THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

Education Program (Title) of the Year

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching a five-year, nationwide professional-development project for health education teachers, a measure the agency deems critical toward enhancing school-based HIV prevention, nutrition, and physical fitness programs. The first order of business for this new endeavor? Creating the most unnecessarily lengthy and redundant program moniker: The "Enhancing Professional Development Among Education Agency Personnel and Others Who Work With Youth to Deliver Effective Education for Reducing Health Risk Behaviors Among Youth" initiative.

The agency on Tuesday began soliciting potential contractors to carry out the "Enhancing, etc., etc., etc." program. CDC did not disclose the estimated cost of outsourcing this initiative to a U.S. nongovernmental organization.

USAID Set to Unveil West Bank/Gaza Infrastructure Project

Details of a U.S.-financed West Bank/Gaza reconstruction project involving "major types of construction" soon will be unveiled, a recently located federal-contracting document shows. The "Infrastructure Needs Program," as this U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative is known, will focus primarily on water and transportation infrastructure. However, according to a presolicitation document dated Feb. 11 that The Peacock Report has located, the endeavor also could involve the awarding of contracts for:

- Construction and renovation of schools;
- Construction and renovation of health clinics/hospitals;
- Construction and rehabilitation of municipal and local government infrastructure;
- Construction and rehabilitation of wastewater treatment plants;
- Construction of youth and sports facilities;
- Purchase of construction materials;
- "Other" civil works.

USAID did not provide an estimated value of the project. However, the agency anticipates releasing a more detailed Request for Proposals around Feb. 25.

USAID "Infrastructure Needs Program" Presolicitation Notice.

Federal Education Program Seeks New Leadership

The federal government is recruiting a new "Education/Investing in People Program Leader," a position that pays in the $81,093-$105,420 range. According to a personnel solicitation dated Jan. 15, candidates for this leadership position will be tasked with overseeing initiatives whose "education strategic objective" is the improvement of "the quality and relevance of basic education and of lower level vocational training to enhance job placement opportunities or subsequent level education. The program aims to increase the participation of young people "in social, economic, and political life through the acquisition of life skills gained by both in-school and out-of-school youth."

The program will take place in Morocco, for Moroccan youth, courtesy the U.S. taxpayer.

Attention High School Journalists

The Peacock Report (TPR) is urging all aspiring young reporters and teacher-advisors to attend the upcoming Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Philadelphia. The Journalism Education Association (JEA) and the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) are offering more than 200 sessions that will tackle newspaper, yearbook, broadcast, advisement, press-law issues and more the week of Nov. 8-11.

Feds Plan to Build National 'Teacher Training' Site

Teacher accountability and professional development are among the many target areas that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, hypothetically, seeks to strengthen. Despite claims that the Act oversteps constitutional boundaries --arguably interfering with state and local control of education policy -- the federal government continues to exhibit leadership in preparing aspiring teachers for public service. Specifically, the Bush Administration is planning to build a national Teacher Training Facility as part of a larger program of assisting in the "rehabilitation, livelihood, and rebuilding of economic and social infrastructure" of the nation, according to procurement documents that Exhortations to the Oblivious has obtained.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately for American educators, administrators, and students, the above-mentioned nation to reap the fruits of such a government compound is not the United States. Rather, the U.S. Agency for International Development will fund construction of the facility in the Aceh province of Indonesia.

It remains unknown whether the school will offer the existing popular course of study "Educating Students in Jihadist Techniques for Slaughtering Christians." The class clearly has come in handy for local Indonesians who in recent years participated in attacks on missionaries and other relief workers during international post-tsunami recovery efforts.

No Book Left Behind

The "timely delivery" of "high quality books" to schools and libraries is the aim of an expanded Bush Administration education program. Will institutions in your neighborhood be the recipient of such benevolence? Check out political humor sister-site Exhortations to the Oblivious to find out.

No Book Left Behind

It's no secret that many, though certainly not all, schools and public libraries across the U.S. have substandard book collections and infrastructure. Some municipalities, sadly, have even closed their local libraries for budgetary reasons. Recognizing this tragedy, the federal government is extending a contract with a private firm responsible for selecting book titles, applying "quality assurance to printed books," and overseeing their "timely delivery to schools" as part of this ongoing educational endeavor of the Bush Administration, Exhortations has learned.

Unfortunately for American kids, all the books from this particular project are going to schools in Egypt.

According to a contracting document located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on July 26 extended for another year an existing "task order" with the Washington, D.C.-based Academy for Educational Development (AED). AED will continue to select and deliver "high quality books" to "libraries in public preparatory and secondary schools" in Egypt, the document said.

