Open publication – Free publishing
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Publications: Journal Of International Peace Operations, January-February 2011
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Saturday, January 1, 2011
Year In Review: 2010 Google Analytics Report For Feral Jundi
“Nation states no longer have a monopoly on military force, intelligence, diplomacy or anything else,” Mr. Clarridge said. “What’s going on in Somalia, where you have skilled contractors training a counter-piracy force, is an example of where the future of the military is going. No government or group of governments can get their act together to do it, but someone has to do it, and they are doing it.”- Duane Clarridge, From The Article “Private Firm Trains Somalis To Scuttle Pirates“, December 28, 2010
Interesting year and it is nice to see all the little changes have made a huge difference. Namely using Facebook as a means to promote the blog and using Google Reader for filtering stories. I also really liked using Google Alerts because that was bringing all sorts of good stuff into my inbox.
I added a Scribd profile to the website and that was a really nice place to put documents in. Expect to see more interesting documents and publications to be converted into this format, and I might even get into writing some papers to put out there via Scribd.
As you can see with the statistics below there has been a huge increase in visitors and page views this last year. So I am very happy with this and the trend line for the blog just continues to go up and up. Thanks to all of you out there for visiting, and I am glad you enjoy the site.
One statistic I thought was cool was the amount of time folks spent on the blog. Because there is so much information here a person could easily spend some time just browsing. From the history stuff, to jobs, to information about taxes–all of it is drawing the reader in and the blog is definitely accomplishing the goal of educating the masses. The average time on the site per visit, for the year, was about 3 minutes. That is 3 minutes of time that the reader could have easily spent elsewhere, and usually the averages in the past were about a minute in a half. Content is king.
The Top Ten Titles give you an excellent idea of what topics were popular for the blog. Viktor Bout, Haiti and all the jobs for that disaster, Jax Desmond, and all my classic Funny Stuff Posters. ‘Potential’ actually draws in some hate mail from the jihadist dorks from time to time, and that makes me happy. lol
The country and state visitor locations are no surprise to me. The key word stuff matches up with the popular titles as well.
I guess what Google Analytics is missing is what my favorite posts or subjects were this year. I enjoyed reading about the Saracen International stuff and the Insurance backed Private Navy. Those are two stories I am following and it will be interesting to see how it goes for them. The private navy story also grabbed my interest due to the potential there of using a Letter of Marque in modern times. Stay tuned there.
The history posts are always fun for me. When I find some interesting little tidbit that deals with contractors in the past, I love getting that stuff out there. All the Koevoet material was a favorite of mine (non-contractor related). The John Coffee Hays and his Texas Rangers post was fun, as was the Soldier of Fortunes of the Mexican Revolutionary War. The young George Washington and his involvement with mercenaries during the French and Indian wars was cool too.
Gary Faulkner popped up as the crazy bastard of the year that motivated the hell out of me. I just pictured this guy going to Pakistan year after year, wandering the wilderness looking for Osama Bin Laden and wanting to kill him. Gary gets an ‘A’ for effort.
Then there was Simon Mann returning to work for Obiang. This is the leader that originally imprisoned Simon and his gang for a coup attempt. I am still trying to figure that one out.
My best Building Snowmobiles posts were the Drone Archer and the Cyber Privateer ones. One post I continue think about from time to time is the Open Source Counter-Terrorism topic, and it is fun to think up new ways of promoting this empowerment concept. Also this was the first year I had a reader who came up with a Building Snowmobiles concept that involved economic/political theory and COIN, that he wanted to share with me. After looking at it I agreed that it was intriguing and put it up. So the innovation process here is influencing the readership out there to produce new ideas. That is awesome.
The big ticket stories were the State Department’s army of contractors, the massive contracts that companies have received, the contractors thrown in jails around the world (wrongly or not) and the excellent support network on Facebook that helped apply the pressure on governments to do the right thing . Notice how the UAE is one of my top readers this year, and especially after the Moody case? lol
Of course we cannot forget about Crazy Karzai and his attack on contractors in Afghanistan. It was such a stupid episode, and really highlighted how much of a corrupt idiot he is. Luckily Karzai and company realized how unrealistic it was to ban all PSCs by December of last year.
Let’s not forget the heroes and the dead this year. We read about how Louis Maxwell defended his UN compound, and was later shot by Afghan police because they wanted his gun. Shane Schmidt passed away this year, and this guy defined a key jundism– ‘have the courage to do what is right’.
Finally, the big story that needs to be mentioned from last year was the Code of Conduct signed by all the companies. I have noticed less negative attention on all the work done by contractors and companies this last year. That could be a sign that there are more pressing issues, like the economy or whatever. Or maybe we are starting to get squared away, and the governments using us are getting squared away? Maybe.
We will always be scrutinized out there by the media and others, and that comes with the territory. But honestly, I have seen an overall increase in the use of security contractors world wide, and I have seen an increase in the willingness to use security contractors for all types of jobs. It is a dangerous and complex world out there, and this industry will continue to be called upon to do what is required. –Matt
January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010–
307,256 people visited this site, with 436,213 page views.
January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009–
129,409 people visited this site, with 187,698 page views.
