The New York Times this morning devotes most of the top half of the front page, plus three full pages inside, to a remarkable story by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Barstow about how the Pentagon co-opts the corps of rent-a-generals who are such familiar presences on cable television and the op-ed pages. Most of them, it turns out, are also working for defense contractors, so they have a financial stake in staying on the good side of the millitary brass.
The jaw-dropping story is based on 8,000 pages of e-mail, transcripts and records that the Times obtained by suing the Defense Department.