Tag Archives: AFGE

HOGR Hearing: Violence on the Border, Keeping U.S. Personnel Safe

September 9, 2015 By in Americans Abroad, Congress, Consulate General, Diplomatic Security, Federal Agencies, Foreign Service, FSOs, Functional Bureaus, Hearings, Interagency Cooperation, Security, State Department, U.S. Missions, WHA|Western Hemisphere Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted: 2:47 pm EDT
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The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on September 9, to examine the efforts to ensure the safety of U.S. personnel and assets in northern Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexican border. The Committee notes on its introduction the risks posed to U.S. personnel and the public by the criminal violence in northern Mexico are numerous including:

  • February 2015: the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros reported 227 separate security incidents in the U.S. border region.
  • May 2015: two government buildings in Matamoros were struck by bomb attacks. 
  • June 2015: a gunman on the Mexican side of the border fired multiple shots at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter. 
  • June 2015: a U.S.-contracted vehicle was hijacked by armed criminals which resulted in the theft of over 11,500 Border Crossing Cards.

The video is available here. The witnesses include three officials from the State Department (DS, OBO, WHA), an official from DHS/CBP, and a representative from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).  There is no representative from the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) in this hearing.

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U.S. Mission Mexico | Border Posts

William H. Moser Deputy Director, Bureau of Overseas Building Operations U.S. Department of State Document
Gregory B. Starr Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Diplomatic Security U.S. Department of State Document
Sue Saarnio Deputy Assistant Secretary, Western Hemisphere Affairs U.S. Department of State Document
Robert L. Harris Director, Joint Task Force – West U.S. Customs and Border Protection Document
Brandon Judd President, National Border Patrol Council American Federation of Government Employees Document

The hearing is also available here via C-SPAN.

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OPM Hit By Class Action Lawsuit, and Those Phishing Scams You Feared Over #OPMHack Are Real (Corrected)

June 30, 2015 By in Contractors, Court Cases, Disasters, Federal Agencies, Huh? News, Scams, Security, Social Media, State Department, Technology and Work, Trends Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted: 7:16 pm  EDT
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The largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees, filed a class action lawsuit today against the Office of Personnel Management, its director, Katherine Archuleta, its chief information officer, Donna Seymour and Keypoint Government Solutions, an OPM contractor.
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A couple of weeks ago, we thought that the “recipe” from the OPM email notification sent to potentially affected employees via email might be copied by online scammers.

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Today, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), part of part of DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) issued an alert on phishing campaigns masquerading as emails from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) or the identity protection firm CSID.

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