“…The general who thoroughly understands the advantages that accompany variation of tactics knows how to handle his troops.  The general who does not understand these, may be well acquainted with the configuration of the country, yet he will not be able to turn his knowledge to practical account.  So, the student of war who is unversed in the art of war of varying his plans, even though he be acquainted with the Five Advantages, will fail to make the best use of his men.  Hence in the wise leader’s plans, considerations of advantage and of disadvantage will be blended together.  If our expectation of advantage be tempered in this way, we may succeed in accomplishing the essential part of our schemes.  If, on the other hand, in the midst of difficulties we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune…”

Warmaster Sun Tzu; Author of ‘The Art Of War’

Prayer To Saint Jude

Most holy apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors and invokes you universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of.  Pray for me, I am so helpless and alone.  Make use I implore you, of that particular privilege given to you, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of.  Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly for justice, solace, and honor restored, and that I may praise God with you and all the elect forever.  I promise, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you.

Amen.

 

Fellow Patriot’s,

With all that has come to be, taking root to grow into something that will have to be prudently cut down, and uprooted someday, I pray those that would call themselves–free men/women–will have the fortitude to fight the darkness that may come as a result of the cleansing of the body from the scourge that has been allowed to flourish without impediment of law, morality, ethics, nor logic.

It will be up to ‘us’ to regain what was bestowed upon the this land, this one nation–under God–divided by those that think themselves all powerful, forgetting that there is a non-violent process to remove the cancerous tumor that is feeding on the ‘congregation’ so many have fought to keep alive–with the blood, sweat, and tears of those that have sacrificed almost all that each had to give, and those that could not help but give–everything for all.

If the path that the Europeans have chose to travel is fraught with the hazards America and other true friend’s have been on–and removed the yoke of slavery it demands–they must find for themselves what peril’s lie before them.  I do not advocate that they are indeed lost to us, but when someone steps on the wrong spot of earth and explodes in a flash, and all that is left–besides a mist, and what is all over your clothing–you may not want to follow in those footstep’s…

“Forget history, and you will be doomed to repeat it…”

Did you forget any of the following?

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Feds: Cyber Criminals Hijacked 4 Million Computers

An Eastern European pack of cyber thieves known as the Rove group hijacked at least four million computers in over 100 countries, including at least half a million computers in the U.S., to make off with $14 million in “illegitimate income” before they were caught, federal officials announced today.

The malware allegedly used in the “massive and sophisticated scheme” also managed to infect computers in U.S. government agencies including NASA and targeted the websites for major institutions like iTunes, Netflix and the IRS — forcing users attempting to get to those sites to different websites entirely, according to a federal indictment unsealed in New York today.

The accused hackers, six Estonian nationals and a Russian national, rerouted the internet traffic illegally on the infected computers for the last four years in order to reap profits from internet advertisement deals, the indictment said. The FBI busted up the alleged international cyber ring after a two-year investigation called Operation Ghost Click.

“The global reach of these cyber thieves demonstrates that the criminal world is… flat,” said Janice Fedarcyk, the FBI Assistant Director in charge of the New York field office. “The Internet is pervasive because it is such a useful tool, but it is a tool that can be exploited by those with bad intentions and a little know-how.”

Though they operated out of their home countries, the alleged hackers used entities in the U.S. and all over the world — including Estonia-based software company Rove Digital from which the group apparently gets its name — to carry out the plot.

According to the indictment, the suspects entered into deals with various internet advertisers in which they would be paid for generating traffic to certain websites or advertisements. But instead of earning the money legitimately, the FBI said the defendants used malware to force infected computers to unwillingly visit the target sites or advertisements — pumping up click results and, therefore, ill-gotten profits to the tune of $14 million.

The malware was also designed to prevent users from installing anti-virus software that may have been able to free the infected computers.

The six Estonian nationals have been arrested on cyber crime charges while the Russian national remains at large.

“Today, with the flip of a switch, the FBI and our partners dismantled the Rove criminal enterprise,” Fedarcyk said. “Thanks to the collective effort across the U.S. and in Estonia, six leaders of the criminal enterprise have been arrested and numerous servers operated by the criminal organization have been disabled.”

How the Fraud Worked, According to the FBI

The indictment describes several examples of alleged cyber fraud including two principle strategies: traffic redirection and ad replacement.

In the first case, if a user searched for the websites of major institutions like iTunes, Netflix or the IRS, the search results would return normally. However, if the user tried to click on the link to the websites, the malware on the computer would force a redirect to a different website where the criminals would profit in their advertisement deal.

In the second, when an infected computer visited a major website — like Amazon.com — the malware would be able to simply replace regular advertisements on that page with advertisements of their own making.

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From our friend’s at STRATFOR Global Intelligence:

Europe’s Crisis: Beyond Finance

By George Friedman

Everyone is wondering about the next disaster to befall Europe. Italy is one focus; Spain is also a possibility. But these crises are already under way. Instead, the next crisis will be political, not in the sense of what conventional politician is going to become prime minister, but in the deeper sense of whether Europe’s political elite can retain power, or whether new political forces are going to emerge that will completely reshape the European political landscape. If this happens, it will be by far the most important consequence of the European financial crisis.

Thus far we have seen some changes in personalities in the countries at the center of the crisis. In Greece, Prime Minister George Papandreou stepped aside, while in Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now has resigned. Though these resignations have represented a formal change of government, they have not represented a formal policy change. In fact, Papandreou and Berlusconi both stepped down on the condition that their respective governments adopt the austerity policies proposed during their respective tenures.

Europeanists dominate the coalitions that have replaced them. They come from the generation and class that are deeply intellectually and emotionally committed to the idea of Europe. For them, the European Union is not merely a useful tool for achieving national goals. Rather, it is an alternative to nationalism and the horrors that nationalism has brought to Europe. It is a vision of a single Continent drawn together in a common enterprise — prosperity — that abolishes the dangers of a European war, creates a cooperative economic project and, least discussed but not trivial, returns Europe to its rightful place at the heart of the international political system.

For the generation of leadership born just after World War II that came to political maturity in the last 20 years, the European project was an ideological given and an institutional reality. These leaders formed an international web of European leaders who for the most part all shared this vision. This leadership extended beyond the political sphere: Most European elites were committed to Europe (there were, of course, exceptions).

Greece and the Struggle of the European Elite

Now we are seeing this elite struggle to preserve its vision. When Papandreou called for a referendum on austerity, the European elite put tremendous pressure on him to abandon his initiative. Given the importance of the austerity agreements to the future of Greece, the idea of a referendum made perfect sense. A referendum would allow the Greek government to claim its actions enjoyed the support of the majority of the Greek people. Obviously, it is not clear that the Greeks would have approved the agreement.

Led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the European elite did everything possible to prevent such an outcome. This included blocking the next tranche of bailout money and suspending all further bailout money until Greek politicians could commit to all previously negotiated austerity measures. European outrage at the idea of a Greek referendum makes perfect sense.

Coming under pressure from Greece and the European elite, Papandreou resigned and was replaced by a former vice president of the European Central Bank. Already abandoned by Papandreou, the idea of a referendum disappeared.

Two dimensions explain this outcome. The first was national. The common perception in the financial press is that Greece irresponsibly borrowed money to support extravagant social programs and then could not pay off the loans. But there also is validity to the Greek point of view. From this perspective, under financial pressure, the European Union was revealed as a mechanism for Germany to surge exports into developing EU countries via the union’s free trade system. Germany also used Brussels’ regulations and managed the euro such that Greece found itself in an impossible situation. Germany then called on Athens to impose austerity on the Greek people to save irresponsible financiers who, knowing perfectly well what Greece’s economic position was, were eager to lend money to the Greeks. Each version of events has some truth to it, but the debate ultimately was between the European and Greek elites. It was an internal dispute, and whether for Greece’s benefit or for the European financial system’s benefit, both sides were committed to finding a solution.

The second dimension had to do with the Greek public and the Greek and European elites. The Greek elite clearly benefited financially from the European Union. The Greek public, by contrast, had a mixed experience. Certainly, the 20 years of prosperity since the 1990s benefited many — but not all. Economic integration left the Greek economy wide open for other Europeans to enter, putting segments of the Greek economy at a terrific disadvantage. European competitors overwhelmed workers in many industries along with small-business owners in particular. So there always was an argument in Greece for opposing the European Union. The stark choice posed by the current situation strengthened this argument, namely, who would bear the burden of the European system’s dysfunction in Greece? In other words, assuming the European Union was to be saved, who would absorb the cost? The bailouts promised by Germany on behalf of Europe would allow the Greeks to stabilize their financial system and repay at least some of their loans to Europe. This would leave the Greek elite generally intact. The price to Greece would be austerity, but the Greek elite would not pay that price. Members of the broader public — who would lose jobs, pensions, salaries and careers — would.

Essentially, the first question was whether Greece as a nation would deliberately default on its debts — as many corporations do — and force a restructuring on its terms regardless of what the European financial system needed, or whether it would seek to accommodate the European system. The second was whether it would structure an accommodation in Europe such that the burden would not fall on the public but on the Greek elite. The Greek government chose to seek accommodation with European needs and to allow the major impact of austerity to fall on the public as a consequence of the elite’s interests in Europe — now deep and abiding — and the ideology of Europeanism. Since by its very nature the burden of austerity would fall on the public, it was vital a referendum not be held. Even so, the Greeks undoubtedly would seek to evade the harshest dimensions of austerity. That is the social contract in Greece: The Greeks would promise the Europeans what they wanted, but they would protect the public via duplicity. While that approach might work in Greece, it cannot work in a country like Italy, whose exposure is too large to hide via duplicity. Similarly, duplicity cannot be the ultimate solution to the European crisis.

The Real European Crisis

And here we come to the real European crisis. Given the nature of the crisis, which we have seen play out in Greece, the European elite can save the European concept and their own interests only by transferring the cost to the broader public, and not simply among debtors. Creditors like Germany, too, must absorb the cost and distribute it to the public. German banks simply cannot manage to absorb the losses. Like the French, they will have to be recapitalized, meaning the cost will fall to the public.

Europe was not supposed to work this way. Like Immanuel Kant’s notion of a “Perpetual Peace,” the European Union promised eternal prosperity. That plus preventing war were Europe’s great promises; there was no moral project beyond these. Failure to deliver on either promise undermines the European project’s legitimacy. If the price of retaining Europe is a massive decline in Europeans’ standard of living, then the argument for retaining the European Union is weakened.

