Thread by @The_War_Economy

"Exclusive: Inside the effort to turn Trump against Amazon's bid for a $10 billion contract"

edition.cnn.com/2019/07/26/pol…

"A Conspiracy To Create A Ten Year DoD Cloud Monopoly"

Names listed: Deap Ubhi, Ash Carter, Chris Lynch, Tony DeMartino, Andre Pienaar, Sally Donnelly, James Mattis, Bob Daigle, Victor Gavin, Theresa Carlson

"Deap Ubhi is a restless guy. At 26, he quit his job in private equity in Northern California, where he had grown up and gone to college, and then moved to India to found Burrp!, a local search site similar to Yelp."

nytimes.com/2019/03/20/tec…

"After returning to the West Coast, he joined Amazon in 2014 to encourage start-ups to adopt the company’s cloud-computing products. But in less than two years, Mr. Ubhi left to start a company that provided technology to restaurants."

nytimes.com/2019/03/20/tec…

"[Ubhi] then shifted his career in a new direction, taking his Silicon Valley mentality to the heart of the Washington bureaucracy. He joined a Pentagon effort to recruit techies, and turned the restaurant start-up into a side hustle."

nytimes.com/2019/03/20/tec…

In February 2019, Ubhi started to be investigated by the United States Government after information was received by them.

nytimes.com/2019/03/20/tec…

In Fall 2017, Ubhi started to do market research for the JEDI Program, after being hired in 2016.

nytimes.com/2019/03/20/tec…

To note, it was on August 11, 2017 that Mattis visited Google.

dod.defense.gov/News/News-Rele…

Ubhi stopped working on JEDI at the end of October 2017.

nytimes.com/2019/03/20/tec…

It was in April 2014 that Ubhi joined Amazon Web Services in San Francisco.

medianama.com/2014/04/223-fr…

Ubhi once wrote an article on Medium on January 11, 2017.

"An Open Letter to President Barack Obama"

medium.com/@deaptablehero…

Mattis visited Amazon on August 10, 2017.

thehill.com/policy/technol…

Ubhi started to work at the United States Digital Service department, Defense Digital Service, for the United States Department of Defense in July 2016.

redstate.com/setonmotley/20…

Back on March 26, 2014, Amazon received provisional certification from the Department of Defense under the Cloud Security Model.

geekwire.com/2014/amazon-an…

"... The Cloud Executive Steering Group (CESG) established by the Deputy Secretary of Defense in a directive memorandum dated September 13, 2017, in order to support its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) initiative..."

armed-services.senate.gov/download/john-…

Four Republican lawmakers have pushed for the Departmnent of Defense to select the winner of the Pentagon JEDI cloud contract:

* Mac Thornberry
* Michael Turner
* Elise Stefanik
* Robert Wittman

uk.reuters.com/article/us-ama…

Teresa Carlson has been visiting Capitol Hill since 2011, initially as the Vice President of Amazon Web Services.

forbes.com/sites/silicona…

Teresa Carlson is on the board of directors at the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

nvtc.org/about/boardsta…

Teresa Carlson was one of the only people Jeff Bezos called out to during a conference in September 2018.

edition.cnn.com/2018/11/15/bus…

Tucker Carlson said that, back in March 2017, Secretary Mattis and Teresa Carlson had a secret dinner with each other.

dailywire.com/news/48463/def…

In August 2016, Secretary Ash Carter formed the Innovation Advisory Board, of which Jeff Bezos was a member.

aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicse…

In early March 2016, Ash Carter visited Amazon Headquarters.

aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicse…

Tony DeMartino is a founding partner at Pallas Advisors.

pallasadvisors.com/team/tony-dema…

Team at Pallas Advisors.

pallasadvisors.com/team

Dana Deasy took control over the cloud initiatives at the Department of Defense in June 2018.

defensesystems.com/articles/2018/…

"SBD Advisors helped Amazon.com Inc. craft its messaging and marketing strategies for potential Defense Department cloud-computing contracts"

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

"Donnelly was the founder of the Washington consulting firm SBD Advisors, where she also worked with DeMartino."

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Sally Donnelly and Tony DeMartino founded Pallas Advisors around October 2018.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

C5Capital purchased SBD Advisors around May 2018.

intelligenceonline.com/corporate-inte…

C5Capital was founded by Andre Pienaar.

c5capital.com

Members of the team at C5Capital include Andre Pienaar, Admiral Mike Mullen and Sir Iain Lobban.

c5capital.com/who-we-are/

Andre Pienaar and Mike Rogers on the board of 4IQ.

4iq.com/about/

"The information is currently strewn across some 400 centers, and the Pentagon’s top brass believes that consolidating it into one cloud-based system, the way the CIA did in 2013, will make it more secure and accessible."

vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/h…

"'It was a well known thing that if you needed something you would give it to Sally, and Sally would give it to the defense secretary,' says an insider who worked closely with Donnelly."

vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/h…

February 20, 2018, Washington Post.

