Friday Finale & This Time Last Year: Secrets of ISIS Success
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
FBI facial recognition. “Do you have an honest face? You probably should hope so, based on a recently released Government Accountability Office report which notes that while the FBI has a comprehensive facial recognition database – it hasn’t adequately tested it. The FBI has put together its facial recognition database. The GAO released a report this week, raising concerns about privacy as well as the effectiveness of the search process.” See also, “Watchdog: FBI Facial Recognition May Not Be Accurate.”
DNI’s minority report. “For the first time, the Director of National Intelligence is releasing figures on the number of minorities working in Intelligence Community jobs. The unclassified report on minorities, women and disabled workers within the IC notes the struggle to attract and retain a diverse workforce. The IC lags behind both the federal government and the overall workforce. But DNI leadership hopes to change that.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
NSA PRISM and Upstream surveillance survive another year. “U.S. citizen Omar Mateen’s murder of 49 people at a Florida nightclub on Sunday appears to have doomed a legislative push to rein in warrantless surveillance with defeat of an amendment that twice passed by wide margins. The amendment offered by a diverse group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to ban two types of ‘backdoor’ surveillance on Americans was defeated in a 222-198 vote on Thursday.” (US News) See also, “Shadow of Orlando helps beat amendment barring NSA ‘backdoor searches’ and undermining of encryption.”
The FBI and the changing face of terrorism. “Yes, Mateen was a terrorist—but what kind of terrorist? He had no known ISIS or Al Qaeda connection; he wasn’t getting operating orders from abroad; he hadn’t gone overseas to be trained; he followed no predicable course of radicalization. Mateen appears, in fact, to have been less a soldier than yet another deeply disturbed American (born in Trump’s own home borough of Queens), who was full of hatred and uncontrollable anger—an example of what law enforcement officials describe as an aspiring violent criminal searching for a larger justification for the acts he’s desperate to commit.” (Politico) See also, “The FBI’s Growing Surveillance Gap.”
ISIS hacker Th3Dir3ctorY pleads guilty. “A hacker named Ardit Ferizi confessed this week to stealing the information of scores of federal employees and soldiers, and sharing the information with the Islamic State, and now faces up to 25 years in prison. . . . A federal indictment of Ferizi reads that he provided the identities of the American soldiers and bureaucrats, via Twitter, to IS member Tariq Hamayun — aka Abu Muslim Al-Britani.” (Vice News)
CONTRACT WATCH
Brits like the JLTV. “The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle could be in line to win its first export order even before the US Department of Defense makes a decision to order full rate production of the platform. The UK’s Ministry of Defence has revealed it is in talks with the Pentagon, which might lead to a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal. The British Army is interested in acquiring the Oshkosh Defense vehicle, set to replace the Army and Marine Corps Humvees, to meet part of a requirement known as the Multi-Role Vehicle-Protected (MRV-P).” (Defense News)
Air Force retains CACI for satellite ops. “U.S. Air Force military space experts are asking information technology (IT) experts at CACI International Inc. in Arlington, Va., to maintain and operate the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). Officials of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., announced a $43.9 million contract this week to L3 National Security Solutions (NSS) for the AFSCN contract. CACI completed its $550 million acquisition of L3 NSS in February.” (Military & Aerospace Electronics)
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Iraqi forces inside Fallujah. “Iraq’s military said Friday that it had entered the center of Fallujah, a city just 40 miles west of Baghdad that has been held for two years by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and retaken a central government compound from the terror group. . . . And CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin notes that even if the Iraqi forces have taken the government compound, that does not mean they have retaken Fallujah. Their tactics are to seize the center and then push out to clear the rest of the city. Seizure of the compound would indicate the operation is proceeding as planned.” (CBS News) See also, “Iraqi Special Forces Enter Center of IS-Held Fallujah.”
CIA-Pentagon drone debate decided. “A long- promised plan by President Barack Obama to shift control of drone campaigns around the world gives the U.S. military more responsibility but retains a Central Intelligence Agency role in the targeted-killing program . . . . The revamp stops short of giving the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command the full control of the drone wars that its congressional backers have sought. It also deals a setback to advocates inside and outside the administration for ending CIA involvement in lethal action so the agency can refocus on its core mission of gathering and analyzing intelligence.” (The Wall Street Journal) See also, “Why CIA drone strikes have plummeted.”
State Department dissidents: strike a blow to Syria’s regime. “Dozens of State Department employees have endorsed an internal document that advocates U.S. military action to pressure Syria’s government into accepting a cease-fire and engaging in peace talks, officials said Thursday. The position is at odds with U.S. policy. The ‘dissent channel cable’ was signed by about 50 mostly mid-level department officials who deal with U.S. policy in Syria . . . .” (AP) See also, “U.S. diplomats urge military strikes against Syria’s Assad.”
