U.S. Marines keep watch as fellow Marines search for Taliban arms caches on March 31, 2009 in the abandoned town of Now Zad in Afghanistan's Helmand province. Marines from Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, have been fighting Taliban insurgents, whose frontline position is just over a mile away from their base.(John Moore/Getty Images)
Leading Newspaper Headlines focus on: DoJ dropping charges against form Alaska Sen. Stevens; POTUS meeting with the Russian President, and China’s entry into the electric car industry.
Today’s Early Bird focuses on Afghanistan: Petraus and USD (P) Flournoy before the SASC said the biggest threat to Pakistan was the Taleban vice India. Subsequently, CENTCOM is asking for 10K more forces, and the Adminstration is asking for $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan's military. Prepared statements and webcast can be found at: http://armed-services.senate.gov/e_witnesslist.cfm?id=3758
Main Marine Corps News is from the Recruiting Service where MajGen Milstead conducted an interview with bloggers. He discussed the rise to 202K, the quality of Marines, the future of bonuses and reenlistments. Transcript at: http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/BloggerAssets/2009-03/04010912384220090331_Milstead_trasncript.pdf
Other Items of Interest:
1. Today at 10 EST the HASC hosts the Afghanistan panel of Flournoy and Petraeus. Check it out on CSPAN or the Pentagon channel (Ch 47 in Norfolk).
2. DoD Policy appointments (Senior Executive Service Appointments)
3. NSPS: Pay-For-Performance Goes On The Defensive - The Defense Department's National Security Personnel System -- President George W. Bush's signature personnel initiative -- was on the defensive yesterday as a House subcommittee examined its questionable future.
4. Militants Storm Government Office In Afghanistan, Killing 13 - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Five suicide bombers stormed a government office in Kandahar on Wednesday morning, killing 13 people, including two provincial government officials, and wounding 14.
5. AccuWeather Forecast for NORFOLK
Leading Newspaper Headlines ~ The New York Times leads with China adopting a plan to become a world leader in producing hybrid and electric vehicles over the next three years. The plan comes "from the very top of the Chinese government" and could mean very bad news for the struggling Detroit automakers that are already lagging behind on what many consider to be the future of automotive technology. USA Today leads with, the Wall Street Journal tops its newsbox, and the rest of the papers front the Justice Department's move to drop all charges against former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. Attorney General Eric Holder asked that the case be dropped because prosecutors had failed to hand over important information to the defense team. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in Senate history when he was convicted of seven felony counts for failing to disclose about $250,000 in gifts days before he narrowly lost a re-election bid.
The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times lead with President Obama's meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the eve of the Group of 20 economic summit in London. The leaders announced that they will open negotiations on a new strategic arms-control treaty that could reduce each country's nuclear arsenals by one-third. Obama and Medvedev also agreed they would cooperate on a number of issues, including the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. The plan for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe was mostly avoided, and a joint statement pointed out that "differences remain" over the issue. The meeting was described as businesslike, and officials made sure to point out there was no talk about looking into each other's souls. "I think it was a meeting without much intimacy to it, which is a good thing," one Russia expert said. "No one is trying to impress each other." http://www.slate.com/id/2215225/
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 207-09April 01, 2009
Senior Executive Service Appointments
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced the following Department of Defense Senior Executive Service appointments:
Richard Davison, foreign relations and defense policy manager, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) reassigned to foreign relations and defense policy manager, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities), Washington, D.C.
Thomas P. Dee, director, Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), Washington, D.C,
John W. Fischer, director, Defense Laboratory Programs, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), Washington, D.C.
Robert A. Gold, director, engineering, prototyping, and technology integration reassigned to deputy director, space and intelligence capabilities, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), Washington, D.C.
Rebecca Hersman, deputy assistant secretary of defense (countering weapons of mass destruction), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
Kathleen Hicks, deputy under secretary of defense (strategic plans and forces), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
Colin Kahl, deputy assistant secretary of defense (Middle East), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth McGrath, assistant deputy under secretary for business integration, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) reassigned to assistant deputy chief management officer, Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer, Washington, D.C.
