DOD Could Improve Pandemic Flu Preparedness, Audit Finds

An influenza pandemic could impair the military’s readiness, jeopardize ongoing military operations abroad, and threaten the day-to-day functioning of the Department of Defense (DOD) due to a large percentage of sick or absent personnel, according to a recent federal report.

Each of DOD’s nine combatant commands (COCOMs) has established or intends to establish a working group to prepare for an influenza pandemic, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds in a recent report. GAO is the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.

Additionally, eight of the nine COCOMs have developed or are developing a pandemic influenza plan. Half of the COCOMs have conducted exercises to test their pandemic influenza plans and several are taking steps to address lessons learned. Five of the nine COCOMs have started to use various media, training programs, and outreach events to inform their personnel about pandemic influenza. Each of the geographic COCOMs has worked or plans to work with nations in its area of responsibility to raise awareness about and assess capabilities for responding to avian and pandemic influenza, according to the GAO study.

GAO recommends that DOD take steps to clarify the COCOMs’ roles and responsibilities for pandemic influenza-related efforts, identify the sources and types of resources needed for the COCOMs to accomplish these efforts, and develop options to mitigate the effects of factors that are outside of their control. DOD concurred with each of these recommendations, GAO says.

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Intelsat to Test Internet Routing in Space for the U.S. Military

Intelsat General Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intelsat Ltd, today announced that it has been selected for an industry-government collaboration to demonstrate the viability of conducting military communications through an Internet router in space.

The Department of Defense project to test Internet routing in space (IRIS) will be managed by Intelsat General, and the payload will convert to commercial use once testing has been completed. The IRIS project is one of seven projects -- out of hundreds of applicants -- funded and announced infiscal 2007 as a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) by the US Department of Defense, the contractor says.

Intelsat says it is the first commercial satellite company to be awarded a JCTD program. The IRIS JCTD is a three-year program that allows the DOD to collaborate with Intelsat General and its industry team to demonstrate and assess the utility of the IRIS capability.

Cisco Systems will provide commercial networking software for the on-board router. In addition, SEAKR Engineering Inc. of Denver, Colo., will manufacture the space-hardened router and integrate it into the IRIS payload.

Concerto Advisors, a financial advisory firm based in Iowa City, Iowa, is organizing equity financing for a new company to provide the funds to design, build and operate the equipment used for the demonstration. Following the JCTD testing period, Concerto's affiliate will own the equipment, and Intelsat will operate the equipment on Concerto's behalf to provide services for government and commercial users.

"IRIS extends the Internet into space, integrating satellite systems and the ground infrastructure for warfighters, first responders and others who need seamless and instant communications," says Bill Shernit, president and CEO of Intelsat General. "IRIS will enable U.S. and allied military forces with diverse satellite equipment to seamlessly communicate over the Internet from the most remote regions of the world."

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Poor Contracting Hindering Iraq Reconstruction

The Department of Defense (DOD) effort to reconstruct Iraq following the U.S. invasion is being hampered by poor contracting with companies and inadequate security, a government watchdog agency says.

DOD has relied extensively on private contractors to undertake major reconstruction projects and provide support to its deployed forces in Iraq, but these efforts have not always achieved desired outcomes, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO is the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.

Further, the Iraqi government must be able to reduce violence, sustain reconstruction progress, improve basic services, and make a positive difference in the daily lives of the Iraqi people, GAO says.

"The challenges faced by DOD on its reconstruction and support contracts often reflect systemic and long-standing shortcomings in DOD’s capacity to manage contractor efforts. Such shortcomings result from poorly defined or changing requirements, the use of poor business arrangements, the absence of senior leadership and guidance, and an insufficient number of trained contracting, acquisition and other personnel to manage, assess and oversee contractor performance, the GAO says in a new report. "In turn, these shortcomings manifest themselves in higher costs to taxpayers, schedule delays, unmet objectives, and other undesirable outcomes."


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Lab Uses RFID To Create Government Security System

An electronic accountability system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will result in savings of more than $2 million per year at one federal facility alone and will ensure 100 percent accountability of employees.

A pilot test of the system, which uses radio frequency technology to tag and identify people and equipment, was so successful at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency's Washington Navy Yard that ORNL was asked to install a system at the agency's facility in St. Louis. The performance achieved at the 600,000-square-foot six-floor facility represents a huge accomplishment, the lab says.

"Never before had a government agency allowed the use of active radio frequency identification technology within a classified facility of this type," says Gary Steimer, a program manager in ORNL's National Security Directorate.