The value of this, and the previous, contract is unknown. The original task order to which the July 26 document refers could not be found, despite an extensive search of FedBizOpps by Exhortations.

'Traitor Psychology' Getting Expanded Role in DoD 'Deception-Detection' Training

Assessing the "psychology of traitors" is among the numerous areas of expertise that the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) unit hopes to instill in its investigators and polygraph examiners. CIFA is soliciting private-sector help in jointly developing advanced training in this and other areas in the so-called "science of the psycho physiological detection of deception (PDD)," according to a planning document that The Peacock Report (TPR) recently located.

CIFA's Defense Academy of Credibility Assessment (DACA) claims that it seeks to raise the bar on its graduate-level, "human screening" training because:

The post 9/11 situation and environments have brought change to our mission. Issues associated with the Global War on Terrorism now mandate that federal polygraph examiners possess a broad knowledge that enables them to conduct all facets of investigations using credibility assessment tools. The topics encompassed by this course will prepare the federal examiner for these missions.

The Psychology of Traitors segment of the training specifically will examine "the motivation and psychological makeup of traitors." In relation to this proposed area of study, the document poses the question, "Can these personality types by predicted and isolated?"

The document, it should be noted, does not define the word "traitor."

In another recent deception-detection front, TPR on April 21 had reported that CIFA/DACA also planned to outsource an overall assessment of existing "rapid human-screening" methods. This contracting action was slated to be a two-phase project involving "a review of existing literature on techniques and technologies, as well as testing of such methods on 'human participants.'"

CIA-Special Forces Cooperation-Training To Be Outsourced

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "culture" and "counterterrorism (CT) targeting methods and practices" are the focus of training that a Northern Virginia contractor was slated to begin providing this month to the elite U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), recently located procurement-documents show. According to a sources sought notice that The Peacock Report obtained via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, USSOCOM had intended to award a sole-source contract for the classes to SpecTal, a  Reston, Va.-based consulting firm composed of ex-CIA, FBI, Dept. of Defense, State Dept., and other former federal employees.

"SPECTAL is the only known source for the required training," a notice dated May 15 said. "They are the only known source which can provide training based on direct operational experience."

However, it appears that other potential contractors may have contested this proposed sole-source award, evidenced by a revised notice posted to FedBizOpps on May 29. In that notice, USSOCOM notified contract-seekers that the previous solicitation document was:

NO LONGER VALID. THIS REQUIREMENT IS BEING PROCURED THROUGH FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION. PLEASE SEE SOLICITATION NUMBER 05222007 AT THE FOLLOWING LINK: http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/USSOCOM/SOAL-KB/05222007/listing.html

Although the link leads to a "Not Found: Does Not Exist On This Server" message, a database search of the above-mentioned solicitation-number  did indeed result in a separate solicitation for competitive proposals -- a solicitation that USSOCOM issued, ironically, one week before the release of the modified notice from May 29.

The following is a run-down of the proposed training regimen... regardless of who teaches the classes. According to the original and revised documents:

Training on CIA Culture, at a minimum, shall include instruction on the following:

1. Cultural differences between the CIA and Special Operations Forces (SOF);   
2. Strategies for increasing cooperation between the CIA and SOF both in theatre and at HQ SOCOM and examples where cooperation failed at both levels;    
3. Exercises, at both levels, which will increase cooperation;
4. Demonstration of successful completion of this course means a student will be able to understand the cultural differences between the CIA and SOCOM, operate within the CIA environment, request information from the CIA and support a CIA lead operation.

Training on CIA CT targeting, at a minimum, shall include instruction on the following:

1. Targeting methods and practices overview;
2. Targeting as analytical support to operations;   
3. Targeting as adding structure and process to operations, including the basics of human assets and the human source acquisition cycle; 
4. CIA targeting concepts and methodologies;
5. An applicable targeting exercise bringing together all instructional areas;
6. Demonstration of successful completion of this course means a student will understand DoD and CIA targeting, roles of targeteers, philosophies of targeting and the differences between DoD and CIA in each of these areas.

Twain Kept a' Rollin'

The War Prayer by Mark Twain is one of the most pivotal antiwar writings of the past century. In that short story, Twain used his satirical wit to lambast churches nationwide that were rallying around the flag in a lustfest for battle during the Filipino campaign of the Spanish-American War.

TPR founder Steve Peacock takes The War Prayer to his fellow Christian writers at TheMastersArtist.com, with whom he is affiliated. Check out Prayer Factor, and if you haven't yet become acquainted with Twain's The War Prayer, make sure your follow links within the article giving you free online access to that classic work of American literature.