FINAL JA for Other Than Full and Open Competition_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Authority 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1)

J&A No.: FY21-00280 (RIIA-21-00107) Page 1 of 4

Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1, the justification for the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.303-2 as follows:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of

Procurement Operations (OPO) on behalf of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), proposes to enter into a contract on a basis other than full and open competition.

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action being Approved.

DHS intends to procure a brand name product on a sole source basis for SITE Enterprise Monitoring & Analysis Services Subscription Licenses. The only vendor capable of providing these licenses is:

SITE Intelligence Group 4938 Hampden Lane, Suite 156 Bethesda, MD 20814

This is a new requirement. The anticipated contract type is Firm Fixed Price (FFP) with an estimated value of for twelve (12) months. This requirement will utilize FY21 Operations and Support funds.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

I&A requires monitoring for Far-Right/Far-Left racially/ethnically, politically, and ideologically motivated violent extremist individuals, organizations and movements; Real-time monitoring of online material distributed by designated terrorist groups and their supporters worldwide;

Monitoring of hard-to-reach online content circulated by ISIS and AQ supporters in Southeast Asia, in regional languages including Bahasa Indonesian, Ilocano, Maguindanaoan, Malay, Maranaw, Malay, Patani, Tagalog, and Tausag; Reporting on jihadist and terrorist use of social media platforms, apps, messaging forums, mobile devices, the Dark Web and other forms of ICT;

Unedited, original versions of terrorist attack manuals distributed online, including weapons and explosive materials manufacturing, purchasing and constructing homemade devices, and online training courses; Threats to healthcare, bioweapons, online conspiracy theories that could lead to violence; Monitoring of online terror financing via cryptocurrencies, crowdfunding, and money transfer services; and weekly analytical in SITE reports on ISIS and al-Qaeda, providing summaries and trends of global military claims and media productions.

The Office of Intelligence & Analysis seeks to utilize open source vendor information sources that monitor and report on issues of intelligence information interest on the Internet in the domestic and international terrorism space. Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) and Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) exploit a variety of popular social media platforms, smaller websites with targeted audiences, and chat applications to recruit new adherents, plan and rally

J&A No.: FY21-00280 (RIIA-21-00107) Page 2 of 4 support for in-person illegal actions, and disseminate materials that contribute to radicalization and mobilization to violence. In addition, foreign and domestic threat actors, including US-based DVEs, foreign terrorist organizations, and foreign intelligence services and their proxies; continue Intelligence to either introduce or amplify narratives online that promote violence against elected officials, political representatives, government facilities, law enforcement, religious or commercial facilities, and perceived ideologically-opposed individuals, amongst other issues, which can all serve to mobilize potential violent extremists in the United States to conduct violence. The ability to maintain situational awareness of all these narratives and open source information sources is above the current capability of I&A. Private sector companies, including SITE Intelligence, have developed robust service packages to identify and disseminate reports highlighting this content which is vital to conducting trends analysis and maintaining situational awareness of potential changes in the threat environment for I&A.

4. Identification of Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(1) implemented by FAR Subpart 6.302-1 entitled “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will satisfy Agency Requirements.”

SITE is unique as they are the only service provider that offers both human intelligence-based threat monitoring combined with a one-of-a-kind data set of online extremist leads. SITE's analysts possess in-depth subject matter expertise, enabling access to the hardest-to-reach online networks. In parallel, SITE's database of millions of usernames, media files, URLs, archived group chats, and other data points provides an unparalleled OSINT-based data set. SITE is a subscription service offered through annual licenses that tracks online activity of white supremacist groups and jihadist organizations. I&A must be agile to adjust to the continuous adaptions deployed by white supremacists’ groups and jihadist organizations. I&A needs SITE so that its analysts can support the world’s most powerful governments and corporations in combatting terrorism, protecting people and assets, and preventing online radicalization. SITE provides the primary source releases of statements, manuals, audio recordings and video released by extremist individuals and groups. The intelligence products created by SITE can only be purchased through SITE. The primary source translations and the timeliness of the releases by SITE analysts makes subscription unique.