As important, if Europe is perceived as failing because the European elite failed, and the European elite is perceived as defending the European idea as a means of preserving its own interests and position, then the public’s commitment to the European idea — never as robust as the elite’s commitment — is put in doubt. The belief in Europe that the crisis can be managed within current EU structures has been widespread. The Germans, however, have floated a proposal that would give creditors in Europe — i.e., the Germans — the power to oversee debtors’ economic decisions. This would undermine sovereignty dramatically. Losing sovereignty for greater prosperity would work in Europe. Losing it to pay back the debts of Europe’s banks is a much harder sell.

The Immigrant Factor and Upcoming Elections

All of this comes at a time of anti-immigrant, particularly anti-Muslim, feeling among the European public. In some countries, anger increasingly has been directed at the European Union and its borders policies — and at European countries’ respective national and international elites, who have used immigration to fuel the economy while creating both economic and cultural tensions in the native population. Thus, immigration has become linked to general perceptions of the European Union, opening both a fundamental economic and cultural divide between European elites and the public.

Racial and ethnic tensions combined with economic austerity and a sense of betrayal toward the elite creates an explosive mixture. Europe experienced this during the inter-war period, though this is not a purely European phenomenon. Disappointment in one’s personal life combined with a feeling of cultural disenfranchisement by outsiders and the sense that the elite is neither honest, nor competent nor committed to the well-being of its own public tends to generate major political reactions anywhere in the world.

Europe has avoided an explosion thus far. But the warning signs are there. Anti-European and anti-immigrant factions existed even during the period when the European Union was functioning, with far-right parties polling up to 16 percent in France. It is not clear that the current crisis has strengthened these elements, but how much this crisis will cost the European public and the absence of miraculous solutions also have not yet become clear. As Italy confronts its crisis, the cost — and the inevitably of the cost — will become clearer.

A large number of elections are scheduled or expected in Europe in 2012 and 2013, including a French presidential election in 2012 and German parliamentary elections in 2013. At the moment, these appear set to be contests between the conventional parties that have dominated Europe since World War II in the West and since 1989 in the East. In general, these are the parties of the elite, all more or less buying into Europe. But anti-European factions have emerged within some of these parties, and as sentiment builds, new parties may form and anti-European factions within existing parties may grow. A crisis of this magnitude cannot happen without Tea Party- and Occupy Wall Street-type factions emerging. In Europe, however — where in addition to economics the crisis is about race, sovereignty, national self-determination and the moral foundations of the European Union — these elements will be broader and more intense.

Populist sentiment coupled with racial and cultural concerns is the classic foundation for right-wing nationalist parties. The European left in general is part of the pro-European elite. Apart from small fragments, very little of the left hasn’t bought into Europe. It is the right that has earned a meaningful following by warning about Europe over the past 20 years. It thus would seem reasonable to expect that these factions will become much stronger as the price of the crisis — and who is going to bear it — becomes apparent.

The real question, therefore, is not how the financial crisis works out. It is whether the European project will survive. And that depends on whether the European elite can retain its legitimacy. That legitimacy is not gone by any means, but it is in the process of being tested like never before, and it is difficult to see how the elite retains it. The polls don’t show the trend yet because the magnitude of the impact on individual lives has not manifested itself in most of Europe. When it does show itself, there will be a massive recalculation regarding the worth and standing of the European elite. There will be calls for revenge, and vows of never allowing such a thing to recur.

Regardless of whether the next immediate European crisis is focused on Spain or Italy, it follows that by mid-decade, Europe’s political landscape will have shifted dramatically, with new parties, personalities and values emerging. The United States shares much of this trend, but its institutions are not newly invented. Old and not working creates problems; new and not working is dangerous. Why the United States will take a different path is a subject for another time. Suffice it to say that the magnitude of Europe’s problems goes well beyond finance.

The European crisis is one of sovereignty, cultural identity and the legitimacy of the elite. The financial crisis has several outcomes, all bad. Regardless of which is chosen, the impact on the political system will be dramatic.

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Former Airman Sues US After Losing Legs to Botched Surgery

Retired Airman Colton Read and his wife sued the U.S. government for millions of dollars in federal court Friday, asserting that military surgeons botched a routine gallbladder procedure so badly that civilian doctors had to amputate his legs to save his life.

The 25-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth by attorney Darrell Keith, paints a graphic picture of what went terribly awry in the operating room and intensive-care unit at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., on July 9, 2009. Read was supposed to have his gallbladder removed before deploying overseas.

Read, 23, an Arlington native, barely survived the laparoscopic surgery because one of the doctors lacerated his aorta at the beginning of the procedure. That set off a series of decisions that the lawsuit alleges were grossly negligent and delayed remedial action until Keith was transferred to a civilian hospital nine hours later.

By then, his legs had been without blood flow for hours and had to be amputated.

Read, medically retired by the Air Force just days ago, now lives in New Braunfels with his wife, Jessica, and their baby.

Challenging legal precedent

The case is a major challenge to the so-called Feres Doctrine, which for more than 60 years has protected the U.S. government from being sued by members of the military for negligence. The Supreme Court has yet to overturn that precedent, established by justices in the early 1950s.

Keith, a well-known attorney specializing in medical-malpractice cases, said the Reads’ case “is based on a great wrong that needs to be righted.”

He called it “one of, if not the most, egregious medical errors” he has seen.

“I am championing Colton and Jessica’s cause to overturn the extremely unjust, outmoded, universally criticized, and judicially erroneous Feres Doctrine so that not only the Reads but all our nation’s active-duty military personnel will have the right to seek just redress for harm inflicted on them by federal governmental doctors and healthcare providers,” Keith said.

The lawsuit seeks at least $34.3 million in damages for Colton Read for pain, loss of earning capacity, physical impairment, disfigurement and mental anguish.

It also asks for $20.5 million for Jessica Read for the loss of household services of her husband, loss of a normal relationship with her husband and “loss of enjoyment of life or loss of capacity to enjoy life.”

The suit also asks for the government to pay attorney fees.

Efforts to reach officials with the Air Force on Saturday were unsuccessful.

What went wrong

Colton Read joined the Air Force in 2007 shortly after high school and became an intelligence analyst at Beale Air Force Base in central California, scanning imagery from U-2 spy planes and Global Hawk drones over Iraq and Afghanistan. He volunteered to deploy overseas but needed to take care of a gallbladder problem first.

The surgery was supposed to be laparoscopic, or minimally invasive. Read was scheduled to be back home that night. It didn’t turn out that way.

The lawsuit accuses the U.S. government, the Air Force and David Grant Medical Center of failing to supervise “the quality of medical, surgical, nursing and health care services” and failing to adopt and enforce policies, rules and procedures for patient safety by allowing a surgery resident to work without adequate supervision.

The hospital also failed to have a vascular surgeon on staff for emergencies, the lawsuit states.

The petition also cites 23 reasons the Air Force is liable because of the actions, or lack of actions, by Maj. Kullada Pichakron, the supervising surgeon that day, and Capt. Ryan Schutter, the resident who it is alleged improperly inserted the surgical device that sliced Read’s aorta.

“This aortic puncture, laceration or injury was about 9 to 11 millimeters in length, and it caused massive bleeding in Airman Read’s retroperitoneal area,” the lawsuit states.

“However, Dr. Pichakron and Dr. Schutter did not recognize this traumatic injury to Airman Read’s aorta until later in the surgery.”

The doctors did later open up Read’s abdomen because his blood pressure dropped precipitously, and they suspected a bleeding source. The doctors discovered the problem, and Pichakron repaired the tear with sutures and tried to contain the damage, according to the lawsuit. By then, Read had lost more than two-thirds of the blood in his body.

“As time progressed with Colton Read in the ICU, the condition of his lower extremities did not improve and the ischemic condition of his right and left legs worsened,” according to the lawsuit. “Assessments by his physicians, nurses and other health care providers of his legs continued to deteriorate from pale to mottled as time passed.”

Several hours later, as Read’s legs turned pale and cold, a decision was made to transfer him to the University of California-Davis Medical Center nearby. A vascular surgeon at UC-Davis determined that the aorta supplying blood to his legs was blocked and his legs were dead, the lawsuit states.

No disciplinary action taken

Since then, Read has been treated by physicians at the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, which typically treats amputees from combat. He told the Star-Telegram last summer that he spends most of his time in a wheelchair. His prosthetics are difficult to use because he has so little of his legs remaining to fit in them.

He also said that he has a persistent headache from what he believes was a brain injury caused by blood loss and that he has had difficulty dealing psychologically with the loss of his limbs and the end of his Air Force career.

The Air Force conducted an investigation and determined that no disciplinary action was warranted.

The report examined whether there were “systemic or procedural problems” or “responsibility within the scope of the specific command.”

A separate peer-review medical investigation was initiated, but those results have never been released.

Keith filed a claim against the government last year, seeking damages on behalf of the Reads. But the government denied the claim, asserting that it was shielded by the Feres Doctrine.

The doctrine originated in a 1950 legal case in which the family of a soldier who died in a barracks fire sued for wrongful death. Two similar cases were also filed that year.

The Supreme Court ruled that negligently caused injuries or deaths are “incident to military service,” even if they do not occur in combat, and that military members are not entitled to damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

The government has maintained that military members injured while in service are entitled to other forms of no-fault compensation, such as a pension, VA disability benefits and medical care.

Numerous families have sued to overturn the precedent, typically over medical-malpractice allegations. But the doctrine has been repeatedly upheld, including a 5-4 decision in 1987.

Last year, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving an airman who died after a botched appendectomy at the same Air Force hospital where Read was treated, ending his family’s appeals.

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(March 31, 2012)

Judge Awards $2.2B in Beirut Barracks Bombing

A federal judge has awarded $2.16 billion to victims of the 1983 suicide truck-bombing of U.S. Marines in Beirut, his third award in two weeks to plaintiffs who had sued Iran over the attack.

The money will be difficult to collect, but the victims hope to obtain it from Iranian assets frozen in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth awarded the money Friday to estates of dead Marines and to injured Marines and their relatives. Two days ago, he awarded $44.6 million to two servicemen who were injured and their family members. And last week, he awarded $33.3 million to family members of two injured servicemen.

Iran has been blamed for supporting the militant group Hezbollah, which carried out the bombing.

In Friday’s ruling, Lamberth awarded $487 million in compensatory damages and $1.67 billion in punitive damages to about 180 victims and estates.

