Abramoff, lobbyists linked to troubled multibillion-dollar Homeland Securi

[sabra]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/New_questions_surround_multibilliondollar_Homeland_Security_1130.html

Abramoff, lobbyists linked to troubled multibillion-dollar Homeland Security contract

The Transportation Security Administration awarded a $1 billion contract to Unisys to devise a cutting-edge computer network linking hundreds of airports to the TSA’s state-of-the-art security centers. The contract was ideal, they argued, because if the company failed to meet its goals, Unisys would pay money back to the agency.

It didn’t turn out that way. In October, the Washington Post revealed the Pennsylvania-based information services company had overcharged the government for a whopping 117,000 hours -- billing $131 an hour for employees who were paid less than half that amount. Officials now see the project costing taxpayers as much as $3 billion.

Unisys’ prime lobbyists? A team from the Greenberg Traurig lawfirm led by Neil Volz, former chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) -- which included indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

RAW STORY has found that Unisys acquired the contract, said riddled with fraud, in a process that included backroom dealings and almost no competitive bidding, and former Abramoff associates say his lobbyists had a hand in the deal. The investigation also found that the man who brokered the TSA deal, a company president, was later a buyer of Abramoff’s posh Washington restaurant.

[stepnw1f]

1. Any Righties Want Care Explain This Culture of Corruption?

Since ya claim to be such a moral high-grounder...

[babylonsister]

2. Every time I turn around recently, there's another

repug scandal brewing. It really is a culture of corruption-mindboggling! :crazy:

[UpInArms]

3. here's where Abramoff declared his lobbyist ties with Unisys

(and my oh my - there are sooooo many more!)

http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=3&LOB=ABRAMOFF,%20JACK%20A.&LOBQUAL==

excerpt:

GREENBERG TRAURIG 	UNISYS CORP 	ABRAMOFF, JACK A. 	REGISTRATION 		2003

Unisys accused of overbilling TSA

http://www.fcw.com/article91189-10-24-05-Web

Unisys is responding to allegations that it overbilled the government for as much as 171,000 labor hours.

A report in the Oct. 23 Washington Post, based on audits that have not yet been publicly released, states that the company billed for labor at rates that were sometimes more than double what employees jobs should have been paid.

The allegations are related to Unisys' work as prime contractor of the Transportation Security Administration's Information Technology Managed Services Contract (ITMS).

In one example of overbilling the Post cited, the company billed TSA $131.12 an hour for a technical writer. The auditors believe the writer should have made no more than $46.43 an hour. According to the report, the excess billing went into Unisys' coffers rather than to individual employees.

...more...

Unisys gets OK for $1 billion TSA project

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/17_11/federal/18843-1.html

The Office of Management and Budget has approved the $1 billion Transportation Security Administration contract award to Unisys Corp. for the company to build and maintain TSA’s IT infrastructure.

The agency named Unisys Aug. 2 as its choice for the TSA Information Technology Managed Services contract, but final award depended on an OMB review and approval, which was granted Aug. 13. Unisys competed against Electronic Data Systems Corp., Plano, Texas, for the contract.

Unisys now can begin work on two task orders under the seven-year contract. The first will be for TSA’s end-user computer, network, data center and help-desk services. The second is to roll out systems and services.

TSA Chief Information Officer Patrick Schambach said the contract could be a model for future government projects. From the release of requirements to the award of the contract took just three and a half months, he said.

“The contract is totally performance-based,” he said.

...more...

TSA starts from scratch on office systems setup

http://www.gcn.com/21_27/news/19842-1.html

The Transportation Security Administration has begun to put its IT shop in order.

Fleshing out an IT infrastructure began late last month after the agency negotiated a pair of task orders with contractor Unisys Corp., which earlier in the month received the $1 billion Information Technology Managed Services contract from TSA.

Initially, ITMS will provide the Transportation Department agency with basic technology—no “ ‘Star Wars’ kind of stuff,” CIO Patrick R. Schambach said.

