"To the hell that is Iraq?" New study on deaths.

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

"To the hell that is Iraq?" New study on deaths.

Postby JackRiddler » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:48 pm

EDITOR'S NOTE, JUNE 2011: This is a merge of threads about the Iraq war dating back to 2008. The first post is about a Bob Woodward book claim that the US developed a super weapons system that allowed "victory" over the insurgents during the surge. Watch as this claim is deconstructed and deciphered over the next few pages, RI-style.

The post from which the title is taken is on page 6, here:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31490&start=75#p389548

That one deals with a 2011 study at the Columbia University school of public health, which by comparing the Iraq war logs released by Wikileaks to the "Iraq Body Count" of deaths reported in news organs found only a 20 percent correlation -- indicating that the death toll due to war in Iraq has been massively underestimated by most counts.

"To the hell that is Iraq?" - Saddam Hussein, on the scaffold.

.

What an obedient little tool he puts on. Says he took a direct order from a general not to reveal what the new secret "technique" is, and proudly sticks to that while extolling the awesome power of this new weapon. He claims that this whatever (from the sound of it, it may be a supersystem for surveillance and intel) changed the equation of the Iraq war in a fashion comparable to the introduction of the atomic bomb, and is the real secret behind the supposed turnaround in the occupation's fortunes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 1#26610461

Is this a propaganda put-on to terrify everyone in the world? Exaggeration? Or for real? What might this new "technique" be?
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby justdrew » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:08 am

oh my god. this coming from woodward..? bizarre.

sensor clouds of micro-spy-flys would be my first guess, though it would surprise me if they were useful at night. energy storage would be tricky. Maybe it's slightly larger craft - helium, solar + chemical or battery power, networked, steerable... with hundreds of these relatively cheep units and the right software you could blanket huge areas. put them up a couple hundred feet and use counter illumination for camo and they'd be damn hard to see.

OR...

the bush mal-administration decided al-cia-duh in iraq's operations had become counter-productive and called them off and woodward is just spinning an explanation cover story.

OR... both
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

Postby monster » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:11 am

Yikes... maybe they can spy on everyone, and sift through the massive amounts of data with supercomputers.

Perhaps they've created insect cyborgs, and are using them to listen - flies on the wall, literally.

Edit: looks like you said the same thing, justdrew, we cross-posted.
"I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline."
User avatar
monster
 
Posts: 1712
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:55 pm
Location: Everywhere
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby justdrew » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:51 am

yeah, sounds to me like UAV type stuff has gone far faster than we've been generally told. behold...

Thursday
Command & Control

Area Dominance Munition
Ben Plenge, Air Force Research Laboratory/Munitions Directorate

The Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions Directorate is developing the Area Dominance Munition or Dominator to suppress enemy activity in high threat areas with air delivered, network centric, persistent munitions capable of defeating the entire spectrum of ground mobile targets. With this concept, the Combatant Commander will have a weapon system to conduct effects based operations and a unique capability to shape the battlefield to meet his objectives. The enemy is effectively denied the ability to operate in his own territory through continued presence of this constellation of lethal, miniature, high endurance, multi-shot, persistent munitions capable of cooperatively striking high value targets. A constellation of Dominators pre-positioned over the enemy s battle space will negate the need for costly hypersonic solutions. Dominators are the lethal element of a system of systems which includes higher flying gateway vehicles for target tracking and cueing, expendable UAV refueling tankers, and air delivered microprobes. Key technology investments are being made in areas of advanced seeker, precision miniature warhead, propulsion, compressed carriage airframe, 2-way data link, in-flight autonomous refueling, anti-jam GPS/INS navigation, and cooperative attack logic. Details of the concept and key technologies will be discussed in the briefing.

Smart Wide Area Weapons For UAVs
Richard Sterchele, Lou Cataldo, Ben Smith, Freeda Ostis, Textron Systems

Weaponzing UAVs has become a major focus for the war fighter in recent conflicts. The majority of fielded UAV systems, some the size of manned aircraft, are large enough to carry a limited payload of precision guided munitions designed for attack helicopters and fighter aircraft.

