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
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
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.
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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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.
“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
Challenge.gov looking for great ideas
For Corporations (from InnoCentive website)
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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.”
The money is said to come from protection rackets, taxes imposed on opium farmers, donors in the Gulf states who channel money through Dubai and from the senior Taliban leadership in Pakistan.
*****
The Iranian companies win contracts to supply materials and logistics to Afghans involved in reconstruction. The money often comes in the form of aid from foreign donors.
The profits are transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks – including the Kabul Bank, which is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Mahmood – to Tehran and Dubai.
From these countries, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala to be dispersed to the Taliban fighters.
“This means the companies involved in funding the insurgency can cover their tracks easily. It makes it harder for us to trace the cashflow,” a senior Afghan intelligence officer said.
He said the Iranian companies had been formed with the intention of winning contracts funded by foreign aid so the donors’ cash could be channelled into the insurgency.
*****
In the past I have talked about this market of force concept in which the enemy is able to attract combatants that are contracted for the killing of our troops. The Taliban pay better and they offer incentives that give the possibility of even more pay. The incentive here is bounties, and the money comes from foreign donor sources or from drug sales and extortion rackets. In other words, the enemy is creating an industry that profits off the death of our troops. A system of bounties also attracts those that are the most proficient or creative in their abilities to kill, both local and foreign.
Below I posted three stories that all highlight exactly how this Taliban market of force works. From assigning values to equipment being destroyed, to individuals being killed. I am also speculating that these foreign mercenary sniper teams were not only contracted, but also allowed to receive bounties for each kill. It would make sense, just because they too would be rewarded for their deadly skills and inclined to stay in the fight to rack up kills.
Also, other Taliban fighters will be drawn to the most target rich areas of the country with the greatest chance of getting away with their kills. They will also go for the easiest kills possible, which would be either IED’s or sniping. In those cases, they need witnesses or video via cellphone camera, etc. to confirm the kill and get payment.
If they attacked in force in some kind of coordinated effort, I am sure the entire unit would be rewarded and they would split the prize. In that case, those fighters interested in more profit would probably be interested in joining the best teams with the highest kill ratios. Much like how the best privateer companies attracted investors during the American Revolutionary War, or how the best pirate companies in Somalia attract wannabe pirates seeking a chance to get wealthy.
The other thing that is attractive about a system of bounties is that a Taliban commander can use their averages as a means of recruitment. He can tell potential recruits that he pays $245 a month, but his guys also have the highest bounty collections rate in the area. Everyone loves to join a winning team in this high dollar hunting game.
I wonder though how suicide bombers are viewed in this game? I am sure if they were part of the attack, then I would assume the Taliban commander and his team would collect some payment for the deaths that these human bombs created? With that said, I am sure there is some form of a prize court that these guys go through in order to work these issues out. -Matt
Taliban paid bounties for kills
Taliban win £1,600 bounty for each Nato soldier killed
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Taliban paid bounties for kills
Miles Amoore
September 06, 2010
IRANIAN companies in Kabul are using their offices to covertly finance Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
They are paying bounties of $US1000 ($1090) for killing a US soldier and $US6000 for destroying a military vehicle, a treasurer for the insurgents says.
Afghan intelligence and Taliban sources said at least five front companies, set up in the past six months, provide cash for a network of district Taliban treasurers to pay battlefield expenses and bonuses for killing foreign troops and destroying their vehicles.
The Iranian companies win contracts to supply materials and logistics to Afghans involved in reconstruction. The money often comes in the form of aid from foreign donors.
The profits are transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks – including the Kabul Bank, which is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Mahmood – to Tehran and Dubai.
From these countries, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala to be dispersed to the Taliban fighters.
“This means the companies involved in funding the insurgency can cover their tracks easily. It makes it harder for us to trace the cashflow,” a senior Afghan intelligence officer said.
He said the Iranian companies had been formed with the intention of winning contracts funded by foreign aid so the donors’ cash could be channelled into the insurgency.
Western officials believe the network may have been set up by the al-Quds force, an elite branch of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.
