Archive for category Bounties

Bounties: US Offers $5 Million In Killing Of ICE Agent, Mexico Offers 10 Million Pesos

Mar 30

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Law Enforcement, Mexico | 2294No Comments2011-03-31+05%3A15%3A48Matt

The Mexican government offered up a reward of 10 million Pesos for this deal as well, and obviously the case is going cold and they need some information to catch these guys. Hopefully this bounty will do the trick. -Matt

U.S. offers $5 million in killing of ICE agent
Two ambushed along highway, likely by a Mexican drug cartel
By Jerry Seper
March 30, 2011
The Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security announced Wednesday a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Mexican gunmen who shot and killed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Jaime Zapata and wounded his partner, Victor Avila Jr. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bounties, Drug Cartels, ICE, Jaime Zapata, Mexico, reward, Victor Avila

Fish And Game: North Dakota Takes Aim With Bounty On Coyotes

Feb 9

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Fish and Game, North Dakota | 2010No Comments2011-02-09+18%3A35%3A11Matt

The number of complaints USDA Wildlife Services receives from livestock producers confirms the coyote abundance. According to Phil Mastrangelo, director of USDA Wildlife Services in North Dakota, coyote complaints increased from 374 in 2007 to 498 last year. He said Wildlife Services has nine wildlife-control experts across the state, and coyotes account for the bulk of their workload.

“These guys work a large area, a minimum of five counties apiece, and they’re stretched pretty thin,” he said.

I guess the Senate Bill for this was shot down. But the House Bill is still in play and I think something like this would be a fantastic idea.

First, lets look at the opponent’s view on this. Of course the North Dakota Game and Fish Department would be opposed to a bounty program because it would threaten their good deals. Meaning if a bounty program succeeds, then why fund inefficient programs in the NDGFD? I compare this to the TSA and their opposition to private industry taking over their airport screening services.(notice how the TSA shot private industry down as well) This is government versus private industry, or in this case, government versus private hunters.

But if you read the quote above, they are only using nine USDA government hunters to cover 5 counties apiece! How can they possible put a dent in the coyote population there? Let alone, if these guys are being paid by the feds, they are probably getting health care and everything else that government jobs entail. Or they could be contractor hunters–who knows? What I do know is that the state must scale up the hunting of this animal if it want’s to reduce it’s numbers, and it is not enough to just depend upon the whims of recreational hunters to do the job or nine government hunters.

I think a bounty program would work just fine, and it would be a way for the state to spread the work load and incentivize the process. It would also infuse money back into the local communities where jobs are scarce. Hell, if a hunter was able to bag three coyotes in a day, that would be 300 dollars. Not bad for a day’s work?

If you want professional hunters to really get involved with the eradication of these animals, you need to make killing coyotes a viable occupation for them. Hunters pay for their gun, bullets, a tank of gas, food, and maybe even lodging to go out and hunt recreationally. But there is no way a recreational hunter will be driven to expend this much time and treasure to continually do this, unless they have another profession or trust fund that can support this lifestyle. (and some do out there) Hell, I have to really plan and budget to make an effort to go out hunting once or twice a year.

But if you want to ramp up interest in the task, then it must be incentivized and there must be good rules and management of the process in order for it to be effective. The end result of such an effort will be the desired outcome. Hell, if commercialized hunting almost decimated the buffalo back in the wild west days, a coyote bounty system could equally be successful.

Or we can continue to depend upon an inefficient and undermanned government system to do the job–and meanwhile the coyote problem continues to rise and threaten livestock and deer populations. -Matt

North Dakota takes aim with bounty on coyotes

Feb. 09, 2011

By BRAD DOKKEN

Not a day goes by, Gerald Berthold says, when he doesn’t hear coyotes howling nearby on his farm west of Arvilla, N.D.

“You can be out in the evening, and you can hear them just about in every direction howling,” Berthold said.

Coyotes have killed at least two of his calves in recent years, Berthold said. And last summer, he said two calves simply disappeared from a pasture near Emerado, N.D.

Berthold can’t say for sure it was coyotes, but he has his suspicions.

“I don’t know where else they would have went,” he said. “They were too young to take off on their own. They were still nursing. They were month-old calves.”

