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Monday, December 20, 2010
Podcasts: Interview With Peter Stiff, Author Of The Covert War (Koevoet)
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Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Letter Of Marque: The Morgan Doctrine–A Blog Dedicated To Exploring The Cyber Privateer Concept
This is neat. A couple of days ago, Rick Bennet popped up on the blog to discuss the Letter of Marque and cyber privateering and I thought it was cool that he had a blog dedicated to exploring the concepts. This is good because we need more folks with a different eye to pick this stuff apart. Be sure to also check out Rick’s book and I have provided the link below.
His recent post on Australia and the potential of them issuing a LoM is interesting, and I made the comment that the individual states there are free to structure their constitutions to allow things like ‘bills of attainder‘ . So a state setting up a Letter of Marque might not be a stretch. The Declaration of Paris comes into play as well, but if bills of attainder could be done, I don’t see how a LoM would be a bridge too far? So with that said, here is the link to his blog. –Matt
By Rick Bennett
Author of Destroying Angel
CYBER PRIVATEERS could be the new, effective, and highly paid army of swashbucklers. The Monroe Doctrine stated any attack in the Americas would be considered an attack on the United States. THE MORGAN DOCTRINE (after my fictional Morgan Rapier) asserts that any foreign cyber attack on US-based computers is an act of war, and retaliation (ie, looting) may take place on the perpetrator of that attack, wherever he/she/it may be located. Good policy or just a good novel?
Background: Welcome black hats, white hats and cyber swashbucklers
The Revolutionary War was fought, financed, and pretty well WON by bonded privateers, legalized pirates who were given Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the Continental Congress and authorized to attack, capture and monetize British ships. The purpose of this site is to explore the possibility of a modern-day doctrine much like the Monroe Doctrine, by means of which the U.S. government could legally and, more importantly, effectively stop international hackers. Current cybercrime law is not only ineffective, but downright stupid. My Linux servers are attacked hundreds of times a day (mostly from China and former USSR domains), yet if I retaliate against those servers with some creative technology at my disposal (I know some VERY smart guys), then I am in violation of federal law and subject to some onerous penalties. We need more than a new law. We need a new international doctrine. I call it The Morgan Doctrine, named after Morgan Rapier, a fictional character I’ve created (hey, this is my way of establishing ownership of the concept, should it ever see the light of day).
Why a new international doctrine? Simply, nothing else will work. Introduced on December 2, 1823, the Monroe Doctrine told the world to keep their hands off the Americas. Combine this with current legal thinking on “hot pursuit” of fugitives. In 1917 the US Army went into Mexico after Pancho Villa. More recently, in 1960 Israeli Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Granted, much of the world regards the Eichmann advanture as a violation of international law. I don’t share that opinion and therefore use it as the third leg of my Monroe-Pancho-Aldof platform for The Morgan Doctrine.
If someone comes into your home and attacks or attempts to rob you, you may shoot them dead. You may do so as long as they expire on your property. But what about cyber criminals? They attack you in your home from their homes. Retaliate in kind, and you go to jail. The Morgan Doctrine states simply that if you attack my computers (or my banking assets held in US-based computers), then under a certain set of well-defined conditions, a licensed and bonded “cyber privateer” may attack you in your home country and split the proceeds with the U.S. government. For the sake of argument, let’s call it a 50-50 split (heh heh).
Right now, American law enforcement is completely unequipped to deal with the sheer number international cyber hackers. Sure, I could report each of the thousand daily attacks to the FBI, as could the millions of other attackees in the USA. But the volume of such reports would make any meaningful resolution laughable. Not to mention that the FBI has no jurisdiction outside the USA. Yet to make such “enforcement” profitable to recognized (ie, “bonded” “deputized”) privateers, as Heath Ledger’s Joker said in his last role, “Now you’re talking!” You raid our bank accounts, we raid yours. You make money from off-shore child pornography, we’re going to loot your bank accounts and, with some REALLY creative black hat operations, you will be taken off the grid worldwide to the extent that you’ll not even complete a cell phone conversation for the remainder of your miserable depraved life. Okay, that last part probably won’t fly, but you get my drift.
