August 2008 • Volume 6 • Number 8
It's About the Platform, the Hosted Environment and the Cloud!
 “We need to be able to deploy a Warfighting force wherever in the world and enable it to connect, share and collaborate as it sees fit for its mission, not for something that is prescribed for them,” explained DISA CIO John Garing.
“It’s all about the platform and the cloud and the hosted work environment. We need to provide the hosted environment, the cloud (computing environment), so people can work from wherever they are.”
The “we” Mr. Garing was describing is DISA and it demonstrates how integral the DISA infrastructure is to the on-the-ground success of our Warfighters. He made those comments during the Federal Executive Forum panel on Future Infrastructure broadcast on Federal News Radio.
Hosted by Jim Flyzik, joining Mr. Garing on the panel were:
· John Johnson, Assistant Commissioner, ITS, GSA
· Tom Simmons, Area Vice President, Citrix Systems
· Gary DePreta, Manager, Channel Operations, Cisco Systems
· Edward Vaccaro Partner, Homeland Security, Federal Systems - Unisys
Networx Trigger
 When you think about the future of government infrastructure, two major players come immediately to mind – GSA and DISA. Right now GSA is ramping up its Networx contract for telecommunications services that agencies must use by 2010 as the replacement for the expiring FTS 2001. GSA Assistant ITS Commissioner John Johnson said that GSA is making steady progress. Read More Watch Video
The DISA Perspective
 The bottom line according to DISA CIO John Garing is with a large infrastructure to manage,they are constantly making decisions on what to buy versus what to acquire with a service.
And when it comes to competing infrastructure Garing said that DISA has been doing managed services of sorts since 2001 and now we have the processing and storage capacity on on-demand contracts. “The premise was to become faster in our ability to deliver capability to our customers.”
Garing said DISA looks at infrastructure from 4 perspectives. Read More Watch Video
Wanted: Managed Services
Can an agency afford to own its entire infrastructure anymore? There are times when it makes business and financial sense to let an expert manage portions of your infrastructure – especially your network infrastructure. Read More Watch Video
Infrastructure Challenges
The vision is not as easy as technology said John Garing who also urged changes to the way we buy things and the way we operate. “Right now we buy agency by agency; within DOD it is service by service, command by command. There is an ownership issue. And then you do you define enterprise. Is it a base? A command? The whole DOD? Read More Watch Video
Infrastructure’s New Tools
“We can’t control it and we have to focus the energy and the power of Web 2.0. We have to find a way to bring this stuff into the environment; to equip the young people who are being recruited to work in the military with tools they are used to having at home. It’s hard because the acquisition process, though it has flexibility, it is very stodgy,” said DISA CIO John Garing. Read More Watch Video
Infrastructure Visions
 For Unisys' Ed Ed Vaccaro, the vision starts with getting people access to information anytime anywhere with the understanding that technology is going to introduce all kind of different ways to work with information. Read More Watch Video
 For Citrix's Tom Simmons at Citrix, the vision is about a model. “The analogy we use is: the consolidation of data centers is following a delivery model. If you look at Direct TV as a means of consolidating content, consolidating capabilities and then delivering that over available infrastructure, they use satellite.” Read More Watch Video
 For Cisco's Gary DePreto of Cisco, the vision is a real transformation for the citizen and the IT end user experience. “I keep coming back to anytime, anywhere anyplace, seeing those services delivered in automated fashion where end user needs very little interaction to get something out of the service. The end user experience becomes very simple. Read More Watch Video
July 2008 • Volume 6 • Number 7
Creating Decision Advantage:
What Once Was Heresy Is Now Becoming The “New Normal”
General Dale Meyerrose, CIO at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and his team are fundamentally changing the Information Sharing and Intelligence landscape to "Create Decision Advantage".
 “Things that were considered heresy to even mention or talk about two years ago are now considered mainstream concepts we are working through,” declared General Dale Meyerrose, CIO at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
“The ODNI has fundamentally changed the discussion about Information Sharing and how we use intelligence,” he asserted.
“That doesn’t mean we have solved them all, but the reticence about even having the discussion in the first place in many areas associated with IS -- such as eliminating barriers, how we handle intelligence, what part of intelligence we make discoverable and what we don’t -- are now things that are common dialogue.”