Coyotes have become an increasingly hot topic in North Dakota in recent years. As the population grows, so, too, have the reports of coyotes causing problems. Berthold said the increase in coyote numbers has been especially apparent the past 10 to 15 years.

“They’re definitely on the increase,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Prompted largely by hunters who believe coyotes are hurting deer populations, a couple of bills have surfaced this winter in the North Dakota Legislature taking aim at reducing coyote numbers. House Bill 1454 and Senate Bill 2224 each would establish a $100 bounty on coyotes until 2,000 are taken.

Legislators haven’t yet acted on the bills.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bounties, buffalo, coyotes, Fish and Game, hunting, North Dakota, predators

Bounties: The Bounty Hunter’s Pursuit Of Justice

Jan 12

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Law Enforcement, Letter Of Marque | 19841 Comment2011-01-12+17%3A23%3A19Matt

Our research backs up what I found on the street: Bail bondsmen and bounty hunters get their charges to show up for trial, and they recapture them quickly when they do flee. Nationally, the failure-to-appear rate for defendants released on commercial bail is 28 percent lower than the rate for defendants released on their own recognizance, and 18 percent lower than the rate for those released on government bond.

Even more important, when a defendant does skip town, the bounty hunters are the ones who pursue justice with the greatest determination and energy. Defendants sought by bounty hunters are a whopping 50 percent less likely to be on the loose after one year than other bail jumpers.

The results of the Manhattan Bail Project seemed to support the position of progressives who argued that commercial bail was unnecessary. But all that the findings really demonstrated was that a few carefully selected felony defendants could be safely released on their own recognizance. In reality, the project allowed relatively few defendants to be let go and so could easily cherry pick those who were most likely to appear at trial. As pretrial release programs expanded in the late 1960s and early ’70s, failure-to-appear rates increased.

Today, when a defendant fails to appear, an arrest warrant is issued. But if the defendant was released on his own recognizance or on government bail, very little else happens. In many states and cities, the police are overwhelmed with outstanding arrest warrants. In California, about two million warrants have gone unserved. Many are for minor offenses, but hundreds of thousands are for felonies, including thousands of homicides.

Excellent little article, and I also posted the author’s paper in Scribd. What fascinates me about bounty hunting/commercial bail is that it is an incentivized system of fugitive recovery that works. It has all the elements needed to survive and flourish, all with the focus on capturing bad guys. This system also rewards those that are good at it.

To study this type of incentivized crime fighting helps me to envision the various types of incentivized war fighting that I have mentioned in the past–like privateering. Creating an industry out of destroying your enemies, or creating an industry out of capturing your criminals can be very effective.

The other part of this paper that I liked is how it showed through statistics why states or cities that do not allow bounty hunting/commercial bail are using systems that suck. That arrest warrants are piling up in these states and cities because they are too afraid of allowing private industry to take part in their justice systems. Meanwhile, the states and cities that do allow this type of activity are able to benefit in two ways. Keeping control of fugitives, or benefiting from the forfeiture of that fugitive’s bond. During a tough economy, this forfeiture could be funding all sorts of public services or schools. Interesting stuff and be sure to check out the paper too. -Matt

The Bounty Hunter’s Pursuit of Justice

by Alex Tabarrok

Winter 2011

When felony defendants jump bail, bounty hunters spring into action. It’s a uniquely American system, and it works.

Andrew Luster had it all: a multimillion-dollar trust fund, good looks, and a bachelor pad just off the beach in Mussel Shoals, California. Luster, the great-grandson of cosmetics legend Max Factor, spent his days surfing and his nights cruising the clubs. His life would have been sad but unremarkable if he had not had a fetish for sex with unconscious women. When one woman alleged rape, Luster claimed mutual consent, but the videotapes the police discovered when they searched his home told a different story. Eventually, more than 10 women came forward, and he was convicted of 20 counts of rape and sentenced to 124 years in prison. There was only one problem. Luster could not be found.

