Private military corporations [4] such as Kellogg Brown and Root [5] (KBR) have lauched a new public relations and lobbying initiative to counter what David Marin calls "the steady drip of negative front-page media reports about contractors and growing public concerns about the effectiveness of the federal contracting process." Samuel Loewenberg reports that Marin is the industry's "point man charged with heading off criticism." A former Republican staff director of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, he now works for the Podesta Group [6], a PR and lobby shop. His client is the Professional Services Council [7], a trade association whose members include KBR, Blackwater USA [8], Boeing [9] and DynCorp International [10].