FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Chinese Nationals Sentenced in New Mexico for Conspiring to Violate Arms Export Control Act
This afternoon, a federal judge in the District of New Mexico sentenced two Chinese nationals for conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) by scheming to illegally export defense articles with military application to the People’s Republic of China, announced Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez of the District of New Mexico.
Bo Cai, 29, of Nanjing, China, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and his cousin Wentong Cai, 30, of Chifeng, China, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. Both will be deported after completing their prison sentences. The two men were charged in three-count superseding indictment with a scheme to illegally export sensors primarily manufactured for sale to the U.S. Department of Defense for use in high-level applications, such as line-of-sight stabilization and precision motion control systems. The Arms Export Control Act and the ITAR prohibit the export of defense-related materials from the United States without obtaining a license or written approval from the U.S. Department of State.
Bo Cai entered a guilty plea to all three counts of the superseding indictment in July 2014, and Wentong Cai pleaded guilty to Count 3 of the superseding indictment in December 2014. In entering the guilty pleas, each admitted that from March 2012 to December 2013, they conspired with each other to illegally export sensors from the United States to China without first obtaining the required export license. Bo Cai admitted that in March 2012, while he was employed by a technology company in China, he embarked on an illegal scheme to smuggle sensors out of the United States to China for one of his customers despite knowledge that the sensors could not be exported without a license and that the United States did not issue licenses to export the sensors to China. Wentong Cai admitted that while he was in the United States on a student visa, Bo Cai enlisted him to acquire the sensors under the ruse that he planned to use the sensors at Iowa State University where he was a graduate microbiology student.
Court filings indicate that the investigation of this case began in October 2013, when an undercover U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent responded to Wentong Cai’s overtures. After negotiations by telephone and email, in December 2013, Bo Cai and Wentong Cai traveled to New Mexico, where they obtained a sensor from undercover HSI agents and developed a plan for smuggling the sensor out of the United States to China. On Dec. 11, 2013, Bo Cai was arrested at an airport in Los Angeles, as he was preparing to board a flight to China, after the sensor was discovered concealed in a computer speaker in his luggage. Wentong Cai subsequently was arrested on Jan. 22, 2014, in Ames, Iowa.
The HSI Albuquerque, New Mexico, office led the investigation of this case with assistance from the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Defense Security Service, HSI in Iowa and Los Angeles and the FBI. Iowa State University cooperated throughout with HSI’s investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dean S. Tuckman and Fred J. Federici of the District of New Mexico prosecuted the case with assistance from Deputy Chief Deborah Curtis and Trial Attorneys David Recker and Brian Fleming of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Iowa also assisted in the prosecution.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
MEDICAL EXPERT GROUP TO ADVISE VA ON HEALTH CARE
FROM: U.S. VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
Group of Respected Medical Experts to Advise VA on Health Care for 9 Million Veterans
April 24, 2015, 03:30:00 PM
Group of Respected Medical Experts to Advise VA on Health Care for 9 Million Veterans
Special Medical Advisory Group Led by Dr. Jonathan Perlin of Hospital Corporation of America
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced a new 11-member Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG) composed of leading medical experts to assist the Department in delivering health care to the 9 million Veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration.
The SMAG is a reconstituted federally-chartered committee that advises the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, through the Under Secretary for Health, on matters related to health care delivery, research, education, training of health care staff and planning on shared care issues facing VA and the Department of Defense.
“We want the best of the best to work on behalf of our nation’s Veterans,” said VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. “We are honored these respected leaders from the private, non-profit and government sectors have agreed to join in our mission improve how we provide the quality health care our nation’s Veterans need and deserve.”
The appointment of the new members of the SMAG comes at a time when VA is experiencing increased demand for its health care services. Nationally, VA completed more than 51 million appointments between May 1, 2014, and March 31, 2015. This represents an increase of 2.4 million more completed appointments than during the same time period in 2013-2014. In March 2015, VA completed 97 percent of appointments within 30 days of the Veteran’s preferred date.
Serving as SMAG Committee Chair is Dr. Jonathan Perlin, who previously served as VA Under Secretary for Health from 2004-2006. Dr. Perlin is currently Chief Medical Officer and President of Clinical Services for the Nashville, Tennessee-based Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). In this capacity, Dr. Perlin provides leadership for clinical services and improving performance for HCA’s 166 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient centers and physician practices. Recognized perennially as one of the most influential physician executives in the United States by Modern Healthcare, Dr. Perlin is a recipient of numerous awards.
Other Committee members:
Karen S. Guice, MD, M.P.P.
Dr. Guice serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and Principal Deputy Director, TRICARE Management Activity. In these two roles, Dr. Guice assists in the development of strategies and priorities to achieve the health mission of the Military Health System (MHS), and participates fully in formulating, developing, overseeing and advocating the policies of the Secretary of Defense. The Office of Health Affairs is responsible for providing a cost effective, quality health benefit to 9.6 million active duty uniformed Service Members, retirees, survivors and their families. The MHS has a $50 billion annual budget and consists of a worldwide network of 59 military hospitals, 360 health clinics, private-sector health business partners, and the Uniformed Services University.
Joy Ilem, Deputy National Legislative Director, DAV
Ms. Ilem, a U.S. Army service-connected disabled Veteran, was named Deputy National Legislative Director of the of the 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans (DAV), in June 2009. In this capacity, Ms. Ilem directs the advancement of DAV’s public policy objectives.
Thomas Lee, MD
Dr. Lee serves as Chief Medical Officer for Press Ganey, which advises and consults with healthcare businesses to help identify the best practices for the organization and the patient. Dr. Lee joined Press Ganey in 2013, bringing more than three decades of experience in health care performance improvement as a practicing physician, a leader in provider organizations, researcher and health policy expert. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lee is responsible for developing clinical and operational strategies to help providers across the nation measure and improve the patient experience, with an overarching goal of reducing the suffering of patients as they undergo care and improving the value of that care. In addition to his role with Press Ganey, Dr. Lee is an internist and cardiologist, and continues to practice primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Ralph Snyderman, MD
Dr. Snyderman is former president and CEO of the Duke University Health System and director of Duke’s Center for Research on Personalized Health Care. He currently serves as Chancellor Emeritus for the Duke University Department of Medicine. He is former Chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Jennifer Daley, MD
Dr. Daley is a Senior Adviser for the consulting firm, Cambridge Management Group. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in operational improvement, patient safety, quality and service excellence. Dr. Daley is a past recipient of a U.S. Naval Academy-Harvard Business Review Ethical Leadership Award in July 2007.
James Henry Martin, MD
Dr. Martin has been practicing emergency medicine and primary care medicine in the Chicago area since 1978 and is currently on the medical staffs of Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, North Chicago; and Metro South Medical Center, Blue Island, IL. He has extensive clinical research experience in the area of nasal insulin studies. Dr. Martin is currently developing a nasal mupirocin spray foam to eradicate nasal MRSA, and a nasal foam medication formulation. He has had 14 US patents issued and over 40 foreign patents issued, including a patent in 2014 covering the formulation above.
Melvin Shipp, OD, MPH, DrPH
Dr. Shipp serves as Dean Emeritus, College of Optometry for The Ohio State University. He has served as a consultant, panelist and reviewer for several federal institutions –notably, the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration and in several capacities with the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Shipp also has assumed leadership and membership roles within a variety of non-federal, national health-related organizations. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, and a Diplomate and former Chair of the Public Health and Environmental Optometry Section. Dr. Shipp is only the second optometrist to receive the DrPH degree; he is the first to do so through the highly competitive Pew Health Policy Doctoral Fellowship Program at the University of Michigan.
James Weinstein, DO, MD
Dr. Weinstein serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Dartmouth Hitchcock, a nonprofit academic health system that serves a patient population of 1.2 million in New England. Anchored by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, the system includes the Norris Cotton Cancer Center; the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock; affiliate hospitals in New London, NH, and Windsor, VT; and 24 Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Under Dr. Weinstein’s leadership, Dartmouth-Hitchcock is working to create a “sustainable health system” for patients, providers, payers and communities. Dr. Weinstein also is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves on the IOM Committee on advising the Social Security Administration on Disability. Most recently, Dr. Weinstein was one of four members appointed to the IOM Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice.
Deborah Trautman, PhD, RN
Ms. Trautman is Chief Executive Officer for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), a role she assumed in 2014. At AACN, she oversees strategic initiatives, signature programming and advocacy efforts led by the organization known as the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. She has authored and coauthored publications on health policy, intimate partner violence, pain management, clinical competency, change management, cardiopulmonary bypass, the use of music in the emergency department and consolidating emergency services.
Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, President and CEO, America’s Essential Hospitals
Since joining America’s Essential Hospitals (formerly the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems) in 2010, Dr. Siegel has used his extensive background in health care management, policy, and public health to achieve the association’s strategic vision of its members as integrated delivery systems and leaders in access and quality. He served previously as Center for Health Care Quality director and health policy professor at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Before that, Dr. Siegel was president and CEO of two association member systems: Tampa General Healthcare and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. He also served as New Jersey’s commissioner of health. Among many accomplishments, Dr. Siegel has led groundbreaking work on quality and equity for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as projects for the Commonwealth Fund, the California Endowment, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He also chairs the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality. Modern Healthcare has named Dr. Siegel one of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” and one of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives” for the past four years.
The announcement of the Special Medical Advisory Group follows the introduction of the Veterans Health Administration’s “Blueprint for Excellence,” which lays out strategies for transformation to improve the performance of VA health care now —making it more Veteran-centric by putting Veterans in control of their VA experience.
The SMAG Committee is scheduled to conduct its first meeting on May 13, 2015.
Group of Respected Medical Experts to Advise VA on Health Care for 9 Million Veterans
April 24, 2015, 03:30:00 PM
Group of Respected Medical Experts to Advise VA on Health Care for 9 Million Veterans
Special Medical Advisory Group Led by Dr. Jonathan Perlin of Hospital Corporation of America
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced a new 11-member Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG) composed of leading medical experts to assist the Department in delivering health care to the 9 million Veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration.
The SMAG is a reconstituted federally-chartered committee that advises the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, through the Under Secretary for Health, on matters related to health care delivery, research, education, training of health care staff and planning on shared care issues facing VA and the Department of Defense.
“We want the best of the best to work on behalf of our nation’s Veterans,” said VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. “We are honored these respected leaders from the private, non-profit and government sectors have agreed to join in our mission improve how we provide the quality health care our nation’s Veterans need and deserve.”
The appointment of the new members of the SMAG comes at a time when VA is experiencing increased demand for its health care services. Nationally, VA completed more than 51 million appointments between May 1, 2014, and March 31, 2015. This represents an increase of 2.4 million more completed appointments than during the same time period in 2013-2014. In March 2015, VA completed 97 percent of appointments within 30 days of the Veteran’s preferred date.
Serving as SMAG Committee Chair is Dr. Jonathan Perlin, who previously served as VA Under Secretary for Health from 2004-2006. Dr. Perlin is currently Chief Medical Officer and President of Clinical Services for the Nashville, Tennessee-based Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). In this capacity, Dr. Perlin provides leadership for clinical services and improving performance for HCA’s 166 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient centers and physician practices. Recognized perennially as one of the most influential physician executives in the United States by Modern Healthcare, Dr. Perlin is a recipient of numerous awards.
Other Committee members:
Karen S. Guice, MD, M.P.P.
Dr. Guice serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and Principal Deputy Director, TRICARE Management Activity. In these two roles, Dr. Guice assists in the development of strategies and priorities to achieve the health mission of the Military Health System (MHS), and participates fully in formulating, developing, overseeing and advocating the policies of the Secretary of Defense. The Office of Health Affairs is responsible for providing a cost effective, quality health benefit to 9.6 million active duty uniformed Service Members, retirees, survivors and their families. The MHS has a $50 billion annual budget and consists of a worldwide network of 59 military hospitals, 360 health clinics, private-sector health business partners, and the Uniformed Services University.
Joy Ilem, Deputy National Legislative Director, DAV
Ms. Ilem, a U.S. Army service-connected disabled Veteran, was named Deputy National Legislative Director of the of the 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans (DAV), in June 2009. In this capacity, Ms. Ilem directs the advancement of DAV’s public policy objectives.
Thomas Lee, MD
Dr. Lee serves as Chief Medical Officer for Press Ganey, which advises and consults with healthcare businesses to help identify the best practices for the organization and the patient. Dr. Lee joined Press Ganey in 2013, bringing more than three decades of experience in health care performance improvement as a practicing physician, a leader in provider organizations, researcher and health policy expert. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lee is responsible for developing clinical and operational strategies to help providers across the nation measure and improve the patient experience, with an overarching goal of reducing the suffering of patients as they undergo care and improving the value of that care. In addition to his role with Press Ganey, Dr. Lee is an internist and cardiologist, and continues to practice primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Ralph Snyderman, MD
Dr. Snyderman is former president and CEO of the Duke University Health System and director of Duke’s Center for Research on Personalized Health Care. He currently serves as Chancellor Emeritus for the Duke University Department of Medicine. He is former Chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Jennifer Daley, MD
Dr. Daley is a Senior Adviser for the consulting firm, Cambridge Management Group. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in operational improvement, patient safety, quality and service excellence. Dr. Daley is a past recipient of a U.S. Naval Academy-Harvard Business Review Ethical Leadership Award in July 2007.
James Henry Martin, MD
Dr. Martin has been practicing emergency medicine and primary care medicine in the Chicago area since 1978 and is currently on the medical staffs of Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, North Chicago; and Metro South Medical Center, Blue Island, IL. He has extensive clinical research experience in the area of nasal insulin studies. Dr. Martin is currently developing a nasal mupirocin spray foam to eradicate nasal MRSA, and a nasal foam medication formulation. He has had 14 US patents issued and over 40 foreign patents issued, including a patent in 2014 covering the formulation above.
Melvin Shipp, OD, MPH, DrPH
Dr. Shipp serves as Dean Emeritus, College of Optometry for The Ohio State University. He has served as a consultant, panelist and reviewer for several federal institutions –notably, the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration and in several capacities with the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Shipp also has assumed leadership and membership roles within a variety of non-federal, national health-related organizations. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, and a Diplomate and former Chair of the Public Health and Environmental Optometry Section. Dr. Shipp is only the second optometrist to receive the DrPH degree; he is the first to do so through the highly competitive Pew Health Policy Doctoral Fellowship Program at the University of Michigan.
James Weinstein, DO, MD
Dr. Weinstein serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Dartmouth Hitchcock, a nonprofit academic health system that serves a patient population of 1.2 million in New England. Anchored by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, the system includes the Norris Cotton Cancer Center; the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock; affiliate hospitals in New London, NH, and Windsor, VT; and 24 Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Under Dr. Weinstein’s leadership, Dartmouth-Hitchcock is working to create a “sustainable health system” for patients, providers, payers and communities. Dr. Weinstein also is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves on the IOM Committee on advising the Social Security Administration on Disability. Most recently, Dr. Weinstein was one of four members appointed to the IOM Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice.
Deborah Trautman, PhD, RN
Ms. Trautman is Chief Executive Officer for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), a role she assumed in 2014. At AACN, she oversees strategic initiatives, signature programming and advocacy efforts led by the organization known as the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. She has authored and coauthored publications on health policy, intimate partner violence, pain management, clinical competency, change management, cardiopulmonary bypass, the use of music in the emergency department and consolidating emergency services.
Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, President and CEO, America’s Essential Hospitals
Since joining America’s Essential Hospitals (formerly the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems) in 2010, Dr. Siegel has used his extensive background in health care management, policy, and public health to achieve the association’s strategic vision of its members as integrated delivery systems and leaders in access and quality. He served previously as Center for Health Care Quality director and health policy professor at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Before that, Dr. Siegel was president and CEO of two association member systems: Tampa General Healthcare and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. He also served as New Jersey’s commissioner of health. Among many accomplishments, Dr. Siegel has led groundbreaking work on quality and equity for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as projects for the Commonwealth Fund, the California Endowment, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He also chairs the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality. Modern Healthcare has named Dr. Siegel one of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” and one of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives” for the past four years.
