From the victory speech by french president elect Emmanuel Macron and can special and speech byconcession challenger marine le pen. Later, a house hearing on visa security. This week on q and a, defense news Naval Warfare correspondent chris cavas talks about the ys fat leonard bridal more thanandal, with 200 Navy Officials including several admirals. Chris cavas, let me start by asking you what you do for a living. I am a journalist. I cover naval affairs, things over and above the water. Like to cover them worldwide i like to talk about the industry that builds these things, the people who operate them, who buy them, the operations they do, and why does anybody need all this stuff and does it ever work. I write about this stuff. Who reads it . The industry, the hill, politicians. Defense news is a worldwide publication. People and the naval industry around the world Pay Attention to us. Senior officers Pay Attention to us, senior acquisition officers. How big is the publication and how long is it . I cannot even tell you because i am not up on the latest stats. We are owned by a Company Called cycling media, the media group that site line media, that times, navy times, air force times, about people in the service. Calleds a Division History and that the talks about things that are old. I want to show you some video from a Company CalledGlenn Marine Group asia. It is just a minute, a promo from them, and ask you to explain how they fit in right now. Headquartered in singapore, the Glenn Marine Group is a premier integrated Maritime Service provider. Its scale of operations spans 54 million square miles, represented by a Global Network of nine regional offices that have operated in more than 32 countries. Glenn marine groups Flagship Company is asiapacifics leading brands in naval fleet support. Its services extend well beyond pier side. They are able to provide a wide range of customized solutions. Why does this Company Matter, a singaporebased Company Matter to the United States navy . When ships travel from port to port, a ship is a selfcontained entity. It takes care of itself. When it goes into port it needs a number of support services. It starts with, i need a pilot to meet me at a certain location at a certain time. Me, a tugs to escort place to drop the hook, tie up. I need someone to be there so i can get on and off my ship. I need to have somebody arranged to get shore power if i need it, food and water if i want it. Even then i may want somebody to , andsome phones available i want a reception and i need some catering services. There are companies called husbanding agents. Husbanding, like husband and wife. It is a very old term. It is nothing new, a classic maritime term. Worldwide, companies have and we needgents, those services so we are a global navy. The United States navy travels all over the world. Everywhere we go we need someone to take care of the services so we need to bid out on the services. Is key to being operate being able to operate in a certain area, to do rest and relaxation in a certain area. Let me ask you in a different way what has that company done to the navy . For one thing, it has completely embarrassed the United States navy, shocked the culture of the navy that people were corrupted to provide glenn Defense Marine mostly with information about ship movements , but other things as well, in exchange for not that much money but fairly lavish lifestyles. They threw fabulous parties, had great dinners, provided prostitutes for a lot of people, really expensive gifts for their wives, paid for family vacations. Ofare talking on the order 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 for a weekend, some of their parties. Dinner could cost 20,000 to 30,000 for six people. Let me read you a summary of what is happened until now. Investigators have said that more than 200 people have come under scrutiny. Eight newlyre indicted Navy Officials including an admiral, 13 people who have pleaded guilty, six others who have been charged, four admirals who have been known toed, two others be under investigation, and 150 others not identified. Glenn Defense Marine was one of the most sophisticated operations like this in the western pacific. They had operations throughout the western pacific. Anybody in the western pacific at any time who made a port call , which was everybody, had some contact with something that was glenn Defense Marine whether they knew what are not. So there are many levels of people who are involved with this. Some people had virtually no involvement other than they were there. So more deeply involved. There was certainly criminal behavior, people who broke their oats. Oaths. They were passing information and had inappropriate relations. The people who did this are by and large, remarkably capable people. They are professionally respected. A lot of these people were widely known for their professional accomplishments, not because of before they were arrested. Some of these people have a lot of respect for a lot of people. They clearly were doing some dumb things and what is interesting, they did not make that much money for it. This was not like, people were not making a few hundred thousand dollars here. Nobody made a million dollars. They were selling their careers fairly short. That surprises people. People are surprised that so many people could be compromised like this. But glenn Defense Marine wanted information. They wanted to know where ships were going to be. They could prepare for it. They had certain ports where they have a lot of power. We owned a lot of the concessions, we do not in that port. If you do not go there, can you come here . They would approach key officers, for the most part, like on the planning staff. The u. S. Fleet in the western pacific based in japan, they would approach alterations