FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Need for speed. Contributor Sean Bigley advises, “Absent the rare reckless idiot who actually deserves a citation, most people who receive citations are, in this author’s opinion, simply victims of state and local revenue-generating schemes. Fortunately, the federal government doesn’t care much if your shiny new sports car happened to catch Barney Fife’s eye. Security clearance holders need not report a traffic citation under $300. . . . while security clearance problems due to traffic citations are rare, they do happen occasionally.”
2. Speed networking. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “If you work in the Intelligence Community you know building connections is always hard. Even those with years inside a particular agency find it’s difficult to transition into the private sector or a new company. The information is need-to-know, and when it comes to networking, it’s easy to feel like an outsider trying to crack the secret code. . . . Enter the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s Speed Mentoring events. If you’ve heard of speed dating, you’re familiar with the concept. In a fast-paced and competitive hiring market, this fast-paced networking style can be particularly helpful.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Retaking Tikrit. AP’s Sinan Salaheddin reports from Baghdad, “Backed by allied Shiite and Sunni fighters, Iraqi security forces on Monday began a large-scale military operation to recapture Saddam Hussein’s hometown from the Islamic State extremist group, state TV said, a major step in a campaign to reclaim a large swath of territory in northern Iraq controlled by the militants.” See also, “Iraqi forces gear up for fierce assault on Tikrit.”
2. Mecca summit. The Atlantic’s Edward Delman reports, “The impetus for the conference in Mecca appears to have been the Saudi government’s belief that Islamist terrorism represents not only a threat to the security of the region, but also an existential threat to Islam itself. . . . The conference’s organizers cast their mission as developing a coordinated campaign to promote a moderate, peaceful vision of Islam that disavows the violence and apostasy that ISIS thrives on.” See also, “Double-layered veils and despair: women describe life under Isis.”
3. Equality in the academies. Christian Science Monitor’s Anna Mulrine reports, “For more than 30 years, many women have felt like party-crashers at the nation’s three service academies – the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy, and the Military Academy. And for more than 30 years, there has been a good reason for the mostly male student bodies: The academies have needed men to fill a certain number of combat jobs that women were not allowed, by law, to do. As early as next year, however, that barrier could disappear as women are set to be cleared for combat, with growing numbers of those jobs now already open to women. For the academies, the mounting question is: Will they follow suit?”
4. Afghanistan’s death militia. The Long War Journal Staff reports, “In late January 2015, dozens of armed men draped in the red, green, and black colors of the Afghan national flag, announced the formation of a new anti-Taliban and anti-Islamic State militia in Afghanistan’s northern province of Balkh. The militia, called ‘Marg’ – the word for death in the Dari language – boasted of having a troop strength of 5,000 armed men, although the number could not be independently corroborated and is most likely exaggerated.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. $148 million order for Northrop Grumman. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Navy aviation experts are ordering one advanced E-2D maritime patrol and air control aircraft from its manufacturer, Northrop Grumman Corp., under terms of a $148.3 million contract modification announced Friday. Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems segment in Melbourne, Fla., to provide one E-2D full rate production advanced Hawkeye radar surveillance aircraft.”
2. GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) RFP is out. Federal Times’ Michael S. Hardy reports, “The long-awaited draft request for proposals for the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract has been released. . . . The contract, slated to be the successor to Networx, will offer telecommunications services. Networx is scheduled to expire in 2017, but GSA is planning to extend it for three years until 2020 to allow agencies enough time to transition to EIS.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. FBI biometrics and Jihadi John. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “If the FBI has in fact identified Jihadi John, the victory was, in part, a product of the FBIs growing collaboration with the Department of Defense — a relationship that will grow much more cozy in the coming years, in the black cherry tree dotted hills of Clarksburg, West Virginia. About four hours away from Washington D.C. sits the headquarters of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division, or CJIS, which houses the bureau’s Biometric Center of Excellence. . . .”
2. NSA bulk collection extended. National Journal contributor Dustin Volz reports, “A federal court has again renewed an order allowing the National Security Agency to continue its bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, a decision that comes more than a year after President Obama pledged to end the controversial program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved this week a government request to keep the NSA’s mass surveillance of U.S. phone metadata operating until June 1, coinciding with when the legal authority for the program is set to expire in Congress.”
3. Quantum radar. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “A prototype quantum radar that has the potential to detect objects which are invisible to conventional systems has been developed by an international research team. The new breed of radar is a hybrid system that uses quantum correlation between microwave and optical beams to detect objects of low reflectivity such as cancer cells or aircraft with a stealth capability.”
4. Hyping the Hyperloop. Wired’s Alex Davies reports, “Hyperloop Transit Technologies, the company that wants to move the revolutionary transit system out of Elon Musk’s brain into the real world, plans to start construction on an actual hyperloop next year. OK, it will only run five miles around central California, and it won’t come anywhere close to the 800 mph Musk promised, but it’s a start. . . .”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Sequestration split: “Tensions within the GOP over the mandatory budget caps set by the Budget Control Act burst into the open [Friday]. The chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee repeatedly warned colleagues and the leaders of the Air Force this morning that they had no choice and must live within the Budget Control Act’s spending limits. Then, [Friday afternoon], Rep. Mac Thornberry, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee — and 30 of his fellow Republicans — wrote a 13-page letter to the House Budget committee chairman urging him to bust the budget caps in the interest of national security.” See also, “Thornberry’s Defense Budget Exceeds Pentagon’s Request by $16 Billion.”
2. Groundhog week: “On Friday, Congress faced a deadline to fund the Homeland Security Department before midnight. Democrats wanted a clean long-term funding bill, while Republicans wanted to block President Obama’s executive action on immigration or—at least—force the Senate to go to conference on a measure that might do so. Neither side could get what it wanted, so they punted for another week. Which means that this coming Friday, March 6, will present the Hill with the same set of bad choices and another shutdown deadline.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. Read it again: “What ISIS Really Wants.” The Atlantic contributor Graeme Wood argues, “Ideological tools may convince some potential converts that the group’s message is false, and military tools can limit its horrors. But for an organization as impervious to persuasion as the Islamic State, few measures short of these will matter, and the war may be a long one, even if it doesn’t last until the end of time.” For a counter, read “The Phony Islam of ISIS.”
2. “Russia’s Army of Avengers.” The New York Times contributor Masha Gessen argues, “The scariest thing about the murder of Boris Nemtsov is that he himself did not scare anyone. . . . The message was clear: People will be killed in the name of the Kremlin, in plain view of the Kremlin, against the backdrop of the Kremlin, simply for daring to oppose the Kremlin.”
3. “Lessons from the death of Russia’s Boris Nemtsov, a Putin foe.” Reuters’ John Lloyd argues, “The message is: we are set on a course which no internal opposition — Putin called such a force a ‘fifth column’ a little before Christmas — can withstand. We are determined to hold Crimea taken from Ukraine, and to ensure that Ukraine stays weak, and in our power.”
THE FUNNIES
1. It’s coming.
2. Envy economics.
3. Net neutrality.