 Gen. Meyerrose shared his thoughts with former Treasury CIO Jim Flyzik on ODNI's most important achievements during his tenure; the most pressing mission information challenges facing the Intelligence Community today; and the changes needed in the way the Intelligence Community "Creates Decision Advantage” during a special Federal Executive Forum Flyzik One on One broadcast on Federal News Radio.
Creating The New Normal
 What do you do as an encore when your previous assignment was to help stand up the US Northern Command -- in essence is the first combat command charged with protecting the homeland?
Well, if you are General Dale Meyerrose, you take a position as the first CIO, helping to stand up another organization – the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“Standing up the Northern Command was a huge responsibility and I was honored to do it,” said Gen. Meyerrose. “It was an excellent opportunity to learn about intergovernmental and interagency actions and activities. The lessons learned, the mistakes and the successes; all were directly applicable to the business of how you stand up an organization like ODNI.” Read More Watch Video
Unclassified IS Strategy
ODNI published The National Strategy for Information Sharing in October, 2007. It is succinct, concise, easy to read – and unclassified.
According to Gen. Meyerrose, the first question was whether we in the Intelligence Community could publish an effective strategy in an unclassified format intended for consumption by not only those within government, but those people watching government.
“I’ve come to believe that all problems, all issues are people problems, people issues,” explained Gen. Meyerrose. “In fact if technology doesn’t do something it’s because we designed it not to do something.” It’s just a matter of getting people to have a dialogue.
Gen. Meyerrose is working on several things he would like to bring to closure, to make them the “new normal” as he describes it. “The most prominent is the transformation of certification, accreditation and security practices. This is not only applicable to the Intelligence Community and DOD, but other departments and agencies across the government.” Read More Watch Video
No Magic Tool
“I think first of all it is a matter of perspective and how you go about solving the issues or challenges,” Gen. Meyerrose asserted. “You can’t buy an answer; you have to grow into a solution!”
One of ODNI’s biggest initiatives is Director McConnell’s 500 Day Plan. The plan has major focus areas, which studies from the Intelligence community have pretty much recommended over last 40-50 years according to Gen. Meyerrose. Read More Watch Video
Creating Decision Advantage
Creating Decision Advantage is what the Intelligence Community is all about. “In part Director McConnell uses that phrase to identify in a very short concise way what we are about in the intelligence community,” declared Gen. Meyerrose. “The purpose is collecting secrets and the purpose of analysis is to use it not just collect it.” Watch Video Read More
The Performance Management Process
 Performance Management is the process by which government agencies go through to improve their overall performance according to Cognos' Porter Shomo. It involves things like defining metrics that are important to that agency’s mission; tying those metrics to goals; and ultimately monitoring how they perform against those metrics. Read More Watch Video
June 2008 • Volume 6 •Number 6
Sharing With The "Unanticipated User"
 "The reality of information sharing (IS) is that you have to be committed to share information with 'unanticipated users'”, said Mike Krieger, Principal Director of IT Management & Technology, Office of Secretary of Defense, DOD.
“That’s the new paradigm. No longer do I know who I can share with. The key capability is attribute based access control, so I can -- machine-to-machine -- decide whether you have the right credentials to access that information.”
Krieger went on to explain that for information sharing, it’s all about the data; and a key initiative is collaborating with both the intelligence community, DOJ and DHS on coming up with a universal core of semantics that everyone can agree on.
To its credit, the government has heard the public’s demand for increased transparency; it’s insistence on information sharing between the federal, state and local governments and the private sector; all while respecting the public’s privacy concerns and meeting the rigorous security requirements of the post 9/11 world.
For information sharing to succeed throughout government, there has to be rules of the road. Those rules are set out in the National Strategy for Information Sharing published in October 2007. Read More
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Federal Executive Forum Panel on Information Sharing |
Kreiger made his comments during the Federal Executve Forum on Information Sharing, produced by Trezza Media Group and broadcast on Federal News Radio.
