Friday Finale & This Time Last Year: Jaysh al Fateh, DARPA’s Robot Ship, and The Surveillance State
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Per se disqualifications. Contributor Sean Bigley writes, “There are very few automatic disqualifiers for a security clearance, however there are a few established by law. . . .”
Recruiting right. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “Recruiters and employers are battling a tough hiring market. With fewer cleared candidates overall and hot competition from the commercial sector, it can be hard to make the perfect hire. In many cases, I see employers doing everything right and simply battling market trends which require patience and persistence. In a few cases, however, it’s clear employers could be doing more to set to stage for great hires.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Radovan Karadzic convicted. New York Times’ Marlise Simons reports, “Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations tribunal on Thursday for leading a campaign of terror against civilians in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. Mr. Karadzic, 70, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in lethal ethnic cleansing operations, the siege of Sarajevo and the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 . . . .” See also, “Karadzic Is a Hero in This Belgrade Bar.”
Superior intelligence: Dr. Cora Du Bois. War on the Rocks’ Jason S. Ridler tells the story: “As for many academics, the demands of the Second World War brought Du Bois into military affairs. In her case, the war also brought her back to Asia. The vehicle for this was the OSS. The OSS was created in 1942 as America’s first global intelligence service. It collected a stunning array of American and foreign experts in diverse subjects ranging from geography and economics to history and languages.”
Updates from Europe. Reuters’ Alastair Macdonald and Jan Strupczewski report, “Belgian police arrested seven people in overnight raids in their investigation into Islamic State suicide bombings in Brussels, while authorities in France said they thwarted a militant plot there ‘that was at an advanced stage’.”
European Security Union. Defense News’ Martin Banks reports, “European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called for a European ‘security union’ to face the threat of terrorism. . . . The demand for a security union comes in the wake of a series of serious intelligence blunders in the runup to the attacks in Brussels.”
Fighting terrorism. The Christian Science Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi reports, “[A]s appealing as the idea of an overwhelming military offensive that finishes off Islamic State power bases might be, most counterterrorism experts specializing in Islamist extremism caution that a one-and-done blitz of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Iraq, and in Libya would only temporarily address the problem. And in the long run, it could very well make matters worse – a lesson some say the United States has learned from recent experience in Iraq.”
Fight for Palmyra. AP reports, “[H]eavy fighting is underway between government troops and Islamic State militants on the outskirts of Palmyra, with the two sides exchanging artillery and gunfire. The historic town in central Syria has been controlled by the extremist Islamic State group since May. . . . [Friday] troops seized the so-called Syria Tel Hill near the Palmyra Citadel. Troops have also captured several hills around the town.” See also, “Syrian Regime Forces Push Into ISIS-Held City Of Palmyra,” “Syrian government forces enter Islamic State-held Palmyra,” and “ISIS under pressure as troops advance on Palmyra, Mosul.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Droning-up Asia. Scout Warrior’s Kris Osborn reports, “The U.S. Air Force is in the process of selling large Global Hawk drones and F-35 multi-role fighter planes to Japan and South Korea as part of a broader effort to better arm and equip allies in the Pacific theater . . . . The U.S. already deploys RQ-4 Global Hawks from Japan through a cooperative arrangement, launching the large surveillance drones from a Japanese base to beam back video feeds across the region from strategically vital regions — such as the South China Sea.”
Drone swarms. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Air Force researchers are moving forward with a project to use C-130 aircraft to launch drone swarms of networked and cooperating unmanned aircraft for electronic attack and reconnaissance missions from standoff ranges. Officials of the air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced a $3.9 million contract Wednesday to the Composite Engineering Inc. Unmanned Systems Division in Sacramento Calif., for the first phase of the Gremlins program, which relies on relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in volley quantities to saturate enemy defenses.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Intelligence gaps. The Christian Science Monitor’s Sara Miller Llana and Elisabeth Braw report, “The inability of Europe’s security agencies to cooperate on terrorism reveals just how difficult it is proving to overcome international jealousy over intelligence, despite shared interests. Unlike a common energy policy, or even a common currency, sharing intelligence or defense capabilities cuts to the heart of national sovereignty.” See also, “Brussels suicide bombers were in U.S. terror suspects database.”
Dam Iranian hackers indicted. Federal Times’ Aaron Boyd reports, “The Justice Department indicted seven Iranian nationals on several charges of hacking American critical infrastructure, including attacking U.S. financial systems and gaining illegal access to the networks of a dam in upstate New York. . . . The seven men worked for two Iranian cybersecurity companies — ITSecTeam (ITSEC) and Mersad Company (MERSAD) — that served as contractors for the Iranian government. All seven men allegedly have ties to the government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps . . . .” See also, “Why the Military Can’t Go After Iran for Hacking Your Dam.”
Old-think cybersecurity. Nextgov’s Jack Moore reports, “A new report from IT security company Vormetric and 451 Research, found most agencies are still overly reliant on perimeter defenses and are not paying enough attention to tools that protect data at rest, such as encryption. The survey results show ‘that in many ways, security professionals are like generals fighting the last war,’ researcher Garrett Bekker wrote in the report accompanying the survey results.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Things just get better. “A U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois has postponed sentencing Hastert, who was convicted last year of a banking scheme known as structuring, as well as lying to federal investigators. Sentencing was moved to the last week in April to accommodate someone prosecutors identified in court transcripts as ‘Individual D.,’ who will likely testify that Hastert molested him.”
Biden rule. “There is no ‘Biden Rule.’ It doesn’t exist.’ He said there is ‘only one rule I ever followed on the Judiciary Committee, that was the Constitution’s clear rule of advice and consent.’ Biden defended his record during his years as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, painting Republicans’ Supreme Court blockade as a desperate gambit that ‘could lead to a genuine constitutional crisis.’ During his time as chairman or ranking member of the Judiciary panel, Biden said, all eight high court nominees received a hearing and a floor vote.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“How do you make intelligence agencies share?” Reuters contributor David Wise argues, “Unless intelligence agencies relax their historic secretiveness and suspicion and begin to cooperate with each other, they will have little chance of detecting terror networks and thwarting the kinds of attacks that caused so much destruction in Paris and Brussels.”
“Europe declared peace while the world was still at war.” Reuters contributor Lucian Kim argues, “Europe’s failure to come up with a consolidated response to terrorism bears risks not just for the European Union, but also for the entire postwar trans-Atlantic alliance.”
“Defy Conventional Thinking.” Fast Company contributor Robert Safian writes, “It’s hard to overstate how difficult it is for any leader or organization to defy conventional thinking and instead give rope to a truly creative idea. And yet that’s exactly what is required to generate world-changing impact.”
