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SOS International, a New York-based "management consulting"
firm that has handled work from counter intelligence training
to linguistics for the FBI, NSA and private companies, has
emerged from a lengthy review to monitor foreign media for
the U.S. Strategic Operations Command known as STRATCOM.
The contract had been held by The Rendon Group, which was
in the last stages of 15-month $8M contract. The new contract
with SOS caps at a whopping $67M. Bid documents indicate a
$5.25M budget for 2007 that could grow to about $18M a year
through 2010.
SOS, which has an office in Reston, Va., is charged with
tracking foreign press in several languages across Europe,
Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Mexico with a focus
on the so-called Global War on Terrorism.
The company has provided anti-money laundering training to
the United Nations in Nigeria and was one of four companies
awarded a multimillion-dollar contract with the FBI last year
to train and provide role players to support the Bureau's
nationwide counterintelligence training program. It also provided
a team of linguists to Kellogg, Brown & Root in Uzbekistan
and was a subcontractor for the National Security Agency.
A swath of companies in and around the PR industry took an
interest in the assignment, including Lincoln Group, TV Eyes,
Delahaye, Factiva and Carma Int'l, along with dozens of consulting
shops. The Pentagon declined a request by this website for
the names of companies which submitted proposals.
The review began in the spring of 2005 as STRATCOM wanted
to foster competition for the work. But the review process
was suspended in November before starting up again in February.
SOS has not yet returned a call about the contract.
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