training

Robert Gates: Pentagon Willing To Settle For Smaller Budget

by AP on February 14, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon can live with a smaller budget this year than the Obama administration originally requested, but the total – not counting war costs – cannot be less than $540 billion, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday. That is about $9 billion less than the White House first requested. Gates said that Congress’ failure to pass a 2011 budget – five months into the fiscal year – is forcing the Pentagon to stick to last year’s lower spending level. Those limits, he said, could turn into a crisis if they are not fixed soon. Gates met with key lawmakers for lunch Monday, but he said it’s not clear yet what they will do on the 2011 budget. Laying out the 2012 defense budget, Gates said he is seeking enough money to maintain 98,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, despite the Obama administration’s insistence that it will begin to gradually withdraw forces this July. Gates said that while it’s a certainty that the troop level will come down, it made more sense to request stable funding because the administration doesn’t know yet how many troops they will need. Military leaders say the troop reduction will be based on the security situation in Afghanistan. The 2012 budget request includes about $118 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That amount is substantially less than the 2011 request of about $160 billion, largely due to the ongoing withdrawal of forces from Iraq. The 2012 budget also provides $12.8 billion to train and equip the Afghan security forces, which maintains the training at current levels. Officials have said they need more than the current goal of 305,600 army and police, but the budget provides no additional money to support any growth in the training program. There are currently about 270,000 Afghan security forces, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce his next target for growth in coming weeks. The U.S. and NATO have pressed other nations to provide training, but they are still short about 740 trainers. Gates spoke to reporters while presenting the administration’s defense spending plan for 2012, which begins October 1. He also warned that he will pursue all potential legal moves to eliminate funding for the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Cutting the extra engine, he said, will save $3 billion over the life of the program.

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Robert Gates: Pentagon Willing To Settle For Smaller Budget

David Isenberg: The Known and Unknown Contractor

by David Isenberg on February 10, 2011

It is not a secret that as Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George W. Bush Donald Rumsfeld was sympathetic to using private military contractors. In 2003, he said that as many as 320,000 jobs filled by military personnel could be turned over to civilians. Ironically, long before Abu Ghraib, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was preaching the virtues of using contractors in prisons. The secretary said at a town hall meeting in August 2003 that the Army pays $20,000 to $40,000 to hold a prisoner each year, whereas it costs Kansas only $14,000 per year. “I don’t think of running a prison as a core competency of the United States military,” he said In September 2004 he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had identified more than 50,000 positions now filled by uniformed personnel “doing what are essentially nonmilitary jobs.” At the same time, he said, the Army was so short-handed it had to call up tens of thousands of reservists to fight in Iraq. Rumsfeld said he intended to assign the troops to military jobs and hire civilian workers or contractors to take the non-military jobs. “We plan to carry this conversion out at a rate of about 10,000 positions per year,” Rumsfeld told the committee Now, thanks to his just published memoir, ” Known and Unknown ” we have a few more examples of his view on contractors. As part of the book’s promotional effort for the book Rumsfled created a website , where he has posted hundreds of documents from his files. If you search them using the “contractor” keyword you get things like the following 25. 2004-03-30 to (no recipient) re (no subject) Category: George W Bush Secretary of Defense (21) – 2004 – Snowflakes New pay schedules, so that US SOF don’t get enticed out to the CIA or to private contractors at much higher salaries than we are currently able to pay them. One might recall that PMC advocates have claimed that this was an overblown concern but evidently it was serious enough to get Rumsfeld’s attention Then, there was this, which is actually pretty sensible and uncontroversial. TO: Honorable Andrew Card FROM: Donald Rumsfeld SUBJECT: Military Detailees March 28, 200l lo:28 Andy, are you going to take a look sometime at the way the demand for members of the armed services in the total White House complex has ballooned’? 1 am told it has gone from 1,400 to 2,100. 1 don’t know from when, or whether that figure is accurate, but it is worth checking. We might want to think about ways that that number can be cut down and possibly ways more could be reimbursable, rather than non-reimbursable. Also, it may make sense to replace some functions now performed by uniformed military personnel with contract employees, as WC are doing at the Pentagon. For example, mess attendants for U.S. forces in Bosnia are provided by an outside contractor, not by soldiers. Let me know what you think. Thanks. I WlR:dh 03270 l-24 And, proving that Eisenhower’s famed military-industrial complex is now more properly accurately described as a military-industrial-congressional complex, is this: 2001-02-22 Re Ethics Laws Category: George W Bush Secretary of Defense (21) – 2001 – Snowflakes … of the new Congressional ethics laws that apply to the Executive Branch is that the contractor community has to be very careful about dealing with the Executive Branch, but they … February 22, 2001 9:08 PM SUBJECT: Ethics Laws One of the side effects of the new Congressional ethics laws that apply to the Executive Branch is that the contractor community has to be very careful about dealing with the Executive Branch, but they don’t have to be careful about dealing with the Congress. As a result, since I was last here, there has been a process taking place that has knitted the defense contractor community to the Congress with an unfortunate effect on the defense establishment. Finally, there was this. If Rumsfeld has bothered to look at how this training has actually turned out he is probably feeling embarrassed. Contractors such as DynCorp and others have been heavily involved in this and have received loads of criticism for their efforts. 2. 2002-04-23 to Gen Franks re Contractors Category: George W Bush Secretary of Defense (21) – 2002 – Snowflakes … 2002-04-23 to Gen Franks re Contractors … April 23, 2002 6:30 PM TO: Gen. Franks CC: Gen. Myers FROM: Donald Rumsfeld SUBJECT: Contractors Have you thought of using contractors to train the Afghan army? Thanks. DHR:dh 042302-24

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David Isenberg: The Known and Unknown Contractor

Dave Johnson: Jobs Crisis in Real World… Just Not in D.C.

February 3, 2011

Who is our economy for? Who is our government for? undergoing a transition from “We, the People” democratic government to a plutocracy run by and for the wealthy. One indicator of this transition is the way the D.C. Elite respond to unemployment. 9-10% unemployment used to be a national emergency. Now it’s a yawn. What The Washington Paper Says The Washington Post has a front-page story, ” Why does Fresno have thousands of job openings — and high unemployment? ” that says the problem is really “structural,” a skills gap, and there is little we can do. This is significant because so many people who make policy read the Washington Post while sitting in their nice, expensive restaurants. Stories like this risk that they will think that there really are plenty of jobs out there, but the serfs just aren’t up to taking them, or are too spoiled, but in any event there is no problem that needs solving, and call the lobbyist because this month’s check is late. Meanwhile, anyone in the real world outside of Washington or Wall Street reading about “thousands” of job openings going unfilled immediately knows something is fishy. In fact, if this story ran on the front page outside of DC or Wall Street we might even need to worry about Egypt-style riots. Anyone on the same side of the continent as Fresno knows that there are not “thousands’ of unfilled job openings. There might be thousands of foreclosures, or thousands of people in food lines, or thousands of people whose unemployment has run out but there are not thousands of unfilled job openings. What The Local Paper Says The Fresno Bee has a different story to tell, ” EDITORIAL: President should come see impact of joblessness in Valley “: The economy may be improving, but it would be difficult to persuade the thousands of out-of-work Valley residents that things are looking up. The six Valley communities cited in a U.S. Labor Department report have unemployment rates that run from 16.4% in Hanford-Corcoran to 18.6% in Merced. The other Valley cities on the list are Fresno (16.9%), Visalia-Porterville (16.8%), Modesto (17.2%) and Stockton (17.5%). . . . The nation’s economic recovery will not be complete until Americans go back to work. At every level of government, the goal should be to implement policies that improve consumer confidence and encourage businesses to hire workers. The Fresno Want Ads The Fresno Bee help-wanted ads tell the story. There are 963 “Sales” jobs listed, but the first 519 of those are at the same “company,” called “Work At Home Jobs, Inc.” and are mostly the same “job,” if you can call it that. The next 136 are a different “company” and the “jobs” are calling people from home to sell them wireless cell service — on commission. The next 52 are the same deal but a different “company,” selling internet from home, on commission. The next 46, same story. Etc. The next category after Sales is “Business development”, with 691 jobs, 466 are “work at home” and many of the rest are the same jobs at the same companies as the “sales” jobs. The next two categories are “General Business” and “Other” and, again, list the same “jobs” at the same “companies.” The next category is “Business Opportunity.” I challenge you to guess what “companies” and “jobs” are listed. (Hint: it’s the same ones again.) Supply And Demand Among the few specifics in the story is the example of “Jain Irrigation, which cannot find all the workers it wants for $15-an-hour jobs running expensive machinery that spins out precision irrigation tubing at 600 feet a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” $15-an-hour is just above the poverty level for a family of four, at about 130%. Dean Baker, writing in ” The Problem of Structrual Unemployment: Really Incompetent Managers ,” makes the point that a company complaining they can’t find skilled workers at $15 an hour needs to think about raising their offer. Baker writes, It presents comments from one employer who complains that he can’t find workers for jobs that pay $15 an hour. This is not a very good wage. It would be difficult for someone to support themselves and their children on a job paying $15 an hour ($30,000 a year). If the company president understand economics, then he would raise wages enough so that the jobs were attractive to workers who have the necessary skills. If they can’t get workers, they should know that they need to bump up the wage offered until they can. That is about as basic as it gets in the supply/demand equation. Can’t Sell The House And Move Part of this problem is the housing market. If Fresno really doesn’t have the skilled workers businesses need, Silicon Valley and Las Vegas certainly do, and have very high unemployment rates, but the people there can’t sell their houses and move! And even if they could sell they are “underwater,” will come out of the sale owing a ton of money that they can’t make up by taking a $15-per-hour job! Externalizing Training Costs Companies expect workers to already be trained, “externalizing” one more cost onto local communities, while shopping for the lowest tax areas to locate. California has a budget crisis and is cutting back on funding for the community colleges and other programs where people are trained for jobs. One reason for the budget crisis is businesses demanding ever-lower taxes, or playing communities and states against each other for tax incentives to relocate, using property tax avoidance schemes and so many other ways to get out of paying something back to the public for the public investment that enabled them to prosper . The Real Problem Out here in the real world the real problem is not “structural,” it is that there just are not enough jobs , they don’t pay enough, “free trade” deals have lowered wages and undermined our manufacturing base, there is not enough demand in the economy and the government is not doing its job of picking up the slack and after 30 years of tax-cutting the infrastructure is crumbling and not supporting competitiveness for our businesses. There are millions of unemployed and millions of infrastructure jobs that need doing. There is a new green energy and manufacturing revolution going on in the world and we do not have an economic/industrial policy to capture our share. There is problem after problem that is not being addressed by a government captured by interests. DC Avoids Dealing With The Problem It seems that the DC Elite will do anything to avoid just seeing what is in front of their faces. Clearly we have lost jobs from trade deals, Wall Street financialization and domination, lack of investment in infrastructure and education, etc. But the DC Elite come up with a thousand reasons not to fix these because the interests that benefit from those deals have influence over them. Our budget deficit is obviously from tax cuts and military spending — but you will never, ever, ever, ever hear that. Instead we hear job-killing “austerity” solutions that avoid asking the wealthy few to pitch in. On one issue after another, the DC Elite provide cover for the wealthy elite interests who now control DC. The transition from We, the People democracy to a plutocracy of, by and for the wealthy few is nearly complete. The real problem is not a breakdown of the structure of the job market and is not a mismatch between the jobs and the skills, it is a lack of jobs because of lack of demand, and a mismatch between who our government and economy are supposed to work for, and the interests that have brought this about. March 10 Summit on Jobs and America’s Future On March 10, 2011, the Summit on Jobs and America’s Future will bring together leaders and activists who understand that America faces a jobs crisis — and who are committed to building a political movement for sustainable economic growth, dynamic job creation, and a revival of the American economy. It’s free, $15 if you want lunch . Beat that. This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture . I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary .

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Grant Cardone: NADA — Auto Dealers Preparing for Great 2011

January 27, 2011

As the automobile industry appears to be improving, the National Automobile Dealer Association is getting read for its annual automotive convention. With car and truck sales predicted to be between 12-13 million cars it should be a big year for manufacturers and dealers. I personally think annual sales will exceed even the most optimistic expectations. But the winners will not be those that depend on the economy’s recovery but rather those that depend on great processes, great execution and great people. Car and truck dealers and manufacturers nationwide have been gravely impacted by the economic crisis, reducing sales of new automobiles from seventeen million to under ten million annually. Thousands of car dealerships were closed resulting in tens of thousands of lost jobs at the retail level not counting those lost because of cutbacks at the manufacturer level. Just retail auto dealers are responsible for over 1 million jobs in the U.S. so their solvency is critical to the US economic recovery! Founded in 1917, NADA represents more than seventeen thousand new car and truck dealers, both domestic and import, with more than 37,500 separate franchises. More than 91 percent of U.S. new-vehicle dealers are NADA members and a large majority is expected to attend the day event in San Francisco. I am working with NADA again this year to deliver automotive sales and management training workshops that will demonstrate exact strategies that automobile dealers must employ to get their part of the upcoming recovery. While people will be returning to car dealerships in the upcoming year, increased competition is forcing dealers to be better at the customer experience. In addition to providing sales and management workshops for their annual convention, NADA is very active on Capitol Hill supporting its members. I aggressively worked with NADA in its most recent victory passing the Brownback Amendment which excluded auto dealers from the White House’s bank reform bill. This would have limited dealers ability to provide financing to car buyers and gravely impacted the dealers’ viability and limited financing choices for automotive consumers. The Nada Convention 2011 is being held in San Francisco, CA Feb 5-7. Grant Cardone, NY Times Best Selling Author, Automotive Sales Training Expert

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Barry Moltz: 20 Most Important Words for Your Small Business

January 14, 2011

Words are powerful things. And what they mean has a big influence on your customers’ expectations. It is important in your business to understand and define each term for your company and customers. It will make a big difference in how your company grows. 1. Belief: What people think and accept as true. May not correlate with facts. Have great sticking power, even when they are wrong. 2. Complain: What a customer does when they are unhappy. They complain to themselves, to friends, on the Web, and even sometimes to you. 3. Disney: A place where most customers are always happy. This takes a lot of employee training. 4. Empowerment: Training employees to make decisions on their own to help a customer without talking to “the boss.” 5. Feedback: Giving the customer the opportunity to tell you what they think at many different stages of interaction, and the opportunity to do it in many different ways depending on what is convenient and appropriate for them. Something smart companies listen to and take to heart. Associated with the Three Times Rule–if you hear something about your business three times, whether you like it or not, pay serious attention. It is probably true. 6. Forever: Relative time the customer feels they need to wait. 7. Happy: An impossible dream that is sometimes worth the pursuit. No business strategy in the world can make all customers happy. 8. Humans: Who every customer wants to talk to when they call your company. 9. Kick the Cat: What employees do when they take their frustrations out on the customer. Blowing a situation out of proportion. The kiss of death for a company. 10. Mistake: The hardest thing for the company (or the customer) to admit. 12. My Manager: The person the customer is seemingly always getting passed to or who always gets blamed by the employee if something goes wrong. The catcher in “passing the buck.” 13. Overpromise : Making a commitment to a customer or to all customers that the company is not economically able to keep. 14. Patience : What businesses think customers ought to have. What customers think they have a lot of. 15. Peer Reviews : Online references written by customers on the level of quality or service in your company. Sometimes called an open reputation system. 16. Pest: A customer the company may need to fire to be more profitable. 17. Promise : A solemn commitment to a customer that the company will honor and the customer will not forget. 18. Self Service: Tools such as kiosks and Web tools for customers to assist themselves. Not always linked to satisfaction, but increasingly linked to high expectations of a quick turnaround. 19. Survey: A mostly ineffective means of getting customer feedback, especially when the company bribes the customer to do it. 2 0. Voice Mail Jail : Every customer’s nightmare, especially if they do not get a call back. What important words would you add?

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Hansen Medical Names Rita Jacob Vice President for Training and Clinical Affairs

December 14, 2010

Significant Expertise in Training of Vascular Surgeons and Interventionalists, and Clinical Research on Class II and III Vascular Devices

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Hansen Medical Names Rita Jacob Vice President for Training and Clinical Affairs

December 14, 2010

Significant Expertise in Training of Vascular Surgeons and Interventionalists, and Clinical Research on Class II and III Vascular Devices

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Hansen Medical Names Rita Jacob Vice President for Training and Clinical Affairs

December 14, 2010

Significant Expertise in Training of Vascular Surgeons and Interventionalists, and Clinical Research on Class II and III Vascular Devices

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Richard (RJ) Eskow: Pictures of MERS, Part 1: Corporate Documents Illustrate the Mortgage Shell Game

October 20, 2010

At the center of the foreclosure fraud crisis lies something called “MERS,” which is usually described in news reports as a computer system and database. But a thorough review of the company’s publicly available documents show it’s much more than that. We reviewed hundreds of pages of bulletins, newsletters, and manuals, along with PowerPoint presentations, user forums and other website material and several hours of training videos and other recordings. This is the first of a series of reports on what we found. As the following images show, MERS is a nebulous, database-driven entity created by the mortgage industry . It’s designed to let lenders swap mortgages electronically without being slowed down by inconvenient courtroom rules. MERS is “Digital Life” for mortgages, an electronic shell game that makes it hard to track the real party behind a loan. The company’s own publicly available documents paint the picture of a legal shapeshifter that appears before the court as the lender and title holder, then morphs itself into a mere service organization when it’s time to take responsibility. Who is MERS? Here’s a list of the owners: “MERSCORP” is an entity created by the mortgage industry, including the Mortgage Bankers Association (yes, that would be the same Mortgage Bankers Association that appears to have walked away from its own commercial real estate loan – after its CEO lectured homeowners on honoring their debts). The other owners are a who’s who of TARP recipients, HAMP violators, and known lawbreakers. “MERS Inc.” is a subsidiary of MERSCORP which was created for the sole purpose of acting as if it held the note on a home loan. Why do institutions use MERS? Here’s their pitch: Judges across the country might not be amused to learn that MERS promises”no recording or re-recording of assignments,” since that’s exactly the problem at hand. As for “ease of delivery into secondary markets” – that is, the bundling and re-selling of mortgages – there’s no question that MERS has enabled that. MERS provides the chips for the housing market casino. And as for the claim that there will be “no chain of title issues,” that’s a hard claim to defend now that Attorneys General for all fifty states are investigating the matter. Artificial MOMs There are at least two ways “MERS Inc.” (that synthetic company that’s a MERSCORP “subsidiary” becomes the mock holder of a loan, but the preferred way is to have lenders employ a “MOM” arrangement. MOM stands for “MERS as Original Mortgagee.” Some nerdy types may remember the sinister corporation run by an overlord named “Mom” in Futurama . While this “MOM” is also technology-driven, it’s essentially a legal device: In order to obtain their home loan, the lender demands that the borrower – that’s you, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowning American – “mortgages, grants, and conveys” their property to the vague “MERS Inc.” The homeowners agree that MERS “holds legal title” and has the authority to exercise all mortgagee rights, “including foreclosure.” So MERS owns the note, right? Not so fast: Got that? “No interests are transferred,” they’re “just tracked.” MERS “holds legal title,” but “no interests are transferred.” In other words, this virtual entity has all of the rights to act against homeowners, with none of the responsibility. The party facing you in a courtroom is not your legal adversary. They’re only pretending to be. Having a “MOM” doesn’t make MERS Inc. the genuine note holder any more than wearing a dress makes Norman Bates his own mother. “But Mother, she’s just a stranger …” If your home loan was produced with a “MOM,” the court has no record of who issued your original loan. If you need to challenge the legality of that loan, you’re dependent on MERS to tell you who the other party really was. When it comes to the title, the courts know nothing – and mother knows best. That can lead to a Catch-22 situation: When homeowners want to bring the lender to court, MERS is the entity that shows up. But MERS bears no legal responsibility: It didn’t issue the loan and can’t defend the transaction. And when homeowners or their representatives contact MERS, they’re told its not MERS’ responsibility to update the court records to reflect the true identity of the title holder. But that’s what the court record is supposed to show. “MERS Inc.” Is Everyone … and No One MERS Inc. – the title holder of record – is a legal entity. As far as the courts are concerned – at least the ones that have accepted its use they hold your note. But that’s a legal fiction. The real holder of the note is usually a bank you’d recognize – like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, or Citigroup. Who are the officers of this fictitious entity? “Designated officers of the servicers” are “elected” as officers of MERS so that they can act on behalf of their own company while pretending to act for this artificial one. “Loan servicers” are the companies that collect and process loan payments, and the big banks themselves act as loan service companies. As the Associated Press reported last year, Billions of dollars the government is spending to help financially pressed homeowners avert foreclosure are passing through — and enriching — companies accused of preying on the people they’re supposed to help.” These companies actually target people who are struggling to pay their bills, because they make more money from late fees. Who are the largest loan servicers? Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase. and Citigroup Inc. That’s right: The artificial corporation called “MERS Inc.” holds your note as a facade, and it could very well name as its officers the very same bankers who issued your loan in the first place. (Or, as we’re about to find out, not.) But in this case they’re officers of “MERS,” not their own organization. There have already been lawsuits against loan servicers for wrongful foreclosure, misrepresentation, breach of contract, conspiracy, violation of state debt collection laws, and predatory lending, just to name a few. It’s not as if we need another layer of obfuscation, confusion, and secrecy to further cloud the legal process. The owners of MERS are turning the corridors of justice into a hall of mirrors. The Judge Calls It Fraud Would a prestigious bank like JPMorgan Chase really deceive a court of law about ownership of a title? From a recent court ruling : ” “The court finds WAMU (now owned by Chase), with the assistance of its previous counsel, Shapiro and Fishman … knew that … WAMU never owned or held the note and Mortgage … the Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that WAMU, Chase and Shapiro & Fishman committed fraud on this Court … a knowing deception intended to prevent the defendants from discovery essential to defending the claim.” Chase was only the servicer for this loan, but it wanted to score a foreclosure so it pretended that it actually held the title on the loan. That’s the kind of deception that becomes vastly easier to carry out using the legal and electronic instruments provided by MERS. Was that why MERS was designed? They say no. MERS documents claim that the system was designed to provide transparency, consistent data, and a more streamlined system. It hasn’t worked out that way. __________________________ IN OUR NEXT EPISODE: How MERS “navigates through foreclosures.” We’d feel a lot better about their attitude toward struggling borrowers if one of their training videos didn’t use “Harry Homeowner” on “Poverty Lane” in Jacksonville as a test case. It doesn’t make it look as if sympathy toward struggling homeowners is their Number One concern: As you’ve probably guessed, there is no “Poverty Lane” in Jacksonville, FL – yet. _______________________________________________________________ Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer (and former insurance/finance executive), is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America’s Future. This post was produced as part of the Curbing Wall Street project. Richard also blogs at A Night Light . He can be reached at “rjeskow@ourfuture.org.” Website: Eskow and Associates

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David Isenberg: The Liability of Using a PMC to do Foreign Police Training