A lawyer for the victims, Thomas Fortune Fay, said that he has attached nearly $2 billion in Iranian assets in a Citibank account in New York, which Iran’s central bank is fighting. Including Friday’s ruling, Lambert has awarded more than $7 billion to victims of the 1983 attack from Iran, and Fay has represented nearly all of them. He said that to date, none of his clients have received money from the awards. Fay said that the victims have agreed to share whatever they get proportionately.

In a 2009 opinion, Lamberth urged the president and Congress to consider a terrorism claims settlement commission that would give federal compensation to the victims and suggest a settlement plan with Iran in case the two nations ever resume relations. There has been no action on that.

A message left with the Iranian Embassy to the United Nations was not returned Friday.

In another ruling Friday, Lamberth awarded $315 million from Sudan to sailors who were injured in the USS Cole attack in 2000 and to some of their spouses. The judge wrote that “Sudan’s support of al-Qaida has a `reasonable connection’” to damages suffered by the sailors. A message left at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.

The USS Cole attack left 17 sailors dead.

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Fired Reservist Sues Former Employer

A Marine Corps Reservist who just shipped out for boot camp is suing his former employer for allegedly firing him because he joined the military–but his ex-bosses at a Connecticut car dealership say it’s all a big misunderstanding.

Service supervisor Nick Saccomanno said he didn’t know that Derek Laaser was only going off to Marine Corps initial training and then returning, and since the business had to lay people off anyway, it made sense to discharge him.

“I personally was totally confused about his status,” Saccomanno told Military.com. “We would never, ever, ever think of denying him an opportunity to work and join the military.”

Saccomanno declined to discuss the issue further, but John Gilmore, a spokesman for the law firm representing the dealership, said Laaser never made clear he was just going into the Reserve force and would be back. So Saccomanno essentially took the mechanic’s news as a full resignation that happened to coincide with “a slowdown,” Gilmore said: “[Laaser] was leaving anyway, so to try to save other jobs” he was let go.

David Slassberg, the attorney representing Laaser, said the explanations he is now hearing “sound like revisionist history.”

“He [Laaser] was summoned into the office, and was told, ‘We’re letting you go,’” Slassberg told Military.com. Laaser went into a panic over losing access to a General Motors-affiliated training program at a local community college, and so he asked Sacccomanno to give him a letter that made clear he wasn’t being fired because he wasn’t a good mechanic.

Slassberg said the termination letter states Laaser was being discharged from the job because of his military service and that “this decision was based not on performance.”
Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, meeting service commitments – whether for training or active-duty call-ups – are not grounds for job termination.

“Federal law clearly prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of military service,” Slassberg said.  Slassberg said he has handled many employment-related cases, but this would be his first USERRA case.

According to a longtime Navy Reserve JAG officer and lawyer with Tully Rinckey PLLC, a Washington law firm that has handled many USERRA cases, the dealership may very well have made Laaser’s case for him if it did put in writing that he was being fired because of his military service.  ”That would make it what we call a ‘Direct Evidence Case,’ … [that is] there is direct evidence of discrimination and the evidence is not circumstantial,” Sterling DeRamus told Military.com.

But these cases are very rare, he said, and if Laaser’s supervisors did put it in writing, they either didn’t understand the law or decided to disregard it.

“Most likely the service manager will be getting a quick lesson in USERRA and issuing a formal apology and rehiring this Marine very shortly – plus paying back pay and attorney fees,” DeRamus said.

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Ranger School Considers Going Co-Ed

The Army is addressing the specifics of the plan to allow female soldiers to join infantry battalions and – associated with that move – to make the prestigious Ranger School co-ed, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Wednesday.

The Army’s top leader said he wants to give women every opportunity to succeed in infantry battalions since the military reversed the policy barring them from infantry duty earlier this year.

Odierno noted that nine out of ten senior infantry officers have graduated from Ranger school and wear the Ranger tab on their uniforms. Not allowing women to earn their own tab could hinder their infantry careers, Odierno said.

“As we look at our senior infantry officers, 90 percent of our senior officers are Ranger qualified. If we determine that we’re going to allow women to go into infantry and be successful, they’re probably at some time going to have to go to Ranger School,” Odierno said. “We have not made that decision but it’s a factor that I’ve asked them to take a look at.”

Graduating from Ranger school would not mean women would start serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Only a select group of soldiers who complete Ranger School earn an assignment to the 75th Ranger Regiment, the only Ranger regiment in the Army.

In February, the Pentagon reversed a 1994 combat exclusion policy that restricted women from ground combat units below the brigade level. The reversal will open up more than 14,000 new positions to female officers and non-commissioned officers in mostly the Army and Marine Corps.

Odierno has ordered Gen. Robert Cone, head of U.S. Training and Doctrine Command, and Maj. Gen. Robert Brown, the head of U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, to study a host of issues, including Ranger School, regarding the inclusion of women in infantry battalions.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the Army to issue recommendations on the policy change by November. Odierno said he expects Cone and Brown to deliver their recommendations this summer.

“We have to continue to look [and ask]: Do we open up infantry and armor level [military occupations specialties] to females, and that’s the next step,” Odierno said.

The Army has started introducing women into jobs at nine infantry brigades as a test before opening up those jobs to women across the Army. Women will not be allowed to serve in all infantry positions.

However, Army officials have tested opening up infantry jobs in personnel, logistics, signal corps, medical, chaplaincy and intelligence previously closed to women. Women could also serve as tank mechanics and artillery and rocket launcher crew members.

Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday that he has no doubt women will succeed in their roles in infantry. He said he saw it firsthand in Iraq as the commander of U.S. forces. The Army has temporarily attached women to infantry battalions during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.
“From my experience in Iraq, and what I’ve seen in Afghanistan, we will move forward with a more permanent solution,” Odierno said.

Introducing women to infantry roles is not only occurring in the Army. The Marine Corps is undergoing the same policy change and will invite its first group of women to the Marine Corps Infantry Officers Course in Quantico, Va., this year.

Starting this month, the Marine Corps will consider women for 400 positions in amphibious assault, artillery, combat assault, combat engineer, low-altitude air defense, and tank battalions.

“We believe that it’s very important to explore ways to offer more opportunities to women in the military,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in February.

Odierno said the Army has a responsibility to allow women to be competitive in their branch of service if the Pentagon decides to allow women serve in infantry battalions. Completing Ranger School keeps them competitive.

“If we decide sometime to put females in infantry we have to make sure they have the qualifications to be competitive in that branch. We have to look at all of that. What I have asked them to do is we have to take a holistic view of this,” Odierno said.

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Fort Bragg Concert Geared Toward Atheists

For the first time in history, the U.S. military hosted an event expressly for soldiers and others who don’t believe in God, with a gathering sort of like a county fair Saturday on the main parade ground at one of the world’s largest Army bases.

The Rock Beyond Belief event at Fort Bragg, organized by soldiers here after a 2010 evangelical Christian event at the base, is the most visible sign so far of a growing desire by military personnel with atheist or other secular beliefs to get the same recognition as their religious counterparts.

The purpose was not to make the Army look bad, organizers said, but to show that atheists and other secular believers have a place in institutions like the military.

“I love the military,” said Sgt. Justin Griffith, main organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists. He added, “This is not meant to be a black eye.”

Griffith said he and other non-religious soldiers are not permitted to hold atheist meetings at the base and have so far been rebuffed in their efforts to change that. They feel their beliefs marginalize them.

Organizers were hoping for a crowd of about 5,000. At least several hundred people gathered on the parade ground by midday Saturday. Rainy weather for most of the morning may have affected the turnout. Fort Bragg officials said they would provide a crowd estimate later.

The atmosphere was festive, with carnival treats like ribbon fries and ice cream, games for children and a demonstration jump by the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team. Speakers and bands performed on the main stage. In many ways it was indistinguishable from a county fair except for the information booths ringing the parade ground and the content of the performances.

“We got any Darwin fans in the house?” asked a performer named Baba Brinkman, before launching into a rap song about evolutionary biology that culminated in a call-and-response chant of “Creationism is dead wrong!”

The event continued through the afternoon and was to feature more music during the evening.

Organizers said the goal was not to disparage religious soldiers, but to celebrate the beliefs of secular members of the military and their families. In the weeks leading up to the event, some bloggers and others expressed concerns. A chaplain currently deployed in Afghanistan posted an open letter on Fort Bragg’s Facebook page, saying he feared the event would be devoted to mocking religious soldiers.

“We’re never antagonistic toward religious believers, we’re antagonistic toward religious belief,” said Richard Dawkins, the British biologist and best-selling atheist author who was the event’s headline speaker.

Dawkins, who frequently makes pointed criticism of religious adherents, delivered some relatively restrained remarks, asserting that none of the common arguments for religious belief stand up to scrutiny.

“There is no good, honest reason to believe in a god or gods of any kind, or indeed in anything supernatural,” he said. “The only reason to believe something is that you have evidence for it.”

The event marked a coming-out of sorts for atheist and secularist soldiers at Fort Bragg, who have been trying for over a year to be recognized as a “distinctive faith group,” a designation that would allow them to hold their meetings at Bragg facilities. Curious soldiers in uniform mixed with people in civilian clothes as bands played and children began to race around the huge field when the rain let up.

“I’ve been an atheist pretty much my whole life, and where I was growing up in Texas, I didn’t know another atheist,” said Pfc. Lance Reed. “It’s important to meet people who have some of the same beliefs and interests as you do, and that’s what this is about.”

Reed also said he hoped Christians at Bragg and other believers would attend, to dispel some misconceptions about atheists.

“A lot of people think it’s all about God-bashing or something like that,” he said. “You can see we’re not evil people who want to burn down churches. We’re just here to have fun.”

Sgt. Lance Hollander, who said he’s been looking forward to the event ever since he first heard about it last year, agreed that in some ways the concert could serve as a calling card for soldiers who aren’t religious.

“Atheists are the least trusted group in America, and we want to change that,” he said.

A concert that was planned last year fell apart after a dispute between organizers and the base leadership over questions such as its location. Saturday’s gathering was made possible in part by $70,000 in donations from the Raleigh-based Stiefel Freethought Foundation, whose founder, Todd Stiefel, said he hopes the Army ultimately decides that its role doesn’t include events like Rock Beyond Belief and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association-sponsored concert that prompted it.

“I would like this to be the last one of these events,” Stiefel said, arguing that the government shouldn’t have any role in hosting events geared towards religious belief or lack of it.

Fort Bragg is willing to work with organizers of any event that fits its guidelines, said Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Sicinski, who estimated that the BGEA evangelical concert generated twice as much controversy as the atheist event. As far as the Army is concerned, Siciniski said, the event isn’t a bellwether of changing beliefs – it’s simply another one of the community events that Bragg often hosts.

