Military – Page 291 – Public Intelligence Blog

Iraq: Insurgents conducted at least 34 coordinated attacks in 16 cities 0n 25 August. The bombings and other attacks killed 77 people and wounded nearly 400 more. Baghdad experienced five attacks.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The attacks showed the breadth of the insurgents' operational area. They appear to be the work of a single group, apparently Sunni Arabs or secular Arabs.

The attacks also establish a baseline of the insurgents' ability to coordinate attacks over space and time. This was not a trivial display of the capability to coordinate attacks over long distances. They appear to be a test of the feasibility of taking the next escalation step in the insurgency.

Some outside entity is funding a new, most likely Sunni Arab, insurgency and has afforded its leadership the command and control capability for today's attacks. Look to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota: Emphasis added above. The US Government (not America the Beautiful or the big-hearted American public) is called a “useful idiot” in most of the world precisely because it mixes hubris and naivete with vast amounts of money spent without a strategy and without accountability. It took too long to understand the Saudi funding behind the global spread of virulent Wahhabism, while the equivalent funding to the Bush family and others assured that at the political and policy level, our enemies the Saudis would remain conveniently and unethically our friends.

2010/08/222011/03/17

Journal: DoD, WikiLeaks, JCS, Security Ad Naseum…

07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Corruption, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Defense News August 23, 2010

Experts: DoD Could Have Prevented WikiLeaks Leak

By William Matthews

While senior Pentagon officials resort to bluster in hopes of preventing the WikiLeaks website from posting any more secret Afghan war documents on the Internet, security experts say there is a lot the U.S. military could have done to prevent the classified documents from being leaked in the first place.

Steps range from the sophisticated — installing automated monitoring systems on classified networks — to the mundane — disabling CD burners and USB ports on network computers.

“The technology is available” to protect highly sensitive information, said Tom Conway, director of federal business development at computer security giant McAfee. “The Defense Department doesn’t have it, but it is commercially available. We’ve got some major commercial clients using it.”

Full Article Below the Line (Not Easily Available on Internet); Lengthy Comment Follows Article

Continue reading “Journal: DoD, WikiLeaks, JCS, Security Ad Naseum…”

2010/08/182010/08/18

Journal: General McCrystal Wins, US Troops Lose

08 Wild Cards, Government, Military, Officers Call

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

New York Daily News
August 17, 2010
Pg. 18

Fired McChrystal Gets Yale Grad School Gig

WASHINGTON — Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the too-outspoken Afghan commander sacked by President Obama, picked up a consolation prize yesterday from the Ivy League.

Yale announced McChrystal would teach a “ leadership seminar” for grad students. McChrystal said he was looking forward to “ sharing my experiences and insights as a career military officer.”

McChrystal, 56, was forced into retirement in June after dissing the chain of command in a Rolling Stone interview.

FULL STORY ONLINE

Continue reading “Journal: General McCrystal Wins, US Troops Lose”

2010/08/152010/08/17

Institutions of Higher Education Ineligible for Federal Funds (because they disallow military recruiters)

04 Education, Government, Military

+ Vermont Law School
+ South Royalton, Vermont
+ William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota.

12 August 2010

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12au10-41]                         

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Secretary
 
List of Institutions of Higher Education Ineligible for Federal 
Funds

AGENCY: Department of Defense (DoD).

ACTION: Notice.

 Continue reading "Institutions of Higher Education Ineligible for Federal  Funds (because they disallow military recruiters)"

2010/08/15

Journal: Incoherence of US Government Continues…

07 Health, Government, Military

(COMMENT: The drumbeat to screw retirees continues…)

Tacoma News Tribune
August 14, 2010
Pg. 14

Military Update

Higher Health Premiums On Gates' Cost-Cutting Agenda

By Tom Philpott

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signaled that the department’s fiscal 2012 budget request to be sent to Congress early next year will include recommendations to raise TRICARE premiums for some beneficiaries.

If past proposals are a reliable guide, the target of higher fees is likely to be military retirees rather than active duty families.

Continue reading “Journal: Incoherence of US Government Continues…”

2010/08/152010/08/17

Journal: Untrained Doctor Uses “Scalpel” with Abandon

Government, Military

August 14, 2010

Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents

By SCOTT SHANE, MARK MAZZETTI and ROBERT F. WORTH

WASHINGTON — At first, the news from Yemen on May 25 sounded like a modest victory in the campaign against terrorists: an airstrike had hit a group suspected of being operatives for Al Qaeda in the remote desert of Marib Province, birthplace of the legendary queen of Sheba.

But the strike, it turned out, had also killed the province’s deputy governor, a respected local leader who Yemeni officials said had been trying to talk Qaeda members into giving up their fight. Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accepted responsibility for the death and paid blood money to the offended tribes.

The strike, though, was not the work of Mr. Saleh’s decrepit Soviet-era air force. It was a secret mission by the United States military, according to American officials, at least the fourth such assault on Al Qaeda in the arid mountains and deserts of Yemen since December.

FULL STORY ONLINE

2010/08/112010/08/11

“Lord’s Resistance Army” Attacks in Bas Uele, Northeastern Congo

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Military

(From EnoughProject.org)
The Lord’s Resistance Army has depopulated a remote corner of northeastern Congo, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians, and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. In a new report, “‘This is our land now:’ Lord’s Resistance Army attacks in Bas Uele, northeastern Congo,” Enough Project Field Researcher Ledio Cakaj documents 51 attacks by the LRA in Bas Uele, Congo, resulting in at least 105 deaths and 570 abductions during the last 15 months.

“The LRA rampage in Bas Uele territory is brutal but strategic,” notes Cakaj, “LRA fighters have used this region as a base and transit point to the Central African Republic and beyond. The threat to civilians is increasing, since there is no meaningful military force to challenge the LRA in this area. The Congolese army remains a threat to its own population, and the United Nations is drawing down its peacekeepers in this region.”

After signing into U.S. law the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act on May 24, 2010, the Obama administration is developing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the LRA. The report argues that any viable strategy needs to take into account the importance of Bas Uele to the LRA, in order to better protect civilians and finally to end the LRA’s escalating threat across a vast region of central Africa.

Category: Military

NIGHTWATCH Extract: Our Friends, our Enemies