Friday Finale & This Time Last Year
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Your DOHA hearing. Contributor William Henderson explains, “Unless you permit the presence of others, the only people at your hearing will be you, your witnesses, the DOHA Department Counsel (DC), the DC’s witnesses, the DOHA Administrative Judge (AJ), and the court reporter. Witnesses are normally sequestered outside the hearing room until they provide their testimony. However, the AJ may allow witnesses to remain in the hearing room, if they’re expert witnesses or if they’re character witnesses, who will not be testifying about the specific issue(s) in the case. The DC doesn’t always present witnesses and usually relies entirely on documentary evidence. . . .”
Open source harvest. Contributor Christopher Burgess explains, “We should all remember, the US is not the only entity with the ability to harvest open source data. Information has value, whether provided officially or unofficially for sharing, social networks are available to all, and for some websites, the employees of the networks will be able to step over your personal privacy settings and view your content. . . . Individually, these pieces of information are no doubt viewed as benign. Collectively they fill the mosaic with individual pieces. When you post keep this in mind – you may be providing the missing piece to an adversary’s mosaic.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Drone wars. LA Times’ W.J. Hennigan reports, “The pilots sit in dimly lit, air-conditioned trailers, each staring at glowing video and data screens and toggling a joystick that controls an armed drone flying somewhere in the world. With more than 100 Predator and Reaper drones aloft every day, this sun-scorched desert outpost is the hub of America’s growing drone fleet around the globe. The 500 or so pilots here help launch missiles at Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq, provide overwatch of U.S. special forces raids in Afghanistan, and scour the rugged Horn of Africa and elsewhere for wanted militants. ‘Every single day this base is at war . . . . These kids are not playing video games out of their mothers’ basements.’” See also, “Why drone pilots are quitting in record numbers” and “America’s Drone Pilot Shrink Says They Need a Vacation From War.”
Social media wars. Reuters’ Katharine Houreld reports, “Islamist militant propaganda websites and social media accounts in South Asia are promoting Islamic State at the expense of al Qaeda . . . highlighting the rivalry between the two global militant groups. Disaffected Taliban factions have started to look toward Islamic State, impressed by its rapid capture of territory in Syria and Iraq, though there is no evidence it is providing substantial material support to the Taliban. The popularity of IS comes at the expense of al Qaeda, whose deep pockets and foreign fighters once readily attracted local commanders. But al Qaeda has been decimated by drone strikes and its traditional influence severely eroded.”
Saudi assertion. Christian Science Monitor’s Nicholas Blanford reports, “Saudi Arabia, concerned by the looming nuclear deal between Iran and international powers, is charting a new and unusually robust course aimed at checking what it sees as the Islamic Republic’s expansion of influence across the Middle East. The recent Saudi assertiveness, under Saudi Arabia’s new monarch, King Salman, is also a reflection of discontent with what it sees as the cautious approach of the United States to multiple crises roiling the Middle East, particularly in Syria.” See also, “Multinational control of enrichment ‘the only realistic way’ to reduce nuclear risks.”
Dead, or alive? Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Long War Journal’s Thomas Joscelyn reports, “Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an official branch of al Qaeda, has posted a statement on Twitter saying that Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran jihadist, is ‘alive and well.’ AQIM refers to Belmokhtar as Khaled Abou El Abbas, a name he has long used, in the message. AQIM accuses the media of lying about Belmokhtar’s death in order to justify American airstrikes on the ‘innocent’ people in Libya’s tribes. The statement is, therefore, an attempt to portray the bombings as targeting the Libyan populace, not just the jihadists.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Lockheed proposes F-35 block buy. DoD Buzz’s Michael Hoffman reports, “Lockheed Martin officials said at the Paris Air Show the company is working with suppliers and engineers to find savings to land a block buy of up to 500 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to convince U.S. and international lawmakers to approve the deal. Lorraine Martin, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program manager, said the company is aiming for about a 10 percent savings in exchange for a three-year order of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The U.S. has been making orders on an annual basis.”
