government - The Black Vault https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive Discover the Truth Thu, 31 Jul 2025 02:52:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/cropped-siteicon-2-150x150.jpg government - The Black Vault https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive 32 32 87123917 Private/Unlisted YouTube Videos of U.S. Government Agencies https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/private-unlisted-youtube-videos-of-u-s-government-agencies/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=private-unlisted-youtube-videos-of-u-s-government-agencies Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:53 +0000 https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=12800 Background Many U.S. government agencies and military branches have public YouTube pages. That is no secret. However, within these channels, lies a hidden treasure trove of PRIVATE/UNLISTED videos NOT accessible by the general public. Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Black Vault along with another researcher has tackled trying to get access to these [...]

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]]> Background

Many U.S. government agencies and military branches have public YouTube pages. That is no secret. However, within these channels, lies a hidden treasure trove of PRIVATE/UNLISTED videos NOT accessible by the general public.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Black Vault along with another researcher has tackled trying to get access to these videos listings. That researcher has donated the requests they did, along with the documents, to the archive below. However, they asked for their identifying information to be redacted.

The below lists can then be used to request the videos themselves.

There are numerous more open FOIA requests for these pages, which will be added below. Visit often, as there are many more to be added soon.

Document Archive

By clicking on the government agency name below, you will get the FOIA response and in most cases, the list of videos. I have also marked the release date, in order to show the timeframe of when the released list existed.

Air Force [6 Pages, 0.9MB] – Released 27 January 2021

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau [2 Pages, 0.3MB] – Released 25 March 2021

American Battle Monuments Commission [5 Pages, 3.2MB] – Released 12 January 2021

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Release #1 [27 Pages, 0.3MB] – Released 11 December 2020

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Release #2 [41 Pages, 0.3MB] – Released 24 March 2021

Bonneville Power Administration [29 Pages, 17MB] – Released 11 January 2021

Bureau of Economic Analysis [15 Pages, 2.2MB] – Released 5 February 2021

Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) [3 Pages, 0.4MB] – Released 8 January 2021

Bureau of the Fiscal Service [5 Pages, 0.4MB] – Released 14 January 2021

Bureau of Indian Affairs [3 Pages, 0.8MB] – Released 22 February 2021

Bureau of Land Management [29 Pages, 7MB] – Released 30 July 2025

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) [8 Pages, 1.4MB] – Released 30 December 2020

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) [26 Pages, 8.4MB] – Released 1 January 2021

Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement (BSEE) [8 Pages, 5MB] – Released 22 December 2020

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [77 Pages, 0.8MB] – Released 5 February 2021

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS)  [10 Pages, 1.1MB] – Released 15 July 2024

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) [6 Pages, 1.1MB] – Released 26 January 2021

Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) [4 Pages, 1.0MB] – Released 6 January 2021

U.S. Customs and Border Protection [13 Pages, 1.0MB] – Released 6 January 2021

Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) [21 Pages, 7.8MB] – Released 23 December 2020

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNSFB)  [8 Pages, 0.8MB] – Released 28 January 2021

Department of Agriculture [2 Pages, 0.2MB] – 8 January 2021 Denying Request

Department of Agriculture – Animal and Plant Health Service (APHIS) [4 Pages, 0.7MB] – Released 14 October 2022

Department of Agriculture – Rural Development [39 Pages, 4.6MB] – Released 26 January 2021

Department of Education [216 Pages, 100MB] – Released 28 January 2021

Department of Energy [96 Pages, 5.5MB] – Released 14 May 2021

Department of Housing and Urban Development [13 Pages, 0.6MB] – Released 15 March 2021

Department of Justice [20 Pages, 15.5MB] – Released 26 August 2021

Department of Justice – Federal Bureau of Prisons [2 Pages, 0.4MB] – Released 5 March 2024

Department of Justice – Office of Justice – [14 Pages, 3.3MB] – Released 15 September 2021

Department of Transportation (DOT) [8 Pages, 2.2MB] – Released 28 January 2021

Department of Treasury [2 Pages, 0.3MB] – Released 3 July 2025

Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) [6 Pages, 3MB] – Released 5 January 2021

Farm Credit Administration (FCA) [5 Pages, 3MB] – Released 19 January 2021

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [8 Pages, 6.1MB] – Released 22 December 2020

Federal Election Commission (FEC) [4 Pages, 1.8MB] – Released 7 January 2021

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [55 Pages, 9MB] – Released 4 August 2021

Federal Reserve System [3 Pages, 1.0MB] – Released 14 January 2021

Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) [12 Pages, 5.8MB] – Released 26 January 2021

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [2 Pages, 1.7MB] – Released 4 January 2021

Federal Transit Administration (FTA) [10 Pages, 2MB] – Released 14 April 2021

Fish & Wildlife Service [20 Pages, 1.5MB] – Released 6 January 2021

Food Safety & Inspection Service [20 Pages, 1.5MB] – Released 2 March 2021

General Services Administration (GSA) [17 Pages, 5.7MB] – Released 12 January 2021

General Services Administration (GSA) – After Appeal of the above request, new documents are released [17 Pages, 3.2MB] – Released 7 May 2021

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) [3 Pages, 1MB] – Released 31 December 2020

Inter-American Foundation (IAF) [6 Pages, 4.2MB] – Released 27 January 2021

Maritime Administration [6 Pages, 1.4MB] – Released 8 January 2021

Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) [6 Pages, 1.2MB] – Released 10 February 2021

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (Excluding JPL) [207 Pages, 22.5MB] – Released 22 March 2021

National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) [4 Pages, 5MB] – Released 8 January 2021

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) [22 Pages, 7.5MB] – Released 5 February 2021

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)  [97 Pages, 2.0MB] – Released 20 January 2021

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)  [25 Pages, 12.0MB] – Released 25 January 2021

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) [37 Pages, 15.0MB] – Released 11 September 2024

National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) [9 Pages, 1.2MB] – Released 28 December 2020

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [10 Pages, 1.2MB] – Released 29 January 2021

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) [6 Pages, 7.0MB] – Released 25 January 2021

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) [1 Page, 1.0MB] – Released 14 April 2021

