Geosystems Situational Awareness Mast (aka Zippermast) from Travis on Vimeo.

     I Just finished watching part 2 and ordered it through Netflix.  These two documentaries are awesome, and Mr. Baer did a great job in peeling back the layers of this horrific tactic.  If you want to see into the mind of these folks, and get a feel for the why and how, then check this out.  -Matt

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The Cult of the Suicide Bomber 1 

The Cult of the Suicide Bomber 2 (2008) 

Editorial Reviews

About the Actor

Robert Baer spent twenty years running agents from inside the CIA s Directorate of Operations, operating against Hizballah, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations, and was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East (Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker). His memoir See No Evil was a New York Times bestseller and inspired the movie Syriana, starring George Clooney.

When Baer left the agency in 1997 he received the Career Intelligence Medal, with a citation that says, He repeatedly put himself in personal danger, working the hardest targets, in service to his country.

–Robert Baer [was] one of the most talented Middle East case officers of the past twenty years. (Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Atlantic Monthly)

Product Description

On 18 April 1983 a truck drove into the entrance of the US embassy in downtown Beirut killing 63 people, including six CIA officers. Never before had the CIA lost so many officers in a single attack. In the weeks and months after the bombing top investigators from the CIA and FBI failed to solve the mystery of who was responsible. For Robert Baer, the CIA s top operative in the Middle East, it became a lifelong obsession.

His investigation and the answers he found became the Emmy Award-nominated motion picture, The Cult of the Suicide Bomber. In the first film Bob uncovered the history and evolution of suicide bombing as a weapon of radical Islam. Now in this vital new film he discovers how the phenomenon has spread to the West and changed the role of women in the Middle East, and crucially tells us how this threat can be defeated.

With shocking footage of actual suicide bombings and interviews with failed suicide bombers, The Cult of the Suicide Bomber is the most definitive documentary on suicide bombers ever produced.

Baer himself says: I almost look at the Cult of the Suicide Bomber films as a CIA briefing. In the CIA, we were taught to go to policy makers and tell them what we believe is the absolute truth. For me, the Cult films are the absolute truth.

   This guy is pretty interesting, and has definitely done some amazing things in the field of weapons delivery. But like most who walk the line between legal and illegal weapons delivery, you always face the potential of getting caught one day.  Viktor made things happen out there, but at what price to self and others?  But on the other hand, everyone has done business with the guy, because he could get things done in really crappy places.  The movie Lord of War staring Nicolas Cage was about his exploits, and there are plenty of stories, books, and articles about him.  And after he got caught in Thailand, the Economist wrote this recent article.  -Matt

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International man of mystery

Flying anything to anybody

Dec 18th 2008

From The Economist print edition

The rise and fall of Viktor Bout, arms-dealer extraordinaire, shows a darker side of globalisation

VIKTOR BOUT knew, long before his plane lifted off from Moscow, that they meant to snatch him. For years he had hunkered down in the Russian capital, making only rare forays abroad. Western spies, the United Nations and do-gooder activists were after him. They said that he had smashed arms embargoes and struck deals with a remarkable axis of ne’er-do-wells: supplying weapons and air-transport to the Taliban, abetting despots and revolutionaries in Africa and South America, aiding Hizbullah in Lebanon and Islamists in Somalia. He also found time to supply American forces in Iraq, perhaps al-Qaeda too, and maybe even Chechen rebels.

He denied all wrongdoing and, no doubt, thought his accusers irritating and hypocritical. But until the fuss died away he knew that he was safe only in Russia, from where extradition was impossible.

Yet Mr Bout, a puzzling, amoral and intelligent man, made a poor choice in March, leaving behind his wife and daughter and flying to Bangkok. As a consequence he may end up in New York as the star of a trial that would provoke echoes of cold-war spy games, further chilling relations between the West and Russia.

A shy and plump man, for years his only public image was a grainy, Soviet-era passport photo. That shows a dumpy, youngish face, with drooping eyes peering above a thick, triangular, moustache—the sort one might buy in a joke shop. He was probably born in what is now Tajikistan but, as with the picture, details of his life are fuzzy. American prosecutors say that he uses at least half a dozen passports and more aliases, including “Butt”, “Budd”, “Boris”, “Bulakin” and “Aminov”. A gifted linguist, he slips easily between as many languages as he has names.

