ICReach

ICReach is as obvious as the writing on the wall for those that will read it.  It does not take much intelligence to read it.  Not any more to put 2 and 2 together.  Of course there is vast capability to search the massive data base of intelligence information.  That is what all that data was gathered for!  The only more obvious thing is that capability and application certainly go far beyond what is described at this revealing link.  How the NSA Built its Own Secret Google.

The magnitude of the revelation equals "Water is wet".  Surprise, surprise.  The capability is there and easily scales to any magnitude when the data is defined by established standards.

What is the really important aspect of collecting all this private secret information?

Duh, duh, wow this is a tough question.  Could you put it in a sentence to give it a frame of reference????

Here is a shortcut to the answer:  Application.  Otherwise known as use.  Sometimes called doing something with it.

Doing what? 

Whatever is the mission of the user, however the user wants to apply it maybe even independent of the mission.  That however is not called unauthorized use.  It is called "Mission Creep".  Maybe called creative application to do things that were never done before.

The problem with application of secret sources and methods is that application reveals their existence.  Its the classic problem of letting our own soldiers die in war or incur needless loss of civilian life because to reveal what capabilities exist would cause even more death, destruction and abrogate future tactical or strategic application to win whatever conflict or mission accomplishment goals are the the intent of secret means and methods.  The protection of secret capabilities prevents the development of counter measures until the development of the counter measures is not possible in any significant way.

That is a dilemma on the part of those that control secret capabilities.  The dilemma is how to have your cake and eat it too.  Especially domestically when the mission of the the entire secret structure is foreign oriented but all the domestic data is available to an equal extent but law says it can't be used.  What law?  The one that is eroding.  Maybe being refined.  Maybe simple given up to gain Homeland Security.

How to apply the ICReach capability domestically to get bad guys.  That is a problem of a rock and a hard place.  Probably assigned to the PR department and I would guess the best solution is to get the population to demand it.  It is an authoritarian control issue, how to get people to demand or at least accept authoritarian control. 

The first requirement is to get acceptance and support from those that run the secret programs.  Get them to agree that the Constitution is not a suicide pact.  That is something they have already signed on to otherwise there would be more Snowdens.  They all believe that what they have to do what they have to do for the good of the country and it is better that the country not know what they have to do.

Proving to those that would authorize secret use that the domestic war on (whoever we are warring on domestically) is won with private data on citizens is a the start.  The the most despicable target is chosen.  Child trafficers for example.  Killers.  Kidnappers.  Whoever is the worst bad guy de jour.  Use all the secret resources to identify who they are and where they are in real time and all of the data driven information that says they are in fact the bad guy.  That is what we are doing with drone strikes.  The domestic version of a drone strike is a SWAT Team. 

When the analysts go to their top level seniors and say that they know with a probable statistical accuracy of where most Child Trafficers are in real time in the USA and have sufficient secret information conclusive evidence to convict them (if it could be used but it can't....fruit of the forbidden tree) then there is compelling reason to get the bad guys or figure out a way to get them with or without the law.

Does anyone think that the leadership of secrets based government entities do not want to get all the known bad guys in this country and believe it is their duty to do so by the means available to them?

So far, there is the legal way to do it.  Or the twisted way of lip service to the law to do it.  If they do more of it the sources and methods used to do it become apparent.  Apparent that they must be recording all data on everyone all the time or they would not know what they know about the small target segment of "bad guys".    That they can find the needle in the haystack and there is nowhere for it to hide.  They have to have the organized searchable haystack with billions of recorded data points and billions arriving in real time.

Publicly there are claimed reasons to disguise the application of secret methods and sources.  They are "Parallel Construction" excuses that are reasonable.  Or reasonable at least to those that do not want to look to close.  "Routine traffic stop" is one where drugs are found.  "Confidential Informant" is another.  The confidential informant happens to be a cell phone spoofer and the entire intelligence system that tracks the bad guy.

We could put all the worst criminals behind bars if the gloves came off and we could pursue them domestically like we do the terrorists.  To do so would reveal that we are collecting info on everyone all the time to find the bad needle in real time, anytime.  Like a traffic camera on steroids to get the speeders, it looks at all of us and we have accepted that.

I am not sure where we are going with the application of intelligence sources and methods domestically but I think the general course and speed as well as the means and ways to get there are self evident.

Robb Channeling Boyd

John Robb applies John Boyd thinking like he is channeling Boyd at this link I found this morning via Naked Capitalism.

While I was at Crystal City in my last significant navy assignment in 1984 someone said I should go over to the Pentagon and talk to some guy who had out of the mainstream ideas like I did.  However mine were in the logistic area and I don't know if he was referring to Boyd but it sounds like the guy.  Boyd's tactics are universal for application to and understanding any adversarial challenge.  The kind of challenge he could dominate in about 3 moves and have control of any situation.

