From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 1 03:32:06 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:32:06 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Contracts for January 31, 2007 Message-ID: <20070131223155.U2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 31 January 2007 ; United States Department of Defense Contracts for January 31, 2007 http://www.defenselink.mil/Contracts/Contract.aspx?ContractID=3444 --- CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense No. 114-07 FOR RELEASE AT January 31, 2007 Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public/Industry(703) 428-0711 CONTRACTS [...] DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY The following six (6) companies were awarded on Jan. 26, 2007 an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity multiple-awards contracts: Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.; CACI, Inc; Federal, Electronic Data Systems Corporation; Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems, Inc; Science Applications International Corporation, and Systems Research and Applications Corporation. The maximum not-to-exceed value for the ENCORE II contract over a 5-year period, plus 5 one-year option periods is $12,225,000,000. The Government's guaranteed minimum amount is $10,000.00 for each contractor. Contracts include provisions for Firm, Fixed Price, Time and Materials or Labor Hour and Cost Reimbursement (CPFF, CPAF, etc). The period of performance is March 12, 2007 through March 11, 2017. Performance will be at various locations within the Continental United States (CONUS) which includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii and Outside CONUS (OCONUS). The solicitation was issued as a full and open competitive action. There were 16 proposals received. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization DITCO), Scott AFB, IL is the contracting activity (HC1013-07-D-2016, HC1013-07-D-2018, HC1013-07-D-2019, HC1013-07-D-2020, HC1013-07-D-2021, HC1013-07-D-2022). From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 1 03:36:09 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:36:09 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] West Gate @ Crane's future becoming clearer Message-ID: <20070131223523.D2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 31 January 2007 ; Linton Daily Citizen West Gate @ Crane's future becoming clearer http://www.dailycitizen.com/articles/2007/01/31/news/acrane.txt --- By Nick Schneider, ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR LOOGOOTEE - The short and long-term economic potential of the tri-county West Gate @ Crane Technology Park became much clearer Tuesday afternoon. Construction of state-of-the art technology manufacturing, training and office quarters as well as a hotel, meeting/banquet facilities, name-brand retail operations and residential homes are among the visions the private development company has for now and the future at the state's only multi-county certified technology park near Crane Village. On Tuesday at a meeting of the West Gate @ Crane Authority in Loogootee, officials of the WestGate @ Crane Development Co., LCC - an investment of Throgmartin-Henke Land Partners based in Indianapolis - announced to officials from Greene, Daviess and Martin counties that they had reached "principles of general agreement" for the development company to be officially named as the primary developer of record for the park by its governing board. Once the formal agreement is signed, the West Gate development group is expected to invest upwards of $5 million in 2007, designing and initially constructing about 100,000 square feet of new office, commercial and technology buildings. Among the immediate plans is the construction of a 40,000 square foot "spec type" building on property in the technology park located in Greene County. This will be done contingent upon Greene County officials providing the necessary infrastructure requirements - electrical utilities, water and sewage service and access roadways, according to Steve Henke, a partner in the West Gate @ Crane Development Co. LLC. Henke explained that he sees the "spec building" as being an office/warehouse type facility able to accommodate multiple uses. Two buildings are presently under construction in the Daviess County section of the 300-acre West Gate Park, including a new 25,000 sq. ft. facility for Indiana operations of EG&G, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the $2 billion URS Corporation. The Westgate-Crane Development Co. is finalizing arrangements to build a new facility for SAIC in the Martin County section of the West Gate, which may be as large as 60,000 sq. ft. SAIC is the nation's seventh largest defense contractor. Both SAIC and EG&G are major contractors at the Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) at Crane. Westgate-Crane Development Co. is also exploring plans to build a 16,000 sq. ft. spec office facility completion in 2007. The spec facility would offer flexible space for universities and technology companies. In addition to new technology and office buildings within the West Gate, a major retail area with a hotel and state-of-the-art conference facilities is being planned for an area immediately outside of the park, according to Dale Ankrom, a partner with the WestGate @ Crane Development Co. "This hospitality and retail area will help support the hundreds of employees who will be working in the park in the future and add a new vitality to the region," Ankrom said. Gerald Throgmartin, a major developer and retired co-founder of H.H. Gregg, and Henke, a prominent developer and attorney, have designed and developed major commercial facilities and custom home residential communities in several states - including the Bridgewater Club in Hamilton County and The Stonebridge Club, a new 1,300 acre resort, golf, and equestrian community located south in Morgan County. Ankrom has built or designed numerous major commercial, office and hotel facilities throughout the Midwest and Florida. Henke pointed out that the tech park site lends itself to being designed as something very special and pleasing to the eye. "We build very good quality developments, but more importantly we want to build the best tech park in the state of Indiana. We want to bring jobs here and we also want to keep jobs here. The topography out here (at the tech park site) represents a great situation where you utilize the existing trees to create a campus-type tech park," Henke explained. Henke and Ankrom, of D.E.A. Inc. Architecture, have been talking to West Gate Authority officials since last September about their ideas. Within the last month, Henke acknowledged that plans have come together and his firm is now ready to sign an agreement. "We're really happy that everybody is on board together. We see this as a working partnership. It's one of those things that we want to consult and we want to get information from you (the West Gate Authority) in the development of this (tech park). There are number of things that we want to create that work together with you. We all want to work together. This is not just something where we want to do something on our own and not have the input of the community," Henke stated. "I'm from southern Indiana. I'm originally from Holland (in Dubois County) and I want to come back down here. It's great to be here and do a project like this in southern Indiana. "We are very excited about it and we see it as an ongoing working relationship with each other. I think we have the opportunity to build the best tech park in the state." Henke expects to have a land use master plan prepared by the end of February and ready for review of the West Gate Authority. Henke said he foresees the project being a fast-track to development with much behind-the-scenes work already under way. "Once we have a formal agreement, we are prepared to rapidly develop what we hope will become a nationally recognized premier technology facility," Henke told the gathering Tuesday. The seven-member Authority voted unanimously Tuesday to enter into an agreement with WestGate @ Crane Development Co., LCC to be the lead developer of the tech park. That agreement for professional services can be expected to be formalized and signed at the next monthly meeting of the West Gate Authority, set for Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. (local time) at the Loogootee Municipal Building, according to attorney Marilyn Hartman, who serves as local legal counsel for the West Gate Authority. "If approved and we reach an agreement, we will begin the process of developing the SAIC facility and the master planning of the park immediately. It is our goal to have SAIC and at least one additional facility completed this year as well as additional infrastructure. We shall actively pursue technology, academic and hospitality facilities to be located within the technology park as soon as possible," a proposed presented to the Authority for review stated. Henke, who told the Greene County Daily World that his firm's commitment to West Gate Technology Park will be a multi-million dollar investment, said the market demand will dictate how fast the tech park is actually developed, but he envisions considerable construction activity at the site during the 2007 calendar year. "We'll build as many buildings and bring as many jobs to the area as quick as possible," he promised. Henke, whose grandfather started the successful Holland Dairy Company, said the tech park's location in southern Indiana is a major reason he and his partners have focused on development at this site. "Being from down here (in the southern part of the state), we've always had some interest in doing something down in this area. With I-69 coming here, that was a big key to this. Number one you have Crane with all it offers, with the number of employees they have and people want to be closer to NSWC Crane to do business - I think all of that was a factor," he said. Henke pointed out that because NSWC Crane utilizes a substantial number of commercial contracts with major defense companies shows that a strong potential for commercial development may exist. The developer also noted that the Major Moves initiative fostered by the administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels - which has accelerated the timeline for the construction of Interstate 69, which is scheduled to have an off-ramp within a mile of West Gate, is also major factor in the tech park's potential for growth. "Given that NWSC Crane is one of the largest operating facilities for transportation, distribution and logistics industry in the state of Indiana, that new interstate access potentially changes the long-term economic vitality of the West Gate region," he stated in his presentation to the Authority members. Henke, who is a partner in the suburban Indianapolis law firm of Coots, Henke & Wheeler, also noted that West Gate @ Crane Development Company possesses considerable expertise and financial resources to properly design, develop and expand the West Gate @Crane Technology Park into a world-class technology facility that could well transform the region. WCDC has access to "patient capital" that, unlike more traditional commercial financial options, can enable rapid, short-term development to position and capture major commercial tenants. "According to national experts, the average size for science and technology parks with West Gate-type resources and a nearby multi-billion-dollar military technical facility is about 3,000 employees," said Henke. "We plan to aggressively create a state-of-the-art green park with a high-tech campus feel that will attract and build that vision as rapidly as feasible." Speaking to Henke after the meeting, Greene County Councilman Ken Gremore, of rural Bloomfield, probably summed up the feeling of many in the area when he said, "We are excited about this. We need you. We'll do everything we can to help you. We've got our things lined up and we've got money laid back right now ready to go. We just need some direction." Henke said he was impressed to see a nice contingent from Greene County attending the meeting and showing their support. Attending the meeting with Gremore were fellow Greene County Council members Ed Cullison and John Wilkes. Nyle Riegle from Linton, who's involved in the Crane Technology, Inc. (CTI) group and attorney Hartman rounded out the local group. "Now it's clear to me that everybody is in support of this," Henke said. "Everybody wants to work to a common goal. Whether a building is built in a particular county or not, it's going to create jobs and money in that town or county. The support we are seeing now from everybody appears to be really unified." From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Feb 2 02:03:29 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 21:03:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] ImageNow Achieves Common Criteria Certification On Internationally Approved Set of Security Standards Message-ID: <20070201210322.L2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 1 February 2007 ; Prime Newswire ImageNow Achieves Common Criteria Certification On Internationally Approved Set of Security Standards http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=112931 --- After a Lengthy Evaluation and Testing Process, Perceptive Software's Enterprise Document Management Suite Attains Certification Through the National Information Assurance Partnership SHAWNEE, Kan., Feb. 1, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) (PRIMEZONE) -- Perceptive Software, developer of ImageNow(r) enterprise document management, imaging and workflow software, today announced ImageNow has achieved the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme for IT Security (CCEVS) at Evaluation Assurance Level 2+ through the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP). The United States and 22 other countries -- including Australia, the Czech Republic, India, Japan and the United Kingdom -- recognize the Common Criteria as the official third-party evaluation criteria for IT security procedures. "Achieving NIAP Common Criteria certification is a significant milestone for the ImageNow product suite, certifying its use in the most secure of federal government organizations and providing confirmation to customers worldwide, across all industries, that ImageNow manages their unstructured data with the utmost security," said Perceptive Software Executive Vice President Cary DeCamp. NIAP is a U.S. Government initiative between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The CCEVS is a national program for the evaluation of information technology products for conformance to the International Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation. The program helps consumers select IT products that meet their security requirements and helps the manufacturers of those products gain acceptance in the global marketplace. "We're pleased ImageNow is one of a select few enterprise content management solutions to earn NIAP Common Criteria certification," DeCamp added. ImageNow was submitted to the Common Criteria Testing Laboratory run by the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), one of nine NIAP-approved independent testing facilities. SAIC evaluated ImageNow against Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) Two augmented with Flaw Remediation and Examination of Guidance. Testing confirmed ImageNow met EAL2+ certification requirements including Flaw Remediation and Examination of Guidance. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Feb 2 21:33:29 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 16:33:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Chairman and CEO Presents at Cowen and Company Aerospace/Defense Conference Message-ID: <20070202163322.H2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 2 February 2007 ; Yahoo (PR Newswire) SAIC Chairman and CEO Presents at Cowen and Company Aerospace/Defense Conference http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070202/dcf025.html?.v=76 --- SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI - News) announced today that Ken Dahlberg, chairman and chief executive officer of SAIC, will speak at the Cowen and Company 28th Annual Aerospace/Defense Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 in New York City. Dahlberg will make a presentation and participate in an interview beginning at 2:30 p.m. EST, which will be Webcast live at http://www.saic.com. SAIC is a leading provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and solutions to all branches of the U.S. military, agencies of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. Government civil agencies, as well as to customers in selected commercial markets. With more than 44,000 employees in over 150 cities worldwide, SAIC engineers and scientists solve complex technical challenges requiring innovative solutions for customers' mission-critical functions. SAIC had annual revenues of $7.8 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2006. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 6 02:33:23 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 21:33:23 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Future Combat Systems, Key Technologies Testing Message-ID: <20070205213312.A2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 5 February 2007 ; Technology News Daily Future Combat Systems, Key Technologies Testing http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/5876 --- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI], functioning as the Lead Systems Integrator for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, have successfully completed an eight-month experiment that is a cornerstone of soldier evaluation activities and an important step toward the early infusion of key FCS capabilities to the current force. Experiment 1.1, spanning July 2006 through February 2007, is a three-phase effort that combines laboratory, field and demonstration activities with soldier testing of early FCS prototypes. The experiment will help reduce program risk; provide early feedback into the System of Systems development, integration and verification process; and identify and prioritize any needed refinements early in the development process. Phase 1 engineering laboratory events, conducted July 2006 through September 2006 at the FCS System of Systems Integration Laboratory in Huntington Beach, Calif., and the Army's Systems Engineering and Experimentation Lab at Fort Monmouth, N.J., tested hardware and software integration, as well as networking and systems interoperability. Phase 2 field events, conducted September 2006 through December 2006 at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Ft. Bliss, Texas, testing complex, focused on gathering data and assessing FCS systems performance while operating in a realistic environment. The FCS team, which included more than a dozen U.S. Army soldiers as observers, demonstrated Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System networking, Distributed Fusion Management capabilities, Unattended Ground Sensors capabilities, Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radio performance, and interoperability with current Army and Marine Corps systems. During Phase 2, the FCS team also demonstrated interoperability between FCS and an AH-64D Apache multi-role helicopter. This included the exchange of real-time situational awareness and the ability to display video imagery from the FCS Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in the helicopter's cockpit. The interoperability demonstration is an example of how FCS network-centric technology can be used to send the right information to the right place at the right time in the battlespace. The final demonstration phase of Experiment 1.1, which was conducted January 2007 to February 2007 at the White Sands Missile Range and Ft. Bliss test complex, included 36 soldier participants who provided "hands-on" feedback of early FCS prototypes, while exercising initial doctrinal concepts for employing these new capabilities. Phase 3 represented the first time soldiers collectively employed FCS systems in a live training environment and used an FCS computer-based training support package. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 6 22:14:10 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 17:14:10 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Computer Sciences wins $151M contract Message-ID: <20070206171336.O2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 6 February 2007 ; Business Week Computer Sciences wins $151M contract http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8N4CEKG1.htm --- EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Information technology contractor Computer Sciences Corp. said Tuesday it has been granted a missile-defense contract potentially worth up to $151 million. Under the contract, CSC will provide scientific and technical services for the U.S. Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency in support of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, which is intended to destroy enemy ballistic missiles, the company said. The new contract follows an agreement the company signed with the MDA in 2002. Science Applications International Corp., based in San Diego, has teamed up with CSC on the contract, CSC said. The contract has a one-year base period and four one-year options, with a value of $151 million if all the options are exercised. Shares of CSC fell 6 cents to $53.32 and SAIC also fell 6 cents to $18.50 in midday trading, both on the New York Stock Exchange. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 7 13:48:24 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 08:48:24 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Washington's $8 Billion Shadow Message-ID: <20070207084504.K2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 7 February 2007 ; Vanity Fair Washington's $8 Billion Shadow http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703 --- Mega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government with brawn. But the biggest, most powerful of the "body shops"--SAIC, which employs 44,000 people and took in $8 billion last year--sells brainpower, including a lot of the "expertise" behind the Iraq war. by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steel One of the great staples of the modern Washington movie is the dark and ruthless corporation whose power extends into every cranny around the globe, whose technological expertise is without peer, whose secrets are unfathomable, whose riches defy calculation, and whose network of allies, in and out of government, is held together by webs of money, ambition, and fear. You've seen this movie a dozen times. Men in black coats step from limousines on wintry days and refer guardedly to unspeakable things. Surveillance cameras and eavesdropping devices are everywhere. Data scrolls across the movie screen in digital fonts. Computer keyboards clack softly. Seemingly honorable people at the summit of power--Cabinet secretaries, war heroes, presidents--turn out to be pathetic pawns of forces greater than anyone can imagine. And at the pinnacle of this dark and ruthless corporation is a relentless and well-tailored titan--omniscient, ironic, merciless--played by someone like Christopher Walken or Jon Voight. To be sure, there isn't *really* such a corporation: the Omnivore Group, as it might be called. But if there were such a company--and, mind you, there isn't--it might look a lot like the largest government contractor you've never heard of: a company known simply by the nondescript initials SAIC (for Science Applications International Corporation), initials that are always spoken letter by letter rather than formed into a pronounceable acronym. SAIC maintains its headquarters in San Diego, but its center of gravity is in Washington, D.C. With a workforce of 44,000, it is the size of a full-fledged government agency--in fact, it is larger than the departments of Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development combined. Its anonymous glass-and-steel Washington office--a gleaming corporate box like any other--lies in northern Virginia, not far from the headquarters of the C.I.A., whose byways it knows quite well. (More than half of SAIC's employees have security clearances.) SAIC has been awarded more individual government contracts than any other private company in America. The contracts number not in the dozens or scores or hundreds but in the thousands: SAIC currently holds some 9,000 active federal contracts in all. More than a hundred of them are worth upwards of $10 million apiece. Two of them are worth more than $1 billion. The company's annual revenues, almost all of which come from the federal government, approached $8 billion in the 2006 fiscal year, and they are continuing to climb. SAIC's goal is to reach as much as $12 billion in revenues by 2008. As for the financial yardstick that really gets Wall Street's attention--profitability--SAIC beats the S&P 500 average. Last year ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, posted a return on revenue of 11 percent. For SAIC the figure was 11.9 percent. If "contract backlog" is any measure--that is, contracts negotiated and pending--the future seems assured. The backlog stands at $13.6 billion. That's one and a half times more than the backlog at KBR Inc., a subsidiary of the far better known government contractor once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Halliburton Company. It is a simple fact of life these days that, owing to a deliberate decision to downsize government, Washington can operate only by paying private companies to perform a wide range of functions. To get some idea of the scale: contractors absorb the taxes paid by everyone in America with incomes under $100,000. In other words, more than 90 percent of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to SAIC or some other contractor rather than to the IRS. In Washington these companies go by the generic name "body shops"--they supply flesh-and-blood human beings to do the specialized work that government agencies no longer can. Often they do this work outside the public eye, and with little official oversight--even if it involves the most sensitive matters of national security. The Founding Fathers may have argued eloquently for a government of laws, not of men, but what we've got instead is a government of body shops. The unhappy business practices of the past few years in Iraq--cost overruns, incompetence, and corruption on a pharaonic scale--have made the American public keenly aware of the activities of mega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel. Although SAIC takes on government projects such as those pursued by contractors like these, it does not belong in exactly the same category. Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government's brawn. They pour concrete, roll out concertina wire, build infrastructure. They call on bullnecked men to provide protection. In contrast, SAIC is a body shop in the brain business. It sells human beings who have a particular expertise--expertise about weapons, about homeland security, about surveillance, about computer systems, about "information dominance" and "information warfare." If the C.I.A. needs an outside expert to quietly check whether its employees are using their computers for personal business, it calls on SAIC. If the Immigration and Naturalization Service needs new record-keeping software, it calls on SAIC. Indeed, SAIC is willing to provide expertise about almost anything at all, if there happens to be a government contract out there to pay for it--as there almost always is. Whether SAIC actually possesses all the expertise that it sells is another story. What everyone agrees on is this: No Washington contractor pursues government money with more ingenuity and perseverance than SAIC. No contractor seems to exploit conflicts of interest in Washington with more zeal. And no contractor cloaks its operations in greater secrecy. SAIC almost never touts its activities in public, preferring to stay well below the radar. An SAIC executive once gave a press interview and referred to the enterprise as a "stealth company," a characterization that is accurate and that has stuck. "Nobody knows who they are," says Glenn Grossenbacher, a Texas lawyer who has battled SAIC in court on a whistle-blowing case. "Everybody knows Northrop Grumman and G.E., but if you went out on the street and asked who the top 10 [defense] contractors are, I can guarantee you that SAIC would not be one of them." Which is all the more remarkable in light of two developments. The first is a mounting collection of government audits and lawsuits brought by former employees for a variety of reasons, some of them personal and some coming under federal whistle-blower statutes. In a response to written queries, SAIC characterized itself as a "highly ethical company and responsible government contractor, committed to doing the right thing." But a review by Vanity Fair of thousands of pages of documents, including corporate e-mail messages, offers disturbing revelations about the company's inner workings, its culture, and its leadership. The second development is that several of SAIC's biggest projects have turned out to be colossal failures, failures that have occurred very much in public. One involves the National Security Agency, America's intelligence-gathering "electronic ear" and for many years SAIC's biggest customer. The volume of telephone, e-mail, and other electronic communications that the N.S.A. intercepts worldwide is so massive that the agency urgently needs a new computer system to store it, sort it, and give it meaning--otherwise it will keep missing clues like the Arabic message "Tomorrow is zero hour," intercepted the day before 9/11 but not translated until the day after. SAIC won the initial $280 million, 26-month contract to design and create this system, called Trailblazer. Four years and more than a billion dollars later, the effort has been abandoned. General Michael V. Hayden, the former head of the N.S.A. and now the director of the C.I.A., blamed the failure on "the fact we were trying to overachieve, we were throwing deep and we should have been throwing short passes." Happily for SAIC, it will get the chance for a comeback in the second half. The company has been awarded the contract for a revised Trailblazer program called ExecuteLocus. The contract is worth $361 million. Another failed effort involves the F.B.I., which paid SAIC $124 million to bring the bureau, whose computer systems are among the most primitive in American law enforcement, into at least the late 20th century. The lack of information-sharing is one reason why the F.B.I. failed to realize that in the year leading up to 9/11 two of the future hijackers--including one with known "jihadist connections"--were actually living in the San Diego home of an F.B.I. informant. SAIC set to work on a system called the Virtual Case File. V.C.F. was supposed to become a central repository of data (wiretap transcripts, criminal records, financial transactions) from which all F.B.I. agents could draw. Three years and a million lines of garbled computer code later, V.C.F. has been written off by a global publication for technology professionals as "the most highly publicized software failure in history." The failure was due in part to the bureau's ever shifting directives, which points up the perverse nature of government-by-contract. When the government makes unrealistic demands, the contractors go along anyway: they are being paid not to resist but to comply. If it turns out they can't deliver, new contracts will simply be drawn up. Responding to questions about the F.B.I. project, the company conceded that "there were areas in which SAIC made mistakes, particularly where we failed to adequately communicate our concerns about the way the contract was being managed." These and other SAIC activities would seem to be ripe targets for scrutiny by the new Democratic Congress. But don't be surprised if you hear nothing at all: SAIC's friends in Washington are everywhere, and play on all sides; the connections are tightly interlocked. To cite just one example: Robert M. Gates, the new secretary of defense, whose confirmation hearings lasted all of a day, is a former member of SAIC's board of directors. In recent years the company has obviously made many missteps, and yet SAIC's influence in Washington seems only to grow, impervious to business setbacks or even to a stunning breach of security. Much to the embarrassment of a company entrusted with some of the nation's most precious secrets, its San Diego offices were mysteriously burgled in January of 2005. A censored San Diego police-department report reveals the basic outline. The report notes that the building "is patrolled by DOD certified security" and that "the interior lights are on motion sensors and would have been activated by the suspects." Nevertheless, burglars managed to break into SAIC's headquarters, pry open 13 private offices, and walk out with one desktop-computer hard drive and four laptops. By SAIC's account, the computers contained personal data on thousands of present and past employees, presumably including the company's many former C.I.A. operatives, N.S.A. executives, and Pentagon officials. To date, the burglary remains unsolved. SAIC has displayed an uncanny ability to thrive in every conceivable political climate. It is the invisible hand behind a huge portion of the national-security state--the one sector of the government whose funds are limitless and whose continued growth is assured every time a politician utters the word "terrorism." SAIC represents, in other words, a private business that has become a form of permanent government. A Plain Brown Envelope On the evening of January 17, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower came down from the White House living quarters to the Oval Office and delivered his last address to the American people as president. This was the famous speech in which he warned against the "disastrous rise of misplaced power" in the hands of what he called "the military-industrial complex"--the sturdy hybrid formed by crossbreeding American corporate interests with those of the Pentagon and the intelligence community. As Eisenhower spoke, a quietly ambitious man on the other side of the country, John Robert Beyster, was going about his business as head of the accelerator-physics department at the General Atomic corporation, in La Jolla, California, one of many secretive companies that sprouted early in the atomic era. Beyster had grown up outside of Detroit, served in the navy during World War II, and earned a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of Michigan before migrating to Southern California in the 1950s. He was a lanky and nerdy-looking technocrat, but the tortoiseshell glasses concealed a driven personality. Beyster believed that General Atomic didn't appreciate his ideas, and he began to lay plans. Within a decade of Eisenhower's farewell speech, Beyster would create an enterprise epitomizing the military-industrial complex that caused Eisenhower such dismay. Now, four decades later, that company epitomizes something beyond Eisenhower's worst nightmare--the "military-industrial-counterterrorism complex." Science Applications International Corporation was born in February of 1969 in a stucco office building in La Jolla next to a ballet studio overlooking the Pacific. "I was not the brilliant, flash-of-inspiration type of entrepreneur," Beyster would later recall; rather, he was more a "persistent builder type." The name he decided on for his company, though brilliantly opaque, reflected an assumption that the real future of national defense--or, at any rate, the real future profits to be had from national defense--lay in science and technology, not in boots on the ground. And a lot of that scientific work would necessarily be analytical; it would be about *thinking* as much as about *making*. Beyster's very first government contract came from the Defense Atomic Support Agency: he was given the task of calculating "the output of nuclear devices." Beyster understood that this particular moment of the American Century was the perfect time for shrewd consultants to get into the war business. The conflict in Vietnam was still raging, and the Cold War seemed to have become a permanent fixture of the geopolitical landscape. The Nixon administration was promoting a missile-defense system to protect its ICBM installations. Scientists were hard at work on a host of nuclear projects, including the fabled neutron bomb. Although computers had yet to revolutionize government and business, visionaries like Beyster could see that eventually they would, and so, for SAIC, computer systems represented another target of opportunity. Joined by research scientists from General Atomic and elsewhere, Beyster developed a straightforward business plan. As he later explained it, "People who came into the company went out and got contracts." Everyone who worked for SAIC had to carry his own weight. You might have a Ph.D. in physics or applied mathematics, but at SAIC your job fundamentally was to sell your high-tech ideas and blue-chip expertise to the army, navy, air force, C.I.A., N.S.A., Atomic Energy Commission, and any other government agency with money to spend and an impulse to buy. Contracts were everything. There is much to be said for SAIC's approach: in its four decades of existence, the company has turned a profit every single year. Beyster aggressively packed his company with former generals, admirals, diplomats, spies, and Cabinet officers of every kind to fill the company's board of directors and the upper echelons of its staff. These were the kinds of people who would always have easy access to the agencies they had left behind--and who someday might even go back into government. To be sure, every Beltway defense contractor tries to bring retired generals and admirals into the fold, but Beyster offered an incentive that others couldn't match: an internal stock-ownership program, which promised to make government officials rich after they left public service. The stock-ownership program would eventually be expanded to include everyone on the company's payroll, but it began as Beyster's way of rewarding favored executives and board members, whose identities