Friday finale & This time last year . . . .
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Cyberattack: KeyPoint Government Solutions. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “Another background investigation firm is the victim of cyber attack, putting more personal data of federal employees and contractors at risk. KeyPoint Government Solutions suffered a breach of its systems, according to the Washington Post report. The Office of Personnel Management didn’t offer details of the breach but they did say they were notifying 48,439 federal workers that their personal information may have been stolen.”
2. Weed and rules. Contributor Sean Bigley explains, “Deep within the spending bill passed by Congress this weekend is a remarkable . . . provision: an effective end to the federal ban on medical marijuana. Under the provision, states where medical marijuana is legal are now immune to federal raids of marijuana dispensaries. . . . The pro-legalization crowd is taking a victory lap over this new measure, but security clearance holders need to dig a bit deeper into what the new law actually does and does not accomplish. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Targeting Taliban. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe reports, “Raids, drone strikes and other military operations designed to capture or kill ‘high-value targets’ in the Taliban have had little overall effect in part because of the militant group’s ability to replace leaders, according to a 2009 CIA analysis newly released by WikiLeaks. . . . The report also examined how the issue of targeting high-value enemy figures played out in other conflicts, including in Northern Ireland and Algeria.” See also, “U.S. air strikes kill three top ISIS leaders.”
2. Fighting ISIS, an ultimate win. Defense Media Activity’s Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr. reports, “The strength of the 40-plus nation coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ultimately will defeat the terrorist group, the commander of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve said . . . . The coalition will continue to be persistent in striking the terrorists at every possible opportunity . . . while working to deny them safe haven and sanctuary. This . . . will be done through precision strikes and by enabling partners to expand their footprint and influence and to remove the opportunities for the terrorists to manipulate youth, harm citizens, deny basic services and recruit fighters.” See also from Rudaw.Net, “ISIS defeated, surrounded in many areas” and “Islamic State retakes Baiji after Iraqi forces withdraw.”
3. Squeezing Putin to death. Reuters’ Alastair McDonald reports from Brussels, “European Union leaders warned Moscow they were ready exercise their combined muscle over the long haul in a confrontation with an economically wounded Russia if President Vladimir Putin refused to pull back from Ukraine. . . . In comments that were part warning to Russia, where falling oil prices and Western trade sanctions have brought financial havoc, and part exhortation to an EU bloc divided between hawks and doves, [former Polish premier Donald] Tusk said a united European front was vital.” See also, “Putin: Russia just has to tough out economic storm.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. RFP for lasers and rockets: Navy’s drone MQ-8 Fire Scout. BreakingDefense.Com’s Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. reports, “They get so big, so fast. Once a child-sized helicopter that could just collect reconnaissance imagery, the Navy’s MQ-8 Fire Scout has graduated to a bigger airframe that will also carry a maritime search radar and laser-guided rockets. The tentative plan is to kick off the competition for the new radar with a formal Request For Proposals in the first quarter of (calendar year) 2015 . . . . The hope is to have the C-model ready for a real-world deployment — what’s called Initial Operational Capability (IOC) — by late 2016 . . . .” See also, “USN studies radars and rockets for Fire Scout UAVs” and “Navy to Start Competition for New Fire Scout Radar.”
2. Ground robot acquisition waning. NationalDefenseMagazine.Org’s Sarah Sicard reports, “With tightening budgets and one high-profile program delayed by several years, ground robot acquisitions are coming under increasing congressional scrutiny, officials who oversee procurement of the technology said recently. ‘We need to deliver affordable programs,’ Tom Dee, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy, said . . . . The Navy is the executive agent in charge of procuring explosive ordnance disposal robots. After seven years of effort, it has failed to field replacements for its legacy systems and the commercial-off-the-shelf machines sped into the field during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Air Force officials announced in the summer of 2014 that they had run out of patience and were partially withdrawing from the program.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. CIA techniques: who knew what, when, and why. NPR.Org’s Eyder Peralta reports, “One of the big, controversial questions to emerge from the Senate investigation into the CIA interrogation of terrorism suspects is this: Did President George W. Bush know the specific techniques used by the CIA to interrogate terrorism suspects? Accounts differ. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report says one thing; Bush himself says another in his memoir. To try to keep it simple, we’ll explore what happened in two crucial years—2002 and 2006.” See also, “Hillary Clinton: Pass laws forbidding torture” and “Russia and the U.S. Play the Blame Game.”
2. Robotic insect buzz. DefenseSystems.Com’s Kevin McCaney reports, “The idea of being a ‘fly on the wall’ in an enemy headquarters has been a goal of intelligence agencies for as long as there have been intelligence agencies. But other than being able to insert a double-agent or managing to plant listening devices, the options are limited. The Army Research Laboratory is working on another possibility: an actual fly, or rather a robotic one, which could mimic the insect’s movements while transmitting surveillance data. . . . But there’s still a long way to go—Polcawich estimates 10 to 15 years—before robotic insects are a reality. The smaller the robotic insect, the bigger the challenge.”
3. N. Korea’s cyberattack—practice makes perfect. Reuters’ Ju-Min Park and Jack Kim report from Seoul, “The hacking attack on Sony Pictures may have been a practice run for North Korea’s elite cyber-army in a long-term goal of being able to cripple telecoms and energy grids in rival nations, defectors from the isolated state said. Non-conventional capabilities like cyber-warfare and nuclear technology are the weapons of choice for the impoverished North to match its main enemies . . . . Obsessed by fears that it will be over-run by South Korea and the United States, North Korea has been working for years on the ability to disrupt or destroy computer systems that control vital public services such as telecoms and energy utilities, according to one defector.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Naughty ‘n’ nice: “It’s been a very busy year in America’s capital, and once again Santa has been making his list and checking it twice, deciding which of our favorite politico types have been naughty and which have been nice. One of those lists is markedly longer than the other. And remember: Santa is nonpartisan. He has no agenda except the truth–kind of like Lois Lerner. Now to the list. . . .”
2. Thanks but no thanks: “A Tea Party group wants Rep. Trey Gowdy to challenge John Boehner for the Speaker’s gavel. A fellow Republican says Gowdy would certainly have his support. But the conservative South Carolina Republican says he has no interest in becoming Speaker when lawmakers cast their vote on the House floor next month. . . . This past spring, Boehner (R-Ohio) appointed Gowdy as chairman of the special House committee that’s investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. And Boehner recently said Gowdy would remain in that high-profile post in the 114th Congress as well. Still, that hasn’t soothed the Tea Party Leadership Fund, which launched an online campaign to draft Gowdy for Speaker.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Vladimir Putin in jeopardy on all sides as Russia’s economy stumbles.” Reuters contributor John Lloyd argues, “Putin has very little time. The long good stretch of Russian growth and geopolitical strut is over, and a nerve-grinding period of adjustment and appeals for belt tightening and patience is the best he can hope for. The worst is a bitter internal struggle over a financial abyss—a nightmare for Russia, for Europe and the world.”
2. “North Korea’s intimidation of Hollywood cannot go unanswered.” Washington Post’s Editorial Board argues, “The nation would not tolerate a ballistic missile landing in a movie lot; how should it respond to a cybermissile and a direct threat of violence? President Obama has signed a directive laying out criteria for the use of U.S. cyberforces for offense and defense. We hope he is reading it anew today.”
3. “When children stand up to terror.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board advises, “President Obama will visit India in late January while his top officials will hold strategic talks with Pakistan at the same time. Given how this tragedy has spawned a moment of goodwill between the two countries, he can help them to continue saying ‘Enough!’ to terror. That would be a big step toward pushing the rest of the world to come together on an antiterrorism treaty.” See also, “Another Gruesome Attack in the Name of Religion.”
4. “A&D Must Disrupt Its R&D Funding Routine.” AviationWeek.Com contributor Antoine Gelain argues, “A&D industry players should . . . not tie their future to the ability of institutional customers to fund their R&D. Instead, they should take the initiative and approach their innovation agenda more like startups do in the Silicon Valley, by being long on vision and talent and short on time and budget. If they manage to do that, then commercially driven innovation will become an opportunity rather than a threat.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Light up!
3. Cold water.
