FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
Readout of the President’s Meeting with CEOs
Today, the President and the Vice President met with executives from leading tech companies in the Roosevelt Room. The group discussed a number of issues of shared importance to the federal government and the tech sector, including the progress being made to improve performance and capacity issues with HeathCare.Gov. The President also announced that Kurt DelBene, who most recently served as president of the Microsoft Office Division, will succeed Jeff Zients as Senior Advisor to Secretary Sebelius who will lead our ongoing efforts to improve HealthCare.gov and the Health Insurance Marketplace starting this Wednesday. The group discussed the challenges surround federal IT procurement. The President made clear his continued focus on improving the way we deliver technology to maximize innovation, efficiency and customer service, and encouraged the CEOs to continue to share their ideas on how to do so. Finally, the group discussed the national security and economic impacts of unauthorized intelligence disclosures. This was an opportunity for the President to hear from CEOs directly as we near completion of our review of signals intelligence programs, building on the feedback we’ve received from the private sector in recent weeks and months. The President made clear his belief in an open, free, and innovative internet and listened to the group’s concerns and recommendations, and made clear that we will consider their input as well as the input of other outside stakeholders as we finalize our review of signals intelligence programs.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
U.S. OFFICIAL,S REMARKS ON INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT CHALLENGES IN PARIS, FRANCE
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Confronting Converging Threats and the Dark Shadows of the Global Economy: Preventing Downward Spirals of Chaos, Insecurity, and Instability
Remarks
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Conseil Superieur de la Formation et de la Recherche Strategique
Paris, France
December 13, 2013
[As Prepared]
Good afternoon.
I would like to thank Alain Bauer, President of the Conseil Supérieur de la Formation et de la Recherche Stratégique (CSFRS) and the Government of France for their kind invitation to attend the “IVèmes Assises Nationales de la Recherche Stratégique” and share the U.S. perspective on some of the transnational challenges and risks that threaten our common security and interests in many parts of the world today.
It is always a pleasure for me to participate in events at military centers of learning like the École Militaire, where students and scholars can educate one other about the strategic art of confronting complex threats and challenges in a rapidly-changing world.
I can personally attest to the value of higher military education, having studied at the U.S. Army War College. While at the War College, not only did I gain a nuanced understanding of current global threats and pathways to promote and defend our national interests, I learned also that the Defense Department and the State Department are not from different planets, as we used to say in Washington. I came to understand that collaboration—across agencies, across borders—could act as a force multiplier for our own efforts.
So a big “hooah!” all around to military colleges for educating future leaders and fostering a Whole-of-Government, Whole-of-Society approach to global security.
Finally, I would also like to recognize my good friend Dr. Xavier Raufer, Université Paris II MCC, Conseil Scientifique, for his leadership over the years to address global security issues and foster collaboration between the United States and France against transnational crime, terrorism, and corruption.
In the time allotted to me, I would like to outline the converging threats that are increasingly alarming to the United States and our partners; how the United States is responding to these threats; and, finally, how the international community mitigates these threats and builds resiliency through collective action.
Navigating Global Threats and Geo-Security Risks: Human Disasters
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we live at a time of great promise and great peril. The theme of this roundtable—“Disorders of the world and crime: structural perspectives”—is timely.
Ever the optimist, I believe that through collaborative platforms, networks, and partnerships, we can create order from chaos and increase our ability to pull humanity back from the brink of disaster, especially where criminal entrepreneurs and illicit networks exploit calamity to erode our collective security and economic stability.
Corruption
Corruption is a particularly destabilizing force to our security, development, and prosperity agenda. Corruption is the lifeblood of transnational organized crime. International criminals have tremendous financial resources, and they spare no expense to corrupt government and law enforcement officials. Not only does corruption undermine security, development, and the rule of law, but it also erodes public trust in institutions, distorts markets, and fuels the spread of organized crime and terror.
Many of the threats we see emerging today are unified in one way or another by one common factor: corruption. Even in the most advanced economies, dark corners exist where a parallel, illicit market thrives. In these dark shadows, corrupt business leaders, government officials, and criminals are working together to influence the economies of many countries. Wherever criminal elements and their corrupt facilitators operate with impunity, our collective efforts to rid the world of ungoverned spaces, promote democracy and the rule of law, and expand legitimate economic opportunities will always be incomplete.
Illicit Trade
Illicit trade—or, as some have called it, “the dark side of globalization”—is another human-caused disaster, and one that I had the opportunity to discuss yesterday at the OECD High-Level Risk Forum as chair of the OECD Task Force on Charting Illicit Trade.
The illegal economy includes narcotics trafficking, wildlife trafficking, human trafficking, illegal logging, counterfeit consumer goods and medications, and other illicit enterprises. It is a network of shadowy markets in which illegal arms brokers and narcotics kingpins act as the new CEOs and venture capitalists.
According to some estimates, the illegal economy accounts for eight to 15 percent of world GDP, and in many parts of the developing world, it may account for several times this estimate. The estimated annual costs and revenues generated by transnational illicit networks and organized crime groups are staggering:
Bribery: Significant portion of $1 trillion
Narcotics Trafficking: $750 billion to $1 trillion
Counterfeited and Pirated Products: $500 billion
Environmental Crime (illegal wildlife trade, logging, trade in CFCs, and toxic waste dumping): $20 to $40 billion
Human Trafficking: 20.9 million victims globally, $32 billion annually
Credit Card Fraud: $10 to 12 billion
Simply put, illicit trade is a barrier to economic growth. It distorts legitimate markets, disrupts global supply chains, and depletes natural resources. It also imperils our collective security. We all experience the effects of illicit trade every day:
When governments cannot afford to provide vital public services and law enforcement because legitimate revenue streams from legitimate commerce are being siphoned away by corrupt officials, smugglers, and criminals;
When businesses suffer loss of revenue because of counterfeiting or black market distribution of their products;
When men, women, and children are trafficked and exploited, leading to the breakdown of families and communities, degradation of human capital, threats to public health, and extortion and subversion of government officials; and
When illicit financial flows and dirty money enter the global financial system, eroding the integrity of legitimate markets while giving false hope to victimized communities that illicit enterprise can replace fair and open markets.
Legitimate commerce loses as the illegal economy expands. We must shut down the illegal economy and create legitimate, transparent markets across the investment frontiers of tomorrow.
Terrorism
We have also come to understand how terrorism can create world disorder, chaos, and insecurity as terrorists engage in cowardly and criminal acts to destabilize peace and security across our communities.
Corruption, crime, and terrorism—the “unholy trinity” as Dr. Louise Shelley, Dr. Raufer, and other distinguished scholars have dubbed it—are the drivers of the global threat environment, the merging and blending of an ever-expanding array of illicit actors and networks.
In an interconnected world, the pipelines linking these threat actors and networks cut across borders, infiltrate and corrupt licit markets, penetrate fragile governments, and undercut the interests and security of our partners across the international community.
The growing illegal economy supports and enables corrupt officials, criminals, terrorists, and insurgents to mingle and conduct business with another. We must build our own networks to fight these illicit networks and break their corruptive influence.
Navigating Global Threats and Geo-Security Risks: Natural Disasters
Let me now say a few words about the cataclysmic events that threaten global security, especially those forces of nature that, when crossed with human disasters, engender an unprecedented level of vulnerability. Catastrophic heat waves, typhoons, earthquakes, flooding, new diseases—any one of these disasters can cause major disruptions to our physical infrastructure, economies, and institutions. When they converge with other geo-security threats, they create the “perfect storm” that can wreak havoc on the stability and security of states and communities. Across the Sahel, climate change, scarcity of resources, and human-caused disasters are contributing to anti-government movements, instability, and the breakdown of social harmony and cohesion.
I cannot emphasize this enough: to manage change and mitigate emerging geo-security risks such as these, we must better understand the adverse effects that corruption, illicit trade, and other global threats can have on economic growth and on achieving millennium development goals, as well as our security. More so now than ever before, it is crucial that we work together to address these international and transnational challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen, corruption and crime exist in every corner of the globe. So do terrorism and climate change. They occur in many of our communities, and on those occasions when they converge, they can bring disorder and instability. In this scenario, shadowy markets, criminal entrepreneurs, and illicit networks could become de facto service providers as governments collapse and chaos and insecurity increase, and in the worst case scenario, prey on the victims of pandemics, storms, and other disasters.
Diplomatic Engagement, Collaborative Platforms, Public-Private Partnerships, and Resiliency
In this ever-changing world, we need to adopt smarter, proactive approaches to market forces, natural disasters, and our own ethical failings. If we do not act, transnational threats will continue to imperil our communities, economies, and ways of life.
We must build a community of responsible governments, businesses, and civil society organizations, working together to build market resiliency, safeguard government integrity, and preserve our common security.
The United States has recently taken steps to make countering the convergence of illicit threats a national security priority. On July 25, 2011, the White House released the Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security, which aims to protect Americans and citizens of partner nations from violence and exploitation at the hands of transnational criminal networks.
While the problem of transnational illicit networks is as ancient as the trade routes that many such networks still employ today, the United States and its partners recognize the importance of net-centric partnerships to confront converging threats and the lethal nexus of organized crime, corruption, and terrorism along global illicit pathways and financial hubs.
Of growing concern are illicit financial hubs and their potentially complicit banks and market-based facilitators and super fixers—such as corrupt lawyers, accountants, black market procurers of commodities and services, and cross-border illicit transport movers.
Illicit financial hubs and sanctuaries help to create the permissive environment that enables illicit funds to enter through vulnerable points in the system and be transferred very rapidly, often with little control or regulation, anywhere in the world. All it takes is a single illicit actor or bank to accept an unsavory client for illicit funds or goods to spread and disguise themselves across the globe, from financial markets in New York and London to Dubai, Hong Kong, and other financial centers.
In support of the Strategy, the U.S. Congress established the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program in order to assist efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and bring their leaders and members to justice. The new program complements the Narcotics Rewards Program by offering rewards up to $5 million for information on significant transnational criminal organizations involved in activities beyond drug trafficking, such as human trafficking, money laundering, maritime piracy, and trafficking in arms, counterfeits, and other illicit goods. We anticipate that by rewarding informants who provide leads and tips that help hobble transnational organized criminals, we can protect our citizens and homeland, and target similar threats abroad.
Moving forward, the United States will continue to build collaborative partnerships and knowledge-based platforms with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank, the G8/G20, INTERPOL, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), World Customs Organization (WCO), the European Union, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Organization of American States (OAS), African Union (AU), and other regional and sub-regional bodies.
A New Paradigm to Confronting Transnational Threats: Convergence
In closing, at a time when global risks are growing and converging, the international community must come together to better understand the current and future disorders of our world. To confront today’s threats, risk and challenges, we must escape the conventional, inside-the-box mindset, and think more four-dimensionally—we must view today’s converging threats through a more panoramic prism and better understand how threats are increasingly linked and how illicit vectors come together in some of today’s” hot spots” and create a bigger threat altogether.
I would like to share five converging threats that I believe will be among the most critical for the international community to confront in the coming years.
Sustainability and Security: Harming our environment also harms humanity. Environmental security issues will be among the great challenges we face in the coming decades, including the impact that climate change, rapid urbanization, deforestation, natural disasters, and pandemics will have on food supplies, water levels, fisheries, and other critical resources. Given that we are a global community, consuming annually what some estimate is the equivalent of one-and-one half times our planet’s carry capacity, our ecological footprint is detrimental and unsustainable. Moreover, when we couple this with climate change, droughts, scarcity of resources, and humanitarian disasters that will trigger forced migrations. I expect that we will see more conflict and violence across some parts of the world. Global health security threats are likely to increase for many reasons, among them climate change bringing existing diseases to new areas; urbanization packing more people together in unhealthy environments, cheek-by-jowl with domestic animals that harbor cross-species viruses; and even progress in the life sciences that could enable malefactors to create microbial threats even as legitimate scientists develop new tools to defend ourselves against disease. In some of these ungoverned spaces and insecurity hubs, criminal networks and other illicit actors may become increasingly dominant.
Cybercrime and Virtual Currencies: Another emerging threat that many in the international community are concerned about these days is cybercrime. Cyber-based threats will continue to increase daily and as communities around the world lose data, money, and ideas through cyber intrusions and cyber criminals. In recent months, there has also been much reporting on the criminal exploitation of virtual currency systems that further transnational criminal operations, and the opportunities that cyberspace provides to entrepreneurial criminals to engage in illicit activities on-line and to launder their “dirty money” undetected. For example, earlier this year law enforcement shutdown several virtual currency platforms exploited by illicit actors including those involved in the Liberty Reserve $6 billion money laundering operation, which included credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, narcotics trafficking, and child pornography. In another case, the U.S. Department of Justice has alleged that customers of Silk Road, the largest narcotic and contraband marketplace on the Internet to date, were required to pay in bitcoins to enable both the operator of Silk Road and its sellers to evade detection and launder hundreds of millions of dollars. While of growing concern, virtual currencies, have yet to overtake more traditional methods to move funds internationally, whether for legitimate or criminal purposes. Nonetheless, use of virtual currencies will continue to grow, especially among criminals eyeing to launder their illicit proceeds.
Human Trafficking and Enslaved Human Capital: Human trafficking will also continue to be a threat to communities across the world, especially as organized criminal networks target vulnerable men, women, and children. In many countries, victims of human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons and modern slavery, are exploited, abused and forced to work in sweatshops, brothels, fields, and other trades and settings, some hidden behind dark corners, others in plain view, including as child soldiers. The thriving business that human trafficking constitutes allows criminals to make billions from the labor and exploitation of their victims. In addition to poverty, unemployment, and a lack of opportunities, as discussed earlier, natural disasters, conflict and political instability can also increase the incidence of human trafficking as people become vulnerable due to insecurity and economic distress. As long as some countries continue to turn a blind eye to the extent of human trafficking within and across their borders, governments and communities will not be able to build the new markets and investment frontiers to grow their economy due to the significant loss of their human and social capital.
Megacities, Population Tsunamis, and Dark Slums of Criminality: Megacities as a security issue will demand increasing attention as more and more people gravitate to cities for economic opportunities, escape from conflict zones, forced migration related to climate change, or are trafficked as indentured slaves. Many megacities are taxed and overflowing with newcomers, and yet they only keep increasing in population size. Faced with poverty and resource distribution imbalances, newcomers may be marginalized and resort to the shadowy economy to sustain themselves, leaving insecure pockets, crime ridden communities, and heightened ethnic and religious fault lines. In the coming years, it is reasonable for megacities to experience a convergence of economic security, environment security, sustainable security, and national security coming together to deal with the pressures of urbanization. Unmitigated, social unrest in megacities will have destabilizing impacts that will provide platforms for organized crime and other illicit networks to exploit, including trafficking people or exporting extremist recruits to spawn violence in other parts of the world.
Crime-Terror Convergence/Pipelines: I have been talking a lot about crime-terror pipelines over the past several years. In fact, through a partnership between the Defense and State Departments, the United States has brought together some of the top experts in the world to examine not only the possible crime-terror nexus but also to help us better understand the crime-terror pipelines across the global threat environment so that we can work with the international community to map threat networks, identify interlocking nodes, and to coordinate efforts to disrupt and dismantle transnational illicit bad actors and networks. We need to leverage more non-kinetic methods, especially financial tools and criminal justice responses, to better target corrupt actors and illicit pathways, and follow the money to disrupt and dismantle pipelines, target their facilitators, and eliminate their financial resources. We also need to better coordinate diplomatic efforts to identify and uproot safe havens and exploitable sanctuaries that enable criminals, terrorists, and other illicit actors and networks to corrupt governments, access illegal markets, and stage operations without fear of reprisal from law enforcement. I also believe, as Doug Farah and others have advanced, that there is a greater need to coordinate and expose and prevent conditions for the nesting of illicit forces with criminalized states such as we see, for example, in some parts of the Sahel. Some of the thinking and research which helped to inform our dialogues on combating crime-terror pipelines can be found in a book published in May 2013 by the National Defense University, “Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization.”
*****
The geo-security threats and risks that the international community confronts each day are very real and growing in complexity. However, our commitment to work through our common challenges will help us navigate the global threat environment. The United States is keen to strengthen cooperation with France and other committed partners to address these cross-border threats, in coordination with the international community and leaders and stewards of global security in both public and private sectors.
In the immortal words of one of the world’s greatest leaders and humanitarians of our lifetime, and someone who has had a tremendous impact on my views on humanity and security, I would like to conclude with a quote from Nelson Mandela, which I hope will end on a positive, inspiring note on the power of resiliency:
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
We cannot give ourselves up to despair, we must march forward together to confront today’s global threats and anticipate tomorrow’s challenges recognizing that the real threat centers in their convergence. Thank you.
Confronting Converging Threats and the Dark Shadows of the Global Economy: Preventing Downward Spirals of Chaos, Insecurity, and Instability
Remarks
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Conseil Superieur de la Formation et de la Recherche Strategique
Paris, France
December 13, 2013
[As Prepared]
Good afternoon.
I would like to thank Alain Bauer, President of the Conseil Supérieur de la Formation et de la Recherche Stratégique (CSFRS) and the Government of France for their kind invitation to attend the “IVèmes Assises Nationales de la Recherche Stratégique” and share the U.S. perspective on some of the transnational challenges and risks that threaten our common security and interests in many parts of the world today.
