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

U.S. to Provide Kenya with Navy SEAL Boats

The Obama Administration has arranged to provide several customized special-operations military vessels to the Government of Kenya, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has learned.

That discovery coincides with today's blast in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Although officially it remains unclear whether the blast was the result of a utility problem or the work of terrorists, Reuters reports that a witness saw a man place a suspicious package in business-district building right before the explosion.

The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding a noncompetitive “sole-source contract to United States Marine Incorporated (USMI) of Gulfport, Miss to provide five (5) 11M Naval Special Warfare Rigid Inflatable Boats,” according to a presolicitation notice that NAVSEC uploaded to a federal contracting database May 21.

The U.S. Navy in a separate “Fact File” describes the vessels as “High-speed, high-buoyancy, extreme-weather craft with the primary mission of SEAL insertion/extraction.”

A History Channel report referred to the boat as “the Lamborghini of special warfare craft.”

The 36-ft. turbocharged vessels typically carry a crew of three in addition to one SEAL squad, and are armed with an “M60 7.62mm machine gun, MK19 40mm, [and] M2 .50 cal. machine gun.” Although the presolicitation document did not specify whether NAVSEC was equipping the USMI-provided boats with such armaments, it said the company “will provide services and materials required to build the boat, as well as execute testing, trials, depreservation of the boat in preparation for transportation, and perform in-country reactivation.”

NAVSEC did not disclose the estimated cost of the Kenya-bound boats.

The naval unit justified the sole-source contract based on its claim that USMI “is the only source with the 11M Naval Special Warfare Rigid Inflatable Boat data rights necessary to build and perform services depicted through a foreign military case for the Kenyan Government. This firm has the requisite background knowledge and experience required.”

A review of Federal Election Commission campaign contribution records supports NAVSECs contention that it awarded the noncompetitive contract based on USMI’s ability to provide the equipment; indeed, the Obama Administration clearly did not allow the company executive team’s generosity to Republican causes to stand in the way of this award.

USMI Chairman John Dane III, for example, donated $104,000 largely to Republican committees and candidates since 1998.  

The most sizeable gift from Dane III was a $25,000 contribution to the Republican National Committee in 2004. He also gave $15,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in July 2010—a contribution that he matched once again in October 2011.

Six days later he contributed $2,500 to Romney for President, Inc.

Most recently he gave $2,500 to Palazzo for Congress Committee. U.S. Rep. Steven McCarty Palazzo (R-MS) currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee, which gives him a seat on its Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces as well as the Subcommittee on Readiness.

CEO Barry Dreyfus also has given more than $100,000 mainly to Republican candidates and committees over the past fifteen years, most recently cutting two separate $2,500 checks on the same day (Jan. 26, 2012) to the Palazzo for Congress Committee

Interestingly, the sole FEC record of a campaign contribution made by Bryant Bernhard, USMI president, was a $2,400 check made out May 24, 2010 to the Gene Taylor for Congress Committee. Taylor was the Democrat who lost his seat to Palazzo in the following November election.

There is no record of any campaign contributions made by VP Conrad Keubel.

FOR MORE REGIONAL COVERAGE, SEE THE MONITOR'S KENYA PAGE AND AFRICA PAGE.

FOR RELATED GOVERNMENTAL/DEPARTMENTAL COVERAGE, SEE OUR WHITE HOUSE PAGE AND U.S. NAVY PAGE.

Photo provided courtesy U.S. Department of Defense.

Kenya Sees Spike in Obama Administration-Funded Projects

Kenyan businesses lately are increasingly becoming recipients of U.S. government largesse, as the Obama Administration, among pursuing other endeavors, aims to expand "livestock-related economic opportunities" in that nation. Although this and other recently released presolicitation notices for unrelated programs serve as advance alerts to potential vendors—and therefore do not offer cost estimates and other details— a review of U.S. government contracting actions nonetheless indicates a spike of activity in Kenya in a variety of sectors.

