Closing Thought–28Jan19

What the Hell is DIA?

30 years ago very few Americans had evn heard of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)….it was ultra secret and a bit shadowy…but recently the former head of DIA has made the news and a DIA contractor has been killed in Syria….so once again…what the Hell is the DIA?

DIA, provides military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers and force planners in the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, in support of U.S. military planning and operations and weapon systems acquisition. We plan, manage, and execute intelligence operations during peacetime, crisis, and war.

Our diverse workforce is skilled in military history and doctrine, economics, physics, chemistry, world history, political science, bio-sciences, and computer sciences to name a few. We travel the world, and meet and work closely with professionals from foreign countries.

To this day few people know exactly what the DIA does…it came to be a thing when Obama fired the head of the DIA, Flynn…..but functions are still in the shadowy world of intelligence.

This is a new day and a new transparency…..

…the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr., gave a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed the DIA’s core mission. Ashley noted that the DIA is charged with producing foundational military intelligence for consumption by warfighters and senior leaders to avoid surprise and prevent or decisively win wars.

As a DIA veteran, however, I’ve always worried that descriptions of the agency’s core mission have typically been overly broad and never been quite so clear cut. Ambiguity over the DIA’s responsibilities prompted Congress to probe more deeply into the specifics of how the agency is charged with supporting U.S. national security and defense objectives. Specifically, Section 2432 of the latest proposed Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 seeks “to prevent imbalanced priorities, insufficient or misaligned resources, and the unauthorized expansion of mission parameters” of the DIA. It further calls for “a repeatable process for evaluating the addition, transfer, or elimination of defense intelligence missions, roles, and functions, currently performed or to be performed in the future by the Defense Intelligence Agency.” Thus, a clearer explanation of what the DIA does and, more importantly, what it is supposed to be doing is in order, and I try to provide that here.

https://warontherocks.com/2019/01/explaining-the-dias-critical-role-in-national-security/

Just another cog in our National Security…..

Hopefully I help my reader understand the function and the necessity of this “agency” within our intel community.

An Education Of A President, Et Al

I make NO mistake that I do not think that this president has any idea what he is doing when it comes to the proper use of the intel gathered by our agencies…..now to be fair I do not know if he is just lazy and ignorant or he truly believe some of the spineless crap he is doing and saying…..

But as usual the old professor is here to help (even if it is for someone that I do not support in any way shape or form)…..there is now a short paper on the use of intel for policymakers……

It’s 9:00 pm somewhere in the trenches of the national security bureaucracy. You are a mid-level policymaker and are scrambling to prepare for the big National Security Council meeting in the morning, when principals will debate and decide the U.S. course of action for the crisis du jour. You need to write a ‘read-ahead’ paper and be able to convincingly brief your principal and maybe even the National Security Council on the state of play in the conflict, policy options based on that analysis, pros and cons of each option, and to ultimately make a recommendation. You, however, have not been reading your intelligence — and you do not even know where to start.

Sure, your intentions were good. But the time-sucking reality of recurring crises, endless paper churn, non-stop meetings, and ensuring you are invited to said meetings (with the correct location and a speaking role) overwhelmed you. You have cancelled more morning briefs than you have held. Piles of unopened daily intelligence readbooks spill out of your safe. You can barely remember the names of the analysts supporting you, let alone how to contact them (they went home for the night hours ago, FYSA). You’ve skated by through weeks of interagency meetings with your three trusty talking points, but now, when the analytic rubber hits the policy road, you realize you do not sufficiently understand the issues at play, nor what options the United States could or should pursue to address them. You, my mid-level policymaking friend, lack intelligence.

https://warontherocks.com/2018/11/intelligence-and-you-a-guide-for-policymakers/

This should be required reading if you are a policymaker……someone has got to step up and insert some sanity back into the policies that this country is embracing…..and at the same time dragging it into the pit.

I will be sending it to my representatives….not that it would do much good…..but at least they cannot claim ignorance as they often do.

Right?