were kept secret. A lucky recipient would learn of his good fortune when a messenger appeared in his office carrying a plain brown envelope containing a newly minted stock certificate. SAIC had its own brokerage subsidiary, licensed by the S.E.C., a kind of in-house Merrill Lynch called Bull, Inc. The name accurately predicted the stock's vitality. Beyster and his board managed every aspect of the stock--the number of shares, who received them, and, most important, the price. Unlike on Wall Street, where individual stock prices go up and down, the SAIC stock price, controlled by Beyster and his board, usually moved in one direction only: up. The more contracts you landed, the more stock you received. Even if you stayed at SAIC for only a short time, you could in the long run earn a lot of money. And if you left SAIC to go back into government service, you had considerable incentive to keep SAIC's continuing good fortunes in mind. SAIC's internal stock market was instrumental in the company's early success. Peter Friesen, a San Diego attorney who has represented former SAIC employees in civil complaints against the company, says, "If you find somebody [in government] who wants a job with SAIC later, and he sees the steady rise in the stock price over the years and knows he can get a job with stock options and stock bonuses, then he's going to be sending business over to SAIC. And it worked." SAIC opened its Washington office in 1970. Although San Diego would remain SAIC's home base, the workforce in the Washington area soon eclipsed the workforce everywhere else. To ensure support on Capitol Hill, corporate outposts were prominently set up in key congressional districts. Meanwhile, scores of influential members of the national-security establishment clambered onto SAIC's payroll, among them John M. Deutch, undersecretary of energy under President Jimmy Carter and C.I.A. director under President Bill Clinton; Rear Admiral William F. Raborn, who headed development of the Polaris submarine; and Rear Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, who served variously as director of the National Security Agency, deputy director of the C.I.A., and vice director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. SAIC's relative anonymity has allowed large numbers of its executives to circulate freely between the company and the dozen or so government agencies it cares about. William B. Black Jr., who retired from the N.S.A. in 1997 after a 38-year career to become a vice president at SAIC, returned to the N.S.A. in 2000. Two years later the agency awarded the Trailblazer contract to SAIC. Black managed the program. Donald Foley, a current SAIC director, came out of a top position at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon group responsible for developing new military technology. SAIC might as well operate an executive shuttle service between its McLean, Virginia, offices and the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. Technically, federal ethics rules stipulate that former government officials must wait one year before contacting anyone in their former agencies. Sometimes they can't wait: Mark A. Boster left his job as a deputy assistant attorney general in 1999 to join SAIC, and was already calling Justice three months later on behalf of his new employers--a violation of federal law. Boster paid $30,000 in a civil settlement. The Young-Boy Network The driving force behind SAIC, the man who shaped its personality and culture across nearly four decades, until he was forced out in 2004, was of course Bob Beyster. From the beginning Beyster was indefatigable, constantly on the road, promoting SAIC to any government official who would listen. On a 10-day trip, he'd jam in as many as 80 appointments. If he had an hour between planes, he'd order his secretary to jam in one more. Beyster may have been a scientist by training, but he was a salesman at heart. He described himself as a "marketeer." Although he could be an engaging companion when dealing with military brass and agency heads, around the office Beyster could also be distant and imperious, an autocrat who ruled with an iron hand. SAIC presented itself as a friendly "employee owned" company. Inside, everyone understood how the stock program was really used--to punish and reward. No one harbored any illusions about whose company it was. "In Bob Beyster's mind, that company was not the shareholders' company, it was Bob Beyster's company," said Gerald Pomraning, a nuclear physicist who helped Beyster set up SAIC, in a legal proceeding. "When I was on the board of directors, he told us many times that the board of directors was simply a legal entity that was required, but it was *his* company." Beyster advocated a form of internal entrepreneurship that led to cutthroat competition for contracts. Operations were chaotic because divisions independent of one another frequently fought for the same business. Glenn Grossenbacher, the Texas lawyer, describes the dynamic as "eat what you kill." Chief financial officers, frustrated by Beyster's exacting and sometimes mercurial demands, came and went. The company's organizational chart was often in flux. According to one former executive, Beyster was known around the office as a "control freak" who undermined managers by going around them and dealing directly with their staffs. Bernice Stanfill King, a former SAIC executive who managed the company's internal stock program, says that Beyster would often assign a single job to two executives. "He would call in one high-level guy and put him on a project," she explains. "Then he would call another guy in a totally different part of the company and put him on the project. Then these guys would bump into each other and [wonder], 'What's *he* doing?' You never honestly knew what was going on inside. Nothing was ever in the open." As befits a company with deep ties to the intelligence and national-security community, SAIC's culture has always had a military cast to it. Employees are expected to follow orders. Even former employees are wary of discussing SAIC. One former manager who has worked on sensitive, even dangerous assignments abroad spoke about SAIC only after receiving assurances of anonymity, saying, "This is a very powerful company." In the years when most corporations had glass ceilings for women, few were lower or thicker than the one at SAIC. Although Beyster was married (and the father of three children), his behavior toward women often ranged from coolness to open hostility. His former secretary, Linda Anderson, once testified that Beyster was "uncomfortable with women." She recalled that when a woman came into a meeting Beyster's manner became stilted. "Even his posture changed," she said. King, who sued the company for sex discrimination and won, said in an interview with Vanity Fair that when passing Beyster in the hall she was not to speak to him or even to look at him. Women were made to address the boss as "Dr. Beyster"; men called him "Bob." When a woman made a mistake, Beyster typically called her on it, using words like "stupid" or "incompetent." When a man made a mistake--well, it was just that, a mistake. Beyster's former secretary testified that he once instructed her, on the eve of a major corporate function, to make sure he wasn't seated next to SAIC's one female board member, "because all women talked about was where they got their hair done." Beyster's close associates within SAIC were a succession of young men. Known as aides-de-camp, they were usually handsome, well educated, and intelligent, with a facility for numbers and a willingness to perform personal tasks for their boss. Beyster was an ardent sailor, and in the summertime he liked to spend afternoons cruising the waters off San Diego aboard his yacht in the company of these young men. George Wilson, who once headed SAIC's public-relations operation, has stated in a legal proceeding that the young men provided a variety of personal services for Beyster, including using SAIC equipment to make copies of pornographic movies that Beyster would watch aboard his boat. When Beyster traveled on business, he often took one of the aides-de-camp with him, and asked his secretary to arrange for them to stay in the same hotel room--this according to the secretary's courtroom testimony. Wilson said in a deposition that one of the young men he knew who slept in the same room with Beyster on these trips told him that he didn't like doing it, but that "it was part of traveling with Beyster." Some of the young aides-de-camp went on to become executives at SAIC. Bernice King testified that Beyster had a name for his young assistants: he called them his "baby boys." When asked about these assertions, which surfaced in a sex-discrimination case, Beyster declined to comment on any particulars, saying, "Although I cannot address the specific points you raise from court testimony, I will say that during this trial a number of very personal accusations were leveled against me that are not accurate." Klondike on the Euphrates Civilians at SAIC used to joke that the company had so many admirals and generals in its ranks it could start its own war. Some might argue that, in the case of Iraq, it did. There isn't a politically correct way to put it, but this is what needs to be said: 9/11 was a personal tragedy for thousands of families and a national tragedy for all of America, but it was very, very good for SAIC. In the aftermath of the attacks, the Bush administration launched its Global War on Terror, whose chief consequence has been to channel money by the tens of billions into companies promising they could do something--anything--to help. SAIC was ready. Four years earlier, anticipating the next big source of government revenue, SAIC had established the Center for Counterterrorism Technology and Analysis. According to SAIC, the purpose of the new unit was to take "a comprehensive view of terrorist threats, including the full range of weapons of mass destruction, more traditional high explosives, and cyber-threats to the national infrastructure." In October of 2006 the company told would-be investors flatly that the war on terror would continue to be a lucrative growth industry. SAIC executives have been involved at every stage of the life cycle of the war in Iraq. SAIC personnel were instrumental in pressing the case that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq in the first place, and that war was the only way to get rid of them. Then, as war became inevitable, SAIC secured contracts for a broad range of operations in soon-to-be-occupied Iraq. When no weapons of mass destruction were found, SAIC personnel staffed the commission that was set up to investigate how American intelligence could have been so disastrously wrong. It is Wednesday afternoon, March 25, 1998, and David A. Kay, who had been a U.N. official in Iraq in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, is on Capitol Hill testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Americans generally remember Kay as the head of the Iraq Survey Group, the man who showed that Saddam Hussein didn't possess W.M.D. when America invaded in 2003, and that the war was launched under false pretenses. But today, in 1998, he is not David Kay, weapons inspector, but David Kay, director of SAIC's Center for Counterterrorism Technology and Analysis. He is a stockholder in a company known to cognoscenti in the hearing room as a fraternal twin of the intelligence establishment. With great authority, Kay tells the committee that Saddam Hussein "remains in power with weapons of mass destruction" and that "military action is needed." He warns that unless America acts now "we're going to find the world's greatest military with its hands tied." Over the next four years, Kay and others associated with SAIC hammered away at the threat posed by Iraq. Wayne Downing, a retired general and a close associate of Ahmad Chalabi, proselytized hard for an invasion of Iraq, stating that the Iraqis "are ready to take the war . overseas. They would use whatever means they have to attack us." In many of his appearances on network and cable television leading up to the war, Downing was identified simply as a "military analyst." It would have been just as accurate to note that he was a member of SAIC's board of directors and a company stockholder. (Downing was also the chief proponent of a weapons system called Metal Storm, capable of firing a million rounds of ammunition a minute; SAIC received $10 million from the Pentagon to develop prototypes, but in the last two years the Metal Storm company has lost millions.) In the run-up to the war, David Kay remained outspoken. He told NBC News in October of 2002, "I don't think it's possible to disarm Iraq as long as Saddam is in power and desires to maintain weapons of mass destruction." On all these points Kay and Downing were buttressing the views of Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others in the Bush administration. They were also echoing the assertions of Iraqi exiles living in the United States, who had been trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein for years. Many of those exiles--people like Khidhir Hamza, a onetime atomic-energy official in Iraq, who insisted that Saddam posed an imminent nuclear danger to the United States--would in time receive paychecks from SAIC. Although his evidence had long been discredited by weapons experts, Hamza was among about 150 Iraqi exiles designated by the Pentagon as members of the newly chartered Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council. The plan was that, once American troops secured Iraq, the I.R.D.C. recruits would move into influential positions in a rebuilt Iraqi government. SAIC served as the paymaster for the Iraqi exiles under a $33 million government contract. It brought them all together in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, rented apartments for them, paid their living expenses, provided various support services, and, later, after the invasion and occupation, flew them to their jobs in the new, democratic Iraq. This SAIC operation reported to Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, a key assistant to Rumsfeld, and one of the architects of the Iraq invasion and occupation. Feith's deputy was Christopher "Ryan" Henry, a former SAIC senior vice president. It was understood in Washington, long before the actual onset of "shock and awe," that the Iraq war would be a Klondike gold rush for contractors. Prior to the war, SAIC was awarded seven contracts, together worth more than $100 million, without competitive bidding. The Defense Department's justification for the no-bid contracts: "We need the immediate services of a fully qualified contractor who has the unqualified support and confidence of the Pentagon leadership." SAIC's personnel, designated "subject-matter experts," were expected to lend a hand on such matters as "business development, international and regional political relations, the role of women in government, and government reform." Among SAIC's subject-matter experts was Shaha Riza, an Arab feminist and communications adviser at the World Bank. Riza also happened to be the girlfriend of Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense. One week before the invasion, SAIC was awarded yet another no-bid contract, this one for $15 million, which within a year would balloon to $82 million. The contract gave SAIC the responsibility for establishing a "free and independent indigenous media network" in Iraq, and for training a cadre of independent Iraqi journalists to go with it. The selection of SAIC for this job may have seemed counter-intuitive. A year earlier, SAIC had been involved in a Pentagon program designed to feed disinformation to the foreign press. The program was overseen by a Pentagon entity with the Orwellian name of Office of Strategic Influence, and its aims proved sufficiently odious that someone inside the Pentagon leaked its existence to The New York Times. An unrepentant Donald Rumsfeld stated that he would shut down the Office of Strategic Influence--but in name only: "There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm going to keep doing every single thing that needs to be done." To create its Iraqi Media Network, SAIC hired professional newsmen from the United States as consultants. One of them was a former NBC News staff member, Don North, who had launched his career as a cameraman in Vietnam and eventually rose to become the NBC News bureau chief in Cairo. North began with high expectations. Once Saddam Hussein was ousted, he and his colleagues hoped to create a BBC-like news operation, instilling "standards of international broadcasting and news reporting" that Iraqis had never known before. It soon became clear that the Pentagon and the Coalition Provisional Authority had other ideas. To them, the Iraqi Media Network represented an opportunity to push the U.S. agenda in Iraq in the most simplistic sort of way. With SAIC's cooperation, the network quickly devolved into a mouthpiece for the Pentagon--"a little Voice of America," as North would put it. Iraqis openly snickered at the programming. Every time North protested, he recalls, he was rebuffed by SAIC executives. "Here I was going around quoting Edward R. Murrow," North says, "and the people who were running me were manipulating and controlling a very undemocratic press and media that was every bit as bad as what Saddam had established." In the end the network was turned over to Iraqi control. Today it is a tool of Iraq's Shiite majority and spews out virulently anti-American messages day and night. "And to think we started it," says North. The SAIC-created television network may be the only functioning weapon of mass destruction in today's Iraq. As everyone now acknowledges, no other such weapons have ever been found, although search teams ran through more than $1 billion looking for them. The closest they came was the discovery, in May of 2003, of a "mobile bioweapons lab" in the form of a tractor-trailer whose interior configuration looked suspicious. David Kay was on hand to lend credence to the notion that the trailer was a weapons lab. "This is where the biological process took place," he explained in one NBC News broadcast. "You took the nutrients. Think of it sort of as a chicken soup for biological weapons. You mixed it with the seed stock, which came from this gravity-flow tank up here into the fermenter, and under pressure with heat, it fermented." Kay outlined the process step by step. The discovery of the trailer was, as the NBC News interviewer allowed, "very close to that elusive smoking gun." It turned out, however, that the mobile weapons lab was nothing of the kind. To be sure, the military, back in the United States, did have in its possession something that looked a lot like the Iraqi trailer. In advance of the invasion, SAIC had built its own version of a mobile bioweapons lab, intended to help U.S. troops recognize such a facility if they ever came across one. SAIC had built, in effect, a self-fulfilling prophecy. After failing to find the W.M.D., Kay told Congress in January of 2004: "Let me begin by saying we were almost all wrong, and I certainly include myself here." The next month President