SAIC

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SAIC, Science Applications International Corporation, is a company which specializes in complex engineering and technology programs for U.S. military and intelligence agencies. SAIC was founded in 1969 and has grown rapidly in recent years. It was floated on the stock exchange in October 2006.

Dependence on US military

90% of SAIC's business comes from the U.S. government, and the company 'has more than 9,000 active government contracts and counts the Army, Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Administration among its biggest customers. About 23,000 of SAIC's 43,000 employees have security clearances to work on classified government programs.' [1]

Propaganda and information contracts

According to David Miller:

The collapse of distinctions between independent news media, public affairs (PR) work and psychological operations is striking. The ‘reconstruction’ of Iraqi media began on the 10th April with the first broadcast of Towards Freedom a joint US/UK television project broadcast on the same frequency as the former Iraqi state television service. The service included programming supplied by ABC, CBS, Fox and PBS networks in the US. The UK element was produced by the private company already contracted by the Foreign Office to provide satellite propaganda arund the world. CBS president Andrew Heyward reportedly became convinced that ‘this is a good thing to do… a patriotic thing to do’ after conversations with ‘some of the most traditional minded colleagues’ at CBS. [2] Only CNN refused to join in. A spokesperson noted ‘we didn’t think that as an independent, global news organisation it was appropriate to participate in a United States government video transmission’. [3] And of course that is what it was, transmitted into Iraq by means of Commando Solo the psyops aircraft used to broadcast propaganda by the US psyops operation.
But Towards Freedom was a stop gap to be replaced by a new television service for Iraq. In keeping with the philosophy of information dominance this was paid for by the Pentagon and supplied, not by an independent news organisation but, by a defence contractor, Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Its expertise in the area - according to its website - is in ‘information operations’ and ‘information dominance’. [4] The SAIC effort quickly ran into trouble however. Its Iraq Media Network, which cost $20million over three months, was not obsequious enough for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Within weeks ‘occupying authority chief L. Paul Bremer III placed controls on IMN content and clamped down on the independent media in Iraq, closing down some Iraqi-run newspapers and radio and television stations.’ [5] According to Index on Censorship ‘Managers were told to drop the readings from the Koran, the “vox-pop” man-in-the-street interviews (usually critical of the US invasion) and even to run their content past the wife of a US-friendly Iraqi Kurdish leader for a pre-broadcast check. The station rejected the demands and dug in their heels.’ [6] But this did not stop Bremer and further incidents have shown the preoccupation with control, culminating in a nine point list of ‘prohibited activity issued by Bremer in June 2003.
It decreed that publishing material that ‘is patently false and is calculated to provoke opposition to the CPA or undermine legitimate processes towards self government’ would henceforth be prohibited. This is not too dissimilar to the Nazi press law introduced in German in 1933. It stated that journalists must ‘regulate their work in accordance with National socialism as a philosophy of life and as a conception of government’. [7]
As Index on Censorship notes: ‘Bremer will "reserve the power to advise" the IMN on any aspect of its performance, "including any matter of content" and the power to hire and fire IMN staff. Thus the man in absolute authority over the country's largest, richest and best equipped media network is also his own regulator and regulator of his rivals, with recourse to the US Army to enforce his rulings.’[8]

