Tuesday’s Top Ten

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

Hiring right. Contributor Jillian Hamilton explains, “The main reason a candidate leaves a company is not because of skill issues, but because of a bad personality fit. So, we know that it’s helpful to assess personality, but is personality testing the answer? Some have success in this area, many others don’t. Personality testing can take a wrong turn in many ways.”

Smooth follow through. Editor Lindy Kyzer advises, “Even if you participated in a sit down interview with the company’s hiring manager, there’s a good chance you were one of several such interviews that day. Your follow-up email should give specific hints as to what was discussed previously. Try to add a personal touch about the recruiter or interviewer. If they mentioned attending a baseball game with their family later in the day, ask them how it went . . . . Don’t overdo it though. There is a thin, somewhat difficult to navigate line between personable and too personal.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

Combat Camp. AP’s Vivian Salama and Qassim Abdul-Zahra report, “A quiet middle-class Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad was transformed recently into a mini-boot camp, training teenagers for battle against the Islamic State group. The Shiite boys and young men ran through its normally placid streets carrying out mock exercises for urban warfare since the toughest battles against the Sunni extremists are likely to involve street fighting. . . . In cities from Baghdad to Basra, summer camps set up by the Popular Mobilization Forces, Iraq’s largest militia umbrella group, are training teens and boys as young as middle school age after the country’s top Shiite cleric issued an edict calling on students to use their school vacations to prepare for battle if they are needed.”

Conflicting priorities for Syria. Christian Science Monitor’s Dan Murphy reports, “The United States and Turkey, who are NATO allies, appear to finally be on the same page when it comes to fighting the self-styled Islamic State. . . . But appearances can be deceiving. Turkey continues to see the removal of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad from power as a greater priority than fighting IS. It’s also alarmed at the emerging Kurdish-governed enclave in Syria, mirroring the de facto independent status of Iraq’s Kurds and acting as a beacon to Turkey’s own restive Kurdish minority.” See also, “Turkey, U.S. to create ‘ISIS-free zone’ along Syria-Turkey border.”

Joint Strike Fighter’s ready. DoD Buzz’s Brendan McGarry reports, “The U.S. Marine Corps is expected to announce the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is ready to fly initial operations in the near future . . . . Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the service’s deputy commandant for aviation, said the F-35B jump-jet version of the Lockheed Martin Corp.-made plane may ‘soon’ reach the milestone, known as initial operational capability in military parlance. . . . The Corps plans to buy a total of 420 of the fifth-generation stealth fighters, including 353 F-35Bs, the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) versions that fly like a plane and land like a helicopter, and 67 F-35C variants designed for use aboard aircraft carriers . . . .” See also, “Marines File Paperwork for F-35 IOC; Sign-Off ‘Soon.’

CONTRACT WATCH

Raytheon cranking out $180 million in missiles. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Precision-guided munitions experts at Raytheon Co. will provide the U.S. and Saudi Arabian military forces with more than 500 hard-target-penetrating and data-linked medium-range precision-guided target-penetrating missiles under terms of a $180.4 million contract announced Friday. Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Raytheon Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., to produce 555 full-rate-production lot 11 AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) systems.”

Show (don’t tell) solicitation. Federal Times’ Aaron Boyd reports, “In looking for companies to provide agile development services, the innovative arm of the General Services Administration opted for a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach to the solicitation process. Rather than ask companies for reams of paper promising agile capabilities, 18F set up a proving ground: a two-week test sprint where the only real measurement of success was a working product. . . . Rather than issuing a complicated RFP with a long list of requirements, 18F guided vendors to the Digital Playbook created by the U.S. Digital Service — a set of ‘plays’ intended to focus procurement and development on usability and customer experience.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

Backdoor business. Defense One’s Kedar Pavgi reports, “As top national-security officials continued to argue that U.S. companies should build government-only backdoors into encrypted devices and services, an unexpected voice rose in opposition. . . . [former Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff said weakening encryption would increase the vulnerabilities for ordinary users, force ‘bad people’ into using technology that would be even harder to decrypt, and could become a strategic vulnerability for the United States, especially if Russia and China demanded backdoor access.”

Hacking air-gaps. Wired’s Kim Zetter reports, “The most sensitive work environments, like nuclear power plants, demand the strictest security. Usually this is achieved by air-gapping computers from the Internet and preventing workers from inserting USB sticks into computers. . . . But researchers in Israel have devised a new method for stealing data that bypasses all of these protections—using the GSM network, electromagnetic waves and a basic low-end mobile phone. The researchers are calling the finding a ‘breakthrough’ in extracting data from air-gapped systems and say it serves as a warning to defense companies and others that they need to immediately ‘change their security guidelines and prohibit employees and visitors from bringing devices capable of intercepting RF signals . . . .’”

Android vulnerabilities. Venture Beat’s Ruth Reader reports, “Researchers have found a vulnerability in Android devices that allows hackers to access a device remotely without the owner ever knowing it was compromised. The flaw affects roughly 95 percent of Android devices running operating system version 2.2 to 5.1 . . . . Using a person’s telephone number, hackers can send a media file via MMS that gives them entry into a device. What’s more, the owner of the device may never know. Hackers could conceivably send the trojan file while the device’s owner is sleeping, get access to their phone, and then delete any evidence the phone was hacked.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

Nothing personal. “When asked . . . whether or not he believes that the speech was an attack on a fellow Republican, Cruz said he would never ‘throw rocks’ at a member of his own party. Ronald Reagan famously refrained from attacking fellow GOP-ers, dubbing this policy his ‘eleventh commandment.’ Cruz has cited Reagan’s dictum in the past. ‘What I said about McConnell wasn’t attacking him personally,’ explained Cruz . . . .”

Hatch act. “Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Monday that presidential politicking is reaching a new level in the Senate. ‘I’ve never seen it quite like this,’ said Hatch, who is in his 38th year in the Senate. Four Republican senators are running for the presidency. In addition to Cruz and Paul, Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) hope to become their party’s standard-bearer. . . . In his Sunday floor speech, Hatch called for an end to senators using the Senate floor as a means of ‘advancing personal ambitions’ to ‘promote a personal campaign’ and ‘fundraise.’”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

Obama’s Unnecessary and Risky Foreign Policy Gamble.” Defense One contributor Leon Wieseltier argues, “We need to explore, with diplomatic daring, an American-sponsored alliance between Israel and the Sunni states, which are now experiencing an unprecedented convergence of interests.”

Turkey’s motives in its war on Islamic State.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “The Middle East often appears messy and hopeless. But sometimes events add to the larger cause of ensuring those who claim to worship a divine presence do not wage war to convert others. The big news is when an understanding of peace prevails. With the Iran nuclear deal and now Turkey’s decision to contain IS, such a peace could be a bit closer.”

The battle for Aden is a tipping point in Yemen’s war.” Reuters’ April Longley Alley and Peter Salisbury argue, “Yemen’s warring parties should take the battle for Aden as a sign to the off-ramp that Yemen so desperately needs. They should embrace an inclusive compromise negotiated in good faith with all parties that includes militia withdrawal from territory, a coalition government and, at a minimum, significant autonomy for the central and southern parts of the country.”

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.