Hosting the Forum panel was Jim Flyzik of The Flyzik Group. Panelists were:
• General Dale Meyerrose, CIO, ODNI
• Van Hitch, CIO, DoJ
• Mike Krieger, Principal Director of IT Management & Technology, OSD, DOD
• Robert Riegle, Director of the State and Local Government Program Office, Office of Intelligence& Analysis, DHS
• Mike DeHart, Stealth Program Manager, Federal Systems and Technology, Unisys
• Tom Simmons, Area Vice President for Federal Systems, Citrix
• Steve Hutchens, Client Industry Executive for Homeland Security in the Global Government Industry, EDS
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Watch Video, Hear What IS Leaders Are Saying |
General Dale Meyerrose, ODNI
  "We’ve talked about risk management, identity, data and governance. And that I think they are the nexus of the elements that we need to be working over in the next year or two. But I’d like to add some points to emphasize a couple of things. First of all I agree with the comment that data is becoming..."
Watch Video
Mike Krieger, DOD
"I think the vision is pretty clear, that you want to create an agile collaborative environment where everybody can participate and share what they know to accomplish the objective. But it becomes a workforce issue. We are all digital..."
Watch Video
Robert Riegle, DHS
 "We’ve made a lot of progress here at DHS, our partners in the states and with the fusion center programs and with the national network of fusion centers. Our vision is to continue the implementation of that national network, working with those partners. The strategy will connect..."
Watch Video
Van Hitch, DOJ
 "I’ll start with my law enforcement hat on. I guess from a DOJ standpoint and law enforcement my vision would be Google for cops that would provide information to help everyday law enforcement officers catch local criminals, drug cartels, prevent child exploitation and..."
Watch Video
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Read More About Information Sharing |
Changing The IS Dynamic
 The whole dynamic about information security and information sharing has to change; we can’t look at them as a balancing act because it pits communities that need to work together against each other. Collaboration tools must furnish solutions about how we share information securely; where data has integrity and we can do trusted computing from an un-trusted computer. Read More
IS Is All About Information Assets
 In the new world of IS, it’s all about information assets; we are separating data from applications and we are making both the information asset and the applications available as services. Working together – leveraging federal as well as state and local networks; moving relevant information and intelligence quickly; enabling rapid analytic and operational judgments – that is what the fusion center network is all about. Read More
Information Fusion
 At the heart of the collaborative environment, where trusted information is shared among is the fusion center movement. One of the outcomes of the 9/11 tragedy has been the development of fusion centers. In 2004 and 2005, many states began creating fusion centers using local, state, and federal funds. Today according to DHS there are 58 operational centers in 46 states. Read More
Volume 6 • Number 5 • May 2008
Telework Is Not A "Break Glass In Case Of Emergency Proposition"
 Last year, when she issued her “Telework Challenge”, GSA Administrator Lurita Doan spoke about the widespread interest in incorporating Telework into our COOP.
“When you think about how the government will need to operate during a national disaster or following an act of terrorism, having a large pool of trained and equipped staff who can work from home or a remote location gives us a lot of flexibility.”
According to the GSA Agency Telework Ready Status report, many organizations have partially established the infrastructure needed for Telework – particularly in the Services and Enterprise categories. Those that have created an infrastructure conducive to remote work have are creating an environment that is supportive of Telework. And soon they may have to report what they are doing to grow their Telework infrastructure to Congress -- like it or not.
COOP Friendly Legislation
There have always been good reasons to Telework such as reducing commuter congestion and being “Green friendly”. But management resistance and their fear of lost productivity have been huge obstacles.
Research has tried to dispel this myth. The recently released National Science Foundation survey, "Telework Under the Microscope - A Report on the National Science Foundation’s Telework Program" showed for NSF employees, Telework is a win-win-win for managers, employees, and the environment.
Other research conducted by The Telework Exchange with the help of industry leaders such as Tandberg, CDWG and HP show that federal employees are Telework friendly – they want a break from traffic – and that security and Telework are not mutually exclusive.
But research does not carry near the clout of Congressional legislation.
Winding its way through the House of Representative now is HR461. This bill requires agencies to allow authorized employees to Telework at least 20 percent of the time in a two-week period. Both House and Senate members have been promoting legislation requiring each agency appoint a Telework Managing Officer and submit an annual report to Congress rating agencies on their Telework practices.
Telework supporters have been working for years to get Congress to pass such legislation. What may finally push this legislation over the top is what GSA’s Doan advocates – that Telework is essential to your COOP.
Because now that Telework and COOP are tied at the hip, Telework has gotten a major boost in importance. Now government managers will have no excuses and must plan for Telework being a major part of continuity plans in the event of a local or national emergency.
