Rules of Terrorism, Red Tape, and Contractor Incentives – Daily Intelligence

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Before you move. Contributor Diana Rodriguez offers, “Before making a decision to relocate, questions and answers need to be evaluated and discussed with the recruiter and hiring manager. All job offers require careful forethought, consideration and planning; and a job offer with a relocation will require even more than a local job. Consider the following five items before making a firm decision to relocate . . . .”

2. Keys to cover letters. Also from Diana Rodriguez: “Everyone knows the importance of a properly worded, and well-crafted resume, but far too many job applicants forget one of the most valuable tools for getting hired—the cover letter. The cover letter is your personal ‘pitch’ to the hiring manager or recruiter. It is your introduction, and first impression. That is why it must be well thought out and carefully written.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. ISIS—breaking the rules of terror. Slate.Com’s William Saletan reports, “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is scaring the hell out of everyone. It has infested Syria, overrun Iraq, alarmed Iran, and convinced U.S. politicians it’s the most dangerous terrorist organization ever. But frightening everyone isn’t a long-term growth strategy. . . . For years, Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants tried to explain to their affiliates the folly of unchecked brutality. In letters and directives captured in the 2011 raid on his compound, Bin Laden stressed the importance of patience, discretion, and public opinion. His advice, boiled down to seven rules, forms a clear outline of ISIS’s mistakes.” See also, “Militants attack Iraq air base.”

2. Medal of Honor—Ryan Pitts. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe tells the soldier’s story: “It was sometime just before dawn in northeastern Afghanistan when U.S. soldiers on the edge of Wanat village in Nuristan province found themselves in the fight of their lives. . . . In the middle of it all was Sgt. Ryan J. Pitts. Already wounded by grenade shrapnel, he crawled from position to position in the observation post, refusing to give up the high ground there even after fellow U.S. soldiers were killed.” See also from Tom Ricks in 2009, “Inside a battle gone wrong.”

3. New leadership. DefenseNews.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “The Pentagon on Tuesday announced a major change at the top of its training, counterterrorism and homeland security efforts, naming new heads US Special Operations and Northern Command, along with a new leader of the NATO force in Afghanistan. Army Gen. John Campbell . . . . Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Votel . . . . Navy Adm. Bill Gortney . . . .” See also, “President nominates 3 officers for senior leadership positions.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Pentagon’s top contractor incentives. AviationWeek.Com’s Michael Bruno reports, “The Pentagon is starting to identify its most-favored industrial suppliers in an effort to leverage peer pressure and to highlight leaders eligible for further incentives and inducements. . . . ‘The size of the contract is not a determinant of whether they are on the list . . . . It’s the performance inside the contracts that is the weighing factor.’”

2. Red tape—we have met the enemy. DefenseNews.Com’s John T. Bennett reports, “The processes that govern—and often stymie—how the US military buys weapons could be the biggest threat to America, a former Pentagon official said Tuesday. Brett Lambert, until recently the Pentagon’s industrial policy chief, told the House Armed Services Committee that US officials cannot ‘let our bureaucratic processes become our own most dangerous enemy.” . . . Lambert touted the relationship between the Pentagon and US weapons manufacturers as long giving the United States a tactical advantage on the battlefield. But, he warned, existing regulations and buying guidelines might soon threaten that advantage.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. Mind control. Washington Post’s Jim Tankersley tells the story: “If he succeeded at this next task, it would be science fiction come true: His thoughts would bypass his broken spinal cord. With the help of an algorithm and some electrodes, he would move his once-dead limb again—a scientific first.”

2. Close encounters of a drone kind. Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock reports, “On the same day last month, airline pilots trying to land at two of the nation’s busiest airports got on their radios to report the unnerving sight of small rogue drones buzzing at high altitudes. . . . The close calls were the latest in a rash of dangerous encounters between civilian airplanes and drones flown in contravention of FAA rules intended to safeguard U.S. airspace. Hazardous occurrences are becoming more frequent as more drones—legal and illegal—take to the skies, according to a year-long investigation by The Washington Post . . . .”

3. Missile defense success. AviationWeek.Com’s Michael Fabey reports, “The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has completed an integrated exercise of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the nation’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) that scored the GMD system’s first successful intercept since 2008. During the June 22 test, a long-range ground-based interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and intercepted an intermediate-range ballistic missile target launched from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. Just plain disturbing: [WARNING: Do not watch if you are pregnant or have a weak heart] “Congressional leaders from both parties holding hands and singing ‘We Shall Overcome’ at an event Tuesday, marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some were crying. Some looking less than thrilled.”

2. Eye of Newt: “Newt Gingrich is drawing an unlikely comparison between Hillary Clinton and reality star Kim Kardashian. After Bill Clinton came out defending his wife’s comment that she and her husband were ‘dead broke’ when they left the White House, Gingrich came out with his own opinions on the former first family. ‘You have to understand the problem Bill has . . . . Bill is to politics what Fred Astaire is to dancing, he is just automatically amazing and he wants to have Ginger Rogers out there dancing. Instead [with Hillary Clinton] it’s a little bit like watching Kim Kardashian get kicked off the stage by Prince because she couldn’t dance.’”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “The US and Iraqi Kurds: Good will hunting?” Aljazeera.Com contributor Michael Stephens argues, “The Kurds will surely look to capitalise on a weakened Baghdad to advance their own goal of building further distance between themselves and the state. If the US stands in the way of this process, it might just find that it loses the [Kurdistan Regional Government] for good, and rather than holding Iraq the country together, precipitates its collapse.”

2. “5 Myths About the Middle East Crisis.” USNews.Com contributor Lamont Colucci argues, “The events in the Middle East have cast doubt on the future not only of the Obama presidency, but of American leadership. . . . The failure has created not only a backlash among the American people, whose voice through polling indicates a belief that this administration is incapable of dealing with international relations, but an equal backlash in the media to lay the blame at others’ feet. These are what I term the myths for deceit.”

3. “Is this Obama’s ‘malaise’ moment?” Reuters contributor Bill Schneider explains, “If Obama were eligible to run again, he would almost certainly lose. Obama’s problems probably doom his vice president, Joe Biden, as well. If Biden were the Democratic nominee in 2016, voters would see it as a third term for Obama. Is there anyone out there who looks like a strong leader? Right now, people don’t know too much about the potential Republican contenders. But they know a great deal about Hillary Clinton. And what they see is a sharp contrast with Obama.”