FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Social media kills the resume. Contributor Jillian Hamilton reports, “Clearly, the simple 2D two-pager doesn’t do anyone justice. Instead, the real way to recruit or job hunt is with an online profile. Online profiles give recruiters a more complete picture of candidates, demonstrating elements such as personality and workplace preferences.” And more – who’s hiring, firing, and acquiring.
2. Cyber market strategies. Also from Jillian, it’s an job-seeker’s market in the cyber world: “y 2015, U.S. Cyber Command is projected to grow by 4,000 new personnel, and across the globe businesses are looking to hire cyber talent. It’s a critical time for individuals with the right experience. Right now, the demand is high and the supply is low. Recruiting is difficult, but retention is often even more important, given the complexity of onboarding talent with the right certifications and clearances.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Ongoing chaos in Tacloban as USS George Washington arrives. Reuters’ Stuart Grudgings and Andrew R.C. Marshall report from the city, “Philippine President Benigno Aquino was under growing pressure on Thursday to speed up the distribution of food, water and medicine to desperate survivors of a super typhoon as a U.S. aircraft carrier ‘strike group’ arrived to get supplies moving. While international relief efforts have picked up, many petrol station owners whose businesses were spared have refused to reopen, leaving little fuel for trucks needed to move supplies and medical teams around the devastated areas nearly a week after Typhoon Haiyan struck.” AP reports, mass burials begin, and UPI.Com with the current body count.
2. Ospreys – an answer in the Philippines. The Marine Expeditionary Force reports, “Four additional MV-22B Ospreys have deployed from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Japan, to support Operation Damayan, a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operation in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan. . . . The additional Ospreys, which bring the total to eight for this deployment, will assist the U.S. Marines and sailors from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force’s 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade who already had deployed to provide a wide range of relief efforts. The Ospreys are assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor 262, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force.”
3. Iraq roils with sectarian violence. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Two near-simultaneous bombings targeting a Shia religious procession tent south of the Iraqi capital have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens, officials say. Thursday’s violence near Baghdad came during the peak of Ashoura commemoration rituals that mark the death of a key figure in Shia Islam, when Sunni Muslim armed groups typically step up attacks on Iraq’s majority community, whom they regard as apostates.”
4. Boko Haram hits the terrorist list. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “The US State Department has added the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram and its splinter faction known as Ansaru to the lists of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorist entities. The designations took place almost one and a half years after Boko Haram’s leader was added to the list of specially designated global terrorists. . . . Boko Haram has conducted numerous terror attacks in Nigeria since the group began waging a low-level insurgency against the Nigerian government four years ago. Major clashes between the two broke out in northern Nigeria during the summer of 2009. Police killed hundreds of Boko Haram fighters, and Mohammad Yusuf, the leader, was captured and then executed. Shekau continued to attack the state and demand that sharia, or Islamic law, be imposed in the country.” Go get ‘em, boys!
5. US – no Russian helos for Afghanistan. Khaama.Com reports, “According to reports, United States has scrapped plans to purchase additional Mi-17 helicopters from the state-run Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport. A top US senator, John Cornyn in a statement on Wednesday said applauded the decision by the US defenses department to cancel the purchase of 15 additional helicopters from Rosoboronexport. A spokesperson for the Pentagon has also confirmed that there are no plans to purchase additional helicopters from the state-run Russian arms exporter beyond the previous orders. The additional 15 Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters were to be purchased next year at a cost of $345 million and then delivered to Afghanistan’s national security forces.” Also from Khaama.Com, another NATO soldier dies as reasons for sacrifice dwindle.
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Boeing workers cut off their nose and spite their face. AP’s Mike Baker reports from Seattle, “Despite warnings that production of Boeing’s next generation 777 plane could go to another state, machinists in the Northwest voted to reject a contract proposal late Wednesday that would have exchanged concessions for decades of secure jobs. In response, the Boeing Co. said it would begin a bid process to find a home for its 777X production line. . . . ‘We preserved something sacred by rejecting the Boeing proposal. We’ve held on to our pensions and that’s big. At a time when financial planners are talking about a `retirement crisis’ in America, we have preserved a tool that will help our members retire with more comfort and dignity,’ said Tom Wroblewski, District 751 president in a statement.”