Shortly before he was expected to take the stand, Luster withdrew funds from his brokerage accounts, found a caretaker for his dog, and skipped town on a $1 million bail bond. The FBI put Luster on its most-wanted list, but months passed with no results. In the end, the authorities did not find him. But Luster was brought to justice—by a dog (or at least a man who goes by that name). Duane Chapman, star of the A&E reality TV show Dog: The Bounty Hunter, tracked Luster for months. He picked up clues to Luster’s whereabouts from old phone bills and from Luster’s mother, who inadvertently revealed that her son spoke fluent Spanish. He also gleaned useful information from a mysterious Mr. X who taunted him by e-mail and who may have been Luster himself. Finally, a tip from someone who had seen Dog on television brought Chapman to a small town in Mexico known for its great surfing. Days later, he and his team spotted Luster at a taco stand, apprehended him, and turned him over to the local police.

Go to this link here to read the rest.

Tags: Bounties, bounty hunting, dog the bounty hunter, duane chapman, justice, Law Enforcement, Letter Of Marque

Bounties: Koevoet Bounty System During The South African Bush Wars

Dec 22

Posted by Matt in Africa, Bounties, South Africa, Training | 19641 Comment2010-12-22+18%3A38%3A10Matt

It was the 1978 brainchild of then Colonel Hans Dreyer (later a Major-General in the SAP) to develop and exploit intelligence and was based on the Portuguese Flechas and the Rhodesian Selous Scouts. Koevoet was based in Oshakati and suffered 153 killed in action and several hundred more wounded. They killed more than 3,681 SWAPO insurgentswhich resulted in a 1:25 or one to 25 kill ratio.

What I wanted to point out here was a very interesting piece of history that I don’t think has really been discussed out there. Maybe Peter Stiff talked about it in his Covert War book, but either way, I thought I would bring it up here and archive it.

This to me is a prime example of incentivizing warfare, and providing a means of competition within a unit for the destruction of an enemy. To create an industry (competition) out of killing your enemy basically. In this case, the Koevoet attached a value to the enemy(killed or captured) and their weapons/equipment, and established a bounty system that all of Koevoet could partake in and supplement their salaries with. The results were stunning.

Koevoet also gets a big mention for it’s innovative war fighting methods, and the proof of concept for applying the Selous Scout model to a different war and in a different country (see below). In other words, this unit would be an excellent study for how this type of counter-insurgency warfare could be taught, and even by a private company. Look at the effectiveness of this stuff in both Rhodesia and SWA and you can see exactly what I mean. -Matt

Koevoet worked on a bounty policy where anything and everything that you brought in had a price on its head. People somewhere around R2,000, large calibre mortars probably a bit more, land mines slightly less and so on, which was a great motivating factor for the combatants and the teams because you could earn double, triple your money. It also meant that score boards were kept and that the teams competed against each other for the most number of kills in a given week in the bush. -Sean Mark Callahan, Page 30 of the TRC, 17th of June, 1997

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Koevoet From Wikipedia

At the time, South Africa saw itself as the only country on the sub-continent that could stave off the onslaught of communism. As such, South-West Africa and its northern border with Angola was the one battleground that South Africa had to control if it was to weaken the Cuban-backed South-West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO).

Rising insurgency

In many countries there is a formal separation of duties between law enforcement and the military. The former is generally responsible for domestic issues while the latter is deployed in defence of the nation. At first this philosophy was adopted in South-West Africa. Guerilla operations inside the country were dealt with by the police. Insurgents were seen as common criminals that should be processed by the criminal justice system. However, insurgents used military equipment which normal police officers were not equipped or trained to deal with. A better armed and better trained unit capable of facing such challenges was established within the South-West African Police (SWAPOL) force.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bounties, bush war, koevoet, Peter Stiff, private military companies, South Africa, Training

Job Tips: A New Way To Find Jobs–Offer Cash Bounties To Agents Through Career Element

Dec 19

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Job Tips, Jobs, Technology | 1958No Comments2010-12-19+16%3A49%3A31Matt

But Career Element is drawing attention for its dream job feature, which allows people like Elizalde to name the price they are willing to pay to land a high-quality position.

If an “agent” helps Elizalde get a job, his $10,000 bounty will be released – 87.5 percent to the agent, and 12.5 percent to Career Element.

“The best way to get a job is through networking,” Campbell said. “But if you don’t know people, this is a great way to get their attention.”