It is always a pleasure for me to participate in events at military centers of learning like the École Militaire, where students and scholars can educate one other about the strategic art of confronting complex threats and challenges in a rapidly-changing world.
I can personally attest to the value of higher military education, having studied at the U.S. Army War College. While at the War College, not only did I gain a nuanced understanding of current global threats and pathways to promote and defend our national interests, I learned also that the Defense Department and the State Department are not from different planets, as we used to say in Washington. I came to understand that collaboration—across agencies, across borders—could act as a force multiplier for our own efforts.
So a big “hooah!” all around to military colleges for educating future leaders and fostering a Whole-of-Government, Whole-of-Society approach to global security.
Finally, I would also like to recognize my good friend Dr. Xavier Raufer, Université Paris II MCC, Conseil Scientifique, for his leadership over the years to address global security issues and foster collaboration between the United States and France against transnational crime, terrorism, and corruption.
In the time allotted to me, I would like to outline the converging threats that are increasingly alarming to the United States and our partners; how the United States is responding to these threats; and, finally, how the international community mitigates these threats and builds resiliency through collective action.
Navigating Global Threats and Geo-Security Risks: Human Disasters
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we live at a time of great promise and great peril. The theme of this roundtable—“Disorders of the world and crime: structural perspectives”—is timely.
Ever the optimist, I believe that through collaborative platforms, networks, and partnerships, we can create order from chaos and increase our ability to pull humanity back from the brink of disaster, especially where criminal entrepreneurs and illicit networks exploit calamity to erode our collective security and economic stability.
Corruption
Corruption is a particularly destabilizing force to our security, development, and prosperity agenda. Corruption is the lifeblood of transnational organized crime. International criminals have tremendous financial resources, and they spare no expense to corrupt government and law enforcement officials. Not only does corruption undermine security, development, and the rule of law, but it also erodes public trust in institutions, distorts markets, and fuels the spread of organized crime and terror.
Many of the threats we see emerging today are unified in one way or another by one common factor: corruption. Even in the most advanced economies, dark corners exist where a parallel, illicit market thrives. In these dark shadows, corrupt business leaders, government officials, and criminals are working together to influence the economies of many countries. Wherever criminal elements and their corrupt facilitators operate with impunity, our collective efforts to rid the world of ungoverned spaces, promote democracy and the rule of law, and expand legitimate economic opportunities will always be incomplete.
Illicit Trade
Illicit trade—or, as some have called it, “the dark side of globalization”—is another human-caused disaster, and one that I had the opportunity to discuss yesterday at the OECD High-Level Risk Forum as chair of the OECD Task Force on Charting Illicit Trade.
The illegal economy includes narcotics trafficking, wildlife trafficking, human trafficking, illegal logging, counterfeit consumer goods and medications, and other illicit enterprises. It is a network of shadowy markets in which illegal arms brokers and narcotics kingpins act as the new CEOs and venture capitalists.
According to some estimates, the illegal economy accounts for eight to 15 percent of world GDP, and in many parts of the developing world, it may account for several times this estimate. The estimated annual costs and revenues generated by transnational illicit networks and organized crime groups are staggering:
Bribery: Significant portion of $1 trillion
Narcotics Trafficking: $750 billion to $1 trillion
Counterfeited and Pirated Products: $500 billion
Environmental Crime (illegal wildlife trade, logging, trade in CFCs, and toxic waste dumping): $20 to $40 billion
Human Trafficking: 20.9 million victims globally, $32 billion annually
Credit Card Fraud: $10 to 12 billion
Simply put, illicit trade is a barrier to economic growth. It distorts legitimate markets, disrupts global supply chains, and depletes natural resources. It also imperils our collective security. We all experience the effects of illicit trade every day:
When governments cannot afford to provide vital public services and law enforcement because legitimate revenue streams from legitimate commerce are being siphoned away by corrupt officials, smugglers, and criminals;
When businesses suffer loss of revenue because of counterfeiting or black market distribution of their products;
When men, women, and children are trafficked and exploited, leading to the breakdown of families and communities, degradation of human capital, threats to public health, and extortion and subversion of government officials; and
When illicit financial flows and dirty money enter the global financial system, eroding the integrity of legitimate markets while giving false hope to victimized communities that illicit enterprise can replace fair and open markets.
Legitimate commerce loses as the illegal economy expands. We must shut down the illegal economy and create legitimate, transparent markets across the investment frontiers of tomorrow.
Terrorism
We have also come to understand how terrorism can create world disorder, chaos, and insecurity as terrorists engage in cowardly and criminal acts to destabilize peace and security across our communities.
Corruption, crime, and terrorism—the “unholy trinity” as Dr. Louise Shelley, Dr. Raufer, and other distinguished scholars have dubbed it—are the drivers of the global threat environment, the merging and blending of an ever-expanding array of illicit actors and networks.
In an interconnected world, the pipelines linking these threat actors and networks cut across borders, infiltrate and corrupt licit markets, penetrate fragile governments, and undercut the interests and security of our partners across the international community.
The growing illegal economy supports and enables corrupt officials, criminals, terrorists, and insurgents to mingle and conduct business with another. We must build our own networks to fight these illicit networks and break their corruptive influence.
Navigating Global Threats and Geo-Security Risks: Natural Disasters
Let me now say a few words about the cataclysmic events that threaten global security, especially those forces of nature that, when crossed with human disasters, engender an unprecedented level of vulnerability. Catastrophic heat waves, typhoons, earthquakes, flooding, new diseases—any one of these disasters can cause major disruptions to our physical infrastructure, economies, and institutions. When they converge with other geo-security threats, they create the “perfect storm” that can wreak havoc on the stability and security of states and communities. Across the Sahel, climate change, scarcity of resources, and human-caused disasters are contributing to anti-government movements, instability, and the breakdown of social harmony and cohesion.
I cannot emphasize this enough: to manage change and mitigate emerging geo-security risks such as these, we must better understand the adverse effects that corruption, illicit trade, and other global threats can have on economic growth and on achieving millennium development goals, as well as our security. More so now than ever before, it is crucial that we work together to address these international and transnational challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen, corruption and crime exist in every corner of the globe. So do terrorism and climate change. They occur in many of our communities, and on those occasions when they converge, they can bring disorder and instability. In this scenario, shadowy markets, criminal entrepreneurs, and illicit networks could become de facto service providers as governments collapse and chaos and insecurity increase, and in the worst case scenario, prey on the victims of pandemics, storms, and other disasters.
Diplomatic Engagement, Collaborative Platforms, Public-Private Partnerships, and Resiliency
In this ever-changing world, we need to adopt smarter, proactive approaches to market forces, natural disasters, and our own ethical failings. If we do not act, transnational threats will continue to imperil our communities, economies, and ways of life.
We must build a community of responsible governments, businesses, and civil society organizations, working together to build market resiliency, safeguard government integrity, and preserve our common security.
The United States has recently taken steps to make countering the convergence of illicit threats a national security priority. On July 25, 2011, the White House released the Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security, which aims to protect Americans and citizens of partner nations from violence and exploitation at the hands of transnational criminal networks.
While the problem of transnational illicit networks is as ancient as the trade routes that many such networks still employ today, the United States and its partners recognize the importance of net-centric partnerships to confront converging threats and the lethal nexus of organized crime, corruption, and terrorism along global illicit pathways and financial hubs.
Of growing concern are illicit financial hubs and their potentially complicit banks and market-based facilitators and super fixers—such as corrupt lawyers, accountants, black market procurers of commodities and services, and cross-border illicit transport movers.
Illicit financial hubs and sanctuaries help to create the permissive environment that enables illicit funds to enter through vulnerable points in the system and be transferred very rapidly, often with little control or regulation, anywhere in the world. All it takes is a single illicit actor or bank to accept an unsavory client for illicit funds or goods to spread and disguise themselves across the globe, from financial markets in New York and London to Dubai, Hong Kong, and other financial centers.
In support of the Strategy, the U.S. Congress established the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program in order to assist efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and bring their leaders and members to justice. The new program complements the Narcotics Rewards Program by offering rewards up to $5 million for information on significant transnational criminal organizations involved in activities beyond drug trafficking, such as human trafficking, money laundering, maritime piracy, and trafficking in arms, counterfeits, and other illicit goods. We anticipate that by rewarding informants who provide leads and tips that help hobble transnational organized criminals, we can protect our citizens and homeland, and target similar threats abroad.
Moving forward, the United States will continue to build collaborative partnerships and knowledge-based platforms with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank, the G8/G20, INTERPOL, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), World Customs Organization (WCO), the European Union, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Organization of American States (OAS), African Union (AU), and other regional and sub-regional bodies.
A New Paradigm to Confronting Transnational Threats: Convergence
In closing, at a time when global risks are growing and converging, the international community must come together to better understand the current and future disorders of our world. To confront today’s threats, risk and challenges, we must escape the conventional, inside-the-box mindset, and think more four-dimensionally—we must view today’s converging threats through a more panoramic prism and better understand how threats are increasingly linked and how illicit vectors come together in some of today’s” hot spots” and create a bigger threat altogether.
I would like to share five converging threats that I believe will be among the most critical for the international community to confront in the coming years.
Sustainability and Security: Harming our environment also harms humanity. Environmental security issues will be among the great challenges we face in the coming decades, including the impact that climate change, rapid urbanization, deforestation, natural disasters, and pandemics will have on food supplies, water levels, fisheries, and other critical resources. Given that we are a global community, consuming annually what some estimate is the equivalent of one-and-one half times our planet’s carry capacity, our ecological footprint is detrimental and unsustainable. Moreover, when we couple this with climate change, droughts, scarcity of resources, and humanitarian disasters that will trigger forced migrations. I expect that we will see more conflict and violence across some parts of the world. Global health security threats are likely to increase for many reasons, among them climate change bringing existing diseases to new areas; urbanization packing more people together in unhealthy environments, cheek-by-jowl with domestic animals that harbor cross-species viruses; and even progress in the life sciences that could enable malefactors to create microbial threats even as legitimate scientists develop new tools to defend ourselves against disease. In some of these ungoverned spaces and insecurity hubs, criminal networks and other illicit actors may become increasingly dominant.
Cybercrime and Virtual Currencies: Another emerging threat that many in the international community are concerned about these days is cybercrime. Cyber-based threats will continue to increase daily and as communities around the world lose data, money, and ideas through cyber intrusions and cyber criminals. In recent months, there has also been much reporting on the criminal exploitation of virtual currency systems that further transnational criminal operations, and the opportunities that cyberspace provides to entrepreneurial criminals to engage in illicit activities on-line and to launder their “dirty money” undetected. For example, earlier this year law enforcement shutdown several virtual currency platforms exploited by illicit actors including those involved in the Liberty Reserve $6 billion money laundering operation, which included credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, narcotics trafficking, and child pornography. In another case, the U.S. Department of Justice has alleged that customers of Silk Road, the largest narcotic and contraband marketplace on the Internet to date, were required to pay in bitcoins to enable both the operator of Silk Road and its sellers to evade detection and launder hundreds of millions of dollars. While of growing concern, virtual currencies, have yet to overtake more traditional methods to move funds internationally, whether for legitimate or criminal purposes. Nonetheless, use of virtual currencies will continue to grow, especially among criminals eyeing to launder their illicit proceeds.
Human Trafficking and Enslaved Human Capital: Human trafficking will also continue to be a threat to communities across the world, especially as organized criminal networks target vulnerable men, women, and children. In many countries, victims of human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons and modern slavery, are exploited, abused and forced to work in sweatshops, brothels, fields, and other trades and settings, some hidden behind dark corners, others in plain view, including as child soldiers. The thriving business that human trafficking constitutes allows criminals to make billions from the labor and exploitation of their victims. In addition to poverty, unemployment, and a lack of opportunities, as discussed earlier, natural disasters, conflict and political instability can also increase the incidence of human trafficking as people become vulnerable due to insecurity and economic distress. As long as some countries continue to turn a blind eye to the extent of human trafficking within and across their borders, governments and communities will not be able to build the new markets and investment frontiers to grow their economy due to the significant loss of their human and social capital.
Megacities, Population Tsunamis, and Dark Slums of Criminality: Megacities as a security issue will demand increasing attention as more and more people gravitate to cities for economic opportunities, escape from conflict zones, forced migration related to climate change, or are trafficked as indentured slaves. Many megacities are taxed and overflowing with newcomers, and yet they only keep increasing in population size. Faced with poverty and resource distribution imbalances, newcomers may be marginalized and resort to the shadowy economy to sustain themselves, leaving insecure pockets, crime ridden communities, and heightened ethnic and religious fault lines. In the coming years, it is reasonable for megacities to experience a convergence of economic security, environment security, sustainable security, and national security coming together to deal with the pressures of urbanization. Unmitigated, social unrest in megacities will have destabilizing impacts that will provide platforms for organized crime and other illicit networks to exploit, including trafficking people or exporting extremist recruits to spawn violence in other parts of the world.
Crime-Terror Convergence/Pipelines: I have been talking a lot about crime-terror pipelines over the past several years. In fact, through a partnership between the Defense and State Departments, the United States has brought together some of the top experts in the world to examine not only the possible crime-terror nexus but also to help us better understand the crime-terror pipelines across the global threat environment so that we can work with the international community to map threat networks, identify interlocking nodes, and to coordinate efforts to disrupt and dismantle transnational illicit bad actors and networks. We need to leverage more non-kinetic methods, especially financial tools and criminal justice responses, to better target corrupt actors and illicit pathways, and follow the money to disrupt and dismantle pipelines, target their facilitators, and eliminate their financial resources. We also need to better coordinate diplomatic efforts to identify and uproot safe havens and exploitable sanctuaries that enable criminals, terrorists, and other illicit actors and networks to corrupt governments, access illegal markets, and stage operations without fear of reprisal from law enforcement. I also believe, as Doug Farah and others have advanced, that there is a greater need to coordinate and expose and prevent conditions for the nesting of illicit forces with criminalized states such as we see, for example, in some parts of the Sahel. Some of the thinking and research which helped to inform our dialogues on combating crime-terror pipelines can be found in a book published in May 2013 by the National Defense University, “Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization.”
*****
The geo-security threats and risks that the international community confronts each day are very real and growing in complexity. However, our commitment to work through our common challenges will help us navigate the global threat environment. The United States is keen to strengthen cooperation with France and other committed partners to address these cross-border threats, in coordination with the international community and leaders and stewards of global security in both public and private sectors.
In the immortal words of one of the world’s greatest leaders and humanitarians of our lifetime, and someone who has had a tremendous impact on my views on humanity and security, I would like to conclude with a quote from Nelson Mandela, which I hope will end on a positive, inspiring note on the power of resiliency:
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
We cannot give ourselves up to despair, we must march forward together to confront today’s global threats and anticipate tomorrow’s challenges recognizing that the real threat centers in their convergence. Thank you.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
CONGRESSMAN CAMP COMMENTS ON BUDGET VOTE
FROM: CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP, CHAIRMAN OF HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE
On December 12, the House of Representatives passed, with a bipartisan vote, H.J.Res. 59, the two-year budget compromise negotiated by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA). H.J.Res.59 reduces the deficit by approximately $23 billion without raising taxes.
Following the vote Camp said, “Today, I joined in a bipartisan vote for a two year budget that reduces the deficit and includes reductions in mandatory spending without raising taxes. This will give Congress the opportunity to work on serious solutions, like tax reform, to strengthen the economy so job creators can grow, hire and increase wages and address our long-term debt crisis.”
On December 12, the House of Representatives passed, with a bipartisan vote, H.J.Res. 59, the two-year budget compromise negotiated by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA). H.J.Res.59 reduces the deficit by approximately $23 billion without raising taxes.
Following the vote Camp said, “Today, I joined in a bipartisan vote for a two year budget that reduces the deficit and includes reductions in mandatory spending without raising taxes. This will give Congress the opportunity to work on serious solutions, like tax reform, to strengthen the economy so job creators can grow, hire and increase wages and address our long-term debt crisis.”
U.S. DEFENSE CONTRACTS FOR DECEMBER 17, 2013
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
CONTRACTS
MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY
Raytheon Co. Integrated Defense Systems, Woburn, Mass., is being awarded $172,680,000 contract modification (P00019) under firm-fixed-price contract HQ0147-12-C-0006, increasing the total contract value from $580,766,787 to $753,446,787. Under this contract modification, the contractor will manufacture and deliver the AN/TPY-2 Radar #12 (CLIN 0018) with associated spares (CLIN 0019). The work will be performed in Woburn, Mass. The performance period is from December 2013 through March 2016. Fiscal 2013 procurement funds in the amount of $172,680,000 are being obligated on this award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity.
NAVY
JCON Group, Construction and Design*, Miami, Fla. (N69450-14-D-0754); Orocon -- Carother Joint Venture 1*, Oxford, Miss. (N69450-14-D-0755); Mitchell Industrial Contractors Inc., and Brasfield and Gorrie LLC, a Joint Venture*, Madison, Ala. (N69450-14-D-0756); PentaCon LLC*, Catoosa, Okla. (N69450-14-D-0757); TMG Services Inc.*, Cleveland, Ohio (N69450-14-D-0758), and Leebcor Services LLC*, Williamsburg, Va. (N69450-14-D-0759); are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build construction contract for construction projects, located primarily within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast area of responsibility (AOR). The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all six contracts combined is $95,000,000. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, new construction, renovation, alteration, demolition, repair work, and any necessary design including: industrial, airfield, aircraft hangar, aircraft traffic control, infrastructure, administrative, training, dormitory, and community support facilities. JCON Group, Construction and Design is being awarded task order 0001 at $8,696,000 for the construction of an enlisted dining facility located at Naval Air Station, Meridian, Miss. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by October 2015. All work on this contract will be performed primarily within the NAVFAC Southeast AOR which includes Mississippi (48 percent), Florida Panhandle area (48 percent), and in the remainder of the NAVFAC Southeast AOR (4 percent). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of December 2018. Fiscal 2013 military construction, Navy, and fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $8,701,000 are obligated on this award and $5,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with 51 proposals received. These six contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity.
