Feral Jundi

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Crime: NY Pair Used Twitter and Cell Phones to Direct Protests During G-20, Pittsburgh

Filed under: Crime,Pennsylvania,PMC 2.0,Technology — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:50 AM

    I wanted to post this to show how these technologies are being used for command and control of events like this.  The key elements to this, are using pre-paid cellphones that are basically disposable, and Twitter, all with the intent of directing a protest or riot for maximum effect.  I wonder when we will hear of the first terror cell usage of Twitter, to direct a Mumbai style complex assault?  I know for the Mumbai deal, they used text messaging for command and control.     With Twitter, a leader can send orders to massive groups, and in turn, that leader can track reports coming from the various sectors of the battlefield, all using quick little reports coming through Twitter.  And with the advent of cloud computing, the most active sectors will come front and center in everyone’s Twitter account, and everyone can see where the focus should be in the protest.  It is a way to make a group more connected and more responsive to whatever police forces are doing. Just as long as they all have a connection with their phones. Now couple that with Google Maps and the common GPS features in today’s smart phones, and now you have some super empowered hooligans. Interesting stuff. –Matt

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New York pair accused of directing protesters during G-20 in Pittsburgh

By Jeremy BorenTRIBUNE-REVIEWSunday, October 4, 2009

State police have accused two anarchists from New York of using cell phones and the Internet messaging service Twitter to direct the movements of protesters during the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

Police arrested Elliot M. Madison, 41, and Michael Wallschlaeger, 46, both of Jackson Heights, N.Y., after they found them Sept. 24 in a Kennedy Township hotel room full of computers, police scanners and Pittsburgh-area maps, according to a state police criminal complaint.

FBI agents spent 16 hours Friday raiding the home of Madison and his wife, Elena, according to a federal court motion filed in Brooklyn, N.Y., by Madison’s attorney Martin R. Stolar seeking the return of Madison’s possessions that were seized in the raid.

Stolar did not return a message seeking comment Saturday. No one answered the phone at a number listed for Madison.

Wallschlaeger and Madison wore headphones and microphones as they sat in front of computers they used to send Twitter messages to protesters in Pittsburgh to help them move about the city “and to inform the protesters and groups of the movements and actions of law enforcement,” the state police complaint states.

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Company Spotlight: CSA Kuwait

Filed under: Company Spotlight,Industry Talk,Kuwait — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 10:31 AM

   CSA Kuwait has always been one of those companies that provided the stepping stone to bigger and better contracts for guys.  In essence, it has been one of those gigs to cut your teeth on, in order to prepare for the war zone stuff.  I consider the Kosovo contract with ITT(or whoever owns that contract now) and the Qatar contract with DynCorp to be the same thing.  These are all static security posts, tasked with securing a large US base in these countries, and they can be used as experience for overseas security contracting in the war zones on a resume.

   Now on to this latest report on CSA and what the company’s response is. It isn’t that pretty, if you know what I mean.  I do not see customer satisfaction there.  I also hear on the circuit that contractors are not to happy with the way the company has treated them.

     If you read below, the company mission statement has Toyota and lean systems written all over it.  It has all the stuff you want in a company. The thing I want to emphasize though is that anyone can write a mission statement that looks impressive, but to me, actions speak louder than words.  Is the customer truly satisfied or happy and are your contractors and leaders truly satisfied or happy? How about the local populations or the public as a whole?  What is their impression of your company? That is all that matters, and results are what the company should be striving for.

   I would like to reiterate though that I really dig the mission statements and the language.  It is great, but does the CEO of the company really believe this stuff with his heart and soul?  Does the leadership in this company have this stuff ingrained into their soul? And does all of this impress and motivate their contractors/employees, and the customer?

   And for all I know, all of these mission statements and ISO 9001:2000 and Six Sigma stuff happened as a result of all of these issues listed below?  If so, that is great, and I really hope the company can achieve greatness in their little corner of the security contracting world. The proof is in the pudding, and until I start hearing glowing reviews of the company’s performance, then I will continue to remain skeptical.

   My suggestion to the company is to seek out feedback from the customer(s) and to seek out feedback from your workforce.  Actually listen to what they have to say, and get some shared reality.  You should also be doing performance evaluations, and constantly evaluating the health and vitality of your company.  How else are you to know how you are doing out there on these contracts? Be proactive about your performance, not reactive.

   Furthermore, performance evaluations, if done correctly, can certainly add to your company’s Kaizen. The sleeping guard  mentioned below could have shown a history of sleeping on post or poor performance elsewhere, and it should have been noted in performance evaluations and corrected early on.  If the guy sucks, then there should be documentation that he sucks, and the leadership should have a means to express to that contractor that it is unacceptable.

