Donald Trump announced a number of nominees for Department of Defense positions yesterday, starting with billionaire Stephen Feinberg, the head of Cerberus Capital Management. Feinberg, reported to be a major donor to Trump’s political campaigns, previously served Trump as head of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 2018. For Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the number-three ranking position in the department, Trump has picked Elbridge “Bridge” Colby.
While press coverage is focused on Feinberg’s lack of history with the military, and possible conflicts of interest—as Cerberus has major investments in military contractors—EIR exposed back in 2007 Cerberus’s criminal nature, and its role in wrecking the U.S. auto industry. “Expecting to continue to return 15-20% annually to its investor-speculators, Cereberus has nothing but a short-term, financial return interest in any of the companies it controls,” wrote EIR’s Paul Gallagher, in a Jan. 19, 2007 article. Cerberus was also behind the scandal of the poor treatment of wounded combat soldiers at the then-Walter Reed Army Medical Center later the same year. Cerberus owned IAP Worldwide Services, a contractor that was brought in to privatize Walter Reed’s workforce after the installation was slated for closure by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, replacing thousands of federal employees with far fewer contract workers.
