FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Security clearance for private employees. Contributor Charles Simmins explains, “Private contractors are subject to the same clearance procedures as direct government employees. While the process is the same, you may notice some minor differences in procedure, if you’ve worked directly for the Federal Government in the past. . . .”
2. Eligibility for clearance. Also from Charles Simmins, “No lies, no stretching the truth. Gather the information that you will need and then apply for the position. If you know you are not eligible for a security clearance today, consider waiting before applying or take steps to mitigate issues.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. VA’s next secretary, Bob McDonald. DefenseOne.Com’s Molly O’Toole reports, “The Senate Veterans Affairs committee on Tuesday gave unanimous support to former Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald to serve as VA secretary, green lighting President Barack Obama’s nominee, who is expected to be confirmed before Congress leaves for its August recess next week. But more than 50 days since former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned in the wake of a still-growing scandal over wait times at VA health facilities, McDonald’s confirmation is just one, albeit significant, step forward for the Sisyphean effort he is set to soon lead: fixing a VA broken in both spirit and function.” See also, “VA Nominee Gets Warm Reception at Confirmation Hearing” and “Corporate-Style Discipline Following Scandal.”
2. Staff Sgt. Ryan M. Pitts enters Hall of Heroes. Defense Media Activity’s Amaani Lyle reports, “Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, Army Secretary John M. McHugh and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno recognized Staff Sgt. Ryan M. Pitts for single-handedly thwarting enemy access to his fallen fellow soldiers’ bodies during a grueling battle to defend Observation Post Topside near the village of Wanat in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. ‘The airborne is trained in this very mission to drop behind enemy lines, to be surrounded, to be cut off and to rely only on each other . . . . Ryan takes his place in our Hall of Heroes because of his actions on that day in July 2008, [and] he exemplifies the qualities of the American soldier: steadfast devotion to duty, tenacity in the fight and love and respect for each other.’”
3. Gaza. Reuters’ Nidal al-Mughrabi and Crispian Balmer report from Gaza and Jerusalem, “Some 643 Palestinians, many of them children and civilians have died in the conflagration, including a seven-year-old hit by a shell in southern Gaza early Wednesday, a medic said. Some 29 Israeli soldiers have been killed, including a tank officer shot by a Palestinian sniper overnight. Two civilians have been slain by rocket fire. The military says one of its soldiers is also missing and believes he might be dead. Hamas says it has captured him, but has not released his picture.” Aljazeera.Com reports, “Rights groups accuse Israel of war crimes.”
4. Russia’s not under attack. Christian Science Monitor’s Fred Weir reports from Moscow, “Vladimir Putin opened a special meeting of the Kremlin’s Security Council today with an odd statement: ‘There is no direct military threat to our country’s sovereignty or territorial integrity at present,’ he said. To a Western ear, that might sound like belaboring the obvious. For a Russian audience today, it’s a jarring note for their leader to strike. Mr. Putin’s statement flatly contradicts what the domestic media have been saying for months.” See also, “Key Putin quotes from defense policy address.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. DHS’ $6 billion Request for Quotation. FederalTimes.Com’s Tony Ware reports, “The Department of Homeland Security, aided by the General Services Administration’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center, has released the first request for quotation for Task Order 2 of its $6 billion Continuous Diagnosis and Mitigation initiative. Congress established the CDM program to commission and allocate risk-based, cost-effective cybersecurity resources across the dot-gov space, with the first phase introducing network monitoring and endpoint-protection products that feed continuous diagnostics and vulnerability information into an enterprise-level dashboard.”
2. Northrop Grumman wins on weather. GovConWire.Com reports, “Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has won a contract worth $300 million to help the U.S. Air Force disseminate weather prediction data for military users worldwide, the Washington Business Journal reported Monday. . . . The Air Force Weather Agency says that climate data can help commanders ‘anticipate and exploit the battlespace environment, from the mud to the sun.’”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. IT modernization and private sector partnering. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “Agency leaders need to break down cultural barriers and engage employees in order to succeed in modernizing IT systems, according to former Defense secretary Robert Gates. . . . agency leaders need to know when a project isn’t working and should avoid trying to create programs from scratch. Instead, agencies should partner with the private sector to refine existing programs and technologies.” See also, “Agencies could save billions by simplifying networks” and “New public-private partnership aims to train a new generation of cyber professionals.”
2. SA-11 operations. Wired.Com’s Alex Davies explains, “American officials believe the missile that destroyed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was fired by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, using a Russian-made system designed for bringing down fighter jets. That brings up the question: How easy is it to bring down a passenger jet with a weapon that’s meant to [be] used by trained soldiers? Turns out, it’s pretty easy. As in, take a three-day course and go for it easy.”
3. Five ways to protect yourself from identity theft. AP reports, “People aren’t likely to stop using their credit and debit cards any time soon, and as data breaches become increasingly common, consumers don’t often know what to do when a company they’ve done business with experiences a breach. Here are five ways you can avoid becoming a victim of identity theft-even if your data has been compromised.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Cage Match: “It’s a foreign-policy smackdown! First, former defense secretary Robert Gates, in his memoir ‘Duty,’ lashed out at Vice President Biden as being ‘wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.’ Now, in an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Biden has fired back: ‘You go back, and everything in the last forty years, there’s nothing that I can think of, major fundamental decisions relative to foreign policy, that I can think he’s been right about!’ Both men have offered specific pieces of evidence to back up their claims. The merits of some of these decisions can still be debated, but factually, how do they stack up?”
2. Morbid musings on McConnell: “It’s a taboo subject among Senate Republicans but one that’s on many senators’ minds: What if Mitch McConnell loses his reelection bid? There appears to be no clear answer to that question, at least not right now. . . . The parlor game is playing out while McConnell is in a fight for his political life with polls indicating a dead-heat race threatening his nearly three decades in the Senate. While McConnell is widely viewed as the favorite in his race against Grimes, his defeat would mark the second time in less than a year that a GOP leader in Congress lost his seat, following House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s primary stunner this summer. Cantor’s defeat triggered a weeks-long leadership fight in the House, and a McConnell loss—or a Republican failure to take back the Senate—would throw the GOP into further turmoil.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Fighting jihad for Israel.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Hanine Hassan argues, “Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into an experimental laboratory for its high-tech weapon industry and chemicals. It is the obligation of the international community to sanction Israel, and enforce a military embargo in light of the Israeli violations of human rights.”
2. “The war in Gaza threatens Egypt too.” Reuters contributor Shibley Telhami argues, “Despite Hamas’ dislike of Sisi, it needs to work with Egypt. It has no choice. So the Israelis want Sisi to succeed. They view the Egyptian military establishment, his power base, as an anchor of their peace with Egypt. Egypt still has a key role to play. But Cairo’s challenges and risks will only increase the longer this conflict continues.”
3. “Putin has a new headache in Ukraine: Now Europe is watching.” LA Times’ Doyle McManus argues, “Economic sanctions alone won’t end the war in eastern Ukraine; Europe is too divided and Putin too resilient for that. But if the tragedy of Flight 17 buys time for Ukraine’s new government to get organized, bolsters Western support for economic aid to Kiev and increases the cost of Putin’s Ukrainian adventure to Russia, it could be a turning point for the region.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Going green.
2. Team. Team.