October 8, 2010

Last month the independent publication Intelligence Online reported that Altegrity , the “global security solutions and specialized law enforcement training company” headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, which as of this past August also owns Kroll Inc. is counting on the extensive contacts of William J. Bratton, formerly Chairman of Altegrity Risk International (ARI) and now Kroll Chairman, who headed the Los Angeles Police Department for seven years, to help it nab some of the lucrative foreign police force training contracts that Dyncorp’s International Police Training Program has monopolized in recent years. Okay, nothing exceptional there. Companies hire people all the time in order to capitalize off their past and present business contacts. And if DynCorp gets some competition in training foreign military or police forces that is a good thing. I’ve written in the past, here and here about some problems DynCorp has had doing that. But the real question is whether the benefits of using any PMC for this job outweigh the costs. To be sure, PMC supporters have a large number of countries to point to where PMC have done exactly that, and in most cases have done so without major problems. Of course, most of those contracts have been far smaller than those contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan which have seen major problems. But some people, who have the credentials to back up their viewpoints, have their doubts. Let’s look at a recent U.S. Army Peacekeeping & Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) paper. The PKSOI serves as the U.S. Army’s Center of Excellence for Stability and Peace Operations at the Strategic and Operational levels in order to improve military, civilian agency, international, and multinational capabilities and execution. The paper is ” U.S. Military Forces and Police Assistance in Stability Operations: The Least-Worst Option to Fill the U.S. Capacity Gap ” by Colonel (U.S.-Army Ret.) Dennis E Keller. He writes: DoS INL directly contracted with DynCorp International to provide 690 International Police Liaison Offcers (IPLOs) who provide assessment, training, and mentoring functions for Iraqi police in the feld. INL funded DoJ’s ICITAP, which then contracted Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), to provide International Police Trainers (IPTs), who provide assistance to Iraq’s police training academies. INL also funded 143 Border Enforcement Advisors, 123 of whom were provided by an INL contract with DynCorp, and 20 of whom were provided by an ICITAP contract with MPRI. DoJ’s OPDAT [U.S. Department of Justice, Offce of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training] had provided seven Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) to Iraq as of February 2008. Six RLAs were deployed to Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Iraqi Provinces, with the seventh RLA in Baghdad. The interagency arrangement provides that CPATT and MNSTC-I set overall requirements for the civilian security development mission, that Multi-National Force–Iraq (MNF-I) exercises operational control over IPLOs and IPTs supplied by INL and ICITAP, and that ICITAP and INL manage and oversee the contracts with service providers such as DynCorp and MPRI. At first glance, it would seem that these interagency arrangements among DoS INL, DoJ ICITAP, DoD, and USAID for civilian police training, along with the international academies supported by DHS, more than replicate USAID’s police training prior to 1974. However, it is important to note that ICITAP and INL’s police training, unlike USAID’s Cold War-era police training, is executed by contract police trainers, usually through the large contractors DynCorp and MPRI in the case of the police training in Iraq and Afghanistan. While using a private sector company to contract police trainers on a short-term basis does enable a rapid increase in the quantity of trainers available, it also has some inherent disadvantages when compared with the use of full-time USG employees to manage and conduct foreign police training. It is notable that in its heyday, USAID’s OPS had 590 permanent employees, which included overseas advisors and trainers as well. As of 2007, to provide support for the much-larger force of contracted police trainers in Iraq and Afghanistan, DoS INL increased its staffng by adding 64 permanent positions in Washington, and increasing its Embassy Baghdad staff to 20 people– to supervise a contracted police trainer force of some 833 police trainers in Iraq alone. However, these low ratios of permanent government employees to temporarily contracted police trainers allow the permanent staff to conduct only the minimal contract oversight and broad policy guidance for law enforcement development. They are not able to develop more-detailed procedures and greater operational oversight of police and law enforcement reform. Simply using a contracting mechanism to conduct police training does not create the kind of institutional capacity in the USG that is required for a consistently effective approach to enabling local police to establish and maintain a safe and secure environment in a recovering state. Contracted police trainers often cannot or will not operate in nonpermissive environments, thus confning their training to the capital city or secure areas while leaving unsecured remoter areas of a country without desperately needed police trainers and mentors, as is often the case in Iraq and Afghanistan today. Moreover, if a particular contracted police trainer/mentor is identifed as having superior ability to impart police skills and values in a foreign environment, there is no mechanism to keep that person on at DoS INL or elsewhere in the USG to help establish institutional knowledge and long-term capacity to manage and conduct foreign police training. P.S. I should note that the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs has a letter to the editor by Senator Edward E. Kaufman (D-Delaware) in which he comments on a previous article by Defense Secretary Robert Gates,who wrote about ways to improve the advising and mentoring capacity of the Defense Department. Sen. Kaufman notes in passing, The U.S. government must also better train foreign police. The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has had success in training civilian law enforcement agencies around the globe, but its model has not worked in Afghanistan. The United States needs a more robust civilian approach to partnering with foreign law enforcement and defense counterparts. Something so critical should not be an afterthoughts or be contracted out to private companies.

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Grant Cardone: Work from Home Successfully

October 5, 2010

Want to work or run your business from home and like the idea of never having to go anywhere, work in your underwear, and do as you please with no one looking over your shoulder? Well, whether you are working for someone else from your home or running your own business from home, there are some things you must know to make a home-run business successful. I have run multiple businesses from a home office for over 20 years. Each of these started out small and grew into something much larger. Each quite different, each requires a different focus and different levels of support. I started my first business when I was 29 from home only because I couldn’t afford an office. In the beginning, I was everything from sales person , sales team, CEO, shipping, receptionist, bookkeeper, and boss. For almost 3 years I worked for less money than I ever had and put in double the hours. I figured out how to make my home business successful and then was able to expand into multiple businesses with partners and employees. Still today I continue to operate a home office with support staff and partners working from traditional offices. With technology what it is today this is becoming more and more a possibility for the self-starter and self-disciplined. And those two traits will be required! There are many benefits to working from home from getting more done, working all hours, reduced travel time, tax advantages, and cost savings but you should beware of the many pitfalls and traps. Some of the problems with working from home are first the blur between work and personal life. Some find themselves unable to get focused on the business at hand and others unable to turn it off. I believe both of these responses are more about the individual than the location of the office. Also many people believe that they will have more freedom working from home and finally be their own boss. This I believe to be an unrealistic expectation. If you aren’t disciplined and a self-starter then working from home is a bad idea. But in this economy, (really any economy) self-discipline and personal motivation is critical no matter where you office. In the beginning, you probably will not have the support of a team and will be doing everything. Also many people run a home business that looks more like a home than a business that others will not take seriously and even you don’t take seriously. Here are some tips you may find beneficial to making your home business successful. 1. Define your spaces and separate work from home. Have a room dedicated for work. This room should not be mixed with family. Set aside a workspace that when you enter it, you are there to work. Your family needs to know this is your office not their home. 2. Set regular hours, and stick to the schedule. This is not a vacation because you are at home, it is work. Tell the kids, “I’m going to work, see you later.” I added one hour to my schedule when I had my first child so I could spend it with my daughter and then each day I also have lunch with them. Then it’s back to my office uninterrupted by family. 3. Prepare as you would any public job. Get dressed, get shaved/makeup and be presentable as a professional as you would in a public office. 4. Have a professional desk and chair. It doesn’t have to be expensive but you need a place to work from that is professional. 5. Private phone number, computer, email address and social media addresses. Do not mix your communication terminals with personal activities. The tools you use to communicate must be professional and set apart from those you use for personal uses. 6. Avoid retreating to family on tough days. This kills people at home because it is easy to retreat into the comfort of your kids, the sofa, TV or refrigerator. It is called work, dig in on tough days and push through! 7. Wear the boss hat. You have to be able to manage yourself by being the boss of you that directs you on what is expected, what has to get accomplished and manage yourself accordingly. 8. Get a predictable start each day. I start with the one hour with my daughter, then exercise, breakfast, shower, get dressed and go straight to my office. When in my office I start by writing my long-term goals, then today’s to do list and then start hammering away at it. 9. Keep statistics. If you don’t keep statistics on yourself it will be very unlikely that you are able to create a successful business. I keep stats on everything; out bound calls, in bound calls, teleconferences, emails, articles written, and the likes so that I can see my activity growing each day. This is also the only way to rationally discover what is working and not working. 10. Use the office after your schedule. One of the advantages of a home office is you can use it more than you would an office away from home. Once I have spent time with my family, then I return to my office at all times during the night when I am inspired. I predict over the next five years there will be an explosion in people working from home due to the massive numbers of unemployed that will last for years, combined with an aging population living longer and unable to retire and then aided by the technology development provided by the internet. Working from home is not for everyone but it does become a great option for the highly disciplined and self-motivated. There are tons of advantages of working from home but you remember that when you go to work from home, you still have to go to work to work! Grant Cardone, NY Times Best Selling Author and Sales Training Expert

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Utilities Offer Jobs, Training As Current Workers Near Retirement

October 3, 2010

BERLIN, Conn. — In the worst recession in memory, Helen Duguay discovered that climbing utility poles is a better career choice than selling real estate. A former real estate agent out of work since May, the 43-year-old mother of five is learning to scale poles and operate a crane, a backhoe and other equipment used at electric and gas company construction sites. “We all have to be flexible in what we can do,” Duguay said. “I’ve never done this before.” A 12-week training program organized by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association has drawn Duguay and 11 other prospective utility line workers. Partly funded by federal stimulus money, the program is a good match for the unemployed workers looking for a job and for utilities seeking to replenish a labor force about to be hit hard by retirements. Union officials say the average age of the nation’s utility workers is about 50. “You’re looking at a potential mass exodus over the next couple of years,” said John Fernandes, president of Local 457 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents Connecticut Light & Power employees. The Center for Energy Workforce Development, a consortium of electric, natural gas and nuclear utilities and their associations, said in a 2009 report that 42 percent of the industry’s line workers would be retired or gone through attrition by 2015. The survey found most employees retire after age 58, with 25 years of service. Because many utility jobs are physically demanding, it said, some employees choose jobs elsewhere in a utility or begin second careers well before the traditional retirement age of 65. Collaborative efforts have been set up in 28 states among utilities, schools, unions, state workforce development agencies and others to find ways to develop the industry’s labor force. For example, Gulf Power, a Pensacola, Fla.-based utility, has a partnership with a local high school that offers courses introducing students to utility work. Gulf Power finds mentors and pays the cost of an exam that would otherwise cost the student a few hundred dollars, spokeswoman Sandy Sims said. She said 20 percent of the utility’s 1,365 employees are eligible to retire. The Connecticut training program teaches students about gas and electric utilities, alternative energy and upgraded electricity systems known as the “smart grid.” The program also prepares trainees for an industry employment test and commercial driver’s license. Duguay, of Wolcott, said she learned of it from the Job Corps and seized on it because she knows there’s a need for utility line workers, who are paid about $56,000 annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At a recent session at a Connecticut Light & Power training yard in Berlin, Duguay was in the cab of a crane, learning to lift and move a 1,500-pound block as if it were a paperweight. She’s set her sights on a career beyond line work, but at her recent training, she learned to navigate a forklift in reverse while trying to leave traffic cones untouched. “I’ve cleaned my own gutters,” she said. “I don’t mind heights. I don’t mind physical work.” Two workforce training agencies in Hartford and Waterbury screened Duguay and the other candidates, using federal assistance requirements for minimum income and other factors. Capital Workforce Partners in Hartford selected the first six of 10 candidates and its counterpart in Waterbury also selected six trainees, said Yolanda Rivera, program manager at Workforce. The Connecticut Light & Power training program costs were split among stimulus funding and CL&P and Yankee Gas, subsidiaries of Northeast Utilities. The costs, about $76,000, included safety equipment, online lessons and test preparation, said Judith Resnick, executive director of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s education foundation. In Connecticut, federal stimulus funding of up to $14.5 million – part of $5 billion nationwide – has paid for training in advanced manufacturing, warehouse management, interviewing skills training and other courses and programs. Students who do not pass the training exam will be able to retake it, said Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Connecticut Light & Power. And if funding is available, he said other training sessions are possible. Students who do not find work at a gas or electric utility can market their training for construction work or as truck drivers. Duguay said she wants to pursue a career as an electrical designer, which involves planning the electrical use of a building, rather than being a line worker. Right now, however, she needs the training to find entry-level work. “I need to be here to get there,” she said.

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Jonathan Bernstein: How to Avoid Foot-in-Mouth Disease

September 22, 2010

On a daily basis, we see celebrities, politicians and business leaders jam their designer shoes firmly in their mouths during media interviews. You can regularly read a hilarious collection of them in Merrie Spaeth’s infamous Bimbo Awards. Now you’d think that people of that stature would have been media trained. The problem is, however, that many people simply don’t know how to determine if their media trainer is qualified to prepare them properly. Retaining someone to provide a service about which you know little yourself can always be tricky, whether it be an auto mechanic, a lawyer, a plumber, a computer tech or — the topic du jour — a media trainer. Below are a list of questions to ask any potential media trainer. The answers should help avoid foot-in-mouth disease when a reporter’s microphone is in your face — assuming, of course, that you listen to your trainer’s advice! Have you been a working journalist yourself? If yes to #1, what type of journalist were you (e.g., anchor, investigative reporter)? If no to #1, what is the basis for your understanding of the media? Does your training include how to deal with non-traditional media, e.g., social media? Do you teach us how we can maintain the skills we have learned from you? Be specific. Does your training prepare us both for routine interviews and for crisis-level interviews? How long have you been a media trainer? Could you show me anything you’ve written about this topic, and/or articles in which you’ve been interviewed? If the stuff hits the fan, can you also provide us with spot advice on what we can say? Are you an experienced media interview subject yourself — i.e. do you practice what you preach? Shoes belong on your feet, not in your mouth, so use the above to make sure you get the best possible media training.

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Angela Haines: Spotters for Starter Uppers: Helping CEO’s Make the Pitch

September 20, 2010

On one of the last sweltering days of summer in New York, a group of 21 eager entrepreneurs gathered for an all day boot camp on how to position their fledgling companies to attract investors. For nearly four hours in the morning, they listened intently to impressive panels of experts, talking on “The Key Elements of a Venture Presentation” followed by “Presenting Financials and The Business Models.” Among the panelists were representatives from such companies as Covington & Burling, AOL Ventures, Golden Seeds, Cava Capital, Microsoft, Intel Capital, Grant Thornton and NBC Universal. This boot camp, ALL THINGS MEDIA, focused on women entrepreneurs in all sectors of the media, is the 21st annual ritual for Springboard Enterprises , a nonprofit group whose mission is to educate, coach, and showcase women-led high growth companies seeking equity capital for expansion. Each forum targets a specific business sector; past ones have highlighted life science and technology companies. Executive director Amy Millman describes their training program as “the best sounding board and support organization for women entrepreneurs who need a network of trusted resources to scale their companies.” And the results speak to the value of these forums. Out of the 4,000 businesses Springboard has screened in the past decade, it has selected and presented 426 of them to venture capitalists, 83% of which have received funding for a total of $5 billion in equity, grants and strategic investments. To date, seven of its companies have gone public and about a quarter of them have merged or been acquired. To date, 80% of the companies continue to operate; on average each company has 30 employees and reports $12 mil in annual revenues. The 21 entrepreneurs from all over the US at the New York boot camp were the happy survivors of screening sessions earlier this summer. Each year Springboard spends about two months putting together its screening committees, another two months recruiting women-led businesses, one month for initial screening leading to the intensive boot camp for the selected enterprises which is followed by more coaching, culminating in a fall event for potential investors. After a brief, organic lunch, the boot campers, with a renewed sense of mission, were ready to strut their stuff. With a rousing send off on tips to make their presentations pop, by pitch specialist Sam Horn of Sam Horn Keynotes , the women were allowed only two minutes to introduce their companies to the assembled audience. Their presentations underwent immediate scrutiny by two business veterans: Kay Koplovitz, Chairman of the Board for Springboard Enterprises and founder of USA Network, the first woman network president in television history, and Lauren Flanagan, co founder of Phenomenelle Angels Fund, and a CEO of SCIO Corp, a strategic advisory firm for tech-based businesses. Their responses, along with some from the audience, focused on both delivery and content: “Don’t talk so quietly; you’re a firehose!” “Give us a sense of how big your market is?” “What happened to your management team?” to which the entrepreneur sheepishly admitted, “I forgot them.” How did the entrepreneurs react? Laurie Cohn, whose company ChatThreads is an analytics company that helps brands measure consumer reaction, says she learned to do a better job of connecting with her audience. “My elevator pitch,” she says, “changed from a vague statement that ChatThreads tracks how, when and where consumers encounter brand touchpoints on a day-to-day basis, and how these encounters impact purchase behavior to a friendlier ‘think about your favorite soda, coffee or hummus’–more customer oriented.” Kelly Fitzsimmons, CEO of HarQen, a web telephony company that captures, organizes and distributes original voice through a voice management platform, has already successfully raised venture capital but she came for further training because “every raise is different, as is every audience; I need to talk in more depth about our competition and how we distinguish ourselves.” Her resolution this time is “to become more engaged with my classmates to extend my network and my horizons.” Another entrepreneur, Paula Jagemann, CEO of Something With , an e-commerce catalog that offers patients of breast cancer and other diseases, a one stop shopping online store to purchase necessary products recommended by doctors for use during and post treatment, says that the experience reminded her of the value of spotters. For professional gymnasts spotters are always there whenever they mount, dismount or execute a difficult move. “Springboard,” she observes, “is the spotter for new entrepreneurs or for those like me who are returning to the entrepreneurship world and need advice and support.” What’s next for the trainees? Each company will be matched with 3-5 coaches who over the next several weeks will assist them in developing and refining their investor presentations to ten minutes. Each company posts slides and pertinent documents on a secure online site so that coaches can easily comment and suggest revisions. Final performance for their polished pitches? On October 20th the 21 newly trained recruits reunite in New York at the Paley Center for the Media, at a venture capital forum which will showcase these investment–ready, high-growth media companies, led by women, before an audience of about 75 potential investors–angels, VCs, and business development executives from the major media companies including CBS, NBC, Disney, Google and Comcast. Will the next YouTube please step forward!

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Grant Cardone: Economy Won’t Improve Until You Do!

August 27, 2010

I am shocked that everyone is surprised by the disappointing new home sales numbers. Was anyone expecting them to be good? The homebuilders aren’t building unique-’must have’ product and your local agent isn’t calling on you to make a case of why you should buy a house. Real estate agents and the housing industry are doing nothing to create improvement but waiting for the economy to improve. YOUR SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY IS NOT GOING TO IMPROVE UNTIL YOU IMPROVE. Economic Advice- 1) Quit waiting for good economic news. 2) Relearn how to create revenue through sales and sales skills . 3) Organizations must make serious commitment to sales training and sales effectiveness in a tough economy. Real sales skills have been lost over a decade of a synthetic economy where companies neglected a commitment to sales training . 4) Do not wait for consumers, create them. Only individuals and businesses that insist on their people creating revenue opportunities will survive. 5) Build sales muscle through sales training now or you won’t be ready to when things do improve. The reality is that the real estate industry doesn’t know how to sell their products, make sense of value or justify to the public why this is a great time to buy. Except for a handful of professionals this is forgotten skill set. With the cheapest mortgage rates in my lifetime and housing prices, in some places, below construction cost, you would think that your local realtor would be pitching you, but they do not! Why? After years of economic bliss and insufficient sales training , sales motivation, sales discipline and sales persistence the majority of real estate people are unable to produce revenue. And this same story applies to automobiles, furniture, appliances, investments, consumer goods, advertising, and I could go on and on. After decades of order taking, easy credit and an overhyped economy businesses, individuals and entire industries have forgotten how to sell. If you are waiting for your sector to improve, jobs to come back or economic numbers to somehow magically improve you are in for a very painful 4 to 5 years. The most valuable individuals and companies in this economy are those that are able to create and drive revenues by committing to sales training , sales motivation and sales skills . Grant Cardone, Sales Training Expert and NY Times Best Selling Author

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Long-Term Jobless Get Their Money Back After Congressional Lapse

August 25, 2010

Most of the 2.5 million long-term jobless cut off from unemployment insurance during a 50-day congressional standoff this summer have received the money they missed. But for some, the back payments are not enough to make up for the financial burden caused by a lapse in crucial benefits. “By the time I received the money we had sold just about everything of value we owned in order to stay as close to current with all debts as possible,” wrote Steve Santos of Zion, Ill. in an email to HuffPost on Aug. 5. “I sold my golf clubs last week, the last personal item of value I had left. I have not played all year; I usually play every Sunday from April through October with a college buddy and others.” Santos, who said he lost his job as a retail manager in November, received the standard 26 weeks of state-funded benefits. But he was cut off from the federally-funded extended benefits as the Senate dithered over whether to reauthorize the benefits after they expired at the end of May. A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Employment Security told HuffPost the state paid 90 percent of back benefits by July 30. Santos said he received two lump sum payments totaling $2,497 shortly thereafter. “I wonder when and if I will ever find a job,” Santos wrote. “I am not entrepreneurial, but I have made money for every employer I had. I am 55, face a future of minimum wage or less, which in turn minimizes my already meager Social Security pension, if it isn’t torn from us. We lost all savings, including our 401K’s, using hardship clauses to withdraw them. So what hope does our future hold?” In some states, the local labor department was unable to get the money out so speedily. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that long-term jobless only received back payments last week because “the claims backlog created by the lapse overwhelmed the ability of the Nevada Department of Training and Rehabilitation to deliver the money.” Other states boasted they began processing claims the same day the president signed the reauthorization and finished distributing back payments within two weeks. Republicans in the Senate, joined by Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, blocked the extended unemployment benefits because of their $33 billion impact on the deficit — though not even fiscally conservative economists outside of Congress thought nickel-and-diming the unemployed was a smart strategy for deficit reduction. Republicans on the campaign trail, joined by colleagues in the House and Senate (and a few Democrats, too) suggested the extended benefits, which in some states gave the unemployed 99 weeks of aid, discouraged people from looking for work. Judy Barbee of Calvert County, Md. told HuffPost she lost her job as a senior legal secretary at a D.C. law firm in June 2009 and has since gone bankrupt and lost her house. “Not only do I job search daily, I have applied to hundreds of offers, but rarely get any kind of response.” Barbee said she withdrew $10,000 from her IRA and took a $9 per hour part-time job at a gas station after her benefits stopped. She said that with the reduction in her weekly benefit caused by the part-time work, her total income is $3 more per hour than it would be with the benefits alone. “Words are not enough to express how angry, frustrated, humiliated, and devastated I am,” wrote Barbee, 59. “It appears the elitists (Congress, corporations and their lawyers) are trying and succeeding in demolishing middle class America.” David Britton of Louisville, Ky. told HuffPost the chunks of money he received from the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training were gone within 28 hours as he paid off creditors. “What can’t be made up is the late fees, overdraft fees, and damage to credit etc. that occurs when you simply have no money,” wrote Britton, 60, who said he lost his job as a sales director in December. “Plus the creditors don’t go away. They extract promises for lump sum payments in the future where you hope to be employed. I will be facing quite a few of those in September.” Britton said he became adept at “existential unemployment decisions” during the congressional lapse, racking up more than $1,000 in overdraft fees to keep the electricity on and the rent paid, but let go of things like the phone and DSL. “I haven’t used my grill all summer,” he said — but he added that he’s optimistic about his prospects as a food- and beverage-industry consultant. The reauthorization that the Senate approved at the end of July lasts until November, when Congress will once again battle over whether to maintain the lifeline to the 6.5 million people who’ve been out of work for longer than six months.

