The New York Times today has an extremely fair article on Charles Riechers, the senior Air Force official who committed suicide after he was featured in a front page story in the *Washington Post *with the unfortunate headline, "Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract."
Let me take this opportunity, again, to note that the headline for that original story was really misleading.
The New York Times in its story today correctly notes two things: 1) There's no evidence that Charles Riechers did anything illegal, and, 2) there is a legitimate question of whether the Air Force should have used a systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA) contract to hire Riechers while he was waiting for White House confirmation.
Blame games lead nowhere. It doesn't help to point fingers at either reporters or the Air Force. But the sad part is that everyone missed an opportunity to examine the rise of the SETA contracting, and its implication for the Pentagon.
Instead, what we have are stories about a man who tragically took his own life.
