Contractor says Pentagon directed it to hire Wolfowitz's companion in '03

[Scurrilous]

Source: International Herald Tribune

<snip>

"The Defense Department directed a private contractor in 2003 to hire Shaha Ali Riza, a World Bank employee and the companion of Paul Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense, to spend a month studying issues related to setting up a new government in Iraq, the contractor said.

The contractor, Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, said Monday that it had been directed to hire Riza by the office of the under secretary for policy. The head of that office at the time was Douglas Feith, who reported to Wolfowitz.

After her trip to Iraq, Riza briefed members of the executive board of the World Bank on efforts to rebuild after the U.S. invasion and specifically on the status of Iraqi women, according to Riza's supervisor at the time.

Riza has been at the center of a controversy at the World Bank involving the role of Wolfowitz, now the World Bank president, in giving her a raise, promotions and a transfer from the bank in 2005, when he arrived to assume the bank's presidency."


Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/17/news/wbank.php

[mod mom]

1. Fire his sorry ass. SAIC sound familiar..hmmh

[mod mom]

3. SAIC:

SAIC is a large technology firm with numerous federal, state, and private sector clients, and has a worked extensively with United States Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, including the National Security Agency. In fiscal year 2003, SAIC did over $2.6 billion in business with the United States Department of Defense, making it the ninth largest defense contractor in the United States. Other large contracts include their lead on a contract for information technology for the 2004 Olympics in Greece<3> and from 2001 to 2005, SAIC was the primary contractor for the FBI's failed Virtual Case File project.<4>

-snip

Black Operations
The Defence Intelligence Agency transitioned a Remote Viewing Program to Science Applications International Corporation in 1991 and it was renamed Stargate Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Applications_International_Corporation

SO WHY IS SAIC DUMPING WOLFIE?

[mod mom]

7. One of the Dukester's (Cunningham) cronies:

Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons manufacturer, gave Cunningham a whopping $15,000. Cunningham's number three source of funds is MZM Inc. of Washington, DC, whose government clients, in addition to the Pentagon, include the "U.S. intelligence community," the "Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force," and the Department of Homeland Security. MZM gave Randy $11,000 for his services. Next in line is the Cubic Corporation of San Diego, which has numerous multimillion dollar contracts with the Pentagon to supply "realistic combat training systems" and surveillance and reconnaissance avionics. It gave Randy $10,000. General Dynamics ponied up $10,000 for the Congressman, as did San Diego's Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC as it is commonly known. SAIC's largest customer by far is the U.S. government, which accounts for 69% of its business according to SAIC's filings with the SEC. (SAIC was supposed to build a new, pro-American TV and radio network in Iraq but bungled the job badly.) The remainder of Cunningham's top contributors reads like a who's who among the merchants of death: $9,500 from Northrup Grumman, $8,000 from Raytheon (which makes the Tomahawk cruise missile), $8,500 from Qualcomm, and $7,000 from Boeing. All this for just one Congressman.

snip
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0914-20.htm

********

In other cases, sole-source contracts seem to have been ill-suited to the contractors that won the work.

For instance, SAIC was awarded a sole-source contract in 2003 to run Iraq's TV and radio network, even though it is largely an information technology company with no experience running a news operation. After a year of harsh criticism over its handling of the news, SAIC decided not to rebid for more work on the contract.

-snip
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cunningham/20050821-87-mzmscand.html

[wakeme2008]

2. Something smells

Per the article she did not want to be paid just expensives for her trip to Iraq. :shrug:

[mod mom]

6. perhaps this is why:

"Normal bank rules do not allow the bank to provide economic assistance to an area under military occupation"

[Scurrilous]

4. Riza Failed to Get Approval for Working at SAIC (April 6, 2007)

Riza Failed to Get Approval for Working at SAIC
Sources Claim Her Work at US Defense Contractor is a Gross Violation of Bank Rules

http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=875

<snip>

"The Government Accountability Project (GAP) has learned that Shaha Riza, long-time companion of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and fellow Bank staffer, did not receive Bank approval for outside employment as a consultant for a major U.S. defense contractor during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

