FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Conviction of Liu Hui
Press Statement
Jen Psaki
Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
June 12, 2013
The United States is deeply concerned that Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of Nobel laureate and imprisoned activist Liu Xiaobo, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for purportedly engaging in fraud related to a disputed land deal.
In May, 2011, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined the arrest and imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo and the extralegal house arrest of his wife Liu Xia to be in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We urge Chinese authorities to release Liu Xiaobo, as well as his wife Liu Xia, immediately and to guarantee Liu Xiaobo and his family members the protections and freedoms to which they are entitled under China’s international human rights obligations and commitments. As President Obama told President Xi in California last week, history shows that upholding universal rights is ultimately a key to success, prosperity, and justice for all nations.
Friday, June 14, 2013
LANL SAYS NEW TECHNOLOGY COULD TRANSFORM OPTICS
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| Photograph of an ultrathin (72 µm thick) metamaterial sample. Image courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory |
FROM: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Metamaterial Flexible Sheets Could Transform Optics
New design flattens bulky optical devices
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 5, 2013—New ultrathin, planar, lightweight, and broadband polarimetric photonic devices and optics could result from recent research by a team of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists. The advances would boost security screening systems, infrared thermal cameras, energy harvesting, and radar systems.
This development is a key step toward replacing bulky conventional optics with flexible sheets that are about the thickness of a human hair and weighing a fraction of an ounce. The advance is in the design of artificially created materials, called metamaterials, that give scientists new levels of control over light wavelengths.
The research was reported online in Science magazine, "Terahertz Metamaterials for Linear Polarization Conversion and Anomalous Refraction." The team demonstrated broadband, high-performance linear polarization conversion using ultrathin planar metamaterials, enabling possible applications in the terahertz (THz) frequency regime. Their design can be scaled to other frequency ranges from the microwave through infrared.
Polarization is one of the basic properties of electromagnetic waves, describing the direction of the electric field oscillation, and thus conveying valuable information in signal transmission and sensitive measurements.
"Conventional methods for advanced polarization control impose very demanding requirements on material properties and fabrication methods, but they attain only limited performance," said Hou-Tong Chen, the senior researcher on the project.
Metamaterial-based polarimetric devices are particularly attractive in the terahertz frequency range due to the lack of suitable natural materials for THz applications. Currently available designs suffer from either very limited bandwidth or high losses. The Los Alamos designs further enable the near-perfect realization of the generalized laws of reflection/refraction. According to the researchers, this can be exploited to make flat lenses, prisms, and other optical elements in a fashion very different from the curved, conventional designs that we use in our daily life.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program funded a portion of the research. Part of the work was performed at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT).
Reference: ‘Terahertz Metamaterials for Linear Polarization Conversion and Anomalous Refraction," Science, published online in Science Express, May 16, DOI: 10.1126/science.1235399, by Nathaniel K. Grady, Jane E. Heyes, Dibakar Roy Chowdhury, Yong Zeng, Matthew T. Reiten, Abul K. Azad, Antoinette J. Taylor, Diego A. R. Dalvit and Hou-Tong Chen of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
ISAF NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN FOR JUNE 13, 2013
U.S. Marines patrol through a village during Operation Nightmare in Nowzad in Afghanistan's Helmand province, June 6, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kowshon Ye
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Combined Force Kills Extremists in Kunduz Province
From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 13, 2013 - A combined Afghan and coalition security force killed five extremists after being fired upon during a search of a senior Taliban leader in the Archi district of Afghanistan's Kunduz province today, military officials reported.
The Taliban leader builds improvised explosive devices and suicide vests and has also directed and coordinated attacks that have killed Afghan security force members.
The security force also seized a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, three RPGs, four machine guns and ammunition.
In Afghanistan operations yesterday:
-- Afghan uniformed and local police establishing a new checkpoint in Kandahar province's Panjwai district with coalition advisors found and destroyed five IEDs.
-- Afghan commandos conducting a clearance operation in Nangarhar province's Chaparhar district detained three enemy fighters.
TOP DEFENSE LEADERS TELL SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE UNCERTAINTY NEEDS TO END
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Hagel, Dempsey to Senate: Budget Uncertainty Can't Last
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2013 - The Pentagon is maintaining a fiscal balancing act that must eventually teeter into a potentially dangerous loss of combat power if Congress doesn't act to stabilize defense budgets, department leaders told the Senate Budget Committee today.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, each named fiscal uncertainty as the greatest enemy to effective military planning. In the face of steep short-term cuts, they explained, long-term military readiness priorities take the biggest hits.
