While you’re digging out & Valentine’s Day

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1.  Where the jobs are – overseas. Contributor Marc Selinger explains, “Even as U.S. allies tighten their defense budgets, American national security firms still have a chance to grow their businesses in foreign markets, according to several experts. And that could be good news for job seekers. U.S. defense contractors are increasingly looking overseas to offset program cuts at home, but to enter those markets, they need to hire people who know the laws, customs and culture of those countries, said Chris Socha, the legislative director and foreign policy adviser to Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees.”

2.  Aerospace industry’s 2014 reboot. Also from Marc Selinger, “In its annual year-end review and forecast, released Dec. 18, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) projected overall aerospace industry sales for 2013 at $220 billion, down from $222 billion in 2012. A $5 billion increase in civil aircraft was more than offset by a $4 billion drop in military aircraft, a $2 billion decline in civil and defense space and a $1 billion contraction in missiles. . . . The association expects 2014 to be a better year for aerospace. It projects growth in civil aircraft and the space sector to boost overall industry sales by 5.5 percent to $232 billion [in 2014].”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1.  Karzai to US: Thanks for nothing. Christian Science Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi reports, “The Obama administration has been waiting for months for Karzai to make a decision on the security accord. In his State of the Union address last month President Obama said the US is still prepared to leave a small force of American troops in Afghanistan after December with the “limited” mission of additional training of Afghan security forces and counterterrorism operations. . . . Karzai has held back on signing the security pact as a way of showing his frustration with the US on a range of issues, from civilian casualties in the war and on-and-off peace negotiations with the Taliban to US-Pakistan relations. The bilateral bad blood ran again Thursday when Afghanistan released 65 prisoners – some of whom the US says have killed American and other Western Coalition forces – but who Karzai insists are of no threat.”

2.  In Geneva, Russia and US tag team on Syria. Aljazeera.Com reports, “High-level Russian and US diplomats have promised to help keep Syria peace talks alive in Geneva as they reached a deadlock, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman ‘promised that they will help both here and in their capitals, to unblock the situation for us’ . . . . ‘Until now, we are not making much progress in the process,” Brahimi said, acknowledging that ‘failure is always staring at us in the face.’ That meeting came after Syria’s warring sides spent days in Geneva trading blame for the violence ravaging their country and endlessly restating their positions.”

3.  AQAP jail break in Yemen. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula freed several of its operatives from the central prison in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in a complex assault today that involved suicide bombers and an assault team. Nineteen AQAP operatives were among the 29 prisoners who were freed during the attack. The attack began as a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives outside the prison . . . . AQAP fighters then dismounted from two other cars and broke off into two units. One AQAP unit clashed with security guards outside the prison; the unit was backed by fighters who deployed on nearby rooftops and opened fire on the Yemeni guards. Meanwhile the second unit of fighters fanned out into the prison and battled the guards inside.” See also, “Al-Qaeda inmates freed in Yemen jail attack” and “Yemen: 7 Killed in Attack on Prison, 29 Escape.”

4.  Iraq’s Sunni Army. AP’s Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Adam Schreck report, “Iraqi officials have begun recruiting thousands of Sunni fighters on the government payroll, supplying weapons to other volunteer tribal fighters and pledging millions of dollars in aid to restive Anbar province as they try to beat back extremist Sunni jihadi militants. The militants are battling for control of mainly Sunni areas west of Baghdad in a key test of the Shiite-led government’s ability to maintain security more than two years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1.  URVs – Unmanned River Vehicles. DefenseMediaNetwork.Com reports, “The continuing rise of unmanned autonomous vehicles has seen a focus on aerial vehicles. That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been notable successes on land and on and under the sea, but rather that they have garnered far less news attention. So seems the case with the recent announcement of the beginning of a three-year collaboration between Swiftships Shipbuilders LLC and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette that is aimed at developing an autonomously navigable military boat.”

2.  Kratos’ $30 million Navy UAV C2 contract. GovConWire.Com reports, “A Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ: KTOS) subsidiary has been awarded a four-year, $29.6 million basic ordering agreement to build command and control systems for the U.S. Navy‘s unmanned aerial vehicles.”