For the Government Computer News article, I interviewed Cindy Auten of the Telework Exchange.
On HR4106 she said having Telework as an integral part of COOP could be the tipping point. According to Auten the bill calls for GSA and OPM, FEMA and the CHICO Council to report to the House Oversight and Reform Committee on the success and incorporation of Telework in COOP planning; and how agencies are using Telework to respond to emergencies and prepare for emergencies.
Further, FEMA Federal Continuity Directives 1&2 - issued in February as the operational outgrowth of HSPD-20 and NSPD-51 - call for agencies to "live and breathe" COOP and practice, practice, practice continuity plans.
To practice those plans means agencies will have to practice Telework - which could be a new experience for some agencies.
Is Your Infrastructure Ready?
To expand the agency workplace from office to home requires procuring secure remote connectivity, providing access to data needed to accomplish tasks, acting as remote IT support and managing the whole process, using IT checklists to maintain accurate records.
To support the technology components critical for Telework translates into spending precious dollars in areas such as web-based applications, Blackberry devices, laptops, and remote email access, which allow for increased Telework at low incremental cost. Such “dual use” technologies – and their related costs – can be shared across the organization by mobile workers, office workers, and Teleworkers.
Auten says agencies must pay particular attention to “the security requirements that agencies must consider when building out their Telework program. The IT infrastructure must be able to handle remote access in a COOP situation, which calls for more a more robust infrastructure – and training -- compared with just as regular Telework environment.”
To be sure, Telework brings up the usual funding and infrastructure issues. In most agencies there is no dedicated funding source. Like the DC Metro system, IT managers have to look for ways to get components to contribute funds or look for ways to spread costs across the agency. Like it or not, agencies will have to devote more funds to building out the robust infrastructure needed for Telework under a COOP scenario. That means more investments in networks, mobile, satellite and virtualization technologies.
Educating and Exercising At Labor
Don’t sidestep training especially when it comes to security outside the workplace counseled Auten. Telework is a lot about keeping workers comfortable in their environment. “We always say Telework is not this ‘break glass in case of emergency proposition’,” said Auten. “If you really incorporate COOP into your standard operating procedures, you must train and test It is really a cultural learning shift and really important training has to happen first.”
One federal department that has made a large investment in Telework infrastructure is the Department of Labor (DOL). Helping to lead that effort is Pamela Budda, Work/Life Program Manager.
When planning for a pandemic flu outbreak, DOL quickly realized the role of Telework in as a part of their COOP strategy. Work on the plan began in 2005 and signed off by the Secretary of Labor in 2006. This operational plan was developed with input from all DOL agencies and focuses on 11 elements of a viable COOP. One of those elements is Telework and DOL set out to test Telework capacity as an integral component.
Speaking at the Telework as a Continuity of Operations Strategy” webcast, Budda explained that DOL has had over a year of Telework Testing experience which included a department senior executive level Table Top Exercise, regional Office simultaneous multi-agency test implementations and regional Telework training in conjunction with COOP regional training.
Some of the lessons learned were: DOL needs to develop standard operating procedures to clearly identify how to perform essential tasks during emergency situations; that pre-established accountability, productivity and communication strategies are critical to success; and that testing facilitates mutual trust, encourages Telework agreements and helps to maintain a sense of connection/minimize isolation.
According to Budda, these exercises show that employees who have never Teleworked will not be prepared to successfully do so in an emergency, thus more reasons to train, equip, practice and exercise.
Despite issues, Budda says DOL Telework testing had positive outcomes. There is increased acceptance of Telework as a viable option, day by day; more DOL managers and employees realize the benefits of Telework; and Telework positions DOL to carry out its functions in almost any type of emergency.
Testing also showed there are technical barriers to Telework; barriers that can be overcome through communication.
“We talked with IT and we started working on solutions,” explained Budda. “We can’t fix everything right away, but now we have a plan. And we wouldn’t have been aware if hadn’t done the exercise and documented it. The IT staff is critical to the success of Telework.”
Are You Ready To TeleCOOP?
During a recent Federal Executive Forum, host Jim Flyzik coined a new term merging the concepts of Telework and COOP. He called it TeleCOOP and it accurately describes the environment IT managers are going to be expected to provide.
The bottom line is supporting Telework involves expanding IT capacity from office to home. That entails procuring secure remote connectivity, providing access to data needed to accomplish tasks, providing IT support and keeping detailed checklists to maintain accurate records.
