Booz Allen Hamilton in the News

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/08/30/booz-allen-maryland-military-facility/

Articles about Booz Allen Hamilton always catch my eye as the company is well-known for its contract work with the CIA. Perhaps the most famous episode in recent years was in reference to Edward Snowden. The company is involved in all sorts of intelligence work, analysis, IT, and other forms of consulting and its one of those companies that straddles the military and intelligence spheres – in fact the line with a company like Booz Allen Hamilton is completely blurred.

The new Maryland facility is just part of the growing footprint that surrounds Washington DC – a government colossus of such magnitude that it is frankly hard if not impossible to even take in. Washington is such a different kind of major city. It lacks the skyscrapers and while it does have a concentrated 'downtown' within the district, there's also the larger footprint. Other cities have the expanded metropolitan area as well but with Washington it seems like so much of it is directly tied to or tangentially related to the federal government – a strange world of secrecy and office parks that function as an annex to all the colossal government edifices within the district. It is the industry of the metroplex in the way steel was in Pittsburgh or automobiles in Detroit.

There's nothing profound in that other than its magnitude and then when one realizes that it is but one power centre of the US system – the real magnitude of the US Empire's domestic base begins to take hold.

The article and press releases are vague and buried in bureaucratic speak but to me the whole things reeks of preparations for war with China. Booz Allen is serving as a platform that brings together multiple elements to develop not just weapons, but how they're used, and how they integrate into larger strategic and tactical planning.

As such, the work culture is one akin to the Pentagon or the CIA. Much of the material is highly classified and again the internal security is probably robust and impressive. It's a private company but in this case it's basically indistinguishable from the government – and undoubtedly there's mutual influence as well as the proverbial revolving door of people moving in and out of government employment and private sector status.

The fact that Snowden worked for Booz Allen and leaked the information regarding the PRISM mass surveillance data collection programme demonstrates what kind of things the company is involved in. Basically, Snowden as a Booz Allen employee was working for the CIA – the two entities are not always easily distinguished. One's official status and employer may be something other than American Central Intelligence but that doesn't mean you aren't part of the CIA.

And when one ties in Booz Allen with the likes of The Carlyle Group, one begins to understand not just the financial interests in play but the real status of Carlyle and those involved with it.

In the end the article essentially tells us nothing but it's a shines a little light on how the Empire with its oligarchy, praetorians, and mandarins actually works.