Who is biased now? Comparing LAT and AJ

~ Matt Armstrong

Compare the following headlines

Iraqi Police Say U.S.-Led Raid Kills at Least 17 at Shiite Mosque

and

Many killed in Baghdad mosque clash: A clash at a mosque in eastern Baghdad between gunmen and US and Iraqi army forces may have left as many as 22 people dead.

Guess which one is from a Western newspaper and which is from an Arab newspaper?

The first headline is from the Los Angeles Times and describes an incident where the Americans "stormed" a mosque:

At least 17 Iraqis were killed Sunday night when U.S. and Iraqi special forces stormed a mosque and clashed with Shiite Muslim militiamen, police officials said, further inflaming the country as its leaders struggled to form a new government and stem sectarian violence.

An Iraqi police official said the dead were Shiite worshipers at the Mustafa mosque in northeast Baghdad. State-owned Al Iraqiya television showed more than a dozen male corpses, at least one of them elderly, laid out in what appeared to be a prayer room as a grieving man in white robes stepped among them on a blood-smeared concrete floor.

The incident is politically explosive because the mosque is a stronghold of followers of the radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose Iranian-backed movement has a powerful bloc in parliament and a large sectarian militia. Sunday’s clash was the most serious between that militia and U.S. forces since Sadr led two anti-American uprisings in 2004.

Interestingly enough, Aljazeera reported on the same incident very differently. Instead of a raid it was a "clash" in which Americans never entered the mosque.

Iraqi police said 22 people had died in the fighting on Sunday after armed men opened fire on US soldiers in the area.

Hasan Hamud, a police lieutenant, said eight people had been wounded and some of the casualties were at an office belonging to the Dawa party near the mosque.

The incident started when US forces came under fire from an unknown source in the direction of the mosque and the party office, Hamud said.

The American military said 16 "insurgents" were killed in the Ur neighbourhood by Iraqi special forces with US troops on the scene as backup.

"No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation," the military said in a statement, at least five hours after the incident.

"As elements of the 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade entered their objective, they came under fire. In the ensuing exchange of fire… [Iraqi troops] killed 16 insurgents. As they secured their objective, they detained 15 more individuals," the statement said.

For comparison, the New York Times, noting the facts are in dispute, uses both "raid" and "clash". An accompanying photo of dead Iraqis is captioned "what appears to be a mosque" while the opening paragraph does not even use the word mosque:

Frayed relations between Iraq’s Shiite leadership and the American
authorities came under increased strain on Monday as Shiite leaders
expressed fury over an American-led attack on a Shiite compound and
suspended negotiations over a new government.

How many times have you heard Aljazeera is biased? Aljazeera isn’t necessarily the Fox News of the Arab audience…

Navy Won’t File Charges in Iraq Contractor Fracas

~ Matt Armstrong

Briefly, the Zapata Engineering vs USMC clash may be over. From the Washington Post comes Navy Won’t File Charges in Iraq Contractor Fracas.

Military investigators said yesterday that they will not file any charges after completing their investigation into an incident in Iraq last May in which a group of Marines alleged they had been fired on by U.S. security contractors….

These men did nothing wrong. They were forced out of the country by the
Marines who in fact had engaged in conduct that was abusive to our own
citizens," Myers said. "I’m pleased that whatever cloud that was
hanging over those men is now removed, even if the Marine Corps will
not admit it made a mistake."

Apparently, the NCIS closed the case a long time ago, but the news is just surfacing now.

Skype = backdoor?

~ Matt Armstrong

If you’re a Skype user, and many of us are (including me), you may be interested in this presentation by Philippe Biondi and Fabrice Desclaux. Be forewarned, it’s long and detailed, so here are the take-aways in the conclusion:

First the "Good Points"

  • Skype was made by clever people
  • Good use of cryptography

Then the "Bad Points"

  • Hard to enforce a security policy with Skype
  • Jams traffic, can’t be distinguished from data exfiltration
  • Incompatible with traffic monitoring, IDS
  • Impossible to protect from attacks (which would be
    obfuscated)
  • Total blackbox. Lack of transparency.
  • No way to know if there is/will be a backdoor
  • Fully trusts anyone who speaks Skype.

ZDNet explores the presentation more than I will but only a bit more than I did. Jan in Malaysia explores the safety of Skype password systems.  Googling Skype and backdoor returns a fair number of hits. I’d recommend Googling the news for more details.