People

Board 2006

  • K.C. Dahlberg SAIC Chairman of the Board and CEO, Director Since January 2003. Chairman of the Board since July 2004 and Chief Executive Officer since November 2003. Prior to joining us, Mr. Dahlberg served as Corporate Executive Vice President of General Dynamics Corp. from March 2001 to October 2003. Mr. Dahlberg served as President of Raytheon International from February 2000 to March 2001, and from 1997 to 2000 he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Raytheon Systems Company. Mr. Dahlberg held various positions with Hughes Aircraft from 1967 to 1997. Mr. Dahlberg has served as a director of Teledyne Technologies since February 2006.
  • [[W.H. Demisch], Director Since January 1990. Mr. Demisch has been a principal of Demisch Associates LLC, a consulting firm, since 2003. He was a managing director of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, formerly Wasserstein Perella Securities, Inc., from 1998 to 2002. From 1993 to 1998, he was managing director of BT Alex. Brown, and from 1988 to 1993, he was managing director of UBS Securities, Inc.
  • J.A. Drummond Director Since January 2003. Mr. Drummond was employed by BellSouth Corporation from 1962 until his retirement in December 2001. He served as vice chairman of BellSouth Corporation from January 2000 until his retirement. He was president and chief executive officer of BellSouth Communications Group, a provider of traditional telephone operations and products, from January 1998 until December 1999. He was president and chief executive officer of BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. from January 1995 until December 1997. Drummond also serves on the boards of directors of Borg-Warner Automotive, AirTran Holdings, Inc. and Centillium Communications, Inc.
  • D.H. Foley, Executive Vice President, Chief Engineering and Technology Officer, and Director Since January 2002. Chief Engineering and Technology Officer since January 2005, Executive Vice President since July 2000, and a Director since July 2002. Dr. Foley has held various positions with us since 1992, including serving as Group President from February 2004 to January 2005 and a Sector Vice President from 1992 to July 2000.
  • J.J. HAMRE Director Since January 2005. Dr. Hamre has served as the president and chief executive officer of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a public policy research institution, since 2000. Prior thereto, Hamre served as U.S. deputy secretary of defense from 1997 to 2000 and under secretary of defense (comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. Hamre is also a member of the board of directors of ChoicePoint, Inc., ITT Industries, Inc., and MITRE Corporation.
  • A.K. JONESDirector Since January 1998. Dr. Jones is the Quarles professor of engineering at the University of Virginia, where she has taught since 1989. From 1993 to 1997, Jones was on leave of absence from the university to serve as director of defense research and engineering in the U.S. Department of Defense. Jones also served as a director of our company from 1987 to 1993.
  • H.M.J. Kraemer, Jr., Director Since January 1997. Mr. Kraemer has been an executive partner of Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, a private equity investment firm, since April 2005, and has served as a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University since January 2005. Prior thereto, Kraemer served as the chairman of Baxter International, Inc. ("Baxter"), a health-care products, systems and services company, from January 2000 until April 2004, as chief executive officer of Baxter from January 1999 until April 2004 and as president of Baxter from April 1997 until April 2004. Kraemer also served as the senior vice president and chief financial officer of Baxter from November 1993 to April 1997.
  • E.J. SandersonA,Jr., Director since 2002. Mr. Sanderson retired from Oracle Corporation in 2001 after having served as an executive vice president since 1995. At Oracle, Sanderson was responsible for Oracle Product Industries, Oracle Consulting, and the Latin American Division. Prior to that he was president of Unisys World-wide Services and partner at both McKinsey & Company and Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting).
  • L.A. Simpson Director Since January 2006. Mr. Simpson has served as president and chief executive officer, capital operations, of GEICO Corporation, an auto insurer, since May 1993. Prior thereto, he was vice chairman of the board of GEICO from 1985 to 1993. He also serves on the board of directors for VeriSign, Inc., Western Asset Funds, Inc., and Western Asset Income Fund. He is a trustee of Western Asset Premier Bond Fund, Northwestern University, the Urban Institute and the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.
  • J.P. Walkush, Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, and Director. Executive Vice President since July 2000 and a Director since April 1996. Mr. Walkush has held various positions with us from 1976 to 1979 and since 1981, including serving as a Sector Vice President from 1994 to 2000.
  • A.T. Young, Director Since January 1995. Mr. Young retired from Lockheed Martin Corp. in 1995 after having served as an executive vice president from March 1995 to July 1995. Prior to its merger with Lockheed Corporation, Young served as the president and chief operating officer of Martin Marietta Corp. from 1990 to 1995. Young is also on the board of directors of the Goodrich Corporation.

Staff

  • M. Stuart Davis joined SAIC in January as senior vice president for investor relations.
  • Paul W. Sullivan a former executive with Titan Corporation, was hired by SAIC in February as senior vice president for business development.
  • Arnold L. Punaro, a former Marine Corps major general is responsible for government affairs and other operations.
  • Patrick V. Simon, Information Operations Program Executive for Operational Intelligence Solutions Business Unit, appointed October 2006.[9]

Website

http://www.saic.com/

References

  1. ^Bigelow, B. V. SAIC is moving some of its brass east10 December 2006, SignsonSanDiego.com
  2. ^. American "free press" in action. US networks agree to serve as Pentagon propaganda tool in Iraq. By Henry Michaels World socialist Web Site, 15 April 2003 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/med-a15.shtml
  3. ^. ibid.
  4. ^. http://www.saic.com/natsec/dominance.html
  5. ^. ‘Exporting Censorship to Iraq: The press system we allow the Iraqis is far from free.’By Alex Gourevitch Issue Date: 1 October 2003 http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/9/gourevitch-a.html
  6. ^. Rohan Jayasekera Gives with one hand, takes away with the other, Index on Censorship 11 June 2003 http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030611_iraq.shtml
  7. ^. Oron J. Hale (1964) The Captive Press in the Third Reich, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 86.
  8. ^ David Miller 'Information Dominance: The Philosophy Of Total Propaganda Control?', Spinwatch, 29 December 2003.
  9. ^ SAIC 'SAIC Names Pat Simon Information Operations Program Executive for Operational Intelligence Solutions Business Unit' News Releases, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Oct 30, 2006
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