FROM: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2014
Historic release of data gives consumers unprecedented transparency on the medical services physicians provide and how much they are paid
Today, as part of the Obama administration’s work to make our health care system more transparent, affordable, and accountable, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of new, privacy-protected data on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other health care professionals. The new data also show payment and submitted charges, or bills, for those services and procedures by provider.
“Currently, consumers have limited information about how physicians and other health care professionals practice medicine,” said Secretary Sebelius “This data will help fill that gap by offering insight into the Medicare portion of a physician’s practice. The data released today afford researchers, policymakers and the public a new window into health care spending and physician practice patterns.”
The new data set has information for over 880,000 distinct health care providers who collectively received $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012, under the Medicare Part B Fee-For-Service program. With this data, it will be possible to conduct a wide range of analyses that compare 6,000 different types of services and procedures provided, as well as payments received by individual health care providers.
The information also allows comparisons by physician, specialty, location, the types of medical service and procedures delivered, Medicare payment, and submitted charges. Physicians and other health care professionals determine what they will charge for services and procedures provided to patients and these “charges” are the amount the physician or health care professional generally bills for the service or procedure.
"Data transparency is a key aspect of transformation of the health care delivery system,” said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. “While there’s more work ahead, this data release will help beneficiaries and consumers better understand how care is delivered through the Medicare program.”
Last May, CMS released hospital charge data allowing consumers to compare what hospitals charge for common inpatient and outpatient services across the country.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
U.S. MARSHALS ANNOUNCE ARREST OF INTERNATIONAL FUGITIVE AT SFO
FROM: U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE
April 07, 2014 Joseph Palmer, Deputy U.S. Marshals
U.S. Marshals Arrest International Fugitive at SFO
German Fugitive Was Wanted For Financial Crimes
San Francisco, CA – U.S. Marshal Don O’Keefe announces the arrest of Samir Azizi by the U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
Azizi, 24, a German national, landed at SFO March 31 en route from Dubai, where he was intercepted by Deputy U.S. Marshals and members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. According to a criminal complaint filed in San Jose by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Azizi is wanted in Germany for several financial crimes – 89 counts related to tax evasion – committed between 2008 and 2012, in which Azizi allegedly formed a “gang” for the purpose of setting up 11 companies that primarily dealt in cellular communication and other technologies. The companies allegedly participated in criminal activity including filing false tax forms for the purposes of receiving fraudulent tax returns. The alleged criminal activity resulted in a loss to German tax authorities of more than 61 million euros.
Azizi holds a passport from Afghanistan and is also a legal resident of Germany and the United States. The criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California and the ensuing arrest warrant were issued for the purpose of seeking Azizi’s extradition to Germany.
Azizi appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd in San Jose on April 1, at which time he was ordered held without bail and remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. Extradition proceedings are currently pending, and a status hearing is scheduled before Judge Lloyd on May 23.
To find information on fugitives currently being sought by the U.S. Marshals in Northern California or to submit a tip on the whereabouts of a fugitive, please visit: http://northerncaliforniamostwanted.org
The U.S. Marshals Service is the primary federal agency charged with conducting fugitive investigations throughout the United States. The U.S. Marshals Service regularly works in concert with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to seek out and arrest violent fugitives and sex offenders, and has established task forces throughout the nation to facilitate the apprehension of fugitives.
April 07, 2014 Joseph Palmer, Deputy U.S. Marshals
U.S. Marshals Arrest International Fugitive at SFO
German Fugitive Was Wanted For Financial Crimes
San Francisco, CA – U.S. Marshal Don O’Keefe announces the arrest of Samir Azizi by the U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
Azizi, 24, a German national, landed at SFO March 31 en route from Dubai, where he was intercepted by Deputy U.S. Marshals and members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. According to a criminal complaint filed in San Jose by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Azizi is wanted in Germany for several financial crimes – 89 counts related to tax evasion – committed between 2008 and 2012, in which Azizi allegedly formed a “gang” for the purpose of setting up 11 companies that primarily dealt in cellular communication and other technologies. The companies allegedly participated in criminal activity including filing false tax forms for the purposes of receiving fraudulent tax returns. The alleged criminal activity resulted in a loss to German tax authorities of more than 61 million euros.
Azizi holds a passport from Afghanistan and is also a legal resident of Germany and the United States. The criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California and the ensuing arrest warrant were issued for the purpose of seeking Azizi’s extradition to Germany.
Azizi appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd in San Jose on April 1, at which time he was ordered held without bail and remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. Extradition proceedings are currently pending, and a status hearing is scheduled before Judge Lloyd on May 23.
To find information on fugitives currently being sought by the U.S. Marshals in Northern California or to submit a tip on the whereabouts of a fugitive, please visit: http://northerncaliforniamostwanted.org
The U.S. Marshals Service is the primary federal agency charged with conducting fugitive investigations throughout the United States. The U.S. Marshals Service regularly works in concert with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to seek out and arrest violent fugitives and sex offenders, and has established task forces throughout the nation to facilitate the apprehension of fugitives.
U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL SPEAKS AT PEOPLES' LIBERATION ARMY NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY
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| Above: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks to military members at the Chinese National Defense University in Beijing, April 8, 2014. DOD Photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo |
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Hagel Addresses China’s Future Defense Leaders
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
BEIJING, April 8, 2014 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel took the stage here today, addressing military officers and students who crowded into the auditorium at the Peoples’ Liberation Army National Defense University to hear him describe China’s status as a major power and its obligation to address security challenges for the good of the region.
Hagel thanked President Xi Jinping, Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Gen. Fan Changlong, his friend State Councilor Yang Jiechi, and his host Gen. Chang Wanquan for their gracious hospitality during his visit.
“We have had wide-ranging and constructive discussions that reflect our growing cooperation,” Hagel said.
During a meeting today with Fan, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said, Hagel expressed his appreciation for the chance to build toward a new model of military-to-military relations.
The leaders shared a frank exchange of views about issues important to the United States, China and the Asia-Pacific region. They discussed regional security, including the East China and South China seas, where Hagel reaffirmed the United States' longstanding policies and commitments, and encouraged all parties to resolve differences peacefully, through diplomacy and in keeping with international law, Kirby said.
Hagel also discussed with Fan the growing threat posed by North Korean nuclear and missile developments, and urged China's continued cooperation with the international community to achieve a complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
“Today,” Hagel said, “China’s status as a major power is already solidified, built on its growing economic ties across the globe and particularly across the Asia-Pacific region.”
Last year, he added, the trade in goods and services between the United States and China exceeded half a trillion dollars. Trade between Association of Southeast Asian Nations members and China exceeded $400 billion last year, and a third of the world’s trade passes through the South China Sea.
China’s growth, coupled with the dynamism of the Asia-Pacific and America’s increasing engagement in the region, offers a historic and strategic opportunity for all nations, the secretary added.
“As our economic interdependence grows, we have an opportunity to expand the prosperity this region has enjoyed for decades,” Hagel explained. “To preserve the stable regional security environment that has enabled this historic economic expansion, the United States and China have a responsibility to address new and enduring regional security challenges alongside other partners.”
The region faces North Korea’s continued dangerous provocations, its nuclear program and missile tests, Hagel said, along with ongoing land and maritime disputes, threats arising from climate change, natural disasters and pandemic disease, proliferation of dangerous weapons, and the growing threat of disruption in space and cyberspace.
The Asia-Pacific region is the most militarized in the world, and any one of these challenges could lead to conflict, the secretary added.
“As the PLA modernizes its capabilities and expands its presence in Asia and beyond,” he said, “American and Chinese forces will be drawn into proximity, increasing the risk of an incident, accident or miscalculation. But this reality also presents new opportunities for cooperation.”
All people in the region want a future of peace and stability, Hagel added, and the costs of conflict will rise as economic interdependence grows.
“The high cost of conflict will not make peace and stability inevitable,” the secretary added, “so we must work together and in partnership with all the nations of the region, and develop and build on what President Xi and President Obama have called a new model of relations.”
The model seeks to seize opportunities for cooperation between the United States and China and enhance peace and security throughout the region, he added.
“It seeks to manage competition but avoid the traps of rivalry,” Hagel said. “And good China-U.S. relations will not come at the expense of our relations with others in the region or elsewhere.”
Realizing this vision will require commitment, effort and some new thinking for the United States and China across all dimensions of the relationship, but especially between the militaries, he added.
“Developing a new model of military-to-military relations will require a shared understanding of the regional security order we seek and the responsibilities we have to uphold it,” Hagel said. “It will require bold leadership that seeks to deepen practical cooperation in areas of shared interest, while constructively managing differences through open dialogue and candor.”
In the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide, Hagel said, the United States believes in maintaining a stable, rules-based order built on:
-- Free and open access to sea lanes, air space and cyberspace;
-- Liberal trade and economic policies that foster widely shared prosperity for all people;
-- Halting the proliferation of dangerous and destabilizing weapons of mass destruction;
-- Deterring aggression; and
-- Clear, predictable, consistent and peaceful methods of resolving disputes consistent with international law.
For its part, the secretary said, the United States has helped to provide access to global markets, technology and capital, underwritten the free flow of energy and natural resources through open seas, and maintained alliances that have helped keep the peace.
“We haven’t done it alone; we’ve done it with partners,” he said. “America’s rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific is about ensuring that America’s presence and engagement, including our relationship with China, keeps pace with the Asia-Pacific’s rapidly evolving economic, diplomatic and security environment.”
All nations have a responsibility to pursue common interests with their neighbors and settle disputes peacefully in accordance with international law and recognized norms, the secretary added.
“But as a nation’s power and prosperity grows, so does its responsibilities,” Hagel said. “And whether the 21st century is one marked by progress, security and prosperity will depend greatly on how China and other leading Asia-Pacific powers meet their responsibilities to uphold a rules-based order.”
Disputes in the South China and East China seas must be resolved through international norms and laws, he said.
“The United States has been clear about the East and South China Sea disputes,” Hagel said. “We do not take a position on sovereignty claims but we expect these disputes to be managed and resolved peacefully and diplomatically, and oppose the use of force or coercion. And our commitment to allies in the region is unwavering.”
The secretary said he believes the new model of military-to-military relations should proceed on three tracks: First, maintaining sustained and substantive dialogue; second, forging concrete, practical cooperation where the two countries’ interests converge; and third, working to manage competition and differences through openness and communication.
The foundation for military-to-military cooperation between the United States and China must be a sustained and substantive dialogue, Hagel said. The engine for this dialogue has been high-level exchanges, he added, and it must continue and increase. This, in particular, has been an area of notable progress, he said.
“Bilateral exchanges and visits are planned, and earlier today General Chang and I agreed on two important new mechanisms,” Hagel said. We will establish a high-level Asia-Pacific security dialogue, and we will create an army-to-army dialogue. These will deepen substantive military discussions and institutional understanding.”
Already, he said, the two nations have identified nontraditional security missions as areas of clear mutual interest, including counter-piracy, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military medicine, and maritime safety.
Hagel said one example of practical cooperation in areas where the United States and China can do more is the annual disaster management exchange held between militaries, and with representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Last November’s exchange, held in Hawaii, included the first exercise involving PLA troops on U.S. soil.
The United States has taken significant steps to be more open with China about its capabilities, intentions and disagreements, the secretary said. “And we will continue to welcome initiatives by China to do the same, particularly as China undertakes significant military modernization efforts,” he added.
Hagel said he and others are asking China to work more closely with the United States and regional partners on another shared challenge where there is a disagreement: responding to the dangerous destabilizing behavior of North Korea.
The North Korean regime’s nuclear program and its recent missile launches in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions pose a continued and stark challenge and threat to the U.S. homeland, Hagel said. America will continue to respond to North Korea’s actions by reinforcing its allies and increasing deterrence, he added, including through his announcement this week that the United States will deploy two additional ballistic missile defense ships to Japan.
This builds on other steps to bolster regional missile defense, the secretary said, including building a second radar site in Japan and expanding ground-based interceptors in Alaska.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
PRESIDENT OBAMA LASHES OUT AT REPUBLICANS FOR BLOCKING SENATE DEBATE ON "PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT"
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
April 9, 2014
Statement by the President
Today, Senate Republicans overwhelmingly blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act – preventing it from even receiving an honest debate, let alone a simple yes-or-no vote. The Paycheck Fairness Act is commonsense legislation that would strengthen the 1963 Equal Pay Act and reinforce our country’s commitment to the principle of equal pay for equal work. Yesterday, I took two actions that will make it easier for working women to earn fair pay, and my Administration will continue to do everything we can to make sure that every hard-working American earns the respect and wages that they deserve on the job. But Republicans in Congress continue to oppose serious efforts to create jobs, grow the economy, and level the playing field for working families. That’s wrong, and it’s harmful for our national efforts to rebuild an economy that gives every American who works hard a fair shot to get ahead.
