Journal: Haiti Update 15 February 2010 AM

Earth Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Homeless Haitians line up before dawn for tarps

More than a million Haitians are homeless, but a month after the massive quake, UN officials said only about 50,000 families, or an estimated 272,000 people, have received emergency materials to build their own shelters.

American Red Cross must explain $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations

The complete American Red Cross Haiti one month report does not help because it fails to even mention the $175 million collected but not spent or committed to Haiti.

This is a major outrage. But more outrageous is the media's blind eye to the American Red Cross' activities. One would think a reporter would not be so lazy that they could avoid subtracting $80 million from $255 million, get $175 million, read the Red Cross' online documents, and start asking about the unallocated $175 million?

Deeper issues make recovery in Haiti so much harder

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are homeless, desperate for tents to stave off the upcoming rainy season. But eventually, they will need homes.

They are hungry, waiting for bags of rice to prevent starvation. But someday, Haiti will need to feed itself.

Many are still injured, needing wound care and follow-up surgery to fix their broken limbs. But they also suffer from chronic illnesses.

Phi Beta Iota: This just makes us sick.  All of this was predictable from the minute we knew the magnitude of the dead, injured, and homeless.  This is a failure of humanity on the scale of Rwanda-Burundi.

Journal: Haiti Rolling Directory from 12 January 2010

Journal: Real-Time Intelligence & Information Sharing

10 Transnational Crime, Law Enforcement, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence, Real Time
By Benjamin Brown
Posted Feb 11, 2010 @ 04:00 PM
Scituate —

As a way of dealing with cross-town crime and drug use, Scituate police have banded together with other local departments to pursue cases beyond individual town borders.

Marshfield Police Capt. Phil Tavares founded the coalition, formally known as the Old Colony Police Anti-Crime Task Force, or OcPac.

“The most logical approach to combating fiscal hardships and a surge in crime is to make available and consolidate our tangible and intangible resources, as well as real-time intelligence sharing,” said Tavares.

Handbook: Bullets and Blogs Information Operations

Communities of Practice, InfoOps (IO), IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius

Invite your attention to attached — contains a couple of interesting observations about Open Source Intelligence (OSINT):

“…open source intelligence — catapulting it to primary place for new adversaries and increasingly for the U.S. military — and also rapid organizational learning and assembly of capabilities…”  [page 9]

“…There are strong indications that Hezbollah made significant use of OSINT — gathering valuable intelligence from Israeli press and news broadcasts as well as websites.  Reports suggest that Hezbollah used Israeli press reports to plot the location of its rocket strikes in Israel and may have used Google Earth to help re-calibrate the accuracy of its fire….”  [page 56]

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Journal: Pentagon Using Bacteria to Clean Water

12 Water, Earth Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Full Story Online

Pure Water for Haiti, Afghanistan:

Just Add Bacteria

WIRED

Katie Drummond

10 February 2010

Scientists at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) have successfully designed portable, efficient, bacteria-based water treatment units. Two of the devices are on their way to Army bases in Afghanistan, and the research team is in talks with the Pentagon about sending a working prototype to help relief efforts in Haiti.

Journal: Haiti Update of 10 February 2010

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Majnolita Louisome holds her brother Iverson outside their damaged home in Port-au-Prince. 2010 Getty Images

Good intentions gone wrong

Too many aid organizations and an inept government have created a chaotic relief effort in Haiti

“The aid machinery currently at work in Haiti keeps too much for overhead for its operations, and still relies overmuch on NGOs or contractors who do not observe the ground rules we would need to follow to build Haiti back better.”

Phi Beta Iota: This is the single best over-all description of how the USA–despite its massive presence–has failed  to provide the two things we have plenty of and everyone in Haiti needs:  mobility into all six air and sea points (12 entry points instead of two now being used) and the kind of multinational decision-support that STRONG ANGEL pioneered so able.  Haiti appears to be chaotic–out of control–and the problem will be made vastly worse if we allow US contractors to take the place over much as Naomi Klein anticipates in The Shock Doctrine–The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.  Haiti appears to be a disaster converted into a catastrophe now well on its way to pillaging and looting by American contractors who will make Haiti's own gangs look like “the little rascals.”

Continue reading “Journal: Haiti Update of 10 February 2010”

Journal: Commandant of US Coast Guard on Haiti

Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius

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.

Journal: Human Terrain Team (HTT)–Drama Part III

02 Diplomacy, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process, Military, Peace Intelligence

John Stanton Blog

New Details Emerge in Salomi Hostage Case:  High Drama in HTS

by John Stanton

Observers indicate that two individuals in HTS leadership positions on the ground in Iraq—Lieutenant Colonel Byrd (Program Management Office – FWD)  and Michael Goains, GG-15 (Theater Coordination Element) had direct knowledge of Issa Salomi's prior forays outside Camp Liberty/Victory Base Complex in Iraq unaccompanied by his teammates (team designation IZ-02,) or US military personnel. Salomi was apparently taken by an Iraqi insurgent group in January 2010 and a video of him recently appeared in global media outlets in February 2010.

Observers have also pointed out that Salomi is not, in fact, a contractor but is instead a temporary US Army Civilian employee. In 2009, HTS reverted to a government program and contractors were forced to choose between leaving or converting to US government civilian status.

“There is so much drama within the HTS program right now that it is unbelievable. Many, many people are being fired, rearranged and moved around due to management incompetence and personality problems,” said observers. “The amount of money being squandered is ridiculous.”

Continue reading “Journal: Human Terrain Team (HTT)–Drama Part III”