51 labs in 17 states may have received live anthrax samples: Pentagon

51 labs in 17 states may have received live anthrax samples: Pentagon

Published 4 June 2015

 

Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said yesterday (Wednesday) that the Pentagon may have shipped live anthrax samples to fifty-one labs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia, as well as three foreign countries. Word also said that it was likely that the numbers of labs which might have received live anthrax will go up as the Pentagon’s investigation into the shipments continues. All the samples shipped belonged to three lots, dating back to 2007, stored at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. CDC raises questions about the effectiveness of the method used by the Dugway lab to deactivate anthrax spores.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said yesterday (Wednesday) that the Pentagon may have shipped live anthrax samples to fifty-one labs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia, as well as three foreign countries.
Work is heading the investigative team the Pentagon has tasked with looking into the matter. The team also includes Frank Kendall, the military’s top acquisition chief; Navy Cdr. Franca Jones, chief of medical programs for chemical and biological defense, and Stephen Redd, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Work also said that it was likely that the numbers of labs which might have received live anthrax will go up as the Pentagon’s investigation into the shipments continues. Some of the shipments were made via FedEx. When the anthrax samples were put in the mail, it was believed that they were inactive, or dead.
There have been “no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infections” as a result of the shipments, Work said, noting that the samples sent out had low concentrations of the pathogen.
“We know of no risk to the general public from these samples,” Work stressed.
Jones said the threat to the general public and commercial shippers who handled the boxes containing live anthrax as “zero.” The concentration of live anthrax in a vial is too low to infect a healthy person, and it is in liquid form and not breathable, she said. Further, the packaging in which it is sent has redundant features to prevent leaking.
USA Today reports that the four Defense Department laboratories which stockpile anthrax samples for research will test all previously “inactivated” samples to ensure that the anthrax is in fact dead. The department is testing more than 400 batches, with live anthrax found so far in four of those batches.
“That is why the numbers may rise,” Work said, adding that it takes ten days to test anthrax samples.
He said that the Pentagon will investigate why the anthrax samples were not properly killed, or inactivated, before they were shipped.
Work’s press conference was the first public accounting by the Pentagon of the investigation into the shipment of live anthrax samples.
All the samples shipped belonged to three lots, dating back to 2007, stored at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The anthrax agents in the lots were supposed to be dead, but some agents appear not to have been properly deactivated.
John Peterson, a microbiology professor working with anthrax in labs at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, told USA Today that scientists face challenges when they seek to kill anthrax spores, especially if some remnant of the pathogen is needed for testing detection equipment. Tests and sensors often are looking for certain proteins or nucleic acids associated with the pathogen, he said.
“The process of inactivating them is kind of a delicate one,” he said, noting that the method must be sufficient to kill all of the spores yet still leave something behind that’s reminiscent of the organism so the material can be used to test detection equipment.
“Spores, because of their nature, their very heavy outside coating make them resistant to drying or chemicals,” Peterson said in an interview with USA Today.
He noted that there is no single, best method for killing anthrax spores, and methods may vary among labs. Some use chemicals, others use radiation. The Dugway lab is reported to irradiating its anthrax specimens.
Last week, CDC’s investigators have raised questions about whether Dugway’s method was 100 percent effective in deactivation anthrax. “We have concern that the inactivation procedures, when followed properly, are inadequate to kill all spores, and the U.S. government is developing an approach to securing such possible samples from misuse,” wrote Daniel Sosin, deputy director of CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, in an e-mail to state officials Friday which was obtained by USA Today.

Most Americans could be fed by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes

Most Americans could be fed by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes

 

Published 3 June 2015

 

The popularity of “farm to table” has skyrocketed in the past few years as people become more interested in supporting local farmers and getting fresher food from sources they know and trust. Even large chain restaurants are making efforts to source supplies locally, knowing more customers care where their food comes from. New farmland-mapping research published the other day shows that up to 90 percent of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes.

