Military – Page 114 – Public Intelligence Blog

Bradley Manning: Hits Just Keep on Hitting

Bradley Manning did everything but wear a sign saying “Timebomb waiting to explode!

Michael Farrell

Veterans Today, 14 August 2013

EXTRACT

The subject of the email was “My problem.”“I’ve had signs of it for a very long time,” Bradley Manning wrote. “It caused conditions within my family. I thought a career in the military would get rid of it. … But it’s not going away, it’s haunted me more and more as I get older.”There was a photograph attached. Sitting in a car, looking anguished, Manning stares into the camera’s lens. He is wearing a blonde wig and makeup. –Matt Sledge, the Huffington Post, 8-13-2013

In my post on July 31, I argued that the chain of command was largely responsible for the entire debacle ending in the release of documents. It appears based on testimony that not only was I right, it was worse than I thought. Those of us who were in leadership roles during that era and did not want to engage in witch hunts found the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy not that easy to enforce. This was a problem with a lot of issues by the way — people engaging in private behavior that the overall society was willing to accept, but that violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice. When a soldier came in to talk to me for some “personal problem,” I didn’t always begin with reading them their rights but I had the card handy just in case. But, while it did not happen, I knew exactly what I would do if someone came in and announced that they were gay–I’d make certain that they knew that by telling me they were in fact asking to be discharged, and then I’d be on the phone to the CSM and the legal clerk to start the paperwork. Nothing personal…I didn’t care, but the rules were pretty straightforward. And, in my leadership roles, I wasn’t dealing with a lot of soldiers who had clearances above Secret.

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Continue reading “Michael Farrell: Bradley Manning – Leadership Failure Over Too Many Years…”

2013/08/142013/08/14

NIGHTWATCH: US Navy – Can You Spell Corrupt?

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

Aircraft carriers: feedback. A Brilliant and well-informed Reader reminded that Spain and Italy also have built aircraft carriers, making a total of seven builders. A search of the web indicates that nine navies have aircraft carriers and most have trouble doing so. Another Brilliant naval warfare expert and Reader calls them “big targets.” Feedback welcome.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: US Navy – Can You Spell Corrupt?”

2013/08/132013/08/25

Jeff Bordin: Fratricide (Green on Blue) in Afghanistan — A Crisis of Trust, A Vacuum in Understanding 1.1

08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Ineptitude, Military

2012 Previously rejected report is now key to US effort to curb insider killings in Afghanistan

2012 Pocket Guide Advises US Troops to “Avoid Arrogance,” “Respect Islam” in Order to Prevent “Green on Blue” Attacks

2011 Report Sees Danger in Local Allie: Study Says Killings of Americans by Afghan Security Forces Represent a ‘Systemic Threat' to the U.S. War Effort

PDF (70 Pages): 2011 A Crisis of Trust Jeff Bordin

A CRISIS OF TRUST AND CULTURAL INCOMPATIBILITY: A Red Team Study of Mutual Perceptions of Afghan National Security Force Personnel and U.S. Soldiers in Understanding and Mitigating the Phenomena of ANSF – Committed Fratricide – Murders

May 12, 2011

Jeffrey Bordin, Ph.D. [Major (P) U.S. Army]
N2KL Red Team Political and Military Behavioral Scientist
jeffrey.bordin@afghan.swa.army.mil

EXTRACT

Unfortunately, the rapidly growing fratricide – murder trend committed by ANSF personnel against ISAF members is a valid COIN measure of the ineffectiveness in our efforts in stabilizing Afghanistan, developing a legitimate and effective
government, battling the insurgency, gaining the loyalty, respect and friendship of the Afghans, building the ANSFs into legitimate and functional organizations, and challenges the efficacy of the ‘partnering’ concept . This is all the more a paradox given ISAF’s assumption of and planned reliance for the ANSFs to be able to take over the security burden before it can disengage from this grossly prolonged conflict. This study shows that certain behaviors and policies (such as night raids and home searches
that directly involve U.S. Soldiers) have generated a great deal of animosity among much of the Afghan civilian populace as well as with many ANSF personnel that impedes the overall strategic effort. Such practices are simply unacceptable if ISAF is to be
even marginally successful here.

Continue reading “Jeff Bordin: Fratricide (Green on Blue) in Afghanistan — A Crisis of Trust, A Vacuum in Understanding 1.1”

2013/08/132013/08/13

Berto Jongman: Brennan, Clapper, Hillary & 400 SAMs from Benghazi to Al Qaeda

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

All seem to be related.