“We don’t treat soldiers who are atheists as atheists, we treat them as soldiers,” he said. “They’re soldiers first.”

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Army Reprimands GI Who Backed Ron Paul

A soldier who went on national television in his military fatigues to endorse Ron Paul’s presidential campaign after the Iowa caucuses has been reprimanded but not dismissed from the Army Reserve, a spokeswoman said Friday.

The Army determined that Jesse D. Thorsen violated policies that bar soldiers from participating in political events in their official capacities or while in uniform. Experts say a reprimand may become a problem if Thorsen seeks a promotion or could be used to justify more serious punishment if he gets in trouble again.

U.S. Army Reserve spokeswoman Angel Wallace said a letter of reprimand was placed in Thorsen’s official personnel file. Thorsen, who learned of the punishment following a two-month investigation, declined comment when reached by email. His supporters praised the news on a Facebook page dedicated to him, noting it could have been worse.

Thorsen, 28, showed up in his uniform Jan. 3 to Paul campaign’s caucus night celebration at a suburban Des Moines hotel ballroom. There, he gave a live interview with CNN saying he supported Paul’s plans “when it comes to bringing the soldiers home” because he’d served for a decade in the military during wartime.

CNN cut off the interview after technical difficulties and some Paul supporters accused the network of silencing Thorsen. Paul then called him to the stage so he could finish his thoughts before giving remarks after finishing a close third in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential nominating contest.

“It’s an incredible moment for me. I can’t believe it. It’s like meeting a rock star,” Thorsen said while on stage. “But you know what, we’re going to go to New Hampshire. We’re all going to get involved. We’re going to keep getting online. We’re going to keep talking to people. And we are going to make sure this man is the next president of the United States.”

The reaction from the military was swift. The Army Reserve said Thorsen “stands alone in his opinions reading his political affiliation and beliefs” and launched an investigation. The Army also learned from news reports that Thorsen was convicted in connection with breaking into a home in December 2004 in Fort Myers, Fla., to steal a shotgun and other items.

The statement released Friday by the military did not address Thorsen’s criminal history, and it listed his rank as specialist. Thorsen had identified himself as a corporal, as did the military. Investigators could not find documentation that Thorsen had been promoted to corporal, but the Army Reserve statement said calling him a specialist is not a demotion.

“If you’re an officer, a letter of reprimand is a career-ender. In the lower ranks, you can sometimes overcome it,” said Greg Rinckey, a former Army attorney whose Albany, N.Y., law firm often represents soldiers and veterans. “The bigger issue is, you don’t go to political rallies in your uniform. It has to be addressed because it’s not appropriate.”

Thorsen joined the Army National Guard in Florida in 2001, then transferred to Guard units in Illinois and Colorado before joining the Army Reserve. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and is a member of an engineer company based in Des Moines. His unit falls under the 416th Theater Engineer Command out of Darien, Ill.

Paul’s campaign had no immediate comment Friday. Rinckey said the candidate and his aides should have known better than to put Thorsen in the spotlight.

But Paul’s Iowa campaign chairman, Drew Ivers, said in January that campaign officials figured Thorsen knew the military regulations before they put him on stage.

“I think it’s an impromptu happening by an enthusiastic supporter who wanted to express his support for Ron Paul’s candidacy,” he said. “I don’t think it’s worth anything more than a footnote in the annals of Iowa politics and the national Republican Party primary process.”

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So the glaring and obvious question should be: Why are American troop’s sent ‘Absentee Ballots’ [that often do not arrive in time to make any difference] in the first place, or even authorized to vote?

I have no idea.  I just “try to live here.”

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Afghan transition continues, but how well is it working?

The war in Afghanistan appears to be going well, the Pentagon said Sunday, but don’t look too closely and don’t ask too many questions.

You might not like what you learn.

Secretary Panetta issued a statement praising Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s list of new areas that will pass from American to Afghan responsibility over the next phase of the withdrawal, calling it clear evidence that President Obama’s plan is working.

“With more than 100 districts identified, this third phase will be the largest yet,” Panetta said. “When implemented, roughly three-fourths of the Afghan people will live in areas undergoing transition to Afghan security lead. It means that transition will be occurring in every province in the country, and in every provincial capital. None of this would be possible without the growing strength of the Afghan National Security Forces, which remain essential to our shared goal of an Afghanistan that can secure and govern itself. I commend our troops and those of our ISAF partners for their determination and commitment to this vital mission.”

And proud we are of all of them — but what’s the actual situation on the ground as American and Afghan troops attempt this handover? Dan Lamothe of Marine Corps Times just came back from a circuit with the leathernecks in Sangin, and his report does not give a lot of confidence about the Afghan forces taking over down there.

Wrote Lamothe:

Sgt. Johnathan Cook leads his squad of Marines through the narrow alleys and dusty compounds in this district’s dangerous “Fish Tank” region, facing insurgents armed with grenades, machine guns and improvised explosive devices.

During these patrols, Cook hears similar complaints from the villagers he meets. They’re worried not only about the Taliban, but also the local Afghan authorities. They tell him the Afghan Uniformed Police unit is crooked and violent. Farmers and shepherds accuse the AUP’s officers of beating women and children, levying steep unauthorized taxes, and even kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young boy, Cook said. The allegations make him uneasy about working alongside the AUP on partnered patrols, and whether Afghan villagers will brand Marines guilty by association.

“Whenever they tell me something like that, I always tell them they need to talk to their local government officials,” said Cook, a member of Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, out of Twentynine Palms, Calif. “But the people definitely don’t trust them.”

Cook’s concerns highlight the dark side to a major piece of the strategy for ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. Eventually, the Afghan National Security Forces are expected to provide all security here. Some units, particularly in the once beleaguered Afghan National Army, are now admired and respected by civilians. However, other Afghan troops continue to abuse power, shirk assignments or worse, Marines said.

American commanders inevitably explain that they know Afghan forces will never be the equal of the U.S. Marines or soldiers who’ve done so much of the heavy lifting in this war, but that they’re getting better all the time. Still, in the same way each Marine in Sangin represents the United States of America, each Afghan soldier or policeman represents the central government in Kabul. Especially when, as Lamothe writes, many of the troops serving in Helmand Province are actually from Kabul and speak Dari, not the local Pashto. The more locals those troops alienate, the worse the odds of long-term stability.

The next phase of this story — what happens when the Americans at last transition out of “the lead” — is very tough to predict, but reports like Lamothe’s don’t inspire a lot of optimism. Then again, nobody believes the Afghanistan-as-Switzerland delusion. Local corruption, abuse and who-knows-what-else may be the price that local Afghans must pay for American combat troops to leave. They may even welcome it, much as Washington might welcome supporting the Afghan National Security Forces to the tune of about $40 billion over a decade after years of spending some $2 billion per week on the war.

The cold-hearted reality is that by the Obama administration’s own definitions of its goals, police abuses in Sangin or even continued insurgent trouble-making don’t really matter, so long as they don’t create a shady patch where the fungus of al Qaeda can grow. Local stability and order will be important, but there will also be American special operators zorching around Afghanistan for at least the next ten years, capturing and killing the worst of the bad guys. That may keep Americans at home safe from more terror plots hatched in Afghanistan — which is supposed to be the whole purpose of the war — but the typical Afghan might not see his life improve all that much.

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Afghan Policeman Killed After Surviving 16 Attacks

An Afghan police officer who was targeted by Taliban militants and survived 16 bomb attacks was killed by an improvised explosive device on Sunday, officials said.

Tor Jan, the leader of a police post in the southern province of Uruzgan, a hotbed of the insurgency against the Kabul government and its Western allies, was renowned for leading attacks against the Taliban.

Jan had survived 16 explosions, most of them aimed at him personally, but was killed when his vehicle was hit by a blast in Tirin Kot district where he was based, Uruzgan police spokesman Farid Ail told AFP.

“He was very active against the Taliban. The Taliban considered him an enemy,” he said, describing Jan as a “brave officer”.

“He had survived 16 such attacks. Today in the 17th attack he was martyred.”

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are the weapon of choice for Taliban insurgents in the long-running conflict.

They are responsible for the bulk of military casualties among both Afghan security personnel and the U.S.-led NATO force, and were also the single largest killer of Afghan civilians last year, according to a U.N. report in February.

The U.N. Mission in Afghanistan document said that a total of 3,021 civilians died in the Afghan conflict — mostly at the hands of insurgents — in 2011, up eight percent from 2010.

Afghan forces are to take over security responsibility across the whole of the country by the end of 2014, when the last foreign combat troops, who currently number 130,000, are due to be withdrawn.

More than 2,900 foreign soldiers have been killed in the conflict, according to a tally by the icasualties.org website.

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No matter what language it is said; “It is not easy being Green.”

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Congress to DoD: No BRAC for Now, Cut More in Europe

Overcoming stiff opposition on Capitol Hill to any new round of U.S. base closures and realignments could hinge on how ambitious Pentagon plans are for closing more military facilities in Europe.

The bolder the proposals for Europe, the better the chances of persuading lawmakers to endure two rounds of base realignments and closures (BRAC) at home as proposed for 2013 and 2015, some military experts say.

Pentagon officials and senior commanders in Europe are drafting a new consolidation plan for Europe installations. The plan will contain a set of recommendations for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to consider later this year, according to senior defense officials.

“We definitely believe we can do more to consolidate in Europe,” Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told lawmakers during a recent hearing on BRAC before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Robyn, however, stopped short of naming what facilities are under particular scrutiny. Military officials have said only they are looking at a wide range of facilities.

“First, we can reduce the number of discrete installation sites we maintain in Europe,” Robyn stated in testimony to Congress in March.

“We have more than 300 such sites — ranging from small communications posts to robust Main Operating Bases — of which about 200 house most of our activities.”

Excess support infrastructure such as warehouses, administrative space and housing also are being looked at, she said.

While the Pentagon has made clear it would like to close more military installations at home, and needs the congressionally authorized BRAC process to do it, several influential lawmakers have come out strongly against any such move. The mantra in Washington has been “target Europe first.”

It was no different in 2005, when the Pentagon had to offer a detailed justification for every base abroad before congressmen were willing to consider closing bases in the U.S., according to Kori Schake, a National Security Council director of defense strategy and requirements during President George W. Bush’s first term.

Schake said she’s surprised that the Pentagon didn’t conduct its overseas basing analysis before pushing for another BRAC.