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David Isenberg: Thinking Outside the Nationalist Box: PMC and International Humanitarian Law

August 23, 2010

It may be hard to believe, given all the attention paid to the issue of legal accountability of private military contractors in recent years that there is anything left to say on the subject. From a U.S. perspective we have seen modifications of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And since PMC is a global industry we have had the Montreux Document to describe international law as it applies to the activities of private military and security companies (PMSCs) whenever these are present in the context of an armed conflict. But are these sufficient for an ever changing and increasingly technological complex world? It seems unlikely. Adjusting rules and regulations to reality is a never ending arms race, with lawyers and legislators rushing to follow as PMC take on new roles. As a case in point consider the article ” The Status Of Private Military Contractors Under International Humanitarian Law ” published in the summer 2010 issue of the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy by Won Kidane, an Assistant Professor of Law at the Seattle University law school. As we should all hopefully understand by now PMC undertake a variety of functions. While some of these functions would give them clear lawful status under International Humanitarian law (IHL), some functions would put them in questionable status. Still other functions towards the opposite end of the legality spectrum would put them completely at odds with the law. Prof. Kidane offers some not so improbably hypothetical’s to help illustrate the ambiguities present in IHL. If a couple of air force military officers from India come to Bethesda, Maryland and receive training as to how to fly and use Lockheed Martin’s next generation F-35 and purchase a few of these aircraft and take them with them to India, no recognizable issues of IHL would arise. However, consider the following scenario. The training takes place in India close to the Kashmir border. Pakistan shoots down one of the training aircraft and the two states get into a small-scale armed conflict. Assume further that Pakistan captures three occupants of the aircraft that was shot down: two Indian trainees and one Lockheed Martin trainer. Would all of them be considered lawful combatants and as a result entitled to prisoner of war status? This is not as farfetched as it might sound. Consider the following real story. In 1999, when genocide was looming in Kosovo, NATO forces conducted an air attack against the Milosevic government. These attacks produced thousands of refugees and created humanitarian emergencies. Because the involvement of the United States in this conflict was not popular, the administration chose to involve the Texas-based private military contractor Brown & Roots (KBR). The company performed the following activities with efficiency: constructed temporary facilities on the ground that housed thousands of displaced persons from Kosovo; ran the supply system for U.S. forces in the area, including transportation of food and other supplies; constructed bases; and maintained vehicles and weaponry. Given the circumstances described above, there was a real possibility that Milosevic’s forces could have attacked one of the bases and captured some of KBR’s personnel while maintaining some of the military equipment or transporting some of the equipment and weaponry. Had this occurred, what would have been their status under IHL? Would they have been entitled to prisoner of war status? Would they have had combatant status or would they have just been persons accompanying the armed forces? Or would they even be considered mercenaries? Or consider this bit of Lockheed Martin advertising: From the depths of the oceans to the far reaches of space, we serve the Department of Defense and the intelligence community with leading-edge intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems for maritime, terrestrial, airborne, and space missions. Lockheed Martin is a leader in satellite imagery and information systems, air surveillance, radar, geospatial imagery, mission management, and ground system operations. Our focus is on providing joint and multi-agency organizations with valuable, effective ISR data for a diverse set of missions ranging from precision targeting to geographic mapping. According to Prof. Kidane: Nothing makes the performance of these activities illegal, even in times of war. However, if the information is gathered under false pretenses, the intelligence gathering would become espionage activity. The personnel engaged in the activity would be considered spies and as such unlawful per se. As a matter of law, not even members of the armed forces or combatants are immune from such designation, as long as they collect the intelligence under false pretense. The traditional way of collecting information under false pretense is usually wearing the enemy’s uniforms and infiltrating into enemy held territories. With the advancement of technology, however, intelligence gathering could be done by civilians sitting in their offices thousands of miles away from the frontlines. For example, a civilian contractor sitting in his office in Alexandria, Virginia could hack into the software of an enemy anywhere and obtain information for the U.S. military. If the hacker obtains the information under a false pretense, he would qualify as a spy. If a “cyber-soldier” does the same, he or she would likewise be considered a spy. Such designation could only have significance if the said individuals, the civilian or the soldier, fall into the hands of the enemy anytime thereafter. If that happens, however, the law does not treat the two individuals the same way. While the civilian may be prosecuted for the crime of espionage he committed in the past, the soldier is immune from such prosecution as long as he remains a member of the armed forces or rejoins the armed forces after engaging in the said activities of espionage. In other words, a soldier can be prosecuted as a spy only if he is caught in the act or before rejoining his unit. To the contrary, once a civilian is a spy, he is always a spy, and may be prosecuted anytime for any acts of espionage committed anytime regardless of his current status. Because of the foregoing, intelligence gathering is also an area of ambiguity that requires further reflection. Although technology based intelligence gathering would not ordinarily expose civilian contractors to danger, situations where such exposure could ensue is foreseeable. One of the KBR employees captured by Milosevic’s army in the example discussed above could easily be an intelligence analyst who had engaged in cyber intelligence gathering. There are several other illustrations but let’s move on to another point. Prof. Kidane notes that civil liability is perhaps more complicated than holding wrongdoers criminally responsible. In the U.S., there are limited avenues that victims may explore. One of the possibilities is a civil suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act (“ATCA”). ATCA grants federal courts jurisdiction over “any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” But there are several seeming obstacles to prevailing in a civil suit against a private military contractor under the ATCA. In detailing just one Prof Kidane writes: The second obstacle is establishing a government connection. International obligations are often defined in terms of government accountability. For example, under the Convention Against Torture, acts of torture may only give rise to liability if they are committed by a public official or at the acquiescence of a public official. Consequently, to prevail under ATCA, the claimant must establish that the law of nations has been violated, and prove that there was a nexus between the injury and government conduct. Wherever private military contractors are involved, establishing a government nexus could be very difficult. For example, would private contractors hired by the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) be considered to have been hired by the U.S. government or an Iraqi government? Or was the CPA a government at all? If the CPA is not a government, it would mean that there is no civil liability for private military contractors under the circumstances. These arguments are not hypothetical. For example, in a case against private contractor Custer Battles LLC for fraud under the False Claims Act, a U.S. federal judge set aside a jury verdict holding the company responsible for $ 10 million precisely because of the ambiguous nature of the status of the CPA during the initial years of the Iraqi invasion. The only issue in this case was the status of the CPA as a government entity and its relations with the U.S. n301 The government argued that fraudulent bills presented to the CPA could be considered to have been presented to the government of the United States because the CPA was created and financed by the United States to run Iraq and staffed by American personnel. However, despite this, the court held that the CPA was an international entity with an ambiguous status but may not be considered a part of the United States government. As such, the fraudulent documents submitted to the CPA cannot be considered to have been submitted to the United States. That meant that the private contractor was not held responsible for the fraudulent behavior despite a jury verdict determining the existence of fraudulent activities. Because this was the first test case, the ruling obviously rendered the dozens of others that were ready to be filed void ab inito [void from the outset], at least from the point of view of this particular basis of jurisdiction. Another example that demonstrates the obstacles that the private-government distinction might create is the D.C. Circuit’s June 2006 preliminary decision in Saleh v. Titan Corp. n307 In Saleh, several Iraqi nationals brought an action under the ATCA against the Titan Corporation, a private military contractor which provided interrogation and translation services in Iraq. They alleged that Titan’s personnel abused the claimants in violation of the law of nations. The court essentially held that the claimants did not sufficiently demonstrate the required degree of nexus between the private actors and the government. In other words, they did not show that they were operating under official capacity or under the color of law. Ironically, throughout history, it is in these types of ambiguous situations that the services of the private military contractors are needed the most. That is an additional reason why their legal status must be properly defined and their conduct properly regulated. Prof. Kidane concludes that those seeking to regulate PMC must in the end operate under IHL. Private military contractors will continue to complicate the equation relating to international peace and security for the foreseeable future. As their re-emergence is a twenty-first century phenomenon, their status as a unitary entity is not directly defined by international humanitarian law whose marked development preceded the advent of the post-Cold War era proliferation of private military contractors. However, international humanitarian law defines the status of each and every person involved in and affected by warfare. When private military personnel perform war-related activities, whether in the form of the design of precision weaponry from an office in Bethesda, Maryland, or in the form of transporting ammunition in Kosovo, or chasing terrorists in Afghanistan, their status at each given moment and place is well defined under international humanitarian law. Therefore, what could be concluded about the status of private military contractors under international humanitarian law is that it depends on what they do and where, when, and how they do it. That is precisely why attempting to regulate the industry as a whole without seeking guidance from international humanitarian law is often a futile exercise. This article has attempted to demonstrate the status of military contractors in a continuum. It highlighted not only the two extremes, the perfectly legal activities and clearly illegal activities, but also described the challenges involved in classifying certain activities, and attempted to show where the line must be drawn. As such, states that consider themselves bound by international humanitarian law should regulate the provision of military-related services by private parties using the standards set forth under international humanitarian law. The use of these standards would inevitably require a time, place, and manner regulatory regime.

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Grant Cardone: Too Much Spin Selling – Not Enough Selling!

August 22, 2010

Too many companies are spin selling themselves on how effective they have been at cutting their expenses and forgotten that the key to any business is selling to increase the revenue line. “We are going to make more money this year because we have our budgets in line, we are running lean and mean now”, is what one executive recently told me. I thought, congratulations but how about quit spin selling yourself into the illusion of expense control and lets show your organization through effective sales training how to go out and conquer those extra sales that will increase your bottom line even more so. Regardless of the latest economic predictions, unemployment numbers and uncertainty will remain high and this economy is going to be difficult for years to come. Business and households cannot continue to cut budgets before they will have to increase the top line growth through by generating new revenue – sales. Sales training – Sales Training – Sales Training is the only solution to getting your people into the market to increase sales and increased revenue. Effective sales training is more important that your phone system, the inventory, mail campaigns, your advertising, internet campaign, even your front door. Without effective sales training , sales results and sales people effectively increasing revenue sooner or later your net profits will disappear. When you don’t continue to grow the top line of a company or household and only pay attention to the bottom line, it is only a matter of time before you cease to have a bottom line. During recessions, particularly of long duration, while your competition retreats and shrinks and makes all decisions based on expenses and budgets, expand your thinking and actions to increase the revenue line through sales effectiveness . The only way to do so is to involve the company in effective sales training that will lead to increased revenue. If the sales training the organization is doing does not immediately impact sales effectiveness without negatively impacting the bottom line discard it! Find a sales training sales training program that will accomplish an increase in revenue immediately and that makes available to your people sales tips , sales articles , sales training videos , sales training seminars and online sales training ! You have already done everything possible to reduce expenses now is the time to grab market share from the weak and increase revenue through effective sales training and sales effectiveness. Quit spin selling yourself on how accomplished you are at getting lean and mean, that should have been done years ago! Now confront the more difficult part of training your organization on how through effective sales techniques increase the revenue line. Grant Cardone, NY Times Best Selling Author and Sales Training Expert

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David Isenberg: MPRI Couldn’t Read Minds: Let’s Sue Them

August 19, 2010

The interesting news today is that MPRI , one of the earliest U.S. private military contractors, albeit one that has operated strictly in a training capacity, is being sued. The suit, filed by the Genocide Victims of Krajina in Chicago Federal Court, against both MPRI and its parent company, L-3 Communications, alleges, that MPRI “trained and equipped the Croatian military for Operation Storm and designed the Operation Storm battle plan,” which killed or displaced more than 200,000 Serbs in 1995, in the largest European land offensive since World War II. The complainants demand billions of dollars in damages from MPRI, founded by former high-ranking U.S. military officers who were “downsized” at the end of the Cold War, and L-3 Communications, which bought MPRI for $40 million in 2000. Ahh, I feel some serendipitous nostalgia coming on., I first wrote about MPRI in 1997. Back then its not so modest advertising slogan claimed MPRI to be “the greatest corporate assemblage of military expertise in the world.” It provided basic training, doctrinal analysis, wargaming operations and non-military services in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Founded in 1987 by eight former U.S. senior military officers, MPRI said it only operated in areas approved by the U.S. State Department. Although MPRI still operates in numerous countries overseas it is fairly low profile. You are more likely to hear about it in connection with its maritime, aviation, driving, and marksmanship simulators than about their work in Bosnia or Iraq. The background to its work in Croatia is that in March 1994 the Pentagon referred the Croatian Defense Minister to MPRI. For the next few years retired Major General Richard B. Griffitts led 15 MPRI employees in training the Croatian army so that it could provide national security and meet defense needs as Croatia transitioned into a democratic society. Reportedly the Croatian government hired MPRI to advise them on how to construct a civilian-controlled army and to provide leadership skills training. The U.S. State Department only approved MPRI’s activities after determining that the course did not involve tactical training or otherwise violate the 1991 U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Yugoslavia which made direct military assistance illegal. Subsequently, in May 1996, MPRI was granted a contract to train the military forces of Bosnia. 185 MPRI personnel participated in the US-supervised “Train and Equip” program. The program’s objective was to integrate and build up the Bosnian army of Muslims and Croats against the Serbs. Although MPRI denies conducting offensive operations, the August 1995 Operation Storm which resulted in Croatia recapturing its previously Serb-held Krajina region utilized typical American operational tactics, including integrated air, artillery and infantry movements, and the use of maneuver warfighting techniques to destroy Serbian command and control networks. Many observers at the time claimed the Croatians never could have done that without the training provided by MPRI. At the time that struck me as somewhat of a patronizing view, i.e., the pitiful, helpless, tumbling Croatians can’t do anything without help from former U.S. military personnel. A couple of months after writing the above report I wrote the script for a show on private military contractors. One of the people I interviewed was Lt. Gen. Ed Soyster (USA-Ret.), an MPRI Vice President and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. I asked hmm about the charge that the Croatians could not have retaken the Krajina without MPRI’s prior training. His response was: INTERVIEWER: Somebody said the training provided by MPRI was helpful to Croatians in terms of their battlefield skills. Is that a correct assessment? GEN. SHOYSTER: It is not. It is not for a couple of reasons. One, we don’t teach in the battlefield skills. We do that in other places. We didn’t, we didn’t teach that in Croatia. That’s not what we were asked to do. And the other realization is, for the analysis, is that we went there in January of ’95, began instruction in April of ’95 because the rest was a course development and so forth to do that. We had one class of about 40 who had graduated in July from the, from the overall course. And the concept that one could go there, or go anywhere, no matter how brilliant your instruction may be, and turn an army around in a month, no, no serious military analyst would ever dream that anyone could do that. So it’s a, we had absolutely, gave no instruction in anything strategic: strategic planning, strategic operations, operational bit. Because that’s not what we were asked to do. And as a contractor you do what the contract says. We were not licensed to do that, and the Croatians never asked us to do that. So somehow in the process, because it was a well-coordinated attack, they look for an American footprint, or fingerprint. The only people they could find were MPRI. We were also accused of having 15 generals over there. We had 15 people over there, one general. And as you can imagine, if you’re an analyst and you think you would send in 15 generals to accomplish a task, not very good analysis. So fundamentally we taught the democracy transition assistance program, not related anything operational there. The credit goes to the Croatian army. … INTERVIEWER: Okay. Can you tell us just a little bit more about the specifics of what was taught during the Croatian democracy transition assistance program? GEN. SHOYSTER: Yes. I, I mentioned fundamentally the, that program. But it, it includes training of officers in the, in basic officer leadership skills and an understanding of where they fit into a democratic society. So we, we emphasize that. We teach general management, training management. We teach how to do planning, programming, the budgeting process, which is, which is new to them. And also an assistance in developing a noncommissioned officer corps. As you know, the Eastern Bloc characteristically did not have a what we would term a professional noncommissioned officer corps. They had a, an officer corps highly vested down at the lowest levels, and then they brought in conscripts. They saw the Western armies, recognized the importance of our noncommissioned officers, and so we’re assisting in developing that kind of professionalism and long-term growth and capability for their noncommissioned officers. Now I am not a lawyer, but even if you choose to ignore the above, it seems to me that the case against MPRI seems weak. The complaint that was filed in court says “allege that MPRI is liable for complicity in genocide. This crime has the same specificity as genocide, the only difference being that genocide requires a specific intent to kill or destroy the target groups whereas complicity in genocide requires knowledge that the perpetrator has that specific intent.” Genocide? Hold on there a moment. Were war crimes committed? I assume they certainly were. But genocide; I think not. Reportedly, during the Operation Storm and mainly in its aftermath between 116 (Croatian Helsinki Committee) and 1200 civilians (Serb statement) were killed and between 150.000 and 250.000 Serbs left the Krajina before the operation. The difference in the numbers of murdered civilians might be explained by the fact, that the distinction between soldiers and civilians was difficult. Part of the suit centers on the fact that back in WWII, when Croatia was a puppet state of Nazi Germany, some 600,000 Serbs and Jews were murdered in the killing fields of Jasenovac in Croatia. The complaint states: In 1994, when Defendant MPRI entered into negotiations with Croatia (to be amplified below), MPRI knew or reasonably should have known the open facts of the genocide at the Jasenovac Concentration Camp. MPRI knew or reasonably should have known of the intense hatred the Croats felt toward the Serbs. MPRI knew or reasonably should have known that the Croatian leaders with whom it was negotiating had been key figures in the Ustasha Party that fomented, organized and led the massacres at Jasenovac and other killing camps in Croatia during World War Two. This seems to be arguing that MPRI was negligent in not doing historical due diligence. It implies that MPRI was a charter member of the Psychic Friends Network, and should have known what was in the hearts and minds of the Croatians in 1994. That the Croatian acted in an unspeakably vile and inhuman manner towards Serbians and other ethnic groups back in WWII is inarguable. But to assert that Croatians still felt the same way more than 50 years later and that MPRI and L-3 were supposed to know that seems to me to be an incredibly weak argument. MPRI’s Croatian contract – officially termed the “Democracy Transition Assistance Program” was one of several in the region licensed by the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls. Federal law requires companies who sell military goods or services abroad to register with the Office of Defense Trade Controls and obtain a license for each contract. Furthermore, even if you accept the argument that past historical animosities bear on contemporary contracts the simple truth of the matter is that it was the U.S. government which approved the contract. MPRI can’t undertake any contract overseas without first having it vetted and approved by the States Department. And, if anyone should be expected to be aware of past historical grievances it should be the diplomats at Foggy Bottom. So, if anyone should be sued it would be the State Department.

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Privatizing Prisons: Has Arizona Gone Too Far?

August 18, 2010

FORTUNE — Early this month, three convicted murderers escaped from a prison in Kingman, a small town along Route 66 in northwest Arizona. According to reports, the inmates had broken free from the facility by using a pair of wire cutters. They’d escaped from a medium-security facility operated by Utah-based Management & Training Corp, a private corrections company. The incident set off a political furor, not over the fact that the three violent criminals were being held in a medium-security prison, but over the security of the facility itself, and, ultimately, over Arizona’s widespread use of private correctional facilities.

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David Isenberg: Riding Herd on Cowboys in the Middle East

August 15, 2010

In the perpetual debate over legal accountability of, and prosecution if necessary, of private military and security contractors one often sees the arguments reduced to two simplistic arguments. PMSC opponents argue the contractors argue in a legal vacuum and with utter impunity. This is, of course, as anyone who has even done the most cursory reading on the subject knows, is utter nonsense. On the other hand, PMSC supporters argue that contractors are covered by a host of regulations and laws, both national and international, and any more are simply unnecessary. Of course, the fact that even PMSC trade associations in the past have supported, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, changes to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) weakens their argument a bit. Still, it is true that there are a large number of rules, regulations, policy directives, and laws on the books with which contractors are supposed to comply. So their argument, when you follow it to its inevitable conclusion echoes that of the National Rifle Association, i.e., we don’t need more laws, but better enforcement of existing laws. Well then, in that case let’s take a look at a journal article published this past spring. In an article ” Cowboys in the Middle East: Private Security Companies and the Imperfect Reach of the United States Criminal Justice System ” in the quarterly journal Connections Christopher M. Kovach, who serves as a Captain in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, notes the limitations of the revised MEJA. He writes: The premise of MEJA is simple. It explicitly creates a separate federal criminal offense for any act committed outside the U.S. if the act would constitute a felony within the jurisdiction of the United States. Those covered by MEJA include: those persons subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), or military law; anyone employed by or accompanying the armed forces outside the United States; and contractor employees of any federal agency or provisional authority whose employment supports the mission of the U.S. Department of Defense overseas. However, MEJA is imperfect. By its definition, it does not apply to nationals of the country in which the U.S. forces are stationed, although it may apply to third-country nationals. In fact, DoD now requires that third-country nationals (which, as noted above, make up a substantial part of the PSC contractor force in Iraq) be advised of potential criminal jurisdiction under MEJA “before accepting employment and immediately upon arriving at their work locations overseas.” Nor does it apply to crimes less than felonies. There are also difficulties in its implementation: it contains high-level procedural requirements as prerequisites–for example, “military criminal investigators … are required to forward their reports to the legal office of the responsible combatant command.” This may prove to be an onerous burden. But the most glaring obstacle is that MEJA is simply not responsive. According to one commentator, “MEJA is poorly suited to serve as an effective tool to shape contractor employee behavior and deter criminal acts … because its design makes it nonresponsive to the deterrence needs of military commanders….” MEJA requires coordination between the military and the Department of Justice (DoJ), as U.S. Attorneys ultimately make the final call about whether to prosecute; in so doing, they must “consider resources available to conduct the prosecution,” as a trial would come from their budget, and “should be expected to consider the seriousness of the crime; the difficulty of gathering evidence; difficulties of securing testimony from witnesses located in, and perhaps nationals of, an area of military hostilities; and competing caseloads and priorities in the U.S. Attorneys’ own districts.” In sum, MEJA prosecutions are (and given these constraints, probably should be) rare. As for the UCMJ he notes: UCMJ jurisdiction has notable pros and cons: it is “portable and responsive to the needs of military officials responsible for the safety and welfare of deployed personnel,” but it is arguably constitutionally deficient when applied to contractors. The military justice system is “designed to deploy,” and within deployed environments, commanders would have ready access to evidence and witnesses–as well as prosecutors and defense counsel, who also deploy. But whether or not one can predict how the Supreme Court might ultimately address the question, commanders will be wary of using the process. The one test case that exists was not subject to higher review. And those deployed prosecutors will surely advise commanders against initiating court-martial proceedings in serious cases. But Kovach does think that even with its limitations MEJA can be improved. MEJA will never be a universal panacea; it should not be used to prosecute war crime s like those arguably committed by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad. But it should be more widely used, and it should cover companies like Blackwater. As drafted, only forces “supporting the mission” of the Department of Defense fall under U.S. jurisdiction. Many PSCs, however, are under contract to the Department of State. Ultimately, U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. military itself are “hurt by the confusion caused by these essentially independent combat forces … with the imprimatur of the U.S. government.” Without the swift application of justice, discipline suffers. Therefore, Congress should make two changes to increase the scope of MEJA. First, it must ensure MEJA applies to any contractor accompanying the armed forces, not simply those employed by the Department of Defense. Second, it must lower the threshold for prosecution and give DoJ the option–however rarely it might be used–to bring charges against contractors for crimes not rising to the felony level. Additionally, Congress must grease the wheels of the criminal justice system as well. As it stands, commanders are charged with conducting initial investigations. Investigations then go to the Domestic Security Section of DoJ’s criminal division. From there, they make their way to the appropriate U.S. Attorney’s office, which makes a decision to prosecute; and such decision is back-channeled all the way back to the commander in the field. This takes time. While DoJ should ultimately make the final call on whether to prosecute, designated district courts should assume ownership over MEJA cases in deployed environments. For example, one district court could “own” Iraq. Pumping dollars and manpower into the corresponding U.S. Attorney’s office, including establishing personnel specializing in MEJA, would streamline the process. Commanders would benefit from a direct link to the office responsible for prosecuting offenses they investigate; U.S. Attorneys would equally benefit from building a working relationship with senior military officials, investigators, and prosecutors. To effectively create that kind of relationship, DoD and DoJ should accomplish more formal liaising. Provisions already exist to appoint military prosecutors as special Assistant U.S. Attorneys. They are routinely used to “prosecute crimes committed on federal military installations by persons not subject to the UCMJ.” Usually, this means the not-so-glamorous world of traffic violations. But appointing a military prosecutor from the nearest military installation–someone able to share data (and often experiences) with the prosecutor and commander in the field–would afford the U.S. Attorney’s office ready access to a resource more commonly versed in battlefield conditions and investigations. DoD could bridge the gap from the deployed environment to a base legal office on a military installation. Subsequently, DoJ could dispatch the local military prosecutor to act as a special Assistant U.S. Attorney. This would greatly lighten the workload for the U.S. Attorney’s office; it would also allow the corps of military prosecutors commissioned into the various branches of the armed forces to make better use of their training and experiences. This process would ultimately energize the use of MEJA, permitting it to act as a deterrent, and ensure that PSC guardsmen accompanying the armed forces no longer escape the reach of United States law.

