FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Cleared in Stuttgart. Contributor Jennifer Cary advises, “Consider looking for positions in Stuttgart, Germany. As the country’s sixth largest city, it has all the perks of a metropolitan area – good restaurants, lots of entertainment options and a worthy public transportation system. Throw in the phrase ‘one of the safest cities in Germany’ and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a great place to live and work. Want to know more? Check out these five things everyone should know about living and working in Stuttgart, Germany. . . .”
Hot jobs for Veterans. Editor Lindy Kyzer offers, “Here are five career paths that are hot right now. . . . Hardware, software or engineering – veterans can pick just about any Information Technology field and find career success today. The great news for vets is that a traditional four-year degree is typically not a requirement – so if you’re a vet who would rather use your GI bill benefits to obtain the necessary certifications or take on a more unique course load, an IT career is an excellent choice. Vets with IT skills can get a job in just about any region of the country, and can also choose from work directly with the federal government, or with a government contractor. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Embassy in Cuba: Viva la libertà! Los Angeles Times’ Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli report, “In the most significant move yet toward normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, the Obama administration said Tuesday that the two had agreed to open embassies in each other’s countries. The diplomatic development is the most authoritative move the Obama administration can make unilaterally without an act of Congress, which still holds the power to lift or retain the Cuban economic embargo that has been in place for decades. It comes six months after President Obama ordered the opening of relations, ending more than half a century of Cold War standoff as he promised to ‘cut loose the shackles of the past.’” See also, “US, Cuba reach agreement to open embassies.”
ISIS multi-prong assaults. AP’s Ashraf Sweilman reports, “Islamic militants on Wednesday unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including a suicide car bombing, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 30 soldiers . . . . The scope and intensity of the morning assaults underscored the tenacity and the resources available to the militants who have for years battled security forces in northern Sinai but stepped up their insurgency over the past two years.”
Closing GITMO: Wolosky takes the lead. Defense One’s Ben Watson reports, “President Barack Obama named former National Security Council official Lee Wolosky as his new special envoy for Guantanamo closure at the State Department, filling a key post in the administration’s bid to shut down the controversial prison by moving its remaining detainees to foreign countries and the U.S. mainland. Wolosky will assume ‘lead responsibility’ for arranging for the transfer of Guantanamo’s remaining 116 detainees . . . . Wolosky’s arrival gives the White House added firepower in its bid with Congress to close the prison before the end of Obama’s second term. That’s an accomplishment few—including Defense Secretary Ash Carter—expect will happen.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Airbus wins Korean $1.3 billion. Defense News’ Aaron Mehta reports, “European aerospace giant Airbus won a $1.33 billion deal Tuesday to supply air refueling tankers to South Korea, beating US rival Boeing . . . . Under the 1.488 trillion won deal, Airbus Defence and Space will supply four A330 MRTT aircraft by 2019 to South Korea’s air force. The A330 MRTT, a military derivative of the A330-200 airliner, was selected over Boeing’s KC-46A . . . . It is South Korea’s first introduction of the mid-air refueling aircraft which would allow jet fighters to take off with more loads of weapons.”
Hellfire ramp-up. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Army missile experts are asking Lockheed Martin Corp to ramp-up production of the AGM-114R Hellfire missile, which can be launched from manned and unmanned aircraft, surface ships, and military ground vehicles. Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., awarded a contract modification last week to the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control segment in Orlando, Fla., to increase Hellfire II missile production from 500 all-up rounds per month to 550 and 650 per month.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
NSA bulk revival. National Journal’s Dustin Volz reports, “A federal court has revived the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, a program that lapsed earlier this month when sections of the Patriot Act briefly expired. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved a government request to renew the dragnet collection of U.S. phone metadata for an additional five months—a timeframe allowed under the Freedom Act, a newly enacted surveillance reform law that calls for an eventual end to the mass spying program exposed by Edward Snowden two years ago. . . . The FISA Court’s order also largely dismissed a federal appeals court that ruled last month that the NSA phone records program was illegal.”
