http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_money_money_money.html"Q Branch's" Stock Market Shenanigans
This post has everything, folks:
* Killer robots!
* Cheeky Brits!
* Cute marine mammals!
* Shady government officials!
* Insider trading!
* Those Trilateral Freemasons over at the Carlyle Group!
* Plus, a gratuitous reference to James Bond!
Here's the scoop: Back in 2001, the UK Ministry of Defence decided to split its research and development division into two parts. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, (Dstl) would remain as the British military's in-house tinkerers and geeks. The other half, dubbed Qinetiq, would become a private company, focusing on technologies that could be used both by the commercial and the government markets -- the war-makers, as well as the money-makers. It's as if James Bond's "Q Branch" decided to start selling jet packs to Silicon Valley, as well as 007.
But one doesn't simply move from the civil service to the boardroom. To help with the transition, Her Majesty's government picked a pack of corporate financiers. Not just any pack, mind you. But the boogeyman of the conspiracy-minded everywhere: the Carlyle Group. That's right, the former (?) professional lair of illuminati like James Baker and John Major and George H.W. Bush. It bought about a third of the new company.
Under Carlyle's wing, Qinetiq went on a buying spree. One acquisition in particular should be familiar to Defense Techies: Foster-Miller, maker of the Talon robot. That's the squat, treaded machine used by U.S. bomb squads throughout Iraq. The Army now is trying to strap a machine gun or a grenade launcher onto the 3-foot tall 'bot, and send it into the warzone. The armed Talon would probably be in Iraq by now -- if only it could have pass its safety tests.