   The guard should know exactly what the company policies are, they should know what the chain of command is, and they should know the disciplinary process.  My suggestion for disciplinary stuff, is to have a three tiered system.  The first tier is the warning.  If the guard does the same thing a second time, then make a note on their performance evaluation and take one day’s pay.  If the guard does it a third time, then fire him.  Either way you do it, disciplinary programs should be clear, graduated, and the punishments should be fair.  Most of all, disciplinary actions should be consistent and there should be no favoritism.  If there is, it will kill your program.  Too many companies implement a disciplinary system that is either you do well, or we fire you for whatever reason.

   The question to ask with that, is how much money is a company losing by not doing all they can to hang on to guys?  To actually treat them well and listen to what they have to say, as opposed to not caring about them, and reacting with a knee jerk action like firing the guard. An evaluations system, coupled with a fair and effective disciplinary program, is the better way to go.  Taking a guys pay for the day, is money in the company’s pocket and a day of free work.  But when you fire a guy, you have to spend the money to recruit, train, equip, and deploy someone new.  Do the math on that, and turnover is not cost effective.  The three tier disciplinary system I am talking about makes sense and if coupled with a sound company mission statement and evaluations program, you can certainly do great thing to shape and manage your workforce.

   Likewise, a contractor or leader should be able to communicate up the chain of command what is going right and what is going wrong with the company, and that upper management should be responsive to that.  This contractor cares enough about your company, to let you know some deficiencies, the least you could do is listen to what they have to say and thank him or her for coming forward.  If you have a culture that does not allow for this, then how is your company to grow/evolve and continuously improve?  A performance evaluation system, that is properly conducted and gives both sides (contractor and manager) a voice, is vital. Most of all, a company that acts upon this information and really implements changes based on this information is even more important.  Other than that, it is all hot air and ISO-Bologny. –Matt

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INSIDE WASHINGTON: Oversight lacking on war costs

By RICHARD LARDNER

10/07/2009

WASHINGTON — During a routine check of a watch tower at a U.S. military base in Kuwait, an Army sergeant found the guard leaning back in a chair, his sunglasses on, apparently sound asleep. When the soldier woke the guard, an employee of a defense contractor named Combat Support Associates, he denied he’d dozed off while on duty.

“It’s so weird that I can close my eyes for one second and then you appear out of nowhere,” the guard said, according to the sergeant’s March 2008 inspection report.

The episode illustrates the problems between the U.S. armed forces and the industrial army supporting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Demand for contractor services is heavy, while oversight of their work isn’t. That means problems often aren’t discovered until long after the payments have been made.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Weapons: Army Pushes Precision Mortar

Filed under: Military News,Weapons — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:12 AM

   I tell you, if we could pump out little miniature JDAM style mortars, how cool would that be?  Every grunt out there, would be worshiping these things.  That means less mortar rounds to hump around and more lethality with each shot.  If you could use some kind of pointer system, like a IR pointer or some laser as a means for guidance, then that would really be cool. Or just use a GPS coordinate.  Either way, a precision mortar round would be awesome.

   The system must also be easy to use and durable.  Once we make accurate munitions like this, tactics could be modified to take advantage of that accuracy.  That accuracy has to be consistent and dependable…Hopefully. This is the kind of thing that would bring more capability to the ‘super empowered infantry’ that these guys keep talking about. Oh, and make it small and light. (I know that is a fantasy, but it doesn’t hurt to dream. lol)

   Another thing they could do, is to make a smaller Javelin type of system.  Imagine something the size of a LAW?

   Or how about a precision RPG round?  Now that would be really cool, because then you could use those rounds, as well as captured enemy RPG rounds in a fight.  That saves weight, and that increases the lethality of a unit. Hell, Airtronics made an American version of the RPG 7, why not make a precision round for it and use it to kill Taliban and Jihadists? I guess I could hint at the idea of precision 40mm, but that would be crazy talk. lol –Matt

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Army Pushes Precision Mortar

By Greg Grant

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Afghanistan is an infantryman’s war. Afghan insurgents have mastered fighting small unit actions in mountains terrain where they use skillfully prepared fighting positions on ridgelines and high ground. Springing ambushes from prepared positions, Taliban insurgents offer fleeting targets to direct fire weapons; which explains in part why the Army has received an urgent request from soldiers in the field for a precision guided mortar and has accelerated its efforts to develop and deliver the new weapon.