SEC CHARGES HEWLETT-PACKARD WITH FCPA VIOLATIONS RELATED TO ALLEGATIONS HP BRIBED FOREIGN OFFICIALS
FROM: SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Hewlett-Packard with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its subsidiaries in three different countries made improper payments to government officials to obtain or retain lucrative public contracts.
Hewlett-Packard has agreed to pay more than $108 million to settle the SEC’s charges and a parallel criminal case announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings finds that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology company’s subsidiary in Russia paid more than $2 million through agents and various shell companies to a Russian government official to retain a multi-million dollar contract with the federal prosecutor’s office. In Poland, Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary provided gifts and cash bribes worth more than $600,000 to a Polish government official to obtain contracts with the national police agency. And as part of its bid to win a software sale to Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary in Mexico paid more than $1 million in inflated commissions to a consultant with close ties to company officials, and money was funneled to one of those officials.
“Hewlett-Packard lacked the internal controls to stop a pattern of illegal payments to win business in Mexico and Eastern Europe. The company’s books and records reflected the payments as legitimate commissions and expenses,” said Kara Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit. “Companies have a fundamental obligation to ensure that their internal controls are both reasonably designed and appropriately implemented across their entire business operations, and they should take a hard look at the agents conducting business on their behalf.”
According to the SEC’s order, the scheme involving Hewlett-Packard’s Russian subsidiary occurred from approximately 2000 to 2007. The bribes were paid through agents and consultants in order to win a government contract for computer hardware and software. Employees within the subsidiary and elsewhere raised questions about the significant markup being paid to the agent on the deal and the subcontractors that the agent expected to use. Despite the red flags, the deal went forward without any meaningful due diligence on the agent or the subcontractors.
The SEC’s order finds that bribes involving Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary in Poland occurred from approximately 2006 to 2010. Acting primarily through its public sector sales manager, the subsidiary agreed to pay a Polish government official in order to win contracts for information technology products and services. The official received a percentage of net revenue earned from the contracts, and the bribes were delivered in cash from off-the-books accounts.
According to the SEC’s order, Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary in Mexico paid a consultant to help the company win a public IT contract worth approximately $6 million. At least $125,000 was funneled to a government official at the state-owned petroleum company with whom the consultant had connections. Although the consultant was not an approved deal partner and had not been subjected to the due diligence required under company policy, HP Mexico sales managers used a pass-through entity to pay inflated commissions to the consultant. This was internally referred to as the “influencer fee.”
Hewlett-Packard consented to the SEC’s order, which finds that it violated the internal controls and books and records provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company agreed to pay $29 million in disgorgement (approximately $26.47 million to the SEC and $2.53 million to satisfy an IRS forfeiture as part of the criminal matter). Hewlett-Packard also agreed to pay prejudgment interest of $5 million to the SEC and fines totaling $74.2 million in the criminal case for a total of more than $108 million in disgorgement and penalties.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by David A. Berman and Tracy L. Davis of the FCPA Unit in San Francisco. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and Public Prosecutor’s Office in Dresden, Germany.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Hewlett-Packard with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its subsidiaries in three different countries made improper payments to government officials to obtain or retain lucrative public contracts.
Hewlett-Packard has agreed to pay more than $108 million to settle the SEC’s charges and a parallel criminal case announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings finds that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology company’s subsidiary in Russia paid more than $2 million through agents and various shell companies to a Russian government official to retain a multi-million dollar contract with the federal prosecutor’s office. In Poland, Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary provided gifts and cash bribes worth more than $600,000 to a Polish government official to obtain contracts with the national police agency. And as part of its bid to win a software sale to Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary in Mexico paid more than $1 million in inflated commissions to a consultant with close ties to company officials, and money was funneled to one of those officials.
“Hewlett-Packard lacked the internal controls to stop a pattern of illegal payments to win business in Mexico and Eastern Europe. The company’s books and records reflected the payments as legitimate commissions and expenses,” said Kara Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit. “Companies have a fundamental obligation to ensure that their internal controls are both reasonably designed and appropriately implemented across their entire business operations, and they should take a hard look at the agents conducting business on their behalf.”
According to the SEC’s order, the scheme involving Hewlett-Packard’s Russian subsidiary occurred from approximately 2000 to 2007. The bribes were paid through agents and consultants in order to win a government contract for computer hardware and software. Employees within the subsidiary and elsewhere raised questions about the significant markup being paid to the agent on the deal and the subcontractors that the agent expected to use. Despite the red flags, the deal went forward without any meaningful due diligence on the agent or the subcontractors.
The SEC’s order finds that bribes involving Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary in Poland occurred from approximately 2006 to 2010. Acting primarily through its public sector sales manager, the subsidiary agreed to pay a Polish government official in order to win contracts for information technology products and services. The official received a percentage of net revenue earned from the contracts, and the bribes were delivered in cash from off-the-books accounts.
According to the SEC’s order, Hewlett-Packard’s subsidiary in Mexico paid a consultant to help the company win a public IT contract worth approximately $6 million. At least $125,000 was funneled to a government official at the state-owned petroleum company with whom the consultant had connections. Although the consultant was not an approved deal partner and had not been subjected to the due diligence required under company policy, HP Mexico sales managers used a pass-through entity to pay inflated commissions to the consultant. This was internally referred to as the “influencer fee.”
Hewlett-Packard consented to the SEC’s order, which finds that it violated the internal controls and books and records provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company agreed to pay $29 million in disgorgement (approximately $26.47 million to the SEC and $2.53 million to satisfy an IRS forfeiture as part of the criminal matter). Hewlett-Packard also agreed to pay prejudgment interest of $5 million to the SEC and fines totaling $74.2 million in the criminal case for a total of more than $108 million in disgorgement and penalties.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by David A. Berman and Tracy L. Davis of the FCPA Unit in San Francisco. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and Public Prosecutor’s Office in Dresden, Germany.
U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR APRIL 9, 2014
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
CONTRACTS
ARMY
Exelis Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind. (W15P7T-14-D-0012); General Dynamics C4 Systems Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. (W15P7T-14-D-0013); Harris Corp., Rochester, N.Y. (W15P7T-14-D-0014, W15P7T-14-D-0015); and Thales Defense & Security Inc., Clarksburg, Md. (W15P7T-14-D-0016), were awarded a $988,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for SRW Appliqué Radio Systems for use by brigade combat teams. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is April 8, 2024. Bids were solicited via the Internet with six received. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen, Md., is the contracting activity.
Thales-Raytheon Systems Co., LLC, was awarded a $17,743,765 modification (P00008) to contract W31P4Q-13-C-0082 to exercise the option to acquire Sentinel Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe kits and spares. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $17,743,765 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2016. Work will be performed in Fullerton, Calif. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pa., was awarded an $8,857,000 modification (P00008) to contract W58RGZ-13-C-0002 for a CH-47F cargo helicopter multiyear II contract modification to provide additional production lot 13 long lead funding and additional production lot 12 over and above funding. Other procurement funds in the amount of $7,842,000 (fiscal 2014), $386,000 (fiscal 2012) and $629,000 (fiscal 2011) were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Dec. 31, 2020. Work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pa. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
BT Raymond Inc., Frederick, Md., has been added to a previously announced (Dec 3, 2013) maximum estimated $633,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for the procurement of commercial type material handling equipment. This contract is being issued against solicitation number SPM8EC-11-R-0001. This contract was a competitive acquisition, and thirty-eight offers were received. This contract is for a term of five years and is for a portion of the estimated $633,000,000 and will be competed amongst other contractors who receive a contract under this solicitation. Request for quotations will be issued to all contract awardees and the resulting contract delivery order(s) will be awarded to the offerer with the lowest price that is technically acceptable. Locations of performance are Maryland and New York with an April 8, 2019 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE8EC-14-D-0014).
Dennis K. Burke, Inc., Chelsea, Mass., has been awarded a maximum $65,282,707 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for fuel. This is a competitive acquisition, and thirty-four offers were received. This is a three-year base contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut with a March 31, 2017 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, federal civilian agencies, and Air National Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2017 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., (SP0600-14-D-8521).
NAVY
Potomac-Hudson Engineering Inc.,* Gaithersburg, Md., is being awarded a maximum $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity architect-engineering (A-E) contract for A-E services for preparation of Navy and Marine Corps environmental planning documents for upland and desert projects in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest area of responsibility. The work to be performed provides for data collection, natural resource survey, and resource effects analysis work related to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other environmental planning services. Services will include, but are not limited to the preparation of the following primary NEPA related documents: environmental assessments; environmental impact statements; draft findings of no significant impact; and draft records of decision. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed at various Navy and Marine Corps installations in California (85 percent), Arizona (6 percent), Nevada (6 percent), and other Department of Defense installations and federal agencies in the United States (3 percent). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months with an expected completion date of April 2019. Fiscal 2014 environmental restoration, Navy contract funds in the amount of $5,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with eight proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity (N62473-14-D-1404).
Raytheon Co., Integrated Defense Systems, Sudbury, Mass., is being awarded $17,034,929 for firm-fixed-price delivery order 0003 under Basic Ordering Agreement (N00024-14-G-5105), for the procurement and fabrication of AN/SPY-1 Radar Transmitter Multi-Mission Signal Processor Capability ordnance alteration kits, RF Coherent Combiner ordnance alteration kits, Kill Assessment System ordnance alteration kits, High Volt Power Supply Sidewall Capacitor ordnance alteration kits, 10 kW Traveling Wave Tube monitoring circuit ordnance alteration kits, Aegis Weapon System Modernization requirements for Japan, and installation and test services in support of the AEGIS modernization effort. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va. (77.1 percent); Burlington, Mass. (11.7 percent); Sudbury, Mass. (6.7 percent) and Andover, Mass. (4.5 percent), and is expected to be completed by April 2016. Fiscal 2013 and 2014 other procurement, Navy; fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation and fiscal 2014 foreign military sales in the amount of $12,761,881 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of this fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Liverpool, N.Y., is being awarded an $8,537,634 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-14-C-6227) to exercise options for the procurement of Low Cost Conformal Array production units, spare modules and spare outboard electronics canisters. The Low Cost Conformal Array is a passive planar array mounted on the aft submarine sail structure that is integrated with the Acoustic Rapid Commercial off the Shelf Insertion AN/BQQ-25 system to provide situational awareness and collision avoidance for improved tactical control in high density environments. Work will be performed in Liverpool, N.Y. (98 percent), Walpole, Mass. (1 percent), and Forrest Hill, Md. (1 percent) and is expected to be complete by February 2016. Fiscal 2014 other procurement, Navy funding in the amount of $8,537,634 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C., is the contracting activity.
*Small Business
CONTRACTS
ARMY
Exelis Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind. (W15P7T-14-D-0012); General Dynamics C4 Systems Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. (W15P7T-14-D-0013); Harris Corp., Rochester, N.Y. (W15P7T-14-D-0014, W15P7T-14-D-0015); and Thales Defense & Security Inc., Clarksburg, Md. (W15P7T-14-D-0016), were awarded a $988,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for SRW Appliqué Radio Systems for use by brigade combat teams. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is April 8, 2024. Bids were solicited via the Internet with six received. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen, Md., is the contracting activity.
Thales-Raytheon Systems Co., LLC, was awarded a $17,743,765 modification (P00008) to contract W31P4Q-13-C-0082 to exercise the option to acquire Sentinel Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe kits and spares. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $17,743,765 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2016. Work will be performed in Fullerton, Calif. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pa., was awarded an $8,857,000 modification (P00008) to contract W58RGZ-13-C-0002 for a CH-47F cargo helicopter multiyear II contract modification to provide additional production lot 13 long lead funding and additional production lot 12 over and above funding. Other procurement funds in the amount of $7,842,000 (fiscal 2014), $386,000 (fiscal 2012) and $629,000 (fiscal 2011) were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Dec. 31, 2020. Work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pa. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
BT Raymond Inc., Frederick, Md., has been added to a previously announced (Dec 3, 2013) maximum estimated $633,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for the procurement of commercial type material handling equipment. This contract is being issued against solicitation number SPM8EC-11-R-0001. This contract was a competitive acquisition, and thirty-eight offers were received. This contract is for a term of five years and is for a portion of the estimated $633,000,000 and will be competed amongst other contractors who receive a contract under this solicitation. Request for quotations will be issued to all contract awardees and the resulting contract delivery order(s) will be awarded to the offerer with the lowest price that is technically acceptable. Locations of performance are Maryland and New York with an April 8, 2019 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE8EC-14-D-0014).
Dennis K. Burke, Inc., Chelsea, Mass., has been awarded a maximum $65,282,707 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for fuel. This is a competitive acquisition, and thirty-four offers were received. This is a three-year base contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut with a March 31, 2017 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, federal civilian agencies, and Air National Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2017 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., (SP0600-14-D-8521).
