Throughout the top of the struggle in Afghanistan, U.S. army leaders flocked to the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan to embrace its president, Ilham Aliyev, regardless of a report from the U.S. Embassy evaluating the mustachioed strongman to mafia bosses in “The Godfather.”
Setting apart issues about Azerbaijan’s tradition of corruption, Pentagon officers persuaded Aliyev to open his nation’s borders and airspace to essential U.S. and NATO provide routes to Afghanistan. In trade, U.S. officers promised a better diplomatic partnership with Aliyev and steered $369 million in protection contracts to Silk Approach Airways, an Azerbaijan cargo provider that U.S. investigators say was managed by the federal government.
Two U.S. Air Pressure generals — Duncan McNabb and William Fraser III — who oversaw the availability routes from 2008 to 2014 later tried to money in on their Azerbaijan connections. Upon retiring from energetic obligation, the four-star generals negotiated invaluable consulting offers with Silk Approach Airways, in response to paperwork obtained by The Washington Publish beneath the Freedom of Data Act. One in all them stood to earn $5,000 a day.
The Pentagon and State Division usually rubber-stamp requests from retired U.S. army personnel to work for overseas powers or firms managed by overseas governments, having authorised greater than 95 p.c of functions since 2015. However when the Air Pressure discovered about McNabb’s and Fraser’s enterprise ventures in Azerbaijan, officers flagged them as a possible embarrassment and a threat to nationwide safety, the paperwork present.
The case triggered a chronic inner battle between the retired generals and R. Philip Deavel, a civilian Air Pressure lawyer who feared that the consulting offers may set off a scandal.
Different Air Pressure officers repeatedly sought to forestall the dispute from changing into public. Between 2016 and 2021, The Publish submitted 4 separate FOIA requests that ought to have produced information concerning the case, however the Air Pressure both didn’t reply or stated it couldn’t discover any paperwork.
This 12 months, the Air Pressure lastly launched greater than 400 pages of information — however solely after The Publish sued in federal court docket and introduced written proof from one other company that the generals’ conduct in Azerbaijan had generated an investigation.
The information present an unusually detailed have a look at how two high-ranking U.S. army commanders tried to revenue from overseas relationships solid throughout wartime, and on the Pentagon’s struggles to police such conduct.
The paperwork reveal that Air Pressure intelligence officers objected to the Azerbaijan enterprise offers for causes that stay categorised. In the meantime, Deavel, who because the director of the Air Pressure Evaluation Boards Company was liable for reviewing such preparations, raised moral issues as a result of the U.S. army had given in depth enterprise to Silk Approach Airways whereas McNabb and Fraser managed the availability routes via Azerbaijan.
In a 2015 confidential memo, Deavel warned his superiors that “we should always do nothing that may trigger Congress or the media to query whether or not the lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} flowing to Silkway are solely for legitimate nationwide safety wants.” The lawyer added that it’d seem like McNabb and Fraser knew “{that a} perk of workplace is a profitable advisory contract from Silkway upon retirement.”
The retired generals pressed Air Pressure officers to approve their consulting offers anyway.
At one level, in response to the 2015 memo, Fraser warned that if the U.S. authorities prevented him from working for Silk Approach, it might face “blow-back” from Azerbaijan, and that Aliyev’s authorities may even block U.S. and NATO provide routes to Afghanistan in retaliation.
‘Azerbaijan was the important thing’
Twenty years of U.S. wars in Afghanistan and the Center East have created a thriving job marketplace for American veterans making an attempt to revenue from their abroad deployments.
Fraser and McNabb are amongst greater than 500 retired U.S. army personnel who’ve sought federal permission over the previous eight years to simply accept jobs as consultants or contractors for overseas governments, in response to a Publish investigation. A lot of the jobs originate in international locations recognized for human rights abuses and political repression.
McNabb and Fraser, now each 70, accrued a mess of overseas contacts whereas main the U.S. Transportation Command (Transcom), the army’s large logistics arm liable for shifting troops and provides across the globe.
McNabb, an Air Pressure Academy alumnus, headed the command from 2008 to 2011. Fraser, a Texas A&M graduate, succeeded him and held the job till retiring in 2014.
As commanders, their main problem was transporting materiel to landlocked Afghanistan, a logistical nightmare. Iran blocked entry from the west. Pakistan provided entry from the south and east for truckers keen to drive arduous routes over mountains and thru deserts, however typically closed its border checkpoints when tensions rose with Washington.
