FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Accounting for drones. Contributor Chandler Harris reports, “The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is eliciting feedback from the public regarding new policies regarding privacy and drones, or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The request comes as many push for drone privacy laws and increased government accountability. . . .”
2. Auditing intel agencies. Contributor Charles Simmins reports, “The 113th Congress existed from January 2013 to January 2015. At the end of March, 2015, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its annual report on its activities. On April 8, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) released their analysis of that report and its contents. . . . Four intelligence agencies had their fiscal 2014 financial statements audited, the CIA, NGA, NRO, and NSA.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Women Rangers: training and assessing. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe reports, “Before daylight arrived, eight of the nine women — and 31 men — completed the march, with several men and women doubled over in exhaustion by the end. It’s all but assured that they will attend the grueling elite leadership course because it was the last event at which students are dropped for not meeting requirements, Army officials said. It means that up to 20 women could be part of the Ranger School class; 12 had previously qualified.”
2. Back in the fight: battling demons in Iraq and Syria. AP’s Vivian Salama and Bram Janssen report, “A decade after his first Iraq tour, former U.S. Marine Jamie Lane has returned to the battlefields of the Middle East to fight a still unvanquished enemy and wrestle with the demons of his past. The 29-year old from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan served as a machine gunner from 2004 to 2008, mainly in the western Anbar province, where he saw fierce fighting against al-Qaida in Iraq. Now, as a private citizen suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he is back in the region to battle its successor, the Islamic State group.”
3. Putin arming Iranians. Reuters’ Gabriela Baczynska reports, “Russia paved the way on Monday for missile system deliveries to Iran and started an oil-for-goods swap, signaling that Moscow may have a head-start in the race to benefit from an eventual lifting of sanctions on Tehran. The moves come after world powers, including Russia, reached an interim deal with Iran this month on curbing its nuclear program. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ending a self-imposed ban on delivering the S-300 anti-missile rocket system to Iran, removing a major irritant between the two countries after Moscow canceled a corresponding contract in 2010 under pressure from the West.”
4. CIA on leadership. Washington Post contributor Tom Fox’s interview with Timothy Kilbourn: “The CIA is filled with highly motivated people who have a real sense of their role in serving their country. In crises, there’s a tendency for them to burn themselves out. You have to let them get some down time. You have to be judicious in how you balance the workload and what you take on. You have to be able to say, ‘It’s worth doing, but not right now.’”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Repurposing and reusing: innovation in a modernization drought. Breaking Defense’s Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. reports, “Amidst unabated budget gloom, Navy and Marine leaders aren’t looking for salvation in big new programs. They’re ‘repurposing and reusing existing capabilities’ to get the maximum out of existing hardware for minimum cost. It’s a vision of the future in which a junior Marine Corps officer might call for fire support from a ship-launched Tomahawk missile using a Samsung tablet.”
2. Sentencing Blackwater. The New York Times’ Matt Apuzzo reports, “One by one, four former Blackwater security contractors wearing blue jumpsuits and leg irons stood before a federal judge on Monday and spoke publicly for the first time since a deadly 2007 shooting in Iraq. . . . The judge [sentenced Nicholas A.] Slatten to life in prison and [handed] 30-year sentences to the three others. . . . [Another] pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testified against his former colleagues. He has not been sentenced but testified that he hoped to avoid any prison time.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. NSA’s GovCloud: Snowden-proofing data. Nextgov’s Frank Konkel reports, “NSA’s GovCloud – open-source software stacked on commodity hardware – creates a scalable environment for all NSA data. Soon, most everything NSA collects will end up in this ocean of information. . . . NSA built the architecture of its cloud environment from scratch, allowing security to be baked in and automated rather than bolted on and carried out by manual processes. . . . Data in the GovCloud doesn’t show up to analysts if they aren’t authorized, trained or cleared to see it . . . .”
2. Targeting tech. Defense One contributor Marcus Weisgerber reports, “The U.S. military has largely relied on aerial video from drones, aircraft and satellites to locate and target Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. But new technology could allow the Navy’s fleet of jammer jets to pinpoint battlefield insurgents hiding under cover. . . . The Growler, a modified version of the Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, uses electronic warfare pods that can intercept transmissions in a wide range of frequencies —essentially, everything from radars to mobile phones.”
3. SMART initiative: recycling rocket engines. Defense News’ Aaron Mehta reports, “The United Launch Alliance’s next generation launch vehicle will feature a reusable main engine and a redesigned second stage . . . . Details of the next-gen rocket have leaked out over the last month, but the greatest surprise of Mondays announcement at the National Space Symposium was the company’s Sensible, Modular, Autonomous Return Technology (SMART) initiative, which would allow ULA to capture and reuse the main booster engine.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Stuff ‘n’ things. “His boss has endorsed his rival, and now Vice President Joe Biden, sidelined by Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, is being tasked to raise money for President Obama. In a Democratic Party fundraiser just dispatched, Biden said, ‘A lot of stuff is going to happen and a bunch of things will be said in the coming weeks and months — but one thing that cannot and will not change is the importance of all of us as Democrats sticking together and doing what we can to keep helping people live better, fuller lives. I know you’re still proud to have the president’s back, and if you’re still in to keep fighting for every hardworking person in this country.’”
2. The Un-Dorsement. “President Obama backs the promise to help middle-class Americans in the video announcing Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, though he will continue to keep his powder dry and not support anyone until the Democrats choose their candidate. . . . ‘The president has not offered up any type of endorsement,’ he continued. ‘It’s for Democratic voters to decide who they want as their Democratic nominee … [once chosen] I think that Democratic nominee can be confident of the president’s support.’”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “How Vladimir Putin’s skewed view of World War Two threatens his neighbors and the West.” Reuters contributor Lucien Kim argues, “For Putin, the main lesson of World War Two is that enemies are tirelessly plotting to encircle and enslave Russia. If 75 years ago it was the Third Reich, today it’s the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”
2. “Iran and China: President Obama’s strategic choice.” The Daily Progress contributor Donald Nuechterlein argues, “In view of America’s strategic shift toward East Asia, now underway, the leaders of Israel and other Middle East states need to understand that U.S. national interests are not the same as theirs. It’s urgent that Congress debates this issue and offers its assessment of where U.S. vital interests lie in the next 20 years.”
3. “A Global Consensus on Cyber Security Is Gaining Momentum.” Defense One contributor Camino Cavanaugh argues, “As the diplomats on the GGE [Group of Governmental Experts] draft their next report, they should pay even closer attention to cybersecurity capacity building. They should signal that capacity building, dull as it may appear, is not an end in itself. Rather, it is an important part of the broader processes of political and social change going on around us.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Sleeping dogs.
