Category: Military

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Penguin: US Government Gives Israel Too Much

08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Military
Who, Me?

With respect to both Ignatius and Pincus lacking integrity, am inclined to give Pincus the benefit of the doubt. Here is one piece that certainly took integrity to develop and present.

Is U.S. going above and beyond for Israel?

Walter Pincus

Washington Post, 16 May 2012

Should the United States put solving Israel’s budget problems ahead of its own?

Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, will meet Thursday in Washington with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to finalize a deal in which the United States will provide an additional $680 million to Israel over three years. The money is meant to help pay for procuring three or four new batteries and interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome short-range rocket defense program. The funds may also be used for the systems after their deployment, according to the report of the House Armed Services Committee on the fiscal 2013 Defense Authorization bill.

The Iron Dome funds, already in legislation before Congress, will be on top of the $3.1 billion in military aid grants being provided to Israel in 2013 and every year thereafter through 2017. That deal is part of a 10-year memorandum of understanding agreed to in 2007 during the George W. Bush presidency.

“Those funds are already committed to existing large-ticket purchases, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J transport planes and other items,” according to George Little, spokesman for Panetta. He also said the Israelis had increased their own spending on Iron Dome this year and the U.S. funds are to “augment” their funding.

Continue reading “Penguin: US Government Gives Israel Too Much”

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Winslow Wheeler: The F-22, Toxic Stealth, Secrets Screw Sick…

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, DoD, Government, Military
Winslow Wheeler

Dina Rasor and Pierre Sprey have collaborated on an important and informative piece on the F-22.  It expands the publically available thinking about the nature of the toxicity problem facing F-22 pilots, and–just as importantly–it probes the nature of one of the prime suspects for the problem: the F-22's “stealth” coating.  Note at the end of the piece: for all the astronomic cost, low sortie rates, and aerodynamic mis-shaping of aircraft those stealth coatings have caused, they bring little meaningful tactical advantage against an enemy who knows how to deal with them.  Case in point: not mentioned in the brief but important discussion of radars that see “stealth” aircraft is the antiquated Soviet era radar and SA-3 missile system that was used by the Serbs in the 1999 Kosovo air war to shoot down one “stealthy” F-117, as was widely reported, but also damaged a second F-117 seriously enough that it never flew again in the conflict–giving the F-117 the highest casualty rate of any US aircraft in that conflict.

Consider also, as Rasor and Sprey make clear, the values of a system that places the continued operation of a hardware system above the health, well-being and confidence of the pilots operating it.  It literally reminds me of Upton Sinclair's “The Jungle” when nothing, not even workers' severed body parts, were permitted to stop the sausage machine.

Find the important and informative Rasor authored piece at Truthout at http://truth-out.org/news/item/9195-pilots-as-lab-rats-the-reprehensible-risk-taking-on-the-f-22-raptor and below:

Pilots as Lab Rats: The Reprehensible Risk-Taking on the F-22 Raptor

Thursday, 17 May 2012 09:58 By Dina Rasor, Truthout | Solutions<

Full article and comment below the line.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: The F-22, Toxic Stealth, Secrets Screw Sick…”

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DefDog: The Power of *OPEN* – Blogger Shines Light on U.S. Shadow War in East Africa

Civil Society, IO Deeds of Peace, Knowledge, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence
DefDog

The power of OPEN *.  You might think that the media would be doing this, but one would be wrong….they are content to be spoon fed lies, more lies, and damn lies…..it takes the public to pull back the curtain and expose what is really going on….that may be a reason the IC doesn't like Open Source, it would continually show their inefficiencies…..

Blogger Shines Light on U.S. Shadow War in East Africa

David Axe

WIRED, 15 May 2012

An innocuous-seeming U.S. Air Force press release. A serendipitous satellite image in Google Earth. Snapshots from a photographer on assignment at a Spanish air base. The crash of an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bomber in the United Arab Emirates. These are some of the fragments of information that Italian aviation blogger David Cenciotti has assembled to reveal the best picture yet of the Pentagon’s secretive war in the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.

In a series of blog posts over the past two weeks, Cenciotti has described in unprecedented detail the powerful aerial force helping wage Washington’s hush-hush campaign of air strikes, naval bombardments and commando raids along the western edge of the Indian Ocean, including
terror hot spots Yemen and Somalia. Cenciotti outlined the deployment of eight F-15Es from their home base in Idaho to the international air and naval outpost at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, north of Somalia.

. . . . . . . . .

But arguably the most interesting vessels in the area are also the least flashy. Lewis and Clark-class supply ships, normally used to carry fuel and cargo, have also been used as Afloat Forward Staging Bases — in essence, seaborne military camps for housing Special Forces and launching helicopters and small boats. The ships can be configured with makeshift jails for holding captured pirates and, in theory, terror suspects.

Read full article with many links.

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DefDog: USSR First, Then USA — Losers in Afghanistan — But the British Still the Most Hated

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military
DefDog

I often ask folks who the Afghan hates the most. The most common answer, the Russians….that is not true.  It is the British and it is reminded to them in their flag:

The current Afghanistan flag is contained three solid colors such as black, red and green and each color represents a different page in the history of Afghanistan.