General Atomics’ Predator and Reaper UAV crew simulators. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Flight simulation experts at General Atomics Corp. will provide the U.S. Air Force with UAV crew simulators and spare parts to help combat drone pilots practice their skills and rehearse missions. Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced a $21.1 million order Tuesday to the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems segment in Poway, Calif., to provide Predator Mission Aircrew Training Systems (PMATS).”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
The real Dark Web. Wired’s Joseph Cox reports, “After the conviction of Ross Ulbricht, the owner of the drug marketplace Silk Road, and a stream of articles claiming that the Islamic State is using secret websites to plan out attacks, this hidden part of the Internet is being talked about more than ever. But for the most part, the story you’ve been sold about the dark web is a myth. . . . What we call the dark web is tiny. The World Wide Web has swelled to over a billion different sites, while current estimations put the number of Tor hidden sites at between 7000 and 30,000, depending on what methodology you follow. That’s 0.03 percent of the normal web. Barely a fraction of content available elsewhere.”
Defense industry on OPM hack. Reuter’s Andrea Shalal reports, “U.S. industry executives, many of whom hold security clearances of their own and employ thousands of people whose data has likely been stolen, say they have heard enough to know that the incident could open up new vulnerabilities putting their networks at risk. . . . U.S. weapons makers say their networks are heavily targeted by attackers linked to China, Russia and other potential foes, fending off hundreds of thousands of probes a day aimed at snagging key information about new weapons, including fighter jets, jet engines, bombers and satellite networks.”
NSA’s Software Defined Networking. Networking World’s Jim Duffy reports, “Just as the industry is becoming more comfortable with SDNs, the NSA says it’s using them too. The embattled National Security Agency, which has been surreptitiously collecting phone records on all of us for many years as part of a secret surveillance operation, is implementing an OpenFlow SDN for its own internal operations. No mention was made whether an OpenFlow SDN also supports the agency’s surveillance operations – it’s doubtful the NSA would open up on the underpinnings of its spy network.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Hey! No water traps! “President Obama is expected to spend the weekend golfing in the lush environs of Southern California’s verdant desert resorts near Palm Springs — resorts that are among the state’s top guzzlers of water. If he does indeed hit the links, the outing would take place during California’s record drought, on the heels of a Democratic fundraiser at the home of billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer, and just days after Obama welcomed Pope Francis’ encyclical warning about the dangers of human-caused climate change. White House officials are neither confirming nor denying the golf outing . . . .”
Order-in, the Court. “In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is scheduled to release decisions with sweeping ramifications. Though the rulings on same-sex marriage and Obamacare subsidies are the most anticipated, justices will also be releasing decisions on issues relating to environmental law, police brutality, property rights (and raisins), the drawing of congressional maps, the use of lethal injection – and even a patent dispute involving a popular Spider-Man toy. . . . Justices will be releasing opinions on every Monday from now until the end of the month, and on whatever additional days are needed.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“After Ukraine, NATO’s Chance for a New Normal.” Defense One contributor Derek Chollet argues, “For all the Alliance has accomplished in the past year to show its resolve, and for all the earnest rhetoric about common purpose, how these tensions are managed will define the transatlantic relationship.”
“How will the war against Islamic State end?” Reuters contributor Peter Apps argues, “To be beaten . . . Islamic State has to look as though it is losing. It isn’t there yet.”
“Washington in Wonderland: Down the Iraqi Rabbit Hole (Again).” TomDispatch contributor Andrew J. Bacevich argues, “A fat pitch that I should have hit it out of the park. Instead, I fouled it off. What I should have said was this: leadership ought to mean something other than simply repeating and compounding past mistakes. It should require more than clinging to policies that have manifestly failed. To remain willfully blind to those failures is not leadership, it’s madness. Not that it would have mattered if I had. When it comes to Iraq, we’re already halfway back down Alice’s rabbit hole.”
