Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq [View All]

A "Khaki" Background

CACI, (referred to as "Khaki" in military circles) was originally called California Analysis Center Incorporated. It was formed in the 1960s by Harry Markowitz and Herbert Karr. Markowitz won a Nobel prize in economics in 1990 for his research on stock portfolio diversification. The company's first federal contracts were for custom-written computer languages that could be used to build battlefield simulation programs.

Up until this ugly juncture CACI, which employs roughly 6,300 people, had quietly pursued an aggressive business strategy, focused on expanding by acquiring weaker companies, and pumping up its business with the federal government such as personnel support at the Kelly Air Force base in Texas and the McLellan Air Force base in California. Its profits doubled between 2001 and 2003, shooting from $22 million (on total revenues of $557 million) to $44 million (on revenues of $843 million).

Today CACI, like most military industry players, boasts a roster of former soldiers and spies, including board member Michael Bayer (former Vice Chairman of the Pentagon's Business Board, and advisor to the Air Force, Army, U.S. Naval War College, and Sandia National Laboratory), Barbara McNamara (ex-Deputy Director of the National Security Agency), Arthur L. Money (former assistant Secretary of Defense), and Larry Welch, (an ex-Air Force General who served on the joint chiefs of staff during first Bush adminstration).

But unlike the other military contractors -- aerospace giant Boeing, whose former exec Darleen Druyun pled guilty last month to criminal conspiracy charges, or Halliburton, which is suspected of massively overcharging the Defense Department for gas trucked into Iraq -- CACI has generally stayed out of trouble.

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