So there's been a huge amount of discussion about the NSA spying scandal, you can't have
missed it.
But the conversation has been focused on Edward Snowden and the NSA, but Edward Snowden didn't
actually work for the National Security Agency, he worked for a company called Booz Allen
Hamilton - a large, private American technology firm.
So how can these leaks, which have exposed NSA wrongdoing, come from an employee of a
private company?
Well, when we started to look into it we realised it's a pretty interesting story.
So let's start first with the company themselves.
It's been estimated that 99% of their income comes from government contracts.
In 2012, they had a revenue of $5.86 billion but 23% of their contracts come from America's
'intelligence community' which is made up of 17 different intelligence departments.
You could say that Booz Allen Hamilton are specialists in winning government intelligence
contracts, so how do they do that?
Well, again, that's an interesting story.
We'll start with this guy, Mike McConnell.
Between 1992 and 1996 Mike McConnell was the Director of the National Security Agency,
so when Mike McConnell retired from the NSA he was offered a job at, you guessed it, Booz
Allen Hamilton.
He brought with him all of his government contacts and he was soon promoted to Senior
Vice President of his new company.
Well, Mike McConnell left Booz Allen Hamilton in 2007, because George Bush, who was President
at the time, named him as the Director of National Intelligence.
The Direction of National Intelligence oversees the seventeen members of America's 'Intelligence
Community'.
Again, the very same community that Booz Allen specialises in servicing.That's people like
the CIA, the NSA and a whole bunch of agencies you've probably never heard of.
They all report to the Director of National Intelligence, who reports back to, and advises
the President.
At this time, McConnell was also that chairman of the board for the "Intelligence and National
Security Alliance".
It's a public policy forum, which according to the Washington Post, was "working to introduce
a growing network of private contractors, large and small, to government intelligence
agencies" and no one seemed to have a problem with this.
"The plan to continue the strong emphasis on integration of the community can better
serve all of our customers.
That will mean better sharing of information, increased focus on customer needs and service,
improved security processes and deeper penetration of our targets."
Just four months after leaving Booz Allen Hamilton and starting his new job as Director
of National Intelligence, one of Mike McConnell's staff was giving a presentation at an intelligence
industry conference, and in the presentation was this slide.
It literally marks the date of September 11th, and shows how contracts and spending increased
dramatically after the event.
The presentation also showed that 70% of the annual budget, which was $60 billion at the
time, was spent on contracts with private firms.
A later slide cheerily proclaimed, "We can't spy...if we can't buy"
Under McConnell, the total intelligence budget, of the government, in case you're confused,
increased from $63.5 billion in 2007, to $76.2 billion in 2009, after which he left the Government
and headed straight back to Booz Allen Hamilton where he is still Vice Chairman.
Booz Allen Hamilton actually boast on their own website about the influence Mike McConnell
had saying,"As the DNI he managed the expansive national Intelligence Community -- an organization
of over 100,000 people, and an annual global enterprise budget of over $47B -- and had
extensive interactions with the White House, the President's Cabinet, Congress, international
leaders, and the US business community."
If you think the story ends there, then you're mistaken.
The current Director of National Intelligence is a guy called James Clapper, and wouldn't
you know it, he was previously an executive at Booz Allen Hamilton.
He's the guy who sat in front of Congress and said this, "Does the NSA collect any type
of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"
"No, sir."
"It does not."
"Not wittingly."
So the people appointed to the highest positions in the American intelligence agencies go and
work in the highest positions of American Intelligence industries.
Then they go back to government, and then they go back to the American Intelligence
industry.
You have to wonder if these guys are able to set policy whilst they're in government,
then exploit that policy financially whilst they're in a private company.
And it isn't isolated to these two examples either.
James Woolsey used to be head of the Central Intellgience Agency, he was formerly Senior
Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton
Melissa Hathaway is a former executive at Booz Allen, she used to work for Mike McConnell
during the Bush administration.
Richard J Wilhelm, Executive Vice President of Booz Hamilton, he was formerly Executive
Director for Intelligence Community Affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency.
But once again, the story does not end here.
Booz Allen Hamilton is actually owned, outright, by a company called The Carlyle Group, and
this is where things get even more bizarre.
But you'll have to wait until part two in this series which is coming out very soon.
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