Aug 3
This is pretty ‘cool’. lol Jerry Cool painted this thing after a dream, and years later felt that the painting he put together was of Gary Faulkner and his quest to find Bin Laden. That is just wild.
In other news about Gary, it sounds like Al Qaeda and company has put a bounty out on him. I haven’t been able to really confirm that, but it makes sense that they would. I say that because the Taliban and Al Qaeda already have a bounty system going on for any soldiers they can kill or capture. -Matt
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Bin Laden hunter receives painting
July 21, 2010
Gary Faulkner, the Greeley man who was detained in Pakistan last month while on a mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden, sits Tuesday in front of a painting called “A Renaissance Dream of 9-11: The Killing of Osama bin Laden” at the home of artist Jerry Cool in Muncie, Ind.
MUNCIE, Ind. – An Indiana man who says he dreamed two years ago of a bearded man slaying Osama bin Laden has given a painting of the dramatic scene to a Colorado man arrested in Pakistan while hunting for the al-Qaida leader.
Jerry Cool, 63, told The Star Press of Muncie that he was “shocked” when he saw Gary Faulkner talking on CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman” on June 28 about his arrest in northern Pakistan earlier that month.
“Once I saw Gary on TV, I knew that was him in my vision,” Cool told the newspaper. “To me, he’s the only one that deserves that painting.”
This is an outstanding article and Sam here is quite the guy. I certainly hope he can find and kill Joseph Kony, and save as many children as he can over there. What is really cool is I guess Hollywood digs his story too and they will be making a movie about him. Thanks to Jason for sending me this. -Matt
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“I found God in 1992,” says Sam Childers. “I found Satan in 1998.” The reference is to Joseph Kony, leader of the outlaw Lord’s Resistance Army. Photograph by Jonathan Becker.
By Ian Urbina
April 27, 2010
The Lord’s Resistance Army—a murderous rebel group made up mostly of Ugandans, and led by a crazed warlord named Joseph Kony—today ranges across the jungles and scrubland of Uganda, Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Its ranks may be depleted, but the remnant deals death wherever it goes. U.S.-backed military forces are trying to hunt Kony down. So is a Pennsylvania-based evangelical preacher named Sam Childers—a biker and former drug dealer who has found his calling in this quest for a killer. Last year the author joined Childers as he continued his hunt for Kony. It is a story of pursuer and pursued, each believing that God is on his side.
It’s two a.m., and we’re barreling down a deeply pocked dirt road in Southern Sudan. In the cool of night, the temperature is nearly 100 degrees. Sam Childers, 46, is behind the wheel of a chrome-tinted Mitsubishi truck. Christian rock blares on the speakers. He has a Bible on the dash and a shotgun that he calls his “widow-maker” leaning against his left knee. His top sergeant, Santino Deng, 34, a Dinka tribesman with an anthracite complexion and radiant black eyes, sits in the passenger seat, an AK-47 across his lap. I sit in the back. Since leaving the town of Mundri, headed toward the Congolese border, we’ve been driving for two bone-jarring days on roads littered with the charred wrecks of armored vehicles and fuel tankers, remnants of battles past. A truck follows close behind, carrying 15 men from the small militia group under Childers’s personal command. The convoy is on its way to a Sudanese town called Maridi. In the area we’re passing through, just hours ago soldiers from the Lord’s Resistance Army (L.R.A.) hacked 15 villagers to death with machetes, then disappeared into the bush. Intelligence sources from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army—the ragtag military wing of the breakaway government of Southern Sudan—have indicated that elements of the L.R.A. are now headed to Maridi. Childers wants to intercept them, and kill their leader.
Crazy Karzai really is crazy. He could of turned in that bastard Haqqani and made a cool $5 million! That’s hero stuff there, and yet he let ol’ red beard go… tisk.. tisk.
I say that any of you aspiring bounty hunters in Afghanistan want to get lucky, just follow the Karzai crew. Hell, they might even meet with Bin Laden! Because I guarantee he will be meeting with more booger eaters in the future, and that could be some serious money for you.
