Private Property Seizures: Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the Army's Accomplice in Southeast Colorado

Deanna Spingola
July 11, 2008

Booz, Allen & Hamilton (hereafter Booz Allen), a privately held corporation owned by about 300 senior executives, is the Army's accomplice in their attempted private property seizure in southeast Colorado. Their expertise, they declare, is strategy and public sector mission effectiveness.

Booz Allen contracted with the Army for $500,000 to maneuver the ranchers out of their property rights. Skillful facilitators (provocateurs), despite their friendly demeanor, very likely use an advanced version of the deceptive Delphi Method, mind-games developed by the U.S. Air Force's RAND Project, financed by the Ford Foundation. Project RAND became the "premier think tank" and "purveyor of American imperialism" and facilitated the Cold War façade. Their activities contributed to the exponential growth of the military-industrial complex. RAND encouraged numerous U.S.-backed military dictatorships in third world countries. [1]

Booz Allen's professional provocateurs use psychologically-designed surveys in an alleged attempt to "gather opinions." In the Delphi technique, these activities are a subtle persuasion tactic to manipulate target groups into "accepting predetermined government policies" while giving the impression of being concerned and accountable to private needs. [2] If the first survey is unsuccessful, another survey requests that the respondents attempt to be more flexible in their answers. "When the series of surveys are accomplished, the respondents are told that the majority of respondents achieved a 'consensus' with whatever direction the pollers wanted in the first place." [3]

The same cast of politically-connected characters, with a determined agenda, functions in think tanks, as corporate heads and in government positions. Former trustees and/or researchers for RAND include: Donald Rumsfeld (1977-2001), Condoleezza Rice (1991-1997), Francis Fukuyama (1979-1980, 1983-1989), and Zalmay Khalilzad. [4] Rumsfeld was Chairman of RAND Corporation from 1981–1986. RAND "invented the theories that led two administrations to military escalation against North Vietnam." [5]

Booz Allen knows the financial/credit history, computer key-strokes, personality traits, political affiliations, friends, associates, medical issues, weaknesses and strengths of every single southeast Colorado rancher and will use that information for the army's objective — the seizure of private land. Their surveys, meetings, polls are a façade — citizen's input is irrelevant. For additional pressure, the Army claims they have a "willing seller" with 100,000 acres, perhaps a newly-arrived non-rancher strategically-placed in order to influence and alter the balance of opinions.

By 2006, the company had a global staff of 18,000 in thirty countries on six continents from more than one hundred offices with annual revenues of $3.7 billion. [6] Booz Allen has two divisions — commercial (based in New York) and government (based in McLean). More than 50 percent of Booz Allen's business consists of U.S. government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They are a "key adviser and prime contractor to all of the major U.S. intelligence agencies — the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Security Agency (NSA), the ultra-secret agency and the world's leading espionage organization ,[7] — as well as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Defense and most of the Pentagon's combatant commands." Many of Booz Allen's 300 vice presidents exploit the government/corporate revolving door of shared personnel. [8] See company profiles.

Booz Allen business dealings are revealing. On May 16, 2008, Booz Allen announced the sale of the majority of its U.S. government business division to the Carlyle Group (established 1987), a multibillion dollar private equity firm (no obligation to divulge financial data) for $2.54 billion, expected to be complete by mid-late 2008, "subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions." [9] Carlyle Group has had "investments with the Bin Laden family, and some extensive investments in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East." [10] In September 2007, the Mubadala Development Company, a sovereign wealth fund of the government of Abu Dhabi specializing in acquisitions, paid 1.35 billion for a 7.5% ownership stake in Carlyle. [11] The politically-connected, bi-partisan, buyout firm, Carlyle Group, stacked with former politicians/war profiteers ,[12] has massive assets.

