The private agency based in Virginia supports with its assessments and advice the policy of the EU executive branch, of which the Luxembourg representative of the European People's Party, Jean-Claude Junker, has been president since 2014.
The advice requested by Brussels from the American company reflect all of Europe's contemporary politics. Here are some of the procurements: the 134.000 euro contract paid by the Directorate-General of the EU commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, for an “evaluation of macro financial assistance to Ukraine”; the 2017 study on the effectiveness of the European "climate diplomacy", which is one of the cornerstones in the Union's foreign policy; the support to the design and implementation of emissions trading system in China; the study on economic impact of an agreement between the EU and the Republic of Turkey; the 180.000 euro contract for the “Mitigation of climate impacts of possible future shale gas extraction in the EU”; the evaluation of the Olaf regulation, the European Anti-Fraud Office; the study on the competitiveness of the Renewable Energy Industry; the 202.000 euro contract for the “Study on covered bonds in the European Union: harmonization of legal frameworks and market behaviour”, quoted forty-six times in the 131 pages of the EU Commission proposal to the European Parliament for a new directive; the 650.000 euro paid for a study in support of a “compliance assessment of existing Union legal migration directives” and “enhancing fair and effective return strategies”; the evaluation of civil protection financial instrument and the training of candidate volunteers. And much more, according to the long list of expenditures for advice that the Italian magazine L'Espresso has examined.
US President Donald Trump's administration can surely gain advantage from this, since in diplomacy he who holds the information wins. Some of the managers of the US contractor company, during their previous careers as analysts, engineers or computer scientists, have sworn loyalty as US Armed Forces intelligence operators or as members of the National Security Agency (NSA), the same agency hit by the surveillance programs' scandal in 2013. The powerful secret service specialized on cyber intelligence was already keen on European governments' politics five years ago – and according to the Datagate leaks, published after the former contractor Edward Snowden's claims, even the European commissioner for Competition at the time, Joaquín Almunia, was among the persons under surveillance.
But this is a completely different story. It is not case of spying on Brussels: every contract is legal and in total compliance with the law. The Directorates-General, that are the "ministries" directed by the twenty-eight European commissioners, pay tens of millions of euros a year to deliver sensitive information to ICF Consulting experts about the present and future activity of the Commission and eventually receive advice, assessments and studies. In the wake of likely diplomatic tension between the EU and the US due to commercial clashes or Europe’s talks with Iran, the discovery of economic or strategic information may be self defeating for the European Union.
ICF (NASDAQ:ICFI) is a global consulting services company with over 5,000 specialized
experts. Samuel Visner, ICF vice president until the fall of 2017 and an associate of the National Intelligence Council, is a NSA veteran. He served as chief of Signals intelligence programs at the NSA, where he was awarded the agency's Exceptional Civilian Service Award in 2003, the highest award to civilian employees. Mr. Visner, who also served as vice president and general manager with CSC Global Cybersecurity and as senior vice president with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) during the years of the second war in Iraq, is now director of the National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Development Center. According to his CV, he started his career as an associate of Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA's consulting and analyzing contractor which employed Edward Snowden years later. Bill Christman, another ICF vice president, is also a NSA veteran. He served as cryptologic technician with the US Navy at the NSA's Naval Security Group. After seventeen years and eleven months of service at the ICF, Mr. Christman is now employed at the US Army Research Laboratory at Adelphi, Maryland. James Morgan, the ICF executive vice president and chief financial officer, spent eighteen years with SAIC, where he was senior vice president and business transformation officer of the famous contractor company which provides government services and IT support. John George, the ICF senior vice president and chief information officer, served as chief engineer for the Information Network Program Office at the US Department of the Navy Headquarters and has an extensive experience at the Naval Air System Command and Naval Air Warfare Center. Jim Lawler, another ICF executive vice president and chief human resources officer, served as chief HR officer at TASC, another private defense contractor based outside Washington, which provides systems engineering and IT architecture design services to federal agencies, including the CIA and NSA. David Speiser, ICF executive vice president of strategy, also held executive positions at SAIC, where he served as senior vice president. Randy James, another SAIC former vice president and present senior vice president with ICF, holds an active top-secret security clearance with Full Scope Poligraph.
