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Home » Archives for May 2006
Archive for May, 2006
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Just when you thought the Homeland Security department couldn’t possibly get any dumber…
The two cities attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, will receive far less antiterrorism money under plans unveiled today by the Department of Homeland Security, which has designated more money for many smaller cities throughout the country.
Washington and New York will receive 40 percent less in urban grant money compared to last year, with Washington dropping from $77 million to $46 million and New York falling from $207 million to $124 million, DHS officials said. The combined total means that the two areas bear almost the entire brunt of a $120 million cut in the overall budget for the program, the statistics show.
Chris Beckner has a more charitable view. But I’m with House Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King on this one: “This is indefensible.”
Posted in Homeland Security | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Times are tight at the Army — sorta kinda, at least for the moment. Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody has ordered the service to stop buying “non-critical” spare parts and supplies last week, Inside Defense reports. And if the Army doesn’t get some extra money from Congress soon, it’ll have to stop hiring new civilian workers, “freeze” all new contracts, and “release service contract employees, [including] recruiters,” according to a May 26th memo from Cody.
Sure sounds like a crisis. But it’s actually one Cody & Co. cooked up themselves. For years, the Army has been relying more and more on “supplemental” spending bills — extra cash from Congress, earmarked for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, that’s supposed to be provided on an emergency basis.
Except now, the emergencies are routine. Every year, the Army busts through its approximately $160 billion budget. Every year, the service asks for more money — to cover war costs, sure. But also to pay for stuff like the Joint Network Node, a kind of wi-fi hotspot for the battlefield. And to reconfigure the Army into smaller brigades. It’s a form of blackmail, more or less: give us our money, Congress. Or risk being nailed as “anti-soldier.“
“I always tell people, thank God for the supplemental. We would not be able to do anything… without them,” Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac told an Association of the United States Army conference in 2004. “If those dont happen, were in a world of hurt.“
This year is no different. Hence Cody’s plea for belt-tightening. But wouldn’t it be better — and smarter, and more honest — to be upfront about all these costs, instead of blackmailing the Hill into action?
Posted in Money Money Money | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
* Supremes dis whistle-blowers
* Border fence, for real
* Russia’s Space Ship One
* FBI’s biowar file
* “Satellite could open door on extra dimension“
* De-nuke every Trident?
* It’s pretty easy being green (especially in New York)
(Big ups: HLS Watch)
Posted in Rapid Fire | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Chicago cops have a well-deserved reputation for being the toughest guys in a tough town. But you’ve got to wonder how many heads they are going to have to crack to keep that reputation up, now that more and more officers are riding around the Windy City on Segway scooters.
The CPD is spending about a half-million dollars to buy up 100 scooters and parts. That’s on top of the 50 Segways already in use at O’Hare and Midway airports, and around the lakefront.
Cops have become a key market for the scooter-maker, after the machines failed to catch on with the general public. Around the country, 125 law enforcement agencies now use Segways, the company claims.
In Los Angeles County… officers prize it because it allows them to stand a head taller than they would on foot, so they can see over crowds and cars and project a more prominent presence at events like the Rose Bowl parade.
The scooters, which travel as fast as 12.5 mph, also allow an officer on patrol to cover a much greater distance than on foot, and go indoors, onto elevators and other places bigger vehicles can’t. Blair said the added efficiency allows a force to cut down on the number of patrol officers on each shift and recoup the Segway’s cost in as quickly as a month.
Several bomb squads such as those in Ventura County, Calif., and Little Rock, Ark., use Segways to transport officers in bulky bombproof and hazardous-material suits that can weigh as much as 100 pounds. The Segway allows them to scoot in and out of a scene quickly, without having to waddle in on foot.
Last year, Segway came out with its i80 police model, which features a longer battery life, giving the scooter the an energy efficiency equivalent of 450 miles per hour gallon — with no emissions. The machine also boasts “Reflective Trim [that] helps establish your presence and enhance officer visibility” and a “Comfort Mat [that] alleviates fatigue that can occur when standing for long periods.” Not that Chicago cops get tired. Ever.
(Big ups: Gizmag)
Posted in Cops and Robbers | 21 Comments »
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
The June edition of National Defense has this short tech talk article about a new chem-bio detector produced by Purdue University. If successful, it could be a useful tool for people searching bags or containers for chem-bio agents or as a quick forensic tool at a terrorist chem-bio incident.
