Jody Brown, Executive VP of CACI International, Inc., has sent me a letter in response to my In These Times article on the privatized Iraq War.
To refresh, these are the portions of the article that relate to CACI:
[In the Robert Greenwald documentary Iraq For Sale, a] former military interrogator at Abu Ghraib who worked next to corporate interrogators from CACI International describes his experience this way: "We were uncertain -- we knew what our chain of command was ... but what's the CACI chain of command?" As Salon.com's Mark Benjamin says, the Pentagon was "desperate" for intelligence, "panicked," and hired "a bunch of contractors who didn't know what they were doing." (CACI's sorry role in the Abu Ghraib scandal didn't stop its CEO from attacking the authors of the Executive Excess report last year for criticizing defense contractors who earn far more than generals, arguing that "Companies are accountable for profitable performance and sustained customer satisfaction. Generals are not.")...
Few litigators are following the legal precedent set to prosecute contractors -- as CNN reported in June, not one private military contractor in Iraq has been charged with a crime, not even one of the CACI interrogators at Abu Ghraib.
CACI's Brown responds:
Your recent article regarding CACI was not accurate; please let me take this opportunity to inform you of the facts.CACI supports our nation's vital defense missions, including the war on terrorism, security for our people and homeland, and sweeping enhancements in the quality and efficiency of essential government services, in both the defense and civilian sectors. It is our mission to be absolutely clear and truthful about CACI's business and role in Iraq as a military contractor.
CACI maintains the highest professional and ethical standards. In more than four and a half decades of work helping to defend our nation, we have never tolerated any misconduct by our employees. Moreover, the men and women of CACI are committed to supporting the U.S. military's efforts in Iraq and the global fight against al Qaeda and Islamic-extremists. It is our patriotic duty to serve our nation, and we are honored that CACI employees have stepped up and accepted great personal risk to support our troops in Iraq. In all we do, we are concerned about our employees' security and their performance.
From all indications, the war on terrorism will be lengthy, brutal, and challenging. In order to enable the greatest number of soldiers to engage in combat duty, the U.S. military has turned to qualified civilian contractors like CACI to provide a wide range of support. This is the government's decision and not a decision on the part of CACI. Though contractors like CACI do not engage in combat duties, our work is dangerous and often conducted in places where most people would not want to work each and every day.
Unfortunately, your article contains gross misrepresentations about CACI. And we are confident you would only want to portray the facts and the truth. Please take note that the substantiated and factually verifiable truth is that:
No CACI employee has ever been charged with any misconduct in connection with incidents at Abu Ghraib, and no CACI employee ever appeared in any photos of detainee abuse released from Abu Ghraib. CACI assisted the Army with gathering much-needed intelligence in an effort to save lives and safeguard our troops during dangerous and hostile wartime conditions. At CACI, our fundamental commitment to honesty, integrity, and ethics guides everything we do. CACI does not condone, endorse, or in any way abide misconduct by its employees. CACI also emphasizes its strong commitment to the basic American principle of the rule of law, due process and that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Our specialty is information technology support and secure network communications services, including information collection and data analysis. We provide these solutions to federal agencies, the intelligence community, and the military in support of America's homeland security and our national defense. Interrogation services are an extension of that work, which CACI provided in August 2003 in response to an urgent request by the U.S. Army, which did not have sufficient available personnel to carry out these vital operations in Iraq. The term "war profiteering" connotes an extreme and undeserved level of profit. As applied to CACI, that term is a maliciously false accusation. The government received good value from CACI's work efforts and services. No one with access to the facts can reasonably and responsibly contend otherwise. For example, the Company's contract was not a cost-plus contract and was less than 1 percent of the company's total worldwide business (revenue). Equally important, none of the inflated prices, purposeless activity, waste, fraud or abuse alleged in the film against other contractors had any application to CACI. CACI is a company of diverse and dedicated individuals, many of whom are former servicemen and women who have bravely served at some time in every branch of the U.S. military. Many CACI employees believed it was within their duty to serve in Iraq, and many of them voluntarily accepted great personal risk to support the U.S. mission there. CACI has served our U.S. federal government for the past 45 years, through nine presidential administrations, and from the Cold War to the "long war" on global terrorism. The Army has recognized the diligent service of civilian workers provided by CACI in several public reports and in sworn testimony to the U.S. Congress. A comprehensive history containing factual information about CACI's 45 years of honorable service to the U.S. government, and the support services provided by our brave people in Iraq, can be found at www.caci.com. Regrettably, your article winds up maligning a respected and reputable company. We are confident it is not your intent to malign or smear anyone based on inaccurate information, or distortions and falsehoods perpetuated by uninformed critics. Please be advised that CACI will not tolerate unsubstantiated speculation, bias, spin, rumors, insinuation, and unfounded accusation. We will not allow anyone to recklessly besmirch the good name of this company or its many fine people.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Jody Brown
Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications
CACI International Inc
There's not a whole lot to say in response. Despite all of Brown's bluster that the article is "not accurate," she doesn't actually call into question the accuracy of any factual assertion in the article.
But just to cover the bases:
That Mr. Steven Stephanowicz, Contract US Civilian Interrogator, CACI, 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, be given an Official Reprimand to be placed in his employment file, termination of employment, and generation of a derogatory report to revoke his security clearance for the following acts which have been previously referred to in the aforementioned findings:-- Made a false statement to the investigation team regarding the locations of his interrogations, the activities during his interrogations, and his knowledge of abuses.
-- Allowed and/or instructed MPs, who were not trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate interrogations by "setting conditions" which were neither authorized and in accordance with applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse.
But I don't care for, as described in the article, "private contractors fighting wars and racking up huge profits without being plagued by pesky accountability," of which CACI -- which got $765M in 2005 defense contracts, and which had its CEO's compensation triple since 9/11 -- is one. (Yes Jody, CACI doesn't technically do "combat" but when you interrogate prisoners, or otherwise work hand in glove with the military, you're part of fighting the war.)
In my opinion, that makes CACI one of the war profiteers. Sorry Jody, sue me.
Everything else in the letter is just corporate boilerplate that doesn't require a response.
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