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $70,032,166 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 12 encapsulated harpoon all-up round tactical missiles; five harpoon Grade B exercise missiles; two encapsulated harpoon certification training vehicles and shipping containers; 100 harpoon improved fuze booster kits; 50 harpoon improved fuze kits; two harpoon blast test vehicles; and associated hardware and containers for the U.S. Navy and various foreign military sales customers. Work will be performed in the St. Charles, Mo. (48.2 percent); United Kingdom (12 percent); McKinney, Texas (8.83 percent); Middletown, Conn. (4.77 percent); Elkton, Md., (4.16 percent); Toledo, Ohio (3.72 percent); Lilititz, Pa. (2.24 percent); Joplin, Mo. (2.09 percent); Galena, Kan. (1.9 percent); St. Louis, Mo. (1.74 percent); Grove, Okla. (1.38 percent); Lancaster, Pa. (1.04 percent); Huntsville, Ala. (1.0 percent); Newton, Pa. (0.8 percent); China Lake, Calif. (0.8 percent); Chandler, Ariz. (0.7 percent); Minneapolis, Minn. (0.56 percent); East Camden, Ark. (0.55 percent); and various locations in the continental United States (3.52 percent). Work is expected to be completed in December, 2014. Foreign military sales in the amount of $67,638,493 and fiscal 2013 weapons procurement, Navy contract funds in the amount of $70,032,166 will be obligated at time of award, $2,393,673 of which expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy ($2,393,673; 3.42 percent); the governments of Korea ($38,122,613; 54.44 percent); Canada ($9,981,318; 14.25 percent); Japan ($7,679,885; 10.97 percent); Germany ($6,491,198; 9.27 percent); Australia ($3,354,415; 4.79 percent); Taiwan ($812,520; 1.16 percent); Saudi Arabia ($460,952; .66 percent); Turkey ($444,749; .64 percent); Egypt ($239,618; .34 percent); and the United Kingdom ($51,225; .07 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales program. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-14-C-0005).
Watts Contrack, a Joint Venture, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a $57,084,144, firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of the MV-22 hangar and infrastructure and aircraft staging area at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The work to be performed provides for the construction of a hangar, apron, and taxiway to support one MV-22 squadron. The hangar is a multi-story type II modified aircraft maintenance hangar to provide a weather protected shelter for inspection, service, and maintenance for the MV-22 aircrafts. The high bay aircraft maintenance hangar will be steel frame construction with a standing seam metal roof installed over a steel metal deck. The second floor administrative space of the hangar will be steel framed with metal deck and concrete fill. Other primary and supporting facilities include aircraft taxiway, aircraft taxiway shoulders, Substation No. 3 feeder upgrade and utility infrastructure. The project will also construct an aircraft staging area to support one MV-22 squadron, which consists of 12 aircrafts. Site preparations include clear/grub, earthwork, site grading and excavation. Paving and site improvements include site storm drainage systems and taxiway shoulders. The contract also contains one unexercised option, which if exercised would increase cumulative contract value to an estimated $58,999,995. Work will be performed in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by September 2015. Fiscal 2010, 2011 and 2013 military construction, Navy contract funds in the amount of $57,084,144 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with nine proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-14-C-1327).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $33,996,000 firm-fixed-price contract for procurement of AN/AAQ-30(A) Target Sight Systems (TSS) and data. AN/AAQ-30(A) TSS will be integrated into the AH-1Z Cobra Attack helicopter as part of the Marine Corps H-1 upgrades program for the remanufacture of legacy aircraft with state of the art designs incorporated into the existing fleet of AH-1W's, converting them to AH-1Z. The TSS provides target identification and tracking, passive targeting for integrated weapons, including Hellfire missiles, and a laser designation capability supporting friendly laser-guided weapons. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla. (80 percent), and Ocala, Fla. (20 percent), and is expected to complete by May 2016. Fiscal 2013 and 2014 aircraft procurement Navy contract funds in the amount of $31,163,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as set forth in FAR 6.302-1(b)(1)(ii) - only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity (N00164-14-C-JQ65).
Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $16,331,483 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024 13 C-5402) for fiscal 2014 standard missile depot and intermediate level maintenance, all-up-round re-certifications, and special maintenance tasks. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (95 percent), Camden, Ark. (3 percent), and Burlington, Mass. (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2014. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $16,331,483 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
AIR FORCE
The Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., has been awarded an $81,972,630 delivery order (0378) on an existing contract (F33657-01-D-0013) for C-32A and C-40B/C integrated fleet support (IFS). The contract modification is to provide support for calendar year 2014 IFS. Work will be performed at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Scott Air Force Base, Ill., Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and other locations as necessary to support the aircraft, and work is expected to be completed by Dec. 3, 2014. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $81,972,630 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/WLKLB, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity.
A-Tech Corp., doing business as Applied Technology Associates, Albuquerque, N.M., has been awarded a $60,000,000 not-to-exceed, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (FA9453-14-D-0312) with cost-plus-fixed-fee task orders to assist Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, Spacecraft Technology Division in the development, evaluation and integration of new technologes, as well as innovative operational concepts, leading to improved operational systems in support of the warfigter. The award was solicited electronically as a total small business set-aside, and three proposals were received. Work will be performed at Albuquerque, N.M., and Kirtland AFB, N.M., and is expected to be completed by March 20, 2019. Fiscal 2013 research and development funds (task orders 0001 through 0006) in the amount of $723,000 are being obligated at same time as the basic contract. Air Force Research Laboratory/RVKVV, Kirtland AFB, N.M., is the contracting activity.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Redondo Beach, Calif., has been awarded a not-to-exceed $19,970,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide research and development pertaining to the development and implementation of condition-based maintenance plus structural integrity. The scope of the program is to develop and demonstrate a probabilistic, risk-based, flight-by-flight individual aircraft tracking (IAT) framework to replace the baseline deterministic IAT framework currently used for legacy aircraft. Deliverables will include technical reports and may include hardware and software. The award is a result of a competitive acquisition. Unlimited offers were solicited, and four offers were received. Work will be performed at Redondo Beach, Calif., and Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by March 17, 2020. Fiscal 2013 research and development funds for task order 0001 in the amount of $140,446 are being obligated on this task order, which has a total value of $2,052,203. Air Force Research Laboratory/RQKPD, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-14-D-2413).
Raytheon Co., Integrated Defense Systems, Sudbury, Mass., has been awarded a $6,896,385 modification (P0005) on an existing cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursement contract (FA8730-13-C-0003) for the Taiwan Surveillance Radar program follow-on support string upgrade engineering change proposal. The contract modification provides a continental United States sustainment string upgrade that creates a controlled site-like testing environment for build deployment and system troubleshooting at the CONUS development facility. Work will be performed at Sudbury, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Nov. 8, 2017. This contract involves foreign military sales to Taiwan. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/HBNA, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Nacco Materials Handling Group Inc., doing business as Hyster Co., Greenville, N.C., has been awarded a maximum $28,725,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for Navy shipboard-use forklifts. This contract is a competitive acquisition, and four offers were received. Location of performance is North Carolina with a Dec. 16, 2018 performance completion date. This contract is a five-year base with no option year periods. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPM8E8-14-D-0002).
The Oilgear Co., Milwaukee, Wis., has been awarded a maximum $16,000,000 modification (P00004) exercising the third one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8EE-10-D-0004) with three one-year option periods for meter assembly skids and fuel. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract. Location of performance is Wisconsin with a Jan. 28, 2015 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Rocky Brands Inc., Nelsonville, Ohio, has been awarded a maximum $14,957,408 modification (P00005) exercising the first one-year option period on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1017) with four one-year option periods for Army hot weather combat boots. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Locations of performance are Ohio and Puerto Rico with a Dec. 21, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Signature Flight Support Corp., Las Vegas, Nev., has been awarded a maximum $14,649,857 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for into-plane jet fuel. This contract is a sole source acquisition. Location of performance is Nevada with a March 31, 2018 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2018 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.; (SP0600-14-D-0023).
Mercury Air Centers, doing business as Atlantic Aviation, Reno, Nev., has been awarded a maximum $13,496,963 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for into-plane jet fuel. This contract is a sole-source acquisition. Location of performance is Nevada with a March 31, 2018 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2018 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., (SP0600-14-D-0022).
Altama Delta Corp., Atlanta, Ga., has been awarded a maximum $10,340,320 modification (P00005) exercising the first one-year option period on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1018) with four one-year option periods for Army hot weather combat boots. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Locations of performance are Georgia and Tennessee with a Dec. 21, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
*Small Business
CONTRACTS
MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY
Raytheon Co. Integrated Defense Systems, Woburn, Mass., is being awarded $172,680,000 contract modification (P00019) under firm-fixed-price contract HQ0147-12-C-0006, increasing the total contract value from $580,766,787 to $753,446,787. Under this contract modification, the contractor will manufacture and deliver the AN/TPY-2 Radar #12 (CLIN 0018) with associated spares (CLIN 0019). The work will be performed in Woburn, Mass. The performance period is from December 2013 through March 2016. Fiscal 2013 procurement funds in the amount of $172,680,000 are being obligated on this award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity.
NAVY
JCON Group, Construction and Design*, Miami, Fla. (N69450-14-D-0754); Orocon -- Carother Joint Venture 1*, Oxford, Miss. (N69450-14-D-0755); Mitchell Industrial Contractors Inc., and Brasfield and Gorrie LLC, a Joint Venture*, Madison, Ala. (N69450-14-D-0756); PentaCon LLC*, Catoosa, Okla. (N69450-14-D-0757); TMG Services Inc.*, Cleveland, Ohio (N69450-14-D-0758), and Leebcor Services LLC*, Williamsburg, Va. (N69450-14-D-0759); are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build construction contract for construction projects, located primarily within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast area of responsibility (AOR). The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all six contracts combined is $95,000,000. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, new construction, renovation, alteration, demolition, repair work, and any necessary design including: industrial, airfield, aircraft hangar, aircraft traffic control, infrastructure, administrative, training, dormitory, and community support facilities. JCON Group, Construction and Design is being awarded task order 0001 at $8,696,000 for the construction of an enlisted dining facility located at Naval Air Station, Meridian, Miss. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by October 2015. All work on this contract will be performed primarily within the NAVFAC Southeast AOR which includes Mississippi (48 percent), Florida Panhandle area (48 percent), and in the remainder of the NAVFAC Southeast AOR (4 percent). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of December 2018. Fiscal 2013 military construction, Navy, and fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $8,701,000 are obligated on this award and $5,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with 51 proposals received. These six contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity.
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $70,032,166 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 12 encapsulated harpoon all-up round tactical missiles; five harpoon Grade B exercise missiles; two encapsulated harpoon certification training vehicles and shipping containers; 100 harpoon improved fuze booster kits; 50 harpoon improved fuze kits; two harpoon blast test vehicles; and associated hardware and containers for the U.S. Navy and various foreign military sales customers. Work will be performed in the St. Charles, Mo. (48.2 percent); United Kingdom (12 percent); McKinney, Texas (8.83 percent); Middletown, Conn. (4.77 percent); Elkton, Md., (4.16 percent); Toledo, Ohio (3.72 percent); Lilititz, Pa. (2.24 percent); Joplin, Mo. (2.09 percent); Galena, Kan. (1.9 percent); St. Louis, Mo. (1.74 percent); Grove, Okla. (1.38 percent); Lancaster, Pa. (1.04 percent); Huntsville, Ala. (1.0 percent); Newton, Pa. (0.8 percent); China Lake, Calif. (0.8 percent); Chandler, Ariz. (0.7 percent); Minneapolis, Minn. (0.56 percent); East Camden, Ark. (0.55 percent); and various locations in the continental United States (3.52 percent). Work is expected to be completed in December, 2014. Foreign military sales in the amount of $67,638,493 and fiscal 2013 weapons procurement, Navy contract funds in the amount of $70,032,166 will be obligated at time of award, $2,393,673 of which expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy ($2,393,673; 3.42 percent); the governments of Korea ($38,122,613; 54.44 percent); Canada ($9,981,318; 14.25 percent); Japan ($7,679,885; 10.97 percent); Germany ($6,491,198; 9.27 percent); Australia ($3,354,415; 4.79 percent); Taiwan ($812,520; 1.16 percent); Saudi Arabia ($460,952; .66 percent); Turkey ($444,749; .64 percent); Egypt ($239,618; .34 percent); and the United Kingdom ($51,225; .07 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales program. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-14-C-0005).
Watts Contrack, a Joint Venture, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a $57,084,144, firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of the MV-22 hangar and infrastructure and aircraft staging area at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The work to be performed provides for the construction of a hangar, apron, and taxiway to support one MV-22 squadron. The hangar is a multi-story type II modified aircraft maintenance hangar to provide a weather protected shelter for inspection, service, and maintenance for the MV-22 aircrafts. The high bay aircraft maintenance hangar will be steel frame construction with a standing seam metal roof installed over a steel metal deck. The second floor administrative space of the hangar will be steel framed with metal deck and concrete fill. Other primary and supporting facilities include aircraft taxiway, aircraft taxiway shoulders, Substation No. 3 feeder upgrade and utility infrastructure. The project will also construct an aircraft staging area to support one MV-22 squadron, which consists of 12 aircrafts. Site preparations include clear/grub, earthwork, site grading and excavation. Paving and site improvements include site storm drainage systems and taxiway shoulders. The contract also contains one unexercised option, which if exercised would increase cumulative contract value to an estimated $58,999,995. Work will be performed in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by September 2015. Fiscal 2010, 2011 and 2013 military construction, Navy contract funds in the amount of $57,084,144 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with nine proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-14-C-1327).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $33,996,000 firm-fixed-price contract for procurement of AN/AAQ-30(A) Target Sight Systems (TSS) and data. AN/AAQ-30(A) TSS will be integrated into the AH-1Z Cobra Attack helicopter as part of the Marine Corps H-1 upgrades program for the remanufacture of legacy aircraft with state of the art designs incorporated into the existing fleet of AH-1W's, converting them to AH-1Z. The TSS provides target identification and tracking, passive targeting for integrated weapons, including Hellfire missiles, and a laser designation capability supporting friendly laser-guided weapons. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla. (80 percent), and Ocala, Fla. (20 percent), and is expected to complete by May 2016. Fiscal 2013 and 2014 aircraft procurement Navy contract funds in the amount of $31,163,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as set forth in FAR 6.302-1(b)(1)(ii) - only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity (N00164-14-C-JQ65).
Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $16,331,483 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024 13 C-5402) for fiscal 2014 standard missile depot and intermediate level maintenance, all-up-round re-certifications, and special maintenance tasks. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (95 percent), Camden, Ark. (3 percent), and Burlington, Mass. (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2014. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $16,331,483 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
AIR FORCE
The Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., has been awarded an $81,972,630 delivery order (0378) on an existing contract (F33657-01-D-0013) for C-32A and C-40B/C integrated fleet support (IFS). The contract modification is to provide support for calendar year 2014 IFS. Work will be performed at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Scott Air Force Base, Ill., Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and other locations as necessary to support the aircraft, and work is expected to be completed by Dec. 3, 2014. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $81,972,630 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/WLKLB, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity.
A-Tech Corp., doing business as Applied Technology Associates, Albuquerque, N.M., has been awarded a $60,000,000 not-to-exceed, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (FA9453-14-D-0312) with cost-plus-fixed-fee task orders to assist Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, Spacecraft Technology Division in the development, evaluation and integration of new technologes, as well as innovative operational concepts, leading to improved operational systems in support of the warfigter. The award was solicited electronically as a total small business set-aside, and three proposals were received. Work will be performed at Albuquerque, N.M., and Kirtland AFB, N.M., and is expected to be completed by March 20, 2019. Fiscal 2013 research and development funds (task orders 0001 through 0006) in the amount of $723,000 are being obligated at same time as the basic contract. Air Force Research Laboratory/RVKVV, Kirtland AFB, N.M., is the contracting activity.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Redondo Beach, Calif., has been awarded a not-to-exceed $19,970,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide research and development pertaining to the development and implementation of condition-based maintenance plus structural integrity. The scope of the program is to develop and demonstrate a probabilistic, risk-based, flight-by-flight individual aircraft tracking (IAT) framework to replace the baseline deterministic IAT framework currently used for legacy aircraft. Deliverables will include technical reports and may include hardware and software. The award is a result of a competitive acquisition. Unlimited offers were solicited, and four offers were received. Work will be performed at Redondo Beach, Calif., and Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by March 17, 2020. Fiscal 2013 research and development funds for task order 0001 in the amount of $140,446 are being obligated on this task order, which has a total value of $2,052,203. Air Force Research Laboratory/RQKPD, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-14-D-2413).
