WEASEL TRACKS

As we discussed two weeks ago in The War of the Weasels , MZM, Inc. is the left-wing private intelligence company with hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts that was publicly exposed as the source of bribes paid to Congressman Randy Cunningham.

We learned that the scandal didn’t hurt MZM a bit, after which it immediately got back to business. When the scandal broke last June, the GSA announced it was terminating its “blanket” contract for MZM services. Yet only a month later, in July, the GSA offered MZM a spot on one of its large contracts. (See Sources: Back )

Thus MZM was back in business even before they had new management. The same Gen. James King had been moved up to the CEO spot, as Mitchell Wade, the old CEO who took the fall for the bribes, left.

However, they had a problem. MZM had in essence, blown its cover. Its image was tarnished. It needed an new cover, or at least some new packaging. Thus it embarked on repackaging - but with virtually the same people and the same contracts. The first step was have the CEO step down, which occurred around June 17th. The second step was for the employees to publicly distance themselves and the company from the CEO which they did on June 22nd. (See Sidestep ) The third step was to rename and sell the company:

The San Diego Union Tribune reported on August 21 that a local defense biotech company, Diversa Corp., had agreed to buy MZM. However, less than a week later, on August 17th, Veritas Capital bought most of MZM. (See Purchase )

Veritas announced: “The transaction included, but was not limited to, all of the existing contracts, relationships and employees, and included the assumption of only specific liabilities associated with the ongoing operations of those assets, which were acquired through a newly created subsidiary, Athena Innovative Solutions, Inc. “Under the leadership and control of Veritas, Athena will continue to provide a broad array of services to the national security community. Veritas and Athena will retain MZM Inc.'s employees, underscoring their commitment to the high level of service its clients have come to expect. James C. King will serve as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Athena.”

Most of the shift of assets was to be done by the end of September. Thus the company shed not only affiliation with the newly infamous Mitchell Wade, but also some of the other liabilities. Valuable assets, contracts and personnel were sequestered into Athena. When Mitchell Wade stepped down, first Frank Bragg and then General James King took on the CEO position. James King is still in charge of Athena today, overseeing those select assets.

The website for MZM had been taken down, but now a new website arose: http://www.athenaisinc.com/Home.aspx .At the top of each page it shows the bold words “INTEGRITY, COMMITMENT, EXCELLENCE, LOYALTY”. Normally a company does not have to make a major point of “LOYALTY”. Nevertheless, Athena/MZM makes a major point of unmistakably saying they now have INTEGRITY and LOYALTY.

MZM was originally packaged as an intelligence services company seeking clients in both private industry and domestic and foreign governments. Now their website stresses loyalty and integrity.

So, who is in charge of those assets and contracts now? General James King is still the CEO. The contracts and most of the employees are the same. What has changed is the new owners: Veritas Capital.

Veritas Capital was founded in 1992 to engage in investment and acquisitions of defense and aerospace related companies. (See Veritas Capital ) Their current suite of 7 companies include some very interesting ones: Veritas owns DynCorp International. DynCorp International works directly with the State Department and Defense Department to provide services. For example, they are “retiring” the personnel of the military of Liberia and creating a new military there. They actually say that on their website: “DI is helping the US Government demobilize and retire members of Liberia’s armed forces, and to train a new modern army to serve Liberia’s future interests.”

They are training police forces all over the world. They offer personal protection services to diplomats and government leaders in Iraq, Afghanistan, and numerous other hot spots. They are involved in the nitty gritty violence of nation building. Their website states:

“We provide major support to protect American diplomats and diplomatic facilities as well as key allied leaders in high-threat countries. We provide services to eradicate illicit narcotics crops and support drug-interdiction efforts in South America and Afghanistan. We are engaged in the removal and destruction of landmines and light weapons in Afghanistan. We have vast international experience and operate on all continents except Antarctica. Our business office in Dubai serves the Middle East region, where we’ve operated for some 30 years.

