FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Sell your sizzle. From Julie Mendez: “[G]one are the days where using colored paper or particular weight cardstock make a difference. If you want to stand out from the crowds, you have to have a clear strategy and marketing plan.”
Super cyber hiring. From Editor Lindy Kyzer: “If you’re a former IT professional or have spent years building that kind of network, cybersecurity hiring will be easier. If you don’t already have that kind of ‘geek squad’ behind you, be sure to leverage the networks of your candidates – those you hire as well as those you reach out to.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Gearing up for Mosul. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “Defense secretary Ash Carter said the United States will send 200 additional troops and a number of Apache helicopters to Iraq to assist in the fight against ISIS. He added that the new forces will be used mostly to advise Iraqi forces on the front lines. The decision to deploy the troops has been made in the context of the Iraqi drive to recapture the city of Mosul.” See also, “More Troops, Military Equipment.”
Saudi surprise: operational failures. Reuters’ Angus McDowall, Phil Stewart and David Rohde report, “[W]hile Saudi Arabia has the third-largest defence budget in the world behind the United States and China, its military performance in Yemen has been mixed, current and former U.S. officials said. The kingdom’s armed forces have often appeared unprepared and prone to mistakes.” See also, “What the US Gives Its Mideast Partners Isn’t Always What They Need.”
Red tide rising. National Interest’s Dave Majumdar reports, “A new RAND Corporation study suggests that Russian forces could overrun NATO’s Baltic states in less than three days. Moreover, if Moscow chose to mount an invasion of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the United States and NATO would not have any good options with which to respond.” Read RAND’s Reinforcing Deterrence on NATO’s Eastern Flank.
ICBMs coming to Pyongyang. Defence Talk reports, “Unless it is stopped, North Korea will eventually acquire intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities . . . . General Vincent Brooks warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was determined to build rockets that could one day reach as far as the United States.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Kickstarting F-22 production. DoD Buzz’s Brendan McGarry reports, “The idea of restarting the F-22 production line gained some traction on Tuesday when Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee included a provision to study the issue in a draft version of the annual defense authorization bill. I imagine thousands of employees at Lockheed Martin Corp., maker of the stealthy fifth-generation fighter, collectively perking up from behind their desks.”
Ship-shape budget boost. Defense News’ Christopher P. Cavas reports, “The House Armed Services Committee has been a bastion of the more-more-more club . . . . The election-year markups issued today by the body’s subcommittees continue to reflect those practices, and the mark proposed by the Seapower and Projection Forces is no exception, boosting ship construction spending by more than $2 billion – a 12 percent jump over the administration’s request.”
Contract spending recovery. Government Executive’s Charles S. Clark reports, “Agency spending on top contractors dipped by 2 percent in fiscal 2015, its smallest annual decline in four years . . . . The fact that half of all agencies—notably the Navy—boosted contract spending is a sign of a ‘rebound, or spending stabilization, as agency funding solidified’ . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
FISC v. NSA. The Hill’s Julian Hattem reports, “Analysts within the National Security Agency ‘potentially’ violated the law by improperly failing to delete information collected about people on the Internet, the federal court overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies declared in an opinion . . . . A judge on a secretive federal court was ‘extremely concerned’ that the NSA’s continued to hold on to data that it was supposed to delete, he wrote in the November 2015 opinion.” See also, “Court troubled by surveillance excesses at FBI, NSA,” “Secret U.S. court issues first order for phone data under new law” and “National Security Agency now authorized to gather telephone records.”
All-American spy story. Public Radio International’s Joyce Hackel shares the story: “Douglas Laux was a steelworker’s son at a college in Indiana when he applied to the CIA. A few years later, the 20-something was dropped into the back of beyond on the Afghan-Pakistani border.”
CICADA’s coming. Defense Update reports, “CICADA is a concept for a low-cost, GPS-guided, micro disposable air vehicle that can be deployed in large numbers to ‘seed’ an area with miniature electronic payloads. These payloads could be interconnected to form an ad-hoc, self-configuring network.”
Secret Service shortfall (jobs!). The Washington Times’ Joel Gehrke reports, “Two lawmakers claimed Tuesday that the U.S. Secret Service may need to seek outside help to fulfill its mission because agents are leaving the agency faster than they can be replaced. ‘USSS simply cannot hire enough personnel to keep pace with historic attrition rates’ . . . .”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Speaker struggles. “Democrats are openly mocking their GOP counterparts, and Republicans grumble — in private so far — that nothing is getting done under Ryan. Like Boehner, Ryan is finding out that becoming speaker is easier than being speaker, at least in the still badly divided House GOP Conference.”
Skip it. “Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Tuesday that he plans to skip what is almost certain to be a tumultuous Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland. The 2008 Republican presidential nominee told The Hill that he won’t be in attendance at the July GOP convention, saying he will focus on his re-election bid against Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) instead.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“When will Russia break?” Reuters contributory John Lloyd argues, “Like many autocrats before him, [Vladimir Putin] is above the political fray even as he commands it. He is the rock on which the regime is built, the indispensable man. If the support – love, even – that the majority of the Russian people now give him falters, all is lost for the present power structure.”
“For Peace With Russia, Prepare For War In Europe: Nato And Conventional Deterrence.” War on the Rocks contributors Elbridge Colby and Jonathan Solomon argue, “[T]he United States and its NATO allies should focus on developing the capabilities to enable their forces to confront a growingly sophisticated Russian military, and particularly forces sized and equipped to fill the dangerous gap in the alliance’s forward defense in the east.”
“Burr-Feinstein antiencryption bill a firing offense.” The Christian Science Monitor columnist Sascha Meinrath and contributor Sean Vitka argue, “The Burr-Feinstein antiencryption bill isn’t just bad, it’s evidence of a dangerous incompetence in congressional leadership that is undermining America’s security.” See also, “Senate Encryption Bill Resembles Chinese Law.”
“Being Pessimistic Can Help You Succeed.” Fast Company contributor Eric Ruiz writes, “By coming face to face with our worst fears, we’ll see we can survive the ordeal.”
