials who had been in Garner's command in order to win the contracts for SY. "Jay's very aggressive and did what he could to pull contracts, even if that meant pulling strings," a former high-ranking industry executive told the Nation Magazine (April 28, 2003).

A friend of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Garner was named president of SY Technology (now called SY Coleman) in 1997 - despite having almost no experience in business. Biff Baker, a former lieutenant colonel at Army Space Command, accused SY Coleman of having received $100 million in contracts solely because of Garner's Pentagon connections. SY sued Baker for defamation and the lawsuit was settled out of court in January, 2003.

Garner is closely tied with failed weapons programs - and may have lied to Congress.
Garner was Reagan's top man on Star Wars and, after the 1991 Gulf War, told Congress that the Patriot missile defense system a success - even though it knocked down just one out of 88 Scud missiles the Iraqis launched at Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to the General Accounting Office. According to acclaimed MIT professor and missile expert Theodore A. Postol, "He was arrogant and very discourteous. He was part of a group of senior officers who were lying about Patriot's performance." (Quoted in Washington Post, April 11).