According to an article published in Vanity Fair last month, Riza was a “subject matter expert” for the Middle East during the Iraq War run-up at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a firm focused on defense capabilities and intelligence gathering. At that time, Paul Wolfowitz was the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Inside sources at the Bank have verified to GAP that Riza never applied for nor received permission to provide these consultant services to SAIC. This is a gross violation of World Bank staff rules, which require Bank employees to clear extracurricular professional activities with the Outside Interests Committee in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Such undisclosed parallel employment, GAP sources say, would never have been tolerated by the Bank and are grounds for dismissal.

“Considering that Riza was reportedly romantically involved with Wolfowitz at the time, that the Iraq War was imminent, that SAIC was a defense contractor, and that the World Bank had active projects in Iraq, multiple conflicts of interest probably existed,” said GAP International Program Director Bea Edwards."

[opihimoimoi]

5. Trickle down CRONYISM is alive but not so well with the GOP

Ya would think they would curb that shit...but no..arrogantly...they continue

[IChing]

8. Contractor says was told to hire Wolfowitz friend

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon ordered a U.S. contractor to hire a World Bank employee and girlfriend of then-Pentagon No. 2 Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 for work related to Iraq, the contractor said on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, said the Defense Department's policy office directed the company to enter a subcontract with Shaha Riza, under which she spent a month studying ways to form a government in Iraq.

Wolfowitz, now president of the World Bank who has led a drive against corruption in developing countries, is under fire, including calls for his resignation, for agreeing to a high-paying promotion for Riza when he took over the bank post.

SAIC said Riza's subcontract lasted from April 25 to May 31, 2003. She was paid expenses but no salary during her trip to Iraq, at her request, according to the contractor.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1741985620070417?feedType=RSS

[acmavm]

9. Wolfie thought he could hide all this? He's an idiot. A dangerous

f**king idiot.

[Kagemusha]

11. You call this hiding?

This is getting away with it in broad daylight until the stench becomes too great.

And he's STILL getting away with it as I type this.

[acmavm]

13. I don't call all the revelations 'hiding'. But yes, he was hiding it.

Else why the bullshit????

[yellowcanine]

10. But "both sides" do it! Valerie Plame picked her husband to go to Niger!

:sarcasm:

[MikeE]

12. Ha, you almost got me

until I saw the sarcasm.

[bobthedrummer]

14. There's obviously quite a bit more behind this disinfo-check this out

"Elizabeth CHENEY was also a 'colleague' of Wolfowitz's partner Shaha Ali Riza" (crosposted from a valuable thread)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x548152#651509

[cosmicdot]

15. SAIC had a contract regarding "Iraq Governance"??

to do what? play Thomas Jefferson?? create a computer model to nation-build by spec? 'We' needed SAIC to have a contract to subcontract to Shaha Riza to study 'ways to form a government in Iraq'???


"A spokeswoman for Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, said the Defense Department's policy office directed the company to enter a subcontract with Shaha Riza, under which she spent a month studying ways to form a government in Iraq."

~snip~

"Melissa Koskovich, a spokeswoman for SAIC, said the contractor 'had no role in the selection of the personnel who comprised the Iraq Governance Group under this contract'."

wonder what this contract's (if one existed) Scope of Work entailed?

Just being curious.

Who else bid on this 'job'?

[bobthedrummer]

17. No one! SAIC was awarded 7 no-bid contracts in Iraq

there are interconnections with many of the Boards of these war profiteers, some of them flow directly into the WH

The Center for Public Integrity has a dated but valuable page on this
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/report.aspx?aid=65

fair use cited

[Laughing Mirror]

16. He'll be gone soon

Europe owns 32% of World Bank, the US 16%. And it doesn't help that the only friend left he has in the world is George Bush, who is box office poison just about everywhere.

[bobthedrummer]

18. kick