FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. At DHS, money buys happiness. Contributor Chandler Harris reports, “The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to improve employee morale after it was recently ranked the worst place to work among large federal agencies, again. . . . The DHS, which has been at the bottom of the list for the last several years, implemented the ‘Building the Department You Deserve’ program last year in an effort to makes its employees happier. The program involves awarding cash to several hundred workers and ‘honors the contributions of their employees and DHS partners’ . . . .”
2. Cleared finances. Contributor and barrister Sean Bigley advises, “What many security clearance holders and applicants fail to realize is that it’s not the bankruptcy itself that is an issue. Rather, the government views bankruptcy as a symptom of underlying problems that must be addressed. If bankruptcy is the symptom, the more serious question then becomes the nature of those underlying problems . . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Taliban peace talks dead end. Reuters reports, “Taliban representatives met with Afghan political figures for a second day in Qatar on Sunday, and one participant said the two sides discussed a possible ceasefire but ultimately disagreed over the continued presence of U.S. troops in the country. . . . The informal talks, hosted by Qatar’s foreign ministry, came as fighting escalated after the withdrawal of most U.S. and allied troops. The Taliban recently launched an offensive in northern Afghanistan that brought its fighters to the outskirts of Kunduz city, a provincial capital.” See also, “Govt has announced jihad against terrorism, corruption and poverty: President Ghani.”
2. Sexual assault: Ash Carter’s toughest fight. Defense Media Activity’s Jim Garamone reports, “DoD will capitalize on being a learning and growing organization as it takes new data and forms new policies to combat sexual assault . . . . Carter has directed the services to examine the data and look for the best ways to meet the needs of men and women seeking treatment for sexual assault. The survey also suggests that 22 percent of active-duty women and 7 percent of active-duty men may have experienced some form of sexual harassment last year. The secretary said that alone is abhorrent, but it is particularly so as the survey says those who experience sexual harassment are more likely to be sexually assaulted.”
3. al Sadr’s on the National Defense Authorization Act. The Long War Journal’s Bill Roggio reports, “Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr threatened to attack US personnel inside Iraq and beyond if the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would have recognized Kurdistan and Sunnis in western Iraq as their own independent countries. Sadr, whose Iranian-backed militia battled US and Coalition troops in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq during the occupation of Iraq, released a statement on his website on April 29 calling for attacks on US interests if Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2016.” See also, “Kurds to discuss self-determination at White House meetings.”
4. NDAA fights. Defense News’ John T. Bennett reports, “The House Armed Services Committee handed the Pentagon and US defense sector a victory by surgically protecting weapon programs and authorizing extra war funding — but a showdown with the White House looms. The committee, in the early hours of April 30, voted to add billions to a list of weapon programs, and signed off on a $495.9 billion base Pentagon budget and an $89.2 billion overseas contingency operations (OCO) account.” See also, “Navy Has ‘No Credibility’ On Cruisers.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Cyber-contracts at CYBERCOM. Defense One contributor Aliya Sternstein reports, “The emerging Pentagon division that coordinates military cybersecurity and cyberattacks is asking private contractors to help finish standing up the Cyber Command. Among the tasks to be assigned under a request for proposals issued Thursday are support for eavesdropping to detect threats and assistance with repelling hacks equivalent to an armed attack against the nation. The potentially five-year contract is capped at $475 million and covers nearly 20 task areas, according to the new performance work statement.”
2. Accelerating night vision development: $192 million. Military Aerospace & Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Army night-vision experts plan to invest as much as $192 million in an effort to speed the design, development, and deployment of electro-optical sensors and weapon sights that help U.S. and allied warfighters operate effectively at night and in bad weather. Officials of the Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) at Fort Belvoir, Va., plan to issue a solicitation later this month for the Rapid Acquisition of Materials for Prototyping (RAMP) program (W909MY-15-R-E001).”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Veterans Affairs’ cyber assault. Nextgov’s Mohana Ravindranath reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs experienced a significant surge in cyber threats in March . . . . The department blocked 1.19 billion malware instances and 358 million intrusion attempts into VA systems in March alone, Warren said. This number is up since February, when VA reported blocking 930 million malware instances and 4.3 million intrusion attempts. If the volume of threats continues to ramp up, Warren said, ‘any agency will run into the point where we may get overwhelmed.’ [VA Chief Information Officer Stephen Warren] added later, ‘Nothing I do will reduce what’s coming at me one bit.’” See also, “VA sees jump in cyberattacks, fewer veterans affected.”
2. Vulnerable: the grid. Homeland Security Newswire reports, “The U.S. power grid is made up of complex and expensive system components, which are owned by utilities ranging from small municipalities to large national corporations spanning multiple states. A National Academy of Sciences report estimates that a worst-case geomagnetic storm could have an economic impact of $1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year, which is twenty times the damage caused by a Katrina-class hurricane.”
3. Mike Morrell on Benghazi. New York Times’ David E. Sanger reports, “The former deputy director of the C.I.A. asserts . . . that Republicans, in their eagerness to politicize the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, repeatedly distorted the agency’s analysis of events. But he also argues that the C.I.A. should get out of the business of providing ‘talking points’ for administration officials in national security events that quickly become partisan, as happened after the Benghazi attack in 2012.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. The cringe. “Carly Fiorina says environmentalists created California’s drought. Mike Huckabee’s urging would-be recruits to boycott the military until President Obama leaves office. Ben Carson compared gay marriage to bestiality and pedophilia. This week, they’re all going to become official candidates for president, and the fringes of the Republican field will get notably fringier. . . . long-shot candidates are working harder than ever to make names for themselves with eyebrow-raising statements that drive clicks and cable segments.”
2. Don’t ask, don’t tell. “The House of Representatives narrowly rejected a spending amendment Thursday evening that would have eased veterans’ access to medical marijuana. The Veterans Health Administration currently does not allow its physicians to discuss marijuana as a treatment option in the two dozen states with medical pot laws, forcing veterans to turn elsewhere for guidance and the paperwork necessary to acquire the drug. The amendment would have blocked the VHA from punishing doctors who participate in state programs. Most Democrats and 35 Republicans supported it, but the reform measure failed by three votes.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Better the dictator you condemn than the insurgents you can’t control.” Reuters contributor John Lloyd argues, “The vacuum created by the fall of the tyrant yielded not democrats (or not enough), but old feuds, hatreds, divisions — and, above all, the militants of jihadism resurgent, al Qaeda, Islamic State and others.”
2. “Next big thing: protecting an earlier one.” Christian Science Monitor contributor John Yemma explains, “Although it will no doubt produce spinoffs and lead to new inventions, cybersecurity is more about safeguarding the billions of activities that the Internet has facilitated than changing the world. The Internet, which has been the next big thing for several decades now, is what is worth protecting.”
3. “Ask a Hostage Negotiator: What’s the Best Way to Get a Raise?” The Atlantic’s Bourree Lam offers, “The question that most people ask themselves as they walk into their boss’s office to negotiate their salaries is likely some variant of “What am I going to say?” But according to hostage negotiator Chris Voss, that might be the least important thing to keep in mind when negotiating. . . .”
THE FUNNIES
2. Free money.
