GekeVenn: THALES

Thales, a French multinational defense contractor, has just been awarded a $12 million US Air Force contract for Deployable-Instrument Landing System production units. The company is also one of five defense contractors competing for a contract to support the Waveform Development Environment Ecosystem for the US Army.

In addition to its close ties to both the French and British government, Thales enjoys connections to the US Defense Department via its K Street lobbyists. One such lobbyist, Brian Schaffner, was the former Military Legislative Assistant to Representative Daniel Maffei, who was later appointed Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission by President Obama.

Note that a 2017 lobbyist for Thales, Carl Kime, is not shown by OpenSecrets.org as having any covered positions (denoted by the Revolving Door profile badge). The OpenSecrets website often misses covered positions, but in Kime's case it's egregious. In addition to being the Operational Liaison of the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Kime also worked as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Office of Legislative Affairs, and as Staff Director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Jim Fraser is the company's in-house lobbyist. According to Fraser's bio on the Thales website, “Mr. Fraser was a Senior Policy Advisor assigned to the Balkans Task Force in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. His duties for the Task Force included responsibility for policy review of NATO military planning for the Balkans, congressional liaison, and public affairs liaison.”