Pentagon Ousts Official Under FBI Investigation

The Los Angeles Times reports that John A. "Jack" Shaw, the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for international technology security, was ordered to leave after he refused to sign a letter of resignation:

"He was asked to discontinue his service," a senior Pentagon official said.

Shaw was under investigation by the FBI on allegations that he tried to steer Iraqi reconstruction contracts toward friends:

Shaw allegedly tried to steer two contracts, one involving telecommunications and a second involving dredging at an Iraqi port, to companies linked to longtime friends or clients of longtime friends.

According to the LA Times, Shaw has portrayed himself as a whistle-blower who was being unfairly asked to resign for having highlighted problems with the cellular phone licensing process:

"I cannot submit my resignation to you until it is clear that the well-orchestrated campaign to obstruct justice and suppress the findings of my office has been properly addressed and stopped," Shaw wrote in a letter to Rumsfeld.

Shaw made news late in the presidential campaign, when he said that missing 380 tons of explosives had removed by Russian commandos before the March 2003 invasion. A story California Yankee posted about here and here.

The times reports that Shaw's remarks on the missing explosives were the breaking point that led to the demand for his resignation:

Shaw said in his letter that he was asked to resign for having exceeded his "authority and brief."

Shaw defended his decision, however, saying that he had to get the information about the Russian commandos out as quickly as possible in the heat of the campaign.

"I realized I was probably the only person in the country who could disprove the story" of the missing munitions, he said.