The black represents the 19th century era when Afghanistan was occupied and did not have independence. The red color means blood shed and fights for independence and the green means the independence achieved as well as hope and prosperity for the future. This three stripe flag was designed during King Amanullah Khan after he returned from a visit of Europe in 1928.

Also, a couple of articles from NPS…..

2012-05-14 Comparing USSR and US Losses in AF

2012-05-14 Deja Vu 22 Years After USSR Quits US Follows

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Reference: NUCLEAR FAMINE – A BILLION PEOPLE AT RISK Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition + Eugenics RECAP

01 Agriculture, 01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 India, 04 Indonesia, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 07 Venezuela, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Earth Intelligence, Government, Military, White Papers

NUCLEAR FAMINE: A BILLION PEOPLE AT RISK

Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition

Ira Helfand, MD
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Credits and Acknowledgements
The publication of this briefing paper was made possible
thanks to the generous financial support of the Swiss Federal
Department of Foreign Affairs.

Executive Summary

Over the last several years, a number of studies have shown that a limited, regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan would cause significant climate disruption worldwide.

Two studies published this year examine the impact on agricultural output that would result from this climate disruption.  In the US, corn production would decline by an average of 10% for an entire decade, with the most severe decline, about 20% in year 5. There would be a similar decline in soybean production, with, again, the most severe loss, about 20%, in year 5.

A second study found a significant decline in Chinese middle season rice production. During the first 4 years, rice production would decline by an average of 21%; over the next 6 years the decline would average 10%.

Continue reading “Reference: NUCLEAR FAMINE – A BILLION PEOPLE AT RISK Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition + Eugenics RECAP”

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Marcus Aurelius: US SOF Seeks Global SOF Network Including Regional Multinational Op-Intel Centers — What Regional Commands SHOULD Have Created

Advanced Cyber/IO, Military
Marcus Aurelius

U.S. [SOF Commander] Seeks Global Spec Ops Network

1st ‘Node' to Stand Up in '13

Defense News, May 14, 2012, Pg. 1

By Barbara Opall-Rome

AMMAN — U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants to establish a worldwide network linking special operations forces (SOF) of allied and partner nations to combat terrorism.

Championed by SOCOM commander Adm. Bill McRaven and Deputy Director of Operations Brig. Gen. Sean Mulholland, the network would comprise regional security coordination centers, organized and structured similarly to NATO SOF Headquarters in Mons, Belgium.

“Imagine the power a confederation of SOF interests could have. It could collectively increase its influence and operational reach around the globe,” Mulholland told participants at a May 7 Middle East Special Operations Commanders Conference here.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: US SOF Seeks Global SOF Network Including Regional Multinational Op-Intel Centers — What Regional Commands SHOULD Have Created”

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DefDog: CEOs Receive Secret Cyber-Scare Briefing from USG

Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Military
DefDog

There are some scare tactics in this….while it is possible, I am not convinced that CyberCom has the capabilities, they are pretty noisy in their actions…..and then we have Y2K as a precedent for all talk and no damage.

Cyber Briefings ‘Scare The Bejeezus' Out Of CEOs

AP

Cybersecurity analysts work in the watch and warning center during the first tour of the government's secretive cyberdefense lab intended to protect the nation's power, water and chemical plants, electrical grid and other facilities on Sept. 29, 2011, in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Published: May 09, 2012

by Tom Gjelten

For the CEOs of companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, talk of cyberweapons and cyberwar could have been abstract. But at a classified security briefing in spring 2010, it suddenly became quite real.

“We can turn your computer into a brick,” U.S. officials told the startled executives, according to a participant in the meeting.

The warning came during a discussion of emerging cyberthreats at a secret session hosted by the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, along with Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the U.S. military's Cyber Command.

The meeting was part of a public-private partnership dubbed the “Enduring Security Framework” that was launched at the end of 2008. The initiative brings chief executives from top technology and defense companies to Washington, D.C., two or three times a year for classified briefings. The purpose is to share information about the latest developments in cyberwarfare capabilities, highlighting the cyberweapons that could be used against the executives' own companies.

“We scare the bejeezus out of them,” says one U.S. government participant.

The hope is that the executives, who are given a special one-day, top-secret security clearance, will go back to their companies and order steps to deal with the vulnerabilities that have been pointed out.

“I personally know of one CEO for whom it was a life-changing experience,” says Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer for Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm. “Gen. Alexander sat him down and told him what was going on. This particular CEO, in my opinion, should have known [about the cyberthreats] but did not, and now it has colored everything about the way he thinks about this problem.”

Read full AP article.

Phi Beta Iota:  In fairness to General Alexander, he is making up for decades of dereliction of duty by OMB and his predecessors, but he is also going about it completely wrong, spending tens of billions on secret capabilities that are at best immature and incomplete, while failing to illuminate the battlefield publicly and call for common open source hardware, open source software, and open spectrum that are secure at “root.”  He is completely ignoring the related matter of computational mathematics and mathematical ethics.