ExAFO 0
Appreciate your input. Did you read the article? Sounds like the higher ups get a lot more than their gov pay!
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
QuoteI just finished reading this article from the March issue of Vanity Fair, and attach a copy here for your rainy day reading.
QuoteMega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government with brawn. But the biggest, most powerful of the "body shops"—SAIC, which employs 44,000 people and took in $8 billion last year—sells brainpower, including a lot of the "expertise" behind the Iraq war.
The largest government contractor you've never heard of: a company known simply by the nondescript initials SAIC (for Science Applications International Corporation). SAIC maintains its headquarters in San Diego, but its center of gravity is in Washington, D.C. With a workforce of 44,000, it is the size of a full-fledged government agency—in fact, it is larger than the departments of Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development combined...SAIC has been awarded more individual government contracts than any other private company in America. The contracts number not in the dozens or scores or hundreds but in the thousands: SAIC currently holds some 9,000 active federal contracts in all. More than a hundred of them are worth upwards of $10 million apiece. Two of them are worth more than $1 billion. The company's annual revenues, almost all of which come from the federal government, approached $8 billion in the 2006 fiscal year, and they are continuing to climb.
What is depressing to me is the lack of accountability for these activities, and the revolving door between govt agencies and SAIC (the politicians who approve these contracts become employees of SAIC and go back to govt posts again....)
Any of you had dealings with these guys?
Anvil, your comments?
Marc
Yes, I've heard of them. I'm one of SAIC's 44,000 employees.
(I work for a branch of the company called SAIC- Frederick, Inc.)
Speed Racer
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QuoteI'm one of SAIC's 44,000 employees
So, any comments about the article that you can share publicly with us?
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
Guest
QuoteI just finished reading this article from the March issue of Vanity Fair, and attach a copy here for your rainy day reading.
QuoteMega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government with brawn. But the biggest, most powerful of the "body shops"—SAIC, which employs 44,000 people and took in $8 billion last year—sells brainpower, including a lot of the "expertise" behind the Iraq war.
The largest government contractor you've never heard of: a company known simply by the nondescript initials SAIC (for Science Applications International Corporation). SAIC maintains its headquarters in San Diego, but its center of gravity is in Washington, D.C. With a workforce of 44,000, it is the size of a full-fledged government agency—in fact, it is larger than the departments of Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development combined...SAIC has been awarded more individual government contracts than any other private company in America. The contracts number not in the dozens or scores or hundreds but in the thousands: SAIC currently holds some 9,000 active federal contracts in all. More than a hundred of them are worth upwards of $10 million apiece. Two of them are worth more than $1 billion. The company's annual revenues, almost all of which come from the federal government, approached $8 billion in the 2006 fiscal year, and they are continuing to climb.
What is depressing to me is the lack of accountability for these activities, and the revolving door between govt agencies and SAIC (the politicians who approve these contracts become employees of SAIC and go back to govt posts again....)
Any of you had dealings with these guys?
Anvil, your comments?
Marc
Did you see "60 Minutes" two weeks ago? That was about the drug lobbyists. LOTS of congressional staffers have crossed over to become lobbyists for the pharmaceuticals, and the amount of money involved makes SAIC's contracts look like peanuts by comparison.
Everybody's all over bad ol' Halliburton about so-called "war profiteering", but the REAL abuse is on the social services side of the House.
mh
.
"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."
dorbie 0
It's a wall.
No, it's a spear.
Nonsense, obviously it's a snake.
As snake? Don't be silly, it's a tree.
You're all wrong, it's a fan.
It's nothing like a fan, it's a rope.
No, it's a spear.
Nonsense, obviously it's a snake.
As snake? Don't be silly, it's a tree.
You're all wrong, it's a fan.
It's nothing like a fan, it's a rope.
Are you commenting that a reporter can read the SAIC story from many angles due to the amorphous nature of SAIC and its secrecy, or ?
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
QuoteGreat people, worked with them in NM when I was still in the AF. 90% are retired military who are doing the same job they did before retirement....And unlike the Asshats at Halliburton, they're not making 10x their previous salaries.
I wouldn't go that far. It depends on the job and their background. Also, not everyone at SAIC is former military. I try to recruit out of SAIC whenever I need individuals with security clearance, esp if they come from a network security background. I've seen both overpriced and underpriced people there.
I'm much less concerned about something like SAIC than I am the 150 people from Pat Robertson's law school that work in the Bush Admin....you know, the school that is trying to break down the wall between church and state.
_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....
mnealtx 0
Quoteyou know, the school that is trying to break down the wall between church and state.
Yeah, all those new laws about mandatory attendance and people being forced at gunpoint to attend services... horrendous!!
Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706
I sub-contracted some work to them once about 6 years ago. The price was steep, and I ended up having to redo all of the work myself when their product sucked. I stick with other contractors now.
Blues,
Dave
Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)
(drink Mountain Dew)
Elisha 1
I have - my sister works for them. 
QuoteQuoteI'm one of SAIC's 44,000 employees
So, any comments about the article that you can share publicly with us?
Um, I don't know much about the military stuff.
I do research on HIV. We are doing basic research that has been farmed out to us by NIH. In fact, we're on their email addresses.
You see, SAIC is a big company involved in a lot of projects, only some of which are involved in the military.
My little group has discovered a protein secreted by human neutrophils that naturally cuts in half the production of HIV be macrophages in the human body.
Other groups knew about this protein, but their versions seemed to INCREASE HIV production. We have found evidence that their versions may have been contaminated by LPS, which increases HIV in immune cells.
Anyway, it's pretty exciting. What we do has nothing to do with the military, but I would be proud to say that our research is AT LEAST the equal of anything DIRECTLY funded as a government agency.
I am a scientist first and foremost. And just because I work for SAIC, a contractor for the government, does NOT mean that I am holding anything back!
Speed Racer
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ExAFO 0
Whassa neutrophil?
Illinois needs a CCW Law. NOW.
Yo mama on acid.QuoteWhassa neutrophil?
No, actually, just go to wikipedia or something.
Speed Racer
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Now that is COOL research, keep up the good work!
mp
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
mp
"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton
Icon134 0
I've heard of them... (so doesn't that make your subject line false... 
)
but seriously... the money which goes to a contractor (as in a company) doesn't just go to pay people. Some is certainly necessary to maintain equipment... among other things... now that's not to say that some contractors are not tremendously overpaid (expensive).
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...
Nothing intended here but.....
How do you know this?
Facts to back it up?
Thanks
A job offer I got was the same as my O-3 pay. the same job in Iraq w/ Halliburton was easily four times that... I know guys who made E-4, got out and increased their salaries by 10x by working the same job in Iraq for Halliburton.