New farmland-mapping research published the other day shows that up to 90 percent of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes.
Professor Elliott Campbell, with the University of California, Merced, School of Engineering, discusses the possibilities in a study entitled “The Large Potential of Local Croplands to Meet Food Demand in the United States Opens a New Window.” The research results are the cover story of the newest edition of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the journal for the Ecological Society of America.
“Elliott Campbell’s research is making an important contribution to the national conversation on local food systems,” influential author and UC Berkeley Professor Michael Pollan said. “That conversation has been hobbled by too much wishful thinking and not enough hard data — exactly what Campbell is bringing to the table.”
A UC Merced release reports that the popularity of “farm to table” has skyrocketed in the past few years as people become more interested in supporting local farmers and getting fresher food from sources they know and trust. Even large chain restaurants are making efforts to source supplies locally, knowing more customers care where their food comes from.
“Farmers markets are popping up in new places, food hubs are ensuring regional distribution, and the 2014 U.S. Farm Bill supports local production — for good reason, too,” Campbell said. “There are profound social and environmental benefits to eating locally.”
Local food potential has declined over time, which Campbell said was an expected finding, given limited land resources and growing populations and suburbanization.
The surprise, though, was how much potential still remains.
Most areas of the country could feed between 80 percent and 100 percent of their populations with food grown or raised within fifty miles. Campbell used data from a farmland-mapping project funded by the National Science Foundation and information about land productivity from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
With additional support from the University of California Global Food Initiative, he found there is enough land to assure that eating locally doesn’t have to be a passing fad.
“These results are very timely with respect to increasing interests by the public in community-supported agriculture, as well as improving efficiencies in the food-energy-water nexus,” said Bruce Hamilton, program director for NSF, which supports a spectrum of emerging technologies that might help alleviate growing agricultural demands.
Campbell and his students looked at the farms within a local radius of every American city, then estimated how many calories those farms could produce. By comparing the potential calorie production to the population of each city, the researchers found the percentage of the population that could be supported entirely by food grown locally.
The researchers found surprising potential in major coastal cities. For example, New York City could feed only 5 percent of its population within fifty miles but as much as 30 percent within 100 miles. The greater Los Angeles area could feed as much as 50 percent within 100 miles.
Diet can also make a difference. For example, local food around San Diego can support 35 percent of the people based on the average U.S. diet, but as much as 51 percent of the population if people switched to plant-based diets.
Campbell’s maps suggest careful planning and policies are needed to protect farmland from suburbanization and encourage local farming for the future.
“One important aspect of food sustainability is recycling nutrients, water and energy. For example, if we used compost from cities to fertilize our farms, we would be less reliant on fossil-fuel-based fertilizers,” Campbell said. “But cities must be close to farms so we can ship compost economically and environmentally. Our maps provide the foundation for discovering how recycling could work.”
— Read more in Andrew Zumkehr and J Elliott Campbell, “The potential for local croplands to meet U.S. food demand,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13 (June 2015): 244-48 (doi: org/10.1890/140246)

Washington State requires railroads to plan for the “largest foreseeable spill”

Washington State requires railroads to plan for the “largest foreseeable spill”

Published 3 June 2015

 

Washington State governor Jay Inslee (D) has signed a new state law last month which requires railroad companies to plan with the state for the worst possible conditions when shipping crude oil. The law will require companies to plan for the “largest foreseeable spill in adverse weather conditions.” Much of the impetus for the new bill came after BNSF told Washington emergency responders in April that the company considers the worst-case spill scenario to involve 150,000 gallons of crude oil from the Bakken region, which includes parts of North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan, Canada. That amount of crude is carried by five tanker cars — but BNSF crude-oil trains often consist of 100 or more rail tank cars.

