FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Space Espionage. Contributor D.B. Grady explores the furthest reaches of intrigue: “The Air Force proved to be the benefactor needed by NASA. But you can’t ask a branch of the military to commit to something without making a few concessions yourself. The Air Force wanted to put satellites in orbit, and more interestingly, wanted to steal satellites that were already up there.”
2. Recruiting roundup goes digital. Contributor Jillian Hamilton with a survey of e-Recruiting, recruiting wheeling-and-dealing, and more: “As colleges lose the standard brick and mortar structure, it’s important that your college recruiting program keeps pace with the changing times. Ere.net points out the need to think through ways to target the passive students who might not go through the college career center system.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. COIN under fire. DoDBuzz.Com’s Richard Sisk reports, “The vaunted counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy promoted by retired Gen. David Petraeus that guided the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has come under renewed and caustic criticism from one of its reluctant practitioners, both as a general and diplomat. . . . . Eikenberry dissected and dismissed the COIN doctrine as applied in Afghanistan in a recent article for Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, titled ‘The Limits of Counterinsurgency Doctrine in Afghanistan.’”
2. Operation Enduring . . . to 2024 in Afghanistan. NYTimes.Com’s Thom Shanker reports, “Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul. . . . After a war that stands as the longest in American history, the security agreement defines a training and counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan lasting at least 10 more years and involving 8,000 to 12,000 troops, mostly American.”
3. Loya Jirga launches. Khaama.Com reports, “The National Grand Council (Loya Jirga) on Afghanistan and US bilateral security agreement formally kicked off in capital Kabul in the presence of Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Over 2,500 people including influential tribal elders have gathered in the Grand Council (Loya Jirga) to debate the terms of the bilateral security agreement between Kabul and Washington.” United Press International reports, “Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave his support to a proposal that would see 15,000 foreign troops stay in Afghanistan past 2014 on Thursday. Karzai said he felt it was a chance to bring stability to Afghanistan.” Finally, Reuters reports on Karzai’s strange remarks to the Loya Jirga: “’My trust with America is not good. I don’t trust them and they don’t trust me,’ Karzai told the assembly. ‘During the past 10 years I have fought with them and they have made propaganda against me.’”
4. Drones over Pakistan: Sirajuddin Haqqani the next target. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “The US launched a drone strike at a seminary in Pakistan’s settled district of Hangu, killing eight people in what appears to have been an attempt to kill Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operations commander of the Taliban and al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network. The strike is just the fourth outside of Pakistan’s tribal areas since the program began in 2004, and the first since March 2009.” UPI.Com reports, “A suspected U.S. drone strike Thursday targeting an Islamic seminary in northwest Pakistan killed at least six people . . . .”
5. In Syria, rebels strike back in terrorist fashion. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Four suicide car bombs have struck Syrian regime targets in the Qalamoun region north of Damascus, killing at least seven soldiers . . . . Wednesday’s attacks come a day after troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad drove rebels from the nearby strategic village of Qara. The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, two Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups. . . . Fighting raged elsewhere in Qalamoun, mainly around the rebel bastion of Yabrud, which the army shelled Wednesday, and Deir Attiya. Jets launched air strikes on rebel positions around Deir Attiya, said the Observatory, while ongoing clashes killed at least eight opposition fighters.”
6. In Geneva, nuclear agreement may be within reach. Reuters reports from Geneva, “Each side appeared to tempering anticipation of an imminent agreement after the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany came close to winning concessions from Tehran in the last round of negotiations two weeks ago. . . . A senior U.S. negotiator was more cautious, telling reporters: ‘I think we can (get a deal). Whether we will, we will have to see because it is hard. It is very hard … If it was easy to do, it would have been done a long time ago.’”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Contractors: report hacking data losses. FederalTimes.Com’s Sean Reilly reports, “Defense Department contractors will have to report cyber-attacks that result in the loss of technical information under a new rule that takes effect this week. Contractors throughout the supply chain have been targeted by criminals seeking to steal unclassified technical data, Frank Kendall, the department’s acquisition and technology chief, said in a statement. . . . Defense firms will also have to incorporate established information security standards on to their unclassified networks . . . .”
