Contractor has close ties with staff of NSA

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-te.saic29jan29,1,4917738.story?track=rss

When the National Security Agency went shopping for a private contractor to help it build a state-of-the-art tool for plucking key threats to the nation from a worldwide sea of digital communication, the company it chose was Science Applications International Corp.

More than three years later, the project, code-named Trailblazer, still hasn't gotten off the ground. And intelligence experts inside and outside the agency say that the NSA and SAIC share some of the blame.

Trailblazer has cost taxpayers an estimated $1.2 billion, former intelligence officials told The Sun.

"The system in the Pentagon and defense-related agencies is notoriously susceptible to slippage and overruns," said Gordon Adams, director for security policy studies at George Washington University.

"A lot of the information technology projects are traffic accidents waiting to happen," said Adams, who was speaking generally. "There's a penchant, particularly in the area, to overdesign things, promise it will deliver all kinds of things and not be able to deliver on the project."

"There's a penchant, particularly in the area, to overdesign things, promise it will deliver all kinds of things and not be able to deliver on the project."

Keep in mind that all we are talking about is bits of programming code and some computers to run it on. But mostly code. Compare this to other projects where one has materials, fabrication, etc. etc. etc. These days software development is a haven for the incompetent -- as evidenced by the poor quality of available software. Now perhaps if we bothered to find out who the really good project managers and coders were, and pay them enough to stay put and care about the product, we wouldn't have an industry which is as often used as a patronage job market as it is for serious work.

http://www.bscupdate.com/whoisbsc.html - partners with Bechtel - the water privatizer in Bolivia. The company that doesn't believe that water under the feet of its people belongs to the people unless they pay Bechtel.

SAIC had/has quite a few projects -

- including being on the ground 12Sep to retrieve data at Ground Zero.

in re Alito's connection with Vanguard, thought it an interesting footnote ...

...it's small good ol'boy network world after all ...

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/353394/000119312505099248/ddef14a.htm

lots of good ol'boys on SAIC's Board of Directors with lots of connections
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````


D.H. Foley, age 60

Executive Vice President and Director
Director since 2002
Dr. Foley joined the Company in 1992 and has served as an Executive Vice President since 2000, Group President since February 2004, and a Director since July 2002. In January 2005 he was appointed as Chief Engineering and Technology Officer. Dr. Foley served as a Sector Vice President from 1992 to 2000.


J.J. Hamre, age 54
Dr. Hamre has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a public policy research institution, since 2000. Prior thereto, Dr. Hamre served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1997 to 2000 and Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. Dr. Hamre is also a member of the Board of Directors of ChoicePoint, Inc., ITT Industries, Inc., Integrated Nano-Technologies and MITRE Corporation.


A.K. Jones, age 63

Director
Director since 1998
Dr. Jones is the Quarles Professor of Engineering at the University of Virginia where she has taught since 1989. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Jones was on leave of absence from the University to serve as Director of Defense Research and Engineering in the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Jones also served as a Director of the Company from 1987 to 1993.


E.J. Sanderson, Jr., age 56

Director
Director since 2002
Mr. Sanderson retired from Oracle Corporation in 2001 after having served as an Executive Vice President since 1995. At Oracle, Mr. Sanderson was responsible for Oracle Product Industries, Oracle Consulting, and the Latin American Division. Prior to that he was President of Unisys World-wide Services and partner at both McKinsey & Company and Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). Mr. Sanderson is also a member of the Board of Directors of Quantum Corporation and serves on several non-profit boards.


W.H. Demisch, age 60

Director
Director since 1990
Mr. Demisch has been a principal of Demisch Associates LLC, a consulting firm, since 2003. He was a Managing Director of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, formerly Wasserstein Perella Securities, Inc., from 1998 to 2002. From 1993 to 1998, he was Managing Director of BT Alex. Brown, and from 1988 to 1993, he was Managing Director of UBS Securities, Inc.


J.A. Drummond, age 65

Director
Director since 2003
Mr. Drummond was employed by BellSouth Corporation from 1962 until his retirement in December 2001. He served as Vice Chairman of BellSouth Corporation from January 2000 until his retirement. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of BellSouth Communications Group, a provider of traditional telephone operations and products, from January 1998 until December 1999. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. from January 1995 until December 1997. Mr. Drummond is also a member of the Board of Directors of Borg-Warner Automotive, AirTran Holdings, Inc. and Centillium Communications, Inc.


J.E. Glancy, age 59

Director
Director since 1994
Dr. Glancy joined the Company in 1976 and served as an Executive Vice President until January 2004 when he commenced part-time employment. Prior thereto, Dr. Glancy served as a Corporate Executive Vice President from 1994 to 2000.


H.M.J. Kraemer, Jr., age 50

Director
Director since 1997
Mr. Kraemer has been an executive partner of Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, a private equity investment firm, since April 2005, and has served as an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University since January 2005. Prior thereto, Mr. Kraemer served as the Chairman of Baxter International, Inc. (“Baxter”), a health-care products, systems and services company, from January 2000 until April 2004, as Chief Executive Officer of Baxter from January 1999 until April 2004 and as President of Baxter from April 1997 until April 2004. Mr. Kraemer also served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Baxter from November 1993 to April 1997.