opposite hers, Operations Officers, planning officers, protocol officers worried about where are we going to go. The navy pays a great deal of attention to r r. We have a great number of ships that go to the middle east. Four to five months in the persian gulf is not a party time. We have ships full of young 20yearolds who want to have a good time, and they really do work hard. Theres not a lot of opportunity to blow off steam. , but it is not like some other parts of the world so when ships are in transit, coming and going to the United States and passing through the pacific, that might be the best part, the best opportunity that the navy has to give the crew of that Aircraft Carrier a welldeserved break. Let me put on this green a fellow on the screen a fellow who calls himself i do not know he calls himself this a fellow called fat leonard. He was a largerthanlife guy. He was close to 400 pounds at one point. E was a big, fat guy extremely gregarious and outgoing. He is the classic host. We are here to have a good time, great to see you, i have arranged all of this. Come into this room, see what we have for you. He would ingratiate himself with everybody. E was a classic manipulator he would go out of his way to be seen with anybody of any importance. He would have photographers there to take person with any significant person at any social event. Here is fat leonard, great to see you, admiral. We have an example of former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mike molen with fat leonard. Did he know who he was . Everybody knew that he was fat leonard and he ran glenn defense marina. Did they know this corruption was going on and so much was happening in the background . It does not appear that was the case at all. For every one of these pictures, frankly as a newspaper, i am reluctant sometimes to run these pictures because there is hundreds of these pictures. One of the first pictures that came out was one with the cno just after mike molen, gary ruff said. Roughhead. It is a gladhanding thing. They did not necessarily have to be doing anything. Where is fat leonard today . In jail in san diego, california. He was arrested in 2013, lured to the United States. The investigation going on right now is spearheaded by the department of justice, nci s investigation. Investigation. Leonard, i think he is a resident of singapore. Malaysian. Malaysian. To the United States to close a business deal so they got him in the u. S. With u. S. Jurisdiction and he was arrested. He has pled guilty. He has not been sentenced. He pled guilty in 2015. He is not the only one who has not been sentenced who has pled guilty, so the prosecution is over but they have not adjudicated. The supposition there and this is just a supposition because justice will not confirm this is that he is still providing information to the investigation, and they are waiting to see how many former Navy Officials are in prison . I am not sure right now. There have been 25 charged total. Almost half of them are now in prison one way or another. 2015, march back to 2015 just to put an official touch on this. This is the former secretary of the navy who used to be the governor of mississippi talking at a hearing on capitol hill. The reason this was uncovered is that we set up financial tripwires that glenn Defense Marine asia went across. So red flags were raised. Investigated this for three years with no leaks. During that investigation we cis agent was furnishing mr. Francis with that they set up false information to him. And it led to mr. Francis believing that the investigation had been shut down. It allowed us to arrest him on american soil. How well did he handle this . I am not sure he is the kind of person people criticize heavily or they do not criticize heavily. There is not much of a middle ground. Frankly, i am not sure what else he could have done and i think this was done pretty well. This investigation began in 2010. The agent that was being referred to was something that leonard was always, part of his modus operon day of getting s operandi ofc i getting moles. They gave him. Permission to work it out. , thethe arrests were made navy moved with some alacrity to suspend operations with glenn Defense Marine. The secretary of war instigated an audit of all of their practices, all of their contracting practices, and an audit not just to look for inappropriate money going to glenn Defense Marine but also weaknesses and contracting that would allow these excesses and abuses to work their way in. It was an organizational approach to it, it was not just an effort to grab people on this particular gdma issue. There was another husbanding company which also was sued by the navy around this time period for what the navy viewed as excesses, not merely on the scale that gdma was at. Up vy set it up set dispositionted authority, what in the world is the idea is that justice runs its own investigation, and justice is looking for criminal activity. Justice is not about ethics, it is about criminal behavior. If they have people, they investigated somebody, if they find no criminal behavior and nothing they can charge anybody with, they are done with that person. Thatthen turn investigation over to the navy run consolidated disPosition Authority, consolidated in the sense that there are different entities within the navy that could be investigating this. Why have all of these different units . We will do it one effort consolidated. The navy runs its own investigation on these people looking for ethics violations. You did not break the letter of the law but certainly broke the standards of behavior that you were sworn, and we expect people to adhere to. ,hat has turned into its own that has taken on a life of its own. That has had a major effect on the navy, particularly the officer corps. It continues