FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
The 9/11 GI Bill. Contributor Jennifer Cary notes, “In fiscal year 2013, more than one million students received educational assistance through the use of their GI Bill. The vast majority of them, around 750,000, used the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Known as the most comprehensive education benefit package since the original made its debut in 1944, the Post-9/11 GI Bill could be your ticket to a free – or at the very least, more affordable – education. But how familiar are you with the ins and outs of the benefit? Check out these important facts to set yourself up for success. . . .”
Background investigator says . . . Contributor Andrew Levine explains, “If your employer monitors or maintains access to your work email account (as it probably does), or you sent an email from your private email to a co-worker’s work account, that correspondence is fair game. The same principle applies to any email you sent to your landlord, college administrators etc. Emails leave behind eternal footprints. In my experience conducting investigations, most of the correspondence I encountered during routine record checks was fairly benign and irrelevant. On occasion, a conduct issue arose at an employment and there were emails from the applicant that were related to the problem, and thus wholly relevant to the investigation.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Dempsey’s world view. Defense Media Activity’s Jim Garamone reports, “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff provided Irish staff officers his worldview yesterday in a speech to members of the Irish Defense Force at Cathal Brugha Barracks. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said the world is enduring the most unsettled time he has experienced in 41 years of service. . . . But when he looks at capabilities, Dempsey said, he notes that Russia has developed capabilities that are quite threatening in space, in cyber, in ground-based cruise missiles that violate treaties, in submarines and other activities that seek to sever communications.”
Homeland drone defense. Reuters’ David Morgan reports, “As concerns rise about a security menace posed by rogue drone flights, U.S. government agencies are working with state and local police forces to develop high-tech systems to protect vulnerable sites, according to sources familiar with the matter. Although the research aimed at tracking and disabling drones is at an early stage, there has been at least one field test. . . . the sources acknowledged that efforts to combat rogue drones have gained new urgency due to the sharp rise in drone use and a series of alarming incidents.”
Contracted force. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The U.S. military wants to boost its drone presence by 50 percent in four years, and it’s hiring help — beginning with General Atomics, maker of the ubiquitous Predator and Reaper UAVs, which started flying missions in April. . . . It’s not unprecedented for the military to hire drone builders to fly them as well. Boeing does some contracted piloting on its small, unarmed ScanEagle drone, which has a ceiling of 3,500 feet and a top speed under 250 mph. But the Predator is far more capable, typically flies at 10,000-feet and, of course, an armed variant.”
ISIS recruiting strategies. New York Times’ Rukmini Callimachi reports, “Alex, a 23-year-old Sunday school teacher and babysitter, was trembling with excitement the day she told her Twitter followers that she had converted to Islam. For months, she had been growing closer to a new group of friends online — the most attentive she had ever had — who were teaching her what it meant to be a Muslim. Increasingly, they were telling her about the Islamic State and how the group was building a homeland in Syria and Iraq where the holy could live according to God’s law. One in particular, Faisal, had become her nearly constant companion, spending hours each day with her on Twitter, Skype and email, painstakingly guiding her through the fundamentals of the faith. . . .” See also, “American suicide bomber deployed in Islamic State assault in Baiji,” “Why latest Islamic State beheading might be sending new message,” “ISIS threatens Turkey, calls for ‘revolt’ against president,” and “ISIS threats in Afghanistan.”
West Point women make it. AP’s Russ Bynum reports, “A pilot of attack helicopters who competed in triathlons and a wilderness enthusiast who became a military police officer because it was the closest she could get to a combat job are the first women to finish the Army’s elite Ranger School. First Lt. Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, and Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut, are ‘just like all the soldiers’ graduating this week from the grueling two-month Ranger course, their families said . . . .” See also, “Ranger school success reflects U.S. military’s opening to women.”
CONTRACT WATCH
JLTV announcement coming. DoD Buzz’s Brendan McGarry reports, “Defense contractors competing for a contract to build the U.S. military’s replacement to the iconic Humvee are eagerly awaiting a decision from the Army. Humvee-maker AM General, truck-maker Oshkosh Corp. and defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin Corp. are vying to begin production of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV. An announcement on which company will be chosen to build the first 17,000 production models of the vehicle is expected either this week or next . . . .”
