Tweet
Many of my recent diaries have addressed the issue of secret prisons in Afghanistan operated under the Joint Special Operations Command. For further proof of that such activities are taking place, one needs look no further than the job ad described below. The application period for the position closed Monday, so the ad is no longer live on the USAJOBS.gov website, but the Google cache persists. To prove for yourself that it is real, do a Google search on USAJOBS and any block of the text below or the position number, WTST10046979.
Here is a screen shot of the top of the ad:
Here is the text that appears below that point. The full ad is just jaw-dropping in the way that prisoner interrogation has become just another commodity that the government purchases on the open market:
JOB SUMMARY
Challenge Yourself – Be an Army Civilian – Go Army! Civilian employees serve a vital role in supporting the Army mission. They provide the skills that are not readily available in the military, but crucial to support military operations. The Army integrates the talents and skills of its military and civilian members to form a Total Army.Changes to the Job Announcement: This is an Occupational Band 03 job in DCIPS. Band 03 duties are at the Full Performance work level, and equal to those at GS/GG 11/12/13. Salary will be set within the band equal to a GS/GG grade based on the selectee’s quals in relation to the job.
Organization(s):
HQ Joint Special Operations Command, Directorate of Operations, Security & Intelligence Support Div., Fort Bragg, NC# About the Position:
Applicants claiming Veterans Preference must submit required paperwork at time of selection.
# The expected contribution of the selectee in the new position based on personal qualifications, including knowledge, capability to deal with complexity, broad scope and responsibility, and impact mission will be evaluated for pay setting purposes.).
# CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYEMENT CONTINUTED:
# Must be willing to attend and successfully complete a Department of Defense approved interrogator certification course.Who May Apply: Click here for more information.
# All U. S. citizens.Key Requirements:* U.S. Citizen
Major Duties:Responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing highly specialized, mission critical Interrogation, Exploitation, and Detainee related requirements for JCS-directed operations and contingency plans. Develops plans and strategies in support of complex tactical mission requirements. Coordinates and conducts mission essential training. Responsible for all aspects of Interrogation, Exploitation, and Detainee, support during exercises, training, and operational deployments and serves as a DoD certified interrogator, conducting interrogations and debriefings in support of military operations. A multi-disciplined intelligence analyst; conducting specialized research, evaluation, interpretation and analysis using publications, documents, reports and debriefings in response to established requirements. Qualifications:Click on link below to view qualification standard.
DCIPS Qualifications
# At a minimum your resume must reflect one year of demonstrated experience performing the duties listed above (specialized experience) which must be comparable to the next lower GGE/Band. You must document that you have a current successful performance evaluation. Education may be substituted for experience for some positions. If you feel your education is relevant to the position being filled, you must include college/university, dates attended, degree achieved, semester hours earned, GPA, major field of study, specific courses and course hours in your major on your resume.
# Progressively responsible experience is that which has included intelligence-related research, analysis, collections and /or operations. This experience should have included intelligence analysis and/or production, intelligence collection and/or operations, counterintelligence, or threat support directly related to the position to be filled. Creditable specialized experience may include previous military intelligence experience, experience gained in the private sector or in another government agency as long as it was at a level at least equivalent to the next lower band in the series. This experience should demonstrate: Knowledge of intelligence processes, cycle and organizations; Knowledge of and/or ability to use research tools such as library holdings, photographs, statistics, graphics and maps; Knowledge of the systems, procedures and methods of analyzing, compiling, reporting and disseminating intelligence data; and/or Knowledge of organization(s) for and methods of collecting and analyzing intelligence data.
# CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
# This is an Emergency Essential position. Requires extensive travel (30% of the time), both CONUS and OCONUS, on very short notice. Anthrax vaccination will be required. Frequent extended duty with long hours under high pressure with generally high-risk job responsibilities.
# Position requires duties to be performed under austere and potentially hazardous conditions during exercise and deployment operations. May be required to deploy into areas in which hostile action may occur. Specific training and immunization requirements as appropriate for OCONUS deployments.
# Subject to short notice recall. Must reside within normal commuting distance of Fort Bragg (50 miles).
# In order to perform the duties of this position incumbent must be eligible for, receive, and retain a TOP SECRET/Single Scope Background Investigation (TS/SSBI), with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) and selected Special Access Programs.
# Must successfully pass urinalysis screening for illegal drug use prior to appointment and periodically thereafter, in accordance with Change 3 to AR 600-85, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Program.
# May be required to undergo psychological testing.
# Must be willing to undergo and successfully complete counter-intelligence scope polygraph with No Deception Indicated (NDI).Other
Requirements:
Click here for more information.
# Male applicants born after December 31, 1959 must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration.
# Direct Deposit of Pay is Required.
# Applicants claiming veteran’s preference must clearly show an entitlement to such preference on the resume/supplemental data submitted.
