FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Clearance denial, guaranteed. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “There are four criteria that, by law, result in clearance denial—an individual convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison for more than one year, a person who was discharged/dismissed from the military under dishonorable conditions, a person who is mentally incompetent, or a person who is addicted to a controlled substance.”
2. Security Clearance, step by step. Contributor John Holst explains, “The five stages of the security clearance process are: pre-investigation, investigation, adjudication, appeal, and reinvestigation. Most of us a familiar with the last and fifth stage: reinvestigation. Anyone who has a clearance goes through a periodic reinvestigation to maintain their clearance. The timing of the reinvestigation depends on the level of access an individual has, as well as the federal agency the individual works for.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Russian hands on MH-17 crash. Christian Science Monitor’s Brad Knickerbocker reports, “In a statement from the US Embassy in Kiev, American officials reported an increasing amount of heavy weaponry crossing the border from Russia to separatist fighters in Ukraine recently, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, and multiple rocket launchers. More significantly, according to this report, ‘We also have information indicating that Russia is providing training to separatist fighters at a facility in southwest Russia, and this effort included training on air defense systems.’” AP’s Matthew Lee reports, “In a round of television interviews, Kerry cited a mix of U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence and social media reports that he said ‘obviously points a very clear finger at the separatists’ for firing the missile that brought the plane down, killing nearly 300 passengers and crew.”
2. Cold War-ish, again. National Journal’s Dustin Volz reports, “Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein thoroughly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in empowering Ukraine’s pro-Russian separatists . . . largely laying the blame at his feet for the downing last week of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet. Regardless of Putin’s level of involvement in the plane crash, Feinstein said U.S. relations with Russia had dipped to a new low. . . . Already-strained U.S. diplomatic relations with Russia have deteriorated in recent months, as a wave of unrest in Ukraine led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. That action and armed separatist movements in other regions of Ukraine have prompted tightening international sanctions on Russia, the most recent of which were announced by President Obama last week.”
3. Ground war in Gaza. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Many Palestinian families fled the Shujayea neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City after a sleepless night that witnessed the heaviest bombardment of the 13-day Israeli assault on Gaza. Heavy tank and artillery shelling has left 72 people dead, most of them women and children and over 200 injured, according to Palestinian health ministry sources. At midday, horrific images were aired on Al Jazeera where corpses of burnt women and children were lying on the streets of Shujayea as a result of the Israeli bombardment. According to several eye witness accounts, Shujayea residents fled under heavy bombardment.” Reuters reports, “Israel kills militants entering from Gaza, death toll tops 500.”
4. War Budget. DefenseNews.Com’s Marcus Weisgerber reports, “Republicans and Democrats showed a rare display of bipartisanship last week when members of both parties criticized the Pentagon’s $58.6 billion war budget request, but experts say Congress will likely approve the measure. US lawmakers directed the majority of their frustration at a$5 billion White House request for the newly created counterterrorism partnership fund. Of this total, $4 billion is part of the Pentagon’s $58.6 billion overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget request that was sent to Congress in late June. The remaining $1 billion is in the State Department’s OCO request.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. MH-17 may drive procurement. DefenseNews.Com’s Jaroslav Adamowski reports, “The shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines passenger aircraft over eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists are fighting against Ukraine’s pro-government troops, is likely to further contribute to security concerns in Eastern Europe, where NATO allies eye increased cooperation in the field of defense and joint arms procurements. The Ukraine issue and the shootdown is expected to be front and center this week during a meeting of Eastern European NATO member states in Warsaw. It is also expected to speed up plans for joint weapons purchases, for items as small as ammunition and as large as fighter jets.”
