Lawsuits Put Military Contractor on Defensive

[Judi Lynn]

June 7, 2004


Lawsuits Put Military Contractor on Defensive
The San Diego-based Titan Corp. is embroiled in allegations that include bribery.

By Paul Pringle, Times Staff Writer


Titan Corp. is big on secrecy. Some say too big.
The San Diego-based defense contractor is prized in industry circles for its large roster of workers with security clearances, folks entrusted to keep mum.
(snip)

Lately, Titan finds itself with extra incentive to button lips. The 12,000-employee, information-technology company is entangled in controversies over the suspected bribery of foreign officials and a report placing one of its Arab-language translators at the scene of prisoner abuses in Iraq.
(snip)

The suits note that Lockheed lowered its merger bid by $160 million after an internal audit of Titan triggered the bribery inquiries.
(snip)

Meanwhile, Titan's business in Iraq has heightened the debate over the Pentagon's increasing dependence on contractors for sensitive and often dangerous missions. To date, the only direct Titan connection to the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is an employee, Adel Nakhla, who was named in Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba's report on the mistreatment of detainees. Nakhla translated for military police officers implicated in the abuses, according to the report.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-titan7jun07,1,4285126.story?coll=la-home-local
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[acmavm]

1. How heartwarming, the threat of being sued for money has made the

re-evaluate their methods of doing business. That says all that can be said about their ethics and decency.

[izzie]

2. Better than nothing.

------

[gratuitous]

7. See, and that's why we need tort reform!

Imagine how much more . . . efficient Titan would be without the threat of lawsuits hanging over them.

[maddezmom]

3. Titan Competing With Northrop, L-3 to Keep Its Largest Contract

June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Titan Corp. is being challenged by Northrop Grumman Corp. and L-3 Communications Holdings for a contract to provide linguists to the U.S. Army in Iraq that is its biggest source of revenue.

Titan was awarded the five-year, $657 million contract in 1999. Last year, it accounted for 7 percent of the company's sales of $1.78 billion. On June 15, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command will decide whether the next five-year worldwide translation contract, worth up to $2.5 billion, will go to Titan or another company.

For Titan, the timing of the competition could hardly be worse. In a report sent to Congress last month by U.S. Army General Antonio Taguba, at least one Titan employee was linked to abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. In March, the U.S. suspended 10 percent of Titan's pay for the translation work after an audit found inadequate documentation of its bills.

``The military needs to act like a client in any other industry would,'' said Peter Singer, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ``To ensure proper competition, good oversight and management, you need to have in place the same sort of punishment mechanisms as in the free market.''

~snip~
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=afR4zWgUnpDo&refer=us

[seemslikeadream]

4. Did you see the murals on the wall of Titan Headquaters?

[saigon68]

5. Maybe some of thir Employees

Will be invited to the Barbecue?

[seemslikeadream]

6. I love the hunt and that smell of pig flesh burning over an open pit

None of that butcher shop stuff for Titan employees.

It's one of the sporting events at the company picnic.