NAVY
Potomac-Hudson Engineering Inc.,* Gaithersburg, Md., is being awarded a maximum $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity architect-engineering (A-E) contract for A-E services for preparation of Navy and Marine Corps environmental planning documents for upland and desert projects in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest area of responsibility. The work to be performed provides for data collection, natural resource survey, and resource effects analysis work related to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other environmental planning services. Services will include, but are not limited to the preparation of the following primary NEPA related documents: environmental assessments; environmental impact statements; draft findings of no significant impact; and draft records of decision. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed at various Navy and Marine Corps installations in California (85 percent), Arizona (6 percent), Nevada (6 percent), and other Department of Defense installations and federal agencies in the United States (3 percent). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months with an expected completion date of April 2019. Fiscal 2014 environmental restoration, Navy contract funds in the amount of $5,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with eight proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity (N62473-14-D-1404).
Raytheon Co., Integrated Defense Systems, Sudbury, Mass., is being awarded $17,034,929 for firm-fixed-price delivery order 0003 under Basic Ordering Agreement (N00024-14-G-5105), for the procurement and fabrication of AN/SPY-1 Radar Transmitter Multi-Mission Signal Processor Capability ordnance alteration kits, RF Coherent Combiner ordnance alteration kits, Kill Assessment System ordnance alteration kits, High Volt Power Supply Sidewall Capacitor ordnance alteration kits, 10 kW Traveling Wave Tube monitoring circuit ordnance alteration kits, Aegis Weapon System Modernization requirements for Japan, and installation and test services in support of the AEGIS modernization effort. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va. (77.1 percent); Burlington, Mass. (11.7 percent); Sudbury, Mass. (6.7 percent) and Andover, Mass. (4.5 percent), and is expected to be completed by April 2016. Fiscal 2013 and 2014 other procurement, Navy; fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation and fiscal 2014 foreign military sales in the amount of $12,761,881 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of this fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Liverpool, N.Y., is being awarded an $8,537,634 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-14-C-6227) to exercise options for the procurement of Low Cost Conformal Array production units, spare modules and spare outboard electronics canisters. The Low Cost Conformal Array is a passive planar array mounted on the aft submarine sail structure that is integrated with the Acoustic Rapid Commercial off the Shelf Insertion AN/BQQ-25 system to provide situational awareness and collision avoidance for improved tactical control in high density environments. Work will be performed in Liverpool, N.Y. (98 percent), Walpole, Mass. (1 percent), and Forrest Hill, Md. (1 percent) and is expected to be complete by February 2016. Fiscal 2014 other procurement, Navy funding in the amount of $8,537,634 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C., is the contracting activity.
*Small Business
SECRETARY KERRY, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER LIEBERMAN MAKE REMARKS AFTER MEETING
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Before Their Meeting
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 9, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. It’s my great privilege to welcome Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister of Israel, here to the State Department and to Washington. We have gotten to see each other at a number of different places now. We most recently were in Rome together where we talked about the issues before both our countries and the region.
And today, I’m really happy to be able to welcome him here. Obviously, we are working hard to try to find a way forward. And both parties indicate they would like to find a way to go forward in the talks. We obviously want to see that happen. We think it’s important for them and for the region. So we will, needless to say, talk about that.
But we also have many other issues to work on and cooperate on together. We will talk about Iran and the challenge of the Iranian nuclear program. The talks have been going on even this week, so we have a considerable amount to try to digest with respect to that process. And also the region, obviously, faces enormous challenges. Syria remains a humanitarian catastrophe, and it has a profound impact on Israel, on Jordan, on Lebanon, on the region as a whole. And we continue to face the challenge of removing the chemical weapons from Iran. I just literally hung up the phone a few minutes ago before I came out to meet the foreign minister. I was talking to Foreign Minister Lavrov and we were talking about the need for movement in Syria and the ability to complete the task.
So I’m very happy that the foreign minister is here today. This is an important time. The issues between us are of concern to both of us, are of enormous importance. And I want to affirm this: Our relationship with Israel, as everybody knows, is an historic and deep one. We remain totally committed to the security of Israel. We have a friendship that is, I believe, a bond that’s unbreakable, and I’m really happy to have the foreign minister here at this important time. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER LIEBERMAN: Thank you. First of all, thank you for the very warm welcome, and as you mentioned, we have a lot of items on our bilateral agenda. But first of all, I would like to express my appreciation for your efforts, for your commitment to our state, your efforts to resolve our long dispute with the Palestinians. We know and everybody in Israel knows that you are really a very close friend, reliable friend, and now we’re in the midst of a very crucial process.
And I think that you and us have the same desire to achieve comprehensive solution, to achieve final status agreement. We’re ready to sacrifice a lot for this goal. We proved our desire to achieve real peace with our neighbors, not only as a lip service, but in all our agreements that we signed with Egypt, with Jordan. We gave up territories three and a half times more than our territory today – Sinai, half of Judea Samaria, Gaza Strip. And I think that we really – we are looking for the same positive approach from the other side, and we think that any unilateral steps, they only can undermine all our efforts.
Of course, the biggest challenge for us, for all our region, is the Iranian issue, and I hope that we will discuss, of course, the Iranian issue. And of course we are (inaudible) now to the huge concern with Syria and what happens within Syria. The spillover of the Syrian conflict is all around us. And we are monitoring and following the situation in Syria, of course, and it’s a new – a very serious challenge for our country, and again, thank you for your efforts and for your commitment.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Avigdor.
FOREIGN MINISTER LIEBERMAN: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Welcome. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
And today, I’m really happy to be able to welcome him here. Obviously, we are working hard to try to find a way forward. And both parties indicate they would like to find a way to go forward in the talks. We obviously want to see that happen. We think it’s important for them and for the region. So we will, needless to say, talk about that.
But we also have many other issues to work on and cooperate on together. We will talk about Iran and the challenge of the Iranian nuclear program. The talks have been going on even this week, so we have a considerable amount to try to digest with respect to that process. And also the region, obviously, faces enormous challenges. Syria remains a humanitarian catastrophe, and it has a profound impact on Israel, on Jordan, on Lebanon, on the region as a whole. And we continue to face the challenge of removing the chemical weapons from Iran. I just literally hung up the phone a few minutes ago before I came out to meet the foreign minister. I was talking to Foreign Minister Lavrov and we were talking about the need for movement in Syria and the ability to complete the task.
So I’m very happy that the foreign minister is here today. This is an important time. The issues between us are of concern to both of us, are of enormous importance. And I want to affirm this: Our relationship with Israel, as everybody knows, is an historic and deep one. We remain totally committed to the security of Israel. We have a friendship that is, I believe, a bond that’s unbreakable, and I’m really happy to have the foreign minister here at this important time. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER LIEBERMAN: Thank you. First of all, thank you for the very warm welcome, and as you mentioned, we have a lot of items on our bilateral agenda. But first of all, I would like to express my appreciation for your efforts, for your commitment to our state, your efforts to resolve our long dispute with the Palestinians. We know and everybody in Israel knows that you are really a very close friend, reliable friend, and now we’re in the midst of a very crucial process.
And I think that you and us have the same desire to achieve comprehensive solution, to achieve final status agreement. We’re ready to sacrifice a lot for this goal. We proved our desire to achieve real peace with our neighbors, not only as a lip service, but in all our agreements that we signed with Egypt, with Jordan. We gave up territories three and a half times more than our territory today – Sinai, half of Judea Samaria, Gaza Strip. And I think that we really – we are looking for the same positive approach from the other side, and we think that any unilateral steps, they only can undermine all our efforts.
Of course, the biggest challenge for us, for all our region, is the Iranian issue, and I hope that we will discuss, of course, the Iranian issue. And of course we are (inaudible) now to the huge concern with Syria and what happens within Syria. The spillover of the Syrian conflict is all around us. And we are monitoring and following the situation in Syria, of course, and it’s a new – a very serious challenge for our country, and again, thank you for your efforts and for your commitment.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Avigdor.
FOREIGN MINISTER LIEBERMAN: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Welcome. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
EDUCATION SECRETARY DUNCAN'S REMARKS ON FRANKLIN REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL STABBINGS
FROM: U.S. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Statement from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on the Mass Stabbings at Franklin Regional High School in Pennsylvania
APRIL 9, 2014
"We are saddened by today's stabbings at Franklin Regional High School. Our thoughts go out to the injured students and staff, and their families, the other students and teachers at the school, and the Murrysville community at large. Tragedies that strike communities—whether it's an inner city school or in a suburban school in a quiet town—impact us all. When we send our children to school each day, we expect them to return home safely. Staff and students at every school deserve to work and learn in a safe environment. We will do everything in our power to assist and support the students, school staff, and community of Murrysville in this unsettling time."
Statement from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on the Mass Stabbings at Franklin Regional High School in Pennsylvania
APRIL 9, 2014
"We are saddened by today's stabbings at Franklin Regional High School. Our thoughts go out to the injured students and staff, and their families, the other students and teachers at the school, and the Murrysville community at large. Tragedies that strike communities—whether it's an inner city school or in a suburban school in a quiet town—impact us all. When we send our children to school each day, we expect them to return home safely. Staff and students at every school deserve to work and learn in a safe environment. We will do everything in our power to assist and support the students, school staff, and community of Murrysville in this unsettling time."
READOUTS: VP BIDEN'S DISCUSSIONS WITH PRIME MINISTER FICO OF SLOVAKIA AND MONTENEGRO PRIME MINISTER DJUKANOVIC
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
April 8, 2014
Readout of the Vice President's Call with Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia
In a telephone call this afternoon, Vice President Biden and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico consulted on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and related issues of bilateral and regional concern. The two leaders expressed concern over Russia’s continued violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and agreed on the need to support the Ukrainian people as they prepare for constitutional reforms and the May 25th presidential election. The Vice President expressed appreciation for Slovakia’s continued efforts to work with Ukraine to help diversify its energy supplies. Finally, the Vice President congratulated the Prime Minister on the tenth anniversary of Slovakia’s entry into NATO and affirmed the strong U.S. commitment to enhancing collective defense in Europe. Expressing appreciation for Slovakia’s contributions to global peace and security, the Vice President reaffirmed that Slovakia remains a valued strategic partner and friend to the United States.
Readout of the Vice President’s Meeting with Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro
Vice President Biden met today with Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic at the White House. Vice President Biden praised Montenegro as a valuable partner to the United States and contributor to peace and security in the region. The two leaders discussed developments in the Balkans as well as concerns about continued Russian pressure on Ukraine. The Vice President welcomed the strong progress Montenegro has made in meeting the requirements for NATO membership and expressed steadfast U.S. support for Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. He encouraged the Prime Minister to sustain its efforts in making defense, security, and rule of law reforms in order to show concrete achievements in advance of the 2014 NATO summit in Wales. In this context, the Vice President stressed the importance of robust efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, including an independent judiciary and a free press, as well as to protect minority rights.
REMARKS BY WILLIAM BROWNFIELD ON "DRUGS, SECURITY, AND LATIN AMERICA"
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Drugs, Security, and Latin America: The New Normal?
William R. Brownfield
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas
Austin, Texas
March 27, 2014
Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a pleasure to be back in Austin. As the Dean has suggested, I spent three years of my life at that fine academic institution, just across the street in that direction, and in fact it was my nearly three years at the law school that brought me into the Foreign Service and the Department of State. Trust me when I tell you that the first year of law school was so decidedly unpleasant that when I saw the advertisement on the bulletin board, which said Foreign Service exam and included the magic word, “free,” I said, “Right. Maybe I want to be a Foreign Service Officer.”
And for those of you who actually are still trying to determine your own profession or career choice for the next 30 or 35 years of your lives, let me assure you: sometimes you just enter a profession, if you will, by the back door, through no more systematic or intellectually driven process than that the entry exam is free. And that, ladies and gents, was 35-plus years ago. And at least for me it worked out just fine.
Ladies and gentlemen, the title of today’s little talk is “Drugs, Security, and Latin America: The New Normal?” I’m actually going to talk about anything that you want me to talk about, because that is the purpose of a dialogue. However, there is some logic to the title. I have spent virtually my entire professional career doing Latin America, so logically I might have at least some observations of value that are related to Latin America. Drugs are part of what I now deal with for a living. I am the Assistant Secretary of State for Drugs and Law Enforcement, and to be clear, I officially oppose the former and support the second. I want there to be no confusion on that particular point, although I have a broader responsibility as the Assistant Secretary for INL.
We started life 40 years ago as the part of the State Department that does international drug programs. Beginning about 20 years ago, we expanded to broader crime issues, realizing perhaps that there is more crime out there of an international nature than just drug trafficking. Within about the last 15 years, we expanded more broadly into law enforcement writ large – police training, exchanges, equipment, support, academics, etc. And within the last 10 years or so, driven, believe it or not, by our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve expanded our portfolio and our writ to cover what we would call all of rule of law, which is not just police, but is also prosecutors, courts, judges, corrections systems. If it is part of the criminal justice system in essence, we will now work with and support it in some way, shape, or form.
And the last two or three words of the title of this talk – The New Normal? – is just a way to tease you into wondering if this is the direction we are heading in the Western Hemisphere in the 21st century.