With the trend in military UAVs toward smaller, lighter, and payload-constricted systems the ability to carry legacy munitions is almost eliminated, forcing the war fighter to look at other types of precision weapons. The advent of small munitions, some no larger than a coffee can, have the ability for a 350 lb UAV to defeat multiple armored threats in a single mission. These sensor fuzed family of munitions can provide the lethality required by the war fighter for families of small, medium and large UAVs. Newer alternate payload systems (weighing under 70 lbs) have the killing power of a 1000-pound cluster munition yet leave the battlefield void of hazardous duds.

It is these sensor fuzed and alternate payload munitions that are the future for weaponizing various sizes and classes of military UAVs.

A Common Unmanned Vehicle Communications System for the Littoral Combat Ship
Joseph Krajnak, Thomas Sides, Lee Tennison, Lloyd Decker, NAVSEA Dahlgren Division, Thomas Staley, SSC San Diego

The Littoral Combat Ship is the first platform that will require the integration of multiple Unmanned Vehicles to complete its mission. The Mine Warfare and Anti-Submarine Warfare Mission Packages will each be using two different Unmanned Surface Vehicles that must be controlled simultaneously. Due to space and RF limitations on the Sea Frame, the plan is to develop an integrated communication system known as the Multiple unmanned Vehicle Communications (MVC) system. This system consists of a shipboard Local Area Network (LAN), a networked radio system, and an associated Network Management Tool. MVC is being developed to provide a non-proprietary, IP-based, modular, scalable, secure, open architecture solution that can be used for all Unmanned Surface Vehicles deployed from LCS. Adherence to applicable standards has been maintained to ensure future modifications are easily incorporated. This paper provides an overview of the MVC design, lessons learned during the initial development efforts, and the current and future planned capabilities for MVC.

Randomized Planning for Multi-agent Teams
Dave Ferguson, Anthony Stentz, Carnegie Mellon University

We present a randomized planning algorithm capable of navigating teams of agents through rugged outdoor terrain to desired goal locations. Our approach constructs a joint plan for the entire team, so that team constraints (such as line-of-sight connectivity) can be incorporated into the planning process. Our approach quickly constructs an initial solution then works on improving the quality of this solution as deliberation time is available. If new information is received by the robots as they navigate through the environment (e.g. a previously unknown obstacle is detected), our algorithm is able to efficiently repair its previous solution to reflect this new information. We present results from a series of different multirobot scenarios involving up to a dozen team members.

Risk-Aware Mixed-Initiative Dynamic Replanning (RMDR) Program Update
Margaret Nervegna, Dr. Michael Ricard, Draper Lab

The Navy envisions missions being executed by multiple, heterogeneous teams of unmanned air, surface, and undersea vehicles. To accomplish these missions, the team must autonomously replan cooperative activities associated with the team mission objectives and team operating constraints, including intermittent communications. The team s operator must interact with the team as an entity as well as with individual vehicles within the team.

As part of ONR s Intelligent Autonomy program, Draper Laboratory is developing such capability. The coastal reconnaissance and monitoring mission, a complex scenario that exercises many of the capabilities being developed, is used for demonstration purposes. Operators provide team-tasking (pre-mission and replanning) inputs, approve generated plans, retask the team, and provide in-stride target identification. Inputs include time constraints, risk values for regions (maximum allowable time on the surface, no-go regions, minimum reserves, time-out rules, etc.), and additional activity-specific tasking. For a reconnaissance activity, these include regions of interest, target classes to detect, and the value of gathering information (detection or identification) on the target classes.

RMDR is composed of 7 demonstrations, (6 in simulation, the 7th an in-water demonstration.) This presentation will present an overview of the RMDR system, results of the first four demonstrations, and plans for future demonstrations.