Slow Down! Big Brother Is Watching!

Weary of the news…then maybe I can help you out…..

I love weekends….I use to go for a drive on weekends….take off and drive until you feel a stop is needed. My usual stopping point was when I saw a diner or eatery or a pub….

As usual we were out for a drive and one of those signs came into view….you know the ones….the ones that tell you how fast you are going…..and you then adjust your gas peddle to come into the legal limit…..you do know the ones I mean, right?

In these days when you are under the magnifying glass from everyone…..I mean we are spied upon constantly…our buying trends, our travel trends, etc etc etc…….

I dined in some cool places….Do Drop Inn, the Coffee Pot, Hot Coffee’s (name of a town on the back roads) Greet and Eat and a spot called “the Pour house”…..just to mention a few.

But back to those speed limit signs… what do those “speed limit” signs have to do with domestic spying?

If you’ve been a driver in the United States for any length of time, you have most likely passed at least one of those interactive road signs that show you how fast you’re driving. It turns out, those signs may be doing more than you think they are.

You can now add digital speed signs to the list of known automated license plate readers (ALPRs). According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ALPRs can be found on “street poles, street lights, highway overpasses, mobile trailers, or attached to police squad cars.”

Thanks to a special notice released in August, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will be using RU2 Systems trailer-mounted speed displays “retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms.” RU2 Systems Inc. is a private Mesa, Arizona company.

https://theantimedia.com/signs-driving-spying/

They are watching you!

Are you paranoid yet?

May you weekend begin with some joy and end with a little adventure…..chuq

Is That A Mosquito? Or Maybe A Drone?

It is still Sunday……

A few years back I watched an episode of “Elementary” about a murder committed by drone…..and Sherlock was spied on by a drone the size of a mosquito……an excellent show but what are the chances that the drones will get that small?

I had to go to Google…..will drones get that small and could they be used against our own population for whatever reason?

The DARPA Robotics Challenge was a showcase for how very large, very expensive robots could potentially be useful in disaster recovery and high-risk environments. Humanoids are particularly capable in some very specific situations, but the rest of the time, they’re probably overkill, and using smaller, cheaper, more specialized robots is much more efficient. This is especially true when you’re concerned with data collection as opposed to manipulation—for the “search” part of “search and rescue,” for example, you’re better off with lots of very small robots covering as much ground as possible.

Yesterday, DARPA announced a new program called SHRIMP: SHort-Range Independent Microrobotic Platforms. The goal is “to develop and demonstrate multi-functional micro-to-milli robotic platforms for use in natural and critical disaster scenarios.” To enable robots that are both tiny and useful, SHRIMP will support fundamental research in the component parts that are the most difficult to engineer, including actuators, mobility systems, and power storage.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/darpa-wants-your-insect-scale-robots-for-a-micro-olympics

There is much more on this situation….it will start with the military and move to the private sector….where would this stop?

Closing Thought–22Jun18

I was watching an episode of “Elementary” about a murder committed by a drone….there was even these nano drones that were used to spy on Holmes….as small as a mosquito…..made me think that drones are getting smaller but how small?

FLIR Systems Inc. will supply the Army with its next-generation nano drone, the company recently announced.

A $2.6 million order has been made for the first shipment of the Black Hornet 3 as part of the Soldier Borne Sensor program.

The drone took seven years to develop, Ole Aguirre, FLIR director of unmanned aerial systems strategy and government affairs, said June 7 in an interview.

The system weighs only 32 grams, and can fly at speeds up to 21 kilometers per hour for up to 2 kilometers, he said.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/6/11/army-to-acquire-new-nano-drones

Was this art imitating life?

So if you are outside and hear a mosquito in your ear it might be Big Brother targeting you for some reason or another.

Time for me to start my weekend….going to live it up since I must go back to the hospital next week for yet another procedure…..

Once And Future Infowars

Well first the Infowars in this post has nothing to with the site from the uber-conspiracist, Alex Jones….or the tin foil hat crowd…..

