budanski
05-06-2003, 08:12 PM
In the Company of Spies It's the largest private IT firm in the nation. It's turned a profit for 33 straight years. And it's on the front lines of the war on terror. So why haven't you heard of SAIC?
By Paul Kaihla, May 2003 Issue
During the predawn hours of March 1, about 20 Pakistani intelligence agents and soldiers, backed by a team of CIA operatives, stormed a drab house in Rawalpindi. After a brief shootout, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the notorious al Qaeda mastermind of 9/11, emerged dazed, disheveled, and in handcuffs. Not much has been revealed since about how authorities hunted him down, but intelligence sources say the case turned on a months-long game of electronic cat-and-mouse between the terrorist and U.S. spy agencies. And it couldn't have been broken without the contributions of a mild-mannered, slightly eccentric, 78-year-old nuclear physicist named J. Robert "Bob" Beyster and his remarkable company, Science Applications International Corp.
Most people have never heard of either Beyster or SAIC -- and that's fine with Beyster, the company's reclusive founder and CEO. Privately held SAIC makes much of the supersecret technology that's at the core of the sleuthing done by the National Security Agency, CIA, and other spook services. Neither Beyster nor the company will discuss any role in Mohammed's capture. But it's known within intelligence circles that SAIC data-mining and sensor systems helped tease out crucial clues about Mohammed's activities from intercepted text messages that he sent to his al Qaeda operatives using as many as 20 different cell phones. Now, with Mohammed allegedly talking to his captors, intelligence officials say they're pumping new material through SAIC-designed systems virtually around the clock, homing in on other terrorists and their plots. "We're winning victories almost every day, and a lot of them are based on stuff made by SAIC," says one intelligence agency consultant.
For Beyster and his company, these are just the latest in a long line of unsung coups. Since 1969, when Beyster quit a comfortable defense-industry job at the age of 45, mortgaged his house, and founded SAIC in a tiny La Jolla, Calif., office with rented typewriters, the company has been quietly compiling a record of technological breakthroughs, management innovation, and financial performance that few corporations can match. After 33 straight years of profits and growth, SAIC is now the country's largest privately held infotech company, with 2002 revenues of $6.1 billion.
About a third of SAIC's business is systems integration for other companies, such as Pfizer (PFE) and BP (BP), but its heart and soul is spy tech. Intelligence agencies don't list or rank their contractors. Intelligence sources, however, say SAIC was the NSA's top supplier last year and in the top five at the CIA. In addition to the high-powered data-mining software that helped nail Mohammed, SAIC makes undersea thermal imaging sensors for tracking submarines. It produces software that spy satellites use to map the earth and feed target data to precision munitions, including those that have been pounding Iraq. It's also a leader in the booming homeland security business: It builds gear that uses gamma rays to peer inside cargo containers and truck trailers.
Adding to SAIC's covert aura, Beyster has hired an unusual number of former spies, law enforcement chiefs, and secret warriors. Some 5,000 employees -- roughly one-seventh of the workforce -- have security clearances. Beyster himself has one of the highest arrays of top-secret clearances of any civilian in the country. "We are a stealth company," says Keith Nightingale, a former Army special ops officer. "We're everywhere, but almost never seen."
Much of the work may be hidden, but it has never been more vital. SAIC is on the front lines of today's most momentous national security battles. It's not too much to say that the future safety of many Americans rests in the aged hands of a brilliant and quirky septuagenarian and his clandestine army of techno geeks.
In a way, Beyster seems to have been preparing all his life to take on today's myriad global threats. He grew up in Detroit, the son of a General Motors (GM) engineer and a mother who dreamed he'd become a lawyer. He served in the Navy in World War II; to Mom's dismay, an aptitude test he took as he was mustering out indicated, as Beyster puts it, "Whatever you do, don't be a lawyer." It did suggest that he might have a calling in science. Beyster went to the University of Michigan, and by 1950 he had earned a doctorate in nuclear physics.
http://www.saic.com/
btw, This is the company Steve Hatfill used to work for.