Now this is interesting. I stumbled upon this website and news story the other day while doing a search on bounties, and this thing popped up. The concept is all about offering a cash award to anyone that can get you your dream job! Pretty cool huh?

I have not signed up with this deal, but this is how it could work for anyone in our industry. If you are the job seeker, you sign up and you post what type of job or jobs you are looking for in the industry. Obviously you should be qualified for the jobs, but still, put it out there and put up a sizable bounty that could get you some interest. In the example above, this guy posted a $10,000 dollar bounty for his particular field. The question you need to ask as a security contractor is how much of a bounty would it take to get anyone interested in finding you a job?

The other element to this is the agents. For those of you who are on gigs who pull some weight with the company you are with, your recommendation of a qualified individual that is just trying to get into an industry like this, could make you a little money and help someone out. Because what the job seeker is trying to do here is get a ‘network’ of agents, fueled by the possibility of collecting a bounty for their work or recommendation.

This Career Elements website also promotes the negotiation period, which will further allow the job seeker and agent to talk about what is required for the task. The agent can also determine if they even want to recommend this job seeker.

What is interesting with our industry is that there are numerous types of jobs out there that a guy could be qualified for, but because a job seeker doesn’t know anyone in the industry or know how to navigate it, getting a foot in the door could be rough. Or getting their foot in the right door could be difficult as well. An agent could also find that one job that the job seeker didn’t even think about. Either way, it would be a way of connecting experienced job seekers (agents), with the folks that do not have an established network and want a job.

The article below also talked about potential drawbacks of a system like this. That recruiters from the companies might come onto a site like this and go after bounties to get people. Would this be unethical? I mean if a job seeker is qualified and is willing to fork over a bounty just to land a job, I would classify that as pretty dedicated. Not everyone can be good at finding jobs, and something like this is just another way to achieve that goal.

I have noticed that companies already offer bounties to individuals that bring qualified linguists to them. Folks that are in high demand are worth several thousand dollars in head hunting fees. Some companies even offered rewards for bringing in special forces types to high level contracts. So if companies can do this, why can’t contractors offer bounties to agents that could find them the jobs they are looking for?

Oh, and one more thing. I am not sure if Career Element has a policy against security contractors using their site. I didn’t see anything that would prohibit our industry from participating, but you never know. And if they do have a problem, this might be a new thing for someone to start just for this industry? -Matt

Website For Career Element here.

New ways to find jobs: cash bounties, texting

Stop Endless Job Search Trials, Hire an Agent to Land Your Dream Job

New ways to find jobs: cash bounties, texting

By Casey Newton

December 19, 2010

Fernando Elizalde has tried the traditional ways of gaining employment.

He asks his family and friends for leads. He attends networking events. He sends out resumes constantly.

But after more than a year of looking for a job in private equity, and despite a master’s in business administration from UCLA, the 28-year-old finds himself with few leads and a growing sense of frustration.

So Elizalde took a different tack: He recently posted a bounty – $10,000 to the person who lands him a job.

Elizalde is one of the first job seekers to try Career Element, a Palo Alto startup that allows users to post a bounty for anyone who can help them get their job of choice. That person could be a recruiter or someone at the job hunter’s dream company who has inside knowledge on a position opening up.

“I feel like it provides a huge benefit during really hard times,” said Elizalde, who emigrated from Argentina a decade ago and lives in Los Angeles. “It provides more networking opportunities. Yeah, it’s artificial, because in some ways you’re buying those connections. But at the same time, when networking is so important, I don’t see why not.”

With California unemployment at 12.4 percent and the national rate at 9.8 percent, some Bay Area startups are taking novel approaches to helping people find work.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bounties, career element, Job Tips, Jobs, private military company, private security company, security contractor, Technology

Funny Stuff: Career Element–Lord Bob Gets His Dream Job

Dec 19

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Funny Stuff, Job Tips, Jobs, Video | 1957No Comments2010-12-19+15%3A55%3A29Matt

Tags: Bounties, career element, Funny Stuff, Job Tips, Jobs, lord bob

Film: Casting Call For The Show Most Lethal, $100,000 To The Winner

Nov 30

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Cool Stuff, Film | 1932No Comments2010-11-30+15%3A42%3A43Matt

Now this is cool. This is the casting notice for an upcoming show on Spike TV called ‘Most Lethal’. I figured that many of my readers are exactly the type of guys that would qualify for such a thing, and if they wanted to take a break from contracting in the war for a bit, this just might be your deal. Good luck out there. -Matt

Here is the Facebook page for the casting here.