The announcement of the Special Medical Advisory Group follows the introduction of the Veterans Health Administration’s “Blueprint for Excellence,” which lays out strategies for transformation to improve the performance of VA health care now —making it more Veteran-centric by putting Veterans in control of their VA experience.
The SMAG Committee is scheduled to conduct its first meeting on May 13, 2015.
PRESIDENT'S REMARKS MARKING 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF OFFICE OF DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
April 24, 2015
Remarks by the President Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
McLean, Virginia
2:40 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. Please, please, have a seat. Thank you very much. Well, thank you, Jim, for that introduction. And former Director Negroponte, we are -- there he is -- we are thrilled to have you here, as well.
I am here to help mark the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. And I’m here for a simple reason: Jim asked me to come. (Laughter.) You see, as you might say with the IC, Jim is one of my best HUMINT sources. He is well-placed. His reporting is known to be reliable. So I accepted his invitation with a high degree of confidence. (Laughter.)
I want to thank you, Jim, and your entire team, and leaders from across the IC, for all of you taking the time to welcoming me here today. I’m not going to give a long speech, but I do have three basic messages that I wanted to convey.
The first is that I don’t know how astute a consumer of information I am, but I can tell you I sure do rely on it. And those who come and brief me every single morning do an extraordinary job.
I will say that the only flaw, generally, in what’s called the PDB that I receive is that when Jim provides it, some of you may have heard, he leaves paperclips all over my office. (Laughter.) They’re in the couch, they’re on the floor. He’s shuffling paper. And so because I knew I was coming over here, one of the things I did was return them all. (Laughter and applause.) And so this will be available to you. The DNI’s budget is always a little tight; we can start recycling these. (Laughter.) That’s going to be critical.
But Jim is often one of the first people that I see in the morning, during the Presidential Daily Brief. Jim always gives it to me straight. He gives me his honest assessment free of politics, free of spin. I trust his integrity. And I can’t tell you how invaluable that is in the job that he has.
And that culture is one that permeates our IC. It’s a culture that reflects leaders at the top. And nobody, I think, exemplifies that more than Jim Clapper. So I am very grateful for him.
Here at ODNI, Jim has also led important reforms, both within the office and across the intelligence community. Today, the Community is more collaborative and more integrated than it has ever been in the past.
And since no good deed ever goes unpunished, in appreciation of this integrity and outstanding work, I sent Jim to North Korea. (Laughter.) And I know he had a wonderful time in Pyongyang. But thanks to the role that Jim played, he returned home with Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller to be reunited with their families.
Today is also special to him because it happens to be his 50th wedding anniversary to his wonderful wife, Sue. So we want to congratulate the two of them. (Applause.) And fear not, this is not all he’s doing for their 50th wedding anniversary. (Laughter.) My understanding is they’re headed off for a well-deserved anniversary vacation this weekend. So I'm going to move this along.
The second reason I wanted to be here was to thank all of you at ODNI. I see Jim or Mike Dempsey, or sometimes Stephanie, every morning. And I know that everything they present reflects incredible hard work on the part of hundreds of people -- thousands of people across the various agencies that are represented. And I want you to know that Jim and Mike and Stephanie, and all the folks who give me these briefings, they are the first one to acknowledge that they are just the tip of the operation and that they can’t do their job if it weren’t for the incredible contributions that all of you are making every single day.
I know that sometimes it can seem like a one-way street. You push up your reports, but you don’t always know how your work is received by your customers, and I guess I'm the number one customer. You don’t always maybe get feedback. So I'm here just to tell you, you do an outstanding job. The work that you provide is vital for me being able to make good decisions. And the fact that the work you prepare is giving it to me straight -- that doesn’t look at the world through rose-colored glasses, that doesn’t exaggerate threats but doesn’t underplay the significant challenges that we face around the world -- that’s vitally important to me and, as a consequence, vitally important to the security of the American people.
So Jim knows it, Mike know it. The people who meet with me are always extolling your virtues. But I figured it would be useful for you to hear it from me directly in saying how much we appreciate the incredible hard work and effort that you make every single day.
Whether it’s the PDB, your daily articles, your expert briefs, NIE’s, I could not do my job without your insights and your analysis, and your judgment.
More broadly, you’re dedicated to your founding mission. The 9/11 Commission said we needed to unify our intelligence community. The legislation that created the DNI made you the statutory head of the Community overseeing all the agencies.
And it’s not an easy task bringing together 17 different organizations. They each have unique histories and missions and cultures and tradecraft. Many of you here represent those agencies. And yet, you come here together to create a sum that’s even greater and stronger than its individual parts.
And we see the results. We’ve got more sharing of intelligence across the Community and also beyond it, with our other partners. The federal, state, local and the private sectors are now working together more effectively than they have in the past. New technologies and new satellites are being shared and working across various platforms means that we’re able to do a better job both accumulating information but also disseminating it. There’s more transparency than there’s been in the past. There’s more innovation than there’s been in the past. All that is making a difference each and every day.
I know that integrating the efforts and contributions of all 17 organizations, people, expertise, capabilities, is never-ending work. And then there’s the challenge of being as open and transparent as possible, even as we continue to protect intelligence that saves lives.
But I want you to remember the United States is the most professional, most capable, most cutting-edge intelligence community in the world. And part of the reason is because all of you here at ODNI bring it together. It makes a difference.
Which brings me to my third and final point. A message that I hope you share with the colleagues who are not in this auditorium, I want you to share it with all the home agencies: You can take great pride in your service.
Many of you -- those of you with gray beards or goatees, or, in Jim’s case, just no hair -- (laughter) -- are intelligence veterans with decades of service. Some of you are young, and look even younger; a new post-9/11 generation. And over the years, I know some of you have lost good friends and colleagues -- patriots, men and women who gave their lives, like those honored in the stars on the Memorial Wall at Langley. On days like today, we remember them and we honor them, as well.
These are challenging times. And over the last few years, we’ve seen unprecedented intelligence disclosures. We’ve seen wild swings with respect to our budgets because of sequestration and furloughs; increasing demands for intelligence due to everything from Russian aggression in Ukraine to turmoil and ISIL in the Middle East.
And today, like all Americans, our thoughts and prayers also continue to be with the families of Dr. Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto. I’m not going to repeat everything I said yesterday, but I do want to make one point again. We’re going to review what happened. We’re going to identify the lessons that can be learned and any improvements and changes that can be made. And I know those of you who are here share our determination to continue doing everything we can to prevent the loss of innocent lives.
I was asked by somebody -- how do you absorb news like that that we received the other day. And I told the truth: It’s hard. But the one thing I wanted everybody to know -- because I know you, because I work with you, because I know the quality of this team -- is that we all bleed when we lose an American life. We all grieve when any innocent life is taken. We don’t take this work lightly. And I know that each and every one of you understand the magnitude of what we do and the stakes involved.
And these aren’t abstractions. And we’re not cavalier about what we do, and we understand the solemn responsibilities that are given to us. And our first job is to make sure that we protect the American people. But there’s not a person that I talk to that’s involved in the intelligence community that also doesn’t understand that we have to do so while upholding our values and our ideals, and our laws and our constitutions, and our commitment to democracy.
And that’s part of the reason why I’m so grateful to work with you, because I know you share that commitment, understanding that this is hard stuff. Everybody here is committed to doing it the right way. And for that reason, I’m absolutely committed to making sure that the American people understand all that you put in to make sure that we do it the right way. I’m very grateful for that.
This self-reflection, this willingness to examine ourselves, to make corrections, to do better -- that’s part of what makes us Americans. It’s part of what sets us apart from other nations. It’s part of what keeps us not only safe but also strong and free.
And part of what makes our job even more challenging is, is that despite the extraordinary work that’s done here and the lives that are saved on an ongoing basis, a lot of our work still requires that we maintain some things as classified. And we can’t always talk about all the challenges. And the one thing I know about people in the IC is they don’t seek the limelight. That means, sometimes, that the world doesn’t always see your successes, the threats that you prevent or the terrorist attacks you thwart, or the lives that you save.
But I don’t want you or folks across the intelligence community to ever forget the difference that you make every day. Because of you, we’ve had the intelligence to take out al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden. Because of you, we’ve had the intelligence, quickly, that showed Syria had used chemical weapons, and then had the ability to monitor its removal. Because of you, we had the intelligence, despite Russia’s obfuscations, to tell the world the truth about the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. Because of you, we had the intelligence support that helped enable our recent nuclear framework with Iran. And you’re going to be critical to our efforts to forge a comprehensive deal to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon.
So you help keep us safe, but you also help protect our freedoms by doing it the right way. And the American people and people around the world may never know the full extent of your success. There may be those outside who question or challenge what we do -- and we welcome those questions and those challenges because that makes us better. It can be frustrating sometimes, but that’s part of the function of our democracy.
But I know what you do. We’re more secure because of your service. We’re more secure because of your patriotism and your professionalism. And I’m grateful for that. And the American people are grateful, as well -- to you and your families who sacrifice alongside you.
So it’s been 10 long and challenging years. But when we look back on those 10 years, the American people have been a whole lot safer. And I’m confident that over the next 10 years and 10 years after that, as long as we continue to have outstanding patriots like yourselves, we’re going to be okay.
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. (Applause.)
END
2:57 P.M. EDT
April 24, 2015
Remarks by the President Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
McLean, Virginia
2:40 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. Please, please, have a seat. Thank you very much. Well, thank you, Jim, for that introduction. And former Director Negroponte, we are -- there he is -- we are thrilled to have you here, as well.
I am here to help mark the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. And I’m here for a simple reason: Jim asked me to come. (Laughter.) You see, as you might say with the IC, Jim is one of my best HUMINT sources. He is well-placed. His reporting is known to be reliable. So I accepted his invitation with a high degree of confidence. (Laughter.)
I want to thank you, Jim, and your entire team, and leaders from across the IC, for all of you taking the time to welcoming me here today. I’m not going to give a long speech, but I do have three basic messages that I wanted to convey.
The first is that I don’t know how astute a consumer of information I am, but I can tell you I sure do rely on it. And those who come and brief me every single morning do an extraordinary job.
I will say that the only flaw, generally, in what’s called the PDB that I receive is that when Jim provides it, some of you may have heard, he leaves paperclips all over my office. (Laughter.) They’re in the couch, they’re on the floor. He’s shuffling paper. And so because I knew I was coming over here, one of the things I did was return them all. (Laughter and applause.) And so this will be available to you. The DNI’s budget is always a little tight; we can start recycling these. (Laughter.) That’s going to be critical.
But Jim is often one of the first people that I see in the morning, during the Presidential Daily Brief. Jim always gives it to me straight. He gives me his honest assessment free of politics, free of spin. I trust his integrity. And I can’t tell you how invaluable that is in the job that he has.
And that culture is one that permeates our IC. It’s a culture that reflects leaders at the top. And nobody, I think, exemplifies that more than Jim Clapper. So I am very grateful for him.
Here at ODNI, Jim has also led important reforms, both within the office and across the intelligence community. Today, the Community is more collaborative and more integrated than it has ever been in the past.
And since no good deed ever goes unpunished, in appreciation of this integrity and outstanding work, I sent Jim to North Korea. (Laughter.) And I know he had a wonderful time in Pyongyang. But thanks to the role that Jim played, he returned home with Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller to be reunited with their families.
Today is also special to him because it happens to be his 50th wedding anniversary to his wonderful wife, Sue. So we want to congratulate the two of them. (Applause.) And fear not, this is not all he’s doing for their 50th wedding anniversary. (Laughter.) My understanding is they’re headed off for a well-deserved anniversary vacation this weekend. So I'm going to move this along.
The second reason I wanted to be here was to thank all of you at ODNI. I see Jim or Mike Dempsey, or sometimes Stephanie, every morning. And I know that everything they present reflects incredible hard work on the part of hundreds of people -- thousands of people across the various agencies that are represented. And I want you to know that Jim and Mike and Stephanie, and all the folks who give me these briefings, they are the first one to acknowledge that they are just the tip of the operation and that they can’t do their job if it weren’t for the incredible contributions that all of you are making every single day.
I know that sometimes it can seem like a one-way street. You push up your reports, but you don’t always know how your work is received by your customers, and I guess I'm the number one customer. You don’t always maybe get feedback. So I'm here just to tell you, you do an outstanding job. The work that you provide is vital for me being able to make good decisions. And the fact that the work you prepare is giving it to me straight -- that doesn’t look at the world through rose-colored glasses, that doesn’t exaggerate threats but doesn’t underplay the significant challenges that we face around the world -- that’s vitally important to me and, as a consequence, vitally important to the security of the American people.
So Jim knows it, Mike know it. The people who meet with me are always extolling your virtues. But I figured it would be useful for you to hear it from me directly in saying how much we appreciate the incredible hard work and effort that you make every single day.
Whether it’s the PDB, your daily articles, your expert briefs, NIE’s, I could not do my job without your insights and your analysis, and your judgment.
More broadly, you’re dedicated to your founding mission. The 9/11 Commission said we needed to unify our intelligence community. The legislation that created the DNI made you the statutory head of the Community overseeing all the agencies.
And it’s not an easy task bringing together 17 different organizations. They each have unique histories and missions and cultures and tradecraft. Many of you here represent those agencies. And yet, you come here together to create a sum that’s even greater and stronger than its individual parts.
And we see the results. We’ve got more sharing of intelligence across the Community and also beyond it, with our other partners. The federal, state, local and the private sectors are now working together more effectively than they have in the past. New technologies and new satellites are being shared and working across various platforms means that we’re able to do a better job both accumulating information but also disseminating it. There’s more transparency than there’s been in the past. There’s more innovation than there’s been in the past. All that is making a difference each and every day.
I know that integrating the efforts and contributions of all 17 organizations, people, expertise, capabilities, is never-ending work. And then there’s the challenge of being as open and transparent as possible, even as we continue to protect intelligence that saves lives.
But I want you to remember the United States is the most professional, most capable, most cutting-edge intelligence community in the world. And part of the reason is because all of you here at ODNI bring it together. It makes a difference.
Which brings me to my third and final point. A message that I hope you share with the colleagues who are not in this auditorium, I want you to share it with all the home agencies: You can take great pride in your service.
Many of you -- those of you with gray beards or goatees, or, in Jim’s case, just no hair -- (laughter) -- are intelligence veterans with decades of service. Some of you are young, and look even younger; a new post-9/11 generation. And over the years, I know some of you have lost good friends and colleagues -- patriots, men and women who gave their lives, like those honored in the stars on the Memorial Wall at Langley. On days like today, we remember them and we honor them, as well.
These are challenging times. And over the last few years, we’ve seen unprecedented intelligence disclosures. We’ve seen wild swings with respect to our budgets because of sequestration and furloughs; increasing demands for intelligence due to everything from Russian aggression in Ukraine to turmoil and ISIL in the Middle East.
And today, like all Americans, our thoughts and prayers also continue to be with the families of Dr. Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto. I’m not going to repeat everything I said yesterday, but I do want to make one point again. We’re going to review what happened. We’re going to identify the lessons that can be learned and any improvements and changes that can be made. And I know those of you who are here share our determination to continue doing everything we can to prevent the loss of innocent lives.
I was asked by somebody -- how do you absorb news like that that we received the other day. And I told the truth: It’s hard. But the one thing I wanted everybody to know -- because I know you, because I work with you, because I know the quality of this team -- is that we all bleed when we lose an American life. We all grieve when any innocent life is taken. We don’t take this work lightly. And I know that each and every one of you understand the magnitude of what we do and the stakes involved.
And these aren’t abstractions. And we’re not cavalier about what we do, and we understand the solemn responsibilities that are given to us. And our first job is to make sure that we protect the American people. But there’s not a person that I talk to that’s involved in the intelligence community that also doesn’t understand that we have to do so while upholding our values and our ideals, and our laws and our constitutions, and our commitment to democracy.
And that’s part of the reason why I’m so grateful to work with you, because I know you share that commitment, understanding that this is hard stuff. Everybody here is committed to doing it the right way. And for that reason, I’m absolutely committed to making sure that the American people understand all that you put in to make sure that we do it the right way. I’m very grateful for that.