Washington State governor Jay Inslee (D) has signed a new state law last month which requires railroad companies to plan with the state for the worst possible conditions when shipping crude oil.
As theBellingham Herald reports, the law will require companies to plan for the “largest foreseeable spill in adverse weather conditions,” though the lack of further definition has led to protests from some corners.
Much of the impetus for the new bill came after BNSF told Washington emergency responders in April that the company considers the worst-case spill scenario to involve 150,000 gallons of crude oil from the Bakken region, which includes parts of North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan, Canada. That amount of crude is carried by five tanker cars — but BNSF often consist of 100 or more rail tank cars.
“We’ve already seen worse than that though, haven’t we?” asked Roger Christensen, Bellingham’s interim emergency manager. “It seems like a low number … I hate to respond without knowing where they’re coming from. It doesn’t seem like a worst-case scenario to me.”
Additionally, most of the high-profile oil train accidents of the past few years, in places such as West Virginia, North Dakota, and Quebec, involved between 362,000 to 1.6 million gallons of crude oil. In the 5 July 2013 Lac-Megantic, Quebec accident , forty-seven people were killed by the blast.
“Until we have further regulatory clarity from the U.S. Department of Transportation on how the agency will require railroads to calculate ‘worst-case discharges’ to waterways, BNSF is considering using 150,000 gallons,” said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas. “BNSF is open to discussing the justification of this quantity with Federal or State environmental agencies.”
The new Washington law is tasking the state Department of Ecologyto craft what the government there will consider the worst-case scenario, with contingency plans in place, though the planning stages could take a year or longer, according to the department’s preparedness section manager Linda Pilkey-Jarvis.
“Preparedness regulations are all about planning for a potential worst-case spill,” Pilkey-Jarvis said. “It [all starts] with defining a worst-case spill volume, then that drives the whole rest of your plan. In [Washington] state the Legislature has defined the standard of what a worst-case spill volume should be, and in general it’s a pretty high bar. Planning for that type of all-in worst case creates pushback from the industry, which ometimes says, ‘That could never happen.’”
Much of this planning is necessary, because presently many emergency responders are not prepared for the full extent of possibilities in the event of an accident.
“If it was one tank car on fire, we’d address it the same if it was five, we’d just probably not have the ability to deal with it,” said Whatcom County Fire District 7 Chief Gary Russel, “In a derailment out here, you’d be protecting the area while it eliminated its fuel source.”
Many are aggravated by the decisions on the parts of the railroad companies to keep the information secret, arguing that it is very dangerous.
“It’s un-American to withhold these documents from the public,” said Fred Millar, an independent rail consultant who has previously worked for environmental groups. “For the first 20 years or so, the railroads said to us, ‘No law forces us to give you this information, we consider it confidential.’ After 9/11, they said ‘We won’t give you the information because of terrorism, you know. Keeping it secret is a little like elephants tiptoeing through the tulips.”
The new state law will require a 7-day advanced notice from facilities that receive the oil, such as refineries, before the train comes through the state. The information is expected to be passed along to emergency responders who will aggregate the date to be released quarterly to the public.

Computer searches at border subject to case-by-case reasonableness: Court

Computer searches at border subject to case-by-case reasonableness: Court

Published 3 June 2015

 

A Washington, D.C. District Court has upheld a ruling that U.S. intelligence and border security agents must have “reasonable suspicion” to seize and search any computer or storage media at the border – especially if the computer and storage media belong to an individual about to leave the country. A South Korean businessman, suspected of buying missile parts for China, was stopped at LAX on his way back to Korea. He was allowed to leave, but his laptop and storage media were seized by agents. Judge Amy Berman Jackson stressed that in border searches, the government has a more compelling interest in searching things that are being brought into the country than things that are about to leave the country. Kim’s lawyers asked the judge to suppress any incriminating evidence found on Kim’s laptop during a warrantless search conducted by the case agents, and she granted to lawyers’ motion. DHS says it will appeal her decision.

