FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Background investigations – illuminating the shadows. Marko Hakamaa explains the gaps in some current clearance background checks: “gaps exist in the current background investigation standards established by OPM for each investigation regarding how and what information is collected. . . . Three investigations do not require a personal security interview of the person being investigated and these are: National Agency Check with Inquires (NACI), Advanced National Agency Check with Inquires (ANACI); National Agency Check with Law Enforcement and Credit Checks (NACLC). The majority of the contractors and civil service employees who work for the Federal Government are investigated using one of these types of investigations.” Of, course, that’s when an agency actually does a background check.
2. Clearance nuance – SCI and SSBI. From Editor Lindy Kyzer, the privilege of access: “SCI is an access determination based on need to access intelligence information. It’s often associated with the intelligence community, but many federal agencies have SCI programs.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. In Syria, a small step forward: unconditional conditions. Reuters’ Yasmine Saleh and Ayman Samir report, “The Syrian opposition set terms on Sunday for attending peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, in a move that throws the proposed conference into further confusion after the international envoy said there should be no preconditions. . . . Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad Jarba said the opposition would not attend unless there was a clear timeframe for President Bashar al-Assad to leave power. He also said they could not accept the presence of Iran.” Aljazeera.Com reports, “The Syrian government said on Sunday that comments made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry regarding how Washington and its allies share the goal of a handover of power, could cause the proposed peace talks to fail.”
2. In Egypt, Morsi trial stutter-step. AP reports from Cairo, “Egypt’s state TV says the judge in the trial of the country’s deposed Islamist president and 14 others has adjourned the hearing soon after it started because the defendants’ chants were disrupting the proceedings. . . . Morsi and the others are charged with inciting murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.” Aljazeera.Com reports, “Morsi’s appearance on Monday at a police academy in an eastern Cairo district was his first public appearance since his military-orchestrated overthrow on July 3. . . . A Brotherhood-led group has called for mass rallies on Monday, while the interior minister has ordered the deployment of large numbers of security forces to guard the trial venue.” And Reuters’ Yasmine Saleh and Yara Bayoumy report, “It is the second time in just over two years that an overthrown president has been in court in Egypt, a nation some fear is sliding back into autocratic rule. . . . The Brotherhood has called on its supporters to stage mass protests on Monday, but the size of their demonstrations has shrunk because of heavy policing.
3. Déjà vu in Iran . . . but we aren’t there. AP’s Ali Akbar Dareini reports from Tehran, “Tens of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets Monday outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran in the biggest anti-American rally in years, a show of support for hard-line opponents of President Hassan Rouhani’s historic outreach to Washington. . . . The crowds also send a message to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who cautiously has backed Rouhani’s overtures to the U.S. and efforts to end the impasse with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.” Aljazeera.Com reports, “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has voiced his support for Iran’s talks with world powers over its disputed nuclear programme while expressing pessimism about them. . . . A new round of talks between Iranian negotiators and representatives from the so-called P5+1 group of world powers is scheduled in Geneva for November 7 and 8. It will be the second meeting since moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August. The talks are aimed at curbing Iran’s sensitive nuclear work in exchange for a relief from international sanctions strangling Iran’s economy.”
4. Ahhhh, the Afghanistan we knew and loved. Khaama.Com reports, “Afghan highway police forces have been accused of extortion and misbehavior on the main highways of Afghanistan. Integrity Watch Afghanistan in its latest report has revealed that 60 percent of Afghan police forces are involved in extortion and misbehavior with the drivers on Afghanistan highways. . . . Mr. Fazli further added that the drivers are paying an average of 300 Afghanis as extortion money to highway police.” Across the Durand Line, Pak Taliban name interim emir. Likely, he’ll not endure congressional grilling. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has appointed Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani to serve as the group’s interim leader after Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed by the US in a drone strike just two days ago. Asmatullah has previously vowed to wage jihad against US forces in Afghanistan and has led military and suicide operations in Pakistan.” Along the same lines, “Senior Taliban leaders meet in Islamabad to discuss Afghan peace.”
