Military – Page 99 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/11/282013/11/28

Marcus Aurelius: War Games Test 2 Versions of US Army — Current and Planned Army Loses Big, Innovation Army Triumphs

Ethics, Military, Officers Call, Strategy

War game compares response of 2 versions of future Army

By Lance M. Bacon Staff writer

Army Times, Nov. 25, 2013 – 06:00AM

A reduced reliance on airfields and seaports in a recent war game resulted in increased speed and entry operations.

New Gear: What’s next

If necessity is the mother of invention, get ready for a lot of new stuff. In the near term, that will include:
■ Getting the network into standard units.
■ More interoperable and user-friendly mission command.
■ Mobile and survivable command posts.
■ 3-D or 4-D printing to reduce logistic repairs.
■ Hands-free, heads-up displays so “people playing ‘Call of Duty’ [no longer] have an ability to access data our soldiers don’t.”

And that is just the start, according to Maj. Gen. Bill Hicks, deputy director for the Army Capabilities Integration Center. He described some “very promising” advances in science and technology after the conference. One was mo-lecular changes to reduce the weight of vehicle armor by half without lessening protection.

Have you ever heard of graphene? It would take an elephant balanced on a pencil to break through a sheet with the thickness (or thinness) of plastic wrap. Imagine using that as body armor.

The Innovation Group moved one-third of its force using two conceptual troop carriers. One was an ultra-heavy vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft that would (theoretically) cut BCT deployment from 29 days to four. The other was a conceptual joint high-speed, shallow-draft ship expected to reduce sealift time by half.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: War Games Test 2 Versions of US Army — Current and Planned Army Loses Big, Innovation Army Triumphs”

2013/11/282013/11/28

David Sabow: Betrayal – Toxic Murder of USMC Personnel and Their Families

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Military, Officers Call

NARCOTRAFFICKING, MURDER AND TOXIC SOUP

In 1985 when TCE was found in several agricultural wells off of El Toro, Camp Lejeune on the East coast was forced to close down wells contaminated with TCE and other contaminants. As many as one million veterans and their dependents were exposed to Lejeune’s contaminated wells over 30 years (1953-1987). Congressional hearings and the testimonies of veterans and dependents pressured Congress to pass health care without any provision for disability compensation for Lejeune’s survivors. El Toro closed in 1999 and sold at public auction in 2005 is not on anyone’s radar.

At El Toro, over 40 years of water distribution engineering drawings and original well construction drawings are missing while the Navy and Corps support a fabrication that the base wells were abandoned over 60 years ago for municipal water—a scarce commodity in arid Southern California. The base wells were more likely than not still secured to El Toro’s water distribution system in 1985 when the Orange County Water District found TCE contaminated agricultural wells on and off the base. In 1986, El Toro at considerable expense had an agricultural and engineering firm redraw the entire set of water distribution engineering drawings. No base wells were in the 1986 engineering drawings.

BETRAYAL, self-published on Amazon was written by two former El Toro Marines, Robert O’Dowd, investigative reporter and Tim King, photo/journalist, war correspondent, and Executive News Editor of Salem-News.com.

Continue reading “David Sabow: Betrayal – Toxic Murder of USMC Personnel and Their Families”

2013/11/22

Winslow Wheeler: Stop the Assassination of the A-10

Corruption, Government, Military

Usually ignored by the press as insufficiently interesting to technology dazzled editors and reviled by the civilian and military leadership of the Air Force as not what they think they should spend money and careers on, the A-10 “Warthog” has broken through into Washington DC's consciousness. Interestingly, the attention was provoked by a heavy handed effort by the Air Force to wipe out the entire remaining fleet of approximately 350 A-10 close air support aircraft in order to plough the money saved into “higher priority” programs, most specifically the F-35.

Five articles in major national or regional news media just this week make painfully obvious that in attempting to get rid of the A-10, the Air Force has kicked itself into a hornet's nest. Most importantly, the growing controversy is revealing that in warfare since Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the A-10 has performed spectacularly well, significantly better than other more complex and costly aircraft, in its primary mission (helping Soldiers and Marines fight on the ground) and it performs–equally well–missions for which it was not originally intended.

The issues go to the very nature of the Air Force, how to fight effectively in the twenty-first century, and what kinds of weapons should be bought (and how to buy them).

These issue will be the focus of a seminar tomorrow (Friday): “Close Air Support with and without the A-10: Will US Troops Get the Help They Need?” sponsored by the Straus Military Reform Project and the Project On Government Oversight. It's located at the Carnegie building at 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, very near the DuPont Circle (South) Metro stop. Sessions will start at 9:30, lasting until 3:30.

Find details (Speakers and their bios, specific issues to be addressed and more) at http://www.pogo.org/our-work/straus-military-reform-project/weapons/2013/a-seminar-on-combat-effectiveness.html.

We hope to see you there. Below are the five articles and their links discussed above.

2013/11/22

Paul Craig Roberts: JFK’s Assassination 50 Years On…

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

The Kennedy Assassination (November 22, 1963) 50 Years Later

November 22, 2013, is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The true story of JFK’s murder has never been officially admitted, although the conclusion that JFK was murdered by a plot involving the Secret Service, the CIA, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been well established by years of research, such as that provided by James W. Douglass in his book, JFK And The Unspeakable, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008. Ignore Douglass’ interest in the Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Merton’s prediction and focus on the heavily documented research that Douglass provides.

