Tuesday morn’ 

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1.  First, don’t highlight your support of Manning and Snowden.  Editor Lindy Kyzer provides some additional smart, time-saving tips on completing that imposing security clearance application:  “Don’t assume that the computer will keep the information as it’s designed. Keeping track of information now will save time in the event of a reinvestigation or computer glitch.”

2.  D.C. STEM Cells.   Contributor Chandler Harris dissects the D.C. science, technology, engineering and mathematics world.  Writes Harris, “Nearly 20 percent of all American jobs are in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with the Washington region having nearly the largest share of these jobs compared to any other region in the U.S., according to study by the Brookings Institution.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1.  Pull ‘em all out.  CINC’s frustration with Karzai.  The Telegraph reports, “President Barack Obama is reportedly considering a ‘zero option’ that would see all US troops removed from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, in a reflection of America’s growing frustration with Hamid Karzai’s government.”

2.  Maybe a win at Gettysburg would help.  Congress withholds weapons from rebels in Syria.  Reuter’s exclusive report, by Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington, explains, “Congressional committees are holding up a plan to send U.S. weapons to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants, five U.S. national security sources said.  Both the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees have expressed reservations behind closed doors at the effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to support the insurgents by sending them military hardware.  None of the military aid that the United States announced weeks ago has arrived in Syria, according to an official from an Arab country and Syrian opposition sources.”  See also, battles in Homs intensify;

3.  But arms for Egypt’s army are a goAP’s Matthew Lee reports from Washington, “The Obama administration signaled Monday that U.S. national security interests will trump its promotion of Egypt’s budding democracy, stressing the importance of continued aid to the Egyptian military, which overthrew the elected president last week. . . . But if the American government makes a legal determination that the removal was done through a coup d’etat, U.S. law would require ending all non-humanitarian aid to Egypt, the vast majority of which goes to the military.”  According to OxfordDictionaries.Com, a coup d’etat is “a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government:  he was overthrown in an army coup.”  See also, 51 dead in Egypt’s protests.

4.  Transformative agriculture to smallholder farms in Africa.  From AFRICOM, “The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have announced a partnership intended to accelerate smallholder farmer access to transformative agricultural technologies in Africa. The Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership, a $47 million, three-year partnership was launched June 28.  According to a USAID news release the same day, it will work in four countries — Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania — within the Group of Eight (G8) New Alliance for Food Security where it will help governments strengthen their seed sectors and promote the commercialization, distribution and adoption of improved seeds and other key technologies.”

5.  Karzai’s prayer for peace during RamadanPajhwok.Com’s Mohammad Asif Ahmadzai covers Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s petition to the Taliban: “’With the advent of this holy month, I once again call on the Taliban, particularly those who call themselves sons of soil, to begin a journey of peace and compassion.  I want them to halt fighting and stop being a source of torment for the nation.’”  The Taliban has until Wednesday to decide:  the moon did not see its shadow on Monday night in Brunei; therefore, Ramadan 1434 will commence on Wednesday.  See also, Top Taliban commanders killed: Afghan-NATO forces reportedly killed 18 militants, according to Khaama Press: Jawzjan Provincial Security Chief “Gen. Syed Zamanuddin Hussaini said three high level Taliban leaders including Sadruddin Ishan, Mawlavi Ismail and Syed Hashim were also killed along with ten other militants during the operations which was backed by close air support.”

6.  Should have stayed in law school.  Defense’s brilliant argument on behalf of Manning:  “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”  AP reports, “Lawyers for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning are calling witnesses to rebut prosecution evidence that the government secrets he gave to WikiLeaks posed a national security threat.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1.  TSA bungles $56 million no competition, no-name contractNextGov.Com’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “The Transportation Security Administration is awarding a $56 million short-term contract for a major technology project to SAIC, without competition and without naming the purpose of the system.  TSA officials in a July 3 redacted notice do not disclose the mission that the ‘mission scheduling and notification system,’ or MSNS, supports.  But the mission, the Federal Air Marshal Service, or FAMS, is easy to see on a government website intended to provide transparency into federal information technology spending.”

2.  Moog – not the synthesizers dudes, the swashplate actuator guys.  DoD announces – at the very bottom of the page – DLA’s award of $7.7 million “firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract (SPM4AX-07-D-9412 THA1)” Moog, Inc., for V-22 Osprey swashplates (that have to be huge).  If you’re looking for a synthesizer, go to  Moog Music, Inc.

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1.  Pakistan’s ISI – incompetent or culpableReuter’s Maria Golovnina reports that UBL’s deep cover included cowboy hats, shopping sprees, and speeding tickets: “Osama bin Laden lived in plain sight for almost a decade and was once even pulled over for speeding but not apprehended, thanks to the incompetence of Pakistan’s intelligence and security services, an official report into his killing said on Monday.  The report, leaked to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera which circulated it late on Monday, offers fascinating details about life on the run for the world’s most wanted man, who, it says, wore a cowboy hat to avoid being spotted from above.”  See also, “Secret move keeps bin Laden records in the shadows”; “Pakistani police let him go.”  Imagine:  “You don’t need to see his identification.  This is not the terrorist you’re looking for.  He can go about his business.  Move along.”