By Paul Kaihla, May 2003 Issue
During the predawn hours of March 1, about 20 Pakistani intelligence agents and soldiers, backed by a team of CIA operatives, stormed a drab house in Rawalpindi. After a brief shootout, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the notorious al Qaeda mastermind of 9/11, emerged dazed, disheveled, and in handcuffs. Not much has been revealed since about how authorities hunted him down, but intelligence sources say the case turned on a months-long game of electronic cat-and-mouse between the terrorist and U.S. spy agencies. And it couldn't have been broken without the contributions of a mild-mannered, slightly eccentric, 78-year-old nuclear physicist named J. Robert "Bob" Beyster and his remarkable company, Science Applications International Corp.
Most people have never heard of either Beyster or SAIC -- and that's fine with Beyster, the company's reclusive founder and CEO. Privately held SAIC makes much of the supersecret technology that's at the core of the sleuthing done by the National Security Agency, CIA, and other spook services. Neither Beyster nor the company will discuss any role in Mohammed's capture. But it's known within intelligence circles that SAIC data-mining and sensor systems helped tease out crucial clues about Mohammed's activities from intercepted text messages that he sent to his al Qaeda operatives using as many as 20 different cell phones. Now, with Mohammed allegedly talking to his captors, intelligence officials say they're pumping new material through SAIC-designed systems virtually around the clock, homing in on other terrorists and their plots. "We're winning victories almost every day, and a lot of them are based on stuff made by SAIC," says one intelligence agency consultant.
For Beyster and his company, these are just the latest in a long line of unsung coups. Since 1969, when Beyster quit a comfortable defense-industry job at the age of 45, mortgaged his house, and founded SAIC in a tiny La Jolla, Calif., office with rented typewriters, the company has been quietly compiling a record of technological breakthroughs, management innovation, and financial performance that few corporations can match. After 33 straight years of profits and growth, SAIC is now the country's largest privately held infotech company, with 2002 revenues of $6.1 billion.
About a third of SAIC's business is systems integration for other companies, such as Pfizer (PFE) and BP (BP), but its heart and soul is spy tech. Intelligence agencies don't list or rank their contractors. Intelligence sources, however, say SAIC was the NSA's top supplier last year and in the top five at the CIA. In addition to the high-powered data-mining software that helped nail Mohammed, SAIC makes undersea thermal imaging sensors for tracking submarines. It produces software that spy satellites use to map the earth and feed target data to precision munitions, including those that have been pounding Iraq. It's also a leader in the booming homeland security business: It builds gear that uses gamma rays to peer inside cargo containers and truck trailers.
Adding to SAIC's covert aura, Beyster has hired an unusual number of former spies, law enforcement chiefs, and secret warriors. Some 5,000 employees -- roughly one-seventh of the workforce -- have security clearances. Beyster himself has one of the highest arrays of top-secret clearances of any civilian in the country. "We are a stealth company," says Keith Nightingale, a former Army special ops officer. "We're everywhere, but almost never seen."
Much of the work may be hidden, but it has never been more vital. SAIC is on the front lines of today's most momentous national security battles. It's not too much to say that the future safety of many Americans rests in the aged hands of a brilliant and quirky septuagenarian and his clandestine army of techno geeks.
In a way, Beyster seems to have been preparing all his life to take on today's myriad global threats. He grew up in Detroit, the son of a General Motors (GM) engineer and a mother who dreamed he'd become a lawyer. He served in the Navy in World War II; to Mom's dismay, an aptitude test he took as he was mustering out indicated, as Beyster puts it, "Whatever you do, don't be a lawyer." It did suggest that he might have a calling in science. Beyster went to the University of Michigan, and by 1950 he had earned a doctorate in nuclear physics.
http://www.saic.com/
btw, This is the company Steve Hatfill used to work for.