Here is the email if you cannot read it on the poster below: sofsearch@grbtv.com

73809 177310665617481 177277795620768 686908 1851486 nFilm: Casting Call For The Show Most Lethal, $100,000 To The Winner

Tags: , Bounties, casting, Cool Stuff, Film, Most Lethal, security contractors, special forces, Spike TV

History: The Gunner And The U-Boat, By Hugh Perkins

Nov 14

Posted by Matt in Bounties, History, Somalia | 1917No Comments2010-11-14+17%3A36%3A23Matt

To the victor the spoils. There was an immediate cash gratuity to be shared among Inverlyon’s reservist crew members. All hands were also eligible for Admiralty bounty money, but that would not be forthcoming until April 1923*. Gunner Jehan was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, a well-deserved accolade for a surprisingly successful action in which a lot of nerve, nine rounds of 3-pounder and a few dozen rounds of small arms ammunition sank a U-boat. The Admiralty also singled out the actions and steadiness of the gun’s crew and Skipper Philip’s attempt to rescue the German submariner.

This is a great little story about a Q-ship versus a U-boat during World War One. It would take a lot of nerve for the captain of a scamp (see below) to take on a submarine. Especially the type that had sunk so many British and Allied vessels during that war.

The concept of the Q-ship was developed during this war and it was referenced here on the blog as a possible strategy to use against today’s pirates. Imagine a bunch of modern day yachts, cruising around the gulf with some Barrett’s and RPG’s just looking for trouble? lol

I also wanted to highlight how this Q-ship crew was used for warfare. They were all brought into the Royal Navy auxiliary as volunteers, and they were paid with ‘immediate cash gratuity’ and with Admiralty (Navy command) bounties for every German U-boat crew member killed. (£5 per crewman on a submarine) Hmmm, paying bounties for killing the enemy–now that doesn’t get much attention for that war.

The really funny part about this story was the fact that after this little sailboat sank the U-boat, the submarine actually got hung up in the fishing net they had been pulling behind them. Talk about a big fish? lol

Boy, if any movie folks out there are looking for a cool story, this would make for a great short film. It truly is a modern day version of David and Goliath and high seas bounty hunting. -Matt

Smack brightlingseaHistory: The Gunner And The U Boat, By Hugh Perkins

This is what a ‘smack’ would have looked like during that time.

The Gunner and the U-Boat

September 2008

By Hugh Perkins

A lone gunner on a small trawler dueled a German U-boat to the finish in a David and Goliath-type contest

The story of the U-boat war against Allied merchant shipping during The Great War is one of enormous tragedy, incredible human suffering, sacrifice and bravery, Destruction of lives and ships on such a massive scale and by such an unusual means had never before happened in the history of the seafaring world. Once the potential inherent in the U-boats had been tested, the German Admiral staff did its utmost to isolate Great Britain from outside support, first with a U-boat blockade of the British Isles and later, through the wholesale destruction of her sea-borne trade on the high seas far from war-torn Europe. The German objective was to bring Britannia to her knees through starvation thus putting an end to the war on German terms. They came alarmingly close to succeeding.

During 1915, when the U-boat force began its first concerted campaign and shipping losses started to rise, the Royal Navy found itself completely unprepared to deal with the submersible marauders. Both the Admiralty and the mercantile community cast about for solutions to the problem.

Convoy, a defensive tactic that had been employed with success in sailing ship days, was not favored by either group. The Admiralty did not have the escort ships and the steamship captains did not want to give up their independence. Other means of protecting the merchant fleet were sought.

The first countermeasure to be tried was the containment of the U-boats using mine fields, nets and patrols. This was continued throughout the course of the war and ultimately mines destroyed more U-boats than any other single means. Another idea, and that best liked by the mercantile community, was to arm merchant ships so that by a combination of speed, maneuvering and gunfire they could fight it out with their adversaries.

