Intercepts

Waiting, Waiting

Nine months after Paul Brubaker left the Pentagon, the White House has yet to officially name a new Defense Department deputy chief information officer.

The general assumption was that Priscilla Guthrie would be tapped for that post. Yet, with Guthrie's name circulating for weeks now, some are beginning to wonder why the White House has not made an announcement.

White House officials continue to say that the Bush administration does not make announcements about upcoming announcements and that the appointment will be posted on the White House Web site when it has been finalized.

Margaret Myers has been the acting deputy CIO since Brubaker left in March 2001 to become president of public-sector e-government services for Commerce One Inc.

Guthrie is a former high-ranking member of the government information systems division at TRW Inc. DOD CIO John Stenbit also hailed from TRW.

Meanwhile, Navy knowledge management guru Alex Bennet announced last month that she would be retiring. Or will she?

Bennet, deputy CIO for enterprise integration and chief knowledge officer for the Navy, said Jan. 24 would be her last day at her current post so she could "work on my dissertation on knowledge management...unless I get an opportunity to work in homeland defense."

Something tells us that she won't have to look too hard to stay employed.

Memorial Web Site

DOD has created a special, password-protected Web site for families of the people killed or wounded in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon.

The "United in Memory" family Web site will provide a way for DOD to have long-term communications with the family members, officials said.

DOD has sent letters instructing families about how to access the site and the available services.

The Web site contains information about donations, attack memorials, foundations, resources and related external Web links. The site is restricted to family members of the victims of the attack in an effort to protect the privacy of the families.

The "United in Memory" Wet site launched Dec. 19, 2001.

DOD officials said some family members have started their own Web sites. The "United in Memory" site links to those Web sites.

Intercept something? Send it to antenna@fcw.com.