“That Secretary Panetta placed such a low priority on Europe in his defense guidance will increase lawmakers’ interest in closing bases there,” Schake said. “That forces in Europe are being cut, and seem set to be cut further if sequestration comes into effect, will incline Congress not to agree to any domestic base closures until they see the plan for how force cuts will be distributed geographically.”

The last time Congress authorized a BRAC commission was in 2005. Nine commissioners appointed by President Bush made a series of base closure and realignment decisions that ended up costing more than $35 billion to execute, according to the Government Accountability Office. Actual savings aren’t expected to be achieved until 2018.

While many on Capitol Hill are opposed to additional BRAC rounds in the coming years, Europe is another matter.

“What other locations is the department considering closing in European Command?” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked during a recent Senate Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee hearing on BRAC. “Is it considering closing Baumholder?”

Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced that it will inactivate the 170th Infantry Brigade in Baumholder, though there are no plans yet to shutter the garrison that is regarded by the Army as one of its “enduring” communities in Europe. In place of the brigade, U.S. Army Europe plans to relocate smaller support units to Baumholder rather than close the installation.

Though decisions about base closures overseas are not directly part of the BRAC process, Pentagon assessments of foreign bases are done in tandem with assessments of domestic bases. While domestic bases have lawmakers and communities lobbying on their behalf, facilities in Europe do not.

“It’s much easier to reduce installations overseas than it is anyplace that has (congressional) representation,” said retired Maj. Gen. Mike Jones, an adviser with the Spectrum Group, a firm that specializes in assisting communities targeted during the BRAC process. “That’s the path of least resistance, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best choice for the nation.”

During the base structure review in 2005, Schake said, a range of criteria was used to evaluate overseas bases.

Such factors could offer a glimpse into how the Pentagon is looking at Europe today.

According to Schake, key questions in assessing value of overseas installations include:

• Does it contribute to executing war plans and more rapid response?
• Are forces located where they can train and where they can train militaries of important partners?
• Does basing contribute to regional stability for U.S. allies?
• Do domestic bases exist that could serve as cost-effective alternatives?

Going forward, as the Pentagon looks for more places to consolidate, which facilities might be prime targets?

“I don’t know that there’s anything that makes anything untouchable, or BRAC-proof,” Jones said. “But there are things that are very difficult to replace — from the Army’s perspective, large maneuver areas that don’t have environmental problems and have good ranges.”

Overseas, there are additional intangible factors to consider, such as diplomatic implications of a closure, which are hard to measure, Jones said.

“It’s a lot more complicated overseas in judging the military value,” Jones said. “Your presence is making a statement.”

Given budgetary pressures, plans for downsizing the overall force and a desire in Washington to see more base closures abroad than at home are all factors.

“My gut feeling is that it’s caused the military to take a hard look and see if they have it right (overseas) or if there is more to do,” said Jones, a former U.S. Central Command chief of staff.

Since the end of the Cold War, the military presence in Europe has gone from a high of 400,000 personnel to roughly 80,000 today. Current transformation plans will drive that number down to about 70,000 troops over the next couple of years. Whether the Pentagon is planning for sweeping changes or modest adjustments remains to be seen. Still, military officials have made clear there is infrastructure to shed.

Robyn, the Pentagon’s point person for BRAC, during an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee hearing in March, made clear Europe would be dealt with as part of the push for BRAC.

“However, even a significant reduction of our remaining footprint in Europe will not achieve the needed cuts to overall infrastructure,” Robyn told lawmakers. “Hence, our request for a parallel BRAC process.”

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Panetta Blasts Defense Cuts

ABOARD THE USS PELELIU – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told U.S. Marines and sailors on Friday that Congress would be irresponsible if it doesn’t act to prevent drastic military budget cuts.

In a visit to this amphibious assault ship off the Southern California coast, he also said Afghanistan is making progress against the Taliban but Iran remains a potential threat to the U.S.

A budget agreement reached last August calls for defense cuts of $487 billion over a decade, a reflection of the drawdown of two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the pressure to reduce the nation’s deficit.

The failure of Congress to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in savings means automatic cuts of more than $1 trillion next January to defense and domestic programs.

Congress “did a stupid thing” in risking the $50 billion in across-the-board reductions that would kick in next January, Panetta told hundreds of Marines and sailors.

“What they essentially did was to put a gun to their heads and to the heads of the country,” he said.

Answering questions from service members and journalists, Panetta also said last year was a turning point for the war in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is winding down its combat role.

Afghan forces are doing their job in the country and more than 50 percent of the Afghan population is now living in areas secured by the Afghan government – showing the U.S. strategy of handing over the security to them is working – but ultimately it will be up to Afghans, the secretary said.

“We can’t let anything, anything undermine that strategy,” he said.

He said the level of violence in Afghanistan dropped last year for the first time in five years and the Taliban was weakened.

Afghanistan’s neighbor, Iran, continues to be a threat to U.S. interests, however.

“If Israel decides to go after Iran and we have to defend ourselves, we could be engaged sooner than any of us want,” he said.

It was not clear whether Panetta was saying the United States would automatically be engaged if Israel would attack. It also is not clear if the Obama administration has plans to be engaged with Iran.

“Our focus is on diplomacy and international pressure on Iran. I’m not going to speculate on what would happen in various scenarios other than to say that we will be ready,” Carl Woog, Panetta’s spokesman, said later.

“The secretary said we have plans for any contingency and we’re not going to speculate about timelines or future actions,” he added.

Panetta also addressed North Korea’s threat to fire a missile.

“They’ve done this before. We thought we were in a period of accommodation with them. Now it looks like we’re in a period of provocation,” Panetta said, adding later: “Our hope is that you know it is just provocation for the moment.”

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Double agent could be eligible for reward millions

The Saudi double agent that disrupted an Al-Qaeda plot to bomb a U.S. bound airliner could be eligible for tens of millions of dollars in rewards from the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program, a State Department spokesman told CBS News.  An individual could receive up to a $25 million reward for information that prevented a terrorist attack. In addition, they could be eligible for a $5 million reward for providing information that led to the drone attack that killed Ahmed al-Quso.  At issue would be the employment status of the individual involved. Employees of foreign governments are not usually eligible for rewards if they provide information that was obtained in the course of their official duties. To be eligible for a reward payment, the individual would need to be nominated by a U.S. agency handling the case or a U.S. Embassy.

Since it was established in 1984, the Rewards for Justice program has paid more than $100 million to more than 70 people who provided tips that prevented terrorist attacks or led to the convictions of those involved.  ”RFJ [Rewards for Justice] is one of many tools that our government uses to fight terrorism, but it has proven to be an effective tool over the years” Robert Hartung, Assistant Director for Diplomatic Security’s Threat Investigations and Analysis Directorate told CBS News in a statement, adding that the program “… has helped to save countless innocent lives.”

The largest payment to date was a $30 million award to a single individual who provided information that led to the whereabouts Uday and Qusay Hussein. Reward campaigns also lead to the apprehension of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, who planned the 1993 truck bombing at the World Trade Center and Mir Aimal Kansi, who murdered two CIA employees, according to the State Department.

A 2011 audit disclosed that State Department reward programs- which include Rewards for Justice as well as two other programs for narco-trafficking and war crimes tribunals- paid $10,857,050 in FY2008 and $9,494,643 in FY2009 respectively.

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NFL veteran quits, fearing future brain damage

More than 3,000 pro football players, past and present, are suing the National Football League, claiming the NFL deliberately concealed information about the long-term effects of repeated hits to the head.  Offensive lineman Jacob Bell is not part of that case, but he’s so concerned about head trauma that he’s giving up football.

After 8 years in the league, Bell retired in his prime.  These days, his focus is on staying fit, keeping healthy, and recovering from past injuries.  ”The first time you sprain your ankle, you’re thrown off,” Bell says.  But the injury that concerns him most is one he’s not even sure he has – an injury to his brain.  ”We’re now seeing that there is clear-cut proof that the trauma incurred during football leads to problems later in life,” Bell says.

It takes a big man to walk away from the fame and fortune of pro football.  But at the age of 31, the six-foot-five, 270 pound guard is doing just that.  This year, after four seasons with the St. Louis Rams, Bell signed with the Cincinnati Bengals for nearly $1 million – a steep pay cut from the $3 million a year he was making with the Rams. But he was playing the game he loved.  Then, like the rest of the NFL, he was shocked by the suicide of former star linebacker Junior Seau.

“It’s kind of like an eye opener,” Bell remarked. “We realized, you know, the game has an effect on you. And we don’t know exactly all the things he was going through, his personal life or other factors that played into it, but we can imagine that football may have had some kind of a role in that.”  Especially since scientists now link repetitive head injuries to chronic traumatic encephalopathy — or CTE. The disease, which causes depression and early-onset dementia, was discovered in the brain of former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson after he killed himself in the same manner as Seau — a gunshot to his chest.

In his suicide note, Duerson asked that his brain be donated to science to study whether the brutality of football was responsible for his mental problems.

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I wonder what the Veterans Administration would say about myself and other Warriors that have suffered far worse blows to the Head, and continued to “drive on…“, despite any other consideration including our own personal ailment’s that would be realized, in fact revealed often in the worst way’s.  I stayed in the service for more than any player of any game.  ”On”–everyday.  Every second.  Every hot or cold night.  Snow, sleet, monsoon rain, or parched desert…

I would feel empathy for football players–if each had actually done something besides ‘entertain’ the citizenry for ‘a living’–making far more currency for their finite efforts than any Warrior that is under any standard on Earth.  Only mercenaries can possibly make the same amounts of Silver as players of games at a “professional level.”

This is not envy I write.  It is simply disgust…

Would you send any other than a Warrior to deal with the peril of facing what waits in the darkness?

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Pakistan army commander says US scapegoating

American efforts to talk peace with insurgents in Afghanistan mean Washington can no longer expect Pakistan to attack all the militant factions on its side of the border, some of whom Islamabad is also reaching out to, the commander of Pakistan’s forces along the frontier told The Associated Press.

In a sign of the bad blood between Washington and Islamabad, Lt. Gen. Khalid Rabbani also accused the U.S. of seeking to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its failure to beat the insurgency in Afghanistan.

U.S. and NATO officials say Pakistani tolerance of — or support for — Afghan factions operating on its soil is hobbling efforts to end the resistance to the foreign military presence in Afghanistan. The U.S. wants Pakistan to launch an offensive or otherwise disrupt militant groups in North Waziristan, the stronghold for multiple insurgent networks on the border.