    This is a nice little publication that gives a quick run down of positive (and some negative) uses of PMC’s over the years.  One of the conclusions made, that I really like, is the concept of applying quality control and clear objectives for these companies.  The author makes the point that if used correctly, PMC’s are certainly capable of producing excellent results (Executive Outcomes in Sierra Leone for example). If there is no clear oversight or clear objective for these companies, then that is when problems arise (like in Iraq or Afghanistan).

   To me, this conversation needs to continue to happen in this industry, of where we are and where we have come from, so we know best how to carry on into the future.  All of the companies and the clients that use us must become the ultimate learning organizations and continue to find a better way.  There is too much at stake in this war to not care about doing it right.  It is also the goal of Feral Jundi to present to the reading public that we in this industry do care, and with a lot of hard work and persistence, we can find a better way.

    The most important aspect of this conversation are the ideas that each side of the debate uses to support their views.  For to long, academia and media has hijacked these ideas with assumptions and half-truths, and the only way to stop that is to challenge those assumptions with solid facts to the contrary. To be silent and not challenge this ideas only allows these assumptions to become some kind of truth.

    And this site is not some propaganda machine (privately owned and operated by me, and not some company blog), that supports some ‘military industrial complex conspiracy’.  This site is about setting the record straight, and having a serious discussion about the use of this tool called the ‘private security contractor’ in today’s war. I have been critical of this industry and of the client here before on FJ, only with the goal of presenting ideas for fixing the problems and providing a better service for the client–not promoting the shutting down of the whole thing down.

   Identify the problems, identify the industry we want, and find the correct models and systems out there for contracting and oversight that will only help us to achieve that goal.  I think we are doing great at identifying the problems, but we still have a ways to go on figuring out what is ‘the industry we want’.  And I say ‘we’ meaning the state.  It’s not about what I want, or what the government wants, but what the state collectively wants and what they are comfortable with.  It does matter what the professor or the soccer mom or whomever thinks about this industry, and the more we can work to explain and justify what we are and what we can do for the people and the government in today’s war, the better it is for all. -Matt  

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Efficacy of Private Military Contractors in Peace Operations

By: Nicholas Pascucci 

Date: December 5, 2008

Summary: The Private Military Contracting field has experienced massive growth since the September 11th attacks. This essay explores how the contractors have been used in the past and how they can be used in peace- and nation-building operations in the future.

Introduction

In the years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Private Military and Security industries have grown remarkably, garnering contracts in hotspots and warzones around the world in support of the interests of both nation states and private companies. Private Military Companies can be found in over 50 countries, operating in an industry that makes over one hundred billion dollars annually.1 Their increased use has sparked much controversy, and revelations regarding both the successes and failures of the industry raise questions about its role in moderating conflict worldwide. In an industry whose primary focus is providing military-related services in failed states and conflict areas, understanding the effects of their activities and presence in those areas is essential to being able to utilize them effectively in creating peace.

 ”The extremist al Shabaab Islamist group is best placed to take control of Mogadishu, but this is not a foregone conclusion,” said David Shinn, a U.S. expert on the Horn of Africa at George Washington University.

While al Shabaab have spearheaded attacks this year to become the face of the insurgency, they lack popular support, and do not have enough fighters to rule on their own without alliances with Islamist movements, analysts say.

Al Shabaab’s hardline ways — such as strict imposition of sharia law, banning drinking or films, and the beheading of several suspected government collaborators — sit uncomfortably with many among Somalia’s traditionally moderate Muslims.

   Both of these articles point to the same reality.  Islamists will be ruling Somalia.  The question is what kind of Islamists will be ruling Somalia and will they work with the west and put a check on the things we worry about?  Namely harboring terrorists and allowing piracy.  Al Shabaab is way to extremist for Somalis, and once they have taken control and there is no one else to fight, how will the Somalis view their form of Sharia Law? 

   Strategically, I think that is the idea.  Let them take the city, and then diplomatically we support the moderate factions who would be better to negotiate with in the future and better for the people of Somalia.  The support should not be overt though, because anything the west touches, will disgust the local populations.  

     And get the Ethiopians out of there, because those forces are infuriating the local populations and driving support to Al Shabaab.  When the dust settles, we must find a competitor to Al Shabaab who is willing to work with the west and the rest of the world, and who also can win the support of the people.  Good luck with that one though, and that is the challenge.  A good first step towards that goal though is to reshuffle the deck, and watch what happens when Ethiopia leaves, the President resigns and more than likely Al Shabaab takes over.

