Senior Obama Official Steers Sole-Source Contracts to Former Business Associates

It has been reported, a company by the name of PharmAthene, which is closely tied to the late Congressman John Murtha and Tara O’Toole, an Under Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has received preferential treatment by our good friends in the federal governmenat the expense of Joe Taxpayer.

BIG GOVERNMENT has learned that a little known entity named the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is adding millions of dollars to a contract awarded way back in 2003 that PharmAthene inherited, rather than conducting a fair and open competition. In government speak, that means PharmAthene is about to get huge sums of additional cash without ever having competed for it. Coverage of this sole-source award has already received significant news coverage and attention from numerous outlets, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

But it’s not as if PharmAthene is hiding it. They’re actually promoting the fact that they’re getting sole-source contracts that do away with any competition and fatten their bottom line.

According to a recent PharmAthene press release:

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Tags: alliance for biosecurity, BARDA, Center for Biosecurity, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW
Posted Feb 12th 2010 at 9:17 am in Congress, Exclusives, Healthcare, News, Obama | 7418652 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/02/12/senior-obama-official-steers-sole-source-contracts-to-former-business-associates/Senior+Obama+Official+Steers+Sole-Source+Contracts+to+Former+Business+Associates2010-02-12+17%3A17%3A33Capitol++Confidential

Obama: The Buck Stops With Me (Except When it Doesn’t)

Politico reports (emphasis mine):

“As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility,” Obama said.

Obama said an intelligence review found that the U.S. government had the information needed to thwart the plot but failed to do so because of a series of compounding shortcomings, including that intelligence analysts didn’t focus heavily enough on information warning that al-Qaida in Yemen wanted to strike the United States…

Obama’s buck-stops-here message marks a change in tone from earlier statements in which Obama and other officials repeatedly noted that the watch-listing system that failed to flag the suspect, Umar AbdulMatallab, was put in place under the Bush administration.

You know I’d like to be able to commend the President for doing what his Administration should have done right out of the gate in accepting responsibility for this series of blatant security failures. But the cynical side of me suspects that this is an attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that the TSA and DHS under Janet Napolitano conducted a comprehensive review of the terrorist watch list system in 2009, and adamantly defended the status quo.

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Tags: DHS, Janet Napolitano, Michael Leiter, national security, Obama
Posted Jan 9th 2010 at 7:13 am in Defense, News, Obama | 5717092 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2010/01/09/obama-the-buck-stops-with-me-except-when-it-doesnt/Obama%3A+The+Buck+Stops+With+Me+%28Except+When+it+Doesn%27t%292010-01-09+15%3A13%3A06Morgen++Richmond

Al Qaeda’s Successful Attack

Everyone keeps saying how lucky we are that the “crotch” bomber on Flight 253 was unable to ignite the explosives hidden in his underwear, but I am sorry to report  that  the attack was a actually a huge success.  The plane was not destroyed and no lives were lost, but the larger, strategic goals of al Qaeda were certainly advanced.

Too many Americans, and many in our Department of Homeland Security, forget that al Qaeda targeted our economic power and symbols on 9/11.   The goal, as Osama bin Laden announced, was to force, or cause the US to take actions, that would erode our economic prosperity and weaken us as a  nation .

Unfortunately, we have given bin Laden a victory he does not deserve.  DHS has, for some time, been unaware that the failure of many of the security measures and procedures that they have championed, has resulted in additional, self inflicted wounds.

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Tags: 9/11 commision, Al Qaeda, bomb sniffing dogs, Department of Homeland Security, DHS
Posted Jan 5th 2010 at 5:13 am in Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics | 55370282 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ldoan/2010/01/05/al-qaedas-successful-attack/Al+Qaeda%E2%80%99s+Successful+Attack2010-01-05+13%3A13%3A09Lurita+Doan

Hosting Terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: The New Growth Industry

Lawmakers in New York and Illinois were quick to recognize that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial offered a new opportunity to secure billions of additional taxpayer funds.

Both states are reeling from the combined effect of economic slowdown and years of profligate spending on government, grown far beyond what the tax base will support.   Thanks to President Obama’s decision to transfer terrorists from GITMO to U.S. soil, both states, and the city of New York, are going to be paid almost $3 billion dollars to secure, transport, administer, house, and contend with the requirements associated with having these terrorists in the United States.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the four other terrorists and all Americans associated with the trial, will require rigorous, differentiated security measures: twenty-four hour a day surveillance, transportation, housing and judicial security.  Certainly, New York will be required to raise its threat level to better prepare and respond to the new threat of  sympathetic  jihadists using the trial, as a showpiece of their own, to make a violent, retaliatory public statement.

Federal security and law enforcement agencies, such as DHS, FBI and US Marshals  will be working round the clock to provide the appropriate security, but will be unable to do all of the work required. New York, state and city, law enforcement officers will be required to share the burden, and will expect compensation from the federal government to provide this level of support.  Heavily-unionized, public employees in both states, are about to receive the most coveted of all Labor Union prizes, unlimited overtime that extends for years.

Bringing KSM to trial will be hugely expensive and will essentially represent a federalization of much of the New York state and city law enforcement and public services for the 5+ years that the trial process is likely to run.

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Tags: Attorney General, Barack Obama, Blagojevich, Chuck Schumer, DHS
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 12:57 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Justice/Legal, Obama, State Politics | 35110142 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ldoan/2009/11/23/hosting-terrorist-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-the-new-growth-industry/Hosting+Terrorist+Khalid+Sheikh+Mohammed%3A+The+New+Growth+Industry2009-11-23+19%3A57%3A12Lurita+Doan