GSN's Homeland Security Insider

GSN's Homeland Security Insider is published every Monday.

Copyright © 2007
World Business Media, LLC,
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Suite 1330
New York, N.Y., 10004.
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July 2, 2007

A reason for fear on the Fourth

July 4th just wouldn't be July 4th without a nighttime
barrage of festive rockets, firecrackers and pyrotechnics.

But a recent study by the Government Accountability Office
gives some disturbing food for thought: Some explosives may
be disappearing, for later and possibly more sinister use.

The report found that there have been several unsolved
thefts of explosives from state and local government
storage facilities.

While July 4th pyrotechnics are rigidly governed by state
and local laws, the GAO found that the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) does not
routinely collect nationwide information about state and
local government explosives storage facilities. Information
about many of those facilities is only collected when
facility operators voluntarily request an ATF inspection.

According to the ATF, it has conducted only 77 such
voluntary inspections since 2002.

By comparison, licensed private sector facilities must
submit detailed information to the ATF about what they
store and what security measures are in place. No wonder:
most explosives in the U.S. are in private hands. More than
5.5 billion pounds of explosives are used each year in the
private sector, for everything from ammunition to
construction.

The gap between regulation of the private sector and the
public sector creates a situation ripe for abuse or
negligence.

Consider this: Two weeks ago, the St. Charles (MO)
Sheriff's Department was compelled to announce a $5,000
reward for information to help arrest and convict thieves
who had made off with C-4, dynamite, cast boosters, safety
fuse and detonating cord. So far, leads have run cold,
leaving local police, the FBI and ATF agents rightly
concerned.

One thing is certain: The explosives will not be used for
July 4th fireworks.

And the winner is…

There was no red carpet and only a few flash cameras
popping, but the equivalent of the Oscars in the field of
marketing IT products and services to government customers
were handed out last Wednesday at a luncheon in northern
Virginia organized by the GovMark Council.

Top honors for the "best overall marketing program" went to
the division of motor vehicles in the State of Utah which
devised an "On The Spot Renewal" program that enables state
residents to renew their automobile registrations quickly
and conveniently at authorized emissions and inspection
stations in Utah.

With free help from Jiffy Lube and Just Emissions, which
sent millions of direct mail pieces to their customers
describing the state's renewal program, Utah says it has
experienced a 200 percent increase month-over-month in
usage of its service between 2005 and 2005.

Sara Watts, who flew in from Salt Lake City on behalf of
the State of Utah, accepted the best in show award as well
as the award for best state and local marketing campaign.

Sara Watts accepts best overall GovMark award from
Steve O'Keeffe for the State of Utah

Other winners of top honors included CDW-G and EMC Corp.
in the Department of Defense Marketing category which
encouraged CDW-G's sales reps to promote EMC products at
data centers at 17 Air Force bases and across various DoD
accounts.

With a $30,000 budget, the companies launched a "Race for
the Keys" campaign which was able to push CDW-G sales of
EMC products from $5.1 million in 2005 to $32 million in
2006, and rewarded three top sales execs with vacations in
Key West.

In the Federal Civilian Marketing category, Merlin
International created a clever "SOA What?" campaign aimed
at drawing attention to the company's Service-Oriented
Architecture (that's the "SOA") solutions. Merlin mounted
an aggressive media outreach effort and prepared a
controversial market research report, which resulted in 10
feature articles, blog postings, 4.7 million media
impressions and more than 170 qualified sales leads.

Last but not least, the U.S. Department of Interior walked
away with the "Best Design" award for a series of print
advertisements -- including one showing procurement
specialists in a room full of alligators -- promoting the
acquisition services offered by the department's GovWorks
unit. The striking set of advertisements generated more
than one million media impressions and more than 1,000
leads.

Teresa Rivera holds the best design award won by GovWorks

Steve O'Keeffe, who spearheaded the creation of the GovMark
Council and heads his own public relations agency, O'Keeffe
& Company, Inc., was the event's polished and affable
emcee.