     -Matt 

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Somalia: Fresh turmoil, uncertainty as president resigns

Date: 29 Dec 2008

NAIROBI, 29 December 2008 (IRIN) - Fresh turmoil and uncertainty loom for the people of Somalia - already ravaged by displacement, conflict, drought and hyper-inflation - after the country’s interim president resigned on 29 December.

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned after disagreements with parliament and his prime minister, as well as pressure from the international community.

 Yet many within the tightly knit Special Forces community say the Special Forces teams already in use in Afghanistan should be employed far more effectively before any new teams, which number about a dozen men each, are deployed.

“I just don’t think it’s a very good use of the units if they are not going to be doing combat advising in an effective way,” says one Special Forces officer with recent experience in Afghanistan. “I don’t know any Special Forces who think that’s really what we need over there.” 

     It sounds like the SF community is a little skeptical to say the least about how they will be used.  Hopefully Petraeus and company will listen to these guys as to the best way to use them.  That is how a ‘learning organization’ must operate, and the SF community would have a pretty good idea on how they could be most effective out there.

   On a side note, if we do see a SF surge along with a general troop surge, then aviation services are going to be big.  I am talking helicopters, transport aircraft, and paracargo operations to supply these outposts.  So companies like Presidential Airways or Dyncorp will certainly be doing more business.  I think we will also see a focus on bringing in more STOL type aircraft as well, because of how much cheaper they are to operate. -Matt

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A surge of Special Forces for Afghanistan likely

Defense officials say it will fill urgent gaps but Special Forces officers are skeptical.

By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

December 23, 2008 

Washington - The Pentagon is likely to send up to 20 Special Forces teams to Afghanistan this spring, part of a new long-term strategy to boost the Afghan security forces’ ability to counter the insurgency there themselves.

The “surge” of elite Special Forces units would represent a multiyear effort aimed at strengthening the Afghan National Army and police units that the US sees as key to building up Afghanistan’s security independence, say defense officials who asked to remain anonymous because the controversial decision has not yet been announced. The US already plans to send thousands of additional conventional forces to Afghanistan sometime next year. But it is hamstrung by limited availability since so many of those forces are still in Iraq.

   Awesome.  If it works out for him, and they catch some bad guys, then I am all for it. - Matt 

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TV show latest offbeat tactic for Arizona sheriff

By TERRY TANG 

PHOENIX (AP) — In Arizona, seeing Joe Arpaio on TV is nothing new. But the self-described “America’s toughest sheriff” now has a national platform to pursue lawbreakers that stretches beyond the 5 o’clock news.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the state’s most populous county, has a starring role in “Smile … You’re Under Arrest!,” a new reality show debuting Saturday on Fox Reality Channel.

A cross between “Punk’d” and “Cops,” the program sets up elaborate sting operations to snare people wanted on outstanding warrants. Actors and undercover deputies play along in faux scenarios where scofflaws are enticed to have a good time; the drama comes when cast members reveal the prank and waiting deputies slap on handcuffs.

   This latest conflict in Israel has highlighted an interesting weapon.  Enter the 122 mm Grad Missile, or the 9K132 Grad-P rocket.  Why is this different from the Kassam rockets and other homemade stuff?  The range and lethality.  It can go 20 plus kilometers and it is a factory made rocket.  That means more Israeli deaths, and someone outside of the country is getting these things in.  It could be Hezbollah, Syria, Iran (their Arash rocket-see article below), Egypt, Russia… Who knows? But they have them, and they are using them.  The most recent attacks were Grad rockets, and these longer range rockets were probably the tipping point(as well as just launching a massive amount of homemade missiles) for the recent activity.  Just check out how many attacks have increased over the years.-Matt 

Edit: According to news sources, these are Chinese made Grad rockets. 

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9K132 “Grad-P”(Wikipedia)

Single-round man-portable launcher, which can be reloaded and used again. The rocket itself is a 122mm fin-stabilized rocket, armed with any of the warheads used on BM-21 rockets. The weapon is not often used by the Russian military, but is popular with paramilitary and guerrilla force.