Prime time for PMCs

~ Matt Armstrong

Private military companies hit primetime TV according to Starpulse News Blog:

Currently in its 16th season, "Law & Order" moves to its new time slot with a politically charged fictional case that questions the reason our country is at war. In "America, Inc.," Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) suspect vengeance is the motive behind the slaying of a private military contractor. The investigation soon leads the detectives to fellow commando, Kevin Boatman (guest star Pablo Schrieber), and the younger brother of a man who was murdered by Iraqi insurgents while under the victim’s questionable command. But as A.D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) fights to keep a frightening video of the Iraqi execution out of court, he confronts unexpected political intrigue when more details are revealed about a recently captured terrorist. Annie Parisse, S. Epatha Merkerson and Fred Dalton Thompson also star.

Iran and al-Qaeda

~ Matt Armstrong

I’d receommend reading this interesting post from Security Watchtower on al-Qaeda and Iran:

…growing concern in the intelligence community that Iran is strengthening ties with al Qaedaand maintaining some level of operational cooperation with the
terrorist organization. A sizeable percentage of al Qaeda’s leadership
is in fact being harbored by the Iranian regime according to many.

This is more evidence on how this Administration has actually weakened our security position in the world than strengthened it. How might we deal with Iran now? What about North Korea? Was Iraq really the imminent threat? Clearly, this Administration is in its own little world.

The Nyala

~ Matt Armstrong

Interesting, Canadian troops get new toy:

The U.S. military, which designates the vehicle as the RG-31 ‘Charger’, has 148 units on order. Other nations and organizations that use the RG-31 include Columbia, Rwanda, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, and the infamous private military contractor Blackwater USA.

Hmm…. Columbia, Rwanda, S Africa, UK, UN, and… a PMC. I certainly don’t agree with the word "infamous" here, but it is interesting to put Blackwater on this list. Are they the only private enterprise to employ these vehicles? Certainly Blackwater is becoming more like a national military (it has stuff even the UN doesn’t: war memorial, air support, blimps, parachute team, etc), but to be included on this list?

Terrorists or criminals

~ Matt Armstrong

Briefly, something on the distinction between a ‘terrorist’ and a ‘criminal’ from The Plank:

Prosecutors paint the Aryan Brotherhood as a cunning and well-organized network of convicts more concerned with earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from gambling, drug sales and prostitution than with racial superiority. This is the prosecution? It sounds like the defense! ("Your honor, my clients aren’t really genocidal Nazis, they’re simply trying to make a few bucks.")

Terms matter. How the enemy is described frames the debate and the emotional foundation for support of and against. Generalisms can easily come back to haunt and they can also lead to the wrong strategy.

DHS Gets Another F in Computer Security

~ Matt Armstrong

This is comforting DHS Gets Another F in Computer Security.

Several agencies saw a considerable drop in their scores. The Department of Justice went from a B-minus in 2004 to a "D" in 2005, while Interior earned failing marks after getting a C-plus in 2004.

One of the greatest threats to our national security has been the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Between that and the fantasy that taking off my shoes to go through the detector at the airport (what about the chemical plants, railroads, airport employees, ports, small fields, Canada, tunnels under the southern border, etc) we are simply farther from having our act together. Too much time, money, and resources were spent on this massive re-org. How’s the FBI’s case management system coming along? How about giving email to the agents?

ERSM Video Follow Up (Updated)

~ Matt Armstrong

Following on the post about BIAP Road / Route IRISH video on this site, I was contacted by someone who knew and had served with in the military with one of the KIAs in the video. The loss of a buddy or a family member is difficult and reliving it on video may intensify those feelings. Our exchange over email prompts me to write this post (that and the large number of hits I get on the BIAP post).

The purpose of posting the video is to, as I explained to the friend in private email, highlight the difference between realities. The differences between the corporate AAR and the Yeager AAR are interesting, but not something I will get into. This is something for you to see and read yourself. Many, especially the mainstream media, ask what our government is thinking by allowing it and who is really benefiting from the war?

There are two critical questions here and "what is our government thinking" is one. First, what was the government thinking? The military wanted more forces and the Administration said no. We had enough to win the war but not enough to win the peace. While some may argue this was a difference of opinion in defining war (see comments), it is an issue of defining and understanding purpose and goals.