EFJ, Inc., of Irving Texas, announced it has received an
order from the Department of Defense, valued at $3 million,
to provide DoD with its Project 25-compliant portable
radios.

The General Services Administration's General Products
Center awarded Protective Security, Inc., of Lanham, MD, a
5-year contract worth $250,000, with three 5-year options,
to supply alarm, signal and security detection equipment.

The Department of Homeland Security awarded Gryphon
Scientific LLC, of Takoma Park, MD, a contract valued at
$859,713 to provide biological architecture Red Team
analysis of detect-to-treat hybrid biodefense systems.

The Department of Defense awarded DRS Technologies, Inc.,
of Parsippany, NJ, a multi-year contract for alarm
monitoring and creation of a customer call center in the
Pentagon, with a base year value of $695,007 and total
options value of $9,529,405.

The Transportation Security Administration intends to award
a contract to MicroStrategy Services Corp., of McLean, VA,
for license renewals and upgrades of the company's business
intelligence software tools, including MicroStrategy
Intelligence Server Enterprise Edition 8.0 and
MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server Enterprise Edition 8.0.

DHS intends to issue a sole source, firm fixed price
contract to Knoll and Associates, Inc., of Ann Arbor, MI,
to provide a week-long training course on nuclear detection
and measurement.

TSA seeks a company to provide all commercial aviation
flight schedule data (passenger/cargo/charter) on a weekly
basis for a period of 12 months beginning the week of July
29, 2007. Contact: Doretta.F.Chiarlone@secureskies.net

The U.S. Coast Guard seeks a company to provide applicant
processing, credentialing and screening, as well as
customer assistance and administrative support services at
the National Maritime Center and 17 regional examination
centers around the country. Contract to be 100 percent
small business set-aside. Contact:
Meredith.C.Bedenbaugh@uscg.mil

Customs and Border Protection requires 200 thermal
acquisition monoculars, to include internal adjustable
reticule, and 100 focal IR extender lenses; contract to be
awarded to service-disabled veteran-owned business only.
Contact: Maria.Jackson@dhs.gov

CCTV - Bosch Security Systems, Inc., of Fairport, NY,
announced that North American warranty and non-warranty
repairs for its CCTV product line will be centralized in
Lincoln, NE.

ARMORED CARRIERS - Dunbar Armored, Inc., of Hunt Valley,
MD, announced it has acquired Express Teller Services,
Inc., a regional armored carrier covering North and South
Carolina.

CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS - Marathon Technologies Corp.,
of Littleton, MA, announced a major new initiative to deliver
its Continuity of Operations (COOP) infrastructure
availability software to the federal market, creating a
special federal operations division in Washington.

RFID - StrongTech, of Columbus, OH, unveiled its
StrongReader radio frequency identification (RFID) product,
as a hardware-software package costing less than $1,000.

VOIP RECORDER - Dynamic Instruments, of San Diego, CA,
introduced its DI Reliant Hybrid VoIP Recorder, featuring a
single-chassis design for multi-protocol recordings of
VoIP, analog, digital PBX and T1/E1 communications, often
required by first responder and homeland security agencies.

EXPLOSIVES DETECTION - TraceGuard Technologies Inc.,
of New York, NY, completed a pilot program with its soon to
be released CompactSafe system, which is designed to detect
traces of explosives in laptops, medical devices, cameras
and small bags.

SECURE WIRELESS - Fortress Technologies, of Tampa FL,
announced the launch of a Certified Partner Program for
both the government and commercial sectors, to harmonize
with its security and secure wireless products.

EMERGENCY BROADCAST - Talk-A-Phone Co., of Chicago, IL,
announced the release of its Wide Area Broadcast System
(WEBS), integrating the company's emergency phone and wide
area broadcast capabilities into a single emergency
communication system.