Let me start with a little bit of history. I’ll offer some observations, and then I will stop and let you all actually guide me in the direction you would prefer to hear from me in terms of your own thoughts and your own interests.
A little bit of history: In the 1970s, the United States of America, or at least its government, discovered the drug issue. Richard Nixon declared a ‘war on drugs,’ a very unfortunate selection of terms, by the way, since in fact it’s not a war. It’s certainly not a war against our own population that in some way, shape, or form is part of the drug issue. And for that reason, ever so wisely, in the year 1993, the then newly-inaugurated president of the United States Bill Clinton said, and I quote, “It’s not a war, and we’re going to stop calling it a war on drugs.” Things move slowly in the federal government and the media, but don’t you all come at me in 15 minutes and start condemning me for the war on drugs, because I have already told you in advance it is not a war on drugs, it has not been a war on drugs for 21 years, and what we are doing goes a bit beyond the classical, typical definition of the term war, combined with the word drugs.
Having, however, declared a war on drugs in 1972, the Nixon Administration then proceeded to attempt to win it. They did it by what I would call single-issue approach to the drug abuse problem. First it was eradication. We will go down to Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, eradicate it at the source, and the problem will be solved. Now, they had some success in eradicating. At the end of the day, however, for every hectare or acre eradicated, another acre or two or three would come under production and cultivation. Obviously, eradication alone was not the answer or the solution.
Solution number two, we will dismantle. We will go after the criminal organizations and arrest or remove their leadership from operation. Once we have removed the leadership of the criminal organizations, the cartels, the entire structure that drives the drug trafficking industry, will then collapse. Once again, there were the occasional successes. Those of you – and some of you are actually not old enough to remember when this happened – in 1993, in a particularly effective operation, the Colombian National Police took down, literally removed – perforated about 125 times – Mr. Pablo Escobar, who had been for the preceding 10-15 years the head of the largest, most vicious, most violent drug trafficking cartel in the history of the human race, called the Medellin Cartel, a cartel that might quite conceivably have been responsible for up to 10,000 murders in the preceding decade.
Impact? Well, 1994 came along and drugs continued to flow. Taking down or decapitating organizational leadership, in and of itself, obviously was not the solution.
Next proposal, in the 1980s, was interdiction. “Okay,” they said. “We can’t seem to stop it by eradicating at the source, we can’t seem to stop it by eliminating the leadership of the trafficking organizations. Let us build a picket line down below the U.S. southern borders, both on the ground and at sea, stop the ships, the boats, the planes that are bringing this stuff into the United States, andvoila, problem is solved.
Once again, there were some successes. The truth of the matter is the Caribbean in the 1980s was a region that was at risk of losing control. Fourteen different governments were at risk of losing control of their sovereign national territory to multi-billion dollar drug trafficking industries. And in their defense, that generation of the 1980s actually did effectively interdict the flow of drugs through the Caribbean toward the United – the southeastern United States of America.
But did that solve the problem? No. Where are we today? We’re in central Texas. Where do the drugs now flow into the United States? They come up straight through the land corridor, starting in Colombia, working their way through Central America, processing up through Mexico, and entering through the southwest border of the United States of America. In other words, yes, you can plug your finger in one hole of the dam, but in all likelihood – one might almost say with complete certainty – another hole is going to open up. And at the end of the day you have a finite number of fingers to plug with, defined by how much money the United States Congress and the taxpayers that send them to office are prepared to dedicate to this particular exercise.
Finally, and with somewhat greater coherence and success, the government began to develop an approach in the 1990s which I would call sustainable economic development. And that is accepting the reality that campesinos – or if you’re in Afghanistan and dealing with opium poppy, subsistence-level farmers, actually are not inherently criminal; they do not plant coca or opium poppy because they wish to be part of criminal enterprises. They do it because they are trying to provide a basic living to their families, and coca or opium poppy actually gives them better income and more secure income than corn or frijoles or wheat or whatever it might be that is otherwise being grown in that region.
Now this approach actually made some degree of sense, and I would suggest to you that where it is applied, it does produce long-term results. Problem: It is amazingly expensive. It costs a good bit of money to actually manage on a nationwide basis an alternative development program. It’s not just giving them a barrel of corn seed so that they will plant corn rather than coca. It’s also giving the tools and the training. It’s also giving them the infrastructure, the road system that allows them to get their product to market once they have harvested it, because remember: the drug traffickers will come to them, buy their product, and take it away at no cost to the farmer. The farmer who has instead two tons of corn somehow has to get it to market, or within a month or two he has more or less two tons of mulch that is gradually deteriorating and rotting in his back yard.
On top of that, if you want the campesino to remain committed to this, you have to give him or her some stake in the community. That means maybe schools, maybe clinics. That means electricity, running water, sewage, the sort of thing that makes a family say, one, I do have an interest in staying here, and two, I have a future here over and above whether I can grow an acre of coca or an acre of opium poppy.
Okay. Eradication, dismantling, interdiction, economic development – none of them in and of themselves solved the drug problem. So the question is, since the drugs are still an issue, what is the correct response? Are you ready? Bill Brownfield says the correct response is all of the above and then a little bit more as well.
Let us flash-forward to 1999, when the United States Government, jointly with the Government of Colombia, actually did this the right way. But I will prejudge the conclusion by letting you know the right way cost $8.5 billion over roughly a 12-year period of time. But we launched – the Colombian government launched what came to be called Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia was a comprehensive, structured approach designed to address the economic issue, the security issue, and the drugs and law enforcement issue. And when I said economic, I should also have said social, to include health impact, education, as well as job generation and economic activity.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would suggest that that worked for Colombia. The huge cartels that in the 1990s were actually threatening the very existence of the Colombian government have been atomized, admittedly to still annoying criminal activities, but are not anywhere remotely as powerful, as strong, or as threatening as Mr. Pablo Escobar and his Medellin cartel at the start of the 1990s, or the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and the Cali cartel at that same timeframe.
Cocaine production in Colombia, we estimate, is down 60 percent or so from its heyday, as recently as 10 years ago. The tourism industry in Colombia today is booming. There are probably 20 times as many tourists going to Colombia today as 10 years ago. And if you will, tourists vote with their feet. If tourists are going to Colombia, you assume the security situation obviously has reached a point where people are prepared voluntarily to spend their own money to go visit a country that 10 or 15 years ago they would not have dreamed of doing so without a battalion of the United States Army or Marine Corps joining them and providing them security at every step.
And may I note as well that there is some correlation between the fact that production of cocaine in Colombia has dropped by some 60 percent, and consumption of cocaine in the United States of America has dropped by some estimates between 40 and 50 percent? I’m not giving you the Pollyanna story here. I freely acknowledge other sorts of drug consumption have grown in this same time period. But the two things that have most driven the Latin America to North America drug trafficking crisis – cocaine and methamphetamines – have both gone down dramatically in terms of demand in the United States.
Heroin is moving at a much smaller level – I mean, the simple truth, the quantity of heroin that moves. Marijuana, synthetics, and pharmaceuticals: apparently we’re quite capable of producing our own domestically in the United States of America. What has been driving the crisis of violence, of homicide, of crime in the Central America-Mexico corridor is cocaine and methamphetamines. The extent to which that product and the trafficking in that product is going down is actually good news for those seven Central American and Mexican countries and governments.
That said, I do not mean to suggest to you that by addressing the problem in Colombia the problem was resolved. On the contrary – and I’m not going to walk you through each of these in the same degree of detail, but the balloon theory – they were squeezed, the bad guys were squeezed in Colombia. What did they do? Largely they moved to Mexico, where, as those of you who could remember where we were about seven or eight years ago, Mexico was confronting a crisis of large cartels that actually represented a threat to the sovereignty of the government itself. And we launched what came to be known as the Merida Initiative, a joint effort in which the Mexican Government offered roughly $13 to every $1 offered by the United States to address this problem.
We squeezed them in Mexico, and what happened? Many of them moved to Central America. The crisis of the last five years has been the surge in violence, in homicides, in crime, in gang activities in Central America. Response? CARSI, the Central America Regional Security Initiative. Much smaller than that for Mexico, but the truth of the matter is there’s a finite number of dollars that are available to be applied to this problem. We squeeze them in Central America and what do we see increasingly happening? You will be stunned to learn that the statistics of drug flows through the Caribbean, that same region that was in fact successfully shut down in the 1980s, has been growing from a factor of roughly 4 percent of U.S. drug consumption three years ago to 8 percent two years to 9 or 10 percent over the last year, and now an estimated 14 percent.
If you’re tracking the trend line, even if we don’t know precisely how much is moving, the fact of the matter is what I have described for you is a tripling of drug flow through the Caribbean over the last three years. Watch this space. If in the course of the next two or three years you see the occasional headline saying, “Drug crisis in the Caribbean,” you will be able to say, yeah, Brownfield at least was prescient enough to predict that would be happening.
Each of the initiatives that I have laid out – Plan Colombia, Colombia; Merida Initiative, Mexico; CARSI, Central America; CBSI, Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, for the Caribbean – had, I would suggest – while each was different, each had its own particular characteristics – they had several common principles.
One, there was an attempt and still is an attempt to link together all the elements of the problem: law enforcement, security, rule of law institutions, economic and social development. Second, they are sustainable. Sustainable means the host government – whether it’s Colombian, Mexican, Central American, Caribbean – sees enough of their own interest at stake that they’re prepared to put their own resources into the problem and the solution. Third, they accept as a principle that the host government makes the decision. If we want a particular program and they don’t, at the end of the day, their view is what determines what will be done. Fourth, they try to focus on institutions and institution-building rather than equipment, rather than hard stuff, rather even than operations, the thinking being if you build an institution, you get value for a generation. If you do a successful takedown operation, you get a headline and value that might last you for a day or two.
Fifth, they are regional in nature – by the way, even the bilateral programs, Colombia and Mexico, are regional to the extent that they link into other countries in the region. Today, for example, Colombian police are training more police in Central America than is the United States. And some of it is actually being done with our assistance, which is another way of saying we actually pay for it. But the quality of the training and the ability of the trainers from Colombia is actually greater than what we ourselves can offer, partly because of their experience, partly because, of course, it’s a lot easier for a Spanish-speaking national police officer from Colombia to do training in Central America than it is even for a Spanish-language-trained U.S. law enforcement officer.
And the sixth principle that we have – I think linking all of these together – is the concept of partners. With each initiative, we have drawn in more and more international partners to play into this effort. Why? One reason I suggest to you is that even as consumption of cocaine in the United States has been dropping steadily since 2007, consumption of cocaine in Western Europe or in East Asia has been growing dramatically, without even mentioning the largest country in South America – Brazil – which is today confronting what could almost be called a crack cocaine crisis. And obviously, as their populations and communities are increasingly victims – or participants, depending upon your perspective – in this process, there is obviously greater interest in joining in efforts as partners to address the problem either at its source or in the midpoint, in short, before it arrives on the shores of France or Italy or Spain or the United Kingdom.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest to you that it is a little bit early, perhaps a century or two, perhaps a millennium or so, to declare success on this particular issue? May I suggest to you it is not too early to say the year 2014 and the next five or ten years will offer a different problem set, a different set of realities from what we were dealing with in the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, or even the last decade? First, you have one nation that has emerged, if you will, from the hell of the 1990s, and is now able to export its experience and its talent set. That nation is Colombia. And let us not forget that having a model out there that other nations in the region can look at has an impact. That is different from where we were 10 or 15 years ago.
Second, let us accept that you now have two new – not so new, but two much more major players in this drama in the region. They are named Bolivia and Peru, and their production level is moving in a sharply upward direction. What is also new, however, is that they are not feeding the North American market; they are feeding the Brazilian and Western European market. It’s an east-west problem as much as a north-south problem. I don’t say one is better than the other; I say it is a different problem set, which is going to require a different set of solutions.
Third, as I have mentioned several times, we are dealing with a consumption matter, a consumption issue, that is changing. As the American taste, if you will, shifts from cocaine and methamphetamines to other sorts of drugs, whether it is heroin or opium-based drugs, other synthetics, diverted pharmaceuticals or marijuana, it is a different problem set and presumably requires a different set of solutions.
Fourth – if you wondered if I was going to mention it, and I’m going to mention it right now – nations are experimenting with alternative approaches to drug control. Uruguay, a small nation located in between Brazil and Argentina, has recently, as a matter of national law, legalized the consumption of marijuana throughout the country. Some of you who have been asleep for the last 12 months may be unaware that two states of the union in the United States of America have done exactly the same thing. One of them is wrapping up its third month of this experiment, that’s Colorado, and the other goes online sometime, I think, about the first of July as they work their way through their rules and procedures. And I am not yet in a position to draw any firm conclusions from any of these experiences. I am in a position to say this is a 2014 reality, and let’s take it into account as we figure: How are we going to work this issue over the next five to ten years?
