U.S.A.: Pentagon's Mystery Contingency Operations Gets CACI Bigger

According to the Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov) database, the US DOD's US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has awarded just over 29,000 contracts since at least October of 2003. A review of 2,000 of those contracts shows that awards go to the usual suspects like SAIC, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Some go to unusual suspects like Colombia Tri-Star pictures and Time Warner for movie and video distribution services.

Within that batch of 2,000 contracts are approximately 50 mentions of a "classified domestic contractor" and a "classified foreign contractor" operating at 18th & F Street, NW, Washington, DC. Tallying up the numbers, it turns out that these two contractors have received approximately $100 million for contingency operations in amounts ranging from $17K to $25M (USD). The bulk of the money has been let to the classified domestic contractor (the foreign contractor is based in the United Kingdom). At least 296 actions (awards, transfer of funds) have taken place on the contract and there have been at least 17 modifications. The contract is consistently extended and will run to at least September of 2006.

According to fpds.gov, the effort operates under the guidelines established in 10 USC 101(a)(13). That section of the US Code states the following:

"(13) The term "contingency operation" means a military operation that -- (A) is designated by the Secretary of Defense as an operation in which members of the armed forces are or may become involved in military actions, operations, or hostilities against an enemy of the United States or against an opposing military force; or (B) results in the call or order to, or retention on, active duty of members of the uniformed services under Section 688, 12301 (a), 12302, 12304, 12305, or 12406 of this title, chapter 15 of this title, or any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress."

The Defense Systems Information Agency, National Capitol Area (DISA-NCA) has also funded the effort under the ominous heading "other justice, public order, safety act."

The fpds.gov system provides the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) number for the domestic contractor, which is 790238638. Punching that into the D&B database returns this message: "contractor not disclosed, 2011 Crystal City, Suite 911, Arlington, Virginia. Plugging that information into google.com, it turns out that the former American Management Systems, Inc. (ams.com) was located in Suite 911. CGI (cgi.com), "the largest information services company in the world," bought AMS and retained the not-so interesting information services portion of AMS. CGI sold off the very interesting AMS defense and intelligence unit and its people, run by Gil Guarino, in 2004 for a hefty $1B (USD).

And the buyer? CACI International, the group that received unwelcome attention for its role in the torture scandals in Iraq that plague the company and the US government to this day. For its purchase of a piece of the "classified domestic contractor" CACI was awarded "the Hottest M&A Deal" by the Northern Virginia Technology Council in May 2004. According to investorideas.com, "The huge CACI-CG-AMS transaction involved thousands of employees and over $1 billion in cash. For CACI, it was the largest acquisition in the company's 42-year history. The transaction increased CACI's workforce by almost one quarter -- from some 7,600 employees to more than 9,400 -- brought in more than 300 new contracts, and raised revenue to $1 billion for the first time in the company's history."

Having reviewed just 50 or so entries for this contract (Dxxxxx04xxxxx), and ending up at a $100M USD value, one can only speculate on how many more of the "classified" awards are contained within the remaining 27,000 USSOCOM, DISA-NCA entries. Perhaps it runs into the hundreds of millions. And for what? Domestic operations? Interrogation and rendering? Homeland security? Intelligence gathering and assassination? It's all speculation since only Rumsfeld, Guarino and CACI's Jack London know for sure.

(If you want to learn more on the matter, go to fpds.gov and register -- it's free. Use this information: Award ID=9700. IDV ID=9700. Contracting Office=H92236 and HC1047.)

John Stanton is a Virginia Based writer specializing in political & national security matters. He is the author of America 2004: A Power But Not Super. Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com.

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