A Washington, D.C. District Court has upheld a ruling that U.S. intelligence and border security agents must have “reasonable suspicion” to seize and search any computer at the border.
As theWashington Post reports, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in United States v. Kim that every computer search at a U.S. border must be justified under these circumstances.
The defendant is Jae Shik Kim, a South Korean businessman with ties to China who was found to have been involved in the purchase of U.S. missile parts three to four years ago.
When he was at the Los Angeles International Airport, waiting to board a flight to South Korea, law enforcement agents seized his lap top and several storage media. The agent assigned to the case spent twelve days going through 5,900 files stored on Kim’s DVD – searching for specific keywords which included “QA-2000, QA-3000, G-2000, 7270A, accelerometers, gyroscope, angular, sensor, Honeywell, Endevco, Northrop, Grumman, ITAR, sensitive, export, shipment, military, aircraft, missile, satellite, ballistic and nuclear.” The case agent found e-mails which confirmed that Kim had purchased missile parts which were subject to the Export Control Act.
The agent then sought a search warrant to conduct further search of the files and images stored on the lap top and the storage media to see whether Kim had violated other export control laws. A judge signed the warrant, but the agent never executed it. Instead, the case was charged based primarily on the warrantless analysis of the DVD, which contained the incriminating e-mails.
Kim’s lawyers argued that the seizure of his laptop was unwarranted and his fight to suppress any information gleaned from the laptop and the storage media was thus warranted.
“[T]he Court finds, under the totality of the unique circumstances of this case, that the imaging and search of the entire contents of Kim’s laptop, aided by specialized forensic software, for a period of unlimited duration and an examination of unlimited scope, for the purpose of gathering evidence in a pre-existing investigation, was supported by so little suspicion of ongoing or imminent criminal activity, and was so invasive of Kim’s privacy and so disconnected from not only the considerations underlying the breadth of the government’s authority to search at the border, but also the border itself, that it was unreasonable.” Said Judge Jackson, “Therefore, the motion to suppress the evidence … will be granted,” Judge Jackson wrote.
Judge Jackson cites the ruling of Riley v. California, a cell-phone search case, in support of her new ruling.
Judge Jackson stressed that in the case of border searches, the government has a more compelling interest in searching things that are being brought into the country than things that are about to leave the country.
“The government’s power at the border arises out of the sovereign’s right and need to protect its territorial integrity and national security,” she said. “[S]earches made at the border, pursuant to the longstanding right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons crossing into this country, are reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border … .While there is authority that states that the government’s broad authority at the border extends to those exiting the country as well as to those coming in…the justifications for the exception to the warrant requirement are generally framed in terms of threats posed at the point of entry… None of those significant governmental interests in monitoring what comesin to the country apply in this case.”
The judge was not impressed with the government’s claim that Kim was a security threat, and that seizing his laptop and storage media at LAX could properly be described as “border search”:

[T]he Court cannot help but ask itself whether the examination in this case can accurately be characterized as a border search at all. And if not, it surely cannot be justified by the concerns underlying the border search doctrine.

It is true that Kim’s laptop was seized at the border — in this case, LAX — but it was not even opened, much less searched, there. It was transported approximately 150 miles to San Diego, it was retained for a limited period of time, and eventually, the laptop was returned. Meanwhile, there was so little of note found in Kim’s luggage, and he posed so little of an ongoing threat to national security, that he was permitted to board his flight.

There are questions about the seriousness of the security threat Kim was posing, the judge said, but there is no denial that the degree of privacy invasion was great:

[W]hile the immediate national security concerns were somewhat attenuated, the invasion of privacy was substantial: the agents created an identical image of Kim’s entire computer hard drive and gave themselves unlimited time to search the tens of thousands of documents, images, and emails it contained, using an extensive list of search terms, and with the assistance of two forensic software programs that organized, expedited, and facilitated the task. Based upon the testimony of both Special Agent Hamako and Special Agent Marshall, the Court concludes that wherever the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals eventually draws the precise boundary of a routine border search, or however either Court ultimately defines a forensic – as opposed to a conventional – computer search, this search was qualitatively and quantitatively different from a routine border examination, and therefore, it was unreasonable given the paucity of grounds to suspect that criminal activity was in progress.

The judge said that she concluded that “this search was qualitatively and quantitatively different from a routine border examination” because the agents in charge did not bother to execute the warrant they had sought and received after going through Kim’s 5,900 stored files. Judge Jackson pointed that the government’s failure to execute the warrant it had obtained implicitly shows that the warrantless search, which preceded the request for a warrant, was extremely invasive. It stands to reason that if the warrantless search had not been complete, the agents would have carried out the warrant they had obtained so they could conduct a more thorough search. But they did not – meaning that the earlier warrantless search was extremely invasive, and thus unreasonable.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to take the case to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Senate passes surveillance reform

Senate passes surveillance reform

Published 3 June 2015

 

The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 67-32 to pass the House’s USA Freedom Act which would end the NSA collection of bulk metadata of Americans’ phone records. The bill will now head to the White House for the president to sign. The USA Freedom Act shifts the responsibility for keeping the phone records from the government to hundreds of separate phone carriers – but important questions remain. Thus it is not entirely clear how many records the carriers will keep, and for how long, and under what circumstances will they allow law enforcement to view these records. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), the Senate majority leader, who supported the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, said that the USA Freedom Act is “a resounding victory for those who currently plotted against our homeland. It does not enhance the privacy protections of American citizens, and it surely undermines American security by taking one more tool from our war fighters, in my view, at exactly the wrong time.”