Given that TSA is essentially a brand-new agency, it must build its network backbone and office systems from scratch.

The two task orders cover the entire range of work required to build a systems architecture for the agency, said Clay Foushee, Unisys’ deputy program manager for TSA.

The first order calls for the establishment of an enterprise operations center, which includes installing a data center, security operations center and help desk. Through the second order, Unisys will roll out IT equipment for TSA’s headquarters and field offices.

...more...

[TomInTib]

6. Pretty impressive client list, eh?

Ol' Jack was a busy feller.

[tanyev]

4. Wow, Abramoff's tentacles reach everywhere.

Is he Cthulhu?

[sofa king]

12. I think he was all over Homeland Security in particular.

Here's one that's rarely discussed in public, but which has excellent potential to bite us in the ass:

When the Homeland Security Act was floated, it went out of its way to define Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as "local governments." In the Act, local governments may receive no direct funding from the federal government.

State governments generally don't play well with tribes, and so as a result, the two dozen or so tribes which happen to border on Mexico, Canada, and the open sea get virtually no homeland security assistance. Other reservations have nice things like dams, nuclear missile silos, reactors, and ordnance ranges. They're wide open, and the only people who don't know it are average Americans.

And what do you know? Greenberg Traurig had a Homeland Security team which consulted with lawmakers on the drafting of the bill. And Jack Abramoff's stock in trade was lobbying to screw over the Indians and then offering to help the Indians get whatever they lost back.

Every year since 2003, Congressional Democrats have offered a bill which would correct the problem, and every year, that corrective bill gets killed in Republican-controlled committees.

In the meantime, tribes have been taken matters into their own hands. I wonder who recommended an Israeli security company to them? Stop me if that sounds familiar.

This "oversight" has Abramoff's handwriting all over it, but unlike most of his other heists, this one is a genuine danger to all of us.

[myrna minx]

5. We could pay off the national debt if we received

restitution from these "patriotic" republican scumbags.

[rainbow4321]

7. Watchdog groups push for investigation of Reed ($4.2 mil from Abramoff)

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/13302813.htm

Three Texas watchdog groups asked a Texas county official Thursday to investigate former Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed, who worked with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to press state officials to shut down two Texas tribal casinos.

They said Reed, who is running for lieutenant governor in Georgia, failed to register as a Texas lobbyist in 2001 and 2002, when he received a reported $4.2 million from Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon to push for the closure of casinos operated by the Tigua tribe of El Paso and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Livingston in East Texas.

The groups cited a rule issued by the State Ethics Commission, which is responsible for enforcing state campaign finance laws, that a person who receives more than $1,000 in a calendar quarter as compensation or reimbursement to lobby must register as a lobbyist.

Abramoff and Scanlon were hired by the Louisiana Coushatta tribe in 2001 and worked to prevent the Alabama-Coushatta and another Louisiana tribe from opening competing casinos.

[UpInArms]

8. I wonder if Conryn will get pulled into this everexpanding investigation

of corruption and bribery?

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/13145194.htm

excerpt:

_ NOV. 12, 2001, 9:21 a.m.: Reed responds: "I think so. I'm scheduled to talk to Cornyn today. He has also been called by Ed Young, pastor of second Baptist, a good friend who he is counting on big time in the Senate race."

_ NOV. 12, 2001, 5:54 p.m.: Abramoff writes Reed, saying he was trying to get the National Indian Gaming Commission, which includes members of Indian tribes, to go after the Alabama-Coushatta and Tiguas, and that "Cornyn needs to get Indians to lead the way."

_ NOV. 12, 2001, 5:55 p.m.: Reed responds: "great work. get me the details so i can alert cornyn and let him know what we are doing to help him." He adds: "talked to ed young again today. incredibly engaged and excited. he is planning on hosting a breakfast with the top pastors in houston to get them all mobilized and to provide cover for cornyn. we may invite cornyn to address them."

