Archive for Military
Author: Dave Lewis
May 14, 2008 at 7:41 am · Filed under Military, Wireless
This strikes me as a troubling story.
From RFID News:
Axcess International has announced its Micro-Wireless RFID system will be used by the U.S. military to enable automatic inventory accounting and perimeter security for ordnance assets. Using the Axcess’ Dot tag design, the system uses ultra-small, low cost RFID transmitters assigned to each asset, enabling automatic tracking and automatic security monitoring.
Maybe I’m being paranoid but, I’ve seen enough presentations by Adam Laurie to have earned my paranoia.
Then I read this passage,
Any unauthorized movement of an armament outside the storage area automatically triggers an alert, but the handling of armaments can be linked to authorized service personnel via an RFID personnel badge
But, what of a cloned RFID tag? And what of the DHS report that slammed RFID?
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Author: Dave Lewis
February 28, 2008 at 12:42 pm · Filed under Military
Just in, CNN The Drudge Report has disclosed that Prince Harry has been deployed in Afghanistan since December. So much for operational security.
From CNN:
The UK’s Prince Harry is in Afghanistan and has seen combat, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed Wednesday.
He was deployed 10 weeks ago and his fellow soldiers were sworn to secrecy. The prince’s status is currently being reviewed, the Defense Ministry said.
Harry is third in line to the British throne.
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Tags: Prince Harry, Prince Harry In Afghanistan, Prince Harry Deployment
Author: Dave Lewis
February 13, 2008 at 8:55 am · Filed under Hacker, Military, SCADA Security
Uncle Sam, namely the Air Force, is looking for a few good hackers to flush out the ranks of their “Cyber Command”. Just as a side note, I would like nothing better than to slap the crap out of whoever decided that “cyber” was the buzzword to denote anything computer/internet based.
Anywhoo…
From Wired:
“We have to change the way we think about warriors of the future,” Lord enthuses, raising his jaw while a B-52 traces the sky outside his windows. “So if they can’t run three miles with a pack on their backs but they can shut down a SCADA system, we need to have a culture where they fit in.”
But before Lord and his geek warriors can settle in for the wars of the future, the general has to survive a battle of a decidedly different nature: a political and cultural tug of war over where the Cyber Command will set up its permanent headquarters. And that, for Lord and the Air Force, is where things get trickier than a Chinese Trojan horse.
With billions of dollars in contracts and millions in local spending on the line, 15 military towns from Hampton, Virginia, to Yuba City, California, are vying to win the Cyber Command, throwing in offers of land, academic and research tie-ins, and, in one case, an $11 million building with a moat. At a time when Cold War-era commands laden with aging aircraft are shriveling, the nascent Cyber Command is universally seen as a future-proof bet for expansion, in an era etched with portents of cyberwar.
Interesting. I wonder how many hackers would actually answer the call. Bearing in mind the vast majority (of ones I know at least) are not overly well disposed towards authority.
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Tags: Uncle Sam Wants You, Air Force Recruiting, Hackers
Author: Dave Lewis
February 11, 2008 at 9:05 am · Filed under Military, Physical Security, Politics
I firmly believe that every Monday needs a little bit of levity. It turns out that the cowardly men of the ruling junta in Burma have issued a compete ban on the latest Rambo flick. Why? They fear the Rambo.
From Bangkok Post:
In the movie, ageing war veteran John Rambo, played by Stallone, ventures into Burma to rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by a ruthless local infantry unit.
“Rambo acted very cruelly, but his cruelty is nothing compared to that of the military junta,” a Burmese student in Thailand was quoted by Reuters.
In Rangoon, local people said Burmese have gone crazy over lines from the film such as
* When you’re pushed, killing’s as easy as breathing.
* Burma’s a warzone.
* Rambo: Are you bringing in any weapons?
Aid worker: Of course not.
Rambo: You’re not changin’ anything.
The tagline of the blood and guts movie is: “Live for nothing, die for something.”
Stallone’s movie specifically focuses on the Karen near the Thai border. The Karen and other groups have suffered half a million cases of forced relocation and thousands more have been imprisoned, tortured or killed by the military dictators.
Stallone would enjoy an opportunity to meet face to face with the military leaders. Trust me, that’s a meeting we’d all enjoy especially if he’s in character.
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Tags: Rambo, Burma Fears Rambo, Sylvester Stallone
Author: Dave Lewis
January 17, 2008 at 12:35 pm · Filed under Military, Politics
OK, that’s enough of that. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is setting a world record in the 1600m back pedal race today. He needs to work off all those calories after jamming his foot in his mouth.
From CBC:
Gates held a news conference a day after his interview with the Los Angeles Times caused an uproar among NATO countries fighting in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials said they held the news conference earlier in the day to meet European news deadlines.
Gates is quoted as saying NATO forces in southern Afghanistan do not know how to properly combat a guerrilla insurgency, and that could be contributing to rising violence in the country.
Speaking Thursday at the Pentagon, Gates said his criticism was aimed at the entire alliance, including the United States.
