The Defense Department has stopped moving funds from its overseas contingency operations budget covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to its base budget. Robert Hale, Pentagon comptroller, told Defense News the department stopped the shifts because of uncertainties such as sequestration cuts surrounding the budget. Hale said the Pentagon included $88.5 billion in OCORead… Read more »
Our recent blog post about accountability had some good discussions on the GS-1102 LinkedIn group (closed group) about who actually is responsible for accountability. Should it rest squarely on government? What responsibility does the contractor have when the government is asleep at the switch? A recent issue seems to have blurred that line, prompting theRead… Read more »
The “final” report on Iraq reconstruction was released recently, and I have seen little media attention to the astonishing level of waste, incompetence, and outright theft that the report highlights. How much money is unaccounted for? According to the report, nobody knows. After years of trying to account for the billions we poured into theRead… Read more »
www.homelandsecuritynet.com I just got back from AIPAC, and felt that the official statements by the US President fell way short of the mark. No hardened Iranian leader with blood on his hands is going to have sleepless night because the President says “everything is on the table” but give sanctions a chance. We know howRead… Read more »
www.homelandsecuritynet.com An estimated 7,500 Syrians have been killed by President Bashar Assad’s military during the past year, a fact that has led Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to call for U.S.-led air strikes to stop the slaughter of unarmed civilians being carried out by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying: “Providing military assistance toRead… Read more »
www.homelandsecuritynet.com US counter-terrorism officials say as the anticipation of a confrontation with Tehran over their nuclear program appears to be looming they believe that Iran is now providing “weapons and money” to various groups in an effort “to start as many bush fires as possible” with the goal of distracting the US and other regionalRead… Read more »
Between a GOP debate, a Stanley Cup final (and ensuing riots in Vancouver) and a Senator resigning in disgrace, one disturbing story has gone relatively overlooked. The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus is reporting that at least 85 American clinics in Iraq are suffering from X-ray radiation leaks… and have been for the past four years.Read… Read more »
In August, the Commission on Wartime Contracting gave the Defense Contract Management Agency and the Defense Contract Audit Agency sixty days to try to “harmonize their own approaches” to contract management in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since then a “divergence in contractor-employee counts” has come to light, along with some confusion about who is overseeing theRead… Read more »
One of the first lessons I learned as a public affairs officer in Iraq is that there are some reporters who are going to dig up things you really don’t want the world to know about your organization. I quickly figured out that hiding under my desk with my fingers in my ears muttering “YouRead… Read more »
From the Washington Business Examiner by Donna L. Quesinberry RE: FUTURE Sharing the World Sisterhood III – 2009 Leadership Conference FUTURE (Families United Toward Universal Respect) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) that supports women in developing third world countries and teaches them a strong organizational model based on volunteerism that promotes self-reliance, networking and family unity.Read… Read more »