This self-reflection, this willingness to examine ourselves, to make corrections, to do better -- that’s part of what makes us Americans. It’s part of what sets us apart from other nations. It’s part of what keeps us not only safe but also strong and free.
And part of what makes our job even more challenging is, is that despite the extraordinary work that’s done here and the lives that are saved on an ongoing basis, a lot of our work still requires that we maintain some things as classified. And we can’t always talk about all the challenges. And the one thing I know about people in the IC is they don’t seek the limelight. That means, sometimes, that the world doesn’t always see your successes, the threats that you prevent or the terrorist attacks you thwart, or the lives that you save.
But I don’t want you or folks across the intelligence community to ever forget the difference that you make every day. Because of you, we’ve had the intelligence to take out al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden. Because of you, we’ve had the intelligence, quickly, that showed Syria had used chemical weapons, and then had the ability to monitor its removal. Because of you, we had the intelligence, despite Russia’s obfuscations, to tell the world the truth about the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. Because of you, we had the intelligence support that helped enable our recent nuclear framework with Iran. And you’re going to be critical to our efforts to forge a comprehensive deal to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon.
So you help keep us safe, but you also help protect our freedoms by doing it the right way. And the American people and people around the world may never know the full extent of your success. There may be those outside who question or challenge what we do -- and we welcome those questions and those challenges because that makes us better. It can be frustrating sometimes, but that’s part of the function of our democracy.
But I know what you do. We’re more secure because of your service. We’re more secure because of your patriotism and your professionalism. And I’m grateful for that. And the American people are grateful, as well -- to you and your families who sacrifice alongside you.
So it’s been 10 long and challenging years. But when we look back on those 10 years, the American people have been a whole lot safer. And I’m confident that over the next 10 years and 10 years after that, as long as we continue to have outstanding patriots like yourselves, we’re going to be okay.
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. (Applause.)
END
2:57 P.M. EDT
WHITE HOUSE FACT SHEET ON UPSKILL INITIATIVE
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
April 24, 2015
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New Commitments in Support of President Obama¹s Upskill Initiative to Empower Workers with Education and Training
100 employers commit to help millions of front-line workers climb up the career ladder and earn higher wages
Today, at the White House Upskill Summit, Vice President Biden and Administration officials will announce new steps to help realize the full potential of America’s workforce by empowering workers with the education and training they need to develop new skills and earn higher wages. Over 100 leading employers, who employ more than 5 million workers, are making concrete commitments to empower front-line workers across their businesses, in partnership with 30 national labor unions, and accelerated by new innovative data and tools. During his State of the Union address earlier this year, the President launched a new Upskill Initiative, calling on businesses to help workers of all ages earn a shot at better, higher-paying jobs, even if they do not have a higher education. The commitments being announced today already represent significant action and progress since the President’s January call to action.
As part of this Summit, the companies, unions and tech innovators are announcing that new tools and opportunities that will be made available to millions of front-line workers to get ahead in their careers:
100 leading employers are answering the President’s call to action and announcing new commitments to provide opportunities for their front-line workers to get ahead by expanding access to apprenticeships and on-the-job training; increasing uptake of training opportunities by making them cheaper, easier, and faster; and clarifying what skills workers need to get ahead within their companies. The President and Vice President are challenging other employers to follow their lead.
30 national and local labor unions and major foundations are also working with employers to expand access to best-practice training strategies like apprenticeships, and by targeting small businesses and industries like retail and hospitality where there is an opportunity to help millions of low wage workers earn a reward for better skills.
New data tools for workers and employers: To accelerate these efforts, the private sector and tech leaders are inspiring innovation and developing efficient tools that disseminate best practices for employers and workers, so that more can follow those who are leading the way.
When all Americans have the opportunity to master new skills, contribute their full talents to our economy, and be rewarded for it, our businesses, our families and our communities thrive. The President has laid out an agenda designed to increase wages for workers across the country, through steps that range from providing tax relief to working families, increasing the minimum wage, improving access to higher education and investing in areas that support well-paying jobs like infrastructure, research and clean energy. The Upskill Initiative is a public-private effort that is a critical part of that agenda, meant to create clear pathways for the over 20 million workers in front-line jobs who may too often lack the opportunity to progress into higher-paying jobs.
Developing the skills and abilities of these workers, and empowering them to contribute more at work, presents a significant opportunity to improve their wages and to increase the productivity and competitiveness of employers. Front-line workers are too often stuck because of three primary challenges: lack of access to training, which is often focused on workers who are already highly skilled; low uptake of training where it is available, due to limited awareness as well as difficulties in finding the time and money needed to take advantage of it; and a lack of clear information on pathways to promotions, which makes it hard for low wage workers to take the steps needed to advance.
Today’s White House Upskill Summit brings together employers, labor unions, foundations, educators, workforce leaders, non-profits and technologists who are committing to take action in the next year to enable more front-line workers to realize their full potential at work and advance into better paying jobs. The summit is also an opportunity to build on Vice President Biden’s comprehensive report released last summer that lays out successful strategies to train our nation’s workforce and widen the path to the middle class for more hard-working Americans.
A new White House report is also available here that includes new data on trends in employer training investments and highlights best practices and employer case studies. Click here to learn more about the Upskill commitments being announced today, which are summarized below.
To join these employers, unions, and technologists, share what you are doing to support the Upskill Initiative at Wh.gov.
Employers including 30 of the Fortune 500 and many small businesses are leading the way by taking steps within their own companies to end dead-end jobs, and enable workers to earn more over time.
Over 100 employers across the country, employing more than 5 million workers, are expanding access to on-the-job training and launching registered apprenticeship training programs, increasing uptake of these programs by making participation easier, cheaper, and faster, and clarifying career pathways for workers who want to get ahead.
More on-the-job training and apprenticeship opportunities, the “gold-standard of upskilling” that help workers get ahead, without having to leave their jobs to go back to school full-time.
Companies big and small, like IBM, Zurich Insurance, CVS, Daetwyler, Stober Drives and Optimax, are committing to start or expand apprenticeships in new industries as far-ranging as information technology, insurance, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.
Fortune 500 companies like Gap Inc., Capital One, McDonalds and Walmart are expanding partnerships with online educational organizations like LearnUp, Udacity and Cengage Learning to enable millions of front-line workers to earn credentials and develop the skills required for more senior roles.
Employers of all sizes including Pepsico, PG&E and Metaphase Technologies are setting internal goals to staff a certain percentage of their management and supervisory jobs from their front-line workforce, and leveraging on-the-job training programs to help meet those targets; others, like Orange Research are setting a goal for the percent of working hours that will be devoted to training.
Increasing uptake of training programs by building awareness and making it easier, cheaper and faster for front-line workers to benefit from these opportunities.
Companies across industries, such as Grifols and Partners HealthCare, are increasing uptake of tuition benefits by partnering with competency-based online programs, like College for America at Southern New Hampshire University, so tens of thousands of employees can use their benefits online to complete an accredited degree for free or close to free, and at their own pace.
Small businesses like R&R Transportation are providing employees with the necessary time and financial support to increase the number of workers with skills certifications; others, like Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are focusing on making training more of a company priority by talking about it more with employees.
Businesses like Discover and Amali Restaurant are testing how financial incentives can drive upward career mobility and accelerated job progression for employees.
Clarifying pathways to a promotion by articulating the skills better-paying jobs require, and providing self-assessments for workers to figure out how far away they are from having those skills today:
Businesses like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are launching initiatives including talent management frameworks that will provide employees with a clear understanding of what differentiates success at each organizational level.
Companies like Kaiser Permanente and Bank of America are launching new online career portals that will provide employees and managers with tools, resources and training for skill enhancement and career development.
Major employers like AXA are making online gaming tools available to their employees to identify their strengths and develop a more granular understanding of their skills needs.
Employers are also working in partnership with government, unions, and philanthropy to expand the use of strategies like apprenticeships in new and growing fields.
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division is clarifying common employer misperceptions that may lead employers to be less likely to offer training to employees . DOL is publishing a new “mythbuster” document that stipulates how employers can more specifically determine when they are and when they are not required to compensate employees for voluntary training.
30 major employers are working with the Department of Labor to launch a new employer-to-employer outreach program called LEADERs (Leaders of Excellence in Registered Apprenticeship Development, Education, and Research) that helps business leaders learn from other businesses how to launch a successful Registered Apprenticeship program. Later this year, the Department of Labor will bring together major employers on expanding the use of Registered Apprenticeship to strengthen U.S. companies while providing workers with pathways to the middle class and beyond.
Focusing on the healthcare industry in particular, SEIU and AFSCME, together with their local unions and employer partners including Temple University Health System, Kaiser Permanente, Addus Healthcare, and the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York, are joining together to create 1,700 apprenticeships for advanced home care aides, community health workers, and medical coders throughout six states.
Labor management partnerships like BEST Corp. Hospitality Training Center, District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund, SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership and 1199SEIU Bill Michelson Home Care Education Fund, and unions like IBEW Local Union 43, the Carpenters’ District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity, and UAW, are committing to expanding access to registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.
Labor leaders such as local affiliates of SEIU and AFL-CIO, non-profits like Goodwill and industry groups such as the Western Association of Food Chains are focusing on expanding access to training and credentials in industries like retail and hospitality that employ millions of front-line workers.
Foundations like Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses are providing small business owners with a business education that promotes front-line talent development.
The private sector and tech leaders are spurring innovation and developing tools that disseminate best practices for employers and workers, so that more can follow those who are leading the way.
Recognizing and supporting employers that are upskilling: The Aspen Institute is coordinating a business-led UpSkill America campaign in partnership with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, the HR Policy Association, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships, the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board, the Bay Area Council, and the Small Business Majority. This coalition will work to recognize leading employers that provide expanded career opportunities for their workers, promote the widespread adoption of business policies and practices that increase economic opportunity for frontline workers, and cultivate public-private education and workforce development efforts that support and advance these initiatives.
Innovation that helps facilitate upskilling: XPRIZE is promoting innovation by announcing its commitment to design an incentivized prize competition aimed at spurring innovation and accelerating the rate of positive change in upskilling among American workers.
Tools for workers that are trying to get ahead: Glass Door is launching an On-the-Job Training Finder, an interactive, map-based tool to help job seekers easily search job opportunities, such as apprenticeships and trainee positions, in which they can learn new skills to advance their career while getting paid. LinkedIn is committing to help employers identify mentors for front-line workers by engaging interested senior employees in aspirational roles.
Best practice resources for employers: Deloitte Consulting and The Aspen Institute are launching A Guide to Upskilling America’s Frontline Workers that aims to deliver a structured resource to help businesses strengthen existing or jumpstart new upskilling initiatives. The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) will develop a Registered Apprenticeship Blueprint to help companies expedite implementation of customized apprenticeships that meet their talent needs.
The Upskill initiative builds on the Administration’s agenda to support job-driven training:
Proposed Rules for Reforming our Federal Workforce System. Last July, the President signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – the most significant reform to our Federal workforce system in nearly 20 years. Last week, we issued proposed rules implementing WIOA that will move our entire system to be more job-driven. The law will also increase opportunities for work-based learning, including on-the-job training and Registered Apprenticeships.
Vice-President Biden’s Job-Driven Training Review. The President’s Upskill Initiative builds on the job-driven training review that the President asked the Vice President to lead in the 2013 State of the Union. Amongst other findings, the Vice President’s review identified employer training for front-line workers as an area in need of more job-driven training strategies to meet business needs and provide more workers with a path to the middle class.
American Apprenticeship Grants Competition. Last year, the Department of Labor launched a $100 million competition to spur partnerships to expand apprenticeships into high-growth fields like information technology, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare. The deadline for this application is April 30, 2015, and more information is available at the Grants.gov application page.
$100 million in New Federal Investments to Train and Connect More Workers to a Good Job in Technology and Other In-Demand Fields. The Administration is launching a $100 million H-1B grant competition by the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to training and successfully employing low-skill individuals with barriers to training and employment including those with child care responsibilities, people with disabilities, disconnected youth, and limited English proficient workers, among others.
Launching a New $25 Million Competition for an Online Skills Academy that Will Leverage Technology to Offer Free and Open Online Courses of Study, helping students earn credentials online through participating accredited institutions, and will expand access to curricula designed to speed the time to credit and completion.
FY16 Budget Proposals to Expand Access to Quality Training and Career Advancement Opportunities. The President’s Budget includes measures that support upskilling through:
American Technical Training Fund would award $200 million in new competitive grants to support the development, operation and expansion of innovative, evidence-based job training programs in high-demand fields that provide a path to the middle class for low-income individuals. This could replicate successful models like Tennessee’s Applied Technology Centers whose graduates have impressive employment rates.
Doubling American Apprenticeships over Five Years: The President is calling on Congress to launch a $2 billion Apprenticeship Training Fund for states and regions to adopt comprehensive strategies ranging from economic incentives to stronger links to technical colleges to double the number of registered apprentices in America over the next five years.
Updating Licensing Requirements: The Budget proposes a $15 million increase for grants to States and partnerships of States for the purpose of identifying, exploring, and addressing areas where occupational licensing requirements create an unnecessary barrier to labor market entry or labor mobility and where interstate portability of licenses can support economic growth and improve economic opportunity.
April 24, 2015
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New Commitments in Support of President Obama¹s Upskill Initiative to Empower Workers with Education and Training
100 employers commit to help millions of front-line workers climb up the career ladder and earn higher wages
Today, at the White House Upskill Summit, Vice President Biden and Administration officials will announce new steps to help realize the full potential of America’s workforce by empowering workers with the education and training they need to develop new skills and earn higher wages. Over 100 leading employers, who employ more than 5 million workers, are making concrete commitments to empower front-line workers across their businesses, in partnership with 30 national labor unions, and accelerated by new innovative data and tools. During his State of the Union address earlier this year, the President launched a new Upskill Initiative, calling on businesses to help workers of all ages earn a shot at better, higher-paying jobs, even if they do not have a higher education. The commitments being announced today already represent significant action and progress since the President’s January call to action.
As part of this Summit, the companies, unions and tech innovators are announcing that new tools and opportunities that will be made available to millions of front-line workers to get ahead in their careers:
100 leading employers are answering the President’s call to action and announcing new commitments to provide opportunities for their front-line workers to get ahead by expanding access to apprenticeships and on-the-job training; increasing uptake of training opportunities by making them cheaper, easier, and faster; and clarifying what skills workers need to get ahead within their companies. The President and Vice President are challenging other employers to follow their lead.
30 national and local labor unions and major foundations are also working with employers to expand access to best-practice training strategies like apprenticeships, and by targeting small businesses and industries like retail and hospitality where there is an opportunity to help millions of low wage workers earn a reward for better skills.
New data tools for workers and employers: To accelerate these efforts, the private sector and tech leaders are inspiring innovation and developing efficient tools that disseminate best practices for employers and workers, so that more can follow those who are leading the way.
When all Americans have the opportunity to master new skills, contribute their full talents to our economy, and be rewarded for it, our businesses, our families and our communities thrive. The President has laid out an agenda designed to increase wages for workers across the country, through steps that range from providing tax relief to working families, increasing the minimum wage, improving access to higher education and investing in areas that support well-paying jobs like infrastructure, research and clean energy. The Upskill Initiative is a public-private effort that is a critical part of that agenda, meant to create clear pathways for the over 20 million workers in front-line jobs who may too often lack the opportunity to progress into higher-paying jobs.
Developing the skills and abilities of these workers, and empowering them to contribute more at work, presents a significant opportunity to improve their wages and to increase the productivity and competitiveness of employers. Front-line workers are too often stuck because of three primary challenges: lack of access to training, which is often focused on workers who are already highly skilled; low uptake of training where it is available, due to limited awareness as well as difficulties in finding the time and money needed to take advantage of it; and a lack of clear information on pathways to promotions, which makes it hard for low wage workers to take the steps needed to advance.
Today’s White House Upskill Summit brings together employers, labor unions, foundations, educators, workforce leaders, non-profits and technologists who are committing to take action in the next year to enable more front-line workers to realize their full potential at work and advance into better paying jobs. The summit is also an opportunity to build on Vice President Biden’s comprehensive report released last summer that lays out successful strategies to train our nation’s workforce and widen the path to the middle class for more hard-working Americans.