5. M23 ceasefire in the Congo. Aljazeera.Com reports, “M23 leader urges all fighters to immediately end hostilities as the country’s army takes over their last stronghold. . . . Congolese troops, aided by UN peacekeepers with a Security Council mandate to intervene militarily, have been pounding hilltop positions where some 200 fighters have been sheltering after being forced from their last stronghold this week. . . . The fighting raged for about eight hours and had appeared to intensify after the ceasefire order, reported the AFP news agency, citing its correspondents close to the battle zone.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Background-check contractor fraud. FederalTimes.Com’s Sean Reilly reports, “The government’s top contractor that performs security clearance background investigations appears to be scrambling to head off suspension or debarment as it comes under increased fire for allegedly defrauding the government. Last week, the Justice Department joined in a False Claims Act lawsuit filed against USIS of Falls Church, Va.. The firm performs almost two-thirds of the background checks for security clearances that are extended to millions of federal employees and contractors, according to one lawmaker. . . . The case, unsealed last week, was filed in Alabama two years ago by Blake Percival, a former director of fieldwork services at the company, who alleges that USIS systematically submitted background investigations to the government that were incomplete or not properly reviewed, which, if true, would constitute fraud.”
2. All the intel – none of the human. DefenseMediaNetwork.Com’s Steven Hoarn reports, “The MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter made its first flight, actually two flights, at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Magu, Calif., on Oct. 31. The goal was to validate the autonomous control systems of the MQ-8C. The Northrop Grumman and U.S. Navy test was a step forward for the next-generation MQ-8C. . . . The success of the MQ-8B, and high demand, has spurred the development of the MQ-8C. ‘Operating the MQ-8B Fire Scout from Navy ships has proved extremely successful. During at-sea deployments, operators saw the need for a system that carried the same intelligence-gathering capabilities of the MQ-8B, but [could] fly longer and carry additional payloads,’ said George Vardoulakis, Northrop Grumman’s vice president for medium range tactical systems.”
3. Phenomenology of Spirit Lasers. Wired.Com’s Allen McDuffee reports, “Under the name Project Endurance, DARPA, the Department of Defense’s research agency, awarded Northrop Grumman $14.6 million and Lockheed Martin $11.4 million in contracts for the effort, according to Military & Aerospace Electronics. Called ‘Project Endurance,’ the research will ‘develop technology for pod-mounted lasers to protect a variety of airborne platforms from emerging and legacy electro-optical IR guided surface-to-air missiles,’ according to DARPA’s 2014 budget request. The project focuses on “miniaturizing component technologies, developing high-precision target tracking, identification, and lightweight agile beam control to support target engagement,’ as well as ‘the phenomenology of laser-target interactions and associated threat vulnerabilities.’”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Don’t be the weakest link. NextGov.Com’s “Complete Guide to Not Being the Weak Link Who Got the Organization Hacked” (Or, How Not to Get Fired in 3 Easy Steps): “Each of your accounts and devices is a potential way in for a hacker. ‘You’re only as protected as your weakest link,’ says Tom Cochran, chief technology officer at Atlantic Media (which owns Quartz and Nextgov), and former head of digital technology at the White House. ‘All it takes is one person to fall for a phishing scam for your organization to fall for hackers.’”
2. Twitter Wars. Reuters’ Roberta Rampton reports, “Besieged by unflattering stories about the launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare program, the White House saw a news report that it wanted to swiftly knock down. It was from NBC, which said that Obama had overpromised when he said Americans who liked their insurance could keep it, and that the president knew that many people would see their coverage change. White House officials quickly began firing off a barrage of tweets on Twitter, which has become one of the administration’s most potent and relied-upon weapons in trying to shape public opinion and media reports.” [What’s Twitter?]