The White House is committing to a five-year effort to "improve the inclusiveness and competitiveness" of the livestock industry specifically in Marsabit and Garissa counties, Kenya, according to a presolicitation notice released April 12 that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research.

The Feed the Future-related initiative, known as the Resilience and Economic Growth in the Arid Lands-Accelerated Growth, or REGAL-AG, program, will be carried out by contractors hired by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to the document.

The agency did not disclose the project’s estimated cost: "No additional information regarding this planned RFP [Request for Proposals] is available at this time."

USAID that same day separately alerted potential contractors to the launching of yet another endeavor in that nation, known as the Kenya Agricultural Value Chain Enterprises, or KAVES, program.

The KAVES presolicitation notice simply states the agency’s intention “to use full and open competition for the contract, which will be performed in Kenya. USAID intends to release the solicitation within the next 45 days.”

The agency pointed out that the presolicitation number——will change upon release of a bid request, but the program name would remain the same.

Other recent contracting actions include:

• Up to $50 million in U.S. Navy-coordinated military construction projects on the horizon at Camp Simba, Kenya, and at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
• Deployment to Kenya of a privately contracted Regional Advisor for USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). as well as an Emerging Pandemic Threats Advisor.
  
• A U.S. Trade & Development Agency-led search for a contractor to perform a “definitional mission” exploring possible funding of geothermal energy projects in Kenya and Rwanda.

The above-mentioned endeavors have taken place in recent weeks; however, other notable U.S.-funded Kenyan projects thus far in 2012 include the launching of a National Institutes of Health-led initiative to hire contractors to conduct genetic research of Kenyans with Type-2 diabetes. Separately, the U.S. Army embarked upon a market survey of potential vendors to provide helicopter flight-training simulators to the Kenyan government.

ALSO SEE: "Response to Commenters."

FOR ADDITIONAL REPORTING ON THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SEE THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.

FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE U.S TRADE & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, VISIT THE MONITOR'S USTDA PAGE.

FOR MORE REGIONAL COVERAGE, SEE THE MONITOR'S AFRICA PAGE.

Navy to Fund 'Tactical Surveillance' Research Project

A new research project of the U.S. Navy hopes to develop an advanced, autonomous means of gathering and processing data for tactical and battlefield situations. The Autonomous Persistent Tactical Surveillance program of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) will provide about  $41.5 million over five years to researchers who submit “white papers” or proposals for innovative projects leading to the potential development of “major advancements” in this area.

“United States (US) Forces are being placed in environments where they are required to function with increased autonomy,” the Navy says in Broad Agency Announcement # 11-023. “The need is stronger than ever to be able to autonomously maintain persistent surveillance of activities and entities over a region of interest on a continuing (24 hrs / 7 days a week) basis, as well as automated tasking of these assets…”

Among the various shortfalls of existing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance capabilities that the BAA identifies include:

There is a lack of sharing knowledge of unfolding events across mission threads.  

There is a lack of timely exploitation of useful theater and national sensor data. There are gaps in alerting Forces to danger.  

There is a lack of mobile tools for field users to gather information. There is a lack of means for reporting soft biometric data on at-risk individuals or groups engaged in suspicious activity.  

Many sensors fail to deliver relevant information to users outside their stovepipes… Sensor data overwhelms the distribution, analysis, storage, and assimilation capabilities.

Proposals are due Sept. 12. ONR anticipates making a decision about awards on or around Oct. 11.

SNAPSHOT: Navy Fuel Needs, July-December 2011

How much energy does it take to keep the U.S. Navy operational in the Western Pacific and Middle East regions alone? Here’s a snapshot of what the Navy needs to have delivered to  the two regions just from July 1 through December 31, plus a 30-day carry-over period:

Turbine Fuel, Aviation (JA1): 154,000,000 U.S. gallons.

Naval Distillate (F76): 124,480,000 U.S. gallons. 

Turbine Fuel, Aviation (JP8): 95,718,000 U.S. gallons.

Turbine Fuel, Aviation (JP5): 75,419,000 U.S. gallons.

Total Quantity: 449,617,000 U.S. gallons.