National Science Foundation (NSF) [3 Pages, 0.5MB] – Released 26 March 2021

National Security Agency (NSA) [2 Pages, 1.2MB] – Released 12 January 2021

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) [28 Pages, 11MB] – Released 15 January 2021

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) [5 Pages, 1.2MB] – Released 29 December 2020

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – Stated no “Non-Public” Videos on their YouTube page, as of 8 February 2021.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) [8 Pages, 2MB] – Released 30 March 2021

Office of Government Ethics (OGE) [24 Pages, 4.8MB] – Released 10 February 2021

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) [6 Pages, 11MB] – Released 25 February 2021

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) [3 Pages, 0.8MB] – Released 5 January 2021

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [9 Pages, 4.2MB] – Released 6 January 2021

Secret Service [2 Pages, 0.8MB] – Released 4 June 2021

Selective Service Administration (SSA) [2 Pages, 0.8MB] – Released 22 December 2020

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)  [2 Pages, 0.6MB] – Released 19 January 2021

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission – Stated no “Non-Public” Videos on their YouTube page, as of 2 April 2021.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development  [13 Pages, 4.2MB] – Released 6 January 2021

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) [5 Pages, 1.4MB] – Released 30 December 2020

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) [16 Pages, 6MB] – Released 1 March 2021

Agencies Without YouTube Channels

  • National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

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]]> 12800 Agency Cafeterias – Complaints & Menus https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/agency-cafeterias-complaints-menus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=agency-cafeterias-complaints-menus Wed, 18 Jun 2025 05:40:46 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=503 Background You can get quite a bit of material under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) even copies of cafeteria menus and complaints sent in regarding the food. Although I still have quite a few open FOIA requests regarding this, the below have come in thus far. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)  CIA Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar [...]

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]]> Background

You can get quite a bit of material under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) even copies of cafeteria menus and complaints sent in regarding the food.

Although I still have quite a few open FOIA requests regarding this, the below have come in thus far.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

 CIA Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Year 2013 [29 Pages, 2.7MB]

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

DIA Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Year 2013 [33 Pages, 11MB]

Department of Agriculture (USDA)

 USDA Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [4 Pages, 0.6MB] – USDA claims only 1 complain was filed, but was settled, so there was no official report.

Department of Commerce (DOC)

 DOC Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [4 Pages, 1.7MB] – Pretty long and detailed complaint because he felt he overpaid by… 47 cents! (Wonder how much taxpayers paid to pay this worker, to write this letter?)

Department of Defense (DOD)

 DOD / Pentagon Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [37 Pages, 1.7MB]

Department of Energy (DOE)

 DOE Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [149 Pages, 14.1MB]

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

 HHS Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [11 Pages, 1.6MB]

Department of Transportation (DOT)

 DOT Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [16 Pages, 2.8MB]

Department of Treasury

Department of Treasury Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [5 Pages, 1MB]

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

 NRO Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Year 2013 [30 Pages, 0.6MB]

National Security Agency (NSA)

 NSA Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Year 2013 [18 Pages, 9.3MB]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

 NRO Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [8 Pages, 0.6MB]

Veterans Affairs (VA)

 VA Cafeteria Complaints, Calendar Years 2014-2015 [7 Pages, 2.1MB]

 

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]]> 503 The MEGABYTE Act of 2016 – Software License Inventories https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/megabyte-act-2016-software-license-inventories/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=megabyte-act-2016-software-license-inventories Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:50:20 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=3539 Background In 2016, the MEGABYTE Act of 2016 was passed. This law requires agencies to get a better handle on their software licenses, simply due to the extreme financial waste when it comes to software purchases. This law requires that: … each CIO establish a comprehensive inventory of software licenses, track and maintain such licenses, [...]

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]]> Background

In 2016, the MEGABYTE Act of 2016 was passed. This law requires agencies to get a better handle on their software licenses, simply due to the extreme financial waste when it comes to software purchases.

This law requires that:

… each CIO establish a comprehensive inventory of software licenses, track and maintain such licenses, analyze software usage to make cost-effective decisions, provide software license management training, establish goals and objectives of the agency’s software license management program, and consider the software license management life cycle phases to implement effective decision-making and incorporate existing standards, processes, and metrics.

Under the FOIA, I requests various inventories, as mandated, by this law from various agencies. I will update this list and more come in.

Software Inventory Lists

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

 2016 [2 Pages, 1.1MB]

Department of Energy (DOE)

 2016 [102 Pages, 11.3MB]

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

 February 2017 [2 Pages, 0.9MB]

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

 2016 [2 Pages, 2.3MB]

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

 2016 [6 Pages, 1.1MB]

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

 2016 [6 Pages, 1.1MB]

General Services Administration (GSA)

 2016 [317 Pages, 2.3MB]

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

 2016 [42 Pages, 0.8MB]

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]]> 3539 Defense Support of Civil Authorities. Handbook No. 1.04, 15 August 2004 https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/defense-support-of-civil-authorities-handbook-no-1-04-15-august-2004/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=defense-support-of-civil-authorities-handbook-no-1-04-15-august-2004 Thu, 19 Mar 2020 13:17:33 +0000 https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=9452 Background Defense Support to Civil Authorities: WMD/E Consequence Management is a supplemental handbook that presents an appreciation of U.S. military forces and their roles as part of Department of Defense support to Federal emergency response in a terrorist WMD/E incident. This handbook supports a U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Deputy Chief of Staff for [...]

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]]> Background

Defense Support to Civil Authorities: WMD/E Consequence Management is a supplemental handbook that presents an appreciation of U.S. military forces and their roles as part of Department of Defense support to Federal emergency response in a terrorist WMD/E incident. This handbook supports a U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence capstone reference guide on terrorism, DCSINT Handbook No. 1, A Military Guide to Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. Both the capstone guide and supplemental handbook are prepared under the direction of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence-Threats. Understanding WMD/E and terrorism spans foreign and domestic threats with specific strategies, tactics, and targets. A central aspect of this handbook comprises is the use of U.S. military capabilities during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high yield explosive (CBRNE) incident in a contemporary operational environment (COE).

