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- 25/03/10
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Obama transport security pick avoids Iraq contract pothole Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row Washington)
Army’s chief of intelligence and director for operations in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Submitted at 3/24/2010 1:50:23 PM After retiring, he set up his own President Barack Obama’s pick security consulting firm which to oversee U.S. transportation he sold last year. security appears to have dodged The top Republican on the a major pothole on the road to panel, Maine Senator Susan being confirmed by the Senate Collins, grilled Harding about a after assuaging concerns about a $6 million contract his former government contract his old company, Harding Security f i r m w o n t o p r o v i d e Associates, won from the i n t e r r o g a t o r s i n I r a q . Defense Intelligence Agency in Retired Major General Robert 2004 to provide interrogators H a r d i n g w a s u n d e r t h e and debriefers in Iraq — the m i c r o s c o p e a t t h e S e n a t e company had to reimburse the H o m e l a n d S e c u r i t y a n d government nearly one-third of G o v e r n m e n t a l A f f a i r s that amount. Committee on Wednesday for Harding told the committee that his nomination to head the he hired 40 people, but three T r a n s p o r t a t i o n S e c u r i t y months into the contract the Administration, a job that has government decided that it no been filled on a temporary basis longer needed the outside since Obama took office. interrogators and debriefers and Harding spent more than three terminated the contract. One decades in the U.S. military, concern raised during an audit including a stint as deputy to the of the contract was that he tried
stay engaged with my employees and take care of them, in an effort to take care of my stakeholders, which is the Iraq support group, I lost sight of the fact that I also had to be cognizant of what was going on in my back room, in the accounting shop, in the contract shop,” Harding told the panel. He said that afterwards he hired a chief financial officer, installed accounting software and hired more staff. Harding added that his experience with the contract would be useful in t o g e t a b o u t $ 8 0 0 , 0 0 0 the TSA job to ensure taxpayer reimbursed for severance he money is used appropriately. paid to the employees. “Based on today’s hearing and The two sides settled the case my review of the record, I and Harding’s firm paid back believe General Harding has about $1.8 million. adequately addressed my “I’m convinced that I made a concerns regarding his former mistake. This was our largest, firm’s contract with the Defense and our most important contract. Department,” Collins said in a And in an effort to stay engaged statement after the hearing. with my client, in an effort to “ B e f o r e m a k i n g a f i n a l
Why the IMF changed its mind about capital controls | Kevin Gallagher Kevin Gallagher (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)
Kevin Gallagher: Video: The IMF has endorsed the use of capital controls to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis in
developing countries. The US must also come on board Kevin Gallagher
determination on the nomination, however, I want to review additional information in order to ensure that all relevant data regarding the nominee have been thoroughly examined,” she said. In response to another question from Collins, Harding said none of his interrogators or debriefers had been accused of abusing or mistreating prisoners amid some reports there had been such cases at a base in Iraq. A spokeswoman for the chairman of the committee, Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, said that he “was satisfied with the General’s responses to multiple questions about the contract that were posed to him at today’s hearing.” - Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Segar (A TSA screener searches a traveler at Newark airport.)