OutsourcingOutsourcing IntelligenceIntelligence inin IraqIraq AA CorpWatchCorpWatch ReportReport onon L-3/TitanL-3/Titan Updated December 2008 with Recommendations from AAMNESTYMNESTY IINTERNATIONALNTERNATIONAL Outsourcing Intelligence in Iraq A CorpWatch Report on L-3/Titan Updated December 2008 with Recommendations from AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INTRODUCTION 4 PART ONE: THE INTERROGATORS 6 History of L-3 6 Intelligence Contracts 6 Bad Hiring and Training Practices 7 Box: CACI’s Interrogation Contracts 8 Box: Surveillance Scandal 11 Prison Quotas 10 Task Force 145 12 PART TWO: THE TRANSLATORS 13 History of Titan 13 Translation Contracts 13 A: Human Rights Abuses 15 B: Criminal Charges: Ahmed Mehalba, Noureddine Malki, Faheem Mousa Salam 17 C: Taking Part in Combat? 18 Casualty Rate 20 Injured Workers 20 Penalizing the Company 21 CONCLUSION AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS To States and Private Military and Security SERGEANT WAINE HALEY,133RD MOBILE PUBLIC AFFAIRS DETACHMENT ON NOV. 10, 2005. ON NOV. DETACHMENT MOBILE PUBLIC AFFAIRS HALEY,133RD WAINE SERGEANT Titan translator and soldier on night raid in Tikrit. Companies Regarding Interrogation and Translation Contracting 25 Cover Photo: Prisoners working at Camp Cropper, the main U.S. detention facility in Baghdad, by Specialist Michael May (Task Force 134 — Detainee Operations), April 3, 2008. ENDNOTES 29 Introduction Prisoners grips fence at Camp Cropper, the main U.S. detention facility in Baghdad. Taken by Specialist Michael May (Task Force 134—Detainee Operations) on April 6th, 2008 hen U.S. troops or embassy officials want to (PMSC) in the United States, and is a spin-off of defense track and investigate Iraqis—such as interro- industry giants Lockheed Martin and Loral. Based in Wgating those accused of terrorism, doing Manhattan, it is headquartered on the upper floors of a background checks on potential employees, or even to skyscraper on Third Avenue, a few blocks from the chat with ordinary citizens on the street—the principal United Nations. The bulk of this critical interrogation intermediary is a relatively obscure company named L-3, and translation work is done by a recently acquired L-3 that is just over a decade old. Although it is not as well subsidiary: Titan Corporation of San Diego. known as companies such as Halliburton, it is now the The company’s principal role is to recruit, vet, hire, ninth-largest private military and security company place, and pay these contract linguistic personnel. The A CORPWATCH REPORT ON L-3/TITAN 4 U.S. military oversees and directs the day-to-day work, the financial details of the contract, but over the last two but L-3 and Titan play a key role in staffing and main- years, L-3 officials have failed to return repeated email and taining what was once considered an inherently govern- phone requests to discuss their work. Military officials mental function: the acquisition and analysis of human have refused to discuss actual implementation. “We’re not intelligence during war. All told, L-3 and Titan are now going to talk about intelligence contracts,” Lieutenant being paid approximately $1 billion of U.S. taxpayer Colonel Barry Johnson, spokesman for the Multi-National money a year for this work, with a cumulative total ap- Force Command in Baghdad, told CorpWatch.5 proaching $3 billion since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.1 Our research indicates that there are significant prob- L-3/Titan is now probably the second largest employer lems with these contracts for the conduct what is known in Iraq (after Kellogg, Brown & Root—now KBR—a for- as human intellgence, or HUMINT, services, notably with mer Halliburton subsidiary) with almost 7,000 translators the hiring and vetting of contract interrogators and trans- and more than 300 intelligence specialists.2 Unfortu- lators by PMSCs, many of whom are unqualified or nately, a number of the personnel hired by L-3 and Titan poorly qualified for this critical and complex linguistic —some barely competent, and several previously in- work. This failure has the potential to seriously compro- dicted for criminal acts—has resulted in heightened risk mise national security and human rights—as several ex- of human rights abuses. These problems could be easily amples cited in this report indicate. avoided through proper, thorough vetting and training The reasons that information on the performance of practices. the contractor is hard to come by are two-fold: govern- The company also has the highest rate of casualties of ment rules on business confidentiality intended to pro- any civilian contractor in the country (at least 280 have tect a company’s competitive edge, coupled with the blind died so far3), with Titan personnel dying at a rate that is belief that secrecy is the handmaiden of intelligence. far greater than that of the U.S. military itself. This toll is CorpWatch believes that excessive secrecy