And fifth, and finally – and I do emphasize this point, because I do believe we haven’t – this Administration, the Administration of Barack Obama has not gotten credit or at least as much credit for this as it should – there is a strong realization in this country, your country, the United States of America, that drugs, drug abuse, and the overall total drug issue is far more a matter of public health than it is a matter of criminal justice. It is both unfair to the criminal justice system as well as to many of those who are caught up in the criminal justice system to try to address drug abuse solely in the criminal justice system. It is not just a matter of criminal justice. It is obviously a matter of health, of the medical care and medical profession, and of how you deal with the health and medical aspects of the use of drugs.
Now, I am not saying that the one excludes the other, but I am very definitely saying that trying to address the issue from only one side is pretty much condemned to failure. Those, I submit, are four new elements available as of the 27th of March, 2014, that were different from what we would’ve discussed if we had been sitting here 20 years ago, 10 years ago, quite frankly even as recently as five years ago. We’ve got to figure how to incorporate them into our own thinking.
These are, ladies and gentlemen – those of you who are – it’s about 75 percent of you who I predict are at least below the age of 40 if not below the age of 30 – these are going to be your challenges. Why? Because, I got to tell you, old Brownfield’s going to be checking out of this business in another three or four years, and it’s going to be you and your generation who have to figure out how to deal with these issues. I will offer you only five suggestions as you move proudly into the future on this issue on how to do it.
One, think long term. We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we’re not going to get out of it overnight. Don’t even think in terms of years, maybe not even decades. Think in terms of generations. Don’t come up with some program that is supposed to solve the problem by 2015. It’s not going to happen.
Second, flexible and adaptable. Tastes change, conduct and behavior changes. The bad guys, the large, transnational criminal organizations who are involved in this, are constantly adapting and adjusting their approach. You had better have your own strategy and policy that can be adjustable and adaptable as well.
Third, be comprehensive. We tried the single-issue approach, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn’t work. We cannot just eradicate ourselves out of this problem. We cannot just interdict our way out of this problem. We also cannot just economic develop our way out of this problem. We have got to address all aspects of the problem. Otherwise we will not succeed.
Fourth principle, build institutions. No one loves a cool operation more than I do. No one loves some snappy new equipment as much as I do. But at the end of the day, your long-term value comes from building better law enforcement capabilities, building more competent prosecutors and investigators, building more effective, efficient, and honest courts and judicial systems, and don’t forget, building a corrections system that actually provides correction as opposed to a graduate course on how to advance from Criminal Activity 101 to the advanced Ph.D. course during three months of incarceration in a detention facility.
And finally, if I might, there is and always will be a criminal justice aspect to this, but principle number five: focus on the big organizations. It’s fine to pump up your numbers, I guess, in terms of how many you can arrest, but if you’re not going after the multibillion dollar organizations who engage not just in drug trafficking, but in trafficking in firearms, trafficking in people, trafficking in general contraband, money laundering that actually corrupts and undercuts and hollows out entire financial institutions, if you’re not focused on them, you’re missing the entire picture.
Okay, back to the title. So what is the new normal? Are you ready? The new normal is constant change. That, ladies and gents, is what we had better wrap our heads around. And we never have for the last 40 years. We’ve always taken the snapshot and said here is what we’re dealing with; now let us develop a strategy that will solve that problem. Wrong-o. That is not what we are going to be dealing with. What we’re looking at today on the 27th of March, I absolutely assure you, is going to be completely different by the time we get into 2015. That’s the new normal. And we had better be ready and able to address that, domestically and internationally, as a criminal justice matter and as a public healthcare matter.
The truth of the matter is we have to have a policy and approach that allows us to move in whatever direction our societies and those who are trying to take advantage of them will be moving in. And ladies and gentlemen, if that’s the new normal, I at least think we’ve got an approach that we can work with in a realistic way and that at least would take us one step beyond where we were 30 or 35 years ago when we started down this road.
And for those of you who actually are still trying to determine your own profession or career choice for the next 30 or 35 years of your lives, let me assure you: sometimes you just enter a profession, if you will, by the back door, through no more systematic or intellectually driven process than that the entry exam is free. And that, ladies and gents, was 35-plus years ago. And at least for me it worked out just fine.
Ladies and gentlemen, the title of today’s little talk is “Drugs, Security, and Latin America: The New Normal?” I’m actually going to talk about anything that you want me to talk about, because that is the purpose of a dialogue. However, there is some logic to the title. I have spent virtually my entire professional career doing Latin America, so logically I might have at least some observations of value that are related to Latin America. Drugs are part of what I now deal with for a living. I am the Assistant Secretary of State for Drugs and Law Enforcement, and to be clear, I officially oppose the former and support the second. I want there to be no confusion on that particular point, although I have a broader responsibility as the Assistant Secretary for INL.
We started life 40 years ago as the part of the State Department that does international drug programs. Beginning about 20 years ago, we expanded to broader crime issues, realizing perhaps that there is more crime out there of an international nature than just drug trafficking. Within about the last 15 years, we expanded more broadly into law enforcement writ large – police training, exchanges, equipment, support, academics, etc. And within the last 10 years or so, driven, believe it or not, by our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve expanded our portfolio and our writ to cover what we would call all of rule of law, which is not just police, but is also prosecutors, courts, judges, corrections systems. If it is part of the criminal justice system in essence, we will now work with and support it in some way, shape, or form.
And the last two or three words of the title of this talk – The New Normal? – is just a way to tease you into wondering if this is the direction we are heading in the Western Hemisphere in the 21st century.
Let me start with a little bit of history. I’ll offer some observations, and then I will stop and let you all actually guide me in the direction you would prefer to hear from me in terms of your own thoughts and your own interests.
A little bit of history: In the 1970s, the United States of America, or at least its government, discovered the drug issue. Richard Nixon declared a ‘war on drugs,’ a very unfortunate selection of terms, by the way, since in fact it’s not a war. It’s certainly not a war against our own population that in some way, shape, or form is part of the drug issue. And for that reason, ever so wisely, in the year 1993, the then newly-inaugurated president of the United States Bill Clinton said, and I quote, “It’s not a war, and we’re going to stop calling it a war on drugs.” Things move slowly in the federal government and the media, but don’t you all come at me in 15 minutes and start condemning me for the war on drugs, because I have already told you in advance it is not a war on drugs, it has not been a war on drugs for 21 years, and what we are doing goes a bit beyond the classical, typical definition of the term war, combined with the word drugs.
Having, however, declared a war on drugs in 1972, the Nixon Administration then proceeded to attempt to win it. They did it by what I would call single-issue approach to the drug abuse problem. First it was eradication. We will go down to Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, eradicate it at the source, and the problem will be solved. Now, they had some success in eradicating. At the end of the day, however, for every hectare or acre eradicated, another acre or two or three would come under production and cultivation. Obviously, eradication alone was not the answer or the solution.
Solution number two, we will dismantle. We will go after the criminal organizations and arrest or remove their leadership from operation. Once we have removed the leadership of the criminal organizations, the cartels, the entire structure that drives the drug trafficking industry, will then collapse. Once again, there were the occasional successes. Those of you – and some of you are actually not old enough to remember when this happened – in 1993, in a particularly effective operation, the Colombian National Police took down, literally removed – perforated about 125 times – Mr. Pablo Escobar, who had been for the preceding 10-15 years the head of the largest, most vicious, most violent drug trafficking cartel in the history of the human race, called the Medellin Cartel, a cartel that might quite conceivably have been responsible for up to 10,000 murders in the preceding decade.
Impact? Well, 1994 came along and drugs continued to flow. Taking down or decapitating organizational leadership, in and of itself, obviously was not the solution.
Next proposal, in the 1980s, was interdiction. “Okay,” they said. “We can’t seem to stop it by eradicating at the source, we can’t seem to stop it by eliminating the leadership of the trafficking organizations. Let us build a picket line down below the U.S. southern borders, both on the ground and at sea, stop the ships, the boats, the planes that are bringing this stuff into the United States, andvoila, problem is solved.
Once again, there were some successes. The truth of the matter is the Caribbean in the 1980s was a region that was at risk of losing control. Fourteen different governments were at risk of losing control of their sovereign national territory to multi-billion dollar drug trafficking industries. And in their defense, that generation of the 1980s actually did effectively interdict the flow of drugs through the Caribbean toward the United – the southeastern United States of America.
But did that solve the problem? No. Where are we today? We’re in central Texas. Where do the drugs now flow into the United States? They come up straight through the land corridor, starting in Colombia, working their way through Central America, processing up through Mexico, and entering through the southwest border of the United States of America. In other words, yes, you can plug your finger in one hole of the dam, but in all likelihood – one might almost say with complete certainty – another hole is going to open up. And at the end of the day you have a finite number of fingers to plug with, defined by how much money the United States Congress and the taxpayers that send them to office are prepared to dedicate to this particular exercise.
Finally, and with somewhat greater coherence and success, the government began to develop an approach in the 1990s which I would call sustainable economic development. And that is accepting the reality that campesinos – or if you’re in Afghanistan and dealing with opium poppy, subsistence-level farmers, actually are not inherently criminal; they do not plant coca or opium poppy because they wish to be part of criminal enterprises. They do it because they are trying to provide a basic living to their families, and coca or opium poppy actually gives them better income and more secure income than corn or frijoles or wheat or whatever it might be that is otherwise being grown in that region.
Now this approach actually made some degree of sense, and I would suggest to you that where it is applied, it does produce long-term results. Problem: It is amazingly expensive. It costs a good bit of money to actually manage on a nationwide basis an alternative development program. It’s not just giving them a barrel of corn seed so that they will plant corn rather than coca. It’s also giving the tools and the training. It’s also giving them the infrastructure, the road system that allows them to get their product to market once they have harvested it, because remember: the drug traffickers will come to them, buy their product, and take it away at no cost to the farmer. The farmer who has instead two tons of corn somehow has to get it to market, or within a month or two he has more or less two tons of mulch that is gradually deteriorating and rotting in his back yard.
On top of that, if you want the campesino to remain committed to this, you have to give him or her some stake in the community. That means maybe schools, maybe clinics. That means electricity, running water, sewage, the sort of thing that makes a family say, one, I do have an interest in staying here, and two, I have a future here over and above whether I can grow an acre of coca or an acre of opium poppy.
Okay. Eradication, dismantling, interdiction, economic development – none of them in and of themselves solved the drug problem. So the question is, since the drugs are still an issue, what is the correct response? Are you ready? Bill Brownfield says the correct response is all of the above and then a little bit more as well.
Let us flash-forward to 1999, when the United States Government, jointly with the Government of Colombia, actually did this the right way. But I will prejudge the conclusion by letting you know the right way cost $8.5 billion over roughly a 12-year period of time. But we launched – the Colombian government launched what came to be called Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia was a comprehensive, structured approach designed to address the economic issue, the security issue, and the drugs and law enforcement issue. And when I said economic, I should also have said social, to include health impact, education, as well as job generation and economic activity.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would suggest that that worked for Colombia. The huge cartels that in the 1990s were actually threatening the very existence of the Colombian government have been atomized, admittedly to still annoying criminal activities, but are not anywhere remotely as powerful, as strong, or as threatening as Mr. Pablo Escobar and his Medellin cartel at the start of the 1990s, or the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and the Cali cartel at that same timeframe.
Cocaine production in Colombia, we estimate, is down 60 percent or so from its heyday, as recently as 10 years ago. The tourism industry in Colombia today is booming. There are probably 20 times as many tourists going to Colombia today as 10 years ago. And if you will, tourists vote with their feet. If tourists are going to Colombia, you assume the security situation obviously has reached a point where people are prepared voluntarily to spend their own money to go visit a country that 10 or 15 years ago they would not have dreamed of doing so without a battalion of the United States Army or Marine Corps joining them and providing them security at every step.
And may I note as well that there is some correlation between the fact that production of cocaine in Colombia has dropped by some 60 percent, and consumption of cocaine in the United States of America has dropped by some estimates between 40 and 50 percent? I’m not giving you the Pollyanna story here. I freely acknowledge other sorts of drug consumption have grown in this same time period. But the two things that have most driven the Latin America to North America drug trafficking crisis – cocaine and methamphetamines – have both gone down dramatically in terms of demand in the United States.
Heroin is moving at a much smaller level – I mean, the simple truth, the quantity of heroin that moves. Marijuana, synthetics, and pharmaceuticals: apparently we’re quite capable of producing our own domestically in the United States of America. What has been driving the crisis of violence, of homicide, of crime in the Central America-Mexico corridor is cocaine and methamphetamines. The extent to which that product and the trafficking in that product is going down is actually good news for those seven Central American and Mexican countries and governments.
That said, I do not mean to suggest to you that by addressing the problem in Colombia the problem was resolved. On the contrary – and I’m not going to walk you through each of these in the same degree of detail, but the balloon theory – they were squeezed, the bad guys were squeezed in Colombia. What did they do? Largely they moved to Mexico, where, as those of you who could remember where we were about seven or eight years ago, Mexico was confronting a crisis of large cartels that actually represented a threat to the sovereignty of the government itself. And we launched what came to be known as the Merida Initiative, a joint effort in which the Mexican Government offered roughly $13 to every $1 offered by the United States to address this problem.