"When you're talking about ... abrupt cuts without slowing the growth, then what you're really, bottom line, saying is that you're going to cut your combat power," Hagel said. "And in the end, combat power and the readiness and everything that fits into that is ... the one core asset that you must preserve and continually enhance for the future, whether it's cyber or anything else."
Hagel noted that lacking certainty "from month to month, year to year, as to what our possibilities are for contracts for acquisitions, for technology, for research, the technological advantage that we have in the air and the superiority we have at sea, the training, the readiness, all of these are affected."
Dempsey told senators the pace of defense spending decreases largely drives how drastic they will be.
"We've had deeper cuts. But [sequestration] is by far the steepest," the chairman said. "And when the cut is steep, we limit the places we can go to get the money, frankly, because a lot of this money is unavailable in the short term."
DOD is and has been reforming in many ways to cut costs and add efficiency, Dempsey said, but short-term crises soak up time and energy. "We can make long-term institutional reform, but you can't sweep it up in the near term," he said. "That's the problem we're having."
Dempsey and Hagel both urged senators to set clear and flexible spending limits for the department.
"Time and flexibility are absolutely key here," Hagel said. "If we've got the flexibility and the time to bring [spending] down, we can do that. That's manageable. And there are a lot of things that we should be doing, we can be doing, to be more efficient and still protect the interests of this country and still be the most effective fighting force."
Hagel noted he is now studying the strategic choices in management review that Dempsey led across the department. He will be discussing the review with Congress, he said, because it will guide the fiscal year 2015 budget request going into 2014.
Dempsey said the review made some factors more clear.
"This review ... allows us to see the impact of not only the president's fiscal year '14 submission, but also the Senate's plan and then full sequestration, and it does pose a series of choices which become pretty difficult," the chairman said.
Adding the $487 billion reduction in defense spending by the Budget Control Act and the $500 billion in sequester cuts, on top of previous DOD efficiency initiatives, Dempsey noted, "comes out to about $1.2 trillion," which he said "leaves a mark on the United States armed forces."
"We haven't decided that it would make our current strategy unfeasible," he added, "but it would put it at great risk and could make it unfeasible."
Hagel said the service chiefs tell him they can match force structure with the strategic guidance, and preserve and enhance U.S. security interests around the world, given clarity on what resources they will have.
"I cannot give them that," the secretary said. "And when I can't give them that, then we have to continually go back and adjust and adapt. ... Furloughs for people are a good example of that."
The 11-day unpaid leave most defense civilians will take between July 8 and Sept. 30 is triage, Hagel said. "It's the worst way to have to respond to anything," he added. "But it was a necessity, and we all came to the same conclusion."
Furloughs are only part of the cloud of uncertainty that envelops service members and the defense enterprise, Hagel told senators.
"It's very unfair to these people," he said of furloughed civilian employees. "It's unfair to this country to ... be put in that kind of a situation and then still ask these people to make the contributions they are and the sacrifices they are for this country."
Hagel, Dempsey to Senate: Budget Uncertainty Can't Last
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2013 - The Pentagon is maintaining a fiscal balancing act that must eventually teeter into a potentially dangerous loss of combat power if Congress doesn't act to stabilize defense budgets, department leaders told the Senate Budget Committee today.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, each named fiscal uncertainty as the greatest enemy to effective military planning. In the face of steep short-term cuts, they explained, long-term military readiness priorities take the biggest hits.
"When you're talking about ... abrupt cuts without slowing the growth, then what you're really, bottom line, saying is that you're going to cut your combat power," Hagel said. "And in the end, combat power and the readiness and everything that fits into that is ... the one core asset that you must preserve and continually enhance for the future, whether it's cyber or anything else."
Hagel noted that lacking certainty "from month to month, year to year, as to what our possibilities are for contracts for acquisitions, for technology, for research, the technological advantage that we have in the air and the superiority we have at sea, the training, the readiness, all of these are affected."
Dempsey told senators the pace of defense spending decreases largely drives how drastic they will be.
"We've had deeper cuts. But [sequestration] is by far the steepest," the chairman said. "And when the cut is steep, we limit the places we can go to get the money, frankly, because a lot of this money is unavailable in the short term."
DOD is and has been reforming in many ways to cut costs and add efficiency, Dempsey said, but short-term crises soak up time and energy. "We can make long-term institutional reform, but you can't sweep it up in the near term," he said. "That's the problem we're having."