Miniature chemical-biological detection devices, that in the future could be deployed in wireless networks to protect buildings, subways and airports, have been perfected by scientists from Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind.
Prototypes of the handheld mass spectrometers called Mini 10s are able to quickly identify traces of the triacetone triperoxide that was used in the London subway bombing and is found in many improvised explosive devices. Many other materials, including TNT and plastic explosives, have been tagged.
Test results are produced in seconds, which compares to the current method of collecting samples and then dispatching them to a laboratory for identification.
It may be slightly premature to run out and place stocks into this product’s future manufacturer, though. What the National Defense article didn’t mention, but the researchers admit, is that this is just a prototype design that could use a few more years of testing and design work.
Sampling is done with a long, tubelike wand that both delivers the gas and sucks up the resulting ionized compound. It is this wand that the team likens to their bloodhounds new nose. The wands tip must come within 5 millimeters of the sample to be effective, but the group has also found a way to build a mass spectrometer that weighs about 18 kilograms (40 pounds), which means it can be carried to the sample, rather than forcing investigators to bring the sample to it.
“This backpack-size device will be useful for field analysis of chemicals, filling a need in airport baggage security and drug detection,” said Wiseman, a graduate student working on the project. “While the technique obviously cannot look inside packages to see what is inside, residue from explosives and drugs often remains on the hands of whoever packed it, and some is transferred during handling to the packages surface. That remaining residue is what this device will be good for detecting.“
While the team is optimistic about the devices potential for application in the lab and on the street, Gologan cautioned that a better understanding of its functioning was still needed.
Still, it’s an interesting concept. I would hazard a guess that the military’s laboratories are too focused on developing future gear for military combat operations — not that anything new has come out of the DOD’s Chemical-Biological Defense Program for a few years now — and DHS’s laboratories have relied too much on unrealistic R&D projects from the National Labs to have any new equipment, either. Good to see that we have universities and industry to rely on for future combating terrorist WMD tools.
– Jason Sigger, Armchair Generalist
Posted in Chem-Bio | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 29th, 2006
* Drone video = Haditha key?
* Air-charter’s rocket stockpile
* Darpa goal: bionic arm by ’09
* Fewer secrets in ’05
* Nanotech means smaller ships?
* Lasers enrich uranium?
* Kiwi crystals of death
* Ft. Hood turns out the lights
* Wings could let paratroopers fly 200 km
* Owen West: Get over 2003, already
* Michel: Haditha “shows the warning signs of infamy… [But] we will not be party to generalizations and nave oversimplifications about… conduct in battle.“
* Pantano: don’t rush to judge Haditha
(Big ups: CC, RC, DS, Winds, AT)
UPDATE 4:19 PM: Haninah is calling BS on the laser enrichment story.
Posted in Rapid Fire | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 29th, 2006
In the last few days, China has voiced its disapproval of the new Pentagon report evaluating Chinas military. The comments have been about what youd expect, along the lines of the Foreign Ministry spokesman that accused the Pentagon of a “Cold War mentality.“
But that didn’t stop Beijing from feeding the hype by unveiling an ambitious new program to enhance its capability to innovate, develop and rapidly supply new-generation weaponry on the same day it was criticizing the US for “continuing to peddle the so-called ‘China threat.’”
The 15-year endeavor will include new and high-technologies for the space industry, aviation, ship and marine engineering, nuclear energy and fuel, and information technology for both military and civilian purposes, with a focus on development of new and high-tech weaponry.
The effort to develop new technologies may run up against Chinas continuing difficulties with fraud in its scientific and R&D communities, although the government is also introducing initiatives to confront these problems.
In truth, the new military technology plan doesnt appear to mark any actual departure from the trends the Pentagon report already noted this is new PR and packaging, not new policy. But youd think someone would realize that its difficult to protect your international image as a peaceful, stabilizing presence the same day youre trying to instill national pride in your new, powerful, high-tech military. Maybe they should divert a few yuan to modernizing their media operation.