2. The UH-1, hard to replace. DefenseMediaNetwork.Com’s interview with Lt. Gen. Charles H. Coolidge, USAF (Ret.), Vice President of Air Force Programs for defense contractor EADS North America explains that the UH-72A Lakota is a “’solution that costs significantly less than the Air Force’s stated $20 million unit price target from the latest program attempt in 2009. By buying the same helicopter that’s in production with the Army, the Air Force benefits from an existing DoD [Department of Defense] program with already established training and logistics pipelines, keeping start-up costs at near zero. The UH-72 is the only mission-capable solution that gets cost way down, to at or below the level of the UH-1N. In fact, it’s actually 30 percent cheaper to operate the UH-72 than the UH-1N on a day-to-day basis. So it starts saving operations and maintenance funds almost immediately.’”
3. Contracting in Afghanistan – risky business. WashingtonExaminer.Com reports, “An Afghan contractor with ties to insurgent groups — one the Army should have cut ties with last year — was given access to a U.S. facility, according to the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction. The Zurmat Group is one of 43 contractors in Afghanistan the Army has refused to debar despite SIGAR’s recommendations, based on evidence of ties to terror groups like the Haqqani network, the Taliban and al Qaeda. Suspension and debarment prohibit a contractor from receiving U.S. funds or contracts.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Sex, lies, and the secret service. WaPo reports on the ongoing drama of the secret side to the service: “A call from the Hay-Adams hotel this past spring reporting that a Secret Service agent was trying to force his way into a woman’s room set in motion an internal investigation that has sent tremors through an agency still trying to restore its elite reputation. The incident came a year after the agency was roiled by a prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, prompting vows from senior officials to curb a male-dominated culture of hard partying and other excesses.”
2. Weaponizing the internet. Wired.Com’s Nicholas Weaver explains, “The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks. . . . Here’s how it works. The QUANTUM codename is deliciously apt for a technique known as ‘packet injection,’ which spoofs or forges packets to intercept them. The NSA’s wiretaps don’t even need to be silent; they just need to send a message that arrives at the target first. It works by examining requests and injecting a forged reply that appears to come from the real recipient so the victim acts on it.”
potomac two-step
1. Yellen’s confirmation dance, today: “Is tapering tightening? Janet Yellen may not get that question in those exact words at her confirmation hearing Thursday, but it is one she will have to answer successfully to succeed if she is installed as the chairman of the Federal Reserve early next year: Is tapering, the process of slowing down the Fed’s monthly stimulus bond purchases, the same as tightening the money supply?”
2. It is lonely at the top, and the bottom: “Only 47% of Gallup poll respondents said those traits fit the President, the first time the commander in chief’s reading has fallen below 50%. Obama’s numbers took a dip when asked by respondents if he was ‘honest and trustworthy,’ coming in at 50% and down 5 percentage points since September. The numbers come after the government shutdown and botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Bill Gates and President Bill Clinton on the NSA, Safe Sex, and American Exceptionalism.” Wired.Com’s don’t miss it read: “You want a world-class conversation about the future of global health, the vanguard of philanthropy, and the divide between ignorance and data-driven knowledge? Bring in the Bills. Gates and Clinton, that is. . . . This interview took place on September 23 at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, a kind of wonk Woodstock occurring in conjunction with the opening of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. The 42nd president was ubiquitous at his event, moderating a panel that included Bono, Sheryl Sandberg, and Christine Lagarde.”
2. Managing defense spending in a capitalistic way. Ashton Carter argues, “Better Buying Power’s goal was to do more without more — that is, to get more capability for the warfighter and more value for the taxpayer by obtaining greater efficiency and productivity in defense spending, or what economists call productivity growth. It wasn’t intended to be an overnight revolution in the way we did business, but instead a steady, lasting and continuous process of improvement in our performance.”