The purpose of this site is to explore the mechanics, legalities and practicality of The Morgan Doctrine.
And I will be the sole arbiter of whether or not your comments get posted. As Mel Brooks wrote, “It’s good to be king.”
Link to blog here.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Afghanistan: The War Between State Capitalism And Free Markets
But executives with international mining firms said in interviews that while they believed that Afghanistan’s mineral deposits held great potential, their businesses were not planning to move into the country until the war was over and the country more stable.
“There are huge deposits there,” said David Beatty, chief executive of Rio-Novo Gold, a mining company based in Toronto. “But as chief executive, would I send a team to Kandahar? And then call a guy’s wife after he gets shot? No.”
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I was reading an excellent book the other day called “The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations” by Ian Bremmer, and it was quite the read. Basically, if you track the actions of countries like China in places like Iraq, Africa or Afghanistan, you start to get the idea that something is going on here. That state owned companies have the advantage over private industry in these war ravaged and resource rich countries. That reality is what worries me, and in the larger battle over resources in this world, we need to make some adjustments.
The problem is that private industry just does not want to take the risk of entering these places, because there is just too much liability. Besides, a private company does not have the full weight and support of a country behind it, but a Chinese owned company does. That is a huge advantage.
I have talked about clashes before between free markets and state capitalism in the past, and a prime example was the battle between China and Google. Another example was between Chinese companies and all of the privately owned oil companies going after contracts in Iraq. In both examples, China is able to win contracts or do whatever they want to bend the markets to their advantage, all because they have the full strength of a country behind such endeavors. They can absorb risk, do whatever they want to their people, pay whatever they want, etc., and this hybrid machine called state capitalism is definitely a factor to deal with in the market place.
So how do companies compete against such a thing? That is a question that I am not qualified to answer. The book provides some answers, and I highly suggest folks to check it out. All I can provide in this conversation are some ideas to alleviate concerns about risk in these countries. Private security is what private industry (along with free market supporting governments like the US) uses to protect their investments, and that is what I specialize in. In this war between state capitalism and free markets, security contractors are right there on the front lines.
One thing that can happen to help in our fight against state capitalism, is for capitalist countries to empower private security to do their job. If you make it impossible or difficult for us to be effective, then of course the risk will go up for those investors. This is a fine line to walk, but it is necessary to address if you want to benefit from that free markets that capitalism needs in order to flourish.
Now with Afghanistan, we have a deal where Chinese companies are aggressively pursuing these mineral claims and the rest of the world wants nothing to do with the things. They fear the risk due to the war and politics of the region, and rightly so. With that said, all and effort must be made by the coalition to make that market more attractive to private industry and to allow private industry to do what it needs to do in order to alleviate that risk. Because right now, we are losing that war between state capitalism and free markets in the places where the West has done all of the heavy lifting and dying. –Matt
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Afghanistan Moves Quickly to Tap Newfound Mineral Reserves
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and MUJIB MASHAL
June 17, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Ministry of Mines announced Thursday that it would take the first steps toward opening the country’s reserves to international investors at a meeting next week in London even as Afghans expressed a mixture of hope and doubt about the government’s commitment to develop the country’s newly documented mineral wealth.
The focus of the meeting will be the Hajigak area of Bamian Province, which has major iron ore deposits, the Mines Minister, Wahidullah Shahrani, said at a news conference here.
It was Mr. Shahrani’s first public appearance since news that the country had at least $1 trillion in untapped mineral resources became public after an article appeared Monday in The New York Times that detailed findings of the Pentagon and United States Geological Survey. Afghan officials described the $1 trillion estimate conservative and said their estimates suggested the reserves could be worth as much as $3 trillion.
“This good news has the potential of adding a lot of value to the economy of Afghanistan and it will serve the development of Afghanistan,” Mr. Shahrani said.
