FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCE JOBS.COM
1. Sequestration and congressional hearings not to miss. The shutdown is over, for now, but sequestration spirits continue to haunt us. Contributor Ashley LaGanga reports that on “a conference call held by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) on Tuesday . . . 100 defense industry CEOs discussed their Hill strategy to prevent further cuts. . . . AIA vows to intensify its pressure on Congress to eliminate sequestration through social media, grassroots efforts and continued communications to Capitol Hill.”
2. Spooks in the clouds. Contributor Chandler Harris reports, “U.S. intelligence reached a milestone in its information sharing initiative recently, with a few thousand intelligence employees now accessing the IC shared desktop via the new intelligence community cloud.”
3. Outsourcing insourcing studies. Contributor Diana Rodriguez explains, “Insourcing remains a hot topic within the federal government, and particularly within the Department of Defense. A recent study showed DoD’s insourcing methodology is insufficient.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Terrorist summer camp. Really. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “The Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (or Levant), has released a series of photographs that show children training at a camp named after the founder of al Qaeda in Iraq. . . . ‘Several [photos] show children wearing military camouflage clothing and black masks with the [ISIS] banner, and others feature men in black listening to lectures and standing together . . . .’”
2. Hobbling the Muslim Brotherhood. AP’s Sarah El Deeb reports from Cairo, “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood faces a wave of trials unlike any it has seen in its history, threatening to put a large number of its senior leadership behind bars for years, even life, as military-backed authorities determined to cripple the group prepare prosecutions on charges including inciting violence and terrorism. . . . Some 2,000 high- and middle-ranking Brotherhood figures have been detained, and Gharib estimated another 6,000 rank-and-file members and supporters are also in custody, questioned for material to use against the leadership. Among the biggest figures in custody are Morsi, Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater, and almost half the group’s main leadership council and many of its former parliament members.”
3. Kabul rocks. Khaama.Com reports, “A heavy explosion rocked capital Kabul on Friday evening. . . . the suicide bomber attacked a convoy of the foreign forces near the Green Village where foreigners from various agencies are based. Taliban group spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility behind the incident and said the target of the attack was a convoy of the foreign forces and the Green Village.” Near Bagram, U.S. troops attacked, Italy ready to say, “Ciao!”, and “Afghan assembly to decide next month on future role of U.S. troops.”
4. In AFRICOM, suicide bomber kills 13 in Somalia. Reuters’ Drazen Jorgic reports from Mogadishu, “A suicide bomber strapped with explosives around his chest killed at least 13 people on Saturday outside a restaurant popular with Ethiopian and Somali troops in the town of Baladweyne in central Somalia . . . Ethiopia waged an ill-fated war in Somalia in 2006-2009 and sent troops across the border again in 2011 to combat al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab militants, who were also battling Kenyan troops and an African Union military mission.
5. Also in AFRICOM, Nigeria’s criminal oil syndication. UPI.Com reports, “Royal Dutch Shell is selling off four of its onshore Nigerian oil blocks because of the constant theft of large volumes oil from its pipelines . . . . Oil industry officials and community workers say this massive theft of Nigeria’s key resource involves crooked politicians, security forces, oil industry personnel and oil traders. There are also militant groups operating in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta, a labyrinth of swamps and creeks that provide cover for the complex network of crime.”
6. Egypt spurns U.N. Security Council seat. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Saudi Arabia angrily rejected a UN Security Council seat on Friday, accusing the UN body of “double standards” over the Syria war and other trouble spots in an unprecedented diplomatic assault. . . . The [Saudi] government said ‘allowing the ruling regime in Syria to kill and burn its people’ with chemical weapons is ‘irrefutable evidence and proof of the inability of the Security Council to carry out its duties and responsibilities’. Saudi Arabia was one of five nations elected by the UN General Assembly on Thursday to start a two-year term on the Security Council. The others were Chad, Chile, Lithuania and Nigeria. All had stood unopposed. No country has ever won a council seat and then refused to take it up.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. $3 billion to Raytheon for missiles. GovConWire.Com reports, “The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to award Raytheon‘s (NYSE: RTN) missile systems business a potential three-year, $3 billion contract for Standard Missile-3 weapons. MDA expects to start awarding the sole-source contract’s funds to Raytheon in fiscal year 2015 under the agency’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program . . . .”