According to the GSA Agency Telework Ready Status, Teleworkers, Telework coordinators and agency IT management identified 14 infrastructure components, in three different technology categories as "critical to effectively supporting Telework". They include:
Home Office
PC support
Application access
Security resources
Peripheral support
Services
Data communications
Voice communications
Teleconference communications
Technical training support
Help Desk support
Enterprise
Secure access resources
Application access resources
Access to administrative functions
Remote email access
Collaboration resources
Telework is definitely here to stay. And if you want to read what government buyers are reading about Telework, there are two great websites to visit: the GSA/OPM Telework website or The Telework Exchange website.
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Volume 6 • Number 4 • April, 2008
Lots of Work, So Little Time
 Five short years!
“People forget that DHS has been around for just five years. They ask ‘why haven’t they integrated everything yet?’” said Jim Flyzik of The Flyzik Group.
Flyzik pointed out that there are other agencies that have been around for hundreds of years and many of those agencies aren’t integrated. “It is a monumental effort but it’s good to hear that progress is moving in the right direction,” added Flyzik.
Flyzik made his comments during the recent Federal Executive Forum on Border Security broadcast on Federal News Radio.
The Forum panel included key officials responsible for delivering results, who had a lot to say about current and future DHS efforts. Giving their views were:
• Greg Giddens, Executive Director, SBI, CBP, DHS
• Kathy Kraninger, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Screening Coordination Office, DHS
• Luke McCormack, CIO, ICE, DHS
• Bob Mocny, Director, US-VISIT Program, DHS
DHS FY2009 Budget Priorities
DHS has been in existence for just five short years. Its watchwords of “One Team, One Mission Securing The Homeland” are taken very seriously by its workforce of 208,000. Their priorities are: border and cargo security; secure identification; infrastructure protection, emergency response; and department management. These priorities are reflected in DHS’s budget request for FYO9 of $50.5 billion – an increase of 6.8% over FY08.
“There comes a point that rhetoric and promises do not secure the homeland; results secure the homeland. I’m interested in results,” said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff in announcing his budget request on February 4, 2008.
Crucial to DHS success is the continued investment in the development and deployment of a wide range of advanced technologies. For example DHS is investing $335 million for real-time information sharing and situational awareness detection tools. These include an Advanced Spectroscopic Portal to examine cargo containers for nuclear materials and a Human Portable Radiation Detection System.
But for these advanced technologies to perform as planned DHS has to have something basic -- a strong unified IT infrastructure. “Successful mission performance is driven by human capital development, executing efficient procurement operations, and possessing state-of-the-art information technology resources,” said Secretary Chertoff.
Leveraging Capabilities
 “When you talk about the Department from a headquarters perspective, my job is very much about looking at how we integrate, how we operate and the way we work together,” explained Kathy Kraninger, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Screening Coordination Office at DHS.
“And the synergies -- a word I don’t generally use and don’t like, but it’s appropriate in this case-- that we find among the components within the Department; what they can leverage and do with each other and the capability that then results in protecting this country.” Read More
The End of the Beginning
 “Winston Churchill once said, ‘We are at the end of the beginning.’ We have a long way to go, but we are at the end of beginning if we are going to share information as we must share it to protect the nation.” That bold statement was made by Ambassador Thomas McNamara, Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment at the recent AFCEA conference on Information Sharing.
But to reach the end, the nation must face up and meet five distinct challenges said McNamara. “Because there is much more in front of us than behind.” Read More
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Forum Panelists Speak On The Issues |
Not Sort Of, But Exactly
Providing that strong unified infrastructure is exactly what ICE CIO Luke McCormack is doing. The goal is to provide “not sort of what they need, not kind of what they need, not what we could have given them, should have given them, (but give them) exactly what they need -- when they need it,” says McCormack.
Making that happen is ICE’s Atlas Data Center program. “That’s really our infrastructure plumbing and we’ve made quite a bit of progress in that area,” reports McCormack.
Progress according to McCormack translates into migrating to one network, consolidating our email environment, freshening up our desk top hardware and working very closely with the Department in the consolidation of data centers by moving out of the DOJ data centers into the new DHS data centers.