Raytheon Co., Integrated Defense Systems, Sudbury, Mass., has been awarded a $6,896,385 modification (P0005) on an existing cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursement contract (FA8730-13-C-0003) for the Taiwan Surveillance Radar program follow-on support string upgrade engineering change proposal. The contract modification provides a continental United States sustainment string upgrade that creates a controlled site-like testing environment for build deployment and system troubleshooting at the CONUS development facility. Work will be performed at Sudbury, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Nov. 8, 2017. This contract involves foreign military sales to Taiwan. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/HBNA, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Nacco Materials Handling Group Inc., doing business as Hyster Co., Greenville, N.C., has been awarded a maximum $28,725,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for Navy shipboard-use forklifts. This contract is a competitive acquisition, and four offers were received. Location of performance is North Carolina with a Dec. 16, 2018 performance completion date. This contract is a five-year base with no option year periods. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPM8E8-14-D-0002).
The Oilgear Co., Milwaukee, Wis., has been awarded a maximum $16,000,000 modification (P00004) exercising the third one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8EE-10-D-0004) with three one-year option periods for meter assembly skids and fuel. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract. Location of performance is Wisconsin with a Jan. 28, 2015 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Rocky Brands Inc., Nelsonville, Ohio, has been awarded a maximum $14,957,408 modification (P00005) exercising the first one-year option period on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1017) with four one-year option periods for Army hot weather combat boots. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Locations of performance are Ohio and Puerto Rico with a Dec. 21, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Signature Flight Support Corp., Las Vegas, Nev., has been awarded a maximum $14,649,857 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for into-plane jet fuel. This contract is a sole source acquisition. Location of performance is Nevada with a March 31, 2018 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2018 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.; (SP0600-14-D-0023).
Mercury Air Centers, doing business as Atlantic Aviation, Reno, Nev., has been awarded a maximum $13,496,963 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for into-plane jet fuel. This contract is a sole-source acquisition. Location of performance is Nevada with a March 31, 2018 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2018 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., (SP0600-14-D-0022).
Altama Delta Corp., Atlanta, Ga., has been awarded a maximum $10,340,320 modification (P00005) exercising the first one-year option period on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1018) with four one-year option periods for Army hot weather combat boots. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Locations of performance are Georgia and Tennessee with a Dec. 21, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
*Small Business
SIX INDICTED FOR ROLES IN ALLEGED INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT SCAM
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FRAUD
Monday, December 16, 2013
Six Indicted in International Investment Fraud Scheme
Six individuals have been indicted for their role in an investment scam perpetrated from the United States and Switzerland, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada and Special Agent in Charge Laura A. Bucheit of the FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office announced today.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada has unsealed indictments against Anthony Brandel, 46, of Las Vegas; Joseph Micelli, 59, of Las Vegas; James Warras, 67, of Waterford, Wis.; Sean Finn, 44, of Whitefish, Mont.; Martin Schlaepfer, 55, of Zurich, Switzerland; and Hans-Jurg Lips, 50, of Zurich, Switzerland. Brandel and Micelli were arrested on Dec. 12, 2013, in Las Vegas, and Warras was arrested on Dec. 13, 2013, in Wisconsin. Finn, Schalepfer and Lips remain at large.
According to court documents, from October 2009 through October 2013, the defendants used a Swiss corporation known as Malom Group AG to promote investments in European equities and debt offerings, which they said would yield high rates of return. The indictment alleges that the defendants created and provided to investors fake bank statements representing that Malom Group AG had large deposit balances at prominent European banks. The defendants collected payments of between $200,000 and $1.2 million per investor but did not put the funds toward the advertised investments. Instead, the defendants used the money for their own purposes. Court documents allege that Brandel, Micelli, Finn and Warras attempted to conceal the proceeds of the conspiracy by not filing tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to allegations in the indictment, the investments that the defendants promoted did not yield any returns to their victims. When victims complained, the defendants told investors that the Malom Group AG would refund their money with the proceeds of pending transactions the defendants knew were fictitious and would not generate any proceeds. Despite the defendants’ promises of refunds, court documents allege that none of the investors identified in the indictment received a refund. The indictment alleges that Micelli, Warras and Lips went so far as to submit to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court declarations they knew contained false statements about a transaction that the Malom Group AG had promoted to an investor who had an interest in a company that had filed for bankruptcy protection.
According to the indictment, Anthony Brandel acted as the director of MY Consultants Inc., a Nevada corporation that purported to review potential investments for the Malom Group AG. Micelli, a disbarred former attorney, identified himself to victims as Malom Group AG’s “compliance officer.” Warras served as Malom Group AG’s Executive Vice President for U.S. Operations and Finn acted as a broker who recruited victims and referred them to Malom Group AG. Schlaepfer was Malom Group AG’s Chief Executive Officer and Lips identified himself as the head of Malom Group AG’s Structured Finance Group. Schlaepfer and Lips presently reside in Switzerland.
The case was investigated by the Las Vegas Field Office of the FBI. The Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which referred the matter to the Department of Justice, provided valuable assistance and is conducting a parallel civil enforcement investigation. The Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Zurich State Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Brian R. Young, Stephen J. Spiegelhalter and Anna Kaminska of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, with assistance from the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
Today’s indictment was a result of efforts by President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and state and local partners, it is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Six Indicted in International Investment Fraud Scheme
Six individuals have been indicted for their role in an investment scam perpetrated from the United States and Switzerland, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada and Special Agent in Charge Laura A. Bucheit of the FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office announced today.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada has unsealed indictments against Anthony Brandel, 46, of Las Vegas; Joseph Micelli, 59, of Las Vegas; James Warras, 67, of Waterford, Wis.; Sean Finn, 44, of Whitefish, Mont.; Martin Schlaepfer, 55, of Zurich, Switzerland; and Hans-Jurg Lips, 50, of Zurich, Switzerland. Brandel and Micelli were arrested on Dec. 12, 2013, in Las Vegas, and Warras was arrested on Dec. 13, 2013, in Wisconsin. Finn, Schalepfer and Lips remain at large.
According to court documents, from October 2009 through October 2013, the defendants used a Swiss corporation known as Malom Group AG to promote investments in European equities and debt offerings, which they said would yield high rates of return. The indictment alleges that the defendants created and provided to investors fake bank statements representing that Malom Group AG had large deposit balances at prominent European banks. The defendants collected payments of between $200,000 and $1.2 million per investor but did not put the funds toward the advertised investments. Instead, the defendants used the money for their own purposes. Court documents allege that Brandel, Micelli, Finn and Warras attempted to conceal the proceeds of the conspiracy by not filing tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to allegations in the indictment, the investments that the defendants promoted did not yield any returns to their victims. When victims complained, the defendants told investors that the Malom Group AG would refund their money with the proceeds of pending transactions the defendants knew were fictitious and would not generate any proceeds. Despite the defendants’ promises of refunds, court documents allege that none of the investors identified in the indictment received a refund. The indictment alleges that Micelli, Warras and Lips went so far as to submit to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court declarations they knew contained false statements about a transaction that the Malom Group AG had promoted to an investor who had an interest in a company that had filed for bankruptcy protection.
According to the indictment, Anthony Brandel acted as the director of MY Consultants Inc., a Nevada corporation that purported to review potential investments for the Malom Group AG. Micelli, a disbarred former attorney, identified himself to victims as Malom Group AG’s “compliance officer.” Warras served as Malom Group AG’s Executive Vice President for U.S. Operations and Finn acted as a broker who recruited victims and referred them to Malom Group AG. Schlaepfer was Malom Group AG’s Chief Executive Officer and Lips identified himself as the head of Malom Group AG’s Structured Finance Group. Schlaepfer and Lips presently reside in Switzerland.
The case was investigated by the Las Vegas Field Office of the FBI. The Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which referred the matter to the Department of Justice, provided valuable assistance and is conducting a parallel civil enforcement investigation. The Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Zurich State Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Brian R. Young, Stephen J. Spiegelhalter and Anna Kaminska of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, with assistance from the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
Today’s indictment was a result of efforts by President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and state and local partners, it is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.
JUSTICE REQUIRES DIVESTITURE FROM GANNETT CO. INC. IN ORDER TO ACQUIRE BELO CORP.
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Divestiture Will Preserve Broadcast Television Competition in St. Louis
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Gannett Co. Inc., Belo Corp. and Sander Media LLC to divest their interests in KMOV–TV, a CBS affiliate in St. Louis, in order to proceed with Gannett’s acquisition of Belo, and Sander’s related acquisition of six Belo television stations that Gannett cannot hold under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. The department said that, without the required divestiture, Gannett would have gained a dominant position in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, resulting in higher prices advertisers.
In addition to acquiring the six stations from Belo, Sander will enter into several agreements with Gannett in order to both finance purchasing the stations and facilitate operating the stations. KMOV-TV is one of the six stations Sander would acquire from Belo and would be subject to agreements between Sander and Gannett. These agreements, however, do not include any joint negotiation of retransmission rights in St. Louis. The Gannett-Belo acquisition is valued at approximately $2.2 billion.
The department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed acquisition and related agreements between Gannett and Sander, including an option for Gannett to assign or acquire the Belo stations sold to Sander, a financing guarantee and a long-term shared services agreement. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns alleged in the lawsuit.
“Gannett’s KSDK–TV and Belo’s KMOV–TV compete head-to-head in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, and this rivalry constrains advertising rates,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The full divestiture required by the department will ensure that KMOV-TV will remain a vigorous competitor in St. Louis.”
The department’s complaint alleges that the proposed acquisition would lessen competition in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis Designated Market Area (DMA). Even though the two stations would maintain separate sales forces, the various agreements between Gannett and Sander, KMOV–TV’s new owner, would align the incentives of the two stations. To remedy this harm, the proposed settlement requires Gannett, Belo and Sander to divest all assets primarily used in the operation of KMOV–TV to an independent purchaser to be approved by the United States. That purchaser will not be permitted to have any agreements with Gannett concerning KMOV-TV that could limit competition with KSDK-TV, including options to acquire or assign, financing agreements and shared services or joint sales agreements.
Gannett, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in McLean, Va., owns and operates 23 broadcast television stations nationwide, 12 of which are in the top 25 markets, as well as numerous newspapers. Gannett’s KSDK–TV is the NBC affiliate in St. Louis.
Belo, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Dallas, owns and operates 20 broadcast television stations nationwide, nine of which are in the top 25 markets. Belo’s KMOV–TV is the CBS affiliate in St. Louis.
Sander, a Delaware limited liability company with headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., has no current business activity other than preparing to acquire six Belo stations, including KMOV–TV in St. Louis, as part of the transactions between Gannett, Belo and Sander.
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60‑day comment period to Scott A. Scheele, Chief, Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 7000, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60‑day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may approve the proposed settlement upon finding that it is in the public interest.
Divestiture Will Preserve Broadcast Television Competition in St. Louis
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Gannett Co. Inc., Belo Corp. and Sander Media LLC to divest their interests in KMOV–TV, a CBS affiliate in St. Louis, in order to proceed with Gannett’s acquisition of Belo, and Sander’s related acquisition of six Belo television stations that Gannett cannot hold under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. The department said that, without the required divestiture, Gannett would have gained a dominant position in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, resulting in higher prices advertisers.
In addition to acquiring the six stations from Belo, Sander will enter into several agreements with Gannett in order to both finance purchasing the stations and facilitate operating the stations. KMOV-TV is one of the six stations Sander would acquire from Belo and would be subject to agreements between Sander and Gannett. These agreements, however, do not include any joint negotiation of retransmission rights in St. Louis. The Gannett-Belo acquisition is valued at approximately $2.2 billion.
The department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed acquisition and related agreements between Gannett and Sander, including an option for Gannett to assign or acquire the Belo stations sold to Sander, a financing guarantee and a long-term shared services agreement. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns alleged in the lawsuit.
“Gannett’s KSDK–TV and Belo’s KMOV–TV compete head-to-head in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, and this rivalry constrains advertising rates,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The full divestiture required by the department will ensure that KMOV-TV will remain a vigorous competitor in St. Louis.”
The department’s complaint alleges that the proposed acquisition would lessen competition in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis Designated Market Area (DMA). Even though the two stations would maintain separate sales forces, the various agreements between Gannett and Sander, KMOV–TV’s new owner, would align the incentives of the two stations. To remedy this harm, the proposed settlement requires Gannett, Belo and Sander to divest all assets primarily used in the operation of KMOV–TV to an independent purchaser to be approved by the United States. That purchaser will not be permitted to have any agreements with Gannett concerning KMOV-TV that could limit competition with KSDK-TV, including options to acquire or assign, financing agreements and shared services or joint sales agreements.
Gannett, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in McLean, Va., owns and operates 23 broadcast television stations nationwide, 12 of which are in the top 25 markets, as well as numerous newspapers. Gannett’s KSDK–TV is the NBC affiliate in St. Louis.
Belo, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Dallas, owns and operates 20 broadcast television stations nationwide, nine of which are in the top 25 markets. Belo’s KMOV–TV is the CBS affiliate in St. Louis.
Sander, a Delaware limited liability company with headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., has no current business activity other than preparing to acquire six Belo stations, including KMOV–TV in St. Louis, as part of the transactions between Gannett, Belo and Sander.
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60‑day comment period to Scott A. Scheele, Chief, Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 7000, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60‑day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may approve the proposed settlement upon finding that it is in the public interest.
EXPORT-IMPORT BANK GUARANTEES $44.8 MILLION LOAN TO SELL TURBINE PRODUCTS TO ISRAEL
FROM: U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
Ex-Im Bank Approves $45 Million to Finance the Export of U.S. Turbine Products to Israel
Supports 100 U.S. Jobs
Washington, D.C. – The board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) voted to guarantee a $44.8 million loan extended by G.E. International Inc. to Mashav Initiating and Development Ltd. (Mashav) that will facilitate the export of power-plant equipment to Israel and support approximately 100 U.S. jobs in Houston and Cincinnati, according to Bank estimates derived from Departments of Commerce and Labor data and methodology.
“Our financing will boost American exports to Israel and support key manufacturing jobs here at home,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. “The American equipment involved in the transaction is the best of its kind, and it will benefit our partners in Israel and encourage them to continue to ‘Buy American.’”
The exports include one GE LM6000 PF Sprint gas-turbine generator set manufactured by GE Packaged Power Inc., two Energy Chiller packages manufactured by TAS Services LLC, and related services. Mashav plans to employ the equipment in the expansion of its power plant in Ramla, Israel. The plant is scheduled to be operational by January, 2014.
“US Ex-Im Bank’s financing support for the Mashav transaction was a key factor in securing this deal for GE. It is an essential element contributing to U.S. job growth and exports in the global marketplace,” said Mohammad Kudia, managing director, GE Sales & Project Finance, the mandated financing arranger and advisor for Mashav.
The Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation (EGAP), the export credit agency of the Czech Republic, is cofinancing the transaction and re-insuring Ex-Im Bank for the purchase of other products. The transaction is Ex-Im Bank’s largest with EGAP.
Ex-Im Bank Approves $45 Million to Finance the Export of U.S. Turbine Products to Israel
Supports 100 U.S. Jobs
Washington, D.C. – The board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) voted to guarantee a $44.8 million loan extended by G.E. International Inc. to Mashav Initiating and Development Ltd. (Mashav) that will facilitate the export of power-plant equipment to Israel and support approximately 100 U.S. jobs in Houston and Cincinnati, according to Bank estimates derived from Departments of Commerce and Labor data and methodology.
“Our financing will boost American exports to Israel and support key manufacturing jobs here at home,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. “The American equipment involved in the transaction is the best of its kind, and it will benefit our partners in Israel and encourage them to continue to ‘Buy American.’”
The exports include one GE LM6000 PF Sprint gas-turbine generator set manufactured by GE Packaged Power Inc., two Energy Chiller packages manufactured by TAS Services LLC, and related services. Mashav plans to employ the equipment in the expansion of its power plant in Ramla, Israel. The plant is scheduled to be operational by January, 2014.
“US Ex-Im Bank’s financing support for the Mashav transaction was a key factor in securing this deal for GE. It is an essential element contributing to U.S. job growth and exports in the global marketplace,” said Mohammad Kudia, managing director, GE Sales & Project Finance, the mandated financing arranger and advisor for Mashav.
The Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation (EGAP), the export credit agency of the Czech Republic, is cofinancing the transaction and re-insuring Ex-Im Bank for the purchase of other products. The transaction is Ex-Im Bank’s largest with EGAP.
CHEERLEADERS FOR DETROIT: U.S. GOVERNMENT LEADERS PAY A VISIT
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Pulling Together on Detroit's Road to Recover
Residents of the Detroit area hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs during the 2007-2009 recession know adversity. But they also know that American innovation and a willingness to pull together are a powerful one-two punch in getting Detroit back on its feet. That was the message Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan brought to the city on Dec. 12 for a series of events focused on efforts to cultivate and integrate federal, state, city, philanthropic and private-sector support to restore Detroit's economic greatness. The two Cabinet officials visited Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., which was recently selected to lead a nearly $25 million Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training grant. The grant will help Macomb and seven other Michigan schools enhance and expand their training programs through the launch of the Michigan Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing. The secretaries also traveled to the Northwest Activities Center in Detroit for the kickoff of the Hire Detroit! campaign. Organized by the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation and MichiganWorks, the event brought together workforce professionals, employers, and local, state and federal leaders to raise awareness of Detroit's workforce needs and encourage employers to hire. One employer — Detroit Manufacturing Systems — has relied heavily on the resources of the local workforce system to hire their 750 employees since 2012. Perez visited DMS later in the day to talk to employees involved in making parts for Ford vehicles.
