FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Your elevator speech. Contributor Ron Kness: “An elevator speech or pitch is a prepared brief commercial about you. In about 30 seconds, or approximately the time it takes an elevator to go from the top to the bottom of most buildings (hence its name), it tells the person listening a little bit who you are, what you are looking for in the way of employment, and how you can benefit their company or organization. . . .”
Hot states for jobs. Editor Lindy Kyzer: “Which states are hot for security clearance jobs? We’ve rounded up a list of the states with the most current openings on ClearanceJobs.com. Whether you’re willing to relocate or looking to stay put, this list gives you a good idea of what each region has to offer when it comes to jobs.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Navy’s spy. Reuters’ Phil Stewart reports, “A U.S. Navy officer with access to sensitive U.S. intelligence faces espionage charges over accusations he passed state secrets, possibly to China and Taiwan . . . . The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the suspect as Lieutenant Commander Edward Lin, who was born in Taiwan and later became a naturalized U.S. . . .”
ISIS in Bosnia. Vice News’ John Dyer reports, “The Islamic State (IS) has settled into a small, unstable European country that has long played host to jihadists: Bosnia and Herzegovina. . . . the Bosnian government discovered that Bosnian weapons were used in the IS-inspired attack on the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo attacks, and ex-Yugoslav-manufactured weapons were used in the Bataclan music hall massacre in Paris . . . .”
Truce in Yemen. Reuters’ Mohammed Mukhashef reports, “A shaky truce took hold in Yemen on Monday under a U.N.-backed effort to end a war that has made the country a front in Saudi Arabia’s region wide rivalry with Iran and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Apache buy. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Military helicopter designers at the Boeing Co. will provide 117 of the latest-version AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to the U.S. Army under terms of a $922.6 million contract modification . . . . Officials of the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in Mesa, Ariz., will provide 117 remanufactured AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters and helicopter avionics under terms of the contract from the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Pyongyang spy defects. New York Times’ Choe Sang-Hun reports, “A colonel belonging to North Korea’s spy agency recently defected to South Korea, the South announced on Monday. He is one of the highest-ranking North Korean military officers known to have defected to South Korea in recent decades. . . . The Defense and Unification Ministries of South Korea would only confirm that a colonel from the North’s General Bureau of Reconnaissance had recently defected . . . .”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Entrenched. “Senate Democrats returned from a two-week recess as determined as ever to force Republicans to take up the nomination of Merrick B. Garland to the Supreme Court. But with conservative backlash an ever-present threat, Republicans are holding firm on leaving the decision to the next president. Despite some recent wavering within their ranks, it appears nearly a certainty that they will keep Garland off the bench this year.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“Enduring Allies: Building Better Defense-Industrial Cooperation.” Center for European Policy Analysis contributor Jakub Grygiel argues, “It is in peacetime that states should work hard to build and solidify alliances—and one key peacetime strategy to firm up an alliance is to develop a wide range of defense-industrial cooperation. Allies that have tight defense ties are better able to deter a rival, and are more likely to remain allies once the shooting starts.”
“World War Three may have already begun in Iraq and Syria.” Reuters contributor Peter Van Buren argues, “With no change on the horizon, it seems likely that President Barack Obama’s successor will be inheriting, in the words of one commentator, a ‘bold new decade-old strategy’ that relies on enormous expenditures for minimal gains. The question that needs to be asked is: If war in Iraq didn’t work last time, why will it work this time?”
“The latest travesty of secrecy from the NSA.” The Week contributor David Brown argues, “If the agency is correct in its assertion that revealing its employees’ knowledge of ethics and how to obey the law will cause grievous injury to national security, then it is necessary to ask why that is.”
