U.S. EXPLANATION FOR UN VOTE ON SYRIA

 FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Explanation of Vote by Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, On the Security Council Vote on Syria

Samantha Power

U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations 

New York, NY, United States

May 22, 2014

AS DELIVERED

Thank you. Today is about accountability for crimes so extensive, so deadly, that they have few equals in modern history. Today is about accountability for Syria. But it is also about accountability for this Security Council.

It is this Council’s responsibility to stop atrocities if we can and – at a minimum – to ensure that the perpetrators of atrocities are held accountable. It was toward that minimum that we sought to make progress today. My government applauds the vast majority of members of this Council who voted to support – and the some 64 countries who joined us in co-sponsoring – this effort to refer these atrocities to the International Criminal Court.

Sadly, because of the decision by the Russian Federation to back the Syrian regime no matter what it does, the Syrian people will not see justice today. They will see crime, but not punishment.

On April 15th, the members of this Council were briefed on a report that included 55,000 gruesome photos of the emaciated and tortured bodies of dead Syrians, who world-renowned international lawyers concluded had been methodically eliminated by a government killing machine. The pictures were reportedly provided by an individual – alias “Caesar” – who worked for 13 years as part of the Syrian military police. When the fighting began, he says that he was instructed to record the images of people starved, beaten, tortured, and executed by Syria’s security forces.

These photos shock and horrify, even after some of us wondered if there was anything the regime could do that would still shock. Syrian soldiers already had compelled doctors not to care for the wounded, dragged patients out of hospital beds, laid siege to whole neighborhoods, cut off access to desperately-needed supplies, and carried out chemical weapons attacks and barrel bomb attacks with the full confidence that meaningful action by this Council would be obstructed.

A judicial process does more than hold perpetrators accountable. It also allows victims to speak. The vetoes today have prevented the victims of atrocities from testifying at The Hague for now. But nonetheless it is important for us here today to hear the kind of testimony we might have heard if Russia and China had not raised their hands to oppose accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Because of the vetoes just cast, one of Assad’s victims, Qusai Zakariya, will not soon be called to testify before the International Criminal Court. But Qusai’s story of life in Moadamiya during the siege, as hard as it is to hear, must be heard. Qusai Zakariya is here with us today, and I’d like to ask him to stand.

Today I will tell Qusai’s story, as he told it to us. Qusai’s home, Moadamiya, just outside of Damascus, was one of the Assad regime's prime targets. During the August 2013 chemical weapons attacks, Quasi ran out to the street and tried to help his neighbors. He quickly lost his ability to breathe. His eyes afire, Qusai’s heart stopped and he was left for dead until a friend stumbled upon him and realized he had again begun breathing. Qusai recounts his bewilderment as he watched neighbors suffocate, friends panic, and families perish. He remembers the face of a 13 year old boy just a few feet from his home. He describes the boy as “so innocent.” He recalls, “He had done nothing.” Yet the expression on this 13 year old’s face was the most terrifying thing Qusai has ever seen, as white foam streamed from his mouth and death crept in.

If Qusai could testify, he might tell the story of his neighbor, Abu Mohammed, a waiter in Damascus while his wife and daughter lived in Moadamiya. Abu Mohammed’s daughter was 7 years old. She had a heart condition that required medication not available in besieged Moadamiya. So Abu Mohammed did what any father would do and attempted to bring her medicine from Damascus. He was captured by Assad’s mercenaries, tortured with acid, and ultimately killed. His body was thrown on Highway 40. And without medicine to treat her heart condition, Abu Mohammed’s 7 year old daughter died.

Qusai might also tell the story of Rana, an 18 month old baby girl. Rana’s dad ran a grocery store before the siege. After the siege, he watched as his daughter Rana died from malnutrition because she couldn’t get milk that used to sit on his store’s shelves.

Qusai has said that when he walks around the United States, he notices people in restaurants, getting on with day to day life. He notices the small leftovers we leave on our plates. And he remembers watching his neighbors desperation to get a small piece of rotten bread in Moadamiya.

Qusai’s account of his experiences in Moadamiya deserves to be heard. It deserves to be examined by an independent court. And if crimes are proven, those responsible deserve to be held accountable. The vetoes cast today prevent that from happening. Strikingly, the vetoes cast today also protect monstrous terrorist organizations operating in Syria. Those who would behead civilians and attack religious minorities will not soon be held accountable at the ICC either. For Russia and China’s vetoes today protect not only Assad and his henchmen, but also the radical Islamic terrorists who are pursuing a fundamentalist assault on the Syrian people that knows no decency or humanity. These vetoes have aided impunity not just for Assad, but for terrorist groups as well.

In the past, when extraordinary crimes have been carried out, the International Criminal Court has been able to act. Why is it that the people of Uganda, Darfur, Libya, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, and Kenya deserve international, impartial justice, but the Syrian people do not? Why should the International Criminal Court pursue accountability for atrocities in Africa but none in Syria where the worst horrors of our time are being perpetrated? For those who have asked the Security Council this very reasonable question, today you have your answer: the Russian and Chinese vetoes.

Our grandchildren will ask us years from now how we could have failed to bring justice to people living in hell on earth. The history books may well depict photos taken by “Caesar” of emaciated, acid-scarred corpses juxtaposed next to a photo of the two members of this Council who prevented justice for victims like Qusai who long to see the end of such horrors.

Today is therefore about accountability, not just for the victims of Assad’s regime, not just for Qusai and his neighbors in Moadamiya, but for the members of this Security Council. Month after month, and year after year, we have each spoken about the importance of justice and the need for accountability in Syria. Victims and survivors have begged for action and cried for justice. The international community has supported ad hoc efforts to collect evidence, to record testimony. We’ve launched commissions of inquiry to find facts, and we’ve held meeting after meeting. But we have not, before today, brought forward a resolution to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. We have not done so because we were afraid that it would be vetoed.

But the victims of the Assad regimes’ industrial killing machine and the victims of terrorist attacks deserve more than to have more dead counted. They deserve to have each of us, the members of this Security Council, counted and held to account. They deserve to have history record those who stood with them, and those who were willing to raise their hands to deny them a chance at justice. While there may be no ICC accountability today for the horrific crimes being carried out against the Syrian people, there should be accountability for those members of this Council that have prevented accountability.

Now, the representatives from Syria, and perhaps Russia, may suggest that the resolution voted on today was biased. And I agree – it was biased in the direction of establishing facts; tilted, as well, in the direction of peace – the peace that comes from holding individuals – not whole groups, not “Allawites,” not “Sunni,” not “Kurds,” but individuals – accountable.

The outcome of today’s vote, disappointing as it is, will not end our pursuit of justice. My government will continue to work with so many other governments and organizations to encourage and facilitate the further gathering of evidence. There is no limit to our determination to see that the victims of atrocities in Syria, and their loved ones, receive answers in accordance with the majesty of law. In this quest, we will be guided by a fundamental principle of civilization, a principle that has truly stood the test of time. And I quote: “Those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, must exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers,” end quote. So said Solon, the Athenian sage, more than 2500 years ago; and so affirmed the overwhelming majority of this Council today.

Thank you.