Document Archive

Defense Support of Civil Authorities. Handbook No. 1.04, 15 August 2004 [69 Pages, 0.8MB]

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]]> 9452 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Intranet Site BU|NET https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/the-federal-bureau-of-investigation-fbi-intranet-site-bunet/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-federal-bureau-of-investigation-fbi-intranet-site-bunet Thu, 21 Nov 2019 12:40:02 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=5567 Background The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has an internal website called BU|NET. On March 15, 2017, I requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) a copy of the intranet’s home page, along with all pages accessible via “one-click” (ie: all the “top” pages). However, it does not appear they did quite that. However, [...]

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]]> Background

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has an internal website called BU|NET.

On March 15, 2017, I requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) a copy of the intranet’s home page, along with all pages accessible via “one-click” (ie: all the “top” pages).

However, it does not appear they did quite that. However, I am adding these documents below, and will expand as more sections are released.

Document Archive

 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Intranet Site BU|NET HomePage [15 Pages, 18.7MB]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Intranet Site BU|NET Intel & Operations Pages [6 Pages, 2.5MB] – The FBI classified the entire release, and denied the request.

 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Intranet Site BU|NET Governance Plan and Style Guide, Released January 31, 2019 [57 Pages, 13.1MB]

 

 

 

 

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]]> 5567 Premium Travel Expenditure Reports https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/premium-travel-expenditure-reports/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=premium-travel-expenditure-reports Fri, 29 Dec 2017 23:40:44 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=3765 Background Travel is an important and necessary component of government to accomplish agencies’ mission. In today’s climate of increased transparency, budget reductions, and accountability, agencies’ travel expenditures are closely evaluated to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Government travelers are required to exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would exercise [...]

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]]> Background

Travel is an important and necessary component of government to accomplish agencies’ mission. In today’s climate of increased transparency, budget reductions, and accountability, agencies’ travel expenditures are closely evaluated to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Government travelers are required to exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would exercise if traveling on personal business . Therefore, when making official travel arrangements, agencies and employees must consider the most cost-effective class of transportation that meets their needs. Government travelers are required to use coach-class for official travel. Other than coach-class airline accommodations may be used only when their agency specifically authorizes/approves such transportation.

Travel in any class above coach class is also known as premium-class travel. To achieve the goals of greater accountability and transparency for the premium-class transportation, Chapter 300-70.100 of the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) requires Federal agencies to annually submit premium-class travel data to the General Services Administration (GSA). Agencies are required to report their usage of other than coach class (first and business-class) transportation accommodation acquired while on official business which has a cost to the government greater than coach-class travel. The information is submitted annually via the GSA Travel Reporting Tool, a web-based reporting tool. The annual Premium-Class Travel Report presents the analysis of the data as a report from these annual submissions. This report provides an objective view of the data collected by GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP) as required by the FTR .

Premium Travel Expenditure Reports

Below, you will find a growing list of agencies, and their respective Premium Travel Expenditure Reports.

Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG)

 2016 [2 Pages, 1.0MB]

Department of Defense (DOD)

 2016 [21 Pages, 3.9MB]

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

 FY 2016 [5 Pages, 0.8MB]

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

 CY 2016 [9 Pages, 0.8MB]

General Services Administration (GSA)

 FY 2015 [10 Pages, 0.5MB]

Internal Revenue Services (IRS)

 CY 2015 [2 Pages, 0.5MB]

 

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

 CY 2016 [8 Pages, 4.5MB]

United States Secret Service (USSS)

 CY 2016 [19 Pages, 9.3MB]

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]]> 3765 FERC Headquarters Modernization Project https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/ferc-headquarters-modernization-project/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ferc-headquarters-modernization-project Fri, 01 Sep 2017 15:47:11 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=4991 Background FERC currently leases and occupies 400,000 rentable sq. feet. In order to comply with General Services Administration (GSA) mandates to reduce the current footprint, FERC will undergo a phased renovation of the headquarters building at 888 First Street NE, Washington D.C. 20426. To accomplish this goal, new office and workstation area standards are being [...]

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]]> Background

FERC currently leases and occupies 400,000 rentable sq. feet. In order to comply with General Services Administration (GSA) mandates to reduce the current footprint, FERC will undergo a phased renovation of the headquarters building at 888 First Street NE, Washington D.C. 20426. To accomplish this goal, new office and workstation area standards are being defined in order to reduce the overall square footage of occupied space, while providing sufficient space to meet the current and planned future FERC FTE head-counts.

In support of this effort, the “FERC Headquarters Renovation Project and Field Office Refresh: Initial Outfitting, Transition, & Commodities (10T&C)” procurement provides for the following requirements: manufactured furniture, partitions, shelving, chairs, including wood office furniture; furniture installation services, office move and transition services; and information technology (IT) equipment, audio visual equipment, security programming services, and comprehensive light auditing services.

In August of 2017, I requested from FERC all emails between their agency, and the GSA, regarding this “Modernization Project”.

I received a very large (nearly 1 gig) of emails, regarding the project.  I am archiving it in this format, since there are thousands of individual files. The PDF portfolio is the best way to view the archive, although, it is very large.

It is recommended to download the PDF onto your computer, rather than opening it in your browser.

Document Archive

 FERC Headquarters Modernization project Email PDF Portfolio [4,220 Pages, 865MB]

 

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]]> 4991 Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Employee Use of Social Network Accounts https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/office-of-government-ethics-oge-employee-use-of-social-network-accounts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=office-of-government-ethics-oge-employee-use-of-social-network-accounts Thu, 05 Jan 2017 23:12:13 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=3771 Background Use of social media has become prevalent among Federal executive branch employees and agencies. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is aware that agency ethics officials have an interest in understanding how the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch Employees (Standards of Conduct), 5 C.F.R. part 2635, apply to the use of [...]

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]]> Background

Use of social media has become prevalent among Federal executive branch employees and agencies. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is aware that agency ethics officials have an interest in understanding how the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch Employees (Standards of Conduct), 5 C.F.R. part 2635, apply to the use of social media. This interest is reflected in the increased volume of questions that OGE receives from various agencies seeking advice in this area.