Complex Task Allocation and Execution for Teams of Multiple Autonomous Vehicles
Robert Zlot, Anthony Stentz, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Teams of unmanned vehicles promise to deliver significant benefits for many complex application scenarios, including ground-based reconnaissance. Such missions are most naturally described by human operators as a set of abstract requirements both for model simplicity and due to the unknown and dynamic nature of the working environment. Given the physically distributed nature of these missions and the inherent risk and uncertainty involved, autonomous teams are ideal for efficiently parallelizing the workload and providing additional robustness. We describe a distributed coordination framework for efficiently distributing a set of complex tasks among a team of robots in which tasks are allocated to vehicles by using specialized auction protocols. Typically, auction-based allocation algorithms require a mission planner to decompose the mission into primitive tasks a priori. However, we show that such a preplanning approach is both less efficient and capable in dealing with uncertainty and dynamic conditions. We have therefore introduced task tree auctions in which participants can bid on tasks described at multiple levels of abstraction and, when appropriate, redecompose tasks higher up in the hierarchy. We demonstrate an ability to dynamically replan for complex tasks in a distributed fashion both in simulation and on a team of autonomous outdoor robots.

Using Real-time Vision to Control a Convoy of Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles
Dr. D. J. Lee, Jonathan Anderson, Beau Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Robert Schoenberger, Agris-Schoen Vision Systems, Inc.

This paper presents a control system that is capable of guiding a convoy of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous unmanned vehicles. The control system will be able to establish different modes of operation, including following the preceding vehicle, avoiding obstacles as they are detected, and following the route specified by the operators of the system. The control system makes heavy use of real-time target tracking to ensure that each vehicle will be able to follow the vehicle immediately ahead of it in the convoy and at the same time maintains a safe distance and avoids obstacles. The lead vehicle could either be controlled directly by a human operator or could be given the coordinates and map of the route that it is to follow. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology is used to implement the vision algorithms to ensure that they will run at the camera frame rate. FPGA technology has advanced sufficiently that a hardcore processor can be integrated directly in to the FPGA chip to use a real-time operating system for communication and control tasks. This paper will describe the control system and demonstrate its potential using small toy trucks as the platform.

Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (SUAS ACTD)
Dan Bernard, U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center/United States Special Operations Command

The SUAS ACTD is a United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) sponsored program that starts in government fiscal year 2006 (FY06) and runs through FY 2010. In addition to USSOCOM, participants include the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center, the United Sates Marine Corps and AeroVironment, Inc. The purpose of the program is to identify and address technology/capability gaps in SUAS systems that are carried by individual operators (man-packable systems) and is based on recent operational experience with the value and limitations of these systems. The initial program structure divides these capability gaps into five focus areas:

1) Command, Control, and Communications
2) Payload Integration
3) Targeting
4) Platforms
5) Training and Simulations.

A recent SUAS Operational User s Conference and an SUAS ACTD Technology Conference indicate that although the five focus areas remain valid, the area that will likely receive the most initial emphasis is Command, Control and Communications.

Legged Robot Motion with Explicit Stability Constraints: Theory and Application
Adam Rzepniewski, Ph.D., Greg Andrews, C.S. Draper Laboratory

Legged robots are known to have mobility advantages over wheeled and tracked ground robots. However, the stability necessary for successful traversal of difficult terrain is rarely explicitly considered when designing motion algorithms. Commonly, stability is a byproduct of walking routines. Learned gaits may be stable over the terrain on which the robot is trained, or stability may be ignored due to the robot configuration, e.g. six-legged robots that can walk in an alternating-tripod gait. The lack of explicit consideration of such an important factor can lead to task failure if the robot is placed in a new or stability-difficult situation such as traversal of a steep slope, or exposure to a sudden external stimulus. In this paper, an angle-based algorithm for real-time optimization of stability is applied to a four-legged robot, the Sony AIBO®. The experimental results show a significant advantage to having this auto-stabilizing routine. Next, the stability algorithm is integrated with a walk controller to dynamically alter walking gaits to adjust to difficult terrain. This ensures that gaits learned on flat terrain are not applied directly when traversing undulating or steeply-sloped ground. Again, the auto-stabilizing routine is shown to significantly increase the mobility of the legged robot.

