CIA used inaccurate, hacked code to guide killer UAVs

to the affidavit of IISi CEO Paul Davis, who was also on the conference call, his firm did not previously know Netezza had sold the undeveloped product, let alone for deadly application by the CIA.

In an e-mail to Baum two days later, on Columbus day 2009, Davis wrote: “Jon [Shepherd’s] statement, apparently endorsed by Jim [Baum] that the customer can ‘just work with whatever we give them’ is not consistent with how IISi works. And we don’t really believe that is how our national security agencies work. Frankly, that response suggests a cavalier sales approach to a profound issue. Lives are at stake.”

Yet according to Baum’s response, that is how the CIA worked. “It is the CUSTOMER who has indicated that he is willing to work with IISi and Netezza to accept code progressively,” he wrote.

As a follow up, Davis got a call from a man who identified himself as Skip McCormick, of the CIA, to discuss speeding up the port of Geospatial.

Davis was recuperating from a heart attack and could not speak at any length. Straight after the call, however, he received an email from McCormick with a CIA address. “We depend on the Geospatial tools here every day,” it said.

“We just upgraded to a [TwinFin], but it doesn’t yet have the Geospatial tools. I’m trying to figure out what options are available for getting them asap.”

Davis had doubts the contact was genuine but Williams writes that the Register has established that a Hays W. “Skip” McCormick III, co-author of a 1998 book on software project management, has worked at the CIA for several years. Sources including conference guest lists record his involvement in software projects at the agency. According to book publicity he previously worked as a consultant to DARPA, Northrop Grumman, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Further evidence of the CIA’s apparent acceptance of untested software is offered by an internal Netezza e-mail from the same day as the crucial conference call. “A US Gov customer is expecting the toolkit to be available as soon as Monday for use in a mission-critical project,” wrote project

manager Razi Raziuddin. “They do understand we won’t have a fully-qualified, production-ready release and are OK with it.”

Immediately after IISi’s refusal to deliver untested Geospatial code, internal e-mails disclosed to the court show Netezza executives began making alternative arrangements. “I want to set up some time on Thursday to get