To gain approval to design and install such a system within a secure facility, the ORNL team had to conduct extensive research and testing to ensure that no classified information would be compromised by the radio transmissions from the RFID equipment. After several months of testing, ORNL researchers recommended an engineering solution for a pilot program that was ultimately approved by the government.

Steimer notes that the system, dubbed the RFID Accountability System, or RAS, provides a solution to an enormous and expensive problem because of the tens of thousands of items to be inventoried.

"The equipment accountability system alone will save the government both manpower and money," Steimer says. "The workforce used to conduct inventories and track equipment will be reduced by about 80 percent."

Perhaps even more importantly, the ORNL system safeguards people.

"In any federal or state building that houses hundreds or thousands of employees, knowing where people are is a tremendous concern," Steimer says. "In the event of a drill or actual emergency, our system lets responders know quickly who is still in the building."

The system, developed by Greg Hanson and John Jones of the lab's Engineering Science and Technology Division and Angela Sexton of the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, provides the capability to easily enter all assets into a custom-designed database. Once this is done, employees can perform quick and accurate inventories simply by rolling a mobile cart into each office. The equipment tags are activated, allowing for an accurate hands-off inventory that can be viewed instantly.

In the November test at the Washington Navy Yard, for the first time the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency was able to achieve 100 percent accountability of RFID-tagged personnel, whether the employees were still in the building or in one of the several assembly areas.

"By using the ORNL-developed RFID accountability system first responders can now be directed to the exact floor and zone where people are trapped, thus expediting recovery operations and saving lives," Hanson says.

Specifically, the software and hardware systems developed by ORNL provide information about exact locations of people in the building, people who left the building and the time they left and the exits they used.

Funding for the project was provided by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, whose mission is to provide timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security.


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Former DOD Contractor Sentenced in Bribery, Fraud, Money Laundering Scheme in Iraq

A former US Department of Defense (DOD) contractor was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.6 million for his role in a bribery and fraud scheme involving contracts in the reconstruction of Iraq, Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher of the U.S. Justice Department Criminal Division announced today.

Robert Stein, 52, of Fayetteville, N.C., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. The judge also sentenced Stein to three years of supervised release.

Stein was arrested in Fayetteville on Nov. 14, 2005, and pleaded guilty on February 2, 2006, to being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of machine guns, bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority --South Central Region (CPA-SC) in al-Hillah, Iraq.

"Robert Stein will now spend nine years in jail for exploiting hispublic position and accepting bribes for contracts during the rebuilding ofIraq," says Fisher. "The Department of Justice will protect the integrity of the federal contracting process byaggressively prosecuting fraud, bribery and other crimes that taint missions as critical as the reconstruction of Iraq."

Stein admitted to participating in a complex bribery, fraud and money-laundering scheme while serving as the comptroller and funding officer forthe CPA-SC. From December 2003 through December 2005, Philip Bloom, a U.S. citizen who owned and operated several companies in Iraq and Romania, Bruce Hopfengardner, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, and numerous public officials, including several high-ranking U.S. Army officers, conspired to rig the bids on contracts being awarded by the CPA-SC so that all of the contracts were awarded to Bloom. In return, Bloom provided the public officials with over $1 million in cash, SUVs, sportscars, a motorcycle, jewelry, computers, business class airline tickets, liquor, future employment with Bloom, and other items of value.

In addition, Bloom laundered over $2 million in currency that Stein and his co-conspirators stole from the CPA-SC that had been designated to be used for the reconstruction of Iraq. Bloom then used his foreign bankaccounts in Iraq, Romania and Switzerland to send the stolen money to Stein, Hopfengardner and other public officials in return for the awarded contracts. In total, Bloom received over $8.6 million in rigged contracts.

During the course of the conspiracy, Stein and other co-conspiratorsstole U.S. currency and funneled those funds to Bloom in order to purchase illegal controlled weapons which they converted to their own personal use in the United States, including assault rifles, silencers, and grenade launchers.

Stein has cooperated with the government's ongoing investigation.

On March 10, 2006, co-conspirator Bloom, pleaded guilty to relatedcharges of conspiracy, bribery and money laundering in connection with thesame scheme as Stein. Bloom is scheduled to be sentenced on February 16,2007.

On August 25, 2006, co-conspirator Hopfengardner pleaded guilty to related charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering inconnection with the same scheme as Bloom and Stein.


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