Accurate Location Management for UGVs in the Urban Environment
Charles H. Woloszynski, Innovative Concepts, Steve Rounds, L3 Communications

The future of unmanned vehicles requires tightly coordinated actions, not just in missions but also as coordinated sensor systems. This requires highly precise sensor geo-location, even in difficult urban environments that block GPS signals. To address this, we introduce a new algorithm that computes geo-location information with partial information from multiple sources in a scalable, distributed method.

The algorithm is Decentralized Cooperative Navigation (DCN). It combines multiple navigation sensor outputs from members distributed across a network to compute accurate 3D location information. This technology has been demonstrated with integrated altimetry, inertial measurement units (IMUs), and GPS to provide accurate 3D navigation for every network member in non-urban environments.

For urban environments, an addition of robust ad-hoc communication networks and purpose-built ranging radios overcomes the remaining technical challenge of an accurate distributed ranging solution. This engine completes the DCN implementation issues for urban deployment; laying the groundwork for successful tightly-coordinated UGV operations.

This paper describes recent efforts and test results from demonstrations of prototype systems. The results validate a robust implementation for navigation of a multiple member network, wherein sparse navigation sensor data is integrated in a decentralized manner to allow accurate navigation of each member of the network.

Helikites for Lifting Persistent Radio-Relay for Unmanned Systems
SA Sandy Allsopp, ALLSOPP HELIKITES LIMITED

Direct radio contact with unmanned systems is always desirable however autonomous the vehicle. Helikites provide a simple, robust and very reliable method of providing over-the-horizon communications. Helikites are a newly patented type of aerostat. Helikites are the worlds only sucessful lighter-than-air kites. Wind that pushes normal aerostats down actually pushes Helikites upwards. So Helikites are dramatically smaller than other aerostats of the same performance and Helikites fly smoothly in far higher winds. Helikites are the easiest and least expensive method yet devised to place objects persistently into the air. They are excellent at providing radio-relay to unmanned systems and troops. The comparitively low cost of Helikites frees funds for more unmanned vehicles and so enhances capability.

Helikites are being assessed by the U.S. Air Force as a method of providing radio-relay for missiles at Eglin AF Base in Florida in the Helikite Elevated Platform - Transmission Relay (HEP-TR) Program. Sandia Laboratories are using Helikites to transmit emergency communications for Helikite Elevated Platform - Communications Relay (HEP-CR). Both programs run by Carolina Unmanned Vehicles.

Allsopp Helikites Ltd believe that Helikites are the simplest answer to the problem of providing communications to UGV's and USV's.

Demonstrated Benefits of a Modular Framework for Mission Management and Control of Unmanned Vehicles
Geoffrey Butler, Nigel Cox, Rex Helton, Robert McSwiggen, Robert Settle, Judi Taylor, BAE Systems

Principal Issues
As unmanned vehicles proliferate across the battlespace, their overall force effectiveness could be multiplied if they were able to act cooperatively towards common objectives while interacting with all echelons of manned forces. A common mission planning, management, and control system using an open system architecture, consistent user interfaces, shared data repositories, and standards-compliant interfaces is needed. Optimally, the system should allow near real time management and sharing/displaying of information pertaining to contingency planning and in-progress operations.

Conclusions
Through an innovative combination of legacy tools and emerging capabilities from the United States and coalition partners, we have realized a novel mission management system capable of coordinating the operations of multiple air, surface, and subsurface vehicles. Its architecture allows rapid prototyping, spiral development, testing, and fielding of capabilities with less risk of obsolescence and greater assurance of component compatibility. In addition, its web enabled, service oriented implementation, and distributed operations allow it to be used by various echelons within a deployed fighting force concurrently to improve force effectiveness. The prototype system has been reviewed for management effectiveness of both unmanned air and surface vehicles. This paper reviews the current system capabilities, addresses lessons learned, and discusses projected capabilities.

