FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Driving drones. Contributor Tranette Ledford reports, “The job market for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is taking off, opening new career paths for cleared veterans interested in drone operator jobs and in associated positions. . . . They promise transformative capabilities in business and public service, potentially altering everything from package delivery to photo services, the ways crops are treated and methods law enforcement use to conduct search and rescue missions. The list will likely get longer.”
2. Hiring trends. Also from Tranette Ledford, “[T]he employment forecast for the next two quarters looks more than positive for veterans looking for cleared careers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent jobs figures, the unemployment rate is down to its lowest point since 2008 (6.1 percent), with 288,000 jobs added in June. That trend looks to continue, due to a hiring manager frenzy to fill technology slots and other specialized fields, including a host of cleared careers.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Ambush in Afghanistan. AP’s Robert Burns reports, “Harold J. Greene, the two-star Army general who became the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to be killed in either of America’s post-9/11 wars, was an engineer who rose through the ranks as an expert in developing and fielding the Army’s war materiel. He was on his first deployment to a war zone.” Stars & Stripes’ Josh Smith reports, “Greene was the highest-ranking U.S. officer killed in an attack since Army Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude died in the 9/11 strike at the Pentagon.” Christian Science Monitor’s Anna Mulrine asks, “How big is threat of insider attacks?” From AP, see also, “Wounds about 15” and Khaama.Com’s “Afghan policeman shoots dead 7 comrades in Uruzgan province.”
2. At the mercy of ISIS—Yazidis. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Today, most Yazidis live in northern Iraq and Syria, but followers of the religion have also scattered across some former Soviet republics such as Georgia. In Iraq, most Yazidis live in the province of Nineveh, in towns like Sinjar, Shekhan and Bashiqa, and most speak the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish. Members of the religious minority are viewed as infidels by Islamic State fighters, who began to take over large swaths of land in Iraq in early June.” See also from LongWarJournal.Org, “Islamic State overruns Syrian artillery regiment in Hasakah.”
3. Cease-fire holding in Gaza. AP’s Karin Laub and Ibrahim Barzak report, “cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that ended a month of war was holding for a second day Wednesday, ahead of negotiations in Cairo on a long-term truce and a broader deal for the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. In the coming days, Egyptian mediators are to shuttle between delegations from both sides to try to work out a deal. The Palestinian delegation is composed of negotiators from all major factions, including Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza.”
4. Embassies—bracing for revolt. Reuters’ Mark Hosenball reports, “The U.S. State Department is increasing security at some American embassies in anticipation of the public release of a long-awaited Senate report detailing the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the additional security measures reflected concerns that the report could prompt protests in countries where the CIA operated secret prisons that were used to conduct interrogations. Human rights activists and some U.S. politicians have labeled as ‘torture’ some of the physically stressful interrogation techniques, such as simulated drowning, that were authorized under former-President George W. Bush.”
5. VA update—private sector leanings. DefenseOne.Com contributor Colin Wilhelm reports, “Congress is flooding the VA with resources to deliver care in a timely manner to vets. It will be up to newly confirmed VA Secretary Robert McDonald to change the hearts and minds of the department.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Acquisition slush fund—don’t think so. DefenseNews.Com’s Marcus Weisgerber reports, “The US Defense Department’s top procurement official would like Congress to create a reserve spending account that the Pentagon could tap when a weapons program runs into costly development issues. Such a fund could prevent the snowball effect caused when money is taken from one program to ease shortfalls in another. Still, Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall does not expect to get one anytime soon.”