“Since 1994, (Dyncorp International) has recruited, trained, and deployed more than 5,000 highly-qualified civilian peacekeepers and police trainers to 11 countries, including Haiti, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, for the Department of State. ... Today we have 14,000 employees in 35 countries. ... We recently increased our business activity with commercial clients...” (See DynCorp )

DynCorp even has its own air force of sorts: “scores of different aircraft - rotary and fixed wing”. They are in essence the hired muscle for political and diplomatic activity all over the world. When the State Department needs something in a police action, it apparently does not have to go to the Defense Department, or the intelligence agencies. It has access to its own “peace keepers” etc. at DynCorp.

Another interesting company owned by Veritas Capital is McNeil Technologies. (See McNeil ) They provide intelligence services, language translation services, classified document analysis, and operational security analysis services. Their Intelligence and Security Programs are headed up by Senior Vice President James “Spider” Marks. Among other things they do screening of baggage at airports etc. Most of what they do seems to be supplying translation services to Departments of Defense, Justice and Energy.

The other five companies Veritas owns are of use to the defense industry, but in more conventional ways, such as providing radio transmitters, MRE’s and radar systems.

The President of Veritas Capital, Robert B. McKeon has kept a relatively low profile. However Veritas has added a very high profile team to their organization. Their “Aerospace and Defense Advisory Council” (ADAC) is to provide “guidance” to Athena/MZM. (See Veritas )

This Council is made up of 7 individuals. They are all prominent figures who served in the Clinton Administration. Some have even been major critics of the Bush Administration in the media. They are:

Gen. Anthony Zinni - General Zinni was the Commander in Chief of the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000 (during the Clinton Administration). He co-wrote a book “Battle Ready” with Tom Clancy, which was a scathing critique of the Iraq War. He appeared on 60 Minutes back in May of 2004, which was just months before the 2004 election. He had harsh criticism for many in the Bush Administration, and said that “Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time - with the wrong strategy,” thus echoing a version of the old John Kerry refrain. (See Zinni )

Richard Armitage – In September 2004 (while Colin Powell was still Secretary of State, and Armitage was his deputy), Jack Wheeler wrote about him in A Reagan Doctrine for Iran :

“The main obstacle in implementing a Reagan Doctrine for Iran is the same we had with implementing a Reagan Doctrine for the Soviets: Squishes in the White House and the State Department.

“In the 1980s they were Michael Deaver, Dick Darman, Jim Baker, and George Shultz. Today they are Robert Blackwill, Richard Armitage, and the entire Near East Bureau at State.”

“Thus to implement a policy of regime change in Iran, there must be a strategy of regime change in the National Security Council and the State Department, with the main targets being Blackwill and Armitage (as I assume along with everyone else that Powell is stepping down).

“Blackwill and Armitage are the quintessential appeasers posing as sophisticated geostrategists. They actually believe that as FDR made an alliance with Stalin to fight the Nazis and Nixon made an alliance with Mao to triangulate the Russians, so George Bush should befriend the Iranian Mullahcracy in order to get them to stop sponsoring terrorism. These people are a danger to our national security.” (See Armitage )

Richard Armitage was considered a moderate in the Bush Administration. He was a close associate of Colin Powell and was his deputy Secretary of State. When Bush was reelected in 2004 and Colin Powell resigned, he followed suit.

Armitage discouraged Ross Perot’s attempts to get back American POW’s, and in response Perot went after Armitage’s career by exposing his “libertinism in Viet Nam, amid prostitutes, bandits, and gambling houses”. Michael Ledeen has no good words for Armitage either, in part for Armitage’s insistence in calling Iran a “democracy”.

[Remember the Armitage was also the one who set up the Plame situation which led to the indictment of Scooter Libby, and legal pressure brought to bear on Rove. Armitage sat by as the administration was tarred and feathered by the media and the prosecutor - knowing full well that he was responsible. He was a key player of the whole "Culture of Corruption" operation. Now that the role of Rove is becoming more apparent (see the article on Rove) the treachery of Armitage is becoming more apparent. - added by Dagny 11/20/2006]

Gen. Barry McCaffrey - He was the “Drug Czar” for the Clinton Administration’s “War on Drugs”. He is a frequent NBC News Military Analyst. He was an assistant to Colin Powell during Desert Storm, and continued as an advisor when Powell became Secretary of State.

