Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

Obama Blurs Line Between Military, Foreign Aid

Seeking adviser to 'deploy with DOD forces in humanitarian emergencies'
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/obama-blurs-line-between-military-foreign-aid/#vQZ8uAUuw9xYda1I.99

Seeking adviser to 'deploy with DOD forces in humanitarian emergencies'
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/obama-blurs-line-between-military-foreign-aid/#vQZ8uAUuw9xYda1I.9The lines between U.S. military and humanitarian actions have become increasingly blurred under the Obama administration, which globally will deploy advisers to further merge what historically were separate defense and foreign-aid functions.

Seeking adviser to 'deploy with DOD forces in humanitarian emergencies'

The lines between U.S. military and humanitarian actions have become increasingly blurred under the Obama administration, which globally will deploy advisers to further merge what historically were separate defense and foreign-aid functions.

The reformation began under President George W. Bush but is reaching new heights under Obama.

The Military Liaison Team, or MLT, at the U.S. Agency for International Development will leverage the new advisers to coordinate efforts between USAID and all Department of Defense agencies, according to planning documents that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor discovered via routine database research.

These Humanitarian Assistance Adviser/Military, or HAA/M, adviser posts will serve as a “critical liaison function between USAID and the DoD military establishment.” USAID on Sept. 27 began publicly recruiting candidates to fill multiple HAA/M slots both domestically and worldwide.

The goal of the liaison function will be to “represent the humanitarian sector perspective and expertise” in situations in which parties such as USAID and DOD – as well as the United Nations, NGOs and “private voluntary organizations” – jointly respond to international crises.

HAA/M candidates must have “professional experience planning for or responding to” chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive events, the Personal Services Contracting notice emphasizes.

The agency’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, or OFDA, initially will deploy the HAA/Ms to DOD Combatant Command facilities where there already exists “an OFDA operational need to work with the military independent of future country specific disasters.”

Those locations include Stuttgart, Germany – current home of the U.S. Africa Command – as well as Honolulu and Miami.

OFDA’s strategic plan also is weighing potential HAA/M assignments in Washington, D.C.; Bangkok, Thailand; San Jose, Costa Rica; Okinawa, Japan; and Manama, Bahrain, the document says.

OFDA is the primary USAID unit tasked with providing “emergency non-food humanitarian assistance.”

The three-division office is part of the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, or DCHA.

OFDA separately is recruiting for a HAA/M position that the office has planned for U.S. Special Operations Command, or USSOCOM, headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla.

“Due to their existing presence in countries around the world, special operations forces (SOF) can be the first U.S. military forces in country following natural disasters or complex emergencies,” the solicitation says.

Because of SOF’s unique global responsibilities, “OFDA is increasingly liaising and engaging with those units to ensure staff awareness of [U.S. government] roles before, during, and following an international disaster response operation.”

Indeed, the Bush administration centered its efforts at USSOCOM when the White House first sought to create some parallel USAID and DOD functions.

That initiative countered the traditional U.S. government perspective on USAID’s distinct humanitarian role.

The John F. Kennedy administration created USAID as a unit intentionally detached from “political and military functions that plagued its predecessor organizations,” according to the agency’s official history. As a consequence of this separation, USAID more ably could offer “direct support to the developing nations of the world.”

Under Bush, however, USAID’s DCMA unit in 2005 created the Office of Military Affairs, subsequently hiring senior advisers to initiate and expand its relationship with DOD.

USAID started this process by hiring senior development advisers to USSOCOM and to the U.S. European Command, respectively.

Soon after, it sought to install a Washington, D.C.-based senior military adviser to “create, foster and formalize a network of working relationships between USAID and the U.S. military, with a focus on leaders throughout the Pentagon.”

The creation of the more recent HAA/M adviser positions will attempt to elevate these relationships to a higher level, while also taking steps to ensure that the lines are not completed blurred when it comes to military and humanitarian functions.

Among the core duties of the advisers will be to “deploy with DOD forces in humanitarian emergencies” and to “assist OFDA management in defining a strategy for military coordination.”

Despite the coordination, the adviser also will be tasked with drawing at least some distinction between DOD and USAID responsibilities.

The establishment of these boundaries is evidenced by additional duties called for in the solicitation. Among them is the stated need to “coordinate with the humanitarian community to achieve the best use of military assets by reducing redundant or counterproductive military activities.”

The HAA/M adviser likewise must determine “whether OFDA participation in DoD humanitarian activities is necessary and useful.”

This article originally was published via WND on Oct. 1, 2013. Under agreement with the publisher, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

U.S. Seeks New Means of Predicting Internet Growth Overseas, from Albania to Zimbabwe

The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is looking for a contractor capable of developing a new analytical model to predict Internet usage and growth in thirty-two foreign nations, from "A" (Albania) to "Z" (Zimbabwe).

The agency, which runs U.S. government-funded international broadcasting systems such as Voice of America and Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, said in a Statement of Work (Solicitation #BBG50-R-11-0020) that existing models for predicting growth are inadequate. The SOW said those models solely focus on specific technology sectors rather than the Internet in its entirety:

The ultimate goal is to estimate, using empirical data, the expansion of the number of unique individuals using the Internet on a weekly basis in these markets over the next five years. While various organizations have produced such estimates and prejections for sub-segments of the Internet market, such as mobile Internet use or fixed line broadband, BBG requires estimates of the growth of the entire Internet market, regardless of platform, including use via public access facilities.

Although the BBG attempted to justifiy why it wants a new predictive model, it did not specify why it needs -- nor what it intends to do -- with such a new mode of analysis. The agency said it would apply the model to Internet usage in the following nations: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam,  Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The BBG said the selected contractor should be able to complete the work within an eight-week period. It did not offer an estimated cost of the project.

Washington Takes Action on High Gas Prices

Rising fuel prices and truck-based shipping expenses are spelling trouble for U.S. policymakers, who now are exploring ways to strengthen, as an alternative, new highways, commercial railways and ports. Specifically, the federal government is taking action through an endeavor known as the "Sub-Saharan Africa Trade Corridor Transportation Initiative."

Conflict stemming from elections in Kenya -- and the increased time its takes to transport goods in and out of neighboring countries -- purportedly has caused the governments of nearby Uganda and Rwanda to begin rationing fuel, according to a federal planning document that The Peacock Report has located.

"[T]he cost of shipping to the Port of Mombasa has increased 25% since the political stalemate," according to the original solicitation document. "Costs are expected to continue to rise until the power sharing accord has been reached. The cost implications for Uganda and Rwanda are tremendous and will constrain these fragile economies even more.  Therefore, alternative transport corridors are a necessary investment for the region."

In order to alleviate these fuel shortages while addressing the concomitant impact on the [Sub Saharan African] economy, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently awarded a $94,000 contract to a private firm to assess the situation -- and to report back to USAID on whether U.S. taxpayers should bear the brunt of more significant "investments" into that region.

Interdisciplinary Research Consultants (IdRC), an international consulting firm with offices in Jordan and the U.S., will develop a preliminary plan to help modernize, among other possibilities, the East African Central Corridor. The original plan for the corridor, which links Tanzania and Rwanda, was to facilitate the transport of gold and nickel from inland mining operations to main ports. The corridor still may be expanded to Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the document says.