We squeezed them in Mexico, and what happened? Many of them moved to Central America. The crisis of the last five years has been the surge in violence, in homicides, in crime, in gang activities in Central America. Response? CARSI, the Central America Regional Security Initiative. Much smaller than that for Mexico, but the truth of the matter is there’s a finite number of dollars that are available to be applied to this problem. We squeeze them in Central America and what do we see increasingly happening? You will be stunned to learn that the statistics of drug flows through the Caribbean, that same region that was in fact successfully shut down in the 1980s, has been growing from a factor of roughly 4 percent of U.S. drug consumption three years ago to 8 percent two years to 9 or 10 percent over the last year, and now an estimated 14 percent.
If you’re tracking the trend line, even if we don’t know precisely how much is moving, the fact of the matter is what I have described for you is a tripling of drug flow through the Caribbean over the last three years. Watch this space. If in the course of the next two or three years you see the occasional headline saying, “Drug crisis in the Caribbean,” you will be able to say, yeah, Brownfield at least was prescient enough to predict that would be happening.
Each of the initiatives that I have laid out – Plan Colombia, Colombia; Merida Initiative, Mexico; CARSI, Central America; CBSI, Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, for the Caribbean – had, I would suggest – while each was different, each had its own particular characteristics – they had several common principles.
One, there was an attempt and still is an attempt to link together all the elements of the problem: law enforcement, security, rule of law institutions, economic and social development. Second, they are sustainable. Sustainable means the host government – whether it’s Colombian, Mexican, Central American, Caribbean – sees enough of their own interest at stake that they’re prepared to put their own resources into the problem and the solution. Third, they accept as a principle that the host government makes the decision. If we want a particular program and they don’t, at the end of the day, their view is what determines what will be done. Fourth, they try to focus on institutions and institution-building rather than equipment, rather than hard stuff, rather even than operations, the thinking being if you build an institution, you get value for a generation. If you do a successful takedown operation, you get a headline and value that might last you for a day or two.
Fifth, they are regional in nature – by the way, even the bilateral programs, Colombia and Mexico, are regional to the extent that they link into other countries in the region. Today, for example, Colombian police are training more police in Central America than is the United States. And some of it is actually being done with our assistance, which is another way of saying we actually pay for it. But the quality of the training and the ability of the trainers from Colombia is actually greater than what we ourselves can offer, partly because of their experience, partly because, of course, it’s a lot easier for a Spanish-speaking national police officer from Colombia to do training in Central America than it is even for a Spanish-language-trained U.S. law enforcement officer.
And the sixth principle that we have – I think linking all of these together – is the concept of partners. With each initiative, we have drawn in more and more international partners to play into this effort. Why? One reason I suggest to you is that even as consumption of cocaine in the United States has been dropping steadily since 2007, consumption of cocaine in Western Europe or in East Asia has been growing dramatically, without even mentioning the largest country in South America – Brazil – which is today confronting what could almost be called a crack cocaine crisis. And obviously, as their populations and communities are increasingly victims – or participants, depending upon your perspective – in this process, there is obviously greater interest in joining in efforts as partners to address the problem either at its source or in the midpoint, in short, before it arrives on the shores of France or Italy or Spain or the United Kingdom.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest to you that it is a little bit early, perhaps a century or two, perhaps a millennium or so, to declare success on this particular issue? May I suggest to you it is not too early to say the year 2014 and the next five or ten years will offer a different problem set, a different set of realities from what we were dealing with in the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, or even the last decade? First, you have one nation that has emerged, if you will, from the hell of the 1990s, and is now able to export its experience and its talent set. That nation is Colombia. And let us not forget that having a model out there that other nations in the region can look at has an impact. That is different from where we were 10 or 15 years ago.
Second, let us accept that you now have two new – not so new, but two much more major players in this drama in the region. They are named Bolivia and Peru, and their production level is moving in a sharply upward direction. What is also new, however, is that they are not feeding the North American market; they are feeding the Brazilian and Western European market. It’s an east-west problem as much as a north-south problem. I don’t say one is better than the other; I say it is a different problem set, which is going to require a different set of solutions.
Third, as I have mentioned several times, we are dealing with a consumption matter, a consumption issue, that is changing. As the American taste, if you will, shifts from cocaine and methamphetamines to other sorts of drugs, whether it is heroin or opium-based drugs, other synthetics, diverted pharmaceuticals or marijuana, it is a different problem set and presumably requires a different set of solutions.
Fourth – if you wondered if I was going to mention it, and I’m going to mention it right now – nations are experimenting with alternative approaches to drug control. Uruguay, a small nation located in between Brazil and Argentina, has recently, as a matter of national law, legalized the consumption of marijuana throughout the country. Some of you who have been asleep for the last 12 months may be unaware that two states of the union in the United States of America have done exactly the same thing. One of them is wrapping up its third month of this experiment, that’s Colorado, and the other goes online sometime, I think, about the first of July as they work their way through their rules and procedures. And I am not yet in a position to draw any firm conclusions from any of these experiences. I am in a position to say this is a 2014 reality, and let’s take it into account as we figure: How are we going to work this issue over the next five to ten years?
And fifth, and finally – and I do emphasize this point, because I do believe we haven’t – this Administration, the Administration of Barack Obama has not gotten credit or at least as much credit for this as it should – there is a strong realization in this country, your country, the United States of America, that drugs, drug abuse, and the overall total drug issue is far more a matter of public health than it is a matter of criminal justice. It is both unfair to the criminal justice system as well as to many of those who are caught up in the criminal justice system to try to address drug abuse solely in the criminal justice system. It is not just a matter of criminal justice. It is obviously a matter of health, of the medical care and medical profession, and of how you deal with the health and medical aspects of the use of drugs.
Now, I am not saying that the one excludes the other, but I am very definitely saying that trying to address the issue from only one side is pretty much condemned to failure. Those, I submit, are four new elements available as of the 27th of March, 2014, that were different from what we would’ve discussed if we had been sitting here 20 years ago, 10 years ago, quite frankly even as recently as five years ago. We’ve got to figure how to incorporate them into our own thinking.
These are, ladies and gentlemen – those of you who are – it’s about 75 percent of you who I predict are at least below the age of 40 if not below the age of 30 – these are going to be your challenges. Why? Because, I got to tell you, old Brownfield’s going to be checking out of this business in another three or four years, and it’s going to be you and your generation who have to figure out how to deal with these issues. I will offer you only five suggestions as you move proudly into the future on this issue on how to do it.
One, think long term. We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we’re not going to get out of it overnight. Don’t even think in terms of years, maybe not even decades. Think in terms of generations. Don’t come up with some program that is supposed to solve the problem by 2015. It’s not going to happen.
Second, flexible and adaptable. Tastes change, conduct and behavior changes. The bad guys, the large, transnational criminal organizations who are involved in this, are constantly adapting and adjusting their approach. You had better have your own strategy and policy that can be adjustable and adaptable as well.
Third, be comprehensive. We tried the single-issue approach, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn’t work. We cannot just eradicate ourselves out of this problem. We cannot just interdict our way out of this problem. We also cannot just economic develop our way out of this problem. We have got to address all aspects of the problem. Otherwise we will not succeed.
Fourth principle, build institutions. No one loves a cool operation more than I do. No one loves some snappy new equipment as much as I do. But at the end of the day, your long-term value comes from building better law enforcement capabilities, building more competent prosecutors and investigators, building more effective, efficient, and honest courts and judicial systems, and don’t forget, building a corrections system that actually provides correction as opposed to a graduate course on how to advance from Criminal Activity 101 to the advanced Ph.D. course during three months of incarceration in a detention facility.
And finally, if I might, there is and always will be a criminal justice aspect to this, but principle number five: focus on the big organizations. It’s fine to pump up your numbers, I guess, in terms of how many you can arrest, but if you’re not going after the multibillion dollar organizations who engage not just in drug trafficking, but in trafficking in firearms, trafficking in people, trafficking in general contraband, money laundering that actually corrupts and undercuts and hollows out entire financial institutions, if you’re not focused on them, you’re missing the entire picture.
Okay, back to the title. So what is the new normal? Are you ready? The new normal is constant change. That, ladies and gents, is what we had better wrap our heads around. And we never have for the last 40 years. We’ve always taken the snapshot and said here is what we’re dealing with; now let us develop a strategy that will solve that problem. Wrong-o. That is not what we are going to be dealing with. What we’re looking at today on the 27th of March, I absolutely assure you, is going to be completely different by the time we get into 2015. That’s the new normal. And we had better be ready and able to address that, domestically and internationally, as a criminal justice matter and as a public healthcare matter.
The truth of the matter is we have to have a policy and approach that allows us to move in whatever direction our societies and those who are trying to take advantage of them will be moving in. And ladies and gentlemen, if that’s the new normal, I at least think we’ve got an approach that we can work with in a realistic way and that at least would take us one step beyond where we were 30 or 35 years ago when we started down this road.
RECENT U.S. NAVY PHOTOS FROM THE ARABIAN SEA
FROM: U.S. NAVY
140407-N-VH054-010 ARABIAN SEA (April 7, 2014) Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Jason McManus, second from left, conducts MK122 switch training on BBU-54 bombs aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). George H.W. Bush is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Harry Andrew D. Gordon/Released).
140407-N-SI489-150 ARABIAN SEA (April 7, 2014) Sailors assigned to security division participate in an M16 training exercise aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). George H.W. Bush is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Andrew Johnson/Released).
DOJ ANNOUNCES SETTLEMENT IN LANDMARK AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT CASE
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Department of Justice Reaches Landmark Americans with Disabilities Act Settlement Agreement with Rhode Island
The Justice Department announced today that it has entered into a statewide settlement agreement that will resolve violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for approximately 3,250 Rhode Islanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The landmark ten year agreement is the nation’s first statewide settlement to address the rights of people with disabilities to receive state funded employment and daytime services in the broader community, rather than in segregated sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs. Approximately 450,000 people with I/DD across the country spend their days in segregated sheltered workshops or in segregated day programs. The agreement significantly advances the department's work to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C, which requires persons with I/DD be served in the most integrated setting appropriate .
As a result of the settlement, 2,000 Rhode Islanders with I/DD who are currently being served by segregated programs will have opportunities to work in real jobs at competitive wages. Additionally, over the next ten years, 1,250 students with I/DD will receive services to help transition into the workforce.
“Today’s agreement will make Rhode Island a national leader in the movement to bring people with disabilities out of segregated work settings and into typical jobs in the community at competitive pay,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Civil Rights Division. “As Rhode Island implements the agreement over the next ten years, it will make a dramatic difference in the lives of people with disabilities, businesses and communities across the state. We congratulate Governor Chafee and state officials for signing this agreement, as we believe that Rhode Island will be a model for the nation with respect to integrated employment for people with disabilities.”
“The filing of today’s consent decree is a critically important event in Rhode Island history,” said U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha for the District of Rhode Island. “It ushers in a new day of opportunity – opportunity for Rhode Island residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities to live, work and spend their recreational time alongside their fellow Rhode Islanders. It is an opportunity for this State to move forward; to recognize, finally, that we are better, stronger, when all of us – all of us –are interwoven in the fabric that is Rhode Island.”
Under the agreement, Rhode Island has agreed to provide:
· Supported employment placements that are individual, typical jobs in the community, that pay at least minimum wage, and that offer employment for the maximum number of hours consistent with the person’s abilities and preferences, amounting to an average of at least 20 hours per week across the target population;
· Supports for integrated non-work activities for times when people are not at work including mainstream educational, leisure or volunteer activities that use the same community centers, libraries, recreational, sports and educational facilities that are available to everyone;
· Transition services for students with I/DD, to start at age 14, and to include internships, job site visits and mentoring, enabling students to leave school prepared for jobs in the community at competitive wages;
· Significant funding sustained over a ten year period that redirects funds currently used to support services in segregated settings to those that incentivize services in integrated settings.
The ten year agreement will allow the state to ensure that the services necessary to support individuals with I/DD in competitive, integrated jobs will not disappear with a change in administration or legislative leadership. As a result of this commitment, the business community has already stepped up to partner with the state. The U.S. Business Leadership Network (USBLN), a network of Fortune 500 companies, and Walgreens will co-host a regional business summit in Rhode Island in June 2014 to explore how to improve those partnerships.
The agreement is the result of an ADA investigation that began in January 2013 into Rhode Island’s day activity service system for people with I/DD. The department, the state, and the City of Providence entered into an interim settlement agreement in June 2013. The interim settlement agreement focused on a single provider, which was one of the largest facility-based employment service providers in the state’s system, and a school-based sheltered workshop at a Providence, R.I., high school, which was a point of origin for many people entering the provider’s workshop.