The purpose of changing the "regime" required a force to maintain order post-conflict. It required civil affairs and "reconstruction" crews to move in immediately to maintain or impose order, as the situation dictated. As we saw post-Katrina, it is too easy for civil society (and we’re supposedly more civil than Iraq) to breakdown in the absence of basic services and not meeting basic needs.

Keep in mind that criminal and power-hungry elements were able to seize power in the vacuum we created. Why were the military leaders, present and former, including General Shinseki and General Wesley Clark, ignored? Why is some 25% of the reconstruction budget spent on private security?

The roots of this quandary, as I see it, may be found in the increasing civil-military relations divide in the United States. Far from the President not visiting Dover and Rumsfeld using a signature machine to sign condolence letters, we have Executive and Legislative branches increasingly separated from the military. The success of the Administration to hide the effects of the war from the public and allow us to keep watching baseball and football, fill up our Hummers, and bet on March Madness without distraction means ignoring the nearly 2,500 KIA and nearly 20,000 wounded. But that does not explain the use of private military forces to provide security for "persons, places, or things".

Most often the accountability point is placed on the table as the primary reason for the US to field, or allow the fielding of private military force. Sometimes the first point raised is avoidance of what’s been referred to as the Dover Test: the test the President and his policies goes through when a flag-draped coffin lands at Dover Air Force Base. Those pictures don’t happen unless an airman snaps an illegal photo of the coffins. This isn’t the place to delve deeper into the reasons, but one might suggest obfuscation of the security dilemma created by the White House strategy (against the advice of some military strategists) and the ability to deploy security forces to the benefit of some and without Congressional or military oversight that would accompany ‘public’ force deployments. One might also suggest over-extension as a contributing factor.

The result is more important than the reason. Operating with the explicit permission of the USG, the use of private military companies are more than the tool of American foreign policy, they are conducting foreign policy at (too often) their own discretion and under their own rules. Their actions are, also too often, represent face of the United States government and society. In other words, this is foreign policy and public diplomacy by proxy.

Even if one disputes the
Clausewitzian notion that war is "not merely an act of policy but a
true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse,
carried on with other means", the local population on the ground
invariably see the force, public or private, as representative of
American force, and by extension American foreign policy.

So why not increase the ‘public’ force to provide this security? Besides the above stated reasons of why PMCs were initially engaged in such large numbers, the White House was concerned about the perception, this would create in, mostly, if not exclusively, the US. Keep the numbers the same or similar through stop-loss was better than deploying more troops. Remember the arguments against deploying more then look at troop deployment figures.

PMCs, like ERSM, provide a service the Administration did not want to provide through the military. Whether or not ERSM, Blackwater and other firms did all that was possible or reasonable to prevent tragedy is ultimately the result of failed oversight. If a military unit failed to properly plan, provision, or execute, there would be repercussions. The implicit firewall between PMC and State and DoD both encourages distance and discourages adequate oversight to prevent and punish failures. This firewall doesn’t have to exist. As the client, contracts can be written to require certain standards of performance, excellence, and punishment. However, there is a long history to tell us how relationships with defense contractors will go. This isn’t true of all contractors, but it can happen too often and just as often, arguments over the use of PMCs fail to consider the fact the USG has the right and obligation to faithfully execute our foreign policy and conduct public diplomacy to protect and advance our country.

When ERSM does not provide armored vehicles and Blackwater does not provide a fifth or six gunner and possibly violates OPSEC by asking directions at a hotel, the fallout is on the United States even if the White House and Rumsfeld and Rice wants to refer to the deceased as "only" contractors. But they do refer to them only as contractors and fail to acknowledge their contribution to our image overseas, let alone in theater. 

The bulk of the PSC operators are good, well intentioned (and experienced) guys. The bulk of the PSCs operating in Iraq are unknown to the general global citizen / observer because they fly low and avoid the radar. Unfortunately, bad things happen and PSDs are there with limited reserves / support and it seems sometimes the corporate drive interferes with the military mission. It probably happens more often. Sometimes they’re lucky and sometimes not.

Just a few thoughts. The video isn’t exciting, it’s sad. Good men die what may have been preventable deaths.

Other Africas: Images of Nigerian Modernity

~ Matt Armstrong

Oppressor While doing research on Nigeria, I came across this excellent website on an exhibit that ran Jan – April 2002 at Southern Illinois University.