This worked fairly well for the large, fast, modern ships when the U-boat cooperated by surfacing first, and many a steamer was actually saved by these tactics. Mounting a gun on a merchantman, however, had its drawbacks for it gave the U-boat captain the excuse he needed to sink the ship without warning. For the multitude of slow steamers, older ships and sailing vessels there was no real safety and they paid heavily. The best that could be done was to provide them with wireless sets so that ships in distress could at least call for help within the limited range of the early instruments.

Another solution was the creation of the now-famous Q-ships, an assortment of converted merchant vessels and small warships built to resemble merchant ships, manned by Naval crews and armed with concealed guns, depth charges and even torpedo tubes. These ships plied the trade routes like any other innocent merchantmen, sometimes under neutral colors, in the hopes of being challenged by German submarines, much like bait in a mobile trap. When a U-boat’s periscope was sighted, or one surfaced nearby and ordered them to heave-to, a “panic party” dressed as merchant seamen would tumble into the lifeboats and abandon ship while the gun crews stayed under cover at their hidden guns. Once the U-boat came within easy range, the white ensign was run up, the shields were dropped and the guns opened fire to destroy the submarine before it could dive out of danger.

At least, that was the idea. Sometimes it worked very well, sometimes not. Occasionally the Uboat would torpedo the Q-ship without ever revealing herself. On a number of occasions, better armed German submarines stood-off and shelled the Q-ship either forcing her to open fire prematurely to save herself or reducing the “trapship” to a sinking condition before she could bring her guns into action. There were some very lively actions between decoy ships and submarines with casualties aplenty on both sides.

Q-ships came in all shapes and sizes but one of the earliest, and most humble, must have been the converted fishing vessel known as His Majesty’s Armed Smack Inverlyon. She was based at Lowestoft on the Suffolk coast. Like dozens of her ilk, Inverlyon was a bluff-bowed, flushdecked, two-masted, fore-and-aft rigged, little vessel sporting a stubby bowsprit. She had no engine and relied entirely on a suit of patched, broom, canvas sails and the skill of her crew for mobility. For armament, Inverlyon was fitted with a single 3pounder (47mm) quick-firer, a popgun by anybody’s standards but about all that could be carried in such a small vessel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bounties, Germany, History, hugh perkins, Maritime Security, Q ships, Somalia, u-boats, world war 2

Bounties: Three Share $500,000 For Tips On Bombed Rebels–Domingo Biojo Killed, Colombia

Sep 21

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Colombia | 18441 Comment2010-09-21+10%3A33%3A05Matt

Now I do not know if anyone will be able to receive a bounty from the DoS Narcotics Rewards Program, because Biojo was worth about $2.5 million dollars.(see the reward below)

The $500,000 divided up between these three folks must have come from the government of Colombia? Who knows, but either way, good on them for providing the tips. -Matt

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Guillen140Bounties: Three Share $500,000 For Tips On Bombed Rebels Domingo Biojo Killed, Colombia

Domingo Biojo.

Colombia: 3 share $500K for tips on bombed rebels

09/21/2010

Colombia’s national police chief says three informants will divide a reward of up to $500,000 for leading authorities to the rebel camp where the military killed at least 22 insurgents in an air raid.

Gen. Oscar Naranjo also said Monday that a prominent veteran of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC, was killed in Sunday’s pre-dawn bombing near the border with Ecuador.

He identified the slain rebel as Domingo Biojo (Bee-oh-HO), a 55-year-old who had spent half his life in the FARC.

Officials say the rebels killed Sunday were from the same FARC unit that killed eight police officers nine days earlier.

Sunday’s attack marked Colombia’s biggest military success since President Juan Manuel Santos took office Aug. 7.

Story here.