U.S. ANNOUNCES CIVILIAN LANDMINE TEAM SENT TO SERBIA, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Civilian Landmine Team Deploys to Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina To Support Local Efforts in Landmine-Contaminated Areas Affected by Widespread Flooding

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

May 25, 2014

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The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs’ Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement is deploying the Quick Reaction Force (QRF), a group of civilian explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) experts, to Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The QRF will arrive May 26 and work with local officials of both the Serbian and BiH Mine Action Centers to survey landmine-contaminated areas affected by the recent widespread floods. Heavy rains in the Balkans have caused widespread flooding that has led to the possible shifting and uncovering of some of the 120,000 landmines remaining from the 1992-1995 conflict associated with the break-up of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The flood waters also may have washed away many of the markers delineating the minefields. Efforts are currently in place by the local authorities to begin mapping the most affected areas and informing their communities about the imminent danger posed by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Residents in flood-affected areas are reporting discoveries of mines and UXO. On May 21, a landmine dislodged by the devastating floods near the town of Brcko, BiH exploded underwater, but caused no damage or casualties. The Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina estimates that 320 square kilometers of the flood zones are potentially contaminated by shifting mines or UXO. In Serbia, preliminary reporting from the Serbian Mine Action Center indicates that a similar problem with the shifting and uncovering of numerous landmines and explosive ordnance has occurred. Local commercial demining companies and both the Serbian and BiH Armed Forces demining units are very well versed in regular demining operations, but they will be facing clearance operations in unfamiliar circumstances – assessing large areas, clearing mines from landslides, and conducting underwater demining.

Since 2008, the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has deployed QRF teams to countries including Congo-Brazzaville, Cyprus, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, and Vietnam to address emergency issues related to the removal or mitigation of abandoned or otherwise at-risk conventional weapons and munitions, landmines, and unexploded ordnance. Also, since 1993, the United States has invested more than $2.3 billion in more than 90 countries around the world to reduce the harmful effects of the explosive remnants of conventional weapons in post-conflict environments, including more than $96.7 million in BiH, and over $15.7 million in Serbia.

CITIZEN SCIENTISTS GET HELP FROM NASA TO REVIVE OLD SPACECRAFT

FROM:  NASA 

Right:  Artist's concept image of ISEE-3 (ICE) spacecraft.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA has given a green light to a group of citizen scientists attempting to breathe new scientific life into a more than 35-year old agency spacecraft.

The agency has signed a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with Skycorp, Inc., in Los Gatos, California, allowing the company to attempt to contact, and possibly command and control, NASA’s International Sun-Earth.

Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft as part of the company’s ISEE-3 Reboot Project. This is the first time NASA has worked such an agreement for use of a spacecraft the agency is no longer using or ever planned to use again.

The NRSAA details the technical, safety, legal and proprietary issues that will be addressed before any attempts are made to communicate with or control the 1970’s-era spacecraft as it nears the Earth in August.

"The intrepid ISEE-3 spacecraft was sent away from its primary mission to study the physics of the solar wind extending its mission of discovery to study two comets." said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. "We have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort to recapture the ISEE-3 spacecraft as it zips by the Earth this summer."

Launched in 1978 to study the constant flow of solar wind streaming toward Earth, ISEE-3 successfully completed its prime mission in 1981. With remaining fuel and functioning instruments, it then was redirected to observe two comets. Following the completion of that mission, the spacecraft continued in orbit around the sun. It is now making its closest approach to Earth in more than 30 years.

The goal of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project is to put the spacecraft into an orbit at   a gravitationally stable point between Earth and the sun known as Lagrangian 1 (L1). Once safely back in orbit, the next step would be to return the spacecraft to operations and use its instruments as they were originally designed. ISEE-3's close approach in the coming weeks provides optimal conditions to attempt communication. If communications are unsuccessful, the spacecraft will swing by the moon and continue to orbit the sun.

NASA has shared technical data these citizen scientists to help them communicate with and return data from ISEE-3. The contributions of any citizen science provided by the spacecraft, if it is successfully recovered, depend on the current condition of its instruments. New data resulting from the project will be shared with the science community and the public, providing a unique tool for teaching students and the public about spacecraft operations and data gathering. The data also will provide valuable information about the effects of the space environment on the 36-year old spacecraft.

The ISEE-3 mission opened new pathways for scientific exploration, helping scientists better understand the sun-Earth system, which at its most turbulent can affect satellites around Earth and disrupt our technological infrastructure.

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY DARBY TESTIFIES ON WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING CRISIS

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

The Escalating International Wildlife Trafficking Crisis: Ecological, Economic, and National Security Issues

Testimony

M. Brooke Darby

Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Statement Before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittees on African Affairs and East Asian and Pacific Affairs

Washington, DC

May 21, 2014

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Chairmen Coons and Cardin, Ranking Members Flake and Rubio, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittees on African Affairs and East Asian and Pacific Affairs, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the threat posed from wildlife trafficking and the efforts of the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to address it.

I testify before you today alongside committed champions and long-time supporters of enhancing conservation efforts, improving land management, protecting endangered species, and strengthening law enforcement capacities that safeguard natural resources and prevent and prosecute environmental and wildlife trafficking crimes. And while this may be an area that INL is somewhat new to, you can rest assured that we are now much more actively engaged, taking to heart the call-to-action by both the President and Secretary of State, to leverage all instruments at our disposal to strengthen our partners’ law enforcement and criminal justice capacities to combat wildlife trafficking.

Let me provide some insights into the breadth and scale of the challenge posed by the global illicit trade in wildlife. Increasing demand for illegally traded wildlife products in the last several years has fueled a massive uptick in poaching, particularly in Africa, and growing engagement by sophisticated transnational organized criminal networks, drawn to profits that can rival or in some cases even exceed those derived from drug trafficking. Conservative estimates of $8-10 billion in illicit revenues per year place wildlife trafficking among the top five most lucrative forms of transnational organized crime. In addition to searching out opportunities for high rewards, criminals also exploit environments with low risks of detection and meaningful punishment – and they find that in the illicit wildlife trade where they are able to exploit porous borders, corrupt officials, insufficient enforcement and investigative capacities and penalties, weak legal regimes, and lax financial system oversight.

All of us need to be concerned about the wide-ranging impact of the illegal wildlife trade, and organized criminal organizations’ involvement in it. I’d like to talk about the serious impact this crime has on humans and our security from INL’s perspective:

• The high tech weaponry and violent, aggressive tactics now employed by poachers threaten the safety and security of civilian populations, particularly in supply (also known as “range”) states. Park rangers are at special risk and many have been killed trying to protect wildlife.
• The corruption that both fuels, and is fueled by, the illegal wildlife trade undermines good governance and the rule of law, and erodes citizens’ confidence in their government institutions.
• Wildlife trafficking crimes create and exacerbate border insecurity, creating new vulnerabilities that other criminals, terrorists, and militias can exploit.
• The depletion of natural resources, and related corruption, weakens financial stability and economic growth, particularly in countries for which tourism is a major revenue source. Furthermore, illicit trade in illegally harvested marine species threatens food security, potentially undermining political stability in many developing nations.
• Terrorists and militia groups may seize the opportunity to benefit from the wildlife trade. We have some evidence that the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Janjaweed have done so, for example, trading wildlife products for weapons or safe haven.

For these reasons, the President issued an Executive Order calling for a whole of government response to combat wildlife trafficking on July 1, 2013 and released the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking on February, 11, 2014. The Strategy calls on agencies and departments to address wildlife trafficking by: (1) strengthening domestic and global enforcement; (2) reducing demand for illegal wildlife products; and (3) building international cooperation and public-private partnerships.

INL is primarily involved in implementing the enforcement and international cooperation goals of the strategy through programmatic and diplomatic initiatives. We are not complete newcomers to the game -- for over a decade, we have provided wildlife investigative training delivered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of our International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) program. But within the last year, with strong support from Congress, we have begun to greatly expand our programs, drawing on our experience in addressing other forms of transnational criminal activity. We have organized our work around four key areas.
First, we will work with interested partners to strengthen legislative frameworks to make wildlife trafficking a serious crime with strong penalties in order to provide investigators and prosecutors the legal tools they need to put the traffickers behind bars.