A new White House report is also available here that includes new data on trends in employer training investments and highlights best practices and employer case studies. Click here to learn more about the Upskill commitments being announced today, which are summarized below.
To join these employers, unions, and technologists, share what you are doing to support the Upskill Initiative at Wh.gov.
Employers including 30 of the Fortune 500 and many small businesses are leading the way by taking steps within their own companies to end dead-end jobs, and enable workers to earn more over time.
Over 100 employers across the country, employing more than 5 million workers, are expanding access to on-the-job training and launching registered apprenticeship training programs, increasing uptake of these programs by making participation easier, cheaper, and faster, and clarifying career pathways for workers who want to get ahead.
More on-the-job training and apprenticeship opportunities, the “gold-standard of upskilling” that help workers get ahead, without having to leave their jobs to go back to school full-time.
Companies big and small, like IBM, Zurich Insurance, CVS, Daetwyler, Stober Drives and Optimax, are committing to start or expand apprenticeships in new industries as far-ranging as information technology, insurance, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.
Fortune 500 companies like Gap Inc., Capital One, McDonalds and Walmart are expanding partnerships with online educational organizations like LearnUp, Udacity and Cengage Learning to enable millions of front-line workers to earn credentials and develop the skills required for more senior roles.
Employers of all sizes including Pepsico, PG&E and Metaphase Technologies are setting internal goals to staff a certain percentage of their management and supervisory jobs from their front-line workforce, and leveraging on-the-job training programs to help meet those targets; others, like Orange Research are setting a goal for the percent of working hours that will be devoted to training.
Increasing uptake of training programs by building awareness and making it easier, cheaper and faster for front-line workers to benefit from these opportunities.
Companies across industries, such as Grifols and Partners HealthCare, are increasing uptake of tuition benefits by partnering with competency-based online programs, like College for America at Southern New Hampshire University, so tens of thousands of employees can use their benefits online to complete an accredited degree for free or close to free, and at their own pace.
Small businesses like R&R Transportation are providing employees with the necessary time and financial support to increase the number of workers with skills certifications; others, like Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are focusing on making training more of a company priority by talking about it more with employees.
Businesses like Discover and Amali Restaurant are testing how financial incentives can drive upward career mobility and accelerated job progression for employees.
Clarifying pathways to a promotion by articulating the skills better-paying jobs require, and providing self-assessments for workers to figure out how far away they are from having those skills today:
Businesses like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are launching initiatives including talent management frameworks that will provide employees with a clear understanding of what differentiates success at each organizational level.
Companies like Kaiser Permanente and Bank of America are launching new online career portals that will provide employees and managers with tools, resources and training for skill enhancement and career development.
Major employers like AXA are making online gaming tools available to their employees to identify their strengths and develop a more granular understanding of their skills needs.
Employers are also working in partnership with government, unions, and philanthropy to expand the use of strategies like apprenticeships in new and growing fields.
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division is clarifying common employer misperceptions that may lead employers to be less likely to offer training to employees . DOL is publishing a new “mythbuster” document that stipulates how employers can more specifically determine when they are and when they are not required to compensate employees for voluntary training.
30 major employers are working with the Department of Labor to launch a new employer-to-employer outreach program called LEADERs (Leaders of Excellence in Registered Apprenticeship Development, Education, and Research) that helps business leaders learn from other businesses how to launch a successful Registered Apprenticeship program. Later this year, the Department of Labor will bring together major employers on expanding the use of Registered Apprenticeship to strengthen U.S. companies while providing workers with pathways to the middle class and beyond.
Focusing on the healthcare industry in particular, SEIU and AFSCME, together with their local unions and employer partners including Temple University Health System, Kaiser Permanente, Addus Healthcare, and the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York, are joining together to create 1,700 apprenticeships for advanced home care aides, community health workers, and medical coders throughout six states.
Labor management partnerships like BEST Corp. Hospitality Training Center, District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund, SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership and 1199SEIU Bill Michelson Home Care Education Fund, and unions like IBEW Local Union 43, the Carpenters’ District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity, and UAW, are committing to expanding access to registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.
Labor leaders such as local affiliates of SEIU and AFL-CIO, non-profits like Goodwill and industry groups such as the Western Association of Food Chains are focusing on expanding access to training and credentials in industries like retail and hospitality that employ millions of front-line workers.
Foundations like Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses are providing small business owners with a business education that promotes front-line talent development.
The private sector and tech leaders are spurring innovation and developing tools that disseminate best practices for employers and workers, so that more can follow those who are leading the way.
Recognizing and supporting employers that are upskilling: The Aspen Institute is coordinating a business-led UpSkill America campaign in partnership with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, the HR Policy Association, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships, the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board, the Bay Area Council, and the Small Business Majority. This coalition will work to recognize leading employers that provide expanded career opportunities for their workers, promote the widespread adoption of business policies and practices that increase economic opportunity for frontline workers, and cultivate public-private education and workforce development efforts that support and advance these initiatives.
Innovation that helps facilitate upskilling: XPRIZE is promoting innovation by announcing its commitment to design an incentivized prize competition aimed at spurring innovation and accelerating the rate of positive change in upskilling among American workers.
Tools for workers that are trying to get ahead: Glass Door is launching an On-the-Job Training Finder, an interactive, map-based tool to help job seekers easily search job opportunities, such as apprenticeships and trainee positions, in which they can learn new skills to advance their career while getting paid. LinkedIn is committing to help employers identify mentors for front-line workers by engaging interested senior employees in aspirational roles.
Best practice resources for employers: Deloitte Consulting and The Aspen Institute are launching A Guide to Upskilling America’s Frontline Workers that aims to deliver a structured resource to help businesses strengthen existing or jumpstart new upskilling initiatives. The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) will develop a Registered Apprenticeship Blueprint to help companies expedite implementation of customized apprenticeships that meet their talent needs.
The Upskill initiative builds on the Administration’s agenda to support job-driven training:
Proposed Rules for Reforming our Federal Workforce System. Last July, the President signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – the most significant reform to our Federal workforce system in nearly 20 years. Last week, we issued proposed rules implementing WIOA that will move our entire system to be more job-driven. The law will also increase opportunities for work-based learning, including on-the-job training and Registered Apprenticeships.
Vice-President Biden’s Job-Driven Training Review. The President’s Upskill Initiative builds on the job-driven training review that the President asked the Vice President to lead in the 2013 State of the Union. Amongst other findings, the Vice President’s review identified employer training for front-line workers as an area in need of more job-driven training strategies to meet business needs and provide more workers with a path to the middle class.
American Apprenticeship Grants Competition. Last year, the Department of Labor launched a $100 million competition to spur partnerships to expand apprenticeships into high-growth fields like information technology, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare. The deadline for this application is April 30, 2015, and more information is available at the Grants.gov application page.
$100 million in New Federal Investments to Train and Connect More Workers to a Good Job in Technology and Other In-Demand Fields. The Administration is launching a $100 million H-1B grant competition by the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to training and successfully employing low-skill individuals with barriers to training and employment including those with child care responsibilities, people with disabilities, disconnected youth, and limited English proficient workers, among others.
Launching a New $25 Million Competition for an Online Skills Academy that Will Leverage Technology to Offer Free and Open Online Courses of Study, helping students earn credentials online through participating accredited institutions, and will expand access to curricula designed to speed the time to credit and completion.
FY16 Budget Proposals to Expand Access to Quality Training and Career Advancement Opportunities. The President’s Budget includes measures that support upskilling through:
American Technical Training Fund would award $200 million in new competitive grants to support the development, operation and expansion of innovative, evidence-based job training programs in high-demand fields that provide a path to the middle class for low-income individuals. This could replicate successful models like Tennessee’s Applied Technology Centers whose graduates have impressive employment rates.
Doubling American Apprenticeships over Five Years: The President is calling on Congress to launch a $2 billion Apprenticeship Training Fund for states and regions to adopt comprehensive strategies ranging from economic incentives to stronger links to technical colleges to double the number of registered apprentices in America over the next five years.
Updating Licensing Requirements: The Budget proposes a $15 million increase for grants to States and partnerships of States for the purpose of identifying, exploring, and addressing areas where occupational licensing requirements create an unnecessary barrier to labor market entry or labor mobility and where interstate portability of licenses can support economic growth and improve economic opportunity.
UN AMBASSADOR POWER'S REMARKS ON YOUTH AND COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at a UN Security Council Debate on the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: the Role of Youth in Countering Violent Extremism and Promoting Peace
04/23/2015 12:27 PM EDT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 23, 2015
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, your Royal Highness Crown Prince, for joining the Council to chair this meeting, your presence here is yet another testament to Jordan’s deep commitment to combatting violent extremism among youth and people of all ages.
This Monday, April 20th, six young Somali-American men – ages 19 to 21 – were charged in Minneapolis on terrorism related offenses. They had planned to travel to Syria to join ISIL. Five of the six were U.S. citizens, and one was a permanent resident.
The young men had reportedly been inspired in part by another Somali-American, Abdi Nur, who left the same city in May 2014, shortly after his 20th birthday, and joined ISIL in Syria. And they had in part been encouraged by one another – what is known as peer-to-peer recruiting – through regular meetings to plan their trip and discuss their violent ideology.
Their case is just one of the many recent instances in which young people have attempted to join ISIL or other terrorist groups. In some instances, as in the Minneapolis arrests, we have succeeded in stopping youth before they could reach their destination. In other instances, we have not, as happened in February, when three British girls – ages 15 to 16 – traveled to Turkey, and likely onwards to ISIL-controlled territory, where they presumably remain.
ISIL is showing increased sophistication in recruiting young people, particularly in virtual spaces. The group disseminates around ninety thousand tweets each day, and its members and supporters routinely co-opt trending hashtags to disseminate their messages. ISIL even reportedly developed a Twitter app last year that allows Twitter subscribers to hand over control of their feed to ISIL – allowing ISIL to tweet from the individual subscriber’s account, exponentially amplifying the reach of its messages. In February, ISIL posted a polished, 50-page guide online called, “The Hijrah to the Islamic State,” that instructs potential recruits how to make the journey to its territory – including everything from finding safe houses in Turkey, to what kind of backpack to bring, and how to answer questions from immigration officials without arousing suspicion. And it’s not just ISIL that is aggressively targeting children and youth – but al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and other groups.
There is a clear consensus that we – and by we of course, I mean not only the United States, but all countries committed to combatting terrorist groups – must make countering violent extremism a central part of our counter terrorism efforts. And this is particularly true among children and teens, whose youth makes them especially vulnerable to recruitment. Yet even with increased attention to this problem, the reality is that we are being outspent, outflanked, and out-innovated by terrorist groups intent on recruiting new young members. We have to catch up – for their welfare, and for our collective security.
That is one of the reasons we are looking forward to the Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Counter Violent Extremism, which we hope will galvanize the UN to take a leading role in empowering and uniting Member States to tackle this very grave problem. And it is one of the main reasons President Obama convened a White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism on February 19th. More than 60 governments took part in the summit – including most of the members of this Council – together with civil society representatives from over 50 countries and private sector leaders. And as many of you know, we are looking forward to a leaders summit on the margins of the General Assembly in September, to evaluate the progress that has been made and the challenges that most definitely remain to implement the White House’s CVE Agenda.
One of the participants in the White House’s February summit was a young Moroccan woman named Zineb Benalla. Zineb works for the Arab Center for Scientific Research, an NGO that, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has helped lead an innovative effort to counter violent extremism in northern Mali. As you all know, terrorist groups seized large swaths of the region in 2012, and continue to carry out attacks and recruit young people. Zineb’s project was focused on reaching vulnerable youth studying in the region’s madrasas. Research showed that madrasa instructors were teaching only religious texts and focusing mainly on rote memorization; Zineb’s program aimed to broaden the curriculum to foster more critical thinking and reasoning skills – skills that help young people question, and ultimately reject, the narrow ideologies of terrorist groups.
Zineb did not go directly to the schools, knowing that she would be turned away. Instead, she met repeatedly with imams and elders in Timbuktu and Gao – gradually earning their trust over cups of tea. When eventually she laid out the proposal to start book clubs in the madrasas, they accepted. With the backing of the imams, these imams and these elders, students and teachers were given e-Readers, and allowed to download books that previously would have been considered “haram,” or sinful, such as works of philosophy and novels. She then organized workshops where she trained dozens of educators in how to teach the new material.
Now, this is a narrow program designed for a specific set of circumstances. But Zineb’s story demonstrates several key lessons about how to build efforts to counter violent extremism among young people.
First, education is of course essential to developing the critical thinking skills that empower youth to challenge violent extremist ideologies. We’ve seen similar efforts undertaken on a broader scale by the government of Morocco and others, Morocco is working to replace teachers and imams who promote violent extremist ideologies with ones who hold up the values of respect and dignity, and preach more moderate interpretations of Islam.
Second, the trust and support of local actors is critically important – and that includes not only government officials, but religious and civil society leaders, and even families. As the first and most important line of defense in protecting youth, communities need the tools to do their part. The Safe Spaces Initiative – a guide created by the Muslim Public Affairs Council to help communities implement a multi-tiered strategy of prevention, intervention, and ejection of violent extremist elements – is just one example of a resource that informs communities how to be more active partners.
Third, as others have stressed here today, we need to enlist youth themselves in leading this effort. Research shows that young people are more likely to listen to, and be influenced by, their peers. Yet too often, we approach youth as the passive recipients of campaigns to counter violent extremism, rather than active participants in shaping their strategy and spearheading their implementation. We’ve seen how powerful youth-led initiatives can be, including those that use satire. That was the approach Karim Farok adopted. An amateur Egyptian musician, Karim took an ISIL chant and remixed it into a pop song, posting his version on social media sites. While his action may at first glance look like a way of amplifying ISIL’s message, in reality Karim’s remix was a form of protest, because ISIL’s fundamentalist interpretation of Islam forbids music with instruments. By transgressing the group’s rules, Karim’s song encouraged others to express criticism as well, rather than be silenced by fear. Not only did his remix go viral, garnering hundreds of thousands of views, but it also spawned countless other musical and dancing spoofs of ISIL chants – a potent form of counter-extremist messaging that kids can relate to.
Of course, we must pursue other lines of effort in countering violent extremism among youth as well, such as strengthening laws and international coordination to stop the flow of young foreign terrorist fighters to battlefields, as we committed to do under Resolution 2178; and enlisting the private sector in amplifying our message, as Google Ideas has done through the launch of its Against Violent Extremism Network, which has given a platform to more than 500 rehabilitated former extremists. We need to do more on all of these fronts.
At the beginning, I spoke about the six young men from Minneapolis who were detained earlier this week. One of the main reasons that they were stopped from joining ISIL was because a young man who had originally planned to join with them experienced a change in conscience. He took a step back, he saw the group’s violent intentions for what they were, and he decided to report the group to law enforcement. Without his action, those young men may well have made it to ISIL-controlled territory, where they could have taken part in the group’s horrific atrocities. That young man’s choice shows how a single changed mind – just one person who starts to think differently, and more compassionately – can disrupt and ultimately stop a dangerous action by many people. That is a valuable lesson in countering violent extremism, and ultimately, it is what our efforts are all about.
Thank you.
U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at a UN Security Council Debate on the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: the Role of Youth in Countering Violent Extremism and Promoting Peace
04/23/2015 12:27 PM EDT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 23, 2015
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, your Royal Highness Crown Prince, for joining the Council to chair this meeting, your presence here is yet another testament to Jordan’s deep commitment to combatting violent extremism among youth and people of all ages.
This Monday, April 20th, six young Somali-American men – ages 19 to 21 – were charged in Minneapolis on terrorism related offenses. They had planned to travel to Syria to join ISIL. Five of the six were U.S. citizens, and one was a permanent resident.
The young men had reportedly been inspired in part by another Somali-American, Abdi Nur, who left the same city in May 2014, shortly after his 20th birthday, and joined ISIL in Syria. And they had in part been encouraged by one another – what is known as peer-to-peer recruiting – through regular meetings to plan their trip and discuss their violent ideology.
