“The need now is to get a decent contracting company in there that is actually focused on the job and they just might prove some worth as a force multiplier.”
On 22 September 2010 The U.S. Army Contracting Command Center at Fort Eustis posted a Sources Sought request (fbo.gov) to support the U.S. Army Human Terrain System. The contract ceiling for the effort is in the $7 million range. The deadline to submit information to the US Army is 11 October 2010.
There are 20 “interested vendors” listed on the FBO website. Those include current HTS insiders Glevum Associates (Andrew Garfield) and McNeil Technologies, Inc. (Steve Rotkoff , formerly part of HTS management is apparently with this group.) McNeil is now owned by AECOM which has numerous and lucrative contracts with the U.S. military.
Other interested vendors include S3 Syzygy. Syzygy’s CEO since 2009 is Sarah Letts-Smith, a former Human Terrain Team Leader in Iraq and “External Consultant” to the HTS program. She is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. She has been a Director, Leadership Development at United States Army Reserve; SOCCENT J2 Liaison at United States Department of Defense and a Mortgage Loan Officer at Sterling Capital Mortgage
Linc Government Services’ subsidiary Operational Support & Services–based in Fayetteville, North Carolina—may be a contender. “OSS has a long and successful history of providing and supporting unique training, linguists, intelligence support services, language and cultural immersion, administrative, logistical, and Subject Matter Expert requirements to the Department of Defense, U.S. Government agencies, and NATO.”
It appears that U.S. Army TRADOC is either taking a shot at correcting the troubles within HTS or is simply seeking to replace the services provided by the Georgia Tech Research Institute that announced its intention to bolt from the program.
At any rate, in the end, the “winner” will be managing the HTS program from top to bottom recruiting, hiring and training students at a pace of 35-50 trainees a month with a “success” aim point of 95 percent. “The intended acceptable performance metric is 95% of student requirements hired prior to start date of each training cycle; and, at least 95% of the candidates will meet the Governments Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC) qualifications and deploy at the end of the training cycle.”
According to the announcement, other tasks include coordinating HTS data collection efforts with battle command general officer steering committees and decision forums, fielding and training the Mapping the Human Terrain (MAP-HT) system, and overseeing collection efforts to ensure the HTS Program meets combatant commander requirements. In addition, “the contractor shall conduct research and analysis to satisfy time sensitive (within 8-96 hours) and routine Requests for Research, as well as directed research specified by the Director of the Reach Back Research Center. Output form varies but may take such form as white paper or geospatial products.”
Ishtar
October 9, 2010
A point of interest:
On the website of MacNeil Technologies, we read:
“The members of McNeil’s Board of Directors bring a wealth of unparalleled experience and expertise. They are internationally recognized experts on military and business issues and include retired four-star generals and admirals. Their experience, wisdom, and counsel are made available to McNeil and its clients.”
The website did not say the names of the 4-star generals and admirals, but they are the same ones on the board of the infamous contractor, Dyncorp:
Gen. Richard E. Hawley (former head of the U.S. Air Combat Command),
Gen. Barry McCaffrey (former head of the U.S. Southern Command),
Gen. Anthony Zinni (former head of the U.S. Central Command)
and Adm. Joseph W. Prueher (former head of the U.S. Pacific Command)”.
Anthony C. Zinni is the executive vice president of Dyncorp as from 2007.
You know, Gen. McCaffrey is a war criminal who “general barry McCaffrey , war criminal who “According to an article written by Seymour Hersh published in 2000 The New Yorker, General McCaffrey committed war crimes during the Gulf War(1991) by having troops under his command kill retreating Iraqis after a ceasefire had been declared.These charges had been made by Army personnel after the war and an Army investigation had cleared McCaffrey of any wrongdoing.” Wikipedia.
And then he was awarded by Bill Clinton to be Drug Czar (1996-2001), there was talk about his invoving in illicit drug trade to finance death squads in Colombia.in 2005 , he was elected a member of Dyncorp’s board of directors.
By the way, Marc Grossman, a Clinton administration undersecretary of state who helped initiate a $4 billion counter-narcotics effort known as Plan Colombia which involved the services of Dyncorp, now serves with Gen. Barry McCaffrey on DynCorp’s board of directors.
You know the infamous Dyncorp has been accused of every war crime you can think of: from under age women trafficking to prisons torture to drug dealings,to military coups, all over the world from Colombia, to Haiti, to Somalia, to Kosovo,to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anthony Zinni, was the US commander during Bill Clinton’s Desert Fox against Iraq in 1998.
Dyncorp merged in 2006 with, MacNeil Technologies, so they have the almost the same four star generals on board.
Both Dyncorp and MacNeil have a parent company, Veritas Capital. which was set up in 1992 (a year after MacCaffrey retirement from the
army). On boar of its directorsm you will find: MacCaffrey and Zinni.
After the merge of Dyn. and Mac. in 2006, a small company was set up in 2007, called Global Linguist Solutions(to provide US army in Iraq with mercenary translators).It is presided by General MacCaffrey.
CM
October 9, 2010
It seems you go straight from the upper echelons of the armed forces – with a nice fat taxpayer funded pension – into a lucrative consultant’s position with the mercenary companies who are also funded by taxpayers.
These guys must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Have you seen this article by a whistleblower who says that at least a quarter of the “linguists” who act as interpreters in Afghanistan failed their language tests? The government contracts are awarded on the basis of the number of successful trainees they produce. To get the contract, they just fiddle the results.
I don’t even want to think what the results of this have been.
Exclusive: Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can’t Speak Afghan Languages
More than one quarter of the translators working alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan failed language proficiency exams but were sent onto the battlefield anyway, according to a former employee of the company that holds contracts worth up to $1.4 billion to supply interpreters to the U.S. Army
Maximilian Forte
October 9, 2010
That is a very interesting article, I hope more read it. If I recall correctly, I talked about in one of my previous Encircling Empire reports…of which I have another going up tonight, a very long one.