In 2003 he wrote an op ed for the Wall Street Journal titled Rumsfeld in Denial: We won’t win in Iraq unless we face reality , which starts with, “Iraq is a military and political mess, and it’s not getting better.” McCaffrey was accused of ordering the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Iraqi prisoners two days after the Gulf War ended in 1991. It is ironic that this charge was originally brought by Seymore Hersh, who also broke the story on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. (See Bloodbath )

Adm. Joseph Prueher - Admiral Prueher was appointed to be Ambassador to China during the Clinton Administration. (See Ambassador) Prior to that assignment he had become very cozy with the Chinese military - even inviting high level Chinese military to visit his headquarters. (See Visit )

During a visit to Hanoi, he actually recommended having US soldiers training Communist Vietnamese soldiers in jungle fighting. “Prueher... alluded that the US and the SRV (Socialist Republic of Vietnam) might wish to train one another's troops, especially in jungle warfare. (see Viet ).

Prueher seems convinced that the Chinese should be our friends, as revealed in a 2003 report to the Council on Foreign Relations:

“The idea of peaceful resolution is a good one. It is one that needs further discussion in our country and in China. The problems of talking about the military solution is that if you focus on the military solution, that isn’t a solution to the Chinese-Taiwan issue; the solutions lie in the political and the economic domains, and perhaps a little bit in the cultural domain—not in the military one. “ (See CFR )

He also argued against CIA Director Porter Goss and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s China assessment:

“Goss's and Rumsfeld's characterization of China contradict last year's conclusions of the administration's Independent Task Force on Chinese Military Power, headed up by former defense secretary Harold Brown and retired admiral Joseph Prueher. The panel found that while China is modernizing its military, it is 20 years behind the U.S., and that "the balance between the United States and China, both globally and in Asia, is likely to remain decisively in America's favor beyond the next 20 years." (See No Threat )

Adm. Prueher believes that not only is China no military threat to America, but that the military personnel of China and the US should be personal chums as well - even to the point of mutual military assistance: “With an almost diplomatic rapport between the militaries, crises could be diffused before unnecessarily escalating to the point where conflict is inevitable.” (See Chums )

Adm. Leighton Smith - Adm. Leighton “Snuffy” Smith ran Clinton’s only war: the one in Bosnia. He was Knighted by the Queen of England, and the French bestowed a Rank of High Officer in the French Order of National Merit. He won the Europeans’ praise for his work essentially by taking care of Bosnia for them.

“Appointed to four star rank in April 1994, he became Commander in Chief, U. S Naval Forces Europe and Commander in Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe (1994-1996). In December of 1995, he assumed, concurrently, command of the NATO led Implementation Force, (IFOR) in Bosnia, a position he held until August 1996. (See Snuffy )

Gen. Richard Hawley , along with Admiral Leighton, were both in command with direct contact with President Clinton during the Bosnia war. If Bosnia was Clinton’s War, then these two people were heads of Clinton’s military in that war.

General Hawley (See Hawley ) was the principal deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition (Nov. 1993-July 95), Commander of US Air Forces in Europe and commander, Allied Air Forces Central Europe from July 1995 through April 1996. Thus he essentially ran the air war in Bosnia (Operation Deliberate Force and the first portion of the Dayton Peace Accord enforcement).

In January of 1999, General Hawley said publicly that the US Air Force was so strained by the Kosovo conflict that it would be hard pressed to handle a second war in the Middle East or Korea.

