TEARLINE
A State Department employee charged with executing public diplomacy and strategic communications on behalf of the United States government is on the ropes after being abandoned not only by the White House, Main State in Washington and the regional bureau, but even his own boss, Ambassador Patterson. Larry Schwartz, a senior public affairs officer for U.S. Embassy Cairo, released a controversial statement pleading for restraint and moderation preceding a vicious assault on the Embassy and consular grounds of another facility. It is unclear if he will hold on to his job as a strategic communicator; individuals with knowledge of the bureaucracy in question believe he may have fallen victim to political powerplays internal to the State Department.
A safehouse in Benghazi, Libya located off-site — ostensibly guarded and administered by the Central Intelligence Agency, usually with minimal coordination with the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and not located on sovereign US territory — was compromised during the course of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Senator Carl Levin said members of Congress are discussing ways to avert sequestration, which is scheduled to take effect on January 2, 2013. "I predict there will not be a sequester," Levin said. "One way or the other, since 90 percent of us don’t want it, it won’t happen. And my hope is that it won’t happen early enough to avoid any instability."
EADS and BAE Systems said Wednesday that they are discussing a $42 billion merger to create a European aerospace and defense company, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the proposed deal, EADS shareholders would own 60 percent of the combined group, with BAE shareholders owning the rest.
ON THE FIGHT
The Obama administration, roiled by the first killing of a U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years, has begun what appears to be a terrorist hunt in Libya, as evidence mounts that the deaths of four diplomatic workers there were perpetrated by well-armed thugs and not an out-of-control crowd. The FBI has opened an investigation into the deaths, and agents will be sent to sift through the wreckage for evidence. They will be accompanied by a second team sent just for their protection. As part of the hunt for the attackers, officials say the U.S. will increase its surveillance over Libya, including the use of unmanned drones. In addition, the U.S. Navy is positioning two destroyers armed with cruise missiles off the coast of Libya.
TURNOVER
Ginger Wierzbanowski was named vice president of space, missile defense, advanced technology and ground programs for Northrop Grumman. She succeeds John Landon, who will retire at the end of the year. Wierzbanowski, who joined Northrop in 2011, has served as vice president of government relations, special projects.
ManTech International has named former SAIC vice president Fleetwood Lilley as vice president of contracts. Liley will lead ManTech for its Mission, Cyber and Intelligence Solutions group, where he will manage commercial, federal, state and local government contracts,
CONTRACTS
The Navy and Marine Corps awarded awarded ITT Exelis and its partner, Innovative Technical Solutions, a $7 million contract to develop a laser communications system. The team will develop a line-of-sight, high-bandwidth system that will be used for ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore and ground-to-ground mission applications
A recent Government Accountability Office report found that the Federal Protective Service, which provides security and law enforcement services to thousands of federal facilities, continues to face challenges in overseeing its contract guards and in conducting facility security assessment. Under the oversight of the General Services Administration, FPS employs about 12,500 contract guards at over 9,000 federal facilities.
Robert Caruso is a veteran of the United States Navy, and has worked for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Business Transformation Agency and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