Their case is just one of the many recent instances in which young people have attempted to join ISIL or other terrorist groups. In some instances, as in the Minneapolis arrests, we have succeeded in stopping youth before they could reach their destination. In other instances, we have not, as happened in February, when three British girls – ages 15 to 16 – traveled to Turkey, and likely onwards to ISIL-controlled territory, where they presumably remain.
ISIL is showing increased sophistication in recruiting young people, particularly in virtual spaces. The group disseminates around ninety thousand tweets each day, and its members and supporters routinely co-opt trending hashtags to disseminate their messages. ISIL even reportedly developed a Twitter app last year that allows Twitter subscribers to hand over control of their feed to ISIL – allowing ISIL to tweet from the individual subscriber’s account, exponentially amplifying the reach of its messages. In February, ISIL posted a polished, 50-page guide online called, “The Hijrah to the Islamic State,” that instructs potential recruits how to make the journey to its territory – including everything from finding safe houses in Turkey, to what kind of backpack to bring, and how to answer questions from immigration officials without arousing suspicion. And it’s not just ISIL that is aggressively targeting children and youth – but al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and other groups.
There is a clear consensus that we – and by we of course, I mean not only the United States, but all countries committed to combatting terrorist groups – must make countering violent extremism a central part of our counter terrorism efforts. And this is particularly true among children and teens, whose youth makes them especially vulnerable to recruitment. Yet even with increased attention to this problem, the reality is that we are being outspent, outflanked, and out-innovated by terrorist groups intent on recruiting new young members. We have to catch up – for their welfare, and for our collective security.
That is one of the reasons we are looking forward to the Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Counter Violent Extremism, which we hope will galvanize the UN to take a leading role in empowering and uniting Member States to tackle this very grave problem. And it is one of the main reasons President Obama convened a White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism on February 19th. More than 60 governments took part in the summit – including most of the members of this Council – together with civil society representatives from over 50 countries and private sector leaders. And as many of you know, we are looking forward to a leaders summit on the margins of the General Assembly in September, to evaluate the progress that has been made and the challenges that most definitely remain to implement the White House’s CVE Agenda.
One of the participants in the White House’s February summit was a young Moroccan woman named Zineb Benalla. Zineb works for the Arab Center for Scientific Research, an NGO that, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has helped lead an innovative effort to counter violent extremism in northern Mali. As you all know, terrorist groups seized large swaths of the region in 2012, and continue to carry out attacks and recruit young people. Zineb’s project was focused on reaching vulnerable youth studying in the region’s madrasas. Research showed that madrasa instructors were teaching only religious texts and focusing mainly on rote memorization; Zineb’s program aimed to broaden the curriculum to foster more critical thinking and reasoning skills – skills that help young people question, and ultimately reject, the narrow ideologies of terrorist groups.
Zineb did not go directly to the schools, knowing that she would be turned away. Instead, she met repeatedly with imams and elders in Timbuktu and Gao – gradually earning their trust over cups of tea. When eventually she laid out the proposal to start book clubs in the madrasas, they accepted. With the backing of the imams, these imams and these elders, students and teachers were given e-Readers, and allowed to download books that previously would have been considered “haram,” or sinful, such as works of philosophy and novels. She then organized workshops where she trained dozens of educators in how to teach the new material.
Now, this is a narrow program designed for a specific set of circumstances. But Zineb’s story demonstrates several key lessons about how to build efforts to counter violent extremism among young people.
First, education is of course essential to developing the critical thinking skills that empower youth to challenge violent extremist ideologies. We’ve seen similar efforts undertaken on a broader scale by the government of Morocco and others, Morocco is working to replace teachers and imams who promote violent extremist ideologies with ones who hold up the values of respect and dignity, and preach more moderate interpretations of Islam.
Second, the trust and support of local actors is critically important – and that includes not only government officials, but religious and civil society leaders, and even families. As the first and most important line of defense in protecting youth, communities need the tools to do their part. The Safe Spaces Initiative – a guide created by the Muslim Public Affairs Council to help communities implement a multi-tiered strategy of prevention, intervention, and ejection of violent extremist elements – is just one example of a resource that informs communities how to be more active partners.
Third, as others have stressed here today, we need to enlist youth themselves in leading this effort. Research shows that young people are more likely to listen to, and be influenced by, their peers. Yet too often, we approach youth as the passive recipients of campaigns to counter violent extremism, rather than active participants in shaping their strategy and spearheading their implementation. We’ve seen how powerful youth-led initiatives can be, including those that use satire. That was the approach Karim Farok adopted. An amateur Egyptian musician, Karim took an ISIL chant and remixed it into a pop song, posting his version on social media sites. While his action may at first glance look like a way of amplifying ISIL’s message, in reality Karim’s remix was a form of protest, because ISIL’s fundamentalist interpretation of Islam forbids music with instruments. By transgressing the group’s rules, Karim’s song encouraged others to express criticism as well, rather than be silenced by fear. Not only did his remix go viral, garnering hundreds of thousands of views, but it also spawned countless other musical and dancing spoofs of ISIL chants – a potent form of counter-extremist messaging that kids can relate to.
Of course, we must pursue other lines of effort in countering violent extremism among youth as well, such as strengthening laws and international coordination to stop the flow of young foreign terrorist fighters to battlefields, as we committed to do under Resolution 2178; and enlisting the private sector in amplifying our message, as Google Ideas has done through the launch of its Against Violent Extremism Network, which has given a platform to more than 500 rehabilitated former extremists. We need to do more on all of these fronts.
At the beginning, I spoke about the six young men from Minneapolis who were detained earlier this week. One of the main reasons that they were stopped from joining ISIL was because a young man who had originally planned to join with them experienced a change in conscience. He took a step back, he saw the group’s violent intentions for what they were, and he decided to report the group to law enforcement. Without his action, those young men may well have made it to ISIL-controlled territory, where they could have taken part in the group’s horrific atrocities. That young man’s choice shows how a single changed mind – just one person who starts to think differently, and more compassionately – can disrupt and ultimately stop a dangerous action by many people. That is a valuable lesson in countering violent extremism, and ultimately, it is what our efforts are all about.
Thank you.
Monday, April 27, 2015
AG LYNCH MAKES REMARKS AT SWEARING-IN CEREMONY
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Delivers Remarks at Swearing-In by Vice President Joe Biden
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Monday, April 27, 2015
As I look out over all of you gathered here today, my overwhelming reaction is one of profound gratitude. I must, of course, thank the President for his faith in me in asking me to lead the department that I love to even greater heights.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for your presence and your comments here today, and for your steadfast support and wise counsel throughout the process. I also must thank Senators Schumer and Leahy for their support, over the years and now, and for making the floor of the U.S. Senate a welcoming place for me and my family. And of course, my wonderful family. As you can see, we’re quite a force multiplier!
Many of you have come to know my father through this process. He has been at every hearing and every vote. But he didn’t just start now. I remember looking up as a young Assistant U.S. Attorney starting my first trial and seeing him there – and he came to every one thereafter. He has encouraged me in all things, even when my choices were not the ones he would have made for me. In that, he has been the best of fathers. Without him, I would not be here today, being sworn in as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States, just one week after his 83rd birthday.
And my mother, who could not be here today but is never far from my thoughts or my heart. She grew up in a world where she was always told what she could not do or could not be, but always knew in her heart that she could soar. She did what would have seemed impossible in the small North Carolina town of her youth. She raised a daughter whom she always told, whatever the dream, whether lawyer, prosecutor or even Attorney General, “of course you can.”
I must also thank my wonderful husband, who has supported all of my choices and my dreams. I would not trade his love and support for all the riches in the world – because to me, they are all the riches in the world.
Thanks also go to my colleagues and friends here in the department, in the Eastern District of New York, and beyond. But even more than that, tremendous thanks go to the literally thousands of people, many of whom I have never met, who have expressed their support throughout the process. From the sisterhood of my sorority and all the Greeks who came together, to churches and schools and people on the street who have stopped me and said just a word or two – please know that those few words sometimes made all the difference in the world to me as I traveled this road.
I thank you all, as I prepare to join once again with the outstanding people of the Department of Justice. I have been privileged to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you twice before from the Eastern District of New York. You are the ones who make real the promise of justice and redress for all Americans. I am honored beyond words to step into the larger role today as your Attorney General, as we continue the core work of our mission – the protection of the American people.
All of the people here at the department are here because at some point in our lives, we all said, “I want to be a lawyer.” “I want to be a law enforcement officer.” “I want to be a federal agent.” “I want to be someone’s hero.”
At the heart of that – for me and for all of us – whether attorney or agent, staff or principal – is the desire to leave this world a better place for us having been a part of it.
The challenge in that – for you, for me, for all of us that love this department and love the law – is to use the law to that end. To not just represent the law and enforce it, but use it to make real the promise of America, the promise of fairness and equality, “of liberty and justice for all.” We are all just here for a time – whether in this building or even on this earth. But the values we hold dear will live on long after we have left this stage. Our responsibility, while we are here, is to breathe life into them; to imbue them with the strength of our convictions and the weight of our efforts.
I know this can be done.
Because I am here to tell you, if a little girl from North Carolina who used to tell her grandfather in the fields to lift her up on the back of his mule, so she could see “way up high, Granddaddy,” can become the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America, then we can do anything.
We can imbue our criminal justice system with both strength and fairness, for the protection of both the needs of victims and the rights of all. We can restore trust and faith both in our laws and in those of us who enforce them. We can protect the most vulnerable among us from the scourge of modern-day slavery – so antithetical to the values forged in blood in this country. We can protect the growing cyber world. We can give those in our care both protection from terrorism and the security of their civil liberties. We will do this as we have accomplished all things both great and small – working together, moving forward, and using justice as our compass.
I cannot wait to begin that journey.
Thank you all for being here, both today and in my life.
Thank you.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Delivers Remarks at Swearing-In by Vice President Joe Biden
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Monday, April 27, 2015
As I look out over all of you gathered here today, my overwhelming reaction is one of profound gratitude. I must, of course, thank the President for his faith in me in asking me to lead the department that I love to even greater heights.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for your presence and your comments here today, and for your steadfast support and wise counsel throughout the process. I also must thank Senators Schumer and Leahy for their support, over the years and now, and for making the floor of the U.S. Senate a welcoming place for me and my family. And of course, my wonderful family. As you can see, we’re quite a force multiplier!
Many of you have come to know my father through this process. He has been at every hearing and every vote. But he didn’t just start now. I remember looking up as a young Assistant U.S. Attorney starting my first trial and seeing him there – and he came to every one thereafter. He has encouraged me in all things, even when my choices were not the ones he would have made for me. In that, he has been the best of fathers. Without him, I would not be here today, being sworn in as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States, just one week after his 83rd birthday.
And my mother, who could not be here today but is never far from my thoughts or my heart. She grew up in a world where she was always told what she could not do or could not be, but always knew in her heart that she could soar. She did what would have seemed impossible in the small North Carolina town of her youth. She raised a daughter whom she always told, whatever the dream, whether lawyer, prosecutor or even Attorney General, “of course you can.”
I must also thank my wonderful husband, who has supported all of my choices and my dreams. I would not trade his love and support for all the riches in the world – because to me, they are all the riches in the world.
Thanks also go to my colleagues and friends here in the department, in the Eastern District of New York, and beyond. But even more than that, tremendous thanks go to the literally thousands of people, many of whom I have never met, who have expressed their support throughout the process. From the sisterhood of my sorority and all the Greeks who came together, to churches and schools and people on the street who have stopped me and said just a word or two – please know that those few words sometimes made all the difference in the world to me as I traveled this road.
I thank you all, as I prepare to join once again with the outstanding people of the Department of Justice. I have been privileged to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you twice before from the Eastern District of New York. You are the ones who make real the promise of justice and redress for all Americans. I am honored beyond words to step into the larger role today as your Attorney General, as we continue the core work of our mission – the protection of the American people.
All of the people here at the department are here because at some point in our lives, we all said, “I want to be a lawyer.” “I want to be a law enforcement officer.” “I want to be a federal agent.” “I want to be someone’s hero.”
At the heart of that – for me and for all of us – whether attorney or agent, staff or principal – is the desire to leave this world a better place for us having been a part of it.
The challenge in that – for you, for me, for all of us that love this department and love the law – is to use the law to that end. To not just represent the law and enforce it, but use it to make real the promise of America, the promise of fairness and equality, “of liberty and justice for all.” We are all just here for a time – whether in this building or even on this earth. But the values we hold dear will live on long after we have left this stage. Our responsibility, while we are here, is to breathe life into them; to imbue them with the strength of our convictions and the weight of our efforts.
I know this can be done.
Because I am here to tell you, if a little girl from North Carolina who used to tell her grandfather in the fields to lift her up on the back of his mule, so she could see “way up high, Granddaddy,” can become the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America, then we can do anything.
We can imbue our criminal justice system with both strength and fairness, for the protection of both the needs of victims and the rights of all. We can restore trust and faith both in our laws and in those of us who enforce them. We can protect the most vulnerable among us from the scourge of modern-day slavery – so antithetical to the values forged in blood in this country. We can protect the growing cyber world. We can give those in our care both protection from terrorism and the security of their civil liberties. We will do this as we have accomplished all things both great and small – working together, moving forward, and using justice as our compass.
I cannot wait to begin that journey.
Thank you all for being here, both today and in my life.
Thank you.
U.S. DOD SENDS C-17 GLOBEMSTER IN RESPONSE TO NEPAL EARTHQUAKE DISASTER
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
DoD Sends Aircraft to Support Disaster-Assistance Operations in Nepal
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2015 – The United States has sent an Air Force aircraft to Nepal to deliver personnel and cargo in support of disaster-relief operations, according to Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.
A 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit the country yesterday, reportedly leaving almost 2,500 dead, about 6,000 injured and thousands more still missing. In addition, thousands of people are currently reported to be without food, water or shelter.
"This morning at approximately 11:18 a.m., a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster departed from Dover Air Force Base bound for Nepal," Warren said in a statement released today. "The aircraft is transporting nearly 70 personnel, including a USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team, the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team and several journalists, along with 45 square tons of cargo."
The flight is expected to arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 27, according to Warren.
The initial estimated cost for the U.S. Defense Department's support is approximately $700,000, and there are currently no additional requests for DoD support, officials said on background.
At the time of the earthquake, there were 26 DoD personnel and one U.S. C-130 in Nepal to conduct a previously scheduled training exercise. All DoD personnel in Nepal are accounted for, officials said.
DoD Sends Aircraft to Support Disaster-Assistance Operations in Nepal
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2015 – The United States has sent an Air Force aircraft to Nepal to deliver personnel and cargo in support of disaster-relief operations, according to Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.
A 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit the country yesterday, reportedly leaving almost 2,500 dead, about 6,000 injured and thousands more still missing. In addition, thousands of people are currently reported to be without food, water or shelter.
"This morning at approximately 11:18 a.m., a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster departed from Dover Air Force Base bound for Nepal," Warren said in a statement released today. "The aircraft is transporting nearly 70 personnel, including a USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team, the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team and several journalists, along with 45 square tons of cargo."
The flight is expected to arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 27, according to Warren.
The initial estimated cost for the U.S. Defense Department's support is approximately $700,000, and there are currently no additional requests for DoD support, officials said on background.
At the time of the earthquake, there were 26 DoD personnel and one U.S. C-130 in Nepal to conduct a previously scheduled training exercise. All DoD personnel in Nepal are accounted for, officials said.
DOJ SEEKS PERMANENT SHUTDOWN OF TAX PREPARER FOR FILING BOGUS TAX RETURNS
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Justice Department Asks Federal Court to Permanently Shut Down Liberty Tax Service Franchise Owner
The United States filed a complaint asking a federal court in Detroit to bar a Liberty Tax Service franchise owner and his companies based in Illinois and Michigan from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.
The civil complaint against Syed N. Ahmed and his businesses, Nasah Inc., Millinium [sic] Financial Solutions Inc., Mars Inc.-Hamtramck, and Mahad Inc., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The complaint alleges that Ahmed operates at least 10 Liberty Tax Service franchise locations.