George H. W. Bush joined Carlyle in 1993 and was the Senior Advisor to their Asia Advisory Board from April 1998 to October 2003. He resigned under pressure due to the company's massive Iraqi war profits. He retained his Carlyle stock and gave speeches on Carlyle's behalf for a $500,000 fee. Carlyle is notorious for buying defense companies and "doubling or tripling their value" due to abundant, frequently no-bid, defense contracts. In 2002, Carlyle "received $677 million in government contracts," and by Bush's 2003 Iraqi invasion, Carlyle contracts were worth $2.1 billion, netting sizeable profits for the investors — friends and family. [13]

Notables associated with Carlyle include: James Baker III, former U.S. Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, Staff member under George W. Bush; Frank C. Carlucci, Deputy Director of the CIA under Jimmy Carter; Richard Darman, former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under George H. W. Bush; Randal K. Quarles, former Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury under George W. Bush; Allan Gotlieb, Canadian ambassador to the United States; William Kennard, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Bill Clinton; Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Bill Clinton; Mack McLarty, White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton, President of Kissinger McLarty Associates and many others. [14]

From 1992-2000, numerous Bill Clinton scandals distracted the population which enabled politically-connected oil companies to seize complete control of the government. Oil oligarchy ownership of Congress precluded conviction of the perjured president, also applicable to future officials/criminals who would continue the privatization of government and asset seizure, including foreign and domestic land. [15] After 9/11, the take-over, using no-bid contracts and privatization, leaped forward. The war on terror, the creation of numerous new agencies and bureaucrats (to protect us) was never about freedom or security. All of it, the programs, the proposed PCMS expansion and Iraq reconstruction are all a colossal assault on the federal budget, facilitated by the government, using politically-connected, selectively efficient contractors who collect up-front who then frequently, depending on location and importance, sub-contract projects to unskilled workers who frequently never complete the work.

FEMA, a DHS agency, has outsourced (privatized) disaster and hurricane recovery planning to the politically-connected companies like Acquisition Solutions, Ashbritt and Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), founded in 1985. IEM partners with Booz Allen and Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's No. 1 contractor, who made millions upgrading NORAD (twice). Eighty percent of Lockheed's business is with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Lockheed is the largest provider of information technology (IT) services, systems integration, and training to the government. [16] Read more about the infamous military industrial complex and their lucrative contracts here. "The Department of Homeland Security, the arm of the federal government responsible for ensuring our safety in times of national emergency, has become little more than an arm of big business, a radical experiment in President Bush's brand of market-based government." [17]

John Michael McConnell was a Booz Allen Senior Vice President (1996-2006). [18] He was the NSA Director (1992-1996) and the Intelligence Director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1990-1992). [19] While McConnell was at Booz Allen, he led the "firm's support to the Presidential Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, focusing on the vulnerabilities of the banking and financial sector." After 9/11, Bush authorized the mining of banking records, purportedly on a limited basis, using the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). The CIA and the Treasury Department hired Booz Allen as an outside supervisory auditor. Amazing, considering Booz Allen's deep connections within the "U.S. government security establishment." It was definitely not a "genuine check" on the SWIFT program. [20][21][22]

Booz Allen Vice President Dov Zakheim (CFR), a Trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a Board Member of the World Affairs Councils of America ,[23] leads the firm's global defense business. From 2001 to April 2004, "he was Under Secretary of Defense (Controller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense." [24] The Pentagon, for over twenty years, had failed all financial audits, justification for Rumsfeld's military privatization when it was announced, on September 10, 2001, that $2.3 trillion was unaccounted for.

