John A. Shaw
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John A. "Jack" Shaw served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security. Shaw became the subject of an FBI investigation when he conducted unauthorized investigations of Iraq reconstruction efforts, using the results of these unauthorized probes to direct multimillion dollar government contracts to his friends and associates. In one instance he impersonated a Halliburton employee in order to conduct the unauthorized investigation.[1] Shaw was asked to resign for "exceeding his authority" in such probes. Among other unsubstantiated claims, Mr. Shaw accused Russian special forces of helping Saddam removed his WMD prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was asked to resign shortly after these accusations, prompting him to call the accusations by the Pentagon "spurious." Shaw said he made the accusations as a political move to help candidate George W. Bush, who he felt was being "crucified" by the revelations that over 350 tons of explosives had gone missing in Iraq as a result of the U.S. invasion. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Larry DiRita called Shaw's charges "absurd and without any foundation." DiRita noted that Shaw "has been directed on several occasions to produce evidence of his wide-ranging and fantastic charges and provide it to the DoD inspector general. To my knowledge, he has not done so."[2] Senior Defense Department officials told the Washington Post that Shaw's claims regarding the al-Qa'qaa facility had "no basis in fact."[3] Since the election, all reports have indicated the explosives at al-Qa'qaa were removed after U.S. forces captured the facility. See Al Qa'qaa high explosives controversy.