That was probably true near the end of the Clinton Administration after their cutting back on the military and simultaneously sending them on adventures in Kosovo. However, that is probably not the sort of thing a general ought to say in public. It is a virtual invitation for trouble to start in the Middle East or Korea. (See Weak)

General Hawley retired soon thereafter, in July of 1999. He then went into consulting for the Defense Department and the defense industry, including Veritas Capital. In particular, he is on the Board of Directors for DynCorp, and Mc Neil Technologies described above and two other Veritas companies: Continental Electronics and Enterprise Electronics.

Veritas owns another company (Vertex Aerospace) which has Hawley, McCaffrey, Prueher, Zinni and Leighton on the board of directors so they were already associated under the Veritas umbrella before MZM.

So this is the bunch that are going to give guidance and supposedly keep MZM/Athena on the straight and narrow? They are an illustrious bunch of military people, many of whom have openly expressed disagreement with the Neocon views. Furthermore, they all held high positions under President Clinton.

In assembling this group, is it a coincidence that the President of Veritas, Robert B. McKeon, picked only Clinton Administration people? Is it a coincidence that so many of these people have publicly fought against the Bush Administration?

Furthermore, members of this Council are in an intimate relationship with the suite of companies that are owned by Veritas - which includes companies that perform activities we would normally ascribe to governments - rebuilding entire militaries for countries such as Liberia, providing protection for dignitaries, “police” operations... Furthermore, they do it on a worldwide scale.

Interesting isn’t it? Apparently leftist political types are managing a private intelligence and police force that engages in activities around the globe on a scale that few are aware of. It is as if an international shadow government exists in private and left-leaning Clinton-blessed hands. With the addition of MZM/Athena they increased their already considerable intelligence and intervention capabilities.

They may be doing their work in a nonpartisan way, but how could we tell? MZM/Athena is now “under the leadership and control of Veritas.” The fact that only Clinton associates were chosen to provide this “leadership and control” is disquieting.

Links and Citations

Purchase: http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/Archive/2005/Aug%20'05/a081805.htm http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050930/305492.html?.v=1 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20050818-9999-1n18mzm.html

Back: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/22/AR2005072201951_pf.html

Sidestep: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cunningham/20050622-759-workerss.html

Veritas Capital: www.veritascapital.com/investments/index.html Note that if you click on the above link, and then click on Athena Innovative Solutions, it takes you to what would be www.mzminc.com - however, the link is dead. To get to Athena, you need http://www.athenaisinc.com/Home.aspx .

Veritas: www.veritascapital.com http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/Archive/2005/Aug%20'05/a081805.htm

Athena: http://www.athenaisinc.com/Home.aspx

Zinni: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/60minutes/main618896.shtml

Armitage: http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/1553/2/ http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/2030/44/ http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/1789/81/ http://www.voltairenet.org/article30073.html

McCaffrey: http://www.washingtonspeakers.com/speakers/Speaker.cfm?SpeakerID=3145 http://www.militarycorruption.com/barry.htm http://www.elks.org/conv/con97/mccaffrey.htm http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110004361 Viet: http://www.aiipowmia.com/updates/updt397.html (see item 20 March 97) Visit: http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ED050699.cfm

Ambassador: http://www.fas.org/news/china/1999/990907-prc-wh.htm http://cisac.stanford.edu/people/josephwprueher CFR: http://www.cfr.org/publication.html?id=5989

No Threat: http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan02232005.html

Chums: www.fas.harvard.edu/ ~asiactr/ Archive%20Files/Prueher%20MAS%20APR%202003.pdf

Snuffy: http://www.tenix.com/Main.asp?ID=865 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leighton_Smith DynCorp: http://www.dyncorpinternational.com/subpage.aspx?id=13

McNeil: http://www.mcneiltech.com/content/areas_of_expertise.htm

Bloodbath: http://www.militarycorruption.com/barry.htm Weak: http://www.aeronautics.ru/usafshortages01.htm

Hawley: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hawley.htm http://www.dfi-intl.com/shared/bios/r_hawley.cfm?method=1210 http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=5744 http://schoolofbusiness.cnu.edu/board/r_hawley.html http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/events.asp?aid=623 http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hawley.htm http://www.aef.org/pub/la7.asp