Gift Intelligence – Page 19 – Public Intelligence Blog

Full Interview Online

ADM Allen is arguably the most credible and capable individual in the U.S. Government with respect to disaster relief.

Haiti response effort brings lessons from Katrina

When the after-action reviews of the recent catastrophic earthquake in Haiti are finally written, the tragedy will likely prove another major milestone in gauging U.S. disaster response. For an early preview, National Journal spoke with the man tasked with salvaging the Katrina operation and an insider during the Haiti crisis, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. Edited excerpts from that interview follow.

Phi Beta Iota: It is clear from this interview that the emphasis was on extracting Americans rather than orchestrating aid to the Haitians. That is very helpful. Lessons learned from Haiti remain to be documented at a multinational and regional level.

2010/02/022010/09/03

Handbook: Preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations–A Handbook of Good Practices

Gift Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Peace Intelligence, Stabilization

aa cover preventing corruption — Full Document Online

Based on five years of investigation in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. The bottom line from our point of view is three-fold:

1. All money collected for an ostensible campaign must be “tagged” and audited and pooled so that the US military among others can draw down on the common fund and cover all costs associated with US military mobilization and continuing Stabilization & Reconstruction Operations.

2. We need a Stabilization & Reconstruction Intelligence Support Plan that includes Peace Jumpers and immediate air breathing wide area surveillance upon which to build a bottom-up needs assessment and Reverse TIPFID. Push the information perimeter all the way out to pre-loading approval contingent on having a big air docking space and small air or land or sea intermediate delivery channels.

3. We finally need to get serious about “preaceful preventive measures” as called for by General Al Gray, USMC, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, in his seminal article “Global Intelligence Challenges for the 1990's,” American Intelligence Journal (Winter 1989-1990). His staff assistant for that piece was Robert Steele. We need a Whole of Government and Multinational Engagement information sharing and sense-making hub and spoke network built around the US defense open source intelligence program. IOHO.

Explicatory Online Information:

Continue reading “Handbook: Preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations–A Handbook of Good Practices”

2010/01/262010/01/26

Journal: Haiti Update 26 January 2010 PM

08 Wild Cards, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

aa haiti trauma — Shame on America Especially!

Crowds seeking aid in Haiti met with pepper spray and rubber bullets

Desperate crowds have overwhelmed peacekeepers trying to deliver aid. The World Food Programme says that Port-au-Prince represents the greatest logistical challenge it has ever faced

“They’re not violent, just desperate. They just want to eat,” Fernando Soares, a Brazilian army colonel, said. “The problem is, there is not enough food for everyone.”

Phi Beta Iota: We are furious at both the lack of decision-support (reliable broad information illuminating the breadth and urgency of the problem) and the lack of decision-makers with gravitas. Someone needs to reach the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (C/JCS) and tell him to pay attention. Roll the C-130's and carpet bomb the place with water, food, tents, etc. The National Guard C-130 pilots and crew chiefs know how to do “touch and go” drive-by load delivery without landing–why is our anemic military using just two of the six commercial capable airports and just one of the six commercial capable ports and NONE of the helicopter landing zones across the country? We agree with William McNulty who has had EYES ON–we need to hold both commanders and their intelligence officers responsible for this massive failure to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA). We also recommend the observations by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski and the Italian leaderMr Bertolaso on the pathetic inadequacy of American assistance. Uninformed, insufficient, a disgrace.

Meteorological Forecast: Rain and Diarrheal Illness

Forecasts for PAP calling for 20-30% chance of rain in the coming days. Concerned about influence on transmission of gastroenteritis and diarrheal illness. Monitoring closely.

Diarrheal disease was assessed to be the top priority in the immediate term following the earthquake. We are now seeing indications of diarrheal disease increasing in the camps, particularly among the children. We are very concerned about these reports.

Haiti Catastrophe Raises Biosecurity Concerns

As the slow process of recovery begins, re-establishing some normalcy of life will be critical and animals play a role in the lives of people in Haiti as they do around the world. One of the key issues will be focusing on Haiti's livestock and large population of stray animals.

The response to these issues raises potential concerns for the U.S. livestock industries, says AASV. There are a number of reportable trans-border diseases endemic or suspected on the island of Hispaniola which, if introduced into the U.S. livestock herd, would have devastating effects on animal agriculture…

Haiti's children on their own on shattered streets

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The children with no names lay mute in a corner of the General Hospital grounds Tuesday, three among thousands of boys and girls set adrift in the wake of Haiti's earthquake.

Clinton: Critics of US Haiti relief misguided

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she resents criticism of the U.S. effort to help stricken Haiti and pledged to redouble efforts to help survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

“I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake,” Clinton said.

Continue reading “Journal: Haiti Update 26 January 2010 PM”

2010/01/172010/01/17

Worth a Look: InSTEDD Emergency Support to Emergencies, Diseases, and Disasters

Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence, Worth A Look

Home Page

Our Mission

InSTEDD's mission is to harness the power of technology to improve collaboration for global health and humanitarian action. We are an innovation lab for tools designed to strengthen networks, build community resilience and improve early detection and response to major health-related events and natural or human-caused disasters. We grapple daily with the challenges of finding new approaches and new designs: a simple, reliable way to bring it all together — the people, the tools and the data — and create the kinds of information flow that we know will save lives. We think that with new, free and open-source technologies we can help humanitarian and public health organizations around the world work together more effectively in crises. We aim to reduce mortality, accelerate recovery and help prepare communities to face the unexpected with confidence in their own resilience.