Digital privacy. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “Researchers at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory are building new systems that shift the power back to individual users, and could make personal data faster to access and at much lower cost. It is a fact of modern life — with every click, every tweet, every Facebook Like, we hand over information about ourselves to organizations which are desperate to know all of our secrets, in the hope that those secrets can be used to sell us something.”
IT in Russian. Christian Science Monitor’s Fred Weir reports, “At a glance, starting a company amid Russia’s perfect economic storm of Western sanctions, bottoming oil prices, and a devalued ruble seems like a bad idea. But that’s what Sergei Sherstobitov did, launching Angara, a small Internet security company, in February. And he thinks the prospects for Russian IT firms such as his are quite good. His optimism is not due to much-hyped but largely mythical government assistance to small business. Rather, he insists, things are looking up mainly because of a bad news cocktail that includes Western sanctions, a 30 percent devaluation of the ruble, the growth of anti-American sentiment, and burgeoning suspicion toward all foreign digital goods and services in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. That has made Russia’s IT sector surprisingly fertile ground.”
Maritime drones. DoD Buzz’s Brendan McGarry reports, “The closely held company behind the successful Predator-series drones sees growing demand for maritime-surveillance missions . . . . The maritime version of the unmanned aircraft comes equipped with an automatic identification system to spot large ships and a center pod capable of carrying powerful maritime surveillance radars such as the Selex SeaSpray made by the Italian defense contractor Finmeccanica SpA and SeaVue radar made by the American defense contractor Raytheon Co. While the drone, at less than $20 million apiece, is far cheaper than manned maritime patrol aircraft, General Atomics has also begun offering a cheaper alternative to perform such missions in the form of a dedicated maritime mode on its Lynx synthetic aperture radar.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Walking tall. “With nuclear negotiations with Iran stretching into another week, President Obama said he is still willing to walk away from a potential nuclear accord with Iran if Tehran doesn’t not agree to a verifiable inspections process that satisfies the U.S. and the other world powers involved in the negotiations. ‘There has been a lot of talk on the other side by the Iranian negotiators about whether in fact they can abide by some of the terms that came up in Lausanne,’ Obama said, referring to a Swiss city where the U.S. and Iran reached a breakthrough on a framework for a deal back in early April. ‘If they cannot, that’s going to be a problem,’ he said. ‘Because I’ve said from the start, I will walk away from the negotiation if, in fact, it’s a bad deal.’”
Forgone conclusion. “Katherine Archuleta is at the center of the storm after what was likely the biggest hack of government networks in history. Pressure is building for Archuleta to resign as director of the Office of Personnel Management, with the calls coming from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and some security experts who say she is not up to the task of defending the nation’s networks. The critics question whether Archuleta — a former school teacher who was national political director for President Obama’s 2012 campaign — is qualified to pick up the pieces after a catastrophic security lapse that likely allowed China to pilfer the information of more than 18 million people.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“The US Military Should ‘Go Small’ to Defeat ISIS.” Defense One contributor Robert A. Newson argues, “The United States must find ways to reduce the logistics and support tail not only for our own fighting force, but also for our partners.”
“Political fears of a Russia-Greece axis are groundless.” Aljazeera contributor C. J. Polychroniou argues, “[P]olitical fears over a Russia-Greece axis should be seen for what they really are: part of a continuous strategy on the part of the US and its allies to keep Russia as isolated as possible and weak nations like Greece permanently in a state of dependence.”
“The West Is Too Paranoid About Russia’s ‘Infowar.’” The Moscow Times contributor Mark Galeotti argues, “In short, neither the Kremlin nor Russian governments should assume that the ‘infosphere’ is a simple battlefield, on which disciplined forces wheel and charge. It is, at best, a cacophonous forum where umpteen rival voices struggle to be heard.”
THE FUNNIES