Zakheim allegedly co-authored Rebuilding America's Defenses, Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, the Project for the New American Century's (PNAC) position paper (published September 2000) which advocated the "necessity" of a Pearl-Harbor-like incident to mobilize the country into war with the Middle East. Since May 20, 2008, PNAC's website is not accessible and that 90-page PDF document is no longer available from that source. The (archived) PNAC Statement of Principles has twenty-five signatories. Seventeen (68%) of the twenty-five belong to the Council on Foreign Relations. Cheney (CFR Director) and Rumsfeld were signatories. [25]

Former CIA Director and current Chairman of Freedom House, R. James Woolsey (CFR), was a Booz Allen Vice President from July 2002 to February 2008. [26] He headed their "Global Assurance" division, which advises corporations on security issues. [27] He participated in the secretive North American Forum held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, September 12-14, 2006. [28] Wife, Suzanne H. Woolsey (CFR), joined the Board of Directors of Fluor Corp., an engineering and contracting firm, on February 3, 2004.

By August 2004, Fluor had a $1.6 billion Iraqi reconstruction contract. Fluor also raked in about $1.3 billion for reconstruction for Hurricane Katrina (August 23-29, 2005). [29] The storm displaced 1.5 million people and caused about $81.2 billion in damage, the costliest disaster in U.S. history. On September 26, 2005, Senator Mel Martinez hosted the Halliburton-sponsored "Katrina Reconstruction Summit" for no-Katrina-victims-need-apply contractors. Meanwhile, congress was investigating Halliburton for contract fraud. [30] Politically-connected private contractors are often awarded no-bid contracts — a veritable gift of taxpayer funds without competing with rival companies who might work better, faster and more economically.

Booz Allen Vice President, former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Keith Hall, also on the NASA Advisory Board, oversees GPS support for U.S. military interests, "a constellation of about two dozen U.S. government satellites. The Global Positioning System (GPS) was built by the DOD to aid in national security. Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) data provided by the GPS was intended to support defense operations such as precision strike capabilities." [31]

Booz Allen, a highly profitable public-private partner, is a primary partner in the NAFTA Kansas City SmartPort Project. [32][33] A main rail line will go through southeastern Colorado. See the SmartPort map; click on "Show Rail Lines" and "Show Highways." Booz Allen is creating a National Security Agency (NSA) database using records from illegal surveillance and data mining by AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. [34]

A one-year spending moratorium for the Piñon Canyon expansion was authored and sponsored by Representatives Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar which was included in the 2008 federal budget. It is difficult to reign in a private contractor — they are, after all, not under the jurisdiction of Congress. [35] Apparently, that spending ban does not apply to the Pentagon, a presidential cabinet agency. Booz Allen "operatives" and sub-contractors (Bernett Research) continue their "studies, focus groups, invitation-only meetings and telephone polls but have been under investigation by the Government Accountability Office, as requested by Musgrave on February 27, 2008. [36] That might be akin to one mafia family investigating criminality in another mafia family.

Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar (Rep. John Salazar's brother), unknown to the "land-owning family ranchers" have "sponsored legislation designed to facilitate expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS)." [37] This legislation, counterproductive to the spending ban, was included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 and authorized an "analysis by the Army" due by July. Additionally the bill included "amendments that will help curb encroachment around military bases," legislation that "is critical to our military installations in Colorado and to supporting our troops and their families." On Ken Salazar's web site: "Military installations, ranges and airspace throughout the country have been constrained by increased development, population growth and loss of habitat on non-military lands." Salazar has revealed his loyalties! Playing the patriotic card, he apparently fails to oppose the Army's private property "encroachment." He is a member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees. Salazar family dinners must be very interesting.

Senator Salazar seeks approval for his "contribution to conservation" through "the most recent Farm Bill." The ranchers are not impressed! "What kind of contribution to conservation is a battlefield on hundreds of thousands of acres of the largest native grassland left in the American Great Plains?" [38]

Marc Gerencser, Booz Allen's managing director of global government markets, claims that "scrutiny will not hurt the company's good standing. We follow all of the guidelines around ethics. We adhere to our core values so strongly and having a strong ethics program has been a big plus for us. In all of the actions we do, we can stand any test of scrutiny." [39] Not always, Mr. Gerencser, not always! The Pentagon pays Booz Allen millions to accomplish just one item on their perverse agenda — help the Army, the proverbial protectors of our freedoms, seize private property and destroy the livelihood of southeast Colorado ranchers.