As an initial matter, the Standards of Conduct do not prohibit executive branch employees from establishing and maintaining personal social media accounts. As in any other context, however, employees must ensure that their social media activities comply with the Standards of Conduct and other applicable laws, including agency supplemental regulations and agency-specific policies. To assist employees and agency ethics officials in this endeavor, OGE is providing the following guidance regarding issues that agency ethics official have frequently raised concerning employees’ obligations under the Standards of Conduct when using social media.

 The Standards of Conduct as Applied to Personal Social Media Use for Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Employees [36 Pages, 3.2MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/oge/OGESocialMedia.pdf

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]]> 3771 Defense Collaboration Services (DCS) https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/defense-collaboration-services-dcs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=defense-collaboration-services-dcs Mon, 03 Oct 2016 05:32:25 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=3182 Background Defense Collaboration Services (DCS) enables synchronous communication among the Non-secure Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet) and Secure Internet Protocol Routing Network (SIPRNet). The capability includes Web Conferencing (session management, text messaging, application sharing/broadcasting, audio, presence and awareness, voting/polling, video, multiple sessions, and recording) and Instant Messaging (IM). DCS supports Common Access Card (CAC) and [...]

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]]> Background

Defense Collaboration Services (DCS) enables synchronous communication among the Non-secure Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet) and Secure Internet Protocol Routing Network (SIPRNet). The capability includes Web Conferencing (session management, text messaging, application sharing/broadcasting, audio, presence and awareness, voting/polling, video, multiple sessions, and recording) and Instant Messaging (IM).

DCS supports Common Access Card (CAC) and select hard token holders and unanticipated (select DOD mission partners) users. Anticipated users are issued accounts which authorize privileges to manage/control collaboration sessions, whereas unanticipated users are provided ad hoc guest access without pre-specified roles/permissions.

Capacity

DCS can scale to handle 10,000 concurrent users with a maximum of 250 participants per web conference. Mission partners requiring collaboration above 250 participants can leverage DISA’s Global Content Delivery Service (GCDS) in lieu of DCS. The DCS Chat service is scalable to support 100,000 concurrent users.

Service Continuity

DCS ensures continuity of operations (COOP) through a fault-tolerant design. DCS can tolerate the failure of one of any type of component. The system is designed to continue operating in the event of a single failure of any one component in the primary site.

 Defense Collaboration Services (DCS) Fact Sheet [2 Pages, 0.5MB]

 Defense Collaboration Services PIV Activation Guide, May 2015 [116 Pages, 12.4MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/disa/DefenseCollaborationServicesPIVActivationGuide.pdf

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]]> 3182 Situation Awareness and Decision Support System for Defensive Counterspace https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/situation-awareness-and-decision-support-system-for-defensive-counterspace/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=situation-awareness-and-decision-support-system-for-defensive-counterspace Tue, 27 Oct 2015 22:53:40 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=1927 The following document was first requested in April of 2015, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The following was all I knew about the document: Title: ( U ) Situation Awareness and Decision Support System for Defensive Counterspace PDF URL: (pdf) – 2 MB – Accession Number: ADB339747 Personal Author(s): Bowman, Christopher ;  DeSieno, [...]

The post Situation Awareness and Decision Support System for Defensive Counterspace first appeared on The Black Vault.

]]> The following document was first requested in April of 2015, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The following was all I knew about the document:

Title: ( U ) Situation Awareness and Decision Support System for Defensive Counterspace
PDF URL: (pdf) – 2 MB –
Accession Number: ADB339747
Personal Author(s): Bowman, Christopher ;  DeSieno, Duane
Corporate Author: DATA FUSION AND NEURAL NETWORKS BROOMFIELD CO
Report Date: 10 Apr 2008
Descriptive Note: Final rept. 10 Apr 2007-10 Apr 2008
Pages:77 Page(s)
Report Number: FA9453-07-M-0109FR   ( FA945307M0109FR )  ,  AFRL-RV-PS – TR-2008-1026 AFRL-RV-PS   ( AFRLRVPSTR20081026 AFRLRVPS )  ,  XC – TR-2008-1026 AFRL-RV-PS   ( XCTR20081026 AFRLRVPS )
Monitor Series: TR-2008-1026     ( TR20081026 )  ,  AFRL-RV-PS     ( AFRLRVPS )
Contract/Grant/Transfer Number: FA9453-07-M-0109     ( FA945307M0109 )

After waiting many months, I was denied, in full, access to the record.  I quickly filed an appeal. Whenever a document is fully denied, I do wonder if they truly reviewed the document, or if they simply denied access.

After a couple more months of waiting, I partially won my appeal – and they released a portion of the document. Although still primarily redacted, it does give some insight with the “Executive Summary” being partially released.

Download Situation Awareness and Decision Support System for Defensive Counterspace

 Situation Awareness and Decision Support System for Defensive Counterspace [79 Pages, 5.2MB]

Excerpt:

The fundamental deficiency with operational automated situation assessment and response software systems is that in too many cases they deliver the answer to the problem they were designed to solve rather than the current mission context problem. What the AF needs is a context assessment (CA)
capability that interprets the situation assessment and response outputs using all the available current mission contextual knowledge.

This DF&NN SBIR Phase 1 effort is the first to provide a technical architecture for the development of Context Assessment (CA) software for Data Fusion & Resource Management (DF&RM) systems. CA software provides an interpretation (i.e., explanation and evaluation) of the DF&RM system outputs based upon the current mission context data base. As such CA improves the user situation awareness and the utility of his supporting DF&RM svstem.

 

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/defenseissues/F-2015-00120-A.pdf

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]]> 1927 Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion, Undisclosed to Congress https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/secret-fed-loans-gave-banks-13-billion-undisclosed-to-congress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=secret-fed-loans-gave-banks-13-billion-undisclosed-to-congress Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:53:15 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=1218 A special thanks to Bloomberg.com for the release of this material, and sending the documents to The Black Vault for archiving Introduction Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion which was undisclosed to Congress.  Bloomberg received these pages after filing a FOIA lawsuit, and won, which they then sifted through to create their massive report [...]

