FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Hot jobs—For Huachuca, Arizona. Contributor Jennifer Cary reports, “There are approximately 6,000 service members and 4,400 civilians at Fort Huachuca. And while the numbers aren’t as robust as Fort Hood, this area is a great place to look for a job in the intelligence and technology fields. Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are power players in the area and are looking to fill positions . . . .”
2. Security reform push. Contributor Chandler Harris reports, “After the events last year – Edward Snowden’s leaks and Aaron Alexis’ fatal shooting of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard, lawmakers are pushing through a host of reforms for the security clearance process. One of the latest is the Enhanced Security Clearance Act of 2014, which seeks to establish random, automated record checks of cleared individuals through publicly available online information including social media data such as pictures, videos, posts and comments. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Arms dropped to Kurds. Reuters’ Arshad Mohammad and Tom Perry report, “The U.S. military said it had air-dropped arms to Syrian Kurds battling Islamic State near the Syrian town of Kobani, the first such delivery in more than a month of fighting and a move that could upset Turkey. The U.S. Central Command . . . delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Kurds who are trying to stave off an onslaught by Islamic State fighters who have overrun swathes of Syria and Iraq this year. The main Syrian Kurdish group defending Kobani from the better armed Islamic State militants said on Monday the town had received ‘a large quantity’ of ammunition and weapons.” See also, “U.S. airdrops arms.”
2. Khorasan still lingers. DefenseOne.Com contributor Jordain Carney reports, “Top military officials still don’t know if last month’s airstrikes stopped the ‘imminent’ threat of a terrorist attack posed by an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group in Syria. ‘The assessment on the Khorasan Group is still a work in progress. We remain focused on this, and of course once we—as we gain better information, we will maintain pressure on that organization,’ Gen. Lloyd Austin, who oversees U.S. Central Command . . . .”
3. Iraq’s tribes stepping up. Christian Science Monitor’s Dominique Soguel reports, “when it comes to reversing the dramatic IS victories in Sunni areas, some leaders of Iraq’s influential tribes say they could prove a vital counterforce, at least until a proposed Iraqi national guard becomes a reality. Sheikh Wasfi al-Asi, who heads a tribal council opposed to the IS, estimates that more than 20,000 tribesmen are now either in training or already fighting IS alongside Kurdish or government forces across Iraq.”
4. Ghani reaches out to Pakistan. Khaama.Com reports, “President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai met with Pakistan’s national security adviser Sartaj Aziz on Sunday and called on Islamabad to take practical towards peace process. . . . Aziz said the government of Pakistan is keen to build trust between Kabul and Islamabad with the start of the new government of Afghanistan. He also invited President Ghani and Dr. Abdullah to visit Pakistan. In the meantime, President Ghani said that the leaders of the two nations should not suffice only to hold talks on peace process but practical steps should be taken in this regard.”
5. NORTHCOM’s Ebola expeditionary force. Defense Media Activity reports, “In response to a request by the Department of Health and Human Services—and as an added prudent measure to ensure the nation is ready to respond quickly, effectively, and safely in the event of additional Ebola cases in the United States—Secretary Hagel [Saturday] ordered his Northern Command Commander, Gen. Chuck Jacoby, to prepare and train a 30-person expeditionary medical support team that could, if required, provide short-notice assistance to civilian medical professionals in the United States.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Ebola cure contract awarded. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “The Health and Human Services Department wants to develop an Ebola vaccine within the next two years . . . . The agency awarded a $5.8 million, one-year contract with Profectus BioSciences Inc., on Oct. 15 that will go toward developing a vaccine to be used in animal safety studies and future clinical trials. HHS has the option to extend the contract an additional 13 months and spend $8.6 million more.” NextGov.Com’s Bob Brewin reports, “[I]t’s probably too late to develop vaccines to deal with the current outbreak.”
2. BAE S. Korean deal in peril. DefenseNews.Com’s Aaron Mehta and Jung Sung-Ki report, “South Korea is threatening to break an agreement with BAE Systems to upgrade its fleet of KF-16s, opening a window of opportunity for competitor Lockheed Martin to reclaim its dominance in the lucrative F-16 upgrade market. . . . BAE has estimated the worldwide F-16 upgrade market could be worth as much as $10 billion over the next decade, with an estimated 1,000 to 1,300 jets in play. Now BAE’s contract, which was signed under a foreign military sales deal, is in peril . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. VA taps old tech for modern problems. DefenseOne.Com contributor Bob Brewin reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to build a nationwide high-frequency radio network to connect its medical facilities in case of an emergency that knocks out other forms of communications — applying century-old technology to current needs. . . . The network will include an undefined number of high-powered ‘backbone’ stations equipped with 200-watt transmitters designed to receive and automatically relay communications from 125-watt stations located at approximately 200 Veterans Health Administration facilities . . . .”
2. A world without screens. Wired.Com’s Liz Stinson reports, “Chris Harrison, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon and head of the Future Interfaces Group, says it’s only a matter of time before components are small enough and cheap enough that we can use LCDs to create dynamic buttons that change form and color. From there, it’s a matter of improving image fidelity so the projected image is cleaner and easier to see. Once we get to that point, it’s reasonable to question how important screens will be at all.”
3. Don’t encrypt that phone! AP’s Jack Gillum and Eric Tucker report, “The struggle to justify the FBI’s complaints about new phone encryption underscores the uphill fight facing the Obama administration in the wake of disclosures by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden. Those revelations showed the government was collecting phone records and digital communications of millions not suspected of a crime.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Paranoia? “Republican congressional candidate Dan Sebring this week said that the Supreme Court put Wisconsin’s Voter ID law on hold in order to hurt Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) chances in 2016. ‘The United States Supreme Court said we can’t implement it for this election . . . . My personal feeling is that this is a play to steer the outcome of the gubernatorial election so that Scott Walker wouldn’t have a chance of getting on the ticket in 2016 for the White House. I think that’s what they’re trying to do. The Supreme Court did not strike down the law, but granted a stay through the 2014 election.”
2. Romney redux: “Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney leads a field of potential 2016 GOP candidates . . . while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a commanding lead among Democrats. Twenty one percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents would choose the former Massachusetts governor, who garnered twice the support of his closest challengers. Former Govs. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) and Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) each had 9 percent support in the new poll, followed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) with 9 percent, Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) with 8 percent and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) with 5 percent.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Obama’s first victory in Iraq war.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “While journalists focus mainly on the armed conflict, the real struggle lies in attempts to reconcile Iraq’s factions, including ethnic Kurds. Winning that ‘war’ is a reflection of what is needed in almost every conflict in the region—within Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, as well as the regional power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia.”
2. “Unmasking Turkey’s ISIL strategy.” Aljazeera.Com contributor James Denselow argues, “Ensuring that Turkey’s wider strategic concerns are understood is critical to winning the more immediate action that is required to save Kobane and it may see the borders of the region change again but with the addition of new ones rather than stripping away those of old.”
3. “You Can’t Take the Human Factor Out of Warfare.” USNews.Com contributor Rick Bailey argues, “The problem . . . is in finding a middle ground between achieving military—and ultimately political—objectives and accepting a risk palatable to political decision-makers and the American public. While removing human risk from the equation is attractive, and thus politically popular, our technological advances in warfare may be incapable of independently accomplishing our national security goals.”
THE FUNNIES
3. Pecking order.