Robb comes from the Boyd school.  There are others that carry on the Boyd thinking, fortunately, and it remains outside the mainstream but that is where thought leadership is often found.  Great ideas outlive the man.

Robb writes about equipment and warfare tools from battlefield weapons to software ibots and psych warfare.  He strays into other areas, including money and finance and politics which is another warfare battlefield where the same adversarial sand dominance situations apply. 

Money and finance are modern global warfare weapons and I am sure that Robb recognizes that but they are complex weapons that are not easily understood because a component of a financial weaponized system is not just overt secrecy in its use but complexity that serves just as well and also the some purpose objective of secrecy.  While Financial Warfare might be complex in its battlefield small arms weapons of choice macro analysis of obvious Financial strategies like Reserve Currency domination is apparent.

Maybe there is a "Boyd Thinker" somewhere that is applying the thinking primarily to Financial Warfare.  Whoever it is I would hope the person is not on the Darth Vader Dark Side.

Miltarization of Forces

The "ARMY WORKING CAPITAL FUND FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2013 PRESIDENT’S BUDGET" (very dry stuff)
starts with this statement:  Everybody including the desk warriors wants to identify with the military with militarized thinking and action. 

Army Civilian Corps Creed
I am an Army civilian – a member of the Army team. I am dedicated to our Army, our Soldiers and civilians. I will always support the mission.
I provide stability and continuity during war and peace.
I support and defend the Constitution of the United States and consider it an honor to serve our nation and our Army.
I live the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.
I am an Army civilian.

Algorithmic Regulation Revisited

In this prior blog entry I commented on Algorithmic. Lambert Strether comments on it at this link:

Algorithmic Regulation "Code is Law" and the case of Ferguson. 

My prior blog entry was ignited by the thought of Algorithmic Regulation and some initial thinking about it:

"An Operating System as an Algorithmic Regulation processor shifts the line of thought about good and bad to a highly defined and structured conceptual social control system.  A system that addresses the nature of both cause and effect in social system structures.

At this point roaming general thoughts about good and bad stuff driving our lives and the broader nature of the collective life called society the application of AR like an operating system becomes very fascinating.

With a little time out to go kayaking I will come back to that fascinating idea that the AR link presented."

Lambert presents some interesting ideas.   He also wanders around various aspects but gives much more to think about.  Algorithmic is cut and dried logic.  Application to social system strurctures in the manner of a computer operating system?  Very interesting.

Nearing his conclusion Lambert writes this:

"In short form, we have politics to handle wicked problems; they cannot be handled algorithmically. This example is from fisheries (a common pool resource) but can be generalized:

Inspired by Rittel and Webber [Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences 1973;4:155-69], it is argued that fisheries and coastal governance is confronted with problems that are inherently “wicked.” Problems are wicked (as opposed to “tame”) when they are difficult to define and delineate from other and bigger problems and when they are not solved once and for all but tend to reappear. Wicked problems have no technical solution, it is not clear when they are solved, and they have no right or wrong solution that can be determined scientifically. Instead, for wicked problems governance must rely on the collective judgment of stakeholders [for example, the people of Ferguson] involved in a process that is experiential, interactive and deliberative.

True, solution in detail cannot be determined scientifically.  The program code cannot be written in lines of code to solve the problem.  The general problem domain however is by nature systemic and systemic systems "wicked problems" are approached in and Object Oriented Analysis method to work toward solution.  Lambert is hung up on the code, which of course comes as the last solution to the problem domain.

This was Lamberts very first line:  I had to puzzle over it until I got to the end of his comments:

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil. –Donald Knuth"

Absolutely true, I guess.  Writing the code before the entire system has been designed tested and validated conceptually is certainly the root of all evil.  Approaching wicked problems however in an Object Oriented Analysis manner is the beginning of the solution that ultimately ends in code, even if that code is written in Natural Language.

The comments in response to what Lambert wrote are various excellent views and contributions of the readers that enlighten the Problem Doamain.

Speculating on Militarized Police Forces

The "heavy" imagery of militarized policing are the mine resistant and armored vehicles.  They are the up close and personal full frontal representation of overwhelming police force presence.  They are hand me downs from special military mission requirements and tactics.

The obvious requirement for mine resistant and armored military vehicles is safe, rapid transport through hostile environments where they are targets of enemy forces to destinations where ground forces and/or vehicle support of heavier weapons firepower is required for troops delivered by these vehicles.  That is a self evident delivery mission.  Extraction from a hot zone is merely the reverse mission running the same possible gamut.  That is the in and the out.  While on station in a hot zone the role the requirements are different.  Mobility positioning on station remains important but positioning is obviously tied to the proximate location of the troops it delivered and changes in their tactical location offense or defense advantage.  That is just all speculation but reasonable?