Pulling Together on Detroit's Road to Recover
Residents of the Detroit area hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs during the 2007-2009 recession know adversity. But they also know that American innovation and a willingness to pull together are a powerful one-two punch in getting Detroit back on its feet. That was the message Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan brought to the city on Dec. 12 for a series of events focused on efforts to cultivate and integrate federal, state, city, philanthropic and private-sector support to restore Detroit's economic greatness. The two Cabinet officials visited Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., which was recently selected to lead a nearly $25 million Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training grant. The grant will help Macomb and seven other Michigan schools enhance and expand their training programs through the launch of the Michigan Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing. The secretaries also traveled to the Northwest Activities Center in Detroit for the kickoff of the Hire Detroit! campaign. Organized by the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation and MichiganWorks, the event brought together workforce professionals, employers, and local, state and federal leaders to raise awareness of Detroit's workforce needs and encourage employers to hire. One employer — Detroit Manufacturing Systems — has relied heavily on the resources of the local workforce system to hire their 750 employees since 2012. Perez visited DMS later in the day to talk to employees involved in making parts for Ford vehicles.
FDIC ALERTS CONSUMERS TO NEW PROTECTIONS FROM RISKY LOANS
FROM: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
December 12, 2013
For anyone thinking about buying a home or shopping for a mortgage, the Fall 2013 issue of FDIC Consumer News features an overview of important rules taking effect soon that are intended to protect consumers from risky loans. The coverage includes practical tips when shopping for a loan and for avoiding mortgage scams. Additional articles offer suggestions on options to consider if an institution turns you down for an account based on a report of a previously closed checking or savings account, as well as information on using a financial institution's social media site to communicate or conduct business with a bank. Here's an overview of this issue, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the FDIC newsletter:
New mortgage rules: Important new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will implement provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, are primarily intended to ensure that consumers are not encouraged by a lender or loan broker to take a mortgage that they don't have the ability to repay. Other provisions will help consumers do a better job of protecting themselves during the loan origination process. Most of the new rules will take effect on January 10, 2014.
Mortgage scams: FDIC Consumer News is reminding mortgage borrowers to watch out for scammers who falsely claim to be lenders, loan servicers, financial counselors, representatives of government agencies or other professionals wanting to "help" fix loan payment problems. The newsletter presents common warning signs of fraudulent offers.
If you're turned down for a checking account: Certain "consumer reporting" companies can legally collect information from financial institutions on aspects relating to a consumer's checking account, such as the reasons an account was closed. And just as a negative credit report can hurt someone's ability to borrow from a financial institution, a checking history that shows a closed account because of unpaid overdrafts or other mismanagement can hurt that person's ability to open a new account. FDIC Consumer News offers suggestions for consumers who are unable to open a new account, including the importance of reviewing a copy of the report and disputing errors.
Using financial institutions' social networking sites: Many people interact with businesses on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Banks are also using social media to advertise their products and services, obtain consumer feedback and, in some cases, provide a gateway for customers to access their accounts. There can be consumer benefits, including finding out about new products or special offers more quickly, but users also need to be careful, such as by protecting personal, confidential or account information in their posts.
December 12, 2013
For anyone thinking about buying a home or shopping for a mortgage, the Fall 2013 issue of FDIC Consumer News features an overview of important rules taking effect soon that are intended to protect consumers from risky loans. The coverage includes practical tips when shopping for a loan and for avoiding mortgage scams. Additional articles offer suggestions on options to consider if an institution turns you down for an account based on a report of a previously closed checking or savings account, as well as information on using a financial institution's social media site to communicate or conduct business with a bank. Here's an overview of this issue, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the FDIC newsletter:
New mortgage rules: Important new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will implement provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, are primarily intended to ensure that consumers are not encouraged by a lender or loan broker to take a mortgage that they don't have the ability to repay. Other provisions will help consumers do a better job of protecting themselves during the loan origination process. Most of the new rules will take effect on January 10, 2014.
Mortgage scams: FDIC Consumer News is reminding mortgage borrowers to watch out for scammers who falsely claim to be lenders, loan servicers, financial counselors, representatives of government agencies or other professionals wanting to "help" fix loan payment problems. The newsletter presents common warning signs of fraudulent offers.
If you're turned down for a checking account: Certain "consumer reporting" companies can legally collect information from financial institutions on aspects relating to a consumer's checking account, such as the reasons an account was closed. And just as a negative credit report can hurt someone's ability to borrow from a financial institution, a checking history that shows a closed account because of unpaid overdrafts or other mismanagement can hurt that person's ability to open a new account. FDIC Consumer News offers suggestions for consumers who are unable to open a new account, including the importance of reviewing a copy of the report and disputing errors.
Using financial institutions' social networking sites: Many people interact with businesses on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Banks are also using social media to advertise their products and services, obtain consumer feedback and, in some cases, provide a gateway for customers to access their accounts. There can be consumer benefits, including finding out about new products or special offers more quickly, but users also need to be careful, such as by protecting personal, confidential or account information in their posts.
FDA QUESTIONS SAFETY, EFFECTIVENESS OF ANTIBACTERIAL SOAPS
FROM: U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
FDA NEWS RELEASE
FDA issues proposed rule to determine safety and effectiveness of antibacterial soaps
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a proposed rule to require manufacturers of antibacterial hand soaps and body washes to demonstrate that their products are safe for long-term daily use and more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of certain infections. Under the proposal, if companies do not demonstrate such safety and effectiveness, these products would need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.
Today’s action is part of a larger, ongoing review of antibacterial active ingredients by the FDA to ensure these ingredients are proven to be safe and effective. This proposed rule does not affect hand sanitizers, wipes, or antibacterial products used in health care settings.
Millions of Americans use antibacterial hand soap and body wash products. Although consumers generally view these products as effective tools to help prevent the spread of germs, there is currently no evidence that they are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water. Further, some data suggest that long-term exposure to certain active ingredients used in antibacterial products—for example, triclosan (liquid soaps) and triclocarban (bar soaps)—could pose health risks, such as bacterial resistance or hormonal effects.
“Antibacterial soaps and body washes are used widely and frequently by consumers in everyday home, work, school, and public settings, where the risk of infection is relatively low,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). “Due to consumers’ extensive exposure to the ingredients in antibacterial soaps, we believe there should be a clearly demonstrated benefit from using antibacterial soap to balance any potential risk.”
The widespread consumer use of antibacterial products, the accumulated scientific information and concerns raised by health care and consumer groups have prompted the FDA to reevaluate what data are needed to classify the active ingredients in consumer antibacterial products as “generally recognized as safe and effective” or GRASE. Under the proposed rule, manufacturers who want to continue marketing antibacterial products will be required to provide the agency with additional data on the products’ safety and effectiveness, including data from clinical studies to demonstrate that these products are superior to non-antibacterial soaps in preventing human illness or reducing infection.
“While the FDA continues to collect additional information on antibacterial hand soaps and body washes, we encourage consumers to make an educated choice about what products they choose to use,” said Sandra Kweder, M.D., deputy director, Office of New Drugs at CDER. “Washing with plain soap and running water is one of the most important steps consumers can take to avoid getting sick and to prevent spreading germs to others.”
Consumers should continue to be diligent about washing their hands. If soap and water are not available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol should be used. More information on appropriate hand washing from the CDC may be found here.
Almost all soaps labeled “antibacterial” or “antimicrobial” contain at least one of the antibacterial ingredients addressed in the proposed rule. The most common active ingredients in antibacterial soaps are triclosan and triclocarban. Some soaps labeled “deodorant” may also contain these ingredients.
The proposed rule does not require the antibacterial soap products to be removed from the market at this time. When the proposed rule is finalized, as previously stated, either companies will have provided data to support an antibacterial claim, or if not, they will have to reformulate (remove antibacterial active ingredients) or relabel (remove the antibacterial claim from the product's labeling) these products in order to continue marketing. The proposed rule is available for public comment for 180 days, with a concurrent one year period for companies to submit new data and information, followed by a 60-day rebuttal comment period.
FDA NEWS RELEASE
FDA issues proposed rule to determine safety and effectiveness of antibacterial soaps
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a proposed rule to require manufacturers of antibacterial hand soaps and body washes to demonstrate that their products are safe for long-term daily use and more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of certain infections. Under the proposal, if companies do not demonstrate such safety and effectiveness, these products would need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.
Today’s action is part of a larger, ongoing review of antibacterial active ingredients by the FDA to ensure these ingredients are proven to be safe and effective. This proposed rule does not affect hand sanitizers, wipes, or antibacterial products used in health care settings.
Millions of Americans use antibacterial hand soap and body wash products. Although consumers generally view these products as effective tools to help prevent the spread of germs, there is currently no evidence that they are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water. Further, some data suggest that long-term exposure to certain active ingredients used in antibacterial products—for example, triclosan (liquid soaps) and triclocarban (bar soaps)—could pose health risks, such as bacterial resistance or hormonal effects.
“Antibacterial soaps and body washes are used widely and frequently by consumers in everyday home, work, school, and public settings, where the risk of infection is relatively low,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). “Due to consumers’ extensive exposure to the ingredients in antibacterial soaps, we believe there should be a clearly demonstrated benefit from using antibacterial soap to balance any potential risk.”
The widespread consumer use of antibacterial products, the accumulated scientific information and concerns raised by health care and consumer groups have prompted the FDA to reevaluate what data are needed to classify the active ingredients in consumer antibacterial products as “generally recognized as safe and effective” or GRASE. Under the proposed rule, manufacturers who want to continue marketing antibacterial products will be required to provide the agency with additional data on the products’ safety and effectiveness, including data from clinical studies to demonstrate that these products are superior to non-antibacterial soaps in preventing human illness or reducing infection.
“While the FDA continues to collect additional information on antibacterial hand soaps and body washes, we encourage consumers to make an educated choice about what products they choose to use,” said Sandra Kweder, M.D., deputy director, Office of New Drugs at CDER. “Washing with plain soap and running water is one of the most important steps consumers can take to avoid getting sick and to prevent spreading germs to others.”
Consumers should continue to be diligent about washing their hands. If soap and water are not available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol should be used. More information on appropriate hand washing from the CDC may be found here.
Almost all soaps labeled “antibacterial” or “antimicrobial” contain at least one of the antibacterial ingredients addressed in the proposed rule. The most common active ingredients in antibacterial soaps are triclosan and triclocarban. Some soaps labeled “deodorant” may also contain these ingredients.
The proposed rule does not require the antibacterial soap products to be removed from the market at this time. When the proposed rule is finalized, as previously stated, either companies will have provided data to support an antibacterial claim, or if not, they will have to reformulate (remove antibacterial active ingredients) or relabel (remove the antibacterial claim from the product's labeling) these products in order to continue marketing. The proposed rule is available for public comment for 180 days, with a concurrent one year period for companies to submit new data and information, followed by a 60-day rebuttal comment period.
TEST VERSION OF ORION TAKES A TRIP
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| Credit-NASA-David C. Bowman. |
A test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft gears up to take a long road trip. Starting from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., the mockup will take a four-week journey across the nation to Naval Base San Diego in California. There, the test article will be used to support NASA’s Underway Recovery Test in February 2014. The test will simulate the recovery of Orion during its first mission, Exploration Flight Test – 1 (EFT-1), scheduled for September 2014. The uncrewed EFT-1 mission will take Orion to an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above the Earth’s surface, reentering the atmosphere at a speed of over 20,000 miles per hour before landing in the Pacific Ocean.
During the recovery test in San Diego, the spacecraft will be set adrift in open and unstable waters, providing NASA and the Navy the opportunity to recover the capsule into the well deck of the USS San Diego. While deployed, the team will seek out various sea states in which to practice the capsule recovery procedure in an effort to build their knowledge base of how the capsule recovery differs in calm and rough seas and what are the true physical limits. NASA and the Navy practiced recovery in calm seas during a Stationary Recovery Test in August where the spacecraft was set adrift in the waters of Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and recovered into the docked well deck of the USS Arlington. The Orion mockup will travel through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and then reach its final destination in California.
Monday, December 16, 2013
U.S. DEFENSE CONTRACTS FOR DECEMBER 16, 2013
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
CONTRACTS
AIR FORCE
United Launch Services LLC, Littleton, Colo., has been awarded a $530,794,720 firm-fixed-price modification (PZ0001) on an existing contract (FA8811-13-C-0003) for fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2017 launch vehicle production services and options for that associated launch capability for fiscal 2015 through fiscal 2019 are available and may be exercised at a later date. This executes the requirements for fiscal 2014 launch vehicle production services in support of the following Air Force and National Reconnaissance Organization launch vehicle configurations: Air Force Atlas V 501, Air Force Atlas V 511, Air Force Delta IV 4,2, Air Force Delta IV 5,4, and a National Reconnaissance Organization Delta IV Heavy. Work will be performed at Centennial, Colo., Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and is expected to be completed by second quarter 2018. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2014 missile procurement funds in the amount of $679,434,676 are being obligated at time of award. Launch Systems Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center is the contracting activity, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity.
SURVICE Engineering Co., Belcamp, Md., has been awarded a $42,147,274 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to collect, analyze, synthesize/process, and disseminate scientific and technical information for the Defense Technical Information Center. Work may be conducted worldwide and work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2019. Award of contract is the result of a past performance price tradeoff acquisition between five Offerors. Fiscal 2014 research and development funds in the amount of $1,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Installation Contracting Agency/KD, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (FA8075-14-D-0001).
D&D Machinery and Sales Inc., San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a $12,078,000 firm-fixed-price contract for C-17 Peculiar support equipment. Contractors will provide 11 C-17 aircraft engine lift trailer (ELT), ground handling, NSN 1730-01-560-2167, part number PT90-F-509, with a potential requirement (options) for an additional nine within a 24-month period. The C-17 ELT provides for lifting, lowering, and positioning capabilities supporting removal and replacement of the engine, core thrust reverser, or the inlet assembly to/from the on-board location on the C-17 Globemaster III. Work will be performed at San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to be completed by June 12, 2015. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, 100 percent set-aside for small business. The solicitation was posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website and two offers were received. This contract includes nine percent foreign military sales in support of Strategic Airlift Capability Consortium located in Hungary. Fiscal 2012 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $12,078,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/WLKA, C-17 Contracting, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8526-14-C-0001).
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Pelican Lumber and Export Inc.*, Lake Charles, La., has been awarded a maximum $123,232,281 modification (P00101) exercising the first one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8E6-12-D-0002) with three one-year option periods for a tailored logistics support contract to provide items under the general category of wood products for the Central region. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is Louisiana with a Jan. 16, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
S & S Forest Products LLC**, Boerne, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $123,223,834 modification (P00101) exercising the first one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8E6-12-D-0003) with three one-year option periods for a tailored logistics support contract to provide items under the general category of wood products for the Central region. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is Texas with a Jan. 16, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Forest Products Distributors Inc.*, Rapid City, S.D., has been awarded a maximum $121,882,356 modification (P00101) exercising the first one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8E6-12-D-0001) with three one-year option periods for a tailored logistics support contract to provide items under the general category of wood products for the Central region. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is South Dakota with a Jan. 16, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Seashore Fruit and Produce Co., Inc.*, Atlantic City, N.J., has been awarded a maximum $49,500,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for fresh fruit and vegetable support. This contract is a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Location of performance is New Jersey with a June 14, 2018 performance completion date. This contract is an eighteen-month base with two eighteen-month option periods. Using military services are Army, Navy, and non-Department of Defense customers. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.; (SPE300-14-D-P232).
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Portsmouth, R.I., has been awarded a maximum $42,589,944 firm-fixed-price contract for the manufacture and delivery of airborne low frequency sonar helicopter dipping sonar systems. This contract is a sole source acquisition. Location of performance is Rhode Island with a February 2017 performance completion date. Using service is the Royal Australian Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 foreign military sales funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pa.; (SPRPA1-09-G-001Y-5027).
AMO Sales and Services Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., has been awarded a maximum $27,888,242 modification (P00018) exercising the third one-year option period on a five-year base contract (SPM2D1-07-D-8400) with five one-year option periods for medical equipment, maintenance, and spare/repair parts. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is California with a Dec. 19, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
ARMY
Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $15,058,750 modification (P00051) to contract W15QKN-08-C-0530 to acquire 216 projectiles (120 projectiles under the option four Excalibur 155mm Increment Ib production option and 96 projectiles under the option five Excalibur 155mm Increment Ib production option) and 14 palletized containers for the Army. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $14,775,335 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Feb. 28, 2015. One bid was solicited with one received. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz.; McAlester, Okla.; Farmington, N.M.; East Camden, Ark.; Healdsburg, Calif.; Anniston, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Joplin, Mo.; Lowell, Mass.; Corona, Calif.; Inglewood, Calif.; Chino, Calif.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Santa Ana, Calif.; McKinney, Texas; Phoenix, Ariz.; Woodridge, Ill.; Valencia, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Congers, N.Y.; United Kingdom; Sweden. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal Picatinny, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-08-C-0530).