Second we will improve law enforcement and investigative capabilities – including intelligence, evidence collection and analysis, investigative skills and methods, and collaboration across agencies and governments – with our partner agencies to promote intelligence-led investigations and operations that strive not simply to pick up individual poachers but rather to better understand and begin to dismantle the organizations for which they work.
Third, we will work to build prosecutorial and judicial capacities with our partners. As we have learned, rangers and police will not continue to apprehend the bad guys if they believe prosecutors or judges will just let them go. So as we improve legislative frameworks and offer up new tools, we need to ensure prosecutors and judges know how to use those tools effectively and creatively.

And fourth, we will enhance cross-border law enforcement cooperation, particularly by working with the regional Wildlife Enforcement Networks (WENs) with other agencies. There is much that we need to learn about how wildlife trafficking organizations operate – but we do know that illegal wildlife products often make their way through multiple transit points as they move from supply states to demand markets. So we need to build alliances and processes across borders for sharing information and intelligence and collaborating on operations.
The National Strategy stresses the need to marshal and strategically apply federal resources through a coordinated approach. Our work in these areas will be done on a bilateral and regional basis looking at priority areas and landscapes for U.S. foreign assistance in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. When the President announced the Executive Order to Combat Wildlife Trafficking last July, he also announced that $10 million would support law enforcement efforts in Africa. Those funds, coupled with approximately $6 million in prior year funding, are supporting bilateral INL programming in Kenya and South Africa; regional capacity building efforts in Africa and East Asia and the Pacific, and global programs, including efforts through INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Customs Organizations, all of which are part of the International Consortium for Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). The approximately $15 million recently directed in FY 2014 International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) funds will enable us to expand efforts begun or piloted using prior year resources, such as training for customs officers at ports of entry, prosecutorial training, and joint capacity building-operational exercises across regions and continents.

INL’s engagement extends beyond assistance programming. We also are tapping into tools developed to address transnational organized crime, to tackle the specific challenge of wildlife trafficking, including the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, which Congress authorized in 2013. In November 2013, Secretary Kerry announced the first reward offer under the program of up to $1 million for information leading to the dismantling of the Xaysavang Network. The Xaysavang Network, based in Laos and operating across Africa and Asia, facilitates the illegal trade of endangered elephants, rhinos, and other species.

Through diplomatic outreach and engagement, we are building international consensus around the importance of dismantling wildlife trafficking networks. For example, at the U.N. Crime Commission in April 2013, the United States introduced a successful joint resolution with Peru encouraging governments around the world to treat wildlife trafficking as a “serious crime” pursuant to the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Making it a serious crime unlocks new opportunities for international law enforcement cooperation provided under the Convention, including mutual legal assistance, asset seizure and forfeiture, extradition, and other tools to hold criminals accountable for wildlife crime. The U.N. Economic and Social Council adopted the resolution in July 2013, further elevating wildlife trafficking as a major concern for the United Nations. These measures provide the mandate that we need, as members of a larger body of concerned nations, to harness our collective capabilities to learn more about these trafficking networks, share information, and collaborate on plans and programs that will undermine them.

Another early success to which we can point is a recent month-long global law enforcement cooperative effort, known as “Cobra II,” that we helped to support. Participants from 28 countries, including representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with participation from USAID, executed this global operation in February 2014 to combat wildlife trafficking and poaching which resulted in more than 400 arrests and 350 major seizures of wildlife and wildlife products across Africa, Asia, and the United States. The operation demonstrated to participants the benefits and results that can be achieved by working together and we will seek to build on the positive momentum it generated.

Although we have more to learn about the links that exist between wildlife trafficking organizations and other transnational criminal groups, we do know that wildlife traffickers do not operate in a vacuum. Criminal organizations tend to use the same routes and shipping methods as smugglers of weapons, drugs, and counterfeits. They bribe the same customs officials. They deploy poachers in the same restive regions where terrorists and other criminals may sow instability and conflict and exploit weak institutions and porous borders. Money and corruption are common denominators of all forms of transnational organized crime, and wildlife trafficking is no exception.

INL is looking at ways to connect our anti-corruption and unit vetting programs used effectively in narcotics-producing regions, to support willing governments afflicted by wildlife trafficking. We are also examining the broader use of Presidential Proclamation (PP) 7750, which is used to bar entry into the United States of high-level corrupt officials and their family members, against wildlife traffickers and their enablers.

Following the money is equally important. All illicit criminal networks need money to finance their activities and as illicit funds move through the international financial system, they can be detected and monitored. In addition to exercising leadership within the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), we are promoting and applying tools like asset recovery and forfeiture to combat transnational organized crime and money laundering. Through the FATF style regional body for Eastern and Southern Africa, we are working with international partners to uncover and counter money laundering and other illicit financial flows related to wildlife trafficking. We then will develop capacity building projects to address gaps this study identifies.

Illicit networks undercut the ability of law enforcement to protect citizens, deprive the states of vital revenues, promote corruption, and contribute to bad governance. But as organized crime has evolved and diversified, so has INL. Our programs are tailored to specific and cross cutting threats, including wildlife trafficking, to target the common facilitators of all types of crime.
Thank you, Chairman Coons, Chairman Cardin, and Distinguished Members of the Subcommittees for your attention to and support of our collective efforts to combat wildlife trafficking. I welcome your questions.

TEXAN PLEADS GUILTY IN COUNTERFEIT VIAGRA TABLETS CONSPIRACY

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

May 20, 2014

Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Smuggle and Traffic Counterfeit Viagra Tablets

A Texas man pleaded guilty today to conspiring to smuggle and to traffic in counterfeit and misbranded pharmaceuticals, including Viagra tablets, from China, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

Nasif Baqla, 26, of Houston, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nancy F. Atlas in the Southern District of Texas to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, to introduce misbranded prescription drugs into interstate commerce and to import such goods contrary to U.S. law.

Baqla was indicted on Aug. 22, 2012, as were two other individuals – Jamal Khattab, 49, of Katy, Texas, and Fayez Al-Jabri, 45, of Chicago – in a separate, but related case.  Khattab and Al-Jabri each pleaded guilty on Dec. 3, 2013, and March 21, 2014, respectively, to the same conspiracy charge as Baqla, as well as trafficking in counterfeit goods and introducing counterfeit drugs into interstate commerce in violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

According to court documents, in July 2010, a package of counterfeit Viagra tablets was shipped from China to Houston, intended for Baqla and Khattab.   The package was intercepted by Customs and Border Protection officers.   Baqla claimed the pills were his and that he received them on behalf of a friend.  Although the tablets were marked with trademarks substantially indistinguishable from the genuine marking on a legitimate Viagra pill, the drugs in the package were counterfeit and misbranded.

This matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Food and Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigations, Diplomatic Security Service and police departments in Houston and Chicago.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Chief for Litigation John Zacharia of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kebharu Smith of the Southern District of Texas.

SEC ANNOUNCES ANOTHER CASE INVOLVING ALLEGED SECURITIES PRICE MANIPULATION IN A MICROCAP COMPANY

FROM:  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 

Litigation Release No. 23000 / May 22, 2014

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the latest in a series of cases against microcap companies, officers, and promoters arising out of a joint law enforcement investigation to unearth penny stock schemes with roots in South Florida.

In complaints filed in federal court in Miami, the SEC charged five penny stock promoters with conducting various manipulation schemes involving undisclosed payments to induce purchases of a microcap stock to generate the false appearance of market interest. The SEC also charged a Massachusetts-based microcap company and the CEO with orchestrating a pair of illicit kickback schemes and an insider trading scheme involving the company's stock. A stock promoter in Texas was charged for his role in the insider trading scheme.

The SEC has now charged 48 individuals and 25 companies in this series of penny stock investigations out of the agency's Miami Regional Office, which has worked closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first of the joint enforcement actions was announced in October 2010.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida today announced criminal charges against many of the same individuals charged today by the SEC.