According to the suit, the defendants improperly obtain inflated tax refunds and refundable credits for customers by preparing tax returns that include, among other things, false or inflated Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business) income and expenses, bogus dependents, false filing statuses, improper education credits and false itemized deductions.
For example, the complaint alleges that one of defendants’ tax return preparers fabricated a driving business without the customer’s knowledge and reported thousands of dollars of expenses for that business that the customer did not incur. The false expenses enabled the customer to receive an earned income tax credit that she was not otherwise entitled to receive, according to the suit.
The lawsuit states that the defendants prepared more than 17,000 federal income tax returns between 2010 and 2013. Based on audit adjustments the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made to tax returns prepared and filed by the defendants between 2010 and 2013, the defendants’ conduct has cost the U.S. Treasury approximately $2.8 million, according to the suit.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Justice Department Asks Federal Court to Permanently Shut Down Liberty Tax Service Franchise Owner
The United States filed a complaint asking a federal court in Detroit to bar a Liberty Tax Service franchise owner and his companies based in Illinois and Michigan from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.
The civil complaint against Syed N. Ahmed and his businesses, Nasah Inc., Millinium [sic] Financial Solutions Inc., Mars Inc.-Hamtramck, and Mahad Inc., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The complaint alleges that Ahmed operates at least 10 Liberty Tax Service franchise locations.
According to the suit, the defendants improperly obtain inflated tax refunds and refundable credits for customers by preparing tax returns that include, among other things, false or inflated Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business) income and expenses, bogus dependents, false filing statuses, improper education credits and false itemized deductions.
For example, the complaint alleges that one of defendants’ tax return preparers fabricated a driving business without the customer’s knowledge and reported thousands of dollars of expenses for that business that the customer did not incur. The false expenses enabled the customer to receive an earned income tax credit that she was not otherwise entitled to receive, according to the suit.
The lawsuit states that the defendants prepared more than 17,000 federal income tax returns between 2010 and 2013. Based on audit adjustments the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made to tax returns prepared and filed by the defendants between 2010 and 2013, the defendants’ conduct has cost the U.S. Treasury approximately $2.8 million, according to the suit.
POLIO ERADICATION CAN BE STRENGTHENED BY IMPROVING QUALITY OF SURVEILLANCE FOR POLIOVIRUSES
FROM: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Tracking Progress Toward Polio Eradication — Worldwide, 2013–2014
CDC Media Relations
Improvement in the quality of surveillance for polioviruses is needed to help strengthen global polio eradication efforts. There are only three countries where poliovirus circulation has never been interrupted: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Outbreaks occurred during 2013 and 2014 as a result of spread from these countries. Monitoring the progress of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative requires sensitive and timely polio surveillance. This report presents 2013 and 2014 poliovirus surveillance data, focusing on reports during 2010-2014 from 29 countries with at least one case of wild or circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. In 2013, 25 of the 29 countries met the two primary surveillance quality indicators: sensitivity and timeliness; in 2014, the number decreased to 21. To complete and certify polio eradication, gaps in surveillance must be identified and surveillance activities, including supervision, monitoring, and proper specimen collection, must be further strengthened.
Tracking Progress Toward Polio Eradication — Worldwide, 2013–2014
CDC Media Relations
Improvement in the quality of surveillance for polioviruses is needed to help strengthen global polio eradication efforts. There are only three countries where poliovirus circulation has never been interrupted: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Outbreaks occurred during 2013 and 2014 as a result of spread from these countries. Monitoring the progress of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative requires sensitive and timely polio surveillance. This report presents 2013 and 2014 poliovirus surveillance data, focusing on reports during 2010-2014 from 29 countries with at least one case of wild or circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. In 2013, 25 of the 29 countries met the two primary surveillance quality indicators: sensitivity and timeliness; in 2014, the number decreased to 21. To complete and certify polio eradication, gaps in surveillance must be identified and surveillance activities, including supervision, monitoring, and proper specimen collection, must be further strengthened.
DOCTOR PLEADS GUILTY FOR ROLE IN $56 MILLION HEALTH CARE FRAUD
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Louisiana Doctor Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud Charges for Writing False Home Health Certifications in $56 Million Fraud Scheme
A Louisiana doctor pleaded guilty to federal health care fraud charges today, admitting that he wrote false home health care certifications that were used in a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud scheme.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite of the Eastern District of Louisiana, Special Agent in Charge Michael Anderson of the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Dallas Regional Office and Louisiana Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell made the announcement.
Winston Murray, M.D., 62, of Hammond, Louisiana, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance of the Eastern District of Louisiana to all three charges against him, including one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and two counts of health care fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 12, 2015. Murray is the ninth defendant to plead guilty in this case. The trial for the remaining four defendants is scheduled to begin on May 6, 2015.
At his plea hearing, Murray admitted that he operated a clinic in Hammond, Louisiana, from which he wrote home health care referrals for Medicare beneficiaries he knew were not confined to their homes. Murray further admitted that his referrals were used by home health companies Interlink Health Care Services Inc. (Interlink) and Lakeland Health Care Services Inc. (Lakeland), among others, to fraudulently bill Medicare for home health services supposedly rendered to hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries living in and around Hammond and New Orleans.
Medicare records reveal that Murray’s certifications were used by Interlink and Lakeland to bill Medicare for more than $2.2 million in home health services that were not medically needed or were not provided. From 2007 through 2014, these companies and other companies involved in this scheme submitted more than $56 million in claims to Medicare, a vast majority of which were fraudulent. Medicare paid approximately $50.7 million on these claims.
This case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys William Kanellis and Antonio Pozos and Assistant Chief Ben Curtis of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,100 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6.5 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Louisiana Doctor Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud Charges for Writing False Home Health Certifications in $56 Million Fraud Scheme
A Louisiana doctor pleaded guilty to federal health care fraud charges today, admitting that he wrote false home health care certifications that were used in a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud scheme.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite of the Eastern District of Louisiana, Special Agent in Charge Michael Anderson of the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Dallas Regional Office and Louisiana Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell made the announcement.
Winston Murray, M.D., 62, of Hammond, Louisiana, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance of the Eastern District of Louisiana to all three charges against him, including one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and two counts of health care fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 12, 2015. Murray is the ninth defendant to plead guilty in this case. The trial for the remaining four defendants is scheduled to begin on May 6, 2015.
At his plea hearing, Murray admitted that he operated a clinic in Hammond, Louisiana, from which he wrote home health care referrals for Medicare beneficiaries he knew were not confined to their homes. Murray further admitted that his referrals were used by home health companies Interlink Health Care Services Inc. (Interlink) and Lakeland Health Care Services Inc. (Lakeland), among others, to fraudulently bill Medicare for home health services supposedly rendered to hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries living in and around Hammond and New Orleans.
Medicare records reveal that Murray’s certifications were used by Interlink and Lakeland to bill Medicare for more than $2.2 million in home health services that were not medically needed or were not provided. From 2007 through 2014, these companies and other companies involved in this scheme submitted more than $56 million in claims to Medicare, a vast majority of which were fraudulent. Medicare paid approximately $50.7 million on these claims.
This case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys William Kanellis and Antonio Pozos and Assistant Chief Ben Curtis of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,100 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6.5 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
CDC SAYS EXPANDED USE OF NALOXONE COULD REDUCE DEATHS FROM DRUG OVERDOSES
FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Expanding Naloxone use could reduce drug overdose deaths and save lives
Where you live makes a difference
Allowing more basic emergency medical service (EMS) staff to administer naloxone could reduce drug overdose deaths that involve opioids, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study, “Disparity in Naloxone Administration by Emergency Medical Service Providers and the Burden of Drug Overdose in Rural Communities,” published in the American Journal of Public Health.
In 2013, more than 16,000 deaths in the United States involved prescription opioids, and more than 8,000 others were related to heroin. Naloxone is a prescription drug that can reverse the effects of prescription opioid and heroin overdose, and can be life-saving if administered in time.
According to the study findings, advanced EMS staff were more likely than basic EMS staff to administer naloxone. A majority of states have adopted national guidelines that prohibit basic EMS staff from administering the drug as an injection. As of 2014, only 12 states allowed basic EMS staff to administer naloxone for a suspected opioid overdose; all 50 states allow advanced EMS staff to administer the overdose reversal treatment.
“Opioid overdose deaths are devastating families and communities, especially in rural areas,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Many of these deaths can be prevented by improving prescribing practices to prevent opioid addiction, expanding the use of medication-assisted treatment, and increasing use of naloxone for suspected overdoses. Having trained EMS staff to administer naloxone in rural areas will save lives.”
To reduce opioid overdose deaths, particularly in rural areas, CDC recommends expanding training on the administration of naloxone to all emergency service staff, and helping basic EMS personnel meet the advanced certification requirements.
Expanding Naloxone use could reduce drug overdose deaths and save lives
Where you live makes a difference
Allowing more basic emergency medical service (EMS) staff to administer naloxone could reduce drug overdose deaths that involve opioids, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study, “Disparity in Naloxone Administration by Emergency Medical Service Providers and the Burden of Drug Overdose in Rural Communities,” published in the American Journal of Public Health.
In 2013, more than 16,000 deaths in the United States involved prescription opioids, and more than 8,000 others were related to heroin. Naloxone is a prescription drug that can reverse the effects of prescription opioid and heroin overdose, and can be life-saving if administered in time.
According to the study findings, advanced EMS staff were more likely than basic EMS staff to administer naloxone. A majority of states have adopted national guidelines that prohibit basic EMS staff from administering the drug as an injection. As of 2014, only 12 states allowed basic EMS staff to administer naloxone for a suspected opioid overdose; all 50 states allow advanced EMS staff to administer the overdose reversal treatment.
“Opioid overdose deaths are devastating families and communities, especially in rural areas,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Many of these deaths can be prevented by improving prescribing practices to prevent opioid addiction, expanding the use of medication-assisted treatment, and increasing use of naloxone for suspected overdoses. Having trained EMS staff to administer naloxone in rural areas will save lives.”
To reduce opioid overdose deaths, particularly in rural areas, CDC recommends expanding training on the administration of naloxone to all emergency service staff, and helping basic EMS personnel meet the advanced certification requirements.
AMBASSADOR POWER'S REMARKS ON SCREENING OF SELMA
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 23, 2015
AS DELIVERED
Thank you very much, Under Secretary-General Gallach, for your introduction and thanks to the entire Department of Public Information team for the important work you do in telling the story of the work of the United Nations. You give people outside these walls a deeper understanding of the ideals that this institution was created 70 years ago to embody, and which we fight for every day.
And good evening ambassadors, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen and a special welcome to the young people from those twenty eight schools in New York and New Jersey. It is truly thrilling to look out and see so many young faces and I actually find myself asking whether the world would look differently if you were at more of our events at the UN. Because when we look out at your faces we really see the stakes of what we are trying to achieve and maybe if you were here more often we’d do a better job at overcoming divisions to promote human rights and human dignity and peace and security. So don’t make this your last visit to the UN. I hope to see more of you.
I have the privilege of just sharing a few thoughts with you before you see the remarkable film “Selma,” and I know you are here to do that. Tonight’s screening and discussion allow us an opportunity to look back 50 years, and to reflect on and be inspired by the determination of a group of people to change the course of history.
Let me take a moment to give a shout-out to the acclaimed director of “Selma,” Ava DuVernay. Ava, as you know, has graciously agreed to join us to share her own reflections on what this moment in America’s history means, what it meant then and what it means now.
For those of you who know the story of the march from Selma to Montgomery, watching it tonight will bring you into the swirling clouds of tear gas, the snarl of those police dogs and the sickening thud of the nightsticks used against the peaceful marchers on Edmund Pettis Bridge. For those of you who are hearing this story for the first time, you will soon know the bravery of so many great American heroes, including Congressman John Lewis, and one of my predecessors, Ambassador Andrew Young. Their stubborn determination and complete dedication to their cause should inspire us to try harder – and to be better – today.
Make no mistake, the men and women who marched at Selma in 1965 had little on their side: not the law, not public opinion, not force of arms. What they had was courage in the face of oppression, faith in their right to be treated equally, and an iron will to end the injustices that kept most African-Americans in the South from being able to vote.
Those injustices were many. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and hostile registrars intimidated an already marginalized population. Limited registration hours excluded them, as they toiled in working class jobs day and night. Police harassed them while they were waiting in line to add their names to the voting rolls. In Dallas County, Alabama, where Selma was located, more than half of the county’s residents were Black, but only one percent of them were registered to vote in 1965. Think of that. One percent.
And so the marchers marched. And as they did, their footsteps jolted a sleeping nation awake. They built a movement and, through their sweat and their sacrifice, they got the vote that they had been denied, and this is a truly inspiring story. But later tonight when the credits roll, let us not forget that the story is not complete.
On the 50th anniversary of Selma and standing on that infamous bridge, President Obama said “From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, a new generation of young people can draw strength from this place.” Selma is a place where people without power changed forever a most powerful nation, and both their struggle against injustice and their courage to act are alive and well around the world. You’ll find the struggle in places like North Korea, where tens of thousands are being imprisoned in camps and subject to the most unspeakable tortures for so-called “crimes” ranging from speaking out to possessing a radio. In Russia, where telling the truth in print means risking your livelihood, or much more. Or in Burma, where claiming your identity as worthy of dignity and deserving of citizenship can mean risking your life.
And we ask of others what we ask of ourselves. The spirit of Selma must continue here in America. Just two years ago, the United States Supreme Court struck down a part of the Voting Rights Act – the legislation that was a victory for those marching on Selma and for our democracy. The decision effectively made it easier for states to put up obstacles to voting – for minorities, the poor, and the disabled. How is it possible in 2015 that one would put up obstacles to voting? President Obama has called on Congress to right this wrong, and throughout the country, civil society activists, many of them young people, are engaged in this modern day struggle for full civil rights. They and we will succeed. After all, our democracy is built on the hard work of righting wrongs again and again. Consider that just one month before the Supreme Court decision to degrade the Voting Rights Act, that same Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. It was a decision that brought us one step closer to ensuring that all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans, have the same rights no matter who you are or who you love.
What will be our Selma? Against what injustices will we, will you, march? How will what you see up there on the screen inspire you to act out there in the world?
Thank you and enjoy the movie and the discussion.
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 23, 2015
AS DELIVERED
Thank you very much, Under Secretary-General Gallach, for your introduction and thanks to the entire Department of Public Information team for the important work you do in telling the story of the work of the United Nations. You give people outside these walls a deeper understanding of the ideals that this institution was created 70 years ago to embody, and which we fight for every day.
And good evening ambassadors, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen and a special welcome to the young people from those twenty eight schools in New York and New Jersey. It is truly thrilling to look out and see so many young faces and I actually find myself asking whether the world would look differently if you were at more of our events at the UN. Because when we look out at your faces we really see the stakes of what we are trying to achieve and maybe if you were here more often we’d do a better job at overcoming divisions to promote human rights and human dignity and peace and security. So don’t make this your last visit to the UN. I hope to see more of you.
I have the privilege of just sharing a few thoughts with you before you see the remarkable film “Selma,” and I know you are here to do that. Tonight’s screening and discussion allow us an opportunity to look back 50 years, and to reflect on and be inspired by the determination of a group of people to change the course of history.
Let me take a moment to give a shout-out to the acclaimed director of “Selma,” Ava DuVernay. Ava, as you know, has graciously agreed to join us to share her own reflections on what this moment in America’s history means, what it meant then and what it means now.
For those of you who know the story of the march from Selma to Montgomery, watching it tonight will bring you into the swirling clouds of tear gas, the snarl of those police dogs and the sickening thud of the nightsticks used against the peaceful marchers on Edmund Pettis Bridge. For those of you who are hearing this story for the first time, you will soon know the bravery of so many great American heroes, including Congressman John Lewis, and one of my predecessors, Ambassador Andrew Young. Their stubborn determination and complete dedication to their cause should inspire us to try harder – and to be better – today.
Make no mistake, the men and women who marched at Selma in 1965 had little on their side: not the law, not public opinion, not force of arms. What they had was courage in the face of oppression, faith in their right to be treated equally, and an iron will to end the injustices that kept most African-Americans in the South from being able to vote.
