With defense contractors vying for the experience and contacts only retired top military officials can provide, these retired generals and admirals have seen their potential earnings skyrocket.
"That fear is always lurking in the back of our minds," one recently retired top diplomat said.
It brought together retired top industry executives and academics to advise companies facing problems in their foreign operations.
The question is whether Admiral Mullen, the retiring top military officer, is trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for the troubled war in Afghanistan.
Aside from the obvious players like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, which have long had retired top military officers on their boards, there is also interest from lesser-known Pentagon contractors.
Nairne soon joined other recently retired top Whitehall officials in the growing campaign for the repeal of the "catch-all" Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act.
Dudley Kingsnorth, a consultant and retired top industry executive whose rare earth supply and demand models are widely used, last month reduced his forecast of demand in 2015 to 170,000 tons, from 190,000 to 195,000 tons.
As several recently retired top security officials have done, Mr. Olmert urged Mr. Netanyahu's government not to rush into unilateral military action against Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now retired, and one of a dozen retired top military officials who have endorsed Mr. Kerry, declared, "I stand here as an old soldier and a new Democrat".
Bill Jordan was being saluted because he is a recently retired top field representative of the National Rifle Association, A Marine veteran, a veteran of 30 years' service with the U.S. Border Patrol in Texas, a holder of the trophy for Outstanding American Handgunner, a developer of Smith & Wesson's Model 19 Combat Magnum revolver...author of the book on handgun shooting "No Second Place Winner".
