05 Civil War – Page 93 – Public Intelligence Blog

2009/12/182009/12/18

Journal: Contractors Out of Control, Money Wasted

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

Published on Friday, December 18, 2009 by Rebel Reports

Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know

Contrary to popular belief, the US actually has 189,000 personnel on the ground in Afghanistan right now—and that number is quickly rising.

by Jeremy Scahill

A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill's Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense's total workforce, “the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history.” That's not in one war zone-that's the Pentagon in its entirety.

In Afghanistan, the Obama administration blows the Bush administration out of the privatized water. According to a memo [PDF] released by McCaskill's staff, “From June 2009 to September 2009, there was a 40% increase in Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan. During the same period, the number of armed private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan doubled, increasing from approximately 5,000 to more than 10,000.”

At present, there are 104,000 Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan. According to a report this week from the Congressional Research Service, as a result of the coming surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, there may be up to 56,000 additional contractors deployed. But here is another group of contractors that often goes unmentioned: 3,600 State Department contractors and 14,000 USAID contractors. That means that the current total US force in Afghanistan is approximately 189,000 personnel (68,000 US troops and 121,000 contractors). And remember, that's right now. And that, according to McCaskill, is a conservative estimate. A year from now, we will likely see more than 220,000 US-funded personnel on the ground in Afghanistan.

Continue reading “Journal: Contractors Out of Control, Money Wasted”

2009/12/182009/12/20

Reference: One Tribe at a Time by Maj Jim Gant

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Civil Society, DoD, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Military, Monographs, Peace Intelligence

Phi Beta Iota: This is a brilliant piece of work, precisely what we should have been doing from 1988 onwards. It is probably too late only because the US Government is incapable of a 180 degree turn that puts two Berlin Airlifts in motion, one to Afghanistan and one to Iraq, with each redirected to Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen as the process moves forward.

Edit of 20 Dec 09: This article is one of two cited by a top US flag officer speaking to COINSOC in Iraq. The other one is Reference: PK Officer View on AF.

2009/12/182009/12/18

Reference: One Tribe at a Time by Steven Pressfield

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Methods & Process, Military, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

This blog is that of Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire and four other historical novels set in the ancient world, including The Afghan Campaign. His most recent book is Killing Rommel, a WWII story. He is also the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance and The War of Art.

The blog entries below begin with a feature of the work now available in the full original, Reference: One Tribe at a Time by Maj Jim Gant and then segue into new work by Steven Pressfield.

Interview w/Tribal Chief #11: Pakistan, continued

One Tribe At A Time #10: A Report from embedded journalist Andrew Lubin

Continue reading “Reference: One Tribe at a Time by Steven Pressfield”

2009/12/172009/12/17

Journal: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Military, Mobile, Peace Intelligence, Real Time

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected

WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter. A Reaper costs between $10 million and $12 million each and is faster and better armed than the Predator. General Atomics expects the Air Force to buy as many as 375 Reapers.

Full Story Online

Additional Insights from CBS News Beyond Wall Street Journal

The implications of the Predator's unencrypted transmissions have been known in military circles for a long time. An October 1999 presentation given at the Air Force's School of Advanced Airpower Studies in Alabama noted “the Predator UAV is designed to operate with unencrypted data links.”

A 1996 briefing by Paul Kaminski, an undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, may offer a hint about how the Iraqi's interception was done. Kaminski said that the military had turned to commercial satellites – “Hughes is the primary provider of direct (satellite) TV that you can buy in the United States, and that's the technology we're leveraging off of” – to share feeds from Predator drones.

Continue reading “Journal: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones”

2009/12/16

Journal: Straight Talk From Haider Mullick on AF-PK

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence

Haider Mullick is a Senior Fellow at the US Joint Special Operations University and a research fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

The Diplomat speaks with South Asia analyst Haider Mullick about Pakistan’s counter-insurgency efforts, conspiracy theories and the prospects for stability in Afghanistan.

