Tuesday’s Top Ten

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Hiring—KeyPoint Government Solutions. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “Just two weeks ago the government announced it was cancelling contracts with USIS, leaving thousands of background investigators in the lurch. But, not for long. In the rush to ensure background investigations proceed with minimal delays, the existing companies are on a push to ensure new openings get filled—fast.”

2. Cleared linguist—career profile. Also from Editor Lindy Kyzer, “Unlike many other government positions, linguists are often not required to have a college degree. Language proficiency and analytical skills will frequently be tested before beginning the job, and candidates who can display the right skills don’t’ need to show a specific degree. Time abroad and native-speaking proficiency are a bonus. If you’re looking to break into a career as a linguist, you’ll need excellent spoken and written communication—in both English and the secondary language you’re being hired for.

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. Troop basing in Afghanistan. Reuters reports, “Afghanistan’s new government led by President Ashraf Ghani was on Tuesday due to sign a long-delayed bilateral security agreement with the United States that will allow U.S. troops to stay beyond the end of this year when their combat mission ends. Ghani’s predecessor, Hamid Karzai, had long refused to agree to the deal, citing his anger over civilian deaths and his belief that the war was not fought in the interests of his country, souring his ties with the United States. But all of the main candidates in a presidential election this year said they supported the pact, which will also let U.S. forces keep military bases in Afghanistan.” DefenseNews.Com reports, “US To Keep 10,000 Troops in Afghanistan.”

2. Kurds’ showdown with ISIS. Aljzazeera.Com reports, “Kurdish fighters do not have enough weapons to match ISIL’s heavy artillery, but they say they are determined. Some YPG fighters say that, without support from the Turkish government to fight ISIL, they have produced their own weapons. There is a long history of tension between Kurds and the Turkish government, with Turkey resisting the creation of an independent Kurdistan. But with mass killings on the Syrian side of the border and an exodus of Kurdish refugees, there are high hopes that the Turkish government will ultimately cooperate with Kurds in the fight.” Christian Science Monitor reports, “Turkey shifts tone on Islamic State.”

3. War and PTSD. Stars & Stripes carries WaPo’s Greg Jaffe: “Forty months total at war: He had survived a blast from a suicide car bomb. He had killed an Iraqi insurgent as the man’s children watched in horror. He had traded places one day with a fellow soldier who then was killed by a sniper’s bullet, standing in the very place where Carlson would have been if he hadn’t switched. Did his years in combat mean he was deserving of compassion?”

4. The material cost of war. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe by the numbers: “The United States has likely spent between $780 million and $930 million in its military campaign against the Islamic State militant group so far, and it will likely cost between $200 million and $320 million per month going forward if conducted with about 2,000 U.S. service members on the ground . . . . [C]osts would grow to between $350 million and $570 million per month if the pace of the airstrikes increases and 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed . . . . On an annual basis, lower-intensity air operations could cost $2.4 billion to $3.8 billion per year, the report said. The annual cost would jump to between $4.2 billion and $6.8 billion if the pace of airstrikes increases and is sustained.” DoDBuzz.Com reports, “Airstrike Costs Creep Toward $1 Billion.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Gaming the procurement system. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “A senior Veterans Health Administration procurement official pressured employees and gamed the acquisition process to award reverse-auction company FedBid a contract, according to an inspector general’s report. Susan Taylor, deputy chief procurement officer at the VHA at the Veterans Affairs Department, pressured contracting staff through repeated emails and requests in 2010 to accelerate the process and to pick FedBid for the contract . . . .”

2. $200 million to DRS Laurel Tech. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “Submarine electronics experts at DRS Laurel Technologies in Johnstown, Pa., will provide embedded computing, display, and networking hardware to upgrade U.S. and Australian combat submarines under terms of a $171.2 million contract . . . . Officials of the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport in Keyport, Wash., are asking DRS to provide Technology Insertion Hardware (TIH) to upgrade electronics installed on Navy Los Angeles-, Seawolf-, and Virginia-class fast-attack submarines, as well as on Ohio-class ballistic and guided missile submarines.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. Secret service security breaches. AP’s Alicia A. Caldwell and Josh Lederman report, “Secret Service Director Julia Pierson will face lawmakers Tuesday for the first public accounting of the details surrounding an embarrassing and worrisome security breach at the White House earlier this month . . . . The question is, will she follow the script? At the very least, Pierson will have to explain how a man armed with a small knife managed to climb over a White House fence, sprint across the north lawn and dash deep into the executive mansion before finally being subdued.”