According to the SEC's complaint against Boca Raton, Fla.-based stock promoters Kevin McKnight and Stephen C. Bauer, they engaged in market manipulation fraud involving the penny stock of Environmental Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (EIHC). They generated the appearance of market interest in EIHC to induce investors to purchase the stock and artificially increase the trading price and volume. In a separate complaint against Jeffrey M. Berkowitz of Jupiter, Fla., the SEC alleges that he participated in a market manipulation scheme involving the stock of Face Up Entertainment Group (FUEG) and similarly worked to falsely generate the appearance of market interest in that stock. The SEC's complaint against Eric S. Brown of Brooklyn, N.Y., alleges that he engaged in a pair of market manipulation schemes involving the stock of International Development & Environmental Holdings Corp. (IDEH) and DAM Holdings Inc. (DAMH), the latter of which is now known as Premier Beverage Group Corp. (PBGC). And according to an SEC complaint against Boca Raton, Fla.-based stock promoter Richard A. Altomare, he engaged in a market manipulation scheme involving the stock of Sunset Brands Inc. (SSBN).

The SEC alleges in a separate complaint that North Andover, Mass.-based Urban AG Corp. (AQUM) and its president and CEO Billy V. Ray Jr. of Cumming, Ga., schemed to make an undisclosed kickback payment to a hedge fund manager in exchange for the fund's purchase of restricted shares of stock in the company. In a separate kickback scheme, Ray made an inducement payment to a stock promoter who would purchase shares of Urban on the open market ahead of planned press releases to help him manipulate the stock. Meanwhile, stock promoter Wade Clark participated in Ray's insider trading scheme involving Urban stock by providing the hedge fund fiduciary with an advance copy of a press release containing material nonpublic information about the company so the hedge fund manager would purchase stock prior to the news being issued.

The SEC's complaints allege that Altomare, Bauer, Berkowitz, Brown, Clark, McKnight, Ray, and Urban AG Corp. violated Section 17(a)(1) of the Securities Act of 1933 and/or Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and 10b-5(c). The SEC is seeking financial penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and permanent injunctions. The SEC also seeks penny stock bars against all of the individuals charged in these cases as well as an officer-and-director bar against Ray.

The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Miami division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

U.S. CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF GEORGIA ON THEIR INDEPENDENCE DAY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Statement on the Occasion of Georgia's National Day

Press Statement

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Washington, DC

May 24, 2014

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On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Georgia on the anniversary of Georgia’s Independence on May 26.

The United States and Georgia have built a deep and vibrant partnership based on a shared commitment to democratic values. We commend Georgia on its progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration. In the face of challenging developments in the region, the United States will continue to support the development of Georgia’s democracy and uphold its commitment to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.
Our security partnership is especially strong. We honor the commitment of your troops who serve in Afghanistan and in other missions that build a more peaceful and prosperous world.
I congratulate all the people of Georgia and look forward to strengthening our partnership in the years to come.

DOD SAYS PRESIDENT "VOWS VETS WILL GET CARE THEY NEED"

FROM:  THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Obama Vows Vets Will Get Care They Earned

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2014 – The United States will ensure that veterans will get the care they earned while in service to the nation, President Barack Obama said during his weekly address today.

The president also asked Americans to remember the service and sacrifice of their fellow citizens.

The nation’s history “shines with patriots who answered the call to serve, Obama said. “They put their lives on the line to defend the country they loved. And in the end, many gave that ‘last full measure of devotion’ so that our nation would endure.”

Every time an American casts a vote or speaks without fear, they should remember those who died to ensure those rights, the president said.

“Every chance we get to make a better life for ourselves and our families is possible because generations of patriots fought to keep America a land of opportunity, where anyone -- of any race, any religion, from any background -- can make it if they try,” he said.

The United States began with a desire for freedom, and American service members have protected that freedom since the Revolutionary War, Obama said.
“I hope all Americans will take a moment this weekend to think of those who have died in service to our nation,” the president said.

“Say a prayer in their memories and for their families,” he continued. “Lay a flower where they’ve come to rest. Reach out to service members, military families or veterans in your community, or families who have lost loved ones, and let them know that their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
But beyond Memorial Day, America must honor and uphold the sacred trust it has with veterans, the president said.

“In recent weeks, we’ve seen again how much more our nation has to do to make sure all our veterans get the care they deserve,” he said. “As commander in chief, I believe that taking care of our veterans and their families is a sacred obligation. It’s been one of the causes of my presidency.”

With the war in Iraq behind America and actions in Afghanistan winding down, “we have to work even harder as a nation to make sure all our veterans get the benefits and opportunities they’ve earned,” Obama said. “They’ve done their duty, and they ask nothing more than that this country does ours -- now and for decades to come.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S WEEKLY ADDRESS FOR MAY 24, 2014

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Weekly Address: Paying Tribute to our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama commemorated Memorial Day by honoring the brave men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country. As we stand with our veterans and military families this weekend, the President underscored our commitment to uphold our nation’s sacred trust with our veterans and ensure they get the benefits and opportunities they deserve and have earned.

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

The White House

May 24, 2014

Hi, everybody.  It’s Memorial Day weekend – a chance for Americans to get together with family and friends, break out the grill, and kick off the unofficial start of summer.  More importantly, it’s a time to remember the heroes whose sacrifices made these moments possible – our men and women in uniform who gave their lives to keep our nation safe and free.  

From those shots fired at Lexington and Concord more than two centuries ago to our newest generation of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our history shines with patriots who answered the call to serve.  They put their lives on the line to defend the country they loved.  And in the end, many gave that “last full measure of devotion” so that our nation would endure. 

Every single one of us owes our fallen heroes a profound debt of gratitude.  Because every time we cast our votes or speak our minds without fear, it’s because they fought for our right to do that.  Every chance we get to make a better life for ourselves and our families is possible because generations of patriots fought to keep America a land of opportunity, where anyone – of any race, any religion, from any background – can make it if they try.  Our country was born out of a desire to be free, and every day since, it’s been protected by our men and women in uniform – people who believed so deeply in America, they were willing to give their lives for it. 

We owe them so much.   So this Memorial Day, we’ll gather together, as Americans, to honor the fallen, with both public ceremonies and private remembrances.  And I hope all Americans will take a moment this weekend to think of those who have died in service to our nation.  Say a prayer in their memories and for their families.  Lay a flower where they’ve come to rest.  Reach out to service members, military families or veterans in your community, or families who have lost loved ones, and let them know that their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Most of all, let’s keep working to make sure that our country upholds our sacred trust to all who’ve served.  In recent weeks, we’ve seen again how much more our nation has to do to make sure all our veterans get the care they deserve.  As Commander in Chief, I believe that taking care of our veterans and their families is a sacred obligation.  It’s been one of the causes of my presidency.  And now that we’ve ended the war in Iraq, and as our war in Afghanistan ends as well, we have to work even harder as a nation to make sure all our veterans get the benefits and opportunities they’ve earned.  They’ve done their duty, and they ask nothing more than that this country does ours – now and for decades to come. 

Happy Memorial Day, everybody.  May God watch over our fallen heroes.  And may He continue to bless the United States of America.

DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY HOSTS DARPA DEMO DAY 2014

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Right:  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Big Mechanism program aims to leapfrog state-of-the-art big data analytics by developing automated technologies -- illustrated by this information flow chart -- to help explain the causes and effects that drive complicated systems such as diseases like cancer. DARPA graphic.


DARPA Innovations Advance National Security
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2014 – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information Innovation Office, or I2O, is hosting DARPA Demo Day 2014 in the Pentagon’s courtyard today to highlight the agency’s ongoing contributions to preserving and expanding the Defense Department’s information technology superiority.

The Pentagon event has a focus on information technology and it showcases more than 100 projects that push for game-changing improvements to national security. IT, according to DARPA, is a key enabler for DOD and has been a focus area for DARPA since its establishment in 1958.

