The camel does seem to have it's nose, perhaps its whole head under the tent. -GFS
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US May Ease Police Spy Rules
Saturday 16 August 2008

by: Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post

A Justice Department proposal would grant broader spy powers to the police. (Photo: AP)
The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.
The proposed changes would revise the federal government's rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation's 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.
Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.
Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush's successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era.
Supporters say the measures simply codify existing counterterrorism practices and policies that are endorsed by lawmakers and independent experts such as the 9/11 Commission. They say the measures preserve civil liberties and are subject to internal oversight.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration agrees that it needs to do everything possible to prevent unwarranted encroachments on civil liberties, adding that it succeeds the overwhelming majority of the time.
Bush homeland security adviser Kenneth L. Wainstein said, "This is a continuum that started back on 9/11 to reform law enforcement and the intelligence community to focus on the terrorism threat."
Under the Justice Department proposal for state and local police, published for public comment July 31, law enforcement agencies would be allowed to target groups as well as individuals, and to launch a criminal intelligence investigation based on the suspicion that a target is engaged in terrorism or providing material support to terrorists. They also could share results with a constellation of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and others in many cases.
Criminal intelligence data starts with sources as basic as public records and the Internet, but also includes law enforcement databases, confidential and undercover sources, and active surveillance.
Jim McMahon, deputy executive director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the proposed changes "catch up with reality" in that those who investigate crimes such as money laundering, drug trafficking and document fraud are best positioned to detect terrorists. He said the rule maintains the key requirement that police demonstrate a "reasonable suspicion" that a target is involved in a crime before collecting intelligence.
"It moves what the rules were from 1993 to the new world we live in, but it maintains civil liberties," McMahon said.
However, Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the proposed rule may be misunderstood as permitting police to collect intelligence even when no underlying crime is suspected, such as when a person gives money to a charity that independently gives money to a group later designated a terrorist organization.
The rule also would allow criminal intelligence assessments to be shared outside designated channels whenever doing so may avoid danger to life or property -- not only when such danger is "imminent," as is now required, German said.
On the day the police proposal was put forward, the White House announced it had updated Reagan-era operating guidelines for the U.S. intelligence community. The revised Executive Order 12333 established guidelines for overseas spying and called for better sharing of information with local law enforcement. It directed the CIA and other spy agencies to "provide specialized equipment, technical knowledge or assistance of expert personnel" to support state and local authorities.
And last week, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said that the Justice Department will release new guidelines within weeks to streamline and unify FBI investigations of criminal law enforcement matters and national security threats. The changes will clarify what tools agents can employ and whose approval they must obtain.
The recent moves continue a steady expansion of the intelligence role of U.S. law enforcement, breaking down a wall erected after congressional hearings in 1976 to rein in such activity.
The push to transform FBI and local police intelligence operations has triggered wider debate over who will be targeted, what will be done with the information collected and who will oversee such activities.
Many security analysts faulted U.S. authorities after the 2001 terrorist attacks, saying the FBI was not combating terrorist plots before they were carried out and needed to proactively use intelligence. In the years since, civil liberties groups and some members of Congress have criticized the administration for unilaterally expanding surveillance and moving too fast to share sensitive information without safeguards.
Critics say preemptive law enforcement in the absence of a crime can violate the Constitution and due process. They cite the administration's long-running warrantless-surveillance program, which was set up outside the courts, and the FBI's acknowledgment that it abused its intelligence-gathering privileges in hundreds of cases by using inadequately documented administrative orders to obtain telephone, e-mail, financial and other personal records of U.S. citizens without warrants.
Former Justice Department official Jamie S. Gorelick said the new FBI guidelines on their own do not raise alarms. But she cited the recent disclosure that undercover Maryland State Police agents spied on death penalty opponents and antiwar groups in 2005 and 2006 to emphasize that the policies would require close oversight.
"If properly implemented, this should assure the public that people are not being investigated by agencies who are not trained in how to protect constitutional rights," said the former deputy attorney general. "The FBI will need to be vigilant -- both in its policies and its practices -- to live up to that promise."
German, an FBI agent for 16 years, said easing established limits on intelligence-gathering would lead to abuses against peaceful political dissenters. In addition to the Maryland case, he pointed to reports in the past six years that undercover New York police officers infiltrated protest groups before the 2004 Republican National Convention; that California state agents eavesdropped on peace, animal rights and labor activists; and that Denver police spied on Amnesty International and others before being discovered.
"If police officers no longer see themselves as engaged in protecting their communities from criminals and instead as domestic intelligence agents working on behalf of the CIA, they will be encouraged to collect more information," German said. "It turns police officers into spies on behalf of the federal government."
Civil liberties groups also have warned that forthcoming Justice Department rules for the FBI may permit the use of terrorist profiles that could single out religious or ethnic groups such as Muslims or Arabs for investigation.
Mukasey said the changes will give the next president "some of the tools necessary to keep us safe" and will not alter Justice rules that prohibit investigations based on a person's race, religion or speech. He said the new guidelines will make it easier for the FBI to use informants, conduct physical and photographic surveillance, and share data in intelligence cases, on the grounds that doing so should be no harder than in investigations of ordinary crimes.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that updating police intelligence rules is a move "in the right direction. However, the vagueness of the provisions giving broad access to criminal intelligence to undefined agencies . . . is very troubling."
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Staff writers Joby Warrick and Ellen Nakashima contributed to this story

