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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you had a restful (and dry) weekend. Fall is officially in full swing. And this means that GEOINT 2010 is right around the corner. Have you done everything you can to make GEOINT 2010 exceptional for you? Have you logged into CrowdVine? What is CrowdVine you ask? Why it is the definitive social network for GEOINT 2010 and we highly recommend you check it out. You can discuss topics, schedule meetings and check out any pre-event buzz. Click here to start your own profile. And, we would be remiss if we did not say this: “Fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.” Happy Monday!

Geospatial Statistical Modeling for Intelligence-Led Policing
Geospatial statistical modeling is a growing tool in intelligence-led policing and takes a more proactive approach towards disrupting criminal activity. This case study examines how the New Jersey Regional Operations Intelligence Center (NJ ROIC) is applying geospatial statistical modeling to assist local police agencies with reducing violent crime. The aim of intelligence-led policing is to anticipate and prevent crime and terrorism. Yet in order to design and implement a program of prevention, law enforcement leaders must have access to information that can uncover trends in the environment that relate to criminal or terrorist threats and other hazards, either natural or manmade. The analysis of these trends can further expose patterns: patterns that yield factors, and factors—when observed in other locales—that can reveal the high probability of reoccurrence, which leads to prevention. This case study will focus on how the NJ ROIC, through the use of geospatial statistical modeling technology,1 has provided the Jersey City, New Jersey, Police Department with the intelligence necessary for structuring prevention initiatives aimed at reducing violent crime. Read the full Police Chief Magazine article here.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Awards Raytheon $88.7 Million Information Assurance Services Contract
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a one-year, $30 million extension for the Information Assurance Services (IAS) contract. If all option years are exercised, the total value of this extension will be $88.7 million. Since contract inception in 2005, Raytheon has provided NGA with experienced IA professionals to respond to evolving cybersecurity attack vectors. The Raytheon IAS contract is NGA’s first performance-based contract for computer network defense and provides innovative and integrated IA services at the enterprise level. The IA Services program is staffed by more than 100 Raytheon-led IA professionals who deliver enterprise cybersecurity in seven functional areas: program management; security engineering assessments; vulnerability assessments; intrusion detection; public key infrastructure; certification and accreditation; and cybersecurity incident response by leading the NGA Computer Emergency Response Team. Read the full press release here.

Intel Authorization Changes All The Rules
Intelligence agencies will get more scrutiny from auditors and more cost-control measures placed on major acquisitions under a new intelligence authorization bill passed by Congress on Sept. 29. The 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, passed by a 244-181 House vote, subjects intelligence agencies to many of the same oversight measures that other executive branch agencies have, including a newly created inspector general for intelligence, access by the Government Accountability Office, comprehensive assessments of contracting practices, and strict congressional notification requirements when acquisition program cost thresholds are exceeded. The intelligence measure covers 16 agencies, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. Read the full Federal Times article here.

CIA Escalates in Pakistan
The U.S. military is secretly diverting aerial drones and weaponry from the Afghan battlefront to significantly expand the CIA’s campaign against militants in their Pakistani havens. The shift in strategic focus reflects the U.S. view that, with Pakistan’s military unable or unwilling to do the job, more U.S. force against terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan is now needed to turn around the struggling Afghan war effort across the border. In recent months, the military has loaned Predator and Reaper drones to the Central Intelligence Agency to give the agency more firepower to target and bombard militants on the Afghan border. Read the full WSJ article here.

TerraGo Technologies® and Procalculo Prosis S.A. Partner to Distribute TerraGo Software in Colombia
TerraGo Technologies®, a leading provider of geospatial collaboration software solutions, and Procalculo Prosis, Colombia’s leading company for GIS and related technologies, have signed a distribution agreement to sell and service TerraGo’s full suite of software solutions in Colombia. The agreement reinforces TerraGo’s plans for expanding the global distribution of its software, which uniquely generates highly portable and interactive GeoPDF® maps and imagery. GeoPDF enables easy use of complex GIS and imagery assets by mobile personnel, including those without GIS expertise, throughout government and commercial enterprises. “There is a tremendous opportunity in the Colombian market for the use of software and tools that enable users who are not geospatial experts to benefit from location-based data,” said Helena Gutierrez, president of Procalculo Prosis. “TerraGo software and GeoPDF will significantly enhance how organizations in the defense, utilities, oil and gas, and other sectors use GIS data to improve their overall effectiveness.” Read the full press release here.

Google Open Sources its ‘Liquid Galaxy’ Google Earth Project
Do you have eight 55-inch LCD screens and some technical know-how? You’re in luck. Google on Thursday open-sourced Liquid Galaxy, a large-scale experiment that shows Google Earth in a personal home theater-esque setting. Google first showed off Liquid Galaxy in December. Basically, the company set up those eight 55-inch LCD screens, had someone sit in the middle, and zoom around the globe via a life-size Google Earth. “Since then, we’ve taken it to a lot of conferences, built Liquid Galaxies in Google offices all over the world and even put one in the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif.,” Google wrote in a blog post. “But we just couldn’t bring it to enough people—we could only go to so many conferences, and only friends and family of Googlers could try out the Liquid Galaxies in our offices.” Read the full PC Magazine story here.

Happy Monday!

Tags: 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, CIA, CIA Escalates Drone Attacks, DIA, GEOINT 2010, GEOINT and law enforcement, geospatial intelligence and law enforcement, GIS, Liquid Galaxy, Liquid Galaxy and Google Earth, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, ODNI, TerraGo, TerraGo and Procalculo Prosis, USGIF