Those injustices were many. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and hostile registrars intimidated an already marginalized population. Limited registration hours excluded them, as they toiled in working class jobs day and night. Police harassed them while they were waiting in line to add their names to the voting rolls. In Dallas County, Alabama, where Selma was located, more than half of the county’s residents were Black, but only one percent of them were registered to vote in 1965. Think of that. One percent.
And so the marchers marched. And as they did, their footsteps jolted a sleeping nation awake. They built a movement and, through their sweat and their sacrifice, they got the vote that they had been denied, and this is a truly inspiring story. But later tonight when the credits roll, let us not forget that the story is not complete.
On the 50th anniversary of Selma and standing on that infamous bridge, President Obama said “From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, a new generation of young people can draw strength from this place.” Selma is a place where people without power changed forever a most powerful nation, and both their struggle against injustice and their courage to act are alive and well around the world. You’ll find the struggle in places like North Korea, where tens of thousands are being imprisoned in camps and subject to the most unspeakable tortures for so-called “crimes” ranging from speaking out to possessing a radio. In Russia, where telling the truth in print means risking your livelihood, or much more. Or in Burma, where claiming your identity as worthy of dignity and deserving of citizenship can mean risking your life.
And we ask of others what we ask of ourselves. The spirit of Selma must continue here in America. Just two years ago, the United States Supreme Court struck down a part of the Voting Rights Act – the legislation that was a victory for those marching on Selma and for our democracy. The decision effectively made it easier for states to put up obstacles to voting – for minorities, the poor, and the disabled. How is it possible in 2015 that one would put up obstacles to voting? President Obama has called on Congress to right this wrong, and throughout the country, civil society activists, many of them young people, are engaged in this modern day struggle for full civil rights. They and we will succeed. After all, our democracy is built on the hard work of righting wrongs again and again. Consider that just one month before the Supreme Court decision to degrade the Voting Rights Act, that same Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. It was a decision that brought us one step closer to ensuring that all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans, have the same rights no matter who you are or who you love.
What will be our Selma? Against what injustices will we, will you, march? How will what you see up there on the screen inspire you to act out there in the world?
Thank you and enjoy the movie and the discussion.
MAGMA DISCOVERED BENEATH YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Yellowstone magma discovery
NSF-funded seismologists at the University of Utah discover magma hidden beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano
A team of University of Utah seismologists has discovered a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock hidden 12 to 28 miles beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano--enough to fill the 1000 cubic-mile-Grand Canyon more than 11 times. The pool is over four times larger than a shallower, long-known magma chamber.
The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded team, developed a new technique that uses both local and distant earthquake data from the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and the NSF-funded EarthScope array of seismometers. The combined data resulted in a better, deeper and more complete image of the system. The newly discovered reservoir carries hot and partly molten rock upward from the top of Yellowstone's hotspot plume--about 40 miles below the surface.
Yellowstone's plumbing system is no larger or closer to erupting than before, scientists are just seeing more of it than ever before. Yellowstone is among the world's largest supervolcanoes, with frequent earthquakes. The team believes these new models help us gain a better understanding of Yellowstone's plumbing system, and may lead to improved estimates of the potential future seismic and volcanic hazards.
-- Dena Headlee,
Investigators
Fan-Chi Lin
Related Institutions/Organizations
University of Utah
Yellowstone magma discovery
NSF-funded seismologists at the University of Utah discover magma hidden beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano
A team of University of Utah seismologists has discovered a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock hidden 12 to 28 miles beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano--enough to fill the 1000 cubic-mile-Grand Canyon more than 11 times. The pool is over four times larger than a shallower, long-known magma chamber.
The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded team, developed a new technique that uses both local and distant earthquake data from the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and the NSF-funded EarthScope array of seismometers. The combined data resulted in a better, deeper and more complete image of the system. The newly discovered reservoir carries hot and partly molten rock upward from the top of Yellowstone's hotspot plume--about 40 miles below the surface.
Yellowstone's plumbing system is no larger or closer to erupting than before, scientists are just seeing more of it than ever before. Yellowstone is among the world's largest supervolcanoes, with frequent earthquakes. The team believes these new models help us gain a better understanding of Yellowstone's plumbing system, and may lead to improved estimates of the potential future seismic and volcanic hazards.
-- Dena Headlee,
Investigators
Fan-Chi Lin
Related Institutions/Organizations
University of Utah
FDIC CHAIRMAN GRUENBERG'S REMARKS ON JUMP$TART COALITION
FROM: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
Remarks by Martin J. Gruenberg, Chairman Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation at Jump$tart Coalition National Partners Meeting; Washington, D.C.
April 23, 2015
Thank you very much for including me in your event today.
First, I'd like to recognize Laura and Ted for their leadership, not just of the Jump$tart Coalition, but for all they do to help teach American youth about money and how to responsibly handle their financial affairs.
All of you here today are terrific advocates and resources for advancing youth financial capability, both nationally and in communities across the nation. Thank you for your dedication and your many contributions to financial education.
I am delighted to be here today for the unveiling of an extraordinary new set of tools to help educators and families work together to teach children about financial literacy at every stage of their education, from Pre-K through age 20.
A little over two years ago, the FDIC began working more intensively with partner agencies on the Financial Literacy and Education Commission to promote youth financial capability.1 We did this because starting financial education early can have long-standing benefits for young people and their families.
We soon realized that our interests and objectives in this area matched those of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In particular, both of our agencies encourage practical and tested approaches that can positively affect young peoples' decisions in a lasting way.
So last April, the FDIC and CFPB signed an agreement to leverage our strengths by working together to improve financial education and the decision-making skills among American youth.
After a year of hard work, we are here today to announce the initial results of that partnership.
To start, I am very proud to announce a brand new Money Smart for Young People series. It is an extraordinary step forward for financial literacy. It is the first nationally available free curriculum that directly brings educators, parents, other family members and caregivers into the learning process for young people of all ages. This is a major innovation.
Family and other caregivers play an important role in shaping a young person's financial learning and development. Young people often learn about money by observing and listening to parents and other adults they spend time with. Yet, CFPB research showed that while parents want to talk about money with their kids, they often lack the knowledge and tools to do so effectively.
So to solve this problem, we added a parent/caregiver guide to all levels of the new Money Smart for Young People series. The guides are easy to use and include information about topics that are covered in class, as well as at-home activities and conversation starters.
And the program gives educators an extensive library of lesson plans so they can teach the concepts that make the most sense for their class.
In a minute, Rich will talk more about our efforts to get parents and caregivers more involved in educating their kids about money. As you will hear, this new Money Smart for Young People series truly supports the contributions of students, educators, and parents in learning.
For example, the new curriculums empower teachers with engaging activities to integrate financial education instruction into other subjects, such as math, English, and social studies. We hope this multi-disciplinary approach can be especially helpful for teaching toward state standards in a range of subjects.
Our new series will offer educators a powerful tool to customize lessons for students at different grade levels and abilities. Previous Money Smart lessons did not focus on grade level, but only provided general instruction.
As always, our Money Smart programs are available on line from the FDIC website.
We are eager to hear how teachers use the new Money Smart for Young People materials so that we can improve the curriculum and share successful approaches with other educators. We also want school administrators and principals to share their thoughts on how we can best equip teachers to use these materials.
I know there are a number of education leaders with us today. If you have any comments, please speak with an FDIC representative after this briefing, or send us an email through the FDIC website.
I also want to share with you another groundbreaking resource that has come about because of our work with the CFPB.
For the first time, we now provide videos for teachers that demonstrate how some fundamental financial lessons can be delivered in the classroom. They are short and meant to empower teachers not just by building their confidence, but inspiring their creativity to talk about money in the classroom.
Finally, the FDIC continues to work with the CFPB on our youth savings program. We know that hands-on approaches to learning really help students understand and retain lessons delivered by educators. To that end, earlier this week we announced Phase II of the FDIC's Youth Savings Account Pilot.
The first phase of the pilot program involved nine banks that set up youth savings programs, which gave young people the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real financial products at real depository institutions in a safe setting. Some of the programs sponsored school-based bank branches run by students.
For the second phase, we plan to build on successful approaches that were taken during the first phase of the pilot. For example, several banks in the first pilot have told us that younger children – even those in kindergarten – were excited to save, even pennies, and that doing so can start healthy habits at a formative age.
I am certain many of you can relate to how teenagers can be reluctant to take advice from their parents or other adults. But Some of the banks in the first phase of the pilot found that financial advice provided by peers can have greater credibility.
One of the student bankers whom FDIC staff spoke to recently said teachers frequently ask her and her peers to talk about the importance of saving with fellow students and to answer questions in classes.
Another student banker conveyed how she had helped her peers save for higher education.
We're encouraging banks that want to be a part of the second youth savings pilot program to let us know by June 18th. You can learn more about the pilot from the FDIC website. Also on the website, you can find interagency guidance for financial institutions aimed at promoting youth savings programs.
In closing, as many of you know, economic inclusion is a major priority for the FDIC. Our long experience with Money Smart has proved that carefully designed and implemented programs enhance the ability of mainstream institutions to offer safe, sound, and sustainable products and services to underserved consumers.
The newest efforts that we are announcing today advance this work in several important ways:
They make available a well-crafted and flexible set of tools for educators that incorporate best practices and educational standards;
They provide resources for parents and caregivers that reinforce key messages about using money to achieve a better future; and finally
They continue our work to link practical financial education and experience with a safe savings account at an insured institution, with the end goal a lasting banking relationship and greater financial stability for children and their families.
We strongly believe that our partnership with the CFPB will lead to more young people making better informed decisions about their money. I look forward to continuing the partnership in the years to come.
Thank you very much.
Remarks by Martin J. Gruenberg, Chairman Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation at Jump$tart Coalition National Partners Meeting; Washington, D.C.
April 23, 2015
Thank you very much for including me in your event today.
First, I'd like to recognize Laura and Ted for their leadership, not just of the Jump$tart Coalition, but for all they do to help teach American youth about money and how to responsibly handle their financial affairs.
All of you here today are terrific advocates and resources for advancing youth financial capability, both nationally and in communities across the nation. Thank you for your dedication and your many contributions to financial education.
I am delighted to be here today for the unveiling of an extraordinary new set of tools to help educators and families work together to teach children about financial literacy at every stage of their education, from Pre-K through age 20.
A little over two years ago, the FDIC began working more intensively with partner agencies on the Financial Literacy and Education Commission to promote youth financial capability.1 We did this because starting financial education early can have long-standing benefits for young people and their families.
We soon realized that our interests and objectives in this area matched those of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In particular, both of our agencies encourage practical and tested approaches that can positively affect young peoples' decisions in a lasting way.
So last April, the FDIC and CFPB signed an agreement to leverage our strengths by working together to improve financial education and the decision-making skills among American youth.
After a year of hard work, we are here today to announce the initial results of that partnership.
To start, I am very proud to announce a brand new Money Smart for Young People series. It is an extraordinary step forward for financial literacy. It is the first nationally available free curriculum that directly brings educators, parents, other family members and caregivers into the learning process for young people of all ages. This is a major innovation.
Family and other caregivers play an important role in shaping a young person's financial learning and development. Young people often learn about money by observing and listening to parents and other adults they spend time with. Yet, CFPB research showed that while parents want to talk about money with their kids, they often lack the knowledge and tools to do so effectively.
So to solve this problem, we added a parent/caregiver guide to all levels of the new Money Smart for Young People series. The guides are easy to use and include information about topics that are covered in class, as well as at-home activities and conversation starters.
And the program gives educators an extensive library of lesson plans so they can teach the concepts that make the most sense for their class.
In a minute, Rich will talk more about our efforts to get parents and caregivers more involved in educating their kids about money. As you will hear, this new Money Smart for Young People series truly supports the contributions of students, educators, and parents in learning.
For example, the new curriculums empower teachers with engaging activities to integrate financial education instruction into other subjects, such as math, English, and social studies. We hope this multi-disciplinary approach can be especially helpful for teaching toward state standards in a range of subjects.
Our new series will offer educators a powerful tool to customize lessons for students at different grade levels and abilities. Previous Money Smart lessons did not focus on grade level, but only provided general instruction.
As always, our Money Smart programs are available on line from the FDIC website.
We are eager to hear how teachers use the new Money Smart for Young People materials so that we can improve the curriculum and share successful approaches with other educators. We also want school administrators and principals to share their thoughts on how we can best equip teachers to use these materials.
I know there are a number of education leaders with us today. If you have any comments, please speak with an FDIC representative after this briefing, or send us an email through the FDIC website.
I also want to share with you another groundbreaking resource that has come about because of our work with the CFPB.
For the first time, we now provide videos for teachers that demonstrate how some fundamental financial lessons can be delivered in the classroom. They are short and meant to empower teachers not just by building their confidence, but inspiring their creativity to talk about money in the classroom.
Finally, the FDIC continues to work with the CFPB on our youth savings program. We know that hands-on approaches to learning really help students understand and retain lessons delivered by educators. To that end, earlier this week we announced Phase II of the FDIC's Youth Savings Account Pilot.
The first phase of the pilot program involved nine banks that set up youth savings programs, which gave young people the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real financial products at real depository institutions in a safe setting. Some of the programs sponsored school-based bank branches run by students.
For the second phase, we plan to build on successful approaches that were taken during the first phase of the pilot. For example, several banks in the first pilot have told us that younger children – even those in kindergarten – were excited to save, even pennies, and that doing so can start healthy habits at a formative age.
I am certain many of you can relate to how teenagers can be reluctant to take advice from their parents or other adults. But Some of the banks in the first phase of the pilot found that financial advice provided by peers can have greater credibility.
One of the student bankers whom FDIC staff spoke to recently said teachers frequently ask her and her peers to talk about the importance of saving with fellow students and to answer questions in classes.
Another student banker conveyed how she had helped her peers save for higher education.
We're encouraging banks that want to be a part of the second youth savings pilot program to let us know by June 18th. You can learn more about the pilot from the FDIC website. Also on the website, you can find interagency guidance for financial institutions aimed at promoting youth savings programs.
In closing, as many of you know, economic inclusion is a major priority for the FDIC. Our long experience with Money Smart has proved that carefully designed and implemented programs enhance the ability of mainstream institutions to offer safe, sound, and sustainable products and services to underserved consumers.
The newest efforts that we are announcing today advance this work in several important ways:
They make available a well-crafted and flexible set of tools for educators that incorporate best practices and educational standards;
They provide resources for parents and caregivers that reinforce key messages about using money to achieve a better future; and finally
They continue our work to link practical financial education and experience with a safe savings account at an insured institution, with the end goal a lasting banking relationship and greater financial stability for children and their families.
We strongly believe that our partnership with the CFPB will lead to more young people making better informed decisions about their money. I look forward to continuing the partnership in the years to come.
Thank you very much.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
U.S. COALITION FORCES ARE CONTINUING AIRSTRIKES IN IRAQ, SYRIA
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
U.S., Coalition Forces Continue Airstrikes Against ISIL
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Airstrikes in Syria
Fighter and attack aircraft conducted three airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Al Hasakah, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Kobani, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL fighting position.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Fighter, attack, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Al Hawayjah, three airstrikes struck two ISIL staging areas and an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Bayji, six airstrikes struck three ISIL tactical units, destroying two ISIL vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, two ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL bunkers, two ISIL structures, an ISIL mortar tube and an ISIL warehouse.
-- Near Fallujah, five airstrikes struck four ISIL tactical units, destroying an ISIL armored personnel carrier, an ISIL dump truck, an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Mosul, an airstrike struck an ISIL large tactical unit, destroying an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL tunnel system.
-- Near Ramadi, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL vehicle.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.
Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S., Coalition Forces Continue Airstrikes Against ISIL
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Airstrikes in Syria
Fighter and attack aircraft conducted three airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Al Hasakah, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Kobani, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL fighting position.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Fighter, attack, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Al Hawayjah, three airstrikes struck two ISIL staging areas and an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Bayji, six airstrikes struck three ISIL tactical units, destroying two ISIL vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, two ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL bunkers, two ISIL structures, an ISIL mortar tube and an ISIL warehouse.