# DCIPS Excepted Position. How You Will Be Evaluated:Resumes will be evaluated for basic qualifications requirements and for the skills needed to perform the duties of the position, as described in this vacancy announcement and identified by the Selecting Official for the position. Benefits:The Department of Defense offers excellent benefits programs some of which may include:
# Comprehensive health and life insurance
# Competitive salaries
# Generous retirement programs
# Paid holidays, sick leave, and vacation time
# Flexible work environment and alternate work schedules
# Paid employment related training and education
# Possible student loan repayment
# Payment of licenses, certification, and academic degrees as applicable
# Bonuses, incentives, and awards as appropriate for the job. Other Information:Click here for more information.
# To successfully claim veteran’s preference, your resume/supplemental data must clearly show your entitlement. Please review the information listed under the Other Requirements link on this announcement or review our on-line Job Application Kit.
# The Department of Defense (DoD) policy on employment of annuitants will be used in determining eligibility of annuitants. The DoD policy is available on http://www.cpms.osd.mil/ASSETS/E8AB932EA1E44617BAC7222922E42A62/DoDI140025-V300.pdf
# This is a Career Program Position (CP). # 35
# Salary includes applicable locality pay or Local Market Supplement.
# Selectee will be subject to successful completion of a two-year trial period.
# Permanent Change of Station (PCS) allowances may be authorized, subject to the provisions of the Joint Travel Regulations and an agency determination that a PCS move is in the Government interest.Other Advantages: Joint Special Operations command (JSOC) is located on historic Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Fort Bragg is the home of the nationʼs premiere Special Operations and Airborne Forces. Employment with JSOC is your chance to join a dynamic, highly selective team of professionals working on the most critical national security issues. Ideally located along the I-95 corridor, Fort Bragg is only a little over an hourʼs drive from the beach and within 2.5 hours of the mountains.How To Apply:Click here for more information.
# Resumes must be received by the closing date of this announcement.
# Self-nomination must be submitted by the closing date.
# Resume must be on file in our centralized database.
# Announcements close at 12:00am (midnight) Eastern Time.
# You must have an ACTIVE resume with the Army Centralized Resumix database before you submit your Self-nomination. If you do not have an ACTIVE resume on file, please click here to use the Army Resume Builder to create or update your resume.Required Documents:
# You will be required to provide proof of U.S. Citizenship. Contact Information:
Central Resume Processing Center
Phone: 410-306-0137
Email: applicanthelp@cpsrxtp.belvoir.army.mil Agency Information:
Central Resume Processing Center
314 Johnson Street
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5283
What To Expect Next:Once this announcement closes, candidates will be evaluated using an automated system, (Resumix) which compares your skills and experience as described in your resume with the requirements of the position. If you are found to be a highly qualified candidate, you will be referred to the selecting official for further consideration. (In some cases, individuals with priority for special consideration must be considered and selected before other candidates.) Whether or not you are contacted for an interview depends upon the location of the position and the judgment of the selecting official. You can view the status of announcements that you applied for through our automated response system, ANSWER, accessed through our Civilian Personnel On-Line web page.
EEO Policy Statement: http://www.usajobs.gov/eeoReasonable Accommodation Policy Statement: http://www.usajobs.gov/raps
Veterans Information: http://www.usajobs.gov/vi
Legal and Regulatory Guidance: http://www.usajobs.gov/lrg
Note that the person to be hired will be responsible both for interrogation policy and interrogations, because the position is "Responsible for all aspects of Interrogation, Exploitation, and Detainee, support during exercises, training, and operational deployments and serves as a DoD certified interrogator, conducting interrogations and debriefings in support of military operations".
Especially important is that this particular position was advertised for only a two week period and it was stated that the successful candidate would live within a 50 mile commute of Fort Bragg. That would make the bulk of the qualified applicants employees of Blackwater (if they are not already employed by JSOC at a lower level). This advertisement appears to be a ruse to use a Blackwater employee, but to hire them on an individual contract rather than contracting it through Blackwater.
Oh my, the course to become a certified DoD interrogator is only a 10 week course taught by DynCorp, at least for the "entry level" interrogator who works along with a more senior interrogator.
A similar, ongoing listing is here, but in this case the jobs are limited to 13 months, while the job described above is a permanent position. In the latter case of the temporary positions, there are "many vacancies" and they are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Strangely, these positions are listed in the detailed text as within Central Command although at the top they are described as "Joint Services & Activity Supported by Office of the Sec of the Army". Recall that my previous diaries have suggested that the publicly acknowledged prisons in Afghanistan fall within JFCOM while the secret ones fall under SOCOM because they most likely are operated by JSOC. These temporary positions would appear to be under the direct control of McChrystal, at least for the ones deployed to Afghanistan, since he is the highest ranking CENTCOM person on site in Afghanistan.