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]]> A special thanks to Bloomberg.com for the release of this material, and sending the documents to The Black Vault for archiving

Introduction

Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion which was undisclosed to Congress.  Bloomberg received these pages after filing a FOIA lawsuit, and won, which they then sifted through to create their massive report and expose, which is reprinted below. The Black Vault has archived the document release in its entirety, with full credit and special thanks to Bloomberg for their permission.

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FOIA Documents

The following documents were received from Bloomberg, and republished here, with permission.  Please note, these are listed and programmed in how they were received.  The Black Vault has made them “indexed” (so you can search them, and they will be archived by the search engines) but other than that, there are no changes, except for TheBlackVault.com watermark.

FOIA Request No. 2008-356

FOIA Request No. 2010-282

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FOIA Requests Nos. 2009-73 and 2009-106

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Additional Data Releases

The following links are also recommended for researching the material above.

 

Bloomberg’s Report

By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz – Nov 27, 2011 4:01 PM PT

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

A fresh narrative of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions. While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.

‘Change Their Votes’

“When you see the dollars the banks got, it’s hard to make the case these were successful institutions,” says Sherrod Brown, a Democratic Senator from Ohio who in 2010 introduced an unsuccessful bill to limit bank size. “This is an issue that can unite the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. There are lawmakers in both parties who would change their votes now.”

The size of the bailout came to light after Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, won a court case against the Fed and a group of the biggest U.S. banks called Clearing House Association LLC to force lending details into the open.

The Fed, headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, argued that revealing borrower details would create a stigma — investors and counterparties would shun firms that used the central bank as lender of last resort — and that needy institutions would be reluctant to borrow in the next crisis. Clearing House Association fought Bloomberg’s lawsuit up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the banks’ appeal in March 2011.

$7.77 Trillion

The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.

“TARP at least had some strings attached,” says Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, referring to the program’s executive-pay ceiling. “With the Fed programs, there was nothing.”

Bankers didn’t disclose the extent of their borrowing. On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America (BAC) Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day.

‘Motivate Others’

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon told shareholders in a March 26, 2010, letter that his bank used the Fed’s Term Auction Facility “at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system.” He didn’t say that the New York-based bank’s total TAF borrowings were almost twice its cash holdings or that its peak borrowing of $48 billion on Feb. 26, 2009, came more than a year after the program’s creation.

Howard Opinsky, a spokesman for JPMorgan (JPM), declined to comment about Dimon’s statement or the company’s Fed borrowings. Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for Bank of America, also declined to comment.

The Fed has been lending money to banks through its so- called discount window since just after its founding in 1913. Starting in August 2007, when confidence in banks began to wane, it created a variety of ways to bolster the financial system with cash or easily traded securities. By the end of 2008, the central bank had established or expanded 11 lending facilities catering to banks, securities firms and corporations that couldn’t get short-term loans from their usual sources.

‘Core Function’

“Supporting financial-market stability in times of extreme market stress is a core function of central banks,” says William B. English, director of the Fed’s Division of Monetary Affairs. “Our lending programs served to prevent a collapse of the financial system and to keep credit flowing to American families and businesses.”

The Fed has said that all loans were backed by appropriate collateral. That the central bank didn’t lose money should “lead to praise of the Fed, that they took this extraordinary step and they got it right,” says Phillip Swagel, a former assistant Treasury secretary under Henry M. Paulson and now a professor of international economic policy at the University of Maryland.

The Fed initially released lending data in aggregate form only. Information on which banks borrowed, when, how much and at what interest rate was kept from public view.

The secrecy extended even to members of President George W. Bush’s administration who managed TARP. Top aides to Paulson weren’t privy to Fed lending details during the creation of the program that provided crisis funding to more than 700 banks, say two former senior Treasury officials who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak.

Big Six

The Treasury Department relied on the recommendations of the Fed to decide which banks were healthy enough to get TARP money and how much, the former officials say. The six biggest U.S. banks, which received $160 billion of TARP funds, borrowed as much as $460 billion from the Fed, measured by peak daily debt calculated by Bloomberg using data obtained from the central bank. Paulson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The six — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)and Morgan Stanley — accounted for 63 percent of the average daily debt to the Fed by all publicly traded U.S. banks, money managers and investment- services firms, the data show. By comparison, they had about half of the industry’s assets before the bailout, which lasted from August 2007 through April 2010. The daily debt figure excludes cash that banks passed along to money-market funds.

Bank Supervision

While the emergency response prevented financial collapse, the Fed shouldn’t have allowed conditions to get to that point, says Joshua Rosner, a banking analyst with Graham Fisher & Co. in New York who predicted problems from lax mortgage underwriting as far back as 2001. The Fed, the primary supervisor for large financial companies, should have been more vigilant as the housing bubble formed, and the scale of its lending shows the “supervision of the banks prior to the crisis was far worse than we had imagined,” Rosner says.

Bernanke in an April 2009 speech said that the Fed provided emergency loans only to “sound institutions,” even though its internal assessments described at least one of the biggest borrowers, Citigroup, as “marginal.”

On Jan. 14, 2009, six days before the company’s central bank loans peaked, the New York Fed gave CEO Vikram Pandit a report declaring Citigroup’s financial strength to be “superficial,” bolstered largely by its $45 billion of Treasury funds. The document was released in early 2011 by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a panel empowered by Congress to probe the causes of the crisis.

‘Need Transparency’

Andrea Priest, a spokeswoman for the New York Fed, declined to comment, as did Jon Diat, a spokesman for Citigroup.

“I believe that the Fed should have independence in conducting highly technical monetary policy, but when they are putting taxpayer resources at risk, we need transparency and accountability,” says Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

Judd Gregg, a former New Hampshire senator who was a lead Republican negotiator on TARP, and Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who chaired the House Financial Services Committee, both say they were kept in the dark.

“We didn’t know the specifics,” says Gregg, who’s now an adviser to Goldman Sachs.

“We were aware emergency efforts were going on,” Frank says. “We didn’t know the specifics.”

Disclose Lending

Frank co-sponsored the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, billed as a fix for financial-industry excesses. Congress debated that legislation in 2010 without a full understanding of how deeply the banks had depended on the Fed for survival.

