WH Intel Contracts Mystery Solved? I think Justin Rood offers a Eureka moment with his observation that the White House issued Mitchell Wade's MZM Inc. three contracts for "intelligence services" in 2004, at the same time that the White House-authorized Silberman-Robb commission on WMD employed three MZM executives as expert staff.

The puzzle for me about the White House contracts to Wade/MZM for intelligence services has always been two-fold: first, what intelligence services did the White House need to contract out to a private firm, that it couldn't get from the vast $40 billion intelligence apparatus it already runs? and secondly, what could MZM have done for a measly $300k? (From my own reporting, I am convinced that the Iranian Democratization Foundation has nothing to do with the White House contracts. You are certainly not going to buy yourself Iran Contra for $300k. Ghorbanifar is demanding, for instance, $20 million. Other such US-funded programs I've heard about cost $200k a month, and are contracted out by the year at a minimum. Chalabi's Iraq intel outfit also cost about $300k a month, and again, was funded by State and then DIA for years. Wade was not known for underpricing his services). What you could get for $200k - $300k, I began thinking, was a couple of fancy, high priced consulting studies.

Examining the Executive Order that created the Silberman-Robb commission in the appendix to their report, the dates of the commission's authorization (February 2004) and dissolution (summer of 2005) coincide closely with the time period in which MZM received three White House contracts for intelligence services. The Executive Order (13328) even specifies who pays for the commission's research and work:

(e) The Director of the Office of Administration shall provide or arrange for the provision of administrative support and, with the assistance of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, ensure funding for the Commission consistent with applicable law. The Director of the Office of Administration shall ensure that such support and funding meets the Commission's reasonable needs and that the manner of provision of support and funding is consistent with the authority of the Commission within the executive branch in the performance of its functions.

(f) Members of the Commission shall serve without compensation for their work on the Commission. Members who are not officers or employees in the executive branch, while engaged in the work of the Commission, may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701 through 5707), consistent with the availability of funds.

(g) The Commission shall have a staff headed by an Executive Director. The Co-Chairs shall hire and employ, or obtain by assignment or detail from departments and agencies, the staff of the Commission, including the Executive Director. ...

The "Office of Administration" referred to in point (e) above as charged with arranging funding and administrative support to the Commission is, along with the NSC, etc. part of the "Executive Office of the President." One plausible theory is that MZM was hired to provide "intelligence services" for the Silberman-Robb commission (or perhaps, as Justin suggests, to pay for staff borrowed from MZM, although it seems the WH contracts would not then describe the services purchased from MZM as "intelligence services", but that they would have been described differently). If true, how did MZM shape the commission's findings? And is there any concern about the possible corruption of the commission's work, since it would have been performed by a contractor who has admitted getting classified US government defense and intelligence contracts through graft?

A potential conflict of interest would be any MZM role in the commission's findings on the analysis performed by the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) in Charlottesville, Virginia (think, aluminum tubes). As Walter Pincus' reporting reveals, MZM systematically bought off key officials of the NGIC, hiring first their relatives and then hiring the key officials themselves. Another conflict of interest: recommendations on Pentagon domestic counterintelligence work such as the kind of collection and databasing of mapping data on mosques and churches MZM was up to with CIFA.

Unlike say the 9/11 commission, the Silberman-Robb commission operated with almost no transparency -- zero public hearings, almost no public outreach, except for a few public appearances after their report was released. It doesn't build much good will or confidence in their findings when allegations like this arise.

Update: I do remember noting that Charles Robb was one of the few Democrats who received a lot of money from Wilkes/Wade but couldn't remember which. It turns out Robb got $19,000 from Wilkes and Wilkes'-PAC. In fact as it turns out, Robb got more money than any other Democrat from Wilkes or Wade. Hmm.

Posted by Laura at March 21, 2006 12:41 PM