Police don't run a gamut of positioned opposition firepower or prepared mine placement to get to the scene of operations needing armored and mine resistant vehicles.  They do well in patrol cars with sirens to clear the way.  Most patrol cars seem to have big bumpers to move those vehicles that do not get out of the way.  They are not often even cars but more often SUV's now.  Insertion and extraction protection and safety of domestic police forces to scenes of unrest are less critical than military urban warfare?  Probably.  Especially considering that the opposition is civilian.  Large numbers of civilians.  Large enough perhaps that could surround the "heavy" military vehicles.  That would be a problem.   The problem:  How to get out of that situation?  The answer is don't get into it.  The way out would not be easy, surrender not an option and it would all be televised or video recorded.

Rules of engagement cannot be established and mutually agreed upon with domestic civilians involved in civil disturbance.  ROE is determined by the police force,  what they will and will not do.  Militarized police forces are a de facto statement of ROE that they and the police forces and installed weapons they carry may and will potentially be used when and if necessary.  Necessary to protect the lives of police in the face of perceived deadly threat.   The military credo of none left behind meme.  That is a setup for disaster.   It is also ironic because "serve and protect" is a police force meme.  An open ended meme until who is being served and protected is defined.

Blurring the lines between military and police is a national issue.  When police adopt military equipment, military style and military perception of "enemy forces"  there is no doubt about what they are more like.

What is the answer?

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it is going to shoot like a duck.

"Militarized Police Don't Calm Things Down" 
"Every item distributed to local law enforcement by the Pentagon's 1033 program over two years"


Something else that enables the purchase of military style equipment that is not documented by direct transfer from military stores is Stimulus Funding to local communities as well a Homeland Security grants and other governmental grants that provided funds to police forces for discretionary purchase of whatever they wanted.

The police could just as well ride into battle in a school bus as within the protection of a mine resistant vehicle that once at the scene is practically no better than a school bus as far as defensive/offensive value.  Strategic withdrawal  in  school bus is the same situation as in a Bearcat if it is surrounded by demonstrating civilians.  What is the driver going to do?  Run them down?  Tiananmin square?  One thing that police forces are trained to do is to always give an avenue for demonstrators to disperse.  Never block them in or surround them.  Maybe there should be a civilian Geneva Conventions Rules of Engagement that dictates civilian demonstrators give the police the same opportunity.  That, of course would require civilian command and control of the demonstration.  What a funny situation but there are terms of civilized warfare?  What about the Riot Act?  Rules of Engagement is a strange concept.  Gandhi had his rules, so did Martin Luther King Jr.

On another matter:  Getting to the origin cause of all this militarized equipment flowing to police forces:  It is excess to military requirements.  Rules and regulations dictate that excess is not to be retained, it must be disposed.  Excess material by its very official definition must be disposed or otherwise be redefined as something else like Pre-positioned War Reserves. 

I wonder if the official root cause of the flow of militarized equipment to police forces is the requirement to dispose of officially designated "excess material".  Material that by specific coding is military and cannot be disposed of by normal surplus sales to non-government and even non-police government entities.  Friendly foreign military entities are a possibility.  What if nobody will take the excess material at give away prices?  Our police will.  Otherwise de-militarization means destruction unless it is a demilitarized weapon to be displayed in a public park as a memorial or for kids to play on.

Moving excess militarized equipment out of DLA or Army inventories is always a way to buy more.  Especially if the equipment is financed by a Working Capital revolving stock fund.  Sale or disposal of equipment in stock funded stores frees the value of sold or disposed equipment to be invested in new stores inventory.  Rules for Working Capital Funds are established by this section of US Code.

This document describes the Army Working Capital Fund.

Big ticket items are usually funded by appropriation purchase accounts, not the military revolving stock fund account.  I don't know what account funds Bercats but lesser value stock inventories are funded by revolving funds.

This link is a long boring description of Military Accounting

Simple:  There are two types of funding mechanisms:  Appropriations Accounts (Fiscal Year Budgets) and Revolving Accounts (non-appropriated funding).  Military end users of equipment buy for their direct use using their budget dollars (Operation and Maintenance Funds).  They either buy directly from non-government sources or from government stocks that are Working Capital Funded to provide goods and services on a revolving fund basis.  That funding basis is this:  When an item in inventory (or service/material in an Industrial Revolving Account) is sold the end use military customer payment received for the item is available for re-investment in inventory.  Some amount of the payment is a surcharge to fund the administrative cost of operating the Revolving Working Capital Fund.

