FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Reaching secret squirrels. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “You’ve found the perfect candidate, you’ve connected with them online, and you’re ready to move forward. Making the first move can be the hardest step, especially for an anonymous or passive candidate. Cleared candidates are discrete, and you’ll need to pick your methods carefully. . . . Discreet is good, being ignored is not. Personalize your approach and soon anonymous and passive candidates will be contacting you.”
2. Project Managers over the D.C. rainbow. Also from Editor Lindy Kyzer, “While Washington, D.C. remains a hot-bed of cleared careers, exciting, high-paying and interesting work is available across the country—from locations as diverse as Sierra Vista, Ariz. to Fort Bragg, N.C. One of the critical career areas with opportunities across the country is program management. Because wherever there are government programs, there is a need for qualified program managers to oversee the work.”
3. Racism and the clearance process. Attorney and contributor Sean Bigley advises, “Where your security clearance investigator does exhibit clear signs of bias against you, swift action on your part is a must. I recommend that you start by having your attorney immediately document your allegations in a formal memorandum to your investigator’s supervisor.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Back to Bowe Bergdahl. Christian Science Monitor’s Anna Mulrine reports, “If the US Army determines that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl wandered off his small outpost in Afghanistan without authorization – in other words, if he was absent without leave – this will effectively negate his status as a ‘captured’ soldier . . . . If Bergdahl is determined to have been AWOL or to have deserted—desertion means he never intended to return, whereas AWOL means he just went away for a while—then he could be court-martialed, demoted, and forced to forfeit the back pay.” See also, “Initial Bergdahl Investigation Was Inconclusive.”
2. Iraq—straight to hell. DefenseNews.Com’s John T. Bennett reports, “US senators are taking differing stances on whether another use-of-force resolution would be needed before new US strikes in Iraq, with one saying the situation there ‘is going to hell.’ . . . The White House’s preferred path of insisting on an inclusive government in Baghdad before launching strikes against ISIL has spurred some lawmakers to call for a new authorization of the use of force, or AUMF, before Obama launches a new Iraq conflict.”
3. Iran stepping up against ISIS. New York Times’ Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt reports, “Iran is directing surveillance drones over Iraq from an airfield in Baghdad and is supplying Iraqi forces with tons of military equipment and other supplies . . . . The secret Iranian programs are a rare instance in which Iran and the United States share a near-term goal: countering the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the Sunni militants who have seized towns and cities in a blitzkrieg across western and northern Iraq. But even as the two nations provide military support to the embattled government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, they are watching each other’s actions warily as they jostle for influence in the region.” See also, “Iraq producing bizarre Mideast dynamic,” “Iraq insurgents seize oilfields, hit air base,” “What do Iraqi Sunnis want?” and “Questions Rebels Use to Tell Sunni From Shiite.”
4. $60 billion for Afghanistan 2015. DefenseNews.Com’s Marcus Weisgerber reports, “The White House on Thursday will ask the US Congress for $60 billion to fund military operations in Afghanistan and other global contingencies . . . . The Pentagon would receive about $58.5 billion through the 2015 Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) request. A separate $1.5 billion budget amendment is being requested for State Department contingency funding, according to a source with knowledge of the spending plan.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Lockheed wins $2 billion satellite contract. FederalTimes.Com’s Michael Peck reports, “Lockheed Martin has received a $1.86 billion contract to finish production of two more Space Based Infrared System early warning satellites. The fixed-price contract is for the fifth and sixth Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites. Initial funding for GEO-5 and GEO-6 was awarded in 2012, and an advance procurement contract in 2013 for long lead-time parts.” NextGov.Com adds, “The antimissile satellite network ‘provides capabilities critical to our nation’s defense but we also understand in today’s environment that we need to find that perfect balance between capability and affordability’ . . . .”