The “accelerated precision mortar initiative” is all about providing added firepower to the rifle platoon, said Army Maj. Gen. John Bartley, program manager for the Brigade Combat Team, who said the Army’s requirement is to precisely deliver indirect fire from as small a tube as possible. “You can hump a mortar, you can’t hump a Non-Line of Sight Launch System,” he said, referring to the “rockets in a box” missile system that came out of the now dead FCS program.

The Army is looking at a range of potential sizes for the round, from 60mm on up to 120mm, which is currently the most commonly used mortar “Ideally, you would like to give one to everyone… what is the art of the possible is to be determined.” The Army has not decided whether the precision mortar will be laser guided or will use GPS.

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Industry Talk: ‘They Are The Unappreciated Patriots’, by T. Christian Miller

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Iraq,Medical — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 9:15 AM

 

     This series is just heart wrenching to read, and it certainly cuts to the bone.  Contractors are the unappreciated patriots, and we have certainly sacrificed in this war.  T. Christian Miller has done a fantastic job of showing that sacrifice, and informing the public on what exactly is going on with our injured contractors/patriots.

  He is also showing some courage by actually calling us ‘unappreciated patriots’. To most journalists out there, we are less than human and less than a patriot, and their opinions scream throughout their reportage. I am sure his peers are thumbing their nose at him.

     This particular story is also a reminder about what is at stake when you enter this profession.  Everyone thinks about these types of injuries from time to time, but when you read through this story, you put a picture to the ‘what if’s’ of this job.  That is good though, because it is these gut checks that actually snap folks into the mindset of doing things right.(you would think…) Because if you do get it wrong, you stand to lose a lot….

     Hell, fate has it’s own plan, and you could do everything right and still lose a lot.  That is the job and that is war. Anyhoo, check out the story and at the end of this post, there is a link to a audio slide show of what Grizzly went through. –Matt

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‘They are the unappreciated patriots’

In Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors like Reggie Lane often face the same dangers as U.S. troops. And make the same terrible sacrifices.

By T. Christian Miller

October 6, 2009

Reporting from Central Point, Ore.

A nurse rocked him awake as pale dawn light crept into the room. “C’mon now, c’mon,” the nurse murmured. “Time to get up.”Reggie Lane was once a hulking man of 260 pounds. Friends called him “Big Dad.” Now, he weighed less than 200 pounds and his brain was severely damaged. He groaned angry, wordless cries.The nurse moved fast. Two bursts of deodorant spray under each useless arm. Then he dressed Lane and used a mechanical arm to hoist him into a wheelchair.He wheeled Big Dad down a hallway and parked the chair in a beige dining room, in front of a picture window. Outside stretched a green valley of pear trees filled with white blossoms.Lane’s head fell forward, his chin buried in his chest. His legs crossed and uncrossed involuntarily. His left index finger was rigid and pointed, as if frozen in permanent accusation.In 2004, Lane was driving a fuel truck in Iraq for a defense contractor when insurgents attacked his convoy with rocket-propelled grenades. For most of the five years since, Lane, now 60, has spent his days in silence — a reminder of the hidden costs of relying on civilian contract workers to support the U.S. war effort. (more…)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Military News: Emulate Hezbollah To Beat Hybrid Foe

Filed under: Israel,Military News — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 9:17 PM

   This is a follow up to that article I posted about the Israeli’s rating their performance during the Second Lebanon War. A lot was learned from the mistakes of that war, and it is being studied intensely.  How did Hezbollah do it, and how do you combat that?

 Super empowered infantry and getting smaller is the answer according to this article. Interesting concepts to say the least.

 If I was to add to this, I would have to say that the internet and today’s computing devices (laptops, smart phones, video cams) have contributed greatly to creating these super empowered enemies.  From researching warfare techniques, to weapons manufacture, to communications, propaganda etc., it is all contributing to making extremely intelligent and capable small units out there. Our enemies evolve, and we must evolve too, or be defeated on the field of battle. What do you guys think? –Matt

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Emulate Hezbollah To Beat Hybrid Foe

By Greg Grant Monday,

October 5th, 2009

There’s a saying that the best weapon against a sniper is another sniper. If, as top military officials from Defense Secretary Robert Gates on down, say future enemies will be of the hybrid type, and Lebanese Hezbollah is repeatedly held up as the hybrid enemy archetype, does that mean the best way to counter Hezbollah is to fight like Hezbollah?

That’s exactly what some leading thinkers in the military establishment believe. A hybrid enemy comes equipped with modern, high-end, precision guided weapons, yet fights guerrilla fashion in distributed networks of small units and cells.

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