Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Photo: US Marines from 2/3 Fox Company Keep Watch, by David Furst
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Industry Talk: AGNA Awarded $8m for Bahrain and UAE Security Guard Services
More AGNA news. I am not the recruiter for this contract(s) and please do not send me a resume in reference to this story.
I hope AGNA realizes, along with their owners, that we are all watching and we are all demanding excellence out of your management. Your performance in Afghanistan was dismal and because you did not care about what was going on with that contract, all of us paid a price. And whomever is the COR on this contract, please do your job and make sure this contract is carried out properly. That means getting out from behind your desk, actually checking on operations, and getting some shared reality about what is happening. Then you can actually make an assessment as to how things are going. Most of all, be a man (or woman) and have the courage to do things right when it comes to evaluating the performance of this company. It’s not hard and all it takes is self-discipline and attention to detail to be effective.
Or you guys can be ‘marshmallow eaters‘, and take the easy way out on managing these contracts. Thanks to Bill over at Dangerzonejobs for getting this one out there. –Matt
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United States DoD contracts for September 29, 2009
Armor Group North America Inc., McLean, Va., is being awarded an $8,073,841 modification under a previously awarded firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N33191-07-D-1357) to exercise option 2 for provision of security guard services at Naval Support Activity Bahrain.
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Disaster Response: U.S., Australia Lead Samoa Relief Mission
Below you get a little indicator of the type of Incident Response mechanisms FEMA is using for this. I am not familiar with IMAT, but I am familiar with Incident Command, and that is exactly what will be used to coordinate these efforts. The best part is Australia is fully on board with Incident Command as well, and this is a prime example of using a universal command language and system to unify the effort. –Matt
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US, Australia lead Samoa relief mission
by Amy Coopes
Wed Sep 30, 2009
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia, New Zealand and the United States led immediate pledges of assistance to the Samoan islands after a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami which killed dozens.
US President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in the remote Pacific territory American Samoa, where at least 14 people were killed when a massive wall of water swept over the US-administered island early Tuesday local time.
“The president tonight declared a major disaster exists in the territory of American Samoa and ordered federal aid to supplement territory and local recovery efforts in the area struck by an earthquake, tsunami, and flooding,” a statement from the White House said.
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Industry Talk: Were ArmorGroup Allegations Quashed?
Attkisson asked Krongard about the conflict of interest:
Attkisson: Did you know your own brother was on ArmorGroup’s board of directors?
Krongard: No , I did not.
Attkisson: Why didn’t you know?
Krongard: Dunno. I guess No. 1 I’m not sure why I should’ve known, but No. 2 he never told me.
*****
Come on!…… You have to be kidding me, right? Howard had no idea that his own flesh and blood was a member of AGNA’s board of directors? Pfffft.
This just keeps getting better and better. All of this, because a few leaders did not have the courage to do what is right. –Matt
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Were ArmorGroup Allegations Quashed?
State Department Inspector Gen.’s Office “Lost” Complaint against Troubled Security Co.
By Sharyl Attkisson
09/30/2009
Howard Krongar’s job was to investigate alleged misconduct at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Sharyl Attkisson reports on how one of his personal relationships may have prevented him from doing so.
A hearing has been held over the recently-leaked photos which reveal allegedly lewd behavior by employees hired to provide security for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
John Gorman, a former manager with ArmorGroup, the private company hired to provide security at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul details what he knew and what happened when he tried to stop it.
Krongard is accused of improperly burying legitimate allegations against security contractors Blackwater and ArmorGroup while, and perhaps because, his brother sat on the boards of directors of those compines while he was charged with investigating them.
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Israel: ‘Hizbullah Had Better Intel Than Israel’ -Second Lebanon War
A bitter pill to swallow, but overall this is healthy for an organization. I would be interested to see the same metrics applied to the Gaza campaign as well.
And on another note, this would be something to remember for the security contracting industry. The methodology sounds simple and straight forward, and could possibly be applied to company operations or incidents. The point being is that we might be able to learn something from the Israeli version of Kaizen. –Matt
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‘Hizbullah had better intel than Israel in 2006’
Sep. 29, 2009
Yaakov Katz
THE JERUSALEM POST
Hizbullah had better intelligence information than Israel and better control of its forces during the Second Lebanon War, according to an official IDF scorecard compiled recently by a top navy officer.
The article – which was given an award by Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi – was written by Lt.-Col. Robi Sandman, and was published in the latest edition of Ma’arahot, a monthly journal on military issues.
During his research for the article, titled “How the Arabs are preparing for the next war,” Sandman asked 24 senior IDF officers to grade the army and Hizbullah in 10 categories, on a scale of 1 to 10.
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