The Navy Yard, Syrian Chemistry, and the Medal of Honor - Daily Intelligence

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Slow poison – the Budget Control Act. Contributor Jillian Hamilton comes out swinging this morning: “Although some articles tout the possible silver linings in the cloud of sequestration, the real effects of the Budget Control Act are not likely to be so rosy. What is more likely to happen is a growing impact to the economy and the security of America. Of course the sky did not fall when sequestration went into effect. The erosion to the American capabilities and economy is slow, and it’s the slow, creeping changes that have the biggest impact.”

2. JPAS’ shot in the arm. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports that a “$56 million task order, HP will provide Applications Management Services to monitor, maintain and enhance the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS), Defense Central Index of Investigations, Improved Investigative Records Repository and the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission. These systems provide comprehensive personnel security management for all DoD employees, military personnel, civilians and DoD contractors.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. SPECIAL REPORT: Chemistry 101 and Syria. Reuters’ deep dive on France, Russia, the United States, and chemicals in Syria. John Irish and Warren Strobel begin their story, “In early spring France’s ambassador to the United Nations dined with a Russian colleague and discussed the crisis in Syria. Ambassador Gerard Araud told the Russian diplomat France was going to go public with proof from its intelligence services that Syria’s government was using chemical weapons against its own people. The Russian diplomat laughed, according to a source familiar with the meeting. ‘Gerard,’ he told his counterpart, ‘don’t embarrass the Americans.’”

2. Muslim Brotherhood crackdown south of Cairo. Reuters reports, “Egyptian security forces stormed a town controlled by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi on Monday and arrested 56 residents as part of a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood . . . . Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and arrested thousands, including Mursi and other leaders, in a crackdown since the army toppled him in July 3 following mass protests against his rule.” Related, 9 Egyptian police wounded in Sinai. Finally, from LongWarJournal.Org, two views of the action in Egypt.

3. Marine Capt. Swenson to receive the Medal of Honor. Stripes.Com reports, “Former Army Capt. William Swenson will receive the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions during the 2009 Battle of Ganjgal Valley . . . . The battle lasted six hours and Swensen went back into gunfire again and again to recover the wounded and the dead, while his repeated calls for support went unanswered. . . . Marine Gen. John Allen, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, resubmitted the paperwork in 2011 after officials said the original nomination had been lost.” Synopsis of the Battle of Ganjgal Valley and a simulation from LongWarJournal.Org.

4. Sgt. Maj. Daryl Bohn troops the AFRICOM line. Tech. Sgt. Megan Crusher, CJTF-HOA Public Affairs, reports, “Bohn said his most important role as command Sgt. Maj. is to ensure those serving are aware of ARICOM Commander, Gen. David Rodriguez’s vision and priorities. He wants to stress the importance of the mission to CJTF-HOA members and remind everyone their role is crucial in accomplishing that mission. ‘Our mission here at AFRICOM is to support AMISOM and the troop contributing countries who conduct operations in Somalia . . . . I want troops to understand our mission, understand their part in the mission, and work hard every day to accomplish the mission.’ Another message Bohn wants to get out to service members is to appreciate working in a joint environment and realize everyone, at all levels, has life experiences and knowledge to bring to the table.”

5. Karzai – in no hurry. Khaama.Com reports, “Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Tuesday once again insisted on the condition of the Afghan government to sign a bilateral security agreement with United States. While speaking during a youth conference in capital Kabul, president Karzai said that he is no rush to sign a security deal with the United States.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Navy Yard Shooting. AP’s Eric Tucker, Brett Zongker, and Lolita C. Baldor report, “The motive for the mass shooting – the deadliest on a military installation in the U.S. since the tragedy at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 – was a mystery, investigators said. But a profile of the lone gunman, a 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, was coming into focus. He was described as a Buddhist who had also had flares of rage, complained about the Navy and being a victim of discrimination and had several run-ins with law enforcement, including two shootings.” TheDailyBeast.Com offers more details on the shooter and WaPo’s insights.

2. He had a secret clearance. Reuters reports, “He was recently hired as a civilian information technology contractor to work on the Navy and Marine Corps intranet and was given a security clearance classified as ‘secret,’ his company’s chief executive told Reuters.”

3. How budget cuts may be partially responsible. Time reports, “A soon-to-be-released government audit says the Navy, in an attempt to reduce costs, let down its guard to risks posed by outside contractors at the Washington Navy Yard and other facilities, a federal official with access to the report tells Time. The Navy ‘did not effectively mitigate access-control risks associated with contractor-installation access’ at Navy Yard and other Navy installations, the report by the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office says. Parts of the audit were read to Time by a federal official with access to the document.”

4. Marine Corps seeking Non-Lethal Systems. DefenseMediaNetwork.Com reports, “United States Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM), in conjunction with that service’s Product Manager for Non-Lethal Systems and Program Manager for Infantry Weapon Systems, is conducting market research ‘to identify potential sources that have developed counter personnel systems for design, development, fabrication, test, and modeling & simulation of a prototype Able Archer, Non-Lethal Weapons system.’ The Sept. 9, 2013 request for information (RFI) emphasizes a range of strict guidelines for the prototype system, including a clearly stated definition of ‘non-lethal weapons,’ operator safety criteria, operational attributes in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) and hazardous material environments, and the need for legal and treaty compliance.”