Whether under SOCOM or CENTCOM, it appears that prisoner interrogation is a growth industry in the military.
14 Comments
This certainly was going on by 2003/2004. I remember seeing a CACI posting on Monster.com for a Iraq “private security” contractor job (Spring 2004, if memory serves, as it was before the Faluja incident). I was so startled I printed it out. This was also the time that the scuttlebutt around DC was that you could go to Iraq as a private contractor and really make a ton of dough. Suddenly there was no private tech sector work that didn’t require a security clearance. Construction, Telecomm and other related industries were sending folks. Even saw one of the PR writing job ads by the then 8-a, female-headed Lincoln Group (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Group).
But the job Jim has pointed to in his piece isn’t merely a contract security job; we already know there’s so many contractors that the DoD can’t even keep track of them, literally does not know how many there are in terms of head count.What’s important in Jim’s piece is that the advertised role includes interrogation policy creation as well as interrogations.
Sure, we all want more transparency, but this is a little ridiculous. Why is interrogation policy being subbed out to a contractor?
CORRECTION: My bad — This is a CIVILIAN job posting, not a contractor, being shopped for by an HR contractor on behalf of JSOC. This is a permanent role, one which might be filled by a former government appointee or employee or even a contractor with background in this area.
Jeebus. Can you imagine who might be applying for this?
Yes, and I noted that it seems slanted in favor of Blackwater personnel. That’s a great pool to draw from, isn’t it?
Somehow, it does seem sadly appropriate for these jobs to be on “Monster”.
1 vacancy listed. might be interesting to know the total number of job slots.
There’s one opening in the ad I copied in the post, but if you click the link for the other posting, it says there are “many vacancies” but that the positions are temporary, with a limit of 13 months. It’s possible that the posting I copied is moving someone hired in one of the temp positions to a permanent one, but the move appears to take them from CENTCOM to JSOC.
By the way, there is a key skill that should be required of the interrogators that is not included in the job description I copied. There is no mention of language skills, so there appears to be no requirement for the interrogator to speak any foreign languages.
This switch to civilian employees for the military has been going on since 9/11. It’s a scam wherein those trained with tax dollars to be interrogators (or similar) get to cash in on the bigger salaries paid to civilian workers (or as contractors). I wrote about this in my article last June, “Targets of Opportunity”: Corruption, Contractors, and the Origins of the SERE Torture Program:
I’d say some former JSOC interrogators are finding some new jobs with a former employer, much as the JPRA/SERE types described above. That’s why the 2-week notice. It’s pro-forma to say it was publicly listed, but the jobs are filled in-house, so to speak, from those in the know.
Thanks, Jeff. I should have known you would be way ahead on this one.
Actually, I feel bad, as I wrote this comment on a break, and I meant to say how glad I was to see you covering this topic, one that generally flies under the radar (or gets reduced in the press to the Blackwater guys and gals in black hats). I think I had some left over angst from the discussion over at EW stemming from Mark Benjamin’s notable snub of Marcy’s massive amount of work on the torture and waterboarding issues. I carried my own little piece of feeling snubbed re the experimentation issue as well, and this whole attitude carried over. Sorry for the way my comment came out. I mainly wanted to note that this issue has been ongoing for some time.
My reply was in the same vein. I had just been over there and had seen that Benjamin also touched on a topic I had hit at the same time Marcy and you were breaking other aspects of the story. I realize there are new aspects to what I put up here, but I’m very happy to be able to have the new information put into proper perspective with what has been learned previously, even if we get there in comments rather than the post.
I think of the whole process we’re engaged in here as a group effort to uncover the truth and move our country back toward its true values. That effort is much stronger when we acknowledge the work each person has done.
I agree with Jeff. On your statement, “Strangely, these positions are listed in the detailed text as within Central Command although at the top they are described as “Joint Services & Activity Supported by Office of the Sec of the Army”. It probably just means that the Sec. of Army has been designated to provide administrative support to handle the personnel aspects for Central Command and also JSOC because of their expertise in special operations. The position is for GS 11/12/13 which is the approximate equivalent in pay and responsibilities for a Major thru Colonel. That doesn’t mean a smart, experienced retired NCO couldn’t be hired.
It’s very common for retired military especially those in career fields that don’t have a civilian equivalent or experience needs to take DoD civilian positions. I fully agree that the privatization has gone way to far. At least with this position there would be far more control over the position than exists with a civilian contractor.
Thanks for further perspective on this.
JSOC wants an in-house capability. It doesn’t want contractors (garners too much attention) and can’t use military or the military law enforcement branches (they’re not guaranteed to be “team players”, and may go all Matthew Alexander on them).
Hence, the appearance of competition for a series of positions that are specifically targeted at specific people, with specific skills, to do a specific job. As a DoD civilian.