Dempsey and Hagel both urged senators to set clear and flexible spending limits for the department.
"Time and flexibility are absolutely key here," Hagel said. "If we've got the flexibility and the time to bring [spending] down, we can do that. That's manageable. And there are a lot of things that we should be doing, we can be doing, to be more efficient and still protect the interests of this country and still be the most effective fighting force."
Hagel noted he is now studying the strategic choices in management review that Dempsey led across the department. He will be discussing the review with Congress, he said, because it will guide the fiscal year 2015 budget request going into 2014.
Dempsey said the review made some factors more clear.
"This review ... allows us to see the impact of not only the president's fiscal year '14 submission, but also the Senate's plan and then full sequestration, and it does pose a series of choices which become pretty difficult," the chairman said.
Adding the $487 billion reduction in defense spending by the Budget Control Act and the $500 billion in sequester cuts, on top of previous DOD efficiency initiatives, Dempsey noted, "comes out to about $1.2 trillion," which he said "leaves a mark on the United States armed forces."
"We haven't decided that it would make our current strategy unfeasible," he added, "but it would put it at great risk and could make it unfeasible."
Hagel said the service chiefs tell him they can match force structure with the strategic guidance, and preserve and enhance U.S. security interests around the world, given clarity on what resources they will have.
"I cannot give them that," the secretary said. "And when I can't give them that, then we have to continually go back and adjust and adapt. ... Furloughs for people are a good example of that."
The 11-day unpaid leave most defense civilians will take between July 8 and Sept. 30 is triage, Hagel said. "It's the worst way to have to respond to anything," he added. "But it was a necessity, and we all came to the same conclusion."
Furloughs are only part of the cloud of uncertainty that envelops service members and the defense enterprise, Hagel told senators.
"It's very unfair to these people," he said of furloughed civilian employees. "It's unfair to this country to ... be put in that kind of a situation and then still ask these people to make the contributions they are and the sacrifices they are for this country."
THREE SENTENCED IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS BRIBERY CASE
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Three Georgia Residents Sentenced for Their Roles in Bribery Scheme Related to the Award of Government Contracts
A former employee at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany (MCLB-Albany) and two local businessmen were sentenced today for their roles in a bribery scheme related to the award of contracts for machine products that resulted in approximately $907,000 in fraudulent overcharges to the U.S. Marines, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia.
Michelle Rodriguez, 32; Thomas J. Cole, 43; and Fredrick W. Simon, 55, all of Albany, Ga., were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands in the Middle District of Georgia. Rodriguez was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $161,000 in restitution; Cole was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $209,000 in restitution; and Simon was sentenced to 32 months in prison and ordered to pay $74,500 in restitution. Each is also subject to a $907,000 restitution order and three years of supervised release.
During her guilty plea in February 2013, Rodriguez, a supply technician in the Maintenance Center Albany (MCA), admitted to participating in a scheme to award contracts for machine products to Company A and Company B, companies operated by Cole and Simon. Cole and Simon pleaded guilty to bribery charges related to the same scheme in January 2013 and cooperated with the government’s criminal investigation. The MCA is responsible for rebuilding and repairing ground combat and combat support equipment, much of which has been utilized in military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other parts of the world. To accomplish the scheme, Rodriguez would transmit bid solicitations to Simon via facsimile or email, and then usually follow that communication with a text message specifying how much Company A should bid. Simon, on Company A’s behalf, and with Cole’s knowledge, bid the amount specified by Rodriguez on each order, which was normally in excess of fair market value. Rodriguez was then paid $75 in cash for each order awarded to Simon and Cole during the previous week. According to court records, during the relevant period Rodriguez awarded Cole and Simon’s companies nearly 1,300 machine product orders, all of which were in exchange for bribes paid to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez further admitted that in 2011, she began routing some orders through a second company, Company B, owned by Cole, because the volume of orders MCA placed with the first company was so high. Company A, however, continued to perform the required services. Court records state that Rodriguez received approximately $161,000 in bribes during the nearly two-year scheme, while Cole and Simon personally received $209,000 and $74,500, respectively. Court records also indicate that the total loss to the U.S. Marines from overcharges associated with the machine product orders placed during the scheme was approximately $907,000.
The case was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, with assistance from the Dougherty County District Attorney’s Office Economic Crime Unit and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Richard B. Evans and J.P. Cooney of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney K. Alan Dasher of the Middle District of Georgia.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Three Georgia Residents Sentenced for Their Roles in Bribery Scheme Related to the Award of Government Contracts
A former employee at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany (MCLB-Albany) and two local businessmen were sentenced today for their roles in a bribery scheme related to the award of contracts for machine products that resulted in approximately $907,000 in fraudulent overcharges to the U.S. Marines, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia.