5. Sequestration, Part Deux. DefenseOne.Com’s Stephanie Gaskell’s interview with Pentagon Comptroller Bob Hale: “Indeed with things like Syria, Benghazi, Obamacare and gun control on the docket, it’s very unlikely that Congress will come to any major agreements before Sept. 30, when fiscal year 2013 ends. So that leaves two other options, Hale said . . . ‘Maybe some kind of mini-deal that is much scaled down but would restore at least some funding in the discretionary areas, including defense [spending]. I could conceive of it being some fairly modest entitlement cuts, perhaps, maybe some loophole closing and perhaps some further cuts in discretionary spending – but not to the full sequestration, not to the $52-billion level that we would experience.’”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. How to serve billions and not be McDonalds. VentureBeat.Com covers Facebook’s’ tell-all white paper shares some secrets to success, no matter what your business: “Facebook’s new, 70-page white paper contains a wealth of detail about how Facebook has already solved numerous scaling challenges — detail that will be useful to anyone who is trying to build a business capable of serving billions.” And, here’s the document – “A Focus on Efficiency.”

2. ‘Twas the night before Christmas: Vision and Twitter’s rise to power. Reuters’ Gerry Shih and Alexei Oreskovic report, “Around midnight on Christmas Eve of 2009, a handful of employees at Twitter received an unconventional holiday greeting from Dick Costolo, then the chief operating officer. . . . The company is now on the verge of fulfilling the opportunity Costolo foresaw as it prepares for the most highly anticipated initial public offering since Facebook’s debut last May. The offering is expected to value Twitter at up to $15 billion and make its early investors, including Costolo, very wealthy indeed. Yet Twitter’s quick transformation from an undisciplined, money-losing startup into a digital media powerhouse took every bit of whip-cracking that Costolo could muster, along with a rapid series of product and personnel decisions that proved effective even as they disappointed some of the service’s early enthusiasts.”

3. $20 well spent transforms Kindle into an Android. VentureBeat.Com’s John Koetsier reports, “Essentially, you download N2A OS for Windows or Mac and connect your tablet. Then the N2A OS sends the precisely correct commands to the Kindle device in precisely the correct order to essentially erase what is on the Kindle and replace it. N2A OS uses a version of Android called CyanogenMod, a community-built version of Android that connects to Google’s universe while offering . . . a lot of little tweaks to make it faster and easier to use.”

4. Cryptographers taking on the NSA to keep the Internet secure. Slate.Com contributor Ryan Gallagher reports, “Cryptographers are fighting back against efforts by spy agencies to secretly weaken the encryption standards designed to keep the Internet secure. . . . In United States, too, there is also mounting anger over the spy agencies’ covert attempts to break encryption. The NSA’s clandestine conduct appears to be causing tension between government agencies, with the National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] last week distancing itself from the NSA. NIST put out a statement that included a footnote recommending that people steer clear of an encryption standard reportedly targeted by the NSA, and it attempted to reassure people that it ‘would not deliberately weaken a cryptographic standard.’ Johns Hopkins University cryptography researcher Matthew Green told the New York Times that he knew ‘from firsthand communications that a number of people at NIST feel betrayed by their colleagues at the NSA.’”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. Republicans in Election 2016: “Obama armed the terrorists.” Just remember, bi-partisan Congress is supporting it. In a move that will assuredly prove to be Election-2016 cannon fodder, POTUS “waived a provision of federal law designed to prevent the supply of arms to terrorist groups to clear the way for the U.S. to provide military assistance to ‘vetted’ opposition groups fighting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Some elements of the Syrian opposition are associated with radical Islamic terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., in 2001. Assad’s regime is backed by Iran and Hezbollah.”

2. Guess who’s back. . . . it ain’t (just) Eminem. McClatchyDC.Com reports, with Congress back in session and looking for work, IRS chief counsel William J. Wilkins expects a call to the carpet: “Because his post is just one of two political jobs out of 90,000 at the IRS – the other is the commissioner – some critics draw a line, real or imagined, between Wilkins and the targeting of tea-party organizations and conservative groups. Conservative groups have made circumstantial allegations, trying to link him to a polemic pastor or claiming without proof that he was involved in creating criteria used to hold up tea-party applications.” [But, “We need a little controversy.”]

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. Sen. Lindsay Graham’s run-up to war with Iran. Patrick J. Buchanan argues, “[Graham] plans to introduce a use-of-force resolution, a peacetime declaration of war on Iran, to ensure Obama need not come back to Congress — and can attack Iran at will. Lindsay intends a preemptive surrender of Congress’ constitutional war-making power — to Obama. He wants to give Obama a blank check for war on Iran, then stampede Obama into starting the war.”

2. Myths of intervention. Aljazeera.Com contributor Eric Garland argues, “The Post-World War II era was a transformative moment for the United States. As America fit into its new role in the global balance of the Cold War, its culture had to evolve to meet the new requirements of the era. Entirely new myths were brought to bear after the events of the early 20th century that had given the United States military, economic, and cultural power that has only rivaled the great empires of history. The men and women currently in power in the United States government were instilled with those powerful new myths that have guided how it handles national power.”

3. “A state of paralysis.” WaPo contributor Michael Gerson argues, “If Republicans were in a position to capitalize on Obama’s weakness, it might lead to serious, long-term budget reform. If Obama were strong enough to capitalize on Republican weaknesses, it might lead to additional short-term stimulus and investments in human capital. As it stands, they are paralyzed at the same time — and so is the nation.”