NOTES:

[1] The RAND Corporation: America's University of Imperialism By Chalmers Johnson

[2] United Nations Global Strait Jacket by Joan Veon, pp. 355–357

[3] Ibid

[4] The RAND Corporation: America's University of Imperialism By Chalmers Johnson

[5] Ibid

[6] Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton by Tim Shorrock , Special to CorpWatch, March 8th, 2008

[7] The Total Information Awareness Project Lives On, Technology behind the Pentagon's controversial data-mining project has been acquired by NSA, and is probably in use, April 26, 2006

[8] Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton

[9] Booz Allen To Separate US Government and Global Commercial Business

[10] Corporate Crime Reporter, Interview With Dan Briody, Author Of The Iron Triangle: Inside The Secret World Of The Carlyle Group, (Wiley, 2003)

[11] Carlyle to Sell Stake to a Mideast Government By Andrew Ross Sorkin, September 21, 2007

[12] The Carlyle Group, Aerospace & Defense

[13] Congress Must Cut Off Bush Family War Profits by Evelyn Pringle, Global Research, April 10, 2007

[14] Carlyle Group, Wikipedia

[15] Black Gold, Chapter 4

[16] Arms Trade Resource Center

[17] Looting Homeland Security by Eric Klinenberg and Thomas Frank, December 15, 2005

[18] Intelligence officials believe Bush chose new Director in effort to darken Iran Intelligence Estimate, broaden domestic surveillance by Larisa Alexandrovna, January 8, 2007

[19] John Michael McConnell, Wikipedia,

[20] Intelligence officials believe Bush chose new Director in effort to darken Iran Intelligence Estimate, broaden domestic surveillance by Larisa Alexandrovna, January 8, 2007

[21] Booz Allen's Extensive Ties to Government Raise More Questions About SWIFT Surveillance Program, September 26, 2006

[22] Booz Allen Not An Independent Check On SWIFT Surveillance, A Memo by the American Civil Liberties Union and Privacy International, For the Article 29 Working Party of the European Commission, September 14, 2006

[23] World Affairs Councils of America, National Board Members

[24] Dr. Dov S. Zakheim — VP

[25] Project For A New American Century, The Real Foreign Policy Makers By Deanna Spingola, June 14, 2005

[26] R. James Woolsey — VP

[27] Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton by Tim Shorrock , CorpWatch, March 8, 2008

[28] Secret Rumsfeld Meeting To Implement North American Union

[29] Rebuilding: At What Cost And In Whose Image? by Rita J. King, Special to CorpWatch, August 16th, 2006

[30] Curbing Government Contractor Abuse, San Diego Union-Tribune By Charlie Cray, September 30, 2005

[31] Booz Allen Vice President Named to NASA Advisory Board

[32] Dov Zakheim '911' Link To North American Union's KC SmartPort

[33] Service Providers, Technology Partners

[34] Telecom Companies in Cahoots with Illegal Bush Administration Surveillance Programs by Tom Burghardt, Global Research, May 27, 2008

[35] Ranchers want Army records on expenses for planning By Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain, February 16, 2008

[36] Pushing the envelope Expansion-related activity sparks Musgrave's call for Piñon Canyon oversight By Michael de Yoanna

[37] Across the Fence, Mack Louden, May 19, 2008

[38] Ibid

[39] No. 13: Booz Allen, Quality over quantity, To counter scrutiny, Booz Allen puts ethics first By William Welsh

Deanna Spingola has been a quilt designer and is the author of two books. She has traveled extensively teaching and lecturing on her unique methods. She has always been an avid reader of non-fiction works designed to educate rather than entertain. She is active in family history research and lectures on that topic. Currently she is the director of the local Family History Center. She has a great interest in politics and the direction of current government policies, particularly as they relate to the Constitution.

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/spingola/080711