Dealing With Decentralization
On why the DC area still does not have a strategic security vision –
Thomas Lockwood… said the effort is hampered by fragmented authority among the region’s 12 jurisdictions, two states and the District of Columbia, all three branches of the federal government, more than 2,000 nonprofit organizations and numerous regional business and civic groups. Nearly three dozen police departments operate in the District alone.
Lockwood said regional officials are making slow but steady progress on crafting the plan.
The whole thing is based on the assumption that security scales. It does not in a 4GW or 5GW framework, the state is not the target and as such it should have little to no voice in defense. Decentralization is the answer, but the conditions are not in place for that idea to take hold. We’re waiting for the next attack before we attempt to adapt our state system to the new security landscape.
Tactics Shift
This quote fully covers the gap between insurgent innovation and US/Iraqi state innovation –
You’re seeing drug-related crime rising significantly. You’re seeing common robberies and assault happening much more regularly. You’re seeing rape increasing. You’re seeing a lot of those issues, a lot of those problems, that happen in the large city spreading throughout the rest of the country. It’s something that goes beyond the traditional scope of counterinsurgency operations.
Matthew Sherman just returned from a two year tour advising the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
Conference Call
I’ll be listening in to Patti Anklam, Bruce Hoppe and Valdis Krebs discuss social network analysis and organizational network analysis in a conference call tomorrow. Looks to be very interesting.
Money Does Not Equate to Security
Schneier– A trademark of the doom loop is the organization focuses inward instead of providing for its customers – in this case a town of 2,400 bought 84 surveillance cameras for no discernable purpose –
The cameras were bought, I assume, because the town couldn’t think of anything else to do with the $202,000 Homeland Security grant they received. (One of the problems of giving this money out based on political agenda, rather than by where the actual threats are.)
It seems DHS is confusing granting money with providing security.
Iraqi Internal Displacement
WaPo –
Sectarian violence has displaced more than 25,000 Iraqis since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine, a U.N.-affiliated agency said Tuesday, and shelters and tent cities are springing up across central and southern Iraq to house homeless Sunni and Shiite families.
…The result has been a population exchange as Sunni and Shiite families flee mixed communities for the safety of areas where their own sects predominate.
This type of environment creates a breeding ground for non state actors.