Its actually been a rough couple of weeks for Chinese spokesmen addressing security relations with the US. Last week, they had to deal with a Taiwanese sales rep for Lockheed who pled guilty to spying for China and attempting to purchase US military technology for shipment to China. A few days later, they were criticizing a State Dept announcement that none of the Departments thousands of new Lenovo computers would be used on classified networks, out of security concerns with the Chinese companys systems. The FBIs Chinese spy is still in the news as well.
So it looks to be a trend of hawks and pessimists steering the technology/security policies of both countries lately. Not to worry our China policy remains as muddled as ever: In developments that are apparently completely unrelated, this month China (and the American Chamber of Commerce in China) asked the US to relax export controls of high-tech goods, and apparently that wont be a problem.
– Matthew Tompkins
Posted in Eye on China | 6 Comments »
Saturday, May 27th, 2006
On November 19, Marines from Kilo Co., 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines were patrolling the town of Haditha in western Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded. Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, was killed.
“Everybody agrees agrees that this was the triggering event,” lawyer Paul Hackett told The Washington Post. “The question is, what happened afterward?“
The Marine Corps reported that one Marine and 15 civilians were killed in the bombing. The Post and The New York Times quote witnesses saying that only Terrazas died in the bombing, and that enraged Marines stormed several houses and killed as many as two dozen innocent Iraqi civilians in retaliation. Sen. John Warner (R-Vir.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, which is investigating the incident, insists there was no cover-up.
I don’t know what happened in Haditha that day. But I do know this: the U.S. Marine Corps trains its people to respect rules of engagement and to protect innocent lives on the battlefield.
“In a counter-insurgency, you don’t have a clear delineation of boundaries [between civilians and combatants], so the rules of engagement and the escalation of force a Marine needs to take … we’re emphasizing those more,” Lt. Col. Tracy Tafolla, head of Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training Branch, U.S. Marine Corps Training and Education Command, told me recently. He continued:
One of our most important lessons is [regarding] cultural training. We’ve incorporated [cultural] training across our training continuum. Marines are receiving that all the way from the School of Infantry to service-level exercises, to the point where we have Arabic-speakers as role-players [in exercises], giving us good feedback. The role-players responses to the Marines and their actions — that is something that we’ve tried to make sure our Marines understand. Something we as Marines don’t think twice about may be an offense to people over there [in Iraq]. We try to make sure we treat Iraqis fairly and with respect. We don’t want to do anything to disrespect those who might be friendly to us. You must understand who you’re dealing with, what are their ways. You keep those who are friendly, friendly.
There has been no resistance to the training. As a matter of fact, the information we get back [from Marines] is good. If we’re missing the mark, its critical that the Marines tell us what we need to do. Across the board, Marines are glad to get the training.
Maj. Gen. Keith Stalder, chief of Training and Education Command chimed in too:
How to get along with the civilian population is at the core of [our cultural training]. Marines get enough language training to be conversational, to be polite, sensitive and in fact to operate in a more coherent way in an insurgency environment. We stress the cultural interaction. We use what we call vignettes where we challenge units to react properly given a very very challenging problem.
Consider Haditha the most challenging problem ever. You’ve just been blown up. Your buddy is dead. You’re angry. You feel vulnerable. You have great power at the end of your trigger finger, power to lash out, punish someone — anyone — for the pain you’ve suffered.
What do you do?
What do you do?
These Haditha allegations have the potential to cause great harm to the U.S. war effort and to the U.S. Marine Corps. We should not shrug from the truth. Nor should we forget that a few bad Marines do not represent the entire Marine Corps or the entire U.S. military.
I’ll be covering Haditha for Military.com. Anyone with any tips or thoughts on the subject, please email me ASAP.
–David Axe
Posted in Training and Sims | 24 Comments »
Friday, May 26th, 2006
This morning I opened the paper and a series of circulars spilled onto my lap bright, colored pages with bold fonts and frenetic language: Now through Memorial Day only! and A Dont Miss Memorial Day Sales Event! As I took a deep breath and gathered up the pages that had spilled to the floor, at once it struck me: We owe more than commerce to those who sacrificed the balance of their lives for their country. It’s time to take back Memorial Day.
Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn occasion, a uniquely military holidaythe only one that honors fallen soldiers. But since the first one on May 30, 1868, a little after the Civil War (then known as Decoration Day) when flowers were placed on the graves of soldiers from both the North and the South, Memorial Days quiet reverence has slowly been lost to the noise of commerce and the American pursuit of recreation. This didnt happen overnight; it snuck up on us. And its not necessarily the fault of the American people who time and again have proved themselves patriots.
Even more surprising is that this disappointing trend hasnt ebbed since the Long War began more than four years ago. Today the solemnity once associated with this day should be closer to the surface. Our nation is at war, which is to say our friends, family, and neighbors are fighting. Some of them do not make it home. In recent years, too many Americans have been personally touched by the sacrifice of battle. But the unfortunate reality is that for most people, the war remains a distant concept, something that happens on TV.
Losing brave Americans on fields of strife is not a new phenomenon. Its part of our heritage. For over two hundred and twenty five years, our troops have made the ultimate sacrifice for what they believed was worth more than their own lives: Freedom. Not just the notion of freedom or the sound bite called forth in politically expedient ways, but freedom practiced by Americans every day.
This freedom is a gift across time, given most often anonymously. And now it is Memorial Day. How can Americans take it back and do right by the valor that created this day?
By action. For starters, the National Moment of Remembrance resolution asks that at 3 PM local time on Memorial Day all Americans should voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence.
Beyond that, Americans can honor the dead by supporting the living, especially those who serve. Send a note or visit the family of a servicemember who has died. Visit a veteran who is convalescing. Make a donation to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Armed Forces Relief Trust, or the Armed Services YMCA. Volunteer to work with local veterans groups. Encourage your employer to publicly recognize the veterans who work with you. Better yet, commit to hire veterans or military spouses in the coming year.
Visit the graves of fallen soldiers. Leave a flower on the stone. Consider the grave and behold the cost of freedom.
Or simply shake a Soldiers hand. Support for the troops is more than a sticker on an SUV. Whatever we do, lets make it personal, not commercial.
Let us take back Memorial Day, not for abstract ideas or guilt for having forgotten, but to pay a debt. To rememberand to act on the memoryis the least we can do for the men and women who said, I will die so strangers lives will be better. Make Memorial Day a personal reflection of a strangers costly gift.
– Chris Michel
Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments »
Friday, May 26th, 2006
Imagine if, in the middle of World War II, the U.S. government and its people gave Hitler billions of dollars, to train troops and build new weapons. Sounds impossible, right? But that’s more or less the situation we find ourselves in today, former CIA director Jim Woolsey recently told the Naval Postgraduate School.
The U.S. is in the opening stages of a “Long War” with Islamic extremists. And these adversaries — whether they’re found in madrassas in Riyadh or the government in Tehran — are funded, in so small part, by oil revenue. Petrodollars go, more or less directly, to training radicals. Petrodollars get funneled to those who make and plant bombs.
“Except for our own Civil War,” Woolsey notes, “this is the only war that we have fought where we are paying for both sides. We pay Saudi Arabia $160 billion for its oil, and $3 or $4 billion of that goes to the Wahhabis, who teach children to hate. We are paying for these terrorists with our SUVs.“
And we are paying for them with our tanks, our Bradleys, and our fighter jets, observes Defense Technology International, which has a special issue out on “The Military and the End of Oil.” In 2004, the U.S. military gobbled up 400,000 barrel of fuel a day, at cost of $6.7 billion. A year later, those costs had climbed to $8.8 billion. In 2006, the price tag is expect to total $10 billion.
“Meanwhile, advanced green technologies like hybrid drive vehicles [despite their limitations] offer both fuel economy and stealth benefits in combat, a significant plus in the urban warfare scenarios that appear to be such a big part of future wars,” writes Joe Katzman, who’s been all over this issue.
The truth is that the military can’t live without fuel, but every gallon of it is both a logistics burden and a financial burden… Now add the fact that diversified “green infrastructure” lowers vulnerability to the kind of “system disruption” attacks one sees in Iraq, and the military/security benefits become compelling.
It sure does. Throughout the military today, there are lots and lots of individual R&D efforts underway to find alternatives to funding our enemies. But a collection of engineering projects is not enough. If we’re serious about fighting this Long War, breaking the military’s addiction to oil has to become a top priority.
Posted in Cammo Green | 19 Comments »
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