When McNabb took cost of Transcom, he informed The Publish in a latest interview, one in all his first duties was to attempt to open an alternate provide path to Afghanistan from the north that bypassed Russia. The one possible choice was to cross the territories of a number of former Soviet republics, together with Azerbaijan, a rustic the dimensions of Portugal that’s sandwiched between Russia and Iran.
In November 2008, McNabb made his first worldwide journey as Transcom commander to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital on the Caspian Sea, to see if he might win assist from Aliyev and his authorities for brand spanking new sea and floor provide routes in addition to expanded overflight rights.
“Azerbaijan was the important thing,” McNabb recalled within the interview. “People don’t notice how essential that was.”
Aliyev had dominated Azerbaijan for the reason that 2003 demise of his father, Heydar, a former KGB boss who turned president shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Corruption flourished beneath the Aliyevs, with the CIA describing it as “pervasive” and the State Division calling it “systemic.”
Ilham Aliyev wore tailor-made fits, spoke fluent English and favored pleasant relations with the US and NATO. However he was illiberal of political dissent and challenges to his household’s energy.
In a categorised 2009 diplomatic cable made public by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the U.S. Embassy in Baku described Aliyev as “a combination” of Michael and Sonny Corleone, the fraternal mobsters of “The Godfather” novel and film.
“His objective seems to be a political surroundings through which the Aliyev dynasty is unchallenged,” the embassy wrote. Aliyev later appointed his spouse, Mehriban Aliyeva, as vice chairman.
McNabb stated Aliyev’s authorities was open to the proposed army provide routes however needed one thing in return. At first, Azerbaijani officers insisted the US must pay tariffs to make use of their nation’s airspace, although they later relented. “I needed to inform them we don’t pay anybody,” McNabb stated.
The provision routes paid off for Azerbaijan in different methods, nevertheless. Silk Approach Airways, in search of to interrupt into the U.S. market, acquired $269 million in U.S. protection contracts throughout McNabb’s three-year tenure at Transcom to switch provides from Europe to Afghanistan and Iraq, in response to Air Pressure information.
McNabb didn’t play a direct function within the contracting course of. However he met with Silk Approach officers and stated he as soon as hosted a Silk Approach government for dinner at his dwelling at Scott Air Pressure Base in Illinois. “They did do lots of missions they usually did do lots of good work,” he stated.
He estimated that he visited Azerbaijan 5 – 6 instances as Transcom commander to maintain the availability routes to Afghanistan buzzing. By the height of the struggle in 2010, about one-quarter of U.S. and NATO nonlethal provides — gasoline, meals and development materials — transited via Azerbaijan.
Retirement and a job provide
McNabb retired from the Air Pressure in December 2011 and settled in Arlington, Va. Eighteen months later, he stated, officers with Silk Approach Airways contacted him a couple of potential enterprise enterprise.
Duncan
McNabb
• Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, 2008-2011
• Vice chief of employees, U.S. Air Pressure, 2007-2008
Silk Approach needed to modernize its operational management middle at Heydar Aliyev Worldwide Airport in Baku. The agency invited McNabb to return to Azerbaijan in June 2013 for a go to and provided to rent him as an adviser, he stated.
McNabb agreed. That month, he stated, he arrange a consulting agency, Ares Mobility Options, partnering with a retired Air Pressure colonel and a captain within the Navy Reserve who had labored within the airline business. Ares signed a contract with Silk Approach that paid a month-to-month retainer of $10,000 plus bills, paperwork present. Beneath the deal, McNabb was anticipated to journey to Baku each three to 5 months to work for a couple of days at a time.
In response to federal legislation, retired U.S. army personnel — outlined as those that served no less than 20 years in uniform — and reservists are required to acquire permission from their department of the armed forces and the State Division earlier than they settle for something of worth from overseas powers or firms managed by overseas governments.
Silk Approach Airways was one in all 23 subsidiaries of a personal holding firm, Silk Approach Group LLC, that had come to dominate the aviation sector in Azerbaijan after the partial privatization of the nation’s state-owned airline.
McNabb stated he thought Silk Approach Airways was wholly non-public so he didn’t search federal authorization at first. “This was not with the federal government,” he informed The Publish. U.S. investigators would disagree.
