Carlyle Group and Privatized Intelligence




By: David Shankle

Since 9/11, most people are at least somewhat familiar with Carlyle Group. Carlyle Group is a private equity investment firm with investors in 68 countries. They became the object of controversy when it was revealed that they were affiliated with George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush as well as Shafig Bin Laden (older brother of Osama Bin Laden). This doesn't address the numerous employees Carlyle Group has released from former Chief of Staff Mack McLarty to former Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci. This trend of hiring powerful government figures has earned Carlyle Group the nickname Ex-Presidents Club.


Carlyle Group pioneered a movement of privatizing National Defense spending which has led to corporate heads making their way behind closed doors with elected officials in Washington. Essentially, these private companies make money (for instance, Carlyle Group is worth $81.1 Billon) off war and conflict. They truly are the Rothchilds of the 21st century.

The problem lies therein. The entire U.S. Intelligence Community is comprised of 16 agencies and an annual budget of almost $50 Billion. Whereas a government should ideally have a nation's best interest in mind, the private sector's one and only objective is to make money. Private defense contractors now hold positions that were once reserved for appointed government officials. We all remember the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. The United States military acted in a way seemingly out of character. What the American people were never told was that the chain of command did not end with military personnel, but in many cases with private contractors from CACI International worried about how the outcome of the interrogations would affect their business instead of humane treatment of prisoners. But I digress. This is unfortunately the tip of the iceberg.

Earlier this month, Carlyle Group purchased Booz Allen Hamilton for $2.5 Billion. Most people have never heard of Booz Allen Hamilton, and yet they have influenced much of our government's public policy. Booz Allen Hamilton was the architects of the SWIFT surveillance program which secretly monitered financial transactions and bank accounts around the world. They were also the authors of the operation titled Pioneer Groundbreaker in which the NSA wiretapped phone calls of civilians as well as monitered internet activity, e-mails, and text messages without court approval. And along with the two no-bid contracts awarded to Booz Allen Hamilton by the U.S. government, they can quite aptly be referred to as the Halliburton of the intelligence community.

This revolving door between the U.S. government and war profiteers only comes to full circle when we look at our own official intelligence community. The United States Director of National Intelligence (also former Director of NSA), John Michael McConnell, has spearheaded some of our most controversial intelligence programs. Incidentally, before his work as a civil servant, McConnell was Senior Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton.

Knowing this, it should be no surprise that 70% of our entire intelligence budget ($50 Billion) is going to private contractors. Like Blackwater, they rarely observe domestic or international laws if they can find a detour around them. It simply isn't profitable enough. So when the Bush family as well as hundreds of other politicians and public figures support countless wars with no regard for human life or even their own political careers, we can't be too hard on them. After all, they have bosses to answer to just like everyone else.




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