The Washington Post’s SpyTalk blog reports today that the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group was mulling some hairbrained schemes for discrediting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before the 2003 invasion. Their most outlandish idea was to play the homophobia card and create a phony video that appeared to show Saddam having sex with a teenage boy, two CIA officials told the Post. The Post said that and other psychological operation, or PSYOP, ideas went nowhere, partly because the CIA didn’t have the money and expertise to carry them out and partly because they were, well, stupid. What they should have done was buy a few…
Monthly Archives: May, 2010
Are you a hiring manager or HR official who has used the controversial Federal Career Intern Program to bring on new employees? Do you find it to be an efficient, useful hiring tool? Is it better than the standard hiring process, and if so, why? Or have you seen your office abuse its authorities to sidestep veterans preference, merit principles and hire managers’ favorites, as unions allege is frequently the case? Federal Times is interested in hearing your impressions of FCIP — how it works, its upsides, and its downsides. Feel free to e-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk.…
The Office of Personnel Management tends to look askance at agencies’ requests for direct hire authority to fill critical needs. OPM asks for reams of information and has some quite specific guidelines for agencies that want to sidestep the normal federal hiring process. The Homeland Security Department, looking to hire federal employees to fill jobs currently done by contractors as part of the government “insourcing” initiative, is trying to tweak the system a bit in order to fill critical needs, DHS chief human capital officer Jeffrey Neal said yesterday at a congressional hearing. DHS is asking OPM for something it…
Adm. Dennis Blair is officially stepping down as Director of National Intelligence. Here’s the statement he just sent out to the intelligence community: It is with deep regret that I informed the President today that I will step down as Director of National Intelligence effective Friday, May 28th. I have had no greater honor or pleasure than to lead the remarkably talented and patriotic men and women of the Intelligence Community. Every day, you have worked tirelessly to provide intelligence support for two wars and to prevent an attack on our homeland. You are true heroes, just like the members…
Old habits die hard. The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy reprimanded deputy federal chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin for using Gmail and Google Buzz for work-related communication, rather than his official government e-mail account. McLaughlin was Google’s director of public policy and government affairs before jumping to the public sector. OSTP decided McLaughlin’s off-the-books conversations didn’t have any impact on policy decisions, and the reprimand reportedly is no more than a slap on the wrist.
The Office of Personnel Management has posted nearly 70 recipes from its Feds Get Fit Healthy Recipe Challenge online here. I haven’t had a chance to try any of them yet, but there’s a wide variety of dishes that sound pretty tasty. They’ve got some vegan foods, breakfast foods, turkey and veggie chilis, and even some bison dishes. You can also find Social Security Administration employee Melissa Knoll’s award-winning roasted tomato curry coconut soup with shrimp and peas. This challenge was one of OPM Director John Berry’s “wellness” ideas for encouraging federal employees to take a little more care of…
Wired Magazine’s Danger Room blog has an interesting post today about the McLean, Va.-based consulting behemoth Booz Allen Hamilton. Danger Room’s editor, Noah Shachtman, essentially accuses Booz Allen executive vice president Mike McConnell of over-hyping cybersecurity threats so his firm can win government contracts to combat the dangers that he invented. Shachtman calls Booz “cyberwar Cassandras.” Now, I can’t speak to the motivations of Mr. McConnell or anyone else at the firm. However, the evidence Shachtman presents on Booz Allen’s supposed recent windfall in government contract spending seems a little thin. Booz Allen has raked in $400 million in deals…
The Hill reports House Republicans yesterday tried to attach language to a jobs bill that would have fired feds caught watching or distributing pornography on their work computers. But when dozens of Democrats started voting for the Republicans’ “motion to recommit” — a parliamentary procedure that gives the minority one last chance to amend legislation — and the provision passed, Democratic leaders pulled the bill. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who wrote the bill, was outraged at the Republican’s move: For anyone that is concerned about federal employees watching pornography, they just saw a pornographic movie. It’s called, “Motion to Recommit.”…
(Technically it was hemp, the other variety of the cannabis sativa plant that can’t get you high. But that distinction is usually lost on all the annoying stoners who love to philosophize in college dorms about how legalizing hemp would renew our nation’s agriculture, fix our tax base, and, like, George Washington totally grew it, too. This one’s for them.) Hemp advocates, who feel that the government has wrongly banned the cultivation of their beloved plant, have a new patron saint: Agriculture Department botanist Lyster Dewey. The Washington Post reports that Dewey tended “Uncle Sam’s hemp farm” on a plot…
The Office of Personnel Management really pulled out all the stops at today’s event announcing President Obama’s reforms to the federal hiring process. Held in an auditorium at OPM’s E Street offices, it had the feel of a campaign event, with U2’s “Beautiful Day” playing on loudspeakers before the event as media, special guests and OPM employees took their seats. Marvin Carraway, one of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency officers credited with stopping a gunman at the Pentagon subway station March 4, was on hand as one example of an exemplary federal employee. He got a standing ovation. OPM director…