Like McNabb, Fraser made Azerbaijan a precedence throughout his tenure as Transcom chief.
A couple of weeks after taking command, he flew to Baku in December 2011 to debate the Afghanistan provide routes with Aliyev and different Azerbaijani officers. Over the following three years, Fraser met with Aliyev twice in Azerbaijan and as soon as in New York, in response to Azerbaijan’s authorities.
Transcom additionally continued to do appreciable enterprise with Silk Approach Airways, with the agency receiving a further $100 million in U.S. protection contracts, in response to Air Pressure information.
In April 2014, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the US visited Scott Air Pressure Base in Illinois to tour Transcom headquarters.
The ambassador, Elin Suleymanov, met with Fraser, who was nearing the top of his time in command.
Throughout the go to, the diplomat famous that “there are a lot of alternatives for future army and business cooperation” between the US and Azerbaijan, in response to a U.S. army press launch.
A ‘going charge’ of $5,000 a day
Fraser retired from the Air Pressure two months later, on July 1, 2014. Inside days, in response to Air Pressure information, he acquired a job provide from Silk Approach Group — the company mother or father of Silk Approach Airways, Silk Approach West Airways, Silk Approach Financial institution and different companies with the Silk Approach identify.
William
Fraser III
• Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, 2011-2014
• Commander, Air Fight Command, 2009-2011
Not like McNabb, Fraser sought advance permission from the Air Pressure to work for Silk Approach. In Fraser’s software, dated Aug. 25, 2014, he wrote that “I’m not conscious of any connection to the Azerbaijan authorities” and that he didn’t assume he wanted federal approval.
Fraser stated he sought authorization anyway as a result of a Transcom ethics counselor had suggested him to take action. In a memo, the counselor famous that “the diploma to which the Azerbaijan authorities owns and/or controls [Silk Way Group] has been the topic of media hypothesis previously.”
The reference was to a 2010 investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — an abroad broadcaster owned by the U.S. authorities — that reported that Aliyev’s 21-year-old daughter was one of many house owners of Silk Approach Financial institution.
In his foreign-employment software to the Air Pressure, Fraser gave few specifics in describing his proposed duties with Silk Approach Group, writing that he “could be a guide/advisor offering material experience” and would “assist develop future enterprise alternatives.” He stated his “going charge” as a guide was $5,000 a day.
The appliance instantly drew scrutiny on the Pentagon. Deavel’s employees concluded that, opposite to Fraser’s assertion, there have been robust indications that the federal government of Azerbaijan managed Silk Approach Group.
In the meantime, the Air Pressure Workplace of Particular Investigations performed a separate overview and submitted a categorised report back to Deavel. Whereas particulars of the overview stay a secret, the investigative company stated it had “nationwide safety issues” about Silk Approach, in response to an unclassified memo summarizing the report.
That was sufficient for Deavel. He denied Fraser’s software on Sept. 30, 2014. “Finally, I can’t discover the proposed relationship in one of the best pursuits of the US,” he wrote.
Fraser didn’t hand over. Two days later, he known as Deavel and requested what he wanted to do to influence the Air Pressure to alter its determination.
In a memo recounting the dialog, Deavel wrote that the dialogue was “slightly awkward,” partly as a result of it was uncommon for him to get a name from a four-star common, and partly as a result of he had primarily based his determination on the categorised report.
On the cellphone, he informed Fraser concerning the existence of the categorised report, however stated he couldn’t talk about particulars. He defined that the categorised materials “did trigger me concern concerning the actions of his proposed employer and whether or not approving this compensated relationship posed dangers to the repute of the Air Pressure,” in response to Deavel’s memo.
Nonetheless, Fraser pushed for approval. He informed Deavel “that he knew the applying was hazy and lacked specifics,” and requested if he might resubmit it with extra data that may make approval extra doubtless.
Fraser additionally made some feedback that Deavel took as a warning, paperwork present. The overall stated he believed there could be “blowback for the US” if the Air Pressure didn’t let him work for Silk Approach, in response to Deavel’s memo.
Specifically, Fraser famous that Azerbaijan had simply renewed Transcom’s overflight rights and entered a strategic safety relationship with the US. He stated Azerbaijani officers “would see a denial as inconsistent with these partnership agreements.”
Fraser additionally urged Deavel to contact the State Division’s desk officer for the Caucasus area, who he stated would vouch that the final’s employment with Silk Approach “was helpful for American pursuits” in Azerbaijan.
