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u.s. news Diaranson 7 Juli 2021

Pentagon cancels disputed JEDI cloud contract with Microsoft

(AP) — The Pentagon said landscape has evolved” with no exact contract value has
Tuesday it canceled a dis- new possibilities for large- been set but that it will be “in
puted cloud-computing scale cloud computing ser- the billions.” Sherman said
contract with Microsoft vices. Thus it was decided, the government will nego-
that could eventually have he said, to start over and seek tiate the amount Microsoft
been worth $10 billion. It multiple vendors. will be paid for having its
will instead pursue a deal 2019 deal terminated.
with both Microsoft and Sherman said JEDI will be
Amazon and possibly oth- replaced by a new program Amazon Web Services, a mar-
er cloud service providers. called Joint Warfighter Cloud ket leader in providing cloud
Capability, and that both Am- computing services, had long
“With the shifting technol- azon and Microsoft “likely” been considered a leading
ogy environment, it has be- will be awarded parts of the candidate to run the Penta-
come clear that the JEDI business, although neither gon’s Joint Enterprise De-
Cloud contract, which has is guaranteed. Sherman said fense Infrastructure project, reconsider its options after a but work remained stalled by
long been delayed, no longer the three other large cloud known as JEDI. The project federal judge in April rejected Amazon’s legal challenge.
meets the requirements to fill service providers — Google, was meant to store and pro- a Pentagon move to have key In its April 2020 report, the
the DoD’s capability gaps,” IBM and Oracle — might cess vast amounts of classi- parts of Amazon’s lawsuit inspector general’s office
the Pentagon said in a state- qualify, too. fied data, allowing the U.S. dismissed. did not draw a conclusion
ment. military to improve commu- about whether the Red-
Microsoft said in response nications with soldiers on the The JEDI saga has been un- mond, Washington-based
The statement did not di- to the Pentagon announce- battlefield and use artificial usual for the political di- Microsoft Corp. was appro-
rectly mention that the Pen- ment, “We understand the intelligence to speed up its mension linked to Trump. priately declared the winner.
tagon faced extended legal DoD s rationale, and we sup- war planning and fighting ca- In April 2020, the Defense Rather, it looked at whether
challenges by Amazon to the port them and every mili- pabilities. Department inspector gen- the decision-making process
original $1 million contract tary member who needs the eral’s office concluded that was proper and legal. It also
awarded to Microsoft. Ama- mission-critical 21st century The JEDI contract became the contracting process was examined allegations of un-
zon argued that the Microsoft technology JEDI would have mired in legal challenges al- in line with legal and govern- ethical behavior by Pentagon
award was tainted by politics, provided. The DoD faced a most as soon as it was award- ment purchasing standards. officials involved in the mat-
particularly then-President difficult choice: Continue ed to Microsoft in October The inspector general found ter and generally determined
Donald Trump’s antagonism with what could be a years- 2019. The losing bidder, no evidence of White House that any ethical lapses did not
toward Amazon’s chief ex- long litigation battle or find Amazon Web Services, went interference in the contract influence the outcome.
ecutive officer, Jeff Bezos. another path forward.” to court arguing that the Pen- award process, but that re-
Bezos owns The Washington tagon’s process was flawed view also said investigators That review did not find evi-
Post, a news outlet often crit- The JEDI project began with and unfair, including that it could not fully review the dence of White House pres-
icized by Trump. the $1 million contract award was improperly influenced matter because the White sure for the Pentagon to favor
for Microsoft, meant as an by politics. House would not allow un- the Microsoft bid, but it also
The Pentagon’s chief infor- initial step in a 10-year deal fettered access to witnesses. said it could not definitely
mation officer, John Sher- that could have reached $10 This year the Pentagon had determine the full extent of
man, told reporters Tuesday billion in value. The project been hinting that it might Five months later, the Pen- White House interactions
that during the lengthy le- that will replace it is a five- scrap the contract, saying in tagon reaffirmed Microsoft with the Pentagon’s decision
gal fight with Amazon, “the year program; Sherman said May that it felt compelled to as winner of the contract, makers.

Tucson to ignore Arizona's 'Second Amendment sanctuary' law

(AP) — Officials in the arm havens. ground checks for guns pur- handful of other legisla- this state.”
city of Tucson plan to ig- chased on city property and tures, including in Kentucky,
nore Arizona’s new “Sec- The move by Democratic destroying seized firearms. Tennessee and Wisconsin, Councilman Steve Kozachik
ond Amendment sanctu- Mayor Regina Romero and Over the years, those mea- jumped on the idea this year introduced the resolution last
ary” law that bars state the City Council again puts sures have been challenged when Biden took office. month and said he believes
and local governments Tucson and Republican-led after the Republican-con- During his campaign, Biden the new state law is unconsti-
from enforcing certain state at odds over how to reg- trolled Legislature enacted pledged to enact universal tutional.
federal gun regulations, ulate gun sales and use. laws barring the actions. background checks and an
possibly setting up a court assault weapons ban, among Kozachik said his aim is to
fight as a growing number The southern Arizona city The new action came af- other measures. have the law “declared un-
of cities and counties in has long tried to enforce gun ter GOP Gov. Doug Ducey constitutional and thrown
the United States declare laws stricter than the state’s, signed a bill in April declar- The Arizona Daily Star re- out plain and simple, so we
themselves similar fire- including mandating back- ing that Arizona is a so-called ports that the state and city continue to have free rein to
Second Amendment sanctu- could be headed for a legal enforce federal gun laws lo-
ary. It was partly a response battle over Tucson’s June 22 cally.”
to the election of President resolution to continue en-
Joe Biden, who has vowed to forcing all federal gun laws. Arizona’s law says the state is
enact tighter firearms regula- not beholden to upholding
tions. The resolution unanimously U.S. gun laws and prohibits
passed by the council pro- “any personnel or financial
A growing movement of at claims that “federal laws, resources to enforce, admin-
least 1,200 local governments orders and acts that regulate ister or cooperate with any
have declared themselves firearms in a manner that is act, law, treaty, order, rule or
sanctuaries insulated from consistent with the require- regulation of the U.S. gov-
state and federal gun laws ments of the United States ernment that is inconsistent
since 2018, when high-pro- Constitution” will “remain with any Arizona law regard-
file mass shootings prompted in full force and effect” with- ing the regulation of fire-
calls for stronger regulations. in city limits “regardless of arms.”
Many are symbolic but some whether those laws, orders
carry legal force. or acts are more restrictive or Federal statistics show Arizo-
prohibitive than regulations na has the 15th-highest gun-
In addition to Arizona, a established under the laws of related mortality rate.