2. $40 billion in F-35s to South Korea. GovConWire.Com’s Jay Clemens reports, “South Korea is planning to buy Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighters for nearly .1 billion . . . . the acquisition proposal for 40 F-35 jets is set to complete in the third quarter of 2014. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff are also pushing for an estimated $8.24 billion program to develop twin-engine fighter jets . . . . Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. is expected to win the contract and deliver the aircraft beginning in 2025, according to the report. KAI and Lockheed Martin collaborated to develop the T-50 jet, which serves as South Korea’s light trainer and fighter . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Robot ethics. NextGov.Com contributor Alex Brown reports, “The culpability question is one of a host of thorny moral dilemmas presented by lethal robots. On the one hand, if effective, robot soldiers could replace ground troops and prevent thousands of American casualties. And robots aren’t susceptible to many of the weaknesses that plague humans: exhaustion, sickness, infection, emotion, indecision. But even if robot warriors can keep American lives out of danger, can they be trusted with the complicated combat decisions now left to human judgment? Rep. Jim McGovern thinks not.”
2. Snowden goes industry. Reuters’ Jim Finkle reports, “Edward Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of major U.S. surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe. Snowden, who addressed conference attendees on Saturday via video link from Moscow, said he intends to devote much of his time to promoting such technologies, including ones that allow people to communicate anonymously and encrypt their messages.” 3. “The False Ambition of Innovation.” Wired.Com contributor Jeff Degraff explains, “We’ve all been to the pep rally masquerading as a leadership retreat or town hall meeting. Like that good old All-American Knute Rockne, the emotional boss whips us into a frenzy with talk about winning one for the Gipper or poor little Nell or the emaciated shareholders. The problem is that the last three losing coaches all did the same thing. Unfortunately inspirational rah-rah doesn’t stick. Adults like to be treated as such and require some objective honesty and detached prudence in return for your credibility. Otherwise, cynicism abounds.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. The Grand Delusion: “Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday called Secretary of State John Kerry’s defense of President Obama’s foreign policy ‘delusional’ and criticized the administration for not taking a tougher stance against Russia. ‘It scares me that [Kerry] believes the world is in such good shape . . . . America is the glue that holds the free world together. Leading from behind is not working.’ Graham rebuked Kerry for failing to call Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘the thug that he is.’ As Kerry made several appearances on Sunday morning news shows, Graham said the secretary ‘gave the most ridiculous and delusional summary of American foreign policy I could imagine.’ Graham urged the administration to arm the Ukrainian military ‘so they can defend themselves against rebel separatists supported by Russia.’”
2. Doing nothing, again: “Congress is scheduled to adjourn for a five-week recess two weeks from today, and prospects of doing anything about the crisis on the border with Mexico are growing slimmer by the hour. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is determined to move legislation out of his chamber that would address the tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children who have illegally crossed the border in the hopes of being granted some form of indefinite amnesty to remain in the United States. But what House Republicans might pass this month now appears headed for a roadblock in the Democratic Senate. . . . Boehner acknowledged Thursday during his weekly news conference that the growing rift on this issue between Republicans and Democrats endanger the chances that a divided Congress might reach a bipartisan deal on legislation to address the border crisis.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “America Needs to Change Its Failed Iraq-Iran Policy.” HuffingtonPost.Com contributor and DNC Chairman Howard Dean argues, “Preaching democratic values while engaging in supporting undemocratic and repressive regimes has never enhanced American credibility, and it has rarely been a successful security tactic in the long term. It is my hope that 60 years of mistakes will finally yield to real long-term thinking and a Middle East policy more consistent with the values of the American people.”
2. “What MH17 means for Russia-Ukraine.” Reuters contributor Ian Bremmer argues, “Putin continues to view his country’s influence over Ukraine and the power to keep it from joining NATO as a national security interest of the highest order—the same way Israel wants to deter Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Recent events haven’t shifted Putin’s interests in the slightest. In fact, the three biggest changes coming out of the MH17 crash point to more escalation.”
3. “Gaza 1994-2014: The peace that led to war.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Marwan Bishara explains, “Since its inception in 1993, the Oslo Process was based on an imbalance of power. It reflected Israel’s strategic superiority to dictate certain terms, but also its inability to impose its will on the defiant Palestinians who refused to surrender. It’s fundamentally unstable. Unlike peace based on defeat (US and Japan post-World War II) or balance of power (Egypt and Israel), the Israeli-Palestinian peace has been marked by conflicting expectations and disruptive ambiguity.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Sarcasm hurts.
3. Gaza.
