FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Fort Bragg—All The Way! Contributor Jennifer Cary reports, “Often referred to as the unofficial home of the U.S. Army, Fayetteville, North Carolina, is bursting with military history and culture. But how much do you really know about the area or the installation it supports? Here are five things everyone should know about Fort Bragg and the surrounding area. . . .”
2. Degrees in smarts. Contributor Tranette Ledford reports, “Although the number of participating schools is still relatively small, they are spread geographically across the country. Veterans looking for cleared intelligence careers have opportunities to attend schools partnering with the IC CAE in 11 states: Alabama, California, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington State.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. ISIS strategy review. RT.Com reports, “Unhappy with the results of the fight against Islamic State militants, President Barack Obama has reportedly ordered a review of America’s strategy – one that could include the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad. . . . Obama’s national security team has conducted multiple meetings over the last week to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Specifically, they are trying to determine just what kind of action may need to be taken in Syria in order to defeat the Islamic State (IS, or ISIS/ISIL).” See also, “Obama believes Assad must be removed to defeat Islamic State” and “Airstrikes Continue Against ISIL; Centcom Holds Meetings.”
2. Russia hops in bed with Iran. The Christian Science Monitor’s Fred Weir reports from Moscow, “Less than two weeks before an international deadline for Iran to agree to curb its nuclear weapons capabilities, Russia has agreed to sell up to eight civilian atomic reactors to Iran. . . . Russian officials also declare that they’ve stopped taking any advice from the West, particularly the US, against trading with Iran in areas other than UN Security Council-banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies.”
3. Vet employment challenges. DefenseOne.Com contributor Kellie Lunney reports, “The jobless rate among Gulf War-Era II vets, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies them, was at 7.2 percent in October, compared to the country’s overall 5.8 percent unemployment and a 4.5 percent unemployment rate among all vets over the age of 18. The employment situation for post 9/11 vets is even more alarming when you look at the numbers by gender . . . .”
4. Crossed the torture line. RT.Com reports, “Speaking at the UN anti-torture body, the US has admitted it has ‘crossed the line’ since the September 11 attacks, with its legal adviser conceding that Washington takes responsibility for its deeds.”
5. Life support for Warthogs. DoDBuzz.Com’s Bryant Jordan reports, “Senate Republicans at the forefront of defending the A-10 Warthog from retirement will continue pressing their case on Thursday when they gather on Capitol Hill with veterans pushing the Air Force to keep the fleet alive. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, expected to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee starting in January, will be joined by other GOP members of the committee and two former airmen whose job was to call in close air support – the primary mission of the A-10.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Private security arrives in Russia. TheMoscowTimes.Com’s Alexey Eremenko reports, “In Soviet times, Russian military professionals worked across the globe from Cuba to Vietnam, teaching, advising and sometimes just pointing Kalashnikov muzzles at the enemy for the sake of the proletariat. Now Russian authorities want them to do so again, but this time, for profit—and, just possibly, as a governmental proxy. A bill filed with the State Duma late last month would legalize private military and security companies (PMSCs) in Russia, an idea endorsed in 2012 by President Vladimir Putin.”
2. Cost overruns and SASC shake-up. DefenseNews.Com’s John T. Bennett reports, “The incoming chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee wants to crack down on over-priced weapon programs and shake up SASC’s subpanels. . . . McCain told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he wants to ‘concentrate on . . . this fiscal irresponsibility of cost overruns. The most glaring example is a $3 billion cost overrun on an aircraft carrier’ . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Cyborg medicine. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “Super strong mechanical appendages and brain implants are common fixtures of a science-fictional future. More and more, American veterans are arriving at that future before the rest of us. As a result of military-funded programs, vets are becoming the research platform for cybernetic technologies that are decades beyond commercial state of the art and that could one day elevate humanity beyond its natural biological limitations.” See also, “Google is training a robot to do karate.”
2. Droning along the border. AP’s Elliot Spagat and Brian Skoloff report, “The U.S. government now patrols nearly half the Mexican border by drones alone in a largely unheralded shift to control desolate stretches where there are no agents, camera towers, ground sensors or fences, and it plans to expand the strategy to the Canadian border. It represents a significant departure from a decades-old approach that emphasizes boots on the ground and fences.”
3. Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet landing. Reuters’ Victoria Bryan and Maria Sheahan report, “The European Space Agency landed a probe on a comet on Wednesday, a first in space exploration and the climax of a 10-year-odyssey, but an anchoring system problem may hamper planned investigations into the origins of Earth and the solar system. But during the free-fall to the comet’s surface, harpoons designed to anchor the probe, named Philae, failed to deploy. Flight directors are considering options to ensure the lander does not drift back into space.” See also, “European spacecraft lands on comet” and “Rosetta’s Philae completes historic landing, but fails to anchor to comet.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Double-dog-dares, or “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”: “The aftermath of the November midterms has showcased just how President Obama plans to deal with Republicans in his final two years: He’s going down swinging. In the week since the electoral drubbing, Obama has renewed fights with Republicans over climate change, immigration reform and nuclear negotiations with Iran, in addition to picking a new battle with the GOP over net neutrality. In what some predicted would be a quiet close to 2014, Obama is not waiting to enact his agenda, almost inviting conservative scorn of his aggressive approach to wielding the levers of executive power.”
2. In the spirit of what??? “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is asking Speaker John Boehner to treat Democrats fairly when Republicans are divvying up seats on Congress’ most influential committees for next Congress. The California Democrat wrote to Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday to make the case that Democrats should have roughly the same number of committee seats for the session that begins in January as past minorities received. ‘In the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, I am writing to ask the Democratic members be treated fairly in regards to membership on standing committees,’ Pelosi wrote.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Baghdadi dead or alive: Does it matter?” Aljazeera.Com contributor Ibrahim Al-Marashi argues, “If it suffers tactical defeats on the battlefield, if its leader Baghdadi or other top leaders are killed, or if it lost urban centres, the Islamic State could take any defeat and reframe it into a victory for its constituents, ironically giving it a skill that truly makes it like any other state in the world.”
2. “U.S. ‘soft power’ hits another hard reality in the Middle East.” Reuters contributor John Lloyd argues, “Nowhere in the globe does idealism face a more testing challenge than in the Middle East—now burying the last hopeful remains of the Arab Spring. This is seen most starkly in Egypt. . . . And thus it is that the United States must again set aside its ideals in favor of realpolitik.”
3. “US-China pacts: a leap for universal values.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “The concept of universal values rests on a notion of a common affinity between peoples, an inclusiveness that crosses borders, a shared understanding of what is good and true. So when the world’s most populous nation (China) and its wealthiest and most powerful (the US) join hands on four agreements of universal benefit, that concept takes a big leap forward.”