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Anat Shenker-Osorio: One Economy That Works for All

July 30, 2010

This article first appeared in New Deal 2.0 Our leaders have finally managed to extend unemployment benefits to the long-term jobless. A look into these numbers reveals which folks are stuck in the ICU, nowhere near the economic “recovery” some pundits are ready to declare. African Americans are twice as likely to be shut out of making a living than whites, with unemployment rates of 15.5 percent when the overall rate is 9.7. As even an American school kid can tell you, before Martin Luther King Jr. died, he had a dream. The details of that dream may be hazy but most of us recall it had something to do with judging people based on content of character, not color of skin. It was a dream of integration. Not just the bus-seating, lunch-eating kind. It was the hope for something far greater and, inexcusably, still unattained. King’s dream of true integration means not just process but outcomes, not just access but results — because, let’s face it, the realities of our stratified economic system indicate there’s something about the rules in place that just aren’t equal. If we’re serious about the ability to determine your future and achieve it, we’re talking about distribution of resources. To have any real meaning, integration requires an economy that works for the majority of people. What we have now is a color-coded obstacle course of our (and our parents, and their parents, and their parents) making, granting whites a short-cut to security and prosperity while blocking African Americans from clearing the starting gate. In the good old days of 2007, median net worth for a white family was $170,400 and $27,800 for an African Americans one. We’ve heard this described many ways. A racial wealth gap, a divide, a chasm, a canyon so wide you might think it’s a national landmark. This language accurately conveys our separation. Our economy is a demarcated space that puts whites in one place and African Americans in another. But this description focuses in on effects. It doesn’t tell us why one group is stuck on the side of poverty, unable to cross to the riches on the other. This has enabled the myth that it’s lack of individual effort that explains why some get ahead while others fall hopelessly farther behind. It obscures the truth: we’ve made our economy a moving sidewalk to help propel whites along in the “right” direction while African Americans are left treading against the tide. If you refuse to see this sidewalk, your view is purely one of white faces advancing (some running ahead to outpace the rest) with black and brown ones moving disruptively in the opposite direction. Inexplicable, at best, and, more often, reason to blame the worst off for their inability to move forward. What makes up this sidewalk? It’s lack of teacher training, experience and consistency in mainly minority schools, where teachers stay through the year 57% of the time compared to 82% in mainly white schools. It’s lack of food security, twice more likely for children of color than their white peers. And it’s being born and raised in poverty, a state that black and brown children confront 300% more than whites. The notion of an economic divide has allowed the belief that we live in two separate, and therefore separable economic universes. If there’s a gap, then most whites are safely on the good side. In implying that African Americans are separate, we’ve allowed the unutterable to take hold among the privileged: phew! glad it’s not us. Advocates for bridging this divide may have done a little too well convincing the public to see economic disparities in the terminology of division. In reality, there’s only one economy. Those who do poorly, mostly people of color and others born without means, facilitate the ability of others to do well. People who work create value — a small portion of which the “working class” gets back in what’s treated as the benevolent gifts bestowed from a merciful employer. But let’s put the horse before the cart, where it belongs. Workers make enterprises possible and profitable, their pay checks are a mere share of the value they created. The truth of our economic reality is not that of a canyon. We’re all occupying a shared space and all dependent upon a shared — though by no means fixed — pool of resources. Until we recognize our economy is singular, and fix the man-made mechanisms that make navigating it easier for some and difficult or impossible for others, we won’t succeed in really integrating our country. For blacks and whites to sit at the same lunch counter, they have to be able to afford the same meal.

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Rob Carmona: New York Times Article Misses Benefits of Job Training Benefits

July 29, 2010

A recent New York Times article: “After Job Training, Still Scrambling for a Job” paints an inaccurate picture of the benefits of job training, and I’d like to illustrate why. STRIVE International , a workforce development non-profit organization, was overjoyed to place 49% of its 2009 New York trainees in jobs during one of the worst recessions in memory. Among our graduates who pursued STRIVE’s vocational skills training, 58% have secured employment and are earning an average wage that is 56% above the minimum wage. In the world of the chronically unemployed, these statistics represent a substantial victory over the cycle of failure and rejection that perpetuates poverty. Our pool of clients is drawn from the hard core unemployed: 30% have been convicted of a felony, 66% are male, and 62% are African-American. Most have no prior employment history. The majority receive some form of public assistance. When the costs to society of sustaining the unemployed are considered, a more accurate picture of the benefits of job training emerges. On average, a year of incarceration costs taxpayers roughly $50,000 per inmate in New York State. A year of TANF cash benefits for a family of 3 is approximately $6,000 – $8,000. When factoring in Medicaid, Food Stamps and housing subsidies, governmental outlays for a family of three can exceed $25,000 per year. STRIVE’s program converts these individuals into economic contributors who will earn starting salaries between $19,000 and $24,000 per year along with medical benefits. Not only will these individuals develop credentials in the workplace and become taxpayers themselves, they will cease to engage in activities that negatively impact our society, while also providing financial security to their families and modeling responsible behavior to their children. We agree that skills training must be closely aligned with available jobs. Hence, STRIVE’s Skill training regimens are drawn from the Department of Labor’s research on growth industries and close collaboration with local companies. Our program is flexible enough to quickly adapt to the requirements of the job market. These are the keys to success that those of us in the workforce development profession follow. An evaluation of job training programs must consider the specific challenges of the population served and the costs to society of not providing vocational training. Further, no program can be evaluated only one year out – STRIVE follows its graduates for a minimum of 2 years and we continue to serve them after that period when they reach out to us for help. A blanket rejection of job training ignores the many examples of success and hope provided by the Workforce Development Community.

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Michael Tasner: Five Guerrilla Marketing Weapons That Helped Increase My Business Without Spending Any Money

July 28, 2010

The end of 2009 and into 2010 was proving to be a very difficult year for my company, Taz Solutions, Inc. a web marketing, strategy, PR and design firm. I discovered that the old ways of doing business were just not working in the “new economy. ” I was used to charging $5000 or more a month on retainer without anyone batting an eye as they saw the massive value we provided. This, however, seemed to turn overnight. $5000 a month turned into $3000 which turned into $2000. Rather than simply lowering the prices, I knew I needed to think outside the box. I decided to turn to the most well known marketing brand in history — Guerrilla Marketing. I’ve been familiar with Guerrilla Marketing for years, but I had never really fully utilized its power. The whole essence behind Guerrilla Marketing is using time, energy and imagination rather then money, which was simply perfect as I was strapped for cash! Instead of just reading some more of the materials, I decided to take some massive action — I fly out to Orlando and spent several days with Jay Conrad Levinson to become a Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer. They were so impressed with my style and commitment, they made me the Chief Marketing Officer for their whole company! Check them out! When I started delving deeper into the concepts of Guerrilla Marketing, I found that there were over 200 Guerrilla Marketing weapons that I could put into action. Rather then test out all 200, I tested about 30 of them. The following are my top five favorites that produced the best return. 1) Designated Guerrilla To keep our strategies organized and streamlined, I decided to make one person at my company the designated guerrilla. This person was responsible for the marketing calendar, and making sure that the Guerrilla Marketing weapons we were putting into place were being done correctly and tracked to the nth degree. 2) Extra Value I’ve never been a fan of dropping prices, especially since I never compete on price. Therefore, in order to make sure we started winning more deals, we began increasing the amount of value provided for clients. Here are some examples of what our clients now receive: a client-only event once a year (educational in nature), access to our training portal, and even a virtual assistant for ten hours a week at no cost. 3) Testimonials I had testimonials all over the place, but I wasn’t leveraging them. I also discovered that using video testimonials, as opposed to just text, worked much better. Rather then just letting the testimonials sit dormant on the web site; I integrated them into the marketing materials as well as the sales process. This took the social proof factor up to a whole new level. 4) Authoring a Book A book is the best possible business card you can ever have. It took a lot more work than I expected, but the results have proven to be invaluable. 5) Free Public Talks My favorite Guerrilla Marketing weapon is free public talks. I contacted various chamber of commerce organizations as well as some local business groups and offered to come and speak on various topics relating to web marketing, monetizing social media and web 3.0 marketing. They were thrilled because they were used to paying speakers, and I was happy because I was able to practice education-based marketing and contribute to the local business community. I did not even have to “pitch” my business to the crowd, which would have been a little tacky. People simply came up to me afterwards asking for my business card. If you’re looking to generate some business without spending a lot of money, Guerrilla Marketing has worked wonders for me and my businesses. © 2010 Michael Tasner, author of Marketing in the Moment: The Practical Guide to Using Web 3.0 Marketing to Reach Your Customers First

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Donna Flagg: How to Train Employees for Less

July 23, 2010

Flickr // garethjmsaunders It’s easy to think of training as a seminar or workshop where employees are sent into a classroom-style session while a trainer stands in front of a room showing/explaining a series of PowerPoint slides. But there are many other ways to think about developing employees and their skills without adding costs and draining resources. Especially during these tough times, when training is considered a luxury — not a necessity — companies are finding themselves looking for creative alternatives to train “on the cheap,” or cut it altogether. The problem with totally eliminating training is that there is also a price to be paid when employees are unable to continue learning and growing because then their organizations can’t either. So… One of the first things that can be done is to trim the fat off existing training, (assuming any exists). To do this, you simply ask yourself, “What do our employees need to either know or do in order to be effective in their jobs?” Then, give them whatever information they need to either “know or do” along with a chance to process that information which involves some type of interactivity that shows evidence of either cognitive or behavioral learning. This will shave hours of wasted time and superfluous content off your training efforts and also make for far more targeted, relevant learning. But in addition you can create… Learning Plans: These put a little organization and structure around how employees can learn on the job. They are a combination of formal and informal activities that uses experience inside and outside the workplace to create opportunities to learn and avenues to apply that learning to work. Learning Teams: These are groups of people who learn together. They can choose a book to read and discuss. They can take turns teaching each other what they know. Or, they can simply have group discussions to talk about ways they can improve their jobs and subsequent contribution to the business and/or organization. And also, you can take advantage of implementing “training” through… Mentoring: Here you have learning by advisement, role modeling and the experience of another person through the use of one-on-one relationships. Management: And finally, a constant stream of feedback, both corrective and reinforcing, is one of the best ways to develop people and one of the most underutilized. I go back to teachers/coaches who develop artists and athletes all the time. Without a clear and balanced understanding of what they are doing wrong and right, employees (like athletes and artists) are unlikely to improve. That’s not good for the business or the people in it. So, give one or all of these a try and keeping the learning going in your organization – for less.

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Brandon Roberts: Since When Do Education and Training Create Jobs?

July 20, 2010

Since When Do Education and Training Create Jobs? This article was co-written by Brandon Roberts and David Altstadt on behalf of the Working Poor Families Project . Stops the presses! College students, drop out now. Working adults — don’t even think about returning to the classroom. Your aspirations for increasing your education and occupational skills are futile. You are doomed to graduate jobless and mired in debt, faced with no other choice but compete with the countless unemployed for entry-level, low-wage jobs at Wal-Mart. At least that is what The New York Times seemingly wants you to believe in the July 18 piece, ” After Training, Still Scrambling for Employment .” The NY Times supports its claims with a few anecdotes about newly trained and college-educated Americans who remain out of work, along with a smattering of damning statistics on the poor job placement rates of federally financed training programs. Interestingly, a previous NY Times article documenting the employment woes of recent college graduates did not blame the education institutions for their joblessness. The chilling effect is palpable. Several readers commenting on the Times article appear ready to abandon their plans to enroll in college or job training. Let’s get a few things straight. For starters, not all postsecondary education and job training programs are created equal. For every poor performing program identified, several others excel at preparing and placing participants in good-paying jobs. In an earlier post , we noted that some states have achieved better results than others in retraining and reemploying laid-off workers. Second, education and job training do not create jobs. However, the U.S. economy will not rebound unless we invest in the education and skills of the workforce. Think of workforce development as a form of photosynthesis for the U.S. economy–the labor market cannot grow unless we feed it highly educated and skilled workers. Consider research recently released by Georgetown University : • The U.S. economy will create 46.8 million job openings by 2018, including 13.8 newly created jobs and 33 million “replacement” positions produced when workers retire. • Nearly two-thirds of these jobs will demand postsecondary education and training. In fact, the fastest growing occupations all require that workers have college-level education and training. These include (1) managerial and professional office, (2) education, (3) healthcare professional and technical, (4) scientific, technical, engineering, mathematic, and social sciences (STEM), and (5) community services and arts. Given the current paucity of new jobs, what better time for students and working adults to enhance their education and skill levels? Surely there is no doubt that the future global competitiveness of the U.S. economy is tied an educated and skilled workforce. Even amid the current economic troubles, employers are having a hard time finding qualified workers. According to another recent NY Times article , skill shortages can be found even in declining industries, such as manufacturing. Instead of dismissing the value of retraining laid-off workers, we should focus on how to make publicly financed education and training programs more adept at matching supply with demand. That is, training workers for the jobs and skills that employers need now and in the near future. According to a recent evaluation of training programs, Public-Private Ventures has found that training providers that work with employers to determine skill requirements for available jobs are most successful at placing jobseekers in steadier, higher-paid positions. And, notably, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama Administration is targeting training resources to high-growth industry sectors such as healthcare . Why turn our backs on a postsecondary education and training system that is clearly the ticket to good-paying middle class jobs and economic security, in addition to being the envy of much of the world? Instead, perhaps we should turn our attention to analyzing and writing about why private-sector employers are failing to create jobs in this country. Brandon Roberts manages the Working Poor Families Project (WPFP), and David Altstadt conducts research on the education, skill development, and employment needs of low-skilled adults.

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David Isenberg: The GAO Transcripts, Part 11: Back in The Iraqi PMC Gold Rush Days

July 10, 2010

This is the eleventh installment of the Government Accountability Office interview transcripts that were prepared pursuant to the July 2005 GAO report ” Rebuilding Iraq: Actions Needed To Improve Use of Private Security Providers .” This transcript is noteworthy for its reference to the letter from the old Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO). Back in 2004 in response to his request for a count of private military contractors in Iraq the CPA did compile a report listing 60 PMCs with an aggregate total of 20,000 personnel. That number included U.S. citizens, third-country nationals and Iraqis. But even back then the CPA list was obviously incomplete, missing, for example, CACI and Titan personnel, both implicated in the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal. Remember that these were the gold rush days for PMCS. As the transcript says, “Many companies get into Iraq whichever way they can and then register later.” As the transcript makes clear it is no wonder that the CPA was so ill-prepared to answer questions on PMCS . Until _______________ assumed his position in Iraq, _______________ stated that there wasn’t anyone dealing with PSC issues or tracking their presence in Iraq. No regulations existed which required PSC to meet with him or coordinate with the CPA. Essentially, _______________ as at the mercy of the PSCs and could only meet with those companies that volunteered to meet with him. Standard disclaimer: I have put in ( _____ ) to reflect those words of phrases which have been blacked out in the transcript. I have also put in the underlining as it appeared in the original transcript. As in the transcript, I have left out letters from various words, even when it seems obvious what the word is. Prepared by: Kate Walker Index: Type bundle index here Date Prepared: August 17, 2004 DOC Number: Type document number here Reviewed bye Type, reviewer name here DOC Library: Type library name here Job Code: 350544 Record of Interview Title Regulation of PSC in Iraq Purpose To learn more about CPA regulation of PSC Contact Method Face to face Contact Place Pentagon Contact Date August 10, 2004 Participants _______________ _______________ Steve Sternlieb, Director, DCM, GAO Carole Coffey, AIC, DCM, GAO Kate Walker, Analyst, GAO Comments/Remarks: _______________ et with us to discuss their knowledge of CPA provisions for private security contractors (PSCs), orks for the _______________ PCO), formerly known as the Project Management Office (1 MO). The PCO is a Department of the Army that serves as an operations intelligence center for military based in Iraq. The PCO is responsible for executing the $1.4B Iraqi reconstruction fund. Prior to working for the PCC _______________ was in the intelligence community for a number of years and later moved into the private sector working in international corporate finance accounting or the past fourteen months, he has been working on Iraq issues. He is currently the _______________ PCO. _______________wrote the _______________ He worked with _______________CPA employee that attempted to address PSC issues in Iraq, on this letter. _______________ no longer on the CPA staff or working for the PCO. She explained that she was not a contracting officer; rather she was a _______________ ocusing specifically on timelines. _______________ orked fo: _______________ fore coming to the CPA. When she left the CPA, she went to work for the Army. Tracking PSCs in Iraq _______________ stated that the list of companies providing private security in Iraq in the response letter from the CPA to Congressman Skelton was a guess because there is no database that holds PSC information in Iraq. The companies listed where drawn from _______________ experience with contractors in Iraq. _______________ thinks that the State Department (DOS) might have some records, but believes their information to be very limited. In addition, he finds the embassy headcounts of PSC personnel to be inefficient because many PSC personnel only in the country for a short time fail to report their presence. _______________believes that Army counts on PSCs are inaccurate. Many companies get into Iraq whichever way they can and then register later. _______________ holds that it would be difficult to report on the number of PSC in Iraq because no one source holds the entire universe of contractors in the CENTCOM AOR. In addition, of the data that could be collected, we still wouldn’t know what kind of error existed in the data and could not separate security contractors from other contractors. Page 1 Record of Interview Until _______________ assumed his position in Iraq, _______________ stated that there wasn’t anyone dealing with PSC issues or tracking their presence in Iraq. No regulations existed which required PSC to meet with him or coordinate with the CPA. Essentially, _______________ as at the mercy of the PSCs and could only meet with those companies that volunteered to meet with him. By default, _______________ became the hub of information for PSC. From _______________ erspective, PSCs were not a part of CJTF7′s purview; PSCs were shut out. _______________was the first to implement registration for PSCs and their weapons; he issued weapons cards in accordance with CPA Order 3. Under ism, command, PSCs also had to register with the PMO or sector PMO (he PMO is now the PCO per _______________ PSC did not have to register information on home country nationals (HCN). To help bridge the information gap that PSC faced, _______________ ranged an informal weekly social event at the Palace for PSCs to gather and share any intelligence they had gathered. _______________ also utilized email newsletters to update and inform participating PSCs of any intelligence he received from either other PSCs or his contacts in the military. Any intelligence that he received was not attributed to its contributor. Since _______________ taken on the onus of information sharing for PSC _______________ indicated that some PSCs garnered information informally through their contacts in the military. Official contacts in the military for PSCs, however, were few, and far between. In addition to _______________ previous and ______________________________ current efforts, _______________ is running a fusion center for PSCs. The PCO also recently awarded a contract to _______________ create and implement a defense communication system for sharing operational and intelligence information between the military and PSCs. _______________ eports that, as it stands now, the military does not know what is happening on the ground with regard to the movement of PSCs. Memorandum 17 Memorandum 17 was created by _______________ a member of the MOI staff in order to address the lack of licensing or registration required for private security contractors. Memorandum 17 also addressed concerns that insurgents might use PSCs as a cover that would allow them to commit subversive acts. _______________ esigned Memorandum 17 to include a number of hurdles that he believed legitimate PSCs could overcome easily. Under Memorandum 17, PSC are required to 1) submit information to sector PMOs, 2) obtain a business license from the MOT and 3) get an operating license from the MOI. Memorandum 17 also increases the training requirement for PSC personnel. _______________ eports that these standards will be tougher for mid- and lower-tier companies to obtain. Upper-tier companies should have no problems meeting these requirements. The point of these hurdles was not to overly burden PSCs, but rather to keep out illegitimate PSC. While Mr. _______________ cknowledges that Memorandum 17′s requirements are slightly burdensome, he does not think that they are overly stringent. Rather, he believes the regulations reflect the typical type of hurdles that companies face in 3rd world countries, given his background in international business. Memorandum 17 was also created to better address the fact that Iraq is becoming an individual nation and serves as a baseline for Iraq. Memorandum 17 also gives PSC personnel immunity while they are on duty in Iraq. If they are off-duty and commit a crime, however, they will be held liable to Iraqi law. In conjunction with Memorandum 17, a guidebook for PSC has been put together, but has not yet been released. _______________ sure that MOMVIOT is at the point to address Memorandum 17 now, but said that _______________ uld know better. _______________inks that they probably do not have the capability. Page 2 Record of Interview Communication In the past, communication has been a definite problem for PSCs. _______________ eports that a more robust system for dedicating frequencies is now in place, making it easier for PSC to get their own frequency band. _______________ eported that PSCs have contact information for military officials and that the military is accessible via telephone and cellular modes. _______________ d not, however, know how often and under what circumstances PSCs call and request military aid. What the Military Provides _______________ found that the military helped PSCs to the extent to which they could afford. He also believes that the military would be more inclined to help higher profile contracts. The general sentiment among military officials is that most contractors have their own security or subcontracted for security, so military aid was not necessary. _______________ssumes that military approaches to PSCs are partially personality driven. Convoy security and aid from the military are few and far between. _______________ said that more experienced PSCs will sometimes put convoys together with other PSC. _______________ lso reported that PSCs that met with him were coming up with their own escape plans because DOS was wrapped up in itself. He suggested that we talk to people on the ground in Iraq to get a clearer picture of how the military operates with PSCs. CPA Usage of PSC The CPA used contract security extensively at its 8-10 compounds around Iraq. As the CPA facility is going away, the organization no longer needs PSC contracts. All but four former contractors with the CPA have lost their jobs; DOS overtook the contracts of those that are still employed. Incident Reporting When PSCs come under attack, they can file situation reports (sitreps) on the SIPRnet. These reports typically cover rocket attacks, mortar rounds, convoy attacks, etc. These sitreps are not comprehensive, however, as _______________ elieves there to be a large degree of underreporting. _______________ ontract There are a lot of concerns among PSCs about the leadership of the _______________ and their background. _______________ recalls tha _______________ a strong proposal. (Analyst note: We requested a copy of the contract from _______________ _______________ uggested that we contact: o _______________ works with contractors accompanying the force. o _______________MOI employee that wrote Memorandum 17. o _______________ DOS contact that deals with PSCs in Iraq, etc. Page 3 Record of Interview

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Grant Cardone: Virtual Training Goes Mainstream

July 9, 2010

Virtual training appears to be going mainstream, replacing the traditional methods of training employees, management and executives of organizations. While the cost savings is one reason, companies are suggesting their move to virtual training is due to issues like; handling the attention deficit generation, using interactive engagement to more successfully transfer skills, ability to access information 24/7 and access to solutions in real time to solve problems and increase productivity. Many of these things are not offered with traditional training methods. The challenges of today’s workforce training and technological developments are causing more and more companies to look to new forms of training like e-learning and interactive-web based solutions. Each of these terms describes virtual training whereby the employee does not have to leave his business to engage in training, instead accessing it via computer. Virtual training has the prospect of greater interaction, two-way communication, full accountability, testing and allows for 24/7 accessibility. Finding innovative ways to transfer knowledge and skills is a generational issue and an economic challenge critical to a company’s survival. For 22 years I have explored innovative ways to deliver the best practices and processes to companies in order to improve productivity per employee. The limitations of all training companies are limited by the inability to be available 24/7, handle attention difficulties, get interactive participation due to generational barriers and ensure long-term use of new skills. Ultimately how the employee solves real world challenges is the measure of how effective a company’s training is or is not. We recently surveyed thousands of individuals utilizing virtual training to see how this new way of training compared to traditional methods. The benefits communicated were; – no longer miss clients – no travel required – able to train at my computer – able to train in my own time – able to avoid asking embarrassing question in front of peers Surprisingly enough and without inquiring there were also rumblings that while the virtual training was an improvement the content was outdated, not relevant, too long, too informational, not solution-oriented and the presenter was difficult to listen to. Employees of a major accounting firm related to being required to watch 45 minute segments of training content online that was no longer relevant and felt more like punishment than an education. Using the survey results we set out to build virtual training programs that included short, concise relevant segments and then combined the training with solutions for solving problems when the training was over. The key was to demonstrate how the information makes the user’s jobs easier, his/her position more productive and all the while positively influencing their personal life. From Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft, accounting giant Ernst & Young, retail companies like JC Penny and Macy’s, most if not all the automotive manufacturers and even independently owned small businesses are currently adopting virtual training as a way to reduce training cost, transfer skills and disseminate information. The National Auto Dealers Association announced it is utilizing the benefits of virtual training to disseminate training and solutions to their 15,000 members. The keys to building a successful virtual training program and ensuring usage: 1) Short Segments 3-5 minutes in length validated with testing 2) Current relevant content that solves the challenges of the current scene 3) Presenter must be respected, believable and likable by the user 4) Access to solutions in real time 5) Automated accountability Connecting innovative solutions with real-world challenges, making training interactive, interesting and creating a delivery system for relevant information is what virtual training is all about. The bottom line – virtual training increases productivity, is a cost effective way and is available 24/7 when the client needs it to improve the skill sets of employees, solve problems and…improve the bottom line. Grant Cardone, New York Times Best Selling Author, If You’re Not First, You’re Last.