Michelle Rodriguez, 32; Thomas J. Cole, 43; and Fredrick W. Simon, 55, all of Albany, Ga., were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands in the Middle District of Georgia. Rodriguez was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $161,000 in restitution; Cole was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $209,000 in restitution; and Simon was sentenced to 32 months in prison and ordered to pay $74,500 in restitution. Each is also subject to a $907,000 restitution order and three years of supervised release.
During her guilty plea in February 2013, Rodriguez, a supply technician in the Maintenance Center Albany (MCA), admitted to participating in a scheme to award contracts for machine products to Company A and Company B, companies operated by Cole and Simon. Cole and Simon pleaded guilty to bribery charges related to the same scheme in January 2013 and cooperated with the government’s criminal investigation. The MCA is responsible for rebuilding and repairing ground combat and combat support equipment, much of which has been utilized in military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other parts of the world. To accomplish the scheme, Rodriguez would transmit bid solicitations to Simon via facsimile or email, and then usually follow that communication with a text message specifying how much Company A should bid. Simon, on Company A’s behalf, and with Cole’s knowledge, bid the amount specified by Rodriguez on each order, which was normally in excess of fair market value. Rodriguez was then paid $75 in cash for each order awarded to Simon and Cole during the previous week. According to court records, during the relevant period Rodriguez awarded Cole and Simon’s companies nearly 1,300 machine product orders, all of which were in exchange for bribes paid to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez further admitted that in 2011, she began routing some orders through a second company, Company B, owned by Cole, because the volume of orders MCA placed with the first company was so high. Company A, however, continued to perform the required services. Court records state that Rodriguez received approximately $161,000 in bribes during the nearly two-year scheme, while Cole and Simon personally received $209,000 and $74,500, respectively. Court records also indicate that the total loss to the U.S. Marines from overcharges associated with the machine product orders placed during the scheme was approximately $907,000.
The case was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, with assistance from the Dougherty County District Attorney’s Office Economic Crime Unit and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Richard B. Evans and J.P. Cooney of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney K. Alan Dasher of the Middle District of Georgia.
DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL HOSTS PERUVIAN PRESIDENT HUMALA AT PENTAGON
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosts an honor cordon to welcome Peruvian President Ollanta Humala at the Pentagon, June 11, 2013. The two leaders met to discuss issues of mutual importance. DOD
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Secretary Hosts Peruvian Leaders at Pentagon
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2013 - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosted Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, Foreign Minister Eda Rivas and Defense Minister Pedro Cateriano at the Pentagon yesterday, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.
In a statement summarizing the meeting, Little noted that Humala had met with President Barack Obama at the White House earlier in the day.
"Secretary Hagel affirmed the importance of the U.S.-Peru bilateral relationship and told President Humala that the Department of Defense is committed to increasing our cooperation, including in the areas of training and information sharing," Little said. Hagel also commended Humala on Peru's comprehensive counternarcotics strategy and recent operations to interdict narcoterrorists, he added.
Both leaders agreed that one of the key vehicles to deepening defense cooperation is an updated defense cooperation agreement that the United States and Peru began working on following then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta's visit to Lima last year, the press secretary said, and they agreed that representatives from both nations should work to finalize these consultations.
Hagel also thanked Humala for hosting the next Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas and conveyed that he looks forward to working with Cateriano on a successful meeting, Little said
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| Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosts an honor cordon to welcome Peruvian President Ollanta Humala at the Pentagon, June 11, 2013. The two leaders met to discuss issues of mutual importance. DOD |
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Secretary Hosts Peruvian Leaders at Pentagon
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2013 - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosted Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, Foreign Minister Eda Rivas and Defense Minister Pedro Cateriano at the Pentagon yesterday, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.
In a statement summarizing the meeting, Little noted that Humala had met with President Barack Obama at the White House earlier in the day.
"Secretary Hagel affirmed the importance of the U.S.-Peru bilateral relationship and told President Humala that the Department of Defense is committed to increasing our cooperation, including in the areas of training and information sharing," Little said. Hagel also commended Humala on Peru's comprehensive counternarcotics strategy and recent operations to interdict narcoterrorists, he added.
Both leaders agreed that one of the key vehicles to deepening defense cooperation is an updated defense cooperation agreement that the United States and Peru began working on following then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta's visit to Lima last year, the press secretary said, and they agreed that representatives from both nations should work to finalize these consultations.