“The information revolution has been a huge boon to society,” I2O Director Daniel Kaufman said, adding, “but our growing dependence on information networks also means that information is today’s tactical and strategic high ground, increasingly targeted by adversaries from everyday criminals to networked terrorists who would do our nation mortal harm.”

Kaufman said I2O’s mission is to ensure the safety and reliability of essential information technologies against challenges the nation faces today and those in the future.

DARPA contributions include its development and prototyping of technology for what is now the Internet.

The DOD currently enjoys IT superiority, according to a DARPA press statement, but that superiority can’t be taken for granted.

The Pentagon event showcases an array of DARPA projects designed, as DARPA officials describe it, to quickly and profoundly change the way the nation addresses growing national security challenges posed by the information revolution and by the increasing global availability of sophisticated information technologies.

DOD officials, defense contractors and invited public-sector innovators heard DARPA program managers and project principals describe their progress toward game-changing advances in areas such as cybersecurity, networked warfighter systems, language translation and decision support.

Together, according to the DARPA statement, the displays pointed to a future in which networks will be increasingly resilient to natural and human-launched threats. And in that future, lightning-fast detection of emergent, information-related irregularities, including potential threats, will inform equally fast correctives and countermeasures.

Advanced data analysis, automation and fusion technologies will enable the timely extraction of actionable, previously inaccessible insights from mountains of raw information, DARPA says, and enable sharing those insights through cutting-edge collaboration, data visualization and user-interface technologies.
The event highlighted 29 programs in four categories. Cyber includes approaches to maintaining IT systems safety and security. Big Data includes tools to facilitate the use of information at scale.

Language includes translation technologies to help warfighters communicate more effectively in foreign-language environments. And warfighter apps, which include other initiatives of great interest to DOD, such as the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program in DARPA’s new Biological Technologies Office.

Among the I2O programs on display were the following:
-- DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge, CGC: To be launched this summer, CGC will be the first-ever tournament for testing fully automatic network defense systems. The competition’s goal is to vastly improve the speed, scale and effectiveness of IT security against escalating cyber threats.

-- High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems, HACMS: Seeks to protect networked, embedded IT systems from cyberattack by creating semi-automated systems that build software according to formal methods and check that the created code is secure and works as intended.

-- Big Mechanism: Aims to leapfrog state-of-the-art big-data analytics by developing automated technologies to help explain causes and effects that drive complicated systems. Initial efforts will focus on research relating to cancer pathways.

-- Memex: Seeks to develop next-generation search technologies and revolutionize the discovery, organization and presentation of public-domain search results. Initially, DARPA intends to develop Memex to address fighting human trafficking.
-- Broad Operational Language Translation, BOLT: Seeks to create new techniques for automated translation and linguistic analysis that can be applied to informal text and speech common in online and in-person communication.
At DARPA, Kaufman said, “we help make the tools of the information revolution more powerful and useful, not just for those who ensure our security but also for the people and nations they protect.”

AUTO PARTS PRICE FIXING CONSPIRACY RESULTS IN EXECUTIVE INDICTMENT

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

JAPANESE AUTOMOTIVE PARTS MANUFACTURER EXECUTIVE INDICTED FOR

ROLE IN CONSPIRACY TO FIX PRICES AND FOR OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

WASHINGTON — A Detroit federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against an executive of a Japanese manufacturer of automotive parts for his participation in a conspiracy to fix prices of heater control panels and for obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of evidence related to the conspiracy, the Department of Justice announced today.

The indictment, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, charges Hitoshi Hirano with participating in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition in the automotive parts industry by agreeing to rig bids for, and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of heater control panels sold to Toyota Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (collectively, Toyota) for installation in vehicles manufactured and sold in the United States and elsewhere.  Hirano, who served as an executive managing director at Tokai Rika Co. Ltd., was also charged with knowingly and corruptly persuading, and attempting to persuade, employees of Tokai Rika to destroy documents and delete electronic data that may contain evidence of antitrust crimes in the United States and elsewhere.

“The Antitrust Division will not tolerate executives directing their subordinates to engage in illegal cartels and conspiracies,” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.  “Attempts to then obstruct justice and destroy evidence will give rise to additional charges.”

The indictment alleges, among other things, that from at least as early as October 2003 and continuing until at least February 2010, Hirano and others attended conspiratorial meetings with co-conspirators and reached collusive agreements to rig bids, allocate the supply and fix the prices for heater control panels sold to Toyota.  According to the indictment, Hirano participated directly in the conspiratorial conduct, and directed, authorized and consented to his subordinates’ participation.  In addition, the indictment charges that in February 2010, after Hirano learned that the FBI had searched Tokai Rika’s U.S. subsidiary, he knowingly and corruptly persuaded employees at Tokai Rika to destroy paper documents and delete electronic data intending to prevent the grand jury from obtaining evidence of antitrust crimes.

Tokai Rika is a manufacturer of automotive parts, including heater control panels, based in Nagoya, Japan.  Tokai Rika pleaded guilty on Dec. 12, 2012, for its role in the conspiracy and to obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to pay a $17.7 million criminal fine.

Heater control panels are located in the center console of an automobile and control the temperature of the passenger compartment of a vehicle.  Heater control panels differ by function and design for a particular vehicle model.  Examples include automatic heater control panels, which maintain the temperature within the vehicle to a designated temperature point, and manual heater control panels, which regulate the temperature through manual controls operated by vehicle occupants.

Including Hirano, 34 individuals have been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, 24 of whom have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty.  Of those, 22 have been sentenced to serve prison terms ranging from a year and one day to two years. Additionally, 27 companies have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay a total of more than $2.3 billion in fines.

Hirano is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals.  The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.  The maximum penalty for obstruction of justice is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 criminal fine for individuals.

This indictment is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by four of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI.  Today’s charges were brought by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section and the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit.

U.S. MARSHALS ANNOUNCE RETURN OF CHILDREN TO MOTHER

FROM:  U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE 

Contact:  DUSM Ben Segotta, District of New Mexico 

May 19, 2014

Family Reunited

Albuquerque, NM - The United States Marshal Service Deputies in New Mexico and Montana helped reunite a mother with her children. Crystal Jackson, a San Juan County Detention Officer, has been unable to see or speak with her two young children since January of 2014. Jackson says her former boyfriend moved to Montana and took her two children with him. Since then she has tried to locate them without any success, until she solicited the help of the United States Marshals Service.

Jackson and her attorney were able to get a Judge in New Mexico to grant custody to Jackson and order the children returned to NM. After receiving the order Jackson asked the United States Marshals Service in NM for assistance in locating the children. Deputies in NM contacted the United States Marshals Service in Montana who worked with the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office and Jackson’s former boyfriend was located. The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office obtained a felony arrest warrant for the arrest of the children’s father charging him with kidnapping and custodial interference. Once the father was detained he told authorities where the children were. On May 15, 2014 Jackson and her children were reunited in Hardin, Montana. Investigators also believe that Jackson’s former boyfriend allegedly has failed to pay a woman in the State of Washington approximately $92,000.00 dollars in unpaid child support by moving states and changing his name. State charges for the boyfriend are also pending in NM.

FTC TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE REGARDING ONLINE ADVERTISING

FROM:  FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

FTC Outlines Recommendations for Online Advertising In Testimony Before Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee

The Federal Trade Commission testified before Congress today on the agency’s ongoing efforts to protect consumers from emerging threats related to online advertising, as well as the Commission’s recommendations in this area.

Testifying on behalf of the Commission before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, outlined steps the agency is taking to address concerns related to online advertising through enforcement and consumer education.

The testimony highlights work by the Commission on three consumer protection issues affecting the online advertising industry: privacy, spyware and other malware, and data security.