to have a major effect and has no end insight. T. In sigh people cannot find out what they are investigated for. You cannot confront urich usually accuser. It has become a pernicious investigation affecting hundreds of people and there is no way to quantify it. I know a surprising number of people who appear to be under investigation. Are you still under investigation by justice or has justice turned that over to the cda . It is tough to know. Just might be a little tedious for people watching. , status, rear admiral pleaded guilty june 2016 to making a false official statement. ,riminal sentence pending reduced in rank to captain and retired from active duty. He was an admiral. From the criminal investigation, there have been admirals caught up in this but they are not charged with behavior as an admiral. So people are promoted. , and actually, if i am recalling correctly, they did not charge him with any dma. G with g captain daniel dusek. He is in prison. Former of the uss bonner richard. There he is on the screen. He is a captain, and why is he in prison . He was in the middle of all of this and was part and parcel of some of the worst behavior. He guided ships to ports that were controlled by glenn Defense Marine. Classified information on ship movements. The classified information that is always referred to, as far as im aware of, in almost every case is about ship movements, planned the ship movements in advance. It is not necessarily unusual that we would share such information with a foreign commercial company or partner, but none of this was done through any official channels. This was all just stuff feeding to them. Dusek was right in the middle of them and for a while he enjoyed a pretty good lifestyle. He was routinely at some wonderful, fabulous restaurants, parties,els, big time lots of very expensive booze and cigars and prostitutes. All paid for by . All paid for by glenn defends marine. He had contact with fat leonard. I am going to bring up another fellow, because this story, it is a hard one. The fellow from a little town in illinois, Commander Michael mush of its. Cambodia, brought over to this country by a woman in the u. S. Army, raised in this country, and what happened to him . This photo, that is a really sad photo. At the time of this photo he was the Commanding Officer of the destroyer that made a port call to cambodia, the First Official visit to cambodia since 1975 and he was the Commanding Officer. These were actually family members that came to meet him. This was a terribly touching moment. , i know people who served with him. I actually interviewed him extensively. He was a very well thought of officer. People were stunned when they found out he was caught up with this. Thehe is a good example of kind of targeted individual that gdma would go after. So most of these people did not start off there are some exceptions but most of the exceptions were in the very first wave of arrests. People who were complacent in these complicit in these Ongoing Operations were targeted. Where is he now . In prison for 76 months. Longest, he is the has got the longest prison sentence so far which is somewhat surprising. I think one of them got 12 years. I want to show you some video of when he went back to linn arce, illinois, spoke to his high school. It was a heroes welcome. Just listen to what he had to say. [indiscernible] [ this reminds me of it is ok to be a happy she. Indiscernible] to keep watch, and we will take action to keep the world safe. After he was convicted and sent to prison, when was the last time you talked to him . Just a few days before he reported to federal prison. What was his attitude . He has accepted it. Resentful. Is more he thinks he was really stupid. He still rationalized a good bit of it. He is upset that he thinks other were worse than he was and do not seem to have gotten punished as much as he has. He said there is still lots of people out there who have yet to be arrested. One of the pictures during the trial was him with i think a bunch of japanese women, i am not sure. You can see it on the screen. How important was this whole thing, sexual favors in this process . It was a regular feature of the kind of services that leonard would provide to people who provided him information. , he was approached by somebody who was already compromised. ,hey would discuss with Leonard Leonard was always asking people , find me a good candidate. Is this guy approach a book . Will he work with us . Has he got money problems . Has he got romantic problems, relationship problems . At this time he was actually having relationship problems with his wife. What happened eventually . He was divorced. But that wasnt going well. This is the sort of thing they would do. Suddenly he is at a party. Suddenly there is companionship and suddenly we are having a good time. And he was susceptible to it. They would routinely approach people in all manner of ways. People were constantly being put in compromising positions. This is a great photograph, sort of the ultimate of where this is all going, but it did not take much. Everybody came into contact with him. It was hard for officers to do a western pacific port call way, tove a map, by the show that part of the world. When you talk about the seventh fleet, it is not the entire that a great deal of it. Everything you see there is the seventh fleet. How many ships . Not that many. Ande is the seventh fleet the seventh fleet area of operations, aor. The seventh fleet is based in japan. It is an Aircraft Carrier, a couple of cruisers and some destroyers, and they are based dma port. At a g the flagship blue ridge routinely makes, they do 2, 3month patrols a year and go from port to port to port. The pacific is all about bilateral relationships, so there is no nato in the pacific. It is very important