Hagel also thanked Humala for hosting the next Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas and conveyed that he looks forward to working with Cateriano on a successful meeting, Little said
SPACE BUTTERFLY
FROM: NASA
The Butterfly Nebula
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.
This sharp and colorful close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final shuttle servicing mission. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
ISAF NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN FOR JUNE 12, 2013
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill Extremists in Wardak Province
From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 12, 2013 - An combined Afghan and coalition security force killed four extremists and wounded another during a search for a senior Taliban leader in the Sayyidabad district of Afghanistan's Wardak province yesterday, military officials reported.
The senior leader controls about 70 extremist fighters responsible for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also oversees local weapons trafficking and reports on extremist operations to higher-ranking Taliban officials.
In other Afghanistan operations yesterday:
-- Afghan commandos and special forces soldiers and coalition forces killed an enemy fighter and destroyed homemade explosives and improvised explosive devices in Kandahar province's Panjwai district.
-- A senior Taliban leader was killed in Nangarhar province's Khugyani district. He facilitated the movement of enemy fighters and weapons, and he oversaw a group responsible for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
-- Afghan forces wounded and arrested an insurgent who was part of a group that attacked an Afghan army patrol in Paktika province's Jani Khel district. The district police chief organized and led the counterattack.
-- A combined force in Logar province's Pul-e Alam district killed four extremists during a search for a senior Haqqani network leader who plans attacks and facilitates the movement of enemy weapons and fighters in the area.
DOD SAYS "BOYOND THE HORISON" PROVIDES IMPORTANT TRAINING
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| Army Spc. Adam Thomas, a member of the Maine Army National Guard's 136th Engineering Company, builds a school during Beyond the Horizon at El Castano, El Salvador, May 19, 2013. The U.S. Southern Command-sponsored joint and combined field training humanitarian exercise provides engineering, construction and health care services to communities as well as valuable deployment training for participants. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brandon Bolick |
Beyond the Horizon Provides Valuable Deployment, Mission Training
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
SONSONATE, El Salvador, June 6, 2013 - When 1,400 members of Joint Task Force Jaguar prepared for a four-month mission here as part of Beyond the Horizon 2013, they went through many of the same procedures they'd follow for missions ranging from a wartime deployment to a disaster response in the homeland.
The task force, led by the New Hampshire Army National Guard, includes National Guard, reserve and active-duty soldiers and airmen from across the United States as well as from El Salvador, Colombia, Chile and Canada, explained Army Lt. Col. Raymond Valas, the task force commander.
Getting them here to support the mission -- whether as the duration force for the exercise's entirety or for two- to four-week rotations -- required intensive planning and coordination.
"We do everything for this deployment that we do to deploy anywhere in the world," Valas said. "We exercise all of those systems," moving equipment and personnel by rail, road, sea and air, as well as providing the logistical support functions throughout the mission, he said.
"We bring them all together, and in the end, we have a remarkable training experience," Valas added.
For participants, working together in austere conditions to build schools and deliver medical, dental and veterinary care presents many of the difficulties they would encounter in any overseas deployment.
"We have challenges here that you wouldn't face if you were doing this training back at home station in the States," Valas said. "We are dealing with language barriers, with different construction materials, with tight timelines, with a different environment and climate than we are used to -- and still performing the mission."
Army 1st Lt. Michelle Lachat, a Wisconsin National Guard soldier serving as officer in charge of the school construction project in El Taramindo, said the crews are getting experience not easily replicated in the United States.
There, they typically do small-scale projects in local parks and recreation areas. But here during Beyond the Horizon, they're building classrooms and latrine facilities from the ground up, doing everything from building foundations and walls to running electrical wires and plumbing.
"For us, being here is pretty exciting, because we don't get to apply our skills in an environment like this all the time," Lachat said. "But these are the skills we would use when setting up our [forward operating bases] overseas, so this is valuable training for everyone."
For some of the participants, like Wisconsin Army Guardsman Spc. Amanda Short, Beyond the Horizon was their first deployment since completing basic training.
For others, like Army Pfc. Megan Klister, an active-duty soldier from the 56th Signal Battalion in San Antonio, it offered the first opportunity to set up operations as they would in a deployed environment.
"This is a great experience, getting to do all this in this kind of environment," Klister said as she set up communications equipment at the Rancho San Marcos school construction site. "I would so this all again in a heartbeat."
