contractors

Michael Cohen at Democracy Arsenal looks at President Obama’s efforts to reform defense contracting and is less than impressed:
[W]hat goes unanswered is who is going to carry out the President’s orders. What is not included in the President’s plan is how he plans on dealing with the crisis in the government contracting workforce. Take the [...]

Good for Gen. Ray Odierno:
Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander in Iraq, recently issued a directive asking his subordinate commanders to reduce the use of civilian contractors on at least 50 bases and small installations across Iraq and, where possible, provide employment to Iraqis instead. …
“This initiative supports our desired end state of a stable, [...]

I think I made the case pretty strongly in my piece today on why the failure of the stimulus bill to protect private contractor whistleblowers, and the omission in the Senate version to even protect federal employees, is a serious problem.
Now a coalition of good-government and whistleblower advocacy groups has written a powerful response to [...]

Communicating with Iraqis is, as you might imagine, difficult. Beyond the language barrier, the unreliability of electricity and Internet access makes emailing Iraqis a dicey proposition when there’s a deadline to meet. So some Iraqi translators I reached out to for my piece yesterday about potential compromises of their identity to the Iraqi government couldn’t [...]

The stimulus package ushers in new contracting oversight, but neglects to fully protect the whistleblowers at the front lines of reform.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asks retired Adm. Dennis Blair about a growing intelligence problem: the rise of contractor personnel in the community, and essentially urges “a resurgence of career infrastructure.”
“Absolutely,” Blair say he’ll look at it. “The growing role of contractors, the disparity in pay that arises from it … I will look into it, [...]

“We have seen the abuses by contractors,” Clinton says, lamenting the overall trend of moving to a contracted State Department security workforce. “It’s been contractors across the board … I think we have to take a hard look about whether we want the U.S. government to be a contractor agency.” She declines to say, as [...]

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – Lots of soldiers walk through Bagram’s main strip, Disney Drive, in various stages of uniform.
Then there’s a contingent that’s out of uniform and wearing neither contractor lanyards nor carrying Defense Dept. civilian badges. They’ve got beards – thick, grody ones – and tattoos, their heads covered with baseball caps, outfitted [...]