There are strong management controls on excess inventory financed by Military Working Capital Funds.  Excess material that is not selling, which is the definition of excess material but the technical definition is much more complicated based on past sales and future projections and the type of material and nature of the requirement.  Basically, if inventory is selling, more can be bought to replace it.  If it is not selling then that is bad for business.  

What "excess" may be operating behind the donation of excess stock of military equipment to police forces.  Is this used equipment?  Certainly not in the case of ammunition!  How much is coming out of new Working Capital Funded stock.  Excess disposal, and in the case of militarized material that cannot be excessed to civilian entities, only to police forces or foreign military sales, is coming out of the Working Capital Fund stocks that free up the investment in that material for the purpose of stock replenishment with new (hopefully different!) stock?

That is an excellent question!

So, what funds Bearcats held in stock inventories?  That means brand new Bearcats.  Appropriation Account or Working Capital Account.

There are two types of Condition Codes.  One is for stock held in inventory.  The other is for stock held by DRMO disposal activity.

These are the Milstrip Federal Condition Codes:

FEDERAL CONDITION CODE

NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: TYPE OF CODE: EXPLANATION:

One Alpha/Numeric
There are two different and distinct condition codes under the definition of Federal Condition Codes:

1. Supplyconditioncodesareusedtoclassify materiel in terms of readiness for issue and use or to identify action underway to change the status of materiel.
   
2. Disposalconditioncodesareassignedbythe DRMO based on inspection of materiel at time of receipt. A combination of the disposal condition codes, which most accurately describe the materiel physical condition, and the supply condition codes will constitute the Federal condition codes for utilization program screening and review purpose.
   

These are the Milstip Supply Condition Codes:

NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: TYPE OF CODE: EXPLANATION:
RECORD POSITIONS: TITLE
RECO RD POSITI ONS:
CODE

One Alphabetic
Classify materiel in terms of readiness for issue and use or to identify action underway to change the status of materiel. When materiel is determined to be in excess of approved stock levels and/or no longer serviceable, Supply Condition Codes A through H and S will be utilized to reflect materiel condition prior to turn-in to the DRMO.1

A SERVICEABLE (ISSUABLE WITHOUT QUALIFICATION)

EXPLANATION
New, used, repaired, or reconditioned materiel which is serviceable and issuable to all customers without limitation or restriction. Includes materiel with more than 6 months shelf- life remaining. 

CODE

2. B  SERVICEABLE (ISSUABLE WITH QUALIFICATION)
   
3. C  SERVICEABLE (PRIORITY ISSUE)
   
4. D  SERVICEABLE (TEST/ MODIFICATION)
   
5. E  UNSERVICEABLE (LIMITED RESTORATION)
   

DoD 4000.25-2-M, January 2006 Change 4
EXPLANATION
New, used, repaired, or reconditioned materiel which is serviceable and issuable for its intended purpose but which is restricted from issue to specific units, activities, or geographical areas by reason of its limited usefulness or short service life expectancy. Includes materiel with 3 through 6 months shelf-life remaining.
Items which are serviceable and issuable to selected customers, but which must be issued before Supply Condition Codes A and B materiel to avoid loss as a usable asset. Includes materiel with less than 3 months shelf-life remaining.
Serviceable materiel which requires test, alteration, modification, technical data marking, conversion, or disassembly. This does not include items which must be inspected or tested immediately prior to issue.
Materiel which involves only limited expense or effort to restore to serviceable condition and which is accomplished in the SA where the stock is located. May be issued to support ammunition requisitions coded to indicate acceptability of usable condition E stock.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
These are the Milstrip "Disposal Condition Codes";  Material turned over to a disposal activity

DoD 4000.25-2-M, January 2006 Change 4
DISPOSAL CONDITION CODES

NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: TYPE OF CODE: EXPLANATION:
CODE DEFINITION

One Numeric
Assigned by DRMO to accurately describe the materiel physical condition based on inspection of materiel at time of receipt. DoD 4160.21-M is the authoritative source for the disposal condition code portion of the Federal condition code.

1 New. Property which is in new condition or unused condition and can be used immediately without modifications or repairs.
4 Usable. Property which shows some wear, but can be used without significant repair.
7 Repairable. Property which is unusable in its current condition but can be economically repaired.
X Salvage. Property which has value in excess of its basic materiel content but repair or rehabilitation is impractical and/or uneconomical.
S Scrap. Property which has no value except for its basic materiel content. 

What were the Bearcats?  Used by the Army and then turned in for disposal or taken out of new stock held in a Working Capital Fund and sent to disposal/offered through a disposal program from new stock?  Working Capital surely does not fund the procurement of this big ticket item.  However the smaller items may or most likely are from working capital stocks.

Militarized Police Force

Militarized policing is the current focus of public attention.  It has been brought to the spotlight by recent events in Ferguson Mo.  Previously it has been an emerging issue getting increasingly more attention, which it truly deserves.  The existence and use of military equipment in community policing is simply an extension of the self perceived nature and intent of institutional public police forces held by the police forces themselves independent of the public face of police policy to serve and protect.

Graphic pictures of military equipment in use by police forces are coming out of Ferguson Mo.  The equipment is "tip of the spear" stuff.  The equipment that delivers death and destruction with sound and fury.  That is what it was made for.  Offense first and foremost, protective defense of forces while executing its offense mission.

Biggest and baddest at representing the execution of force and authority control is the Bearcat built by Lenco.  It is the shock and awe vehicle of police force deployment against the civil population.  As if outfitted by a total package designer everything related to the use of this vehicle is military themed all the way down to desert boots.  The only theme choice offered is camouflage or Blackwater black.  Funny how tropical camouflage does not hide police well in an urban environment!  Black is better for night ops.

Along with military equipment comes military tactics that deliver the message that the equipment has an effective bite by trained forces.

This equipment and its use comes out and gets attention.  It is coming out more often as is the self perception of police forces regarding themselves, their mission, which is independent of formal public policy to serve and protect.

What is not seen is the secret intelligence gathering behind the use of militarized tip of the spear equipment and personnel.  The Federal government is the source of military equipment to police forces.  Communications and intelligence are the unseen logistical structure behind the tip of the spear.  It is a tooth to tail ratio that says there is more logistic support behind the tip of the spear than meets the eye.  While the business end of the spear comes out occasionally when needed, the back end logistics that support it are always at work gathering intelligence.

After dropping atom bombs on Japan we never dropped another for its intended purpose but secret intelligence gathering to support exactly that purpose was what employed substantial resources and those in the nuclear weapon program.

There are calls to reduce the militarization of the police forces.  Legislation to do that is being introduced.  Communities will certainly be re-considering their purchase of military tip of the spear equipment as well as its use.  What will not get attention is the militarization of police intelligence gathering.  Intelligence gathering that in a war scenario grants no rights to the enemy in the same manner that no rights, with few exceptions of conventions are granted in actual military combat.

There is second tier military industrial business opportunity in transfer of federal military combat hardware equipment to police forces.  Bearcats manned by police are obvious.  Military intelligence systems used by police forces are not so apparent, in fact they are generally secret.  The structure of police intelligence systems is locally present on a statewide basis at Fusion Centers.   Fusion Centers, in my opinion can be viewed as militarization of policing forces as much as the equipment in the street.

The Missouri Fusion Centers are at two locations:

Missouri Information and Analysis Center, 2302 Militia Drive Jefferson City, MO and

St. Louis Terrorism Early Warning Group, 7900 Forsyth Blvd, St. Louis MO

Militia drive is an excellent address for a military style operation!

While everyone is focused on Ferguson. what is going on at these Fusion Centers?  They are the back offices of militarized policing.  I would not be surprised in simple parking lot observation revealed that there are more cars parked around these areas now than before Ferguson became identified with militarized police operations.  It is an opportunity to test Fusion Center response to civil unrest.  Exactly how the Fusion Center is responding and in accordance with what rules and regulations and what laws would be of perhaps as much or even more public interest on a national scale as what is going on in the streets of Ferguson where the gloves came off publicly.

Federal agencies are now moving in to establish control in Ferguson.   It is obvious that their local point of command and control will be the Fusion Center.  While the Fusion Center is a partnership of federal, state, local and private entities, it would be interesting to see how this partnership operates in time of actual employment.  Insight into that operation will not be as simple as seeing what is going on in the streets.  I think that operation will however have far greater relationship to government exercise of the protection of civil rights and liberties according to the law than a yet to be determined violation of the law relating to a young black man.

Militarized Policing  An excellent analysis but we need to look at the militarized capabilities and methods behind the tip of the militarized police spear.
 

Robin Williams

Robin Williams.  A triathlete who supported Challenged Athletes.

I did this Challenged Athlete race with Robin and Rudy in 2005

Rudy later completed Ironman Arizona and attempted the Ironman in Kona in 2009.  I was there. They were both inspirations to me, Rudy was an inspiration to Robin.

Robin stood back so a kid without legs and a great heart could stand tall. 

New IBM Chip - Gigapixel Photo Analysis

The new IBM "brain" chip is the subject of many reports today.  This link is one of them.  I chose it because it presents the image recognition ability of the chip.

In a prior blog entry at this link I looked at gigapixel cameras.

Individual image recognition from a gigapixel photo in real time could probably be within the capability of this chip!

Surveillance on steroids with a chip like this!

Fighting Forest Fires - Two Bulls Fire

My letter to Senator Merkley:

The subject is defense of Oregon from fire.  Thanks for your email on the subject.

Recently I watched commercial aircraft drop fire retardant on the Two Bulls fire from my home in Bend.  Effective but not a full force "Shock and Awe" attack necessary to turn the tide and quickly stop the advance of the fire.

Since military retirement I have frequently flown on Air Force flights on various air craft all designed to deliver heavy payloads on target.  C5A, C141, C-17's  They should all be assigned the mission of fire fighting and equipped to undertake this mission as a rapid response.

The Air Force will say that is not their mission for these aircraft.  I think that it should be.  On several ships during my navy career we frequently conducted fire drills.  It was not an exercise where all hands were mustered to piss on the fire.  We attacked it with everything we had with the best weapons we had to fight it.  We attacked and defended in the same manner as going to General Quarters.

McChord AFB is home to these heavy lift aircraft.  Google Earth shows 22 of them on this base and 10 at Travis AFB.  There are more elsewhere.  A whole fleet of them. 

So many thing are called a war now.  This is a war on fire.  The Air Force should fit heavy lift aircraft with modular attack ability and come to the aid of two Ericson Aero Tankers that dropped retardant on the Two Bulls fire and a few helicopters that also participated.  Each tanker can drop 33,000 lbs. of retardant.  A C-17 has a 177,900 lbs. load capacity.

5 or 10 C-5 and C-17's in a row is shock and awe and what it takes to win a war on fire.  The Air Force Modular Airborne Fire Fighting (MAAF) system at 302nd Airlift Wing Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. is C-130 capable of dropping 2,700 lbs of retardant from a modular unit in the aircraft. 

We have better weapons available in the inventory to fight fires!
There is also a life saving aspect to attacking and stopping a fire fast and effectively.

Investigative Reporting - Pro Publica

Investigative reporting shines a light on things where the sun don't shine - and on those that have something to hide from the public.  Kim Barker, former reporter for ProPublica wrote this report published at Pro Publica exposing Move America Forward.  Well done, Kim!  If I was a kid again I would want to grow up to be an investigative reporter.  Fighting for truth and justice!  The antidote to a generally sick Big Media.

She exposes a big bag of worms.  I am sure that Move America Forward is squirming.  In the finest tradition of well honed flim flam to cover up a hoax and a charade I expect that they will come out fighting with the entire defense arsenal.  This type of organization and the Tea Party it is associated with are very good at turning lemons into lemonade or should I say kool aid to give the faithful to drink.

Kim is going to work for the New York times.  I sincerely hope she is not stifled there but someday leads the investigative department and changes the course of journalism.  She is an action hero!

Public and Private Intelligence Creep - Apply to Worst Case and Best Case Scenarios

The following paragraph was moved from the end of this post to the beginning.  The following paragraphs are just a path to it.

Getting the public to accept "Intelligence Creep" is just a matter of getting the public to accept it in worst case and best case scenarios and then expanding application toward everything in between.  Wow!  That is a  great bottom line that finally gets to the idea that drove this blog entry this morning and caused me to spend the time to get to it because I knew there was a pony somewhere under the pile.  Therefore I am going to copy this last paragraph and move it to be the first entry in the blog post.

Karl Denninger is an independent thinker that sometimes hits the obvious nail right on the head with some hard hitting opinion.  His opinions however are generally slanted by his view of the world that is just as often driven by his subjective opinions and belief rather than independently forming his observations and conclusions objectively.

His blog is a regular morning stop on my rounds of the web that is made worthwhile by the occasional observation opinions he expresses that does highlight an issue with some revealing light.  What is revealed however is not necessarily the specific thing he writes an opinion about and the facts that support it.  It is often food for thought.

Karl's comments on Google today are food for thought.   First, Google's unrestricted use of everything submitted to Google.  That meaning unrestricted data mining of all submitted content.  In the case cited by Karl it is child porn.  He said that in his prior data  business if he happened to run across it in a customer account he would report it.  He would not however design a program to find it.  That is what Google did.  Google can data mine anything and write methods to target whatever it desires.

Child trafficking and porn are two good targets.  Like terrorism, the end justifies the means and everyone agrees they are sufficiently abhorrent to justify extreme measures like torture.  Any method to identify terrorists or those that deal in child trafficking and porn are fair and acceptable.  That level of public agreement to surveillance methods to detect them begs the question:  What are the limits of acceptable use of such methods as a rule, where do they become methods that are not the rule but based on exception?  In accordance with what Google can data mine the controlling language is so broad that the answer is there are no exceptions.

Managing public opinion to accept surveillance is easy when abhorrent targets are chosen or targets of great common good, like easing traffic congestion on the way to work to find the fastest route by monitoring person cell phone time and place movement are chosen.  "Enhancing the customer shopping experience" is also another good reason. 

Worst case scenario application of government surveillance techniques establish means and methods that can be applied to any situation and in mild non criminal targets become matters of "Business Intelligence".  Business Intelligence becomes of concern to government when in the course of Business Intelligence that sifts and sorts data of any nature identifies information that involves criminal activity.  Activity that may in fact be required to be reported by law not only by virtue that it exists in a business data base record and found by "accident" in the course of normal business and reported as Karl would have done in his business but required to be looked for and reported by law.

"Intelligence Creep"  might be a good term for the expansion of intelligence as an organic entity that is always looking for greater application like "Military Mission Creep"  The military obviously is the only one that can practice that kind of creep until more recent times when the division between other government agencies as well as the businesses that are directly involved in the government military/industrial complex are less clear than the difference between who wears a uniform and who does not.  In the business world it is not called "Intelligence Creep"  it is called "Project Creep" and when the project is "Business Intelligence" which is big business, then private enterprise is going down the same road of expanding surveillance as government application.  The intent to "know your market" is the same.  Know everything about your market all the time.  It is a simply step to make "Knowing" certain things in private enterprise mandatory when the knowledge is of criminal activity that must be actively sought and reported to the government.

A broader term "Techno Creep" enables "Intelligence Creep"  and encompasses both devices as well as the data they gather analogous to the Internet of things and the World Wide Web of information that the device system enables.  I discussed that in a recent prior blog entry.   We "Enter the Age of Creep".  The age of Industrial Creep was obvious in the last century when advancement in cars planes and all the wonders of technology were generally apparent in the things that they produced.  Technology now produces things that are conceptual information objects not easily seen nor self proclaiming there visual advancement like cars and planes.  Relatively, information objects are changing much faster than the major physical objects of our society changed in the last century.  We just do not see it.  We have to comprehend it by knowing it.  Knowing is not as easy as seeing.  What we don't know can hurt us.  Intelligence Information asymmetry is going to hurt us greatly and benefit greatly the 1% that know and understand it and use it to their self serving advantage.  It is a new 1%.  Not those that have money but those that have information.  Money and information go hand in hand.

Technocreep: The Surrender of Privacy and the Capitalization of Intimacy, 

Wealth Managers Enlist Spy Tools to Map Portfolios  "MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Some of the engineers who used to help the Central Intelligence Agency solve problems have moved on to another challenge: determining the value of every conceivable investment in the world.......There were plenty of parallels between the two worlds, but instead of agencies, spies and eavesdropping satellites, finance has markets, investment advisers and portfolios. Both worlds are full of custom software, making each analysis of a data set unique. It is hard to get a single picture of anything like the truth......Despite the pedigree, Mr. Lonsdale says Addepar, which has 109 employees, is not meant just as a tool for rich tech executives or family money. They are, he said, “just the early adopters."

 This link is an example what is changing in the world of information that we can't see as readily clearly as the change in physical things in the past century.  The change is presented by a graph depicting information knowledge evolution.  Ontology's of intelligence and extraction of knowledge are emerging and evolving.

Getting the public to accept "Intelligence Creep" is just a matter of getting the public to accept it in worst case and best case scenarios and then expanding application toward everything in between.  Wow!  That is a  great bottom line that finally gets to the idea that drove this blog entry this morning and caused me to spend the time to get to it because I knew there was a pony somewhere under the pile.  Therefore I am going to copy this last paragraph and move it to be the first entry in the blog post.

Destroyed Homes in Gaza Town - Khuzaa

This photo appears in comments at this link.

 It was taken in the village of Khuzaa, south Gaza, Aug. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Surgical precision killing is a technological skill of sophisticated weapon delivery.  This looks more like butchery with a dull knife.  What it looks like is worth at least a thousand words. From reports at the links referenced subsequently in this post it appears that precision killing was done surgically in the old fashion low tech way by Israeli soldiers and a gun.

What can I find out about this picture and what happened?

Wikipedia describes it here at this link.  The village is 500 meters from the border with Israel.

This link tells what happened there.  It also has a picture of destruction.  This is a summary of some of the report at the link.

Khuzaa came under heavy shelling 21 July.  Israeli army ordered 10,000 people to leave.  One third stayed.  47 were bodies were brought to a main hospital but the actual number is unknown.  Israeli troops had entered the town.  People were arrested.

The pictures look like the tactical purpose was mass destruction.  Recent reports about the creation of a buffer zone in Palestine by Israel to clear the zone of locations for missile attacks on Israel was the strategic objective.  It certainly looks like nobody would want to live here any more.

Another report on Khuzaa is here.

This is ethnic cleansing with an excuse, any excuse will do to justify it but it is ethnic cleansing being done by Israel.

On this anniversary of the Tonkin Gulf incident we see what excuses are good for.

Juan Cole at Informed Comments, has this contribution post.  I respect and admire his honesty, Reports on Khuzaa at this link.

The under laying details of the situation as it developed among the major participating factions and their interests as reported by this analysis is complicated.  The bigger picture is one of simple  territorial expansion by Israel of land.  Always pushing for more, building more, expanding domination and control with the support of the US.

Khuza'a came under heavy shelling on Monday night, 21 July. Israeli army ordered all the inhabitants of the village, nearly 10,000 people to leave, but a third decided to stay, hoping the bombing and the clashes with the Palestinian fighters in the village would be over soon. But after a horrific night, almost everyone tried to evacuate the next day. The witnesses described what they saw as a massacre, with bodies scattered in the streets. Khuza'a remined a closed military zone, and only the International Committe of the Red Cross managed to secure a few brief incursions into the village to evacuate some of the injured, killed and the civilians. - See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ceasefire-not-long-enough-residents-khuza-1672980794#sthash.Q6dc5CXW.dpuf

Physical and Logical Entities

Some prior posts dealt with (more than other posts) thinking about what things are and what they do.  The fundamental nature of things.  It is only a two part binary idea.  All there is in this world are things (nouns) and actions (verbs) and the relationship between two nouns (subject/object) implemented by an action something (verb) that joins the two nouns in a relationship.

My bog entry about the trinity of computation dealt more directly with the thought.  Logic, Language and Structure.  Logic and Structure are things and Language is an action that joins the two.  Logic is a Subject in the relationship, Structure is the receiving object.  It is made a receiving object by the function (function is an action verb) of Language.    Oh, but, but, yabut.....Language is a noun not a verb you say?  Maybe so in common thinking but if a binary (either/or)  judgment must be made Language is more of a verb thing than a noun thing.    Oh, but, but yabut......previously I said that all there is in this world are things and actions!!!!    Here is the trick in pulling a rabbit out of a hat:

Actions are things.   They are such a special type of thing that they have a "Thing" sub-class called action (or verb in the language).

Gets confusing doesn't it.

It is not so confusing when it is looked at in terms of Physical and Logical Entities.  Physical entities, things in the real world like rocks and water have physical properties.  Logical Entities are conceptual creations of the mind.  Logical entity conceptual creations may exactly describe the nature and function of Physical Entities in the real world.  Beyond the truth of making an exact model of the real world using Language, Logical Entity conceptual creation can model anything that the mind can conceive far beyond the dictates of the natural world and the physical laws that dictate its structure.

Pigs can fly in Logical Entity conceptual creation.  So can Superman.

The Internet can be, and should be for the purposes of clarity, described as a physical object.  A networked collection of physical devices having physical properties.  Wikipedia describes it as such but then jumps to the logic information that is its purpose.   It does not very well the important bridge that gets from the physical world of devices and electronics/photonics to the logic conceptual structure that is built on and far beyond the purely physical structure of the Internet.  That Logical Conceptual Structure is the World Wide Web.  The important bridge that connects the two is at the one to one Physical Logic Identity of objects in the physical Electronic/photonic Internet to their relationship with a binary object model of "off and on" (presence and absence of a charge) with a Conceptual Logic Identity model.

That presence/absence concept is what brings it all together like Lebowski's rug.

The simplicity in the complexity is realized if at the very essence we recognize the nature of Physical and Logical entities and what implements (Language) their relationships.  As complex as those sub-sets of entities and their relationships can become they can all be understood.  We can even understand and comprehend the non-logical relationships.

A USB device is a physical device.  One of the little things in the Big Internet of Things.  However, in the conceptual structure of the relationships among the Internet of Things, a physical device USB thing can be assigned the logic function of a different physical device, maybe a keyboard or a screen.  That is the beauty of where the Logical Conceptual world of our minds can leap the bounds of the Physical World we live in to another world of different rules and structures.

A USB is one thing in one world but a wide range of things in another world.

Update, days after this entry I found this:  Why the Security of USB Is Fundamentally Broken.


The Internet and the World Wide Web are two different things, two different worlds as different in nature as mind and body.  Cling to that as a fact of life and complexity can always be reduced to simplicity.