2. 5,000 by 2015 – Wireless jobs for returning Veterans. American Forces Press Service reports, “Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy joined with a coalition of private-sector partners from the telecommunications industry to launch ‘Warriors 4 Wireless,’ a new nonprofit program aimed at connecting veterans and returning service members to jobs in the rapidly growing wireless telecommunications industry. A White House release said the program includes stakeholders from Joining Forces — a national initiative that provides opportunities and support to military members and their families — as well as from the private sector, the federal government, the U.S. military, and industry trade associations committed to scaling successful training models for veterans with wireless-relevant skills.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Humanitarian robots stalk the halls of the Pentagon. Wired.Com’s Jason Kehe says, “Meet Atlas, the Pentagon’s 6’2″, 330-pound humanitarian robot. He was designed to save lives in disaster zones (like Fukushima). But while this Tin Man has a heart, he lacks a brain. In December, seven teams of scientists from top institutions, including MIT and Virginia Tech, will compete to code the bot for action. Each team will send its own Atlas into Darpa’s trials—eight tasks that will test his ability to navigate degraded terrain, drive a utility vehicle, and enter buildings.”
2. GAO: security clearance review. WaPo’s Joe Davidson reports, “Federal agency officials understand the need to limit the number of security clearances they issue, but without regular reviews they can’t be sure they are doing that, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. . . . Because reviews are not done consistently, GAO said, ‘executive branch agencies cannot have assurances that they are keeping the number of positions that require security clearances to a minimum.’”
3. Unraveling Security Clearances. Also from WaPo, Joe Davidson covers the Homeland Security’s puzzle: “Striking the right balance between security and liberty is an age-old struggle in democracies. In the United States, federal employees are caught in the middle. The latest round in the tussle played out Wednesday at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing that examined security clearances and a workforce designation that critics say could strip thousands of federal employees of their rights without enhancing national security.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. My GPS couldn’t find the Gettysburg Address . . . or something like that: “President Obama couldn’t attend an event to mark the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address Tuesday, because it ‘didn’t work schedule-wise,’ a top Obama aide said. ‘I don’t know, there’s this whole website thing that someone suggested might destroy the Dem Party,’ Obama’s top communications advisor Dan Pfeiffer tweeted in a message directed at reporters, referring to the botched Obamacare website rollout plaguing the Democratic party.”
2. As a new Congressman, “I’ve hit bottom”: “’I’ve hit a bottom where I realize I need help,’ Radel told District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Tigno during his court appearance. ‘I want to come out of this stronger,’ Radel said, adding that he wants to ‘continue serving this country.’” [Is Radel talking about his drug bust or his part in the shutdown?]
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The Lonely Guy.” VanityFair.Com’s Todd S. Purdum argues, “It is Obama’s unwavering discipline to keep his cool when others are losing theirs, and it seems likely that no black man who behaved otherwise could ever have won the presidency. But this quality, perhaps Obama’s greatest strength in gaining office, is his greatest weakness in conducting it. And as he ends the first year of his second term, that weakness seems to dog him—and to matter—more and more. At a time when the abrasions of office leave any president most in need of friends, Obama is the capital’s Lonely Guy.”
2. “Make no mistake, America: Sanctions didn’t force Iran into nuclear talks.” Christian Science Monitor contributor Payam Mohensi argues, “Yes, sanctions played a part in changing Iran’s behavior, but not because they forced Iran to return to the negotiation table out of fear of economic collapse. Rather, sanctions contributed to a transformation of the balance of power within the Iranian political system that had been already underway since 2009 – prior to the enactment of the current sanctions regime. Sanctions helped pave the way for a Rouhani victory in the 2013 presidential elections by perpetuating the divide within the conservative forces of the Iranian establishment over the economy. The sanctions also cemented an emerging alliance among members of the ruling elite against the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”
THE FUNNIES
1. End of Innocence.
2. Suicide bombers.