on contrac- mostly because Titan’s Iraqi personnel face threats of as- tor performance is neither necessary nor good practice sassination for working with the military. Both Iraqi and because it leads to a lack of accountability and thus po- U.S. hires have also complained that Titan has failed to tentially to bad intelligence. Instead, there should be provide proper medical support to employees injured in transparency in the contracting process, and contracts the course of duty. Employees’ basic labor right to a safe should be made publicly available, with strictly limited and healthful workplace is being violated when they are exceptions for classified information. We recommend put in harm’s way and not given adequate medical care. that the U.S. Congress investigate what oversight actually In recent months, L-3/Titan’s work has been criticized exists for the work of L-3/Titan (and its sub-contractors) harshly by the military for poor performance, and it has and how effective this oversight is, precisely because these lost its biggest contract. Nonetheless, company executives companies have acquired inherently governmental func- cut a deal with the winning bidder and the U.S. military tions. Finally, we urge the U.S. government to strengthen to keep part of the work. The failures in Iraq are the most contracting rules and to crack down on human rights public face of this contract; reports suggest that the com- abuses immediately when there are credible reports and pany also provides intelligence services such as translation allegations, and for the company to compensate the to lesser known agencies such as the Counterintelligence workers and their families for injury and death. Field Activity (CFA) and the Naval Criminal Investigative This CorpWatch investigative report is interspersed Service (NCIS).4 with recommendations from Amnesty International to In writing this report, CorpWatch has been fortunate improve government and company respect for and pro- to draw directly from the experiences of numerous mili- tection of human rights in the context of outsourcing tary and civilian interrogators and translators who have government, military and military support functions, come forward as anonymous whistle-blowers. The U.S. particularly in zones of armed conflict and weak gover- military has responded to some information requests on nance. ◆ A CORPWATCH REPORT ON L-3/TITAN 5 OUTSOURCING INTELLIGENCE IN IRAQ Part One: The Interrogators History of L-3 chief of staff for the U.S. -3 was created as a Army, among others.3 spin-off of several In the last decade, this LLockheed Martin new company has ousted and Loral manufacturing other older firms from the units that specialized in list of top-ten military con- advanced electronics. These tractors to join the “major small business units were gorillas.” In the last few years, having a hard time selling L-3 has been aggressively their products to such taking over prime contracts, major military manufac- especially in the field of in- turers as General Dynam- Omar El Memshawi, contract interpreter and interrogator, telligence. In 2007 alone it ics, Northrup Grumman, on night raid in Tikrit. Nov. 10, 2005, by Sergeant Waine Haley of the won $10.3 billion in Penta- Boeing, and Raytheon, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. gon contracts, representing because of perceived competition with Lockheed. L-3 was almost three-quarters of L-3’s total business.4 created as an independent “mezzanine” or middle com- pany, not linked to Lockheed or Loral, that would supply Intelligence Contracts advanced electronics to anyone.1 On July 8, 2005, L-3 subsidiary Government Services In- The deal was engineered in 1997 by Wall Street invest- corporated (GSI) won a contract to provide more than ment bankers working for Lehman Brothers, with the help 300 intelligence specialists for an operation that spans 22 of two former Loral executives, whose names coinciden- military bases in Iraq. The $426.5 million contract was tally began with the letter L: Frank Lanza and Robert awarded by Cindy Higginbotham, operations chief of Di- LaPenta. (L-3 stands for Lanza, LaPenta and Lehman). vision B of the U.S. Army Contracting Agency office at Lanza told a reporter at the time that their plan was the Amelia Earhart Hotel in Wiesbaden, Germany.5 The “to build one big company that would be like a high-tech contract is scheduled to run out in July 2009, although Home Depot” competing against the “major gorillas” the Pentagon has the option of canceling the contract this such as Lockheed and Northrop Grumann.2 coming July. The company quickly expanded through an aggressive GSI’s partners on the intelligence contract include acquisition strategy of buying up some 70 small, advanced Florida-based, disabled-owned Espial Services and Vir- technology manufacturers. As it grew, it recruited big ginia-based Gray Hawk Systems. Other L-3 subcontrac- names to its senior management and board: Gen.