FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Recruiting W.I.N. Contributor Luke Mann advises, “Like most professions, rewards aren’t guaranteed in the recruiting profession. Recruiters find those opportunities for rewards if they are successfully putting people to work. For a recruiter to successfully make a hire they are at the mercy of outside factors, regardless of how well they have done their job. They are at the mercy of the market, the funding for their position, the candidate coming through on their end, and the hiring manager not changing his or her mind at the last second.”
2. Top Jobs—where the money is. Contributor Tranette Ledford reports, “This year’s job market for cleared professionals is more stable over last year, pushing a handful of IT fields to the top of the list of high-paying skills. Cleared veterans interested in better than average salaries may want to update their resumes to ensure their skills and training match what hiring managers are looking for to fill openings in the second half of 2014.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Slip-sliding into Iraq. Christian Science Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi reports, “President Obama insists that, come what may in Iraq and the region around it, including Syria, he will not reintroduce combat troops to the land he drew them out of in 2011. That red line will be tested in the coming days and weeks as the president acts to address both the acute humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq—which he called a ‘potential genocide’—and the broader threat posed by advancing militants of the Islamic State (IS) now consolidating their hold on parts of Iraq and Syria. White House officials were anxious Wednesday to calm rising concerns about a ‘slippery slope’ to a US combat role in Iraq, as the Pentagon announced it was sending 130 additional personnel to Iraq to assess the humanitarian crisis in the north on and around Mt. Sinjar.”
2. Atop Mount Sinjar. DefenseNews.Com’s David Jackson, et. al. report, “A review by US troops of conditions on Iraq’s Mount Sinjar Wednesday has determined that the conditions of a religious minority seeking refuge there are better than believed and may not require a US-led evacuation, a Pentagon official said. The team of fewer than 20 US troops ‘has assessed that there are far fewer Yazidis on Mount Sinjar than previously feared, in part because of the success of humanitarian air drops, air strikes on ISIL targets, the efforts of the Peshmerga and the ability of thousands of Yazidis to evacuate from the mountain each night over the last several days’ . . . .” Aljazeera.Com reports, “A US mission to evacuate Iraqi civilians trapped on a mountain by the Islamic State group is far less likely after a US assessment team sent there found the humanitarian situation was not as bad as feared . . . .”
3. Trojan horse? Russia’s aid to Ukraine. AP’s Alexander Roslyakov reports from Voronezh, Russia, “A Russian aid convoy resumed its journey toward Ukraine Thursday, taking the road leading south toward the rebel-held city of Luhansk. The convoy of roughly 262 vehicles had been parked at a military depot in the southern Russian city of Voronezh since late Tuesday amid disagreement over how and where the aid could be delivered to Ukraine, where government troops are battling pro-Russia separatists.”
4. Afghanistan’s “unity” government. Khaama.Com reports, “The joint commission comprised of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai technical teams, attended in the first formal session to discuss the formation of unity government. The commission was formed after the two presidential contenders signed a joint declaration last Friday, in the presence of US Secretary of State John Kerry. . . . the joint will focus on the formation of the next government of Afghanistan and the role and authorities of chief executive. . . . the joint commission will also hold talks on mechanism regarding the participation of the two teams in unity government.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. GSA awards office supply contract. FederalTimes.Com’s Heather Kuldell reports, “The General Services Administration awarded 21 companies positions on the latest generation of the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative for Office Supplies. Twenty of the 21 companies on FSSI OS3 are small businesses, including small disadvantaged veteran owned small businesses, a HUBzone business and a consortium of 58 small businesses. GSA says more than $9 of every $10 spent on everyday supplies like pens, paper and ink will go to small businesses while the government will see $90 million in annual savings.”
2. Lockheed wins $125 million missile contract. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “Missile defense experts at the Lockheed Martin Corp. Missiles and Fire Control segment in Dallas will provide ground-based subsystems for a critical U.S. ballistic missile defense system under terms of a $124.6 million contract . . . . Officials of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are asking Lockheed Martin to provide launchers, support equipment, fire control and communications, and launcher spares for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. MonsterMind. USNews.Com’s Tom Risen reports, “The National Security Agency is developing a cybersecurity machine that could detect and automatically counter attacks against U.S. computers by blocking access to American networks, according to reports from former agency contractor Edward Snowden. That automated response of the machine known as ‘MonsterMind’ is dangerous because it may target computers of people who are unaware they are under the control of a hacker, and could lead the NSA to unintentionally disrupt civilian connections and even cause an international incident, Wired reports.” See also, “Edward Snowden Is Worried People Will Forget About Edward Snowden.”
2. WANTED: Edward Snowden. MUST READ Wired.Com’s in-depth report: “I’ve never run across anyone quite like Snowden. He is a uniquely postmodern breed of whistle-blower. Physically, very few people have seen him since he disappeared into Moscow’s airport complex last June. But he has nevertheless maintained a presence on the world stage—not only as a man without a country but as a man without a body. . . . There are still hundreds of thousands of pages of secret documents out there—to say nothing of the other whistle-blowers he may have already inspired. But Snowden says that information contained in any future leaks is almost beside the point.” See also from NextGov.Com, “NSA caused massive internet blackout in Syria.”
3. Capturing emerging technologies. NextGov.Com’s Frank Konkel reports, “The government’s ability to capitalize on emerging technologies comes down to three elements: people, processes and the technology itself, described by Commerce Department Deputy Chief Information Officer Kirit Amin as a ‘three-legged stool.’ Yet, only one of those legs—technology—is a relatively straightforward endeavor to tackle. . . .The government wants the digital technology of tomorrow—with procurement policies written decades ago, when typewriters ruled the day and people actually knew what microfilm was.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Kissed and made up: “They may or may not have hugged, but President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton rubbed shoulders on Wednesday at a party on Martha’s Vineyard after the former secretary of state criticized the foreign policy vision of her one-time boss. . . . Obama and his wife, Michelle, were seated together with Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at the birthday celebration for Ann Jordan, Vernon Jordan’s wife, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. The event was held at the Farm Neck Golf Club, not the Jordans’ home, as the White House had said previously. Schultz declined to comment on whether Clinton and Obama hugged but said they were glad to have the chance to spend time together. “
2. Vacation from vacation: “President Obama won’t make any major announcements on immigration reform during his secretive mid-vacation trip back to Washington next week, the White House said Wednesday. The president is expected to return to the White House on Sunday, but officials won’t say why Obama is taking the unusual, and costly, trip back to Washington. He’s expected to return to Martha’s Vineyard, where he’s been vacationing, on Tuesday. Speculation has circled around whether Obama might make an announcement of executive actions he’s taking on immigration reform, or a surprise visit from a foreign leader.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The Islamic State Is an Existential Threat to the Middle East.” USNews.Com contributor Michael Breen argues, “American action alone cannot stop the Islamic State’s dark advance. Only a unified, inclusive, and representative Iraq, supported by its neighbors, can do that. Our support and leadership in that effort is critical.”
2. “With or without Maliki, Iraq will tear itself apart.” Reuters contributor Peter Van Buren argues, “The inevitable outcome is the dissolution of Iraq into several nation-states. Nature finds a way, as they say, and the longer the United States tries to keep the mess it created in Iraq artificially together, the longer it delays what needs to be done: accept the dissolution and work to manage it to the least-violent conclusion.”
3. “Make no mistake: We’re back in an Iraq war.” Los Angeles Times’ Doyle McManus argues, “Even without American boots on the ground, Obama has entered the United States in its fourth Iraq war. It won’t be over quickly. As the president said, this is going to be a long-term project.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Welcome to Iraq.
2. History repeats.