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Frank DiPascali Auction: Madoff Associate’s Possessions Up For Sale

June 24, 2010

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. — A public viewing of items to be auctioned from the former home of jailed financier Bernard Madoff’s chief financial officer produced a diversity of agendas from prospective buyers Thursday. Some came in search of bargains, while simple curiosity drew others. Then there was Reenie Harris. “It’s a combination of things, but there’s a certain amount of outrage,” Harris said as she browsed through the belongings of Frank DiPascali that ranged from an ornate table with a built-in chess board to a snowblower and a couple of all-terrain vehicles. “I wanted to experience disgust at these people who blatantly took other people’s money,” Harris added as an explanation of her presence in the drab, humid garage where the items were displayed. “This kind of screams out how appalling the whole thing is.” Proceeds will go to a fund to compensate Madoff’s victims, said the U.S. Marshals Service, which is running the auction at the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy. DiPascali, who was released on bail this week, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last August to money laundering, securities fraud and other crimes that could put him in prison for decades. As part of his $10 million bail package, DiPascali must remain under house arrest and forfeit all family assets, except for an agreed-upon dollar amount directed to be less than $300,000. DiPascali and his wife already have sold three cars and a yacht for a total of nearly $1 million, federal prosecutors have said. It is not clear whether the possessions to be auctioned Friday will equal that amount. Many appeared to be recreational in nature rather than high-ticket goods: Home-theater electronics, a vintage pinball machine, foosball game and video road racing game; plenty of pool or patio furniture, in addition to more formal dining room and bedroom sets. “It looks like they got all his fun stuff,” said Sharon Lee, who said she was looking for a bedroom set for her son. Lee and others said misgivings about buying items connected to an admitted swindler whose crimes remain incomprehensibly vast is balanced by the fact that the money will go to those who were victimized. “I’d be doing my part to see the losers win something, I hope,” said Agnes Gertz, a retiree from Wayne who said most of the furniture on display was either too bulky or too fancy for her tastes. “But at the same time, I now see how ornately people lived on other people’s money,” she said. Prosecutors have confirmed that DiPascali has cooperated in the investigation and that information he has provided has been partly responsible for the charges brought against Madoff’s former director of operations and the two computer programmers. The government said it expects to call DiPascali as a witness if those cases proceed to trial.

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David Isenberg: The GAO Transcripts: Part 1, Blackwater

June 12, 2010

It is no secret that over the years the U. S. Government Accountability Office has published numerous reports on private military and security contracting issues. To its credit the GAO goes to great lengths to gather information from all relevant actors in order to write as accurately and thoroughly as possible. All of their reports specify in an appendix the methodology it uses in writing its reports, including the types of people they interview, although they are not listed by name. But what is less known is that GAO makes transcripts of the interviews it conducts. Although the GAO is exempt from complying with the Freedom of Information Act it, admirably, often makes those transcripts available to those who request it Recently an academic passed on to me copies of the transcripts that were complied pursuant to the July 2005 GAO report ” Rebuilding Iraq: Actions Needed To Improve Use of Private Security Providers (GAO-05-737, July 28, 2005 ). As many of the interviewees are fairly prominent in the industry, including contractors such as Aegis Defence Services, ArmorGroup, Blackwater, and KBR, to name a few, I thought it would be worthwhile to post excerpts from the transcripts here. Eventually I hope to post all the transcripts online. Although information is redacted from the reports to hide the identity of the interviewee it is clear, at least in some cases, who was interviewed. For example, below is the interview, conducted July 28, 2004, which was conducted with what is unmistakably Blackwater. Note that this not a smoking gun. The interview does not make Blackwater look good or bad. But what it does do is record some candid and frank discussion, as diplomats like to put it, on the part of the Blackwater official that was interviewed. To his credit he acknowledge some of the problems the industry has. Hopefully, things have improved in the six years since this interview was conducted. As information was blacked out in the transcript I have put in ( _____ ) to reflect those words of phrases which have been blacked out. Comments/Remarks ______ met with us to discuss their company’s impressions of the current situation in Iraq. ______ founded ______ years ago. The company originally ______ departments on its 6,000-acre private base in ______ has since expanded its business model and now offers training, security, consulting, aviation, and canine services. In the past two years ______ has trained over 60,000 sailors at various places around the United States. ______ moderate-high to high-risk tactical solution provider. It has a robust armory; weapons storage and ammunition supply built to military specifications. The company ______ to use weapons and vehicles. The company ahs invested $15 to $20 million in their training activities. ) ______ ______ trains 300-400 people every day, including federal, state, military, and security personnel. ______ is currently working under a Blanket Purchase Agreement in Iraq. ______ has a number of classified contracts in Iraq. Most of ______ contracts are with the USG. ______ does not utilize subcontractors. ______ employs 200 people and has about 1,000 independent contracts with about 450 in actual rotation. ______ trains its employees according to its own physical standards and also conducts extensive clinical psychological testing to ensure that they have the “right man for the job” ______ hires its employees on a trial basis, placing them on a rotation to see if they work out. ______ does not renew contracts with employees who do not meet expectations in the field. Approximately 30% of employees are lost to such attrition. ______ reports that while ______ salaries are lower than other PSCs, the company also offers stronger employee benefits. ______ focuses on building human capital and retaining Page 1 good employees. ______ intends to stay in the market for the long run and prefers not to be a “flash in the pan.” ______ has five tiers of the employees ______ ________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________ to ensure that its employees remain vigilant and to prevent burnout, ______ limits the amount of time that employees are out in the field. There are currently 32 task orders under the Security Service to Iraq (SSI). Seven companies have been issued these 32 tasks. Originally, ______ had ten tasks, they now have seven contracts as some have been consolidated. DOS funds ______. ______ also provided security detail for and currently provide ______ ______ with security. ______ also has classified contracts in other countries including Afghanistan. ______ contracts for USAID and subcontracts for the Army Corps of Engineers. Since entering Iraq ______ has lost 9 employees and has filed 7 injury claims with the DBA. ______ finds that the USG in Iraq is in disarray. he contends that there are minimal to no convoys in Iraq because of the poor state of things. ______ believes that the forces are currently running without the security that is necessary and finds that USG is seeking contracts for convoy trailers that are too small to afford the appropriate security coverage. For example, the USG wants to move 11-16 tons of trucks from Jordan to Iraq for $5M. ______ believes this sum is too small to be realistic. ______ finds that PSC are severely restricted by USG regulations. He feels that the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation or DFARS and ITAR have put PSCs at a definite disadvantage; PSCs are unable to get the weapons they need. For example, the regulations restrict the ability of PSC to import body armor into Iraq without DOS approval. DOS, in fact, has a long list of defense articles (including body armor) which PSCs cannot import into Iraq without approval. The approval process is rather lengthy and this has forced ______ to either get their weapons on the world market or on the street corner in Iraq. ______ feels that PSCs are at the “bottom of the barrel.” They don’t have military authority and are heavily regulated. ______ thinks that the restrictions would be fine–if PSCs were backed by the military. ______ tes numerous examples in which they asked for help, but USG didn’t come to their aid. Instead, PSCs are left without military aid and are not allowed to defend themselves. Communication is also an issue in Iraq. ______ reports that ad hoc communication exists between PSCs, but also needs to be more structured. He would also like to see someone at DOS to champion communication with foreign ministry and advocate for PSCs. Key among his concerns with the new Iraqi ministry has been Memorandum 17. Memorandum 17 was unexpected by PSCs Page 2 PSCs were not referenced in writing Memorandum 17 and ______ believes that the memorandum lacks an understanding of the PSC paradigm. PSCs have asked for the ability to be included in the process. Many PSCs confer that regulation is a good thing, but they also believe it should be informed. A group of PSCs have corroborated and written a letter to DOS requesting USG intervention. ______ thinks that DOI is looking at pushing back the implementation of Memorandum 17 as DOI is currently too understaffed to bear the full responsibility of administering the Memo. ______ is also concerned about the amount of authority given to DOI in Iraq, a system that has yet to be tested. Memorandum 17 places bond prices to the DOI’s discretion–something PSCs fear that the MOI will abuse. In addition, under Memorandum 17, PSCs are no longer granted immunity and subject to local law. PSCs are afraid that the Iraqi government will tax away profits and make their business unsustainable. Slow, laborious processes to get license permits from both MOT and MOI will also make matters more difficult for PSCs. PSCs worry that while Memorandum 17 was created to regulate PSCs, it will in fact worsen the PSCs situation, as it will place them under the rule of a messy government. ______ currently indicated that he believes that the USG contracting system can be improved. Currently, there exists a huge chasm between the technical and contracting divisions. Contractors don’t have the technical experience necessary to carefully analyze proposals and invoices. ______ ______ believes that dubious contractors are bilking the USG. ______ also thinks that the compliancy of contracts should be examined, ______ speculates that a lot of contractors aren’t compliant, He says that, “compliancy comes back to cost; some companies aren’t compliant because it costs less” and there is no opportunity cost for not being compliant. As a caveat of this discussion, ______ reported that he has little faith in the ______ contract because he feels they do not have the technical expertise and manpower to properly manage the project. From ______ perception of the big contractors that subcontract in Iraq are: • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ ____________ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ • ______ Page 3

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Gulf Oil Spill: Louisiana Officials Ask OSHA To Investigate Cleanup Safety

June 5, 2010

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana health and environmental officials are asking federal safety officials to make sure workers cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are being protected. Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine and Environmental Quality Secretary Peggy Hatch say that daily reports of injuries and illness have them worried that workers don’t get proper protection. They asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Friday to investigate. The secretaries say BP may bring 3,000 more cleanup workers to Louisiana, and the agencies want to ensure that all get the training, protective equipment and supplies they need. Doctors in Louisiana hospitals have reported that some cleanup workers have sought treatment for respiratory problems, headaches and nausea.

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Parking Attendants Trained To Watch For Terrorists

May 14, 2010

LAS VEGAS — Parking attendants and meter maids could be the nation’s latest line of defense against terrorist attacks. A new government program aims to train thousands of parking industry employees nationwide to watch for and report anything suspicious – abandoned cars, for example, or people hanging around garages, taking photographs or asking unusual questions. Organizers say parking attendants and enforcement officers are as important to thwarting attacks as the two Times Square street vendors who alerted police to a smoking SUV that was found to contain a gasoline-and-propane bomb. “We can no longer afford as a nation to say, `It doesn’t impact me or my family, so therefore I’m not getting involved,’” Bill Arrington of the Transportation Security Administration told parking industry professionals at a convention this week in Las Vegas. “We’re saying, `Please, sir, get involved.’” The program has been in the works for about a year and gave its first presentation at the convention, attended by hundreds of people who run parking operations for cities, universities, stadiums and other places around the country. Funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and administered by TSA, the program teaches parking lot operators to watch for odd activities that could precede an attack by days or months: strange odors such as diesel from gasoline vehicles, cars parked where they shouldn’t be, people who seem to be conducting surveillance by taking photos or drawing sketches. Would-be terrorists may attempt to gain access to sensitive places or materials by applying for jobs or asking employees strange questions, said Jeff Beatty, a former FBI and CIA agent who led the training in Las Vegas. The program is part of a larger effort by the government since 9/11 to enlist ordinary people – airline passengers, subway riders, bus drivers, truckers, doormen, building superintendents – to serve as the eyes and ears of law enforcement. Beatty said the idea is not to turn ordinary people into government agents. “You’re not going to be Jack Bauer. You’re not going to be James Bond,” he said. But he said terror attacks like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people often are preceded by warning signs. For example, Timothy McVeigh parked a getaway car in an alley near the Oklahoma City federal building with a note asking that it not be towed. He practiced walking from where he would park the truck to his car to time how long it would take to escape. Similarly, in the attempted Times Square bombing, the SUV was parked illegally on the street, its engine running. Garages nationwide stepped up security after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, in which terrorists parked an explosives-laden truck in an underground garage. Six people were killed and hundreds injured. Many parking lot managers across the nation are already keenly aware of the threat and train their employees on what to watch for. In New York, Jose Vega, manager of a Central Parking System garage near Times Square, said the police come by once a year to brief the employees. “They tell us to look for abandoned cars,” Vega said. Tom Lozich, executive director of corporate security for MGM Mirage, which owns all or part of 11 casino-resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, said all new hires, including parking valets, housekeepers and casino cashiers, are trained to watch for signs of terrorism. City employees who write parking tickets and operate lots in Boulder, Colo., will go through the antiterror training. Molly Winter, the city’s parking services director, said: “A lot of this is just developing a sense of personal responsibility about things that just don’t seem right.” But some parking lot attendants say they are not the best people to identify suspicious activity. Nancy Montanez, an attendant in a Miami parking garage, said she spends most of her time scanning tickets, running credit cards and printing receipts. “It’s a good idea, but it would be kind of difficult because when the cars come here, they’re not here for really long,” she said. “They’re here maybe not even a minute during the period of time that I charge them and they exit.” ___ Associated Press writers Karen Matthews and Colleen Long in New York and Sarah Larimer in Miami contributed to this report.

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Grant Cardone: Why People Fail?

May 2, 2010

People fail, first and foremost, because failure is promoted in our society as the norm and success as the exception. We have been made to believe that the successful are ‘others’ that were just plain lucky, more intelligent, better connected, got that special break or just in the right place at the right time. The reality is that success and failure, wealth and poverty, the happy and the unhappy come from all walks of life. Those that are successful at their physical condition, finances, business, marriage or whatever you can imagine share common practices and those that fail do as well. This topic has been discussed for thousands of years with people blaming everything from self esteem to government subsidies, and even mommy and daddy. However each of these “wrong why’s” can be dispelled by examples of those that did make it despite those very issues. I have been intrigued by success for over 40 years and spent as long studying it. Here is what I have observed to be the top five reasons people fail: 1) Failure is promoted as the norm and success the exception. From our family ties to education to the daily dissemination by the media, the overwhelming message is that success is scarce, limited to the privileged, the lucky, and always someone else. But interview any of those people that have made it and they will tell you that is not the case. The reality is each of us has been instilled with enormous potential, intelligence and unique gifts that are never utilized. There was a time when people from all races came to this country with the belief, “if I only work hard enough I can succeed” that no longer exist in our culture today. 2) Individuals underestimate the amount of action(s) necessary to accomplish what they want. New businesses often run out of cash because they underestimated the number of obstacles, situations, resistance, time and energy that would be necessary to obtain what the company’s goals and then became disillusioned and/or broke. In this age of ‘instant everything’ it appears more and more prevalent that people underestimate the amount of effort necessary to accomplish any worthy goal. All of this is compounded by entitlement programs, bail outs, free credit, rewards provided with no exchange and the the obsession with get rich quick. Success in the real world regardless of your politics requires massive amounts of action followed by consistent and more massive actions. My new book, “You’re Either First or You’re Last”, which by the way is tracking sales numbers that will place it on the NY Times Best Seller List, covers this topic in detail. 3) Lack the right degree of motivation/desire to make your goals a reality. Look, like my daddy told me, “if you run out of gas, you ain’t going to make your destination.” Success requires a particular ‘gas’, called motivation. Most people lack the proper amounts and then believe they lack the ability to produce more motivation on their own accord. Walking on fire, with my friend, Tony Robbins will give you an immediate pump but you must learn the skill of creating, managing and regenerating motivation at will especially through failures. There are exact strategies that I have practiced to get me through hundreds of failures over the last 20 years. One simple example, my wife and I meet daily to discuss our life’s goals, (also done amongst my company’s staff). This is an exercise I look forward to doing daily, refocusing me, my wife and my staff on the future we desire to create. This simple drill offsets the failures and refuels our interest in the destiny we desire to create. 4) You are surrounded by mediocre influences. Take your five closest friends/associates, add up what each of them have accomplished and divide by 5, and you will find yourself right amongst them. The same drill can be done with physical goals, quality of your marriage, spirituality, money and anything else you can imagine. People are experiencing failure unnecessarily because they surround themselves with others that have settled for mediocrity and believe failure to be commonplace. Just like secondhand smoke can cause cancer, surrounding yourself with friends, relatives, and associates that are failing in any area of life will have direct negative repercussions on your life. 5) Lack confidence and motivation. This is NOT a self-esteem issue. Confidence, motivation and self worth are the products of winning in life. I suffered much of my life from what others labeled a self-esteem issue and the only thing that has handled it is making sure I win more often than I fail in those areas of my life where I suffered the low self esteem. Self confidence requires, not gimmicks, but consistent training, education and daily coaching that actually increases a person’s sense of belief in their abilities to create success. The most successful people and organizations train, educate, practice, drill, rehearse, provide feedback and coach as a priority and a ritual. For years I have worked on creating solution to these issues and recently produced a virtual online technology that allows for anyone on any budget to access training, motivation and solutions in real time to give them every chance at their inherent right to win in life. Literally 24 hours a day, 365 days a year a person can consult ‘best practices’ for those situations that are causing them to not succeed. Click here for free demonstration. Get the five items above handled, and make #5 a ritual and I assure you will discover that winning in life is your right and is available to anyone that is willing to work for it! Grant Cardone, Author, International Speaker and Founder of Virtual Sales Training

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David Isenberg: Narrowing PMC Legal Ambiguity

May 2, 2010

For many years both supporters and critics of private military and security contractors have agreed that PMC legal status is ambiguous. As they are neither regular military forces or classic mercenaries it has often been unclear whether, and, how laws, especially international humanitarian law (IHL), can be used to prosecute them, if they do something wrong. The international laws that exist, such as the Geneva Conventions, or the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, and regional conventions, were formulated with classic mercenaries in mind. Thus, they are generally viewed as inapplicable for use in determining criminal liability. But a recent paper argues that there is room for hope, Ottavio Quirico argues that, under certain circumstances, private security contractors can be de facto assimilated to subjects formally classified under IHL. In this light, the ambiguous legal status of private security personnel with respect to war should have a limited impact on criminal liability. His paper is, ” War Contexts: The Criminal Responsibility of Private Security Personnel ” published earlier this year by the European University Institute in Italy. His conclusion is: Overall, the ambiguous status of private contractors under IHL could often be overcome by assimilating de facto their position to that of formally classified parties, In this light, the uncertainty of the official qualification should have a limited impact on criminal liability. The propriety of the current national and international regulation applying to the criminal responsibility of PSC personnel can be questioned from the viewpoint of both equity and completeness. In theory, it affords multiple means for trying PSC personnel responsible for war crimes or direct participation in hostilities. In practice, the unwillingness or incapacity of States to prosecute proves a major obstacle for the efficiency of the system. By overcoming the frame of State sovereignty, the ICC [International Criminal Court] provides appropriate mechanisms for implementing the existing rules, but its jurisdiction is limited by the founding Treaty.

