Robert Young Pelton: Crowd-Funding the Hunt for Jospeh Kony (Full Text – Foreign Policy October 2013)

Peace Intelligence
Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton

ROBERT STEELE: I've known RYP for over a decade, perhaps more. I first learned of him when CIA was handing out his book, World's Most Dangerous Places, as the best available primer for case officers going into darkness without bodyguards or armor (which is what real case officers do, don't get me started on the clowns surrounded by protein shakes with ink).  This is a guy that can get kidnapped in the middle of the Darien Gap, and by the time his captors get him to the chief, the chief knows who he is, apologizes, and begs for an interview. A self-made man in every possible sense of the word, a brother in arms tried and true, RYP is one of the most educated, versatile, and accomplished people in the real world. It merits comment that it costs up to $2.1 million a year to keep one US soldier in the field with all the generals, aviation, logistics, and so on that one US soldier brings with them.  $450K for one man, one hunt is a BARGAIN.

Printable (4 Pages with Links): So Crazy It Just Might Work

So Crazy It Just Might Work

Swashbuckling journalist Robert Young Pelton is crowdfunding a mission to hunt down Joseph Kony. Is it genius or folly?

BY ELIAS GROLL

FOREIGN POLICY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

Robert Young Pelton thinks he can do what no one else has done: find the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony. And he wants your help in doing it.
Pelton, a journalist-cum-adventurer, has traveled the world tracking down and interviewing the world's most dangerous men. He was in Grozny hanging out with Chechen rebels while the city was getting pounded by Russian forces. He linked up with Liberian rebels during their assault on Monrovia. And he tracked down and interviewed Francis Ona, the leader of a separatist movement on the island of Bougainville in the South Pacific.

Now he's turning his attention to the most wanted man in Africa. Together with two filmmakers, Pelton is planning an expedition to central Africa, where he will attempt to track down Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in the jungle wilderness. Where activists and African troops — aided by U.S. Special Forces — have failed, Pelton believes he can succeed and find the man responsible for the kidnapping as many as 66,000 children and pressing them into service in his rag-tag army or as sex-slaves.

So is Pelton completely crazy? Or is he, maybe, just crazy enough to pull it off?

Continue reading “Robert Young Pelton: Crowd-Funding the Hunt for Jospeh Kony (Full Text – Foreign Policy October 2013)”

Robert Young Pelton: Crowd-Funding and Crowd-Sourcing the Hunt for Joseph Kony — with Public Lessons Learned

Crowd-Sourcing, Innovation, Sources (Info/Intel)
Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton

As some of you know, I like to find people who don't want to be found. Since the mid 90's I have located and connected with over two dozen terrorist, criminal, jihadi and drug groups. The alphabet list of people I have tracked down and lived with include the taliban, FARC, LURD, al Qaeda, BRA, GIA, MILF, ABB, AUC, HEK, Haqqani, Shining Path, ADF, Chechens along with various mafyia, gang and drug groups. My resume includes correctly identifying the location of bin Laden and Zawahiri in 2003. I have spent significant time tracking the exact location and condition of hundreds of kidnap victims in Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia. I don't come to this task lightly

I am trying a new concept. Crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing a real search for a dangerous group. Your dollars supports an expedition led by myself along with professionals on the ground. Our task is to locate Joseph Kony along with understanding and communicating why Kony has not been found. Then we also need to communicate our efforts, discoveries and lessons learned in an open transparent way. Only then can criminals realize that there is no place left on earth to hide.

Phi Beta Iota:  Crowd-funding is raising money from an infinite diversity of sources.  Crowd-sourcing is aggregating information from an infinite variety of sources.  They are different.  They go well together.  This is an example of public intelligence in the public interest funded by the public, of, by, and with the public.

We will go deeply into how $200 million spent by charities and U.S. tax dollars have not resulted in the locating or capture of Kony . Our goal is not to critique but to enlighten our followers so that we can apply this model to other expeditions.

Continue reading “Robert Young Pelton: Crowd-Funding and Crowd-Sourcing the Hunt for Joseph Kony — with Public Lessons Learned”

Who’s Who in Peace Intelligence: Robert Young Pelton

Alpha M-P, Peace Intelligence
Robert Young Pelton

Robert Young Pelton is one of just two speakers demanded by the international audience attending the annual conference on National Security & National Competitiveness: Open Source Solutions.  The other was Stephen E. Arnold.  RYP is the single most sensible, qualified, courageous, and plain honest journalist we know, across the creative and investigative spectrum.

DuckDuckGo on RYP
Gone Fishing.....

See Also:

Search: robert young pleton (sic) pelton

Journal: NYT to Robert Young Pelton–Sorry, Our Bad

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence

Setting the record straight on ‘contractor' spies

The Washington Post Spy Talk    Jeff Stein

Robert Young Pelton spent years investigating counterterrorism mercenaries, so the last thing he expected was to be branded one himself.

Yet there he was on the front page of the New York Times on March 14, his color picture flanked by photos of legendary ex-CIA official Duane R. Clarridge and Michael D. Furlong, a Pentagon psychological warfare official.

The headline: “Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants.”

Today the Times corrected the story.

FULL STORY ONLINE

Robert Young Pelton's Web "Come Back Alive"

Robert Young Pelton comments:

I am happy to report that the New York Times has done the right thing and corrected their depiction of me in their recent series of articles about Afghanistan and “rogue” contractors.  Although I have no personal or ethical problem with DoD contractors, information operations,  intelligence activity  covert operations or any other programs funded by the Department of Defense to protect our citizens here and overseas. I was not a DoD contractor nor was my company or were my employees  involved in any spying, clandestine or illegal activity.

I do have a problem with the illegal use of contractors for espionage, breaking laws or stepping across clearly identified moral boundaries in the use of journalists. But I did not make these allegations, the source for the current activity (almost half a year after we were told the DoD would not be a subscriber) is a leaked memo and DoD insiders. Not my company.

Continue reading “Journal: NYT to Robert Young Pelton–Sorry, Our Bad”

Search: robert young pleton (sic) pelton

Searches
Robert Young Pelton

Although this search produces the below hit, his name is mis-spelled and since he is one of the platinum award winners and a true class act, we've run the search with the correct spelling and below are the other hits.

2006 Pelton (US) Recommends The Changing Face of Global Violence

See also:

Who’s Who in Public Intelligence: Robert Young Pelton

Journal: Worth a Look–the Echo Chamber Project

Review: Licensed to Kill–Hired Guns in the War on Terror (Hardcover)

Threat Archives on Public Intelligence (1992-2006)

2004 Pelton (US) Value-added Citizen Blogs, Forums, and Wars

2003 Pelton (US) World’s Most Dangerous Places

Review: Robert Young Pelton’s The World’s Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition

Who’s Who in Public Intelligence: Robert Young Pelton

Alpha M-P
Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton

PLATINUM LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Robert Young Pelton

Mr. Robert Young Pelton is perhaps the greatest journalist-adverturer on the planet.  This is a man that gets kidnapped by accident, is recognized by the leader of the kidnappers, and is promptly released with apologies and an honor guard.  His book World’s Most Dangerous Places and his TV series Come Back Alive are among the most extraordinary “ground truth” offerings available to the public and admired by the spies.  In his every waking moment, in his every action, in his every report, he embodies the true spirit of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).

Journal: Worth a Look–the Echo Chamber Project

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions, Methods & Process, Reform, Technologies
Kent Bye
Kent Bye

Echo Chamber Project: Interviews at OSS '06

Praise for this effort

Submitted by Robert David Steele (not verified) on Sat, 2006-03-11 18:48.
I have never, in 18 years of OSINT advocacy, seen a more professional and intelligent endeavor to understand and report on what we are trying to do. This is absolutely world-class, and my admiration is unbounded. This creative individual has a lifetime free pass to our conferences. His technical, legal, and people skills are of the highest order.
+ + + + + + +
Kent's photo links to the ten video interviews he did at OSS '06, the last conference before it was stolen and consequently destroyed  by an individual that broke his promise (one of several) and is fortuitously no longer responsible for anything of significance. All of the interviews are recommended, but then Congressman Simmons, now running for Senator in place of Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticutt, is especially noteworthy.  No one in government has, in the twenty one years we have been fighting this fight, gotten a better grip not just on the idea of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) as a separate discipline, but on OSINT as a means of revitalizing American education, improving decision-support to every Congressional jurisdiction (most get NOTHING from the secret intelligence world), and helping the President and the Cabinet Secretaries manage Whole of Govenrment Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Operational Campaigns.
Among those interviewed that we hold in very high esteem are Michael Andregg, Carolyn Stewart, Mats Bjore, Ralph Peters, Robert Young Pelton, Stephen E. Arnold, and Peter Morville.  There is also an interview with Robert Steele, who is not tagged within this website.
Below is a direct link to Kent Bye and a collage of clips from each of the people he interviewed.  We consider this the single best most brilliant piece of citizen journalism on the concept of OSINT.
Overview Video
Overview Video
Below are the currently available links for audio only for all those interviewed:

Michael Andregg on Secrecy and Insanity

Stephen E Arnold on Technology

Mats Bjore on Globalization

Peter Morville on Ambient Findability

Robert Young Pelton on Hearing all Sides

Ralph Peters on Wars of Blood and Faith

Rob Simmons on the Big Picture for America

Robert Steele on Washington Running on 2%

Carolyn Stewart on Information Operations

Below links directly to the Simmons interview, use the photograph link above to select any of the others.  NOTE: the video portion appears to have been disabled for all of them, you get audio only right now, we are working on this with Kent, it is vastly better to see these individuals in full multi-media form.

Rob Simmons
Rob Simmons