SECURE MOBILE - General Dynamics C4 Systems, of Scottsdale,
AZ, recently delivered 60 Sectera Edge secure mobile phone
and Web-browsing devices to the U.S. Government for
evaluation; the personal electronic devices are expected to
be made available in late summer.

SURVEILLANCE - VisualGate Systems, of Toronto, Canada,
launched its digital video security application, PL-VUE,
offering a surveillance video over powerline solution for
commercial use.

Stephen Flanagan, former director of the Institute for
National Strategic Studies, has been named senior vice
president and international security program director at
the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International
Studies.

American Systems, of Chantilly, VA, appointed Joseph
Szymczac as vice president and executive director of its
intelligence market division.

The board of directors of Intelli-Check, Inc., of Woodbury,
NY, has named Jeffrey Levy interim chairman and interim CEO
of the ID authentication company.

The Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dealt
the Bush Administration a severe blow, rejecting the
Administration's claimed ability to declare a civilian an
"enemy combatant" to be held for indefinite military
detention.

The House Committee on Homeland Security grilled DHS Chief
Information Officer Scott Charbo about cybersecurity
vulnerabilities after the agency reported that it had
experienced 844 "incidents" in 2005 and 2006.

FIRE PREVENTION - The Federal Emergency Management
Administration (FEMA) announced the fifth round of FY2006
fire prevention and safety grants, awarding 10 grants
totaling $3 million.

DHS CONTRACT OPERATIONS - A recent Government
Accountability Office report found that DHS acquisition
functions remain excessively ambiguous and complex, due to
a system of dual accountability and collaboration between
the DHS chief procurement officer and component agency
heads.

The 2007 Taser Conference and Master Instructor School,
covering tactics and training in departments using Taser
devices, will be held at the Westin O'Hare Hotel in
Chicago, IL, July 9-13.

The Department of Health & Human Services is hosting its
Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise
Stakeholders Workshop, covering pandemics, biological and
nuclear threats, at the Fairmont Hotel, Washington, DC,
July 31-August 2.

Systems integrators, end-users and consultants will view
the latest security technology at IP-in-Action LIVE, to be
held at the Forefront Center in Waltham, MA, August 14.