2. $9.7 million contract to Engility. Also from GovConWire.Com, “Engility Holdings (NYSE: EGL) has won a $9.7 million contract to provide engineering services to the U.S. Army for a vehicle research and development program. The three-year contract calls for Engility to work with the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.-based research laboratory vehicle technology directorate on platform mechanics, propulsion technologies, vehicle analysis and autonomous systems, the company said Thursday.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Leak: anti-leak software not installed. Reuters reports, “The U.S. National Security Agency failed to install the most up-to-date anti-leak software at a site in Hawaii before contractor Edward Snowden went to work there and downloaded tens of thousands of highly classified documents . . . . The purpose of the software, which in the NSA’s case is made by a division of Raytheon Co, is to block so-called ‘insider threats’ – a response to an order by President Barack Obama to tighten up access controls for classified information in the wake of the leak of hundreds of thousands of Pentagon and State Department documents by an Army private to WikiLeaks website in 2010.”
2. At NSA, out with the old, in with the old. Reuters’ Tabassum Zakaria and Warren Strobel report, “Richard Ledgett, who heads a new task force at the National Security Agency to handle information leaks, is expected to take over as the deputy director of the spy agency after the current No. 2 retires in January . . . . Ledgett is the executive in charge of matters related to unauthorized media disclosures, a position that was created after the unauthorized leaks to media of top secret spy surveillance programs by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden this year.”
3. Securing the ports – DHS struggles with WMD threat. NextGov.Com’s Douglas P. Guarino reports, “Lawmakers are working with the Homeland Security Department to determine whether it is feasible to establish a U.S. presence at the foreign ports it considers most vulnerable to the smuggling of illicit weapons of mass destruction. . . . the DHS Container Security Initiative does not have a presence ‘at about half’ of the ports U.S. Customs and Border Protection considers ‘high risk.’ Meanwhile, ‘about one fifth’ of the ports where the container program does have a presence are considered ‘lower risk locations’ . . . .”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Finally, something important to argue about: “Let’s recognize that there are many people of good will for whom “Washington Redskins” contains sentimental and historical attachment — and not an ounce of intended animus. So let’s turn down the temperature. What’s at issue is not high principle but adaptation to a change in linguistic nuance. A close call, though I personally would err on the side of not using the word if others are available. How about Skins, a contraction already applied to the Washington football team? And that carries a sports connotation, as in skins vs. shirts in pickup basketball.”
2. Shutdown countdown redux: “The deal that put an end to the 16-day shutdown extends funding for the government through Jan. 15 and the debt limit to Feb. 7. Which means that all those congressional staffers, members of the media and others whose lives revolve around Congress should plan to spend the evenings leading up to those dates far from their loved ones — again.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. Like my son, “The NSA never takes ‘no’ for an answer.” Reuters contributor Jack Shafer argues, “At several recent junctures, the U.S. government has publicly sought to expand its power and control over the electronic privacy of its citizens. At each point, the government was roundly foiled by the public and the majority of the political class, which rebuked it. But that has evidently never stopped the government from imposing its will surreptitiously. As the reporting of the New York Times, ProPublica, and the Guardian about the National Security Agency’s programs exposed by Edward Snowden showed once again yesterday, when the government really wants something, it can be temporarily denied but rarely foiled.” Read referenced articles from New York Times, ProPublica, and Guardian.
2. Criminations and, now, recriminations. Reuters’ Bill Schneider argues about the Tea Party, “they do understand how politics works — and they reject it. The United States has a Constitution that divides power. The only way anything gets done is through deal-making and compromise. It’s been that way for 225 years. (See the movie Lincoln for a good example). The Tea Party doesn’t play by those rules. To them, compromise means selling out. They won’t make deals. It’s got to be either victory or defeat. In this case, it was defeat. But it was a glorious defeat, and they are proud of it. It was their Alamo.”
3. “It’s time to put an end to Israel’s don’t ask-don’t tell nuclear policy.” Aljazeera.Com contributors Pam Bailey and Medea Benjamin argue, “Neither the world, nor Israel, is served legally or morally by continuing to condone a practice of don’t ask-don’t tell for an issue that is so central to global security and safety. As long as Israel refuses to acknowledge its possession of nuclear weapons or even that it has produced weapons-grade materials, it is difficult, if not impossible, to engage it in any meaningful arms control or other nuclear-related diplomacy.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Ink, well.
3. Just funny.
4. No, thank you.