David Ochmanek, deputy assistant secretary of defense (forces transformation and resources), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
Barry Pavel, foreign relations and defense policy manager, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) reassigned to foreign relations and defense policy manager, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities), Washington, D.C.
Robert Salesses, foreign relations and defense policy manager, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Crisis Management) reassigned to foreign relations and defense policy manager, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Homeland Defense), Washington, D.C.
Julianne Smith, principal director (Europe and NATO), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
James Townsend, deputy assistant secretary of defense (Europe and NATO), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
Christine Wormuth, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense (homeland defense and America's security affairs), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C.
Washington PostApril 2, 2009 Pg. 19
Federal Diary
Pay-For-Performance Goes On The Defensive
By Joe Davidson
The Defense Department's National Security Personnel System -- President George W. Bush's signature personnel initiative -- was on the defensive yesterday as a House subcommittee examined its questionable future.
Because the Pentagon has such a big foot, not just on the international military front but also in civilian workplace issues, what happens to NSPS could have far-reaching implications across the government.
NSPS, now in its third year of implementation, replaced the traditional General Schedule -- better known as GS -- pay and classification system for certain Defense Department employees. The new system included a pay-for-performance component that the Bush administration wanted to see replicated throughout Washington. It has been the target of sharp criticism by employees and their unions.
With Defense commanding more than a quarter of the total federal civilian workforce and with more than 205,000 employees under NSPS, it can serve as a model or an anti-model for other agencies.
It is a model for exactly what should not be done, in the view of most federal employee unions. "It is a system that is completely untenable and should never have been pursued" -- that's the kindest thing John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, can say about it.
Although President Obama said he would strongly consider a repeal of the system, its executive officer, Brad Bunn, said a planned top-to-bottom review of it, conducted by the Pentagon and the Office of Personnel Management, would give the new administration the information it needs to decide what becomes of NSPS.
Gage and other union leaders who want to deep-six the system submitted their testimony only in writing to the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee. That made the hearing a relatively tame affair, with speakers taking a middle-of-the-road, let's-see-what-happens approach.
For example, Darryl Perkinson, president of the Federal Managers Association, seemed to endorse NSPS when he said, "FMA managers and supervisors believe a switch to pay-for-performance is necessary not only to compete with the private sector for talent, but to encourage and reward high performance." He went on to note that the average pay raise for NSPS employees "has far exceeded" increases given to General Schedule workers.
Yet, he also listed problems with NSPS, including a lack of rules for "fair deployment of pay-for-performance," "acute frustration among employees" with the "cumbersome nature" of the rating process, and the "negative impact NSPS has on agency recruitment."
Under questioning and somewhat reluctantly, Perkinson said that as a manager at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, he would prefer to return to the GS system.
As Perkinson noted, much of the NSPS criticism has focused on the fairness, or lack of it, in the way workers are evaluated. A Government Accountability Office report released at the hearing credited the Pentagon with taking steps to ensure that NSPS is fair, credible and effective but said that more needs to be done.
One telling remark in the report, which was also noted in an earlier GAO study, is that the more time employees are under NSPS, the less they like it.
"Employees who had the most experience under NSPS showed a negative movement in their perceptions," the report says.
To make matters worse, GAO found that "DOD does not have an action plan to address the generally negative employee perceptions of NSPS."
This type of information led Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the committee, and Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Tex.), chairman of the subcommittee, to call on the Pentagon to stop moving employees from the General Schedule to NSPS.
The Pentagon did impose a moratorium on the transfers last month when it announced a thorough review of NSPS. The review hasn't started yet, in part because OPM's new leadership has not yet taken office.
That point should be resolved soon. The nomination of M. John Berry, Obama's pick for OPM director, was approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday.
While Bunn spoke of the "rigorous and robust method for appraising and evaluating employee performance" and the "safeguards in place to ensure employees are treated equitably and fairly," he also acknowledged that "employees are questioning whether the ratings are fair."
The GAO offered three reasons for the skepticism.
First, the department does not have a third party analyze employee ratings before making them final, which means it can't tell if they are discriminatory before they are released.
