Feral Jundi

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Pakistan: Afghan Taliban Military Chief Captured, Aides Confirm

   Wow.  What a catch, and I certainly hope they are able to get all the information they can out of this guy in order for us to get closer to Usama Bin Laden or Mullah Omar.  We can only hope, and this is some outstanding war news. –Matt

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Afghan Taliban Military Chief Captured, Aides Confirm 

By Eltaf Najafizada and James Rupert

Feb. 16, 2010

The Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was captured by U.S.-led forces in what may be the most significant blow to the eight- year insurgency.

Baradar, who has directed daily operations as deputy to Mullah Omar, was seized last week, two Taliban officials said. They disputed a report by the New York Times earlier today that he was nabbed in Karachi by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence teams. Baradar is undergoing joint interrogation, the Times said, citing unnamed American government officials.

The capture of Baradar, whom various reports say is about 40 years old, comes as U.S., British and Afghan soldiers advance into Southern Afghanistan in the biggest offensive against the Taliban since the beginning of the war in 2001. His detention could hamper insurgent operations for months, said Waheed Mujda, an Afghan analyst and former Taliban official.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Maritime Security: Lessons From Sri Lanka For Combating Terrorists At Sea

   This was a cool little report, and I had no idea that LTTE was conducting swarming attacks like this. This also gives me pause in regards to our current maritimes security challenges.  What if Somali pirates started using swarming methods in order to take down boats?  Could a security team on a ship, hold off 25 to 30 speed boats, all buzzing around a ship like angry bees? Do security teams have the kind of firepower necessary to sustain a defense against something like this? Who knows, but it is something to think about.

   The other concern is if Al Qaeda and all of their little proxies started using the techniques of LTTE in order kick off some kind of sea based terror campaign?  Well low and behold, I just found a little report that barely got any mention of just such a thing. All I know is having a good defensive plan on a boat, with sufficient firepower (and a QRF if possible), will be key.  Especially for the ships that are massive floating bombs, like the natural gas tankers.  I could see a swarm attack against one of those just in order to capture it (much like terrorists hijacked a ship for their attack in Mumbai), then rig the thing for detonation and run it into a city port or industrial port somewhere.

   As for the professional navies out there and their defense?  I think they are pretty much covered for the defense, with plenty of armaments and surveillance stuff. But they are not immune either, and instances like the USS Cole attack in Yemen, are a prime example of such things. Check it out. –Matt

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Current maritime challenges, a Sri Lankan perspective

January 9, 2010

The summerised version of the speech delivered by Navy commander Vice Admiral TSG Samarasinghe at the biannual Langkawi International Maritime Conference and Maritime Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) at Langkawi Island, Malaysia in December 2009 on the theme “The changing nature of maritime security: challenges and the application of technology”.

Most of you seafarers, would have passed this Dondra-light many a time. As an island nation with this strategic location, the Sri Lanka Navy has a huge task and responsibility in protecting the territorial the contiguous and the Exclusive Economic Zone with the added responsibility of a large search and rescue region and in the near future a even large area after ratification of the continental margins.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Publications: Pseudo Operations And COIN: Lessons From Other Countries, By Dr. Lawrence E. Cline

   If you have the time, check out this excellent paper.  I loved it, because this is the kind of stuff that we need to be doing more of in this war. All it takes is one guy that we can use to deeply penetrate into Osama Bin Laden’s network or some drug cartel, and we could effectively dismantle those operations.

   Dr. Cline gave a big mention to the Selous Scouts in this treatment of the subject, and brought up numerous other groups that had conducted pseudo operations in their wars.

   Towards the end of the article, he builds a snowmobile out of all of this data from all of these other countries, and puts together a pretty good ‘lessons learned’ of how to do pseudo operations correctly:

1. Money counts.

2. The alternative to cooperation can be dire.

3. Coordination is critical.

4. Breaking guerrilla communications systems is a key tool.

5. Effectiveness of pseudo operations depends in large part on

the effectiveness of response forces.

