FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
2. Under the microscope—periodically and continuously. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “Periodic reinvestigations currently occur every five years for top secret security clearances and every ten years for secret security clearances. You’ll need to remember the same information you did for your initial investigation . . . . Continuous monitoring is the latest proposal in security clearance reform. Continuous monitoring puts the periodic reinvestigation on steroids, taking advantage of social media monitoring and electronic checks to ensure an individual should still have access to classified information.”
2. Professionalizing your profile. Also from Editor Lindy Kyzer, “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.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Bring in the Tomahawks. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe reports, “The new round of U.S. military strikes in Syria announced late Monday by the Pentagon against the Islamic State militant group included many of the same weapons and aircraft the Pentagon has used in recent weeks in Iraq. But it included a new wrinkle, too: the use of Tomahawk cruise missiles, likely launched from the eastern Mediterranean Sea by the U.S. Navy.” See also, “U.S., backed by Arabs, launches first strikes on fighters in Syria,” “Partners begin airstrikes in Syria,”
2. How world wars sneak up—Israel attacks Syria. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The Israeli military has shot down a Syrian aircraft that it said had infiltrated it airspace over the Golan Heights. Tuesday’s incident was the most serious incident to take place on the strategic plateau since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Army radio said it was apparently a MiG-21 fighter jet which was shot down by a surface-to-air Patriot missile, with the wreckage landing on the Syrian-controlled side of the plateau. There was no official confirmation over the type of the aircraft. Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of Syria’s civil war raging across the border, but its leaders appear increasingly nervous about the possibility of al-Qaeda-linked fighters occupying the Golan’s high ground over northern Israel.”
3. SOFA in Afghanistan. DefenseOne.Com’s Stephanie Gaskell reports, “After nearly six months in election limbo, Afghanistan has new president. Now he just needs to sign a bilateral security agreement and a force of nearly 14,000 U.S. and NATO troops will be able to stay beyond the formal conclusion of the war at the end of this year. . . . Ghani’s challenger, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, will share power as chief executive officer. An inauguration ceremony is expected next week. But no date has been set to sign the agreement, according to a military official with the International Security Assistance Forces in Kabul.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Better Buying Power 3.0. DefenseNews.Com Paul McLeary and Vago Muradian interview the Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics: “Frank Kendall, US defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, oversees hundreds of billions of dollars in procurement programs. On Sept. 19 he unveiled the first draft of his Better Buying Power 3.0 initiative that seeks to push the Pentagon and industry to collaborate more on projecting future needs and meeting them through closer collaboration. The new guidance implements Better Buying Power initiatives developed by Kendall and his predecessor, Ashton Carter.”
2. Joint Light Tactical Vehicles on the block. DoDBuzz.Com’s Brendan McGarry reports, “[T]he Joint Light Tactical Vehicle [is] a light-duty armored truck designed to replace the iconic Humvee. The Army aims to purchase about 49,000 of the vehicles to replace about a third of its Cold War-era Humvee fleet, while the Marine Corps plans to acquire about 5,500 of them. Both services have pledged their commitment to the acquisition program despite automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. The Pentagon has estimated the effort to develop and build the vehicles at almost $23 billion, or about $400,000 per truck, according to a 2013 report from the Congressional Research Service. Leaders have maintained each vehicle will cost about $250,000.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Data localization and privacy. FierceGovernmentIT.Com’s Molly Bernhart Walker reports, “Data localization and ‘technological sovereignty’ movements have gathered strength in Europe and South America since the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs became public knowledge. But it’s a knee-jerk reaction to require that data reside within a country’s borders and it doesn’t necessarily ensure security or privacy . . . .”
2. Hack test on Healthcare.Gov. AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports, “The government’s own watchdogs tried to hack into HealthCare.gov earlier this year and found what they termed a critical vulnerability – but also came away with respect for some of the health insurance site’s security features. Those are among the conclusions of a report being released Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Department inspector general, who focuses on health care fraud.”
3. Honing programming skills. Wired.Com’s Klint Finley reports, “Wanna be a programmer? That shouldn’t be too hard. . . . But if want to be a serious programmer, that’s another matter. You’ll need hundreds of hours of practice—and countless mistakes—to learn the trade. It’s often more of an art than a skill—where the best way of doing something isn’t the most obvious way. You can’t really learn to craft code that’s both clear and efficient without some serious trial and error, not to mention an awful lot of feedback on what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. You didn’t say please: “House Republicans are steaming that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner decided to talk to POLITICO for a profile on her life after twice taking the Fifth before Congress. Lerner refused to answer questions before House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa’s panel and quickly became the center of the tea party targeting saga that erupted 16 months ago. The former head of the IRS tax exempt unit declared her innocence in the interview, as she has maintained throughout, but would not discuss her time at the IRS in the run-up to the firestorm. Republicans, who voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress and held countless hearings blasting her for refusing to speak, said it was unfair for her to speak to media and not lawmakers.”
2. Congressional kegger: “Sen. Mary Landrieu doesn’t think much of critics who jumped on her for helping a supporter perform a keg stand, which was photographed and went viral online. ‘They need to get a sense of humor, and they need to get a life—it’s just the way we roll,’ the Louisiana Democrat said Monday at a Baton Rouge press conference, as quoted by Roll Call. She added that the supporter was a 28-year-old graduate of Louisiana State University, where she was campaigning, with a master’s degree in business.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “A deal to glue a divided Afghanistan.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Despite its flawed election, Afghanistan will have its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power with Ghani becoming president. But with an election for parliament only two years away, this unity government must race to operate with openness and honesty. Such qualities are tight glue for any nation.”
2. “Is this the death of democracy in Afghanistan?” Aljazeera.Com contributor Helena Malikyar argues, “Afghanistan’s international donors have another chance to turn their inevitable long-term engagement into a meaningful investment. The world must begin to invest, in earnest, in the democratisation of Afghanistan and move away from patchwork interventions to maintain a superficial stability.”
3. “If There Is ‘No Military Solution’ in Iraq, Where Is the Non-Military Solution?”DefenseOne.Com contributor Sarah Chayes argues, “In the end, in order for the intelligence community, the secretary of state and others to devise [a non-military solution] and throw themselves into it, the president needs to demand it and then lay it out for the American people. But in spite of his own recognition that absent ‘a strategy that reduces the wellsprings of extremism, a perpetual war…will prove self-defeating,’ Obama has yet to do so.”