The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 67-32 to pass the House’s USA Freedom Act which would end the NSA collection of bulk metadata of Americans’ phone records. The bill will now head to the White House for the president to sign. The USA Freedom Act shifts the responsibility for keeping the phone records from the government to hundreds of separate phone carriers – but important questions remain. Thus it is not entirely clear how many records the carriers will keep, and for how long, and under what circumstances will they allow law enforcement to view these records.
Civil libertarians argued that the bill did not go far enough. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) praised the passage of the USA Freedom Act as “a milestone,” but noted that there were many more “intrusive and overbroad” surveillance powers yet untouched.
“This is the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978, and its passage is an indication that Americans are no longer willing to give the intelligence agencies a blank check. It’s a testament to the significance of the Snowden disclosures and also to the hard work of many principled legislators on both sides of the aisle,” Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU’s deputy legal director, said in a statement.
The NSA, in anticipation of the a failure to pass the bill in the Senate — and certain that the original Section 215 of the Patriot Act would not be reauthorized — shut down the bulk collection of U.S. phone records at 8 p.m. EST on Sunday, 31 May. The Washington Post reports that the billcalls for a 6-month grace period to transition the retention of metadata to the phone companies, so until December the NSA will continue to collect metadata the way it has since it was authorized to do so in 2006.
A senior administration official told the Guardian the NSA was facing “a restarting process.”
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), a critic of NSA surveillance, praised the passage of the bill but said the work is far from complete.
“This is the only beginning. There is a lot more to do,” Wyden told reporters after the vote. “We’re going to have very vigorous debate about the flawed idea of the FBI director to require companies to build weaknesses into their products. We’re going to try to close the backdoor search loophole — this is part of the FISA Act and is going to be increasingly important, because Americans are going to have their emails swept up increasingly as global communications systems begin to merge.”
Wyden also pointed to a proposal in the House “to make sure government agencies don’t turn cell phones of Americans into tracking devices” as another target for NSA reformers.
The failure of the Senate on Sunday to vote to extend the Patriot Act, vote on the House bill, or come up with the Senate’s own bill was the result of a surprising miscalculation by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), the majority leader – surprising, because McConnell is a crafty and experienced vote counter and a consummate politician who can read the mood of fellow senators. McConnell’s Sunday humiliation was compounded when the Senate rejected s a series of amendments, advanced by McConnell and Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, which were aimed to weaken some of the surveillance and transparency aspects of the USA Freedom Act.
Among the amendments that failed were a measure to weaken the USA Freedom Act’s establishment of a de facto privacy advocate to argue, in certain cases, against the government on behalf of privacy rights; an effort to allow the phone collection program to continue for a year instead of just six months, as proposed by the House bill; and another provision requiring the U.S. intelligence chief to certify the implementation of the new phone-records regime.
McConnell and Burr were behind the failed effort – supported by most of the Republican caucus — to reauthorize the Patriot Act in its current form. That effort fell three votes short of the sixty votes necessary for passage.
McConnell defended his tactics in a forceful speech on the Senate floor.
The USA Freedom Act is “a resounding victory for those who currently plotted against our homeland,” he said. “It does not enhance the privacy protections of American citizens, and it surely undermines American security by taking one more tool from our war fighters, in my view, at exactly the wrong time.”
For privacy advocates in Congress, the USA Freedom Act is just the beginning. Libertarian Republicans in the House, who are allies of Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), the chief opponent of the Patriot Act, said they will try to use a defense appropriations bill as a vehicle to advance more surveillance reforms. Their efforts will include blocking the NSA from undermining encryption and barring other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI from collecting U.S. data in bulk.

More than 10,000 ISIS fighters killed since August 2014: U.S.

More than 10,000 ISIS fighters killed since August 2014: U.S.

