FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Background checks. Contributor Andrew Levine explains, “A background investigation is a fairly invasive process. An applicant consents to allow the government to pry into his or her life, often exposing deeply private and potentially embarrassing information. And at a time when so much information is maintained electronically, applicants are frequently concerned about what an investigator is entitled to access – be it emails, text messages and the like. To that end, applicants can breathe a little easier. The Fourth Amendment shields us from the government conducting warrantless searches . . . .”
Smart social networking. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “If you watch the news or spend any time online you can get the idea that social media use has reached 100 percent market saturation. Grandma’s are on Facebook now, after all, and Pew Research found that 6 in 10 seniors are now online and just under half are broadband adopters. Even as seniors continue to log on and join the conversation at growing rates, there’s one segment of the population that’s less likely to engage online – and that’s federal government employees and security clearance holders.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
The Ranger women: Griest & Haver. Defense One’s Gayle Tzemach Lemmon and Kevin Baron report, “Their names are 1st Lt. Kristen Griest and Capt. Shaye Haver. They are the first women to ever have completed the U.S. Army Ranger School and on Friday they will affix the ‘Ranger tab’ patch to their shoulders. According to the men who guided them through it, they are the real deal. . . . Soon, they may have company as women among the military elite. The Navy will open its famed training school for SEALs to women, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations.”
Shaping Iran: OPERATION AJAX. Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training explains, “On August 16, 1953, the Shah formally dismissed Mossadegh and nominated the CIA’s choice, General Fazlollah Zahedi, as Prime Minister. The decrees were dictated by Donald Wilber, the CIA architect of the plan. Soon, massive protests, engineered by the U.S., took place across the city to assist the coup. Mosaddegh was imprisoned for three years, then put under house arrest until his death until 1967. The coup not only encouraged the Shah’s descent towards dictatorship, it would later become a rallying cry in anti-U.S. protests during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Even now, Mossadegh is one of the most popular figures in Iranian history.”
Putin’s S-300s to Iran. Defense One’s contributor Clint Hinote reports, “The S-300 is a mobile surface-to-air missile defense system that couples powerful radars with high-speed, long-range missiles. It is capable of shooting down aircraft over a large area (depending on the variant, the lethal engagement zone could be larger than the state of New Jersey…with the detection/tracking zone much larger than that). In NATO, we refer to this missile system as the SA-10. We have studied it and trained to counter it for years. While we are not scared of it, we respect the S-300 for what it is: a very mobile, accurate, and lethal missile system.”
Osprey obsession. DoD Buzz’s Kris Osborn reports, “The Marine Corps is working on training V-22 Osprey crews faster in order to keep pace with the growing demand for the tilt-rotor aircraft . . . . With its ability to hover like a helicopter and fly like an airplane, cargo carrying capacity, 280-knot speed and 450 nautical mile combat radius, the Osprey is proving to be an indispensable asset for amphibious and expeditionary Corps units involved in training exercises, humanitarian missions and other operations. ‘We are producing them,’ Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, recently told reporters. ‘We can’t train the crews fast enough.’”
Happy 96th birthday, Afghanistan. Khaama Press’ Zabihullah Moosakhail remembers, “96 years from today Afghan nation led by King Amanullah Khan upraised and fought with the world’s biggest empire and acquired independence for Afghanistan. Amanullah Khan was the third son of Amir Habibullah Khan who rose to power after his father was assassinated on 20 February 1919 in Laghman province of eastern Afghanistan. Amir Amanullah Khan was the governor of Kabul, controller of the army and treasury during the kingdom of his father.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Iran contracts Russia for arms. Reuters reports, “Iran will sign a contract with Russia next week to buy four S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, the Iranian defense minister said on Tuesday, bringing Tehran closer to acquiring an advanced air defense capability. Russian state arms producer Almaz-Antey in June said it would supply Iran with a modernized version of the S-300, among the world’s most capable air defense systems, once a commercial agreement was reached. ‘The text of the contract is ready and our friends will go to Russia next week to sign the contract,’ Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying . . . .”
DARPA’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Avionics designers at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in Stratford, Conn., are moving forward with a U.S. defense research program to develop and insert new aircraft automation into existing planes and helicopters to enable operation with reduced onboard crew. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced a $9.8 million contract modification to Sikorsky on Tuesday to begin the second phase of the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Encrypting for the future. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “For the powerful quantum computers that will be developed in the future, cracking online bank account details and credit cards number will be a cinch. But a team of cryptographers is already working at future-proofing the privacy of today’s Internet communications from tomorrow’s powerful computers. The researchers have developed upgrades to the Internet’s core encryption protocol that will prevent quantum computer users from intercepting Internet communications.”
CISA up close. Wired’s Amie Stepanovich reports, “CISA creates what lawmakers are calling a voluntary program. It allows companies to choose to send certain swaths of information, which may include very personal information about users, to the government. This information is supposed to help the government prepare for and respond to certain cybersecurity threats, particularly the perennially worrisome ‘advanced persistent threat.’ Companies may choose to share information with any number of government agencies, including military agencies, but will receive a bonus reward in the form of protection against any legal liability if that information is shared directly to the Department of Homeland Security (which is then required to transmit the information in real time to agencies like the NSA anyway).”
Security bracelets. Venture Beat’s Mark Sullivan reports, “Your computer will recognize you in the future through your bracelet. Intel is keeping pace with the growing development of wearables for the workplace. At the Intel Developer Forum today, the company announced work on an ‘enterprise wearable’ that can authenticate a user to a computer, and even wake it up when the user comes near. Brian Krzanich, chief executive of Intel, showed the bracelet off at the IDF in San Francisco. He said it can make the process of logging in much easier, though it doesn’t do away with the process of typing in a password entirely.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
With friends like these . . . “Hillary Clinton has come under friendly fire from Democratic rivals and liberal-leaning commentators over her use of a private email server — and her campaign’s handling of the controversy. Martin O’Malley (D), the former governor of Maryland who remains mired in low single digits in most polls, said . . . that Clinton faced ‘a legitimate question’ over her use of the server. O’Malley also pointedly asserted that such a question could be answered by ‘Secretary Clinton and her lawyers,” a clear reference to the choppy legal waters into which Clinton appears to be sailing.’”
Congressional circumnavigation. “Opponents of normalizing relations with Cuba are seizing on reports that President Obama plans to use his executive power to chip away at the travel embargo and allow scheduled commercial flights between the two countries by year’s end. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican and vocal critic of Obama’s shift to renew trade and diplomatic ties with Cuba, said Obama’s effort is one more example of the president abusing his executive power and trying to circumvent Congress.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“The Quiet Demise of the Army’s Plan to Understand Afghanistan and Iraq.” New York Times Magazine contributor Vanessa M. Gezari argues, “The Army lost years and many lives in Iraq and Afghanistan because it had to relearn the lessons of Vietnam, among them the need for better cultural intelligence. And the need for cultural understanding isn’t going away.”
“Three reasons the West is failing to halt Islamic State.” Irish Times’ David Murphy argues, “Despite the fact the so-called Islamic State has resulted in a new wave of global radicalisation and has also precipitated population displacement on a scale unseen since the second World War, the West has proved unable to develop a coherent strategy to counter this threat.”
“The Intel Community Needs A Better Media Strategy.” Defense One contributors Aki Peritz and Kevin Strouse argue, “[T]he [Intelligence Community] should expect the Times and other media outlets hold to that standard for the foreseeable future. It can continue to fight against leaks and the efforts of dogged investigative journalists by using an increasingly ineffective argument, or it can provide editors—most, we would hope, are as interested in protecting the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S.—more compelling reasons not to push ‘publish.’”