The Questions (Click Here for the Answers)

You’ve recently returned from a trip to India and Pakistan. How have perceptions of the United States settled since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited?

You’ve written recently about how the US needs to market itself in Pakistan. In a nutshell, what does it need to be doing differently?

Clinton was critical of Pakistan’s failure to capture top al-Qaeda leaders. Broadly speaking, how do you rate Pakistan’s counter-insurgency efforts?

How effective has the Pakistani leadership been in rallying public support for its counter-insurgency efforts?

Looking across the border at Afghanistan, what do you make of the recent US announcement to send 30,000 more troops. Was President Barack Obama right to set out a timeline for withdrawal?

Are you optimistic about the prospects for long-term stability in Afghanistan?

2009/12/14

Journal: Stolen Valor & Ignored Suicides & Amputees

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, 11 Society, Military, Peace Intelligence

Military Impostors Are Neither Few Nor Proud

Mary Schantag, co-founder and researcher for the POW Network, said her group's Web site lists 3,500 “phonies and wannabes” who claim to be former prisoners of war, medal recipients, members of elite forces or heroic combat veterans. She said she receives new allegations daily.

“This is an epidemic,” said Schantag, who is based in Skidmore, Mo. “It's almost a mass identity theft of people who earned their status as heroes.”

. . . . . . .

“It pretty much boils down to ego, women or money,” Schantag said.

Many impostors get away with their claims for years because the military does not keep a list of most medal recipients. Sterner, who pushed for adoption of the Stolen Valor Act, is now campaigning for legislation that would require the Pentagon to maintain a list of all the men and women it has honored.

“How many people do you see out there claiming they won an Academy Award and didn't?” he asked. “None, since there is a list of Academy Award recipients. How many phonies are claiming Silver Stars? They are all over the country because there is no list of Silver Star recipients.”

Sterner has compiled his own list of more than 26,000 medal winners and posted it on the Hall of Valor Web site, sponsored by the Military Times. Members of the public can search the database to verify the names of true medal winners. Earlier this month, AMVETS launched ReportStolenValor.org, where people can report suspected impostors.

Phi Beta Iota: Marcus Aureleus flagged this one, and we'd like to add to it the dismal lack of coverage of our suicides and amputees, two sides of the four-sided human cost of war that is almost deliberately concealed. See those stories below.

Continue reading “Journal: Stolen Valor & Ignored Suicides & Amputees”

2009/12/142009/12/14

Journal: Pakistan-Afghanistan War

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

Phi Beta Iota: Zbigniew Brzezinski is doing an enormous amount of damage in his hidden counsel to the White House; if John Hamre replaces Bob Gates in January as has been discussed, this will get worse, not better. Below are a few odds and ends from various contributing editors, consolidated here to avoid beating a dead horse with too many postings. We have not sought to reconcile contradictory points of view, only to honor the importance of listening to diverse points of view. The London Telegraph piece is reproduced in full as it has disappeared from online view.

Chuck Spinney Sends on Religious Fundamentalism and the Rise of the Corporate State on What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy? on Soldiers’ Complaints of Shoddy Gear Spur Inquiry by House Democrats

Webster Tarpley Sends on Obama's War Against Pakistan on End the War Rally Videos on No Wind of Change After Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Obama’s West Point speech of December 1 represents far more than the obvious brutal escalation in Afghanistan — it is nothing less than a declaration of all-out war by the United States against Pakistan.

Victor Davis Hansen on Obama’s Wheel of Fortune: The president’s luck has changed — and he doesn’t seem to have noticed

Marcus Aurelius Sends: Special Forces Unite To Destroy Taliban Leaders London Sunday Telegraph December 13, 2009 Pg. 2 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent

British and US special forces are set to open a new front in southern Afghanistan in a bid to “break the back” of the Taliban insurgency.

Continue reading “Journal: Pakistan-Afghanistan War”