C.B. Malone, age 68

Director
Director since 1993
Ms. Malone has served as the President of Financial & Management Consulting, Inc., a consulting company, since 1982. Ms. Malone is also a member of the Board of Directors of Hasbro, Inc., Lafarge North America, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and Novell, Inc.



D.P. Andrews, age 60

Corporate Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Director
Director since 1996
Mr. Andrews joined the Company in 1993 and has served as a Corporate Executive Vice President since January 1998. In January 2005, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Andrews served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Federal Business from December 2003 to January 2004 and as Executive Vice President for Corporate Development from 1995 to 1998. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Andrews served as Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993.


K.C. Dahlberg, age 60

Chief Executive Officer, President, Chairman of the Board and Director
Director since 2003
Mr. Dahlberg has served as Chairman of the Board since July 2004 and Chief Executive Officer and President since November 2003. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Dahlberg was with General Dynamics Corp. from March 2001 to October 2003, where he served as Executive Vice President. Mr. Dahlberg was with Raytheon International from February 2000 to March 2001, where he served as President, and from 1997 to 2000 he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Raytheon Systems Company. Mr. Dahlberg held various positions with Hughes Aircraft from 1967 to 1997.


J.P. Walkush, age 53

Executive Vice President and Director
Director since 1996
Mr. Walkush joined the Company in 1976 and has served as an Executive Vice President since 2000. Prior thereto, Mr. Walkush served as a Sector Vice President from 1994 to 2000.


J.H. Warner, Jr., age 64

Corporate Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Director
Director since 1988
Dr. Warner joined the Company in 1973 and has served as a Corporate Executive Vice President since 1996 and Chief Administrative Officer since December 2003. Prior thereto, Dr. Warner served as an Executive Vice President from 1989 to 1996.


A.T. Young, age 67

Director
Director since 1995
Mr. Young retired from Lockheed Martin Corp. in 1995 after having served as an Executive Vice President from March 1995 to July 1995. Prior to its merger with Lockheed Corporation, Mr. Young served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Martin Marietta Corp. from 1990 to 1995. Mr. Young is also on the Board of Directors of the Goodrich Corporation and Potomac Electric Power Company.


The good ol'boy network has amazing tentacles ... because Vanguard owns stock in companies, it gets to help select Boards of Directors in those companies ... During the year ending June 30, 2005, it voted in elections involving more than 20,000 directorships at nearly 4,000 companies. So, certainly Vanguard scratches SAICs back ... and, Alito scratches Vanguards back ... and .............etc.
http://flagship2.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/content/Home/WhyVanguard/AboutVanguardProxyVotingRecordsContent.jsp

Ken Dahlberg. Any relation to the Kenneth Dahlberg of Watergate fame? I am searching but haven't found yet. Just curious.

http://www.saic.com/about/dahlberg-bio.html

watergate Dahlberg

http://www.mnlegion.org/paper/html/dahlberg.html

that were supposed to bring US style propaganda TV to Iraq. I think they took the money and ran with that project too.

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/11_1/news/9912-1.html

Quote:
"The Republicans, for instance, enlisted Science Applications International Corp. to deploy Defense Department-tested groupware technology at their San Diego event. The solution was designed to augment the Republican's goal of broadcasting a more polished and admittedly "scripted" portrait of a party well in control of itself and its constituents. "

There's a lot of info here on DU about SAIC, but the search function isn't working very well for me right now.

I found this in Google:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0308/S00173.htm
Saturday, 23 August 2003, 6:28 am
Column: C.D. Sludge

On the board of the Enterprise Solutions Division of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) – a lobbying organisation bidding to provide a $200,000+ public opinion manipulation campaign on electronic voting – is a senior vice president of SAIC, the company tasked with investigating the security of the Diebold voting machine technology in the states of Maryland and Ohio.

The revelation that Ronald J Knecht, Senior Vice President, SAIC, and a former defence intelligence chief, is connected to the proposed voting machine whitewash push seems certain to fuel public concerns about the number of conflicts on interest in the voting machine industry.

SAIC has been tasked by the Governor of the state of Maryland to report on security concerns around Diebold Election Systems software and hardware ... more at link

***********

I did find this post by bobthedrummer in my DU search:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2407164&mesg_id=2407340

Sat Jan-28-06 04:09 PM

10. Some interesting facts regarding Bayer and DHSS.

Bayer was facing problems and possible lawsuits in August 2001 concerning defective products.

Former DHSS Sect. Tommy Thompson hired Jerome Hauer from SAIC on 9/10/2001. Hauer is a biological warfare specialist.

Immediately after 9/11, but well before any indications of a possible anthrax attack ( or any other biological attack at all) Thompson and Hauer promoted the use of Bayer's Cipro in the federal government.

Thompson purchased 300 million doses of Cipro from Bayer.

How did Thompson and Hauer have the foresight to promote the use of Bayer's Cipro, which is specifically for anthrax, well before the eventual anthrax attacks?

No one has ever been charged in the anthrax attacks-we don't hear about the status of those investigations today either.

Hauer was promoted to be in charge of Public Health against biological attacks.

Thompson bragged about his negotiating skills with Bayer for the 300 million doses of Cipro while innocent Postal Service employees were exposed in HOT ZONES and other victims infected.

It gets even murkier when we consider the facts about clandestinely recruited Nazis working in national security related positions and finding a political home in the RW of the Republican Party-but that is another coincidence.

:kick: