10 Security – Page 66 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/08/082011/08/08

David Isenberg: Military Sub-Contractors Managing Kitchens a Major Health Threat to Entire Battalions

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, DoD, Military, Officers Call

You Want Chicken Pox with That?

EXTRACT

The story of what might be called the ghost of chicken pox future starts with Najlaa International Catering Services (NICS), a KBR contractor, headquartered in Kuwait. NICS was solicited by KBR in the spring of 2008 to provide a Request for Proposal (RFP) for approximately 32 Dining Facilities (DFAC) at various military camps in Iraq under the Army's LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) III program. NICS subsequently won the contract.

Around the end of the first week of November 2008 it was discovered that NICS's temporary tent city housing camp at Victory Base Camp had a confirmed chicken pox case and 37 employees were supposed to be quarantined. NICS disputed with GlobalMed, its KBR-approved medical service provider, that it was a chicken pox case. NICS began to release the employees from the quarantine tent and put them back to work at the DFAC's.

Read original story in full….

Phi Beta Iota: This little-noticed story is actually–in our view–a major investigative expose. At multiple levels, from irresponsible acquisition to potentially catastrophic infections of entire divisions by “friendly contractors,” this is a story that merits much more attention. It is also a story that reinforces our view that contractors have no business being employed or engaged in a combat zone.

2011/08/082011/08/08

Richard Wright: DoD Drowning, Leaders Can’t Swim

03 Economy, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency, Military, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

The Perils of Cutting Defense Spending

The Public Intelligence Blog has speculated that the financial elites who indirectly are the principal influencers the U.S. Congress and the Presidency have decided that their best interests will be served if U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spending is substantially reduced. It has long been obvious that DOD budgets have been bloated beyond any rationality so any real effect to bring those budgets under control should be welcomed.

Yet I have concerns about how DOD will respond to major reductions in military spending. The permanent senior civilian leadership of DOD and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), for the most part, appear to be completely devoid of integrity and indeed common sense. I seriously doubt if DOD leadership can be trusted to execute intelligent reductions in spending. I worry that the bureaucrats and JCS staffers will end up cutting back even further on support to our actual fighting forces (real men and women) in order to continue funding parochial badly conceived programs that are expensive, but often useless. There is such a close relationship between DOD and the Defense Industries that as the late Colonel John Boyd (USAF ret.) observed the real strategy of the JSC is to keep the money flowing (and increasing if possible). Too many military and civilian DOD officials use a revolving door between high level DOD positions and high paying defense industries jobs to be able to objectively evaluate the real worth of many defense projects.

Continue reading “Richard Wright: DoD Drowning, Leaders Can't Swim”

2011/08/082011/08/08

Penguin: Taliban Plussing Up Anti-Air? Deja Vu….

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, Military, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

Improvisation by the Taliban, combined with decades of strategic, intellectual, and integrity shortfalls in DoD, equal death traps in the air. Note that the Taliban laid a trap to optimize body count AFTER the action was “over” and the helicopter was “going home.”

Did a New Taliban Weapon Kill a Chopper Full of Navy SEALs?

David Axe

WIRED, 8 August 2011

The passengers and crew of the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopter probably never saw the rocket hurtling towards them. The explosion and fiery crash in Wardak province in eastern Afghanistan early on Saturday morning killed all 38 people aboard the lumbering chopper.

For U.S. forces, it was the bloodiest single incident of the 10-year-old Afghanistan war — and possibly a sign of the insurgency’s continued ability to introduce new weaponry. The attack is also a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of the United States-lead coalition’s indispensable helicopters. “Shock and disbelief,” is how one official characterized the reaction inside the military.

Marcus Aurelius: 22 SEAL Team Six & Others Die in Old Slow Chopper, Because US DoD Never Cared About Training, Equipping, & Organizing for High-Altitude Mountain Warfare

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, Military, Offbeat Fun, Peace Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

British press report, unusually thorough, but miss the core point: why so many sent into combat in a single very old, very slow transport helicopter.

Special forces helicopter shot down in Afghanistan was on a mission to rescue U.S. Army Rangers

Daily Mail, 7 August 2011

Chopper brought down in rocket attack was on its way to aid other elite troops fighting militants
Names of American victims begin to be released
Twenty-two of the dead soldiers were from elite Seal Team Six
At 30 deaths in total, it's highest number of U.S. casualties in one incident
Seven Afghan soldiers die in the crash
President Obama mourns this ‘extraordinary sacrifice'
Afghan president sends condolences to Obama

Richard Wright: F-22 Raptor Goes Under the Bus

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

It is amazing that the L.A. Times would publish this story. Maybe even the ‘lame stream media' is starting to wake up to the foolishness of the MICC.

High costs, malfunctions plague F-22 Raptor fighter jets

W. J. Hennigan

Los Angeles Times, 6 August 2011

The fleet of 158 F-22 planes — costing $412 million each — has never entered combat and has been grounded since May 3 because of a government safety investigation. The probe follows more than a dozen incidents in which oxygen was cut off to pilots, a problem suspected of contributing to at least one fatal accident.

Marcus Aurelius: Israel Plots to Cripple Iranian Cyber

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Computer/online security, Corruption, Cyberscams, malware, spam, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

(1) Wish the Israelis every success, but their chances are likely decreased thanks to leaks;

(2) Wonder if GEN Alexander of USCYBERCOM will seek to re-negotiate his deal IOT report directly to POTUS?

Israeli Military Reportedly Plotting to Cripple Iran in Cyberspace

Published August 07, 2011

EXTRACT:

“Israel has two principal targets in Iran’s cyberspace,” said a defense source with close knowledge of the cyber war preparations. “The first is its military nuclear program and its military establishment. The second is Iran’s civil infrastructure. Attacking both, we hope, will cripple the entire country’s cyberspace.”

Phi Beta Iota: What Israel is saying, particularly with regard to its second target spread, is that it is waging undeclared unjust war against Iran and the people of Iran. To blithely announce that the civil infrastructure of another country is “fair game” should call into question the sanity and legitimacy of the perpetrators.

2011/08/072011/08/07

DefDog: Leon Panetta AQ Fear-Mongering w/o a Clue

10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Threats

It is obvious that this man has no clue. We are developing fighters
(F-22/35) that have no threat that cannot be handled by the F-117 (which is the be all to end all) but we are dangerously close to imploding if more budget cuts come our way? Strengthen the force, reduce the technology (which doesn't work in most cases) and let's put DoD on the right path, defense of the Nation (and not police force of the world)……

Leon Panetta Hypes al Qaeda to Ward Off More Defense Cuts

Steve Clemons

The Atlantic, 6 August 2011

EXTRACT:

It seems that one week, al Qaeda is on the run and “near collapse” and the next, al Qaeda remains the reason why the US needs to continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a Pentagon designed to fight the wrong wars. This is irresponsible hyping of a threat to justify massive defense spending during a period of real fiscal stress.

Phi Beta Iota: Daniel Ellsberg had it exactly right when he lectured Henry Kissinger in the 1970's on Viet-Nam:

The danger is, you’ll become like a moron. You’ll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours” [because of your blind faith in the value of your narrow and often incorrect secret information].

Panetta would be well-served by attending to what Bob Seelert, Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide (New York) has to say:

When things are not going well, until you get the truth out on the table, no matter how ugly, you are not in a position to deal with it.