2. State’s social media campaign grows. NextGov.Com’s Rebecca Carroll reports, “The State Department is expanding a program to counter al-Qaida and other extremist groups using Twitter, YouTube and other digital media, the agency announced this week. The English-language Think Again Turn Away campaign is run by the Center for Strategic Counter Terrorism Communications’ digital outreach team. . . . The department has awarded a $575,046 contract to JTG, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia, to continue and expand the English-language initiative that launched late last year without additional money or personnel. The digital media team also works in Arabic, Urdu, Somali and Punjabi.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Cool, new spy glasses! DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “Getting secret information to specific people, like the location of the nearest nuclear power plant, in a way that doesn’t draw attention from outside is a classic spy problem. Another one is giving agents the ability to match names to faces in the real world, at blackjack tables and fancy soirees and other places spies frequent. The Defense Department is buying some new spy specs to give spooks in the field an intelligence edge over everybody else.”
2. Decoding digital surveillance. Wired.Com’s Kim Zetter reports, “Newly uncovered components of a digital surveillance tool used by more than 60 governments worldwide provide a rare glimpse at the extensive ways law enforcement and intelligence agencies use the tool to surreptitiously record and steal data from mobile phones. The modules, made by the Italian company Hacking Team, were uncovered by researchers working independently of each other at Kaspersky Lab in Russia and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs in Canada, who say the findings provide great insight into the trade craft behind Hacking Team’s tools.”
3. 3D doodling. Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama reports, “Doodlers, this may be your chance to take your creations up a notch. Meet CreoPop, a pen that lets you make 3-D drawings—really, little sculptures—completely from scratch. The pen works its magic by using a special kind of polymer that cures immediately on contact with light. As you draw in the air and squeeze the toothpaste-like ink out of the pen, it hardens to form your small sculptures.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. A new one: “House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio plans to introduce legislation in July that would authorize the US House to sue President Obama. In a memo to members on Wednesday, the speaker said the suit would compel the president to ‘faithfully execute the laws of our country.’ Legal experts say the effort has no chance of succeeding, so why is Speaker Boehner pursuing this course? . . . . Boehner’s memo accuses Mr. Obama of selectively enforcing, changing, and even creating the law—giving the president dangerous ‘king-like authority’ and even endangering the economy because of the uncertainty he’s creating.”
2. A quiet death: “When Congress breaks Thursday for the Fourth of July recess, it will have only 28 days left to work before Election Day. As members leave town, they also leave on the to-do list the National Defense Authorization Act, more than 50 ambassador nominations to hotspots such as Iraq and Egypt and even expedited, bipartisan legislation to overhaul the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs. The White House and members of both parties are putting the pressure on congressional leadership to act—but this infamously do-nothing 113th Congress is unlikely to hold votes that could make lawmakers vulnerable before the November midterm elections, leaving crucial national security, foreign policy and veterans legislation in limbo.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Here’s why it’s so hard to land a job.” Reuters’ Shane Ferro explains, “The shift in the curve might be because of a collapse of social networks. He doesn’t mean Facebook friends, but the loose network acquaintances people have in their daily lives (maybe even people you’ve met but aren’t friends with on Facebook).”
2. “Washington cannot absolve itself from ISIS’ rise.” RT.Com contributor Nile Bowie argues, “ISIS has emerged as the most efficient, disciplined, and well-funded jihadist group in history, and it cannot have arrived at this position without enormous funding and support from external forces. Washington’s direct involvement in aiding ISIS is difficult to ascertain, but the Obama administration cannot pretend to be unaware that Saudi Arabia—its closest ally in the region—has been financing ISIS and affiliated groups throughout the duration of the war.”
3. “Decline of U.S. influence means Iran and Saudi Arabia may just have to get along—eventually.” Reuters’s Mark Leonard argues, “The U.S. invasion of Iraq set off a chain of events that are dissolving the post-World War I order of the Middle East that the United States has guaranteed in the post-colonial era. In its place we are seeing a resurgence of sectarian identities that were subordinated to nationalism during the mandates in the colonial period and by autocratic governments during the Cold War.”
THE FUNNIES
1. No bite!