Egypt(Wikipedia)

The Egyptians domestically manufacture the rockets “Sakr-36″ and “Sakr-18″ with a respective range of 36 and 18 km. Rather than a standard HE-Frag round, the Egyptian military prefers a 23 kilogram cluster munition, which can be extremely effective against lightly armored equipment and troop concentrations. Both rockets, as well as the original Soviet models of course, are fired by locally manufactured rocket launchers like the RL-21 (copy of BM-11) and RC-21 (copy of BM-21, similar to the Hadid HM20). The Helwan Machine Tools Company also produces portable systems with one, three, four and eight launch tubes.

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The discovery of BM-21 components indicates that the Palestinians can now buy, or build, more accurate, and longer ranged, rockets. The 150 pound, 122mm Russian designed BM-21 rocket is nine feet long and has a range of 20 kilometers and a 45 pound warhead. Developed in the late 1930s, the 122mm rocket is normally fired in large numbers from many launchers at spread-out targets.That’s because the rockets are unguided. Aim lots of them at a target and you’ll hit something. Aim a few of them at something, and you usually won’t, But the rockets are made by many countries, are relatively easy to get, and favored by terrorists for attacks that terrorize, rather than actually do any damage.

   This website is great.  It even covers the tunnel situation that I talked about yesterday.  I think what struck me with this site, is the increase of rocket and mortar attacks over the years and the increasing range of these weapons.  They talk about every incident, and the quality and type of weapon.  

   The other thing that was interesting to me, was the smuggling techniques used by Hamas and others.  When we hear of breaches along the Egyptian border in Gaza, you usually see crowds protesting and overwhelming these checkpoints.  These periods of disruption at the border are prime opportunities to smuggle weapons, and the cover of this chaos is used to great effect.  So this latest border chaos after the Israeli strikes, could have produced some more opportunities like this. -Matt

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An objective analysis of Palestinian terrorism is essential for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. WeaponSurvey offers readers a detailed presentation of Palestinian military capabilities by meticulously cataloging, analyzing and archiving relevant data, including:

     50 kilometers of tunnels?  Boy, that is an interesting factor for the ground campaign for Israel.  Obviously Hamas has been studying tunnels and preparing the battlefield.  And like what this great little article talks about, Hamas has learned what they can from Hezbollah and their experiences and they are ready to go. 

   But back to tunnels.  When I think tunnels and warfare, I think of the Cu Chi tunnel complex used during the Vietnam War.  Sure there are other famous uses of tunnels in warfare, but the Vietnamese were pretty crafty in this department.  Hamas has used their tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza, to cross borders to infiltrate martyrdom teams, and set up rocket launching sites that are connected by tunnels for safe launching and easy escape.  Of course the launch sites would be set up in civilian areas, to maximize civilian casualties for the retaliatory attacks that would soon follow.

   Another use for these tunnels will be for urban warfare.  It is quite a thing to fight an enemy that knows how to effectively use tunnels.  If the things are deep enough, none of these air strikes will touch them.  Hamas can also plant IED’s via tunnels, so they can take out tanks and other vehicles.  I also imagine that much of their munitions are deep underground as well.  And like the Vietnamese, Hamas makes their own munitions as well.  If they have the ability to launch 200 rockets a day, that means they have a very accelerated and advanced manufacturing and smuggling operation going on.

    So what does this mean for the Israelis?  Time to break out the flashlights, pistols, and the camera robots, and get underground to clear these things.  That’s if they can find all of these tunnels.  It will take careful searches to find these things, and rear security could be an issue.  Perhaps ground penetrating radar will be used, and I am sure tunnels will be just one of the multitude of concerns that the Israelis will have for the ground invasion.  -Matt

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Mai Chi Tho, a political commissar stationed in Cu Chi describes the region as a “springboard for attacking Saigon.” He goes on to say: “We used the area for infiltrating Saigon-intelligence agents, part cadres, sabotage teams. The Tet Offensive of 1968 was prepared and the necessary troops and supplies assembled in the Cu Chi tunnels.” By 1965, there were over 200 kilometers of connected tunnel. 

Analysis: The Hamas army

Dec. 27, 2008

Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Hamas, once known for its suicide attacks inside Israeli cities, is no longer a small-time terrorist group, but a large guerrilla army that has well-trained forces deployed throughout the entire Gaza Strip.

Were the IDF to embark on a ground operation in Gaza, it would face an army of close to 20,000 armed men, among them at least 15,000 Hamas operatives. The rest are from Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committees.