	GSN's Homeland Security Insider is published every Monday. Copyright © 2007 World Business Media, LLC, 17 Battery Place, Suite 1330 New York, N.Y., 10004. All rights reserved. To subscribe, visit www.gsnmagazine.com If you know someone who might like to receive this newsletter, please forward this e-mail. For advertising rates and specifications, please contact Ed Tyler at etyler@gsnmagazine.com If you would like to receive this newsletter in plain text format, click here. Powered by CheetahMail Click here to unsubscribe.			July 2, 2007 A reason for fear on the Fourth July 4th just wouldn't be July 4th without a nighttime barrage of festive rockets, firecrackers and pyrotechnics. But a recent study by the Government Accountability Office gives some disturbing food for thought: Some explosives may be disappearing, for later and possibly more sinister use. The report found that there have been several unsolved thefts of explosives from state and local government storage facilities. While July 4th pyrotechnics are rigidly governed by state and local laws, the GAO found that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) does not routinely collect nationwide information about state and local government explosives storage facilities. Information about many of those facilities is only collected when facility operators voluntarily request an ATF inspection. According to the ATF, it has conducted only 77 such voluntary inspections since 2002. By comparison, licensed private sector facilities must submit detailed information to the ATF about what they store and what security measures are in place. No wonder: most explosives in the U.S. are in private hands. More than 5.5 billion pounds of explosives are used each year in the private sector, for everything from ammunition to construction. The gap between regulation of the private sector and the public sector creates a situation ripe for abuse or negligence. Consider this: Two weeks ago, the St. Charles (MO) Sheriff's Department was compelled to announce a $5,000 reward for information to help arrest and convict thieves who had made off with C-4, dynamite, cast boosters, safety fuse and detonating cord. So far, leads have run cold, leaving local police, the FBI and ATF agents rightly concerned. One thing is certain: The explosives will not be used for July 4th fireworks. And the winner is… There was no red carpet and only a few flash cameras popping, but the equivalent of the Oscars in the field of marketing IT products and services to government customers were handed out last Wednesday at a luncheon in northern Virginia organized by the GovMark Council. Top honors for the "best overall marketing program" went to the division of motor vehicles in the State of Utah which devised an "On The Spot Renewal" program that enables state residents to renew their automobile registrations quickly and conveniently at authorized emissions and inspection stations in Utah. With free help from Jiffy Lube and Just Emissions, which sent millions of direct mail pieces to their customers describing the state's renewal program, Utah says it has experienced a 200 percent increase month-over-month in usage of its service between 2005 and 2005. Sara Watts, who flew in from Salt Lake City on behalf of the State of Utah, accepted the best in show award as well as the award for best state and local marketing campaign. Sara Watts accepts best overall GovMark award from Steve O'Keeffe for the State of Utah Other winners of top honors included CDW-G and EMC Corp. in the Department of Defense Marketing category which encouraged CDW-G's sales reps to promote EMC products at data centers at 17 Air Force bases and across various DoD accounts. With a $30,000 budget, the companies launched a "Race for the Keys" campaign which was able to push CDW-G sales of EMC products from $5.1 million in 2005 to $32 million in 2006, and rewarded three top sales execs with vacations in Key West. In the Federal Civilian Marketing category, Merlin International created a clever "SOA What?" campaign aimed at drawing attention to the company's Service-Oriented Architecture (that's the "SOA") solutions. Merlin mounted an aggressive media outreach effort and prepared a controversial market research report, which resulted in 10 feature articles, blog postings, 4.7 million media impressions and more than 170 qualified sales leads. Last but not least, the U.S. Department of Interior walked away with the "Best Design" award for a series of print advertisements -- including one showing procurement specialists in a room full of alligators -- promoting the acquisition services offered by the department's GovWorks unit. The striking set of advertisements generated more than one million media impressions and more than 1,000 leads. Teresa Rivera holds the best design award won by GovWorks Steve O'Keeffe, who spearheaded the creation of the GovMark Council and heads his own public relations agency, O'Keeffe & Company, Inc., was the event's polished and affable emcee. EFJ, Inc., of Irving Texas, announced it has received an order from the Department of Defense, valued at $3 million, to provide DoD with its Project 25-compliant portable radios. The General Services Administration's General Products Center awarded Protective Security, Inc., of Lanham, MD, a 5-year contract worth $250,000, with three 5-year options, to supply alarm, signal and security detection equipment. The Department of Homeland Security awarded Gryphon Scientific LLC, of Takoma Park, MD, a contract valued at $859,713 to provide biological architecture Red Team analysis of detect-to-treat hybrid biodefense systems. The Department of Defense awarded DRS Technologies, Inc., of Parsippany, NJ, a multi-year contract for alarm monitoring and creation of a customer call