6. The role of “turned” guerrillas is critical.

   The two big components of turning enemy combatants it seems, is money and leveraging the choice of harsh incarceration or execution. That, and treating the captives really well in the beginning and having a really well planned system of turning these folks. It is quite clear though, that pseudo operations can be effective, and they are not impossible to do. It ain’t easy either, because if it was, everyone would be doing it successfully.

   One of the things that is working against the US for pseudo operations, is that we detain terrorists with no chance of execution. There is nothing scary at all about our detention, despite what the media might have the public believe .  If anything, terrorists want to go to Gitmo, so they can conduct propaganda campaigns for their cause while in detention.  They love the idea that they can continue to live and wage jihad from a cell. The paradox though, is that they want to be martyred, so execution would be cool with them as well. So right there is one factor working against us for doing pseudo operations. Still, I think there are other incentives that we could use in order to turn these guys, and we should leave no stone unturned with a pseudo operation strategy.

   Finally, the one theme that repeated throughout the paper, is that pseudo forces should focus primarily on information collection.  When you involve them in more kinetic stuff, that tends to muck up everything.  So whatever turned guerrillas or terrorists you use, it would probably be best to use them just to collect information and have a very flexible and quick reaction force to work off of that information. And to figure out a means of not accidently killing good guys or screwing up the pseudo operator’s operation. Lot’s to think about, but I really think this is the kind of stuff we need to do more of.

   Now to put my industry hat on.  Could a PMC offer these type of services?  If a company was able to claim some kind of speciality in turning guerillas and terrorists, that is the kind of service that would really give states an advantage in their wars. Hell, I know non-states are already doing this kind of thing, and you see examples of it everywhere in this war. But if a company had a proprietary method for turning folks within the framework of international law, and within the laws of that host/contracting country, you could probably name your price. Especially if you were able to produce results. –Matt

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Pseudo Operations and Counterinsurgency: Lessons from Other Countries

June 2005

Authored by Dr. Lawrence E. Cline

SUMMARY

Pseudo operations, in which government forces and guerrilla defectors portray themselves as insurgent units, have been a very successful technique used in several counterinsurgency campaigns. Pseudo teams have provided critical human intelligence and other support to these operations.

These operations, although of considerable value, also have raised a number of concerns. Their use in offensive missions and psychological operations campaigns has, at times, been counterproductive. In general, their main value has been as human intelligence collectors, particularly for long-term background intelligence or for identifying guerrilla groups that then are assaulted by conventional forces. Care must be taken in running these operations both to avoid going too far in acting like guerrillas, and in resisting becoming involved in human rights abuses.

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Al Qaeda: Al Qaeda Linked To Rogue Aviation Network

   I posted an article about this awhile back, but it was not as comprehensive as this report.  This is pure narco-terrorism, and should definitely cause alarm. Eeben wrote an excellent post about narco-terrorism, and I think this article is a good supplement to what he was talking about. –Matt

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Al Qaeda linked to rogue aviation network

By Tim Gaynor and Tiemoko Diallo Tim Gaynor And Tiemoko Diallo

Wed Jan 13, 2010

TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) – In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called “the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11.”

The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa’s most unstable countries.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.

The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.

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Saturday, January 9, 2010

Technology: The Drone Wars

   This is a good briefing on where we are at politically and strategically with the use of drones. –Matt

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The Drone Wars

January 9, 2010

Weapons like the Predator kill far fewer civilians.

The Obama Administration has with good reason taken flak for its approach to terrorism since the Christmas Day near-bombing over Detroit. So permit us to laud an antiterror success in the Commander in Chief’s first year in office.

Though you won’t hear him brag about it, President Obama has embraced and ramped up the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. As tactic and as a technology, drones are one of the main U.S. advantages that have emerged from this long war. (IEDs are one of the enemy’s.) Yet their use isn’t without controversy, and it took nerve for the White House to approve some 50 strikes last year, exceeding the total in the last three years of the Bush Administration.

From Pakistan to Yemen, Islamic terrorists now fear the Predator and its cousin, the better-armed Reaper. So do critics on the left in the academy, media and United Nations; they’re calling drones an unaccountable tool of “targeted assassination” that inflames anti-American passions and kills civilians. At some point, the President may have to defend the drone campaign on military and legal grounds.

(more…)

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