The exhibit’s statement: "Critical observers have long noted that museum collections from Africa are composed largely of the spoils of colonial pillage. Thus the Africa we normally encounter in museums–the Africa of masks and ritual objects displayed on walls and in glass cases–is a fetishized Africa of colonial nostalgia. The objective of this exhibit is to offer images of Other Africas, perspectives that lead us away from the desolate and romanticized Africa of the Western imagination toward those places where African modernities are emerging."

At right is a poster titled The Oppressor:

This popular calendar entitled "The Oppressor," is explicit commentary on wealth and inequality in Nigeria. Here, a very large man dressed in European style clothing (which is indicative of his wealth and status) rests his feet on the very backs of Nigeria’s poor and unfortunate. Although they carry his large platter of food, he offers them nothing even as they are starving. One of the biggest criticisms that Nigerians have of the elite is their failure to share this wealth with others, even by investing in Nigerian businesses. Thus, they are often depicted as greedy and selfish.

This stunning exhibit moves you beyond thinking of Africa through a colonial frame of poached masks and thatched roofs, themes echoed by the statements of the curators. More than worth the click through time.

Slight pause on posting…

~ Matt Armstrong

My posting will continue to be sparse or non-existent for a few more days as I work heads down on some other projects. Keep the email and comments coming. — talk soon, going back under.

Stuff I’d like to post on, but can’t right now (some I may, others will slide by):

You are as likely to lose an email as the checked bag on your next flight?

~ Matt Armstrong

Breifly, from Deep Freeze 9: You’re as likely to lose an email as the checked bag on your next flight.

You’re as likely to lose an email as the checked bag on your next flight More email is lost than I thought. The loss rate is at least 0.7%, or 7 messages in 1,000 [1]. If you send ten messages a day, this means 25 will go astray in a year. For comparison, airlines operate with 3 to 10 lost baggage reports per 1,000 passengers on major airlines [2]. As for the old-fashioned way of doing it: the British Royal Mail has admitted that more than 14 million letters and parcels were lost, stolen, damaged or tampered in 2005, out of 22 billion items handled. That’s 0.06% — ten times better than email!

Hmmm.

Accountability and Civil Wars

~ Matt Armstrong

Briefly, Real Clear Politics quoted General Franks in Qatar and highlighted the following:

“The number of stories presented in any media outlet over the last five years that can be called into question and proven invalid is huge, and the number of incorrect assertions and absurd allegations is enormous.

If you as a military officer, diplomat or politician, use your judgement to make decisions and if your judgement is bad, what happens? You lose your job, livelihood, because you are responsible for what you do…”

Interesting, but if you’re a politician and you make a bad judgement, do you lose your job or livelihood? Obviously not.

In the same Q&A reported in a different Gulf Times article, General Franks reminds that “there is no guarantee that there not be” a civil war in Iraq. Continuing, he said, “My own country was founded in the late 18th century and some 60 years later what did we see? A civil war.” Ah, enter the General into the battle of words On the Media capably reported on 3 March 2006.

Military censorship, it’s not what you think

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 4 Comments

Briefly, the military is censoring, but it’s not what you think. They are censoring the websurfing of troops in Iraq, using filtering software to protect children and citizens of Muslim countries from accessing "questionable" content. While preventing porn surfing could be seen as reasonable (trying to accomodate the filter notion), but the implementation is much broader and blocks political speech. What is Centcom’s take on this? I don’t know, but it’ll be interesting to find out.

See Wonkett’s We’re Bringing the War Back Home and Our Boys Need Gossip, a listing by BoingBoing of some of the blocked sites, and Kathryn Cramer’s always penetrating analysis and deep sea dredging (be sure to review her side links on the "SmartFilter Lowdown" for other offsite news and analysis). Kathryn notes, among other things, some of the states licensing SmartFilter: Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

Should our troops be subject to the same censorship? Beyond using the troops as props (sourced from TPM), is the Administration really concerned about the Zogby poll (with or without various repudiations and concerns about its accuracy), or MilitaryTimes polls that continue to show the military on a different page than their civilian leadership?

Is this really necessary? Is this a necessary and proper use of our resources? Are we that concerned about the time our guys are spending on "subversive" blogs and news sources?

The is a natural, and unfortunate, extension of the McCarthyism of the White House’s rhetoric: "you’re with us or against us and I don’t care if you’re really with actually because I’ll do what I want".

Pathetic and Disgusting

~ Matt Armstrong

Briefly, Protesting at Soldier Funerals is repulsive and pathetic.

