10 Jan 15. Prosecutors recommend Petraeus faces criminal charges. Federal prosecutors have recommended that retired general and former CIA director David Petraeus face criminal charges for passing classified information to a former lover, according to people familiar with the case. The recommendation leaves attorney-general Eric Holder facing a decision about whether to go ahead with the prosecution of one of the most respected military leaders of his generation who had once been talked of as a presidential candidate. Mr Petraeus resigned as head of the CIA in 2012 after revelations that he had an affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of a flattering biography about the retired general. He has been under investigation since then by the FBI over suggestions that he passed classified information to Ms Broadwell. Both Mr Petraeus and Ms Broadwell have denied that she received classified information from him, people familiar with the case said. Robert Barnett, Mr Petraeus’s lawyer, declined to comment on the report, as did a spokesman for the justice department. The recommendation that he face charges was first reported by the New York Times. Mr Petraeus’s political downfall began with an investigation into threats made against Jill Kelley, a socialite in Tampa, Florida, who was an acquaintance of the former general during the time he was head of US Central Command, which is based in the city. The FBI later traced the threats to Ms Broadwell and, in the process, uncovered her affair with Mr Petraeus who by that stage had moved to be head of the CIA. Agents also discovered classified documents on her computer. Since he stepped down from the CIA, Mr Petraeus has taught at a university and has worked for the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. His reputation as a military leader was based on his role as the mastermind of the 2007 “surge” of US troops in Iraq which helped bring then rampant levels of violence under control, although it did not pave the way to the longer-lasting political reconciliation that he had hoped for at the time. Having left Iraq in 2011, US troops returned last year to assist in the fight against the Islamist militants of Isis, successors to the al-Qaeda-linked group that the surge was designed to defeat. After Iraq, Mr Petraeus also led US forces in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA in 2011. (Source: FT.com)
08 Jan 15. US Cyber Command Draft RFP Seeks Wide Range of Services. The Pentagon has issued a draft solicitation for an omnibus contract for a wide range of services to US Cyber Command, including support for offensive and defensive operations, and management of military networks. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) anticipates the award of multiple indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts, as well as four task orders. Portions of the contract would be set aside for small businesses. Responses to the 106-page draft request for proposal (RFP), posted Dec. 24 on a government procurement website, are due Jan. 12. Procurement documents, which describe the contract as a means to “streamline” procurement, covers a broad scope of services, including “furnishing technically qualified personnel, products, materials, facilities, travel, services, managed services and other items needed to satisfy the research, development, deployment, operation, maintenance and sustainment requirements.” The solicitation also pulls back the curtain on the secretive agency, describing contract positions within the agency and how contractors would develop strategy, conduct war games and support its operations — “maneuver, fires and effects” — in cyberspace. Federal Computer Week first reported on the release of the draft RFP. (Source: Defense News)
09 Jan 15. Defense Industry Running out of Time; Mergers Loom. For the past several years, defense watchers in Washington have been anxiously awaiting an expected surge in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity among the big prime defense contracto