Government Executive.com
Link to original article: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0808/081408rb1.htm

Defense audit agency maps out response to damaging report
By Robert Brodsky rbrodsky@govexec.com August 14, 2008

The Defense Department's lead contracting oversight unit may have allowed internal performance metrics to compromise the quality of its audits at times, the agency's director acknowledged in a staffwide memorandum last week.
The missive, one of several obtained by Government Executive, shows the Defense Contract Audit Agency scrambling to repair its damaged reputation after a report by the Government Accountability Office that found supervisors had improperly influenced audits to favor large federal contractors.
In the Aug. 7 memo, which outlined steps DCAA is taking to address GAO's findings, DCAA Director April Stephenson wrote that the agency will reassess its metrics to determine whether they are appropriate and if they are being implemented correctly. The review is expected to be completed by Sept. 30.
"Metrics should not override audit quality and in some instances we may have let metrics compromise performance of an audit in accordance with the auditing standards," Stephenson said.
The memo appears to respond in part to allegations of former DCAA auditors published the previous day in a Government Executive report. The article was based on interviews and correspondence with nearly a dozen former employees who said the agency "was broken" and beholden to sometimes arbitrary job performance targets rather than taxpayers.
According to several agency officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, the article quickly circulated in DCAA offices and headquarters, causing concern among supervisors.
"Upper management is seriously scared right now," said one DCAA employee, who spoke on his cell phone for fear that the agency would check his office line. "Everyone is in duck-and-cover mode."
In the Aug. 7 memo, DCAA also announced that it would conduct a comprehensive assessment of staffing. The review, Stephenson said, would determine if the agency has the right number of employees and offices, whether offices are in the right locations and whether they are distributed appropriately across DCAA regions.
Stephenson also announced that DCAA would cease participation on integrated product teams due to concerns about audit independence. IPTs, developed in 1995 to streamline the acquisition process, are multidisciplinary teams that make coordinated decisions about requirements, design and source selection. They often include the contractor.
GAO's report alleged that DCAA had reached an upfront agreement with a large contractor, later revealed to be Boeing Co., to limit the scope of its work and the basis for its audit opinion on a 2002 estimating system. At the same time, DCAA was participating in an IPT that was reviewing the estimating system. GAO found that the final audit opinion had been heavily influenced by the contractor and by an agency manager.
In a detailed, 19-page response to the GAO report, released this week by the nonprofit watchdog group the Project on Government Oversight, DCAA Regional Director Christopher Andrezze said he disagreed with the finding, arguing that DCAA's independence "was not compromised" through its participation in the IPT.
But in her memo, Stephenson said the agency would err on the side of caution, noting that it is in the "process of issuing guidance on independent audit services that may be provided by DCAA during an IPT."
This memo was one of three distributed by Stephenson in as many days last week.
In the first, issued on Aug. 6, Stephenson announced that August, already almost one week old, had been designated as audit quality month.
"To recognize this initiative, we request that each office hold a stand down-day this month in which audit quality is discussed as a group," the memo stated. "The regional director or deputy regional director will participate in these conferences to further emphasize expectations and answer questions or concerns on audit quality."
The memo included a more general warning that audit quality should not "suffer or be jeopardized by external factors or internal factors (e.g., agency metrics)."
A third memo, sent on Aug. 8, touched on how DCAA employees should handle follow-up investigations of DCAA's operations. Such reviews are currently being conducted by the Defense Department Inspector General, GAO and the Defense Business Board, an independent panel of corporate executives. DCAA also is conducting its own internal investigation.
"It is imperative that all employees cooperate fully with the reviewers," Stephenson wrote. "Employees at all levels in the organization should feel free to have open and candid discussion with the evaluators."
The GAO report alleged that auditors who complied with its investigation were subject to harassment and intimidation from their supervisors.
The Stephenson memos represent somewhat of an about-face for the agency, which initially downplayed GAO's July 23 report. In their official response to the report, DCAA officials said they disagreed with "totality" of the watchdog agency's findings and argued that DCAA's field offices were "operating at a satisfactory level of compliance."
In his separate 19-page reaction, regional director Andrezze wrote that the agency's "audit independence was not impacted by pressures from either the contractor or buying command," although he did acknowledge that working papers did not always support final audit opinions.
And a July 25 letter, signed by Dan Hawkins, senior DCAA auditor, and sent to GAO, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and others, claimed the GAO report was "way off base." McCaskill had called for widespread firings at DCAA as a result of the report.
"DCAA is one of the few government organizations that holds its employees to high standards day in and day out," Hawkins wrote. "It takes personnel actions against employess that do not perform up to standards. I have seen poor performing auditors come and go. The poor performing auditors always blame management and complain about the lack of budget hours and due dates that cannot be met. It is smoke and mirrors."
According to several sources who reviewed an internal DCAA personnel directory, there is no Dan Hawkins who works for the agency. The letter also was not printed on DCAA letterhead.
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Comment:

