Defense Secretary Mattis Had Secret Dinner With Amazon Official Before $10 Billion Contract

[Swordsmyth]

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had a secret meeting with a top Amazon cloud sales executive in 2017 before the Pentagon announced a $10 billion cloud computing contract that critics say was designed to be fulfilled only by Amazon, Fox News' Tucker Carlson reported on Friday.

Earlier this month, The Intercept (https://theintercept.com/2019/06/03/amazon-defense-department-jedi-contract/) reported:

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are now the two finalists to win the highly contested $10 billion contract for what is known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI. The deal, one of the largest federal contracts in U.S. history, would pay one company to provide cloud computing services in support of Defense Department operations around the world.
The Intercept further noted that there are allegations that former DOD official Deap Ubhi, who left to work for Amazon in 2017, "worked on the preliminary research for the JEDI program in the late summer and fall of 2017" and was "also engaged in a secret job negotiation with Amazon for months, complete with salary discussions, offers of signing bonuses, and lucrative stock options."
During his program on Friday, Carlson reported:

Well, the Department of Defense exists to protect America from foreign threats and does a great job with that, thank God, but it's also a massive consumer of tax dollars, the biggest really. And for that reason, concerns about corruption are always there. There's reason to believe that over the past couple of years some at the Pentagon have worked to enrich Amazon, already the world's richest company. In 2017, the Pentagon announced a $10 billion cloud computing contract. According to critics, the contract wasn't actually competitive, it was designed from the very start to be fulfilled by Amazon and only by Amazon.
Several of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' aides had prior professional ties to Amazon. A key official working on the Pentagon's cloud computing program was carrying out secret job negotiations with Amazon even as he worked on the Pentagon's program. And we can report exclusively tonight on this program that in March 2017, before the cloud computing contract was announced, Secretary Mattis had a secret dinner in London with Amazon's top cloud sales executive, Teresa Carlson [emphasis added].
A source told The Daily Wire that Carlson referred to Mattis' dinner with the Amazon official as "secret" because Teresa Carlson's name was redacted from itinerary records, which were later unredacted.



Carlson referred to the meeting as “secret” because the name of the Amazon employee he allegedly had dinner with was redacted from the itinerary.

Here is the redacted and unredacted itinerary pic.twitter.com/ZYFrOlaIE0 (https://t.co/ZYFrOlaIE0)
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 16, 2019 (https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1140279777825132545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI_Wp_JC5G4

More at: https://www.dailywire.com/news/48463/defense-secretary-mattis-had-secret-dinner-amazon-ryan-saavedra

[TheTexan]

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had a secret meeting with a top Amazon cloud sales executive in 2017 before the Pentagon announced a $10 billion cloud computing contract

The government had a meeting with Amazon before signing a $10 billion deal with them????!!!?

I am shocked!! Just shocked!!

[spudea]

So a business meeting over dinner? Why is this news?

[specsaregood]

So a business meeting over dinner? Why is this news?

If its not an issue/news then why did they redact the name? I thought that was the issue. If you watch the video, that was the point they were addressing.

[Anti Globalist]

I would never eat dinner with Jim Mattis.

[spudea]

If its not an issue/news then why did they redact the name? I thought that was the issue. If you watch the video, that was the point they were addressing.

Privacy, security, or protect inside information, as Amazon is publicly traded company, there are laws regarding inside information that would be considered.

[specsaregood]

Privacy, security, or protect inside information, as Amazon is publicly traded company, there are laws regarding inside information that would be considered.

Its a federal contract and a meeting with a govt official. There should be no inside/secret about them meeting.

[spudea]

Its a federal contract and a meeting with a govt official. There should be no inside/secret about them meeting.

The meeting was on mattis' itinerary, the person he was meeting was redacted for privacy or legal concerns, then after the contract announced, the name was unredacted by the DoD. It's not like a FOIA lawsuit was needed for the public to know. To describe this as a secret meeting is wrong.

[TheCount]

So a business meeting over dinner? Why is this news?

The party* decreed that True Patriots must hate Bezos.

[Swordsmyth]

So a business meeting over dinner? Why is this news?
Because they redacted it.

That makes it suspicious.

[Swordsmyth]

The party* decreed that True Patriots must hate Bezos.
Bezos decreed it but that is irrelevant, the other contractors who wanted the job aren't any better.

[enhanced_deficit]

Another fakenews media attack on the narrative that MAGA "surrounds himself with the best".

MAGA also had meetings with rich donors like Adelson and watched election results with his neocon top donor before he announced his global/mideast foreign policies. Does that alone prove he is not the best and part of the swamp?



Sheldon Adelson to have dinner Thursday at White House with Trump
timesofisrael.com/sheldon-adelson-to-have-dinner-at-white-house-with-trump
Jewish billionaire, a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, to dine with the president ahead of PM's Oval Office meeting next Wednesday.

Adelson: US should drop atom bomb on Iran

US sending 1,000 additional troops to Middle East amid Iran tensions (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?535755-US-sending-1-000-additional-troops-to-Middle-East-amid-Iran-tensions&)

Top US General Says American Troops Should Be Ready To Die For Israel (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?532704-Top-US-General-Says-American-Troops-Should-Be-Ready-To-Die-For-Israel&)

[ATruepatriot]

Because they redacted it.

That makes it suspicious.

Hoc est a ludum

[Swordsmyth]

Hoc est a ludum

Discere ludere ludum

[ATruepatriot]

Discere ludere ludum

confirmatus

[Swordsmyth]

Amazon is on the verge of assuming a major role in America’s national security, but the multinational corporation first has some questions to answer.
Judge Eric Bruggink of the Court of Federal Claims scheduled oral arguments (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/amazon-pentagon-accused-of-swampy-dealings-over-10b-contract) for a bid on the Department of Defense’s $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract this week, stalling a likely win for Amazon amid conflict of interest accusations.
The arguments, scheduled for July, are a response to a U.S. Court of Federal Claims complaint filed by Oracle, which is also bidding for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.
The JEDI program will place hosting and distribution of mission-critical information to military personnel in the hands of a single cloud service provider.