5. Identification of Exception to the Buy American Statute

N/A. This is not a foreign end product.

6. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

I&A must be agile to adjust to the continuous adaptions deployed by white supremacists’ groups and jihadist organizations. I&A needs SITE so that its analysts can support the world’s most powerful governments and corporations in combatting terrorism, protecting people and assets, and preventing online radicalization. SITE provides the primary source releases of statements, J&A No.: FY21-00280 (RIIA-21-00107) Page 3 of 4 manuals, audio recordings and video released by extremist individuals and groups. The intelligence products created by SITE can only be purchased through SITE. The primary source translations and the timeliness of the releases by SITE analysts makes subscription unique.

When using an article produced by the subscription there are anywhere from 7 - 18 sources and sub-sources used. It takes the average intelligence analyst roughly 1.75 hours per source to validate the sources are credible and decide if the source can be sited in their analytic product.

I&A references the unique online tools articles on average of 22 times per week in planned and short notice production and briefings. To validate this many sources per week, I&A would need to devote, no less than approximately 24,000 man-hours annually. Based on the average Intelligence Analyst annual salary, utilizing this unique tool it would cost on average $1.5 million dollars on annual basis. This unique online tool has been validated by the Intelligence Community, and I&A analysts would not have to continually validate sources used in their analytic production. This is critical to ensure that I&A provides relevant and timely threat information to DHS stakeholders that do not hold national security clearances. Without this tool, I&A must spend hundreds of hours vetting and validating sources of data before actionable information begins to come-in from the field which could prolong DHS’ ability to combat time sensitive threats to the US.

7. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable.

A Special Notice was posted to beta.SAM.gov on September 15, 2021 of DHS’ intent to award a sole source procurement to SITE Intelligence Group (dba IG, LLC) 4938 Hampden Ln Ste. 156, Bethesda, MD 20814 for SITE Subscription Services.

8. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated price to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The contracting officer determines that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on pricing paid by other DHS Components as well as a comparison of published pricing for SITE.

9. Description of Market Research.

I&A conducted Market Research in August 2021 which included a review of the DHS Strategic Sourcing Vehicles, Best in Class Vehicles, GSA Multiple Award Schedules, and online resources.

No contract vehicles were found that could meet I&A’s requirement. In addition, extensive Market surveys were conducted by CIO and our Mission Center Analysts to determine what alternatives were available to using SITE. Based upon discussions with CBP and TSA, who currently use SITE, there is nothing presently available that compares to the SITE subscription in the commercial marketplace that I&A analysts can immediately begin using for their reporting.

The market research showed that SITE Intelligence Group is the developer of this subscription service and is the only vendor able to provide the required services. Price lists for SITE and the pricing paid by other DHS Components were reviewed to assist with making the price reasonableness determination.

J&A No.: FY21-00280 (RIIA-21-00107) Page 4 of 4

10. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

None

11. A Listing of the Sources, if Any That Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition.

A Special Notice was posted to beta.SAM.gov on September 15, 2021 of DHS’ intent to award a sole source procurement to SITE Intelligence Group (dba IG, LLC) 4938 Hampden Ln Ste. 156, Bethesda, MD 20814 for SITE Subscription Services. The notice indicated that any firm believing that they can fulfill the requirement may be considered by the agency, and that interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this synopsis. No responses have been received.

12. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any

Barriers to Competition Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for Supplies or Services Required.

The requirement does not include any overly technical specifications, etc. However, the Government will continue to monitor the market to determine whether other subscriptions can capture similar information in order to assist I&A’s analysts when analyzing their data collections to incorporate into their intelligence reports.

13. Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification. I certify this requirement meets the

Government’s minimum need and that the supporting data, which forms a basis for this justification, is complete and accurate.

14. Contracting Officer’s Certification and Approval. I certify that the data supporting the recommended use of other than full and open competition is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.