Media Miss NSA Angle on Navy 'Telecom' Project in Hawaii

Recent media coverage of a $320 million contract to modernize a Navy technology facility in Hawaii have missed -- or ignored -- one critical element of the construction project: this so-called "telecommunications" site also serves as a National Security Agency (NSA) global surveillance center.

The Peacock Report more than a year ago was the first news outlet in the world to report that the Hawaii Cryptologic Center and other NSA facilities would receive hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and technological upgrades. The piece NSA To Pour Hundreds of Millions Into Surveillance Infrastructure back on April 20, 2006 was a major breaking-news story for TPR; unlike mainstream- and business-media reports a full year later -- reports based simply on a regurgitation of corporate and federal press releases announcing the Shaw-Dick Pacific, LLC, contract

TPR routinely conducts government-database searches and scours congressional reports to obtain unannounced information often far in advance of "official" release dates.

Naval Security Document Lumps Journalists With Foreign Spies

A recently obtained Naval Operations Security Plan (OPSEC) expressly reveals the U.S. Navy’s contempt for journalists, whom it views in the same light as – and arguably a less favorable light than – foreign spies. The document was discovered while researching a federal contract to support psychological operations (PSYOPS) that the U.S. military conducts worldwide, a $100 million award secured by Virginia-based CACI International.

While the document – which was labeled FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY – had been available for public viewing, the Navy has since removed all links related to the contract, replacing those links with the phone number of a Naval procurement specialist handling the account.

CACI will carry out much of its PSYOPS and electronic-communications support role at the Naval Air Warfare Center facilities in Patuxent River, Maryland, where the Navy’s Special Communications Requirements (SCR) Division is located. The SCR Division designs and maintains federal systems for C4ISR – command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Consequently, the OPSEC plan serves as a precautionary guide for contractors visiting the Patuxent River Complex and Naval Air Station, advising visitors to be mindful of potential "human intelligence" (HUMINT) threats that foreign collection services pose to national security.

It claims that while 10% of the data that these agents collect are the fruits of espionage, the other 90% of HUMINT is gathered through the analysis of "open source literature," material that is largely – but not exclusively – produced by journalists. The Navy acknowledges that these open sources include information that the Dept. of Defense itself, plus other federal entities such as the Commerce Dept., make available to researchers, contractors, and the general public.

The document points out that such sources are far-reaching, and can be found through "official and unofficial organization and professional publications, the World Wide Web, the National Technical Information Center, the Defense Technical Information Center, at meetings and seminars, or through contractor advertisements."

Although the OPSEC document says all these sources, and not just journalists, provide foreign intelligence collectors with "highly valuable information regarding military capabilities, limitations, and technology," it nonetheless drops the bulk of the blame for this data access on the U.S. media.

"To put the open source threat into the proper context, consider that the total number of dedicated foreign intelligence agents in this country is estimated to be between one and two thousand, while the total number of reporters in this country is closer to one million; a thousand to one ratio." the document says. "As a result, HUMINT organizations depend heavily upon open source information to assist them and are much more likely to learn of new information through the open press."

Wayne Madsen, a former Naval officer and Naval Intelligence staffer, said that while this view of the media is troubling, he is not shocked that the Navy has incorporated its negative perspective into policy.

"The U.S. Navy hierarchy, by far, is more conservative than its counterparts in DoD, including the Marine Corps," Madsen said in an interview. "That is why they entertain these dangerous notions of controlling the media. The Navy's track record on cover-ups – USS Iowa turret blast, Tailhook scandal, USS Vincennes downing of IranAir flight, and other outrageous censorship and disinformation – has made it and the open media enemies for a number of years. It's not surprising the Navy would suggest a plan to control the media and liken them to foreign intelligence agents."

While the Navy is warning CACI to beware of spies and their co-conspirators in U.S. newsrooms, the IT contractor is tasked with enabling U.S. Special Forces to more effectively disseminate media; not free and open media, but the sort of media made possible via aerial leafleting and the broadcasting of U.S. government radio and TV messages in hostile territories.