Monday, September 7, 2009
Funny Stuff: Blackwater Recruits Rambo, Boba Fett, Predator, and Yosemite Sam For Duty in Iraq
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Quotes: DoS Department Spokesman on Contract Oversight
This just says it all. I mean everyone has seen the pictures and heard all the crap with Armor Group at the Embassy, but to me, this was the most relevant bit of information about the whole deal. It is also the funniest quote ever. Jake put it up on PMH too. Enjoy. –Matt
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DoS Department Spokesman
Daily Press BriefingWashington, DC
September 1, 2009
AFGHANISTAN
QUESTION: But if you could just describe that and what is DS’s role.
MR. KELLY: Sure. I mean, DS’s role, I think, is mainly to over -the oversight of the guard program. But that’s a good question, and we’ll get you the info on it.
QUESTION: And what is the oversight of this particularcontractor? Does DS have an oversight of that contractor? Becausein the whole Blackwater situation there was a lot of complaintsthat DS didn’t have enough oversight over the contractors. So who specifically –
MR. KELLY: Well, I do have a specific answer to that question.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. KELLY: The contracting officer is assigned here inWashington, D.C., and that person has overall responsibility for oversight of the contract and participates in weekly meetings between the program office and AGNA, or the Armour Group. And this person is also the one who has interactions on a more frequent basis –
QUESTION: From here?
MR. KELLY: From here in Washington.
QUESTION: So there’s no adult supervision of this contractor on the ground?
MR. KELLY: I’m getting to that.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. KELLY: In Kabul, there are two assistant Regional Security Officers designated as the contracting officer’s representative and assistant contracting officer representative, respectively. There is also always a duty RSO who deals with the routine guard force matters such as access requests and on-compound events. So that’s – I guess that goes some way to answer your question. Right? It does appear that they do have the guard force responsibility.
QUESTION: Meaning the Armour Guard force?
MR. KELLY: Well, I mean, it’s an embassy guard force, and Armour has the contract for it. Can we –
QUESTION: To guard the perimeter of the embassy? Is that what they do?
MR. KELLY: Well, let’s find out exactly.
QUESTION: Okay.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Funny Stuff: Katrina Flashback–Police Looting a Walmart in New Orleans
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Industry Talk: Fallen Xe Pilot an Inspiration to Many
This was a bad week, with many air crashes within the contracting world. Both in Afghanistan and in Iraq we had helicopter crashes, and it really didn’t get much of a mention in the media. So here is a dedication to one of the fallen, a ‘Little Bird’ pilot named Sonny Hinchman that worked for Xe in Iraq. Rest in peace. –Matt
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Fallen copter pilot called an inspiration to many
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
By Timberly Ferree
Sonny Hinchman was an inspiration. He always thought of others and doing the right thing was the law he lived by.
Those are a few of the words used by Kirk Hinchman to describe his youngest brother William F. “Sonny” Hinchman — who was killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last Friday.
“You never heard him talk about himself,” Kirk said. “It was always how are you.”
Sonny left his hometown of Worthington after graduating mid-term in 1984 and joined the Army at the age of 17. He started in the Warrant Officer program and then entered flight school.
“At 17 he was flying,” Kirk said. “His passion was flying.”
Monday, June 15, 2009
Funny Stuff: The Case of the Missing FAGOR Deep Fat Fryer
This is hilarious. I would have guessed that way more stuff was missing than this, and this is actually a pretty good report considering the circumstances. But the missing deep fat fryer is the best. Check it out. –Matt
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Joint Audit of Blackwater Contract and Task Orders for Worldwide Personal Protective Services in Iraq
Sample Selection (from page 51)
Of the 550 items selected for verification under the two task orders, we veri-fied the existence of 536 (97 percent) of all property in the sample. This number consisted of 100 percent of the vehicles, weapons, and property valued at $25,000 or more. We verified 136 (91 percent) of the items in the “Other” category. The 14 items on the inventory lists that we could not verify are presented in Table 3.
Most Property Could Be Verified (from page 58)
“Such oversight was lacking for the ‘other’ category of personal property, in which we could not account for the 14 items (9 percent): four handheld radios, four body armor vests, two pairs of binoculars, one satellite phone, one body armor plate, on Global Positioning System, and one deep fat fryer.” (p.16)
FAGOR Deep Fat Fryer