Or just turn to the contemporary films, taken by tourists watching JFK’s motorcade that are available on YouTube, which show clearly the Secret Service pulled from President Kennedy’s limo just prior to his assassination, and the Zapruder film that shows the killing shot to have come from President Kennedy’s right front, blowing off the back of his head, not from the rear as postulated in the Warren Commission Report, which would have pushed his head forward, not rearward.

I am not going to write about the assassination to the extent that the massive information permits. Those who want to know already know. Those who cannot face the music will never be able to confront the facts regardless of what I or anyone else writes or reveals.

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: JFK's Assassination 50 Years On…”

2013/11/21

David Swanson: Groups Call on Congress to Cut “Runaway” Military Spending by 25-50%

Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

Groups Call on Congress to Make Massive Cuts in Runaway Military Spending

A diverse array of organizations today launched a campaign to enact major cuts in wasteful military spending, as part of the December 13 federal budget resolution. The groups include peace, human service, economic and environmental justice organizations, food sovereignty and green energy groups, and grassroots community organizations. They are calling for long overdue reductions in military spending in order to meet dire needs at home and reinvest in our future.

The groups are launching a sign-on letter calling for cuts of 25-50% in the trillion dollar military budget that accounts for 53% of all discretionary federal spending. The groups will deliver the letter to Congress on December 10 – International Human Rights Day.

The groups want Congress to focus on:

– Adequately funding critical social needs, including food stamps, Social Security, improved and expanded Medicare for all, and public education including college,

– Creating a full employment public jobs program to jump start the green economy (a Green New Deal),

>- Rebuilding vital infrastructure.

Groups initiating the campaign include the Backbone Campaign; Coalition Against Nukes; Code Pink; Fellowship of Reconciliation, Freepress.org; Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Green Shadow Cabinet; Hip Hop Congress; Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution; No FEAR Coalition; Organic Consumers Association; Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign; PopularResistance.org; RootsAction.org and others. Additional groups can sign on to the letter here.

Continue reading “David Swanson: Groups Call on Congress to Cut “Runaway” Military Spending by 25-50%”

2013/11/20

Stephen J. Arnold: NSA Drives Many to Private Search – Phi Beta Iota: Lacking Code Level Integrity, Privacy is Not an Option

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, IO Privacy, Military, Officers Call

Users Seek Private Search Options After NSA Revelations

This is certainly no surprise. CSO reveals, “People Flock to Anonymizing Services After NSA Snooping Reports.” Writer Grant Gross highlights several anonymous search services that have seen usage soar since certain NSA practices have come to light. DuckDuckGo is on the list, as well as Tor and mobile solution Silent Circle. The brand new Disconnect Search saw over 400,000 searches within four days of its launch. Clearly, many people are beginning to cover their virtual tracks. But is it pointless, after all? The article points out:

“Disconnect Search’s FAQ includes information about possible government searches. ‘The reality is the U.S. government may force us to begin logging the search queries of a particular user or group of users,’ the FAQ said. ‘If served with a court order that includes a non-disclosure provision, we may not be able to tell our users about this change for some period of time, possibly forever. And the U.S. government may also have other methods of monitoring user searches which Disconnect Search cannot prevent.’”

Though we now know several prominent firms quietly complied with NSA demands to fork over their records, at least one search service has elected to fold rather than cave. Lavabit made the tough choice to shut down their decade-old organization rather than comply with. . . something. Owner Ladar Levison’s explanation, which is all that is left of the site, laments that he can’t tell us exactly what was demanded of him, but his frustration and ire are apparent in the strongly worded note. He writes:

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on–the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise.”

So, there’s that. Not exactly encouraging for fans of privacy. Lavison seems to hold at least a sliver of hope for a favorable verdict as Lavabit takes their fight to court. Is even that too optimistic?

Cynthia Murrell, November 20, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

2013/11/20

Marcus Aurelius: Acoustic Hackers Can Halt Fleet

Ineptitude, IO Impotency, IO Technologies, Military

US NAVY: Hackers ‘Jumping The Air Gap' Would ‘Disrupt The World Balance Of Power'

Geoffrey Ingersoll

Business Insider, Nov. 19, 2013, 2:54 PM

The next generation hackers may be taking to sound waves, and the Navy is understandably spooked.

Speaking at last week's Defense One conference, retired Capt. Mark Hagerott cited recent reports about sonic computer viruses as one way that hackers could “jump the air gap” and target systems that are not connected to the Internet.

“If you take a cybernetic view of what's happening [in the Navy], right now our approach is unplug it or don't use a thumb drive,” Hagerott said. But if hackers “are able to jump the air gap, we are talking about fleets coming to a stop.”

For a long time the thought was that an air gap (systems that are not connected to the Internet) rendered networks pretty much impenetrable.

Then the Stuxnet virus happened — an Iranian nuclear scientist with an infected thumb drive walked a virus through the air gap and unknowingly uploaded a destructive virus onto a network controlling nuclear centrifuges. This attack not only damaged Iran's nuclear facilities, but it also signaled the dawn of kinetic cyber attacks (the kind that cause physical damage) and the revealed the vulnerability of air gaps.

It's not just thumb drives though. Hagerott cited reporting by Arstechnica's Dan Goodin on a virus that supposedly transmitted via high-frequency sound waves.

Goodin called the malware “the advanced persistent threat equivalent of a Bigfoot sighting.”

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Acoustic Hackers Can Halt Fleet”