The process lacks transparency -- a frequently heard complaint -- and NSPS guidelines indicate a majority of employees should be rated a 3 on a five-point scale. That guidance "may discourage rating officials from making meaningful distinctions," and that could undermine employee confidence, GAO said.
While the subcommittee was discussing a Defense personnel system that many employees detest, the full House was passing legislation more to their liking.
One measure requires that unused sick days for an employee under the Federal Employees Retirement System to be counted toward the worker's annuity computation.
Another provision allows someone who returns to government employment to redeposit his or her annuities in the federal retirement program. "This legislation will entice experienced federal employees to return to government service at a time when our nation needs its best and brightest the most," said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), sponsor of the legislation.
The House also approved a measure that would automatically enroll federal workers in the Thrift Savings Plan and offer them a Roth savings option.
New York Times April 2, 2009
Militants Storm Government Office In Afghanistan, Killing 13
By Taimoor Shah and Carlotta Gall
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Five suicide bombers stormed a government office in Kandahar on Wednesday morning, killing 13 people, including two provincial government officials, and wounding 14.
One militant detonated a car bomb at the entrance gate of the provincial council office, as the others stormed the compound with assault rifles and hand grenades. Seven civilians and six police officers were killed in the 20-minute gun battle, which ended when two of the militants blew themselves up in the main hall, said the provincial police chief, Matiullah Qati.
The assault by multiple gunmen followed a pattern of militant attacks across the region recently, from Kabul, the Afghan capital, to Lahore in Pakistan and Mumbai in India.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. Intelligence officials have warned that militants are planning attacks on Afghan government officials, elders and Parliament members in the coming months.
The attack, in daylight in the center of the city, was the second in the past year in which Taliban fighters infiltrated Kandahar, an important city in the south, in such a brazen manner. Armed insurgents assaulted the main prison in Kandahar in June, detonating a truck bomb and overrunning the prison, killing 15 guards and freeing hundreds of prisoners.
The dead on Wednesday included a provincial health official and an education official who had been attending a seminar by an American group, as well as police and council workers, said Ahmed Wali Karzai, the leader of the provincial council. Mr. Karzai, a brother of President Hamid Karzai, was not at the office during the attack.
The seminar was being conducted by the National Democratic Institute, a group that promotes democracy. No one from the group was injured, said Kathy Gest, the director of public affairs for the institute in Washington. A number of groups were holding meetings in the compound on Wednesday, officials said.
Hajji Agha Lalai, a provincial council member who attended the institute’s seminar, said the attackers were dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms.
“We heard a loud explosion, and four men with Afghan National Army uniforms entered the building and started shooting everywhere,” he said. “It was a huge explosion; it shook the whole city.”
Security officials evacuated the delegates as the battle raged, he said. Two attackers were shot dead, but two inside the main building later blew themselves up, collapsing the roof, Mr. Lalai said.
Outside the building, a driver for the provincial council, Naseer Ahmad, said he saw the attackers in army uniforms waiting by a nearby building shortly before the explosion. When the car bomb detonated at the gate, the four men rushed into the building and started shooting indiscriminately, he said. Police officers who arrived to help were killed, he said.
Mr. Karzai, the provincial council leader, commended the quick actions of the police and said their response kept the death toll relatively low. But he complained that the government had provided only 10 guards as security for the event.
Canadian troops arrived after the Afghan police and cordoned off the area.
Mr. Karzai said the insurgents chose to attack the provincial council because it was working to help the people and to provide a bridge between the government and the disenchanted population.
“The enemy is trying to kill the provincial council members,” he said. “For them the members are an obstacle, and that’s why they are targeting them with such a big plan.”
Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Carlotta Gall from Kabul. Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York.
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AccuWeather Forecast
for NORFOLK
===============================
TODAY
Fog in the a.m.; mostly cloudy
H 64
TONIGHT
Windy; periods of rain late
L 53
FRIDAY
Strong t-storms in the morning
H 68 / L 50
SATURDAY
Mostly sunny and breezy
H 69 / L 47
SUNDAY
Clouds and sun
H 70 / L 52
MONDAY
Chance for rain; cooler
H 62 / L 38
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