FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
You can lose the house and keep the clearance. Contributor Sean Bigley writes, “As with any debt, the government has two concerns regarding the security clearance holder: (1) is the debt evidence of a lack of financial responsibility that would translate to a similar, carefree attitude about protecting classified information; and (2) does the debt increase the clearance holder’s vulnerability to bribery or coercion?”
China loves LinkedIn. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “A new website that can best be described as a privacy and national security disaster is culling LinkedIn and Google to create a database of professionals with access to America’s secrets.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
A limited engagement. Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson reports, “U.S. military pilots carrying out the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over what they say are heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets…A former U.S. Air Force general who led air campaigns over Iraq and Afghanistan also said today’s pilots are being “micromanaged,” and the process for ordering strikes is slow — squandering valuable minutes and making it possible for the enemy to escape.”
A savage war. CNN’s Tim Lister reports on why ISIS is winning, “There is another psychological dimension to ISIS’ threat: enemy soldiers know that they will be killed in cold blood if captured — probably in gruesome fashion. At Tikrit last June, around Hit earlier this year, in Palmyra in Syria last week, enemy soldiers and other adversaries have been mercilessly dealt with. Summary executions — en masse — are part of its mode of warfare. After seizing a Syrian military base near Raqqa last July, it beheaded dozens of Syrian soldiers, posting videos of the barbarity.”
I was hoping for flowers. The Hill’s Kristina Wong reports, “The Defense Department accidentally sent live anthrax to labs in nine states and South Korea and is working with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to contain it, the Pentagon said Wednesday. “The Department of Defense is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their investigation of the inadvertent transfer of samples containing live Bacillus anthracis, also known as anthrax, from a DoD lab in Dugway, Utah, to labs in nine states,” said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Uncle Sam opens the doors to Best Buy. FedNewsRadio’s Jared Serbu reports, “From the perspective of federal technology companies, there’s a lot to like in this year’s House and Senate Defense authorization bills. Indeed, a leading industry group’s main complaint is that the acquisition reforms in the legislation only apply to DoD — not the rest of the government.”
Marine intelligence. MarketWatch.com reports on the U.S. Marin Corps Program Manager Marine Intelligence (PMMI) awarding of an intelligence interoperability contract. “Under the task order, ManTech will provide expertise in research, engineering, science, technology, development, and integration to support PMMI’s mission to provide enhanced integrated and interoperable intelligence capabilities to Marine Corps operating forces. The majority of the work will be performed at ManTech facilities adjacent to the Quantico Marine Corps Base.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
More jobs could be coming to SpaceX’ Texas facility. The Hill’s Kristina Wong reports, “The Air Force cleared a second company to conduct military space launches this week, ending a monopoly held by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint Lockheed Martin and Boeing venture. SpaceX became the second provider of launches into space for national security payloads on Tuesday, after a two-year Air Force certification process. ”
Because sharing is caring. NextGov’s Mohana Ravindranath reports, “A February executive order mandated that DHS encourage the formation of so-called Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations. Members should be from both the public and private sectors and grouped by industry, region, or other common factors. These groups are meant to be more expansive than the existing Information Sharing and Analysis Centers, mostly private sector groups that share information along sector-lines, such as financial services or energy, according to DHS. DHS now wants comments on the formation of the new organizations…”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Mixing business and pleasure. Politico‘s Kenneth P. Vogel reports, “Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant of Bill and Hillary Clinton, earned about $10,000 a month as a full-time employee of the Clinton Foundation while he was providing unsolicited intelligence on Libya to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources familiar with the arrangement.”
Congress meets Vegas. Roll Call’s Steven Dennis reports “A senior administration official warned Congress would be playing “national security Russian roulette” if they fail to pass a Patriot Act extension by Sunday night. Several senior administration officials said the various expiring surveillance authorities have proven useful in terrorist investigations far beyond the bulk telephone metadata program that has garnered the most controversy.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
Everybody loses. The Daily Beast’s Michael Weiss writes, “The Obama administration is being slammed from all sides for its failing strategy against ISIS—and rightly so. But amid all the scorn, one question has yet to be asked about the resiliency of the terror army, which, actually goes to the heart of its decade-old war doctrine. Namely: does ISIS actually win even when it loses? This isn’t an academic issue. America’s allies in the ISIS war are gearing up for a major counteroffensive against the extremist group. That assault that could very well play right into ISIS’ hands.”
The government’s big data problem. Jay Bookman writes in the Atlantic Journal Constitution, “The NSA has been collecting significant data on every one of us, every day, tracking with whom we communicate. And the irony is, the government itself admits that the bulk-collection effort exposed by Snowden has played no role in stopping terrorist attacks. The logic driving that program seems to be that since we have the technology to do something, we should do it, with little regard to its effectiveness or even legality.”
THE FUNNIES
Because cartoons are only free speech if they get published in The New Yorker.