In the area of privacy, the testimony notes the recommendations put forth in the Commission’s 2012 privacy report, which encourages businesses to provide consumers with simpler and more streamlined privacy choices about their data, through a robust universal choice mechanism for online behavioral advertising.

The testimony also addresses a number of privacy cases brought by the FTC against companies in the online advertising industry.  For example, the testimony describes the FTC’s 2012 settlement with Google, in which the company agreed to pay a $22.5 million civil penalty to resolve charges that it misrepresented to some consumers that it would not place tracking cookies or serve targeted ads to them.

The testimony also describes the FTC’s cases to combat spyware and other malware. These cases support three core principles: first, that a consumer’s computer belongs to him or her, and it must be the consumer’s choice whether to install software; second, that buried disclosures about material information necessary to correct an otherwise misleading impression are not sufficient in connection with software downloads; and third, that a consumer should be able to disable or uninstall any software they do not want on their computer.

The testimony also highlights the FTC’s extensive consumer education work aimed at helping consumers avoid and detect spyware and other malware, including its sponsorship of OnGuardOnline.gov.

On the topic of data security, the testimony underscores the Commission’s enforcement actions, noting that the agency has obtained settlements in 53 data security cases, including recent cases against the mobile app company Snapchat, as well as with Credit Karma, Fandango and home security camera maker TRENDnet.

The testimony recommends expanding efforts to educate both consumers and businesses, and also encourages industry self-regulation efforts aimed at protecting consumers from malicious online advertisements.

In addition, the testimony renews the Commission’s call for the enactment of a strong federal data security and breach notification law, noting that a national law would simplify compliance for businesses while ensuring that all consumers are protected. The testimony also notes that supplementing the Commission’s existing data security authority with the ability to seek civil penalties in appropriate circumstances would provide a deterrent to those engaging in unlawful conduct that puts consumers’ personal data at risk.

The Commission vote approving the testimony and its inclusion in the formal record was 5-0.    

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S MEMORIAL DAY PROCLAMATION

President Barack Obama and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tour Memorial Hall at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum prior to the 9/11 Museum dedication in New York, N.Y., May 15, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 
President Obama Issues Memorial Day Proclamation
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2014 – President Barack Obama today proclaimed Memorial Day, May 26, 2014, as a day for all Americans to “never forget” the service and sacrifices of U.S. military members in defense of the nation and to “pray for and hold close the families of the fallen.”

The president’s proclamation reads as follows:

Constant in the American narrative is the story of men and women who loved our country so deeply they were willing to give their all to keep it safe and free. When a revolution needed to be won and our Union needed to be preserved, brave patriots stepped forward. When our harbor was bombed and our country was attacked on a clear September morning, courageous warriors raised their hands and said, "send me." On the last Monday of each May, our Nation comes together to honor the selfless heroes who have defended the land we love and in so doing gave their last full measure of devotion.

Today, we pause to remember our fallen troops, to mourn their loss, and to pray for their loved ones. Though our hearts ache, we find a measure of solace in knowing their legacy lives on in the families our heroes left behind -- the proud parents who instilled in their sons and daughters the values that led them to serve; the remarkable spouses who gave our Nation the person they cherished most in the world; and the beautiful children who will grow up with the knowledge that their mother or father embodied the true meaning of patriotism. To those we lost, we owe a profound debt that can never be fully repaid. But we can honor the fallen by caring for their loved ones and keeping faith with our veterans and their fellow brothers and sisters in arms.

The security that lets us live in peace, the prosperity that allows us to pursue our dreams, the freedom that we cherish -- these were earned by the blood and the sacrifices of patriots who went before. This Memorial Day, as we near the end of more than a decade of war, let us never forget their service and always be worthy of the sacrifices made in our name. And today and every day, let us pray for and hold close the families of the fallen.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 26, 2014, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to unite in prayer. I also ask all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day.

I request the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff until noon on this Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control. I also request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the customary forenoon period.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR MAY 23, 2014

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENTS

CONTRACTS

ARMY

Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $14,220,326 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to operate and sustain the National Cyber Range capability which is designed to allow potentially virulent code to be introduced and studied on the range without compromising the range itself. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of May 25, 2019. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,555,539 are being obligated at award. This was a sole-source acquisition. U.S. Army Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (W900KK-14-C-0020).

NAVY

Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems, Bethesda, Maryland, is being awarded a $23,649,192 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-06-C-6272) for systems engineering and integration in support of Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical Systems. These services include requirements synthesis, technical performance parameter derivation, test and validation, and configuration management and control of the submarine fleet electronic interface database. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (44 percent); Middletown, Rhode Island (12 percent); San Antonio, Texas (8 percent); Groton, Connecticut (7 percent); Newport, Rhode Island (7 percent); Woodbridge, Virginia (7 percent); Riverdale, Maryland (5 percent); Canton, Illinois (3 percent); Greensboro, North Carolina (3 percent); Bethesda, Maryland (2 percent); Mystic, Connecticut (1 percent); and North Waterford, Connecticut (1 percent); it is expected to be completed by January 2015. Fiscal 2013 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation; and fiscal 2014 other procurement (Navy), contract funds in the amount of $5,383,387 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, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS BELIEVES AFGHAN ELECTIONS SHOW WEAKENING TALIBAN

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, left, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, before NATO Chiefs of Defense meetings in Brussels, May 21, 2014. DOD photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sean K. Harp.   

Success of Elections Shows Taliban Losing the Afghan People
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, May 22, 2014 – The Afghan Taliban’s ability to reach a peace agreement with the government in Kabul will continue to erode over time, especially after April’s elections in which Afghans demonstrated they were not going to be intimidated by threats from the militants to boycott the vote, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.

“I don’t give military advice to the Taliban, but if I were giving them advice, I’d tell them their negotiating position is not going to improve, it’s going to erode,” Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said as he flew back to Washington from NATO meetings in Brussels.

The chairman discussed Afghanistan and the way ahead there with NATO and partner-country chiefs of defense today, and he was pleased with what he has heard.

The Taliban issued their now yearly fighting season threat earlier this month after the Afghan people voted in large number in provincial and presidential elections April 5, in what Dempsey called a clear rejection of the group.
Despite threats to Afghans who took part in the election, “Seven million people chose to ignore the Taliban and that’s a huge statement on the part of the Afghan people to the Taliban,” the chairman said in an interview.

“If [the Taliban] are not experiencing a crisis of purpose, they should be, because they haven’t been able to convince the people of Afghanistan that their future should be with the Taliban and not with an elected government,” he said.
The election was just the latest in a string of Afghan successes by the country’s security forces. Afghan forces protected the loya jirga last November where more than 2,500 local tribal and community leaders again decried the Taliban, saying Afghans’ future is with democratic principles.

A run-off election will be held June 14 between the two top candidates who emerged from the April viote. Both former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani have promised to sign the bilateral security agreement with the United States and the Status of Forces agreement with NATO, which would allow for a continued U.S. and coalition military presence in the country after the current NATO mission ends in December.

Once that happens, Dempsey said, “I would think the Taliban would realize their opportunity to reconcile or reintegrate is a wasting opportunity.” If they don’t take advantage of it now they will be in a weaker position later.”

Dempsey described the Afghan security forces as emerging as a capable force. “They can defend their centers of population, they can protect their lines of communication,” he said. “In order to be completely capable there are some things that had to continue to develop: their logistics system and their ability to pay and house and feed and equip their force.”

That’s what U.S. and NATO advisors are working on now, developing the capabilities at these higher levels like building campaign plans, leader development and fusing intelligence and operations.

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the NATO commander in Afghanistan, briefed the chiefs of defense, and his principle point was as the NATO footprint gets smaller in Afghanistan and the organization focuses on building the institutions.

“So whether we end up with 10,000 or 15,000 or 5,000 [forces] it’s got to be the right kind of people,” Dempsey said. “If he needs somebody to teach the Afghans how to do a defense budget, you don’t need an infantryman, he needs someone to put a budget together.”

