Cyberwar Means Money For Well Connected Contractors

Cyber security is a major growth industry…  [Retired Vice-Admiral J. Michael] McConnell is now an executive vice-president of Booz Allen Hamilton, a major defense contractor. Two months after McConnell testified before the Senate, Booz Allen Hamilton landed a thirty-four-million-dollar cyber contract.

••• Remarkable: In this hacktackular age, some journalists actually check facts and don’t bring bodyguards to press conferences.

Many of the companies apparently felt no sense of accountability. Contractors with a Romanian company called Danubia Global killed three Iraqis in Falluja in 2006, another report said, then refused to answer questions on the episode, citing a company policy not to provide information to investigators.

“It is assessed that this drunken group of individuals were out having a good time and firing their weapons,” the incident report concluded.

••• The New York Times rounds up sketchy contractor-related incidents from the well-coordinated Wikileaks release of old US military reports from Iraq.

In 2006 and 2007, McGuinn’s company was negotiating deals worth more than $4 million to purchase 17 helicopter engines from Rolls-Royce in the U.S., according to the indictment. All but two of the dual-use engines reached Iran, according to the Justice Department, and some went to a company the U.S. says is controlled by Iran’s defense ministry.

••• Variations on a theme: Bloomberg reports how Rolls-Royce, which gets nearly $1 billion a year from the US Defense Department, wound up supplying weapons components to Iran.

Accounts vary as to how much Iranian money flow into the presidential palace. An Afghan political leader said he believed that [Umar Daudzai, Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff] received between $1 million and $2 million every other month. A former diplomat who served in Afghanistan said sometimes single payments totaled as much as $6 million.

••• ”Devilish gossip“ from Dexter Filkins.

“I reckon savings on petrol over a year must amount to just over £300, bearing in mind the rising cost of fuel.”

••• UK Defence Ministry reveals the untold impact of budget cuts.