Bush appointed a commission to look at how American intelligence managed to miss the truth about Iraq's weapons programs. The commission delivered its report one year later, and although it sternly pointed to obvious intelligence failures, it kept its gaze, as it had been told to do, at a very low level--and far away from the issue of whether senior policymakers had deliberately manipulated intelligence findings: "The Commission found no indication that the Intelligence Community distorted the evidence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the report concluded. Three of the commission's staff members had direct ties to SAIC. One was Gordon Oehler, the commission's deputy director for review. When Oehler left the C.I.A., in October of 1997, after a 25-year career, he in essence walked down the street and into the McLean offices of SAIC to become a vice president for corporate development. A second commission staff member with ties to the company was Jeffrey R. Cooper, vice president for technology and chief science officer in one of SAIC's major sub-units. The third member was Samuel S. Visner, who holds a graduate degree in Washington's revolving-door system. From 1997 to 2001, Visner was an SAIC vice president for corporate development, and also a business-development manager. Next, he moved into a government spymaster job, becoming chief of signals-intelligence programs for the National Security Agency. During this time SAIC was one of several firms to receive a $280 million contract from the N.S.A. to develop one of its secret eavesdropping systems. In 2003, Visner returned to SAIC to become a senior vice president and the director of strategic planning and business development of the company's intelligence group. As for General Downing, he has become a regular contributor on television as a military expert on the war in Iraq and America's options. Everyone seems to have forgotten his earlier bellicosity. The Flying Hummer SAIC's ability to prosper is all the more remarkable given its record of lawsuits, charges brought by whistle-blowers, allegations of profiteering, fines assessed by federal judges, and repeated investigations and government audits. According to one former executive, in a sworn deposition in 1992, the practice of "mischarging" became "institutionalized within the company." (SAIC denies such allegations.) The job of establishing the Iraqi Media Network's infrastructure--cables, transmitters, dishes--was rife with corruption and waste. In one instance, government auditors questioned an SAIC invoice for approximately $10 million. (SAIC says it is unaware of the auditors' report.) In March of 2004 the Pentagon's inspector general found widespread violations of normal contracting procedures: improper payments to subcontractors, unsubstantiated equipment purchases, unauthorized personnel on the payroll. One of the more blatant transgressions concerned SAIC's overall manager of the media effort in Iraq. The investigators discovered that he had bought a Hummer and a pickup truck in the United States and then chartered a DC-10 cargo jet to fly them to Iraq. When a Pentagon official refused to allow the charge, the inspector general reported, "SAIC then went around the authority of this acquisition specialist to a different office within the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy to gain approval and succeeded." SAIC's performance on the Iraqi Media Network contract is now, indirectly, at issue in a lawsuit brought by an employee who alleges that she was fired after she tried to draw the attention of SAIC executives to what she described in the suit as "unethical, illegal, and unsafe practices" by the company in Iraq. Because of the pending legal action, this employee declined to be interviewed, but considerable documentation is already part of the public record, including portions of her personnel file. SAIC's corporate priorities are suggested by one commendation the employee received, for her "excellent billing credentials." This way of doing business has been an SAIC character trait for years. In 1991, SAIC was charged with falsifying data submitted to the E.P.A. on soil samples from Superfund toxic-waste sites. The law required the E.P.A. to identify toxic dumps and determine which ones posed the gravest risks. To perform the analysis, the E.P.A. contracted with independent labs, including SAIC's Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, in La Jolla. The lab was supposed to test soil and water samples within a certain number of days of their being received "to ensure the chemicals being tested for would not have dissipated in the interim." But technicians at SAIC's lab tested some samples after the deadline and then backdated the results. SAIC mounted a high-powered behind-the-scenes campaign to escape prosecution. A member of SAIC's board of directors, former secretary of defense Melvin R. Laird, wrote a personal letter to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. "I can assure you there was no wrongdoing on the part of the corporation," Laird stated. Criminal prosecution of SAIC, he went on, would be "entirely inappropriate." Ultimately the company was accused by the government of making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements," and pleaded guilty to 10 counts of making false statements or claims. SAIC paid $1.3 million in fines and restitution. A few years later SAIC was in trouble again, this time over its efforts to design a flat-panel liquid-crystal-display screen to be used as a navigational device in the cockpits of air-force fighter jets. The initial contract had been awarded in 1987, but SAIC kept going back for more money. The government would shell out millions--even as SAIC assured the air force that steady progress was being made. And in fact air-force officials had no reason to believe otherwise: they had seen what they thought was a demonstration model when SAIC officials unveiled a slick-looking compact box with a backlit screen. SAIC officials traveled to military bases around the country to show off the prototype. A respected magazine, Engineering Design News, published a photograph of the display screen on its cover. But the box was a fake. SAIC had been unable to develop the actual technology. The prototype--in effect, nothing more than a cheap video game--had been cobbled together with components taken from TV sets, computers, and everyday consumer appliances. When two SAIC employees complained to their superiors, both were fired. Two employees later filed whistle-blower lawsuits charging SAIC with defrauding the government. While denying any wrongdoing, in 1995 SAIC settled the suit with the government and paid a fine of $2.5 million. The ill-fated cockpit-display project was hardly an isolated case. A recent case revealed one method SAIC employed to increase the profits on a contract. In San Antonio, the air force awarded SAIC a $24 million contract to clean up contaminated-waste sites at Kelly Air Force Base. Once the project was under way, the SAIC manager overseeing the job realized that the work would cost much less than the amount SAIC had negotiated. "It was massively overstaffed," Michael Woodlee, the former manager, said in an interview. "I didn't need that many [people]." Woodlee said he told one of his superiors that "there was no way under the moon we could spend all this money." This is not what SAIC wanted to hear. Woodlee said that, because he couldn't spend everything in his budget, his SAIC superiors suggested that he "harvest money out of [his] project and send it up the corporate ladder." After he resisted, Woodlee contended, the project was taken away from him, and he was laid off. In 2002, Woodlee filed a whistle-blower lawsuit charging SAIC with fraud under the federal False Claims Act. Working with air-force investigators, the U.S. attorney in San Antonio concluded that SAIC had in fact grossly understated profits on the contract: rather than the 8 to 10 percent profit the contract allowed, SAIC had, "unbeknownst to the Air Force," realized profits of three times that amount, and had submitted "false and fraudulent statements of its expected costs and profits." SAIC's response was audacious. It told federal officials, in effect, that the government was right: the company does increase the profit margin beyond the terms of the contract. But there's a reason: risk is involved, and the additional profit is compensation for that risk. According to documents in the case, SAIC explained that it employs something called "Quantitative Risk Analysis" to identify potential business risks, and that it factors those costs into its contracts, although without ever mentioning the fact to customers. In a written response, the company stated that this kind of risk analysis is "commonly used throughout industry" and "such purely judgmental information was not required to be disclosed under [federal law] based on longstanding legal principles." But by failing to disclose that information to federal negotiators, the air force maintained, SAIC induced it "to agree to much higher prices than [the air force] would have agreed to had SAIC truthfully disclosed its cost and pricing data." After SAIC's "risk defense" surfaced, the air force issued a written alert to warn other agencies about SAIC's business methods, which it said SAIC "intends to continue using." Although the amount of money in contention was relatively small, the principle involved was large, and it had potentially national implications. Was SAIC using the same formula in thousands upon thousands of other contracts it had with the government? We'll never know. For reasons that remain unclear, the Justice Department decided against expanding the probe beyond San Antonio. Is it possible that a call was made from one well-placed individual to another? In April of 2005, SAIC, while denying wrongdoing, settled the San Antonio lawsuit by paying a fine of $2.5 million. More important, the company had forestalled a wider investigation. One of Woodlee's lawyers, Glenn Grossenbacher, who has represented other whistle-blowers against other companies, describes SAIC as unlike any other company he has ever confronted. "These guys handle things very differently than other people," he said. "They had better access to the Pentagon than the government's own attorneys. They are so well connected they were able to isolate this one case. This should have been a [national] case. The reason it wasn't was because of their political clout to shut it down and localize it." Not every SAIC client is as forgiving as the United States government. When SAIC failed to deliver a highly touted security system for the 2004 Athens Olympics, the Greek government refused to make a final payment. SAIC had proposed the most extensive security shield in Olympic history: more than 100 command posts, vehicle-tracking devices and sensors everywhere, 1,600 video cameras, and a blimp loaded with "sensitive equipment" floating "silently overhead acting as an airborne surveillance center." As video feeds flowed to a central command post, SAIC's state-of-the-art software would link all these capabilities. The system was to remain in place as an anti-terrorism tool in Athens for years to come. But turmoil within SAIC plagued the effort from the start. Project managers came and went. On the eve of the games a source close to the Olympic planners stated that "the entire Committee without exception believe that the . system doesn't work." The Olympics started up on schedule. SAIC's security system did not. A newspaper in Athens described the system as "operationally useless," and Greek officials improvised simply by adding more guards. Before the games began, SAIC and the Greek government had quietly come to an agreement that called for continued testing of the system and "final acceptance to occur no later than October 1, [2004]"--one month after the games ended. A payment of $23 million would follow. SAIC missed this deadline, too. After more wrangling the two sides, according to an Athens newspaper, reached an understanding that calls for SAIC to complete work by May 2008, almost four years after the Olympics. As of last fall, SAIC's losses on the project totaled a staggering $123 million, and the company acknowledges "our poor performance on the Greek Olympics contract." SAIC is trying to recoup some of its losses in an arbitration and so far has managed to keep the lid on potentially embarrassing revelations about the competence of a company whose operations are built on claims of technical expertise. Radiation Sickness Given that its founder came from a company called General Atomic it is hardly surprising that SAIC has been heavily involved in the nuclear business. One early project came in the 1970s and 80s, when SAIC received Pentagon contracts to reconstruct the amount of radiation absorbed by military personnel during atomic-bomb tests and other service-related exposures. The government's bookkeeping was so erratic from the early days of the Cold War that it was often difficult to tell how much radiation soldiers had received and whether it might have been responsible for their various cancers. When SAIC did the numbers, few veterans qualified for compensation. The Pentagon's nuclear testing was in effect off the hook, and ailing veterans were out of luck. After years of hearings, Congress in 1988 passed the Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act, which gave veterans the benefit of the doubt. It was presumed that their cancer was attributable to nuclear exposure without considering the radiation dose. By then many of the veterans were dead. A health physicist who testified later on behalf of the veterans spoke unkindly of the original SAIC work: "Atomic veterans have been deprived of benefits intended by Congress through [SAIC's] deceptive internal dose reconstructions and poor understanding of radioactive material distribution in the body." SAIC disagrees, saying that it "continues to work with the government to apply the best science to performing dose reconstruction for atomic veterans." Periodically over the years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, prodded by executives in the nuclear industry, have sought to ease the rules against re-using "lightly" contaminated radioactive waste. The impetus has been the inexorably growing stockpile of nuclear debris--much of it lethal--that has been accumulating at weapons sites and power plants in America for decades. One way to draw down the stockpile would be to recycle large volumes of discarded nickel, aluminum, copper, steel, and other irradiated metals into usable products. If slightly radioactive metal were combined with other metals, the resulting material could be made into all kinds of consumer items--knives and forks, baby strollers, chairs, rings, eyeglass frames, bicycles, reclining rockers, earrings, frying pans. It also could be used in construction. Lest any of this sound improbable, in the 1980s radioactive table legs began turning up in the United States everywhere from restaurants to nursing homes. A radioactive gold ring cost a Pennsylvania man his arm. The public outcry was so great that in 1992 Congress set out to ban this form of recycling. The N.R.C., D.O.E., and nuclear industry saw the ban coming and were not happy about it, but they also saw a way out: maybe it would be possible to develop broad guidelines that would allow the contaminated waste to be recycled based on what were deemed "safe" exposure levels. Never mind that there is no such thing as a safe dose of radiation. Two months before the ban was signed into law, the N.R.C. gave the multi-million-dollar job of formulating the guidelines to an outside contractor. The contractor was SAIC. As the years slipped by, across town, another federal agency, the Department of Energy, was handing out a $238 million contract to B.N.F.L. Inc., at that time the U.S. subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, "to clean up and reindustrialize three massive uranium enrichment facilities" at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee. The agreement called for B.N.F.L. to recycle "hundreds of thousands of tons of metals." British Nuclear Fuels had a questionable track record in the nuclear industry. For decades it had dumped plutonium and other radioactive waste into the Irish Sea and the North Atlantic. Its workers had falsified critical quality-control data. When the D.O.E. announced the contract, SAIC was identified as a major subcontractor in the recycling of radioactive scrap metal. Because the N.R.C. and the D.O.E. for some reason weren't talking to each other, the elegance of this arrangement escaped everyone's attention. To connect the dots: SAIC was writing the regulations for one government agency, the N.R.C., which would set the permissible limits of radioactive contamination for recycling, even as it partnered with another company, under contract to a different federal agency, the D.O.E., to recycle the radioactive metal for which it was drafting the regulations. The synergy of this arrangement was discovered accidentally by a Washington lawyer, Daniel Guttman, whose longtime passion has been conflicts of interest that inevitably--purposefully--arise from government outsourcing. Guttman called attention in public hearings to what was happening, thoroughly embarrassing officials at the N.R.C. and the D.O.E. and stirring the ire of public-interest groups. The N.R.C. killed its contract with SAIC. The recycling project was put on hold. And the N.R.C. filed suit against SAIC, alleging "false and/or fraudulent representations to the effect that [SAIC] was providing services to the NRC which were free from bias." SAIC has denied the conflict-of-interest claims, and the suit is still pending. But SAIC is by no means out of the nuclear business. It may be under a cloud at the N.R.C., but it's still a partner, with the construction giant Bechtel, in the largest nuclear project of all--the $3.1 billion effort to build a repository for America's high-level radioactive waste. The firm Bechtel SAIC is constructing the repository deep under Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where the buried waste will remain lethal for at least 10,000 years. It could provide a revenue stream for SAIC as far into the future as one can imagine. The Permanent Government Bob Beyster turned 79 in 2003. He was in his 34th year with the company. A writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune, granted a rare interview around this time, observed that Beyster was a "little more stooped now," but still vigorous. He continued to run three or four miles almost every day. Over the years numerous executives rumored to be his successor had come and gone as it became apparent that Beyster had no intention of relinquishing power. But the sheer size of the company and its aggressive, internally competitive style were catching up to Beyster. Even Pentagon officials had begun to complain that SAIC's overlapping divisions were creating confusion. When the Pentagon talks, contractors listen. In 2003, the SAIC board forced him out. By 2004, SAIC had a new chairman, Kenneth Dahlberg, a top executive at General Dynamics with long experience in the defense industry. In October of 2006, SAIC