January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008–
21,427 people visited this site, with 37,841 page views.
Top Ten Most Popular Titles
1. Feral Jundi
2. Funny Stuff: Potential
3. Jobs Category
4. Funny Stuff: Panzerhaubitze 2000 155mm Schaldampfer!
5. Mexico: Exclusive-Los Zetas Responds To Jax Desmond, And Puts A Hit Out On Company
6. Jobs: Personal Security Detail And Medical Personnel, Haiti
7. Weapons: The VSS Vintorez Russian Sniper Rifle
8. Jobs: Static Security And Mobile Security Positions, Haiti
9. Funny Stuff: Strength
10. Gear Review: Electronic Hearing Protection-MSA Versus Peltor
Top Ten Most Popular Keywords
1. Feral Jundi
2. Funny Stuff
3. Jax Desmond
4. Security Jobs In Haiti
5. Viktor Bout
6. Haiti Security Jobs
7. Jax Desmond Worldwide
8. Paravant
9. Electronic Hearing Protection Reviews
10. What Does Feral Jundi Mean?
Top Ten Visitors By Country
1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Canada
4. Germany
5. Australia
6. India
7. South Africa
8. France
9. Finland
10. United Arab Emirates
Top Ten Visitors By State In The US
1. California
2. Texas
3. Florida
4. Virginia
5. New York
6. North Carolina
7. Georgia
8. Illinois
9. Washington
10. Arizona
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Cool Stuff: DynCorp Employee James Boyd Honored For Heroic Efforts In Afghanistan
James’s portrait is not up yet on this website, but when it does come up I will put the word out. If you follow the link below for the ‘100 Faces of War Experience’, you will see what these portraits are all about. To have a DynCorp guy being represented on this website is really cool and an honor for the company and this industry. –Matt
DynCorp Employee Honored for Heroic Efforts in Afghanistan
By John Adams
December 29, 2010
DynCorp International police trainer James Boyd will be recognized in the “100 Faces of War Experience” portrait in honor of his actions during an insurgent attack on his outpost in Afghanistan earlier this year.
While embedded with the U.S. military, Boyd’s outpost came under fire from a group of insurgents. Boyd repeatedly braved bullets and bombs, scrambling back-and-forth across the compound to get medical bags and stretchers, lend aid and supported the team working to keep the enemy from breaching the compound wall.
According to the firm, “Boyd has supported efforts to train the Afghan border police under DI’s contract with the Department of State’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) since Nov. 2009.”
“The civilian police mentors and trainers that we have working in Afghanistan and around the world exhibit quiet acts of heroism every day,” said Don Ryder, DI vice president of the company’s training, mentoring and security programs. “James’ dedication to the mission and to helping others is a great example of the selfless contributions being made by those deployed overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is fitting that he will be honored in this exhibit.”
“A lot of people have asked about my efforts that day,” Boyd said. “I’m a trained police officer and when something like this happens, while most people react by running away from danger, we are trained to run toward it and see how we can help. That is what I did.”
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Sunday, December 26, 2010
Legal News: Senate Passes Key Defense Policy Bill Filled With Contractor Oversight Mechanisms
The key thing here is that this bill was passed just in time to deal with DynCorp’s billion dollar contract. Which is great. I would certainly hope that the government would actually care about how this money is spent and that they get their money’s worth. Although my view on the thing is that actions speak louder than words, and I will believe it when I see some actual adult supervision on this stuff.
I really liked the last provision listed which “prohibits small arms contracts from being awarded on a sole source basis and require those contracts be awarded based on full and open competition in order to get the best weapons for our troops in combat.” Wow, that is cool! Hopefully this will open up things a little to all companies out there, and contribute to a truly innovative and vibrant competition that would result in getting the best possible weapons into the hands of the troops. –Matt
Senate Passes Key Defense Policy Bill with McCaskill Provisions
December 22, 2010
Senator’s provisions will improve healthcare and benefits for military, increase contracting oversight, and address F/A-18 shortfall.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill applauded the passage of a major defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2011, which was passed unanimously by the Senate this morning. The NDAA outlines funding levels for the Department of Defense (DoD) for the coming fiscal year and addresses major defense policy matters. When the bill passed the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCaskill, who serves as a member of the committee, was able to win inclusion of several important amendments in the bill that will help improve access to healthcare for the military and improve oversight of DoD contractors. Despite fairly significant changes to the bill before final passage, many of her measures were included in the final bill.
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Saturday, December 25, 2010
Industry Talk: DynCorp Awarded One Billion Dollars For Training And Mentoring In Afghanistan
Now this is impressive. But what is even more impressive is DynCorp not mentioning a peep of this award in a press release. This will be a huge endeavor and all eyes will be on this company. For their sake, and for the sake of the war effort, I hope they will get it right out there. –Matt
December 23, 2010
DynCorp International, LLC, Falls Church, Va., was awarded on Dec. 20 a $1,043,726,525 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for specialized training and mentoring services for the government of Afghanistan, and provide logistics and life support components for 14 training facilities in Afghanistan. Work will be performed in Afghanistan with an estimated completion date of Aug. 19, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet with eight bids received. The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-11-C-0053).