NAVY
SEDNA Digital Solutions LLC*, Manassas, Va., is being awarded an $11,797,558 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-13-C-6272) for engineering and technical services for High Fidelity Simulation/Simulation and Common Processing System software development. This effort is the result of Small Business Innovation Research topic number N05-059, "High Fidelity Front End Simulation for complex Physics Based Processing System." It is inclusive of engineering services and support for the development integration, test, demonstration and certification of a High Fidelity Sensor Level Stimulation and Common Processing System. Work will be performed in Manassas, Va. (87 percent); Red Lodge, Mont. (9 percent); Jefferson, Md. (3 percent); and Rogersville, Mo. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2017. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation and fiscal 2012 and 2013 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy contract funds in the amount of $2,441,994 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-13-C-6272).
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Va., is being awarded a $7,603,043 cost-plus-fixed-fee term-type contract for JPEO-Chem-Bio Defense, Joint Program Manager, Information Systems, Joint Warning and Reporting Network (JWARN) software development and maintenance. This contract will provide various updates to support modernization efforts of the currently fielded JWARN product baseline, carry forward existing functionality and develop new capabilities that will provide joint automated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warning and reporting capability across the services. This contract contains options, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to an estimated $31,498,929. Work will be performed in Herndon, Va., and is expected to be completed in December 2014. If options are exercised, work could continue until December 2018. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funds and fiscal 2014 procurement funds in the amount of $1,323,000 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This requirement was solicited using full and open competition via the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command E-Commerce Central website and the Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. On behalf of its organizational partner, Joint Program Executive Office Chem-Bio Defense, Joint Program Manager, Information Systems, JWARN, the Space and Naval Warfare System Command, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity (N00039-14-C-0027).
DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY
SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., has been awarded an $11,652,825 modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The purpose of this modification is to equitably adjust the value of the contract and its options to reflect the reduction in scope under the Broad Operational Language Technology (BOLT) program. The goal of this program is to create technology capable of translating multiple foreign languages in all genres, retrieving information from the translated material, and enabling bilingual communication via speech or text. Specifically, SRI will continue to expand on their speech-to-speech bilingual research. The previous estimated value of Phases 1 and 2 was $15,917,367 and the cumulative total of the contract was $41,536,592. Work will be performed in Menlo Park, Calif. (58.63 percent); Tucson, Ariz. (4.03 percent); New York, N.Y. (8.53 percent); Rochester, N.Y. (5.63 percent); Seattle, Wash. (6.8 percent); Marseille, France (4.95 percent); Flushing, N.Y. (1.11 percent); Hong Kong (1.03 percent); Portland, Ore. (0.41 percent); Edinburgh, United Kingdom (0.98 percent); Amherst, Mass. (4.43 percent); Richardson, Texas (0.53 percent) and Sunnyvale, Calif. (2.94 percent). The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2016. No funds are being obligated at time of award. The contracting activity is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Va., (HR0011-12-C-0016).
*Small Business
**Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business
CONTRACTS
AIR FORCE
United Launch Services LLC, Littleton, Colo., has been awarded a $530,794,720 firm-fixed-price modification (PZ0001) on an existing contract (FA8811-13-C-0003) for fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2017 launch vehicle production services and options for that associated launch capability for fiscal 2015 through fiscal 2019 are available and may be exercised at a later date. This executes the requirements for fiscal 2014 launch vehicle production services in support of the following Air Force and National Reconnaissance Organization launch vehicle configurations: Air Force Atlas V 501, Air Force Atlas V 511, Air Force Delta IV 4,2, Air Force Delta IV 5,4, and a National Reconnaissance Organization Delta IV Heavy. Work will be performed at Centennial, Colo., Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and is expected to be completed by second quarter 2018. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2014 missile procurement funds in the amount of $679,434,676 are being obligated at time of award. Launch Systems Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center is the contracting activity, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity.
SURVICE Engineering Co., Belcamp, Md., has been awarded a $42,147,274 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to collect, analyze, synthesize/process, and disseminate scientific and technical information for the Defense Technical Information Center. Work may be conducted worldwide and work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2019. Award of contract is the result of a past performance price tradeoff acquisition between five Offerors. Fiscal 2014 research and development funds in the amount of $1,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Installation Contracting Agency/KD, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (FA8075-14-D-0001).
D&D Machinery and Sales Inc., San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a $12,078,000 firm-fixed-price contract for C-17 Peculiar support equipment. Contractors will provide 11 C-17 aircraft engine lift trailer (ELT), ground handling, NSN 1730-01-560-2167, part number PT90-F-509, with a potential requirement (options) for an additional nine within a 24-month period. The C-17 ELT provides for lifting, lowering, and positioning capabilities supporting removal and replacement of the engine, core thrust reverser, or the inlet assembly to/from the on-board location on the C-17 Globemaster III. Work will be performed at San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to be completed by June 12, 2015. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, 100 percent set-aside for small business. The solicitation was posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website and two offers were received. This contract includes nine percent foreign military sales in support of Strategic Airlift Capability Consortium located in Hungary. Fiscal 2012 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $12,078,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/WLKA, C-17 Contracting, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8526-14-C-0001).
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Pelican Lumber and Export Inc.*, Lake Charles, La., has been awarded a maximum $123,232,281 modification (P00101) exercising the first one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8E6-12-D-0002) with three one-year option periods for a tailored logistics support contract to provide items under the general category of wood products for the Central region. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is Louisiana with a Jan. 16, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
S & S Forest Products LLC**, Boerne, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $123,223,834 modification (P00101) exercising the first one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8E6-12-D-0003) with three one-year option periods for a tailored logistics support contract to provide items under the general category of wood products for the Central region. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is Texas with a Jan. 16, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Forest Products Distributors Inc.*, Rapid City, S.D., has been awarded a maximum $121,882,356 modification (P00101) exercising the first one-year option period on a two-year base contract (SPM8E6-12-D-0001) with three one-year option periods for a tailored logistics support contract to provide items under the general category of wood products for the Central region. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is South Dakota with a Jan. 16, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
Seashore Fruit and Produce Co., Inc.*, Atlantic City, N.J., has been awarded a maximum $49,500,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for fresh fruit and vegetable support. This contract is a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Location of performance is New Jersey with a June 14, 2018 performance completion date. This contract is an eighteen-month base with two eighteen-month option periods. Using military services are Army, Navy, and non-Department of Defense customers. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.; (SPE300-14-D-P232).
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Portsmouth, R.I., has been awarded a maximum $42,589,944 firm-fixed-price contract for the manufacture and delivery of airborne low frequency sonar helicopter dipping sonar systems. This contract is a sole source acquisition. Location of performance is Rhode Island with a February 2017 performance completion date. Using service is the Royal Australian Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 foreign military sales funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pa.; (SPRPA1-09-G-001Y-5027).
AMO Sales and Services Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., has been awarded a maximum $27,888,242 modification (P00018) exercising the third one-year option period on a five-year base contract (SPM2D1-07-D-8400) with five one-year option periods for medical equipment, maintenance, and spare/repair parts. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is California with a Dec. 19, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.
ARMY
Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $15,058,750 modification (P00051) to contract W15QKN-08-C-0530 to acquire 216 projectiles (120 projectiles under the option four Excalibur 155mm Increment Ib production option and 96 projectiles under the option five Excalibur 155mm Increment Ib production option) and 14 palletized containers for the Army. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $14,775,335 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Feb. 28, 2015. One bid was solicited with one received. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz.; McAlester, Okla.; Farmington, N.M.; East Camden, Ark.; Healdsburg, Calif.; Anniston, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Joplin, Mo.; Lowell, Mass.; Corona, Calif.; Inglewood, Calif.; Chino, Calif.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Santa Ana, Calif.; McKinney, Texas; Phoenix, Ariz.; Woodridge, Ill.; Valencia, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Congers, N.Y.; United Kingdom; Sweden. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal Picatinny, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-08-C-0530).
NAVY
SEDNA Digital Solutions LLC*, Manassas, Va., is being awarded an $11,797,558 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-13-C-6272) for engineering and technical services for High Fidelity Simulation/Simulation and Common Processing System software development. This effort is the result of Small Business Innovation Research topic number N05-059, "High Fidelity Front End Simulation for complex Physics Based Processing System." It is inclusive of engineering services and support for the development integration, test, demonstration and certification of a High Fidelity Sensor Level Stimulation and Common Processing System. Work will be performed in Manassas, Va. (87 percent); Red Lodge, Mont. (9 percent); Jefferson, Md. (3 percent); and Rogersville, Mo. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2017. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation and fiscal 2012 and 2013 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy contract funds in the amount of $2,441,994 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-13-C-6272).
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Va., is being awarded a $7,603,043 cost-plus-fixed-fee term-type contract for JPEO-Chem-Bio Defense, Joint Program Manager, Information Systems, Joint Warning and Reporting Network (JWARN) software development and maintenance. This contract will provide various updates to support modernization efforts of the currently fielded JWARN product baseline, carry forward existing functionality and develop new capabilities that will provide joint automated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warning and reporting capability across the services. This contract contains options, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to an estimated $31,498,929. Work will be performed in Herndon, Va., and is expected to be completed in December 2014. If options are exercised, work could continue until December 2018. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funds and fiscal 2014 procurement funds in the amount of $1,323,000 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This requirement was solicited using full and open competition via the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command E-Commerce Central website and the Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. On behalf of its organizational partner, Joint Program Executive Office Chem-Bio Defense, Joint Program Manager, Information Systems, JWARN, the Space and Naval Warfare System Command, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity (N00039-14-C-0027).
DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY
SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., has been awarded an $11,652,825 modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The purpose of this modification is to equitably adjust the value of the contract and its options to reflect the reduction in scope under the Broad Operational Language Technology (BOLT) program. The goal of this program is to create technology capable of translating multiple foreign languages in all genres, retrieving information from the translated material, and enabling bilingual communication via speech or text. Specifically, SRI will continue to expand on their speech-to-speech bilingual research. The previous estimated value of Phases 1 and 2 was $15,917,367 and the cumulative total of the contract was $41,536,592. Work will be performed in Menlo Park, Calif. (58.63 percent); Tucson, Ariz. (4.03 percent); New York, N.Y. (8.53 percent); Rochester, N.Y. (5.63 percent); Seattle, Wash. (6.8 percent); Marseille, France (4.95 percent); Flushing, N.Y. (1.11 percent); Hong Kong (1.03 percent); Portland, Ore. (0.41 percent); Edinburgh, United Kingdom (0.98 percent); Amherst, Mass. (4.43 percent); Richardson, Texas (0.53 percent) and Sunnyvale, Calif. (2.94 percent). The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2016. No funds are being obligated at time of award. The contracting activity is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Va., (HR0011-12-C-0016).
*Small Business
**Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business
REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks on Climate Change and the Environment
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Kien Vang Market Pier
Mekong Delta, Vietnam
December 15, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: I want to thank Dr. Dang Kieu Nhan for – from Can Tho, from the Can Tho University, who just gave me, over the course of our boat ride, a briefing, and before the boat ride, a really eye-opening briefing about the effect of climate change here in the Mekong Delta. Dr. Nhan and colleagues of the Climate Change Research Institute have been working very closely with the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor the effects of climate change in the Mekong Delta, and the United States is very grateful for that research and how it informs our environmental efforts in the region.
Now, it is obviously amazing for me to be here today. Decades ago, on these very waters, I was one of many who witnessed the difficult period in our shared history. Today, on these waters, I’m bearing witness to how far our nations have come together. And we are talking about the future, and that’s the way it ought to be. As our shared journey continues, our eyes are firmly fixed on the future, not on the past. And, my friends, nothing threatens the future of this region – where millions of people work, live and supply food for millions of other people around the world; the entire planet is impacted by what happens here. This is one of the two or three most potentially impacted areas in the world with respect to the effects of climate change.
And if we continue down the path that we are on today, scientists predict – let me emphasize, not politicians, not radio talk show hosts – but scientists predict that by the end of this century, the sea will have risen by almost a full meter on average. To some people, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot. But here, in Ca Mau, it’s easy to understand the damage that just one meter of sea-level rise would do. It would literally displace millions upon millions of people around the world. It would destroy infrastructure. It would threaten billions of dollars in global economic activity. And this hits home. The reason we’re here today is to emphasize that a large part of the world’s shrimp farming and catfish farming takes place within the delta. And there are some 70 million people who rely on the Mekong River for economic stability.
While no single storm can be related to climate change, everybody does know as a matter of scientific fact that rising temperatures would also lead to longer and more unpredictable monsoon seasons and more extreme weather events. Later this week, I will be traveling to Tacloban in the Philippines, to see firsthand the immense devastation that extreme weather events can leave in their wake. This, too, has a very special significance here in Vietnam, where every year on average between six and eight typhoons or tropical storms tear through communities. That includes Tropical Storm Linda which, years ago, killed more than 3,000 people across the country and cost nearly $400 million in damages.
Most importantly, this is the rice basket of the world right here. Rice is one of the great exports of Vietnam. And literally tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people throughout Asia and the world depend on that rice as a staple of their nutrition. Here in the breadbasket – the rice breadbasket of Vietnam, higher sea levels mean more salt water spilling into the Mekong Delta. And anybody who has ever farmed or grown a garden can tell you that salt water and salt are no friend to rice paddies.
Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to climate change. And we will see very serious impacts if we don’t change course today. That’s why all of us need to work together and focus in on these issues. That’s why I came down here to this remote part of the Mekong Delta, which just coincidentally happens to be a place I’ve been before. But I came here not to go into the past, but to look at this challenge that we’re facing with respect to the future.
The United States and Vietnam are already cooperating. We’re working now on many levels in order to strengthen Vietnam’s resilience to the effects that we can already see. And today I’m pleased to announce an initial commitment of $17 million for USAID’s Vietnam Forest and Deltas Program. That money will go towards helping Vietnamese communities reverse environmental degradation and adapt to climate change.
But it’s not just about adapting to climate change. We are also working to stop the worst effects of climate change from happening in the first place, including by promoting clean-energy development and energy efficiency. I’m proud to say that American companies are heavily involved in this effort: Just yesterday, when I was in Ho Chi Minh City, General Electric signed a $94 million contract with Cong Ly, a Vietnamese firm, in order to provide additional wind turbines for the first wind farm in nearby Bac Lieu province just to the north of us here.
Now, it is also true that without careful planning, some clean-energy development – like hydropower – can wind up having negative impacts on other aspects of the environment. This is a very serious issue. China is currently building dams on the Mekong River, and Thailand is contemplating building – Cambodia. There are several countries that get the waters of the Mekong before Vietnam, but they all share the benefits of these important waters. And no one country has a right to deprive another country of the livelihood and the ecosystem and its capacity for life itself that comes with that river. That river is a global asset, a treasure that belongs to the region. And so it is vital that we avoid dramatic changes in the water flow and sediment levels. And already, we are seeing that fisheries are experiencing threats to the fish stocks as a consequence of the changes taking place. This is particularly concerning given the level of aquaculture products that are the largest export of Ca Mau province. And they’re even bigger today than the rice exports.
Let me bring it home: Legal Sea Foods in Boston, Massachusetts, which now has outlets in other parts of the country – Washington, D.C. and elsewhere – comes here, and many of the fish products that come to Legal Sea Foods and other restaurants in America come from right here. We’re connected to this. Our livelihood, our economy is connected to this. And we all need to work together in order to deal with it.
That’s why decisions on infrastructure developments – including things like dams – have to be made carefully, deliberately and transparently. Sharing data and best practices in an open and cooperative dialogue will help ensure that many resources of the Mekong continue to benefit people not just in one country, not just in the country where the waters come first, but in every country that touches this great river.
I can tell you that we will – we, the United States, will continue to focus on this. And I will, in my next visit to China as well as in other international fora, raise this issue so that we can work together on it in an effective way. We, the United States, actually do have something to share with people about this, because we have worked on similar issues for a long time – for decades – with the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi River, with the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere in the United States. We have been through this, we’ve learned some lessons, and we want to try to share those lessons with other people. We are now developing through the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong – or the SIM – program. We are working on sharing the lessons that we have learned. This part of the Lower Mekong Initiative is a topic that I discussed when I was in Brunei with Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and other foreign ministers who touch on the Lower Mekong Basin countries.
Ultimately, my friends, in Vietnam and around the world, we have a responsibility to pursue development in a way that’s sustainable for our ecosystems, for our economics, and for our climate, and for our people. And here in Ca Mau, the importance of honoring that responsibility is as clear as anywhere. And that’s why we wanted to come here today.
Local farmers and local fisheries have depended on these waters for centuries. This is not a new phenomenon. This is life itself here, and they depend on them today. They need their children to be able to depend on them in the future. And the United States is committed to working with Vietnam to make sure that they are able to do so; that our shared journey continues, and that we’re leaving behind a planet that’s worthy of the generations to come. And I can’t tell you how good it feels for me to be back here in this place, to be working on the future and to be working together with our Vietnamese friends in an effort to try to build that future together in a constructive way.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Remarks on Climate Change and the Environment
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Kien Vang Market Pier
Mekong Delta, Vietnam
December 15, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: I want to thank Dr. Dang Kieu Nhan for – from Can Tho, from the Can Tho University, who just gave me, over the course of our boat ride, a briefing, and before the boat ride, a really eye-opening briefing about the effect of climate change here in the Mekong Delta. Dr. Nhan and colleagues of the Climate Change Research Institute have been working very closely with the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor the effects of climate change in the Mekong Delta, and the United States is very grateful for that research and how it informs our environmental efforts in the region.