It would have been “totally appropriate” to disclose the lending data by mid-2009, says David Jones, a former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who has written four books about the central bank.

“The Fed is the second-most-important appointed body in the U.S., next to the Supreme Court, and we’re dealing with a democracy,” Jones says. “Our representatives in Congress deserve to have this kind of information so they can oversee the Fed.”

The Dodd-Frank law required the Fed to release details of some emergency-lending programs in December 2010. It also mandated disclosure of discount-window borrowers after a two- year lag.

Protecting TARP

TARP and the Fed lending programs went “hand in hand,” says Sherrill Shaffer, a banking professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and a former chief economist at the New York Fed. While the TARP money helped insulate the central bank from losses, the Fed’s willingness to supply seemingly unlimited financing to the banks assured they wouldn’t collapse, protecting the Treasury’s TARP investments, he says.

“Even though the Treasury was in the headlines, the Fed was really behind the scenes engineering it,” Shaffer says.

Congress, at the urging of Bernanke and Paulson, created TARP in October 2008 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. made it difficult for financial institutions to get loans. Bank of America and New York-based Citigroup each received $45 billion from TARP. At the time, both were tapping the Fed. Citigroup hit its peak borrowing of $99.5 billion in January 2009, while Bank of America topped out in February 2009 at $91.4 billion.

No Clue

Lawmakers knew none of this.

They had no clue that one bank, New York-based Morgan Stanley (MS), took $107 billion in Fed loans in September 2008, enough to pay off one-tenth of the country’s delinquent mortgages. The firm’s peak borrowing occurred the same day Congress rejected the proposed TARP bill, triggering the biggest point drop ever in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (INDU) The bill later passed, and Morgan Stanley got $10 billion of TARP funds, though Paulson said only “healthy institutions” were eligible.

Mark Lake, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment, as did spokesmen for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Had lawmakers known, it “could have changed the whole approach to reform legislation,” says Ted Kaufman, a former Democratic Senator from Delaware who, with Brown, introduced the bill to limit bank size.

Moral Hazard

Kaufman says some banks are so big that their failure could trigger a chain reaction in the financial system. The cost of borrowing for so-called too-big-to-fail banks is lower than that of smaller firms because lenders believe the government won’t let them go under. The perceived safety net creates what economists call moral hazard — the belief that bankers will take greater risks because they’ll enjoy any profits while shifting losses to taxpayers.

If Congress had been aware of the extent of the Fed rescue, Kaufman says, he would have been able to line up more support for breaking up the biggest banks.

Byron L. Dorgan, a former Democratic senator from North Dakota, says the knowledge might have helped pass legislation to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which for most of the last century separated customer deposits from the riskier practices of investment banking.

“Had people known about the hundreds of billions in loans to the biggest financial institutions, they would have demanded Congress take much more courageous actions to stop the practices that caused this near financial collapse,” says Dorgan, who retired in January.

Getting Bigger

Instead, the Fed and its secret financing helped America’s biggest financial firms get bigger and go on to pay employees as much as they did at the height of the housing bubble.

Total assets held by the six biggest U.S. banks increased 39 percent to $9.5 trillion on Sept. 30, 2011, from $6.8 trillion on the same day in 2006, according to Fed data.

For so few banks to hold so many assets is “un-American,” says Richard W. Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “All of these gargantuan institutions are too big to regulate. I’m in favor of breaking them up and slimming them down.”

Employees at the six biggest banks made twice the average for all U.S. workers in 2010, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics hourly compensation cost data. The banks spent $146.3 billion on compensation in 2010, or an average of $126,342 per worker, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s up almost 20 percent from five years earlier compared with less than 15 percent for the average worker. Average pay at the banks in 2010 was about the same as in 2007, before the bailouts.

‘Wanted to Pretend’

“The pay levels came back so fast at some of these firms that it appeared they really wanted to pretend they hadn’t been bailed out,” says Anil Kashyap, a former Fed economist who’s now a professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “They shouldn’t be surprised that a lot of people find some of the stuff that happened totally outrageous.”

Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch & Co. at the urging of then-Treasury Secretary Paulson after buying the biggest U.S. home lender, Countrywide Financial Corp. When the Merrill Lynch purchase was announced on Sept. 15, 2008, Bank of America had $14.4 billion in emergency Fed loans and Merrill Lynch had $8.1 billion. By the end of the month, Bank of America’s loans had reached $25 billion and Merrill Lynch’s had exceeded $60 billion, helping both firms keep the deal on track.

Prevent Collapse

Wells Fargo bought Wachovia Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. bank by deposits before the 2008 acquisition. Because depositors were pulling their money from Wachovia, the Fed channeled $50 billion in secret loans to the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank through two emergency-financing programs to prevent collapse before Wells Fargo could complete the purchase.

“These programs proved to be very successful at providing financial markets the additional liquidity and confidence they needed at a time of unprecedented uncertainty,” says Ancel Martinez, a spokesman for Wells Fargo.

JPMorgan absorbed the country’s largest savings and loan, Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc., and investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. The New York Fed, then headed by Timothy F. Geithner, who’s now Treasury secretary, helped JPMorgan complete the Bear Stearns deal by providing $29 billion of financing, which was disclosed at the time. The Fed also supplied Bear Stearns with $30 billion of secret loans to keep the company from failing before the acquisition closed, central bank data show. The loans were made through a program set up to provide emergency funding to brokerage firms.

‘Regulatory Discretion’

“Some might claim that the Fed was picking winners and losers, but what the Fed was doing was exercising its professional regulatory discretion,” says John Dearie, a former speechwriter at the New York Fed who’s now executive vice president for policy at the Financial Services Forum, a Washington-based group consisting of the CEOs of 20 of the world’s biggest financial firms. “The Fed clearly felt it had what it needed within the requirements of the law to continue to lend to Bear and Wachovia.”

The bill introduced by Brown and Kaufman in April 2010 would have mandated shrinking the six largest firms.

“When a few banks have advantages, the little guys get squeezed,” Brown says. “That, to me, is not what capitalism should be.”

Kaufman says he’s passionate about curbing too-big-to-fail banks because he fears another crisis.

