FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Post your mug. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “You know you need an online profile for career networking or recruiting. You also know that as a security-clearance holder or defense industry recruiter, secure networking is important. But when it comes to your online profile on the Cleared Network, if you fail to upload a profile photo, you’re missing out on one of the easiest and best ways to brand yourself.”

2. Tell your story. Win money. Also from Editor Lindy Kyzer, “Maybe you found your dream job here, had an encouraging interaction with an employer or have had great success staying up-to-date on industry trends. Has ClearanceJobs.com helped you keep your security clearance active? Has the Cleared Network made you feel more secure about online networking? Whatever your story, we want to hear it! Post your response in the comments or email it to mailto:editor@clearancejobs.com. Responses don’t need to be long—just a sentence or two describing how ClearanceJobs.com helped you. A panel of ClearanceJobs judges will review all of the responses and the best story will win a $250 gift card.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. ISIS with MANPADs. Washington Post’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff reports, “Islamic State militants stormed a Syrian airbase over the weekend, routing the remaining elements of the country’s army from northern Raqqah province and reportedly seizing a cache of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. . . . ‘Usually when you take an airbase you don’t just find one or two systems . . . . You find a lot more than that because airbases are meant to store those types of weapons.’”

2. Qatar cutting deals for US. Reuters’ Amena Bakr reports, “Qatar is working to help free four Americans held hostage in Syria by various armed groups, a Gulf source familiar with the matter said on Monday, a day after the Gulf Arab state’s diplomacy helped free a journalist held since 2012. The source declined to name the four or provide details, and Reuters could not independently verify the assertion, but his account was broadly supported by other sources. The reported initiative by Qatar coincides with an effort by the tiny state to rebut accusations by some of its Arab neighbors and Western politicians that it supports the most anti-Western militant armed groups in Iraq and Syria.”

3. Ebola raging in west AFRICOM. Washington Post’s Terrence McCoy reports, “The first was Guinea. Then, three days later on March 27, the World Health Organization reported that there were ‘suspected’ cases of Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Months passed before the disease, which has now killed 1,427 people across West Africa, reached Nigeria in early August. Now it’s the Democratic Republic of Congo. ‘I declare an Ebola epidemic in the region of Djera, in the territory of Boende in the province of Equateur,’ . . . Congo health minister Kabange Numbi [said]. But, he said, it appeared to be a different strain from the West African variety, which has hopped borders, forced quarantines from rural villages to overpopulated slums, and terrified a continent.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Navy awards $2.5 billion for CANES. AviationWeek.Com’s Michael Fabey reports, “The U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command has selected five vendors to build and deliver the service’s next-generation tactical afloat network, Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (Canes). The companies will be able to compete for future Canes work. Each vendor will be awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, with the estimated total combined value for all the transactions reaching about $2.5 billion.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. Track you anywhere, everywhere. Washington Post’s Craig Timberg reports, “Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent. The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “This month’s ultimate enemy—the Islamic State.” Reuters’ Jack Shafer argues, “Enemies exist, of course. But boogeymen don’t. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to sell you something.”

2. “The Islamic State is evil returned.” Washington Post’s Richard Cohen argues, “Putin is certainly no Hitler (or Stalin). But the category of evil remains useful. It assigns agency where it belongs. The decapitation of Foley and the depredations of the Islamic State are evil returned, evil that can be understood only as beyond understanding. It needs to be eliminated. More than Foley was killed that day in the desert. So was the why.”

3. “Obama’s miscalculation.” Aljazeera.Com’s Marwan Bishara argues, “US deniability over its hegemony in the Middle East would’ve been terribly amusing if it weren’t terribly tragic. It’s bad enough to behave like an empire in the 21st century, but to act irresponsibly is far worse.”

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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.