FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Non-disclosure agreements aren’t enough. Get a social media policy – now. Contributor Christopher Burgess explains exactly why your organization must have a social media policy: to protect your people and your 411. Burgess writes, “If you are the employer, you no doubt have already had your employee sign a non-disclosure agreement, which no doubt covers the unauthorized disclosure of company information. If the company engages in classified work, then there are further restrictions. But is the NDA sufficient? In my opinion, it isn’t near enough, and leaves too many unasked questions.”
2. Clearance after the bust. Yes, Lindy, you can get a clearance after your misdemeanor. Oh, you didn’t mean you . . . you were being rhetorical. Editor Lindy Kyzer answers the question that’s been nagging her for a decade: “If these are the only criminal offenses in your background and you have not been involved in any serious misconduct since 2004, you have a reasonably good chance of being granted a security clearance.” And, in greater detail, “Relevance of Criminal Conduct and Security Clearances.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. In Afghanistan, Karzai sues for peace. AP reports from Kabul, “In a speech for the start of a Muslim holiday, the Afghan president has urged the Taliban to lay down their arms, join the political process and stop killing innocent civilians.” According to Khaama.Com, “President Karzai in his Eid message to Taliban group said that their sign and flag would have never been lowered if the peace talks were held inside Afghanistan.” POTUS tells Marines, “The war in Afghanistan has entered its final chapter.” And AfghanistanNewsCenter.Com’s Patrick Quinn reports, “The Taliban’s reclusive leader said Tuesday that his group was willing to start peace negotiations, even as he urged more attacks — including insider shootings by government security forces — on foreign troops. . . . The Taliban’s longstanding policy is to continue attacks even as it pursues negotiations.” Well, that’s just the way they roll.
2. In Egypt, EU and U.S. sue for peace. Aljazeera.Com reports from Cairo, “The US and the European Union have called on all sides in Egypt’s political crisis to end ‘a dangerous stalemate’ after the interim government said foreign mediation efforts had failed. . . . Both sides called their supporters to rally on Thursday. . . . US envoy William Burns headed home after days of trying to broker a compromise between the government and Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. European Union envoy Bernardino Leon stayed on in the capital in the hope of reviving the effort.”
3. VA shows it’s a human agency. While whittling down the backlog of claims, the VA demonstrates it’s not too big – nor too small – to award benefits when they’re due. WaPo’s Steve Vogel reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs has reversed its denial of Agent Orange-related disability benefits for an Air Force veteran who flew on potentially contaminated C-123 aircraft after the Vietnam War, a decision advocates describe as the first of its kind for veterans seeking compensation for postwar exposure to the toxic defoliant. Paul Bailey, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who is gravely ill with cancer, received notice Monday that he would receive ‘a total grant of benefits’ for cancer associated with his 1970s-era service in the United States aboard the aircraft, which had been used to spray the toxic defoliant during the war.”
4. USMC Commandant eats his soup with a knife. DefenseOne.Com’s Stephanie Gaskell lands an insightful sit down with Gen. Amos and reports, “Having fought in the streets of Fallujah and the fields in Sangin in the past decade, the Marine Corps is adapting to the new landscape of warfare — and the counter-insurgency training used in Iraq and Afghanistan is still very much a part of it . . . . Marines are adapting as the Obama administration moves away from large-scale invasions and relies more on training and advising allied forces, smaller special forces and counter-terrorism operations, unmanned drone attacks and good old-fashioned military-diplomacy.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. For contractors, past performance may become more relevant. GovExec.Com’s Charles S. Clark reports that a new Federal Acquisition Regulation rule will “help agencies consider past performance of contractors in awarding new work while shortening the comment period available to affected firms. . . . ‘It is important for past performance information to be shared with source selection officials immediately, so that award decisions can be better informed and made in a more timely manner,’ the proposed rule states.”
2. Close to $1 billion in arms to India on the table. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced Wednesday, “The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress Aug 2 of a possible Foreign Military Sale India of 145 M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed Howitzers and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $885 million.” Possible winners will be BAE, Watervliet Arsenal, Seiler Instrument Company, Triumph Actuation Systems, Taylor Devices, Hutchinson Industries, and Selex (Edinburgh, UK).
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Russia’s hacker haven. HuffingtonPost.Com’s Gerry Smith reports that Snowden is among friends in Russia: “Hackers operating in Russia are responsible for more than one-third of cyber-crime revenues worldwide or as much as $3.7 billion a year . . . In Russia, fugitive hackers often live in plain sight. . . . Russian officials have not cracked down on hackers because they do not attack computer systems in Russia, and therefore are not violating laws in that country . . . .” Not surprising, then, that POTUS scraps the presidential summit with Putin.