"This has been a learning experience for everybody," as they tackle projects in a demanding climate with time schedules to meet and language barriers to overcome, said Army Sgt. Anthony Rorick, project manager at the Las Marias site. "But it's been rewarding, being able to bring it all together to support such a worthwhile effort."
Beyond the Horizon serves as "a great lesson for all of our soldiers," Valas said.
"They take away from it that no matter what environment we might get put in, we get the mission done," he added. "We take what materials or tools we have and we find a way to make it work, on time.
"And in the end," he continued, "with all the training and all the experience that they will gain in doing that, they are going to leave behind a lasting benefit for the people in the communities where they are working."
As they do so, Valas said, the troops are fine-tuning many of the capabilities they would apply if called on to support their own neighbors during a homeland disaster.
"Being able to work out in the community, coordinate with mayors, schoolteachers, school directors, community leaders -- that is exactly what we do in the National Guard in the case of natural disasters," he said. "And we are training for that in a very real environment."
Participating in Beyond the Horizon is a heady experience, Valas said.
"To have this experience, where we are all working to to make something like that happen -- you go home and say, 'We pulled it off,'" he said. "We brought people together from five countries, from across two continents, and we formed one task force and we did a tough mission and we got it done. That is just something you never forget."
SEC CHARGES CHICAGO BOARD OPTIONS EXCHANGE FOR FAILURE IN REGULATORY AND COMPLIANCE FUNCTIONS
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2013 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and an affiliate for various systemic breakdowns in their regulatory and compliance functions as a self-regulatory organization, including a failure to enforce or even fully comprehend rules to prevent abusive short selling.
CBOE agreed to pay a $6 million penalty and implement major remedial measures to settle the SEC's charges. The financial penalty is the first assessed against an exchange for violations related to its regulatory oversight. Previous financial penalties against exchanges involved misconduct on the business side of their operations.
Self-regulatory organizations (SROs) must enforce the federal securities laws as well as their own rules to regulate trading on their exchanges by their member firms. In doing so, they must sufficiently manage an inherent conflict that exists between self-regulatory obligations and the business interests of an SRO and its members. An SEC investigation found that CBOE failed to adequately police and control this conflict for a member firm that later became the subject of an SEC enforcement action. CBOE put the interests of the firm ahead of its regulatory obligations by failing to properly investigate the firm's compliance with Regulation SHO and then interfering with the SEC investigation of the firm.
According to the SEC's order instituting settled administrative proceedings, CBOE demonstrated an overall inability to enforce Reg. SHO with an ineffective surveillance program that failed to detect wrongdoing despite numerous red flags that its members were engaged in abusive short selling. CBOE also fell short in its regulatory and compliance responsibilities in several other areas during a four-year period.
"The proper regulation of the markets relies on SROs to aggressively police their member firms and enforce their rules as well as the securities laws," said Andrew J. Ceresney, Co-Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "When SROs fail to regulate responsibly the conduct of their member firms as CBOE did here, we will not hesitate to bring an enforcement action."
Daniel M. Hawke, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Market Abuse Unit, added, "CBOE's failures in this case were disappointing. The public depends on SROs to provide a watchful eye on their exchanges and market activities occurring through them. They must have strong compliance cultures and adequate and dedicated compliance resources to ensure that they do not stray from their bedrock obligation to provide rigorous self-regulation."
According to the SEC's order, CBOE moved its surveillance and monitoring of Reg. SHO compliance from one department to another in 2008, and the transfer of responsibilities adversely affected its Reg. SHO enforcement program. After that transfer, CBOE did not take action against any firm for violations of Reg. SHO as a result of its surveillance or complaints from third parties. Reg. SHO requires the delivery of equity securities to a registered clearing agency when delivery is due, generally three days after the trade date (T+3). If no delivery is made by that time, the firm must purchase or borrow the securities to close out that failure-to-deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the next day (T+4). CBOE failed to adequately enforce Reg. SHO because its staff lacked a fundamental understanding of the rule. CBOE investigators responsible for Reg. SHO surveillance never received any formal training. CBOE never ensured that its investigators even read the rules. Therefore, they did not have a basic understanding of a failure to deliver.
According to the SEC's order, CBOE received a complaint in February 2009 about possible short sale violations involving a customer account at a member firm. CBOE began investigating whether the trading activity violated Rule 204T of Reg. SHO. However, CBOE staff assigned to the case did not know how to determine if a fail existed and were confused about whether Reg. SHO applied to a retail customer. CBOE closed its Reg. SHO investigation later that year.