Anthrax vaccine. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “San Diego, California-based Pfenex Inc. the other day announced it has signed a five year, cost plus fixed fee contract valued at up to $143.5 million with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for the advanced development of Px563L, a mutant recombinant protective antigen anthrax vaccine. The company says the U.S. government is looking to have a stockpile of seventy-five million doses. . . . Anthrax no longer makes the headlines, but the danger of anthrax use in bioterrorism remains, Robin Robinson, director of BARDA, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.”
Lockheed’s stealth recon proposal. Breaking Defense’s Colin Clark reports, “Lockheed Martin is exploring building a stealthy successor to the U-2 as an answer to Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk and the U-2’s impending retirement. . . . The U-2 is already slated for retirement in 2019, to be replaced by the unmanned Global Hawk. If the US wants to operate in contested airspace, will it be able to afford one aircraft that is essentially used in peacetime — Global Hawk — and one for war? The Air Force’s decisions on the U-2 and the A-10 make that unlikely, at least for a while, So perhaps we would skip forward.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Cybersecurity collaboration. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “A new draft report by an interagency working group lays out objectives and recommendations for enhancing the U.S. government’s coordination and participation in the development and use of international standards for cybersecurity. The report recommends the government make greater effort to coordinate the participation of its employees in international cybersecurity standards development to promote the cybersecurity and resiliency of U.S. information and communications systems and supporting infrastructures. These efforts should include increased training, collaborating with private industry and working to minimize risks to privacy.” Read the draft report. See also, “Hackers exploit flaws in mobile phones’ security.”
Snowden e-mails. Vice News’ Jason Leopold reports, “Last year, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said in interviews with Vanity Fair and NBC News that before he leaked highly classified documents about the agency’s vast surveillance programs to journalists, he first emailed several NSA offices and ‘raised concerns’ about the ‘interpretations of its legal authorities’ related to those programs. . . . But the NSA said it could not locate those emails. The only email that came close to what Snowden described, according to the NSA, was one he sent to the Office of General Counsel in which the whistleblower asked a question about NSA legal authorities in training materials. The NSA declassified that email last year.”
Biofabrication on the cheap. Fast Company’s Adele Peters reports, “At a lab in Philadelphia’s Drexel University, a desktop 3-D printer is cranking out miniature samples of bones. In Toronto, another researcher is using the same printer to make living tumors for drug testing. It looks like an ordinary 3-D printer, but instead of plastic, it squirts out living cells. BioBots, the startup behind the device, wants to change how researchers do biology. . . . While biofabrication—building fake structures out of living tissue—has been around for a while, existing machines were expensive (some running half a million dollars), huge, and out of reach for most researchers.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Fine print. “Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal is flaring over revelations of a secret side agreement involving Iranian inspections. But House Democrats are shrugging off the report and claiming they have the votes to back up Obama anyway. . . . In the hours after the side deal became public two more Democratic senators – Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Ed Markey of Massachusetts – announced their support for the deal. That brought the total of Democratic senators supporting the deal to 25, with just two opposed.”
Dems demand talks. “Senate Democrats on Tuesday demanded immediate negotiations with Senate Republicans on spending legislation for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. ‘With the existence of a clear and urgent deadline for action, we believe it would be unwise to wait until after the Congress returns from the August state work period, just 23 days before the end of the federal fiscal year, to begin talks on a path forward,’ Democrats said in the letter. . . . Republicans have so far resisted efforts by Democrats to hold talks on government funding, arguing that Democrats blocked spending legislation from moving forward in the Senate earlier this year.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“The International-Relations Argument Against Killer Robots.” Defense One contributor Heather Roff argues, “[O]ne can mitigate the chances of creating weaponized and intelligent systems by preventing an AI arms race between powerful countries with large militaries, and by taking a public stand about how many decisions are delegated to machines.”
“Ignoring wrongs in Syria to battle Islamic State.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Both the Assad regime and IS are a threat to the principles of civilian protection in war. Hoping one side can help contain the other goes against this very principle. Support for the principle alone is enough to uproot both evils.”
“I still cannot faithfully say we are free and independent.” Afghan Zariza contributor Fatima Nayimi argues, “Right now, our entire nation is bleeding. Our ancestors did not fight our enemies and die for our future only for us to fight and kill each other. It is shameful. Our diversity and multi-ethnic society is what makes us, us. It is what makes our people so unique.”
