Monday Mourning & Congratulations American Pharoah [sic]
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Profile photo faux pas. Editor Lindy Kyzer advises, “A recruiter recently told me that the first thing she looks for is a candidate’s resume and credentials. But before she places a phone call, she always looks for a profile photo. It’s not the first impression a candidate applying online makes, but it’s a critically important one. If you know a profile photo is important, you should also know that not all profile photos are created equally. Here are five profile photo faux-pas to avoid. . . .”
Unscrewing your SF-86 delays. Also from Editor Lindy Kyzer, “If you’re completing your SF-86 for the first time or up for reinvestigation, keep these tips in mind. Don’t let small details turn into months-long delays in the adjudication of your background investigation.” See also, “How to Prepare for a Security Clearance Background Investigation.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
G7 Summit: Team Obama-Merkel. BBC reports, “President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks as the G7 summit of economic powers began in southern Germany. Moscow is the target of European Union and US sanctions over its role in support of Ukrainian rebels. Russia has been excluded from what was previously known as the G8, since the annexation of Crimea last year. The West accuses Russia of sending military forces into eastern Ukraine to help the rebels – a charge echoed by analysts. Moscow denies this, saying any Russian soldiers there are volunteers. As he arrived in the Bavarian Alps, Mr Obama said G7 leaders would discuss ‘standing up to Russian aggression’ in Ukraine.” See also, “Mideast problems command Obama attention on summit sidelines” and “Why some former East bloc countries are wooing Putin.”
Drone fight in the Federally Administered Tribal Area. The Long War Journal’s Bill Roggio reports, “The US killed nine Afghan Taliban fighters in an drone strike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan today. The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or Reapers fired two missiles at a compound in the village of Zoya Saidgai in North Waziristan Shawal Valley, killing nine jihadists. . . . The US has stepped up attacks in the Shawal Valley. Of the eight strikes that have taken place so far this year, five were in the Shawal Valley. No senior jihadists are reported to have been killed in the five strikes in the Shawal Valley. Last year, the US launched 24 airstrikes inside Pakistan; 19 of those strikes took place in North Waziristan, four in South Waziristan, and one in Kurram.”
Rusting Hornets, an aging fleet. DoD Buzz’s Brendan McGarry reports, “The extent of corrosion damage on the U.S. military’s F/A-18 Hornet fleet is requiring more maintenance than expected . . . . The Navy and Marine Corps are flying the legacy fighter jets longer than planned — 10,000 flight hours, up from 6,000 flight hours — because of delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, according to Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, the service’s director of air warfare. As a result, the 1980s-era, twin-engine aircraft is experiencing a high degree of wear and tear, including corrosion.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Tactical cyber defense. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. military researchers are asking three industry and university cyber security teams to strengthen military battlefield tactical networks by developing new cyber-defense capabilities in computers and networking equipment located at the forward edge of the battlefield. . . . The contractors for this program are Applied Communication Sciences (ACS) in Basking Ridge, N.J., with partners Apogee Research LLC in Arlington, Va., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas; Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Mass.; and University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.”
Army’s aid-droppable vehicle search. Breaking Defense’s Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. reports, “Later today, eight contractors — the full list is secret — will deliver their candidates for the Army’s new Light Reconnaissance Vehicle at Fort Benning, Ga. A lightly armed and armored scout car, LRV is the second in a triad of technologically modest but tactically revolutionary Army projects so new they’re not officially even ‘programs’ yet. The other two are a moderately well-armed and armored light tank, the Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle, and an unarmed, unarmored off-road troop transport, the Ultra-Light Combat Vehicle. (The Army is now renaming ULCV the Ground Mobility Vehicle).”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Robot winners. Defense Media Activity’s Cheryl Pellerin reports, “A robot from South Korea took first prize and two American robots took second and third prizes here yesterday in the two-day robotic challenge finals held by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Twenty-three human-robot teams participating in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, or DRC, finals competed for $3.5 million in prizes, working to get through eight tasks in an hour, under their own onboard power and with severely degraded communications between robot and operator. A dozen U.S. teams and 11 from Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Hong Kong competed in the outdoor competition.” See also, “Winners of DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals announced.”
Crypto-tech: a dark place for terrorists. Venture Beat’s Rob Price reports, “Encryption is creating “dark spaces” that are aiding ISIS and other terrorist organizations, the FBI has warned — even as Apple and Facebook reaffirm their strong support for the technology. . . . Strong encryption has become a contentious subject recently. The term refers to messages or data masked in such a way that it is impossible to understand unless you have the correct key to decrypt it — even if you have a warrant. Encryption can help protect people protect their communications online, but authorities fear that it puts the communications of criminals out of their reach.”
Lasers coming of age. Defense Systems’ George Leopold reports, “Among the emerging components of the Defense Innovation Initiative launched late last year is a concerted push to develop directed-energy weapons, including high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves. As a number of test platforms are fielded, including land- and sea-based platforms like the anti-drone laser the Navy deployed in the Persian Gulf last year, military planners are attempting to move beyond high-profile failures of the past, most notably high-energy lasers for missile defense. According to a recent study on direct-energy weapons by the Center for a New American Security, ‘despite resource levels that are inadequate to fully exploit the potential of directed-energy weapons, there is substantial and growing evidence that laser and microwave weapon systems are finally coming of age for battlefield use.’”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Hindsight’s 20/200. “Dennis Hastert’s former House colleagues say the emergence of sexual abuse allegations against him has been jarring, at odds with a reason they anointed him speaker in the late 1990s — his squeaky-clean reputation. Former Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., a top GOP vote-counter when Hastert rose from obscurity during a chaotic December 1998, said Friday that Republicans turned to him partly because ‘there wasn’t any inkling of anything’ hidden in his past.”
Weekend for Bernie. “Bernie Sanders scored 41 percent in a straw poll vote at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention this weekend — finishing a close second to Hillary Clinton, who won 49 percent. The Vermont senator received 208 of 511 delegate votes at the state convention in Milwaukee on Saturday, while Clinton won votes from 252 of the delegates, leaving her just short of a majority. Both Vice President Joe Biden and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who announced his candidacy late last month, received 3 percent of the vote.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“Hacked federal personnel files could turn employees into foreign spies.” Reuters contributor Peter Van Buren reports, “So much of what a foreign intelligence service needs to know to create those relationships and identify those vulnerabilities is in the hacked files, neatly typed and in alphabetical order. Never mind the huff and puff you’ll be hearing about identity theft, phishing and credit reports. National security is why this hack is a big, big deal.”
“The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists.” Defense One contributor Barry Posen argues, “The ingredients exist in the region for a loose ring of containment around ISIS. That ring strengthens when ISIS pushes into areas populated by other ethnic or religious groups. The U.S. should buck up these defenders with weapons, money, intelligence, and air strikes, when they are under pressure, but should be under no illusions about their capability to defeat ISIS, re-occupy huge swathes of Iraq, and bring those areas into a cohesive Iraqi political community.”
“The Separation Strategy on Iraq.” The New York Times contributor David Brooks argues, “America’s goal should be to help lower sectarian temperatures so that eventually a moderating dynamic replaces the current brutalizing one.”
“Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance.” The New York Times contributor Edward Snowden argues, “Though we have come a long way, the right to privacy—the foundation of the freedoms enshrined in the United States Bill of Rights—remains under threat.”