2. 3D printing the military machine. DefenseOne.Com’s Marcus Weisgerber reports, “The Pentagon and the defense industry are rapidly expanding the use of 3D printing to make parts and tools for more sophisticated military equipment. The technology—which makes manufacturing more agile and wastes very little material—is already being used aboard the USS Essex, a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship. ‘The crew has printed everything from plastic syringes to oil tank caps, to the silhouettes of planes that are used on the mock-up of the flight deck to keep the flight deck organized’ . . . .”

3. The future of Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD). DoDBuzz.Com’s Kris Osborn reports, “The Navy is evaluating a range of aircraft as possible future platforms to perform landing, take-off and delivery missions of supplies and personnel onto aircraft carriers at sea . . . . A new-build aircraft, V-22 Osprey, S-3 Viking aircraft and upgraded C-2 Greyhound plane are among the range of options currently being considered by the Navy for the Carrier Onboard Delivery, or COD . . . . Whichever aircraft is chosen will need to meet a range of mission-specific requirements such as the ability to transport 26 passengers and carry 10,000-pounds of cargo for distances up to 1,150 miles . . . .”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. White House Tours: “The White House fence-jumper made it deeper into the White House than originally reported. The intruder, Omar Gonzalez, jumped the fence, sprinted through the front door, overpowered one Secret Service officer and ran through much of the main floor before being apprehended . . . . Earlier, officials said he was quickly detained at the White House main entrance. An alarm box near the front entrance designed to alert guards to an intruder was muted—apparently at the request of the usher’s office . . . . After darting past a guard at the front, Gonzalez, who had a knife, went past the stairway that leads up to the first family’s living quarters. He then ran into the East Room, which is often used for receptions and or presidential addresses.”

2. You didn’t say the magic word: “House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said the intelligence community had warned President Obama about the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria for ‘over a year.’ ‘This was not an Intelligence Community failure, but a failure by policy makers to confront the threat . . . . For over a year, U.S. intelligence agencies specifically warned that ISIL was taking advantage of the situation in Syria to recruit members and provoke violence that could spill into Iraq and the rest of the region,’ Rogers said in a statement on Monday, using an alternate name for the group. Rogers said his committee had formally pressed the administration to act against the terror threat in 2013.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “Religious extremism makes ugly comeback.” Stars & Stripes contributor Pankaj Mishra argues, “We have assumed too easily—and complacently—the moral superiority and eventual triumph of the ‘secular.’ But the Islamic State has more in common with the utopia of the fanatically secular Khmer Rouge than anything in the long history of Islam. We need fresher ideas to understand the great violence of our times, which is far from being explained by diehard secularists blustering against religious extremism.”

2. “A Threat The F-22 Can’t Eliminate.” DefenseNews.Com’s John T. Bennett argues, “Until we hear more than rhetoric about serious efforts to combat the toxic teachings that lead so many to become Islamist militants, there is very little the next F-22 sortie—or hundreds more—can do to combat what truly fuels this homicidal ideology.”

3. “Obama’s mixed messages on war.” Los Angeles Times’ Jonah Goldberg argues, “He may not speak forthrightly about the fact he’s putting boots on the ground, but he’s putting boots on the ground. He may struggle to call it a war, but he’s waging war on Islamic State. He may need to rebrand a core Al Qaeda cell ‘the Khorasan Group’ in order to sidestep embarrassing questions about his vows of success against ‘core Al Qaeda,’ but he did bomb the Khorasan Group. Still, there’s one area where he sticking to his ideological guns. And that is defense spending.”

THE FUNNIES

  1. Images in your mirror.
  2. Washington marathon.
  3. Stand up, hook up, start shuffling.

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.