We have seen how social media has played into our elections and the spread of crappy world views….some might even say “fake news”…..but the future of social media is in question….maybe not by everyone but some at least……

A new book covers this subject……..

Violence, like Twitter, is a means of communication. If we do not understand it as such, its place in international relations makes no sense. As Thomas Schelling wrote in 1966: “The power to hurt is bargaining power. To exploit it is diplomacy — vicious diplomacy, but diplomacy.” Thinkers such as Joseph Nye and John Arquilla have argued that future wars will be determined by “whose story wins” more than who wins on the battlefield. Any analysis of narratives affecting war, however, must explain how violence itself shapes and destroys narratives. Violence may be a terrible way of communicating, but it will always be the ultimate way for states to signal their intentions and capabilities when discourse fails.

Journalist David Patrikarakos’ War in 140 Characters is an extremely rewarding, yet hopeless attempt to argue that new information technology — specifically, social media — has fundamentally “destabilized classic forms of war” and suggest that something new is upon us. According to Patrikarakos, social media is “one thing above all else: effect without cause.” As a result, it has given actors without any resources the ability to have an impact on what he calls the “narrative” and “discursive” levels of war, at which actors interpret the truth and political meaning of military action. Since the narrative and discursive levels of war have a greater impact on the political outcome of a war than military operations, effective tweeting can make battles irrelevant. And since non-state actors are better at tweeting than the West’s discredited institutions, they have gained an unprecedented advantage. The pernicious effects of battlefield social media thus threaten “the very idea that wars between state and non-state actors are asymmetric.”

https://warontherocks.com/2018/03/the-once-and-future-infowars/

It is up in the air on the future of social media….Facebook has called into question the security on these sites and points to ways they can be exploited.

Personally, I have never trusted any of them as far as I could spit them….my footprint on social media is very small to the point of being damn near none existent.

I have no confidence still and will continue to use them sparingly.

How About Facebook?

Ever sine I have been writing a blog (a total of 12 years) visitors would comment and send me a link to a Facebook post….I would thank them for the link but tell them that I was not on Facebook for I did not trust them to keep my info secure…

Looks like my fears were well founded…..

Facebook is reeling from a series of revelations about private user data being leaked to Cambridge Analytica, a shadowy political consulting firm that did work for the Donald Trump campaign.

Last Friday, reporters from The New York Times and The Observer of London told Facebook that Cambridge had retained copies of private data for about 50 million Facebook users. Facebook says Cambridge promised in 2015 that the data would be deleted. Facebook responded to the new revelations by banning Cambridge and several of its associates from Facebook.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/facebooks-cambridge-analytica-scandal-explained/

Recently I was told that this breech was no big deal….apparently the markets do not agree…..

Facebook shares fell nearly 7 percent Monday amid controversy over how Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by President Trump’s 2016 campaign, was able to harvest personal data from more than 50 million Facebook users.

The 6.8 percent drop lopped nearly $40 billion off Facebook’s market value.

Equity analysts with Raymond James said in a report to clients that “continued concerns over Russian targeting and data misuse are clearly weighing on the shares.”

Facebook says it initially gave out the data to a researcher who claimed it would be used only for academic purposes. Facebook claims the researcher then “lied to us” and passed the content onto Cambridge Analytica. That firm then used the data to build “psychographic profiles” about voters.

Investors are worried about the fallout for Facebook from prosecutors, regulators, and advertisers.

I realize that followers on Facebook add to the number of total followers for the blog….but my security is more important than the number of followers to feed my ego.

Security measures are important to all us bloggers only some of us are a bit sharper than others. I can state that none of my info was compromised by Facebook….can you?

Intel For Profit

I have written several posts about the privatization of war by using mercenaries…..corporations like Blackwater like to call themselves a security company but yet they supply mercenaries to fight in several countries…..soldiering for profit.