Deavel was shocked however noncommittal. He informed Fraser he “didn’t need to shoot from the hip” about whether or not he may change his thoughts. However he stated he’d talk about the case with different Air Pressure legal professionals.
Reached for remark, Fraser declined to debate the matter with The Publish. “I don’t see the worth in speaking about one thing that occurred almost eight years in the past,” he stated in an electronic mail.
In a 2015 submitting with the U.S. Division of Transportation, Silk Approach Group stated it was “100% owned” by one other non-public agency, Silk Approach Improvement LLC. That entity, in flip, was listed as being 95 p.c owned by Zaur Akhundov, the founding father of Silk Approach Airways.
In a written response to questions from The Publish, Silk Approach Airways stated that it “has at all times been business, non-public and has by no means been associated to the state or politics” and that it sought to rent McNabb and Fraser for his or her experience in transportation and logistics. The corporate added that “it under no circumstances supposed, implied or wanted to supply ‘payback’ for a longstanding” contractual relationship with Transcom.
Silk Approach described Akhundov as “the last word helpful proprietor” of the agency and stated “he has by no means acted” as a proxy or trustee for different shareholders.
Like father, like son
Fraser resubmitted his software to the Air Pressure in November 2014. This time, he specified that he would seek the advice of for Silk Approach West Airways as a substitute of the Silk Approach holding firm. He stated his duties could be to “enhance their data and understanding of U.S. business markets and present U.S. business provide chains.”
One factor Fraser didn’t point out on his software was that his son, William Fraser IV, additionally labored within the aviation enterprise in Azerbaijan.
William Fraser IV, a former U.S. Marine sergeant who goes by the nickname “Mac,” had taken a job two years earlier as an assistant to the president of Azerbaijan Airways, the state-owned provider, as a public relations and strategic communications specialist.
Mac Fraser stated he additionally labored half time for Silk Approach West Airways — the corporate that now needed to rent his father for $5,000 a day. Mac Fraser left Azerbaijan Airways to simply accept a full-time job with Silk Approach West Airways as a Houston-based advertising and marketing supervisor in March 2015, in response to his LinkedIn profile.
In an electronic mail trade with The Publish, Mac Fraser stated he was unaware his father had acquired a proposal to work for Silk Approach West Airways across the similar time he did.
“As I perceive it, upon retiring from energetic obligation my father solid a large internet and entertained quite a few presents from quite a few completely different firms,” he wrote. “Whereas I take into account ours to be a close-knit household, I couldn’t even start to take a position who any of these firms had been.”
Knowledgeable that the Air Pressure had blocked his father from working for Silk Approach, Mac Fraser replied: “That’s all information to me and WAY above my pay grade.”
“Me and my father have by no means crossed paths professionally and his enterprise is totally separate and aside from mine,” he added.
Mac Fraser declined to say how he got here to work for firms primarily based in Azerbaijan. His LinkedIn profile notes no earlier skilled expertise within the nation.
Not like his father, Mac Fraser was not required to hunt federal approval for his jobs in Azerbaijan as a result of he served within the U.S. army for under 4 years. The legislation limiting foreign-government employment applies solely to U.S. veterans who served for no less than 20 years, as a result of they obtain a army pension and may be recalled to energetic obligation.
Nationwide safety issues
After Gen. Fraser submitted his second software, Deavel checked out his declare that the State Division thought his job with Silk Approach could be “helpful for American pursuits,” in response to the case information.
State Division officers contradicted the final’s assertion and stated they weren’t pushing for his job to be authorised. Additionally they stated they “strongly disagree[d] with Gen. Fraser’s evaluation” that there could be “diplomatic ‘blow-back’ from the Authorities of Azerbaijan” if U.S. officers rejected his consulting gig, paperwork present.
The State Division shocked Deavel with a second revelation. Officers informed him one other retired four-star Air Pressure common — McNabb — had knowledgeable the State Division’s desk officer for Azerbaijan that he was working for Silk Approach Airways. It was the primary time anybody had notified the Air Pressure about McNabb’s consulting job in Azerbaijan.
Deavel knowledgeable different Air Pressure officers that they’d one other potential downside on their arms. Not solely had McNabb not utilized for federal permission however the Workplace of Particular Investigations’ nationwide safety issues about Silk Approach would most likely apply in his case, too.
