FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Kick start your job search. Editor Lindy Kyzer offers, “If you’re a defense industry job seeker, one of the most important questions to answer is, ‘who’s hiring?’ Another critical question – which companies are hot right now, with newly awarded defense contracts and opportunities likely to become available? A great place to start is always Cleared Network company profiles . . . . Here’s a round-up of the most viewed company profiles on the Cleared Network in 2014. Check them out and kick start your job search on the Cleared Network.”
2. Get your SF-86 right. Contributor Andrew Levine explains, “There are a number of seemingly minor omissions that commonly appear on an applicant’s SF-86. Standing alone, they will rarely have a profound impact on the efficiency of your investigation. However, an accumulation of such omissions when completing the SF-86 could, at a minimum, substantially lengthen the personal interview. . . . Neither party wants to extend the interview to three hours because the SF-86 essentially needed a rewrite.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. ISIS probes Saudi Arabia. Christian Science Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi reports, “A deadly confrontation on the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border Monday—between Saudi border guards and heavily armed men operating from Iraq’s Islamic State-controlled Anbar Province—presents a problematic US ally with the worrisome threat of rising challenges to internal security. Saudi Arabia has long battled efforts by Al Qaeda to undermine the Western-backed Saudi royalty and its role as keeper of Islam’s holiest sites. But now the Islamic State (IS) has joined the battle against the Saudi government, especially since IS forces swept into Iraq from Syria last year and Saudi Arabia signed on to the US-led coalition that aims to defeat IS.”
2. U.S. troops under fire in Al Asad. DefenseNews.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “The 320 US soldiers and Marines at Al Asad air base in western Iraq have been coming under ‘regular’ mortar fire from insurgent forces for several weeks, Defense Department spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Monday. While Warren insisted that the attacks have been ‘wholly ineffective’ and ‘no US personnel, no US equipment have been impacted in any way,’ this was the first time that the Pentagon acknowledged that the 2,100 US troops in Iraq have been in danger since deploying late last year.”
3. NATO’s QRF plans. AP’s John-Thor Dahlburg reports, “Leaving combat operations in Afghanistan behind, NATO is shifting its focus to Europe in 2015 and the creation of its new ultra-rapid-reaction force, designed as a deterrent to Russia. The priority for the 28-member alliance will be to get the new agile expeditionary force into operation, but also settling the question of who will pay for it, analysts say.”
4. Drone pilot shortage. DoDBuzz.Com’s Richard Sisk reports, “The Air Force is facing a shortage of drone pilots for the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones—aircraft that have been a crucial part of the air campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Pentagon officials said Monday. Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman . . . noted that there was a ‘very high demand for the capabilities’ of the drones as launch vehicles for Hellfire air-to-ground missiles and as ISR (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance) platforms. . . . In 2013, the Government Accountability Office reported that the Air Force had recruited 110 drone pilots against a requirement for 179.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Strategically sourced office supplies. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “The General Services Administration’s latest generation of its strategically sourced office supplies contract is now ready for customers . . . . The contract provides agencies already negotiated prices on everyday supplies like pens, paper, and printing items from a list of vendors and could save agencies $90 million a year, according to the agency. The second-generation version of the contract saved agencies about $370 million in costs since 2010.”
2. Navy Blackjacks for $41 million. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Navy officials are buying three new RQ-21A Blackjack small tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide surveillance capability for U.S. Marine Corps and Navy tactical commanders. Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $41.1 million contract this week to Boeing Insitu Inc. in Bingen, Wash., for three low-rate-initial-production Blackjack UAVs, to include air vehicles, ground control stations, launch and recovery equipment, and spare parts.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Resigning: CIA’s IG. Reuters’ Mark Hosenball reports, “CIA inspector general David Buckley, who investigated a dispute between the agency and Congress over the handling of records of the CIA’s detention and interrogation activities, is resigning effective Jan. 31 . . . . The agency said in a statement that Buckley, who has served as the agency’s internal watchdog for more than four years, was leaving the agency to ‘pursue an opportunity in the private sector.’ Officials at both the CIA and on Capitol Hill said his departure was unrelated to politics or anything he had investigated.” National Journal’s Dustin Volz reports, “The CIA’s Watchdog Is Resigning After Revealing That Spies Hacked the Senate.”
2. The year in artificial intelligence. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker explains, “In the event that robots one day attempt to destroy humanity, 2014 will be remembered as the year that two of technology’s great geek heroes, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, predicted it would happen. And if that never comes to pass, 2014 will go down as the year two of the world’s smartest people had a media panic attack about robots for no reason. . . .”
3. Feinstein: putting an end to “enhanced interrogation.” National Journal’s Dustin Volz and Kaveh Waddell report, “Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein is calling on President Obama to help ‘prevent the use future use of torture’ by the U.S. government, a move that comes on the heels of her panel’s release of its investigation into the CIA’s now-defunct ‘enhanced interrogation’ program. In a letter sent to Obama last week and released Monday, Feinstein outlines a list of proposals that are ‘intended to make sure that the United States never again engages in actions that you have acknowledged were torture.’”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. First up: Keystone. “The House will skip committee hearings and hold a floor vote on a bill to authorize the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline Friday, a House GOP aide told the Washington Examiner. The approach stands in contrast to how the Senate plans to handle the bill. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday and committee vote Thursday, setting up a full floor vote the following week.”
2. Boehner’s back: “Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) is slated to win another two years as Speaker on Tuesday when House lawmakers cast their first vote of a new Congress entirely controlled by Republicans. But don’t expect the public roll call on the House floor to be drama-free. Like two years ago, a disorganized but vocal band of conservatives has vowed to oppose Boehner, either by calling out someone else’s name during the vote or simply abstaining or voting ‘present.’”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Let the Iraqi Army have its day.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Michael Knights argues, “If the Iraqi army can be rebuilt with Shia, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political support, and if the well-led Ministry of Defense can guide the National Guard initiative, the coming year could witness new Iraqi army victories at Mosul. Successful operations undertaken by this national institution, with deep roots in the Iraq’s history, will be far more beneficial to the country than victories scored solely by Shia militias or local Sunni uprisings, either of which could further fracture Iraq.”
2. “U.S. sanctions fail two-thirds of the time. And allies are often to blame.” Reuters contributor Bryan Early argues, “Why do U.S. sanctions fail so often? The answer lies not just with America’s adversaries, but also with its allies. You just need to look at Cuba to see why.”
3. “Why Congress Is Broken.” Politico.Com contributor and retiring senator Mike Rogers argues, “The level of pettiness and small-minded meanness in political discourse is disheartening at best. It works against our national interests at its worst. It is hard to solve big issues with small politics.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Hacking Grammy.
3. 114th Congress.