Sally Donnelly leaves the Department of Defense.

washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoin…

"Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis expressed interest in meeting with Amazon (AMZN)
CEO Jeff Bezos at a dinner with his senior adviser Sally Donnelly and Amazon Web Services
(AWS) VP of Worldwide Public Sector Teresa Carlson in early 2017."

thecapitolforum.com/wp-content/upl…

Bob Daigle joined Pallas Advisors in May 2019.

defenseone.com/business/2019/…

Andre Pienaar and Teresa Carlson spoke at the same event - the Atlantic Future Forum - on October 22, 2018, on the HMS Queen Elizabeth "at anchor off New York City".

rn.mod.uk/-/media/royal-…

"Mattis worked from the outset to make diplomatic overtures to presidential aides, including Bannon and Kushner, but also Cohn, Flynn and Flynn's deputy, KT McFarland. Mattis' senior advisor, Sally Donnelly, led these diplomatic efforts."

politico.com/magazine/story…

"The work began immediately, on December 7, on the plane to North Carolina, when Mattis formally accepted the president's nomination as Secretary of Defense. On the plane ride, Mattis and Donnelly joined Trump and began a discussion about how Mattis would staff the Pentagon."

"Donnelly's first request was that they be allowed to retain a handful of senior Obama administration officials at the Pentagon, including Bob Work. Mattis personally spoke with Bannon about his desire to bring on Michele Flournoy."

politico.com/magazine/story…

Mattis hired Sally Donnelly to run his confirmation process, and also took on Anthony DeMartino at the same time, both of whom had run a consultancy that advised AWS on government business.

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa…

Sally Donnelly was a 20-year journalist from TIME Magazine and also joined the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in April 2018 as a non-resident senior fellow.

rbf.org/news/national-…

Sally Donnelly worked as the Head of US Central Command (Centcom)'s Washington Office while Mattis was General In Charge of Centcom, and she also worked as special assistant to Admiral Mike Mullen when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

thehill.com/policy/defense…

Mattis, Sally Donnelly and Dana Smith visitied Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani in Doha, Qatar on April 22, 2017.

centcom.mil/MEDIA/NEWS-ART…

Irrelevant but apparently Flynn became a consultant to SBD Advisors after he left the Defense Intelligence Agency.

fcw.com/blogs/fcw-insi…

Ash Carter also worked for SBD Advisors, starting around April 2014.

politico.com/story/2014/12/…

Back in 2014, at least, Sally Donnelly was also a member of the Defense Business Board.

"The Defense Business Board provides the Secretary and D Secretary advice..."

dbb.defense.gov/Portals/35/Doc…

Back in December 2016, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency were already clients of Amazon Web Services, which fell under Teresa Carlson's remit.

siliconangle.tv/woman-in-tech-…

Teresa Carlson and Ash Carter both attended the Defense One Tech Summit 2016 on June 10 in Washington, DC.

defenseone.com/feature/techno…

Teresa Carlson and Andre Pienaar met with Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi on October 3, 2017.

tamkeen.bh/tamkeen-meets-…

"Technology investment company C5 Accelerate has launched a new accelerator for startups in the MENA region, utilising Amazon Web Services."

Andre Pienaar and Teresa Carlson in September 2016.

itp.net/609331-c5-laun…

Secretary Ash Carter and Chris Lynch at the "Hack the Pentagon" program on June 17, 2016.

dod.defense.gov/News/Article/A…

November 2015.

"Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Lynch’s hiring Wednesday during a speaking engagement at George Washington University focused around his 'Force of the Future' program."

fedscoop.com/dods-digital-s…

June 27, 2017 announcement by the Department of Defense of Tony DeMartino's appointment to the Senior Executive Service.

dod.defense.gov/News/News-Rele…

A mention of JEDI back in November 2008.

"This effort will accomplish the delivery of Joint Enterprise Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS) Infrastructure (JEDI) software and DoDIIS Trusted Workstation (DTW) software."

afcea.org/content/northr…

Draft of the JEDI contract, released on March 7, 2018.

fbo.gov/index?s=opport…

James Mattis and Andre Pienaar (and Graeme Lamb) met with Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain on October 18, 2015.

houseofkhalifa.com/hrh-premier-re…

Graeme Lamb, for reference, is an operating partner at C5Capital.

c5capital.com/team/lt-genera…

Tweet from Teresa Carlson on August 10, 2017.

"Great having the #SecDef with us today
AWS_Gov"

"DeMartino also consulted for Amazon Web Services"

politico.com/tipsheets/poli…

Chris Lynch also attended the Defense One Tech Summit with Ash Carter and Teresa Carlson. He's actually in the picture.

https://twitter.com/The_War_Economy/status/1156832626633826304

"Notably, the AWS general manager, Deap Ubhi, spent a year as a product director for the Defense Digital Service, the Pentagon’s tech division. The Pentagon is currently reviewing Ubhi’s work developing the Jedi contract."

theguardian.com/us-news/2019/j…

"Comprised of small, highly empowered teams, DoD’s United States Digital Service is breaking down innovation barriers, tackling mission-critical operations, and delivering more value with the cloud in highly regulated, unclassified environments."

1 4 17

aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicse…

Chris Lynch speaks at re:Invent 2016 as Director of the Defense Digital Service.

Video uploaded by Amazon Web Services on December 5, 2016.

Timothy Van Name is the Deputy Director of the Defense Digital Service.

thehill.com/policy/technol…