_ NOV. 13, 2001, 9:40 a.m.: Abramoff writes to Reed: "Did you speak with Scanlon? He has a guy on the ground at the Alabama Coushatta reservation watching them unload hundreds of slot machines!! We need to get the AG arresting them RIGHT NOW!! We need to get the pastors rallying right now. This is going to be death for us. Please let us know what we are going to do. Thanks."

...more...

[Az_lefty]

10. I would love to see that snake Ralph Reed convicted in this mess

[donkeyotay]

9. Corrupt is an understatement. Miller called it an infection of corruption

We're gonna need a new word to describe this, although treason springs to mind. You'da thunk that these folks would not have been able to get govt. contracts given this history:

Unisys has a history of legal trouble with regard to federal contracts. In 1991, Unisys pled guilty in U.S. District Court to using fraud, bribery and illegal campaign contributions to obtain billions of dollars in defense contracts. An investigation the Justice Department started in 1986 known as Operation Ill Wind resulted in the prosecution of seven companies, nine government officials and 42 individuals; Unisys' fines and penalties totaled up to $190 million.

Nine Unisys employees were indicted and pled guilty to using fraudulent practices to obtain government contracts. The company and its predecessor, mainframe computer manufacturer Sperry Corp., billed the government $17 million in consulting fees, diverted money to offshore accounts, and used the money to bribe Pentagon officials.

The product of a 1986 merger between Sperry Corporation and Burroughs, Unisys maintains offices in nearly every U.S. state and more than 60 countries. They say they're happy with Greenberg's work, now that the lobby shop has dismissed Abramoff from their stables.

"As long as they terminated the relationship , that was my principal concern," Unisys vice president of government relations David Pingree told Influence Magazine. {horseshit}

Another blow against the evil empire by Jason Leopold and Raw Story!

[progressoid]

11. Great - now where's the investigation??

[Roland99]

15. Shouldn't the US Attorney General be doing something?

What's Al up to these days? He's awfully absent from the news.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Kick.

[rodeodance]

14. greed.. nothing but greed (on the backs of taxpayers0.

[lanlady]

16. beyond corruption

This is brazen, broad-daylight looting of public funds. They should be charged with multiple counts of grand larceny or whatever the norm is for massive theft.

[loudsue]

17. I've been telling you guys this: THE MOB is running our government.

Mob. Mafia. "The Family". Whatever you want to call it, it is mafia all the way. They're in control of EVERYTHING! And they're trying to destroy our court (justice) system, to insure that they'll get a walk.

AND THEY'RE USING DEMOCRACY TO DO IT!! VIA DIEBOLD!!!

:kick::kick::kick:

[loveandlight]

18. Money controls everything in this government

Anything this government does/pays for/thinks about is controlled at this point by this group of thieves and thugs. Abramoff is the tip of a very big iceberg that is slowly being exposed. Their hands are everywhere.

We are in the final moments of the making of complete corporate fascist control of our government that began long ago. Eisenhower warned us to be wary of it when he left office, a military-industrial complex that might take over our government. And it has. Of course they are everywhere, making money as fast at they can, with no oversight since they are in control of everything.

I am hoping that the revelations coming out now will prevent them from gaining the ultimate control, as happened in Germany and Italy and other countries earlier in this century. They are well on the road, but I think they are being exposed and people are not comfortable with it. We will see, I believe, truly in the outcome of the 2006 elections. Will their machines (Diebold and the like) make it impossible for us to win back anything? Time will tell.

We must keep spreading the word, though, letting everyone see the connections, the corruption, the misuse of funds and government programs. Keep it all in the light so more eyes will be opened. And send out a new message that is about taking our government back. Let's reclaim the word "government" for the people. It is not government itself that is bad, it is who is running it and to what ends they aspire.

Who will win? I think the fight has barely begun on our side. It's going to be a long hard struggle to get the current system turned around.