"Homeland Security Expert"? Maybe... he is an attorney. But his business interests, like Centauri Solutions seem to benefit from whatever plan is ultimately adopted and some of these other businesses look well positioned for a "technological" fence and the like.
Robert W. Kelly is a Founder and Managing Partner of CenTauri. Prior to CenTauri, Mr. Kelly served as Vice President and General Counsel for Gray Hawk Systems Inc. and its successor ManTech-Gray Hawk. Mr. Kelly was also a founder of two successive technology companies in the wireless mobile services industry and had also directed the government business group of ORBCOMM, the world's first low-Earth orbit satellite communications service. Prior to entering the private sector, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Drug Enforcement) where he also served as Deputy Chairman of the nation's Border Interdiction Committee. Before his appointment to the Pentagon, he served on the White House staff as General Counsel, Office of Administration, Executive Office of the President (EOP). Previously, while on active duty, he served in the White House Military Office as Special Assistant for Operations Policy.From National Journal. Sep 1, 2007. (Vol. 39, Iss. 35; pg. 59)Mr. Kelly served in the U.S. Coast Guard for nearly ten years as both a lawyer and in operational and special assignments and also served in the Coast Guard Reserve for an additional thirteen years. He is a member of the Massachusetts and Virginia Bar.
For Robert Kelly, national security is a family affair. His son, Brendan Kelly, is a lieutenant junior grade in the Navy and is heading to Iraq in October. His daughter, Erin Kelly, is involved with the Homeland Security Department through her job at Booz Allen Hamilton, a global consulting firm. And Kelly himself is a managing partner at CenTauri Solutions, a small Alexandria, Va.-based consulting firm that does work for the Pentagon, DHS, and the broader intelligence community. Now he is about to take on die role of senior adviser on homeland/national security at the Reform Institute, a think tank with roots in campaign finance issues that has recently extended into other areas. Kelly says that joining the institute was a chance to "keep my fingers in the policy world, and I've been a policy guy for a long time." Kelly explains, "I think what really attracted me to the Reform Institute is the fact that they're very much a centrist organization and focus on solutions, rather than what everybody else seems to be doing, which is a lot of hand-wringing about the problems." The institute's advisory committee includes Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, and former Sens. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., and David Boren, D-Okla.The second resume is interesting. Wouldn't that place him in the White House with Poindexter and Ollie North?Kelly, a 58-year-old native of Boston, joined the Coast Guard in Portsmouth, Va., in 1980 as a lawyer. "I probably would have done a full career on active duty in the Coast Guard, I enjoyed it so much," he says. "But the White House made me an offer I couldn't refuse." Kelly was assigned to the military office staff in the White House during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also served Bush 41 as general counsel for the White House Office of Administration. He later worked under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for drug enforcement, plans, and support, a job that entailed frequent trips to Central and South America. Kelly eventually spent a number of years in the private sector, co-founding CenTauri Solutions in 2006. -G.S.
He goes to law school, then goes in the Coast Guard in 1980 as an attorney when he is about 30 years old. Then he ends up on the military staff at the White House staff during Reagan and stays in that military capacity through the beginning of GHWB term (which started Jan 1989) but ends up as WH General Counsel. And also flips over to DoD with Cheney working as a deputy in drug enforcement (leaving by 1992 and Clinton). I wonder who he worked under at DoD--I think it would be the Asst Secy of Defense for Policy and Drug Enformcement? Frequent trips to Central and South America.... that would be the Noriega years, right?
>>>>Wouldn’t that place him in the White House with Poindexter and Ollie North?
I didn’t follow that, reword?
Um........sounds like it just might well be, Cal.....and we know that Ollie is backing McRino.....saying, "I cannot sit silently while my fellow conservatives do to John McCain what GOP "moderates" did to me," which, of course, comes right back to......Noriega.
...thus raising the question: Can there possibly be anything else that could make McCain any more unacceptable to true conservatives than he already is?
Robert W. Kelly is a Founder and Managing Partner of CenTauri. Prior to CenTauri, Mr. Kelly served as Vice President and General Counsel for Gray Hawk Systems Inc. and its successor ManTech-Gray Hawk.
