ANSER Institute

The ANSER Institute was established in 1958 as an off-shoot of the RAND Corporation. The Institute has since evolved into an independent, not-for-profit corporation "limited to conducting 'unbiased studies and analyses' for the USAF to a company that is primarily concerned with helping to 'strengthen public institutions' through ' the improvement of their effectiveness and efficiency.'" ANSER now has approximately 700 employees and annual budget exceeding $70 million (2000).

More recently, the Institute is said to have shifted to "focus [on] two specific realms of policy making, the primary one of which is homeland defense (Anonymous 1999). Hence in 2000, ANSER developed the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, a subsidiary component of the corporation concerning the production and dissimination of national security policy-making publications. Through the Institute, ANSER published a new journal, The Journal of Homeland Security, and weekly email newsletters providing up-to-date news and hypertext links to articles and documents concerning issues of defense policy." 

History
One source states ANSER Institute's origins in this way:


 * "The Air Force needed a technically qualified, objective organization close to the Pentagon, able to respond on a day-to-day basis to identified needs for unbiased studies and analyses."


 * "ANSER became a Federal Contract Research Center (FCRC) when those were created (nine such organizations, including RAND, Aerospace, MITRE, CNA, and Lincoln Laboratory) shortly after ANSER came into existence. As such, it served a single client (the Air Force Director of Development Planning, later the Deputy Chief of Staff/Research and Development) and was restricted to only modest growth.


 * "After changing its status in 1976, dropping the FCRC designation, ANSER began work for numerous Air Force organizations, other Department of Defense components, and other Federal agencies."

Another Historical Perspective
According to a June 29, 2002, Online Journal article -- "The Strange Career of 'Homeland Security'" by Margie Burns:


 * "The well-supported entity (ANSER Institute for Homeland Security) is part of ANSER, Incorporated, also known as Analytic Services, Inc., headquartered in Arlington VA with 'field offices and operating locations throughout the world,' according to its 1999 annual report.


 * "Analytic Services was a research center for the Air Force, closed as a federal entity in 1977, and has garnered federal contracts and patents ever since. In Fiscal Year 1998, the Department of Defense ranked ANSER 58th on its 'Alphabetical Listing of the Top 100 DOD Prime Contractors for Research, Test, Intelligence, and Evaluation Work. In FY 1999, company contracts included a $56 million increase to an existing contract with the Air Force, to provide analytical and technical services through December 2000. Its federal awards for FY 2000 are listed as $74,456,395. As of March 2002, the federal government listed ANSER as a cognizant agency: 'Any State, Local, or Non-Profit agency expending more then [sic] $25,000,000 in total federal awards in a single Fiscal year' (based on FY 2000)."


 * In 1993, the Washington Times listed "ANSER's business areas as aerospace systems, civil systems, defense acquisition, information technology, military technology, military operations and special operations." ANSER has had awards from and agreements with "NASA, the Air Force Air Combat Command, the Russian Central Aero-Hydrodynamics Institute, the Russian Space Agency, and the Russian Academy of Sciences."


 * "Among other contracts, ANSER has cooperative agreements with the National Institute of Justice regarding intelligent search agent software in law enforcement. Interestingly, it also received $1.7 million from the COPS law enforcement discretionary fund, for 'face recognition and intelligent software development,' under the Virginia Office of Justice programs."

Key Institute Personnel

 * Dr. Ruth A. David, Ph.D.
 * Col. Randy Larsen (USAF, Ret.)
 * Peter Roman, Ph.D.
 * Col. Dave McIntyre, Ph.D. (USA, Ret)
 * Dr. Elin Gursky
 * Lloyd Salvetti
 * Alan Capps
 * Jennifer Crook
 * Sonita Almas
 * Steve Dunham
 * Trisha Anderson
 * Madhavi Patil

Board of Advisors

 * Dr. Jay C. Davis
 * Michael J. Bayer
 * John C. Gannon
 * Admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr. (USN, Ret)
 * Dr. John A. Hamre
 * Phil E. Lacombe
 * Dr. Joshua Lederberg
 * Judith A. Miller
 * Dr. Michael C. Moriarty
 * Dr. Tara O'Toole

Contact details
ANSER (Analytic Services Inc.) 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 800 Arlington, Virginia 22202-3251

SourceWatch Resources

 * intelligence community
 * military-industrial complex