“Why do they to raise their fingers toward Pakistan? It is shifting the blame to others,” Rabbani said in his offices in a highly secure section of the main northwestern city of Peshawar. “Is Afghanistan free of Taliban? It has hundreds of thousands of them.”

Rabbani was speaking a day after militants in North Waziristan beheaded 13 Pakistani soldiers, including four that it captured when Pakistani troops raided a militant hideout.

The killings highlighted the dilemma facing the military in dealing with an area used by both the country’s fiercest enemies, the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida, and Afghan and Pakistani militants who are battling U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan but who the army believes don’t pose a direct threat to Islamabad.

One powerful faction in North Waziristan is led by a commander called Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is believed to have signed a nonaggression pact with the government but still funnels fighters into Afghanistan. Rabbani defended the government’s dealings with Bahadur, saying “at the moment he seems to be trying to keep himself out of the trouble.”

Washington has urged Pakistan to attack all the militants along the border, which it believes are equally dangerous.

Rabbani said U.S. and NATO were in contact with insurgents in Afghanistan to try and “co-opt them into the peace process.”

“Similar things are true on this side of the border as well,” he said. “It it forbidden for us to do the same?”

The Pakistani army has launched anti-militant operations in six of the seven tribal regions along the Afghan border since 2004, retaking parts of the mountainous area and losing hundreds of soldiers in bloody fighting. But just as U.S.-led forces have experienced across the border, the force has had trouble holding retaken territory and attacks continue to roil the region.

Privately, some U.S. officials agree with Pakistan’s stated reason that its lacks the soldiers to move into North Waziristan and defeat the some 8,000 militants there. But others in Congress and the army accuse the force of seeking to keep the insurgents as proxies to influence events in Afghanistan, especially the so-called Haqqani network, whose leadership is said to be based in North Waziristan.

Repeating assurances by other top army officers, Rabbani said several times that the army would launch operations in North Waziristan. But he didn’t say when this would happen, nor whether it would target all factions there.

“Something has to be done, and it’s in the offing,” said Rabbani, who commands over 150,000 soldiers and paramilitary forces in the rugged northwest. “North Waziristan is the only region we haven’t cleared. It should be done as early as possible.”

U.S. officials have been hoping to see the army move into North Waziristan since 2010, but now believe it is unlikely before 2014, when Washington is committed to bringing most of its soldiers home.

The unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year badly hurt the relationship between the two countries. U.S. airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border in November effectively ended cooperation between the two forces. Islamabad ordered the closure of U.S. and NATO supply lines.

Washington wants to rebuild ties with the country, but has had little success so far.

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Imagine that…

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The little nukes that got away–again

Two years ago, I wrote about the thousands of tactical or battlefield nuclear warheads left over from the Cold War.

Today, I can confidently report: they are still out there, uncounted and unseen. There has been almost no progress toward bringing these weapons into the open, or under an arms control treaty.

Both the United States and Russia have made dramatic reductions since the visionary, unilateral initiatives of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev in the autumn of 1991, in which they pulled back voluntarily and without a treaty as the great confrontation of the Cold War ebbed. But the story didn’t end there.

Today, the United States, which once had 7,300 tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, retains about 200 B-61 gravity bombs in five NATO nations. (And there are about 300 non-deployed bombs in the United States, as well as 260 cruise missile warheads which are being phased out.) Russia now has some 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons of various kinds assigned to delivery vehicles, with more awaiting dismantlement. The estimates of Russian stockpiles have been highly uncertain in the two decades since the Soviet collapse.

The fate of these weapons will be in the spotlight again at the NATO summit in Chicago May 20-21, which is expected to approve a new Deterrence and Defense Posture Review. Don’t look for a dramatic shift from the status-quo; the allies want to hold onto the nuclear weapons, for now, as a political symbol of the American nuclear umbrella, and perhaps as a chip to be traded in future negotiations. And Russia, too, sees these warheads as a useful bulwark against NATO’s edge in conventional or non-nuclear forces (a complete turnabout from the Cold War when it was the West that saw nuclear battlefield weapons as a way to stop a Soviet conventional invasion.)

Tactical nuclear weapons have no significant military utility in these times. A target could be just as easily put in the crosshairs of a highly-precise strategic weapon.

If NATO policy is stuck, then at least the summit should consider a very good suggestion from Hans M. Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, who has just completed a comprehensive look at tactical nuclear weapons, a report [pdf] chock-a-block with data and valuable insights. Kristensen, who is co-author with Robert S. Norris of the authoritative “Nuclear Notebook” column in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, suggests we create some transparency as a first step to break the tactical nuclear weapons impasse.

“Russia, the United States and NATO do not disclose how many non-strategic nuclear weapons they have or where they are deployed” he writes. “As a result, uncertainty and rumors fuel a debate full of half-truths, exaggerations and worst-case assumptions.”

Kristensen points out that keeping the details of tactical nuclear weapons secret is in contrast to the approach taken with operational, long-range strategic weapons, which are accounted for in the New Start treaty data. Also, in 2010, the Obama administration disclosed the size and history of the total nuclear weapons stockpile. Why not do the same with the tactical warheads? In 2011, a group of NATO nations proposed just that: exchanging data between the United States, NATO and Russia on numbers, locations, operational status, command arrangements and warhead storage security. But so far it has not been done.

Kristensen concludes:

“The stalemate in non-strategic nuclear weapons cries out for political leadership and bold initiatives. It is important that Russia and the United States take steps to drastically increase transparency. This can be done on a unilateral basis and should include overall numbers, locations, and delivery systems. It should also include verification measures to confirm data that is provided. Increasing transparency is essential because uncertainty creates mistrust, rumors, and worst-case planning.

“Most of what is assumed about Russian non-strategic nuclear capabilities still comes from literature published during the Cold War and in the first years after the demise of the Soviet Union. Since then, the U.S. intelligence community has largely stopped publishing estimates about Russian nuclear capabilities, and Russia has not offered any insight.
To that end, it is important that possible agreements on increased transparency of non-strategic nuclear weapons not be confined to confidential exchanges of information between governments but also benefit the international community.”

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From here:

Uncovering a Nuclear Smuggling Operation in Pakistan

I was sitting on a plane headed for Pakistan on an assignment as an Aviation Consultant from my new company. Having left Blackwater three years ago, the thoughts of my friends and colleagues I had left ran through my head. I remembered all the good times, but most importantly to never forget the brothers we all loved that have died in service to Blackwater and the Department of State. This is a true story, and it is dedicated to all those fallen who paid the ultimate price.

Stay on your toes, keep sharp, walk quietly, stay calm and professional and don’t worry about your six! I got you covered bro! That’s what Joshua “Pedro” Hernandez would always tell me when the chips were down. Unfortunately, I had no one to watch my six on this assignment; I was completely alone on this trip and was wondering if my contact in Islamabad, Pakistan, would even show at the airport. This was a solo job.

Before my departure, my new company had brought me up to date on their government contract and that a Pakistani Local National was the “In-Country Manager.” I knew it was unusual to have a local national working on this particular contract and questioned the Executive Management of the issues I was going to have—namely, Proprietary and Contract Disclosures to include Export Compliance Control regarding disclosures to foreign nationals, business sales and service to include training and much more. Needless to say, I was instructed to give this person full and complete cooperation from the Vice President himself. The company was determined to win additional government contracts.

I wanted to touch base with a company export control compliance representative. I had more questions I wanted answered and clarity from a legal perspective, but was advised by my program manager who had been with the company for several years and was relatively a decent guy: “Don’t rock the boat! Besides, our contact in Islamabad was hired by our people in marketing and he’s been checked out.” That’s when the red flag appeared in my mind. I was feeling uncomfortable about the local national in a key position, but the program manager assured me all would be fine.

When I arrived at the airport, authorities escorted me from the Immigration control desk to the main office of the airport where the in-country manager, Dr. Mohammed, was waiting for my arrival. He spoke excellent English, was in western dress, and was short and of poor physical condition. My initial impression of this person was fair, but not what I expected. He arrogantly boasted himself as a doctor.

I collected my baggage, and we proceeded to an outside parking lot. I noticed we were being shadowed by two men dressed in traditional Pakistani Shalwar Kameez “Man Dresses” with black vests. I scanned for threats, but kept my cool. Dr. Mohammad drove me to the hotel, and the two men from the airport were pulling into the hotel parking lot at the same time. They parked their car and watched as I went into the hotel. Dr. Mohammad informed me that he would check back in a few days when we could start with searching for a safe house to lease.

For the next day, I tried to catch up on my sleep as much as I could, made the usual calls to family and company, bringing everyone up to date. Dr. Mohammad called and we met for lunch to go over the company plans for a safe house and all other requirements for the contract. At this point, I was feeling very uncomfortable with this person and my gut instinct kicked in telling me something was amiss for a medical doctor to be working with me on a US government contract. I spent the rest of the day driving around with Dr. Mohammed, and the safe houses we looked at did not meet the billing for the basic security requirements I was looking for. So we ended that day without any results and this person informed me that he would schedule more homes for viewing for the remainder of the week.

Bored, I decided to look for myself online for homes in Islamabad that were for lease and do my own due diligence. I also wanted to know if this “Doctor” was ever in practice and did an online search to learn more about him.

Doctor Mohammad was recently arrested in Europe on charges of illegally shipping nuclear materials to Pakistan for the illicit end use and development of a nuclear bomb. He was working in secret and intentionally disguising the shipments as medical research materials to fabricated, bogus addresses. US intelligence had no warnings or credible information as to what, where, when or who this person was or what he was doing. According to legal briefs from the court that tried him in Europe, Dr. Mohammad was released on a technicality that left the European legal system reeling. He returned to Pakistan.

No one had any idea who Dr. Mohammad was really working for, where he managed to get the funds for these illegal transactions, how the shipments even managed to leave the EU without any red flags, or if Dr. Mohammad was really who he said he was. There were a lot of unknowns. The Pakistan Government made no effort to intervene or acknowledge his business ties with the PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission), much less provide him with any legal representation. All this occurred in 2007/2008, after 9/11.

As the Red Flags continued to go up, my blood was pumping, my hands swelled and I wanted his head mounted above my fireplace. I knew my company’s business dealings in Pakistan were now in the hands of a very dangerous person. I considered him a terrorist. All my training at Blackwater, in US Army and at a three digit agency I worked for trained me in only one way to deal with terrorist threats. I had to maintain my composure while I had all this checked out and clarified. Question was, who could I trust with my life? Trust no one. When the timing was right I would reach out for assistance. But for now, I had to be cool and bring to bare all the clandestine dark arts I had been taught from scratch over the years.