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF U.S. FOREIGN SERVICE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Remarks at the 90th Anniversary of the United States Foreign Service

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Benjamin Franklin Room

Washington, DC

May 22, 2014

---

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, Bob, thank you very, very much. Thank you and your team at AFSA for everything that you do for all of the men and women of the Foreign Service. Welcome to this magnificent Ben Franklin Room. I’ve been fond of reminding people that in this day and age Ben Franklin would have never been confirmed for anything. (Laughter.) And not just because of the gridlock.

I thought that was a very private moment out there on the tarmac. (Laughter.) I didn’t know somebody was (inaudible). I was taking out my frustration on the ball. I will not tell you who I was on the phone with. (Laughter.) That’s diplomacy. (Laughter.)

It’s really special for me to be able to be here with all of you, from our 90-year-olds who are older than the service itself, ambassadors, thank you for gracing us with your presence here; to our youngest, where everything is in the future, as she gets out her cell phone and does what everybody does, which is Instagram, tweet. What’s the --

PARTICIPANT: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Whatever works. (Laughter.) I’m sure there’ll be a selfie before the night is over. (Laughter.)

I had a spectacular dinner last night in Mexico City, at which we were serenaded by some mariachi band. And it was great. I had a great time. But it’s my understanding Senator Lugar used to play the cello. So Dick, there’s pressure on you here tonight. You need to perform, absolutely. (Laughter.)

Before I went to Mexico this week, I had the great honor of delivering the commencement addresses at both Boston College and at Yale University, my alma mater. And I want you all to know they were both very different experiences. It’s nice to be in front of a diplomatic audience. (Laughter.)

But it was really interesting. At Yale, when my – when it was announced that I was going to speak, in the Yale Daily News a number of people quickly contacted Yale Daily News to comment, and I went online and checked the comments section. And one of the first comments I read was: “Make sure you drink a 5-hour ENERGY to keep you awake.” (Laughter.) And I promised them all I wouldn’t speak one minute more than four hours, and I didn’t. (Laughter.)
Then another one said, “Well, he hasn’t screwed up as Secretary of State badly – yet.” I told them, “Stay tuned.” (Laughter.)

And finally – this was the best of all – somebody said, “I’m really proud that a Yalie is Secretary of State.” And then I thought I should have stopped reading there. I didn’t. I read on. It said, “But he is butt ugly.” (Laughter.) So this is a relief being here tonight, no comments section. (Laughter.)

At any rate, if those two public addresses were intimidating, I have to tell you this one is even more so in many ways because it’s like going to the dean’s office. (Laughter.) I’ve got the dean emeritus of the United States Senate and foreign policy in Dick Lugar. We have the dean of Washington media and foreign policy Andrea Mitchell. I’ve got the dean of the in-house judges of what we do in Bill Burns here. And when he gets here – Colin Powell is on a flight from New York, I am told, but just knowing Colin Powell was going to be here, he’s the dean of things that are great and good and American about America, and I think everybody would agree with that.
So I thank Andrea for hosting. I think Andrea and I have known each other for about 25 or 30 years or something.

MS. MITCHELL: Since I was a baby. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY KERRY: See, that’s why she does so well here. (Applause.) The art of diplomacy.

I first got to know her when I was a freshman senator. And one of the things that I really grew to respect and appreciate about her was yes, she’d chase the story and yes, she wanted to get the truth. But you know what? She always wanted to tell the story the way it really was. And as a reporter, it wasn’t just a question of breaking the story; it was getting the story right. That is cherished in anybody today, and I think that’s exactly what journalism should bring to covering the world today, a very complicated world. She’s traveled with me on a number of trips. She is a pioneer among women in journalism. And she’s so invested in helping to tell the story of American diplomacy that she has agreed to be here with us tonight. And Andrea, we’re very grateful to you. We’re privileged. Thank you. (Applause.)

I also want to thank Bob Silverman. He’s the one who asked me to join you, and I’m very privileged to be here to celebrate 90 extraordinary years. He works very, very closely with all of us on the 7^th floor and throughout the Department, and his advocacy and his partnership have really made an enormous difference in very recently breaking the gridlock with the United States Senate in helping to get a whole bunch of our folks confirmed. And the truth is that we now have thousands of Foreign Service officers who are commissioned, tenured, and promoted – and Bob is a guy who was really central in helping to bring it home to our senators to make it happen. So thank you, Bob, for your leadership. (Applause.)

I also want to thank Hans Klemm. Hans has served the State Department extremely well as Acting Director General of the Foreign Service. He’s a great manager, he’s a great recruiter, and he listens carefully, which is a key to being, I think, a great Director General. And I want to thank him for the job that he has done in the DG’s office.

I’m also pleased that Colin accepted to be here. And I know that it’s never easy flying – there he is. Colin Powell, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, Secretary of State. (Applause.) Come on up, Colin. Come here. (Applause.) Come here, sit down. (Applause.) Obviously not just a great diplomat but a great politician – he times his arrival really brilliantly. (Laughter.)

When I – I’ve had the pleasure of working with Colin Powell when I was a Senator through those many years in his many different jobs. I always think about him as a guy who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, but I also think about how he rose up through the ranks to become the youngest and the first African American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And I think of his leadership during that critical period of time under President George Herbert Walker Bush when we rolled back what Saddam Hussein thought he could get away with. And Colin, we are forever indebted and grateful for your leadership. But especially I thank you because I really try to emulate you with respect to the personal role you played here in the Department in making sure that the troops have a sense of direction and that you’re connected to them, and I appreciate that, as everybody here does. Thank you. (Applause.)

I want to say a couple of words if I can about a fellow who’s been around here for a while, 32 years in the Foreign Service. He has worked for 10 Secretaries of State. If there’s anybody today in the ranks of professional diplomacy who epitomizes the qualities that you look for – the leadership, the steady hand, the quiet diplomacy, the ability to work through difficult issues calmly, and who leads by example and by a sort of quiet steadiness, if you will – it is Bill Burns. Bill, we are so grateful for your leadership. Thank you. (Applause.) He doesn’t just understand where policy ought to go, but he understands the politics of it all and how to work through it. And it’s really exemplary.

I’m also really proud of the team that we have assembled here at the State Department for the second term of the Obama Administration. I’m grateful to the President for his willingness to bring onboard a lot of the folks that we thought could really help make a difference as we go forward in the foreign policy of our country. Tom Shannon has gratefully agreed to serve as the Counselor of the Department, and I’m very proud of the fact that Tom is just the seventh Foreign Service officer to hold that post, including legends like Chip Bohlen and George Kennan, and the first one to do so in 32 years. So I’m glad he is doing that. We have leaders like Anne Patterson and Victoria Nuland, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who left a post she loved to take on a post that I asked her to take on – difficult – and who is now serving as Assistant Secretary for Africa and African Affairs. And I also think we’ve built a team that is capable of advancing American foreign policy effectively.

I’m also happy to see my former Chairman occasionally – thank God it was only occasionally because that gave us a chance – and Ranking Member – he was Ranking Member in my last year as his Chairman, Dick Lugar, who, whether it was nuclear weapons reduction, proliferation, treaty after treaty, energy policy, food security, the linkage of agriculture to American foreign policy, Dick was always there and always, importantly, looking for a way to try to find a bipartisan approach, a nonpartisan apolitical way of solving problems. And Dick, every single one of us are grateful that you have been a terrific statesman for years. Thank you very, very much for that. (Applause.)

We have with us also a friend of mine from the United States Congress. We worked very hard together on the special committee to try to deal with the budget. He knows the budget as well as anybody, but he also knows foreign policy as well as anybody. It’s fitting that someone who was born in Karachi and grew up in Sri Lanka now represents so many people who are part of the Foreign Service family. And on issues that matter to all Americans, whether it’s climate change or the minimum wage or immigration, Chris Van Hollen is front and center in making sure that America stays true to our values and to our responsibilities in the world. And we’re grateful to Chris for that. (Applause.)