‘Can We Survive?’

“The amount of pain that people, through no fault of their own, had to endure — and the prospect of putting them through it again — is appalling,” Kaufman says. “The public has no more appetite for bailouts. What would happen tomorrow if one of these big banks got in trouble? Can we survive that?”

Lobbying expenditures by the six banks that would have been affected by the legislation rose to $29.4 million in 2010 compared with $22.1 million in 2006, the last full year before credit markets seized up — a gain of 33 percent, according to OpenSecrets.org, a research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. Lobbying by the American Bankers Association, a trade organization, increased at about the same rate, OpenSecrets.org reported.

Lobbyists argued the virtues of bigger banks. They’re more stable, better able to serve large companies and more competitive internationally, and breaking them up would cost jobs and cause “long-term damage to the U.S. economy,” according to a Nov. 13, 2009, letter to members of Congress from the FSF.

The group’s website cites Nobel Prize-winning economist Oliver E. Williamson, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, for demonstrating the greater efficiency of large companies.

‘Serious Burden’

In an interview, Williamson says that the organization took his research out of context and that efficiency is only one factor in deciding whether to preserve too-big-to-fail banks.

“The banks that were too big got even bigger, and the problems that we had to begin with are magnified in the process,” Williamson says. “The big banks have incentives to take risks they wouldn’t take if they didn’t have government support. It’s a serious burden on the rest of the economy.”

Dearie says his group didn’t mean to imply that Williamson endorsed big banks.

Top officials in President Barack Obama’s administration sided with the FSF in arguing against legislative curbs on the size of banks.

Geithner, Kaufman

On May 4, 2010, Geithner visited Kaufman in his Capitol Hill office. As president of the New York Fed in 2007 and 2008, Geithner helped design and run the central bank’s lending programs. The New York Fed supervised four of the six biggest U.S. banks and, during the credit crunch, put together a daily confidential report on Wall Street’s financial condition. Geithner was copied on these reports, based on a sampling of e- mails released by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

At the meeting with Kaufman, Geithner argued that the issue of limiting bank size was too complex for Congress and that people who know the markets should handle these decisions, Kaufman says. According to Kaufman, Geithner said he preferred that bank supervisors from around the world, meeting in Basel, Switzerland, make rules increasing the amount of money banks need to hold in reserve. Passing laws in the U.S. would undercut his efforts in Basel, Geithner said, according to Kaufman.

Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Geithner, declined to comment.

‘Punishing Success’

Lobbyists for the big banks made the winning case that forcing them to break up was “punishing success,” Brown says. Now that they can see how much the banks were borrowing from the Fed, senators might think differently, he says.

The Fed supported curbing too-big-to-fail banks, including giving regulators the power to close large financial firms and implementing tougher supervision for big banks, says Fed General Counsel Scott G. Alvarez. The Fed didn’t take a position on whether large banks should be dismantled before they get into trouble.

Dodd-Frank does provide a mechanism for regulators to break up the biggest banks. It established the Financial Stability Oversight Council that could order teetering banks to shut down in an orderly way. The council is headed by Geithner.

“Dodd-Frank does not solve the problem of too big to fail,” says Shelby, the Alabama Republican. “Moral hazard and taxpayer exposure still very much exist.”

Below Market

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, says banks “were either in bad shape or taking advantage of the Fed giving them a good deal. The former contradicts their public statements. The latter — getting loans at below-market rates during a financial crisis — is quite a gift.”

The Fed says it typically makes emergency loans more expensive than those available in the marketplace to discourage banks from abusing the privilege. During the crisis, Fed loans were among the cheapest around, with funding available for as low as 0.01 percent in December 2008, according to data from the central bank and money-market rates tracked by Bloomberg.

The Fed funds also benefited firms by allowing them to avoid selling assets to pay investors and depositors who pulled their money. So the assets stayed on the banks’ books, earning interest.

Banks report the difference between what they earn on loans and investments and their borrowing expenses. The figure, known as net interest margin, provides a clue to how much profit the firms turned on their Fed loans, the costs of which were included in those expenses. To calculate how much banks stood to make, Bloomberg multiplied their tax-adjusted net interest margins by their average Fed debt during reporting periods in which they took emergency loans.

Added Income

The 190 firms for which data were available would have produced income of $13 billion, assuming all of the bailout funds were invested at the margins reported, the data show.

The six biggest U.S. banks’ share of the estimated subsidy was $4.8 billion, or 23 percent of their combined net income during the time they were borrowing from the Fed. Citigroup would have taken in the most, with $1.8 billion.

“The net interest margin is an effective way of getting at the benefits that these large banks received from the Fed,” says Gerald A. Hanweck, a former Fed economist who’s now a finance professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

While the method isn’t perfect, it’s impossible to state the banks’ exact profits or savings from their Fed loans because the numbers aren’t disclosed and there isn’t enough publicly available data to figure it out.

Opinsky, the JPMorgan spokesman, says he doesn’t think the calculation is fair because “in all likelihood, such funds were likely invested in very short-term investments,” which typically bring lower returns.

Standing Access

Even without tapping the Fed, the banks get a subsidy by having standing access to the central bank’s money, says Viral Acharya, a New York University economics professor who has worked as an academic adviser to the New York Fed.

“Banks don’t give lines of credit to corporations for free,” he says. “Why should all these government guarantees and liquidity facilities be for free?”

In the September 2008 meeting at which Paulson and Bernanke briefed lawmakers on the need for TARP, Bernanke said that if nothing was done, “unemployment would rise — to 8 or 9 percent from the prevailing 6.1 percent,” Paulson wrote in “On the Brink” (Business Plus, 2010).

Occupy Wall Street

The U.S. jobless rate hasn’t dipped below 8.8 percent since March 2009, 3.6 million homes have been foreclosed since August 2007, according to data provider RealtyTrac Inc., and police have clashed with Occupy Wall Street protesters, who say government policies favor the wealthiest citizens, in New York, Boston, Seattle and Oakland, California.

The Tea Party, which supports a more limited role for government, has its roots in anger over the Wall Street bailouts, says Neil M. Barofsky, former TARP special inspector general and a Bloomberg Television contributing editor.

