Some passport reviewers worked for outside firms

At least three of the people accused of improperly accessing presidential candidates’ passport records worked for two companies that have long histories with the State Department and other government agencies.

The State Department has acknowledged that an employee and several contract workers pried into passport records for the three major presidential candidates - Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called all three to apologize.

Two people who have been fired worked for Stanley Inc., an employee-owned company in Arlington, Va. A third contract worker, whose employee status is under review, worked for The Analysis Corporation of McLean, Va.

The Analysis Corporation is headed by John O. Brennan, former head of the CIA’s National Counterterrorism Center. Stanley’s leadership includes several former Navy officers, including chairman & CEO Phil Nolan, who served with the Navy’s Tomahawk program.

Stanley has won a number of State Department and Department of Defense contracts over the last several years, including:

• A five-year $570 million contract just last week to provide the State Department with passport services support.
• A 10-year contract, potentially worth up to $50 billion, to provide computer support at federal agencies. Stanley is one of a number of contractors that gets a portion of the $50 billion.
• A $164 million State Department contract to oversee passport production at two centers, one in Arkansas and another in Arizona.
• A three-year contract worth up to $225 million with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for computer processing services.
• A five-year contract with the Navy, worth up to $115 million, to provide technical support to the service’s weapons testing branch.

Stanley, Inc.’s increase in government business has paralleled its stepped-up use of lobbyists.

Senate records show that over the last three years the company has enlisted the services of Advantage Associates, a lobbying firm run by retired members of Congress including Ron Dellums, D-Calif., former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; and Bill Dickinson, R-Ala., former ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

Stanley, ranked by Fortune as one of the nation’s best 100 companies to work for, issued a release saying it manages more than 1,800 people on State Department contracts. According to Fortune, the most common hourly position at Stanley is “passport associate,” a job that pays an average $28,935 annually.

The Analysis Corporation also released a statement yesterday, saying that the employee accused of improperly accessing passport files had violated company policy. The company said it was fully cooperating with the federal probe into the privacy breaches.

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