FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Resumes: lost in translation. Contributor Ashley LaGanga writes, “There’s a problem that plagues many military to civilian candidates: Translation. It’s particularly challenging when the reader of your resume is unfamiliar with the military way of life. You can interpret those camouflaged acronyms, ranks, and course titles in a way that civilian employers will understand exactly what you have to offer. Here are three places on your resume on which you may need to elaborate. . . .”
Reporting foreign employment. Contributor Chandler Harris explains, “Former Air Force intelligence agency employees with clearances for Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) now must report any employment with a foreign government for up to two years after their departure from a U.S. government job.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Byers’ feats of courage – MoH. Stars and Stripes’ Corey Dickstein reports, “Byers was the second SEAL through the door of a tiny, one-room building where Joseph was held hostage. As bullets zipped across the room, Byers leaped on top the doctor, using his own body armor to shield the captive as his fellow SEALs exchanged gun fire with enemy fighters.”
ISIS probing Baghdad. Reuters’ Kareem Raheem reports, “A twin suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State killed 70 people in a Shi’ite district of Baghdad on Sunday in the deadliest attack inside the capital this year, as militants launched an assault on its western outskirts. Police sources said the suicide bombers were riding motorcycles and blew themselves up in a crowded mobile phone market in Sadr City, wounding more than 100 people in addition to the dead.”
Al-Shabab hits Mogadishu. The Long War Journal’s Bill Roggio and Caleb Weiss report, “A team of heavily armed fighters from al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa launched a suicide assault on a popular hotel and park in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The attack was likely carried out by Shabaab’s ‘Abu Musab al Zarqawi Martyrdom Battalion,’ which has carried out similar operations in the past. Shabaab first detonated a car bomb in front of the Somali Youth League (SYL) Hotel and then an assault team breached the perimeter and entered the hotel.”
Moderates win in Iran. AP’s Ali Akbar Dareini reports, “ran’s moderates have dealt another blow to the country’s hard-liners, winning the majority of seats in last week’s vote for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body empowered with choosing the nation’s supreme leader.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Grumman’s got the bomber. DoD Buzz’s Brendan McGarry reports, “Boeing Co., the world’s largest aerospace company, and Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s biggest defense contractor, have dropped their legal challenge to the Air Force’s decision to award the next-generation bomber contract to Northrop Grumman Corp.”
Harris wins SATCOM. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Military communications experts at Harris Corp. will provide the U.S. Navy with high-bandwidth satellite communications (SATCOM) aboard large surface warships in a new order announced Thursday. Officials of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego, are asking Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Fla., to provide Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) Force Level Variant (FLV) SATCOM equipment under terms of a $10.3 million contract modification.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Clearance quagmire. Government Executive’s Eric Katz reports, “A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers on Thursday questioned the Obama administration’s creation of a new federal entity to conduct background investigations, criticizing the plan’s failure to make fundamental changes. The phasing out of the Federal Investigative Service in favor of the new National Background Investigative Bureau appears to ignore some of the most fundamental problems with the security clearance system . . . .”
B-21 LRSB. Defense Update’s Tamir Eshel reports, “After years of intense speculation, the Air Force finally revealed a first image of its long-awaited new bomber, formerly known as the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) and gave it an official designation – B-21.”
PMI big data deal. Fast Company contributor Sean Captain reports, “Modern medicine is incredibly data-intensive, especially now that doing a full genetic sequencing of every patient is becoming affordable and more prevalent. New efforts to develop tailored treatments for illnesses—known as precision medicine—will require collecting and sharing data on a hard-to-comprehend scale. That’s the biggest takeaway from the White House Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Summit.”
Commander-in-Chief? Washington Post’s Peter Holley reports, “Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and decides to make good on certain campaign pledges.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Hot potato. “Call it the ‘hot rock plan.’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has prepared an alternate plan to run Republican Senate candidates separately from Donald Trump, should he be the GOP presidential nominee, according to a report. ‘We’ll drop him like a hot rock’ in the general election, McConnell has told associates of Trump . . . .”
Expectation management. “The White House is setting a low bar for the U.S.-Russia brokered temporary ceasefire in Syria. Just hours before a truce in the five-year old war was set to begin, Russia and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad had stepped up airstrikes on Syrian rebel positions, raising the question of whether they will abide by the understanding.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“The Moral Cost of the Kill Box.” The Atlantic’s Scott Beauchamp argues, “In practice, these tactics have more in common with expensive and reckless high-tech hunting. They are unethical, and as terrorism and militancy proliferate in the regions where they are being implemented, they also appear to be ineffective.”
“Obama’s $3 Billion Arms Buildup at Russia’s Door.” Defense One contributors Lawrence Korb and Eric Goepe argue, “Voters and their representatives have a choice to make: continue down the road of reckless spending to counter phantom threats, or acknowledge that to truly secure the future of this country, we must tend to our own house and strengthen its foundations.”
“Is Syria Obama’s Fault?” Lawfare contributor Ammar Abdulhamid argues, “Syria is clearly Obama’s fault. His failure—and the failure of his Realist supporters—to see that and to own up to it, raises questions about the moral underpinnings of their worldview and their moral sense.”