I am sure DCAA is feeling quite pressured by now because this has all become public.

I do hope that the efforts to communicate with and elicit information and concerns from the employees will not go the way another defense agency's (DIS/DSS) "plan" did, with employees being told to trust the one doing the surveys and interviews, and that their concerns would be handled professionally, and individuals would not be targeted.

It is my considered opinion, that the person doing the surveys and compilation (Carol Haave) knew how to APPEAR to be using Inclusive Leadership skills, but had no commitment philosophically to the inherent honesty and integrity of the process. She convinced field personnel across the country to trust her in this process, but then took the information given to her in good faith, and without sharing the results with the participants, scuttled off to the upper management with the information. Shortly after that, the targeted harassment began of those who had the courage to speak up.

Nothing improved and the agency lost many good employees to retirement or resignations, as they did not take kindly to the unprofessional way their concerns were handled. Those that would speak up, really were trying to help their agency solve problems and make it be the best it could be. Their experience was most certainly a "no good deed goes unpunished" event.

I wish the DCAA employees luck.

-GFS

For Immediate Release
Thursday, August 14, 2008


20 Million Employees Get Whistleblower Protection


Consumer Product Safety Reform Signed by President

Washington, D.C. August 14, 2008.

Today President Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Overwhelming Congressional majorities sent the bipartisan bill to the president's desk on July 30, after a reaching compromise on several key provisions, including whistleblower protection. This Legislation is Congress' response to recent massive consumer product recalls, on everything from lead-laden children's toys to toxic toothpaste, which had angered Americans and prompted calls for reform.

The law includes whistleblower protections approved as part of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act (H.R. 4040 and S.2663).

The whistleblower provision of the new law will guarantee protection for over 20 million employees involved in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of consumer goods. This protection ensures that employees have the right to report defective and hazardous consumer goods to their superiors or a regulatory agency, such as the CPSC.

Stephen M. Kohn, the President of the National Whistleblower Center issued the following statement on behalf of the NWC:
"This law is a major victory. Today, despite attacks from big business, the interests of American families have prevailed. Finally, employees in the manufacturing industry have the vital whistleblower protections necessary to report hazardous products. Now American regulatory agencies must follow the government's lead and enforce these critical protections."


