FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Soto Cano contractor breaking bad. Contributor Anne Kucik reports, “A former military contractor, Christopher R. Glenn, pleaded guilty to obtaining classified national defense information under the Espionage Act and faces sentencing in April. Glenn also pleaded guilty to one count of computer intrusion under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and one count to commit naturalization fraud. Glenn, 34, was employed as a computer systems administrator by Harris Corporation in 2012 on the Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras. . . .”
2. Clearances by the numbers. Contributor Chandler Harris explains, “Security clearances are issued by numerous U.S. government agencies including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy (DoE), Department of Justice, and Central Intelligence Agency. The majority of security clearances are issued by the DoD (80 percent). The DoD and most other agencies have three levels of security clearances . . . .”
3. Security clearance changes 2014. Contributor William Henderson asks, “What major changes of 2014 affected security clearance policy and processes?” And offers, “Learn all of the details in a month-by-month break-down of key security clearance events. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Fight against ISIS. Christian Science Monitor’s Brad Knickerbocker reports, “In the wake of stepped-up airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and some success in Iraq by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Secretary of State John Kerry says the US-led coalition is ‘on the road’ to defeating Islamic State militants. . . . Since reports surfaced of the fiery execution of a downed Jordanian fighter pilot, Jordan has significantly increased its bombing sorties against ISIS targets. . . . General Mansour Al-Jbour, head of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, said nearly 20 percent of the militants’ capabilities have been degraded by the air attacks, including killing 7,000 of the enemy.” See also, “Allies pledge more arms to the Kurds at Munich conference.”
2. Defense budget politics. Defense One contributor Daniel Newhauser reports, “House Republicans’ internal budget negotiations are in their infancy, but the central challenge is already coming clear: Defense hawks are demanding that military spending gets relief from looming, mandatory spending cuts imposed by the sequester. But if party leaders decide to spend more on defense, it will mean cutting more elsewhere, setting off a fierce intraparty debate over which programs are gouged and which are spared.”
3. Holding off Boko Haram. Reuters’ Issifou Djibo reports from Diffa, “Niger’s army repelled the second attack in three days by Boko Haram on the border town of Diffa on Sunday, a day before its parliament votes on whether to join a regional offensive against the Nigerian Islamist group. Several people were killed in fierce early morning fighting when Boko Haram gunmen attempted to advance toward the town but were pushed back by the army . . . .” Homeland Security News Wire reports, “Nigeria delays election by six weeks, citing war with Boko Haram.”
4. Russian modernization and weaknesses. Washington Post’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff reports, “The strength of the Russian military is being watched closely in the West, with growing concerns not only about its intervention in Ukraine but also its posture elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Russia is five years into a modernization plan that envisages spending more than $700 billion on rebuilding over the course of a decade.” See also, “Leaders scramble to avert ‘dramatic spiral’ in Ukraine,” “Merkel to brief Obama on four-party talks on Ukraine crisis” and “Putin Says Kiev on ‘Dead End Track’ With Policy in Eastern Ukraine.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Raytheon’s multispectral sensor deal. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Air Force airborne sensors experts announced their intention last week to buy as many as 49 MST-B multispectral targeting systems from the Raytheon Co. for the MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Raytheon’s MTS-B multispectral targeting system provides electro-optical, infrared, laser designation, and laser illumination capabilities for the Reaper armed drone that are integrated into one sensor package.”
2. Navy’s F-35C standoff. Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman reports, “The U.S. Navy has reduced its planned buys of the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter by almost one-third over the fiscal 2016-2020 Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), while committing almost $800 million to new standoff weapon developments and canceling the only missile program that was primarily dedicated to the F-35C. All the new developments are part of the fiscal 2016 presidential budget proposal and constitute the first move by a U.S. service to slow down its JSF procurements.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Obama heads to Stanford on cybersecurity. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “Following his remarks on cybersecurity at the 2015 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama will attend a summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University this Friday. Attendees will include major stakeholders in cybersecurity and consumer financial protection issues, including executives from the financial services, telecommunications, and retail industries, as well as law enforcement officials and consumer advocates. Obama has requested $14 billion for cybersecurity initiatives in the 2016 federal budget, a 10 percent increase from 2015 budget.”
2. Filling Pentagon’s Cyber Command. Nextgov’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “The Pentagon is at the midway point of staffing a projected 6,000-person Cyber Command, officials said, amid fears of a catastrophic threat to U.S. networks. The military appears to be backing away from a long-held goal of establishing a full force by 2016. . . . Many factors are responsible for the enduring challenge of recruiting skilled information security pros—including competition for talent with the more lucrative and nimble private sector and federal budgeting.”
3. Drone danger. Wired’s Kevin Poulson reports, “If you want to understand why the government freaked out when a $400 remote-controlled quadcopter landed on the White House grounds last week, you need to look four miles away, to a small briefing room in Arlington, Virginia. There, just 10 days earlier, officials from the US military, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FAA gathered for a DHS ‘summit’ on a danger that had been consuming them privately for years: the potential use of hobbyist drones as weapons of terror or assassination. The conference was open to civilians, but explicitly closed to the press. One attendee described it as an eye-opener.”
4. Iowa (and other states) taking on the NSA. The Daily Iowan’s Paul Osgerby reports, “Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, filed the Iowa Fourth Amendment Protection Act, that could effectively protect Iowans from warrantless federal spying, namely by the National Security Agency. Furthermore, the bill could help in shutting off water for the NSA’s facility in Utah. Iowa is the eighth state to introduce such security measures against federal surveillance. The protection would withhold state-level support, both actively and passively, toward such federal agencies. Iowa would then not enable for collection of electronic data and metadata by the NSA while also not providing any material support.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Here comes The Pen. “President Obama is just days away from issuing the biggest veto of his tenure, with Republicans poised to send him legislation that would authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama’s veto—just the third of his presidency and the first since 2010—is expected to come with little fanfare, with even opponents of the pipeline arguing the White House should avoid further angering Democrats and unions who want Keystone to be built. . . . Republicans are eagerly awaiting Obama’s stroke of the pen, believing every veto he makes will help them make the case that job-creating legislation is being blocked by a president of ‘no.’”
2. Occasionally? “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Sunday parried a strike from former Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas), refusing to jump into the fray with his potential 2016 challenger. ‘People occasionally throw rocks in politics, that’s his choice,’ Cruz said . . . . ‘I’m going to say that I think he did a good, effective job as governor of our state.’ . . . Perry last week portrayed Cruz as the next President Obama, and said that his differences from the junior senator are an advantage.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The US Intelligence Community Is Bigger Than Ever, But Is It Worth the Cost?” Defense One contributor Michael German argues, “Excessive government secrecy prohibits the public and oversight agencies alike from determining whether our expensive intelligence enterprise is worth the investment.”
2. “Grisly Guantanamo stories refuse to go away.” Reuters contributor Alka Pradhan argues, “The U.S. public pays $3 million in tax dollars per detainee, per year of detention, at Guantánamo. For that money, they deserve to see and hear for themselves what is being done in their name.”
3. “Learning to talk to enemies.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “’Jaw-jaw is better than war-war,’ Winston Churchill once said. But in jawing with an enemy – much like wrestling with an alligator – it is best to know if one can eventually drain the swamp. Such diplomatic engagement needs both clear-eyed realism and moral clarity.”