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Norway’s CEOs Race Inmates in `Dead Hard’ Annual Cross Country Ski Event

March 19, 2010

By Marianne Stigset and Meera Bhatia March 19 (Bloomberg) — The Birkebeiner , Norway’s annual cross-country ski race, is attracting a record turnout, with chief executive officers and prison inmates lining up among tomorrow’s 16,150 participants. Pareto AS Chief Executive Officer Svein Stoele , former Aker Exploration ASA head Lars Thorrud , 48, and First Securities ASA’s 51-year-old Chief Strategist Peter Hermanrud, ranked second in Kapital magazine’s list of Norwegian analysts this year, are signed up for the 54-kilometer (34-mile) race. So are seven inmates from Hassel prison. Norway tied the U.S. for the third-most gold medals in this year’s Vancouver Olympics, and the Birkebeiner ties into Norwegians’ obsession with winter sports. The event, which has links back to the country’s 13th Century civil war, runs from Rena to Lillehammer in eastern Norway and rises from 280 meters (919 feet) to almost 1,000 meters above sea level . “It’s a dead-hard race, really tough,” said Martin Moelsaeter , chief investment officer of Ferncliff Asset Management AS who is competing in the Birkebeiner for the second time. “It’s an arena that has nothing to do with education, for instance, so everyone is on equal footing. It’s fun to see how you compare with others.” Infant Prince Racers carry a 3.5-kilogram (7.7-pound) backpack that symbolizes the infant prince Haakon Haakonsson. A legend says the 2-year-old future king was taken to safety in 1206 by two skiers in the Birkebeiner faction during the civil war. The group’s name means birch leg because members sometimes used bark as foot covering. The first race was held in 1932 with 155 participants. Women were admitted in 1976 and today account for about 20 percent of the contestants, according to Rune Bergsodden, managing director of Birkebeinerrennet AS, which organizes the event. “The typical Birkebeiner is a man who is 43,” Bergsodden said in a telephone interview. A rising number of financial workers have signed up in recent years, he added. “We have seen a big increase,” Bergsodden said. “The biggest financial and business papers in Norway are spending a lot of pages on this event — that’s new in the last three years.” Norwegian media have reported for months on how to best prepare, including advice on training programs and diets. The race has gained prestige, with contestants often including it on their resumes, Per Inge Hjertaker , partner at the recruitment company Headvisor Search & Selection AS, said in an interview. “There’s an insane focus on the Birkebeiner race these days,” said Geir Spaeren , a 32-year-old equity finance dealer at Nordea Bank AB in Oslo who participated in the 94-kilometer Birkebeiner bike race, but not ski race, last year. “It’s a fun thing and a great event, but part of the charm goes away with all this commotion.” Finance Minister Nordea Bank AB has about 40 employees signed up, Pareto has at least 45, and DnB NOR ASA, Norway’s largest bank, has over 90. Norway’s Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen , who turns 60 this year, has participated seven times and is mulling whether to ski this year, he said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Many in my line of work participate — I think the explanation is that many in finance or investment banking are competitive individuals,” said Peder Strand , a 30-year-old technology analyst at SEB Enskilda in Oslo who will race for the third time. “I compete to motivate myself a little bit to do the training and exercising. It’s also a very social thing.” Norway won 23 medals , including nine golds, at this year’s Olympics, which also increased interest in the Birkebeiner, Bergsodden said. Skiing remains a favored sport in the Scandinavian nation of 4.8 million people, where many get their first ski set at the age of 3. “It’s certainly quite prestigious for them to complete this race — it’s something they can beat themselves on the chest about and it motivates and inspires them to change their lives,” Helge Aaby, chief of Hassel prison , said on the phone about the inmates participating. “It’s an event of major significance.” — With assistance from Josiane Kremer in Oslo. Editors: Christopher Elser , Larry Siddons . To contact the reporters on this story: Marianne Stigset in Oslo at mstigset@bloomberg.net ; Meera Bhatia at mbhatia2@bloomberg.net

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David Isenberg: The Get Out of Jail and Stay on Contract Free Card

March 2, 2010

My mother was right. I should have gone to law school. Perhaps then I would be able to understand one ignored aspect of the Feb. 24 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing ” Contracting in a Counterinsurgency: An Examination of the Blackwater Paravant Contract and the Need for Oversight ” which has received much publicity in the past week. The relevant background is this. In the fall of 2008, a company called Paravant entered into a subcontract with Raytheon Technical Services Company to perform weapons training for the Afghan National Army. Paravant was created in 2008 by Erik Prince Investments (the company which is now named Xe). On May 5, 2009, Justin Cannon and Christopher Drotleff, two men working for Paravant in Afghanistan, fired their weapons, killing two Afghan civilians and injuring a third. In reviewing the Army’s investigation of the incident, then-CSTC-A Commanding General Richard Formica said that it appeared that the contractor personnel involved had “violated alcohol consumption policies, were not authorized to possess weapons, violated use of force rules, and violated movement control policies.” According to the Department of Justice prosecutors, the shooting “caused diplomatic difficulties for United States State Department representatives in Afghanistan” and impacted “the national security interests of the United States.” which had “no regard for policies, rules or adherence to regulations in country.” Now, go look at the hearing documents posted online by Sen. Levin. Scroll down to Document 20, “June 9, 2009 Show Cause Notice from Raytheon to Paravant’.” Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (“RTSC”) hereby gives notice to Paravant LLC of Paravant’s failure to perform the Task Order, issued under the Subcontract, in accordance with its terms and conditions. Accordingly, RTSC directs Paravant to show cause in writing, by 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, June 15, 2009, why RTSC should not terminate the Subcontract for default under Article 5 (Termination for Default) of Section 0.01 of the Subcontract. Nothing in this letter is intended to waive, or should be construed as waiving, any of RTSC’s rights under the Subcontract or the Task Order. Reference is made to the Paravant shooting incident that occurred around 9 p.m. local time in Kabul on May 5, 2009. The available evidence concerning the incident shows the following: (J) that after consuming alcoholic beverages at a going-away party at the Kabul Military Training Center (“KMTC”), four Paravant personnel checked out two Paravant SUVs and several weapons, including at least one AK-47 assault rifle, and drove off the training center, all without authorization; (2) that one of the SUVs, while speeding and trying to swerve around a slow or stopped truck on Jalalabad Road, rolled over and left the road; and (3) that the two Paravant personnel in the second SUV fired their weapons, including the AK-47, at a car being driven by an innocent Afghan local national, causing the death of a passenger in the car and serious injuries to the driver of the car and to a bystander who is in a coma and not expected to live. Okay, it’s not hard to understand. Raytheon is informing Paravant that its people screwed up and as a result Raytheon no longer wants to use Paravant. But this is where it starts to get interesting. The next document (No. 21) is a ten-page response from Paravant to Raytheon. Essentially it says that Paravant is not in default of its contract with Raytheon because, wait for it: It is hornbook law that an entity is not liable for misconduct of one of its employees or that occurs beyond the scope of that individual’s employment. An entity is likewise not liable for actions of an independent contractor involving conduct beyond the scope of the contractor’s engagement. Accordingly, such conduct provides no basis for RTSC claiming the right to terminate the Subcontract by default.” … That the Subcontract provisions cited in the Show Cause Notice do not cover individual conduct unrelated to the performance of the contract is of no surprise. A company is not liable for the acts of its independent contractors that cause harm to others except in limited circumstances that are inapplicable here. To my layman’s eyes Paravant seems to be arguing that it enjoys a sort of contractual immunity for any illegal actions committed by its “independent contractors” as long as they occur off the clock. We might call it a ‘Get out of jail and stay on contract free card.’ This is, to say the least, a novel development. A few years ago not even Blackwater would make this argument. In December 2006 an off-duty Blackwater employee, Andrew J. Moonen, who had been drinking heavily, tried to make his way into the “Little Venice” section of the Green Zone, which houses many senior members of the Iraqi government. He was stopped by Iraqi bodyguards for Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the country’s Shi’ite vice president, and shot one of the Iraqis. Officials say the bodyguard died at the scene. Blackwater did not argue that Moonen was off duty and thus it was not their problem. Instead Blackwater fired him and fined him $14,697–the total of his back pay, a scheduled bonus, and the cost of his plane ticket home. Maybe, if the State Department had threatened to terminate Blackwater’s contract back then it would have argued it had no responsibility. We’ll have to let the lawyers figure that out. Actually, Paravant makes an at least reasonable case that Raytheon is far from an innocent party. In its response it said: Paravant’s ability to monitor and enforce its own no-alcohol policy has been undermined by the actions of RTSC’s management personnel in Afghanistan. For example, Paravant and USTC personnel have been informed that RTSC’s management personnel consumed alcohol in Kabul with Paravant’s then-In Country Manager during the evening of 22 April, 2009 at Becochios Restaurant in Kabul. Paravant subsequently terminated the contract with that In-Country Manager for violation of Paravant’s alcohol policy and other reasons, only to be instructed by RTSC Country Manager that Paravant must continue contracting for the services of this individual for 30 days, even “if you make him a bus driver.” Paravant did not follow this instruction. Similarly, RTSC’s Country Manager told a USTC Vice President in a telephone conversation occurring at approximately between 1000 and 1100 hours (EDT) on 29 April 2009, that he had a “case of Corona” beer in his room and looked forward to a toast to “Flashman” (a character in a loaned book from the USTC Vice President). Even assuming the Subcontract obligated Paravant to supervise and monitor all off-duty conduct of an independent contractor, the conduct of RTSC’s own management regarding the use of alcohol sends the wrong message and has materially interfered with Paravant’s ability to monitor and enforce its no-alcohol policy. Still, Raytheon’s July 2, 2009 reply seems to nicely eviscerate Paravant’s argument that it can’t be fired because its contractors killed and wounded the Afghan civilian while off duty. Especially troubling is Paravant’s legal position regarding the limits of its contractual responsibility for its trainers, grounded on the assertion that they are “independent contractors.” Even if that assertion were correct (and Paravant never sought the contractually required consent to subcontract any of the work, let alone all of it), Subsection 7.9.1 of Section A of the Subcontract states that Paravant “shall be responsible for and have control over the acts, errors and omissions of its lower tier subcontractors and any other persons performing any of Subcontractor’s obligations under this Subcontract.” The terms of this obligation are clear and unqualified. Accordingly, RTSC rejects Paravant’s attempt to disclaim its contractual responsibility for its trainers and to deny its clear breaches of the Subcontract based on their asserted status as independent contractors. Equally troubling is Paravant’s assertion that bears no contractual responsibility for the actions of its trainers at any time other than during the performance of training activities. To the contrary, reflecting the obvious fact that the Paravant trainers are operating alongside the U.S. Army in “24/7″ war zone, Subsections B(i), (iv), and (v) of Section K of the Subcontract state in relevant part that “Subcontractor will ensure that its personnel, representatives, and agents behave at all times in accordance with the highest professional and ethical standards” and that “Subcontractor will comply with, and shall cause all o/its personnel, representatives, and agents to comply with, all applicable laws, regulations, treaties, and directives in the predominance of this Subcontract.” (Emphasis added.) Given this unambiguous language and its obvious intent to avoid bringing discredit onto the U.S. Army, Paravant’s responsibilities cannot and do not end when its trainers clock out. Thus, on May 5, Paravant violated its responsibilities when it permitted four of its trainers to retain or reacquire their Paravant-issucd weapons after the training day ended, and when it allowed them to drive Paravant owned vehicles out of the Kabul Military Training Center and onto a public highway while under the influence of alcohol, with tragic consequences. As I said, I’m not a lawyer and it will be very interesting to see how this ends up. But one thing does pique my interest. Private military industry supporters often say that the contractors can be particularly relied on because they are mostly ex-military and as such retain the high degree of professionalism they showed while on active duty. Putting aside the fact that there is an enormous administrative and legal apparatus to maintain that professionalism for active duty servicemen and women, which private industry does not have, I remember from my days in the Navy that there really wasn’t such a thing as being off the clock. Yes, one could go on liberty or leave but one was always expected to conduct oneself properly and responsibly. Yes, I know that private security contractors aren’t on active duty any more but they are still expected, as Raytheon notes, to act “in accordance with the highest professional and ethical standards.” It would be nice if industry supporters make up their mind. Either contractors are in accordance with the highest standards–in which case they are never off the clock and thus their employers are subject to termination for default of contract–or they are not, and their responsibility ends with their shift. In the latter case, the employer gets legal cover, but then they can’t claim to have the same degree of professionalism as those on active duty.

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Grant Cardone: Sales Training Tips

February 17, 2010

While it is agreed that training can improve the production results of a company there is no shortage of companies and executives that question the return on investment (ROI). Before you calculate the cost of training you should calculate the cost of mishandling opportunities that result from not training your people. Sales training has failed many companies because it was incorrectly implemented, not measurable, outdate and not relevant and did not actual assist in solving problems and actually improving the sales effectiveness of the organization. For any training to be effective there are certain criteria that must be adhered to: 1) Must include management and not just the sales team. Not including management suggest that the training is not significant enough for the organization to embrace completely. The content should be so compelling that management can use it to run meetings, solve problems and even used to coach sales people during the day. 2) Expectation of the results should be significant and measurable. Sales training is not something you do because you need to train but something you do in order to win the game and make more sales! Training needs to be approached as valuable and vital ingredient to increased production and THE WAY to increased sales and revenue. 3) Sales training must be delivered in very short segments and interactive. What is short? Two to five minutes and even shorter. Most training fails today just because the segments are too long and loses the attention of the trainee. Our Sales Training Virtual Technology uses interactive engagement and testing forcing interaction and validating duplication with one question for every one minute of training content. 4) Training must be measurable and rewarded. Just like you track someone’s production results sales training should be tracked and rewarded. It is proven that consistent training done at regular intervals over extended periods of time will create increased levels of sales production. Training that is not easily measurable, like any process or best practice will fail. We use buit in monitoring system that track everything a user of the program does while on the program, including how long, what they looked at, and whether they passed or failed the testing component. 5) Sales training should be focused on those that have been with the organization not the new people. Most organizations put all their attention and training dollars on the new hires and forget to continue to train the most stable in the organization. Effective sales training programs should focus 80% of the training content, time and energy on the proven sales people in the organization. 6) Sales training should be made part of the culture and delivered continually throughout the day. All staff meetings should include training, with sales people following that up with a minimum of two segments each day on their own, and then supported with sales coaching throughout the day to solve problems. We added this last component via our virtual technology whereby sales people can interctively consult me in real time and I am actually able to coach them through and transaction and improve their chances of closing a transaction. This combination of training throughout the day is similar to how you would correctly hydrate the body with fluids with an IV drip. For sales training to be effective it must be made the first thing and then a continued activity each day in order to maximize every opportunity and guarantee a ROI. If you think it is expensive to train sales teams try the alternative. Missing sales in this environment is suicidal. Train them daily, demand they train throughout the day and provide soutions during the day and you will increase sales in any economy. Grant Cardone, Author and Founder of Sales Training VT

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Midas Fund’s Winmill Turns Gold’s Rise into 83% Return With Bets on Mines

February 11, 2010

By MaryAnn Busso Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — Gold had a good year in 2009. Tom Winmill ’s Midas Fund had an even better one. The $125 million fund, which invests in companies that mine or process metals or other commodities, was up 83 percent last year. That return beat 95 percent of the fund’s peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Winmill, 50, says his training as a lawyer helps him sift through engineering reports on mining deposits, Bloomberg Markets reports in its March 2010 issue. “That’s much more important than putting on your hiking boots and walking around the mine,” he says. Among the items high on Winmill’s checklist when picking stocks: a miner’s ability to start production on time and on budget and to preserve the value of its shares. “I like to see a mining company that pays a dividend, occasionally does a stock buyback — instead of constant stock issuance — and doesn’t make dilutive acquisitions in order to extend their empire,” Winmill says. Those three things, combined with a good project, are key, he says. As of January, Winmill had the majority of the fund’s assets in stocks of gold-mining companies. Returns on miners’ shares tend to amplify the returns on gold because of the companies’ operating leverage, Winmill says. That gave the fund a boost from a bullish market as investors sought to protect the value of their holdings. “The devaluation of the dollar and the bursting of the bond bubble are going to hurt a lot of investors,” Winmill says. “And inflation is going to hurt a lot of savers.” $1,500 Forecast In January, Winmill predicted gold prices will average $1,200 an ounce (31 grams) during the first quarter and increase to $1,500 by the end of the year. Gold rose 24 percent last year. This year, it dropped 2 percent to trade at $1,072 an ounce on Feb. 10. Among the miners that meet Winmill’s investment test is Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. The Vancouver-based company is developing Alaska’s Pebble gold and copper project in partnership with Anglo American Plc. Shares of Northern Dynasty, which is 20 percent owned by Rio Tinto Group, rose 124 percent in 2009. This year, the stock rose 3 percent to trade at $8.52 on Feb. 10. “They’ve got experienced, well-capitalized partners who really know how to get the ore out of the ground,” Winmill says. Midas also owns shares of Jaguar Mining Inc. The Concord, New Hampshire-based company is bringing older gold mines in Brazil back into production. Winmill says Jaguar’s output might reach 600,000 ounces in about five years, up from 115,000 ounces in 2008. He says the company is likely to be acquired. Jaguar’s shares jumped 114 percent in 2009. This year, they fell 14 percent to trade at $9.60 on Feb. 10. Silver Miners Midas’s holdings also include Silvercorp Metals Inc. and Fresnillo Plc . Shares of Vancouver-based Silvercorp, which has been buying high-grade mines in China, rose 210 percent last year. Stock of Mexico City-based Fresnillo, which operates silver mines in Mexico, was up 244 percent in 2009. Winmill says he looks at gold through four filters: U.S. fiscal policy, U.S. monetary policy, market supply and demand, and geopolitical events. Growing U.S. budget deficits will reduce the dollar’s purchasing power, he says. From 2001 through 2009, U.S. money supply almost doubled to $8.5 trillion. During the next decade, U.S. gross domestic product of about $14 trillion is likely to grow an average of only 1 to 2 percent a year, Winmill says. “We’ll double the supply of dollars and have about the same amount of wealth, so the dollar will have about half the purchasing power that it has today,” he says. Given that assumption, gold will be a way to preserve value, he says. Controlling Inflation As the deficit expands, the U.S. Federal Reserve will have less ability to control inflation, Winmill says. He forecasts a 3 percent inflation rate by the end of this year and as much as 5 percent in 2012. The U.S. consumer price index rose 2.7 percent in December from a year earlier. The Fed is holding its target for the federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent to stimulate manufacturing and exports , and that’s driving the dollar down, Winmill says. “It’s great for the price of gold,” he says. “As the dollar goes down, it’s going to take more dollars to buy the same ounce of gold.” The supply-and-demand outlook is mildly bullish: Scrap supply is up, jewelry demand is down, central banks have been buyers of gold and mined supply is trending lower, Winmill says. The least-important filter for analyzing gold is geopolitical events such as impending wars, he says, since prices usually reflect the worst expectations. For a short-term strategy, it’s better to buy gold when things calm down and sell when there’s maximum pessimism, he says. Winmill & Co. Winmill, who grew up in Locust, New Jersey, graduated from Yale University in 1981 and earned a law degree from the University of Washington four years later. After working as a lawyer in Seattle, he joined Bull & Bear Group Inc. in 1988. The New York-based investment management firm, which was headed by his father at the time, changed its name to Winmill & Co. in 1999. The firm bought the Midas Fund in 1995. After gold dropped to a low, the firm terminated its agreement with the fund’s subadviser in 1999, leaving Winmill to help reorganize the fund’s investments. He took over as portfolio manager of the fund in 2002. In 2008, Winmill and his wife moved from New York to Walpole, New Hampshire, to be closer to their two sons, who were going to school in the state. Winmill says he’s taken to rural life. He splits wood and taps the maple trees on his land. Last spring, he boiled the sap to make maple syrup. “We got about 2- 1/2 gallons,” he says. The steam from the process also peeled some wallpaper in his 1866 house, he says with a laugh. The Midas Fund isn’t only about gold, Winmill says. “I’m not a gold bug,” he says. “I’m a capital-appreciation bug.” To find returns for investors, the fund has the flexibility to invest in platinum, copper and other commodities, he says. At the moment, it doesn’t have to. “Right now, I think gold is in a terrific spot,” he says. To contact the reporter on this story: MaryAnn Busso in New York at mbusso@bloomberg.net ;

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Job Stimulus Results: White House Claims ‘Stunning’ Two Million Jobs Saved Or Created

January 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is trumpeting a new White House estimate that his top economist calls “stunning”: His stimulus plan has already created or saved up to 2 million jobs. The analysis is part of the administration’s quarterly report to Congress on the controversial $787 billion package of spending and tax cuts he signed weeks after taking office. Obama planned to highlight the report Wednesday during a visit to a Lanham, Md., training center for union electricians that specializes in “green” technology. Republicans have denounced the stimulus plan as an expensive flop, pointing to a national unemployment rate stuck at 10 percent and December figures showing the economy shed 85,000 more jobs. But the report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers said the economy is a lot better off than it would have been without the stimulus. Citing its own analysis plus a range of private sector summaries, the council estimated the annual growth rate last year would have been roughly 2 percentage points lower, and there would have been 1.5 million to 2 million fewer jobs. “That’s truly a stunning and important effect”, Christina Romer, the council’s chairwoman, said in a conference call with reporters. “It has done exactly what we have anticipated it would do.” The report also said over half the stimulus plan’s cash and tax breaks have now been spent or otherwise committed. Critics warned the cash would arrive too late to do much good. On Friday, when the December jobs report was issued, Obama acknowledged a setback. “The road to recovery is never straight,” he told reporters. “We have to work every single day to get our economy moving again.” The president’s visit to the training facility in the Washington suburbs is part of a renewed focus on jobs ahead of his State of the Union speech. While defending the stimulus plan and its impact, Obama has sought to build support for fresh job-creation measures, including tax breaks for hiring, additional public works spending and incentives for weatherizing homes – the so-called Cash for Caulkers program. Some of these are in the $75 billion Jobs for Main Street Act that the House has already passed. The Senate is expected to take it up soon. Obama has also signaled he’d like the job-creation to focus on the burgeoning market for energy technologies that also fight global warming. The Lanham center – run by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the National Electrical Contractors Association – teaches electricians how to install solar panels and retrofit buildings with energy-saving automation. There also are courses on wind and geothermal energy. Last week, Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits to promote clean-energy jobs, paid for out of his stimulus plan. He also urged $5 billion in future spending on green manufacturing. “Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” he said. The White House jobs analysis said the actual number of jobs saved or created by direct cash grants comes to 640,000. But it stressed the figures are only current through the end of September and do not include “multiplier” effects as the increased spending ripples through the economy. However, the administration’s method of counting jobs has been controversial, and starting with fourth-quarter figures, it’s adopting a new one – giving up trying to determine if a job has been created or saved, and reporting only that it’s funded by the stimulus. The change was ordered quietly last month in a memo to federal agencies. The new rules follow analyses by The Associated Press and others that uncovered flaws that overstated the actual job numbers by thousands. The administration says the new counting method streamlines the process and responds to complaints from grant recipients that the reporting rules were too complex. Romer, meanwhile, said the stimulus is well on its way to meeting Obama’s stated goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs. “We are very much tracking what we anticipated,” she said.

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Republican Lugar Defends Obama’s Handling of Threats Amid Cheney Criticism

January 8, 2010

By Viola Gienger Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — Richard Lugar , the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, defended President Barack Obama ’s handling of recent terrorism threats, taking issue with former Vice President Dick Cheney ’s criticism. “It’s unfair,” Lugar said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt ,” airing this weekend. “I think the president is focused.” Cheney, who frequently has led Republican attacks on the Democratic president since leaving office a year ago, told Politico on Dec. 29 that Obama “is trying to pretend we are not at war” with a “low-key response” to the Dec. 25 attempt to ignite a bomb aboard a flight to Detroit. To the contrary, Obama has demonstrated “firmness” and “decisiveness,” Lugar, who represents Indiana, said. “That’s been the antidote to the criticism.” Still, the U.S. may be focusing too much on Afghanistan at a time when al-Qaeda is finding havens in other hot spots such as Yemen and Somalia, Lugar said. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , the 23-year-old Nigerian indicted in the Detroit plane plot, allegedly received his training in Yemen. “I suspect that we will have to try to think through why we went to Afghanistan,” Lugar , 77, said. After eliminating the al-Qaeda training camps there, the U.S. undertook “nation-building” beyond traditional development aid, he said. Projects such as advancing democracy, ensuring girls can attend school and promoting agriculture to replace poppy cultivation, while laudable, have cost “tens of thousands of people, hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said. Progress Falls Short “And now we find even Afghanistan is not exactly making the progress we hoped,” Lugar said. U.S. intelligence agencies have heeded the potential threats from unstable states such as Yemen and Somalia, and will have to do more to understand the origins of terrorist attacks and why young Muslims get involved, Lugar said. “We have to see the comprehensive nature of this, how many countries have potentially failing governments or very weak governments in which al-Qaeda could” have some influence, Lugar said. As airline security improves, al-Qaeda and other terrorists targeting the U.S. will seek other ways to attack, Lugar said. Americans “may be inclined to feel that once you solve the aircraft problem, somehow or other you’re in better shape,” Lugar said. The administration has properly calibrated its support for the opposition in Iran, verbally and through activities such as ensuring they have access to telecommunications that allow them to maintain contact. Support Liberty “We ought to indicate that, as a matter of fact, that we support liberty,” Lugar said. “We support the building of institutions.” One pivot point in countries such as Iran or Yemen or Pakistan has been the young people, Lugar said. While some are leading the way in challenging autocratic regimes such as the one in Iran, others are susceptible to the lures of extremist ideology, he said. “Our intelligence focus has got to be very comprehensively on why young people would go in this direction, and if they do, who they are,” Lugar said. By contrast, in Iran, “the young people are well ahead of us” and taking charge of the situation, Lugar said. “With the young people, the promise is the best, I think.” To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net .