carried out a long-anticipated I.P.O., selling 86 million shares at $15 a share in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $1.2 billion. Reflecting investor bullishness, shares rose to $21 in a matter of days. Its prospects have never looked brighter. Unlike traditional wars, which eventually come to an end, the Global War on Terror as defined by the Bush administration can have no end: it is a permanent war--the perfect war for a company that has become an essential component of the permanent government. Political change causes scarcely a ripple. As one former SAIC manager observed in a recent blog posting: "My observation is that the impact of national elections on the business climate for SAIC has been minimal. The emphasis on where federal spending occurs usually shifts, but total federal spending never decreases. SAIC has always continued to grow despite changes in the political leadership in Washington." And the revolving door never stops spinning. One of the biggest contracts ever for SAIC is in the works right now. It's for a Pentagon program called Future Combat Systems, which is described as "a complex plan to turn the U.S. Army into a lighter, more lethal, more mobile force" and also as "the most difficult integration program ever undertaken by the U.S. Department of Defense." The contract runs into the billions of dollars. The man who helped craft this program at the Pentagon was Lieutenant General Daniel R. Zanini. Zanini recently retired from the army, and he now has a new job. Can you guess where it might be? From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 8 12:32:09 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 07:32:09 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Army Details Cuts to Modernization Plan Message-ID: <20070208073203.K2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 8 February 2007 ; Forbes Army Details Cuts to Modernization Plan http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/07/ap3406131.html --- BY DONNA BORAK Senior Army officials on Wednesday detailed plans for scaling back a modernization plan in response to President Bush's proposed budget cuts. Spending on the Army's ground-forces modernization program, dubbed Future Combat Systems and led by Boeing (NYSE: BA) Co., will be reduced by $3.4 billion for fiscal years 2008 through 2012. Changes include a reduction in the number unmanned aerial systems and manned ground vehicles, and the elimination of a land mine detection program. "We've had to go through a very difficult period trying to make sure that we can modernize as well as support current operations," Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson, who handles acquisitions, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. "Though we've had to make adjustments to the program, we have not walked away from the fact the Army will have to modernize for the future." Boeing, along with partners Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), and SAIC Inc., will also have to complete the program on a faster timetable. The Pentagon wants the modernization of transportation and communications equipment to be delivered by 2015, two year years earlier than originally scheduled. "We are going to continue to do analysis over the next couple of years and make sure that we don't go too far," said Col. Charles Bush, of the Army Group of Eight nations. Shares of Boeing dropped 28 cents to close at $90.35 on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of SAIC dropped 24 cents to finish at $18.27. Shares of Honeywell dropped 5 cents to $46.57 on the Exchange. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 8 12:35:21 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 07:35:21 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Vanity Fair Scrutinizes a Top Government Contractor Message-ID: <20070208073505.K2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 8 February 2007 ; Sunlight Foundation (Blog) Vanity Fair Scrutinizes a Top Government Contractor http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/2092 --- As they so often are able to do, investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, writing for Vanity Fair [1], offer both a sense of the scale and the substance of the issues raised by the federal government's increasing reliance on contractors. "It is a simple fact of life these days that, owing to a deliberate decision to downsize government, Washington can operate only by paying private companies to perform a wide range of functions. To get some idea of the scale: contractors absorb the taxes paid by everyone in America with incomes under $100,000. In other words, more than 90 percent of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to SAIC or some other contractor rather than to the IRS. In Washington these companies go by the generic name "body shops"--they supply flesh-and-blood human beings to do the specialized work that government agencies no longer can. Often they do this work outside the public eye, and with little official oversight--even if it involves the most sensitive matters of national security. The Founding Fathers may have argued eloquently for a government of laws, not of men, but what we've got instead is a government of body shops." The article goes on to profile Science Applied International Corporation, or SAIC, among the top ten [2] government contractors, and how they do business with the federal government--relying on agency records, court filings, and whistleblowers. It's an amazingly revealing piece of work. So where's Congress in all this? I couldn't help noticing that it appears that the company has lobbied Congress [3] over various appropriations bills--it seems like it would be worth it to find out if SAIC is also lobbying Congress over specific contracting issues. Which means that I'll be sending out a few more FOIA requests as we continue to pursue Form SF-LLL [4], which contractors must file "for each payment or agreement to make payment to any lobbying entity for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with a covered Federal action" -- with "covered Federal action" meaning the awarding of a contract or a grant. --- [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703 [2] http://www.fedspending.org/fpds/tables.php?tabtype=t2&subtype=t&year=2005 [3] http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/opr_gifviewer.exe?/2006/EH/000/129/000129843|9 [4] http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/2068 From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Feb 9 22:42:00 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 17:42:00 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC to Work With Michelin to Supply Ground Tires to the U.S. Military Message-ID: <20070209174114.R2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 9 February 2007 ; Yahoo (PR Newswire) SAIC to Work With Michelin to Supply Ground Tires to the U.S. Military http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070208/dcth031.html?.v=74 --- SAN DIEGO and McLEAN, Va., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI) today announced it won a single award, firm-fixed-price contract from Michelin North America to help supply ground tires to the U.S. military through the Defense Supply Center -- Columbus, Ohio (DSCC). The contract has a five-year base term and one five-year option, and a total value of over $300 million if all options are exercised. Michelin North America will contract with SAIC for the wholesale supply, storage and distribution functions, contributing supply chain management expertise in the area of forecasting, inventory management and worldwide distribution. "We are proud to work with Michelin to operate the supply chain to execute this important program," said Jim Cuff, SAIC's senior vice president and general manager of the Logistics and Engineering Solutions Business Unit. "This contract is a strategic win for SAIC and gives us the opportunity to increase our support to the Defense Logistics Agency, DSCC and the warfighter." From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Feb 9 22:42:59 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 17:42:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC burning rubber with new $300 million tire contract Message-ID: <20070209174253.D2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 9 February 2007 ; Washington Business Journal SAIC burning rubber with new $300 million tire contract http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/02/05/daily55.html --- Engineering and technical services provider SAIC has won a contract worth up to $300 million from Michelin North America to help distribute the tire maker's products to the U.S. military. The contract has a five-year base term and a five-year option, according to SAIC, which is based in San Diego and employs thousands of workers between the Washington and Baltimore markets. SAIC will assist Greenville, S.C.-based Michelin North America with storage and distribution functions. It will also help with forecasting and inventory management. The contract gives SAIC (NYSE: SAI) the opportunity to increase its support to the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio, says Jim Cuff, a company senior vice president and general manager of SAIC's logistics and engineering solutions unit. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Feb 9 22:44:20 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 17:44:20 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] State Studies How to Accommodate 45, 000 New BRAC Jobs Coming to Md. By 2011 Message-ID: <20070209174401.J2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 9 February 2007 ; Southern Maryland Headline News State Studies How to Accommodate 45,000 New BRAC Jobs Coming to Md. By 2011 http://somd.com/news/headlines/2007/5371.shtml --- More than 28,000 new households expected in Maryland because of BRAC ANNAPOLIS - Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown today announced the release of a study that assesses the State's needs to accommodate the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions that will bring more than 45,000 new jobs to Maryland by 2011. Governor O'Malley directed the Lt. Governor to chair the Subcabinet on BRAC for the State of Maryland. "BRAC brings us both tremendous opportunities and tremendous challenges," said Lt. Governor Brown. "Maryland will play a critical role in our nation's defense. At the same time, the State must prepare to absorb more than 28,000 new households over time. We must work together with our federal delegation, the General Assembly, our local governments as well as the private sector to ensure that we maintain the outstanding quality of life that drew these jobs to Maryland. This study will serve as an outline of the tasks we face in the BRAC Subcabinet." The study, which was funded through a U.S. Department of Labor grant and overseen by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), was prepared by the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the Maryland Department of Planning, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, and Towson University's RESI, with input from the City of Baltimore and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George's counties. "The BRAC Commission's November 2005 decision was welcome news, given the number of strategic programs and Department of Defense positions that will be coming to Maryland over the next several years," said BGen Mike Hayes USMC (Ret.), director of DBED's Office of Military and Federal Affairs. "These military programs and jobs will expand the prominent role of Maryland's military bases in providing the technology required for the security of the nation." The study attempted to measure the impact that the BRAC growth will have upon local planning, public facilities, the environment, schools, infrastructure (particularly transportation, water and sewer), workforce issues, housing, financial requirements and regulatory issues. In addition, the study determined the anticipated tax revenue generated by the new jobs coming into the state, the higher education requirements necessitated by BRAC jobs, and options to expedite the security clearance process for new employees. DBED's Office of Military and Federal Affairs has coordinated planning efforts with the affected military facilities and municipalities. Since the BRAC decisions were announced in November 2005, the State has maintained direct contact with military installation leaders to facilitate the move of jobs to Maryland. A contingent of state and local officials participated in Job and Relocation Fairs in Ft. Monmouth, N.J., and Arlington, Va., to respond to a wide range of inquiries regarding schools, housing, spousal employment opportunities, funding options for education, recreation and leisure, and other subjects. In addition, the Maryland Department of Transportation, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Maryland State Department of Education, the Maryland Department of Planning, and DBED are actively working with their county counterparts to plan for BRAC's expected impact on local and regional infrastructure and industries. BRAC EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FACT SHEET * The final 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission decisions, which became law on November 9, 2005, must be executed by September 2011. * In the largest single employment growth activity in the state since World War II, Maryland is expected to gain more than 45,000 federal and private sector jobs through time. (The anticipated job growth reflects jobs, not people.) * As a result of BRAC, Maryland's critical role in the defense of the nation will be considerably enhanced. * Fort Meade will gain approximately 5,800 jobs; the Aberdeen Proving Ground will net approximately 9,000 jobs; the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, approximately 1,400 jobs; and Andrews Air Force Base, 400 jobs. * Funded through a U.S. Department of Labor grant, the BRAC study measured the impact of this growth on local planning, public facilities, the environment, schools, infrastructure (in particular, transportation, water and sewer), workforce issues, housing, financial requirements, and regulatory issues. * In light of the anticipated BRAC-related growth, many jurisdictions will need to take significant steps now to enable their growth areas to accommodate more development capacity. * Maryland's great success in the 2005 BRAC round was the result of a concerted effort over time of individuals and organizations throughout the state. * We can be justifiably proud that the BRAC decisions will allow our installations an ever-increasing role in safeguarding our nation. * The same coordinated, concerted effort that brought BRAC success to Maryland is now required to most efficiently and effectively determine how best to plan for and invest in the infrastructure improvements required. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Mon Feb 12 22:20:27 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:20:27 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Investigative Report Finds SAIC Not Delivering on Mega Contracts Message-ID: <20070212172020.C2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 12 February 2007 ; KPBS Investigative Report Finds SAIC Not Delivering on Mega Contracts http://www.kpbs.org/tv/programs/full_focus?id=7333 --- People usually associate names like Boeing and Lockheed Martin with big defense contract work. But for years, a San Diego company has been striking gold with the U.S. Government. It earned $8 billion in federal government contracts alone last year. But an investigative piece in next month's Vanity Fair finds that despite the company's success on Wall Street, it hasn't delivered on some of its biggest projects costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Full Focus Reporter Amita Sharma looked into the story. Vanity Fair Reporters Don Barlett and Jim Steele write that the FBI paid SAIC $124 million to create a new computer system for the bureau. One of the reasons the agency gave in 2001 for not knowing that two of the September 11th hijackers were living in San Diego was that its antiquated computer system wasn't set up to share information. But three years later, SAIC's project to develop a new system for the bureau failed. A report partially blamed the failure on the FBIs changing directions. But a government audit found that the system SAIC delivered to the bureau was so incomplete and useless that the FBI had no choice but to scuttle the project. I spoke with SAIC executive vice president Arnold Punaro today. Here's what he had to say about that project when I asked him if the company had made any mistakes. Punaro: We felt on that project that we, SAIC, should have done a better job of communicating at the highest levels of the FBI. That the way the FBI was running the program, the way they were changing the requirements, the way they were managing the program was putting a successful completion at risk. There was another high-profile, big-budget project, according to Vanity Fair, that SAIC didn't complete. After the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001, SAIC won a $280 million contract from the National Security Agency to create a new computer system that would organize the agency's worldwide surveillance of telephone and e-mail communications. But after working on the contract for four years and receiving a billion dollars for the work, the project was left unfinished. Punaro says he's can't talk about it for security reasons. But overall, he says the company has had over $100,000 successful government contracts. Punaro: Yes we've had a few troubled contracts. The government actually, on some contracts, you know, you basically have performance parameters and that determines what your fees are. We win over 75 percent of our work competitively, and yes, we feel we have been very good stewards of the government, of the taxpayers money. It's actually the taxpayers money --- and have delivered solutions on time and on budget. But we have had our share -- as every contractors have had -- of troubled programs. Pinaro calls the Vanity Fair piece a work of fiction, a fairytale. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 13 12:41:16 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 07:41:16 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Backers of Army's High-Tech Initiative Hope to Head Off Future Funding Cuts Message-ID: <20070213074109.J2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 13 February 2007 ; The Politico Backers of Army's High-Tech Initiative Hope to Head Off Future Funding Cuts http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2721.html --- By: Christian Lowe It's become the defining endeavor for the Army's transformation into a modern, post-Cold War force. But the Future Combat Systems -- a network of 14 different tanks, drones and robotic vehicles -- is struggling for support on Capitol Hill. Since FCS was introduced in 1999, only a few lawmakers have steadfastly defended the program, and the GAO has questioned whether it should be continued at all. FCS has been repeatedly "restructured" -- contractor code for using the estimated $160 billion program to pay the near-term bills of an Army stretched by four years of tough combat, further delaying the day the program shows up on the battlefield. Over the last three fiscal years, the FCS budget has been cut by $825 million. When the Army released its fiscal 2008 budget, program officials announced that they'd trimmed $3.4 billion from the program through 2013 (the program is set to end in 2025.) To fend off future funding shortfalls, FCS insiders are putting the considerable heft of prime contractors Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. behind a move to build congressional support for FCS. They hope to overcome a persistent stereotype that the high-tech system is too costly and risky to spend scarce resources on during wartime. "The Army recognizes that although the Future Combat System is very important to them, it is not well understood on Capitol Hill," said Loren Thompson, military analyst with the Arlington-based Lexington Institute. "So service leaders do not expect Congress to bail out the Future Combat System." The Army, along with Boeing and SAIC, launched a public relations campaign for FCS late last year. Boeing produced a pocket-sized fact book that describes the program's different components, outlines the development schedule and highlights capabilities. There's also a section devoted to a detailed U.S. map showing the 42 states and 232 congressional districts that the FCS program's 631 suppliers call home. A spokeswoman for Boeing referred questions on the initiatives to the Army. An Army spokesman said several events are planned this year to showcase the FCS program's technological development. But the best evidence of the program's relevance is the technology spinoffs into today's force, the spokesman said, including ground sensors and an unmanned artillery system that are scheduled to be used next year. To keep the momentum going, FCS officials are set to convene a so-called "industry day" this spring, calling on all of the program's suppliers -- that also includes defense giants such as General Dynamics Land Systems, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin -- to converge on Washington and scatter to the Hill for a major lobbying effort, defense insiders say. One of FCS's strongest advocates is Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., whose state plays host to the Army's artillery development center at Fort Sill. Inhofe's insurgent campaign to bolster FCS is gaining some momentum with his fellow Oklahomans, who have a vested interest in at least one of the vehicles. The 2007 defense appropriations bill stipulated that the Army keep working on the Non-Line of Sight Cannon -- a mobile Howitzer designed to fire 10 rounds per minute at targets 30 miles away -- independent of the success or failure of overall program. According to the Boeing fact book, three FCS suppliers are in two Oklahoma congressional districts. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who represents the district that includes Fort Sill, introduced the language into the fiscal 2007 Pentagon funding bill that protects the FCS components that are being developed in his state. "It doesn't take much if a program is running behind and there are cost overruns to encourage people to slow it down even further," he said. "When you represent Fort Sill, you're probably pardonably prejudiced in that regard, but I think the need for NLOS cannon is very real and it would be regardless of whether or not we went ahead with FCS. I'm not sure that enough members of Congress understand it. The program is fundamentally different from what we've done in the past." From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 13 12:44:46 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 07:44:46 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC: $8 Billion Shadow Message-ID: <20070213074438.C2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 13 February 2007 ; Voice of San Diego SAIC: $8 Billion Shadow http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/02/13/this_just_in/872saic.txt --- BY Rob Davis If you haven't seen it yet, check out this story [1] on San Diego-based contractor SAIC in the March issue of Vanity Fair. Reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele dig into a couple of SAIC's high-profile contracts that have been busts, including a billion-dollar National Security Agency program designed to translate the NSA's intercepts and a $124 million FBI information-sharing contract. "What everyone agrees on is this: No Washington contractor pursues government money with more ingenuity and perseverance than SAIC. No contractor seems to exploit conflicts of interest in Washington with more zeal. And no contractor cloaks its operations in greater secrecy. SAIC almost never touts its activities in public, preferring to stay well below the radar. An SAIC executive once gave a press interview and referred to the enterprise as a "stealth company," a characterization that is accurate and that has stuck. "Nobody knows who they are," says Glenn Grossenbacher, a Texas lawyer who has battled SAIC in court on a whistle-blowing case. "Everybody knows Northrop Grumman and G.E., but if you went out on the street and asked who the top 10 [defense] contractors are, I can guarantee you that SAIC would not be one of them." ... "SAIC has displayed an uncanny ability to thrive in every conceivable political climate. It is the invisible hand behind a huge portion of the national-security state -- the one sector of the government whose funds are limitless and whose continued growth is assured every time a politician utters the word "terrorism." The same Vanity Fair story carries an offbeat tone that tries to link SAIC with the inception of the Iraq War. And it attempts to draw an odd connection between the company and Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The story says: "There isn't a politically correct way to put it, but this is what needs to be said: 9/11 was a personal tragedy for thousands of families and a national tragedy for all of America, but it was very, very good for SAIC." On the Iraq War, the story says: "Over the next four years, (former U.N. weapons inspector and former SAIC employee David) Kay and others associated with SAIC hammered away at the threat posed by Iraq. Wayne Downing, a retired general and a close associate of Ahmad Chalabi, proselytized hard for an invasion of Iraq, stating that the Iraqis "are ready to take the war ... overseas. They would use whatever means they have to attack us." In many of his appearances on network and cable television leading up to the war, Downing was identified simply as a "military analyst." It would have been just as accurate to note that he was a member of SAIC's board of directors and a company stockholder." Draw your own conclusions. I was on KPBS's Full Focus talking about it Friday. Check out the broadcast here. [2] --- [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703 [2] http://kpbs.org/tv/programs/full_focus?id=7316 From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 13 21:46:57 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:46:57 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC to Provide Measurement and Signature Intelligence for Air Combat Command Message-ID: <20070213164650.K2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 13 February 2007 ; Yahoo (PR Newswire) SAIC to Provide Measurement and Signature Intelligence for Air Combat Command http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070213/aqtu043.html?.v=4 --- SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI - News) announced today it won a contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) within the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (AF DCGS) for Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va. The single award, firm-fixed-price contract has a five-year period of performance and a total value of $26.9 million. The SAIC-led team consists of Spectrum Comm Inc., SRA International Inc. and MacAulay-Brown, Inc. Throughout the contract, the team will operate integrated MASINT capabilities within AF DCGS, provide overall program management, train operators, and advise Air Force leadership on appropriate technical solutions at various locations around the world. "This is a great win for SAIC and our teammates. We have supported DoD and the national intelligence community with DCGS and MASINT expertise for many years," said John Thomas, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Operations Intelligence and Security Business Unit. "We are delighted to help integrate these two capabilities for the Air Force, and we look forward to providing AF DCGS with a new source of crucial intelligence that will help enhance their overall warfighting capability." From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 13 21:51:18 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:51:18 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC gets $26.9 million Air Force deal Message-ID: <20070213165105.R2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 13 February 2007 ; Business Week SAIC gets $26.9 million Air Force deal http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8N8TNOO0.htm --- SAN DIEGO -- Science Applications International Corp. on Tuesday said it won a five-year $26.9 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for an intelligence program. The government technology services provider will work on a comprehensive intelligence program that covers radar, nuclear, radio, laser and materials intelligence for the Air Force's combat command center based at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The SAIC-led team includes Spectrum Comm Inc., SRA International Inc. and MacAulay-Brown Inc. Shares of SAIC gained 19 cents to $18.18 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of SRA gained 12 cents to $21.95 on the exchange. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Feb 13 21:52:33 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:52:33 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] TIBCO Enterprise Message Service Earns Coveted EAL2 Common Criteria Certification Message-ID: <20070213165119.E2973-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 13 February 2007 ; Yahoo (PR Newswire) TIBCO Enterprise Message Service Earns Coveted EAL2 Common Criteria Certification http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070213/sftu042.html?.v=93 --- Company Furthers Commitment to Global Government Standards and Security PALO ALTO, Calif. -- TIBCO Software Inc. (Nasdaq: TIBX - News), today announced that TIBCO Enterprise Message Service(TM) has achieved Evaluation Assurance Level 2 (EAL2) Common Criteria (CC) certification. The certification was awarded at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, February 6th, and acknowledges that Enterprise Message Service(TM) adheres to the International Standards Organization (ISO) 15408 standard recognized by 24 nations, and required for selling into the U.S. government sector. The CC certification program was founded under the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), which is a joint venture between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA). Under the CC certification, products are evaluated according to strict standards for features such as security functionality and the handling of security vulnerabilities. Enterprise Message Service is a standards-based messaging software that makes up part of the baone of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) by providing Java Message Service (JMS) compliant communications across a wide range of application technologies. This is the first step in a series of product certifications planned by TIBCO under the Common Criteria. For example, TIBCO BusinessWorksTM will also be submitted for certification at the EAL2 Augmented level (EAL2+) later this year. "Security plays a prominent factor in IT decisions for the government sector. The certification for Enterprise Message Service is another step in our ongoing commitment to address critical global security standards," said Don Adams, vice president, chief security officer, TIBCO. "We look forward to working with NIAP in certifying additional TIBCO products so as to continue helping government agencies achieve the promise of SOA in the most secure environment possible." TIBCO engaged Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as its Common Criteria Testing Laboratory, based on the organization's depth and breadth of security certification expertise and experience with the CC standard. SAIC's Common Criteria consulting, evaluation testing and Security Target authoring services will help TIBCO expedite the initiation, evaluation and certification of TIBCO products under the Common Criteria. For more information about the Common Criteria certification, please see http://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/public/content/natscheme.html. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 15 10:37:56 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:37:56 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Contracts for 2/14/2007 Message-ID: <20070215053749.G581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 15 February 2007 ; United States Department of Defense Contracts for 2/14/2007 http://www.defenselink.mil/Contracts/Contract.aspx?ContractID=3454 --- CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense No. 176-07 FOR RELEASE AT February 14, 2007 Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public/Industry(703) 428-0711 CONTRACTS [...] AIR FORCE Science Applications International Corporation, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $32,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract.The overall objective of this effort is to demonstrate a persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability for the warfighter.An additional program objective is to mature the demonstrated capability from a Laboratory prototype to an Acquisition-ready system, although no acquisition/production systems will be procured under this acquisition.The program requirements may include but are not limited to studies, requirements definition and analysis, design, fabrication, engineering, demonstration, to include development of drawings specifications and other engineering data prototypes, integration, testing (lab and or flight) on specific platforms, to include resources (aircraft and personnel) to conduct the test, operation of prototypes, repair of any laboratory or test equipment that is used in testing of the prototypes, initial logistics support, and reparation and delivery of specific data requirements. In addition, the scope of this technical effort requires aviation services for suitable mission aircraft; including modification, mission equipment installation, operations, maintenance, ground, and flight test, CONUS and OCONUS test and evaluation.The mission equipment will be hardened, refined, and packaged to support high operation rates. At this time, $19,795 have been obligated. This work will be complete February 2009. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-07-D-1104). [...] From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 15 10:48:35 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:48:35 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] From the Department of the Military-Industrial-Complex Message-ID: <20070215054825.H581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 15 February 2007 ; Vast Wasteland (Blog) - From the Department of the Military-Industrial-Complex http://vastwasteland.blogspot.com/2007/02/from-department-of-military-industrial.html - --- If you read between the scary lines of this lengthy, learned expose [1] by Donald Barlett and James B. Steele on the mega-government contractor SAIC, what should be most frightening is not even the blow-by-blow descriptions of fraud, government manipulation, and outright incompetence -- these are the guys, after all, who blew $1 billion developing a new computer system for the NSA that never worked, and then were actually asked to just *try again*, for a mere $361 million -- but the damning laziness of a government that just wants to hose money at contractors instead of training their own employees to, I don't know, *do things that governments are created to do.* In fact, so much money is spent on these sort of freelancers that it consumes every tax dollar paid by every tax payer earning less than $100,000. In the words of Barlett and Steele: "In other words, more than 90 percent of all taxpayers might as well remit everything they owe directly to SAIC or some other contractor rather than to the IRS." - --- [1] http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703?printable=true¤tPage=all -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFF1DqFzzoLrUFAjOARAvxDAJ4ivpIDOuRc+H3m6SEmEcvIwZjv5gCcCBjz D0RJGSHinnsJB8Ke/hxCzeM= =at9x -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 15 10:49:48 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:49:48 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC in New Air Force Deal Message-ID: <20070215054941.V581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 15 February 2007 ; Forbes SAIC in New Air Force Deal http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/14/ap3428029.html --- The Air Force on Wednesday awarded a $32 million contract to Science Applications International Corp. The San Diego, Calif.-based company will provide additional work on an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability prototype for a fighter jet. SAIC will be responsible for performing the next-phase of the contract to develop an acquisition-ready system. SAIC will complete the work, which will include testing, repairing equipment and providing initial logistics support, by February 2009. Shares of SAIC rose 16 cents to close at $18.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 15 10:54:01 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:54:01 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC acts on special dividend Message-ID: <20070215055354.R581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 15 February 2007 ; San Diego Union-Tribune SAIC acts on special dividend http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070214-9999-1b14bizbrfs.html --- The Internal Revenue Service told San Diego's Science Applications International Corp. that employee shareholders can't take a special dividend either as cash or reinvest it in other investment alternatives offered through the company's retirement plan. As a result, SAIC has determined that the special dividend, which was generated as part of the company's initial public stock offering in October, will be allocated to employee shareholders' individual retirement plan accounts. Since no election to receive the special dividend in cash is permitted, the company will not get a tax deduction for any amount of the special dividend, CEO Ken Dahlberg said in a memo filed with government regulators. A spokesman for SAIC said there are no implications for SAIC's financial performance, because the company had not included the potential tax deduction in its financial forecasts. [...] From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 15 23:20:46 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:20:46 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] U.S. DoD Awards Outsourcing Contract to ManTech Message-ID: <20070215182037.V581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 15 February 2007 ; Global Services U.S. DoD Awards Outsourcing Contract to ManTech http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/sections/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006281 --- ManTech will provide various support services to the defense department The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded a seven-year, $89.9 million deal to ManTech, a Virginia-headquartered IT-services provider catering to the government agencies, to support its anti-terrorism missions. ManTech has been providing support services to U.S. DoD since 1999. Under the terms of the contract, ManTech will provide various support services, including research and development. The company will provide these services with the assistance of SAIC, a California-headquartered provider of research, engineering, and technology services and solutions, and Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based applied science and technology development company. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Feb 15 23:23:14 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:23:14 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] No Future for Future Combat Systems Message-ID: <20070215182251.N581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 15 February 2007 ; WIRED Blogs: 27B Stroke 6 No Future for Future Combat Systems http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/02/no_future_for_f.html --- Although the Bush administration doled out plenty of love to the military in its 2008 budget request, one little-known Army project is feeling broken-hearted. "Future Combat Systems," a high-tech program that develops experimental weapons such as unmanned drones and cute robots [1] that explore enemy tunnels and look like Johnny 5, is being squeezed again. A story in The Politico [2] describes how FCS has had its funding slashed by $825 million over the last three years. A beleaguered Army plans to cut the FCS budget even further and Boeing and Science Applications International Corp., the two main contractors for FCS, have launched a lobbying effort to save the program. If interested, you can download this tactical training game [3] (1.5 GB) and familiarize yourself with all of the 18 FCS systems. You want a non-line-of-sight howitzer cannon that fires 10 rounds a minute? Of course you do. --- [1] http://www.army.mil/fcs/factfiles/sugv.html [2] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2721.html [3] http://www.army.mil/fcs/f2c2/index.html From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Feb 16 04:25:00 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:25:00 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Awarded US$32 Million To develop Persistent ISR Capability Message-ID: <20070215232453.X581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 15 February 2007 ; Defense Update SAIC Awarded US$32 Million To develop Persistent ISR Capability http://www.defense-update.com/newscast/0207/news_160207.htm#isr --- Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI) was awarded a $32 million USAF contract to demonstrate new persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. The company is already engaged in a DARPA program called Persistent Operational Surface Surveillance and Engagement (POSSE) - system-of-systems effort aims to provide persistent surveillance and exploitation capabilities needed to help counter the wide range of threats, facing deployed troops and allies. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Sat Feb 17 16:18:33 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:18:33 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Beltway Bet: SAIC Message-ID: <20070217111825.C581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 17 February 2007 ; Forbes Beltway Bet: SAIC http://www.forbes.com/businessinthebeltway/2007/02/16/saic-dahlberg-tech-biz-wash-cz_gm_0216saic.html --- Business In The Beltway BY Godwin Maidment After 37 years in business, and climbing to No. 20 on our list of America's largest private companies, SAIC went public last October. Steady as she goes. Shares of the San Diego company, which provides technical services to the federal government, are flat since closing on the first day of trading. That's more than can be said of some its publicly traded competitors. Look at CACI International (nyse: CAI), which has dropped 21% in that time period, or SRA International (nyse: SRX), down 25%. In valuation terms, another measure sets SAIC apart. The stock's price-to-earnings ratio, based on projected profits for the coming 12 months, stands at 22, or 2 times the consensus forecast of 11% for three-to-five year earnings growth (annualized). The equivalent ratio for CACI and SRA? 1.1 and 1.4, respectively. Yet there's a decent case that SAIC deserves the premium. Its sales have increased at 14% annual clip over the last 10 years to $7.8 billion for its fiscal year ended January 2006. As of July 31, the company's backlog--contracts negotiated and pending--stood at $16 billion. The largest provider of defense IT services, SAIC boasts of 9,000 contracts, the bulk long-term with no one greater than 4% of net revenues. In addition to a growing defense budget and a trend toward outsourcing to private contractors, SAIC has benefited from deep ties to the intelligence and national-security community. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for example, was a member of the company's board of directors. This allows the company to compete, and win, contracts in the more lucrative areas of the government services market, such as intelligence analysis. A notable engagement: SAIC's homeland security work at ports and borders. The House of Representatives has authorized $2.4 billion in such grants to high-risk ports, including $400 million in fiscal 2007. SAIC scientists and engineers developed an Integrated Container Inspection System (ICIS) that uses gamma ray produced radiographic images to scan ship carried imports. Twenty major ports around the world now use the technology. Beyond the big wins, Chief Executive Ken Dahlberg, 61, has reorganized, tightened up the company's famous decentralized structure and divested assets. Example: Telecommunications services subsidiary Telcordia Technologies, bought from RBOCs in 1997, was handed off to investment firms Warburg Pincus and Providence Equity Partners for $1.3 billion in 2005. As for negatives, there are plenty. For one, a parade of government tech services outfits, CACI (nyse: CAI) and MTC Technologies (nasdaq: MTCT) among them, have warned on their financial outlook. The war in Iraq and mounting pressure to curb federal deficits have cast serious doubts about government spending. Moreover, recent congressional investigations have highlighted pervasive mismanagement and abuse of federal funds by private contractors. SAIC has also had its share of troubled contracts. It delayed its public offering, announced in September 2005 and planned for early 2006, while it resolved a contract debacle with the Greek government. SAIC had agreed to provide security at the 2004 Olympics in Athens but failed to meet its obligations under contract, according to the Greek government. The company steadfastly denies the claim, but has lost more than $120 million in the deal. The issue remains unresolved. Another worry? insider selling depressing the stock price in the near-term. The IPO lockup, the time following a public offering when insiders are forbidden to sell shares, recently expired and employees are free to unload shares over the course of the next year. The flip side: possible greater liquidity and increased institutional ownership in the long-term, says Benchmark equity analyst Alex Hamilton. No wonder equity analysts remain hesitant: All 15 reporting their recommendations on the stock to Thomson IBES show the equivalent of a hold rating. But Wall Street caution sometimes means a buy signal. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Sat Feb 17 16:21:28 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:21:28 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] NASA Awards Houston Support Contract to SAIC of San Diego Message-ID: <20070217112121.I581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 17 February 2007 ; Earthtimes.org NASA Awards Houston Support Contract to SAIC of San Diego http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,62285.shtml --- HOUSTON, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has awarded Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego a 2 1/2-year, $13.5- million financial and administrative system services contract to support the Johnson Space Center, Houston. The value of the contract could total as much as $25 million with two one-year options. The contract is effective Feb. 16 and involves comprehensive technical and functional support at Johnson for administrative systems supporting the chief financial officer, procurement, the human resources office and the center operations directorate. SAIC will provide sustaining engineering and system integration support for administrative systems. It also will implement the new Integrated Enterprise Management Program and e-Gov applications, as well as provide reporting and user support for those systems. Major subcontractors include MEI Technologies, Houston, SpecPro Inc., Anchorage, Alaska, and Quantified Technical Services Inc., Houston. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Sat Feb 17 16:26:40 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:26:40 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Responds Message-ID: <20070217112242.C581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 17 February 2007 ; Voice of San Diego SAIC Responds http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/02/16/this_just_in/854saic.txt --- BY Rob Davis voiceofsandiego.org has obtained a copy [1] of San Diego-based SAIC's response to a story [2] printed in the March issue of Vanity Fair. The response from Arnold Punaro, an executive vice president for the defense and intelligence contractor, says: "The article extends far beyond the topics covered in the list of questions submitted to SAIC. It appears that the authors were not interested in our input because they also ignored the bulk of the information that we submitted in our written responses. At the outset, the editors of Vanity Fair appear to have found every negative press article and litigation matter involving SAIC during its 38 year existence. In their search for the negative, the authors of the article contacted anyone who might have something negative to say about SAIC and went on to quote terminated employees, litigants and contingent fee lawyers as if their word was the final authority. No attempt was made to place these matters into context or to achieve a balanced perspective. Further, the article ignores substantial publicly available information supportive of the company. The result is an article lacking in credibility." And it addresses the link the story tries to draw between the company and the inception of the second Iraq war: "The article preposterously suggests (i.e., "some might argue") that SAIC was involved in instigating the Iraq war. It's absurd to suggest that, by anticipating the rise of global terror networks and assisting the United States in defending itself against such threats, SAIC is somehow responsible for instigating the Iraq war. The run-up to the war is one of the most examined and investigated periods in American history; any such suggestion concerning SAIC is absurd and totally lacking in factual foundation." --- [1] http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/pdf/saic.pdf [2] http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703 From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 04:55:16 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:55:16 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Wins $39.2M Government Contract Message-ID: <20070227235509.T581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 22 February 2007 ; Houston Chronicle SAIC Wins $39.2M Government Contract http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4573035.html --- SAN DIEGO -- Government technology services provider Science Applications International Corp. on Thursday said it received a $39.2 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide security services to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The pact, which has a one-year base and four one-year options, requires SAIC to provide certification and accreditation services, security risk assessments, security tests and evaluations, and provide technology policy and administration. Shares of SAIC added 5 cents to $18.41 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 04:56:56 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:56:56 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] AT&T wins $9.4 million classified network contract with Marine Corps Message-ID: <20070227235647.O581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 27 February 2007 ; San Antonio Business Journal AT&T wins $9.4 million classified network contract with Marine Corps http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2007/02/19/daily39.html --- AT&T Government Solutions Inc. won a $9.4 million contract with the U.S. Marine Corps to support global secure communications within the military's various commands. AT&T Government Solutions, a subsidiary of San Antonio-based AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), is supporting the Pentagon's Secret IP Router Network (SIPRNET). SIPRNET is the largest interoperable command and control IP data network at the Department of Defense and it is used to send classified information to command units. AT&T is the prime contractor and subcontractors include SAIC and Smartronix Inc., which will provide technical equipment configuration and firewall installation services at Marine Corps locations. AT&T Government Solutions provides network-communication services to the federal government. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 04:58:33 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:58:33 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Must-watch TV won't be the Oscars Message-ID: <20070227235817.P581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 24 February 2007 ; San Diego Union-Tribune Must-watch TV won't be the Oscars http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/bell/20070224-9999-1m24bell.html --- [...] The 'stealth company' Vanity Fair reporters Donald Bartlett and James Steele have flashed an unwelcomed spotlight on locally-based defense contractor, SAIC. In its March issue, the company is described as having an income exceeding $8 billion and over 9,000 contracts, more than any other private company in America, many in secret intelligence work. The reporters write of millions of taxpayer dollars funding cost overruns, performance failures on some contracts, conflicts of interest, whistle-blower charges, allegations of profiteering, lawsuits, investigations and federal fines. They even suggest SAIC had a role in escalating the Iraq war. SAIC spokesman Ronald Zollars says the company, which went public with a stock offering in October, has no formal reply. But retired SAIC founder J. Robert Beyster, 82, issued a brief but sharp rebuttal on his Internet blog. "The issues brought up in the article were old ones. The company had long ago addressed and resolved them," he wrote. "As for the personal attack on me, the events cited came up in legal depositions and I am bound legally not to discuss them with anyone. For your information, none of the scandalous remarks are true." He and SAIC responded to a list of questions sent by the reporters, but their responses seemed to be ignored in the article, Beyster noted. The article's publication is eerily close to next month's debut of Beyster's own book, "The SAIC Solution," detailing his revolutionary business philosophy. He made many of his employees millionaires by awarding their performance with shares of SAIC stock. As one might expect of a corporate visionary, Beyster is conducting a "virtual" book signing. He is autographing pre-publication copies ordered through his Web site, www.beyster.com. He'll also appear at Warwick's book store in La Jolla on the evening of April 19. [...] From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:00:22 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Students learn about BRAC jobs Message-ID: <20070228000004.D581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 25 February 2007 ; Baltimore Sun Students learn about BRAC jobs http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.brac25feb25,0,7370203.story --- Arundel youths are told that they can take advantage of opportunities close to home By SUSAN GVOZDAS Special to the Sun After getting a crash course on how thousands of technology jobs are coming to Fort Meade in the next five years, Dahmar Smiles thinks he just might go to an in-state college after all. By the time the Meade High School junior graduates from college, the Defense Information Systems Agency will have moved its headquarters from Northern Virginia to the Army base in western Anne Arundel County as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process, known as BRAC. That agency's move could bring at least 4,700 high-paying jobs to Maryland in 2010. Dahmar said college students who take advantage of local internships will have the advantage when it comes to hiring. "With the jobs coming, why leave?" he said. Friday's BRAC Technology Day, sponsored by area businesses and public school officials, was based on the theme that students who study math, science and engineering can stay in Maryland and expect to land a job. Science Applications International Corp., a government contractor, was one of the sponsors of the event, attended by about 200 students from Meade, Arundel, Broadneck and North County high schools. Only a few hands went up when the company's BRAC coordinator, Jeffrey McGaughey, asked the teenagers whether they knew what BRAC was. All told, the consolidation of military posts could bring 30,000 to 50,000 jobs to Maryland in the next 10 years, he said. "It bodes very well for everyone sitting in this room," McGaughey said. "You don't have to go far from home. There are a lot of opportunities." His company, Science Applications, is a member of the Fort Meade Alliance, a co-sponsor of the event along with Anne Arundel Community College, which held the seminar at its Arundel Mills campus. The Fort Meade Alliance is focused on bringing opportunities from the military base to local businesses. SAIC, a California-based company with 50,000 employees, made presentations to show students some of the technology jobs its divisions perform at Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The 30-minute demonstrations were supposed to show students the practical applications of subjects they are studying in school. In one room, SAIC engineers showed students the protective gear and equipment the company makes for soldiers who might be exposed to chemical, biological, nuclear or explosive weapons. Dahmar, 17, reluctantly held a black rubber gas mask to his face and pulled the black hairnet over the back of his head. He seemed more interested in the infrared-imaging device. He moved the viewing screen around the room to see heat sources, such as classmates, glow white on the gray screen. The sensors - so sensitive they can pick up the heat of people's footprints - can help soldiers see through smoke or darkness, said Chris Watson, a SAIC program engineer. Students passed around Geiger counters that are used to detect radiation. The devices, which look like large flashlights, can detect whether the radiation is from medical treatment or the type of dangerous ionizing radiation that can damage cells. Dahmar left that presentation feeling confident about his choice to major in computer science. "I think a lot of kids think about becoming doctors and lawyers," said Dahmar, who is interested in software development. "Computer science ... brings all the fields together." Students listened to presentations about the convergence of voice, data and video in telecommunications, and the importance of algorithms in making public policy decisions. Research analysts from the Decision Support and Analysis Center, a division of SAIC in Hanover, showed students how analysts could use custom software to assess the effect of BRAC on Maryland's schools, roads and hospitals. They showed students the complicated algorithms programmed into the software. Lenee Silver, 16, a junior at Meade High, said she has mapped out a potential career in computer security. She wants to prevent hackers from tapping into top-secret information stored in computer systems and envisions a job at the National Security Agency, which has its headquarters at Fort Meade. Lenee is scouting colleges in Maryland and Virginia. "I'd like to stay," she said. "I like this area." Beverly Frye, site coordinator for the new Academy of Information Technology at Arundel High School, said the information and advice given the students yesterday - to stay drug-free and out of jail so that they can qualify for security clearances - are more effective when they come from sources other than teachers. "We want these kids to realize that if they don't start thinking now, they might not be able to get into the fields they want," Frye said. