FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Breach review. Editor Lindy Kyzer writes, “The White House just announced the creation of the National Background Investigations Bureau. NBIB will report to OPM, but have a presidential-appointed leader and an IT infrastructure managed by the Department of Defense. Learn more about what led to the creation of this new agency in this quick video overview. . . .”
Finding your place. Also from Lindy, “Your professional happiness can actually have a lot to do with the kind of workplace you’re in. From private office to open concept, every working environment is different. Learn where you may be happiest in our interactive quiz.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Terror tremors in France. The Homeland Security News Wire reports, “France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Islamic terrorists planned to attack another concert in Paris and carry out a mass killing in the city streets. Cazeneuve revealed the information while defending the government’s decision to continue for there more months the state of emergency imposed after the 13 November attacks. . . . since spring 2015, France’s intelligence services had foiled eleven terrorist attacks, some of which ordered and planned by the ISIS terrorists behind the 13 November atrocities.” See also, “Europol bolsters EU’s counterterrorism capabilities.”
Carriers of the world. Esquire’s Kyle Mizokami reports, “Only a handful of countries have aircraft carriers in their arsenals. They form an exclusive club, one whose members have decided their interests stretch so far from their own waters they need to put air power at sea. . . . Here’s a look at the world’s fleet. Not surprisingly, it’s dominated by the U.S. Navy, which alone boasts 19 of the 36 such ships currently plying the world’s waters.”
AWACS coming to ISIS. Defence Talk reports, “NATO member states are discussing a request to use the alliance’s AWACS air surveillance aircraft in the battle against the jihadist Islamic State group, an official said Friday. An AWACS commitment would mark a departure for NATO which up to now has had no direct role in combating IS but is increasingly concerned by the threat it poses on its southern flank.”
Syrian peace talk doubt. Reuters’ Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry report, “The Syrian opposition cast doubt on whether it would go to peace talks planned for Friday, throwing U.N. diplomatic efforts into question and accusing the United States of adopting Iranian and Russian ideas for solving the conflict. . . . The Syrian government, which is taking territory from the rebels with the help of Russian air strikes and Iranian ground forces, has already said it will attend.” See also, “Iranian leader . . . meets Pope” and “Blasts kill 20 . . . ahead of peace talks.”
Back to the Asian pivot. The Christian Science Monitor’s Michael Holtz reports, “US Secretary of State John Kerry is focusing this week on reinvigorating the Obama administration’s effort to “pivot” towards Asia following last week’s first-stage implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal. . . . Kerry plans to argue for a tough unilateral response from China when he meets with the country’s top officials on Wednesday . . . . He will also stress the need for a united front in response to North Korea’s nuclear test through additional UN sanctions.” See also, “U.S. Welcomes Rise in Power of Asia-Pacific Nations.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Overhauling FedRAMP. Nextgov’s Frank Konkel reports, “The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program needs an overhaul to better make use of the ‘do once, use many times’ cloud security certification process, according to an industry advocacy group report. The report . . . outlines a six-point plan that could help make the government’s process for authorizing cloud services cheaper, more efficient and more transparent . . . .” See also, “6 ideas for fixing FedRAMP.”
Global Hawks to Italy. Defense News’ Tom Kington reports, “NATO is due to have all five of its Global Hawks delivered by year end to a Sicilian air base where 600 personnel will keep them flying, officials said as they detailed for the first time how the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system will be set up in Italy. NATO’s first Global Hawk, which is based on the Block 40 version of the Northrop Grumman UAV, made its debut flight in December in the US when its flight controls were tested, and further flights to test its radar are now underway.”
DARPA seeks bistatic sonar. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. military researchers are asking for industry’s help in developing a bistatic sonar system for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) that capitalizes on the benefits of active sonar without compromising the stealth of U.S. attack submarines. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., released a solicitation Sunday (DARPA-BAA-16-10) for the Mobile Offboard Command and Control and Approach (MOCCA) program.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Rogers’ cyber-peers. FierceGovernmentIT’s Robert Bartley reports, “The military arm of the government’s efforts in cyberspace recently released a document admitting that despite a considerable edge at the beginning of the cyber age, it now faces experts outside the country who possess capabilities on par with the U.S. Now more than ever, the U.S. public and private sectors face threats online that could come from opponents with comparable sophistication, according to Adm. Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command . . . .” Read Rogers’ “Beyond the Build: Delivering Outcomes through Cyberspace.”
Plasmonic computing. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “High-performance microprocessors that harness photons rather than electrons promise to make computers up to a thousand times more efficient because electrons typically move at a low fraction of the speed of light. Problem: scaling down conventional electronic microprocessors is easy; doing the same with photonic components is hard because of the difficulty of getting light to turn corners.”
Brain hack: the neurotrophic electrode. Wired’s Daniel Engber writes, “Phil Kennedy’s breakthrough—the one that would define his career in neuroscience and ultimately set him on a path to an operating table in Belize—started out as a way to solve this basic bioengineering problem. His idea was to pull the brain inside the electrode so the electrode would stay safely anchored inside the brain. To do this, he affixed the tips of some Teflon-coated gold wires inside a hollow glass cone.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Pavlov effect. “House Speaker Paul Ryan promised Monday that Republicans will produce an agenda in the next few months that they can use in tandem with the eventual Republican presidential nominee to convince voters to elect a GOP Congress and president. ‘We are asking the country for a mandate election,’ Ryan told Hugh Hewitt on his nightly radio program. ‘Here is what we will do if you give us a Republican president and a Republican Congress.’”
Carter’s budget brawl. “A brawl has broken out at the top rungs of the Pentagon over how to prepare the military for long-term threats, in a rare public fight that pits leaders of the military branches against Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Carter wants to use the Pentagon’s upcoming, approximately $580 billion budget request to solidify the Obama administration’s goals of investing in more advanced weapons such as next-generation fighters and submarines, and high-demand skills such as cyber warfare. But he is butting heads with the Navy’s leadership and facing open skepticism from the man in line to be Army secretary . . . .”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“Are the Syrian Democratic Forces any of the above?” Reuters contributor Benedetta Argentieri argues, “The Syria peace talks in Vienna will not find a suitable solution. . . . Other than aligning with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States seems to have tried out any option other than fully backing the Kurds. Maybe it’s time.”
“The Intelligence Community Must Remove Barriers to Minority Recruitment.” Defense One contributors Damien Van Puyvelde and Stephen Coulthart argue, “If senior government officials are serious about improving the diversity of the intelligence community’s workforce – and they should be – they must more proactively manage diversity, along with its perceived risks. A good first step is to overhaul the current background investigation process which has not evolved much since the 1950s.”
“A dangerous moment for Ukraine’s fragile ceasefire.” Reuters contributor Lucian Kim argues, “Behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats are rediscovering Ukraine as a foreign-policy priority. . . . Even if Putin wants to put them back now, the genies he summoned to make war on Ukraine are out of the bottle.
THE FUNNIES