“The lack of transparency is not just frustrating; it really blocked accountability,” Barofsky says. “When people don’t know the details, they fill in the blanks. They believe in conspiracies.”

In the end, Geithner had his way. The Brown-Kaufman proposal to limit the size of banks was defeated, 60 to 31. Bank supervisors meeting in Switzerland did mandate minimum reserves that institutions will have to hold, with higher levels for the world’s largest banks, including the six biggest in the U.S. Those rules can be changed by individual countries.

They take full effect in 2019.

Meanwhile, Kaufman says, “we’re absolutely, totally, 100 percent not prepared for another financial crisis.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Bob Ivry in New York at bivry@bloomberg.net; Bradley Keoun in New York atbkeoun@bloomberg.net; Phil Kuntz in New York at pkuntz1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gary Putka at gputka@bloomberg.net; David Scheer atdscheer@bloomberg.net.

 

### Article above used with permission from the authors and as Fair Use; any further reprint, republishing, etc., MUST BE obtained by Bloomberg. ###

 

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]]> 1218 Memo prepares DOD employees for government shutdown, September 2013 https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/memo-prepares-dod-employees-for-government-shutdown-september-2013/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=memo-prepares-dod-employees-for-government-shutdown-september-2013 Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:06:23 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=1209 Memo prepares DOD employees for government shutdown By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service – Published September 24, 2013 WASHINGTON (AFNS) — Although Defense Department officials believe a government shutdown can be avoided when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, they want DOD employees to be prepared for the possibility, Deputy Defense Secretary Ash [...]

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]]>

Memo prepares DOD employees for government shutdown

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service – Published September 24, 2013

WASHINGTON (AFNS) — Although Defense Department officials believe a government shutdown can be avoided when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, they want DOD employees to be prepared for the possibility, Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a memo issued to the workforce Sept. 23.

The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Congress has not passed a budget. If Congress does not approve a budget or pass a continuing resolution, the portions of the government funded via appropriated funds will be forced to close.

“The department remains hopeful that a government shutdown will be averted,” Carter wrote in the memo. “The administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur and is working with Congress to find a solution.”

Congress still can prevent a lapse in appropriations, but “prudent management requires that we be prepared for all contingencies, including the possibility that a lapse could occur at the end of the month,” the deputy secretary wrote.

The absence of funding would mean a number of government activities would cease. “While military personnel would continue in a normal duty status, a large number of our civilian employees would be temporarily furloughed,” Carter said. “To prepare for this possibility, we are updating our contingency plans for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by a lapse in appropriations.”

President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel understand the hardships such a shutdown could cause civilian employees, the deputy secretary wrote.

“The administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur and is working with Congress to find a solution,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today. “The secretary has made it clear that budget uncertainty is not helpful for us in executing our budget efficiently, and a shutdown would be the worst type of uncertainty. A shutdown would put severe hardships on an already stressed workforce, and is totally unnecessary.”

 

Below, you will find the memo with the attached 2011 report.

Memo prepares DOD employees for government shutdown, September 2013 [28 Pages, 2.57MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/financial/Shutdown-23SEP13-Signed.pdf

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]]> 1209 Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/untangling-the-web-a-guide-to-internet-research/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=untangling-the-web-a-guide-to-internet-research Thu, 26 Feb 2015 06:20:58 +0000 http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/?p=726 Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research [650 Pages, 313.5 MB]   According to the online news site FCW.com: By Adam Mazmanian The National Security Agency just released “Untangling the Web,” an unclassified how-to guide to Internet search. It’s a sprawling document, clocking in at over 650 pages, and is the product of [...]

The post Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research first appeared on The Black Vault.

]]> Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research [650 Pages, 313.5 MB]

 

According to the online news site FCW.com:

By Adam Mazmanian

The National Security Agency just released “Untangling the Web,” an unclassified how-to guide to Internet search. It’s a sprawling document, clocking in at over 650 pages, and is the product of many years of research and updating by a NSA information specialist whose name is redacted on the official release, but who is identified as Robyn Winder of the Center for Digital Content on the Freedom of Information Act request that led to its release.

It’ is a droll document on many levels. First and foremost, it’s funny to think of officials who control some of the most sophisticated supercomputers and satellites ever invented turning to a .pdf file for tricks on how to track down domain name system information on an enemy website. But “Untangling the Web” isn’t for code-breakers or wire-tappers. The target audience seems to be staffers looking for basic factual information, like the preferred spelling of Kazakhstan, or telephonic prefix information for East Timor.

Still, the author seems unable to resist frequent allusions to the cloak-and-dagger work of the NSA in the screen grabs she uses as illustrations. A demo of how to uses Windows Live Search features a request for information on Uranium-235. A how-to on the use of video aggregator Blinkx is keyed to a search for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The domain-lookup function of the WHOIS database is explained with a look at the DNS information of security firm Kaspersky Labs. Instructions on a complicated Google feature that allows users to view pages returned in searches stripped of any images is based on a search for DPRK.

Perhaps by using this technique, an NSA searcher could get info from the North Korean government website without tell-tale pings to the host network. But it seems unlikely that the puzzle-masters and cryptographers at NSA would find themselves in that sort of predicament.

It was last updated in February 2007, and the six year lag gives “Untangling the Web” the feel of an unearthed time capsule. In 2007, before the financial crisis, there was a mini-boom in specialized search, and this is reflected in the many now-defunct search services that are listed in the guide. The author, clearly a seasoned web searcher, has strong opinions about the utility and futility of certain techniques, and goes out of her way to tsk-tsk the “mess” that was Yahoo’s front page at the time.

The document contains some very useful information on searching the semantic or deep web – the disjointed mass of information and documents buried in databases that typically don’t show up in Internet searches, and these are worth a read for people interested in snooping for spreadsheets, slide decks, and documents that businesses, governments, and large institutions may have made available online inadvertently.

Source and special thanks to: http://fcw.com/articles/2013/05/10/nsa-untangling-web.aspx

  1. Untangling the Web – A Guide to Internet Research [650 Pages, 313.5 MB]

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