Boeing supporters in Congress still suspicious of tanker deal

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Despite assurances from a top Pentagon official that the new competition for a $35 billion contract for Air Force aerial refueling tankers would be conducted fairly and without bias, congressional supporters of Boeing remain suspicious that the Pentagon is maneuvering to award the contract again to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS).

"I am very troubled by this whole thing," Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., told John Young, the Pentagon's undersecretary for acquisition, during a five-hour hearing Thursday on the contract. "What bothers me is that Congress has been misled."