Even amongst the ICF crew, there are former soldiers and intelligence agents. One of them is the ICF program director who served almost seventeen years at NSA. Another one is a former officer of the US Air Force specializing in Communication Security, who was awarded the NSA's Technology Directorate Military Performer of the Year. Char Sample, one of the technical directors, serves ICF at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL): «Dr. Sample has over 20 years experience in the information security industry. Dr. Sample’s area of research examines the role of national culture in cyber security behaviors», says his personal page on the ICF website. Engineers, analysts and computer scientists are frequently employed by ICF at Fort Meade, the NSA headquarters, or at Adelphi, in the Army Research Laboratory.
L'Espresso magazine also reported that while ICF was strengthening its commercial and strategic relationship with the European Commission, the contractor company was at the same time sitting in numerous programs of the Department of Defense. On May 27, 2014, the ICF Consulting headquarters at Fairfax, Virginia, announced that the company had been awarded a «re-complete contract from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to provide cyber network defense research and services. The contract has a value of approximately 50 million dollars and a term of three years». The contractor company also announced that «ARL developed this program to capture and use large quantities of real time data to validate research into new methodologies and tools to combat threats to the US critical infrastructure», one of the programs for total surveillance on Internet. «ICF is pleased to continue to provide this valuable service to the US Army Research Laboratory and to help research and develop next-generation tools and techniques that defend against the growing attacks on networks and data», said Bill Christman, then vice president for the company which started its cooperation with ARL's defense program in 1981.
On August 1, 2017, while the collaboration with the EU Commission Directorates-General was finally consolidated, ICF announced that the US Army Research Laboratory had awarded the company another 93 million dollar contract to support research and develop solutions for defensive cyber operations. «Arl is the tip of the spear when it comes to national security, responsible for continually monitoring, testing and defending the cyber operations of the US Armed Forces», said Samuel Visner, at that time senior vice president with ICF: «We are proud to work with ARL to guard against current and emerging threats to its information system and technology infrastructure, and excited to contribute to the state of cyber research and development». On February 12, 2018, ICF also announced that it had been selected by ARL to compete for another 175 million contract in cutting-edge science and engineering work to support the nation's warfighters. ICF was also awarded its first task order: an estimated 20 million engagement to perform full spectrum defensive cyber operations and research and development. A few days before, on February 6, 2018, the contractor company also posted on its website that ICF was awarded a 10 million contract to support the US Air Force Air Mobility Command.
Between 2014 and 2016 the three ICF European subsidiaries (Mostra SA, ICF Consulting Ltd, and ICF Consulting Services Limited) have been awarded a total of 589 public procurements for a value of 108,680,000 euro, directly managed by the Directorates-General. The expenses paid by the EU Commission in 2017 have not yet been published. But, another 10 million euro contract with Brussel's headquarters has been announced by ICF early this year.
According to L'Espresso, one of the three ICF European subsidiaries also won a 70 million framework contract «aimed at supporting the European Commission in its digital communication». The procurement was awarded by “ConnEct”, a joint venture comprised of two complementary companies: Mostra SA and its partner, a Belgian IT company. «In the next years ConnEct will help the European Commission to achieve its objectives by providing the Directorate-General for Communication and its other departments with services for develop and management of websites and other digital communication channels». The new EU Commission website pages were launched on 1 November 2014, at midnight: «Corresponding to the investiture of the Junker Commission», the project's website said.
A remarkable amount of sensitive, commercial and strategic information and data are legally collected online in real time in Europe by the three ICF European subsidiaries, while carrying out their commitments. But that seems out of the control of the European Commission and its Directorates-General. The Internet domain mostra.com, the hosting address of emails, attached documents, reports, and data, is not based in Europe but in 9300 Lee Hwy at Fairfax, the ICF headquarters in Virginia. And if you finally search for the registrant, or the registrar or even the administration contact of the Internet domain icf.com, as it appears in its official homepage, you will not go too far. The address is headed to Digital Private Corporation, at Vista, California, an online anonymous service for hiding the real owners of the domains.
L'Espresso magazine has asked ICF «how the members of its executive leadership, board of directors, project managers and each of the US employees ensure that the remarkable amount of sensitive data ICF is collecting for its commitments in Europe, are not now or hereafter used against the interests of the European Commission, the EU Parliament and the citizens of the European Union». But the contractor company has not replied yet.
