Author Archives: Fred Wellman

Contractors React to News of NSA Leaker

Marjorie Censer (@commoncenser), Washington Post. As we mentioned in last week’s Scout Report, the news that a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor was the source of the leak from the National Security Agency didn’t bode well for the opinion of the contractor work force within DoD and the intelligence community. This week didn’t go quite as badly as we had expected but the claws came out about the size of the contractor work force and the costs associated with their work. Marjorie Censer wraps up some of the opinions from the past week ranging from SecDef Hagel calling for a review of…

The Outsourcing of U.S. Intelligence Raises Risks Among the Benefits 

Robert O’Harrow, Jr., Washington Post. It was a rough week for the National Security Agency with a first leak in the Guardian that the agency has been collecting all of the meta-data on calls over its system then in the Washington Post on tapping into internet service providers called PRISM.  Sunday it was revealed that both document releases were the work of a single Booz Allen Hamilton contract employee of NSA named Edward Snowden, a 29 year-old IT specialist who claims access to scores of Top Secret documents and hints of more revelations to come as…

K Street Looking Forward to BRAC Fights

Byron Tau (@ByronTau), Politico. The Department of Defense is asking for another opportunity to close bases they see as unnecessary and underutilized. The process known as Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, is one of the most politically charged efforts undertaken by the federal government as local governments and business groups pull out the stops to keep the massive amount of jobs and revenue that accompany military bases. Congress has already begun to make a stand that they won’t allow BRAC to happen again but just in case, state and local governments are already putting together their teams to fight off the…

Pentagon Approves Use of Advanced Devices from Apple and Others – but Don’t Expect Quick Change

Chris Carroll (@ChrisCarroll_), Stars and Stripes. On Friday the Defense Information Systems Agency announced the long rumored approval of the Security Technical Implementation Guide, or STIG, for Apple iOS6 devices to be used on the Defense Department’s networks. This move effectively clears the department’s various entities to purchase products like iPhones and iPads officially for the first time joining previously approved Samsung Android devices. While there is some excitement among Apple diehards, Carroll points out that it won’t be an overnight change by any means. BlackBerry clearly owns the government market…