BY: ANDREW KOCH JDW Washington Bureau Chief
Jane's Defence Weekly
AMERICAS, THE; Vol. 36; No. 6
August 8, 2001
Washington DC
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has chosen a team led by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to meet its information technology (IT) needs under a dramatically new management approach for the agency.
Under Project Groundbreaker, potentially worth $2 billion over 10 years, the 'Eagle Alliance' team of CSC, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman's Logicon unit, TRW, and CACI International will help the NSA update its IT infrastructure and attempt to make its multitude of incompatible computer networks into a seamless system.
The NSA, the part of the US intelligence community tasked with collecting, processing and disseminating signals intelligence (SIGINT) and conducting electronic eavesdropping, has been struggling to update its ageing IT infrastructure.
Project Groundbreaker is a strong signal that the agency is now willing to reach out to industry for help and is a major change from the NSA's previous practice where everything was done in-house.
The move is designed to allow NSA officials to focus on core tasks such as determining how to keep up with changing technology such as fibre-optic communications and commercially available encryption software, and to process the massive flood of electronic data it intercepts everyday.
It "allows us to refocus assets on the agency's core missions of providing foreign signals intelligence and protecting US national security-related information systems", NSA Director Lt Gen Michael Hayden said.
He told Jane's Defence Weekly last year that the NSA requires significant resources to develop critically needed new technologies, such as state-of-the-art capabilities to overcome enemy encryption techniques and web-based SIGINT systems capable of processing the vast amount of intercepted communications quickly (JDW 22 March 2000).
In addition to modernising the NSA's infrastructure, the effort could also set a precedent for the privatisation of IT functions at other federal government agencies such as the Departments of Energy and Defense.
Just kidding, Pal. Good to see ya. Stay well and vigilant....FRegards
He represented Bush in SEC case over sale of Harken Energy stockPresident Bush has chosen as ambassador to Saudi Arabia a Dallas attorney who represented him against insider trading allegations arising from his sale of stock in Harken Energy Co. 11 years ago.
Robert Jordan, a founding partner of the Dallas law office of Baker Botts, represented Mr. Bush during a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into the allegations involving Mr. Bush's lucrative sale of stock in Harken, where he had been a director.
The SEC found no merit in the charges. Critics have noted that Mr. Bush's father was president during the investigation and a longtime supporter, Richard Breeden, was the commission's chairman.
Mr. Bush has said he needed to sell his 212,000 shares of Harken stock for nearly $850,000, which later plummeted in value, in order to finance his purchase of an interest in the Texas Rangers baseball club.
He invested about $600,000 in the team and earned nearly $15 million when it was sold in 1998.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Jordan would represent the United States in the capital of one of its key allies in the Middle East.
"He understands the important relationship that exists between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and I am confident he will be an outstanding ambassador," Mr. Bush said in announcing his selection.
In a brief telephone interview Friday, Mr. Jordan said he was honored by the appointment, but could not discuss it in any detail until he is confirmed.
In the Senate, Allison Dobson, a spokeswoman for Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., whose foreign relations subcommittee will screen Mr. Jordan's nomination, said a staff review had just begun and any hearing was weeks off.
At the White House, deputy press secretary Scott McClellan said Mr. Bush has confidence in Mr. Jordan and foresaw no problems with his Senate confirmation.
"The president believes Mr. Jordan will do an outstanding job representing the United States," Mr. McClellan said.
Early in the new Bush administration, there have been reports of strained relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia over the continued violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Just last week, it was reported that former President George Bush had called Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to reassure him that his son was determined to "do the right thing" in the region.[Am I the only one who thinks it unseemly for the President's dad to be making comfort calls?]
Mr. Jordan, 55, is a director of the State Bar of Texas and a past president of the Dallas Bar Association.
He is a Navy veteran and a graduate of Duke University. He also has a master's degree in government and international relations from the University of Maryland and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.
A corporate lawyer familiar with the courtroom, Mr. Jordan has handled a wide range of domestic and international cases. His Houston-based firm, Baker Botts, deals heavily with energy and technology issues and has a branch office in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
James Baker, who was secretary of state in the administration of Mr. Bush's father and treasury secretary under President Ronald Reagan, also is a partner in the firm.
Although the White House has announced Mr. Jordan's selection, his nomination has not been formally submitted to the Senate. Mr. Jordan said he is still working on the voluminous personal and financial disclosures that are required for such appointments.
Libya hopes to make further investments in Italy after taking a stake in newly-privatised Banca di Roma, Libyan central bank governor Tahar Jehimi was quoted as saying on Thursday. "Services, health and telecommunications are the sectors which interest us, apart of course from energy,'' Jehimi said in an interview with the daily newspaper La Repubblica. The Libyan Arab Foreign Bank took a five percent interest and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Jeddah-based National Commercial Bank a combined eight percent in Banca di Roma, Italy's second largest banking group. [Reuter]
FRANK J. GAFFNEY, JR.
Director of the Center for Security Policy
Before a Joint Hearing of the
SENATE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE AND THE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
2 February 1989
".....I would strongly urge, as well, that the Congress look carefully at the means whereby countries like Libya obtain the financing by which they can buy chemical weapons-related facilities. It seems quite likely that allied banks and companies have made such procurements possible through their credit arrangements with and/or deposits in the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank. Swift action aimed at denying the Libyans such sources of revenue could have a dramatic effect on their ability to proceed with a CW program....."