FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Clearance costs. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “In the wake of a massive data breach that exposed the security clearance background investigations of millions, the Office of Personnel Management is looking to federal agencies to help them cover the costs of credit monitoring. . . . OPM has not yet selected a contractor to provide credit monitoring services following the background investigation breach. It has already come under fire for an initial contract awarded in response to breached federal personnel records, with many federal employees opting out of coverage for fears their data isn’t being protected by the company.”
Want a raise? Hit the gym. From contributor D.B. Grady, “Your health and your job performance are inextricably linked: healthy people make more money, are happier, and are more productive…Clearance holders often have an advantage with respect to fitness benefits. For example, the Department of Defense is the largest employer in the world, and their gym benefits are pretty well known.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Turkey hosts US strikes. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker and Marcus Weisgerber report, “Turkey will open up Incirlik Air Force Base, about 250 miles from the Syrian city of Raqqa, to U.S. and coalition strike operations against the Islamic State, or ISIS . . . . The move puts anti-ISIS aircraft, which had been flying some 1,200 miles to strike enemy positions, much closer to the various battlegrounds, including Raqqa, the effective capital of the Islamic State in Syria. . . . It’s a shift long sought by Washington, which has been trying to get Turkey’s permission to launch strike missions from Incirlik ever since the air campaign began last August.”
Karimabad: moderate Islam’s Nirvana. Washington Post’s Tim Craig reports, “Once a hardscrabble Himalayan town where residents barely had enough to eat, Karimabad, in the Hunza Valley, is now one of Pakistan’s most idyllic spots — an oasis of tolerance, security and good schools. That standard of living can be traced to residents’ moderate interpretation of Islam as well as the considerable support from one of the world’s largest charities. . . . ‘Here, we have facilities, we study, and there is no terrorism’ . . . .”
Neller on Russia and extremism. Defense News’ Joe Gould reports, “Lt. Gen. Robert Neller, the administration’s nominee to lead the US Marine Corps, said Thursday that Russia is the ‘greatest potential threat’ to the US, but to the American people, he said the top threat is ‘radical extremism.’ . . . A chorus of nominees for top US military posts — including Dunford and Gen. Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff nominee — have recently called Russia the greatest security threat to the United States.”
Drought and war. The Atlantic’s David A. Graham reports, “There’s an established body of work that draws a connection between drought, resource scarcity, and conflict in general. In a 2013 article for The Atlantic, William Polk, a historian and former adviser to President Kennedy, noted a possible relationship between Syria’s civil war and devastating 2006-2011 drought. . . . In addition, a paper published earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences specifically connects a severe drought across the Levant to the Syrian conflict.”
Hummer’s swan tune. Washington Post’s Christian Davenport reports, “After a storied career that spanned the 1989 invasion of Panama, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Bosnia, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States’ fleet of Humvees is entering its twilight, and the vehicles are being sold to the highest bidder by the dozen. The vehicle is an icon of the U.S. military that replaced the Jeep and spawned a gas-guzzling commercial cousin that symbolized American ego and extravagance. But now the Army wants a tougher, yet nimble vehicle, light enough so that a helicopter could fly it around, but resilient enough to withstand bomb blasts.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Balancing acquisition and competition. Federal Times’ Rutrell Yasin reports, “As agencies face a changing threat environment and any number of crisis and emergencies, federal managers must strike a balance between how they respond with rapid contract awards while adhering to regulations for full and open competition. Rapid acquisition should be the norm in government for both emergencies and routine procurements, given the rapid pace of technological change. With that model, agency officials have to anticipate emergencies, putting in place competitively awarded contracts that can be used in the event that a crisis occurs.”
Deep Learning wins $6 million TRACE contract. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. military researchers needed new ways of using computer algorithms and high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) for radar target recognition to identify military targets rapidly and accurately using radar sensors on manned and unmanned tactical aircraft. They found their solution from Deep Learning Analytics LLC in Arlington Va. Officials of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced a $6 million contract this week to Deep Learning Analytics for the Target Recognition and Adaption in Contested Environments (TRACE) program. The Air Force awarded the contract on behalf of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Antimatter matters. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The West’s deal with Iran is based on the premise that international monitors at the IAEA would be able to detect illicit refinement of weapons-grade material — no easy task when the landscape includes radioactive detritus from previous nuclear efforts. But technologies now in their infancy, could someday help reveal if Iran resumes its pursuit of a bomb. . . . what regular radiation detectors miss, antineutrino detectors could catch. Neutrinos—and their antimatter corollary, antineutrinos—are subatomic particles with no positive or negative charge.”
Editing DNA. Wired contributor Amy Maxmen reports, “Using the three-year-old technique, researchers have already reversed mutations that cause blindness, stopped cancer cells from multiplying, and made cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS. Agronomists have rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion on an ever-warmer planet. . . .”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
E-mail-gate. “The Department of Justice has been urged by two inspectors general to initiate a criminal investigation into the potential misuse of sensitive federal information in connection with Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in her former role as secretary of state . . . . A memo sent to Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management, was sent by inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence agencies in late June. It concluded that Clinton’s private email account had ‘hundreds of potentially classified emails.’”
Veiled threat. “Businessman Donald Trump predicted Thursday that he would secure the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, playing down the suggestion he might run as a third-party candidate. ‘I want to run as a Republican. I think I’ll get the nomination,’ Trump said in Laredo, Texas, during a nationally televised speech amid his trip to the southern border. . . . He suggested that the Republican National Committee ‘has not been very supportive.’”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“How the U.S. is training China’s military – while inching toward conflict.” Reuters contributor William Johnson argues, “The United States should enhance mil-mil cooperation, taking care to protect its most sensitive tactics, techniques and procedures. So long as there are no shots fired, we should leave the South China Sea to the diplomats.”
“Pacts with USSR ignored foe’s behavior.” AP’s Steven R. Hurst explains, “Critics of the Iran nuclear deal claim it is flawed, among many reasons, because it does not demand that Tehran also change its behavior at home and abroad. That complaint ignores the United States’ long history of striking arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, a far more dangerous enemy.”
