GreenBadger

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Note: Telecomix Blue Cabinet Wiki has added the topic of "Green Badgers" aka "Greedy Bastards" specific to surveillance tech vendors i.e. Abraxas. Please only add to the Wiki and this special page any additional "Green Badger" tech companies. Other Green Badger companies/contractors can be added to the ProjectPM Wiki.

General explanation of a "Green Badger"

A former CIA agent that has become a contractor for the agency is referred to as a "Green Badger" (GB), aka a "Greedy Bastard" referring the their increased salary, often four times greater than that of the government CIA agent or US Department of Defense (DoD) operative (DO) because they are no longer restricted to the Government Service (GS) pay scale. Besides making more money, a Green Badger does not have to play by the rules of the military code of conduct (because they are outside of the chain of command), thus being able to set up shop as a sort of private "contracted" army i.e. BlackWater, now Xie.

The government contractors got the color green, not because of the color of money, it is for the color of the identification badge that is issued to them. The green badge is worn when they are in a federal government building i.e. CIA buildings, The Pentagon.

"But the pace of the movement to private firms has recently reached alarming proportions. “At the CIA,” said the Los Angeles Times story, “poaching became such a problem that former Director Porter J. Goss had to warn several firms to stop recruiting employees in the agency cafeteria . . . . One recently retired case officer said he had been approached twice while in line for coffee.” (As I noted in my recent post about Blackwater, that firm's CEO, Erik Prince, has a “green badge” that allows him access to CIA installations, and he regularly meets with senior officials at the agency's headquarters.)" Harper's Magazine 2006

Green Badgers are also known to create IT companies, specializing in online "Intelligence" aka Surveillance/Spying/ Monitoring,Tracking, Cyber-Security, Data-Mining / Collection/ Retention / Analysis (BIG DATA). It is not unusual for Green Badgers to set up information security consultancies, either. Green Badger IT companies can be designers, manufacturers, vendors, distributors and resellers. Green Badger companies can be publicly traded, though often remain a private corporation for several reasons, including their need to be secretive regarding financing, investors and who their engineers and partners are i.e. IDEAL TECHNOLOGIES.

Excerpts of News Reports

"Employees of private corporations — "green badgers," in CIA parlance — provide sensitive services ranging from covert CIA operations in Iraq to recruiting and running spies. They also gather human intelligence on behalf of the CIA and analyze it, creating intelligence products used by the intelligence community and also shared with other branches of government." CBS News

"It's not just the uncertainty and the plunging morale that are causing case officers to pack it in, some say; today it's the lure of big money. Private contractors like Blackwater, Science Applications International Corp., and Abraxas, a company formed in 2001 by former CIA officials, are hiring even midlevel CIA employees for salaries of $200,000 or more. Abraxas, founded by former D.O. veteran Hollis Helms, has hired 200 former intelligence officers and has won awards in the past two years for being one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America. Its senior management is composed of former officials who left the CIA some years ago, including the CIA's former director of administration, its chief polygrapher, a former Africa division chief, and a China station chief. In an interview with Entrepreneur Weekly in November, Helms said,

"At one point, we calculated that our employees have over 3,000 years of experience in foreign intelligence."

Abraxas opened an office in China in 2004, expanding its offerings of "global risk mitigation services" to private and government clients. One of those services uses proprietary technology to detect suspected terrorists' surveillance of airports or industrial installations. Another provides business-intelligence units that perform "deception detection" with experts trained to spot physical and behavioral clues that someone is lying.

A particular irony of the current situation in the D.O. is that its personnel needs are so great that executives often turn to newly minted contractors, known as "green badgers," and invite them to return to work at the agency. As contractors, they generally cannot serve as supervisors, although exceptions can be made. Like regular case officers, the green badgers collect intelligence and serve as watch officers, but their administrative and mentoring talents are largely lost to the agency. Some contractors have reopened stations in countries where the CIA had closed them in the 1990s. Some see their reopening as a positive development except for the fact, as one agency veteran notes, that the taxpayers are "just paying more." Excerpt from US News & World Report Seeking Spies - Why the CIA is having such a hard time keeping its best By Linda Robinson and Kevin Whitelaw


"there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing. Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune, I'm told, of more than $42 billion a year. Intelligence professionals tell me that more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) -- the heart, brains and soul of the CIA -- has been outsourced to private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon... more than half the workforce in two key CIA stations in the fight against terrorism -- Baghdad and Islamabad, Pakistan -- is made up of industrial contractors, or "green badgers," in CIA parlance... Intelligence insiders say that entire branches of the NCS have been outsourced to private industry. These branches are still managed by U.S. government employees ("blue badgers") who are accountable to the agency's chain of command. But beneath them, insiders say, is a supervisory structure that's controlled entirely by contractors; in some cases, green badgers are managing green badgers from other corporations." Excerpt from - Washington Post PRIVATE SPIES - Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire By R.J. Hillhouse


"One former intelligence officer, who still works in government and was approached about becoming a contractor, said it's very possible that some contractors wouldn't have gone through the full CIA training program. The former officer spoke on the condition of anonymity.

There may be tremendous financial incentives for becoming a contractor. Known as "green badgers" for the color of their IDs, CIA contractors take various short-term assignments, sometimes for triple their government salaries. What was once a $40,000 a year government job could transition to an 18-month assignment, paying $150,000 or more.

Strickland, whose assignments included the CIA general counsel's office, said the CIA, like many government agencies and private companies, has turned to contractors as a financially effective way to bring personnel with special skills, such as interrogation, to the job." Excerpt from Associated Press CIA used some contractors for interrogations

Reports

  • 8.31.2007: DIA General Counsel: Green Badgers as Unreliable Employees By Dr. R.J. Hillhouse, The Spy Who Billed Me

Contractors, many of them former employees, are doing sensitive work, such as handling agents. A review of the practice has been ordered. By Greg Miller

  • 7.28.2006: The Outsourcing of U.S. Intelligence Analysis: Will it make us more or less safe?By Sebastian Abbot, News21 ]

List Green Badger Company Names

Note: This is a partial list. If you know of others, please list the company and the website url and/or the url webpage that identifies the company as a "Green Badger." This could include the webpage of board member bios that identifies members as former CIA, NSA or DoD.

Rent-A-Spy

The Spy Who Billed Me List includes.

"The use of contractors is especially heavy at the CIA. Abraxas Corp, a firm conveniently located near the agency in McLean, Virginia, and home to many former CIA veterans, creates false identities for an elite group of overseas case officers." Harper's Magazine

  • SpecTal a former subsidiary of L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. As of February 15, 2011, SpecTal, LLC operates as a subsidiary of BAE Systems Information Solutions, Inc.
  • OODA formerly TotaLintel.com


See also;

  • L-3 and Engility Corporation that was "Launched in July 2012 as a spin-off company of L-3 Communications" and previously known as MPRI

"More than half of all employees at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) are outside contractors, and the former head of the NCC, John Brennan, is now the CEO of Analysis Corp, which supplies contract analysts to the center. The use of contractors is especially heavy at the CIA." Harper's Magazine


Rent-A-Lobbyist

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