FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. What the Intelligence Authorization Act means to you. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “For cleared contractors, the Act means more oversight into security plans, with specific requirements for the Director of National Intelligence to ensure all contractors with access to classified information have plans consistent with DNI standards. It also calls for periodic assessments of those plans and more procedures for identifying insider threats and educating cleared professionals on what issues must be self-reported.”
2. Continuous clearance monitoring. Contributor Christopher Burgess reports, “A recent study by the National Center for Credibility Assessment published in the journal ‘Computers in Human Behavior’ is capturing the attention of many within the national security clearance assessment world. . . . According to the report’s abstract, the principal investigators, a computer-generated agent presented basic national security suitability questions to candidates on the topics of their ‘mental health, drug, alcohol and criminal histories.’ If you’ve previously obtained a security clearance, you’ll recognize those topics—they’re key criteria that can result in denial of a security clearance based on issues of suitability.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Iran—building bridges. Christian Science Monitor’s Scott Peterson reports, “To clinch a nuclear deal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has to reassure world powers. But to achieve long-term regional stability, he has to overcome deeply sown suspicions and rivalries with Iran’s Persian Gulf neighbors at a time of tremendous sectarian tension. . . . The enmity cuts both ways. Though Iran has always couched its 1979 revolution in Pan-Islamic terms—as an example of religious rule to be followed by both Shiites and Sunnis—its majority ethnic Persians have historically looked down on their Arab neighbors. In the devastating Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, every Arab nation but Syria lined up to support Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein—a link with Syria that continues today.”
2. NORTHCOM. Defense Media Activity’s Jim Garamone reports, “U.S. Northern Command epitomizes the changes over the past decades in defending the United States of America, Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr., the commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command . . . . Jacoby told attendees at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that he spent his first 34 years as a soldier ‘out there’—meaning concentrating on overseas threats—defending the United States. ‘The distinction between the home game and the away game is really changed and really less significant than it’s been in the past,’ he said. The mission of U.S. Northern Command falls into three groups . . . .”
3. Easing up Gaza. Reuters’ Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell report, “Israel eased its assaults in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave declined sharply on Monday, the military said, with both the United States and United Nations calling for a durable ceasefire. As international pressure mounted to end a 21-day conflict in which more than 1,000 people have been killed, an Israeli military official said the army would only fire in response to attacks, adding that this would be for an ‘unlimited’ period.” See also from Aljazeera.Com, “’Only stones remain’: Gaza lies in ruins” and Time’s “U.N. Security Council Calls for Unconditional Cease-Fire in Gaza.”
4. Heating up in Ukraine. AP’s Peter Leonard reports from Kiev, “At least eight civilians have been killed by fighting and shelling in two Ukrainian cities held by separatist militants, officials in the rebellion-wracked east said Monday. . . . Territory between the cities has seen intensified fighting as government troops try to gain control over the area where a Malaysia Airlines plane was downed earlier this month.”
5. Syria—extremist battleground. DefenseOne.Com’s Kevin Baron reports, “Syria is now the ‘predominant battleground for extremists’ plotting to attack the United States, as the number of foreign fighters now has exceeded 12,000 and is rising rapidly, the United States counterterrorism chief said on Friday. The new figure issued by Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, represents a stunning 50 percent increase in just three months of fighters flocking to Syria, where Olsen said al-Qaeda veterans have traveled to take advantage of the lawless war zone to recruit and train jihadists to attack the West.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Challenging the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). DefenseNews.Com’s Aaron Mehta reports, “Powerful, if little-known outside the national security insiders, CFIUS has the ability to scuttle multimillion dollar deals that committee members feel pose a threat to US security. And it has been largely unchallenged—until July 15, when the Chinese-owned Ralls Corp. won a court case against the committee. The case was notable as the first real challenge to CFIUS in court, but also for its potential long-term impact. Experts said the decision sets a fascinating precedent for how CFIUS has to disclose its decision-making process at a time when international acquisitions of US companies, particularly by Chinese firms, are trending upward.”