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:03:11 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:03:11 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Secrecy surrounds some defense contractors Message-ID: <20070228000253.L581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 26 February 2007 ; San Diego Union-Tribune Secrecy surrounds some defense contractors http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/jenkins/20070226-9999-1m26jenkins.html --- Twenty-four years ago, I was tipped to a story I just read. He was a La Jolla attorney with a glass of wine in his hand. I was the new editor of the Light, the local weekly. Out of pity to a fresh arrival, he was dishing. You want the biggest story in town? he asked me. Sure. War games, he said. As I later repeated to a reporter, a defense contractor headquartered in the old Scripps Clinic on Prospect Street was developing, among other high-tech projects, computerized war scenarios for the CIA. The spooky point was to predict all the geomilitary variables as they related to World War III. According to my half-drunk source, no one had played the game and avoided Armageddon, an endpoint signaled by the screen going black. That was my 1983 introduction to Science Applications International Corp., the deep-secret brainchild of John Beyster. Looking back, the garrulous lawyer was right on the money, the government's money. SAIC was, and is, the biggest business story in La Jolla. (Though today, it should be noted, SAIC's San Diego headquarters are in Campus Point, just outside La Jolla's 92037 ZIP code.) Unfortunately for me, the Light, staffed with reporters still in braces, was never able to shine a beam, however feeble, into SAIC's inner workings. We reported what the company allowed us to know, stuff of marginal interest. And the war games? We could never confirm they even existed. +++ Like many San Diegans, I was sheltered, clothed and fed thanks to a huge defense contractor, for decades the largest private employer in the county. In the early '50s, right about the time General Dynamics acquired Convair and turned it into a division, my father was hired to be the editor of a company newspaper, Convariety (later General Dynamics News). Though he'd downplay his ball and chain as a "house organ," my father took obvious pride in reporting the company's contributions to aviation history. Breakthrough fighter jets, strategic bombers and jetliners rolled out of Convair's giant hangarlike plants with astonishing regularity. In addition to conventional aircraft, Convair also created the Atlas, the nation's pioneer ICBM, first launched in June 1957. An Atlas powered astronaut John Glenn into space. A 50-year Atlas anniversary reunion is being planned for July. Many of the original Convair team plan to celebrate in San Diego. Sadly, my father will be forced to report by celestial satellite. But here's the thing: Despite national security during the Cold War, Convair always wanted the world to know what it was making in San Diego. Sure, there were times when the company circled wagons to beat down an internal scandal, but the public credo was bold and brassy: San Diego had the brains and the brawn to bust barriers. John DeBlanc, retired vice president of program development at General Dynamics, recalls how the company reveled in publicity about the Atlas, collecting news clippings from around the world that mentioned the company's pride and joy. By the end of 1995, Convair had run its course. San Diego was left with nothing but memories. "It is in some ways really the end of an era," a San Diego economic development official told a reporter. "Most of the defense work now is much more in technology, in communications and systems integration, remote sensing." As Convair was fading away, however, SAIC, the bully of the new breed, was powering up. +++ SAIC sells brain power, not a flashy product like a rocket, offered DeBlanc, who lives in Escondido. "Naturally, they want to shield their ideas." "Washington's $8 billion Shadow," the much-discussed article by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in the March edition of Vanity Fair, sticks a sword through SAIC's shield of secrecy. Their deepest thrust is that SAIC has profited obscenely from the Iraq war, which it helped justify. When SAIC blunders, as it notoriously did with National Security Agency and FBI contracts, it still collects the money, the article contends. In its parry, SAIC concedes it has had contracts go bad -- who hasn't in the brave new world of defense? -- but frames the failures as anomalies in a string of some 100,000 contracts, most of which were completed on time, on budget and without whistles being blown. Me, I'm an agnostic on the state of SAIC's corporate soul. Maybe, like the Pentagon, it's too big to have one. SAIC currently holds some 9,000 federal contracts. Revenues topped $8 billion in 2006. Half of its 44,000 employees, most of whom work near Washington, have security clearances. A busy revolving door of defense Who's Who connects SAIC to the Pentagon. By comparison, Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who bribed Randall Harold Cunningham, comes off as a palooka in President Eisenhower's menacing "military-industrial complex," the fight club to which SAIC clearly belongs along with heavyweights such as Bechtel and Halliburton. It's a slender thread of irony, but perhaps strong enough to end on. The CEO of SAIC, the low-profile fellow who took over when Beyster stepped down a few years ago, is Ken Dahlberg, who previously served as an information technology executive at General Dynamics, Convair's corporate owner. Small world, San Diego. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:06:06 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:06:06 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Gets Defense Deal Message-ID: <20070228000557.V581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 27 February 2007 ; Forbes SAIC Gets Defense Deal http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/26/ap3462811.html --- Science Applications International Corp. said Monday it was among four companies that won a five-year contract worth up to $465 million from the Pentagon. The three other prime contractors are Scientific Research Corp., Wyle Laboratories Inc. and small business Bevilacqua Research Corp., which teamed with L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. The contract includes five one-year options worth up $93 million each. SAIC will compete for task orders to help improve and connect various systems including communications networks throughout the agency, among other services. Shares of SAIC gained 34 cents to $18.60 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:08:05 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:08:05 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Riptide Receives Personnel Recovery Contract from US Army/SAIC Message-ID: <20070228000756.N581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 27 February 2007 ; Business Wire Riptide Receives Personnel Recovery Contract from US Army/SAIC http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070227005031&newsLang=en --- ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Riptide Software, Inc. has received a sub-contract from SAIC to support The US Army's Combined Arms Center (CAC) at Ft Leavenworth and their Personnel Recovery Education and Training Application Development (PRTAD). The program is being managed by the US Army AMRDEC Software Engineering Directorate (SED). Sub-contracted under SAIC's AMCOM Express contract, Riptide will deliver IMI for multiple tiers of Personnel Recovery training for the Army. Riptide will integrate this IMI with America's Army-based scenarios used to immerse the Soldiers, Civilians, and Contractors into an effective training environment. The America's Army platform, which is the basis for the U.S. Army's popular PC game, allows for the creation of detailed and engaging environments and interactive scenarios for values and cultural training, education, and operational support. As a learning platform, America's Army provides a proven, easy-to-deploy and widely used technology base that is modular and scalable. The sub-contract's first installment, worth approximately $1M, is projected to have significant follow-on opportunities. Riptide CEO, Mr. Philip Loeffel, stated, "Both the US Army and SAIC have seen the award winning Future Soldier Training System that was created for the United States Army Recruiting Command, and know that we will be able to provide leading-edge Personnel Recovery training solutions." About the America's Army Platform America's Army was designed and developed to employ online game technology as a virtual portal through which young Americans can explore Soldiering in the U.S. Army. Due to its ability to render exceptionally realistic and flexible environments, player interactions, and scenarios, a wide variety of military and government agencies have repurposed the America's Army platform for developing training simulations and applications. The Army Game Project's America's Army Government Applications teams produce effective and engaging virtual learning for Force Protection, Adaptive Thinking and Leadership, and Convoy Survivability, as well as applications ranging from mission rehearsal to modeling advanced weapons systems and fire control systems. America's Army teams are also developing embedded and appended training devices for the Army's most advanced missile systems, remote weapons stations and nuclear, chemical and biological detection systems. By using the America's Army platform for training development, government and military agencies will be able to train today's heroes in the skills that help them successfully defend freedom at home and around the world. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:09:56 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:09:56 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Wins Defense Department Contract Worth Up To $930 Million Message-ID: <20070228000940.U581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 27 February 2007 ; Information Week SAIC Wins Defense Department Contract Worth Up To $930 Million http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197009039 --- SAIC will provide the Defense Department with a range of technical services, including integration of IT systems, performance monitoring, and validation of testing methods. By Paul McDougall Science Applications International Corp. said it has secured a deal to provide integration and testing services to the Department of Defense under a contract worth up to $930 million. The deal was announced Monday. Under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, SAIC will provide the department's Joint Test and Evaluation Program Office with a range of technical services, including integration of IT systems, performance monitoring, and validation of testing methods. The contract has a five-year base period worth $465 million, with up to five one-year extension periods renewable at $93 million per year. The Defense Department's Joint Test and Evaluation Program Office conducts operational tests of military equipment on behalf of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Last week, SAIC announced that it had won a contract to provide security services to the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection unit under a deal worth up to $39.2 million over five years. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:12:18 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:12:18 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] State releases procurement guide for small businesses Message-ID: <20070228001209.P581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 27 February 2007 ; Baltimore Business Journal State releases procurement guide for small businesses http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/02/26/daily19.html --- The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development on Tuesday said it released a guide for small businesses seeking to do business with the state's federal facilities. Maryland economic development officials say growth at the state's federal and military facilities has opened up new opportunities for businesses of all sizes in Maryland, and the new guide will help them navigate the procurement process. The publication, available for download at www.choosemaryland.org, was prepared for the department's office of military and federal affairs by government contracting giant SAIC (NYSE: SAI), which is based in San Diego and has thousands of workers in the region. The guide provides information on identifying and accessing procurement opportunities, preparing proposals and assembling resources to compete for and fulfill federal contracts. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Feb 28 05:13:25 2007 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (Daily SAIC News) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:13:25 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Students discover opportunities for future at BRAC Technology Day Message-ID: <20070228001315.Q581-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 28 February 2007 ; Annapolis Capital Students discover opportunities for future at BRAC Technology Day http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/02_27-21/CWC --- By KENNETH R. FLETCHER For The Capital Students from four Anne Arundel County high schools discovered future opportunities at the first BRAC Technology Day Friday morning at Anne Arundel Community College at Arundel Mills. The day was organized by Science Applications International Corporation, a contractor for Fort George G. Meade in order to "inspire, excite and interest students in science, technology and engineering," said Stephen Eagles, a principal coordinator for SAIC. About 80 students from Arundel, Broadneck, Meade and North County high schools visited workshops led by SAIC employees, seeing everything from military gear to computer software. Many of the students were members of the freshman scholars program and will be graduating in 2010, when base realignment and closure is expected to bring thousands of new jobs to the Fort Meade area. Mr. Eagles wants to get them thinking about future opportunities now. "You are the future, the first real workforce for BRAC," Jeff McGaughey, BRAC Coordinator for SAIC, told the students. Students split up into groups of about 15 and rotated through the six demonstrations, held in the clean, modern classrooms of the Arundel Mills campus. They mainly witnessed PowerPoint slideshows on technology, but in some presentations enjoyed passing around the latest gadgets. A popular demonstration was a showcase of things used at Aberdeen Proving Ground, many similar to what soldiers in Iraq use. This included a thick, red hazmat suit and ruggedly reinforced laptop designed to take abuse. Students tried on a new, stylish gas mask with a special straw that lets the user drink through the mask. Others looked at the ghostly white forms of their classmates through an infrared camera while a boxy yellow radiation detector beeped nearby. "This is really good for our kids. They got a lot of exposure to different technology available to them," said Marty Pehrson, an English teacher at North County High School. "Two thumbs up," said Arundel High freshman Sean Killian. Students participated in an interactive lesson on decision support analysis led by Chad Quill, Todd Lindquist and David Johnson, operations research analysts at SAIC. Like many of the others presenting, the trio usually gave their presentation to colleagues, not high school students. To tailor the presentation for the younger crowd, they had students vote on what to take on a spring break beach trip. A mathematical equation calculated they should take a boogie board and football, based on the number of votes, cost, and space available. The presenters then mentioned real-life applications of decision analysis work, like determining whether to encourage new Fort Meade employees to live in Baltimore or Anne Arundel County. Michael Ruzzi, a 14-year-old freshman at Broadneck High School, said he was interested in science and engineering and was considering a career in developing software. "This is teaching us about the future and our career opportunities. If we're not informed about them, we can't get jobs," Michael said. He added that Fort Meade would be a good place to work in the future so that he could stay in Maryland and be near the Chesapeake. SAIC hopes to offer technology days in the future to more area schools and include presentations by other contractors, Mr. Eagles said. Kenneth Fletcher is a freelance writer in the Crofton area.