FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Recourse: unprofessional background checks. Contributor and barrister Sean Bigley advises, “The vast majority of federal background investigators are good people trying to do a tough job. Nonetheless, the stories I typically hear are about the few bad apples. And believe me: I’ve heard some real jaw-droppers. . . . If you have been the victim of a loose-lipped or otherwise unprofessional investigator, you fortunately do have some recourse. Consider filing a complaint with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) . . . . If your investigation was performed by another agency (e.g. FBI, DHS, etc.), contact that agency’s security office. . . .”
2. Transition time? Editor Lindy Kyzer offers, “No job is paradise. It’s called work for a reason. There are going to be bad days, bad months, and in some industries, months-long seasons of ‘ugh!’ But even in the midst of a bad day you should be able to come up with something you enjoy. Not something you tolerate, but something about your work that literally brings a smile to your face, whether it’s an encouraging co-worker, a particular client or project, or task you take value in.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Killed: Al Shabaab’s Adan Garar. Defense One’s Gordon Lubold reports, “American forces used a drone to target and kill a member of the al-Shabaab terrorist network who was tied to the terrorist attack at a luxury shopping mall in Kenya two years ago . . . . An American drone killed Adan Garar, described by defense officials as a member of al-Shabaab’s intelligence and security wing, in Dinsoor, in south-central Somalia, on March 12.”
2. Delays in Afghanistan. Reuters’ Arshad Mohammed, David Rhode, and Phil Stewart report, “The U.S. military bases in Kandahar and Jalalabad are likely to remain open beyond the end of 2015, a senior U.S. official said, as Washington considers slowing its military pull-out from Afghanistan to help the new government fight the Taliban. The anticipated policy reversal reflects the U.S. embrace of Afghanistan’s new and more cooperative president, Ashraf Ghani, and a desire to avoid the kind of collapse of local security forces that occurred in Iraq after the U.S. pull-out there.” See also, “U.S. advisers see progress in Afghan police training.”
3. Tunisia attack. AP’s Jamey Keaten and Bouazza Ben Bouazza report, “One of the two gunmen who killed 19 tourists and others at a prominent Tunisian museum was known to intelligence services, Tunisia’s prime minister said Thursday. But no formal links to a particular terrorist group have been established in an attack that threatens the country’s fledgling democracy . . . . Prime Minister Habib Essid said Tunisia is working with other countries to learn more about the attackers, identified as Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui. They were killed by security services in a raid after they attacked the museum.”
4. The future of the Army. Defense News’ Joe Gould reports, “Members of a congressionally mandated commission on the future of the US Army will include a former commander of US forces in Korea, a former top enlisted official and a former Pentagon comptroller. . . . The panel is to study the structure of the Army to determine the necessary size; force mixture of the active component and reserve component; missions; force generation policies, including assumptions behind those policies; and how the structure should be modified to fit mission requirements and available resources.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. $75 million for F-16 active electronically scanned array radar. Defense News’ Brian Everstine reports, “The Air Force has budgeted $25 million to begin development of new radars for its F-16 fleet, a need especially felt by the service’s homeland defense mission. . . . The service earlier this month filed a ‘sources sought’ notice to contractors for information on the development of an active electronically scanned array radar for the F-16. Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told lawmakers on Tuesday that the service has budgeted money to begin development, and would like to spend about $75 million “if we can find the funding” to build the radars for the entire F-16 fleet.”
2. Navy shipyards sinking. Breaking Defense’s Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. reports, “’About half’ of the shipyards building US Navy vessels are ‘one contract away’ from leaving the business, the Navy’s top procurement officer told the Senate . . . . After decades of decline due to foreign competition, the US shipbuilding industry has become so fragile and so dependent on government contracts that the Navy is taking unprecedented and sometimes bizarre measures to share out the work. ‘We have several shipyards in our industrial base that are in a very fragile position,’ Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on seapower . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Microsoft’s biometric logins (what took so long?). Christian Science Monitor’s Jeff Ward-Bailey reports, “Instead of a username and password, Windows 10 will let you log in with your finger or your face. Microsoft unveiled Windows Hello, a biometric login service, promising that it will appear in Windows 10 when the new operating system debuts later this year. Users of Windows 10 phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers will be able to scan their faces, eyes, or fingerprints to use for identity verification on those devices.”
2. Cyber threat analysis. Fierce Government IT’s Stephanie Kanowitz reports, “The abilities of governments to protect citizens are dwindling as cyber threats increase and jurisdiction over such matters lacks clarity, according to the authors of a new book. . . . The book challenges basic premises. First, the rhetoric around liberty, security and privacy is potentially incorrect if the state cannot keep its promise of safety . . . . . Second, government uses the private sector to aid in protection efforts, and the mechanisms they’re using, such as surveillance, are themselves pervasive. Third, balance between liberty and security might not be possible, despite conventional wisdom.”
3. ISIS on Twitter: the social media fight. Defense One contributor Patrick Tucker reports, “For the Islamic State, or ISIS, the social media site Twitter, with its 2.7 million users, remains core to the group’s recruiting, messaging and communication. . . . [Twitter] has achieved considerable success in increasing the organizational costs to ISIS of operating on Twitter. It also revealed a few simple steps that Twitter can take right now to make online life much harder for ISIS.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Regrets: “If he could do it all over again, President Obama said Wednesday that he would have closed the Guantanamo Bay detention facility on his ‘first day’ in office. ‘I didn’t because at that time, as you’ll recall, we had a bipartisan agreement that it should be closed,’ he said . . . . ‘I thought we had enough consensus there to do it in a more deliberate fashion. But the politics of it got tough and some people got scared by the rhetoric.’ Obama’s inability to close the prison facility in Cuba is arguably his greatest unmet promise since taking office in 2008. The White House has acknowledged mulling a possible executive action for shuttering the prison but has not presented a plan to do so.”
2. GOP: Netan-yaaaaahoooooo! “Congressional Republicans are confident Benjamin Netanyahu’s return as Israeli prime minister will help them ratchet up pressure on President Barack Obama to abandon his current round of nuclear weapons talks with Iran. . . . And with Netanyahu’s successful reelection, Republicans can claim his congressional address helped him at the polls, rather than hurting his chances as some left-leaning foes suggested it would.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “The nonmilitary victories in Iraq’s battle of Tikrit.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “When Abadi became leader last year, the country’s democracy was renewed and Iraqis may have felt a growing spirit of equality, an essential ingredient for any nation’s identity.”
2. “Vladimir Putin’s Russia is treading water in a sea of red ink.” Reuters contributor William E. Pomeranz argues, “The annexation of Crimea clearly distracted people from their economic problems. The ‘liberation’ of Debaltseve did not. Putin can no longer push his domestic challenges to the side. Instead, they are increasingly becoming his greatest source of vulnerability.” See also, “As tensions with Russia spiral, where is NATO?”
3. “How America’s Drones Can Defeat ISIS.” Defense One contributors Arthur Herman and William Luti argue, “Far from being a Jules Verne fantasy, the technology for such a campaign is all but ready to deploy. By using it, Carter could guarantee the defeat of ISIS and save thousands of lives. By giving UAV’s the mission of defeating a conventional armed enemy on the battlefield for the first time in history, he will also change the face of modern war.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Nice play.
3. Cheers.