The previously unknown deposits include huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium. With so many minerals that are essential to modern industry, Afghanistan could be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, according to American officials.
Two hundred mining investors from around the world have been invited to next week’s meeting in London where they will offer suggestions for how to develop the iron ore deposits at Hajigak, said Craig Andrews, the principal mining specialist for Afghanistan for the World Bank.
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Thursday, June 3, 2010
Books: Secret Commandos–Behind Enemy Lines With The Elite Warriors Of SOG
This is a great book, and is just one of many that Mr. Plaster has written over the years about SOG. What is cool is that I continue to get something new out of these books, every time I flip through them. Lots of battlefield innovation going on there and they should definitely be on your reading list.
The one area that I wanted to talk about with these books, was the North Vietnamese tracker teams that were tasked with hunting down these SOG teams. On page 54-55 of this book, Mr. Plaster goes into detail about what it was like to be hunted by these NVA tracking teams, and it was fascinating.
One of the deals I picked up on was the use of CS powder to throw off the dogs the Vietnamese would use. Although, according to the SOG troopers, it was skilled trackers who were more feared than dog teams. The reason for that is because a human can read the land and knows to keep their mouth shut.(the dogs were noisy, and only as good as the handlers) The NVA tracking teams would also drive teams purposely into traps.
The one story that Plaster talked about was being followed by a tracker team that wanted to be heard. Plaster’s SOG team figured out that the trackers were purposely trying to spook the recon team into paths, or channeling them into NVA blocking forces/ambushes. What made these trackers so effective, was how well they knew their little piece of land they were assigned along the Ho Chi Minh trail and their ability to read spoor. As a result, many SOG teams feared these trackers and had to plan accordingly. Many SOG teams were also killed and a few captured due to the efforts of these trackers. Having a knowledge of combat tracking in that environment, was just one key to the success of SOG troopers operating in such a hostile environment.
My other favorite part was Project Eldest Son. This was basically booby trapping ammunition, and planting that ammo on dead NVA soldiers that the teams would kill. This ammo was designed to destroy the AK when it was fired, as well as hurting or killing the soldier firing it. These types of operations would put doubt into the quality of ammunition the NVA troops were getting from the Chinese, and then hopefully hinder the relationship between China and Vietnam at the time. That was the idea at least.
One other story that I liked was about Bob Howard’s team and their use of Nightingales. These were distraction devices designed to make the enemy think they are being fired upon, when in fact they were just firecrackers going off. Pretty slick. But how the team used it, and the end result, was fantastic. The SOG team decided to slip one of these devices right into the center of a camp of NVA. When it went off, the NVA woke up and thought that an enemy attack was happening right in their camp. And because the SOG teams were known to dress up like the NVA and use their same weapons (pseudo operations), the NVA instantly thought that a SOG team was attacking. The funny thing was, is that there was no SOG team attacking and the chaos was being fueled by panicked NVA and the Nightingale. The outcome is what was really crazy. The NVA was actually shooting at each other and killing one another. It is the kind of results that would make the Joker from Batman giggle. In the end, the NVA camp was littered with dead and the SOG troopers were able to escape unharmed.
Anyways, check it out and let me know what you think. These books have been around for awhile, and they are great reads while out on deployment. On a side note, the video game called Call of Duty: Blackops has a story line based on the MACV SOG missions.(Mr. Plaster advised on that game) –Matt
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Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG
John L. Plaster
SOG was the Studies and Observations Group, a U.S. Army organization that operated behind enemy lines in the Vietnam War. It gathered intelligence and was responsible for rescuing downed pilots, identifying bombing targets, kidnapping enemy officers, wiretapping phone lines, ambushing convoys, and mining the Ho Chi Minh trail. Plaster shares details of his training in Fort Bragg as a Green Beret before being sent to Vietnam, where he served three one-year tours in SOG. He chronicles the group’s operations and portrays the soldiers he worked with there. Some readers may find too much here about fighting a war that many people today believe should have never happened, but the book nonetheless is an intriguing first-person account of this elite group’s intrepid operations.
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