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http://salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/08/mcconnell/index.html
The spy who came in from the boardroom
Why John Michael McConnell, a top executive at a private defense contractor, should not be allowed to run our nation's intelligence agencies.
By Tim Shorrock
Jan. 8, 2007[...] At present, U.S. intelligence is more dependent on private contractors than it has ever been. About half of the rapidly expanding annual intelligence budget, or more than $20 billion, now goes to outside firms.
The work those private contractors perform has been slammed repeatedly for mismanagement, privacy violations and bias -- and yet the would-be head of the nation's intelligence effort is a top executive at one of the worst offenders.
McConnell, a retired vice admiral and former director of the National Security Agency, is the current director of defense programs at Booz Allen Hamilton.
With revenues of $3.7 billion in 2005, Booz Allen is one of the nation's biggest defense and intelligence contractors. Under McConnell's watch, Booz Allen has been deeply involved in some of the most controversial counterterrorism programs the Bush administration has run, including the infamous Total Information Awareness data-mining scheme. As a key contractor and advisor to the NSA, Booz Allen is almost certainly participating in the agency's warrantless surveillance of the telephone calls and e-mails of American citizens. [...]
- - Tim Shorrock
What a nice contracting gig. Leave the government, go to work for a contractor, sell contracts to your former co-workers, fail at most of your contracts, don't worry about whether you're breaking the law . . . and never face scrutiny.
And then go back to government service for a little while, where your job will be to warn Congress that, if they scrutinize you and your "Beltway Bandit" buddies, they're endangering national security.