center in the Pentagon, with a base year value of $695,007 and total options value of $9,529,405. The Transportation Security Administration intends to award a contract to MicroStrategy Services Corp., of McLean, VA, for license renewals and upgrades of the company's business intelligence software tools, including MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Enterprise Edition 8.0 and MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server Enterprise Edition 8.0. DHS intends to issue a sole source, firm fixed price contract to Knoll and Associates, Inc., of Ann Arbor, MI, to provide a week-long training course on nuclear detection and measurement. TSA seeks a company to provide all commercial aviation flight schedule data (passenger/cargo/charter) on a weekly basis for a period of 12 months beginning the week of July 29, 2007. Contact: Doretta.F.Chiarlone@secureskies.net The U.S. Coast Guard seeks a company to provide applicant processing, credentialing and screening, as well as customer assistance and administrative support services at the National Maritime Center and 17 regional examination centers around the country. Contract to be 100 percent small business set-aside. Contact: Meredith.C.Bedenbaugh@uscg.mil Customs and Border Protection requires 200 thermal acquisition monoculars, to include internal adjustable reticule, and 100 focal IR extender lenses; contract to be awarded to service-disabled veteran-owned business only. Contact: Maria.Jackson@dhs.gov CCTV - Bosch Security Systems, Inc., of Fairport, NY, announced that North American warranty and non-warranty repairs for its CCTV product line will be centralized in Lincoln, NE. ARMORED CARRIERS - Dunbar Armored, Inc., of Hunt Valley, MD, announced it has acquired Express Teller Services, Inc., a regional armored carrier covering North and South Carolina. CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS - Marathon Technologies Corp., of Littleton, MA, announced a major new initiative to deliver its Continuity of Operations (COOP) infrastructure availability software to the federal market, creating a special federal operations division in Washington. RFID - StrongTech, of Columbus, OH, unveiled its StrongReader radio frequency identification (RFID) product, as a hardware-software package costing less than $1,000. VOIP RECORDER - Dynamic Instruments, of San Diego, CA, introduced its DI Reliant Hybrid VoIP Recorder, featuring a single-chassis design for multi-protocol recordings of VoIP, analog, digital PBX and T1/E1 communications, often required by first responder and homeland security agencies. EXPLOSIVES DETECTION - TraceGuard Technologies Inc., of New York, NY, completed a pilot program with its soon to be released CompactSafe system, which is designed to detect traces of explosives in laptops, medical devices, cameras and small bags. SECURE WIRELESS - Fortress Technologies, of Tampa FL, announced the launch of a Certified Partner Program for both the government and commercial sectors, to harmonize with its security and secure wireless products. EMERGENCY BROADCAST - Talk-A-Phone Co., of Chicago, IL, announced the release of its Wide Area Broadcast System (WEBS), integrating the company's emergency phone and wide area broadcast capabilities into a single emergency communication system. SECURE MOBILE - General Dynamics C4 Systems, of Scottsdale, AZ, recently delivered 60 Sectera Edge secure mobile phone and Web-browsing devices to the U.S. Government for evaluation; the personal electronic devices are expected to be made available in late summer. SURVEILLANCE - VisualGate Systems, of Toronto, Canada, launched its digital video security application, PL-VUE, offering a surveillance video over powerline solution for commercial use. Stephen Flanagan, former director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, has been named senior vice president and international security program director at the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies. American Systems, of Chantilly, VA, appointed Joseph Szymczac as vice president and executive director of its intelligence market division. The board of directors of Intelli-Check, Inc., of Woodbury, NY, has named Jeffrey Levy interim chairman and interim CEO of the ID authentication company. The Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dealt the Bush Administration a severe blow, rejecting the Administration's claimed ability to declare a civilian an "enemy combatant" to be held for indefinite military detention. The House Committee on Homeland Security grilled DHS Chief Information Officer Scott Charbo about cybersecurity vulnerabilities after the agency reported that it had experienced 844 "incidents" in 2005 and 2006. FIRE PREVENTION - The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) announced the fifth round of FY2006 fire prevention and safety grants, awarding 10 grants totaling $3 million. DHS CONTRACT OPERATIONS - A recent Government Accountability Office report found that DHS acquisition functions remain excessively ambiguous and complex, due to a system of dual accountability and collaboration between the DHS chief procurement officer and component agency heads. The 2007 Taser Conference and Master Instructor School, covering tactics and training in departments using Taser devices, will be held at the Westin O'Hare Hotel in Chicago, IL, July 9-13. The Department of Health & Human Services is hosting its Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Stakeholders Workshop, covering pandemics, biological and nuclear threats, at the Fairmont Hotel, Washington, DC, July 31-August 2. Systems integrators, end-users and consultants will view the latest security technology at IP-in-Action LIVE, to be held at the Forefront Center in Waltham, MA, August 14.