White House denies DNI Clapper will head ‘independent’ NSA review group

CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as Reporter Michael Hastings Next Target

400 US surface-to-air missiles were ‘STOLEN' from Libya during the Benghazi attack and are ‘now in the hands of Al Qaeda', claims whistleblower

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Brennan, Clapper, Hillary & 400 SAMs from Benghazi to Al Qaeda”

2013/08/12

Berto Jongman: Terrorists’ Psywar Strikes Fear From Middle East To Mindanao

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, Military

Terrorists' Psywar Strikes Fear From Middle East To Mindanao

The Ramadan holiday is done and the threat to U.S. diplomats in most of the middle east is over. Or at least they can return to their embassies and consulates with enough confidence to think the Al Qaeda bombers are not going to strike right away and anyway they’ll be safe and secure behind their barricades.

Al Qaeda, though, is the winner, having made clear their psywar strategy works. They can strike fear among Americans, and others, merely by sending out messages for the U.S. intelligence machine to monitor and distribute with dire warnings.

Meanwhile, from disputed borders between India and Pakistan in Kashmir to the middle east, terrorists of one stripe or another, maybe Al Qaeda, maybe the Taliban, maybe lesser groups inspired by them, go on in a wave of killings to which there seems no end. A splurge of slaughter in Iraq over the final Ramadan weekend, normally a time for joy and celebration, showed the failure of the hundreds of billions invested there and the tens of thousands of lives lost. Now U.S. forces face frustration in Afghanistan — and President Obama warily avoids a serious commitment to still more mayhem in Syria.

In this cauldron of suffering, it’s gone largely unnoticed that the U.S. ever so slowly is on the verge of expanding a commitment to the Philippines from which enormous U.S. navy and air bases had to shut down in the early 1990′s after the Philippines refused to extend the bases agreement in a surge of anti-Americanism. The Philippines faces a local version of the type of militant forces that are plaguing the middle east and Pakistan. That’s on top of worries about China’s claims to the entire South China Sea, including islands and shoals that are clearly Philippine territory.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Terrorists' Psywar Strikes Fear From Middle East To Mindanao”

2013/08/12

Berto Jongman: Cover-Up on Iraqui Birth Defects Continues — World Health Organization Under Scrutiny

07 Health, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Non-Governmental

The WHO must release report on Iraqi birth defects now

The indefinite postponement of the World Health Organisation's report is alarming scientists and activists

Al Jazeera, 11 Aug 2013 13:28

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani

Dr Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, a native of Iran, is an environmental toxicologist based in Michigan. She is the author of over two dozen peer reviewed articles and the book, Pollution and Reproductive Damage (DVM 2009).

Large parts of the Middle East are now contaminated with war pollutants.

In Iraq, war debris continues to wear away and erode populated cities. Such debris includes the wreckage of tanks and armoured vehicles, trucks and abandoned military ammunitions, as well as the remains of bombs and bullets. Left unabated, the debris will act as dangerous toxic reservoirs; releasing harmful chemicals into the environment and poisoning people who live nearby.

Today, increasing numbers of birth defects are surfacing in many Iraqi cities, including Mosul, Najaf, Fallujah, Basra, Hawijah, Nineveh, and Baghdad. In some provinces, the rate of cancers is also increasing. Sterility, repeated miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects – some never described in any medical books – are weighing heavily on Iraqi families.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Cover-Up on Iraqui Birth Defects Continues — World Health Organization Under Scrutiny”

2013/08/112013/08/11

Berto Jongman: NSA, Snowden, Suspended Beliefs (Pun), and the Sad Spectacle of Michael Hayden

Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military

Jennifer Hoelzer's Insider's View Of The Administration's Response To NSA Surveillance Leaks

from the and-also-the-favorites-of-the-week dept

In a bit of fortuitous timing, this week we had asked former deputy chief of staff for Ron Wyden, Jennifer Hoelzer, to do our weekly “Techdirt Favorites of the Week” post, in which we have someone from the wider Techdirt community tell us what their favorite posts on the site were. As you'll see below, Hoelzer has a unique and important perspective on this whole debate concerning NSA surveillance, and given the stories that came out late Friday, she chose to ditch her original post on favorites and rewrite the whole thing from scratch last night (and into this morning). Given that, it's much, much more than a typical “favorites of the week” post, and thus we've adjusted the title appropriately. I hope you'll read through this in its entirety for a perspective on what's happening that not many have.

Tim Cushing made one of my favorite points of the week in his Tuesday post “Former NSA Boss Calls Snowden's Supporters Internet Shut-ins; Equates Transparency Activists With Al-Qaeda,” when he explained that “some of the most ardent defenders of our nation's surveillance programs” — much like proponents of overreaching cyber-legislation, like SOPA — have a habit of “belittling” their opponents as a loose confederation of basement-dwelling loners.” I think it's worth pointing out that General Hayden's actual rhetoric is even more inflammatory than Cushing's. Not only did the former NSA director call us “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twenty-somethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years,” he equates transparency groups like the ACLU with al Qaeda.

I appreciated this post for two reasons:

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: NSA, Snowden, Suspended Beliefs (Pun), and the Sad Spectacle of Michael Hayden”