|
from the Center for Public Integrity website: www.publicintegrity.org Iraq contracts Since February 2003, SAIC has been in charge of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, a Pentagon-sanctioned group made up of Iraqis that is effectively functioning as the country's temporary government. The senior members of IRDC hold positions at each of 23 Iraqi ministries, where they work closely with U.S. and British officials, including L. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. The Council's official task is to rebuild the structures of a government that are expected to eventually be handed over to an independent Iraqi authority. Members of the IRDC are officially employed by SAIC. Another Pentagon contract calls for SAIC to, in effect, rebuild Iraq's mass media, including television stations, radio stations and newspapers. SAIC runs the "Voice of the New Iraq," the radio station established in April 2003 at Umm Qasr that is funded by the U.S. government. Just how the company is going about the task of rebuilding Iraq's media and the overall cost remains a mystery, however. The Pentagon has steadfastly refused to release any specific information on SAIC's media reconstruction work, which has been dubbed the Iraqi Media Network. What little information that has leaked out about the SAIC effort has come mainly from disgruntled employees and press freedom advocates, who have charged the company has bungled the job badly. One report said SAIC had ordered equipment that was incompatible with existing systems in Iraq.
SOME OF THE PRINCIPALS: Executive vice president for Federal Business and director Duane P. Andrews served as assistant secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993, when he joined SAIC. From October 2001 to July 2002, board member W.A. Downing served as deputy assistant director for international counter-terrorism initiatives on the National Security Council, where he advised President Bush on terrorism and homeland security issues. Downing retired from the United States Army with the rank of general in 1996 and joined SAIC as a part-time employee in March of that year as an adviser on a wide variety of matters, including the company's long-term strategy for domestic and international business development. From 1993 to 1997, board member Anita K. Jones was director of Defense Research and Engineering for the Pentagon.
|