Communities of Practice – Page 1418 – Public Intelligence Blog

August 24, 2009

Pg. 11

By Kris Osborn

In 2008, U.S. military forces collected 400,000 hours of airborne surveillance video, up from several thousand hours 10 years ago. So the Pentagon is turning to computers to help save, sort and search it all.

“The proliferation of unmanned systems across the battlefield is not going to lessen in the future. We saw it happen in the first Gulf War. Once commanders have it, there is an insatiable appetite for FMV,” or full-motion video, said Maj. Gen. John Custer III, who commands the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

“You not only need the tools to exploit that, you need storage because commanders don’t only want to see a building now but what it looked like yesterday, six weeks ago and six months ago,” Custer said. “When you have 18 systems up for 18 hours a day, you get into terabytes in a week. We are going to be in large data-storage warehousing for the rest of time.”
Continue reading “Journal: MILNET Flags Sorting It Out: New Tools Wrestle Mountains of Data Into Usable Intelligence”

2009/08/242009/08/24

Journal: Col Danny R. McKnight, USA (Ret) on Leadership

05 Civil War, 10 Security, Ethics, Leadership, Military

With a tip of the hat to Marcus Aurelius, who flagged this, we have loaded an original document summarizing the lessons learned on leadership from the “Black Hawk Down” engagement (19 hours of intense combat) and list the highlights below. Click below for the full document (5 pages).

STRATEGIC LESSONS:

White House gutted the mission before it started by limiting the force to 450 instead of the normal 600, meaning they went in with 25% less ORGANIC strength and skills than they trained with.

White House gutten the mission before it started by forbidding AC-130 Gun Ships, the absolute core air fire support element of all Ranger missions.

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2009/08/232009/08/23

Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags 8-14 the “foreclosure wave” – now, a tsunami of sorts

03 Economy, Commerce, Government

The Foreclosure Wave” — Now a Tsunami of Sorts

Over the past two days, the popular foreclosure reporting firms released their monthly numbers and the takeaway was that the foreclosure crisis is getting worse. Indeed, the foreclosure crisis is worsening, but July’s actual foreclosure numbers do not pose much additional risk to the housing market because most of the worsening was seen in the pre-foreclosure pipeline (notice-of-default & notice-of-trustee sale). Based upon July’s results, the players that will feel most of the additional reported foreclosure pressure are the banks, mbs holders, insurers, and servicers.

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It is important to always remember that when one person gets a ‘good deal’ on a house, orders of magnitude more are thrown into a negative-equity (or deeper negative equity) position exponentially increasing their likelihood of loan default. Loan default leads to foreclosure and another ‘good deal’ on a house and so on and so on.

Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags 8-14 the “foreclosure wave” – now, a tsunami of sorts”

2009/08/232009/08/23

Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags Words from the front line: the bloody truth of Helmand – by a combat soldier

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Military

The past eight weeks have been the army's worst time in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion eight years ago. Here, in his brutally frank diaries of life on the front line, a serving soldier records the bitter toll of death, and his anger and frustration at the lack of military and political support Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 23 August 2009.

EXTRACTS as Highlighted by Chuck Spinney:

We need better weapons. Every one of the SA80s stopped firing after one round (weapons were cleaned and oiled just as we were trained) but these weapons are a load of shit.

The chiefs should be pressing for a better weapons system. And why don't the army have more sniffer dogs? Would be finding IEDs [improvised explosive devices] a lot easier with a furry friend running about and a lot more lives would be saved. Since I've been here, haven't seen one dog. Told might have to go back to Camp Bastion because of injury.

Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags Words from the front line: the bloody truth of Helmand – by a combat soldier”

2009/08/222009/08/26

Journal: MILNET Flags Fighting Global Warming With CIA?

10 Security, Earth Intelligence, Government

Full Story Online

Some say security fears are counterproductive

By Bryan Bender

WASHINGTON – Melting ice caps. Drought. Spreading disease. US defense planners view global climate change as a national security threat because it could create millions of new refugees and intensify conflicts over resources.

. . . . . . .

A new debate is unfolding over whether linking climate change too closely with security planning will create a self-fulfilling prophecy, running the risk that the United States will rely too heavily on its armed forces to deal with global problems.

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2009/08/222009/09/07

Journal: MILNET Flags Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops

02 Diplomacy, 10 Security, Military

Despite Surge in U.S. Deployments, More Civilians Are Posted in War Zone; Reliance Echoes the Controversy in Iraq

Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2009, Pg. 6, By August Cole

Even as U.S. troops surge to new highs in Afghanistan they are outnumbered by military contractors working alongside them, according to a Defense Departm! ent census due to be distributed to Congress — illustrating how hard it is for the U.S. to wean itself from the large numbers of war-zone contractors that proved controversial in Iraq.

The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point. As the military force in Afghanistan grows further, to a planned 68,000 by the end of the year, the Defense Department expects the ranks of contractors to increase more.

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2009/08/212009/08/21

Journal: Tom Atlee Needs Your Help

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Methods & Process, Policy, Reform

Tom Atlee is the single most important person responsible for introducing Robert Steele to the emerging concepts of Public Intelligence and Collective Intelligence. Apart from all the books (Smart Mobs, Here Comes Everybody, Groundswell, Army of Davids , Here Comes Everybody, etcetera), it is Tom Atlee who has been the catalyst for convergence across all the issue areas. He is to People what Paul Ray is to polling. Tom is the god-father of the American Public Renaissance, and if we do ultimately take back the power and restore sanity to the Republic and the federal government that is a SERVICE, nothing more, it will be because Tom Atlee was himself. Please support him. Below are a number of headlines from his latest effort to raise funds for the Co-Intelligence Institute. Tom Atlee personifies the center of gravity for America the Good. Please donate as little or as much as you are inspired to give to this national hero.

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Full Story Online Some say security fears are counterproductive

Full Story Online

Some say security fears are counterproductive