Congress Addresses National Security and Outsourcing

Now, I know the elections are getting closer so suddenly we are seeing Congress get off its collective arse and starting to do something. NOW they can act like they are hearing us. It is most likely only a ploy for reelection by those who would otherwise be simply sitting back and letting the world, and our problems, pass them by.

I’m not thrilled with them and I don’t believe for a second that this necessary discussion will be more than that, a discussion, or that anything will come of it. See, I am jaded by all the time that has elapsed since the last time they got off their collective arses and did something…

However, it is a bit entertaining and sad to watch them pretend to care, even if belatedly, about the situation in America today and the plight of the average Citizen. On the other hand, are we seeing a change??? From CNN’s Lou Dobbs last night we have this story:

DOBBS: Congress today finally taking up the issue of the security risk posed by outsourcing our nation’s defense. The U.S. Air Force’s $35 billion tanker aircraft project and even machine guns and pistols for our troops are being contracted out to foreign manufacturers. This is raising some new concerns that the United States may not be able to meet its own defense needs in the event of a major crisis.

Lisa Sylvester has our report.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some in Congress are worried that sensitive defense knowledge is leaving the United States. What’s raising the alert? The outsourcing of defense jobs, like the Air Force’s new refueling tanker contract going to the European manufacturer of the Airbus instead of Boeing, or Marine One being built by an international coalition.

Foreign companies are offering to buy American corporations that do sensitive work for the Pentagon, and unknown investors are using hedge funds to buy into U.S. defense companies.

HUNTER: This is not an irrational fear or veiled protectionism. This is a real national security concern.

SYLVESTER: Globalization has made it easier for U.S. contractors to move defense manufacturing offshore. So instead of finding sensitive military equipment made in the USA, the Pentagon is having to shop in foreign markets.

MICHAEL WYNNE, AIR FORCE SECRETARY: I think right now I worry about the industrial base of the future. I think we have started to decay our industrial base in 1990, and I think our market doesn’t support a large industrial base right now.

SYLVESTER: Even more troubling, classified technology could end up in the wrong hands. It’s the job of the Pentagon’s Office of Defense Security Service to make sure that doesn’t happen. But according to the Government Accountability Office, that defense office is woefully understaffed, uses an antiquated computer system, and its personnel lacked the knowledge to follow complex financial transactions.

ANN CALVARESI-BARR, GOVT. ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE: I would say right now the larger safety net of programs that we have in place to protect what is critical, that safety net looks like Swiss cheese.

SYLVESTER: The Pentagon’s Defense Security Services director says the agency has made improvements in the last two years, identifying high-risk companies, but acknowledges there is still a lot of work to be done safeguarding the flow of classified defense information.

(on camera): To get perspective on just how much work they have cut our for them, the Pentagon’s Office of Defense Security has only 350 full-time employees to monitor 8,000 contractors and 12,000 defense facilities for classified breaches.

Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

It is a seriously sad state of affairs that this situation is before us now. How have we let America get so far gone? I’d say this department needs a whole bunch of employees. I’d say a lot of Americans ought to apply for jobs specifically for this area. Do you think they would try to hire Americans or outsource???

To become more informed about the state of affairs in government please watch these videos:

YouTube – Government Corruption & Outsourcing Our …

Remember Katrina, FEMA, and Michael Brown and the media …

Watch video

Added: January 07, 2008

Remember Katrina, FEMA, and Michael Brown and the media attention involving his lack of credentials to do his job. Consider a government-wide practice that routinely pays six figure salaries to political appointees and career bureaucrat financial managers with no 4-year college accounting degrees or CPA certificates. We need to question this time honored practice that costs us untold billions of dollars each year (and now) because this Country’s financial security is in peril.

That website again is:

National Accountant Whistleblower Coalition (NAWBC)

OSCWATCH.org is here:

Also under Outsourcing I found a website which informs you HOW to outsource in the government. I find this type of thing to be truly disgusting! I’m not going to give them a link here though or even point you to the search I was doing to get it. Nope, no business for outsourcing America for you guys or gals as the case may be.

Other articles on Government Outsourcing are:

Government outsourcing grows fastest of all sectors

Issues – Outsourcing Letter

For Government, Outsourcing Begets Outsourcing

In the United States, Rohleder says, the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies and the state of Florida are among the most aggressive government entities to use outsourcers as a vehicle to transform how they function.

Just peachy huh? Homeland Security outsources aggressively! Now, doesn’t that make you feel safe and secure? Maybe the point is who are they outsourcing to? Would that be an American company with American workers or a foreign company with foreign HB1 visa holders? Inquiring minds want to know…

With the betrayal of the American people by an administration that is rampant with crime, it isn’t much of a wonder then that they should be outsourcing our jobs at an ever increasing rate. The fact that none of those in the military accounting offices do not have the degrees needed to fulfill their jobs is truly scary. How can we get an accurate accounting of things when no-one knows how to do that?

Privateers: Outsourcing U.S. Sovereignty | John Paul McCarty

Privateers: Outsourcing U.S. Sovereignty. Posted on March 25, 2007 … own government and lack of relationship and accountability to the U.S. government. …

Jeremy Scahill exposes in his video for The Nation the alarming and little-known outsourcing of security and military operations supported by the Bush administration. In government rhetoric and that of the individual contractors, they are referred to as “private security.” In a militarized area in the midst of conflict, protecting clients by means of armed battle, the distinctions between security and military can be all but lost.

The cryptic words of the 2nd amendment come to mind.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

With these “security” contractors, we’re hardly talking about a well-regulated militia, in the sense of anything close to adequate government regulation. PBS’s Frontline highlights, Erinys, a British firm as well as Blackwater and the larger question of war contractors. Blackwater may be the largest, but is far from alone among these firms. Most disturbing is the unclear accountability of these (mostly) men with guns.

In the world of government contracting, the man on the ground might be the sub of a sub of a subcontractor. Somewhere there is a government official who is the contract manager. The employee of the subcontractor likely will have no idea who or where that person is. The government manager can only control

• what they know about,
• what is required or prohibited in the contract.

The contract document cannot cover all contingencies. When things go wrong, to whom is the contractor accountable? The current answer seems to be no one. Men with guns answerable to nobody: It might be an anarchist’s dream, but such a situation can hardly serve the stated goals of the U.S. or Iraqi governments.

What are some of the issues regarding this movement toward raising private-sector armies?

It is past time to pull America back from the point of stepping off a cliff. We need to get a hold of these institutions where unrestrained outsourcing is causing us to lose control of our government accountability. It is not acceptable that government can do as it pleases without accounting for itself to the We the People. Make your voices heard. Be respectful, but leave no doubt in Congresses collective mind that WE will have answers to our questions.

~ by justmytruth on April 17, 2008.