Multi-UAV, Collaborative Sensor Management For UAV Team Survivability
Craig Stoneking, Phil DiBona, Adria Hughes, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories

Collaboration among a team of unmanned sensor platforms can provide significant military operational advantages, through improved situation awareness. Recent work on the Survivability Planner Associate Rerouter (SPAR) program, sponsored by the Army Aviation Technology Directorate (AATD), as well as internally-funded research and development, has provided insights into the challenges related to managing collaborative sensing, in support of the survivability of a team comprising a manned aircraft and multiple sensor-bearing UAV's. The paper will discuss technical challenges related to multi-UAV, collaborative sensor management, including: sensor resource allocation, sensor platform positioning for collaborative sensing, and integration of collaborative sensing behavior into a comprehensive multi-uav control system. The paper will also discuss recent, ongoing, and planned investigations into approaches to addressing those challenges.

Passive Acoustic Non-Cooperative Collision Alert System (PANCAS) for UAV Sense and Avoid
Duane Cline, S teve Wilcox, SARA, Inc., Charles Ingalls , US Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate

The proliferation of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) designed to perform a wide range of missions has accelerated dramatically in recent years. Unmanned aircraft are currently limited to operation within predetermined Restricted Operating Zones (ROZs) to minimize the potential for airspace conflicts with other aircraft, which can limit the employment of assets to meet time critical needs in a dynamic operational environment. Despite procedural airspace control, there have been cases of small UAVs colliding with helicopters in Iraq. Larger UAVs are equipped with transponders to provide UAV position information to cooperative aircraft and air traffic control systems, but these systems cannot prevent collisions with non-cooperative aircraft.

SARA, Inc. is developing the Passive Acoustic Non-cooperative Collision Alert System (PANCAS) to alert UAV users to the presence of non-cooperative air traffic in real time. Proof of concept tests have demonstrated the ability to detect potential collisions with helicopters and general aviation aircraft at ranges sufficient ranges to allow a small UAV to make maneuvers to maintain safe airspace separation under a variety of approach scenarios. The proposed paper will present the results of the Phase I program and plans for on-going technology development, demonstration and implementation.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in Net-Centric Warfare: Incorporating Link 16 and Cursor-on-Target
Lt Jeremy Tachau, USAF HQ XO Combat Support Office

Lessons learned from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF), exercises and other joint operations establish the requirement to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into the physical and digital battle space, and allow fighter aircraft to slew to the UAV sensor report. Technology (government owned software) exists that integrates the accurate Identification (ID) and location information of UAVs into the Multi-TDL (Tactical Data Links) Network (MTN) environment. This capability also provides digital UAV sensor cueing to fighter aircraft and Command and Control (C2) agencies.

Future Capabilities:

1. Develop CoT software so the UAV mission commander:
a. can initiate a J3.5 land track on a target of interest (could include marking friendly locations).
b. can provide amplifying information on the land tracks (UAV generated or existing J3.5s) to include; ID, activity, spec type, re-report frequency etc.

2. Provide the UAV mission commander with a tactical situation display of link-16 so he/she can de-conflict with other aircraft and receive threat warning (Surface to Air Missile (SAM)).

Development of the above capability is crucial for airspace deconfliction of UAVs with other aircraft and for collapsing the sensor-to-shooter window by incorporating machine-to-machine solutions for sharing sensor data.

Cooperative Control of UAVs for Search and Localization
Prof. Vijay Kumar, GRASP Laboratory, Ben Grocholsky, James Keller, George Pappas, University of Pennsylvania

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be used to cover large areas searching for targets. However, sensors on UAVs are typically limited in their accuracy of localization of targets on the ground. On the other hand, Unmanned Ground Vehicles can be deployed to accurately locate ground targets. They have the disadvantage of not being able to move rapidly and see through such obstacles as buildings or fences.

In this paper, we describe how we can exploit this synergy by creating a seamless network of UAVs and UGVs. We describe our experimental testbed of UAVs and UGVs, the framework and algorithms, and some results, focussing mainly on the control of UAVs.

from: http://www.auvsi.org/symposium/2006/abstract6.cfm
2006!

so...

remember the story recently about how large numbers of UAV controllers were in particular under heavy PTSD due to the much larger amount of killing they do, and they watch it on live TV before during and after. Apparently it get's a little hard to deal with after a point. S'ok, I'm sure they'll have go-pills for that any minute now. Maybe a job for our old pal Propranolol...
"hey boss, how did my shift go last night?"
"just fine"
"did we kill any bad guys?"
"of course not, you know we're only recon"

