Military – Page 299 – Public Intelligence Blog

2010/04/052010/04/05

Journal: Israel, Neo-Cons, Big Oil, Iraq, & Green

05 Energy, 08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Strategy

In my last blaster (here), I raised a question of whether the Israelis were trying to hijack the Green Lobby or whether they were ready for the rubber room. This was made in response to a report by Jonathan Cook that contended Israel was greenwashing war on terror. It turns out that I may have phrased this question in naive, simplistic terms, if my good friend Pierre Sprey (a justifiably well known weapons analyst, mathematician, and recording entrepreneur) is correct, Israel's motives for trying to hijack the Green Lobby can be viewed in a larger, longer range context. Below is his most interesting analysis of Israel's motives for greenwashing the war on terror: Chuck

—–[Comment by Pierre Sprey]—–

I totally agree that the currently faddish alternate energy sources are ludicrously uneconomical and, for the most part, environmentally harmful. The only alternate source that could almost completely supplant oil and that actually makes economic and environmental sense, natural gas, is currently among the most unfashionable.

Nevertheless, there's an important larger perspective to Israel's dead serious push to raise huge amounts of capital (guess where?) to produce non-oil based energy from trendy green sources in large enough quantities to reduce worldwide oil demand significantly.

That perspective is simple: unbeknownst to most, the absolute highest priority objective of Israeli foreign policy, from 1949 to today, has been to break the Seven Sisters oil cartel's stranglehold on world oil production in order to collapse the world price of oil. From Israel's point of view, that's a perfectly rational strategic objective–and, almost certainly, the only Israeli objective I know of that would be a major benefit to the world.

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2010/04/042010/04/04

Reference: Intelligence Support to Small Arms Acquisition–A Brilliant Indictment

10 Security, Analysis, DoD, Methods & Process, Military, Reform, Strategy, Threats, Tools

Marcus Aurelius:

(1) US consciously changed from standard main battle rifles firing “full military cartridges” (ie., M-14/7.62×51 NATO, M-1 Garand/cal. 30 M-1) to assault rifles (AR-15, M-16, Stoner System) in the 1960s as we attempted to optimize for short-range engagements in the constrained mountainous/jungle environments of Southeast Asia. At the time, our primary allies were slight of physical stature;

(2) Concurrently, training and engagement doctrine shifted from carefully aimed individual shots to volume of fire (bursts of various numbers of rounds, the “spray and slay” technique) and various “point and shoot” techniques such as “instinctive aiming,” “quick kill,” etc.;

(3) Ammunition followed suit and emphasis in terminal ballistics shifted from accuracy and kinetic energy to volume of fire and bullet yaw/fragmentation; (4) I attach the SAMS paper by MAJ Ehrhart cited in the article.)

Phi Beta Iota: This one paper is a superb indictment of US DoD leadership from the Secretary of Defense, who claims he does not do “maintenance” but is in fact overseeing “business as usual” for Lockheed et all, to the Undersecretaries (Intelligence does not do intelligence support to acquisitions; Acquisitions could care less about inexpensive individual systems; and Policy simply does not have a clue) to the service leaders responsible for training, equipping, and organizing the forces to be sent into battle by the Combatant Commanders. The Strategic Generalizations developed by the Marine Corps Intelligence Center in 1989 remain valid–and ignored.

Related Media Article:

April 2, 2010

Army Report: GIs Outgunned In Afghanistan

By David Wood

American troops are often outgunned by Afghan insurgents because they lack the precision weapons, deadly rounds, and training needed to kill the enemy in the long-distance firefights common in Afghanistan's rugged terrain, according to an internal Army study.

Politics Daily Full Story Online

2010/04/042010/04/04

Reference: Intelligence Reform Death Notice

10 Security, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Commissions, DHS, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Ethics, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Methods & Process, Military, Peace Intelligence, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats

Phi Beta Iota: With a tip of the hat to Marcus Aurelius, this document is provided for information. On balance it is rich with insights that are not available elsewhere and consequently must be very highly regarded as a baseline for where US intelligence reform (and US intelligence) are today: dead, with a $75 billion a year casket that shows no signs of atrophy. Below are summary extracts both positive and negative.

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2010/04/032010/05/08

Video: Israel/Palestine’s Hit (assassination) Parade

Communities of Practice, Government, Intelligence (government), Military, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

It’s thought a single pillow killed a Hamas operative in Dubai this January. Yet this astonishing spy story involved 27 secret agents, some pilfered European passports and countless security cameras.