Where is your brain Gates? There have been 3926 US soldiers killed in Iraq (at last count) and Canada has suffered 78 casualties in Afghanistan to say nothing of the casualties that were suffered by other countries. It is extremely disappointing to hear Gates shooting his mouth off about what a bad job they are doing when you read numbers like that. Each one of those fallen men and women were someone’s kid, someone’s parent, a brother, a sister. It is a sign of disrespect that he would deride their efforts. Whether you agree with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is immaterial to this point. If there is a lack of training on the part of the soldiers you don’t air it in a public forum such as the media. You fix it. These fallen soldiers deserve better than that. More importantly, so do the living.
When asked if he made any phone calls to soothe potential ruffled feathers, Gates said he had “reached out to” Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
“They had suffered a loss the day before and I wanted to make sure they understood we have respect for their contribution and how much of an effect they are having,” he said.
Too late Bob. Since seppuku is not in vogue at the moment, I would ask that you provide a written apology.
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Tags: Robert Gates, Canadian Forces, US Military
Author: Dave Lewis
January 7, 2008 at 10:19 am · Filed under Military
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is up to their same old tricks again apparently. Over the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz the geniuses decided to play a game of chicken with the US Navy.
Not Smart.
From CNN:
The five Iranian ships made “threatening” moves — in one case coming within 200 yards of a U.S. ship, the U.S. officials said.
In one radio transmission, the Iranians told the U.S. Navy: “I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes,” the U.S. military officials told CNN.
It’s morons like these that give Iran a bad name on the world stage. The US were about to open fire when the RG boats turned away.
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Tags: Iran, US Navy, Revolutionary Guard, Naval Conflict
Author: Dave Lewis
December 4, 2007 at 2:06 pm · Filed under Military, Physical Security
Interesting. The Washington Post is reporting today that Wikileaks has published another SOP manual from Gitmo.
From the Washington Post:
The manual discusses the facility’s “behavior management plan” for the first two weeks after a detainee’s arrival, when he has no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross or a chaplain: “The purpose of the Behavior Management Plan is to enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process,” the manual says. “It concentrates on isolating the detainee and fostering dependence of the detainee on his interrogator.”
Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, a Guantanamo spokesman, said officials received a copy of the manual yesterday and are trying to authenticate it. Wikileaks also published a copy of the 2003 Guantanamo manual last month. Haupt said the manuals are constantly updated and that “things have changed dramatically” in the years since.
Marked “for official use only,” the manual is not meant for public release but contains little if any sensitive information.
Very interesting reading. There was also reportedly a rendition manual on the site but, as of this writing that page was down.
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Tags: Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, Wikileaks, Gitmo SOP, Rendition
Author: Dave Lewis
November 14, 2007 at 10:10 pm · Filed under Military, Physical Security
From Wired:
A never-before-seen military manual detailing the day-to-day operations of the U.S. military’s Guantánamo Bay detention facility has been leaked to the web, affording a rare inside glimpse into the institution where the United States has imprisoned hundreds of suspected terrorists since 2002.
The 238-page document, “Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures,” is dated March 28, 2003. It is unclassified, but designated “For Official Use Only.” It hit the web last Wednesday on Wikileaks.org.
The disclosure highlights the internet’s usefulness to whistle-blowers in anonymously propagating documents the government and others would rather conceal. The Pentagon has been resisting — since October 2003 — a Freedom of Information Act request from the American Civil Liberties Union seeking the very same document.
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Download Gitmo Document
Tags: Gitmo Manual, Sensitive Information
Author: Dave Lewis
October 26, 2007 at 1:03 pm · Filed under Military, Physical Security
From the Los Angeles Times:
Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her department’s oversight of private security contractors, new evidence surfaced Thursday that the U.S. sought to conceal details of Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians more than two years ago.
In one instance, internal e-mails show that State Department officials tried to deflect a 2005 Los Angeles Times inquiry into an alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian by Blackwater guards.
“Give [the Los Angeles Times] what we can and then dump the rest on Blackwater,” one State Department official wrote to another in the e-mails, which were obtained by ABC News. “We can’t win this one.”
One department official taking part in a chain of e-mails noted that the “findings of the investigation are to remain off-limits to the reporter.” Another recommended that there be no mention of the existence of a criminal investigation since such a reference would “raise questions and issues.”
Read on.
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Tags: BlackWater, Mercenaries, BlackWater Inquiry
Author: Dave Lewis
October 15, 2007 at 3:22 pm · Filed under Military
One of the dogs of war has drifted of this mortal coil. Bob Denard was a mercenary by trade. He profited on the misery of war torn parts of Africa for the better part of 40 years. He is probably best known for the overthrow of the sitting government in Comoros in 1995.
From France 24:
Denard, whose colourful and sometimes violent career as a mercenary in the Indian Ocean islands stretched back to 1975, was one of several European “Dogs of War” to play a major role in a series of African wars during the 1960s and 1970s.
In documents filed for the Comoros case, investigating magistrate Baudoin Thouvenot said he believed Denard had initiated the coup but that the French secret services, worried by the authoritarian stance of the Comoran authorities, had probably known about it and turned a blind eye.
Denard served in France’s marines and the French colonial police in Morocco before a high-profile career as a mercenary during which he led ruthless, often ill-disciplined bands of European ex-soldiers, sometimes dubbed “Les affreux” (”the terrible ones”) in wars in Yemen, Biafra and Congo.
Read on for the rest of the obit.
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Tags: Bob Denard, Dogs or War, Mercenaries, Killer For Hire
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