FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Cleared jobs in the Cornhusker state. Editor Lindy Kyzer offers, “The definition of a flyover city, Omaha is not nearly as sexy as either D.C. or Colorado. And the weather is absolutely worse. But the job market was strong, and at the end of the day we felt it was the best fit for our family. . . . Here are the top eight reasons why we made Omaha home—and why you should consider it, too. . . .”
2. San Antonio cyber security stroll. Contributor Tranette Ledford offers, “San Antonio is increasingly turning into a defense cybersecurity hub, with the National Security Agency (NSA) set to add up to 1,000 new jobs in the city, most of which will require security clearances. During a San Antonio Chamber of Commerce cybersecurity summit in October, NSA Director, Admiral Michael Rogers, explained that San Antonio will serve as a key player in the future of the Department of Defense (DoD) cyber mission.” Tanya Tucker on the San Antonio Stroll.
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Iraq’s ghost soldiers. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Iraq’s security institutions, molded by the Americans after the 2003 US-led invasion of the country, suffer from inefficiency, a lack of professionalism, and financial and administrative corruption . . . . In an effort to address the situation, [Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi] last month ordered 10 senior military officers into retirement and dismissed another 26, including the general director of intelligence and security and the air force chief of staff. Abbadi also dismissed two dozen senior interior ministry officials, including the commander of border forces, the commander of the federal police and the commander of Iraq’s intelligence department. In addition, Abbadi revealed last week that there were 50,000 ‘ghost soldiers’—people who receive a pay cheque without showing up for work – on the payroll of four military divisions.”
2. A tortured debate. AP’s Bradley Klapper reports, “The CIA and several of its past leaders are stepping up a campaign to discredit a five-year Senate investigation into the CIA’s harrowing interrogation practices after 9/11, concerned that the historical record may define them as torturers instead of patriots and expose them to legal action around the world.” See also, “How much did Poland know, and when did it know it?”
3. Putin meets Modi. Reuters’ Douglas Busvine reports, “Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin got straight down to talks on Thursday on boosting nuclear and defence cooperation at a summit aimed at reviving an old friendship that has faded over the years. Putin’s one-day visit to India comes at a time when Russia is at odds with the West over Ukraine, and its economy is stalling as oil prices tumble to their lowest in five years.”
4. Spending bill in a glance. Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe does the work: “The $1.01 trillion spending bill unveiled late Tuesday will keep most of the federal government funded through next September—and it’s packed with hundreds of policy instructions, known on Capitol Hill as ‘riders,’ that will upset or excite Democrats, Republicans and various special interest groups. So, what’s in the bill? . . .” See also, “Democrats balk at U.S. spending bill, raising shutdown risk,” “Spending bill teeters amid Democrat discontent,” and “Congress Inserts $554B for DoD in ‘Cromnibus’ Spending Bill.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Torture for hire. GovExec.Com’s Charles S. Clark reports, “Among many controversial CIA actions described in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s new report on the post-9/11 detention and interrogation program is the award of an $81 million multi-year contract to access advice on pain infliction from two psychologists.”
2. SmartPay program gen-three. FederalTimes.Com’s Aaron Boyd reports, “The program currently serves some 350 agencies and organizations in managing payment cards for purchasing office supplies, travel accommodations and fleet transactions. Agencies spent approximately $26 billion in 2014 using cards, saving $1.7 billion compared to the cost of submitting paper purchase orders.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. “This is your brain on torture.” DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker’s deep dive on the psychology of torture: “The mPFC neurons enter into a state of hyper-activity. They become large and the synapses become distended. That may sound like something of a pleasant state but what it means is that the neurons reabsorb serotonin and norepinephrine at a much higher rate, keeping the levels of these neurotransmitters low in the brain. The altered synapses and cells, the continual and perpetual reabsorption of key neurotransmitters change the person completely, affecting a state of depression.” Also featured in DefenseOne.Com, “America Ended Torture But Continues Drone Strikes.”
2. Superconducting logic and cryogenic memory. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “Officials of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) in Washington have awarded contracts to teams led by IBM, Raytheon-BBN and Northrop Grumman Corp. for the for the Cryogenic Computing Complexity (C3) program that seeks to push the frontiers of high-performance computing (HPC). The IARPA C3 initiative seeks to establish superconducting computing as a long-term solution to the power, space, and cooling problem of traditional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) designs in HPC.”
3. Navy’s own Alan Parsons Project (laser). Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe reports, “A new laser gun mounted on the USS Ponce has been operational for months in the Persian Gulf, and it has exceeded expectations as far as its range and durability, senior Navy officers said Wednesday. The Navy calls it the LaWS, short for laser weapon system. . . .”
4. Christmas gifts for, well, nerds. Wired.Com’s Nadia Drake reports, “Yes, there are only 12 days in the song. But 13 is such a nice (prime!) number, and some of your friends might already have a stock of hilarious sci-fi movie posters and pyrotechnics chemistry kits, leaving you in desperate need of more options. Perhaps a DIY submersible, or some laboratory-chic neckwear. So, in no particular order, here is our holiday wish-list for science nerds.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Off with their heads: “Sen. Mark Udall accused the CIA of continuing to mislead Congress and the public about his agency’s use of extreme interrogation techniques and called on President Obama to purge the agency of its top leadership, including Director John Brennan. . . . In his wide-ranging remarks, Udall, a member of the intelligence panel, accused Brennan of lying to Congress and of taking an ‘openly hostile and dismissive’ response to the committee’s oversight role. He also skewered the White House for failing to hold the CIA accountable and for directly withholding thousands of documents from the committee.”
2. Molotov mazel tov: “Scott Walker learned the hard way about the importance of an editor. In an undated letter found in one of two John Doe investigations against Walker by the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, the Wisconsin Governor signed a note ‘Molotov’ instead of ‘mazel tov’ . . . . In the note to Franklyn Gimbel, chairman of the Wisconsin Center District, Walker says his office would be happy to approve a request to set up a menorah at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to celebrate Hanukkah. At the time of the letter, Walker was Milwaukee County executive.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The CIA is still running amok.” Politico.Com contributor Tim Weiner argues, “What is striking about this week’s Senate report on the Bush administration’s torture program—what is new—is not the fact that CIA officers may have violated the laws of God or the Geneva Convention setting up torturing prisons in the black sites of Afghanistan and Thailand and Poland. We knew that. What is shocking is the continuing claim of the CIA’s leaders that torture worked. And that is a damnable lie, a devastating deceit and a self-deception that poses a danger to the agency and the American people.”
2. “‘Senate torture report’: a window on rules of war.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Rules of war may imply legalism. But they represent a hope for a common understanding of how violence should be used to settle differences, if at all.”
3. WORTHWHILE READ: “In and out of time in Iraq.” New Yorker contributor Tom Ricks’ thoughtful piece on PTSD: “In the back of my brain, an unconscious thought was growing, whispering, insisting on being heard: something is very wrong here. It hit me hard; it was a personal feeling. This wasn’t a matter of policy, this was a matter of my life: This war is going to be very different from the other conflicts you have covered, I thought, different from Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan. Something here has grabbed ahold of you. You have lost control of your future.”
THE FUNNIES
2. A house divided.
3. Snowman in July.