On January the 19th, an unremarkable parade of foreigners passed through Dubai’s cosmopolitan airport, strode from one CCTV camera to another, and then assassinated Palestinian resistance fighter Mahmoud Mabhouh in his hotel room. For Mossad – the Israeli Intelligence agency thought to be behind it all – the operation was a success. Yet the maelstrom of ugly consequences for the agency, Israel, and the hapless citizens whose passport details were used, have left many baffled. “To describe this as anything other than a fiasco, I don’t see how you can do it”, says former CIA agent, Robert Baer, “why would you sacrifice 27 people?”. Israel’s iron-fisted approach is embedded in its history as a state, constantly defending its survival. There is some speculation that Israelis with dual citizenship may even have agreed for their passport details to be used. “The Israelis want to seem to be invulnerable”, says Baer, “you kill us we kill you – we don’t get caught, and there’s no international condemnation”. Whether or not the killers are to be called to account, a death squad has had its cover blown and a legendary spy agency has been all but outed.

ABC Australia

2010/04/032010/04/03

Journal: Military Medicine Up, Military Strategy Not…

05 Civil War, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Government, Methods & Process, Military, Strategy

On Distant Battlefields, Survival Odds Rise Sharply

By ALAN CULLISON

Every war brings medical innovations, as horrific injuries force surgeons to come up with new ways to save lives. During the Civil War, doctors learned better ways to amputate limbs, and in World War I they developed the typhoid vaccine. World War II brought the mass use of penicillin, Korea and Vietnam the development of medical evacuation by helicopter.

Full Story Online

The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, medical experts say, are still emerging. One legacy is new ways to control bleeding before soldiers lapse into comas or their vital organs shut down. Thanks to new clotting agents, blood products and advanced medical procedures performed closer to the battlefield, wounded American soldiers are now surviving at a greater rate than in any previous war fought by the U.S.

The rising survival rate, now touching 95% for those who live long enough to get medical treatment, is in turn introducing new problems caring for patients with serious and chronic injuries, including multiple amputations and brain damage. The cost of treating such lasting injuries will be borne by the U.S. medical system for decades to come.

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2010/04/032010/05/08

Area 51: Collecting Memories after 47 years of Secrecy

Communities of Practice, Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Originally published March 27, 2010
By Erik Lacitis

Seattle Times staff reporter

VANCOUVER, Wash. — After nearly five decades, guys like James Noce finally get to tell their stories about Area 51.

Yes, that Area 51.

The one that gets brought up when people talk about secret Air Force projects, crashed UFOs, alien bodies and, of course, conspiracies.

The secrets, some of them, have been declassified.

Noce, 72, and his fellow Area 51 veterans around the country now are free to talk about doing contract work for the CIA in the 1960s and '70s at the arid, isolated Southern Nevada government testing site.

Their stories shed some light on a site shrouded in mystery; classified projects still are going on there. It's not a big leap from warding off the curious 40 or 50 years ago, to warding off the curious who now make the drive to Area 51.

The veterans' stories provide a glimpse of real-life government covert operations, with their everyday routines and moments of excitement.

Noce didn't seek out publicity. But when contacted, he was glad to tell what it was like.

“I was sworn to secrecy for 47 years. I couldn't talk about it,” he says.

2010/04/022010/05/08

Court Decision (NOT Congress Oversight) Declared NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Illegal

09 Justice, Civil Society, Communities of Practice, Government, Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Court document: Alharamain versus National Security Administration

(From Secrecy News)
WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE OF CHARITY RULED UNLAWFUL

Warrantless surveillance of an Islamic charity in Oregon in 2004 violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a court ruled (pdf) on March 31.

In the culmination of a four-year lawsuit, Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of Columbia found that the government had unlawfully intercepted international telephone conversations of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation without a warrant, as required by the FISA for intelligence and counterterrorism surveillance. The government had contended that the state secrets privilege barred a resolution of the case, but the court found that the defendants were able to make their case without the use of state secrets.

At least by implication, the ruling means that aspects of President Bush's Terrorist Surveillance Program were illegal. Significantly, that determination was made by a court, based on a private complaint years after the fact, and not through congressional intelligence oversight. While Congress did enact the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which was the foundation of the court's ruling, contemporary congressional oversight alone would have left the Al-Haramain violation (and untold others) undiscovered and unpunished.
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