Friday Finale & This Time Last Year: Afghanistan’s Next War, Modular Robots, and Gutting the Secret Service
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Prostitution and clearances. In-house counselor Sean Bigley explains, “Read the security clearance adjudicative criteria and you may be left with the erroneous impression that solicitation of prostitution is treated just like any other misdemeanor. . . . Unfortunately, the matter is not quite so simple. . . .”
Delays, delays, delays. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “Security clearance processing times continue to rise. Government contractors face particularly difficult processing timelines, thanks to a nearly one month halt in processing new investigations by the Defense Security Service. DSS officials told Fed News Radio they processed just 4o cases per day during the month of December, down from an average of 650 cases per day.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Closing GITMO. Defense One’s Molly O’Toole reports, “Defense Secretary Ash Carter has at last sent President Barack Obama a plan to close the U.S. military detention center in Cuba and move remaining detainees to a U.S. alternative. . . . Carter’s plan presents a list of potential options for where on U.S. soil the Pentagon would put the ‘worst of the worst’ Guantanamo detainees, but does not recommend a specific site.”
ISIS in Indonesia. AP’s Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini report, “An audacious attack in the heart of Indonesia’s capital by suicide bombers was funded by the Islamic State group . . . . The IS link, if proved, poses a grave challenge to Indonesian security forces. Until now, the group was known only to have sympathizers with no active cells capable of planning and carrying out a plan such as Thursday’s in which five men attacked a Starbucks cafe and a traffic police booth with hand-made bombs, guns and suicide belts.” See also, “A battle of bombs and perceptions” and “7 killed in ISIS suicide bombings, shootings in Indonesian capital.”
Ash Carter on ISIS. Homeland Security New Wire reports, “Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that 2016 will be the year the American-led coalition attacks ISIS in its strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul, in what may be the Obama administration’s last chance to inflict a lasting defeat on the Islamist group. . . . If the administration launches a concerted push on Raqqa, it would signal a new phase of the war against ISIS, in two respects: it will be a shift from the ‘Iraq first’ approach which has guided the administration to this point, and it may well feature direct U.S. involvement in combat.” See also, “Carter, Dunford, Senior Commanders Meet to Accelerate ISIL’s Defeat.”
Tidd takes SOUTHCOM. Defense News’ Lisa Ferdinando reports, “Navy Adm. Kurt W. Tidd took command of U.S. Southern Command during a ceremony at Southcom’s headquarters here today, succeeding Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, who is retiring after four decades of service. . . . Southcom, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, has an area of responsibility of more than 16 million square miles.”
Iran caps Arak. Defence Talk reports, “Iran has removed the core of its Arak heavy water reactor and filled part of it with cement, a crucial step under a soon to be implemented nuclear agreement with world powers. A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization told state television the work was done on Wednesday, paving the way for UN nuclear inspectors to announce Iran has met its commitments.”
CONTRACT WATCH
USAF may outsource IT. Govexec’s Frank Konkel reports, “Many agencies and departments manage IT services like email, calendars and the like across their enterprises. According to one of its top tech officials, the U.S. Air Force is trying to get out of that business, preferring instead to contract those services to commercial vendors.”
Japan’s sub sales. Financial Times’ Demetri Sevastopulo and Hiroyuki Akita report, “As US navy ships, spy planes and satellites monitor Chinese activity in the South China Sea, officials in Washington are keeping a close eye on a big submarine deal that could bring the US closer to its Pacific allies Australia and Japan. In Tokyo’s first large-scale attempt to export weapons in 70 years, Japanese, German and French companies are bidding for an A$50bn contract to replace Australia’s current fleet of submarines.”
Scotch tape’s Alpha male. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Navy undersea warfare experts needed an acoustically transparent adhesive encapsulant for underwater transducers and hydrophones. They found their solution from Alpha International Inc. in Woonsocket, R.I. Officials of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Newport in Middletown, R.I., are working together with Alpha to commercialize the company’s NUWC XP-1 high-performance polyurethane to protect marine acoustic and optical equipment.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
NSA’s transparency report. Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham reports, “The report details how the agency faired across a total of eight different categories referred to as ‘fair information practice principles.’ Those principles include transparency, individual participation, purpose specification, data minimization, use limitation, data quality and integrity, security, and accountability and auditing. According to the report, the NSA ‘satisfies’ six of those eight principles, which two others are a little less clear.” Read the report.
Army’s new joint precision airdrop system. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The ultimate goal is a system that can be fitted to cargo that the military can drop from 25,000 feet and from as far away as 20 miles to a specified location, all without GPS. So far, the Army has tested the new JPADS at 10,000 feet in Arizona and they’re planning on tests at higher ranges to confirm that it will work as expected.”
Multi-tasking UAVs. Defense News’ Jen Judson reports, “Army aviation special operators want new unmanned aircraft systems that can carry multiple sensors to collect vital intelligence from the battlefield and they’re working with the Army to achieve the capability . . . . But with a multi-intelligence unmanned system, the challenge of taking all the information gathered from the sensors, processing the data, deciphering key information and sending it out to decision makers — a process called PED — only grows.”
Cyber census. Nextgov’s Jack Moore reports, “Federal officials have been meticulously counting up the federal information security workforce over the past two years in pursuit of a single database of cybersecurity jobs in the federal government. The feds hope the database will better quantify persistent shortages in tech talent — and eventually help fill them. But the effort might benefit from a check-in by Congress.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Say again? “’Governor Haley is an immigrant. She has powerful stories of being an immigrant and experiencing discrimination herself,’ [Wisconsin Sen. Ron] Johnson said. ‘And so she’s obviously gonna react different to somebody who’s never experienced that. I tend to align myself more with Governor Haley’s comments on the issue.’ The South Carolina governor was born in South Carolina, but her parents are Indian immigrants.”
Filibuster fears. “Senate Republicans held a special meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to discuss proposed changes that would make it tougher for the minority party to block or slow legislation. But there’s still strong reluctance among GOP senators to limiting the filibuster. Some fear they may find themselves in the minority in 2017, particularly if business mogul Donald Trump wins the GOP presidential nomination.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“When someone rejects your idea.” Fast Company contributor Sam Harrison writes, “You’re pitching that shiny new idea to your boss or a client. Maybe you’re sure they’ll like it, or maybe you know it’ll be a hard sell. And then comes that first hint of an objection: a skeptical or dismissive remark, possibly phrased as a question. You can see the whole plan collapsing. Take a breath, and then do this. . . .”
“Putin is the closest thing to a friend Israel has ever had in Moscow.” Reuters contributor Josh Cohen argues, “While all the region’s major players feel the influence of Russia’s military campaign, one country overlooked by commentators analyzing Russia’s Syrian campaign is Israel. Israel’s interests vis-à-vis Russia run wide and deep and are impossible for Jerusalem to ignore.”
“Obama’s Legacy: Limited Force, Limited Influence, Lingering Questions of What America Should Be.” Defense One contributor Gayle Lemmon argues, “For the next president, it is likely to be back to the policy drawing board as events unfold and threats evolve. And the question of whether to return to a bulked-up imaging of what America can and should achieve will return to the fore once more.”
