Sources:
Why We Fight (Documentary Film, 2005)
Drift, Rachel Maddow (2012)
Little America, Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2012)
What a mess. I understand this years election is going to be settled based on domestic issues, but both Maddow and the film call for rational discourse on the subject. Which I am not hearing.
While Little America is more about operational matters, what is striking is how we repeated the Vietnam experience ("We fought the war for one year, seven times"); We forgot and had to relearn "Counterinsurgency", and however adaptable our forces are, they are still limited crippled by inter service particularism and even less supported by the USAID and State Department than they were in Vietnam.
Following up on the arguments made by Baskevich, yes, there is some bipartisan blame, but it was the (Republican) "neo-cons" who lead us over the Rubicon into Iraq under false pretenses, with no rational follow up plan. I wouldn't trust those guys (or their contractors) to run the county animal shelter.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Human Intelligence (HUMINT)
You know, Spies and other good stuff.
Actually, this is provoked by a post on Charles Stross's blog
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/08/spies-1.html
Nothing special. a short meditation on what the potential for HUMINT is in the 21st Century.
BUT, with over 400 comments form a well informed and interested population, well, most of them don't have a clue. They confuse Hollywood and James Bond with the well documented (Memoirs, etc) process of recruiting "agents" and the difference between that and limitations of "Direct Action".
Direct Actions is things like sending Seal Team 6 after Osama; Drones and Black Helicopter stuff.
HUMINT is one of the tools to develop targeting information.
OK, I'm weird I actually READ the court filings about the recent case of the (Russian) SVR Illegals in New York/New Jersey.
Yes, it is a complex process often spoken of in hushed tones. But it's not a deep dark secret. Actual knowledge of the identities of our "Case Officers" (See Valerie Plame) is secret, and should be protected.
The "SECRETS" that must be protected are the identity of any agents they (The Case Officers) have recruited. Techniques are pretty straightforward and widely reported; one of my favorites was the MICE acronym (Money, Ideology, Compromise, Excitement).
I recall a throway in a memoir about the KGB establishing twenty "rings" of Illegals in the US in the 1950's. The accidental compromise of Colonel Abel (The guy we traded for Francis Gary Powers) closed down ONE of them. What ever happened to the other nineteen? And was the recent New York operation a sample of a similar scale of effort?
And if people are that (generally) clueless, how do I get a job with (as?) the Wake Up Walmart Rezident?
Actually, this is provoked by a post on Charles Stross's blog
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/08/spies-1.html
Nothing special. a short meditation on what the potential for HUMINT is in the 21st Century.
BUT, with over 400 comments form a well informed and interested population, well, most of them don't have a clue. They confuse Hollywood and James Bond with the well documented (Memoirs, etc) process of recruiting "agents" and the difference between that and limitations of "Direct Action".
Direct Actions is things like sending Seal Team 6 after Osama; Drones and Black Helicopter stuff.
HUMINT is one of the tools to develop targeting information.
OK, I'm weird I actually READ the court filings about the recent case of the (Russian) SVR Illegals in New York/New Jersey.
Yes, it is a complex process often spoken of in hushed tones. But it's not a deep dark secret. Actual knowledge of the identities of our "Case Officers" (See Valerie Plame) is secret, and should be protected.
The "SECRETS" that must be protected are the identity of any agents they (The Case Officers) have recruited. Techniques are pretty straightforward and widely reported; one of my favorites was the MICE acronym (Money, Ideology, Compromise, Excitement).
I recall a throway in a memoir about the KGB establishing twenty "rings" of Illegals in the US in the 1950's. The accidental compromise of Colonel Abel (The guy we traded for Francis Gary Powers) closed down ONE of them. What ever happened to the other nineteen? And was the recent New York operation a sample of a similar scale of effort?
And if people are that (generally) clueless, how do I get a job with (as?) the Wake Up Walmart Rezident?
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Dissing the Tsar
OK, I need followers, but....
I just couldn't put "Pussy Riot" in the title.
Not nice to dis the Tsar. There was a throwaway reference to Tsar Putin the V in a really BAD science fiction novel I read a couple of years ago.
Like anyone needed any more proof they (he?) really isn't ready to be considered a responsible member of the international community.
I just couldn't put "Pussy Riot" in the title.
Not nice to dis the Tsar. There was a throwaway reference to Tsar Putin the V in a really BAD science fiction novel I read a couple of years ago.
Like anyone needed any more proof they (he?) really isn't ready to be considered a responsible member of the international community.
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