Peshmerga to Kobane, Tech Acquisition Full Ahead, and Hollow Russia

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Job watch: research analysts. Contributor Tranette Ledford reports, “Market research analysis is now one of the fastest growing career fields, with opportunities for cleared personnel in government and the private sector. For experienced veterans with the right skills, the key to successfully landing these jobs is all in the translation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects market research analysis jobs to grow more than 30 percent over the next eight years. . . .”

2. The foreign contact conundrum. Contributor Sean Bigley explains, “Whether you are a true citizen of the world – or just fancy yourself one – having foreign contacts and an active security clearance can be a real conundrum. . . . a little common sense and forward thinking goes a long way when it comes to juggling foreign contacts and your security clearance. You don’t have to be paranoid, just err on the side of caution.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. Peshmerga to Kobane. Rudaw.Net’s Yerevan Saeed reports, “The United States welcomed the deployment of Peshmerga forces to the besieged town of Kobane on Tuesday, saying it was a step to ‘degrade and ultimately defeat’ the Islamic State. ‘We have been supportive and have been discussing with the appropriate authorities, including Turkey specifically for the facilitation of the Peshmerga forces across the border . . . . This (the Peshmerga deployment) is one component.’” See also, “Iraqi peshmerga fighters arrive in Turkey for Syria deployment” and “’Our priority is to arm the Peshmerga.’”

2. Omar the Chechen. TheDailyBeast.Com’s Will Cathcart and Vazha Tevberidze report from the Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, “For these young men, their Pankisi native son has already become part Josef Stalin (another native son of Georgia) and part rock star of the media-savvy Islamic caliphate. But according to his father, Abu Omar al-Shishani is a mirage: It’s his older brother who is running the ISIS show.” See also, “ISIS sends Chechen commander to Kobane.”

3. al Qaeda outreach (AQ + IS = Trouble). AP’s Deb Riechmann and Bassem Mroue reports, “Al-Qaida is using U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria as a reason to extend olive branches to the renegade Islamic State group, saying the two should stop feuding and join forces to attack Western targets – a reunification that intelligence analysts say would allow al-Qaida to capitalize on the younger group’s ruthless advance across the region.”

4. Afghan army taking charge. NPR.Org’s Sean Carberry reports, “As the Marines prepared to depart, a convoy pulled out of the adjoining Afghan base. The Afghans followed Alpha Company along the base perimeter. At each tower, two Afghans got out and replaced the Marines on duty. They quickly shook hands, the Marines wished their replacements well, and then they headed to the flight line.”

5. Merc watch—Erik Prince on the rise. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe reports, “In the last year, Frontier has sunk money into two aviation firms with headquarters in Kenya, Kijipwa Aviation Limited and Phoenix, according to the company’s last earnings report. The deal for Phoenix, announced in July, cost $14 million and puts Frontier in charge of a company that flies regularly out of not only Kenya, but Angola, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Tech acquisition full speed ahead. FederalTimes.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “The civilian team at the top of the Pentagon’s acquisition structure is charging in several directions at once, pushing initiatives aimed at revamping how the building thinks through technology development, shares those burdens with allies and finds the next leap-ahead capability. The Defense Department is also working with Congress to rewrite outdated acquisition rules and remove burdens from overworked program managers.”

2. Laser focus on laser weapons. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Air Force laser weapons experts are supervising a project to develop advanced computer simulations of directed-energy weapons to help determine the effects and utility of high-energy laser weapons. Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., are awarding a $7.4 million contract to Stellar Science Ltd. Co., in Albuquerque, N.M., involving the Directed Energy High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute.”

3. About that prison . . . . GovExec.Com’s Charles S. Clark reports, “A five-year-old State Department effort to upgrade Afghanistan’s largest prison has been halted with only half the contracted work performed . . . . States’ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs paid out $18 million to the contractor before terminating it “for convenience,” with only half the work executed.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. APT28—Russians hack NATO. Moscow Times’ Matthew Bodner reports, “A U.S. security firm has claimed that a sophisticated, Russia-based hacker group is spying on NATO and former Soviet member states, most likely on the orders of the Russian government. In a report issued Tuesday, security firm FireEye said the group, which the firm dubbed APT28, has since 2007 conducted ‘long-standing, focused operations that indicate a government sponsor—specifically, a government based in Moscow.’ ‘APT28 targets insider information related to governments, militaries and security organizations that would likely benefit the Russian government’ . . . .” See also, “Suspicious cyber activity detected on White House computer network.”

2. Rocket goes boom! AviationWeek.Com’s Guy Norris reports, “NASA has secured the area around the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as the investigation begins into why an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket blew up just seconds after liftoff on its way to deliver a Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The vehicle, the first stage of which is powered by two refurbished AJ-26 rocket engines, suffered a ‘catastrophic anomaly shortly after liftoff’ . . . .”

3. Planes sans windows. Quartz’ Zach Wener-Fligner reports, “The commercial flight cabin as we know it may be on its way out. That’s according to a new report from the Centre for Process Innovation, a British technology research company, which projects that in 10 years the industry will be ready to offer passengers a richer visual experience than what a small, fogged-up plastic window allows.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. Paranoia watch: “Sarah Palin on Tuesday shot back at CNN anchor Carol Costello’s gleeful mocking over the assault of Palin’s daughter Bristol, charging that liberal media want to destroy those who don’t agree with them. . . . Palin also said that the personal attacks on her and her family have sparked a renewed interest in running for political office. ‘The more they’re pouring on, the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there with a voice, with the message, hopefully running for office in the future’ . . . . Some conservatives have held out hope that she will run for president in 2016.”

2. One man; one vote, please: “President Obama poked fun at the checkered political history of his hometown Chicago on Tuesday, reminding voters in Wisconsin to vote early—but not often. ‘You can only vote once—this isn’t Chicago, now,’ Obama said at a rally in Milwaukee for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke. Both parties are upping their early voting efforts, especially with low turnout expected on Election Day.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “Russia Has No Plan for the Future.” TheMoscowTimes.Com contributor Georgy Bovt argues, “The current attempt to substitute a coherent image of the future with a hodgepodge of obsolete Soviet ideas only underscores the ideological poverty of the current regime. That jumble of unprincipled, opportunistic journalism, primitive television propaganda and primeval myths about how the Western world wants to enslave Russia, push it to its knees and steal its minerals, land, water and air is no vision of the future. It is only a horror story borrowed from the dusty past that offers no constructive plan or direction.”

2. “Putin’s Moscow is anxious, gilded and hollow.” Reuters contributor Lucian Kim argues, “Repressive tools may forestall the impending instability, but they can’t stop it forever. Muscovites aren’t any less angry about corruption and unfair elections than people in Kiev. Separatism and a lack of economic opportunity aren’t exclusively Ukrainian issues. Moscow’s placidness feels like the calm before the storm.”

3. “US-PYD rapprochement: a shift in Washington’s strategy?” Rudaw.Net contributor Mustafa Gurbuz explains, “The US-PYD rapprochement is aimed at sending a clear message to Ankara to negotiate a road map in Syria. The Obama administration seems to prove that it is Turkey which has more to lose in the case of non-cooperation. . . . Recent developments make Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani more than ever critical in shaping the regional politics. By being at the epicenter of US-PYD-Turkey relations, the Kurdistan Regional Government needs to capitalize on this moment of opportunity.”