In its complaint, Oracle claims defense information would be safer if JEDI employed more than one cloud service. The company alleges that the Pentagon went with the one-provider model due to insider dealings involving Amazon employee and former DoD official Deap Ubhi.
As detailed in the complaint, Ubhi worked at Amazon prior to joining the DoD in August 2016. He is now back at Amazon, specifically at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing entity that would be in charge of JEDI should Amazon win the contract.
According to Oracle, Ubhi was a project manager for JEDI and was instrumental in convincing the Pentagon to use a single vendor for cloud computing—going against recommendations by the Department of Homeland Security and Intelligence Community to use multiple cloud vendors.
In fact, the DoD’s own “Cloud Strategy” from last year called for a “multi-cloud, multi-vendor strategy.”
A report by the House Appropriations Committee expressed concern with the single-vendor plan, stating that “this approach may lock the Department of Defense into a single provider for potentially as long as ten years.”

Oracle asserts that Ubhi had secret negotiations about returning to work at AWS while working on JEDI. The company says Slack messages prove that, contrary to the DoD’s court filing, the final decision to use a single vendor had already been made before Ubhi’s departure.
“Everybody knew it was Amazon,” a competing bidder, who wished to remain anonymous, told (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/has-bezos-become-more-powerful-in-dc-than-trump) Vanity Fair.


But Ubhi’s case isn’t the only one raising questions about the relationship between Amazon and the Pentagon.
Anthony DeMartino worked as a consultant for AWS before joining the DoD in January 2017. Oracle claims the Pentagon’s Standards of Conduct Office (SOCO) ordered DeMartino to recuse himself from JEDI in April 2018, which he ultimately did after JEDI proposal requests had already gone out to bidders.
DeMartino also allegedly ignored a SOCO direction in April 2017 to refrain from participating in anything AWS-related. He now works at Pallas Advisors, which he co-founded with Sally Donnelly — who served as an aide to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and consulted for AWS through her company SBD Advisors.
Mattis himself is the object of scrutiny due to a meeting he had with Amazon Vice President Teresa Carlson in March 2017 — a meeting the DoD kept secret.
Mattis also met with Amazon founder-chairman-CEO Jeff Bezos in August 2017—a month before the Pentagon began major market research into JEDI.


Despite the allegedly close relationship between the federal government and Amazon, President Trump has repeatedly spoken out against both the online retailer and Bezos himself.
The president has taken aim at Amazon for allegedly gaming the U.S. Postal Service, putting brick-and-mortar retailers out of business, and evading taxes.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/images/2014-2015misc/tweet_amazon.png (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/979326715272065024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5E tweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E979326715272065024&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwwd.com%2Fbusiness-news%2Fmedia%2Ftweet-trumps-war-with-amazon-and-jeff-bezos-1202763344%2F)
President Trump has also expressed disdain for the Bezos-owned Washington Post, whose coverage is often perceived as having a markedly liberal, anti-Trump slant.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/images/2014-2015misc/tweet_amazon2.png (https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1084627451983073280)
Amazon, like fellow tech companies Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and PayPal, has been accused of censorship against right-wing voices for banning books critical of Islam (https://www.christianpost.com/voice/amazon-book-banning-censorship.html).
Will the president intervene in the JEDI contract? A source close to the matter revealed that President Trump is aware of the issue and disapproves of the deal.
“From the beginning, the president has been very uncomfortable and unhappy about what appears to be nothing more than a cronyist giveaway to Amazon and Bezos, and after watching last week’s segment on Tucker Carlson, that unhappiness has only risen,” a GOP donor with White House ties told Breitbart News (https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/17/questions-swirling-amazon-contract-complicate-acting-defense-secretarys-future/).


More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/32677-judge-stalls-amazon-pentagon-deal-amid-conflict-of-interest-charge

[Swordsmyth]

One of the most lucrative contract wins for Amazon's AWS division suddenly appears to be on the rocks.
The Pentagon’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud-computing contract is under review according to Bloomberg, following instructions from the new Defense Secretary Mark Esper after President Trump endorsed criticism that Amazon.com Inc. is being given an unfair advantage for the contract.
Esper, who took over as Pentagon chief last week, is looking at the contract and "no decision will be made on the program until he has completed his examination," Elissa Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said in a statement Thursday.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-01/pentagon-review-10-billion-cloud-contract-which-trump-claims-favors-amazon

[Swordsmyth]

The Pentagon's Inspector General has launched a probe into key aspects of the DoD's forthcoming $10 billion JEDI cloud-computing program, and has vowed to "expeditiously" review whether there was any malfeasance in the bid process - including conflicts of interest, according to Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-13/pentagon-ig-probing-possible-misconduct-in-jedi-cloud-contract).
https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/pentagon%20pic_0.jpg
"We are reviewing the DoD’s handing of the JEDI cloud acquisition, including the development of requirements and the request for proposal process," said Pentagon IG spokeswoman Dwrena Allen in a statement, adding that a "multidisciplinary team" of auditors, attorneys and investigators are investigating JEDI matters "referred to us by Members of Congress and through the DoD Hotline."
"In addition, we are investigating whether current or former DoD officials committed misconduct relating to the JEDI acquisition, such as whether any had any conflicts of interest related to their involvement in the acquisition process."


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-13/pentagon-launches-investigation-10-billion-jedi-cloud-contract-amazon