Nowadays they are also entering into the world of intel gathering taking up some of the slack of our intel agencies like NSA or CIA…….anytime there is a chance for profit I can foresee problems……

There has been an excellent look into this problem with a 3 part series on the privatization of our intel gathering……

Privatized and politicized intelligence is undermining the mission of providing unbiased information to both high-level decision makers and the American public,

Back in 1991, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the general consensus of the intelligence community was that America needed a strong Russia. Russians bore the weight of dismantling the Soviet Union and an internally strong and stable Russia was considered the biggest stable democratic government in the hemisphere.

A strong Russia provides stability throughout the region, it was understood. Without a strong and stable Russia, the massive Russian Federation would descend into small nationalist countries. Warring nations and instability would be the norm and not the exception.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/11/u-s-intelligence-crisis-poses-a-threat-to-the-world/

The other 2 parts of this series here…….

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/13/how-intel-for-hire-is-undermining-u-s-intelligence-part-2/

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/18/a-crisis-in-intelligence-unthinkable-consequences-of-outsourcing-u-s-intel-part-3/

I agree that this has the potential of being disastrous for our intel establishment…..the leaks in the past have been perpetrated by private contractors of our intel agencies.

The more independent people employed the better the chances of catastrophic damage can be done in turn making the country less safe……

Only A Fools Errand

There has been a lot in the news about the now famous or infamous depending on your beliefs and I would like to give my opinion…..

In my younger years I was a member of the US Army CIC counter intelligence……only an idiot would see this as a good thing.

It is about what a single individual wants and not anything about the FISA warrant process.

The saga over whether the White House will or won’t release “the memo” may be over on Friday. Multiple reports—including at Fox News, ABC News, and the Washington Post—say President Trump has read the document and is set to release it. The White House, however, has agreed to make some redactions at the request of the FBI, which strongly came out against the release on Wednesday. Fox describes them as “technical edits,” but it seems the gist of the memo—asserting that the FBI and Justice Department abused their authority in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation—would stay intact. The only big question, then, is when the public would be able to read the memo.

ABC lays out the steps: After the White House informs the House Intelligence Committee that it doesn’t object to the memo’s release, the panel would then enter it into the Congressional Record. That step can only take place when the House is in session, which ABC notes would be the case at 4:30pm Friday. Failing that, the House would again be in session on Monday. One last wrinkle: GOP Sen. John Thune on Thursday told reporters that the Senate Intelligence Committee must see the memo before it’s made public. “I think they have to take into consideration what the FBI is saying,” Thune said of House Republicans, referring to the agency’s concerns.

This situation will make the warrant process damn near impossible because our intel people will be afraid that anything they had to get the warrant would later come back as a political football……

Keep in mind that a FISA warrant is used to investigate and prevent a terrorist attack or protect the country from espionage…..so the next attack that could have been prevented and was not will be on the heads of these political pigs that had NO evidence of wrong doing did what they did to assist a single individual and not the country.

It will be released……

The White House on Friday declassified a partisan and bitterly disputed memo on the Russia investigation, clearing the way for House Republicans to release allegations of what they say is FBI misconduct, per the AP. The move came over the fierce objections of the FBI and Justice Department, which have said the document prepared by Republicans on the House intelligence committee is inaccurate and missing critical context. The memo alleges that the FBI abused US government surveillance powers in its investigation into Russian election interference. It wasn’t immediately clear when the House committee would release it.

Trump, who has called the investigation a “witch hunt,” has supported the release of the memo in the apparent hopes that it could help undermine the probe being led by special counsel Robert Mueller. The president, dogged by the unrelenting investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, lashed out anew Friday at the FBI and Justice Department as politically biased against Republicans. “The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!” Trump tweeted.

This is a fools errand that does NOTHING to protect this country from anything….tying the hands of our intel people……remember if there is an attack how we got there and who made it possible.

Trump has pissed up our process and he did it to save his ass….has nothing to do with protecting the country.

But hey…read the memo and try to work it out for yourself…..

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/02/full-text-nunes-memo-fbi-transcript-385057

Or you could spend the day believing those scheming toads on FOX…..

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: Intel Gathering