2.  License to ill.  Amid the Snowden-storm, revisit the story of Christine Granville.  TheDailyBeast.Com’s Emma Garman reviews Clare Mulley’s new book, The Spy Who Loved.  Writes Garman, “Christine’s most jaw-dropping act of heroism would occur in August 1944: with a bounty on her head and her face having graced WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE posters, she strolled into a Gestapo-controlled French prison and, posing as another woman entirely, secured an interview with a corruptible gendarme. Every iota of her charm and resourcefulness coming into play, Christine successfully arranged to break out three colleagues—including her lover du jour, the 29-year-old Belgian-British agent Francis Cammaerts—who were about to be executed.”

3.  Drive without looking . . . I do this already.  $400 million raised by Mobileye to keep research rolling.  VentureBeat.Com’s Rebecca Grant reports, “Mobileye will use this hefty round of financing to continue development and testing of the technology and bring its product to markets around the world.  The financing reportedly came from five investors — BlackRock, Fidelity Management, Wellington Management, Chinese investment firm Sailing Cpaial, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Bloomberg reported that the equity sale allowed early investors to exit and brought in more prominent stakeholders who can help the company move toward an IPO.”

4.  DARPA’s Hypersonics might work at the tactical range.  AviationWeek.Com reports that DARPA, with lessons learned enumerated, is shifting from a global strike perspective to a tactical-range perspective:  “DARPA’s original plan for its Integrated Hypersonics (IH) project was to begin with a third attempt to fly the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works-designed HTV-2 unmanned hypersonic glider, after the first two launches in 2010 and 2011 failed just minutes into their Mach 20 flights across the Pacific. This was to be followed by a more capable Hypersonic X-plane that would have pushed performance even further. . . .  Instead, as the Pentagon refocuses on China as a threat, Darpa is looking to work with the Air Force to demonstrate hypersonic weapons able to penetrate integrated air defenses and survive to strike targets swiftly, from a safe distance. Air-breathing and boost-glide weapons present challenges different to each other and to HTV-2, but the agency believes the lessons learned so far will prove valuable.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1.  To coup, or not to coup.  Congress divided on how best to manipulate Egypt. AP’s Bradley Klapper explains: “Congress, like the administration, is trying to reconcile democratic principles and U.S. interests. Obama and his national security team have condemned the violence, which killed at least 51 Islamist protesters and three security forces on Monday alone, but haven’t condemned the military for seizing power.  Several lawmakers have followed that lead, rejecting any immediate move to cut off aid at a time when the Muslim Brotherhood is calling for all-out rebellion against the army and any power vacuum could be filled by Islamic militant groups that might threaten stability in the Arab world’s most populous country, or in Israel next door.”

2.  Petraeus’ Pachanga*.  So, what’s new? In “David Petraeus’ shady coverup,”  Salon.Com’s Corey Robin hits the dance floor with the King:  “Since J.K. Trotter reported last week that David Petraeus will receive a huge sum from CUNY to teach exactly two courses, the school’s decision has ballooned into a genuine scandal, a veritable second Petraeusgate (the first, you’ll recall, cost him his job as director of the CIA). But while some of the scandal has been reported — i.e., the decision to pay Petraeus an outlandish salary, and the funding sources for the hire — a potential coverup by CUNY administrators has gone largely unnoticed. And CUNY may be about to learn the hard Nixonian truth of that old Watergate adage: It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.”  *Pachanga is “’a happy-go-lucky dance’ of Cuban origin with a Charleston flavor due to the double bending and straightening of the knees.”

3.  DOMA Disco: together, but un-equal.  Same sex civil union isn’t marriage, determine Administration:  “The Obama administration will not extend federal-worker benefits to domestic partners under the Supreme Court ruling that overturned part of the Defense of Marriage Act, meaning the government will treat civil unions differently than legal same-sex marriages.  The Office of Personnel Management made that announcement in a series of memos to federal benefits administrators and insurance carriers, saying couples who are not legally married “will remain ineligible for most federal benefits programs.” However, any existing benefits provided to domestic partners will remain intact, OPM said.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1.  “Egypt, de-democratised.”  Monash University, Australia, Professor Irfan Ahmad argues in an exhaustive piece that “the Egyptian military staged a coup d’etat that has set democracy back in the nation”:  “The subversion of Egypt’s democracy was implicitly hailed by democracy’s  custodians, the Western states, for none of them – not the USA, the EU, France or the UK – named the overthrow of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)-led government as a ‘coup d’état’, leave alone condemned it.  By failing to do so, these Western democracies found themselves as unlikely bedfellows with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two states that also welcomed the coup. Does not the statement of British Foreign Secretary, William Hague that ‘only democratic processes and government by consent will bring the stability and prosperity that the people of Egypt seek’ mislead people to think that the Morsi’s government was not based on consent?”

2.  Elections are not democracy.  In Reuters, Bill Schneider argues, “The Mursi government may have been elected, but there are other requirements for a democracy. A democratic government has to guarantee minority rights. It has to accept the opposition as legitimate. It has to be willing to abide by the rules. And the truest test of a democracy: The government has to give up power if it is defeated at the polls.”

3.  Muslim Brotherhood weighs in.  In WaPo, Gehad El-Haddad explains the MB perspective: “Egypt is headed back into the dark ages — to the age of Mubarak and his cronies, security forces, military henchmen and corrupt judiciary. An age of a media machine that serves as a propaganda arm for a repressive state. An age of violence, death, torture, detention and daily violations of human dignity. This is not just a military coup. It is a bloody coup.”

THE FUNNIES

1.  Jedi mind trick.

2.  Who would have known?

3.  Pyramid in the back.

4.  Refresh.

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.