THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

Links to U.S.-Romanian Military Base Story Restored

To all visitors and researchers whom have accessed the Oct. 11, 2005, story New U.S. Base in Romania To Be Larger Than Previously Estimated, please be advised that The Peacock Report (TPR) as of Aug. 15 has updated the contracting-document link embedded in that story. FedBizOpps, the federal government's primary procurement-opportunities database, generally archives such documents at some point as a matter of routine database maintenance, thereby changing the original links it previously generated for those documents (although, as TPR reported in the unrelated story U.S. Commerce Dept. Hires Consultant for Iraq Energy Project -- Then Covers Tracks of Contracting Action, sometimes the government archives documents immediately, consequently making such information more difficult to locate).

TPR attempts to update document-links as frequently as possible. We therefore apologize to the hundreds of visitors whom have located this web site through Google Romania in search of verifiable data on the growing U.S. presence at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base. Stay tuned for further updates on that $100 million Forward Operating Base project of Joint Task Force-Europe (JTF-E).

New U.S. Base in Romania To Be Larger Than Previously Estimated

The U.S. military tentatively plans to further expand its presence in Eastern Europe, specifically in Romania, where it will spend up to $100,000,000 to build a Forward Operating Base for Joint Task Force-Europe (JTF-E). According to an Oct. 11 presolicitation notice that TPR located during a routine search of the FedBizOpps contracting database, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is conducting a market-survey of potential contractors who can help build the base, which would be located near the Mihail Kogalniceanu (MK) Air Base, a Romanian military facility.

U.S. forces used MK Air Base in early 2003 to provide logistics and air-transportation services in support of the occupation of Iraq. Also, exactly two years prior to today, Secy. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited MK Air Base, when the American Forces Information Service quoted an unnamed high-ranking official who said that any potential U.S. presence in Romania would total no more than "the small hundreds." Today's contracting notice, however, said that facilities for 1,700 troops would be needed at the base. The project, which is slated to begin April 2007 and last approximately "486 calendar days," is still pending final approval, according to the notice: "Funds are not currently available for this requirement. This project will be issued Subject to the Availability of Funding."

Defense Firm Gets No-Bid Bomb Support Contract Amidst Conflict of Interest Claims

Defense manufacturer EDO Corp. is getting a sole-source contract to provide conventional- and nuclear-bomb ejectors to the U.S. Air Force, in spite of revelations that one of its board members simultaneously led a Pentagon-supported think-tank which consulted the Dept. of Defense on the procurement of the F-22 Raptor program -- a multibillion-dollar aerospace project for which EDO is a subcontractor. While the Washington Post today reported the imminent resignation of Retired Admiral Dennis C. Blair -- who is both EDO Corp. president and board member of the DoD-funded Institue for Defense Analysis -- The Peacock Report has discovered that the Air Force Material Command plans to award the noncompetitive contract to EDO for the bomb-ejector racks. The potential value of the contract was not disclosed.

While the conflict of interest allegations have begun to draw media and congressional attention in the U.S., an EDO affiliate in the U.K. separately has come under fire from pro-Palestinian British activists for providing the Israeli Defense Forces with technologies that they claim are "likely" being used to cause the death of civilians in Gaza, the BBC reported.

NATO Developing Master Database -- Total Information Awareness Revisited?

Although Congress in recent years put a halt to the Pentagon’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) project – later renamed Terrorist Information Awareness after the public got wind of the controversial initiative – now NATO is taking a shot at developing what appears to be a similar version of a multimedia “grand database,” as the Dept. of Defense formerly referred to the system. According to procurement documents that TPR has obtained, NATO already has developed a prototype electronic master-database designed to hold “large amounts of data” on people and “regions of interest” around the globe. The organization now wants to enhance that prototype system, and intends to bring aboard private contractors, trained in cognitive psychology and experienced in “human factors analysis,” to assess the system and make recommendations for its continued modernization.

The current prototype is designed to “assist with the identification of inter-relationships,” as well as to provide a limited software-based “visualization capability” for analysts working collaboratively in person and increasingly online. This “System of Systems” analysis capability, which is currently under development, envisions the creation of human-to-machine and human-to-human tools for use by NATO nations, whom eventually will work together to collect and analyze information “on a broad scale."

Once this aspect of NATO's transformation is complete, the organization will be better equipped to “provide information and analysis within and across the political, military, economic, social, infrastructure and information domains,” the statement of work (SOW) says. Consequently, NATO nations will be more adept at “identifying individuals and physical entities (including their capabilities, vulnerabilities, and inter-relationships) of adversary, non-aligned and friendly nations and groups,” according to the SOW.

NSA Seeks to Pour Hundreds of Millions Into Surveillance Infrastructure

Global surveillance facilities operated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and its Central Security Service (CSS) are getting an infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of upgrades -- and NSA wants more. According to a “presolicitation notice” that The Peacock Report has obtained, the estimated construction cost to replace the Hawaii Cryptologic Center ranges from $100 million-$250 million. However, it will take at least $350 million to build a new complex capable of meeting NSA’s intelligence- and data-gathering mission, the agency claims in a separate FY 2007 budget document.

U.S. Army Guides Egypt in Creating New Missile Facility

A missile testing facility featuring a 200-missile “storage igloo” is slated to be built in Egypt, where the U.S. Army will coordinate construction of the new facility. Additional areas for missile assembly, disassembly, and temporary storage will be built as well, according to a presolicitation notice obtained by The Peacock Report. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to outsource the project either to a U.S.-based contractor or to Egyptian joint ventures affiliated with U.S. companies.

‘Independent Media’ Advisor Slot Created for USAID-Europe/Eurasia

The promotion of “independent media” in Europe and Eurasia will be a top priority for a new senior advisor that the U.S. government will deploy this year. Although privately contracted media-advisors have been on the payroll of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) since 1995, the responsibilities of such advisors are about to take a new twist: in addition to purportedly advocating media independence, the new position will simultaneously tackle the promotion of human rights and peace among religious and ethnic groups.

Armor & Irony: Destroy the Village & Sell Huts to Homeless Villagers

Isn't it ironic that U.S. industry produces items such as mini armored troop carriers, while simultaneously manufacturing bombs known as sensor fuzed weapons, which are made to destroy such human-delivery watercraft?

To view the entirety of this satirical piece, please visit our sister site, Exhortations to the Oblivious.