FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Clearance Investigator—the other side of the desk. Contributor Tranette Ledford explains, “If you’re cleared and have a clear understanding of security policy, you may have many of the skills to become a security clearance investigator for the federal government or a defense contractor. A clearance is often required for investigators, and military service is a plus. But before you leap, take a look at what’s involved.”
2. Acing your interview. Also from contributor Tranette Ledford, “Great skills, military service and an active security clearance should be all you need to land cleared jobs. But there’s always that last hurdle in the process, the interview. That conversation can make or break the chance of a solid offer. So cleared veterans may want to give some advance though to how they answer some of the questions hiring managers ask veterans. The right message could provide the competitive edge in the long run.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Afghanistan—in the balance. DefenseOne.Com’s Stephanie Gaskell reports, “The U.S. Special Inspector for Afghan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, just released his quarterly report and while there was ‘a rare moment of optimism’ when elections were successfully held earlier this month, there is still much that could reverse the gains Afghanistan has made over the past 13 years. Corruption tops that list, of course.” Read SIGAR’s report. See related, “Afghan and foreign forces kill 60 near Pakistan border.”
2. Voices from Iraq. Aljazeera.Com explores: “In a country with almost unparalleled oil riches, there is little in the way of basic services. And the divides between Shia, Sunni and Kurd are said to have deepened since the last vote in 2010. Even against that backdrop, current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could hold on to power, though he will face a tough election battle and, in a country with forever fractured politics, a difficult period of coalition-building if his party wins enough seats to lead the administration again. But what of Baghdad’s people? What are their hopes for the elections? And the future?” See also, “Iraq holds vote as it slides deeper into strife.”
3. The fight in Ukraine—separatist successes. Reuters’ Vasily Fedosenko reports, “Hundreds of pro-Moscow separatists stormed government buildings in one of Ukraine’s provincial capitals on Tuesday and fired on police holed up in a regional headquarters, a major escalation of their revolt despite new Western sanctions on Russia. New U.S. and EU sanctions packages, announced with fanfare, were seen as so mild that Russian share prices rose in relief.”
4. Warthog fights for its life. DefenseNews.Com’s Aaron Mehta reports, “The fate of the A-10 close-air support platform has been the most contentious issue between the Air Force and Congress over the last six months. If comments made Tuesday are any indication, it’s a fight that isn’t going away. At a hearing called to discuss the future force mixture among active, Guard and Reserve components, Secretary Deborah Lee James and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh ran into an A-10 themed assault in the form of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Northrop Grumman—open architecture and third parties. GovConWire.Com reports, “Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has been awarded a potential five-year, $90 million contract to build electronic jamming systems for the U.S. Marine Corps to protect troops from improvised explosive devices. The company will produce five Counter Radio-controlled IED Electronic Warfare Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operation Capable test systems . . . . Freedom 240 technology is based on open architecture and works to operate with third-party systems.”
2. Better Buying Power (BBP). DefenseOne.Com contributor Frank Kendall is the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, concludes, “Defense acquisition is a complicated business, with many independent actors and actions that all need to be executed professionally and with sound judgment to achieve success across the wide variety of product and service types DOD acquires. The original BBP initiatives have already grown in number in order to span that broad range of decisions and actions.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Solar jets. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “A group of European researchers with the Solar-Jet program have demonstrated a process for turning concentrated sunlight, water and CO2 into a kerosene that can power ships, jets, and virtually anything that uses a combustion engine. Because the CO2 that went into the kerosene is derived from the air, and not from fossil sources, the fuel is effectively carbon neutral. The researchers say it’s nine times as efficient as many biofuels.”
2. Space-X—a trajectory to greatness. AviationWeek.Com’s Editorial Board explains that “standing on the shoulders of giants is . . . the first step to becoming one yourself, and SpaceX’s ambitious test of a reusable booster this month may have done as much to prove it is on a trajectory to greatness as all its other spectacular successes put together.”
3. Tiny gadgets. VentureBeat.Com’s Kia Kokalitcheva reports, “Two giants of the semiconductor world have teamed up to create very, very small mechanical devices. According to a new filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, former Qualcomm executive John Batey and pioneering silicon researchers Dr. Kurt Petersen have formed a company named ‘INVIS Technologies’ . . . . [microelectromechanical systems] is the technology of very small devices. ‘It’s like a cross between microchips and actual mechanical devices. For example, the accelerometer and [gyroscope] in phones are MEMS devices, so are microphones are they have moving parts but on a microscopic scale’ . . . .”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Biden nuance: “Vice President Joe Biden, promoting new White House efforts Tuesday to combat sexual assault on college campuses, had a few choice words for those who attack women. ‘If a man raised his hand to a woman you had the job to kick the living crap out of him if he did it,’ Biden said, reflecting on growing up in Scranton, Pa. Biden acknowledged that his description was ‘not very presidential or vice presidential’ but added that it was ‘something every man should begin to understand.’ The White House on Tuesday called on colleges to develop better metrics for identifying sexual assaults on their campuses. President Obama is pushing for all colleges to conduct mandatory surveys on sexual assault by 2016.”
2. Boehner tease: “House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he was not mocking the GOP lawmakers in his conference when he bemoaned to the Middletown, Ohio, Rotary Club the difficulties in getting them to agree to an immigration reform bill. ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa . . . . You tease the ones you love, right?’ Boehner said.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Iraq elections: Will history repeat itself?” Aljazeera.Com contributor Firas Al-Atraqchi argues, “The success of the election itself cannot be measured by numbers of voters and percentage points but by the tangible socio-political changes it brings about. Iraq’s democratic process will be little more than a mirage if national reconciliation is not made the next government’s strategic priority.”
2. “Afghanistan: The stakes are high.” Also from Aljazeera.Com, contributor Omar Samad argues, “Afghanistan’s longer-term challenge is to institutionalise good electioneering, build up trust among political constituencies, further break down existing barriers and mindsets and satisfy the popular demand for better governance and rule of law. In the short term, the people have spoken, but their votes have yet to be appropriately and impartially taken into account. Regardless of whether a second round is warranted or not, there are only a few days left to reach a credible outcome acceptable to most Afghans.”
3. “For Russia, it can only get worse.” Reuters contributor John Lloyd argues, “Russia’s current course may mark a return if not to Stalinism—to a Soviet-level of suspicion, discrimination and repression.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Airline upgrades.
3. Play ball.