Published 3 June 2015

 

Antony Blinken, U.S. deputy secretary of state, speaking at a meeting of leaders from more than twenty countries who are meeting in Paris for discussions on how to combat ISIS, said that more than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since coalition forces started their campaign against the militant group in Iraq and Syria nine months ago. He said there had been a great deal of progress in the fight against the Islamists, but that they remained resilient and capable of taking the initiative. He said the coalition had made “real gains” and said the ISIS now had 25 percent less territory than when the air strikes began in August, but experts note, however, that even after being pushed back in a few places, the militants still control an area the size of Italy across Syria and Iraq.

Antony Blinken, U.S. deputy secretary of state, speaking at a meeting of leaders from more than twenty countries who are meeting in Paris for discussions on how to combat ISIS, said that more than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since coalition forces started their campaign against the militant group in Iraq and Syria nine months ago. He said there had been a great deal of progress in the fight against the Islamists, but that they remained resilient and capable of taking the initiative.
“We have seen a lot of losses within DAESH [the Arabic acronyms for Islamic State] since the start of this campaign, more than 10,000,” Blinken told France Inter radio on Wednesday. “It will end up having an impact.”
Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi, echoing complaints from Iran, said earlier this week that the U.S.-led coalition was not doing enough to help Baghdad push back the insurgents.
“At the start of this campaign (we) said it would take time,” Blinken said. “We have conceived a three-year plan and we’re nine months into it.”
The Telegraph reports that the U.S.-led coalition also called for the “speedy launch” of efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, which it said was essential to tackle ISIS’s advances through Syria and Iraq.
The coalition maintained that recent advances by ISIS notwithstanding, the coalition had a “winning strategy,” and the leaders meeting in Paris have given their approval to Iraqi plans to retake territory from the Islamists.
Blinken, who stood in for the hospitalized John Kerry, hailed Baghdad’s strategy as “the right plan both politically and militarily for Iraq at this time.”
He said the coalition had made “real gains” and said the ISIS now had 25 percent less territory than when the air strikes began in August.
Experts note, however, that even after being pushed back in a few places, the militants still control an area the size of Italy across Syria and Iraq.
Retired Gen. John Allen, appointed by President Barack Obama to build a coalition against ISIS, told a Brookings Institution’s U.S.-Islamic World Forum conference in Qatar earlier today that the growth of ISIS had global implications and could “wreak havoc on the progress of humanity” if unchecked.
He said the group was not merely an Iraqi problem or a Syrian problem but “a regional problem trending towards global implications.”
ISIS has lost about a quarter of the populated areas it once held in Iraq, but countering its ideology might take a generation or more, he told the Brookings Institution’s U.S.-Islamic World Forum.

DHS awards $58.9 million biometric support contract to Ideal Innovations, Inc.

DHS awards $58.9 million biometric support contract to Ideal Innovations, Inc.

Published 2 June 2015

 

Arlington, Virginia-based Ideal Innovations, Inc. (I3) has been awarded a contract by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) to provide specialized fingerprint analysis in support of OBIM’s Biometric Support Center (BSC). The BSC provides fingerprint identification services when the automated matching capabilities of DHS’s central repository cannot determine whether two sets of fingerprints match.

Arlington, Virginia-based Ideal Innovations, Inc. (I3) has been awarded a contract by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) to provide specialized fingerprint analysis in support of OBIM’s Biometric Support Center (BSC).
The contract has a potential value of $58.9 million and was awarded under I3’s GSA Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS) Federal Supply Schedule.
The BSC provides fingerprint identification services when the automated matching capabilities of DHS’s central repository cannot determine whether two sets of fingerprints match. In addition, the BSC provides latent print identification and biometric watch-list enrollment services to DHS and other government agencies.
The I3 team has experience in biometric examination services, including fingerprint identification, latent print identification comparisons, and biometric data enrollment services.
“Our goal is to contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of current operations and future initiatives at the BSC by delivering the best combination of institutional knowledge and biometrics expertise,” said Bob Kocher, president and CEO. “We are confident that with our team, the BSC will be assured of its ability to meet workload demands and accomplish its critical National Security mission.”
With this contract, I3 will support the Biometric Support Centers in San Diego, California and Arlington, Virginia.