===

so... if this is so world changing... are we near the end of any concept of 'illegal' resistance? if they've really made a 'quantum leap' in enforcement/surveillance tech?
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

null

Postby kurish » Tue Sep 09, 2008 4:21 am

null
Last edited by kurish on Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
kurish
 
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:59 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby FourthBase » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:02 am

We'll only know if it's complete phony propaganda if/when the "new techniques and operations" are ever revealed. Yeah, anyone want to wait? My guess is that they'd never leak this, considering the hyperbolic language, without it being some kind of real thing. Are they exaggerating what it is? Maybe, plenty of reasons why they'd do that. Might not be an exaggeration, though. I think it's definitely in some reality, either way -- probably disturbing, whatever it is. Obviously some kind of spying thing.
“Joy is a current of energy in your body, like chlorophyll or sunlight,
that fills you up and makes you naturally want to do your best.” - Bill Russell
User avatar
FourthBase
 
Posts: 7057
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:41 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby brainpanhandler » Tue Sep 09, 2008 6:22 am

We'll only know if it's complete phony propaganda if/when the "new techniques and operations" are ever revealed.


But maybe not even then as whatever is revealed might instead be a decoy or limited hangout.

My guess is that they'd never leak this, considering the hyperbolic language, without it being some kind of real thing. Are they exaggerating what it is? Maybe, plenty of reasons why they'd do that. Might not be an exaggeration, though. I think it's definitely in some reality, either way -- probably disturbing, whatever it is.


Agreed. This is likely something real, the partial leaking of which also serves the purpose of creating a platform for extolling the virtues of the surge and the "we're winning" meme as well as feeding into the American ideal of technological innovation coming to the rescue.

Obviously some kind of spying thing.


Most likely, but it occurs to me that it might also be some new method of non-invasive torture/interrogation.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr.
User avatar
brainpanhandler
 
Posts: 5087
Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:38 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby Canadian_watcher » Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:47 am

come on, like Bob Woodward cornered a four-star general, who allegedly blanched at the mere hint that Bob had a teeny shmeck wrt the new technology, and then felt somehow compelled to reveal a state secret to a reporter with the only caveat being "You CANNOT write about this."

sounds totally plausible. All the ppl I know with security clearances behave this way. :roll:
User avatar
Canadian_watcher
 
Posts: 3706
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:30 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby Fat Lady Singing » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:03 am

I wasn't aware that Iraq was going so well, despite the upcoming removal some of our troops there. Huh.

It's ridiculous to compare whatever the military might have right now to the Manhattan Project -- if it were that big, Iraq would be over, completely over, and they wouldn't be planning a bigger push in Afghanistan, because Afghanistan would be over, too.
User avatar
Fat Lady Singing
 
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:15 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby MinM » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:38 am

kurish wrote:I call outright propaganda campaign. Or if you prefer your paranoias recursive, this bs about some breathtaking new technique is in fact a central component of the new technique itself. It's the deliberate creation of a myth, which can now be manipulated...

The perfect (ie most cynical) next step would be for a DOD-sponsored arabic blog to start rumors that the US military had harnessed or made a deal with some diabolical force--perhaps the djinn?

Oh, and Woodward is such a tired old horse's ass of a propagandeer.

Absolutely.. Just another part of the recent PsyOp aimed at Iran:

Dutch intel: US to strike Iran in coming weeks
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board/v ... hp?t=20061

The Dutch Connection
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e20667.htm

Sarkozy Says Iran May Provoke Israeli Attack, Causing Disaster
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... fer=europe


Here are a couple stories that expose Woodward:

Strange Bedfellows: Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and the CIA
http://www.counterpunch.org/hougan06082005.html

Deep Throat: Shallow story hides deeper history
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/06-07- ... gi.54.html
Earth-704509
User avatar
MinM
 
Posts: 3286
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:16 pm
Location: Mont Saint-Michel
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:41 am

kurish wrote:I call outright propaganda campaign. Or if you prefer your paranoias recursive, this bs about some breathtaking new technique is in fact a central component of the new technique itself. It's the deliberate creation of a myth, which can now be manipulated...


