We cordially request that President Obama revoke or otherwise rescind Executive Order 10789, signed by President Nixon in 1971, that provides a loophole for the Pentagon and a few other government agencies to sidestep federal law prohibiting the government from signing secret open-ended indemnification agreements with its contractors and other third parties.
These secret indemnity clauses hold these for-profit military contractors financially harmless, even when at willful fault, and expose the American taxpayers to unjust liability for their failings.
While a provision in the work-in-progress National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 may provide some relief to this situation if passed intact, we believe a permanent revocation of this EO is needed.