The department continued its investigation of the statewide system, and in January 2014 issued findings determining that the statewide system over-relied on segregated services, to the exclusion of integrated alternatives, in violation of the ADA. The department found workers with I/DD in settings where they had little or no contact with persons without disabilities, and where they earned an average wage of $2.21 per hour. The investigation found that workers typically remain in such settings for many years, and sometimes decades. The department also found that students in Rhode Island schools were often not presented with meaningful choices to participate in integrated alternatives, such as integrated transition work placements and work-based learning experiences, which put students at serious risk of unnecessary postsecondary placement in segregated sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs.
Since June 2013, the state and city have provided supported employment services to people with I/DD transitioning from the original two facilities covered by the interim settlement agreement. Many of these individuals have now accessed jobs in typical work settings where they can interact with non-disabled coworkers and customers, and enjoy the same employment benefits as their non-disabled peers. Individuals have secured jobs at both locally owned and national companies. Because of the interim settlement agreement, Pedro , an individual who transitioned from the in-school sheltered workshop to the adult workshop, where he earned just 48 cents an hour, is now making minimum wage working at a restaurant. Peter , another former sheltered workshop employee who was earning approximately $1.50 per hour, now has a job earning more than minimum wage working for the state as a custodian at a hospital. Louis has gone from earning sub-minimum wages performing rote tasks at the sheltered workshop to a full-time position at a state hospital, where he uses his strong computer skills and passion for mathematics to generate Excel reports, record time sheets, and complete other office tasks.
SEC CHARGES, FREEZES ASSETS OF "VIRTUAL CONCIERGE MACHINES" (VCM) ALLEGED PONZI SCHEMERS
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an asset freeze against the operators of a South Florida-based Ponzi scheme targeting investors through YouTube videos and selling them investments in a product called virtual concierge machines (VCMs) that would purportedly generate guaranteed returns of 300 to 500 percent in four years.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida today announced criminal charges.
The SEC alleges that Joseph Signore of West Palm Beach, Paul L. Schumack II of Pompano Beach, and their respective companies JCS Enterprises Inc. and T.B.T.I. Inc. falsely promised hundreds of investors nationwide that their funds would be used to purchase ATM-like machines that businesses could use to advertise products and services via touch screen and printable tickets or coupons. Investors supposedly needed to do nothing to earn returns on their investment in a VCM, which would purportedly be placed at such locations as hotels, airports, and stadiums where they would derive revenue from the businesses paying to advertise through them. However, instead of advertising revenue serving as the driving force behind the returns paid to investors, the two men and their companies paid returns to earlier investors using money from newer investors. Signore and Schumack also diverted millions of dollars in investor funds for their personal use and other unrelated expenses.
“Signore and Schumack touted VCMs as a revolutionary enterprise and fail-safe investment based on a stream of advertising revenue that would generate the guaranteed returns paid to investors,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “However, the advertising revenue was virtually non-existent and investors aren’t enjoying the riches touted on YouTube.”
According to the SEC’s complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Signore, Schumack, JCS, and T.B.T.I. fraudulently raised more than $40 million since at least 2011 by guaranteeing exorbitant returns. The SEC alleges that JCS Enterprises promoted VCMs through YouTube videos, e-mail solicitations, and investor seminars. In one YouTube video, an apparent investor is polishing his new Cadillac as a friend proclaims, “What an amazing car! How can you afford this?” The investor responds, “My Virtual Concierge.” A similar scene ensues with a different investor showing a friend her new pool. A spokesperson appears and asks the viewer, “Do you want to make more money? Then it is time for you to own a Virtual Concierge.”
The SEC alleges that Signore, Schumack, and their companies promised to locate, place, and manage the VCMs while informing investors where their VCMs were located. Investors were to be provided a password to allow them online access to monitor the activity of their VCMs. However, VCMs were not placed anywhere near the rate of those purchased by investors, who were never provided the locations of their VCM and could not track activity as promised. The scheme collapsed in typical Ponzi fashion once new investor funds dried up. The majority of investors stopped receiving their monthly payments in January 2014, yet Signore and Schumack continued to solicit new investors while fabricating excuses to placate irate investors no longer receiving their returns. JCS went so far as to issue a press release claiming that TBTI had defrauded JCS and it was “investigating the matter.”
Glenn S. Gordon, associate director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office, said, “The defendants never told investors the most important way in which these machines resembled ATMs – as a source of ready cash from investors that the defendants used for their own benefit.”
The SEC also alleges that Signore and Schumack misappropriated investor funds for themselves while never telling investors they would do so. Signore used investor funds from accounts at JCS to divert approximately $2 million directly to himself and family members. Signore also routed investor money to unrelated business ventures he operates with his wife. Debit charges from JCS accounts indicate that approximately $56,000 in investor funds were spent at restaurants, merchandising stores, and a tanning salon as well as other credit card bills. Money from T.B.T.I’s accounts was similarly used for personal expenses. For example, Schumack’s wife signed a check for $500,000 made out to the IRS. T.B.T.I. also has transferred approximately $4 million from its investor account to an unrelated account from which Schumack and others executed more than 100 cash withdrawals totaling around $4.8 million, which was 91 percent of the account balance. Another $23,000 of investor money was used by Schumack for personal expenses including restaurants, merchandising stores, and a nutrient therapy center.
The SEC’s complaint charges JCS Enterprises, T.B.T.I., Signore, and Schumack with violating Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 as well as Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 along with Rule 10b-5. The SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, and financial penalties among other relief for investors. The Honorable Donald Middlebrooks granted the SEC’s request for a temporary restraining order and a temporary asset freeze against JCS, T.B.T.I., Signore and Schumack, and further required the defendants to provide accountings. Judge Middlebrooks also entered an order appointing James D. Sallah, Esq. as receiver for JCS and T.B.T.I. A court hearing has been scheduled for April 17.
The SEC’s investigation, which is continuing, has been conducted by Fernando Torres, Linda S. Schmidt, Vincent T. Hull, and Mark Dee in the Miami Regional Office. The case has been supervised by Jason R. Berkowitz. The SEC’s litigation is being led by Russell Koonin and Mr. Hull. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and Texas State Securities Board.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an asset freeze against the operators of a South Florida-based Ponzi scheme targeting investors through YouTube videos and selling them investments in a product called virtual concierge machines (VCMs) that would purportedly generate guaranteed returns of 300 to 500 percent in four years.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida today announced criminal charges.
The SEC alleges that Joseph Signore of West Palm Beach, Paul L. Schumack II of Pompano Beach, and their respective companies JCS Enterprises Inc. and T.B.T.I. Inc. falsely promised hundreds of investors nationwide that their funds would be used to purchase ATM-like machines that businesses could use to advertise products and services via touch screen and printable tickets or coupons. Investors supposedly needed to do nothing to earn returns on their investment in a VCM, which would purportedly be placed at such locations as hotels, airports, and stadiums where they would derive revenue from the businesses paying to advertise through them. However, instead of advertising revenue serving as the driving force behind the returns paid to investors, the two men and their companies paid returns to earlier investors using money from newer investors. Signore and Schumack also diverted millions of dollars in investor funds for their personal use and other unrelated expenses.
“Signore and Schumack touted VCMs as a revolutionary enterprise and fail-safe investment based on a stream of advertising revenue that would generate the guaranteed returns paid to investors,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “However, the advertising revenue was virtually non-existent and investors aren’t enjoying the riches touted on YouTube.”
According to the SEC’s complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Signore, Schumack, JCS, and T.B.T.I. fraudulently raised more than $40 million since at least 2011 by guaranteeing exorbitant returns. The SEC alleges that JCS Enterprises promoted VCMs through YouTube videos, e-mail solicitations, and investor seminars. In one YouTube video, an apparent investor is polishing his new Cadillac as a friend proclaims, “What an amazing car! How can you afford this?” The investor responds, “My Virtual Concierge.” A similar scene ensues with a different investor showing a friend her new pool. A spokesperson appears and asks the viewer, “Do you want to make more money? Then it is time for you to own a Virtual Concierge.”
The SEC alleges that Signore, Schumack, and their companies promised to locate, place, and manage the VCMs while informing investors where their VCMs were located. Investors were to be provided a password to allow them online access to monitor the activity of their VCMs. However, VCMs were not placed anywhere near the rate of those purchased by investors, who were never provided the locations of their VCM and could not track activity as promised. The scheme collapsed in typical Ponzi fashion once new investor funds dried up. The majority of investors stopped receiving their monthly payments in January 2014, yet Signore and Schumack continued to solicit new investors while fabricating excuses to placate irate investors no longer receiving their returns. JCS went so far as to issue a press release claiming that TBTI had defrauded JCS and it was “investigating the matter.”
Glenn S. Gordon, associate director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office, said, “The defendants never told investors the most important way in which these machines resembled ATMs – as a source of ready cash from investors that the defendants used for their own benefit.”
The SEC also alleges that Signore and Schumack misappropriated investor funds for themselves while never telling investors they would do so. Signore used investor funds from accounts at JCS to divert approximately $2 million directly to himself and family members. Signore also routed investor money to unrelated business ventures he operates with his wife. Debit charges from JCS accounts indicate that approximately $56,000 in investor funds were spent at restaurants, merchandising stores, and a tanning salon as well as other credit card bills. Money from T.B.T.I’s accounts was similarly used for personal expenses. For example, Schumack’s wife signed a check for $500,000 made out to the IRS. T.B.T.I. also has transferred approximately $4 million from its investor account to an unrelated account from which Schumack and others executed more than 100 cash withdrawals totaling around $4.8 million, which was 91 percent of the account balance. Another $23,000 of investor money was used by Schumack for personal expenses including restaurants, merchandising stores, and a nutrient therapy center.
The SEC’s complaint charges JCS Enterprises, T.B.T.I., Signore, and Schumack with violating Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 as well as Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 along with Rule 10b-5. The SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, and financial penalties among other relief for investors. The Honorable Donald Middlebrooks granted the SEC’s request for a temporary restraining order and a temporary asset freeze against JCS, T.B.T.I., Signore and Schumack, and further required the defendants to provide accountings. Judge Middlebrooks also entered an order appointing James D. Sallah, Esq. as receiver for JCS and T.B.T.I. A court hearing has been scheduled for April 17.
The SEC’s investigation, which is continuing, has been conducted by Fernando Torres, Linda S. Schmidt, Vincent T. Hull, and Mark Dee in the Miami Regional Office. The case has been supervised by Jason R. Berkowitz. The SEC’s litigation is being led by Russell Koonin and Mr. Hull. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and Texas State Securities Board.
DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL STRESSES U.S.-CHINA MILITARY-TO-MILITARY RELATIONS
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Hagel, China’s Defense Minister Build Military Relations Model
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
BEIJING, April 8, 2014 – At the invitation of Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chang Wanquan, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited the Chinese Defense Ministry’s headquarters here today.
Hagel met with Chang and then a larger group of defense officials before he and Chang revealed during a news conference a new model for U.S.-China military-to-military relations.
The secretary’s visit to Beijing comes in the middle of a 10-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region, during which he visited Japan and will travel to Mongolia later this week. The trip began in Hawaii with the first meeting for defense ministers of the 10 member countries of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations to be held in the United States.
“One focus of our discussion today was how we develop a new model of military-to-military relations,” Hagel said about his meeting with Chang. “We’ve just finished a very good meeting,” the secretary added, “during which I restated that the United States is committed to continuing to build a constructive and productive relationship with China.”
Hagel explained that the United States believes its approach should be to build a sustained and substantive dialogue, deepen practical cooperation in areas of common interest, and manage competition and differences through openness and communication.
In each area, he added, there is much work to do, but the nations are making strong progress.
“As General Chang announced, we agreed today on several new ways to improve our military-to-military relationship,” Hagel said. First, the U.S. and Chinese defense agencies will establish an army-to-army dialogue as an institutionalized mechanism within the framework of the U.S.-China military-to-military relationship.
Second, the secretary added, “we agreed to participate in a joint military-medical cooperative activity. This will build on experiences gained at the 2014 Rim of the Pacific exercise, a U.S.-hosted multilateral naval exercise that China will participate in for the first time this summer.”
Third, Hagel said, the defense agencies will establish an Asia-Pacific security dialogue between the assistant secretary of defense for Asia-Pacific security affairs and the director of the Chinese Defense Ministry’s foreign affairs office to exchange views on a range of security issues.
“This dialogue will build on the discussions Gen. Chong and I had today on regional security issues,” the secretary said, “including North Korea and the growing threat posed by its nuclear and missile programs.”
Hagel added that continued instability in Northeast Asia is not in China’s interest, and that the United States is deeply concerned about the threat North Korea poses to U.S. treaty allies and, increasingly, to the homeland.
“The United States and China have a shared interest in achieving a verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
Hagel and Chang also discussed tensions in the East and South China seas.
“I underscored that all parties should refrain from provocative actions and the use of intimidation, coercion or aggression to advance their claims,” the secretary said. “Such disputes must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.”