I just looked down. I see my good friend Tom, Mary Beth, and Regina Smedinghoff here tonight. There are two families here tonight who understand the risks of service within the ranks of the Foreign Service better than anybody. And I am very grateful that Tom, Mary Beth, and Regina Smedinghoff and Adam Tomasek are here. I’ve gotten to know Tom and Mary Beth and their daughter Regina in the last year. I was able to stop off and visit with them very briefly after we all heard the terrible news of the loss of Anne. We met in Chicago at the airport. They were very kind to come briefly and we did a quick stop-off, and I was blessed to have them console me more than I consoled them.
But we’re very, very proud of what Regina is doing carrying on for Anne in the State Department, and we thank them profoundly for being here. And the work that Toni Tomasek was doing for USAID in Haiti – equally exemplary, extraordinary, totally in keeping with the spirit of both adventure but most importantly that special thing that brings people here to try to make the world safer and make the world better and make a difference and help other people by bringing our values and our beliefs to them in the best of ways. And so we thank you for precisely the gift that we celebrate in the Foreign Service. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Now I’ve almost overstayed my welcome. I’m not going to do the 5-hour ENERGY thing on you. But I want to say a few words more generally about who were are and where we’re going here, and then turn it over to Andrea and we can eat.

Ninety years ago the Foreign Service was just absolutely unrecognizable compared to what it is today. Back then we had fewer than 700 Foreign Service officers and now we have more than 13,000. Back then we had no female chiefs of mission – none. Now we have more than 40. And I’m proud to tell you that right now in this Department five out of six of our regional Assistant Secretaries are women; four out of six of our Under Secretaries are women; and we are joined tonight – since we have two Deputy Secretaries of State, 50 percent are women, and one of them is here. Heather Higginbottom, sitting right over here. So I think that’s a great record. (Applause.)

Back then, when it started, we had only one African American Foreign Service officer. One. A man named Clifton Wharton. I happened to know of him way back when because my dad actually worked for him way back in those early days. Now we have nearly a thousand African American Foreign Service officers following in his footsteps.

It all started, as Bob reminded us, with a Congressman by the name of John Rogers, who I’m proud to say hailed from Massachusetts. And what he had seen in war as a Private in the Army seared in him the price that we pay when we don’t solve conflicts peacefully. So he set out to build a modern Foreign Service precisely to try to prevent wars and to try to provide a Foreign Service that was as strong in diplomacy as our military is in its capacity to wage a war.
It wasn’t easy. He proposed bill after bill. He summoned testimony. He drafted literally dozens of op-eds. And it took seven years to pass the Rogers Act. Isolationism and austerity ran deep. Then as now, the temptation to sort of turn inwards and to retreat from the world was gaining ground.

But he got it done. And he kept pushing. And in 1924, House Resolution 6357 passed Congress and it gave birth to the modern Foreign Service. Now to quote Rogers: “The promise of good diplomacy is the greatest protector of peace.” And our hope is that people will recognize that 90 years from that moment, that is exactly what the Foreign Service has done.
One of the greatest rewards of being Secretary of State, I will tell you and I’m sure Colin would agree, is because of our travel and because we interact with all of you and with people around the world, we get to see this every single day. We get to see people going out and making a difference. I said yesterday in Mexico City when I met with all of the embassy that they really are the envy of other people because they get to wake up every single morning believing and loving what they do when they go to work because they know they’re going to make a difference. Not everybody gets to do that.

And so it is really a special thing to be part of this family. And if you just look at last year, I ask you to measure what our diplomacy is doing. I know I listen to the sort of political currents that people who try to drag you down by asserting that you’re not doing enough or you didn’t go to war where you should have or whatever it is, but we’re getting things done. And we’re getting them done in the best traditions of what diplomacy is supposed to do. People are angry because we didn’t strike Syria at one instant. But guess what? Today, 92 percent of all the chemical weapons in Syria are out and being destroyed, and the other 8 percent will get out. That never would have occurred otherwise. (Applause.)

Likewise in Africa, we are on the brink of – we have negotiated an agreement with M23 that will – one of the factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo which is disarming, and we have agreement from all the parties to move forward and build a political future and now to sort of end these years of war. In South Sudan, once again a struggle that Colin and others have been part of for a long time, we’ve moved the parties, we’re starting to separate them, begin to build possibility, bringing the UN and other troops to the table, and trying to make peace. Same thing in Mali. Same thing in other parts of the world.

In Afghanistan, we just had an extraordinary election result. Not crowing yet; it’s not over yet, but that’s how you do this, step by step, by building things and keeping faith with the sacrifices people make to help get you there. So we have another election that hopefully will mark a real transition and an opportunity for Afghans to determine their future.

In Iran we are, contrary to the naysayers who said you don’t negotiate and can’t negotiate, we are. Now it doesn’t mean we’re going to get a result. It doesn’t mean we’re going to get where we want to go. But if and when we have to do something to assert our interests properly for the world, it will be only after we have exhausted all of the possibilities of diplomacy and all of the remedies available to us. That’s what diplomacy is supposed to do.

And I could run to many other parts of the world where America and Americans are making a difference. As I said to the graduates over the weekend, I don’t think a lot of people are really lying awake at night hoping that America will leave where we are. Most of them are worried about whether or not we might. They’re asking us to be there. And Boko Haram, Nigeria, only the United States is there offering the assistance to help find those young women. Other countries not only aren’t there invited, but they didn’t even offer. That’s a difference, and I think it’s a difference worth dwelling on.

We were the first people on the ground in the Philippines ahead of countries that lived right in the neighborhood. We were there with our Armed Forces’ ability to move goods and helping people to be able to restore their community. We are about to see the first AIDS-free generation in Africa. Colin Powell helped begin that journey, and I remember back in the ‘90s when Bill Frist and I worked with him in order to try to do that. Now we’re on the brink of something that we never would have imagined back then. It was a death sentence. Now it’s a possibility for life and a whole new generation that will be free from that scourge.
So everywhere I travel, my friends, from Bogota to Baghdad to Beijing to Boston (laughter) – I just stole that one (laughter). When I’m here at home, I really feel the importance of what we are doing and the difference that we can make. I’ve seen us create diplomatic opportunity in so many countries. I’ve seen us make a difference on the ground with education exchanges, education programs, medical assistance help, engagement, development, USAID. You name it, and we are trying to show people the story of American diplomacy.

Harry Truman, George Marshall led America’s efforts to rebuild Europe against the will of many people in the country. It wasn’t popular. It wasn’t popular in Congress. But think today how many people would say that is something that we shouldn’t have done, building the unbelievable alliances and the strength of the democracies as a result.

So I’d just close by saying to you that there’s something special about being America. It really is different. You think about almost any other country in the world, and almost all of them are defined by bloodline or defined by ethnicity or defined by lines that were drawn in a peace agreement or in the end of colonialism or by leaders like Winston Churchill and others sitting in a room and this will be this and this will be that. Not America. We must never forget that what makes America different from other nations is not a common bloodline. It’s not a common religion or a common ideology or a common heritage. It’s actually what makes us different is actually an uncommon idea that all men are created equal and that everybody has these unalienable rights. We are an idea. Unlike other countries, we are an idea. And in our idea, every American gets to fill it out and define it over time.

So that’s what the calling of good diplomacy is. It’s filling out the idea and exporting it to other people in the world. And we are working – all of us together – to try to create order where there is none, to bring stability out of chaos, to fix what is broken, and to make this complicated world just a little bit less complicated and a lot more free. And that’s really worth the effort. Thank you all for being part of it. Thank you. (Applause.)