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Abdulmutallab Pleads Not Guilty to Criminal Charges in Christmas Bomb Plot

January 8, 2010

By Steven Raphael and Andrew M. Harris Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , the man accused of trying to destroy a Northwest Airlines plane carrying 290 people on Christmas Day, pleaded not guilty to U.S. criminal charges. The 23-year-old Nigerian entered his plea today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon in Detroit. As the flight approached the city’s airport, Abdulmutallab ignited his pants leg and a wall of the plane while trying to detonate a mixture of explosives he smuggled aboard, according to prosecutors. In a hearing that took less than five minutes, Abdulmutallab, wearing a white T-shirt, beige pants and black- and-white shoes, told the judge he understood the charges against him. The U.S. intelligence community’s failure to interdict the plot prompted President Barack Obama yesterday to order federal agencies to set clearer lines of responsibility for following up on leads on terrorist threats, to streamline criteria for adding names to watch lists, and to tighten airport security measures. After Abdulmutallab tried to trigger an explosion on Flight 253 from Amsterdam, passengers and crew restrained him until the aircraft landed, prosecutors said. Indicted on Jan. 6, Abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder, willfully trying to wreck an aircraft, placing a destructive device upon an aircraft and faces separate counts of possessing and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Possible Life Term “The charges that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab faces could imprison him for life,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a Jan. 6 statement announcing the indictment. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said it learned about Abdulmutallab in November when his father, the former chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Plc , went to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to seek help in finding him. Abdulmutallab was on the government’s Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, which names about 550,000 individuals with possible terrorist links. He hadn’t been moved from the so- called TIDE database to a terrorism watch list, or to the “selectee” list of about 14,000 names that triggers additional screening at airports, or to the “No Fly” list of about 4,000 names, according to Janet Napolitano , the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. U.S. lawmakers questioned why Abdulmutallab’s visa allowing him to travel to the U.S. wasn’t revoked after he was first linked to terrorist groups. Al-Qaeda Training Evidence indicates that Abdulmutallab was trained and equipped by a Yemeni group affiliated with al-Qaeda, the president said. On board the Northwest jet, Abdulmutallab went into the bathroom for 20 minutes, came out and covered himself with a blanket and then tried to set off the explosive device, FBI Agent Theodore Peissig said in an affidavit filed Dec. 26 with a criminal complaint in Detroit. Passengers, who reported hearing noises similar to firecrackers, noticed Abdulmutallab’s pants leg and an airplane wall on fire, according to the affidavit. They subdued the suspect and put out the blaze, Peissig said. A passenger took a melted and smoking syringe from Abdulmutallab, according to Peissig. Remnants of a syringe were later found by investigators, he said. The bomb, composed of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, and triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, and other ingredients was designed to allow Abdulmutallab to detonate it at a time of his own choosing, according to the indictment. Smaller Attacks Stephen Flynn , who served as lead homeland security policy adviser for Obama’s transition team following his 2008 election, said U.S. efforts to disrupt al-Qaeda and its affiliates since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have forced those groups to resort to smaller scale plots, including the one attributed to Abdulmutallab and a similar shoe-bomb attempt by Richard Reid in 2001. Many of the newer al-Qaeda recruits are “self- radicalized” and open to the group’s message, said Flynn, who predicted more such suicide-bomber attacks. “There’s limits to what the government can do,” said Flynn, noting that it was passengers who subdued Abdulmutallab and Reid and who stopped the United Airlines Flight 93 hijackers from reaching their Sept. 11 target. “The first defenders and first responders are going to be you and me in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The case is U.S. v. Abdulmutallab, 10-cr-20005, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit). To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew M. Harris in Detroit at aharris16@bloomberg.net ; Steven Raphael in Southfield, Michigan at sraphael5@bloomberg.net .

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Kraft-Cadbury Takeover’s Failure Would Test the Mettle of Contending CEOs

January 8, 2010

By Duane D. Stanford and Mark Clothier Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — Kraft Foods Inc. Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld and Cadbury Plc CEO Todd Stitzer disagree on the merits of merging their companies. They’ll both need to prove themselves if the deal falls through. Rosenfeld is in her fifth month of pursuing an 11 billion- pound ($18 billion) hostile takeover offer, which Cadbury has rejected as “derisory.” Stitzer has predicted increased growth as an independent company. Rosenfeld says Kraft can achieve “top-tier” performance regardless of the outcome. “If this Cadbury deal does not happen, I think she’s certainly lost some credibility,” Christopher Growe , an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in St. Louis, said in a phone interview. “She’s going to be held to a very high standard.” Reputations are at stake for the CEOs, Americans who are a year apart in age and have more than 50 years of combined experience in the food and beverage industry. This week, Kraft shareholder Warren Buffett said Rosenfeld, 56, won’t get a “blank check” for a bid and asked investors to oppose a plan to issue as many as 370 million shares. Stitzer, 57, has seen Cadbury stock surge to a high of 814 pence on Kraft’s proposal and later pare gains to within a few pence of the offer. “Leadership is probably more difficult than it’s ever been,” said Kevin Kelly , CEO of Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a Chicago-based executive search firm. “When something distracts from managing and engaging with your employees and clients, it’s tough.” ‘Hot Seat’ Buffett is telling Rosenfeld she “can’t just start printing stock,” and warning her that Northfield, Illinois- based Kraft may have to walk away from the deal if another bidder enters, said Sachin Shah , a special situations and merger arbitrage strategist at Capstone Global Markets LLC in New York. “Rosenfeld is surely on the hot seat, especially with Buffett,” Shah said. “He has put a ceiling on the total consideration Rosenfeld may want to offer Cadbury to complete a deal.” Stitzer’s risk differs. If the deal goes through, he loses control of the Uxbridge, U.K.-based company he joined in 1983. “In the last couple of years he’s done an excellent job,” said Jon Cox , an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets in Zurich. “Now he’s in a win-win situation whatever happens; if Kraft walk, he remains CEO, if Kraft take over, he and his team will get paid handsomely to walk the plank.” Athletic Abilities The fight has been a marathon. Stitzer embarked on a week- long blitz in London and New York in December to persuade Cadbury shareholders not to accept Kraft’s cash-and-stock offer , then worth about 733 pence a share. Rosenfeld traveled to London to meet with investors shortly after the bid became public and said on a November earnings call that Kraft is well positioned for “top-tier performance” with or without Cadbury. She is scheduled to participate in a panel on food security at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this month. Both CEOs have honed their competitive skills as athletes. Rosenfeld, who is also Kraft’s chairman, played four varsity sports in high school and chose Cornell University as her alma mater partly because of the women’s athletic program. Stitzer, who has dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, paid for law school at Columbia University by playing professional tennis. Neither was available for an interview. Since Rosenfeld approached Cadbury in August to discuss a takeover, she has resisted raising her price in the face of Stitzer’s snub and investor demands for more. A Cadbury purchase would create a company with about $50 billion in annual revenue. ‘Centered and Focused’ “Irene Rosenfeld is terrifically centered and focused,” Ali Malekzadeh, dean of Xavier University’s Williams College of Business in Cincinnati, said in a phone interview. “She doesn’t do irrational things and, I think right now, she is in a bind.” “Her credibility is on the line in this process. She’s one of the best-known CEOs we have, and she has played out her hand,” Malekzadeh said. Kraft, which traded at about $31 when Rosenfeld was named CEO in 2006, fell 7 cents to $28.90 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. Revenue has dropped for the past three quarters. Cadbury added 4.5 pence to 776.5 pence in London. That compares with the cash-and-stock offer of 770 pence, based on Kraft’s closing share price. As part of its defense, Cadbury projected its most ambitious performance targets to date. The operating margin will reach as much as 18 percent by end-2013 and so-called organic sales growth will accelerate to as much as 7 percent annually over the next four years, driven by emerging markets such as India and Latin America, the company said in December. If a deal falls through, investors will expect management to deliver, said Nicolas Ceron , an analyst at Numis Securities Ltd. in London. “That pressure will be huge,” Ceron said. Achieving that kind of sales growth is “not impossible, but in the current climate it’s extremely demanding.” Hershey Hookup? While rebuffing Kraft, Cadbury executives have spoken more favorably about combining with Hershey Co. , the company’s U.S. distributor. Stitzer told investors in New York on Dec. 18 that a combination with Hershey would boost earnings per share more than a Kraft deal, even though Kraft would present more cost- cutting opportunities, according to people who heard the statement. On Dec. 14, Stitzer told investors he wasn’t worried about a shareholder backlash if Kraft, or any other bidder, walked away from the U.K. company. He also said the company had been approached by rival suitors. He didn’t name any. Hershey has “an excellent position in chocolate, a strong route to market and great heritage,” Stitzer said in an interview in the Daily Mail Dec. 23. Hershey, based in the Pennsylvania town of the same name, declined 36 cents, or 1 percent, to $36.49 yesterday. Legal Training Stitzer engineered more than 40 transactions after joining Cadbury Plc as a Columbia-trained mergers and acquisitions lawyer. In 2003, the Pennsylvania-raised CEO outbid Nestle SA for chewing-gum maker Adams Inc., making Cadbury the world’s biggest confectioner. The U.K. candy maker held that rank until it was displaced by Mars Inc.’s $22.6 billion purchase of Wm Wrigley Jr. Co. in 2008. Rosenfeld spent more than 25 years at Kraft, with a two- year interruption in 2004 to run PepsiCo Inc. ’s Frito-Lay snack- food unit. Last year, Forbes magazine ranked her No. 6 on its list of the world’s most powerful women, three behind PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi . “Irene has more to lose than Todd if the deal doesn’t go through, but I think it will,” said Kepler’s Cox. “She’s a very canny operator.” To contact the reporters on this story: Duane D. Stanford in Atlanta at dstanford2@bloomberg.net ; Mark Clothier in Atlanta at mclothier@bloomberg.net .

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Arrow workers say CEO to blame (Tulsa World)

January 3, 2010

This week, Tronox, a distressed debt situation authored by member jnahas, will be presented. […] Grant Cardone: Corporate Sales Training Adopts Virtual Sales Training January 2, 2010. Corporate sales training, mid-size and even small …

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13:”Make Money in Commercial” Real Estate Seminar Series

January 2, 2010

MakeMoneyInCommercial.com Listen in asJason Gilbert, President of the rapidly growing Commercial Training Institute, based in San Diego, CA, talks about his 2 recently released strategies for investing in Commercial real estate . …

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13:”Make Money in Commercial” Real Estate Seminar Series

January 2, 2010

MakeMoneyInCommercial.com Listen in asJason Gilbert, President of the rapidly growing Commercial Training Institute, based in San Diego, CA, talks about his 2 recently released strategies for investing in Commercial real estate . …

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U.S. Law Firms Slash Junior-Lawyer Year-End Bonuses by as Much as 71%

December 21, 2009

By Carlyn Kolker Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Law firms including Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP cut year-end bonuses for first-year lawyers by as much as 71 percent, part of a bid to keep client costs down and ride out a recession that has forced structural changes in the industry. Bonuses dropped for first-year associates at many top-tier New York firms while staying the same or increasing for more experienced associates. Bonus reductions, along with overall pay cuts, signal a diminished role for junior lawyers at the larger U.S. firms, said consultant Bruce MacEwen . The industrywide move to cut pay is “reflecting, frankly, the low value clients place on junior associates,” MacEwen , who is based in New York, said in a phone interview. Facing a slowdown in work due to the financial crisis, law firms fired thousands of associates this year and last, forced new hires to delay starting dates and cut hours in exchange for reduced salaries. Demand for legal services dropped 6.8 percent in the first nine months of 2009 compared with last year, according to Citi Private Bank, a unit of Citigroup Inc. New York firms including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Cravath and Skadden Arps cut seniority-based bonuses from $17,500 to $5,000, a 71 percent drop, for first-year associates, according to the firms and people familiar with their policies. The most experienced associates get $30,000 or $35,000. Other firms, such as San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster LLP , Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh and DLA Piper LLP in Chicago, cut starting salaries for first-year associates from $160,000 to as low as $130,000 this year. Firms in cities including New York, Washington and San Francisco had adopted $160,000 as the industry standard beginning in January 2007. Future Senior Lawyers Cleary’s managing partner, Mark Walker , said the cuts aren’t a reflection on the value of young associates at his firm. The best are traditionally offered partnerships after spending eight years as salaried associates. “The young lawyers today are the senior lawyers five years from now,” Walker said. Jeffrey Grossman, of the Legal Specialty Group at Wells Fargo & Co., said U.S. law firms are cutting associate pay to stanch their decline in profitability. Even partners are taking home less, he said. Today’s economic justification, however, may reap rewards for law firm bottom lines tomorrow when revenue increases. “It will be a future benefit,” said Grossman, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It will change the cost structure for future years.” Client Pushback An additional consideration in paring pay, the law firm consultants said, is the need to address increased pushback from corporate clients seeking reduced hourly billing rates. “It’s a philosophical reaction to the fact that clients are more demanding,” MacEwen said. Rates for the least experienced attorneys typically range from $250 to $350 an hour, he said, spurring some clients to complain they are paying top dollar for the training of young lawyers. The perception has existed for years and “bubbled to the surface” during the recession, Grossman said. Young lawyers have “a lot of potential,” said Brian Cabrera , general counsel of Synopsys Inc. , a maker of software for chipmakers. “The question for the in-house lawyer is how much of that potential has been realized.” Cabrera said he recently asked a firm he wouldn’t identify to pare its rate for some associates from $500 an hour to $400. “I’m willing to recognize that I am partly subsidizing associate training, but the firms need to pay for it, too,” he said. Reconfigured Compensation The bigger firms — which often move as a bloc in setting pay — still recognize they need to nurture top young lawyers. As a result, Grossman said, some have reconfigured compensation to reward high performance. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP , based in San Francisco, this month said it would eliminate bonuses for first year associates, while keeping salaries the same. It instituted a new system in which they get raises based on performance rather than seniority. The changes were made to align pay with performance and client needs, said Orrick Chief Executive Officer Ralph Baxter . While compensation has dropped for younger associates, the most experienced associates have been spared, said Peter Zeughauser , a law firm consultant at the Zeughauser Group , based in Newport Beach, California. “It’s harder to replace those people,” Zeughauser said. “They are fully trained, and they are viewed as keepers.” Sullivan & Cromwell this year said it’s giving some of its most experienced associates, those who started at the firm in 2002, $5,000 more in bonuses than offered by Cravath and Cleary. “We have always believed that generally the more senior classes are working the hardest,” Sullivan & Cromwell Vice Chairman Joseph Shenker said in an interview. “They are also the most highly trained. It’s fair.” To contact the reporter on this story: Carlyn Kolker in New York at ckolker@bloomberg.net .

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Soldier Can’t Remember Lessons at For-Profit College Funded by Taxpayers