And if you don’t feel like taking credit or snagging this bounty, just give me the tip anonymously and I will report the information to the Rewards For Justice program myself. Missed opportunities….. lol -Matt
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Wanted : Sirajuddun Haqqani Up to $5 Million Reward
Date of Birth : Circa 1973
Weight : 150
Height : 5’ 7”
Hair : Black
Complexion : Light, with wrinkles
Sex : Male
Nationality : Afghan Pashtun
Status : Fugitive
Aliases : Siraj Haqqani, Khalifa
Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior leader of the Haqqani terrorist network founded by his father Jalaladin Haqqani, maintains close ties to al-Qa’ida. During an interview with an American news organization, Haqqani admitted planning the January 14, 2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla.
Haqqani also admitted to having planned the April 2008 assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He has coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces in Afghanistan. He is believed to be located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
Link to Rewards For Justice here.
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The Long War Journal: Afghan president meets with Siraj Haqqani: Report
Written by Thomas Joscelyn & Bill Roggio
June 27, 2010
Reports from Afghanistan indicate that the president of Afghanistan, the head of Pakistan’s military intelligence service, and Pakistan’s army chief all met recently with the al Qaeda-linked leader of the Haqqani Network, one of the most dangerous terror groups operating in the country.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai; General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’ top military leader; and Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, are reported to have met with Sirajuddin Haqqani earlier this week to negotiate an end to the insurgency, according to Al Jazeera. The location of the purported meeting was not disclosed.
So the thing I am wondering is if Gary Faulkner was at all motivated by the 25 million dollar bounty on Bin Laden’s head? The other thing to point out is that Gary had gone to Pakistan 7 times! He had been to Chitral 3 times, and this guy was definitely on a mission.
The other angle on this is that he could have been religiously motivated, and I would be interested to hear who was whispering in his ear. Is there a Christian version of al-Awlaki out there? Gary did have some religious literature on him. And what is with the sword? lol
Then of course there could be the patriot or vengeance angle. 9/11 hurt many, and this could have been a motivating factor for the guy. 9/11 motivates many to do what they are doing in the military or contracting, so it would not be odd to me for a guy to want to go it alone out of vengeance. That, and the fact that Bin Laden is still free, despite all the wars and all the resources expended.
Gary was in poor health as well and maybe he felt like he had nothing to lose. Lots of motives here.
My guess is that it is a little bit of everything. What really kills me, is why did Pakistan arrest him? Oh thats right, Gary is a threat to the ‘monopoly of force’ and is a ‘nut job’ for attempting to kill Bin Laden–the most wanted man in the world. Arrested for doing the job that Pakistan or the US, with all of it’s wealth and resources, has not been able to accomplish since September of 2001. -Matt
Edit: 06/16/2010 – Gary’s brother, Dr. Scott Faulkner said Gary was trained in Hapkido, hence why he was carrying the sword. Gary had also been going back and forth for the last 7 years and was after OBL with a passion. Scott said he was ‘like a bulldog’. Dr. Faulkner said that Gary was not crazy or psychotic, and that his driving forces was vengeance and a frustration with the government’s inability to get Bin Laden. Here is the video.
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Pakistan holds American reportedly hunting bin Laden
By Gul Hameed Farooqui
June 15, 2010
CHITRAL, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan detained an American armed with a dagger, a pistol and night vision goggles for allegedly trying to sneak into Afghanistan to hunt and kill al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden, police said on Tuesday.
Californian Gary Faulkner was caught in the Brumboret Valley near the border of Afghanistan’s Nuristan province and was being questioned in Peshawar, Chitral police Chief Jaffer Khan said.
“He was roaming in the security zone in a suspicious manner. He had a dagger and night vision goggles with him. He is being investigated,” Khan said.
Khan said Faulkner was born in 1959.
Mumtaz Ahmed, a senior police investigator, said Faulkner was also carrying a pistol and was hunting bin Laden because he suffered personal losses in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
An intelligence official in Chitral, who asked not to be identified, said Faulkner shouted “Don’t come closer to me or I’ll open fire!” when approached.
Faulkner arrived in Chitral on June 3 and was staying in a local hotel, Ahmed said. Khan said he had visited Chitral seven times previously.
“He says that he is a kidney patient. He was also carrying medicines for kidney and blood pressure treatment,” Ahmed said.
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