Thomas E. White

Thomas E. White retired from the Army in 1990 as a brigadier general, spent the next 11 years as a senior executive at Enron Corporation, and was then sworn in as George W. Bush's Secretary of the Army on May 31, 2001. Amidst allegations of ethical violations and conflicts-of-interest, White was asked to resign by Donald Rumsfeld and left the post April 25, 2003.

White was rebuked by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress for retaining options to purchase Enron stock until eight months after he told the Senate Armed Services Committee he would divest his holdings, was investigated for personal use of military aircraft, charged with improper communications with Enron executives regarding personal stock trades, and accused of engaging in conflict-of-interest deals that favored Enron in Army contracts. White was also called to testify before the Senate on his involvement in the manipulation of California energy prices as head of Enron Energy Services, the Enron division believed to have rigged California’s energy supply and falsified records to inflate profits and cheat investors. [1] [2] [3]

White’s biography on the Army’s website was significantly altered to remove his Enron associations after the Enron scandals became known. [4] The Secretary of the Army biography page is now blank. [5]

Gen. Colin L. Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, picked White in 1989 as his executive assistant. He was Powell's "alter ego," said Harlan Ullman, a retired naval officer and friend of both. "It is a job that requires tremendous political sophistication." [6]

SourceWatch Resources

• Francis J. Harvey (replaced White)

External links

• Ellen Nakashima, “White Used Military Jet for Colorado Visit: In Midst of Official Trip to Seattle, Army Secretary and Wife Closed on the Sale of Aspen Home”, Washington Post, March 23, 2002.
• Paul Krugman, “Cronies in Arms”, New York Times, September 17, 2002.
• “The Army Secretary's Business”, Washington Post Editorial, March 28, 2002.
• Russ Kick, “Army Chief Feels Heat, Scrubs Enron Bio: The Incredible Shrinking Résumé of Thomas White”, CNN.com, May 22 - 28, 2002.
• “Secretary of Army Thomas White Alters Website To Hide Leading Role in Enron”, Common Dreams, February 16, 2002.
• John Hendren, “Army Secretary Takes On Afghan, Enron Wars: Thomas White battles foes abroad. At home, his connection to the energy giant is raising some questions”, Los Angeles Times (reprinted in Common Dreams), January 26, 2002.
• Joan Claybrook, “Special Counsel Needed to Investigate Army Secretary Thomas White's Role in the California Energy Scams”, Counterpunch, July 22, 2002.
• “Army Chief Faces Enron Questions”, CBSNews.com, July 18, 2002.
• “Rumsfeld set for Army leadership changes: Firing of civilian chief paves the way for top-level shake-up”, Olympian, April 27, 2003.
• “Better Late Than Never: Administration Should Have Fired Army Secretary Thomas White Long Ago”, Statement by Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen, April 28, 2003.
• “Memo Shows Enron Division Headed by Army Secretary Thomas White Manipulated California Electricity Market”, Public Citizen, May 8, 2002.
• Robert L. Borosage, “White Must Go”, The Nation, March 11, 2002.
• “Army Secretary Thomas White's Stock Sales and Enron Contacts”, chart by Memory Hole showing connections between White’s Enron phone calls and stock sales.
• “Army Secretary Thomas White”, Public Citizen web page on White.
• Jayson Blair, “Ft. Hamilton Utility Deal With Enron Is Questioned”, New York Times, March 10, 2002.
• Josh Gerstein, “Friends in High Places: Bankrupt Enron Held Sway With Current Bush Administration”, ABCNews.com, December 10, 2001.
• Allan Sloan, “Free Lessons on Corporate Hubris, Courtesy of Enron”, Washington Post, December 4, 2001.
• Robert Scheer, “Enron Is Symbolic of Bush Blunders”, Los Angeles Times (reprinted in truthout.org), December 27, 2001.
• Michael Duffy and John F. Dickerson, “Enron Spoils the Party: Bush wants his State of the Union speech to drown out those stories linking the disgraced company and the White House”, Time, January 27, 2002.
• Andrew Leonard, “Will Bush be tarnished by Enron's collapse? The crash of his top corporate backer should discredit the president's anti-regulation economic policies, but it's unlikely to lead to reform”, Salon.com, November 30, 2001.
• "The Secretary of the Army position is not currently filled pending Congressional confirmation”, Army’s Secretary of the Army biography page as of February 23, 2004.