The SEC's order found that not only did CBOE fail to adequately detect violations and investigate and discipline one of its members, but it also took misguided and unprecedented steps to assist that same member firm when it became the subject of an SEC investigation in December 2009. CBOE failed to provide information to SEC staff when requested, and went so far as to assist the member firm by providing information for its Wells submission to the SEC. The CBOE actually edited the firm's draft submission, and some of the information and edits provided by CBOE were inaccurate and misleading. The SEC brought its enforcement action against the firm in April 2012, and an administrative law judge recently rendered an initial decision in that case.
According to the SEC's order, CBOE had a number of other regulatory and compliance failures at various times between 2008 and 2012. CBOE failed to adequately enforce its firm quote and priority rules for certain orders and trades on its exchange as well as rules requiring the registration of persons associated with its proprietary trading members. CBOE also provided unauthorized "customer accommodation" payments to some members and not others without applicable rules in place, resulting in unfair discrimination. And CBOE and affiliate C2 Options Exchange failed to file proposed rule changes with the SEC when certain trading functions on their exchanges were implemented.
The SEC's order finds that CBOE violated Section 19(b)(1) and Section 19(g)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act as well as Section 17(a) and Rule 17a-1 when it failed to promptly provide information requested by the SEC that the exchange kept in the course of its business, including information related to the member firm that was under SEC investigation for Reg. SHO violations. CBOE and C2 agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the SEC's findings. CBOE agreed to pay $6 million, accept a censure and cease-and-desist order, and implement significant undertakings. C2 also agreed to a censure and cease-and-desist order and significant undertakings.
After the SEC began its investigation, CBOE and C2 responded by engaging in voluntary remedial efforts and initiatives. In reaching the settlement, the SEC took into account these remediation efforts and initiatives. CBOE reorganized its Regulatory Services Division, and hired a chief compliance officer and two deputy chief regulatory officers. CBOE updated written policies and procedures, increased the regulatory budget and the hiring of regulatory staff, implemented mandatory training for all staff and management, and hired a third-party consultant to review its Reg. SHO enforcement program. CBOE also conducted a "bottom-up" review of its Regulatory Services Division's independence, began a "gap" analysis to determine whether CBOE or C2 needed to file any additional rules, and reviewed all of CBOE's regulatory surveillances and the exchange's enterprise risk management framework. After the SEC expressed concern about an accommodation payment to a member, CBOE hired outside counsel to investigate and self-reported additional instances of financial accommodations to other members. After considering CBOE's remedial efforts, the SEC determined not to impose limitations upon the activities, functions or operations of CBOE pursuant to Section 19(h)(1) of the Exchange Act.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by Market Abuse Unit members Paul E. Kim and Deborah A. Tarasevich and Structured and New Products Unit member Jill S. Henderson with assistance from market surveillance specialist Brian Shute and trading strategies specialist Ainsley Kerr. The case was supervised by Market Abuse Unit Chief Daniel M. Hawke
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2013 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and an affiliate for various systemic breakdowns in their regulatory and compliance functions as a self-regulatory organization, including a failure to enforce or even fully comprehend rules to prevent abusive short selling.
CBOE agreed to pay a $6 million penalty and implement major remedial measures to settle the SEC's charges. The financial penalty is the first assessed against an exchange for violations related to its regulatory oversight. Previous financial penalties against exchanges involved misconduct on the business side of their operations.
Self-regulatory organizations (SROs) must enforce the federal securities laws as well as their own rules to regulate trading on their exchanges by their member firms. In doing so, they must sufficiently manage an inherent conflict that exists between self-regulatory obligations and the business interests of an SRO and its members. An SEC investigation found that CBOE failed to adequately police and control this conflict for a member firm that later became the subject of an SEC enforcement action. CBOE put the interests of the firm ahead of its regulatory obligations by failing to properly investigate the firm's compliance with Regulation SHO and then interfering with the SEC investigation of the firm.
According to the SEC's order instituting settled administrative proceedings, CBOE demonstrated an overall inability to enforce Reg. SHO with an ineffective surveillance program that failed to detect wrongdoing despite numerous red flags that its members were engaged in abusive short selling. CBOE also fell short in its regulatory and compliance responsibilities in several other areas during a four-year period.
"The proper regulation of the markets relies on SROs to aggressively police their member firms and enforce their rules as well as the securities laws," said Andrew J. Ceresney, Co-Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "When SROs fail to regulate responsibly the conduct of their member firms as CBOE did here, we will not hesitate to bring an enforcement action."