The law can be viewed in its entirety HERE
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The National Whistleblower Center is a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization dedicated to helping whistleblowers. Since 1988, the Center has worked with whistleblowers to improve environmental protection, nuclear safety, national security, government ethics and corporate accountability. For more information, please visit www.whistleblowers.org OR www.whistleblowersblog.org

Let’s hope this is more than just changing the recruitment catch phrase, and name tag on the door. -GFS
***********************************************From The Washington Post
'Stop the Slide,' Says New Air Force Chief

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081202864.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Schwartz Is Blunt About Service's Failings
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 13, 2008; A02
Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, who began his tenure as the 19th Air Force chief of staff yesterday, has taken a frank view of the service's need to address recent failures concerning the security of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and acquisitions practices, telling senior leaders in briefings that they need to "stop the slide."
In two PowerPoint documents used in recent briefings, Schwartz emphasized the need for the Air Force to recapture "top-to-bottom excellence in the nuclear mission," restore "credibility on Capitol Hill one member (and staff) at a time," and instill "a compliance culture in key disciplines" such as nuclear, aircraft and missile maintenance and acquisition. Drafts of the internal documents were obtained by The Washington Post and were verified by the Air Force yesterday.
Schwartz has set his sights on restoring the service's credibility after a series of security and corruption problems that have marred its reputation in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.
The Air Force has been sullied over the past year by nuclear mishaps, including the inadvertent transfer of warheads over American skies and the mistaken shipment of nuclear-related materials to Taiwan, incidents that led to a Pentagon report criticizing the Air Force's safeguarding of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The Air Force has also been plagued by acquisition problems and purchasing scandals at a time when the Pentagon leadership has pushed the service to focus less on future needs and more on current wars.
"The truth of the matter is, this isn't exactly how we would have wished to come to this job," Schwartz said in an interview yesterday. "There have been a number of events that have occurred and collectively have made folks uneasy, and understandably so. Our task, in the near term and in the months ahead, is to get after this, stabilize our situation and recommit ourselves to those things that we know will produce the right outcomes."
Schwartz said the Air Force should focus on "jointness," recognizing that the wars the United States is currently waging overseas are primarily fought as ground wars with Air Force support. While he said that will not always be the case -- and he encourages Air Force leaders to prepare for all kinds of future battles -- Schwartz said there needs to be more attention given to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
In his briefings, which he has begun presenting to senior leaders in recent days, Schwartz also points out that it is unacceptable for anyone in the Air Force to tolerate a bad job or inappropriate activities.
"There is much less room for poor performance and certainly for misconduct," Schwartz said. "We will be active on this and be surgical if that's what is needed."
Schwartz also takes a thinly veiled stab at the Air Force's recent ad campaign dubbed "Above All," which aimed to show the Air Force's importance in the skies and in cyberspace but appeared to argue superiority to the other services. Schwartz, instead, wants to pursue a "For All" approach.
"I think it is safe to say that we see things perhaps a little bit differently," Schwartz said, adding that "it's all about what we do for the joint team."
On his first day on the job, Schwartz publicly pledged to "return the vigor and rigor" to all processes and missions the Air Force carries out, specifically vowing to fix the lapses in the service's nuclear programs and mandating more support for the other services involved in the "global war on terror."
"I think, fundamentally, our service is sound," Schwartz told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday, flanked by Michael B. Donley, acting secretary of the Air Force. "It doesn't mean we're perfect. And we certainly have work to do, things to fix, fences to mend. . . . Those areas where others have found fault, we are going to work with a vengeance, and we'll tidy that up. And the United States Air Force will remain the finest air force on the planet."
In June, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ousted former Air Force secretary Michael W. Wynne and Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, then the chief of staff, after concerns about the nuclear deficiencies and contracting scandals peaked. Wynne and Moseley had come under increasing criticism for accountability lapses and for pushing ahead with internal Air Force agendas amid opposition from senior leaders at the Pentagon and the White House.
At a ceremony yesterday morning welcoming Schwartz to the job, Gates said: "He comes into this position at a challenging time. He has said that his goal is to recommit the Air Force to the high standards of excellence that have always been its hallmark. I have no doubt that he will give his all in that cause."

