Wildfire season is starting...forecasters have already called for an active hurricane season

[Horse with no Name]

And Bush is sending MORE National Guard troops to Iraq?
Who is going to help us here?

[KT2000]

1. A friend who works

as a US Forest Service dispatcher during fire season said that they are being courted by SAIC, a huge defense contractor. Privatization has taken over many of the functions already.

March Vanity Fair has a good article about SAIC - could be the worst of them all!

[haele]

4. The fire season is very troubling, and -err, the Vanity Fair article is seriously flawed...

First, re your friend's issue - SAIC specializes in networks and communications; in fact, many of the patents used in both business and government for common-use and encrypted communications, as well as satellite and weather forecasting programs come from SAIC research and development. The interest SAIC is showing has to do with integrating common-frequency and IP communications, NOAA satellite information, and weather tracking for remote Forest Service stations. As seen in many other fires and like disasters, accurate communications and communication management saves lives. SAIC has developed and is still in the process of improving programs that work in the field, as long as the customers use those programs instead of turning them over to "favored contractors" to implement after they've already been developed - which happens all the time.

Second - about the article - the Vanity Fair reporter never actually contacted SAIC or any of their current customers, the "people" who were contacted consisted mostly of former employees who had transferred jobs to SAIC's competitors, as well as some " government contracting officers" - most of whom have since been found to have ties to other competitors such as Lockheed Martin or Northrup Grumman, both linked to Carlyle. And a lot of the rumors, err, "information on contracts and business practices" is at least 10 years out of date.
Yeah, whenever you have a large company, there's always some ethical issues within certain divisions. And yeah, like all large government contractors, they have contracts with the FBI, the CIA, and other spook agencies that are less than palatable. But that "they're the worst of all"? They aren't a Bush-Carlyle corp, and any Carlyle folks that had ever done a stint on the BOD quickly left because they just didn't make the money and SAIC never has really played politics that well - the corporation is too busy "playing it safe". And for some reason, SAIC only gets no-bid contracts when they really are the only ones who can do the work (which means they haven't gotten a no-bid contract since 1997), and unlike, say, Lockheed Martin or GE, they never get fines reduced when they do screw up a contract. There have always been a lot of rumors because until recently, SAIC was an employee owned company, and did not have to "report to the SEC". Now SAIC does. And now, most of the rumors have been proven false; SAIC has, with a very few exceptions, scrupulously operated within legal limits, be it contractual or cultural.

If you've got a problem with a big government/research contractor like SAIC, fine. I've got no problems with that. There's always going to be some ethical and local issues whenever you're dealing with large corporations. However, when there's potential libel going on that has been designed to kill competition, one has to make sure that all the ducks are in a row before making such statements. CACI/Titan was found guilty of doing the things they sued Randi Rhodes over. SAIC had not been found guilty of the rumors in the Vanity Fair article.

If it sounds as if I'm a corporate shill, I'm not - I'd agree to anything factual that might be brought out against that or any other military/industrial/government/research corporation - or government agency. The stories I have about Government Service and government contracts, even in "good" organizations like EPA, NOAA, and various social services, non-profits... oye. Unfortunately, there is nowhere where you can find a large organization where there isn't some corruption or "preferential treatment" when it comes to services.

I am one of those many "20 year in military service who never had time for college and took a job where I had master's degree equivalency in experience so I didn't have to start over at minimum wage" - and ended up working for SAIC. And believe me, I researched every company that would hire someone like me extensively before I decided I could agree with their ethics and opportunity for growth. SAIC won out over more than a dozen other large companies that would hire former military systems engineers and give them a career rather than "a contract" to hold them over until they reached retirement age.
Not everyone can work for Google, Robert Redford Productions, a university, or their own small, green business.

Haele

[KT2000]

5. In my opinion

SAIC could be the worst of all.
There does appear to be an intimate relationship between policy makers in government and employees of SAIC. Ooops! They are the same people!!

SAIC fought long and hard for the Iraq war.

I have to wonder if they are involved in the push for war with Iran too.

[haele]

6. Pardon me, but it's easy to repeat rumors by competitors.

What's your evidence - that Vanity Fair hit article that's based on information over 10 years out of date? The fact that SAIC lobbyists are shut out of most of the "K" street functions? The Pentagon "after conference" parties that most SAIC higher ups are not invited to? The many major contracts and research programs that SAIC lost since Newt Gingrich took over Congress? The fewer major contracts and research programs SAIC has won from the US government in the past 7 years? The fact the company had to finally go public, because of the loss of employees they have had due to the less work they have were getting and the company couldn't support revenue and remain viable at the size it was?

SAIC has not "fought" for the war - wartime contracts are notoriously short term and unstable - and for the most part unprofitable unless you are actually building weapons - due to political issues. They have fought, along with all the other various scientific, communications systems or engineering contractors, large and small, for government contracts. In fact, many employees suspect that since SAIC is not a "Republican Party Vehicle" (tm) and both the company and the BOD/upper level managers contribute equally to Republican and Democratic party function, SAIC has lost lobby power - which means the company has lost the power to get lucrative contracts with the US government.

SAIC fights just as hard for peacetime contracts as for "wartime" contracts, for systems that integrate hospital imaging, that work with commercial and emergency communications, systems for finding water, for tracking droughts, for security, for NASA space exploration, for alternative fuels, for all the other contracts that are out there that require research and/or implementations communications. SAIC is a communications and research company. Not a "base building" company, like KBR, even though they might be involved with subcontracts to put in networks and communications. Not a drilling and exploration company like Halliburton. Not a ship or plane or weapons-building company like Northrup Grumman, GE, Boeing, Lockheed Martin. Not a "security/mercenary" support company like Blackwater or Custer-Battles.
All the above corporations have the appearance of being involved with making foreign and domestic policy, and have far more "small business" subsidiaries that make revenue for them under different names. What revenue SAIC has made over the current Iraq fiasco has been miserable - in fact, SAIC has been losing money in Iraq. Other than the few people working for the very few possible black ops contracts, most SAIC employees and corporate shareholders owe their jobs and profits to more stable "peacetime" support.
The fact that a company has multiple contracts maintaining a network, a communications system, or providing admin or research support to a government service or another corporation does not make them a policy maker.

Thanks again for repeating rumors spread by the now very few, intertwined military/industrial/media corporate holding corporations, who have been trying for the last twenty-five years, (along with many of their government/neocon stooges like Dick Cheney, et all) to promote ways to take over SAIC - and other similar companies like L3 and Circe, and divest them to increase these mega-corp profit margins - as these neo-con companies have previously done with General Dynamics, Titan, RCA, etc...

SAIC certainly isn't the "best company" out there - but in their field, they are certainly nowhere close to being the worst.

Haele

[William769]

2. Wildfire season is starting?

Appearently you don't live in Florida.

[BeHereNow]

3. "It's the end of the world as we know it" as the song goes.

This may actually be a good thing-
Mother Earth must be sick of us by now.

We are the fleas on her back and perhaps the time
has come to shake us off.

Like I have said many times here on DU-
We are the only species living on the Mother
who WILLFULLY and KNOWINGLY detroy our nests.
I vote for the survival of the bees, polar bears and others over us.

BHN

[catmandu57]

7. Don't ya know, we live in Youronyourownistan

now, ask anyone, especially those who've been through natural distasters.