SDFM The Business of Defense
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Bruce Johnson WUSA 9 Reporter and Weekend Anchor Jacque Simon AFGE Public Policy Director Arlene Holt Baker AFL-CIO Executive Vice President
October 14, 2010 -
The United States again appears to be relying on missile strikes by unmanned aircraft to target militants in Pakistan\'s tribal belt. According to the Associated Press, intelligence officials say suspected U.S. aircraft launched four missile strikes today at a house and two vehicles in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border. They say the victims included three foreigners. The attacks took place in an area dominated by militants who often attack U.S. and other foreign troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. is now suspected of carrying out 14 missile strikes in the region this month.
October 13, 2010 -
A team of planet hunters from the University of California and the Carnegie Institution of Washington have discovered a planet with three times the mass of Earth orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star\'s \"habitable zone.\" The new findings are based on 11 years of observations of the nearby red dwarf star Gliese 581 using the HIRES spectrometer on the Keck I Telescope in Hawaii. The spectrometer allows precise measurements of a star\'s motion, which can reveal the presence of planets. The planet lies in an area where liquid water could exist on the planet\'s surface. If confirmed, it would be the most Earth-like exoplanet ever discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one. Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet with a definite surface and enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere.
October 13, 2010 -
New damage-tolerant aircraft controls will allow the safer landings of damaged aircraft. Military aircraft today face many threats, including surface-to-air missiles and weapons fired from hostile aircraft. To improve the survivability of damaged aircraft, the Damage Tolerant Controls program - administered by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - is developing software to compensate for damaged aircraft control surfaces and engines, allowing pilots to land their aircraft safely. The technology also applies to material failures that can impact flight performance in an unpredictable manner. DARPA officials say it can also benefit commercial and other aircraft.
October 13, 2010 -
A new digital database will help scientists understand how differences in DNA contribute to human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health has launched the Database of Genomic Structural Variation. The database will help track large-scale variations in DNA discovered in healthy individuals as well as those affected with disorders such as autism and cancer. In recent years, scientists have discovered that very large stretches of the human genome can be different in seemingly normal individuals. It had long been known that large-scale genomic changes existed, but it was thought that they were rare and usually led to disorders such as Down syndrome. It is now understood that such variations are relatively common. Understanding how they relate to individual characteristics and impact health is an important and active area of research.
October 13, 2010 -
Iran\'s English-language Press TV reports an explosion at an Iranian military training base killed and injured several servicemen on Tuesday. The report did not make clear how many people were killed or injured but said the explosion was caused an \"by accident\". It happened in western Iran. Last month a bomb blast killed 12 people and injured 80 in the city of Mahabad. Authorities blamed it on \"anti-revolutionary\" militants backed by Iran\'s foreign enemies.
October 13, 2010 -
Defense ministers from Asian and other nations have gathered in Hanoi, Vietnam for a regional security meeting. The Associated Press is reporting Defense Secretary Robert Gates is attending the two-day meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where he will hold military talks with Chinese Gen. Liang Guanglie - the first between the countries in eight months after China cut off contact to protest a U.S. arms package for Taiwan.
October 13, 2010 -
The top two targets of the withering drone attacks in the tribal territories between Pakistan and Afghanistan --escaped. The News Online in Pakistan reports two al-Qaeda-linked terrorists of German origin , 27-year-old Mouneer Chouka alias Abu Adam and 25-year-old Yaseen Chouka alias Abu Ibrahim we\'re not killed in the attacks. Hailing from the suburb of Kessenich in Bonn, both are real brothers and believed to be leading a group of over 100 German militants who had traveled from Germany to the border areas of Pakistan in recent years, raising the latest security alert in Europe
October 13, 2010 -
A court-martial has been recommended for Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock. He\'s the first of 12 American soldiers charged with murdering Afghan civilians for sport Investigators at Morlock\'s initial hearing in the case didn\'t find enough evidence for him stand trial on three counts of premeditated murder. Morlock and fellow soldiers are accused of taking photos of corpses and keeping body parts as war trophies.
October 13, 2010 -
The U.S. apologized Wednesday for a recent helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers at an outpost near the Afghan border, saying American pilots mistook the soldiers for insurgents they were pursuing. The Associated Press reports the apology, which came after a joint investigation, could pave the way for Pakistan to reopen a key border crossing that NATO uses to ship goods into landlocked Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the crossing to NATO supply convoys in apparent reaction to the Sept. 30 incident.
October 13, 2010 -
Telework proves itself again when a Continuity of Operations Plan comes together.
October 08, 2010 -
October 11th and October 13th Ivan Handler is the Chief Information Officer of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, where he started in 2005.
October 08, 2010 -
Arlene Holt Baker AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Jacque Simon AFGE Public Policy Director Chris Garlock Director, D.C. Labor FilmFest
October 07, 2010 -
This week on FEDtalk, host Debra Roth discusses how the federal government is currently using social media and how that use will expand. Guests include Andrew Krzmarzick of GovLoop and Amanda Eamich of the USDA. October 8, 2010.
October 07, 2010 -
Are we witnessing the beginning of a cyber arms race? Seems like it. The Stuxnet computer virus is taking worries about cyber warfare to a new level. It\'s the first reported case of malicious software designed to sabotage industrial controls. Experts say it is a prototype of a cyber-weapon that will lead to a new global arms race. Computers will be the weapons. The program specifically targets control systems built by Siemens AG, a German equipment maker. Iran, the target of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, has been hit hardest of any country.
October 06, 2010