Well, lookie here! Robert Kelly on the receiving end of this little scandal.
"Homeland Security Expert" -- pffft! Looks like another Brent Wilkes, to me.
Capitol Crooks (US News and World Report, 9/17/06)
It started with the bribery indictment of California Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham,
but before it's over, a sprawling investigation into a Pentagon contractor called MZM
could snare some of Washington's most powerful inside players...a massive corruption investigation involving [Mitchell] Wade, MZM, and [Randy "Duke] Cunningham. The former eight-term Republican congressman from California pleaded guilty last November to accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes and favors from Wade; his mentor, Brent Wilkes, a San Diego-based defense contractor; and two other "unindicted coconspirators."
"A huge spider web." Cunningham "earmarked" millions of dollars in defense . Cunningham now is serving an eight-year prison term, while Wade, 46, has pleaded guilty to paying Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes and is cooperating with prosecutors.
(snip)
• Wade made it appear that his employees were working for federal agencies in order to obtain their security clearances and used his connections to expedite them, MZM sources say. He urged employees not to disclose trips abroad, as required by law, and failed to disclose personal assets in Panama, another legal infraction.
• Wade had a highly classified Pentagon budget document lying on his desk. Prosecutors say Wade's extraordinary access gave him "insight" into the Defense Department's "bargaining position" and allowed MZM to "squeeze top dollar" out of a key proposal.
• Wade's close ties to former senior officials of a Pentagon agency, the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which helps identify and thwart terrorists and spies, are also being examined. So is his relationship with a defense contractor called Gray Hawk Systems Inc. Gray Hawk obtained several lucrative and questionable contracts from CIFA, which it then shared with MZM. Three senior CIFA officials with influence over the contracting process left the agency and joined Gray Hawk. The company's owner, Harry "Pete" Howton, sold it last year for $100 million cash and has since created a new company, Kingfisher Systems Inc.
Through Gray Hawk, Wade won tens of millions of dollars in subcontracts on CIFA work. Investigators believe Wade sought out insiders at CIFA for tips on upcoming agency projects, which he then used to craft earmarks for Cunningham, who allegedly inserted them into appropriations bills and then pressured Pentagon officials to award the contracts to Gray Hawk and MZM. Howton, the former CEO of Gray Hawk and current CEO of Kingfisher, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
(snip)
In the fall of 2002, Burtt asked a team of private contractors, including MZM, to evaluate CIFA's unclassified and classified networks, installed by MZM's prime contractor, Gray Hawk. Defense Department rules require that even its unclassified day-to-day business must be handled within the Pentagon's secure .mil domain. But the evaluation team learned that Gray Hawk had built a .net commercial-type intranet instead. Separately, the team also discovered that most CIFA intelligence analysts lacked access to classified intelligence data, including situation reports of potential terrorist threats, stored in secured classified networks. "My comment was," a team member told U.S. News, "if these networks were airplanes, they would be crashing." But senior Gray Hawk officials, who were nervous and angry about the evaluation, repeatedly blocked the team members from giving Burtt an honest assessment, the team member said.
Around this same time, prosecutors say, Cunningham earmarked $6.3 million for projects "to benefit" CIFA in the fiscal 2003 legislation and told a fellow congressman not to make any decision that would hurt "his two top priorities," namely, Wade and Wilkes.
(snip)
Contractor [Mitchell] Wade pleads guilty in Cunningham bribery scandal (MZM, Inc.)
Defense contractor Mitchell J. Wade pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiring to funnel more than $1 million in bribes to former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Wade, 46, admitted to his part in a payoff scheme intended to win federal contracts for his firm, MZM Inc., that included an attempt to bribe a Pentagon official. ... [More articles on Wade]
Poway contractor guilty of bribing Cunningham (Brent Wilkes)
In addition to Wilkes and Cunningham, the investigation into the bribery ---- spawned by a newspaper story in 2005 ---- netted charges against three other men: two men, including [Mitchell] Wade, who pleaded guilty to a role in bribing the politician, and another man who still faces trial.
Feds call for 60-year sentence for Wilkes (defense contractor bribed Randy “Duke” Cunningham)