December 15, 2009

By Daniel Golden Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Marine Corps Corporal James Long knows he’s enrolled at Ashford University, one of at least a dozen for-profit colleges making money off active-duty military with subsidies from American taxpayers. He just can’t remember what course he’s taking. The 22-year-old from Dalton, Georgia, suffered a brain injury that impaired his ability to concentrate when artillery shells hit his Humvee in Iraq in 2006, he said. Long signed up for the online college, a unit of Bridgepoint Education Inc., after its recruiter gave a sales pitch this year at a barracks for wounded Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Under base rules, the barracks are off-limits to college recruiters, said Robert Songer, director of lifelong learning at Lejeune. For-profit online colleges are taking over higher education of the U.S. military, lured by a Defense Department pledge of free schooling up to $4,500 a year for active members of the armed services, costing taxpayers more than $3 billion since 2000. The schools account for 29 percent of college enrollments and 40 percent of the half-billion-dollar annual tab in federal tuition assistance for active-duty students, displacing public and private nonprofit colleges, according to Defense Department and military data. The shift is leading to educational shortcuts and over- zealous marketing, said Greg von Lehmen, chief academic officer of the University of Maryland University College in Adelphi, the adult-education branch of the state system and one of the earliest and biggest providers of military education. Faster, Easier “In these schools, the rule is faster and easier,” von Lehmen said. “They’re characterized by increasingly compressed course lengths and low academic expectations. One has to ask: Is the Department of Defense getting what it is seeking?” Some online schools offer free laptops or fast degrees. At Apollo Group Inc.’s University of Phoenix, the biggest for- profit college, active-duty military personnel can earn an associate’s degree, which typically takes two years of study, in five weeks. Taxpayers picked up $474 million for college tuition for 400,000 active-duty personnel in the year ended Sept. 30, 2008, more than triple the spending a decade earlier, Defense Department statistics show. Any college degree provides a boost toward military promotion, said James Pappas, vice president for outreach at the University of Oklahoma . Credentials from online, for-profit schools are less helpful in getting civilian jobs, especially in a tight labor market, Barmak Nassirian , associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington, said in an e- mail. Disappointed Grads “I’m afraid that the ease with which these outfits hand out diplomas is matched only by the disappointment of their graduates when they find out how little their degrees are actually worth,” Nassirian said. Mike Shields, a retired Marine Corps colonel and human resources director for U.S. field operations at Schindler Elevator Corp., rejects about 50 military candidates each year for the company’s management development program because their graduate degrees come from online for-profits, he said in an interview. Schindler Elevator is the North American operating entity of Schindler Holding AG in Hergiswil, Switzerland, the world’s second-largest elevator maker. “We don’t even consider them,” Shields said. “For the caliber of individuals and credentials we’re looking for, we need what we feel is a more broadened and in-depth educational experience.” He does hire service members with online degrees for jobs on non-leadership tracks, he said. Several online for-profit schools have become a concern on military bases because of practices that exploit soldiers and the federal subsidies they are promised, said Songer at Camp Lejeune. Marine ‘Prey’ “Some of these schools prey on Marines,” Songer said. “Day and night, they call you, they e-mail you. These servicemen get caught in that. Nobody in their families ever went to college. They don’t know about college.” Most online for-profits, such as American Public Education Inc.’s American Military University, “do a very good job taking care of students,” Songer said. Executives at for-profit colleges said they pay more attention to customer service than traditional schools do, and their online format suits military students who move frequently. “It’s about flexibility and options,” said Rick Cooper, vice president of military and corporate programs at Columbia Southern University in Orange Beach, Alabama. “You can enroll any day of the week, any week of the year.” Columbia Southern grants transfer credits to soldiers for courses in which they earned grades as low as D. Grantham University in Kansas City, Missouri, has handed out free laptop computers and American Military in Charles Town, West Virginia, gives free textbooks as recruitment inducements. Less Demanding Online schools such as American Military University have relocated their headquarters to obtain certification from regional boards with less demanding standards, according to interviews with for-profit college officials and accrediting agencies. Or they’re approved by less established organizations, leaving students hard-pressed to transfer credits to other colleges or find jobs at major corporations. Holders of master’s degrees in business administration from for-profits Phoenix and American Intercontinental University earn less than graduates with the same degrees from Oklahoma or Maryland’s University College, according to Payscale.com , a provider of employee compensation data. Salary Comparisons Recent MBA graduates from University College and Oklahoma have median annual incomes of $78,600 and $68,400, respectively, compared with $60,200 from Phoenix and $54,600 from American Intercontinental, the data show. Recent bachelor’s graduates from University College earn a higher median salary ($55,200) than their counterparts at Phoenix ($50,500) and American Intercontinental ($43,100). Oklahoma, at $41,100, trails Maryland and the two for-profit schools. Travis Daun, a 33-year-old former Navy lieutenant commander who trained as a nuclear engineer on a submarine, left the service in August after receiving an online MBA from American Intercontinental, a unit of Career Education Corp ., based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. “I was disappointed in the rigor and challenge of the courses,” Daun said in an interview, adding that each course lasted five weeks, with at most two hours a week of class time. “I don’t think I had a 4.0 effort, yet I had a 4.0 grade-point average.” Daun is unemployed. His college roommate, who also became a nuclear engineer in the Navy and earned an MBA from the University of Maryland’s University College, did find work, Daun said. “His MBA from Maryland definitely helped him a lot more than my AIU degree is helping me,” he said. Headhunter’s Perspective Daun is working with Lucas Group, an executive search firm that specializes in placing former military personnel. “Does his master’s from American Intercontinental open a lot of doors for him? No, it doesn’t,” said Lee Cohen, an Irvine, California-based managing partner at Lucas. American Intercontinental provides a high-quality education for adult students, said Jeff Leshay, a spokesman for Career Education. Leshay said the company doesn’t track where graduates find jobs. While deployed in Iraq, Christopher Brotherton earned a bachelor’s degree in homeland security from American Military in 2007. When the staff sergeant retired from the Army in June, his degree, which included courses in geography and history, helped him find a job teaching social studies in a middle school in Ardmore, Oklahoma. ‘No Problems’ “The state, when they saw my transcript from AMU, they had no problems with any of it,” Brotherton, 42, said. “It was a respected school to them.” Brian Kilgore’s quest for a college degree was set back in 2007. Then a petty officer first class in the Navy, Kilgore needed two more courses to earn an associate’s degree from Grantham when the online for-profit college eliminated the software engineering program he was taking, he said in an interview. Kilgore switched to computer science and soon left school, still four classes short of that degree. “I was upset,” said Kilgore, 38, who recently retired from the military and works in aviation maintenance. “Gosh, I was almost there.” The program was eliminated due to lack of interest, Grantham said. When service members do earn degrees from online for- profits, human resources executives at Fortune 500 firms are often reluctant to hire them, said Cohen, citing three where he has placed candidates. “There are some firms that are heavily credential-oriented,” he said. “McKinsey & Co. is one of them. They might balk. Amazon might balk. Shell Oil is another one.” McKinsey, Amazon.com and Shell declined to comment. Career Disadvantage Bradford Rand, chief executive of Techexpo Top Secret in New York, which runs job fairs for defense contractors recruiting recent veterans, said a degree from an online for- profit is a disadvantage. “You have two people of the same caliber, one has a degree from a real college, one has a degree from a computer, I’m going to favor the one from the live college,” Rand said. “It’s more verifiable, more credible.” The Defense Department plans to subject online programs to review by the American Council on Education in Washington, which already monitors face-to-face classes on military bases , defense officials said. The new online standards, which the department began to develop in 2004, have taken longer than expected and are a year away from being implemented, Tommy Thomas, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, said in an e-mail. Of the dozen colleges with the biggest active-duty enrollment, five are for-profits that conduct most or all of their courses online. Three — American Military University, Apollo’s Phoenix, and closely held Grantham — charge $250 a credit, or $750 a course, which allows them to receive the maximum reimbursed by U.S. taxpayers without service members having to pay any out-of-pocket tuition. Publicly funded community colleges offer classes on military bases for as little as $50 a credit, according to their Web sites. American Public Education has risen 72 percent since the company went public in November 2007. It closed yesterday at $34.41 in Nasdaq composite trading, up 3 percent from the previous day. Apollo shares closed at $62.06 in Nasdaq trading, falling 19 percent this year, as of yesterday. The expansion of online for-profit colleges into the military comes as the companies face U.S. government inquiries into their tactics in recruiting and educating civilians. The Obama administration is tightening scrutiny of for-profits, from the content of their pitches to prospective students to their increasing reliance on federal financial aid, Robert Shireman, deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Education Department, said in an interview. SEC Probe In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division has begun an informal probe into how Apollo Group books revenue. Apollo intends to cooperate fully with the inquiry, the company said. By expanding its military business, Phoenix has been able to enroll more civilian students who are supported by grants and loans from the Education Department, without violating federal law that dictates how much revenue the school can receive from the government. Phoenix derived 86 percent of its $3.77 billion in revenue in fiscal 2009 from the Education Department, according to its annual 10-K filing, up from 48 percent in 2001 and approaching the limit of 90 percent set by a 1992 law known as the 90/10 rule. Tuition payments to for-profit schools by the military don’t count toward the 90 percent ceiling. One way that Phoenix plans to stay below the legal threshold is building its military business, Gregory Cappelli , co-chief executive of Apollo, which is based in Phoenix, said in a June 29 conference call with investors. Military Market When the law was enacted, for-profits hadn’t yet moved into the military market, so the legislation’s sponsors weren’t focused on Defense Department tuition assistance, Sarah Flanagan, who helped draft the law as the Senate’s specialist in federal student aid, said in an interview. The law was intended to ensure that for-profit colleges offered an education good enough that some students were willing to pay for it, said Flanagan, now vice president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Washington. “Counting Defense Department funding for servicemen’s education as part of the money that’s supposed to come out of consumers’ pockets violates the purpose of the original legislation,” Flanagan said. Apollo spokeswoman Sara Jones said in an e-mail that Phoenix began serving military students long before the advent of “the misguided 90/10 rule.” Phoenix Recruitment Phoenix ranks among the top five colleges serving military students, including about 5,000 in the Army and 2,700 in the Navy, according to the two services. While Phoenix offers campus-based graduate programs in education and management at Air Force bases in the Pacific, most of its active-duty students take classes online, school officials said. Phoenix has 452 recruiters in its military division, up from 91 in 2003, said Scott McLaurin, its executive enrollment counselor at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast. Military enrollment at exclusively online for-profits is soaring. American Military has 36,772 active-duty students, up from 632 in 2000, it said. It has the most Air Force and Marine Corps students of any college. Closely held Columbia Southern has 9,582 service members, up from 649 in 2002, it said. Closely held TUI in Cypress, California, has more than doubled active- duty enrollment to 7,665 in the first quarter of 2009, from 3,661 in 2004, it said. While six public and private non-profit colleges hold face- to-face classes on Camp Lejeune, none has the highest active- duty enrollment there. That distinction belongs to American Military, with 1,623 students, up from 11 in 1999. Phoenix’s enrollment there has risen to 296 from 15 over the same period. Slumping Enrollment Active-duty enrollment at public and nonprofit schools has slumped. The University of Oklahoma , once the leading provider of graduate degrees to service members, has lost half of its military enrollment in a decade, said Pappas, the vice president for outreach. “A decade from now, you may not find traditional national public and private universities in military education,” Pappas said. “That’s one of the real dangers.” Faculty members at online for-profit colleges, usually part- timers with practical experience in their fields, have less control over curriculum than in conventional academia, said Benjamin Bolger, who has taught at the University of Phoenix and the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Professors assign reading and writing and discussion topics prescribed by the school. Students don’t have to log on at a specific time. At their convenience, they complete weekly coursework and respond to classmates on discussion boards. Trimming Requirements While many colleges adopt what are known as “military- friendly” practices, the online for-profits go further than most. They accelerate course and degrees for service members, trimming requirements and granting abundant transfer credits. At Phoenix, members of the armed forces can earn an associate’s degree by taking one five-week online class, “Written Communication.” They can make up for the other 19 courses required for an associate’s degree with credits for classes taken elsewhere, military experience including basic training, and passing grades on tests that gauge knowledge of a subject area. Civilians seeking the same degree must take at least six Phoenix courses and can use credits from outside sources for no more than 14. Traditionally, two-year students must take 10 courses, or half of the required load, from the school that awards their degrees, so it can vouch for their training, Nassirian said. Fast Track Only a handful of active-duty students choose Phoenix’s one- course option, called the Associate of Arts Degree Through Credit Recognition, said Mike Bibbee, the university’s director of military programs. At Columbia Southern, students can finish courses in three weeks and gain credit for as many as three classes taken at other colleges in which they received grades as low as D, according to its catalog. All exams are open-book. “It would be quite unorthodox for traditional institutions to grant transfer credit to coursework completed below a grade of C,” Nassirian said. Columbia Southern’s academic quality is comparable to a state or nonprofit university, Cooper said. The University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, also accepts D’s for transfer courses, according to its Web site. On Oct. 16, several Marines waited their turn on benches outside American Military’s office in the education center at Camp Lejeune. Inside, AMU education coordinator Brian Miller made his pitch to Jyher Lazarre and Hyunwoo Kim. Lazarre, 19, of Orlando, Florida, and Kim, 20, of Leonia, New Jersey, joined the Marines in 2008 and are roommates at Lejeune, they said. Cutting Time Of 20 courses needed for a two-year degree, they could satisfy eight through basic training and other military experience, Miller said. They could test out of seven more, leaving them to take five classes. “I can cut the time of this degree literally in half,” Miller told them. “It’s going to make you competitive toward promotion as well.” “If we can cut it down, that’s really good,” Kim said. Conflicts with accrediting associations that certify academic quality have dogged several online for-profits. American Military, founded in Virginia in 1991 by a former Marine Corps officer, applied in 1998 for accreditation by the Commission on Colleges of the Decatur, Georgia-based Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The southern association is one of six regional bodies that approve public and nonprofit institutions and represent the gold standard in accreditation. Early Step In June 1999, the commission denied American Military a candidacy visit, an early step in the accreditation process, said Ann Chard, commission vice president. The university didn’t meet the requirements of having full-time professors and a library, instead relying on part-time faculty and a lending library network, said James Herhusky , a trustee. American Military then shifted its headquarters to West Virginia to seek regional accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, according to the minutes of a July 2002 meeting of the Virginia Council of Higher Education, based in Richmond. In 2006, North Central approved American Military, which offers degrees in fields including homeland security, counter-terrorism studies and weapons-of- mass-destruction preparedness. ‘More Accommodating’ “At the time, North Central was the only region we knew that was accrediting totally online institutions,” Herhusky said. “We found their criteria to be less prescriptive and more accommodating.” American Military now has 160 full-time professors and an online library, Herhusky said. The school has almost quadrupled active-duty enrollment since 2005, when it hired James Sweizer, former head of education for the Air Force, to run its military programs. “I came to AMU with the philosophy of relationship marketing,” Sweizer said in an interview. “You cater to the needs of key influencers.” Sweizer said he’s seen “dramatic improvement” in how American Military manages courses and faculty. Probationary Period American Intercontinental, which ranked 20th in tuition assistance from the Marine Corps in fiscal 2009, also didn’t meet the standards of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It was placed on probation from 2005 to 2007 for academic and administrative shortcomings, including an inadequate number of full-time professors, according to accreditation records. The school addressed the association’s concerns, and the improvements it made during those two years have strengthened the university, Career Education spokesman Leshay said in an e-mail. American Intercontinental moved its headquarters this year from Atlanta to Chicago and was accredited by North Central. American Intercontinental relocated because its online campus is based there, Career Education spokesman Leshay said. Two other for-profits in the military market, Grantham and Columbia Southern, have a status known as national accreditation. Newer than the regional groups, the seven national bodies mostly approve for-profit colleges, including vocational and distance-education programs. Only 14 percent of colleges accept credits transferred from nationally accredited institutions, according to a 2006 study by the University Continuing Education Association in Washington. Expanding Market Three policy changes in the past decade opened the military market to for-profit colleges. The Defense Department, which had paid tuition assistance mainly to regionally accredited schools, began in 1999 to reimburse nationally accredited colleges as well. It increased funding in 2002 from 75 percent to 100 percent of tuition up to the $250-per-credit ceiling. In 2006 and 2007, the Army cut 233 counselors who used to guide soldiers through college choices, replacing them with interactive Web sites that offer information, said Army spokesman Wayne V. Hall. These moves coincided with the rise of Internet courses. For-profits were ahead of most traditional colleges in online education, which helps service members deployed worldwide keep up their studies. In fiscal 2008, the first year that the Defense Department collected such data, 64 percent of active- duty students took distance-education classes. War Zones Soldiers even take online classes in war zones. While in Afghanistan, Army sergeant Patrick Peake earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from American Military, enrolling in as many as four online courses at a time. Cavalry scouts “set up a wireless connection at the mud- brick building we were at,” Peake, 29, said in an interview. After studying counter-terrorism at AMU, Peake said, he told friends in Army intelligence about terrorist groups in the region. “This dumb grunt helped them out a little,” he said. Unlike most traditional schools, for-profits vie to offer inducements to students. American Military gives textbooks for free to undergraduates, who may resell them to the school’s vendor after use for $30 to $50 per book, Miller said. Columbia Southern is considering a similar buyback program, according to Cooper. Grantham, the seventh-biggest recipient of undergraduate tuition money from the Army in fiscal 2008, gave new laptop computers made by Dell Inc., from March to July to active-duty students who had completed at least four courses with grades of C or better. The free laptops were part of a pilot research project on student retention, said Tim Arrington, Grantham director of military programs. Laptop Largesse Michael Lambert, executive director of the Distance Education Training Council, which accredits Grantham, advised the school to stop the laptop largesse, he said. “The concern is, schools will outdo each other and we’ll have an arms race,” he said. “Free laptops, free Kindles, free iPods, all coming out of taxpayers’ pockets.” Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges, a Defense Department Washington-based contractor that develops policies for 1,800 colleges involved in military education, is also considering guidelines to limit laptop giveaways and other inducements. “I don’t think it’s out of hand, but the potential is there,” said Kathy Snead, the group’s director. Former Marines Career Blazers Learning Center, a New York-based vocational school, gave away laptops loaded with instructional software to Marines about to be deployed to combat zones, owner Paul Viboch said. It also hired former Marines as recruiters and paid referral fees to students for signing up other service members. Entire units enrolled, and Career Blazers received $4.5 million in tuition assistance from the Marine Corps in 2006, the most of any post-secondary provider. Career Blazers charged $4500 — the maximum that the military reimburses in a year — for self-paced lessons on how to perform basic computer applications or balance checkbooks. Much of the material was available for less expense at workshops or community college classes on bases, education specialists said. “The military overpaid for laptops,” said Johanna Rose, an education technician at Camp Lejeune. Relocated to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and renamed Martinsburg Institute, Career Blazers stopped giving away laptops three months ago. Its tuition assistance from the Marine Corp. slipped to $616,000 in fiscal 2009, as education officials on some Marine bases discouraged service members from enrolling, Viboch said. “I was too successful, too quickly,” he said. ‘Underhanded’ Techniques Unauthorized marketing pitches by for-profit recruiters have become widespread on military bases. “Some of these schools are a little underhanded,” said Pat Jeffress, branch manager of lifelong learning at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in California, said. “They try to backdoor me. They come onto the base when they don’t have permission and they set up shop.” One recruiter for Ashford University recently ignored the anti-solicitation rule at Camp Lejeune, said Songer, the base’s lifelong learning director. Bridgepoint , based in San Diego, has climbed 67 percent since the company went public on April 14. Bridgepoint closed yesterday at 17.58, up 7.6 percent from the previous day. Songer said he told the recruiter, whose husband is in the military, that she could only meet students at the base’s education center. Instead, she pitched the online for-profit in the recreation room of a barracks for wounded Marines. About 30 Marines showed up, said Brad Drake, a corporal who attends Ashford. ‘Attractive’ Recruiter “It helped she was really attractive,” said Drake, 23, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan when a rocket hit his truck. “That got everyone’s attention.” The recruiter spoke at the barracks with the approval of the unit’s commanding officer, Bridgepoint spokeswoman Shari Rodriguez said in an e-mail. “We keep our students’ needs at the forefront of all we do.” Unit commanders are often unfamiliar with educational rules, Songer said. He told the recruiter, “‘If you cross that line again, you’ll never be allowed on this base,” he said. Ashford’s Enrollment Ashford ranked sixth in Marine Corps enrollment in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009, with 1,018 students. At Camp Lejeune, Ashford had 119 active-duty students, up from 25 in the previous year, and six in fiscal 2007. About eight to 10 wounded Marines signed up for Ashford after the recruiter’s presentation, among them Corporal Long, the brain-injured soldier, who also walks with a cane. Long is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in organizational management through Ashford. In his first class, students could retake the final test until they passed, he said. “I took it 10 times,” he said. “I kept getting the same answers wrong.” Long, who aspires to be an occupational or physical therapist, said he wonders if he can graduate. He is married and says he needs to provide for his family. “I got my doubts,” he said. “My family’s more important than my doubts. That keeps me going.” To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Golden in Boston at dlgolden@bloomberg.net .

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Chevron’s $40 Billion Gorgon Plant Sparks Hunt for Welders, Pipe Fitters

December 4, 2009

By James Paton Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp. ’s $40 billion Australian natural gas project will drive a global hunt for construction workers and has prompted calls to ease immigration rules to prevent labor shortages and cost overruns at energy and mining projects fueling the country’s economy. Contractors for Chevron and partners Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in the Gorgon liquefied natural gas plant plan to pay premiums of as much as 40 percent for welders, pipe fitters, project managers and engineers, recruiters said. They expect to hire in the Middle East, Latin America and Europe. Gorgon is the largest of more than a dozen LNG ventures in Australia targeting Asian demand for cleaner-burning fuels. It will compete for staff with Woodside Petroleum Ltd. , which said Nov. 20 the cost of its $12 billion Pluto LNG project may surge by as much as $1 billion, partly because of labor expenses. “This doesn’t bode well for Australia’s mega projects,” Woodside Chief Executive Officer Don Voelte said in a Nov. 25 interview at the Perth headquarters of the country’s second- largest oil and gas producer. “It’s going to be a stretch when more than one company is trying to build these things.” The Chevron and Woodside investments are among more than $90 billion of resources projects expected to generate about 40,000 construction jobs in Western Australia alone, a state government report shows. Voelte wants the federal government to relax immigration regulations for overseas workers and has started an equity incentive plan to retain staff. Labor ‘Race’ “For Woodside we believe it is a race to capture or not lose the workforce to Chevron, a significant risk for Woodside’s growth plans,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Mark Greenwood wrote in a Nov. 25 report. About 80 natural resource ventures to be built in the next decade may increase demand for skilled workers by as much as 70 percent, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said in a Nov. 30 speech in Perth to mark the start of construction of Gorgon on Barrow Island, a nature reserve about 50 kilometers (31 miles) off the northwestern coast. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has tasked a group of government, immigration and industry officials to help companies such as Chevron and BHP Billiton Ltd. find 70,000 workers in the next decade, making Gorgon its top priority . “A series of cost overruns could discourage future investments,” Gary Gray , chairman of the Rudd-appointed group and Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia, said by phone. “The urgency is to ensure as best as we can the adequacy of labor to deliver projects on time and on budget.” Wage ‘Premium’ About 80 percent of oil and gas industry employers in Australia said in a survey they intend to increase salaries in the next 12 months, Matt Underhill, managing director at recruiting firm Hays, said from Sydney. Professionals in the pipeline industry currently earn $191,000 annually on average in Australia, he said. “The expertise is specialized, so there’s going to be a premium paid for that type of labor,” said John Hirjee , an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG in Melbourne. Labor may account for 10 to 20 percent of costs at Australian LNG projects, he said. Contractors may offer workers as much as 40 percent more than they could earn in Sydney to entice them to Barrow Island, said John Downing of Downing Teal Pty . The company and other recruiting firms hiring for ventures including Gorgon will extend their search to the Middle East and Latin America, he said. Serbian Sparks Leighton Holdings Ltd. , whose units have won A$1.3 billion of Gorgon work, has in the past hired electricians in Serbia and welders in South Korea, said spokesman Justin Grogan . Officials with Western Australia’s Department of Training and Workforce Development have met with Chevron to discuss labor needs, Simon Walker, an executive director at the department, said in e-mailed comments. The department is working on a proposal to tackle the looming shortage and “strategic immigration will be a key consideration factored into the plan,” he wrote. “Capacity constraints can lead to escalating labor costs, increasing prices and ultimately, they can threaten the viability of enterprises, which negatively affects economic growth and the well-being of the population,” Walker said. A Chevron advertising campaign to tout Gorgon includes a television commercial with the line “creating thousands of jobs and providing opportunities for generations to come.” ‘Sexy’ Gorgon It’s a “sexy project” that should have an advantage in securing labor, Colin Beckett , the venture’s general manager, said on Barrow Island in October. A thousand applicants have chased 30 or 40 positions in some cases, he said. Welders and instrument technicians will prove harder to find. Conditions for those living on Barrow Island, where average temperatures reach as high as 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit), will be improved by access to the Internet, cable television, gyms, swimming pools and a golf driving range. “We think Barrow Island will be attractive to a lot of people,” Beckett said. One Gorgon contractor is offering A$300,000 ($280,000) for a manager to assess risk and as much as A$135,000 for a contracts administrator, according to advertisements placed by Downing Teal. Engineers will earn “well into six figures,” John Downing said. A labor shortage that confronted Australian mining and energy during a previous boom is set to return BHP Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers said last month. “Just two short years ago there was a massive talent gap in the resources industry,” he said in a Nov. 18 speech. “I believe this gap will return along with demand.” Gas project developers have built the risk of rising labor bills into their plans and are having LNG processing units built in lower-cost Asian countries and reassembled in Australia to cut expenses, Deutsche Bank’s Hirjee said. “That’s not to say these cost blow-outs may not happen,” he said. “They could.” To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney at jpaton4@bloomberg.net .

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Democrats Contemplate Direct Government Hiring

November 23, 2009

As desperate Democratic lawmakers cast about for ways to create jobs from Capitol Hill, a 1970s-era jobs program is getting a fresh look. Known as CETA — the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act — the program provided direct government funding to hire temporary workers. At its peak in 1978, it had created 725,000 public service jobs and shaved roughly one point off the unemployment figure. A one-point drop in the unemployment rate — not to mention the ancillary benefit of hundreds of thousands of people having money to spend on other goods and services — would give politicians something concrete to point to before the mid-term elections. “That’s certainly one of the options being discussed, the CETA program back in the 70s,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told HuffPost in a recent interview, when asked if leadership was considering direct government hiring as a partial answer to the deepening unemployment. But skepticism abounds, both among Democrats and economists. There are much more efficient ways to create jobs — or prevent them from being lost — such as direct aid to states that would otherwise layoff teachers, cops, firefighters and bureaucrats. That doesn’t require creating a new bureaucracy, it’s just a matter of cutting the check. “Most economists are not sure that [CETA] works as well as some other things that they think would be better, like infrastructure investment and assistance to the states, which helps them retain jobs,” said Hoyer. “In other words, if you’re creating jobs while the states are jettisoning jobs because they are under such financial stress, obviously you have a net zero [effect]. So you want to keep the state jobs and invest in creating jobs in the private sector.” Aid to strapped states is one of the top priorities for Democrats, but conservative members of the party, such as Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, as well as potentially allied Republicans such as Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have fought to limit such assistance. Roughly $40 billion in aid to states was cut from the first stimulus package in response to conservative concerns about overspending. As a result, thousands of teachers and cops have lost their jobs. With deficit hawks standing in the way of fully assisting distressed states, the CETA program becomes more politically attractive to Democrats. It carries with it the hope of bipartisan support, since there’s something in it for the business community. The version of CETA being discussed by Democrats would be some type of public-private partnership through which the government would pay part of an employee’s salary, while he or she would train under and work for a private firm. The hope would be that the firm ends up hiring the employee with its own money when the government subsidy dries up, but in either case, the worker gets training that assists in the job hunt. Business groups might have to lobby the GOP to get them to yes, however. Michael Steel, a spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) gave CETA the instant thumbs down. “American families are asking ‘where are the jobs?’ but out-of-touch Washington Democrats are more intent on growing government,” Steel wrote in an e-mail. “After squandering one trillion dollars on a ‘stimulus’ that just isn’t working, they want to double-down: Borrowing more money from China and the Middle East to spend pleasing their special interest allies, and passing the tab to our kids and grandkids. Enough is enough.” Nonprofit organizations with liberal ambitions could also benefit from the subsidized labor, and more government workers would be needed to prevent waste and fraud. Indeed, abuse of the program would likely be one of the biggest problems it would face. “The more money you put on the table, the more incentive you’re giving people to defraud it,” said Dean Baker, an economist with the liberal-leaning Center for Economic Policy and Research. Baker favors subsidizing businesses that cut down on worker hours . Such an innovative proposal would free up demand for more labor while mitigating the pain of a full layoff. CETA, said Baker, would be better than nothing. “It’s certainly better than having people be unemployed,” he said. But he added that it could come at a big political price when reporters inevitably find some chump claiming to be employing his brother while splitting the government paycheck. Requiring businesses to pick up a portion of the tab would cut down on fraud, Baker suggested. A bigger problem comes in when you consider that employers, even in a down economy, are hiring some four million new workers every month due to turnover and attrition. It would be difficult for the law to prevent companies from taking a subsidy for hiring they had planned to do anyway. “You’re going to hire someone anyhow,” said Baker, “so why not have the government pick up the tab?” One benefit of the program is that the costs are predictable. Even if some of the money is ripped off, the government can limit its spending by subsidizing only a certain number of jobs. A million full-time salaries at $10 an hour, for instance, would cost $20 billion per year, plus supervisory costs. And even the money that’s obtained fraudulently is entering the economy. Unemployment benefits, after all, go to people who aren’t working (by definition) and have a stimulative economic effect regardless. Walter Shapiro, who worked in the Jimmy Carter administration — the last to push such a public-works program — said that the earlier iteration of the program underperformed because it wasn’t bold enough. “[T]he problem with CETA was not that it embodied Big Government, but that it was not big enough. CETA left behind no lasting monuments like LaGuardia Airport and the Hoover Dam, no evocative art like the WPA murals in post offices and libraries. The administration of CETA was lax, but almost all of its scandals were small-bore local corruption,” he writes for Politics Daily. “Today, even more than in the 1970s, there is a moral argument for public service employment. While Barack Obama’s stimulus package was advertised as shovel-ready, a public jobs program would be people-ready. The societal waste and the wrecked lives from double-digit unemployment will leave scars that may take decades to heal. But what liberals should have learned long ago from CETA is that effective management matters — and that an ill-designed program can turn a laudable idea into a laughing stock.” The moral argument for some sort of relief is being made with increasing fervor by progressive organizations. Last week, major liberal groups put out an “urgent call to action to stem the U.S. job crisis.” The statement was signed by the AFL-CIO, NAACP, and the National Council of La Raza, among other groups. Meanwhile, Republicans have put forth few ideas to create jobs beyond cutting taxes, so joining Democrats in backing CETA would at least give them something to tout. Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

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Brown Says U.K. to Press Ahead Training Afghan Police After Troop Murders

November 5, 2009

By Kitty Donaldson Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say the U.K. plans to press ahead training Afghanistan’s army and police even though five soldiers were murdered by a rogue officer earlier this week. “We will not give up this strategy of mentoring, because it is what distinguishes a liberating army from an army of occupation,” Brown will say in a speech in London today, according to excerpts released by his office. Support for the war effort in Britain has dissipated as the death toll mounted in Afghanistan. A total of 230 British forces personnel have died while serving there. Britain has about 9,000 troops in the nation. President Barack Obama is weighing whether to send as many as 40,000 more U.S. personnel in addition to the 68,000 due to be serving by the end of the year. A total of 57 percent of the 1,021 British adults polled by YouGov Plc on Nov. 4 said victory is no longer possible, while 33 percent said the war can be won. Two weeks ago, 48 percent thought Britain and its allies couldn’t defeat the Taliban. The deaths of the soldiers killed at an Afghan police base on Nov. 3 by a Taliban gunman have revived debate about the U.S. and British policy of “Afghanization,” where local forces are given authority over security. The gunman had infiltrated the force and also wounded six other soldiers near the Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand province. Police Training They were living and working in the compound as part of a strategy to train and mentor Afghan national police and army officers so that they can function on their own and U.K. forces can return home. Both the U.S. and U.K. administrations have also pressed other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to put more resources into the fight. Brown will argue today that it is an international mission. “We entered together eight years ago,” Brown will say. “We must persist together; in our different ways we must all contribute; in the end we will succeed or fail together.” Another stated aim of the operation is to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a training ground for terrorists who aim to take lives in the West. Al-Qaeda still uses the border region with Pakistan to plan attacks, Brown will say. To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net or;

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