2. Blackberry’s slide to oblivion. VentureBeat.Com contributor Meghan Kelly reports, “It seems three BlackBerry executives walked the plank off a sinking ship this week. The mobile company, which is struggling to keep its relevancy after disappointing quarterly earnings and a disappointing product release, stated that it is currently in the middle of restructuring. It would not confirm, however, whether these three were let go as part of that restructuring or if they left on their own.”
3. Body goes boom – the SIIED. TheDailyBeast.Com’s Daniel Klaidman tells the story of our CINC’s worst nightmare: Ibrahim al-Asiri. Writes, Klaidman, “His name is Ibrahim al-Asiri, he works for Al Qaeda, and he makes bombs for a living . . . Few things chilled U.S. officials more than the belief that al-Asiri has succeeded in developing a new kind of bomb that can be surgically implanted inside the human body. The military refers to such a weapon as a ‘surgically implanted improvised explosive device,’ or SIIED. In 2011, U.S. intelligence learned that al-Asiri was working closely with AQAP-affiliated doctors who had tested the bomb on dogs and other animals. Like his previous bombs, it contained no metal and so could pass through conventional detectors.”
4. The NSA net grows wider . . . little by little. NYTimes.Com’s Charlie Savage dives deep into NSA’s snooping: “The N.S.A. is not just intercepting the communications of Americans who are in direct contact with foreigners targeted overseas, a practice that government officials have openly acknowledged. It is also casting a far wider net for people who cite information linked to those foreigners, like a little used e-mail address, according to a senior intelligence official. . . . The disclosure sheds additional light on statements intelligence officials have made recently, reassuring the public that they do not “target” Americans for surveillance without warrants.”
5. Used smartphones – where the $$ is. According to Forbes.Com’s Connie Guglielmo, expect to see a nearly five-fold increase in the used phone market: “The market for used smartphones is “poised to explode” in the next five years, with Apple’s iPhone currently the most popular used smartphone brand and commanding better pricing than Samsung Galaxy handsets and other phones powered by the Android operating system.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Shadow dancing. While POTUS puts off Putin, Kerry is still on the dance card. DefenseOne.Com’s Joseph Cirincione reports, “The presidents may not be meeting, but their senior officials are — and they have a chance to foster the cooperation necessary to address urgent nuclear threats confronting both nations. On Friday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with their Russian counterparts Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.”
2. Fil got his fill in Korea, according to the WaPo. Remember General Fil? Fil was Petraeus’ side kick during the Westhusing suicide investigation. Now, Fil’s joins Petraeus in what Maj. Gen. Gregg F. Martin describes as the destruction of trust in the military profession: “A three-star Army general improperly accepted gold-plated Montblanc pens, a $2,000 leather briefcase and other gifts from a South Korean citizen while commanding U.S. troops in that country, newly released documents show. Joseph F. Fil Jr., the former commander of the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea, also failed to report a $3,000 cash gift to a member of his family from the unnamed South Korean benefactor, according to a confidential investigative report by the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General.” Irony: “Fil had been officially tapped in November 2010 to become the Army’s inspector general — responsible for overseeing investigations into fraud, waste, abuse and senior leader misconduct.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The al-Qaeda menace the U.S. helped to create.” WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson argues, “If the new, decentralized al-Qaeda is such a threat that 19 U.S. embassies, consulates and other diplomatic posts have to be shuttered for a week, we have a decade of wrongheaded U.S. policy to blame. The Arab Spring contributed by creating power vacuums for militant anti-Western jihadists to exploit. But myopic decision-making in Washington clearly played a huge role — and while I hope we’re getting smarter, I have my doubts.”
2. “Snowden, Greenwald and Wikileaks are winning.” AlJazeera.Com contributor Mark Weisbot argues, “It is beginning to sink in that the main target of the NSA’s massive spying programmes is not terrorism but the American people themselves (as well as other non-terrorist populations throughout the world). Pew Research finds for the first time since 2004 that there are more Americans concerned that government ‘anti-terror’ programmes have ‘gone too far in restricting civil liberties’ than those who think not enough has been done to protect people from terrorism.”
3. Pakistan-U.S. relations are not a lost cause, or so argues Daniel Markey of DefenseOne.Com: “While in Islamabad, Kerry announced that the United States-Pakistan strategic dialogue would be resumed in order to foster ‘deeper, broader and more comprehensive partnership.’ These fine words will need a lot of hard work to back them up. It would help if President Obama’s administration also came to the table with a big new idea to re-energize its difficult relationship with Islamabad.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Court Jester.
2. Power ball.
3. I don’t know, but it looks smart.
4. Love affair.