Daniel M. Hawke, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Market Abuse Unit, added, "CBOE's failures in this case were disappointing. The public depends on SROs to provide a watchful eye on their exchanges and market activities occurring through them. They must have strong compliance cultures and adequate and dedicated compliance resources to ensure that they do not stray from their bedrock obligation to provide rigorous self-regulation."
According to the SEC's order, CBOE moved its surveillance and monitoring of Reg. SHO compliance from one department to another in 2008, and the transfer of responsibilities adversely affected its Reg. SHO enforcement program. After that transfer, CBOE did not take action against any firm for violations of Reg. SHO as a result of its surveillance or complaints from third parties. Reg. SHO requires the delivery of equity securities to a registered clearing agency when delivery is due, generally three days after the trade date (T+3). If no delivery is made by that time, the firm must purchase or borrow the securities to close out that failure-to-deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the next day (T+4). CBOE failed to adequately enforce Reg. SHO because its staff lacked a fundamental understanding of the rule. CBOE investigators responsible for Reg. SHO surveillance never received any formal training. CBOE never ensured that its investigators even read the rules. Therefore, they did not have a basic understanding of a failure to deliver.
According to the SEC's order, CBOE received a complaint in February 2009 about possible short sale violations involving a customer account at a member firm. CBOE began investigating whether the trading activity violated Rule 204T of Reg. SHO. However, CBOE staff assigned to the case did not know how to determine if a fail existed and were confused about whether Reg. SHO applied to a retail customer. CBOE closed its Reg. SHO investigation later that year.
The SEC's order found that not only did CBOE fail to adequately detect violations and investigate and discipline one of its members, but it also took misguided and unprecedented steps to assist that same member firm when it became the subject of an SEC investigation in December 2009. CBOE failed to provide information to SEC staff when requested, and went so far as to assist the member firm by providing information for its Wells submission to the SEC. The CBOE actually edited the firm's draft submission, and some of the information and edits provided by CBOE were inaccurate and misleading. The SEC brought its enforcement action against the firm in April 2012, and an administrative law judge recently rendered an initial decision in that case.
According to the SEC's order, CBOE had a number of other regulatory and compliance failures at various times between 2008 and 2012. CBOE failed to adequately enforce its firm quote and priority rules for certain orders and trades on its exchange as well as rules requiring the registration of persons associated with its proprietary trading members. CBOE also provided unauthorized "customer accommodation" payments to some members and not others without applicable rules in place, resulting in unfair discrimination. And CBOE and affiliate C2 Options Exchange failed to file proposed rule changes with the SEC when certain trading functions on their exchanges were implemented.
The SEC's order finds that CBOE violated Section 19(b)(1) and Section 19(g)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act as well as Section 17(a) and Rule 17a-1 when it failed to promptly provide information requested by the SEC that the exchange kept in the course of its business, including information related to the member firm that was under SEC investigation for Reg. SHO violations. CBOE and C2 agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the SEC's findings. CBOE agreed to pay $6 million, accept a censure and cease-and-desist order, and implement significant undertakings. C2 also agreed to a censure and cease-and-desist order and significant undertakings.
After the SEC began its investigation, CBOE and C2 responded by engaging in voluntary remedial efforts and initiatives. In reaching the settlement, the SEC took into account these remediation efforts and initiatives. CBOE reorganized its Regulatory Services Division, and hired a chief compliance officer and two deputy chief regulatory officers. CBOE updated written policies and procedures, increased the regulatory budget and the hiring of regulatory staff, implemented mandatory training for all staff and management, and hired a third-party consultant to review its Reg. SHO enforcement program. CBOE also conducted a "bottom-up" review of its Regulatory Services Division's independence, began a "gap" analysis to determine whether CBOE or C2 needed to file any additional rules, and reviewed all of CBOE's regulatory surveillances and the exchange's enterprise risk management framework. After the SEC expressed concern about an accommodation payment to a member, CBOE hired outside counsel to investigate and self-reported additional instances of financial accommodations to other members. After considering CBOE's remedial efforts, the SEC determined not to impose limitations upon the activities, functions or operations of CBOE pursuant to Section 19(h)(1) of the Exchange Act.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by Market Abuse Unit members Paul E. Kim and Deborah A. Tarasevich and Structured and New Products Unit member Jill S. Henderson with assistance from market surveillance specialist Brian Shute and trading strategies specialist Ainsley Kerr. The case was supervised by Market Abuse Unit Chief Daniel M. Hawke
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