Now, it is obviously amazing for me to be here today. Decades ago, on these very waters, I was one of many who witnessed the difficult period in our shared history. Today, on these waters, I’m bearing witness to how far our nations have come together. And we are talking about the future, and that’s the way it ought to be. As our shared journey continues, our eyes are firmly fixed on the future, not on the past. And, my friends, nothing threatens the future of this region – where millions of people work, live and supply food for millions of other people around the world; the entire planet is impacted by what happens here. This is one of the two or three most potentially impacted areas in the world with respect to the effects of climate change.
And if we continue down the path that we are on today, scientists predict – let me emphasize, not politicians, not radio talk show hosts – but scientists predict that by the end of this century, the sea will have risen by almost a full meter on average. To some people, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot. But here, in Ca Mau, it’s easy to understand the damage that just one meter of sea-level rise would do. It would literally displace millions upon millions of people around the world. It would destroy infrastructure. It would threaten billions of dollars in global economic activity. And this hits home. The reason we’re here today is to emphasize that a large part of the world’s shrimp farming and catfish farming takes place within the delta. And there are some 70 million people who rely on the Mekong River for economic stability.
While no single storm can be related to climate change, everybody does know as a matter of scientific fact that rising temperatures would also lead to longer and more unpredictable monsoon seasons and more extreme weather events. Later this week, I will be traveling to Tacloban in the Philippines, to see firsthand the immense devastation that extreme weather events can leave in their wake. This, too, has a very special significance here in Vietnam, where every year on average between six and eight typhoons or tropical storms tear through communities. That includes Tropical Storm Linda which, years ago, killed more than 3,000 people across the country and cost nearly $400 million in damages.
Most importantly, this is the rice basket of the world right here. Rice is one of the great exports of Vietnam. And literally tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people throughout Asia and the world depend on that rice as a staple of their nutrition. Here in the breadbasket – the rice breadbasket of Vietnam, higher sea levels mean more salt water spilling into the Mekong Delta. And anybody who has ever farmed or grown a garden can tell you that salt water and salt are no friend to rice paddies.
Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to climate change. And we will see very serious impacts if we don’t change course today. That’s why all of us need to work together and focus in on these issues. That’s why I came down here to this remote part of the Mekong Delta, which just coincidentally happens to be a place I’ve been before. But I came here not to go into the past, but to look at this challenge that we’re facing with respect to the future.
The United States and Vietnam are already cooperating. We’re working now on many levels in order to strengthen Vietnam’s resilience to the effects that we can already see. And today I’m pleased to announce an initial commitment of $17 million for USAID’s Vietnam Forest and Deltas Program. That money will go towards helping Vietnamese communities reverse environmental degradation and adapt to climate change.
But it’s not just about adapting to climate change. We are also working to stop the worst effects of climate change from happening in the first place, including by promoting clean-energy development and energy efficiency. I’m proud to say that American companies are heavily involved in this effort: Just yesterday, when I was in Ho Chi Minh City, General Electric signed a $94 million contract with Cong Ly, a Vietnamese firm, in order to provide additional wind turbines for the first wind farm in nearby Bac Lieu province just to the north of us here.
Now, it is also true that without careful planning, some clean-energy development – like hydropower – can wind up having negative impacts on other aspects of the environment. This is a very serious issue. China is currently building dams on the Mekong River, and Thailand is contemplating building – Cambodia. There are several countries that get the waters of the Mekong before Vietnam, but they all share the benefits of these important waters. And no one country has a right to deprive another country of the livelihood and the ecosystem and its capacity for life itself that comes with that river. That river is a global asset, a treasure that belongs to the region. And so it is vital that we avoid dramatic changes in the water flow and sediment levels. And already, we are seeing that fisheries are experiencing threats to the fish stocks as a consequence of the changes taking place. This is particularly concerning given the level of aquaculture products that are the largest export of Ca Mau province. And they’re even bigger today than the rice exports.
Let me bring it home: Legal Sea Foods in Boston, Massachusetts, which now has outlets in other parts of the country – Washington, D.C. and elsewhere – comes here, and many of the fish products that come to Legal Sea Foods and other restaurants in America come from right here. We’re connected to this. Our livelihood, our economy is connected to this. And we all need to work together in order to deal with it.
That’s why decisions on infrastructure developments – including things like dams – have to be made carefully, deliberately and transparently. Sharing data and best practices in an open and cooperative dialogue will help ensure that many resources of the Mekong continue to benefit people not just in one country, not just in the country where the waters come first, but in every country that touches this great river.
I can tell you that we will – we, the United States, will continue to focus on this. And I will, in my next visit to China as well as in other international fora, raise this issue so that we can work together on it in an effective way. We, the United States, actually do have something to share with people about this, because we have worked on similar issues for a long time – for decades – with the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi River, with the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere in the United States. We have been through this, we’ve learned some lessons, and we want to try to share those lessons with other people. We are now developing through the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong – or the SIM – program. We are working on sharing the lessons that we have learned. This part of the Lower Mekong Initiative is a topic that I discussed when I was in Brunei with Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and other foreign ministers who touch on the Lower Mekong Basin countries.
Ultimately, my friends, in Vietnam and around the world, we have a responsibility to pursue development in a way that’s sustainable for our ecosystems, for our economics, and for our climate, and for our people. And here in Ca Mau, the importance of honoring that responsibility is as clear as anywhere. And that’s why we wanted to come here today.
Local farmers and local fisheries have depended on these waters for centuries. This is not a new phenomenon. This is life itself here, and they depend on them today. They need their children to be able to depend on them in the future. And the United States is committed to working with Vietnam to make sure that they are able to do so; that our shared journey continues, and that we’re leaving behind a planet that’s worthy of the generations to come. And I can’t tell you how good it feels for me to be back here in this place, to be working on the future and to be working together with our Vietnamese friends in an effort to try to build that future together in a constructive way.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
REMARKS BY SECRETARY KERRY AND VIETNAMESE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER PHAM BINH MINH
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Joint Press Availability With Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh
Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Government Guest House
Hanoi, Vietnam
December 16, 2013
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Excellency John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, ladies and gentlemen, correspondents; you may now have the honor to introduce Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to co-chair the press conference announcing the outcomes of the talk between the two sides.
To begin with, I’d like to invite His Excellency Phan Binh Minh to take the floor.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: His Excellency Secretary of State John Kerry, dear correspondents, member of the press; first I would like to extend my warmest welcome to Mr. John Kerry for coming back to Vietnam in the capacity of the Secretary of State. I’d like to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your warm sentiments and friendship toward Vietnam and its people. Once again, I would like to highly value and commend your significant contribution in the past capacity as the senator and in the current capacity as the Secretary of State to promoting bilateral relationship between Vietnam and U.S.
Mr. Secretary and I had an open, candid, and constructive, meaningful talk on many issues of bilateral relations in order to promote this relationship as well as in regional and international issues. We note with satisfaction the practical and meaningful development of bilateral relations and multilateral framework cooperation between the two countries ever since the establishment of comprehensive partnership between our two countries. In the official visit to the U.S. by His Excellency State President Truong Tan Sang, we have discussed specific measures to further promote comprehensive partnership between the two countries in all areas. The two sides have agreed to enhance and intensify exchange of high-level delegations and contacts, and further promote cooperation in economic trade and investment. The U.S. is currently the leading trading partners and the seventh largest investor in Vietnam, however many potential for further cooperation remain untapped between the two countries, especially in economic trade and investment. We should further promote this to the level of comprehensive partnership.
Mr. Secretary and I have agreed that we should further promote cooperation in science and technology, including the official signing of the 123 civilian nuclear agreement and further promote cooperation in education, health, climate change, humanitarian issues, and addressing the consequences of war in the coming time.
I would take this opportunity to express my high appreciation of the USAID signing of contract for the environment impact assessment at the hotspots in Bien Hoa Airport and fact that the USAID and MOLISA of Vietnam have signed MOU on resolving the unexploded ordnance.
Mr. Secretary and I also agreed that the two sides would maintain candid and positive and constructive dialogues on issues of differences, including human rights. We also exchanged on the further implementation and enhancement of cooperation within the framework of regional and international forums, and we reaffirmed the support for ASEAN’s centrality to an emerging regional architecture.
On the East Sea issue, we emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, and maritime safety, and we share the view that all territorial disputes in the East Sea must be resolved by peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the UNCLOS 1982, and the relevant party should strictly observe the DOC and soon move forward to the conclusion of a COC.
Thank you.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you very much, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Pham Binh Minh. Next I would like to invite Secretary John Kerry.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much, Foreign Minister Minh. It’s a pleasure to be with you again. I’m happy to be with you here. And I’m delighted to be in Hanoi for the first time as Secretary of State and to see with my own eyes how our relationship with Vietnam is deepening and moving forward. It’s meaningful to me personally to be here, obviously, because of the history, but frankly, much more so right now because of the future.
I want to thank my friend, the Deputy Prime Minister now and Foreign Minister Minh, for his hospitality and for a very productive discussion, continuing discussions which we had in New York and at the conferences, the ASEAN, as well as my meetings with the president, President Sang, and with the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Dung. I’m also looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Dung in a little while, and with General Secretary Trong later today.
This is my fourth visit to Asia since I became Secretary, and I want to re-emphasize that the U.S. rebalance toward the Asia Pacific has been a top priority for President Obama from day one when he came into office. And today, our economic, our diplomatic, our strategic, and our people-to-people initiatives throughout the region are stronger than ever. What some are calling our rebalance within the rebalance, which is an intensified focus on Southeast Asia, is now a central part of our policy, as is our engagement with ASEAN, which sits at the heart of the Asia Pacific’s regional architecture. Nowhere is this more important or more visible, frankly, than in the heightened investment and engagement than right here in Vietnam.
When I touched down in Hanoi in 1991 for the first time as a civilian and as a senator, I have stark memories of a very, very different Hanoi. There were still laws that then restricted people’s interactions with foreigners. There was none of the vibrancy and energy that you see today in terms of the stores and shops and entrepreneurial activity. There were actually very, very few cars back then. Almost everybody was on a bicycle, bicycles all over; the streets were literally filled with bicycles. And there were very few motorbikes, very few motorcycles, not even that many hotels. I remember staying in the Government Guest House.
Today, the energy of this city is absolutely remarkable, as is the energy of this country, and the transformation is nothing short of amazing. In the years since we lifted the embargo and normalized relations, Vietnam has become a modern nation and an important partner of the United States. And it is a nation today with almost 40 percent of its population under the age of 25, all people teeming with energy and enthusiasm for the potential of the future.
Last July, President Obama and President Sang signed a new level of collaboration with the announcement of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. And I want to briefly touch on four specific areas where we are deepening our bilateral relationship.
First and foremost, we know that education, education of our people-to-people ties, are laying the foundation for a close U.S.-Vietnam partnership in years to come. And we’ve made great progress in strengthening those ties. Today, more than 16,000 Vietnamese students are studying in the United States, more than almost every other country in the world. In Ho Chi Minh City, I had the opportunity to meet and talk and listen to some of the impressive young men and women who were the alumni among the 4,000 alumni of the Fulbright program here in Vietnam. I take special pride in this program because when I was a younger senator I initiated efforts in the Senate to start this program. And before long, it became the largest Fulbright program in the world. Today, it is the second-largest program in the world. It has been an extraordinary success so far, and we look forward to building on that success by continuing to work with the Vietnamese Government to establish a full-fledged Fulbright University in Vietnam in the near future.
The second area that we are focusing on is trade. Trade is perhaps the clearest example of how far our nations have come in the 18 years since we normalized relations. Two-way trade between the United States and Vietnam has increased since 1995 more than 50-fold. Last week, we launched the Governance for Inclusive Growth program, through which the United States will help support Vietnam’s ongoing transition to a more inclusive, market-based economy that is based on the rule of law.
And as I told business leaders in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, the assistance that we provide through this program, this new program, will also help Vietnam to implement the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Once finalized, TPP will raise standards, including labor standards, open markets up. It will create millions of new jobs, not just in the United States and Vietnam but throughout the Asia Pacific. We are working very closely with Vietnam and other regional partners in order to complete the TPP negotiations as quickly as possible. But to realize our potential as a partner and for Vietnam to realize its potential as a thriving economy – and this is something we talked about openly and frankly – Vietnam needs to show a continued progress on human rights and freedoms, including the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of association. I made this point clearly to Deputy Prime Minister Minh, as I have in all my previous discussions with Vietnamese officials.
Third, we are collaborating closely on the environment. Climate change is perhaps the single greatest threat facing most nations on the planet today. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit the same waters in the Mekong Delta that I patrolled 45 years ago, and I saw firsthand the ways in which the United States and Vietnam are now working hand in hand to pursue development in a way that is sustainable for the environment, for local economies, and most importantly, sustainable for the climate.
And finally, we are working to strengthen regional security. We are expanding our collaboration on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts as well as on search-and-rescue capabilities. We’re also working more closely than ever on peacekeeping efforts. Next year, Vietnam, for the first time, will participate in the United Nations global peacekeeping operations.
No region can be secure in the absence of effective law enforcement in territorial waters. And because of that, today I am also pleased to announce $32.5 million in new U.S. assistance for maritime law enforcement in Southeast Asian states. This assistance will include, among other things, training and new fast-patrol vessels for coast guards. Building on existing efforts like the Gulf of Thailand initiative, this assistance will foster greater regional cooperation on maritime issues and ultimately provide the ability of Southeast Asian nations to carry out humanitarian activities and to police and monitor their waters more effectively.
In particular, peace and stability in the South China Sea is a top priority for us and for countries in the region. We are very concerned by and strongly opposed to coercive and aggressive tactics to advance territorial claims. Claimants have a responsibility to clarify their claims and to align their claims with international law and to pursue those claims within international peaceful institutions. Those countries can engage in arbitration and other means of negotiating disputes peacefully. We support ASEAN’s efforts with China to move quickly to conclude a code of conduct. And while a code of conduct is necessary for the long term, nations can also reduce the risk of miscommunication and miscalculation by taking steps today to put crisis prevention arrangements in place. That is an easy way to try and reduce tensions and try to reduce the potential for conflict.
Nowhere is that kind of effort more necessary today than it is in the East China Sea. President Obama and I are obviously very concerned about recent actions that have increased tensions between China and Japan, and we call for intensified negotiations and diplomatic initiatives.
Lastly, in discussing territorial disputes, I raised our deep concerns about China’s announcement of an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone. This move clearly increases the risk of a dangerous miscalculation or an accident, and it could escalate tensions even further. I told the deputy prime minister that the United States does not recognize that zone and does not accept it. China’s announcement will not change how the United States conducts military operations in the region.
This is a concern about which we have been very, very candid, and we’ve been very direct with the Chinese. The zone should not be implemented, and China should refrain from taking similar unilateral actions elsewhere in the region, and particularly over the South China Sea.
In the months and years ahead, I am really confident that this relationship is going to grow stronger, that we are going to make progress. Today, Vietnam is a country that is committed to a different future, to a better future. And despite the difficult history that our nations have shared, I have always been impressed in the many, many visits that I have made here, from working on POW/MIA to working on lifting the embargo to working on normalization, and now working on trying to truly give full definition, full blossom if you will, to the peaceful possibilities between our countries. As we begin to approach the 20th anniversary of normalized relations, we know that a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam that respects the rule of law and human rights will be a critical partner for the United States on many regional and global challenges that we face together.
So thank you very much, Mr. Minister, for welcoming me and my delegation here. I am grateful for our discussions thus far. We’ll have more time to talk over dinner tonight, and I look forward to my meeting with the prime minister and the chairman. Thank you.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: (Via interpreter) Thank you, Secretary John Kerry. Now I’d like to give some time for questions from correspondents. Please, from Vietnam News Agency.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible) from Vietnam News Agency. I’d like to have a question for both foreign ministers. Would you give your view about the prospects of cooperation between Vietnam and the U.S. in economic trade and investment in the future?
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: (Via interpreter) I’d like to address the question from Vietnam News Agency. In terms of economic trade and investment, this is one of the priorities in bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. (Inaudible) bilateral trade (inaudible) it has (inaudible) bilateral relations (inaudible) any country (inaudible) the U.S., it’s the seventh-largest investor to Vietnam. And we have great potential for economic trade and investment cooperation, during the talks we have exchanged on this issue. And we have (inaudible) promote specific measures to further enhance cooperation (inaudible) in the future. Because we have great potential (inaudible) in this area.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you, Minister. As I mentioned, the trade between the United States and Vietnam since 1995 has increased 50 times and it is growing on a constant basis. And we believe that if we can quickly come to agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP trade agreement, that will create a trade alliance where you have almost 40 percent of the GDP of the world combined in this region, which is a very, very powerful trading entity. And if you raise the standards with respect to trade – the transparency, accountability, the labor standards and so forth – what you wind up doing is bringing everybody else along. They have to raise their standards in order to be able to partake in that, but also to be able to compete effectively.
So we think that this trade agreement is really one of the most significant steps that both of our nations can take to create jobs at home. Jobs will be created in America, jobs will be created in Vietnam, and we will both do better as a result. Just earlier this month, our U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Froman, and the team from his shop met with representatives from the 11 TPP partner countries. And we’re confident that that meeting is building momentum, that the work can move ahead quickly, that the negotiators will keep working hard. And the ministers plan to meet again in early January. So we’re very, very hopeful that achieving an ambitious, comprehensive, high-standard agreement is really critical for creating jobs and promoting growth.