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Narcotics Rewards Program: Sixto Antonio Cabana Guillen

Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

WANTED

Also known as “Domingo Bioho”

Date of Birth: 06/15/1955

Place of Birth: Cienaga, Magadalena, Colombia

Height: 1.77 meters,

Weight: Unknown

Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown

The FARC is a foreign terrorist organization in Colombia that was established in 1964 with a Marxist philosophy and the declared intent to overthrow the democratic Colombian government. The FARC is Latin America’s oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped insurgency — with perhaps 12,000 fighters and thousands of supporters, mostly in rural areas. In addition to its attacks on Colombian military, political and economic targets, the FARC’s various fronts are deeply involved in narcotics trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, murder and other criminal activities. Today, the FARC controls the majority of cocaine manufacturing and distribution within Colombia, and is responsible for much of the world’s cocaine supply and what is trafficked to the United States.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bounties, Colombia, Domingo Biojo, DoS, FARC, narcotics rewards program

PMC 2.0: Innovation Prizes For Private Military Companies

Sep 15

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Building Snowmobiles, Industry Talk, Letter Of Marque, PMC 2.0 | 1831No Comments2010-09-15+09%3A04%3A59Matt

“I’m worth a million in prizes..” Iggy Pop

*****

Wow, I really liked this article at the Economist and I wanted to share. It kind of shows how desperate private industry and governments are for really good ideas. And as everyone here knows, I am all about new ideas or ‘building snowmobiles’ and I try to promote that process as much as I can.

But imagine adding incentive to the ‘building snowmobiles’ theme? That is what makes innovation prizes such an interesting and potentially lethal concept for our industry and the war effort. Perhaps I should consider raising prize money for the best construction of a Letter of Marque concept for modern warfare use? How about an innovation prize for low cost, high return warfare ideas? Really open it up to the public, or just offer the contests within the boundaries of an organization. How about an innovation prize for new types of war or business strategies? Or how about for a company logo? To really put it out there, how about using mobile cash as a means to reward locals as a means of gaining ideas for COIN and reconstruction in Afghanistan?

Companies could also offer innovation prizes to those who can come up with the best cost saving ideas, or to new directions in business? There are many complex problems a company could try to solve by putting it out there for their employees to solve through a prize system. It is just one more way to create that unique situation that would allow for your employees to create something important to the company or ‘people will support what they help to create’.

Now the one thing that is most valuable and truly the prize, is business success or victory in war. A company would be smart to not only offer prizes for innovations, but to reward their company as a whole by increasing salaries because they are more profitable. Or offer the benefit in one way or another, which would reward your employees for participating in this innovation prize concept in the first place.

The articles below indicate that this is a major theme throughout the world, and it sounds like most of the experts agree that it works. For companies reading this, InnoCentive is the company that the Economist identified as a platform for innovation prizes. Or you could just start your our prize initiatives. If the US government is jumping all over this stuff with their Challenge.gov site, then our industry could probably stand to benefit from it as well. I would even post it here on the blog if it was open to the industry and public?

As for the problem solvers out there, there are plenty of prizes to go after if you have some big ideas. Thousands of dollars are available and it sounds like these prizes are only increasing in size and number. Just check out the chart below. -Matt

And the winner is…

Challenge.gov looking for great ideas

For Corporations (from InnoCentive website)

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And the winner is…

Offering a cash prize to encourage innovation is all the rage. Sometimes it works rather well

Aug 5th 2010

A CURIOUS cabal gathered recently in a converted warehouse in San Francisco for a private conference. Among them were some of the world’s leading experts in fields ranging from astrophysics and nanotechnology to health and energy. Also attending were entrepreneurs and captains of industry, including Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, and Ratan Tata, the head of India’s Tata Group. They were brought together to dream up more challenges for the X Prize Foundation, a charitable group which rewards innovation with cash. On July 29th a new challenge was announced: a $1.4m prize for anyone who can come up with a faster way to clean oil spills from the ocean.

The foundation began with the Ansari X Prize: $10m to the first private-sector group able to fly a reusable spacecraft 100km (62 miles) into space twice within two weeks. It was won in 2004 by a team led by Burt Rutan, a pioneering aerospace engineer, and Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft. Other prizes have followed, including the $10m Progressive Automotive X Prize, for green cars that are capable of achieving at least 100mpg, or its equivalent. Peter Diamandis, the entrepreneur who runs the foundation, says he has become convinced that “focused and talented teams in pursuit of a prize and acclaim can change the world.”

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Tags: Bounties, Building Snowmobiles, challenge gov, incentive, InnoCentive, innovation prizes, PMC 2.0, private military companies, private security companies, prizes, Warfare