2010/01/172010/01/17

Journal: Haiti Log-Jam Situation Report

08 Wild Cards, Gift Intelligence, Methods & Process, Military

With the Military in Haiti: Breaking the Supply Logjam

…after dozens of U.S. military  helicopters began arriving in force Friday, using the aircraft carrier USS  Carl Vinson a few miles offshore as their base, the delivery of food, water  and medical supplies got galvanized. “We're still running out of water  faster then we can deliver it,” Marine Maj. Will Klumpp told me above the  deafening roar of copter rotors. “But at least we feel like we've started to  keep up with what the Haitians need now.”

TIME Magazine's Comprehensive HAITI Home Page

Hunger And Misery Amid Haiti Aid Logjam

The log jam at the airport has put the 82nd behind schedule. An 800-man battalion was supposed to be on the ground Friday but by yesterday there were only 240.

World leaders have pledged aid to rebuild earthquake-hit Haiti – but survivors are still waiting for food, water and medicine.

Five days after the 7.0 magnitude tremor killed up to 200,000 people, international rescue teams were continuing to find victims alive under the rubble in capital Port-au-Prince.

Hundreds of thousands of hungry Haitians desperately need help, but logistical logjams kept major relief from reaching them.

Beset by logistical challenges, Haiti relief presses on

WASHINGTON — With many nations vying to get urgent relief into horror-struck Haiti after the devastating earthquake, US officials acknowledged Saturday it was “critical” to better coordinate the massive influx of aid.

Though the aid operation was picking up steam, it was still not reaching many of the survivors desperately scrambling for badly-needed food and water four days after the quake believed to have killed tens of thousands.

Bringing the Military's Might to Aid Haiti

Water, water everywhere, and yesterday it finally got to people who need it.

Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne landed on a hill where survivors had gathered. So often these days, the face of America is that of a soldier – in this case, Captain Jonathan Hartsock.

The log jam at the airport has put the 82nd behind schedule. An 800-man battalion was supposed to be on the ground Friday but by yesterday there were only 240.

The main port is a disaster area, and until a second one can be opened up at Cap-Haitien on the north shore, the American military is trying to move into Haiti through that single-runway airport.

Your search – 95th civil affairs brigade haiti – did not match any documents

Phi Beta Iota: This is a fascinating peace challenge that the WWII D-Day planners would have appreciated–the US does not appear to leveraging all of the instruments of national power, including Sea Bees, landing craft, combat bridge repair, etcetera.

2010/01/172010/01/17

Journal: Haiti Earthquake Unconventional C4I

08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Mobile, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, Real Time, Technologies, Tools

dg-port-au-prince3 — Sample Commercial Image

Apps for Haiti: An SMS 911, a People Finder, and more to come

Haiti Earthquate Person Registry (Seeking/Found) (Merged with Google Person Finder)

Spreadsheet of 152 Organizations Rendering Aid to Haiti

Wikipedia Page Participants on the Ground and Unconventional Communications

Haiti Crisis Camp Page and Feedback

GeoEye Post-Earthquake Sample Image

ESC Imagery Aid

2010/01/122010/01/12

Journal: Haiti–Twitter Rocks

03 Environmental Degradation, Geospatial, Gift Intelligence, IO Mapping, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Mobile, Peace Intelligence, Tools

Phi Beta Iota: Now imagine a global public fully aware of the value of Twitter photos with geospatial attributes, and a multinational decision support team able to receive and plot all such contributions…. As long as “research” is controlled by secret and ultra-far out organizations like DARPA and IARPA this stuff is not going to be applied practically. Civil Affairs Brigade (CAB) and its Joint Civil Information Management (JCIM), combined with a United Nations Open-Source Decision-Support Information Network (UNODIN), a Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Information Network, and a Multinational Decision Support Center (MDSC) would go a long way toward getting an immediate grip on all this, in detail, and then creating a Haiti Needs Table at the household level that could be triaged out (see Graphic: Global Range of Nano-Needs for the idea).

Highlights

Major quake hits Haiti; many casualties expected

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that “there must be thousands of people dead,” according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.

With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports.

Haiti earthquake — what we're hearing

CNN is monitoring tweets and other messages from people in Haiti and reports from those who said they have been in touch with friends and family. CNN has not been able to able to verify this material.

“If anyone in Haiti is reading this, please go out and help in the streets, it's very ug;y out there if you haven't seen it #haiti” –From Twitter user fredodupoux in Haiti at 8:04 p.m. ET

“Tipap made it home from Carrefour – saw many dead bodies and injured along the way – said most buidings w/more than one story are down” — From Twitter user troylivesay in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, at 8:22 p.m. ET

Fears of major catastrophe as 7.0 quake rocks Haiti

AFP/Twitter – This image obtained from Twitter purportedly shows Haitians standing amid rubble on January 12 in Port-au-Prince. …

A local doctor told an AFP reporter in the city that hundreds of people are feared dead.

A local UN employee said the earthquake had destroyed the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country.

Seventy percent of Haiti's population lives on less than two dollars per day and half of its 8.5 million people are unemployed.

According to official figures, food insecurity already affects more than a quarter of Haiti's population, some 1.9 million people, with women and children the worst affected.

Twitter Has First Pictures Of Haiti Earthquake

News is still coming in from Haiti even thought night as fallen. Shortly after the quake, our first look at the devastation was given to us via social media websites like Twitter and Facebook.