Talking stops, work starts on network consolidation
After a year of planning, the intelligence community has started the vast information...
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An app for secure phone comms
On site with TeleCommunication Systems
The first thing you notice in the foyer of the TeleCommunication Systems headquarters in...
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Interview: The End of Kumbaya?
As Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Mike Rogers,...
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General Dynamics makes addition to threat intel business
The planned General Dynamics purchase of Fidelis Security Systems might look like a case of a corporate giant buying an upstart to make it vanish, but executives said that is not what's happening this time. "This is really not about swallowing Fidelis, this is about giving it some resources to enable it to grow," said GD's John Jolly. The companies announced an agreement today to purchase Fidelis at a price they are not yet revealing. Executives said the deal is 99.99 percent likely to be finalized. Once that happens, the 70-employee company will be called GD Fidelis Security Systems and it will retain its offices in Bethesda, Md., and Waltham, Mass. "We are not planning any personnel moves as part of this," Jolly said.
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Afghanistan-bound airship faces more testing
The U.S. Army's new football-field length airship flew with its nose high at the start of its inaugural flight over the New Jersey pines, requiring the two pilots aboard to adjust the balance of air and helium and shift diesel fuel among the tanks. Even so, the first flight of the Long Endurance Multi Intelligence Vehicle on Aug. 7 was a long overdue breakthrough for Northrop Grumman in a development program whose delays have tested the patience of the Army. By now, the 302-foot long demonstrator was supposed to have been flying in Afghanistan for nine months. The Army wants to fly LEMV for weeks at a time in its unmanned mode to eavesdrop on insurgents and search for IEDs.
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FISA Scuffle
Opponents seize renewal as chance to reel in surveillance
The coming months look rich with potential turning points in the debate over whether the U.S. has gone too far in the expanded eavesdropping allowed by amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The FISA collection strategy is a top contributor to the intelligence community's big data storage dilemma and inevitably sweeps up emails, texts and telephone calls to and from people on U.S. soil. For critics, the collections amount to trampling American privacy rights. For supporters, there are plenty of safeguards in place to protect privacy and keep Americans safe. About the only consensus is that if Congress doesn't act, the sun will set Dec. 31 on the FISA amendments and their expanded eavesdropping.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., supports renewing the amendments in his role as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence, and he predicts at most a political "scuffle" [pls link to the excerpts and intro of his interview] over a bill introduced in June that would extend the eavesdropping through 2017.
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