“A year or two from now, I see an environment where things like Atlas data centers, desktops, emails are like the air we breathe, just a commodity we buy,” notes McCormack. “I see us really focusing on the business applications and more importantly, building specifically what the special components need and when they need it from an applications standpoint. “
For McCormack building includes partnering. “Delivering a solution as a full service provider might not be something that you build yourself, you might be partnering with several different communities, whether it be state and local, whether it be within DHS, other departments and certainly the private industry.”
Migrating Data Centers
“I certainly think continued integration is really key to our success,” says Kathy Kraninger, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Screening Coordination Office at DHS.
For some migrating data centers might seem mundane and maybe not that important, but not for Kraninger. “We have infrastructure all over the country in different places with different capabilities scattered,” explains Kraninger. Consolidating those data centers is the backbone of accomplishing information sharing, of getting a common operating picture (COP) for the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol and Air and Marine operations personnel.
“We already see pockets of this,” says Kraninger. “Going out to the field and seeing what’s happening in places like Miami where you have the Coast Guard, CBP, TSA and ICE working in the airport, (who) are sitting down on a regular basis and putting together joint operations.”
“These are field folks that need the tools so that they can be successful in those kinds of operations to really further our nation’s security,” says Kraninger. “That’s something that we are all here to do and that’s the mission and goal into the future that we are going to see real benefits from.”
Future VISIT
Bob Mocny, Director of the US-VISIT program says his program is poised to make great even greater strides over the next three to five years.
“You’ll have ten (finger) prints deployed to all the ports of entry. You will see the marriage of iris and face to help with a lot of the throughput,” says Mocny. “You are going to see full interoperability with the FBI’s next generation identification system, with state and local and other law enforcement agencies. You will see biometric exits at all of our air and seaports of entry. All foreign nationals will check out and check in using their biometrics in association with the airlines and the airports and working in conjunction with them.”
Mocny sees an expansion of mobile technology as well with a joint program with the Coast Guard for mobile pass biometrics at sea and doing the same to help CBP in its work in the mountains and in the deserts.
“We have to get serious about pushing our borders out as we have been doing, but moving that in a cooperative manner with all these other entities, sharing our data as appropriate, and getting their data as well,” says Mocny.
“If I have information about individuals I want to share that with the UK, I want to share that with Australia,” explains Mocny. “I want to share that with all these other countries that are building their systems so that we can truly keep these people off the planes, off the ships, and away from our borders.”
Project 28
No project has received more publicity – most of it negative – than Project 28, the Virtual Fence which is an integral part of CBP’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI).
Greg Giddens is the Executive Director of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) and its program to develop and deploy technology -- SBInet.
“From a CBP perspective in terms of border security, I think you’ll continue to see us using all types of technology,” says Giddens. According to Giddens CBP has spent a lot of time focusing on a single slice of the SBInet, P28, which brings together the work of many different components and includes a variety of technologies that need to be developed and tested – and most importantly – demonstrated before they can be fully deployed, understanding that it’s not a one size fits all.
“Clearly we want to develop an in-field operational configuration this summer for SBInet and continue to build out the tactical infrastructure,” explains Giddens. “Then (we can) be in a position that we can really productionize that…and have the configuration control where we can apply that to where the operators need it.”
“What we want to do is be nimble in our planning,” says Giddens. “I don’t want to sit here in 2008 and lock ourselves in for a location for 2009; we want to have a nimble enough planning that we can look at our operators and put the technology and solutions where they think they need it most. And we want to do that with continued good oversight.”
“I know that a lot of people have written about Project 28 and how it was delayed,” says Giddens. “But you never read about the dedicated public servants from the government side that protected the government’s interests and looked at this and said ‘that it does not meet the contract’. We managed this in such a way that held Boeing accountable to deliver what they had on contract. You never hear about those dedicated public servants that worked to protect the interests of the tax payer, you never read about those. “
Giddens is adamant about the fact that Project 28 was a demonstration – not a final implementation and deployment. And he says Boeing has stepped up and taken responsibility for the projects shortcomings.
“You also don’t read about Boeing,” explains Giddens. “When we told them, as their customer, that this product’s not ready, they stood up and took responsibility and said ‘you are right, and we are going to fix it, and we’ll take responsibility for that’.”
For Giddens, that’s the type of strategic partner America needs to help secure the borders; people that will take responsibility and invest for this country’s future.
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