3. Halloween’s over – let Christmas begin! Wired.Com’s Roberto Baldwin with some money-saving advice: “Like it or not, the holiday shopping season is almost upon us. That means jostling for parking spots and dealing with some of the worst aspects of human nature. Or does it? There is, in fact, a better way. And it’ll save you money and some sanity. . . . Stick with Amazon. It has pretty much everything, and if you spend more than $25, you get free shipping. Even better, you can use the online retailer in conjunction with a price-tracking site like camelcamelcamel to carefully monitor the prices of the gifts you intend to buy. The service even graphs an object’s price history. That’s a good indicator of what time of year, or even day of the week an item might drop in price. You’ll want to start cultivating those shopping lists now, by the way. Waiting a few weeks only reduces the chances you’ll find a deal. If something is in short supply — as things often are during the holiday shopping season — you’ll also run the risk of your item not shipping before the holidays.”
Potomac two-step
1. Next partisan battles in Congress. WashingtonExaminer.Com’s Sean Lengell explains, “Senate Democrats have rekindled their threats to go “nuclear” and unilaterally change the rules to make it tougher for the minority party to filibuster after Republicans blocked two key White House nominations last week. And with Democrats accusing Republicans of breaking a handshake deal to temper their use of the filibuster, many around Washington believe Democrats aren’t bluffing. . . . President Obama has struggled for years to overcome Republican opposition to his nominations for top government or judicial posts, particularly for the D.C. Circuit Court — considered the nation’s most powerful bench after the Supreme Court.”
2. We just have to make sure there’s no voter fraud. HuffingtonPost.Com’s Ashley Alman reports, “Former U.S. Speaker of the House Jim Wright (D-Texas) tried to get a voter identification card at a Texas Department of Public Safety office on Saturday. But the only photo identification cards Wright has – an expired Texas driver’s license and a Texas Christian University faculty identification card – do not satisfy the requirements of the state’s restrictive vote identification law, passed in 2011. Wright is 90 years old. . . . State Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) also ran into problems when attempting to cast an early vote last week. She is identified as Wendy Russell Davis on her driver’s license, but listed as Wendy Davis in voter registration rolls. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate had to sign an affidavit of her identity to cast her vote.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Geneva II: Giving War a Chance?” Aljazeera.Com contributor Samer Abboud argues, “The current state of the Geneva process is giving war a chance to solve the conflict. This is not to suggest that war will eventually lead to peace, nor is to suggest, as others have, that this is a desirable evolution of the Syrian crisis. Rather, this is the logical outcome of a process that is failing miserably. There are no visible silver linings in such a scenario and there are no reasons to believe that this will change, as long as the main parties, particularly the regime and its allies, remain entrenched in their various positions towards the negotiations. It is precisely these positions that continue to foreclose the possibility of even kick-starting the Geneva process.”
2. “To get a deal with Iran, US must suspend – not increase – sanctions.” Christian Science Monitor contributor David Cortright argues, “The appropriate strategy now is to offer partial relief from sanctions as an incentive to encourage Iranian concessions. The record of previous sanctions-based diplomacy shows that economic pressures work best in combination with incentives as part of a bargaining dynamic to reach diplomatic agreement. Economic and security inducements have been decisive in most nonproliferation successes. A purely punitive approach to sanctions does not work. Combining sanctions with incentives is necessary to achieve diplomatic success.”
3. “Transatlantic Drifts.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Rosa Balfour argues, “No doubt, anything related to data protection will become even more controversial in light of the spying revelations. Environmental standards, agriculture, cultural products, civil liberties are all areas where the US and the European Union have different traditions and deep interests, and the negotiations are bound to bring them out. Much diplomacy will be needed then to manage these differences and make sure they are not blown out of proportion. Avoiding other ‘spy-gate’ type disagreements should be a political priority.”
THE FUNNIES
3. Jack-asterisks.
