Protesters gather at Titan headquarters

[seemslikeadream]

By Michael Stetz
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 7, 2004

No translation was necessary.

Protesters expressed their anger loud and clear yesterday at La Jolla-based Titan Corp., which provides translators to the U.S. military. At least one of the company's employees is a suspect in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison.

"We will hold you accountable," said Carol Jankhow of the San Diego Peace and Justice Coalition, speaking outside Titan's corporate headquarters. "Titan is the tip of the iceberg. Other corporations in San Diego are making money off the war."

Nearly 100 people took part, several of them carrying copies of the disturbing photographs of abused Iraqis that were made public this week. Those images have caused worldwide concern and anger.

Martin Eder, another activist, described the photographs as "recruiting posters for terrorists around the world."

more
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040507-9999-1n7titan.html

[Tinoire]

1. And CACI's stock us going down

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=CAI

http://ichart.yahoo.com/w?s=CAI

[seemslikeadream]

2. Tinoire contract scam - Senator Darrell Issa

Pentagon to investigate contract scam
Communications is a vital and lucrative market in Iraq


Thursday 29 April 2004, 12:04 Makka Time, 9:04 GMT

Communications is a vital and lucrative market in Iraq

The official also said promoting a US-based mobile phone technology called CDMA was necessary to deal with what he called a "rigged" competition last year won by companies using European-based technology.

John Shaw,
deputy undersecretary for international technology security


Additionally, Shaw said that he had been been put under pressure by Republican Senator Darrell Issa, whose San Diego County district is packed with Qualcomm employees.


The Pentagon's Defence Criminal Investigative Services began its investigation after two senior officials with the US-led occupation authority reported Shaw had demanded they make changes to the contract.


Criminal charges could result if there were any financial ties between Shaw and members of the consortium.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3A023736-BCB0-4275-B266-1D6DFC9B06CE.htm

Computer Sciences Corp snapped up DynCorp

Prior to this in December, Computer Sciences Corp snapped up DynCorp for $1 billion.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/30/caci_defence_contractor_gets_d... /


New allegations in Iraq mobile network saga
By Guy Kewney, Newswireless.net
Published Friday 30th April 2004 10:03 GMT
Excitable American reports are suggesting that the attempts made last year by Congressman Darrel Issa to point "reconstruction" money in the direction of Qualcomm were not a silly season joke by one person, but an organised strategy, which may continue.

In a report in the LA Times (free reg needed) it is alleged that a "senior Defense Department official is under investigation by the Pentagon inspector general for allegations that he attempted to alter a contract proposal in Iraq to benefit a mobile phone consortium that includes friends and colleagues."

The original Issa story simply reported that the Congressman, who represents a constituency full of Qualcomm employees, was anxious to get Qualcomm-owned CDMA technology used in Iraq instead of "French" GSM phone systems.

Now, Issa is being mentioned as a bit-part player in the new saga of this official, who is being investigated.

The official is named: the LA Times says he is John A. Shaw, 64, the deputy undersecretary for international technology security. The allegation is simple: "He sought to transform a relatively minor police and fire communications proposal into a contract allowing the creation of an Iraq-wide commercial cellular network that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year," according to the paper's sources.

more
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/30/iraq_cellphone_allegations /

[Karenina]

3. Kick!

:kick:

[donsu]

4. kick

nt

[seemslikeadream]

5. Many who work in Iraq aren't fully checked out

Kevin Hendzel, an officer with the American Translators' Association, which represents 8,000 translators nationwide, said the government's need for Arabic translators "is so great that demand has completely outstripped supply, draining the pipeline," so that now "people with no real qualifications are being hired."

"Just because he is a taxi driver does not mean he is not fluent in Arabic and English," Williams said.

One Titan translator, a former taxi driver working at the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested on charges of espionage last year. The translator with no security clearance who is implicated in the Abu Ghraib scandal, John Israel, worked for a Titan subcontractor, the company said.

"No, we are not in the background investigation business," J.P. London, chief executive of CACI, said in an interview Thursday. A CACI employee, Steven Stefanowitz, also has been implicated in the abuse case.

Thomas White, who was secretary of the army until April 2003 and a leading advocate of privatization, said Thursday that he was surprised when he learned this week that employees of private companies were involved in intelligence work, which suggests how abruptly the trend took off.
.
Peter Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institute who has written on military privatization, said the use of private firms "developed in such a quick, ad hoc manner that mechanisms were not set up to deal with them."The New York Times WASHINGTON The military's reliance on civilians to serve as interrogators and translators in Iraq is now so great that many people are being sent abroad without complete background investigations or full qualifications for the positions, government officials and industry experts say.

Although senior Pentagon officials have long called for privatizing much of the military's work, current and former officials say the new reliance on contractors for intelligence and interrogation work resulted from the unexpected demands of the war in Iraq and had not been long planned.

http://www.iht.com/articles/518892.html