Thread by @arapaho415

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 <Thread> (@OldGrunt0351's cue to tune out, LOL)
1/ This week's report that "The Army has chosen Palantir Technologies to deploy a complex battlefield intelligence system for soldiers" is confusing b/c a year ago, this⤵️ was reported: (more...)
Mar 9, 2018:
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache…

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 2/ Bloomberg Mar 9, 2018:
"Billionaire investor Peter Thiel got a fresh victory in Washington. His data-mining startup, Palantir Technologies Inc., won a much-contested contract to provide software to the U.S. Army. Palantir will work with Raytheon Co. to replace... (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 3/ ...the troubled Distributed Common Ground System [DCGS] now in effect. They beat out 👉7 other proposals👈 for a decade-long, $876 million contract, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Terms of the partnership between Palantir and Raytheon weren’t disclosed." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 4/ "Thiel, the co-founder and chairman of Palantir, approved the company’s move in 2016 to sue the Army over what it called an unfair bidding process. A judge found in Palantir’s favor and ordered the Army to revamp the way it solicits bids for the DCGS. (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 5/ "The U.S. Government Accountability Office determined that the Army’s current system was over-budget and underperforming."
The late @SenJohnMcCain was onboard for DCGS replacement: /pause

https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/972218510138101762

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 6/ "In Mar 2018, the Army chose Palantir and Raytheon to vie for the next phase of the Distributed Common Ground System (or DCGS-A, for Army), which lets users gather & analyze information about enemy movements, terrain & weather... (con't)
Mar 26, 2019:

https://twitter.com/shaneharris/status/1110665782176944130

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 7/ ...to create detailed maps and reports in real-time. The system is designed to be used by soldiers fighting in remote, harsh environments." Recall (tweet #4) that "In 2016, Palantir successfully argued in court that the government was required by law to consider... (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 8/ ...purchasing commercial products, when available, rather than custom ones.
That sent the Army back to the drawing board & led to the face off between Palantir & Raytheon."
"Palantir... argued that their software was cheaper & could meet all the Army’s requirements." (more)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 9/ "Raytheon and Palantir were allowed to test their respective software platforms with a live audience of soldiers, who told them what they liked and didn’t and what they would change. The two companies then refined their offerings to suit the Army’s needs. (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 10/ "Traditionally, the government first chooses a company to build a system according to a set of detailed requirements. But this approach let the Army take both companies’ products for a test drive before settling on the winner. (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 11/ ...'The Army changed its approach to acquisition,' Doug Philippone, a former Army Ranger who leads Palantir’s defense business said."
"Raytheon & Palantir 👉may compete for subsequent phases of work on the program👈."
For those interested,<thread> continues w/Palatir history

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain 12/ Tweet #6 article links to (lengthy) article by same author, @shaneharris from Jan 2012 (excellent primer on Palantir history).
NOTE: Article continues in right-column after: "Next: “Do we really want to live in a world where everyone sees everything"
washingtonian.com/2012/01/31/kil…

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 13/ PayPal was "founded in 1998," and "in 2002, the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion." Palantir was founded in 2004, by "cofounders [who] wanted to use PayPal’s fraud-detection technology as the model for a new counterterrorism software." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 14/ PayPal red flag example in article:
"Did a transaction occur between two parties in the US? That was probably safe. Two parties in Russia🇷🇺? A bit more suspicious. Did someone in the United States transfer money to someone in Russia🇷🇺? A red flag." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 15/ Alex "Karp [Palantir CEO] a self-described progressive, knew Thiel, a prominent libertarian, from their days at Stanford Law School. After 9/11, Karp had reconnected w/Thiel, who had the idea that Silicon Valley should do something to improve... (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 16/ ...national security & secure civil liberties."
On to DARPA:
"In Jan 2002, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military brain trust that invented the Internet & stealth technology, launched a research initiative to develop counterterrorism technologies. (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 17/ ...Dubbed Total Information Awareness (TIA), its goals were twofold: First, use advanced data-searching-and-integrating software to help the gov't get a better handle on the massive databases it had already set up but hadn’t used to their full potential. (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 18/ ...Second, use the same technology to search private data stores that might also hold valuable clues, such as airline reservation systems, credit-card records, and phone and e-mail logs." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 19/ "The man who ended up in charge of the effort, retired admiral John Poindexter, had been thinking about the problem since the early 1980s, when he was on the staff of the White House National Security Council." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 20/ John "Poindexter was convicted in April 1990 of multiple felonies as a result of his actions in the Iran–Contra affair, but his convictions were reversed on appeal in 1991." (more...)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Poin…

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 21/ During the Reagan Administration, "Poindexter was military assistant to the National Security Advisor (1981–1983) and Deputy National Security Advisor (1983–1985) prior to his appointment as National Security Advisor (1985–1986). con't...

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 22/ From 1983 to 1985, Poindexter was responsible for leading and managing the National Security Council staff as chairman of the Crisis Pre-planning Group. As National Security Advisor... Poindexter was responsible for providing recommendations to the President... (con't)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 23/ ...on national security, foreign policy and defense policy."
Iran-Contra: "Evidence revealed that Poindexter was a leader in the organization of the transfer of the weapons to Iran and oversaw other people involved in the affair, such as Oliver North." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 24/ "On Nov 25, 1986, after the public disclosure of the Iran–Contra affair, Poindexter was forced to resign from his position as National Security Advisor."
So naturally, Palantir turned to Poindexter: 👉"Palantir’s founders sought Poindexter’s counsel👈." (tweet #12) more...

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 25/ "Karp says Poindexter was one of many experts whom Palantir’s founders consulted in their early days. Many of them opened doors that usually remain closed to small companies with no experience in Washington." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 26/ "Palantir wanted to beat terrorists the way PayPal beat the Russian🇷🇺 mafia. And that approach bore some striking similarities to the one Poindexter took with TIA."
Thiel "has said that Palantir will be the next Facebook." (more...)

@Cre8NoH8 @OldGrunt0351 @SenJohnMcCain @shaneharris 27/ According to Karp, at the end of one failed pitch meeting, an investor who’d just turned him down" referred him to "In-Q-Tel, the venture-capital arm of the CIA, which was set up in 1999 to bypass the cumbersome government procurement process... (con't)