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GovExec.com Today
August 26, 2004
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In this issue:
* Unions seek to force DHS to keep negotiating on personnel rules
* Investigators recommend criminal charges in Abu Ghraib prison scandal
* Agency pushing Los Alamos to resume projects too soon, critics say
* 9/11 commissioner: Threat of airplane suicide bombing has increased
* Officials defend Navy intranet satisfaction survey
* Lawmakers question security of DOE shipment of plutonium to France
* Today's column: Pay and Benefits Watch
* The Earlybird: Today's headlines --->
* Quote of the day
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1. Unions seek to force DHS to keep negotiating on personnel rules
By Shawn Zeller
The National Treasury Employees Union wants congressional leaders to put pressure on
Homeland Security Department managers to continue bargaining with union officials over
the structure of the department's new personnel system.
The letter comes days after NTEU and the American Federation of Government Employees
charged that DHS management short-circuited a congressionally mandated
"meet-and-confer" period designed to mediate differences between union and management
on a DHS-proposed design for the new system.
DHS officials responded that they had already extended the meet-and-confer period
beyond its originally scheduled end date.
Full story: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504sz1.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504sz1.htm
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2. Investigators recommend criminal charges in Abu Ghraib prison scandal
By Katherine McIntire Peters
Army investigators are recommending that criminal charges be filed against 23
soldiers and four contract employees for their role in abusing prisoners at the Abu
Ghraib prison complex outside Baghdad between July 2003 and February. Investigators
additionally recommended that six soldiers and two contract employees be charged with
failing to report abuse they knew had occurred.
The charges would be in addition to those already pending against seven military
police soldiers.
The investigators documented 44 cases of abuse, ranging from physical assault to one
incident where soldiers used dogs to terrorize two adolescents in a game to make them
urinate and defecate. According to the report released Tuesday: "At the extremes were
the death of a detainee in [another government agency's] custody, an alleged rape
committed by a U.S. translator and observed by a female soldier, and the alleged
sexual assault of an unknown female."
Full story: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504kp1.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504kp1.htm
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3. Agency pushing Los Alamos to resume projects too soon, critics say
By Amelia Gruber
An independent oversight agency is pushing Los Alamos National Laboratory to resume
risky projects before officials can adequately address security gaps exposed last
month, watchdog group investigators charged Wednesday.
Investigators from the Project on Government Oversight alleged that the Defense
Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is "shirking its duty" by offering to help the
National Nuclear Security Administration relax the precautions Los Alamos must take
before continuing work that poses significant safety risks. The safety board,
established by Congress in 1988 to oversee safety at government nuclear installations,
is emphasizing efficiency over the well-being of lab employees and people living near
the New Mexico facility, the nonprofit organization claimed in a press statement.
In late July, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered Los Alamos to halt riskier
projects, including ones posing physical safety threats and ones entailing computer
disks, hard drives or other "controlled removable electronic media" housing classified
information, pending a review of security procedures. The order came after a lab
scientist sustained an eye injury during a laser experiment and managers lost track of
two computer discs containing classified information.
Full story: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504a1.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504a1.htm
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4. 9/11 commissioner: Threat of airplane suicide bombing has increased
By Chris Strohm
A member of the 9/11 commission told House lawmakers Wednesday that the risk of an
airline passenger detonating a suicide bomb has increased as a result of security
precautions to prevent hijackings.
"Now that the whole protocol of dealing with hijackings makes the concept of gaining
control of an airplane far more difficult, the likelihood of a suicide bombing is
commensurately higher," 9/11 commissioner and former Navy secretary John Lehman told
the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation.
Several members of the committee expressed concern that the Transportation Security
Administration is not doing enough to screen passengers for explosives, especially
plastic explosives that are not detected by hand wands or metal detectors.
Full story: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504c1.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504c1.htm
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5. Officials defend Navy intranet satisfaction survey
By David McGlinchey
Officials at the Navy Marine Corps Intranet program vigorously defended the
network's customer satisfaction ratings Tuesday, saying that a large portion of
complaints come from users who were recently brought into the new system.
The intranet--which could end up costing more than $8 billion--is being developed by
Texas-based defense contractor EDS as a secure network that will soon connect 700,000
military and civilian users. In early August, NMCI officials said the program was
nearing an 80 percent customer satisfaction rate. Some military and civilian users,
however, have expressed skepticism over those statistics and have harshly criticized
the program.
The surveys are conducted and collected by EDS, a fact that has raised further
suspicions among disgruntled users. While the contractor has put a significant
financial investment into the development of NMCI, it stands to receive financial
rewards as it meets contract benchmarks, including customer satisfaction goals. NMCI
officials said they have complete faith in the integrity of the survey.
Full story: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504d1.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504d1.htm
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6. Lawmakers question security of DOE shipment of plutonium to France
By Mike Nartker, Global Security Newswire
Noting concerns that terrorists may attempt to influence the U.S. November elections
through an attack, Democratic lawmakers this month have raised questions concerning
the security of a planned shipment of more than 100 kilograms of plutonium to France.
The Energy Department is expected next month to ship 140 kilograms of plutonium to
France to be converted into mixed-oxide fuel for use in testing at a U.S. nuclear
power plant for possible future energy generation. The project is intended to help
advance a U.S.-Russian nonproliferation program to eliminate a combined total of
almost 70 tons of plutonium.
Antinuclear activists such as Greenpeace have long opposed the shipment, arguing that
such transports could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. To demonstrate, Greenpeace
activists last year were able to stop and chain themselves to a truck carrying a
plutonium shipment as it traveled from a site in northern France to a facility in the
south. French activists have also posted online information on the time and location
of three plutonium shipments that occurred over the last two weeks, Tom Clements of
Greenpeace International said today.
Full story: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504gsn1.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082504gsn1.htm
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7. Today's column: Pay and Benefits Watch
Flexible Rollover
A senior lawmaker wants employees with flexible healthcare spending accounts to keep
unspent money at the end of each year.
Full column: { Link: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082604pb.htm }
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0804/082604pb.htm
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8. Quote of the day
"DHS management is refusing to come back to the table and finish the discussions."
-- Colleen Kelley, the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, calling for
more negotiations on { Link:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=29325&dcn=todaysnews }
Homeland Security personnel reform.
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