Wednesday, October 31, 2012 — Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are OPEN and employees have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework, as some areas continue to clean up following Hurrican Sandy. The brunt of the storm missed the Washington, D.C. area, although some areas remain without power.
TEARLINE
Pilots and crewmembers from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron took off from Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., to conduct a weather reconnaissance mission over the East coast prior to Hurricane Sandy making landfall on Monday, Oct. 29. The WC-130J weather recon aircraft made a final mission before the hurricane hit the Northeast U.S. Monday evening.
It’s not that long ago that cell networks went down first, not last. On Sept. 11, 2001 the cellular networks failed almost completely in New York, overwhelmed by traffic and damage. In the wake of that disaster, you couldn’t even send an SMS message to a loved one on a different mobile network—that capability didn’t start to come online in the United States until November 2001. This was not the case in Tropical Storm Sandy.
ON THE FIGHT
U.S. courts have decided if US authorities wish to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without warrant, it’s OK.
“This has not been a victory lap for Enterprise by any mean. This has been a full-on combat operation.” So says the commander of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, which returns to Norfolk Naval Station Sunday after its fifth and final deployment.
Most people don’t realize the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a good-sized unit out in Quantico, Va. called the Cyber Division, which focuses on defending against criminal attempts to hack into government and corporate computer systems. But the FBI Cyber Division is also duplicating the many of the national cyber security missions currently being performed by NSA and DHS. As this news article reveals, much of the FBI’s current effort is focused on building up a massive database of the digital signatures of hackers by combing through massive amount of “malicious code” sent to Cyber Division for analysis. The unit does not make any arrests.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
What are intelligence agencies like NRO and NGA doing to help Americans cope with Hurricane Sandy?
U.S. intelligence appropriations fall to $75.4 billion in second decline.
Corruption remains one of the main obstacles to democratic progress and development in Iraq, with almost $800 million flowing out of the country illegally each week, according to a U.S. watchdog’s quarterly report to Congress Tuesday. The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says the estimate on the illegal outflow was provided in September by the head of the Supreme Audit Board at the time, Abdul-Baset Turki, who discovered that 80% of the $1 billion purchased every week in foreign currency auctions supervised by the Central Bank of Iraq was being transferred out of the country under false pretenses.
CONTRACT WATCH
Harris Corporation has received a new $50.5 million order from the U.S. Army for next-generation satellite communications terminals under the agency’s Modernization of Enterprise Terminals program.
Lockheed Martin was awarded a $26 million foreign military sales contract by the U.S. Air Force to modernize the Royal Jordanian Air Force’s national air command, control, communications infrastructure.
Crusader LLC was issued a $567,450.00 contract to provide the US Army Special Operations Command off-road driving and force protection course packages.
"The Partner Language Training Center Europe (PLTCE) of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies located in Garmisch, Germany has a requirement for Persian/Farsi and Introductory French language instructional services."
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.
