FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Interview top tips. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “An interview is the pivotal point where you can change an opportunity into an offer. For transitioning veterans, it’s a new world. A job interview may seem similar to a promotion board, but the environment is very different. Here are a few tips to consider to succeed. . . .”
2. Recruiting top tips. Also from Lindy Kyzer, “The competition for cleared candidates continues to rise. The good news is there are many ways to increase your cleared recruiting success, from better job descriptions to referral programs—here are our top eight tips. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. JIEDDO heads to Iraq. DefenseOne.Com’s Marcus Weisgerber reports, “The Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) is preparing to deploy members to Iraq where 145 roadside bomb attacks carried out by Islamic State militants killed more than 804 people and wounded more than 1,287 last month . . . . [U]nlike the last time when U.S. soldiers were in a leading role, this time is different since Americans are in advisory and assistance roles.”
2. Significant progress against ISIS. Defense Media Activity’s Nick Simeone reports, “Three months after the United States began conducting airstrikes against terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East today described the progress made toward degrading and destroying the group as ‘significant.’ ‘I think we’re having a significant effect on the ISIL element,’ Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command, told an audience at the Atlantic Council. ‘The question is, how soon can we get the Iraqis to develop a capability to do what they need to do to sustain the effects and conditions that we’re going to create.’” See also, “People of Iraq, Syria Will Defeat ISIL” and “Lebanon’s Shia defiant in face of ISIL threat.”
3. Fragmenting Iraq. Rudaw.Net’s Yerevan Saeed reports, “Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) de facto foreign minister Falah Mustafa Bakir makes a case for an independent Kurdistan in the 7th conference of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) conference in Washington as experts warn of disintegration of Iraq over ethno-sectarian boundaries. . . . According to the KRG minister, Kurds have lost all sense of loyalty to Iraq due to the bad policies by Baghdad.”
4. Deteriorating eastern Ukraine. TheMoscowTimes.Com covers, “Russian President Vladimir Putin has held talks with top security chiefs over a ‘deterioration of the situation’ in eastern Ukraine after pro-Russian rebels there accused Kiev of launching a new offensive in violation of a cease-fire. Sporadic violence has flared since the Sept. 5 truce in a conflict that has cost more than 4,000 lives; but the cease-fire has looked particularly fragile this week with separatists and the central government accusing each other of violations.”
5. Putin to Afghanistan’s rescue (mouth a’ watering). Khaama.Com reports, “Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged support to Afghanistan if the security situation got complicated following the withdrawal of the NATO forces from the country by the end this year. Speaking at a meeting with the members of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), President Putin said the people of the Afghan can count on Russia’s support if the situation gets complicated.” See also, “NATO Chief Vows Afghan Support as Combat Mission Ends.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. RFI countering commercial drones. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “At the end of October, the Pentagon put out a request for information, or RFI, for new technologies ‘countering” commercial drones that are armed with chemical, biological, or massively destructive weapons. Specifically, the request asks for ideas on ‘emerging technologies, technical applications and their potential to counter a low-cost, small/man portable, commercial off-the-shelf unmanned aerial system (UAS) carrying a chemical and/or biological WMD payload.’”
2. On order, $15 million worth of Air Traffic Control. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Army aviation experts are asking for five mobile air traffic control towers from manufacturer Sierra Nevada Corp. in Sparks, Nev., to help coordinate air traffic in battlefield and other temporary airfields. Officials of the Army Contracting command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., announced a $15.2 million contract to Sierra Nevada on Monday for five airfield Mobile Tower Systems (MOTS).”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Interconnectivity closing information gaps. NextGov.Com’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “Law enforcement officials nationwide now have the ability to search multiple sensitive databases, including spy agency intranets and homeland security suspicious activity reporting – with a single login. The breakthrough in interconnectivity is expected to close information gaps that, among other things, have contributed to the rise in homegrown terrorism and school shootings.”
2. End of the Silk Road 2.0. Reuters reports, “U.S. authorities said Thursday they have shut down the successor website to Silk Road, an underground online drug marketplace, and charged its alleged operator with conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering and other crimes. Blake Benthall, 26, was arrested on Wednesday in San Francisco and was expected to make an initial court appearance in federal court there later on Thursday.”
3. SEALiness—Navy’s best whine like the rest. Reuters’ Mark Hosenball reports, “Members of the U.S. Navy Seal commando team that killed Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout in May, 2011 are making conflicting claims as to who actually shot the al Qaeda leader. . . . The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the team member told him the fatal shot was fired by one of two other men who entered the room before O’Neill.”
4. Neuromorphic chips and DARPA’s learning drones. Gizmodo.Com’s Adam Clark Estes reports, “Almost seven years ago, we learned that DARPA was investing millions of dollars in neuromorphic chips. That’s a fancy term for a computer chip that mimics a biological cortex—a brain chip. . . . Responding to DARPA’s challenge, HRL Laboratories’ Center for Neural and Emergent Systems just tested a tiny drone with a prototype neuromorphic chip. The drone packs 576 silicon neurons that communicate through spikes in electricity and respond to data from optical, ultrasound, and infrared sensors. And thanks to that brain-like chip, the little robot doesn’t necessarily need a human to tell it what to do. It can learn and act on its own.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Will you go with me? Yes / No / Maybe: “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received a secret letter from an unlikely person last month: President Obama. In the midst of airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Obama reportedly sent Iran’s Supreme Leader a letter in the middle of October, expressing the importance of cooperation in fighting the militants, according to the Wall Street Journal. Obama also hinted that cooperation on fighting the Islamic State would directly affect looming discussions of a comprehensive agreement on the future of Iran’s nuclear power by the Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline . . . . In recent days, the White House has said the chances for an agreement with Tehran are only 50-50.”
2. Boehner hard on Barack: “Fresh off his party’s big win on Election Day, Speaker John Boehner took a hard line with President Barack Obama and Democrats on Thursday, vowing a vote on repealing Obamacare early in 2015 in a direct challenge to the president’s signature legislative accomplishment. Boehner also warned Obama not to take executive action banning deportations of undocumented immigrants, and the Ohio Republican said Congress would react strongly if the president did so. While Boehner has long ruled out any talk of impeachment proceedings, he made clear the GOP-controlled Congress would find other ways to retaliate against the Obama administration.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Should the West withdraw from the world to win its love?” Reuters contributor John Lloyd argues, “If the West stopped humanitarian, or military, interventions, it’s likely that Ebola would sweep West Africa more quickly, the Taliban would return to rule Afghanistan, Islamic State would take Iraq, Assad of Syria would win more quickly and Libya would continue its civil wars, then get a new dictator. But the West wouldn’t have intervened: it wouldn’t be our fault.”
2. “How the US Can Turn the [Gulf Cooperation Council] Into a Lasting Military Alliance.” DefenseOne.Com contributor Melissa Dalton argues, “With U.S. leadership, it is possible to rally GCC members to a common cause. GCC states have demonstrated growing military capabilities and political will to bring to a war. Close cooperation, strategic planning, training, exercises and combined operations may help ensure unity of purpose in the region going forward.”
3. “The Frightening World of Vladimir Putin.” TheMoscowTimes.Com contributor Alexander Golts argues, “Putin wants to regain that same ‘respect’ that the West held for Khrushchev, and he sees no other way but to underscore his own unpredictability.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Anaconda effect.
2. Tortoise shout.
