FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Control the interview. CONTROL IT! Keep the employer focused on what is important to them. Contributor Tranette Ledford explains, “Recent unemployment figures prove career transition still challenges post 9/11 veterans, with women veterans among the hardest hit. But career experts say those numbers improve when security cleared women veterans take command of the interview.”
2. Your resume – make it (more) personal. While cyberspace seems to place employers light years away from job seekers, Tranette Ledford offers a tip to breathe a little life into your resume: “’References give employers a kind of first-hand account of what your titles really mean and what you’re known for. The successes you put on your resume and your clearance and credentials definitely set you apart against the competition. But employers looking for the real story know they can get the best people by getting references who give them the best recommendations.’”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. UN – a prefix meaning not, lacking or the opposite of. In spite of the evidence at hand and agreement to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons treasure trove, paralyzing disagreement reigns among permanent United Nations Security Council diplomats. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The discussion of the draft resolution to be put before the 15-nation Security Council was thwarted by disagreements over the wording of the proposal as American, British, French, Russian and Chinese diplomats met . . . . The US-British-French draft is intended to support an American-Russian deal reached in Geneva last Saturday calling for Syria to account for its chemical weapons within a week and for the removal and destruction of the arsenal by mid-2014. However, France and Russia clashed over a French text which included a demand for action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which can authorise both the use of force and non-military measures, if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not stick to the US-Russian plan.”
2. Details of Al Qaeda and affiliates’ in Syria. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq, despite a recent claim to the contrary, are active on all of the fronts in Syria and often execute joint operations with allied Islamist groups as well as with units from the supposedly secular Free Syrian Army. The two al Qaeda groups have been at the spearhead of the fighting and have conducted suicide attacks on every front. Attacks by the ISIL and the Al Nusrah Front have been recorded in Damascus, Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqah, Deir al Zor, Abu Kamal, Daraa, Hasaka, Latakia, Qusayr, and elsewhere.” Read Thomas Joscelyn’s 10 September testimony to the House Committee on Homeland Security for an even more detailed perspective.
3. In AFRICOM’s AoR, 150 Boko Haram killed in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The [Nigerian] army’s offensive against the armed group came on September 12, after local media reported that Boko Haram had ambushed a group of soldiers in the same area, killing 40 and leaving dozens of others missing. . . . ‘It was a highly fortified insurgent camp with heavy weapons in [northeastern] Borno State,’ army spokesman Ibrahim Attahiru said on Wednesday, adding that the camp was in the Kasiya forest. ‘The army raided the camp on September 12. Some 150 Boko Haram terrorists were killed, while the military lost 16 soldiers. Nine soldiers are still missing,’ he said.
4. Drone strikes in eastern Afghan province of Kunar. Khaama.Com reports, “According to local authorities in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, at least six Taliban militants were killed following a US drone strike . . . . [Provincial security chief] Gen. Syed Kheli further added that the drone targeted a group of militants who were planning to attack security check posts of the Afghan security forces.” In the north of Afghanistan, election chief shot dead, while Taliban torch a village in Faryab: “local residents claim at least six people including two kids were killed following the attack, and nearly four hundred families were forced to flee the area.”
5. In Egypt, worries that Islamist insurgency is spreading. Reuters reports, “Gunmen killed an Egyptian military officer and a soldier in an attack on an army vehicle northeast of Cairo on Tuesday, security sources said, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is taking hold beyond the Sinai. . . . Authorities have extended a state of emergency and imposed an overnight curfew to fight what they call terrorism, a reference to the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Cost cutting compromised contractor clearances at Navy Yard and beyond. Convicted felons with free range. According to UPI.Com, one year ago, the DoD Inspector General reported, “The Navy Commercial Access Control System, or NCACS, ‘did not effectively mitigate access-control risks associated with contractor-installation access’ at Navy installations, the report said. ‘This occurred because Commander, Navy Installations Command [CNIC] officials attempted to reduce access control costs.’ The inspector general’s report concluded 52 convicted felons ‘received routine unauthorized installation access, placing military personnel, dependents, civilians and installations at an increased security risk.’”
2. Oversight failures aplenty. McClatchyDC.Com reports, “Gaps in how the military conducts background checks enabled the shooter in Monday’s deadly Washington Navy Yard rampage to obtain a high-level security clearance and gain access to protected installations, despite a history of disciplinary problems in the Navy and run-ins with police. . . . Alexis’ employer at the Navy Yard, a federal subcontractor based in Fort Lauderdale, Fl., said the Defense Department had confirmed his ‘Secret’ security clearance twice in the last year, even though he’d been arrested three times between 2004 and 2010, twice for suspicious gun firings. . . . The Pentagon faces a backlog of five to six months on background checks, which places pressure on the outside firms that conduct most of them to finish their work quickly.” GovExec.Com reports, “The man who allegedly opened fire at the Navy Yard in Washington underwent proper background checks to gain entry to sensitive military facilities, according to government regulations and company officials. It was the evaluators who apparently missed warning signs in suspect Aaron Alexis’s personal history.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Google’s new anti-cookie empowers digital advertising. We hate ‘em (cookies), and Google offers an end run: VentureBeat.Com reports, “Google is planning to unveil its own ad tracking technology to replace today’s third-party cookies. The move would potentially give people more privacy while browsing the web — or at least more of a say in how companies use personal information. And, of course, make Google even more powerful in digital advertising. . . . The new technology would only be open to companies and ad networks that agree to a certain standard of conduct . . . .”