I had an alarm clock with a movement sensor and camera built in that would record video and sound when I was out of my room that came in useful. I downloaded a video of a person placing a listening device under the nightstand next to my bed. I recovered the planted device and placed it next to my computer and opened a 30 minute porn video with speakers on high. I went into the hallway, got on my cell and made reservations for another hotel. I went back into my room and packed. I took a bag of chips out of the concession mini bar and placed the listening device in the bag, rolled and tied the bag with a rubber band and checked out.

On my way to the Serena Hotel, I was followed from my old hotel right up to the reception desk of the new hotel. I played everything off and never made eye contact with the men following me. I called Dr. Mohammad and notified him of the hotel change. He was surprised and asked why I moved. I informed him that I learned the Serena Hotel had booze and better women! He laughed it off and told me to have a good time.

That next day, we drove around looking at more safe houses, appliances, furniture, etc. I couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Mohammad seemed nervous, on edge, had a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel and was looking into his rearview mirror often. The Doctor then started to ask me about my background in IT, electrical, avionics and if I had any explosives experience. I mentioned my extensive background in electrical sciences and was trained in demolitions, particularly detonator technology. That got the doctor to take notice and he wanted to know more. I told him that I felt more comfortable having some drinks and talking in a better setting then in the vehicle. He agreed, dropped me off at my hotel and stated that he would come back tomorrow with spirits and if I had any special brand I preferred. I told him “Old Number 7”. Looking confused, he asked what brand that was. I told him Jack Daniels, and he smiled and drove off. I sent a text message to my program manager in sections of a sentence that he understood and an email to complete the sentence. I was fortunate that he was able to understand the message.

In the morning Dr. Mohammad called and said he was down in the parking lot waiting for me. He had a list of addresses we were to go look at and so we went off for the rest of the day looking at some safe houses that were getting closer to what I was looking for, but still nothing solid. Later that night the call came that I was waiting for. It was a high-level contact in Washington, D.C. who instructed me to do nothing to upset Dr. Mohammad or give any indications of my discovery, a member of his office would be contacting me ASAP. That was all.

Dr. Mohammad was seemingly in a good mood and took me to one of his favorite restaurants where he wanted to speak with me about my skill sets regarding barometric detonators, time delays, mercury switches and charged vacuum tubes. Our discussion regarding compositions, shielding, shapes, compounds, power sources, composites and use of magnets went on for some time, and Dr. Mohammad was convinced that I had a keen knowledge of the work he was talking about and actively aware of technical subjects. It was then that I knew that I was not dealing with any medical doctor, but a highly educated, technically knowledgeable terrorist who was very interested in construction of a sophisticated detonator. The more I was around him, the more I wanted to kill him.

We left the restaurant and went back to the Serena Hotel, had some drinks. Dr. Mohammad asked more about my family, friends and previous work experience. He made mention to the fact that he knew I had worked for Blackwater USA and wanted to know what it took to be selected. Needless to say, I gave him a dead end trail of bullshit and confusion. He agreed to not ask me about my past, and I wouldn’t ask him about his. Little did he know that I knew a great deal more about him then he could imagine.

A few days later, I had an envelope under my door and it was from my Washington, D.C. contact. It was short code, and I understood it as instructions to meet the contact in the hotel restaurant at 9:00am sharp. It also described what he was wearing and where he would be sitting. I met the contact and verified his identity. He was instructed to inform me to initiate Executive Protocol within the next 7 days, neutralize and eliminate the threat with minimal exposure. I was solo and this meeting never took place. He walked away and left me there reading the paper.

At this point, I was pretending to read the paper and my thoughts were deeply off into my situation, how I even got to this point and most importantly how I was going to initiate the order with virtually no support, cover or means of egress. I knew I was being sacrificed to carry out a mission no one would ever know about. I went back to my room, laid down and my thoughts went off to the days when I was trained to carry out missions like this in a group. However, if this was to be solo it would occur immediately and with extreme prejudice.

After some thought, I made a trip to the local bazaar and acquired all the materials I needed and made a 13 in. wrist spike out of a toilet plunger dowel stick with the release tied to my finger. With a long-sleeve shirt and black gloves, it was well concealed. I bought two new Shalwar Kameez and had them boxed with new sandals. The weapon worked really well, and there was no problem with metal detectors or pat downs at the high security points. The pat downs never went as far as my wrist.

My planning went into effect and within two days, and I was prepared to execute Executive Protocol with a 50/50 possibility I would survive and a 20/80 probability that I would be arrested and jailed for life. With that being said, I opted to the 100% probability I would terminate my life if or when captured.

I made a decision on a safe house, signed the lease and informed the company of all issues pertaining to the contract. Dr. Mohammad was very pleased about this and wanted to celebrate and talk to me about a separate business venture he wanted to propose. On that day, Dr. Mohammad took me on a tour of his office and warehouse in the business district of Islamabad. When we arrived, he began the tour of showing me his business inventory. I noticed several metal boxes and crates that had European shipping labels and some opened crates that were from Iran. I memorized the wording and symbols as diligently as I could and the tour went on, after which Dr. Mohammad got down to business.

Dr. Mohammed wanted to utilize my company’s shipping carrier for imports through Europe and other locations within the Emirates. He explained that it would cut down on import / export civilian shipping regulations. He would arrange for my company’s business in Pakistan to be that of a US government contract obligation and all of the company shipments would be excluded from inspections that. I explained that I would have to think this over and let him know at a later date. Dr. Mohammad explained that he needed my assurances now, that I would be compensated, and that I was the only one who should make this decision. I explained again that I would consider this and keep everything to myself. I also reassured him that his secrets were my secrets, and I that I needed a financial boost to seal the deal. Dr. Mohammad reassured me that I would be paid six figures for my full cooperation. I told him we had a deal and as I shook his hand. I wanted to break every bone in it.

I down loaded the Dari alphabet and ran the symbols from the doctor’s warehouse. It was nuclear shipping verbiage that was the wording for radioactive components. This was all very big and needed to be relayed to my counterpart. For the next four days it was raining very heavily and the rains never let up for a minute. Dr. Mohammad called me from the hotel parking lot and wanted me downstairs and to meet with him. When I got into the vehicle, Dr. Mohammad went over a highly sensitive security contract proposal he had and wanted my opinion on. He also had American top secret documents about a highly sensitive site in Pakistan that someone from my company had emailed him regarding a visit within a few days that the company wanted him to go over. They wanted Dr. Mohammad’s opinion about local security staffing man power, training, blueprint overlays of the site, weapons to be utilized by the security staff on the contract if awarded, and the list goes on.

Dr. Mohammad was wanting to create his own security company, subcontract all the work out and pocket the profits. I was wearing my poker face that moment, but I wanted to clean this guy’s ears with an ice pick. But it was now that I realized that matters were out of control and my counterpart needed to be advised. I left Dr. Mohammad and advised him that I needed more time to go over the proposal and lend my expertise to him for a response. He reminded me about the secrecy and that I would have $50,000 coming to me when I wrote a solid proposal on this contract for him to present to my own company. He was adamant about our agreement to maintain secrecy and needed the proposal within 48 hours.

The clock was ticking; I had no direct way of contacting my counterpart in Islamabad and would not risk any emails or calls to Washington, D.C. I wrote all this down in the notes feature of my cell phone and removed the SIM Card. Utilizing two other encrypted SIM cards for cell phones that I was to give to members of my team coming from the States, I sent two separate text messages, one each, with one word to my Program Manager in the USA: “noteworthy” “comment”. I knew my program manager would pass this to my contact in Washington, D.C. I went off to sleep and never received any replies.

The next morning while having breakfast downstairs at the hotel, my counterpart was there at the buffet table. I had the SIM Card in my hand with all the notes, between my fingers and went to serve myself a plate. While doing so, I walked up to the desert table next to him, suggested the cake, and he saw me drop the SIM Card onto the desert plate, place a piece of cake on top, and hand it to him. I went back to eat, finished and left for my room without saying a word. That day, Dr. Mohammad called and stated that the safe house was ready for me to move into and that he would come by for lunch so that he could help me check out. He also wanted to examine the draft proposal.

I checked out of the hotel and was in the lobby waiting when Dr. Mohammad came. We had lunch, I gave him my draft of the proposal, and we left for the safe house. The security guards were in place, with all the other house and grounds personnel that all were local nationals. We toured the safe house and Dr. Mohammad stated that he would come by later that night to pick me up to go to Margala Hills on the outskirts of Islamabad to drink and celebrate. I told him that this was fine and that I would be ready when he called. He left and I made sure the room I was staying in was not bugged with the help of a small 9V transistor radio that I played and walked through every inch of the room (I was listening for any RF Interference that a listening device would emit, there was none). I tested the wrist spike and all was in working order. I grabbed my backpack and placed the clothes (Shalwar Kameez) inside with a few bottles of water, passport & loads of cash.

Dr. Mohammad called, came by to pick me up, and had my Old number 7 with him. On our way to the hills, he detoured and picked up a woman that was waiting at a linen’s store in a local market. The woman got into the vehicle and now I was wondering, “What the Hell?” Dr. Mohammad introduced her as his mistress. She got in the back seat and took off her head dress, She was about 5’1”, 105 lbs, black curly hair, steel green eyes and 17 years old. I looked over at Dr. Mohammad (who was now all smiles and laughs) and said to him, “What the Fuck? She’s old enough to be your daughter!” They both just laughed, and she later was quiet. Dr. Mohammad explained that she was going with us to celebrate. I stated to him that I was not notified about this in advance and if I knew she was coming along I would have brought her a gift. (At this time I was pissed and knowing I would not be able to carry out the order with her along)

We were up in Margala Hills for about two hours drinking off the side of a remote road and this girl was lip locked on Old Number 7 like a baby drinking milk from a bottle. I told Dr. Mohammad that I was feeling sick and wanted to go back to the safe house (Dr. Mohammad and his mistress were doing the nasty and she was on her cell phone to her girl friend to come join us for drinks. I was going to have no part in the mess and reiterated that I was really not feeling well and that the alcohol was making me experience vertigo). Little did anyone know I was about to run a sharpened wooden spike through Dr. Mohammad’s head like a voodoo doll. But the timing was off and I didn’t want to take a young innocent life from the girl as well. Dr. Mohammad and his mistress drove me back to the safe house and when I got there I was fuming in disgust that I missed the opportunity to carry out the order. I needed minimum exposure, and she had seen my face.