3.  Boozing it up – Cybersecurity drill. NextGov.Com’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “The Homeland Security Department has decided to extend a contract for help on a biennial cyberattack drill with Booz Allen Hamilton. The roughly $400,000 follow-on runs from Feb. 6 through April 6, according to a Jan. 13 justification for not letting other firms bid on the upcoming work. Booz won a five-year $15 million contract for the project in 2009. Booz was unable to get the job done on time due to hiccups in the federal billing cycle, DHS said.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1.  POTUS’ Cybersecurity Framework. American Forces Press Service’s Cheryl Pellerin reports, “The Obama administration has released a voluntary framework developed by hundreds of companies, several federal agencies and many international contributors as a how-to cybersecurity guide for organizations in the business of running the nation’s critical infrastructure. Such assets include facilities for generating and transmitting electricity, producing and distributing oil and gas, and for managing telecommunications, drinking and waste water, agriculture, food production, heating, public health, transportation and financial and security services.”

2.  Snowden fallout – on NSA employee fired. NYTimes.Com’s David E. Sanger reports, “The National Security Agency has told Congress that it has forced out a civilian employee after a lengthy investigation to “assign accountability” for the disclosure of intelligence secrets by Edward J. Snowden, one of its former contractors. . . . The director of the N.S.A., Gen. Keith B. Alexander, is retiring next month after serving far longer than his predecessors. The director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., who has also been a focus of criticism for failing to police the speed at which security upgrades have been conducted throughout the intelligence community, remains in office.” See also, “Rand Paul’s NSA Lawsuit Helps Him Lay Claim To A Big Issue and “How Did Snowden Steal Millions of Documents? He Had Help.”

3.  Robot barracks – Hangar One. QZ.Com contributor Tim Fernholz reports, “Planetary Ventures, a Google shell company, will lease an airport—and an enormous hangar—from the United States space agency NASA. . . . NASA is leasing Hangar One (as well as two nearby runways, two smaller hangars, and some other buildings) to the search company as part of a cost-cutting measure. It can’t afford to restore the historic buildings, but Planetary Ventures will finance reconstruction as well as the creation of a public space for a museum or educational effort on the base—and they’ll upgrade the golf course while they’re at it.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1.  Secret ballot: “Financial markets were watching, the retirement accounts of millions of Americans on the line. Nervous senators were watching too, well aware that political fortunes could be on the line. So on perhaps the most important vote of the year, the Senate did something extraordinary this week: It tried to keep the vote tally secret until the outcome was assured. . . . Both sides were concerned that investors might panic, causing the stock market to tank in real time. That’s what happened in 2008 when the House voted to reject a Wall Street bailout plan, triggering a 7 percent drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.”

2.  Dropping like flies – out with the old; in the new: “Another House Republican is retiring. House Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, of Washington State . . . will not seek a tenth term. His plan to retire comes a day after another GOP lawmaker, Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., said he, too, would not run for another term. Unlike Miller, whose re-election bid was considered the most threatened among House GOP incumbents, Hastings hails from a solid Republican district and would have likely won a new term in November. Hastings, however, was facing the loss of his committee chairmanship in 2015, thanks to the GOP’s self-imposed term limits for those coveted positions. . . . Hastings, 73, did not mention term limits for chairmanships as a reason.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1.  “The Drone Disaster.” USNews.Com contributor Daniel Donovan argues, “Drones have reinvented the strategy with which America fights terrorism, as they often manage to successfully eliminate high profile targets with the push of a button, hundreds of miles away. Given the civilian displeasure at American casualties from both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, it is no wonder that America chooses to use its military technological superiority to extinguish U.S. security threats with minimal American casualties. However, this policy comes at a price.”

2. “Syria Conflict: Geneva II Just An Eyewash.” Khaama.Com contributor Manish Rai argues, “Given the differing strategic interests in Syria of the powers within and outside the region, reaching a consensus to end the crisis at this juncture is beyond the realm of possibility.”

3.  “A Christian-Muslim crisis of faith in Africa.”  Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “As with the Balkans, world leaders are again wringing their hands over how to stop the sectarian slaughter in the Central African Republic, an impoverished and landlocked country the size of Texas near the heart of Africa. They are hoping for local solutions.”

THE FUNNIES

1.  St. Boehner Day Massacre.

2.  Shot through the heart.

3.  Be mine.

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.