FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Ground truth about polygraphs. Contributor Charles Simmins explains, “The American Psychological Association, in a piece titled ‘The Truth About Lie Detectors (aka Polygraph Tests)’ discusses many reliability issues with the process. Such tests are not admissible in a court of law. It does appear that the Federal reliance upon polygraph testing will continue for the immediate future, despite any issues of reliability or legal admissibility.” Read “The Truth About Lie Detectors.”
2. Security clearance for the Feds. Also from Charles Simmins, “The majority of security-clearance holders work directly for the federal government. The official procedure for obtaining a clearance is identical to that for contractors but there may be a few important differences in process. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Air Force Ebola fight. NextGov.Com’s Bob Brewin reports, “The Air Force’s Air Combat Command has started installation of what its command surgeon, Brig. Gen. Sean Lee Murphy, described as ‘a mini-community hospital’ in Liberia as part of the Defense Department’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Murphy told Nextgov the 25-bed Expeditionary Medical Support System—or EMEDS—hospital dispatched to Liberia last month will be used to care for health care personnel in Liberia and will be turned over to the U.S. Public Health Service once it’s operational.” AP reports, “US adds extra level of airport screening for Ebola.”
2. ISIS hobbling Kobani and destabilizing Turkey. Reuters’ Daren Butler and Oliver Holmes report from Mursitpinar, Turkey, “Islamic State fighters have seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani despite U.S.-led air strikes targeting them in and around the mainly Kurdish community . . . . The commander of Kobani’s heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State controlled a slightly smaller area. . . . [T]he militants had made major gains in the culmination of a three-week battle that has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey.” See also from Christian Science Monitor, “Rage among Turkey’s Kurds risks opening old wounds.” AP reports, “U.S. airstrikes hit besieged Syrian town” and Aljazeera.Com reports, “U.S. says air power ‘not enough’ to save Kobane.”
3. Problems in Yemen—al Qaeda and the Houthi rebellion. LongWarJournal.Org’s Oren Adaki reports, “Local security officials in the central Yemeni city of Baydah reported a series of attacks carried out by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) . . . . This most recent series of attacks in Baydah underscores the intensification of AQAP’s activity in Yemen in light of the ongoing Shiite Houthi rebellion rocking the country. The Houthis staged a lightning sweep of Sana’a on Sept. 22 and quickly consolidated their power in the capital in the following days. Since then, AQAP has declared an open war against the Houthis and called on Sunnis to take up arms against the Shiite rebels.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Acquisition reforms finalized. DefenseNews.Com’s John T. Bennett reports, “A moderate US House Democratic group is pushing a sweeping overhaul of the Pentagon’s acquisition system, but a key member says incremental changes are most likely. . . . House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, is conducting what the panel is billing a major defense acquisition reform effort. Since he is poised to become the committee’s next chairman, sources predict much of it could be rolled into the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).”
2. Joint Light Tactical Vehicle report. DoDBuzz.Com’s Brendan McGarry reports, “The U.S. Army is pressing ahead with plans to buy a replacement for the iconic Humvee, even as it upgrades heavier blast-resistant trucks now part of the fleet. The service plans to begin the next round of competition for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle by the end of the year, possibly mid-November, with a request for proposals from firms interested in bidding for the work. . . . The Army aims to purchase about 49,000 of the trucks, while the Marine Corps plans to acquire about 5,500 of the vehicles. Both services have requested more funding for the effort, which is estimated to cost about $23 billion, despite facing automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Border security going to the dogs. NextGov.Com’s Frank Konkel reports, “In the future, sensor-equipped collars could let your dog tell you all about its day. If it sounds a little far-fetched, consider that the U.S. government is exploring the possibility of outfitting its border-protecting canines with futuristic collars that can, for example, translate a dog’s stress level through its bark and relay that data in real-time to a handler through a mobile device.”
2. Holes in the World Wide Web. FierceGovernmentIT.Com’s Stephanie Kanowitz reports, “The Internet, once an all-encompassing information hub is beginning to splinter as confidence in it wanes because of protectionist sentiments, interoperability challenges and cybersecurity threats, several experts said. . . . . [A]s economic stakes in web-based activity and decreased security take a toll, the greatest challenge is shaping the structural evolution of the Internet.”
3. Facebook going anonymous. New York Times’ Mike Isaac reports, “Facebook has long attempted to be the place where, above all else, you try to be yourself. Soon, Facebook will allow you to be yourself, but under a different name. The company is working on a stand-alone mobile application that allows users to interact inside of it without having to use their real names, according to two people briefed on Facebook’s plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the project. . . . It is unclear how Facebook will protect users from spammers or trolls who could exploit the new service. For the last decade, Facebook has used its real-name policy in part to prohibit abuse and pollution of its network from bad actors.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Shake-up coming: “If President Obama is planning a major staff shake-up after November’s midterms, White House officials won’t say so publicly yet. ‘I personally don’t know of anybody who’s planning to leave at the end of the year,’ White House press secretary Josh Earnest said when asked about personnel changes, one of Washington’s favorite parlor games. Then Earnest added this caveat: ‘It is customary after midterm elections for members of the administration to pursue other opportunities.’ With Obama stuck in the second-term doldrums, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, among others, has speculated that a staff overhaul is on the horizon.”
2. Cartagena frolics: “As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member—yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Coalition’s half-baked ISIL strategy will not work.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Kadir Ustun argues, “ISIL has been instrumental to the success of the divide and rule tactics of the Assad regime against the moderate opposition. Air strikes alone are not enough to stop ISIL and they will likely create more refugees and produce civilian casualties. If the US bombs and walks away instead of committing to a broader longer term strategy of political transition in Syria, the conditions that strengthen ISIL will not change. In that case, the Syrian humanitarian crisis will only deepen and devolve into catastrophe.”
2. “Far from Hong Kong, ethnic minority regions in China are a tinderbox of tension.” Reuters contributor Julia M. Famularo argues, “Hong Kong style protests are unlikely to spread any time soon, Beijing’s counterproductive policies will continue to breed instability that could potentially lead to violence.”
3. “Truth Has Consequences in Washington.” National Journal contributor George E. Condon Jr. argues, “This kind of criticism was not part of the package Obama thought he was getting in the highly respected Panetta, who came to Washington in the Nixon administration, returned as a member of Congress, and served top posts in the Clinton White House.”
THE FUNNIES
1. On the high wire.
2. War On Virus.
