NRO medal for DoJ lawyer

I wonder what that was about.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...080202332.html

Obituaries
Friday, August 3, 2007; B07
David W. Long Justice Attorney

David W. Long, 56, a senior trial attorney in the Justice Department's
civil fraud section, died of pancreatic cancer July 8 at his home in
Kensington.

Mr. Long investigated and litigated cases in which large corporations
defrauded the government. He conducted the civil investigation of
Morton-Thiokol after the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in
1986. He was the lead attorney in a defense procurement fraud case
that returned $111 million to the taxpayers.

"That latter case led to David's assignment as the lead attorney in a
recent matter involving advanced microelectronic parts that were used
in the nation's satellites," Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said
in prepared remarks June 25, while presenting Mr. Long with the
department's Mary C. Lawton Lifetime Service Award.

[snip]

He worked for the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust division from
1976 to 1983, when he switched to the Justice Department. The National
Reconnaissance Office, which designs, builds and operates
reconnaissance satellites for the nation's military and intelligence
agencies, gave him its highest award, the Gold Medallion, in 2006. Mr.
Long retired that year because of his illness.

[snip]

Mr. Long investigated and litigated cases in which large
corporations defrauded the government. . . . He was the lead
attorney in a defense procurement fraud case that returned $111
million to the taxpayers.

"That latter case led to David's assignment as the lead attorney in a
recent matter involving advanced microelectronic parts that were used
in the nation's satellites,"

The National Reconnaissance Office, which designs, builds and operates
reconnaissance satellites for the nation's military and intelligence
agencies, gave him its highest award, the Gold Medallion, in 2006.

Well, the above snippage more or less summarizes what I make of this.

That is, Mr. Long sued some government contractors on a procurement
matter. This article doesn't go into details, but we are told there
were technical details to summarize to the non-scientific management
at Justice. So maybe something about whether a component
("microelectronic part") was up to spec.