2. Plaudits for iPhone. Yes, plaudits. Use that word around the office. Reuters San Francisco reports, “Apple iPhone fingerprint scanner gets plaudits in early reviews . . . . Apple’s scanner is seen as a first step toward realizing the full potential for biometrics in personal electronics, heightening security for applications like banking and shopping while doing away with multiple passwords.” Good luck getting one, though. Time reports on the rumor that availability is short: “Apple isn’t taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5s, so you’ll either have to wait in line on Friday or try your luck with an online order. . . . Last week, a pair of analysts both said they expect the iPhone 5S to be in short supply at launch.” No plaudits there, huh?
3. Just like a comic book hero. 3-D bio-printing puts super-organs on the table. Wired.Com contributor Joseph Flaherty reports, “His latest project, a synthetic ear made with a 3-D bioprinter, is a realization of that vision. The complex biomechanical structure was fabricated by depositing live cells and conductive silver in layers. It started as an exploration of material properties, but commercial applications started to appear rapidly. He discovered that cochlear implants, a leading treatment for those with some hearing impairment, are made by hand in a slow and laborious process with costs to match. But McAlpine’s vision is much bigger than simply automating a manual process—he wants to create superhumans.”
4. Recruiting starts in middle school. Time contributor Corey Mead reports, “In its rush to find the next generation of cyberwarriors, the military has begun to infiltrate our high schools and even our middle schools, blurring the line between education and recruitment. . . . The military has long been at the forefront of the digital-curriculum movement, and it has for decades been the largest financer (by far) of educational technology. In fact, over the past century, the military has profoundly influenced educational institutions in the skills that are valued and taught, how students are evaluated and sorted, and the methods and modes of instruction. In that regard, the new era of cyberwar will inevitably determine how and what our children learn.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Continuing resolution vs. funding Obamacare. The next game of 3D chess in the Congress: “Leadership sources tell me the House will soon vote on a continuing resolution that simultaneously funds the federal government and defunds Obamacare. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are expected to announce the decision at Wednesday’s Republican conference meeting. This means the conservatives who have been urging Boehner to back a defunding effort as part of the CR have won a victory, at least in terms of getting the leadership to go along with their strategy. But getting such a CR through the Democratic Senate and signed into law will be very difficult . . . .”
2. Our dance card is full, but there is always the Spring Cotillion. Post- his second term win, POTUS may be losing his partner democrats to their own re-election challenges. NYTimes.Com political analysts Peter Baker and Jeremy W. Peters report, “For four years, President Obama counted on fellow Democrats to rally to his side in a series of epic battles with Republicans over the direction of the country. But now, deep in his fifth year in office, Mr. Obama finds himself frustrated by members of his own party weary of his leadership and increasingly willing to defy him.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. Wapshott on Obama on Haas on Syria. Reuters contributor Nicholas Wapshott argues, “There is little sign the president has yet grasped the cost of contradicting all his top foreign policy advisors. . . . He seems to think his real enemies are not Assad, Putin, Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top mullah, and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean tyrant, but ‘folks here in Washington.’”
2. Gun control, the debate is (back) on. But are we asking the right questions? WaPo contributor Kathleen Parker argues, “It is easy to become cynical when there’s nothing new to say and when, we know, nothing new will come of it. Gun-control activists will push harder for tighter restrictions; Second Amendment champions will push back. The National Rifle Association will prevail. . . . what we’re really fighting about in our national debate about guns is how to stop mentally ill people from wreaking havoc on society.”
3. Spying on the spies – oversight is key. USNews.Com contributor Brian Jackson argues, “Domestic intelligence in the United States is an activity with a history, and efforts to consider future policy on this issue need to take that history into account. Public acceptability must be part of the calculus in devising oversight and control of intelligence efforts, since it is individual citizens who decide if the steps taken are enough to maintain – or, for some, restore – their trust in government. . . . The goal should be developing oversight and transparency mechanisms that are sustainable – not just because sustainable security efforts are important to protect the country from attack, but because the sustainability of public trust in those efforts is part of what should be protected.”
THE FUNNIES
1. The twist.
