Friday Finale & This Time Last Year: Charlie Hebdo, Robot Acquisition, Pyongyang’s Hacker Army
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Haunting lies. In-house counselor Sean Bigley advises, “Had the applicants in these cases previously answered questions honestly, a security clearance denial would have been the worst case scenario. Now, however, they find themselves in the unenviable position of gambler: admit to the prior falsification and potentially risk prosecution for false statements to the government (and a security clearance revocation) or walk away from their career.”
Cost of clearance. Contributor William Henderson reports, “Office of Personnel Management (OPM) security clearance costs are going up. That doesn’t have a major affect on the average clearance holder, but it does contribute to the growing trend to reduce the number of more expensive, higher level clearance investigations, as agencies look to find ways to save money. That means fewer workers cleared at the highest levels.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
ISIS R&D. NBC News’ Ken Dilanian and Josh Meyer report, “From a haven in Syria, an ISIS brain trust is conducting research on conventional and unconventional weapons, including surface-to-air missiles and chemical agents . . . . [T]hese scientists and experts, who include Saddam Hussein loyalists, Syrian military defectors and foreign recruits, may have figured out how to use remote-controlled cars as driverless bombs, and how to repair thousands of heat-seeking missiles that can down jet fighters and passenger planes.”
Korea’s Agi-prop. AP’s Foster Klug and Hyung-Jin Kim report, “As world leaders debated ways to penalize North Korea’s claim of a fourth nuclear test, South Korea voiced its displeasure with broadcasts of anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the rivals’ tense border Friday, believed to be the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The broadcasts will draw a furious response from North Korea, which considers them an act of psychological warfare.” See also, “A decade of propaganda battles,” “China helpless,” and “What is China ready to do?”
Saving besieged Madaya. Christian Science Monitor’s Michael Regan reports, “Disturbing images of emaciated people, including children, may have been a factor for the Syrian government’s decision Thursday to allow food and medicine into a portion of rebel-controlled territory, as the country’s civil war stretches into its fifth year. . . . At least 41,000 people including 20,000 civilians have been trapped in the city, which has been surrounded by pro-government forces, barbed wire, and land mines . . . .”
The terror fight. Defense One contributor Micah Zenko reports, “The primary focus—meaning the commitment of personnel, resources, and senior leaders’ attention—of U.S. counterterrorism policies is the capture or killing (though, overwhelmingly killing) of existing terrorists. Far less money and programmatic attention is dedicated to preventing the emergence of new terrorists.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Imagery network. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Military networking experts at CSRA Inc. (formerly SRA International) in Fairfax, Va., will maintain and upgrade a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance imagery-distribution system under terms of a $35.4 million contract announced this week. . . . The AF DCGS PED architecture consists of an Asynchronous Transport Mode (ATM) network that transports serial sensor bit streams, non-serial imaging sensors bit streams for still images and full-motion video.”
Beyond obscurants. Also from Military & Aerospace Electronics, “U.S. Navy shipboard electronics experts are reaching out to industry to find new sensor technologies to enable surface warship and submarine crews to capture images through difficult obscurants like fog, haze, rain, and snow. Officials of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Va., issued a request for information Wednesday (N00014-16-RFI-0001) for the electro-optical Imaging Through Obscurants project, which seeks to deal with fog, haze, rain, and snow, but not with dust or smoke.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Washington’s Digital Team. Nextgov’s Jack Moore reports, “Over the past year, more than 4,000 people have applied for open slots on the small White House tech team tasked with repairing off-course government IT projects. . . . President Barack Obama created the digital team in August 2014 as part of a long-term response to the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov and the dearth of tech talent in the federal government.”
The sniffer. Defense Tech’s Brendan McGarry reports, “A half century old, the Cold War-era planes operate out of Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and are primarily used to verify compliance of the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. They’re equipped with external flow-through devices to collect particulates on filter paper and a compressor system for whole air samples collected in holding spheres, according to the Air Force.”
Militant social media. Reuters’ Dustin Volz and Mark Hosenball report, “Senior White House officials and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement figures will meet with Silicon Valley executives on Friday to discuss how to counter the use of social media by militant groups . . . . In an escalation of pressure on technology firms to do more to combat online propaganda from groups such as Islamic State, the meeting follows attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, that underscored the role played by social media companies such as Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc’s YouTube and Facebook Inc.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Served cold. “John McCain proved the power of revenge on Wednesday night when asked about his longtime nemesis Ted Cruz’s eligibility to be president, despite being born in Canada. ‘I don’t know the answer to that . . . . I know it came up in my race because I was born in Panama, but I was born in the Canal Zone, which is a territory. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory when he ran in 1964.’” Boom goes the dynamite. . . .
Money well spent. “Sen. John McCain is out with his latest report detailing examples of “outrageous and wasteful” spending at federal agencies, including doggy MRIs, bubble soccer, jazz-playing robots and other items at the Defense Department.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“What’s the Saudi-Iran Feud Really About?” The Atlantic’s Uri Friedman’s interview with Frederic Wehrey: “Wehrey believes the execution of Nimr, rather than being the latest salvo in the Saudi-Iran shadow war, was primarily motivated by domestic politics in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, the Saudi royal family wanted to appease powerful Sunni clerics angered by the kingdom’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against ISIS, a Sunni jihadist group.”
“2016 Nuclear Security Summit: Can Obama ‘Finish Strong’?” European Leadership Network contributor Ana Alecsandru argues, “Assessing the achievements of the summits so far, one can argue that, whilst the risk of nuclear terrorism has not gone away, the potential for the acquisition of nuclear materials by terrorist groups has been greatly reduced. Despite this progress, the job of securing all nuclear materials is far from finished. More work will be needed to strengthen the global nuclear security system.”
“Switching jobs.” Fast Company contributor Vivian Giang argues, “Changing jobs every couple of years used to look bad on a resume. It told recruiters you can’t hold down a job, can’t get along with colleagues, or that you’re simply disloyal and can’t commit. That stigma is fast becoming antiquated—especially as millennials rise in the workplace with expectations to continuously learn, develop, and advance in their careers.”
