FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Hiring – MITRE Corp. Contributor Marc Selinger reports, “The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded a contract to MITRE Corp. to operate a new cybersecurity research site in [Rockville, Maryland]. The federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) will support the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), which was set up in 2012 to bring together academic, government and industry experts to help businesses secure their data and digital infrastructure. . . . The FFRDC is expected to employ 40 information security professionals . . . .” (But, don’t go back to Rockville.)
2. Security risk: in debt and in question. Contributor Chandler Harris explains, “Those who grant security clearances are supposed to weigh that risk, including tax debt, when granting security clearances. Plus, the security clearance questionnaire, which is 120 pages long, asks if an applicant has any financial problems that might cause a security vulnerability, including tax debts. Lying on the application could mean up to five years in prison.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Ebola fight in West Africa. DefenseNews.Com’s Patricia Kime reports, “[R]oughly 540 troops and Pentagon civilians of a planned 3,200 have arrived in the region, including Navy Seabees, a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response team with four MV-22 Osprey aircraft, airmen with the 62nd Airlift Wing, soldiers and Coast Guardsmen. Troops from the 101st Airborne Division and Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky . . . are expected to arrive in the coming days. The service members will provide command and control, logistics and engineering support to the local governments, nongovernmental organizations and health workers battling the Ebola epidemic.” See also, “Domestic Response to Ebola Crisis.”
2. ISIS stalled under strikes. Reuters’ Humeyra Pamuk reports from Mursitpinar, “The advance of Islamic State fighters on Kobani stalled on Thursday according to a monitoring group, after U.S.-led coalition warplanes launched their heaviest bombardment yet on the militants, who have been assaulting the Syrian border town for nearly a month. Last week Turkish and U.S. officials said Islamic State were on the verge of taking Kobani from its heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders, after seizing strategic points deep inside the town.” See also, “ISIL Forces Concentrating Around Kobani” and “Iraqis desperate for air cover as U.S. moves warplanes to Kobani.”
3. Yemen struggling against Shiite Houthis. LongWarJournal.Org’s Oren Adaki reports, “On Oct. 14, the Shiite Houthi rebels who have posed a challenge to Yemen’s central government made sweeping military gains in the country, seizing the significant port city of Hodeidah on the Red Sea coast as well as the central city of Dhamar. These gains come less than a month after the Houthi’s swift seizure of Sana’a on Sept. 22 following days of massive protests in the capital. Arabic media sources claimed that the Houthi rebels took over the coastal city of Hodeidah without any resistance from the Yemeni authorities.”
4. Blue-on-Green in Afghanistan. Khaama.Com reports, “An individual in Afghan army uniform opened fire on coalition security forces early Thursday morning . . . . foreign forces did not suffer any casualties. Gen. Zahir Azimi [Ministry of Defense spokesman] further added that the assailant individual was arrested by Afghan national army soldiers. This comes as a high-ranking US General was killed following an insider attack by an individual in Afghan army uniform in Kabul military academy earlier in August.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. JLTV’s ready to rock ‘n’ roll. DoDBuzz.Com’s Brendan McGarry reports, “U.S. Army officials said a program to replace a third of the Humvee fleet with new light-duty trucks remains on track despite uncertainty over future budget cuts. . . . The next round of competition is set to begin early next month, with a request for proposals from companies interested in building production versions of the vehicle. Prototypes of the armored trucks were on display on the showroom floor. Defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin Corp., truck-maker Oshkosh Corp. and Humvee-maker AM General LLC are vying for the production contract.”
2. Acquisition and cybersecurity. NextGov.Com’s Sharon Cardash reports, “If you were asked to name one of the most pressing issues facing the Pentagon in the next five years, chances are you wouldn’t specify the intersection of cybersecurity, acquisition and the sometimes small but always vital electronic components that make up battlefield systems. At the confluence of these three, however, lies a serious vulnerability.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Nuclear fusion: Lockheed’s secret Skunk Works. Reuters’ Andrea Shalal reports, “Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade. Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a small team had been working on fusion energy at Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works for about four years, but were now going public to find potential partners in industry and government for their work.” See also, “Can Compact Fusion Unlock New Power For Space And Air Transport?” and “The Leader Of Skunk Works’ Compact Fusion Reactor Team.”
2. Battlefield robot race. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “At some point, the military will want robots capable of running their own missions, hunting for IEDs, looking around corners and sending visual data to the cloud for rapid—and robotic—visual analysis and all without direct piloting. A single operator would be able to control dozens of robots that weren’t just loitering but carrying out operations. But that’s a technical challenge that vendors are unlikely to have to tackle themselves. . . .”
3. Silicon Valley security challenges. VentureBeat.Com’s Chris O’Brien reports, “We have known in general, and the tech industry has known specifically, that we are under a growing siege by the bad guys. As more information goes online and we are all more connected, the buried digital treasure is increasingly valuable. So massive, well-financed crime rings and government-backed hackers are in an arms race to launch ever more sophisticated attacks. Silicon Valley gets this and smells an opportunity to help fix the situation it did so much to help create.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Fast friends: “As a federal prosecutor in the 1980s, Asa Hutchinson sent Bill Clinton’s brother to jail. As a member of Congress in the late 1990s, Hutchinson steered impeachment proceedings against the president from his home state. But to hear him tell it now, Hutchinson — likely the next governor of this state — has the utmost respect for Hillary Clinton, and he’s downright fond of Bill. That posture is a testament to the enduring power of the Clinton name here. But it’s also driven by the complicated relationship Hutchinson has had with Clinton dating back to the 1970s, long before they faced off over Monicagate or became household names in Arkansas politics.”
2. The importance of being Earnest: “The White House’s argument that its strategy against Islamic militants is ‘succeeding’ is getting bad reviews from Democrats. . . . Josh Earnest on Tuesday said that the early evidence on President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ‘indicates that this strategy is succeeding.’ The comments raised eyebrows—even among supporters of the White House—given advances ISIS fighters have made on Baghdad in recent days. ‘In general, I support what the president is trying to do in the region right now, but in no way shape or form can their handling of ISIS be defined as a success,’ said Democratic strategist Jim Manley . . . .”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The staggering failure of US-trained foreign troops.” Aljazeera.Com contributor and former Kremlin and government adviser Alexander Nekrassov argues, “It’s really amazing that in all the confusion that surrounds ISIL’s many military successes in Iraq, mainstream US media hasn’t gone for the juicy bone that is the obvious corruption in the US military. Whatever you think of ISIL and the people who run it—mostly Saddam Hussein’s former officers, who, incidentally, had the wisdom and the cunning to vanish without a struggle during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003—it is still striking that the Iraqi army, armed with US weapons and hardware, has been unable to stop the onslaught of a group of extremists. Incidentally, it is worth nothing that this is something that the Russians both predicted and warned the Americans about.”
2. “POTUS’ uncertain trumpet.” UPI.Com contributor Arnaud de Borchgrave argues, “It is high time for Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran and, of course, Turkey. To challenge the Islamic authenticity of the medieval usurpers. Airpower alone against asymmetric warfare simply forces the enemy to change strategy and tactics. IS has done so and is now occupying territory 10 miles from Baghdad.”
3. “How Long Do US Troops Need To Stay in Afghanistan?” DefenseOne.Com contributor Peter Beinart argues, “Telling the world that you foretold disaster after the fact is fine. What takes real wisdom and courage is explaining how you’d prevent it in the first place.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Land sharks!