2. Life support for the ol’ C-130. DoDBuzz.Com’s Kris Osborn reports, “The U.S. Air Force is working to extend the service life of its fleet of C-130 combat delivery aircraft by replacing center wing boxes on some of the planes and adding new avionics, electronics and instrumentation . . . . The Air Force now operates 362 C-130s, including 260 H-models and 102 more modern J-models. Overall, the services’ fiscal year 2015 budget calls for the delivery of 134 J-models and maintenance of 194 H-models for a total force size of 328 C-130s . . . . The service eventually expects to buy a total of 168 J-models at an estimated cost of $15.8 billion . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Another Snowden. Time’s Zeke J. Miller reports, “The U.S. government believes that someone other than former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has recently leaked secret national-security documents to the media, an official confirmed Tuesday. The documents, published by the Intercept on Tuesday, detail the growth of federal terrorist watch lists. They were drafted after Snowden fled prosecution in the U.S. for Russia, when he no longer had access to classified intelligence networks.” NextGov.Com’s Dustin Volz reports, “Edward Snowden is not alone. Authorities have concluded there is at least one other leaker spilling classified secrets about the government’s surveillance programs . . . . Close observers of the surveillance leaks have for months speculated that there may be another leaker besides Snowden.” Reuters reports, “U.S. intelligence officials looking into suspected new spy leak.”
2. Malvertising threat expands. DefenseOne.Com’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “A surge of malicious software hit news media websites during the first half of 2014, unleashing a threat to federal agencies that rely on those sites to get information, cybersecurity researchers say. Media networks were almost four times as likely to attract malware as the average enterprise network, likely because of an increasingly popular hacking tactic called ‘malvertising’ according to a new Cisco threat intelligence report.”
3. China’s space race. DefenseNews.Com’s Wendell Minnick reports, “US defense experts and the US State Department are describing China’s successful July 23 so-called ‘anti-missile test’ as another anti-satellite test (ASAT). It is the third such kinetic strike ASAT launch by China and raises fears the US will be unable to protect its spy, navigation and communications satellites. ‘This latest space interceptor test demonstrates a potential PLA [People’s Liberation Army] aspiration to restrict freedom of space flight over China,’ said Mark Stokes, a China missile specialist at the Project 2049 Institute.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Senate block: “In a matter of minutes, Senate Democrats on Tuesday adjourned for the summer, blocking a pair of House bills that would have provided nearly $700 million to deal with the surge of immigrants on the southern border and blocked President Obama from expanding an anti-deportation program. Senators left Friday for a five-week recess, hours before the House passed the border legislation in a late-night session. The Senate gaveled in briefly Tuesday, just long enough for Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to object to taking up the House bills. . . . Obama said he planned to act unilaterally to deal with the border crisis because if the inaction of Congress.”
2. Hail to the Chief (of Staff): “Whenever President Barack Obama is down, David Plouffe’s name comes up. Democrats have speculated that Plouffe would take over as Obama’s chief of staff since the moment he left the White House in 2013. It flared up last fall during the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov. And now, as Democrats agonize over losing the Senate in November and consider what a post-2014 White House would look like, Plouffe is once again on the mind as the likely successor to Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “What Israelis, Palestinians expect from the world but not each other.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Empathy brings the two parties to the point of a decision, but ‘to get them to cross historic thresholds, they must also feel that there will be a profound, adverse consequence if they do not do so.’ After three wars, Israelis and Gazans have experienced enough adverse consequences. It’s time to give empathy a try, and then act on it.”
2. “How US can help Africa meet its potential.” Stars & Stripes contributor and former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan argues, “My experience has taught me that there can be no long-term development without security and no long-term security without development. Nor will any society remain prosperous for long without the rule of law and respect for human rights. That is the enduring lesson of the American experience that Africa should aim to emulate and that the United States should seek to encourage.”
3. “Step It Up, Europe.” USNews.Com contributor James Thomson argues, “Notwithstanding the latest round of sanctions on Russia, the European Union will need to do more to achieve its objectives in Ukraine. The same could be said for the U.S., but the EU is in the driver’s seat on this issue. The EU has more at stake strategically than the U.S., and its actions helped trigger the current crisis when it offered an Association Agreement to Ukraine last year, which has now been signed by the current pro-Western government in Ukraine.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Bear trap.
2. Plan ahead.