100% with you on that one.
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby brainpanhandler » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:52 am

I wish I had half the certainty of most of you about any of this.

The only thing I am certain of is that Woodward is a tool.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr.
User avatar
brainpanhandler
 
Posts: 5087
Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:38 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:08 pm

^^I spend way too much time in the DARPA end of the pool, and my fellow death-tech buddies were all scratching their heads over this -- WTF is dude talking about? -- because there really isn't any radically new paradigm. Whatever he's talking about is either tech that was being discussed in detail in 2002, as per justdrew's excellent data dump, or it's a memetic weapon, in which case Woodward's announcement of the weapon is the weapon.

But seriously, think about the tactical realities of warfare and ask yourself what could really change things so drastically.
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says

Postby elfismiles » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:41 pm

FUCK!!!!

Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says

Story Highlights
Program likened to WWII-era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb

Author discloses the existence of secret operational capabilities in latest book

National security advisor disputes Woodward's conclusion about the Iraq surge

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.

The program -- which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb -- must remain secret for now or it would "get people killed," Woodward said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live.

"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have," Woodward said.

In "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," Woodward disclosed the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement reacting to Woodward's book, acknowledged the new strategy. Yet he disputed Woodward's conclusion that the "surge" of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq was not the primary reason for the decline in violent attacks.

"It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations," Hadley wrote.

Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, wrote that along with the surge and the new covert tactics, two other factors helped reduce the violence.Watch Bob Woodward explain the strategy »

One was the decision of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to order a cease-fire by his Mehdi Army. The other was the "Anbar Awakening" movement that saw Sunni tribes aligning with U.S. troops to battle al Qaeda in Iraq.

Woodward told Larry King that while there is a debate over how much credit the new secret operations should get for the drop in violence, he concluded it "accounts for a good portion."

"I would somewhat compare it to the Manhattan Project in World War II," he said "It's a ski slope right down in a matter of months, cutting the violence in half. This isn't going to happen with the bunch of joint security stations or the surge."

The top secret operations, he said, will "some day in history ... be described to people's amazement."

While he would not reveal the details, Woodward said the terrorists who have been targeted were already aware of the capabilities.

"The enemy has a heads up because they've been getting wiped out and a lot of them have been killed," he said. "It's not news to them.

"If you were a member of al Qaeda or the resistance or some extremist militia, you would be wise to get your rear end out of town," Woodward said. "It is very dangerous."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/ ... index.html



Found it via Infowars ...

Editor’s note: Bob Woodward, a Yalie secret society member (Book and Snake, 1965) who worked in naval intelligence and now is associate editor of the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Post, has revealed the existence of a “secret” program to kill troublesome Iraqis who want their country back. On August 31, we reported the existence of a similar program run by the SAS (see Iraq’s Operation Phoenix). Bob Woodward either works for the CIA or was tapped as a “journalist” to release information the spook agency wants made public.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=4427

Iraq’s Operation Phoenix
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4248


Which all reminds me of what I call HOLOCAUST IN A BACKPACK ... looking for the links.
User avatar
elfismiles
 
Posts: 8511
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:46 pm
Blog: View Blog (4)

Re: Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says

Postby elfismiles » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:45 pm

elfismiles wrote:
Editor’s note: Bob Woodward, a Yalie secret society member (Book and Snake, 1965) who worked in naval intelligence and now is associate editor of the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Post, has revealed the existence of a “secret” program to kill troublesome Iraqis who want their country back. On August 31, we reported the existence of a similar program run by the SAS (see Iraq’s Operation Phoenix). Bob Woodward either works for the CIA or was tapped as a “journalist” to release information the spook agency wants made public.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=4427

Iraq’s Operation Phoenix
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4248


Which all reminds me of what I call HOLOCAUST IN A BACKPACK ... looking for the links.


Here is what I think this is perhaps all about:

Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death
By Robert Parry / December 13, 2007
http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2007/121307.html
User avatar
elfismiles
 
Posts: 8511
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:46 pm
Blog: View Blog (4)

Next

Return to Political

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests