On Nigeria
Interesting. The author of A Perfect Storm understands both the primacy and the vulnerability of oil infrastructure attacks. In this Vanity Fair piece he outlines the evolution of MEND, their leveraging of cheap technology, global corruption, bunkering, and the potential for future disruption.
On Retraction
SmallWarsJournalBlog – I only really liked this part of the post –
This is different from early strategies which were enemy-centric (focusing on killing insurgents), or more recent approaches that relied on training and supporting Iraqi forces and expected them to secure the population.
The next step is retracting into the Baghdad core while handing off and then retracting altogether.
This sounds surprisingly like the track “grand strategy” is taking:
- First we have an offensive designed to kill the gap members which collapses.
- Then, in an effort to remain politically viable, politicians shift funding to the black budget to train “them” to fight for us without the troop footprint.
- And when the decentralized nature of this conflict prevents any real impact from being made, we progressively retract toward resiliency over offensive efforts. And then the real work can begin.
Put a timeline on this and the real clock can start ticking. That’s how long we have to solidify the inklings and ramp up a resiliency based community.
Paid Protesting
Spiegel –
A German Web site has come up a novel niche market — renting out demonstrators for public protests. Good-looking protestors can help an organization get its political message to the public for as little as €145 a day.
I think protesting is a waste of time and resources, but this development it does mark a datapoint and eventually this marketplace will open up for more extreme actions. The bazaar of violence is just a step away.
DHS Pays For Failing To Complying With FOIA
The Department of Homeland Security has been ordered to pay the Stanford Law School Cyberlaw Clinic $66,861.39 in attorneys’ fees for its failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act while stonewalling my request for records on the Zotob virus’ infiltration of its computers.
Alert readers will recall my year-long battle to learn the details of an August 2005 failure of the $400 million US-VISIT system. Highlights include the DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection asking me to drop the matter, then losing the paperwork, and finally denying the request in its entirety, all to avoid revealing that it made mistakes in leaving the border screening system open to attack.
SCADA Attack Prep?
Internet Storm Center is tracking what could potentially turn into an attack on water and electric utilities process control systems.
Probably run of the mill for those in this field, but interesting nonetheless.