national security | The Contracting Education Academy

October 10, 2017 By AMK

Judge denies bail for accused NSA leaker, citing security risk

A woman charged with leaking U.S. secrets must remain jailed until her trial, a federal judge ruled last Thursday, saying her release would pose an “ongoing risk to national security.”

Reality Winner, 25, is a former Air Force linguist who worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency at a facility in Augusta, Georgia, when she was charged in June with copying a classified U.S. report and mailing it to a news organization.

Winner’s defense attorneys asked a judge to reconsider releasing her on bail after her trial date was postponed from October to next March. They argued Winner had no prior criminal history and served admirably in the military. Winner’s mother in Kingsville, Texas, planned to move to Georgia to ensure her daughter obeyed any terms of her bond.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/civilian/fbi-doj/2017/10/05/judge-denies-bail-for-accused-nsa-leaker-citing-security-risk/

April 26, 2016 By AMK

Florida woman charged in 18-count indictment for conspiracy to illegally export systems, components and documents to China

An 18-count superseding indictment was unsealed last Thursday (Apr. 21, 2016) charging Amin Yu, 53, of Orlando, Florida, with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General, conspiring to defraud the United States and to commit offenses against the United States, committing unlawful export information activities, smuggling goods from the United States, conspiring to and committing international money laundering and making false statements to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida.

According to the superseding indictment, from at least 2002 until approximately February 2014, Yu obtained systems and components for marine submersible vehicles from companies in the United States. She did so at the direction of co-conspirators working for Harbin Engineering University (HEU), which is a state-owned entity in the People’s Republic of China. Yu proceeded to illegally export the systems and components to China for use by her co-conspirators in the development of marine submersible vehicles – unmanned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles – for HEU and other state-controlled entities. It is alleged that Yu illegally exported items by failing to file electronic export information as required by U.S. law and also by filing false electronic export information. In particular, Yu completed and caused the completion of export-related documents in which she significantly undervalued the items that she had exported and also provided false end-user information for those items.

An indictment is merely an allegation and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

If convicted, Yu faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each of the money laundering counts. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on all other counts. The indictment also notifies Yu that the United States intends to forfeit approximately $2,668,648.92, the alleged traceable proceeds of the offenses.

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Irick of the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys David C. Recker and Thea D. R. Kendler of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/florida-woman-charged-18-count-indictment-conspiracy-illegally-export-systems-components-and

November 25, 2014 By AMK

How DoD’s procurement problems are hurting national security

Frank Kendall cringes when he hears the term “acquisition reform.” The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer instead prefers the term “acquisition improvement,” which he says focuses more on the continued refinement of the entire process by which the Defense Department conceives, develops and purchases everything from ships and aircraft to trucks and ammunition.

By almost any measure, the system is broken. Consider this: The Defense Department spent at least $46 billion between 2001 and 2011 on a dozen weapons systems that never even entered production, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The two most expensive programs were run by the Army. The service spent $18 billion on the Future Combat Systems—a collection of networked vehicles and sensors—and nearly $8 billion on the Comanche stealth helicopter. That’s more money wasted in just two programs than the combined annual budgets of NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Read the entire feature cover story from the special defense edition of Government Executive magazine by clicking here.

February 14, 2013 By AMK

Industry association’s anti-sequester campaign looks unsuccessful

Apparently realizing that its year-long campaign to stop the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration by focusing on the severe impact on national security has not been effective, the

Aerospace Industries Association tried to broaden its appeal Monday (2/11/2013) by joining with a coalition of non-defense organizations and trying to shift the focus to “entitlements.”

It may be too little, too late. There are few signs from Congress that sequester will not happen. Some Democrats would be happy to see defense spending cut to protect the entitlements. Some Republicans have abandoned the party’s traditional support for defense and are embracing sequester as the only sure way to cut federal spending.

A veteran aerospace public affairs official conceded that the prospects were grim because of the GOP retreat from its support for defense and because no lawmakers “had the guts” to take on entitlements.

Keep reading this article at: http://defense.aol.com/2013/02/11/success-of-aias-anti-sDoD

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February 15, 2012 By AMK

Air Force cyber chief: Speed up acquisitions already

Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, engaged Tuesday in what he called a “soapbox rant” to decry the military’s Industrial Age approach to acquiring cyber capabilities. He was speaking at a symposium sponsored by the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, an industry group.

Shelton, who oversees Air Force space and cyberspace operations, said the Defense Department acquires cyber capabilities the same way it buys aircraft or satellites — a process that can take years, while new developments in computer hardware and software can happen in days or months. “I am frustrated by the lack of speed,” in cyber acquisitions, Shelton told an audience of more than 1,000 people at the symposium.

The current cyber acquisition system threatens the military’s cyber mission. He said the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., which manages acquisition of information technology and cyber systems for the service, has started to develop capabilities to fill technology gaps “within hours or weeks,” but he did not provide any details.

The Air Force also must develop better situational awareness of potential threats in cyberspace because “we can’t defend [against] what we can’t see,” Shelton said, and dependence on networks has made them an attractive target for attackers.

Protecting those networks means the Air Force needs to move from a purely defensive posture to develop more resilient networks that can automatically reroute traffic when they come under attack, he added.

The Air Force requires technically trained personnel to handle its cyber mission and Shelton said the continuing lack of science, technology, engineering and math students who are U.S. citizens has created a “national security issue.” He proposed various incentives, including changes to the G.I. Bill, to boost the number of graduates in those critical fields.

Incentives may not help the Air Force meet its requirements, as Nextgov reported Monday that only 3 percent of science, technology, engineering and math students plan to work for the federal government.

by Bob Brewin – NextGov – Feb. 8, 2012 at http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120208_8266.php?oref=rss.

A woman charged with leaking U.S. secrets must remain jailed until her trial, a federal judge ruled last Thursday, saying her release would pose an “ongoing risk to national security.”

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