25 Nov 15. President Barack Obama signed a sweeping defense policy bill into law on Wednesday, legislation that authorizes $607bn in defense spending but also includes a provision that makes it more difficult to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The White House had made it clear earlier this month that Obama would sign the bill, despite the Guantanamo provisions. Obama has long promised to close the prison, but has faced objections from lawmakers who do not want detainees to be transferred to U.S. prisons. (Source: Reuters)
25 Nov 15. Barracuda Networks, Inc. Settles Potential Civil Liability for Alleged Violations of the Iranian, Sudanese, and Syrian Sanctions. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) have announced that Barracuda Networks, Inc. of Campbell, California (Barracuda), on behalf of itself and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Barracuda Networks, Ltd. of the United Kingdom (Barracuda UK), have agreed to a $1.5m civil penalty to BIS and a $38,390 civil penalty to OFAC in connection with unauthorized re-exports of certain export and reexport of U.S.-origin equipment and software to Iran, Syria and Sudan. The commodities exported by Barracuda consisted of web filters, firewall products, link balancers and server backup software. BIS also alleged that on 11 occasions Barracuda UK acted with knowledge of a violation of the EAR by selling or servicing U.S.-origin devices and related software to Syria and Iran with knowledge that a violation would occur. (Source: glstrade.com)
25 Nov 15. State Dept. Modifies Iran, North Korea, and Syria. Nonproliferation Act Measures against Rosoboronexport (80 Fed. Reg. 73865). The U.S. Department of State has announced that a decision has been made, pursuant to the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act, to modify nonproliferation measures pursuant to this Act on a Russian foreign person. On September 2, 2015, at 80 Fed. Reg. 65844, the U.S. Government announced the imposition of measures including the following against Rosoboronexport (ROE) (Russia) and any successor, sub-unit, or subsidiary thereof: “No department or agency of the United States Government may procure or enter into any contract for the procurement of any goods, technology, or services from [Rosoboronexport (ROE) (Russia) and any successor, sub-unit, or subsidiary thereof], except to the extent that the Secretary of State otherwise may determine . . . .” The U.S. Government has decided to modify the measure described above against ROE and any successor, sub-unit, or subsidiary thereof as follows. The measure described above shall not apply to subcontracts at any tier with ROE and any successor, sub-unit, or subsidiary thereof made on behalf of the United States Government for goods, technology, and services for the maintenance, repair, overhaul, or sustainment of Mi-17 helicopters for the purpose of providing assistance to the security forces of Afghanistan, as well as for the purpose of combating terrorism and violent extremism globally. Such subcontracts include the purchase of spare parts, supplies, and related services for these purposes. This modification applies retroactively as of the effective date of the sanctions, and will remain in place for two years from that date, except to the extent that the Secretary of State may otherwise determine. (Source: glstrade.com)
25 Nov 15. U.S. working to keep up with surging weapons demand: Pentagon. The U.S. government is working hard to ensure quicker processing of U.S. foreign arms sales, which surged 36 percent to $46.6bn in fiscal 2015 and look set to remain strong in coming years, a top Pentagon official said.
“Projections are still strong,” Vice Admiral Joe Rixey, who heads the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.
He said the agency was trying to sort out the i