2. Northrop Grumman wins, again, at the National Training Center. GovConWire.Com reports, “Northrop Grumman will continue its mission logistics support work at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in California under a new three-year, $205 million contract with the U.S. Army. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract has a one-year base period and two option years and includes tactical logistics planning, transportation, supply and maintenance services, Northrop said Friday. . . . The National Training Center is designed to conduct live-fire and force-on-force exercises for active and reserve combat brigades. Northrop has supported the Fort Irwin military training base since 2001.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Saving Soldiers’ lives—trauma care reinvented. Wired.Com’s Liz Stinson reports, “Funded by $3.8 million in grants from the DoD and designed by CannonDesign, the nearly 10,000-square-foot space is the hospital’s answer to the big question of: How can you make trauma care, both in hospitals and in military situations, faster and more effective? . . . The logic here is simple. The faster you care for a patient, the more likely he or she is to survive. These ‘flow disruptions,’ things like poorly organized equipment and lack of communication between team members, can be hugely detrimental to a patient’s health. The OR360, then, is a place to work out the kinks and try out new ideas and workflows.”
2. Snowden in chains. VentureBeat.Com’s Richard Byrne Reilly reports, “He looks like a man with a lot on his mind. Thinner. Jacketed, but not well-slept. On July 10, Edward Snowden—possibly the biggest whistle-blower in history—gave an interview to The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and reporter Ewen MacAskill in Moscow. In the 13-minute talk, the former National Security Agency contractor said he was resigned to someday being imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, that he’s not a Russian spy, and that Google Hangouts has been totally infiltrated by U.S. intelligence.” Read the Snowden interview.
3. Drones over Iraq. DefenseNews.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “Despite a years-long history of intermittently sniping at one another’s drones in the skies over Iraq, Afghanistan and the Arabian Gulf, the United States and Iran have for the most part avoided each other in the air. But with the US now flying about 50 missions a day over Iraq and a dedicated Iranian drone and signals intelligence presence having been established in Baghdad, the two rivals find themselves overtly sharing the same airspace, even while denying any coordination or contact.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Vader for President: “Why would Americans want Darth Vader for president? Hillary Clinton has an answer: ‘People are so fed up with the gridlock and dysfunction in Washington. Congress is unfortunately unable to even agree on the most obvious kinds of things . . . . I think Darth Vader looks pretty good to a lot of people.’ Mrs. Clinton’s comments, made during a CNN interview Sunday with Fareed Zakaria, were in response to data compiled by The Washington Post that found the fictional ‘Star Wars’ villain polling higher than many potential presidential candidate, including her.”
2. Vacation coming: “Congress [today] will begin a final week of legislative action before adjourning for the August recess, but partisan gridlock threatens to leave key legislation unfinished. The president’s request for additional funding to deal with a surge of immigrants on the border has hit a roadblock with the GOP. But another bill that had stalled, legislation to help end long wait times at medical facilities for military veterans, may end up clearing Congress this week because the top negotiators announced a deal Sunday. House lawmakers, meantime, will vote on a GOP-authored resolution authorizing a lawsuit against President Obama over his use of executive action and they’ll take action on a measure to strengthen sanctions against North Korea.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “On Gaza, genocide, and impunity.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Abukar Arman argues, “In its latest campaign of brazen aggression, Israel has caused colossal destruction of lives, homes and critical infrastructure. . . . Israel has three options to choose from: To allow a free and an independent Palestinian state to form and exist side by side with that of Israel; allow a bi-national state in which both peoples would have to learn to live together as in South Africa; or keep pushing the Palestinian people against the wall till the youth snap and their wrath explodes. Keep in mind that Palestinian youth are at ground zero and they have nothing to lose!”
2. “To end Hamas-Israel wars, deal with the mutual despair.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Despair can be abused but it can also be used as a point of empathy. After the 1973 war between Israel and Egypt, a shared despair helped drive talks that led to the Camp David accords and a long peace between the two countries. That old despair is largely forgotten. This lesson—that despair can quickly end when simply confronted as a self-imposed obstacle to peace—should now be applied to make sure this latest Hamas-Israel war is the last.”
3. “Creativity at Work: 6 Ways to Encourage Innovative Ideas.” Time contributor Eric Barker argues, “Most important, an organization’s leaders can support creativity by mandating information sharing and collaboration and by ensuring that political problems do not fester. Information sharing and collaboration support all three components of creativity . . . . .That sense of mutual purpose and excitement so central to intrinsic motivation invariably lessens when people are cliquish or at war with one another.”
THE FUNNIES
3. Empathy.