Now, one thing I did raise with the minister is that we believe – we happen to believe that Vietnam will be even more energized economically, more competitive, and more powerful if it begins to transition some of its state-owned enterprises into private sector and begin to compete in the private sector in a way that most other countries are embracing. We think that’ll make a difference, but obviously, Vietnam needs to make its own decision about its schedule or its intentions. But we believe the TPP can define a very strong economic growth rate for this region and we really hope countries will rapidly move to close the agreement and to implement it.
MODERATOR: (In Vietnamese.)
QUESTION: Hello, Lesley Wroughton from Reuters. Mr. Secretary, how does your announcement today on maritime security – how does your announcement today on increased assistance for maritime security fit into these increased tensions with China? If anything, those tensions seem to have escalated not only in the East China Sea but also in the South China Sea.
And to the deputy prime minister, how – do you at all feel threatened by China, and how will this assistance help you deal with that threat?
Another one for Mr. Secretary on TPP: When you departed Washington, 47 lawmakers sent you a letter to say – to ask you to tie the TPP talks with Vietnam in with progress on human rights. Did you get any assurances today of any improvements coming up in that record, in the human rights record?
SECRETARY KERRY: With respect to the maritime announcement that we’ve made today, quite simply and directly let me tell you that this maritime announcement has nothing to do with any recent announcements by any other country or any of the tensions in the region. It is simply not a response to those recent announcements. This is part of a gradual and deliberate expansion that has been planned for some period of time which we have been working on. It expands on existing agreements and programs that we have now and it builds on a commitment to strengthen maritime capacity within ASEAN and within this region. So this is really an ongoing policy and not some kind of quickly conceived reaction to any events in the region.
With respect to the letter, I am very cognizant of the issue. As I said in my opening comments, we discussed it. I raised the issue with the foreign minister. There is some progress that is being made, and we have encouraged more progress to be made. There are increased number of church registrations. There have been increases within the new constitutional process of some additional rights. There are some things that we would have liked to have seen embraced that weren’t, and we’ve raised those. But this is an ongoing conversation, absolutely. I also raised individual cases of individual people and situations, and we had a very direct and healthy exchange about this. And I’ll let the foreign minister speak for himself about it, as he no doubt will.
But our need is to see progress on that, and I made it clear that TPP, the 123 agreement, the congressional readiness to move forward on any number of initiatives will be, obviously, affected by the degree of progress that is perceived.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible.) We have comprehensive, as the Secretary mentioned, (inaudible) relations, and there has been recent (inaudible). We have differences at sea. We also have agreements on six guiding principles on resolving issues at sea, including (inaudible) the United Nations welcomes the (inaudible) in ASEAN countries who are also implementing the DOC and well on the way to formulate DOC. And these are the kind of measures that are going to maintain peace, stability, maritime security, and safety. Thank you.
MODERATOR: (In Vietnamese.)
Joint Press Availability With Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh
Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Government Guest House
Hanoi, Vietnam
December 16, 2013
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Excellency John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, ladies and gentlemen, correspondents; you may now have the honor to introduce Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to co-chair the press conference announcing the outcomes of the talk between the two sides.
To begin with, I’d like to invite His Excellency Phan Binh Minh to take the floor.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: His Excellency Secretary of State John Kerry, dear correspondents, member of the press; first I would like to extend my warmest welcome to Mr. John Kerry for coming back to Vietnam in the capacity of the Secretary of State. I’d like to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your warm sentiments and friendship toward Vietnam and its people. Once again, I would like to highly value and commend your significant contribution in the past capacity as the senator and in the current capacity as the Secretary of State to promoting bilateral relationship between Vietnam and U.S.
Mr. Secretary and I had an open, candid, and constructive, meaningful talk on many issues of bilateral relations in order to promote this relationship as well as in regional and international issues. We note with satisfaction the practical and meaningful development of bilateral relations and multilateral framework cooperation between the two countries ever since the establishment of comprehensive partnership between our two countries. In the official visit to the U.S. by His Excellency State President Truong Tan Sang, we have discussed specific measures to further promote comprehensive partnership between the two countries in all areas. The two sides have agreed to enhance and intensify exchange of high-level delegations and contacts, and further promote cooperation in economic trade and investment. The U.S. is currently the leading trading partners and the seventh largest investor in Vietnam, however many potential for further cooperation remain untapped between the two countries, especially in economic trade and investment. We should further promote this to the level of comprehensive partnership.
Mr. Secretary and I have agreed that we should further promote cooperation in science and technology, including the official signing of the 123 civilian nuclear agreement and further promote cooperation in education, health, climate change, humanitarian issues, and addressing the consequences of war in the coming time.
I would take this opportunity to express my high appreciation of the USAID signing of contract for the environment impact assessment at the hotspots in Bien Hoa Airport and fact that the USAID and MOLISA of Vietnam have signed MOU on resolving the unexploded ordnance.
Mr. Secretary and I also agreed that the two sides would maintain candid and positive and constructive dialogues on issues of differences, including human rights. We also exchanged on the further implementation and enhancement of cooperation within the framework of regional and international forums, and we reaffirmed the support for ASEAN’s centrality to an emerging regional architecture.
On the East Sea issue, we emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, and maritime safety, and we share the view that all territorial disputes in the East Sea must be resolved by peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the UNCLOS 1982, and the relevant party should strictly observe the DOC and soon move forward to the conclusion of a COC.
Thank you.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you very much, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Pham Binh Minh. Next I would like to invite Secretary John Kerry.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much, Foreign Minister Minh. It’s a pleasure to be with you again. I’m happy to be with you here. And I’m delighted to be in Hanoi for the first time as Secretary of State and to see with my own eyes how our relationship with Vietnam is deepening and moving forward. It’s meaningful to me personally to be here, obviously, because of the history, but frankly, much more so right now because of the future.
I want to thank my friend, the Deputy Prime Minister now and Foreign Minister Minh, for his hospitality and for a very productive discussion, continuing discussions which we had in New York and at the conferences, the ASEAN, as well as my meetings with the president, President Sang, and with the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Dung. I’m also looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Dung in a little while, and with General Secretary Trong later today.
This is my fourth visit to Asia since I became Secretary, and I want to re-emphasize that the U.S. rebalance toward the Asia Pacific has been a top priority for President Obama from day one when he came into office. And today, our economic, our diplomatic, our strategic, and our people-to-people initiatives throughout the region are stronger than ever. What some are calling our rebalance within the rebalance, which is an intensified focus on Southeast Asia, is now a central part of our policy, as is our engagement with ASEAN, which sits at the heart of the Asia Pacific’s regional architecture. Nowhere is this more important or more visible, frankly, than in the heightened investment and engagement than right here in Vietnam.
When I touched down in Hanoi in 1991 for the first time as a civilian and as a senator, I have stark memories of a very, very different Hanoi. There were still laws that then restricted people’s interactions with foreigners. There was none of the vibrancy and energy that you see today in terms of the stores and shops and entrepreneurial activity. There were actually very, very few cars back then. Almost everybody was on a bicycle, bicycles all over; the streets were literally filled with bicycles. And there were very few motorbikes, very few motorcycles, not even that many hotels. I remember staying in the Government Guest House.
Today, the energy of this city is absolutely remarkable, as is the energy of this country, and the transformation is nothing short of amazing. In the years since we lifted the embargo and normalized relations, Vietnam has become a modern nation and an important partner of the United States. And it is a nation today with almost 40 percent of its population under the age of 25, all people teeming with energy and enthusiasm for the potential of the future.
Last July, President Obama and President Sang signed a new level of collaboration with the announcement of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. And I want to briefly touch on four specific areas where we are deepening our bilateral relationship.
First and foremost, we know that education, education of our people-to-people ties, are laying the foundation for a close U.S.-Vietnam partnership in years to come. And we’ve made great progress in strengthening those ties. Today, more than 16,000 Vietnamese students are studying in the United States, more than almost every other country in the world. In Ho Chi Minh City, I had the opportunity to meet and talk and listen to some of the impressive young men and women who were the alumni among the 4,000 alumni of the Fulbright program here in Vietnam. I take special pride in this program because when I was a younger senator I initiated efforts in the Senate to start this program. And before long, it became the largest Fulbright program in the world. Today, it is the second-largest program in the world. It has been an extraordinary success so far, and we look forward to building on that success by continuing to work with the Vietnamese Government to establish a full-fledged Fulbright University in Vietnam in the near future.
The second area that we are focusing on is trade. Trade is perhaps the clearest example of how far our nations have come in the 18 years since we normalized relations. Two-way trade between the United States and Vietnam has increased since 1995 more than 50-fold. Last week, we launched the Governance for Inclusive Growth program, through which the United States will help support Vietnam’s ongoing transition to a more inclusive, market-based economy that is based on the rule of law.
And as I told business leaders in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, the assistance that we provide through this program, this new program, will also help Vietnam to implement the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Once finalized, TPP will raise standards, including labor standards, open markets up. It will create millions of new jobs, not just in the United States and Vietnam but throughout the Asia Pacific. We are working very closely with Vietnam and other regional partners in order to complete the TPP negotiations as quickly as possible. But to realize our potential as a partner and for Vietnam to realize its potential as a thriving economy – and this is something we talked about openly and frankly – Vietnam needs to show a continued progress on human rights and freedoms, including the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of association. I made this point clearly to Deputy Prime Minister Minh, as I have in all my previous discussions with Vietnamese officials.
Third, we are collaborating closely on the environment. Climate change is perhaps the single greatest threat facing most nations on the planet today. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit the same waters in the Mekong Delta that I patrolled 45 years ago, and I saw firsthand the ways in which the United States and Vietnam are now working hand in hand to pursue development in a way that is sustainable for the environment, for local economies, and most importantly, sustainable for the climate.
And finally, we are working to strengthen regional security. We are expanding our collaboration on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts as well as on search-and-rescue capabilities. We’re also working more closely than ever on peacekeeping efforts. Next year, Vietnam, for the first time, will participate in the United Nations global peacekeeping operations.
No region can be secure in the absence of effective law enforcement in territorial waters. And because of that, today I am also pleased to announce $32.5 million in new U.S. assistance for maritime law enforcement in Southeast Asian states. This assistance will include, among other things, training and new fast-patrol vessels for coast guards. Building on existing efforts like the Gulf of Thailand initiative, this assistance will foster greater regional cooperation on maritime issues and ultimately provide the ability of Southeast Asian nations to carry out humanitarian activities and to police and monitor their waters more effectively.
In particular, peace and stability in the South China Sea is a top priority for us and for countries in the region. We are very concerned by and strongly opposed to coercive and aggressive tactics to advance territorial claims. Claimants have a responsibility to clarify their claims and to align their claims with international law and to pursue those claims within international peaceful institutions. Those countries can engage in arbitration and other means of negotiating disputes peacefully. We support ASEAN’s efforts with China to move quickly to conclude a code of conduct. And while a code of conduct is necessary for the long term, nations can also reduce the risk of miscommunication and miscalculation by taking steps today to put crisis prevention arrangements in place. That is an easy way to try and reduce tensions and try to reduce the potential for conflict.
Nowhere is that kind of effort more necessary today than it is in the East China Sea. President Obama and I are obviously very concerned about recent actions that have increased tensions between China and Japan, and we call for intensified negotiations and diplomatic initiatives.
Lastly, in discussing territorial disputes, I raised our deep concerns about China’s announcement of an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone. This move clearly increases the risk of a dangerous miscalculation or an accident, and it could escalate tensions even further. I told the deputy prime minister that the United States does not recognize that zone and does not accept it. China’s announcement will not change how the United States conducts military operations in the region.
This is a concern about which we have been very, very candid, and we’ve been very direct with the Chinese. The zone should not be implemented, and China should refrain from taking similar unilateral actions elsewhere in the region, and particularly over the South China Sea.
In the months and years ahead, I am really confident that this relationship is going to grow stronger, that we are going to make progress. Today, Vietnam is a country that is committed to a different future, to a better future. And despite the difficult history that our nations have shared, I have always been impressed in the many, many visits that I have made here, from working on POW/MIA to working on lifting the embargo to working on normalization, and now working on trying to truly give full definition, full blossom if you will, to the peaceful possibilities between our countries. As we begin to approach the 20th anniversary of normalized relations, we know that a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam that respects the rule of law and human rights will be a critical partner for the United States on many regional and global challenges that we face together.
So thank you very much, Mr. Minister, for welcoming me and my delegation here. I am grateful for our discussions thus far. We’ll have more time to talk over dinner tonight, and I look forward to my meeting with the prime minister and the chairman. Thank you.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: (Via interpreter) Thank you, Secretary John Kerry. Now I’d like to give some time for questions from correspondents. Please, from Vietnam News Agency.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible) from Vietnam News Agency. I’d like to have a question for both foreign ministers. Would you give your view about the prospects of cooperation between Vietnam and the U.S. in economic trade and investment in the future?
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: (Via interpreter) I’d like to address the question from Vietnam News Agency. In terms of economic trade and investment, this is one of the priorities in bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. (Inaudible) bilateral trade (inaudible) it has (inaudible) bilateral relations (inaudible) any country (inaudible) the U.S., it’s the seventh-largest investor to Vietnam. And we have great potential for economic trade and investment cooperation, during the talks we have exchanged on this issue. And we have (inaudible) promote specific measures to further enhance cooperation (inaudible) in the future. Because we have great potential (inaudible) in this area.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you, Minister. As I mentioned, the trade between the United States and Vietnam since 1995 has increased 50 times and it is growing on a constant basis. And we believe that if we can quickly come to agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP trade agreement, that will create a trade alliance where you have almost 40 percent of the GDP of the world combined in this region, which is a very, very powerful trading entity. And if you raise the standards with respect to trade – the transparency, accountability, the labor standards and so forth – what you wind up doing is bringing everybody else along. They have to raise their standards in order to be able to partake in that, but also to be able to compete effectively.
So we think that this trade agreement is really one of the most significant steps that both of our nations can take to create jobs at home. Jobs will be created in America, jobs will be created in Vietnam, and we will both do better as a result. Just earlier this month, our U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Froman, and the team from his shop met with representatives from the 11 TPP partner countries. And we’re confident that that meeting is building momentum, that the work can move ahead quickly, that the negotiators will keep working hard. And the ministers plan to meet again in early January. So we’re very, very hopeful that achieving an ambitious, comprehensive, high-standard agreement is really critical for creating jobs and promoting growth.
Now, one thing I did raise with the minister is that we believe – we happen to believe that Vietnam will be even more energized economically, more competitive, and more powerful if it begins to transition some of its state-owned enterprises into private sector and begin to compete in the private sector in a way that most other countries are embracing. We think that’ll make a difference, but obviously, Vietnam needs to make its own decision about its schedule or its intentions. But we believe the TPP can define a very strong economic growth rate for this region and we really hope countries will rapidly move to close the agreement and to implement it.
MODERATOR: (In Vietnamese.)
QUESTION: Hello, Lesley Wroughton from Reuters. Mr. Secretary, how does your announcement today on maritime security – how does your announcement today on increased assistance for maritime security fit into these increased tensions with China? If anything, those tensions seem to have escalated not only in the East China Sea but also in the South China Sea.
And to the deputy prime minister, how – do you at all feel threatened by China, and how will this assistance help you deal with that threat?
Another one for Mr. Secretary on TPP: When you departed Washington, 47 lawmakers sent you a letter to say – to ask you to tie the TPP talks with Vietnam in with progress on human rights. Did you get any assurances today of any improvements coming up in that record, in the human rights record?
SECRETARY KERRY: With respect to the maritime announcement that we’ve made today, quite simply and directly let me tell you that this maritime announcement has nothing to do with any recent announcements by any other country or any of the tensions in the region. It is simply not a response to those recent announcements. This is part of a gradual and deliberate expansion that has been planned for some period of time which we have been working on. It expands on existing agreements and programs that we have now and it builds on a commitment to strengthen maritime capacity within ASEAN and within this region. So this is really an ongoing policy and not some kind of quickly conceived reaction to any events in the region.
With respect to the letter, I am very cognizant of the issue. As I said in my opening comments, we discussed it. I raised the issue with the foreign minister. There is some progress that is being made, and we have encouraged more progress to be made. There are increased number of church registrations. There have been increases within the new constitutional process of some additional rights. There are some things that we would have liked to have seen embraced that weren’t, and we’ve raised those. But this is an ongoing conversation, absolutely. I also raised individual cases of individual people and situations, and we had a very direct and healthy exchange about this. And I’ll let the foreign minister speak for himself about it, as he no doubt will.
But our need is to see progress on that, and I made it clear that TPP, the 123 agreement, the congressional readiness to move forward on any number of initiatives will be, obviously, affected by the degree of progress that is perceived.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINH: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible.) We have comprehensive, as the Secretary mentioned, (inaudible) relations, and there has been recent (inaudible). We have differences at sea. We also have agreements on six guiding principles on resolving issues at sea, including (inaudible) the United Nations welcomes the (inaudible) in ASEAN countries who are also implementing the DOC and well on the way to formulate DOC. And these are the kind of measures that are going to maintain peace, stability, maritime security, and safety. Thank you.
MODERATOR: (In Vietnamese.)
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