Within the army, it takes braveness to say no to a four-star common, even one who’s retired. Deavel needed to verify he had the backing of his superiors. He wrote a “Excessive Curiosity Notification” memo that was labeled “**SENSITIVE AND PRE-DECISIONAL**” and despatched it up the chain of command.
Deavel offered a recap of his earlier denial of Fraser’s request to work for Silk Approach and ticked off the explanation why it was problematic.
He famous that the State Division agreed that the federal government of Azerbaijan successfully managed Silk Approach and its subsidiaries. State Division officers, he emphasised, had expressed “disappointment that Gen Fraser, as a retired 4 star, wouldn’t voluntarily withdraw the request and search post-retirement alternatives elsewhere,” in response to the memo.
Deavel additionally reported that the Workplace of Particular Investigations had shared its categorised report with different federal intelligence businesses and that all of them concurred with the nationwide safety issues about retired U.S. army personnel working for Silk Approach.
Additional, Deavel described how he had lately discovered that McNabb was working as a Silk Approach guide with out federal approval, which “causes me even higher concern” given Silk Approach’s U.S. protection contracts. Deavel reported that Transcom had awarded 2,230 cargo airlift missions to Silk Approach throughout McNabb’s tenure, plus 1,117 missions whereas Fraser was in command, for a complete value of $369 million.
Deavel stated he wasn’t questioning the necessity for the airlift missions however warned that Congress and the media may see the generals’ subsequent consulting offers as “payback.” Because of this, he stated, he was planning to reject Fraser’s reapplication except his bosses instructed him in any other case.
None did. On Jan. 9, 2015, Deavel wrote a terse letter denying Fraser’s employment with Silk Approach as “not in one of the best pursuits of the Air Pressure.”
When contacted by The Publish, Deavel declined to remark instantly on the case, besides to say that he stood by all his selections.
“I’m not going to run from my obligations to do what’s proper for the US,” stated Deavel, who retired as director of the Air Pressure Evaluation Boards Company in 2016. “You must look past whether or not a call will probably be standard with the retired common officer membership.”
A failure to hunt permission
Whereas that marked the top of Fraser’s push to seek the advice of in Azerbaijan, the Air Pressure nonetheless wanted to resolve what to do about McNabb.
The case bounced across the highest ranges of the Air Pressure till June 2015, when the Air Pressure inspector common opened an investigation to find out whether or not McNabb had dedicated misconduct by working for Silk Approach Airways with out federal approval.
Three investigative officers interviewed McNabb on the Pentagon on Oct. 23, 2015. The retired common stated that he hadn’t executed something improper and that he had by no means come throughout any proof that Silk Approach Airways was beneath the management of the federal government of Azerbaijan.
“While you log on and while you speak about what Silk Approach does, it simply stated it’s a personal enterprise,” he stated, in response to a transcript of the interview. “I had a really in depth intel community that may have a look at particularly overseas carriers that may be going out and in of locations, and I by no means had something that stated that this was managed by the federal government.”
Throughout his interview with investigators, McNabb was argumentative at instances and questioned why nobody within the Air Pressure had ever informed him he ought to apply for federal permission to work for Silk Approach.
“If anyone thinks I must, please simply inform me,” he stated. “I’m chagrined that anyone would assume that I might not attempt to reside as much as the entire ethics guidelines.”
Investigators famous that he had been briefed concerning the guidelines on foreign-government employment shortly earlier than his retirement and that it was his duty to adjust to the legislation.
In his interview with The Publish, McNabb stated that he was conscious Fraser was additionally making an attempt to work for Silk Approach, however that they didn’t coordinate their efforts. He stated he mistakenly assumed that solely Fraser wanted to use for federal permission as a result of Fraser was working for Silk Approach primarily in the US.
He denied that his consulting job with Silk Approach was a reward for the U.S. protection contracts awarded to the corporate when he headed Transcom. “Completely not,” he stated.
The Air Pressure inspector common’s workplace accomplished its investigation into McNabb in November 2015 and concluded that he had violated the legislation by failing to hunt permission for foreign-government employment.
There isn’t any felony penalty for breaking the legislation, however the army can withhold retirement pay from those that accomplish that.
McNabb confirmed that the Protection Division docked his pension however declined to say how a lot.
“It was sufficient,” he stated. “I paid.”
