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
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
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 More…
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 More…
While most of the debate over the proposed stimulus bill has focused on whether the federal government ought to embark on a plan expected to cost taxpayers some $885 billion, equally important is how that money gets spent. Much of the construction and other work will have to be More…
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 More…
“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.” More…
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 More…
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