Hagel noted that yesterday he toured China’s aircraft carrier, met personnel aboard the ship and had an opportunity to listen. He will later speak to officers at the National Defense University and is looking forward to visiting with noncommissioned officers, whom he characterized as the backbone of all militaries.
“Exchanges like this at every level of command are critical for building mutual understanding and also respect, Hagel said. “Our vision is a future where our militaries can work closely together on a range of challenges, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.”
To reach this objective, the secretary said, “we must be candid about issues we disagree about, [but also continue] to deepen our cooperation in areas where we do agree. We have many common interests, and we agree on many things.”
Regarding cybersecurity, Hagel emphasized the need for the United States and China to be more open about each other’s capabilities and intentions in this critically important domain.
“Greater openness about cyber reduces the risk that misunderstanding and misperception could lead to miscalculation,” he said. “More transparency will strengthen China-U.S. relations.”
The U.S.-China relationship is important for stability and security in the Asia-Pacific, and for achieving prosperity for both nations in the 21st century, the secretary added.
“As President [Barack] Obama has said,” Hagel noted, “the United States welcomes the rise of a stable, peaceful and prosperous China.”
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR APRIL 8, 2014
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
CONTRACTS
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Rosenbauer America,* Lyons, S.D., has been awarded a maximum $382,500,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for the procurement of commercial type fire and emergency vehicles. This contract is a competitive acquisition, and 24 offers were received. This contract is one of up to 20 contracts being issued against solicitation number SPM8EC-11-R-0005. This contract is for a term of five years and is for a portion of the estimated $382,500,000, and will be competed amongst other contractors who receive a contract under this solicitation. Request for quotations will be issued to all twenty and the resulting contract delivery order(s) will be awarded to the offerer with the lowest price that is technically acceptable. Locations of performance are South Dakota and Minnesota with an April 7, 2019 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE8EC-14-D-0015).
Atlantic Diving Supply Inc.,* Virginia Beach, Va., has been awarded a maximum $66,783,068 modification (P00003) exercising the first option period on a one-year base contract (SPM2D0-13-D-0003) with nine one-year option periods for various medical/surgical products. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Virginia with an April 8, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 warstopper funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Henry Schein Inc., Melville, N.Y., has been awarded a maximum $26,602,450 modification (P00012) exercising the fourth option period on a one-year base contract (SPM2DE-10-D-7342) with four one-year option periods for various laboratory supplies. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is New York with an April 25, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Labatt Food Service, San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $17,250,000 modification (P00204) exercising the first option period on a one-year base contract (SPM300-13-D-3655) with one one-year option period for full line food distribution. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Texas with an April 12, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Stern Produce Co.,* Phoenix, Ariz., has been awarded a maximum $16,625,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for fresh fruit and vegetables support. This is a competitive acquisition, and one offer was received. This is an 18-month base contract with two 18-month option periods. Location of performance is Arizona with an Oct. 12, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, federal civilian agencies, and Department of Agriculture schools and reservations. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE300-14-D-P255).
RPR Industries,* Grantsville, W.Va., has been awarded a maximum $11,601,492 firm-fixed-price contract for life preservers and component parts. This is a competitive acquisition, and two offers were received. This is a two-year base contract with three one-year option periods. Location of performance is West Virginia with a July 12, 2016 performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE8EH-14-D-0007).
Exelan Pharmaceuticals Inc., Lawrenceville, Ga., has been awarded a maximum $8,509,384 firm-fixed-price contract for pharmaceutical products. This is a competitive acquisition, and four offers were received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Locations of performance are Georgia and New York with an April 7, 2015 performance completion date. Using services are federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPM2D0-14-D-N005).
ARMY
Savi Technology Inc.,* Alexandria, Va., was awarded a $102,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Active Radio Frequency iIdentification hardware, software, documentation, and incidental services to authorized government users worldwide. Incidental services include training, warranty, and technical engineering services. Funding and work performance locations will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is April 6, 2017. Bids were solicited via the Internet with one received. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-14-D-0014).
NAVY
Patricia I. Romero Inc., doing business as Pacific West Builders*, National City, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0038); Peter Vander Werff Construction Inc.,* El Cajon, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0039); Dimensions Construction Inc.*, San Diego, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0040); I.E.-Pacific Inc.,* San Diego, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0041); and Halbert Construction Co., Inc.,* El Cajon, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0042) are each being awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award construction contract for new construction, renovation, and repair of general building construction at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility (AOR). The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all five contracts combined is $99,000,000. Types of projects may include, but are not limited to: administration buildings, school buildings, hospitals, auditoriums, fire stations, gymnasiums, office buildings, hangars, laboratories, and parking structures. No task orders are being issued at this time. All work on these contracts will be performed within the NAVFAC Southwest AOR including, but not limited to, California (90 percent), Arizona (6 percent), Nevada (1 percent), Utah (1 percent), Colorado (1 percent), and New Mexico (1 percent). The terms of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of April 2019. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $25,000 are being obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as a set-aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone and/or Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 35 proposals received. These five contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $45,351,395 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-14-C-5114) to provide multi-year procurement funding for Aegis Weapon System MK 7 equipment sets. Work will be performed in Moorestown, N.J. (85.5 percent), Clearwater, Fla. (13.1 percent), and Akron, Ohio (1.4 percent) and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $45,351,395 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
AIR FORCE
Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies Inc., Louisville, Colo., has been awarded a $9,387,611 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop a ground-based wind profiler to meet the functional, performance, and environmental requirements for precision airdrop. The objective of this effort is to develop an affordable, rugged, set-and-start solution for precise wind measurement for precision air drop (PAD) at forward operating bases that shall enable the government to achieve 50 meters drop accuracy. This technology development shall enable accurate wind measurements from the ground to altitudes near the aircraft, and shall contribute to all-weather accurate determination of the computed-air release point for a single-pass aircraft scenario for PAD. Work will be performed at Louisville, Colo., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 16, 2015. The award is a result of a competitive acquisition under an open-ended Broad Agency Announcement. Unlimited offers were solicited and one offer was received. Fiscal 2013 ($500,000) and fiscal 2014 ($1,819,300) research and development funds are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory/RQKPD, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-14-C-2444).
*Small Business
CONTRACTS
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Rosenbauer America,* Lyons, S.D., has been awarded a maximum $382,500,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for the procurement of commercial type fire and emergency vehicles. This contract is a competitive acquisition, and 24 offers were received. This contract is one of up to 20 contracts being issued against solicitation number SPM8EC-11-R-0005. This contract is for a term of five years and is for a portion of the estimated $382,500,000, and will be competed amongst other contractors who receive a contract under this solicitation. Request for quotations will be issued to all twenty and the resulting contract delivery order(s) will be awarded to the offerer with the lowest price that is technically acceptable. Locations of performance are South Dakota and Minnesota with an April 7, 2019 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE8EC-14-D-0015).
Atlantic Diving Supply Inc.,* Virginia Beach, Va., has been awarded a maximum $66,783,068 modification (P00003) exercising the first option period on a one-year base contract (SPM2D0-13-D-0003) with nine one-year option periods for various medical/surgical products. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Virginia with an April 8, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 warstopper funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Henry Schein Inc., Melville, N.Y., has been awarded a maximum $26,602,450 modification (P00012) exercising the fourth option period on a one-year base contract (SPM2DE-10-D-7342) with four one-year option periods for various laboratory supplies. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is New York with an April 25, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Labatt Food Service, San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $17,250,000 modification (P00204) exercising the first option period on a one-year base contract (SPM300-13-D-3655) with one one-year option period for full line food distribution. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Texas with an April 12, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Stern Produce Co.,* Phoenix, Ariz., has been awarded a maximum $16,625,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for fresh fruit and vegetables support. This is a competitive acquisition, and one offer was received. This is an 18-month base contract with two 18-month option periods. Location of performance is Arizona with an Oct. 12, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, federal civilian agencies, and Department of Agriculture schools and reservations. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE300-14-D-P255).
RPR Industries,* Grantsville, W.Va., has been awarded a maximum $11,601,492 firm-fixed-price contract for life preservers and component parts. This is a competitive acquisition, and two offers were received. This is a two-year base contract with three one-year option periods. Location of performance is West Virginia with a July 12, 2016 performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE8EH-14-D-0007).
Exelan Pharmaceuticals Inc., Lawrenceville, Ga., has been awarded a maximum $8,509,384 firm-fixed-price contract for pharmaceutical products. This is a competitive acquisition, and four offers were received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Locations of performance are Georgia and New York with an April 7, 2015 performance completion date. Using services are federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPM2D0-14-D-N005).
ARMY
Savi Technology Inc.,* Alexandria, Va., was awarded a $102,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Active Radio Frequency iIdentification hardware, software, documentation, and incidental services to authorized government users worldwide. Incidental services include training, warranty, and technical engineering services. Funding and work performance locations will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is April 6, 2017. Bids were solicited via the Internet with one received. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-14-D-0014).
NAVY
Patricia I. Romero Inc., doing business as Pacific West Builders*, National City, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0038); Peter Vander Werff Construction Inc.,* El Cajon, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0039); Dimensions Construction Inc.*, San Diego, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0040); I.E.-Pacific Inc.,* San Diego, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0041); and Halbert Construction Co., Inc.,* El Cajon, Calif. (N62473-14-D-0042) are each being awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award construction contract for new construction, renovation, and repair of general building construction at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility (AOR). The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all five contracts combined is $99,000,000. Types of projects may include, but are not limited to: administration buildings, school buildings, hospitals, auditoriums, fire stations, gymnasiums, office buildings, hangars, laboratories, and parking structures. No task orders are being issued at this time. All work on these contracts will be performed within the NAVFAC Southwest AOR including, but not limited to, California (90 percent), Arizona (6 percent), Nevada (1 percent), Utah (1 percent), Colorado (1 percent), and New Mexico (1 percent). The terms of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of April 2019. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $25,000 are being obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as a set-aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone and/or Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 35 proposals received. These five contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $45,351,395 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-14-C-5114) to provide multi-year procurement funding for Aegis Weapon System MK 7 equipment sets. Work will be performed in Moorestown, N.J. (85.5 percent), Clearwater, Fla. (13.1 percent), and Akron, Ohio (1.4 percent) and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $45,351,395 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
AIR FORCE
Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies Inc., Louisville, Colo., has been awarded a $9,387,611 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop a ground-based wind profiler to meet the functional, performance, and environmental requirements for precision airdrop. The objective of this effort is to develop an affordable, rugged, set-and-start solution for precise wind measurement for precision air drop (PAD) at forward operating bases that shall enable the government to achieve 50 meters drop accuracy. This technology development shall enable accurate wind measurements from the ground to altitudes near the aircraft, and shall contribute to all-weather accurate determination of the computed-air release point for a single-pass aircraft scenario for PAD. Work will be performed at Louisville, Colo., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 16, 2015. The award is a result of a competitive acquisition under an open-ended Broad Agency Announcement. Unlimited offers were solicited and one offer was received. Fiscal 2013 ($500,000) and fiscal 2014 ($1,819,300) research and development funds are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory/RQKPD, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-14-C-2444).
*Small Business
NLRB ANNOUNCES VALERO SERVICES AGREES TO RESCIND UNLAWFUL SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
FROM: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Valero Services agrees to rescind its nationwide social media policy
April 8, 2014
On April 7, 2014, Valero Services, Inc. agreed to rescind its nationwide social media policy and to post and mail a NLRB remedial notice to its employees throughout the country in response to a complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Valero Services provides employee leasing services to refineries and plants located throughout the United States, including a refinery located in Port Arthur, Texas.
The United Steelworkers of America filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB Region 16, alleging that Valero Services social media policy interfered with employees’ rights to discuss their terms and conditions of employment on social media. Region 16 found merit to the allegations and issued complaint. During the hearing, Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge William N. Cates approved a settlement agreement resolving the dispute. Under the terms of the settlement, Valero Services agreed to notify employees that it will rescind its unlawful social media policy and to post NLRB notices at its 52 facilities nationwide, as well as to mail notices to employees, advising them that they will not be prohibited from using social media to discuss their terms and conditions of employment.
Valero Services agrees to rescind its nationwide social media policy
April 8, 2014
On April 7, 2014, Valero Services, Inc. agreed to rescind its nationwide social media policy and to post and mail a NLRB remedial notice to its employees throughout the country in response to a complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Valero Services provides employee leasing services to refineries and plants located throughout the United States, including a refinery located in Port Arthur, Texas.
The United Steelworkers of America filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB Region 16, alleging that Valero Services social media policy interfered with employees’ rights to discuss their terms and conditions of employment on social media. Region 16 found merit to the allegations and issued complaint. During the hearing, Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge William N. Cates approved a settlement agreement resolving the dispute. Under the terms of the settlement, Valero Services agreed to notify employees that it will rescind its unlawful social media policy and to post NLRB notices at its 52 facilities nationwide, as well as to mail notices to employees, advising them that they will not be prohibited from using social media to discuss their terms and conditions of employment.
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