-- Near Fallujah, five airstrikes struck four ISIL tactical units, destroying an ISIL armored personnel carrier, an ISIL dump truck, an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Mosul, an airstrike struck an ISIL large tactical unit, destroying an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL tunnel system.
-- Near Ramadi, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL vehicle.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.
Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
AG HOLDER SAYS GOODBYE AT CEREMONY
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Attorney General Holder Addresses Department Employees at Departure Ceremony
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Friday, April 24, 2015
Remarks as delivered
Thank you, thank you. Please take your seats.
A couple of business items. My portrait hangs on the fifth floor of the Justice Department. And something that has not been mentioned but something that I really pressed Simmie Knox – the artist of the portrait – my kid’s names are hidden in the portrait. And if you look at the button of my jacket and the wings of the eagle you’ll find the three of them. And that’s the lore I want to have come out about this portrait. Find the names of the Holder children – okay?
The other thing, Lee Loftus asked me to check to make sure that you all know that you’re on annual leave. But in my final act as Attorney General – screw it!
This has been a great six years. Being at the Justice Department has been – I said the last six years but the reality is that I’ve been at this department since 1976, off and on. I started as a line lawyer in the public integrity section in the Criminal Division and it’s going to be hard for me to walk away from the people who I love and the people who represent this institution that I love so much – but it is time. It is time to make a transition. Change is a good thing and I am confident in the work in which you have done that we have laid the foundation for even better things over the course of the next couple of years.
I think that as we look back at these past six years, what I want you all to understand is that you have done truly historic, historic and big things – no matter where you look. From the basic stuff, this department was restored, it’s restored – it’s restored to what it always was and certainly was when I got here and what it must always be. Free from politicization, focused on the mission and making sure that justice is done – without any kind of interference from political outsiders.
We have expressed faith in the greatest court system in the world and brought the toughest national security cases into that system and with unbelievable results. The notion that we’re still having a debate about whether or not cases ought to be brought in the Article 3 system or in military tribunals is over. It’s dead. And that’s because, again, of the great work that the prosecutors in various districts have performed in putting together wonderful cases and then successfully trying those cases.
We have had an impact on the environment and people who – and companies that would have spoiled our environment. Historic, historic wins in that regard as well. You look at the financial recoveries that um – related to the mortgage crisis, and the huge amounts of money that we put – that we recovered. And then I think what’s important – and Tony West is here, and I think he deserves some special thanks for that, for what was done with that money. To try to get it to the people who suffered the most. The thought was never to simply take that money and put it into the United States Treasury, but to come up with ways in which we could try to get people back into their homes, or to somehow reduce the debt-load that they were dealing with.
Our Antitrust Division lives again – lives again, and has had a tremendous impact in our country, and in the positive things that they’ve done for the American consumer. We announced – or we’ve heard, I guess, today that a merger that I think would have been extremely anti-competitive and would have not been in the best interests of the American consumer, has been abandoned. That is because of the great work of the men and women in the Antitrust Division.
Our Tax Division, overseas accounts dealing with our allies in Europe, bringing money back and disallowing the practice that for too long had gone on where people had squirreled away, hidden money that they needed to actually pay taxes for and be held – be accountable for. Historic stuff, that, as well.
Indian Country – you think about the tough history that exists between the United States and our Native people, we have put on track, I think, the ability to right some really serious historical wrongs. We’ve done, I think, a great deal, much work remains to be done. But this Justice Department was committed to addressing those problems in as frank a way as is possible.
Criminal Justice Reform – if you look at all the statistics, you’ll see the incarceration rate goes like this, and then goes up. And then goes up in about 1974, late seventies, something like that. And we are a nation that incarcerates too many people for too long and for no good law enforcement reason. It is time—it is time to change the approaches we have been using these past 30 - 40 years, and through the great work of the people of this department we are starting to reverse that trend. Again, work remains to be done, but we are on our way.
Civil Rights—the LGBT community is something that I tried to focus on. I think that is the civil rights issue of our time. This whole question of same sex marriage will be resolved by the court over, I guess, the next couple of months. Hopefully that decision will go in a way that I think is consistent with who we say we are as a people, but I also think that is really just a sign; it’s an indication, one part of the fight for overall LGBT equality. And I think that the work that you all have done in the regard is going to be an integral part of the legacy of this department.
And then, you know, the thing that I think in some ways animates me, angers me, is this whole notion of protecting the right to vote. We celebrated this year the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act. We went to—I went to Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday. John Lewis was here earlier. This nation fought a civil war, endured slavery by another name, dealt with legalized segregation. A civil rights movement in the mid and early sixties transformed this nation. And the notion that we would somehow go back and put in place things that make it difficult—more difficult for our fellow citizens to vote is simply inconsistent with all that’s good about this country, and something that I was bound and determined to fight. And our Civil Rights Division has done a superb job in crafting law suits based on a Voting Rights Act that was wrongly gutted by the Supreme Court, and I suspect that we will see successes from those efforts that have—those cases that have been filed. But that, that of all things, simply cannot be allowed to happen. The right to vote must be protected.
I want to thank my family, my lovely wife, for the sacrifices they’ve made — over the years not only to allow me to be Attorney General but to be the Deputy Attorney General, to be U.S. Attorney here in Washington, D.C. Honey, you’ve been the rock in the family. And you’ve allowed me the opportunity to do the things that that really animated me and allowed me to work with all of these great people.
I also want to say something about the folks you see standing here—my detail. These are people—men and women—who literally sacrifice their well-being in terms of their interactions with their families. They travel with me. They miss weekends. They work long and hard hours. And they are prepared to do ultimate kinds of things. And I could not do this job without them. Now they will not smile because they don’t do that. I see Marcus is smiling a little bit there. Bart’s also smiling.
And then I just want to thank all of you. All of you. You are what make this institution. You know we have a great building and it is something that is historic in its nature. But it is only kept great by the dedicated, the perseverance, the commitment that all of you show on a daily basis. And I hope that you all will understand that the job…there is not a routine job in the United States Department of Justice. Given the great power that we are entrusted with, the responsibilities that we have, I don’t want you all to ever think that it’s just Tuesday and I’m going to get through the day. That’s not who we are at the United States Department of Justice. It’s not who you all are. And I think that has certainly been shown in the way in which you have conducted yourselves and the way in which you all have accomplished so much over the last six years.
I said earlier that when we celebrated Robert Kennedy’s 50th anniversary of his swearing-in in 2011, people said that that was the golden age for the United States Department of Justice. Well, I think that 50 years from now, 50 years from now and maybe even sooner than that, people are going to look back at the work that you all did and say that this was another golden age. That’s how good you all are. That’s how good you all are. That’s how dedicated, committed and wonderful you all have been. With a focus on justice. With a focus on helping those who cannot help themselves. You have distinguished yourselves.
There’s a long line of excellence in the United States Department of Justice, but every now and again – at an appropriate time – a group comes along that is worthy of special recognition. And you all are in fact one of those groups. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am going to miss you. I am going to miss this building. I am going to miss this institution. But more than anything I am going to miss you all. This building is always going to be home, and you all will always be my family. Wherever I am and whatever I am doing, I will be rooting for you from the sidelines.
Now I want to do something here. We have these bands that I’ve been wearing for the last whatever number of whatevers. I think I can officially take this off now. I think we can officially say now that Eric Holder is free. But it is not necessarily something that I want. I don’t ever want to be free of this great institution. I don’t want to ever be free of the relationships that I have forged with so many of you. I don’t want to ever be free of the notion that I am a member of the United States Department of Justice. This is something that has meant the world to me. It has helped define me as an individual, as a lawyer and as a man.
And for that reason, although, I got rid of those bands. I’m free in one sense that really not as consequential as the way in which I will never be free, nor want to be free of the United States Department of Justice, or free from all of you.
Thank you for your support over the past six years. I look forward to all that you going to do all with the great new leadership of a wonderful new Attorney General who will be sworn in on Monday, and I expect you will do great things over the course of these next two years, but beyond that. With those of you who are career employees, I expect that you will do great things as long as you are part of the Justice Department. There will be some of you who will be here 20 years from now, 30 years from now and I expect that your biographies will be littered with wonderful things.
But again, thank you all so much. I’m going to miss you and as I said in a previous speech, this is my third going away, but I promise that this is the last one. But I’ll end it this way, I love you all madly. Thank you.
Attorney General Holder Addresses Department Employees at Departure Ceremony
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Friday, April 24, 2015
Remarks as delivered
Thank you, thank you. Please take your seats.
A couple of business items. My portrait hangs on the fifth floor of the Justice Department. And something that has not been mentioned but something that I really pressed Simmie Knox – the artist of the portrait – my kid’s names are hidden in the portrait. And if you look at the button of my jacket and the wings of the eagle you’ll find the three of them. And that’s the lore I want to have come out about this portrait. Find the names of the Holder children – okay?
The other thing, Lee Loftus asked me to check to make sure that you all know that you’re on annual leave. But in my final act as Attorney General – screw it!
This has been a great six years. Being at the Justice Department has been – I said the last six years but the reality is that I’ve been at this department since 1976, off and on. I started as a line lawyer in the public integrity section in the Criminal Division and it’s going to be hard for me to walk away from the people who I love and the people who represent this institution that I love so much – but it is time. It is time to make a transition. Change is a good thing and I am confident in the work in which you have done that we have laid the foundation for even better things over the course of the next couple of years.
I think that as we look back at these past six years, what I want you all to understand is that you have done truly historic, historic and big things – no matter where you look. From the basic stuff, this department was restored, it’s restored – it’s restored to what it always was and certainly was when I got here and what it must always be. Free from politicization, focused on the mission and making sure that justice is done – without any kind of interference from political outsiders.
We have expressed faith in the greatest court system in the world and brought the toughest national security cases into that system and with unbelievable results. The notion that we’re still having a debate about whether or not cases ought to be brought in the Article 3 system or in military tribunals is over. It’s dead. And that’s because, again, of the great work that the prosecutors in various districts have performed in putting together wonderful cases and then successfully trying those cases.
We have had an impact on the environment and people who – and companies that would have spoiled our environment. Historic, historic wins in that regard as well. You look at the financial recoveries that um – related to the mortgage crisis, and the huge amounts of money that we put – that we recovered. And then I think what’s important – and Tony West is here, and I think he deserves some special thanks for that, for what was done with that money. To try to get it to the people who suffered the most. The thought was never to simply take that money and put it into the United States Treasury, but to come up with ways in which we could try to get people back into their homes, or to somehow reduce the debt-load that they were dealing with.
Our Antitrust Division lives again – lives again, and has had a tremendous impact in our country, and in the positive things that they’ve done for the American consumer. We announced – or we’ve heard, I guess, today that a merger that I think would have been extremely anti-competitive and would have not been in the best interests of the American consumer, has been abandoned. That is because of the great work of the men and women in the Antitrust Division.
Our Tax Division, overseas accounts dealing with our allies in Europe, bringing money back and disallowing the practice that for too long had gone on where people had squirreled away, hidden money that they needed to actually pay taxes for and be held – be accountable for. Historic stuff, that, as well.
Indian Country – you think about the tough history that exists between the United States and our Native people, we have put on track, I think, the ability to right some really serious historical wrongs. We’ve done, I think, a great deal, much work remains to be done. But this Justice Department was committed to addressing those problems in as frank a way as is possible.
Criminal Justice Reform – if you look at all the statistics, you’ll see the incarceration rate goes like this, and then goes up. And then goes up in about 1974, late seventies, something like that. And we are a nation that incarcerates too many people for too long and for no good law enforcement reason. It is time—it is time to change the approaches we have been using these past 30 - 40 years, and through the great work of the people of this department we are starting to reverse that trend. Again, work remains to be done, but we are on our way.
Civil Rights—the LGBT community is something that I tried to focus on. I think that is the civil rights issue of our time. This whole question of same sex marriage will be resolved by the court over, I guess, the next couple of months. Hopefully that decision will go in a way that I think is consistent with who we say we are as a people, but I also think that is really just a sign; it’s an indication, one part of the fight for overall LGBT equality. And I think that the work that you all have done in the regard is going to be an integral part of the legacy of this department.
And then, you know, the thing that I think in some ways animates me, angers me, is this whole notion of protecting the right to vote. We celebrated this year the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act. We went to—I went to Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday. John Lewis was here earlier. This nation fought a civil war, endured slavery by another name, dealt with legalized segregation. A civil rights movement in the mid and early sixties transformed this nation. And the notion that we would somehow go back and put in place things that make it difficult—more difficult for our fellow citizens to vote is simply inconsistent with all that’s good about this country, and something that I was bound and determined to fight. And our Civil Rights Division has done a superb job in crafting law suits based on a Voting Rights Act that was wrongly gutted by the Supreme Court, and I suspect that we will see successes from those efforts that have—those cases that have been filed. But that, that of all things, simply cannot be allowed to happen. The right to vote must be protected.
I want to thank my family, my lovely wife, for the sacrifices they’ve made — over the years not only to allow me to be Attorney General but to be the Deputy Attorney General, to be U.S. Attorney here in Washington, D.C. Honey, you’ve been the rock in the family. And you’ve allowed me the opportunity to do the things that that really animated me and allowed me to work with all of these great people.
I also want to say something about the folks you see standing here—my detail. These are people—men and women—who literally sacrifice their well-being in terms of their interactions with their families. They travel with me. They miss weekends. They work long and hard hours. And they are prepared to do ultimate kinds of things. And I could not do this job without them. Now they will not smile because they don’t do that. I see Marcus is smiling a little bit there. Bart’s also smiling.
And then I just want to thank all of you. All of you. You are what make this institution. You know we have a great building and it is something that is historic in its nature. But it is only kept great by the dedicated, the perseverance, the commitment that all of you show on a daily basis. And I hope that you all will understand that the job…there is not a routine job in the United States Department of Justice. Given the great power that we are entrusted with, the responsibilities that we have, I don’t want you all to ever think that it’s just Tuesday and I’m going to get through the day. That’s not who we are at the United States Department of Justice. It’s not who you all are. And I think that has certainly been shown in the way in which you have conducted yourselves and the way in which you all have accomplished so much over the last six years.
I said earlier that when we celebrated Robert Kennedy’s 50th anniversary of his swearing-in in 2011, people said that that was the golden age for the United States Department of Justice. Well, I think that 50 years from now, 50 years from now and maybe even sooner than that, people are going to look back at the work that you all did and say that this was another golden age. That’s how good you all are. That’s how good you all are. That’s how dedicated, committed and wonderful you all have been. With a focus on justice. With a focus on helping those who cannot help themselves. You have distinguished yourselves.
There’s a long line of excellence in the United States Department of Justice, but every now and again – at an appropriate time – a group comes along that is worthy of special recognition. And you all are in fact one of those groups. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am going to miss you. I am going to miss this building. I am going to miss this institution. But more than anything I am going to miss you all. This building is always going to be home, and you all will always be my family. Wherever I am and whatever I am doing, I will be rooting for you from the sidelines.
Now I want to do something here. We have these bands that I’ve been wearing for the last whatever number of whatevers. I think I can officially take this off now. I think we can officially say now that Eric Holder is free. But it is not necessarily something that I want. I don’t ever want to be free of this great institution. I don’t want to ever be free of the relationships that I have forged with so many of you. I don’t want to ever be free of the notion that I am a member of the United States Department of Justice. This is something that has meant the world to me. It has helped define me as an individual, as a lawyer and as a man.
And for that reason, although, I got rid of those bands. I’m free in one sense that really not as consequential as the way in which I will never be free, nor want to be free of the United States Department of Justice, or free from all of you.
Thank you for your support over the past six years. I look forward to all that you going to do all with the great new leadership of a wonderful new Attorney General who will be sworn in on Monday, and I expect you will do great things over the course of these next two years, but beyond that. With those of you who are career employees, I expect that you will do great things as long as you are part of the Justice Department. There will be some of you who will be here 20 years from now, 30 years from now and I expect that your biographies will be littered with wonderful things.
But again, thank you all so much. I’m going to miss you and as I said in a previous speech, this is my third going away, but I promise that this is the last one. But I’ll end it this way, I love you all madly. Thank you.
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