Upon arriving at the safe house, the servant came upstairs, knocked on my door and gave me a cell phone in a new box that had arrived for me through a local courier. It was a piece of crap Nokia that you can find at all the cell shops in the country. I opened the box and found the phone fully operational with SIM card installed. I placed the phone down, took a shower and came back. I could only conclude that it came from my counterpart. I went to the notes feature of the cell and there was scrambled numbers that I interpreted: “ABORT”. I pulled the SIM Card, burned and flushed it. By this time I had had enough and was ready to resign. I had done my part in setting up the safe house and made good on a solid attempt at neutralizing and eliminating the threat. I figured it might only be a matter of time before I was discovered and I started to reason with myself. I thought about this for a few days and made up my mind to resign. I looked at the clock and it was about 6 PM in the USA. Time for me to call the Program Manager and break the bad news.

I went to the roof with a beautiful view of Islamabad, and while talking on the cell, pacing, I heard an unmistakable sound I hadn’t heard since I was in Baghdad: the sound of a high velocity bullet, then another and then a ricochet. I got down, crawled to the door, one of the bullets passed right through the collar of my leather jacket, missing me by a quarter of an inch. There was no sound or clap of the round being discharged, to my surprise, and so this was a professional who was a poor shot. I left Islamabad after a few weeks, was debriefed by a three-digit agency and was requested to return to Islamabad a year later. But that’s another story.

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I do not think it would have been in anyone’s best interest to go–even if I were invited as I would most likely “bump into” the friend, relative, or merely a comrade-in-arms of someone that I had ‘encountered’.  Some will hold onto a grudge for a very long time…

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Brain Trauma and Vets

The case of a 27-year-old Marine Corps veteran with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.) has been documented in a peer-reviewed medical journal. C.T.E. is a degenerative condition best-known for affecting boxers, football players and other athletes who endure repeated blows to the head. The Marine was the first Iraq veteran found to have C.T.E. The findings raise a critical question: Could blasts from bombs or grenades have a catastrophic impact similar to those of repeated concussions in sports, and could the rash of suicides among young veterans be a result? An abstract of the landmark article in the journal Neurosurgical Focus is available on the PubMed website.

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That would explain a lot–had I not deduced that for myself–several decades ago.  Any blast sends out a ‘shock-wave’ in all direction’s.  Sound can make someone deaf if the exposure is sustained at a certain ‘pitch’, and loud enough.  This can be quite detrimental to a Human Being, which–should not–be news.  What is noteworthy–is that so-called ‘doctors’ have not ascertained this after all of the returning troop’s injured during and coming from, numerous conflict’s around the globe.

Or, found that the ‘homicide-bomber’ detonation’s that have happened for decades, have been affecting individual’s internally, besides the injuries from the shrapnel or other such pieces of the bomb itself, or whatever the bomb was in–such as a car or truck.

I do not believe I would “Cancel Christmas” voluntarily, but the “id” may have something else in store for me overall.  And from what I have seen–personally–and read for decades, there has been a concentrated effort by certain agencies to suppress information pertaining to the obvious and logical.

But then again–some have to be told the obvious.  For example;

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Why (and How) to Turn Off Facebook’s Socialcam

Friends — I beg of you — TURN OFF SHARING for the Socialcam app on Facebook.

Socialcam is a feed of user-generated videos. Just by clicking on a Socialcam link in Facebook and accepting their app, every Socialcam video you watch from then on is shared to your Facebook friends automatically. The content is questionable, the titles of the videos are often salacious, and the images it posts in your timeline can be downright embarrassing.

Socialcam offers user-generated video and popular videos from other sites like YouTube. The videos that appear in your Facebook feed are not from a media company vetting the videos, editing them, or (at the very least) showing some scruples about titling the offerings correctly.

Many of the videos are what the industry refers to as click-bait or link-bait: outrageously titled pieces that don’t exactly deliver what the titles imply. To capture users’ interest, the videos are titled in a seriously provocative manner, like: “Officer vs. Gangsta Thug in Brawl,” “How to Steal 23 MacBook Pros, 14 iPhones, and 9 iPods In 31 Seconds,” and “Toyota Supra Drifting Unbuttons A Girl’s Shirt.”

I’ve also seen in my Facebook newsfeed that friends have watched videos with thumbnails of an overweight man shooting a pistol, a very unattractive photo of a woman’s posterior, and a lot of cleavage. The CEO of Socialcam,Michael Siebel says they do not allow pornography or excessively violent videos into the app, and in fact many of the titles that suggest these themes lead to videos that (thankfully) don’t deliver on their billing. But the titles and icons associated with the videos are what your friends see on Facebook, and they do more damage to your reputation than the videos themselves.

I am a huge fan of social sharing; seeing what friends read on the WaPo social reader is interesting, what they listen to on Spotify is great for new music discovery, and (full disclosure) as a content creator for Yahoo! I love that a good story can catch fire with social sharing and get even more exposure.

But not only do the videos on Socialcam seem to lack any professional standards, users are too often unaware that their potentially embarrassing views are being shared. According to my Facebook newsfeed, a coworker has watched a video titled “Stupid Guy Hits Girlfriend.” A professional I do business with has watched a video about a girl going topless, and a relative has watched a video of a man supposedly being eaten by a snake. Even the CEO Siebel says “We are working to make users more aware of what they are sharing and of the tools available to control sharing.”

So please, turn off social for Socialcam or choose what you share. Here’s how:

Go to Facebook and on the left hand column under apps double-click Socialcam

Once in the Socialcam app itself, in the upper right hand corner, choose Settings.

Then in Settings, scroll down to “Auto Sharing” and unclick both the Facebook options. Scroll down again and hit SAVE.

One thing that troubled me about this app was that when I turned off public sharing in Socialcam on my computer but then watched a video on my mobile device, the settings reverted to make all my activity public. I turned the settings back to private, then tested it by watching another video on a different computer in a new browser. Socialcam again turned my settings back to public sharing. I posted to my social feeds on Twitter and Google+ to ask if anyone else had this problem and some users reported the same experience. Also, every time I opened the settings for Socialcam, it reverted my settings back to public.

My workaround: go the app section of Facebook , choose settings for Socialcam and where is asks “who can see this activity” choose “Only Me”

Socialcam,CEO, Michael Siebel, says these were bugs and they fixed some of these features just yesterday (May 15, 2012), and he told me that they are tweaking the privacy settings and that many of these “bugs” are in flux.

Seibel also points out that many other social video and media sites have privacy settings that are more aggressive than Socialcam’s, but that their site has become so popular in the last month that it’s under the most scrutiny. And users would be very wise to give other video sharing sites like Chill or Viddy serious scrutiny when used.

But as I see it, the problem with Socialcam comes from their strategy. In an interview on Bloomberg News, CEO Siebel indicated that the company’s strategy has been to attract users with popular videos and then transition them to using Socialcam to share their own videos much in the way that Instagram did with photos. What worries me is that in their all-out land grab for users — basically the way in which they are attracting people — naïve users are being embarrassed and used at the same time.

I say watch whatever you want, but choose how you share that information — and pick apps that empower you to take control of your privacy, not those that are playing fast and loose with your reputation.

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And thus if the obvious were common knowledge pertaining to more vital matters–such as the care of the injured that endeavor to protect a nation from all foes, known and unknown to the public–another example would not be needed to point to…

But you know that I must.

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VA Eliminates Co-Payment

The Department of Veterans Affairs will no longer charge veterans a co-payment when they receive care in their homes from VA health professionals using video conferencing. This change will primarily benefit veterans with limited mobility, such as spinal cord injury patients. Whenever medically appropriate, VA will make the home the preferred place of care for veterans to ensure timely and convenient access to VA services. Home telehealth does not replace the need for nursing home care or for traditional noninstitutional care programs. However, it enhances the ability for many veterans to better understand and manage chronic diseases. For more information about telehealth, visit VA’s Telehealth webpage.

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Army May Tighten Tattoo, Grooming Regs

The U.S. Army is considering tightening its rules on hair, tattoos, and makeup. The pending changes include: (1) shorter sideburns; (2) Soldiers must be clean shaven on and off duty, even during leave; (3) women’s fingernail length will not exceed a quarter of an inch; (4) soldiers will not eat, drink, smoke, or talk on cellphones while walking; (5) Army Combat Uniforms will not be commercially pressed; (6) hair grooming standards will become more restrictive; (7) no visible body piercings will be allowed; (8) no dental ornamentation or gold teeth will be authorized, and (9) men will be authorized to carry a black umbrella with the Army Service Uniform. The pending changes are part of a comprehensive review of Army Regulation 670-1.

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Homosexuality is just “authorized”, but typical branch of service tattoo’s are not?  Hair is not an issue when your getting shot at constantly.  The prudent Warrior keeps their hair short–as a matter of survival, or if they have to wear a ‘Gas mask’ to ensure a good seal.

Although in certain cultures–being presentable even in death–was part of a Warriors, or ‘certain crime syndicates’, custom.  And some of these odd customs are still in place in certain cultures presently.  Even in the “stated of birthplace” of the current POTUS, Hawai’i (indigenous spelling), the tattoo is part of the celebration of ‘Manhood’–and the customary way the tattoo is imprinted there–is [serious] not for even the most hardy of those that chose to adorn their epidermic body part (your skin) with artwork/iconography/symbolism.

So if we can all get serious for a few moment’s, the following had better be addressed by someone–so I do not have to ‘come off the bench’.

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From our more serious friend’s here:

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If I should do something to myself, I may not be buried on ‘Holy Ground’ in the Christian custom because of the strict tenets regarding suicide.  Many do not believe in such tradition’s as serious as these.  Many are the same that often–without malice–yet negligently say that “I” should not take ‘thing’s’ so seriously.  That I should “lighten up.”

If you want ‘light’–turn on a flashlight or hire a clown or minstrel.  I have a community to protect if you less serious individual’s do not mind being uninformed about the many threat’s to your own freedom, human right’s, lawful right’s, and the simple right to breathe…

It would save ‘us’ a lot of time, as I attempt to deal with all that is noted above–without very much support–from those that are the most close to me, to whole institution’s that are mandated to do so, but do not.  As it is, those that are the most supportive, I have often never met–but have helped me cope–in ways that the ‘average’ citizen can not even comprehend.

But then…

That is just how “we” roll… 

“Those that would die for you–salute you...”

In Deo Speramus

Non Timebo Mala…

In the meantime,

watch your six.

Universal Soldier

†

P.S. Do not despise Veterans just because each would sacrifice themselves for ‘you’.

 

Father God, let us treasure and follow Your words.