So, next year looks like it will be potentially even worse for whistleblowers, with corporate entities with ambitions and something to hide, putting even more pressure on government and lawmakers to have their way with things, and deep six any possible right-doers who get in their way. -GFS
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From The Washington Post

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102039_pf.html

In a Harsh Climate for Lobbyists, the Forecast Calls for . . . More Lobbyists
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Tuesday, August 12, 2008; A11
To hear the presidential candidates talk, you'd think that lobbyists were about to be exiled from the capital city.
Republican John McCain has dumped anyone who lobbies from his campaign staff, and on the hustings he lambastes "corruption" in Washington. Democrat Barack Obama is even more outspoken. He doesn't accept donations from federal lobbyists and frequently hammers them in his speeches.
But K Street's response is not to flee in fear. Instead, it's getting ready for one of its busiest periods ever.
Attacks from the presidential wannabes and the likelihood that Congress will become even more Democratic -- read: more activist -- means that many corporate interests will face increased danger next year and will have to employ more of the people whose job is to protect them -- lobbyists.
"Next year will seem like 10 years," predicted Richard H. Baker, president of the Managed Funds Association and a former Republican congressman from Louisiana. In anticipation, his group, which lobbies for hedge funds, has more than doubled the number of lobbying firms it normally hires.
"It's going to be a very, very busy year; we might as well brace ourselves for it," agreed Daniel A. Mica, president of the Credit Union National Association, the lobby for credit unions, and a former Democratic congressman from Florida. He's asking his state affiliates to boost their budgets so they can bring more people to Washington to press for their causes.
"It doesn't matter which one is president -- there is going to be a tremendous need for lobbying," Mica said.
Health care will probably be an early focus, especially if Obama wins. America's Health Insurance Plans, the health insurance lobby, has been working for two years to get ready. Its newest weapon: a network of what it hopes will be 100,000 people who are willing to contact their lawmakers to defend private insurers.
The National Federation of Independent Business, the small-business lobby, is also concentrating on health care. Expecting a major push on the issue next year, it's spending substantial sums to collect as many as 500,000 names on an Internet petition at http://www.fixedforamerica.com. Those who sign up will be called on to ask Congress for changes in health-care policy that benefit small-business owners.
"There's a lot of talk about change in this election; you have to get ready," explained Dan Danner, NFIB executive vice president. "We anticipate a much, much greater level of activity than we've had in the last few years."
Lobbying's guns-for-hire also foresee a gold rush in their billings. One reason, they say, is that Congress has been stalemated for so long on topics including taxation, energy prices and climate change that a flood of legislation probably will come tumbling out under a new president.
"There's going to be a whole lot more activity for people who do what we do," said Jack Quinn of the lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates. That's "a perverse irony," added Nicholas W. Allard of Patton Boggs, given the candidates' anti-lobbyist views.
Two More Buses
The buses keep rolling in lobby land. Consumers Union has a large vehicle, actually an RV, roaming through the lower 48 states collecting stories about health care.
The Cover America Tour is videotaping Americans with complaints about their medical experiences to bring to life what it calls "our broken health-care system."
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network has a bus in the lower 48 as well.
It's Party Time!
The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation reports that at least 370 parties are scheduled during the presidential nominating conventions -- shindigs sponsored by such high-profile companies as Bank of America, Eli Lilly, AT&T and Anheuser-Busch.
The watchdog group said the Democratic conclave in Denver will feature a late-night party at the Loft sponsored by USTelecom, among others, and a luncheon organized by financial services companies. The Republicans in Minneapolis-St. Paul will sport a reception co-sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters and hospitality suites courtesy of Honeywell and Citigroup, among others.
But not every lobbying event will be frivolous. Seeking positive publicity, the Credit Union National Association will give away a house at each convention to the family of a disabled military veteran.
Hires of the Week
The Cohen Group is beefing up its military might. The international consultancy has hired retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph L. Yakovac Jr., 59, a former military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, and Daniel P. Fata, 36, deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO affairs.
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, is also adding high-level staffers in Washington. Kenneth M. Connolly, 44, has joined from ML Strategies to lobby on energy and environmental issues, and Todd M. Malan, 41, longtime president of the Organization for International Investment, the lobby for foreign-based companies with U.S. subsidiaries, will handle international issues.
Please send e-mail tokstreet@washpost.com.