Federal Daily - May 13, 2008
PEER Urges Elimination of OSC
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has urged Congress to eliminate the Office
of Special Counsel (OSC) and spread its functions among the Government Accountability Office and the
Departments of Labor and Justice. In a statement May 8, PEER recommended that Congress eliminate OSC
following raids last week on OSC offices and the home of Special Counsel Scott Bloch. The FBI raids
were made in connection with a probe into potential obstruction of justice charges involving files
that Bloch allegedly hired a company to erase from his computer. In addition to subpoenaing Bloch,
nearly a fifth of the entire OSC staff (17 out of approximately 90 current employees) also was subpoenaed,
PEER said. The criminal probe targeting Bloch could hamstring OSC and potentially maroon government
whistleblowers seeking either protection or redress, PEER said. The group said a better alternative
would be to abolish OSC and allow the protections to be enforced via other government agencies. “Now
is the perfect time for Congress to consider a wholly new approach for whistleblower protection,” stated
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. To see more, go to: www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1041.
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Robins AFB NCO Academy to Close
The Robins Air Force Base Noncommissioned Officers Academy (NCOA) will close May 20, becoming one
of several such academies that have closed or are scheduled to soon shutter their doors, the Air Force
said in a May 9 statement. In addition to the Robins academy, which is located in Central Georgia,
other affected NCOAs include those at McGuire AFB, N.J., which closed last year; Goodfellow AFB, Texas,
which will close May 28; and Kirtland AFB, N.M., which will close in 2009. NCOAs that will remain open
include facilities at Peterson AFB, Colo., Tyndall AFB, Fla., and McGhee-Tyson Air National Guard Base
in Alcoa, Tenn. The NCOA is professional military education academy targeted to technical sergeants.
All technical sergeants must complete the six-week course before becoming senior NCOs, the Air Force
said. To see more, go to: www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123098115.
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Navy Contractor Guilty of Unauthorized Access, ID Theft
A former Navy contractor pleaded guilty to federal charges of unauthorized access to a computer database
and aggravated identity theft, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this month. Randall Craig,
41, of Houston, entered the pleas in a Houston Federal District Court, admitting he had sold information—including
the names and social security numbers of military personnel—to a person he believed was a representative
of a foreign government. Craig negotiated to turn over the list of 17,000 names—extracted from
a U.S. Marine Forces Reserve database—for $500, but the foreign representative turned out to
be an undercover FBI agent, DOJ said. Craig admitted he had made, but failed, at efforts to contact
other foreign countries in an attempt to offer his services, DOJ said. Aggravated identity theft carries
a mandatory two year-sentence that must be served consecutive to any other sentence, DOJ said, and
the unauthorized access charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. To see more, go
to: www.cybercrime.gov/craigPlea.pdf.
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