In the back of a truck, there were signs that read "Thank God for IED’s" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."
I was with the Phelps family. They’ve launched a disturbing campaign to tarnish the funerals of fallen soldiers.

Fred Phelps is the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. The congregation is made up mostly of his family. Phelps has 13 children, 54 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.

He describes himself as an "old-time" gospel preacher who says, "You can’t preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God."

Blogging w/out Attribution

~ Matt Armstrong

Briefly, the tactics of the Pentagon encouraging milbloggers with "exclusive editorial content" (which I still don’t receive) is now public in the corporate sphere. The New York Times has a story today about Wal-Mart’s public relations agency, Edelman, providing press releases to favorite bloggers. Wal-Mart isn’t well loved for its corporate social responsibility, something WM is countering. The core issue here is how bloggers are cutting and pasting press releases into their blogs without attribution. The response by some of the bloggers caught in the act is both sad and laughable. You should read the article… people are starting to realize the problems with lazy media, er, bloggers.

Extremism, Terror, and the Future of Conflict

~ Matt Armstrong

Policy Review is going full force at incomplete and competing agendas and theories of the "war on terror", and 4GW. Besides Tony Corn’s "World War IV as Fourth-Generation Warfare" and Michael J. Mazarr’s "Extremism, Terror, and the Future of Conflict", you should (must) read Donald Rumsfeld’s conversation at the Council of Foreign Relations, "New Realities in the Media Age".

I strongly urge you to read all three. I will comment more on Mazarr’s article later when time avails. (Hat tip to Tammy for the Mazarr head’s up.)

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Tags: 4GW, War, QDR, Current Affairs, Politics, Terrorism, Security, GWOT, Public Diplomacy, Long War

Simulated Media for Pentagon Exercises

~ Matt Armstrong

War is about to break out between Bogaland and Gotland. Reportings in the capitals of each country, Huvudstad and Visby, respectively, tell of an deepening crisis. This isn’t real the real deal. It’s part of a media simulation the United States Joint Forces Command, "simumedia" if you will.

The nine year old World News Network, with its 1,000th newscast as part of a yearly US-Japan exercise, trains the military to consider, manage, and interact with the media.

The branch provides training on how the presence of mass media affects the planning and execution of military operations. The purpose is to educate commanders and their staffs on the influence mass media can have on their operations, and how to effectively work with the media while accomplishing their missions.

The more nimble, compared to State, Pentagon continues to leverage the massive amounts of money thrown at it as part of the GWOT. Through bureaucratic morass, budgetary constraints, and failed perceptions of value, the Pentagon engages the Rendon Group and cut-outs to seed black, gray, and white propaganda overseas to influence foreign and domestic audiences. Through these programs, DoD continues to get more sophisticated as an actor in media diplomacy, to the exclusion of or in advance of State.

World News Network, an internal services, "broadcasts" during exercises news on television, radio and the web. Placing and keeping the military on the front lines of the media war requires honing communication skills.

“We don’t just ‘deal’ with the media anymore,” Stephens explained. “We help the media tell our story. That’s the paradigm shift we’re making. The media in a free society provides a valuable service to its citizens, and we need to be open and honest in telling our story to them so they can tell the public. That’s what free societies are all about.”

The realism of the SimuMedia is emphasized in feedback and is necessary for effective training of the military.

“One of the challenges we have is operating in an exercise environment that blends live, virtual and constructed elements,” said Williams, who also serves as the branch manager. “Trainees don’t always get to see the entire picture. WNN has become another model. We are giving them images, voice, analysis and discussion that the other resources they have can’t provide. And we’re able to do it on the fly.”

The creation of JPASE as a permanent resource for public affairs (aka public diplomacy if were conducted by State) is another piece in the mosaic of military-centric communications with the world.

“JPASE brings the public affairs focus to the training and helps us shape the training we give to the public affairs professionals on those staffs,” Williams said. “We’re providing media those public affairs staffs have to work with during operations. It’s important that we stimulate public affairs staffs during training.”

Adding to the realism is contracted staff from outside the military or government.

“Using contractors also allows us to draw talent from the outside,” Green said. “We have people on the team who really were television reporters and producers before coming here. Others are former military public affairs professionals. We have a team of people with diverse talents and skills that operates as a cohesive unit.”

“We recognized a couple of years ago that we were trying to emulate television news and newspaper organizations, so we asked ourselves, why not hire people from that environment?” Williams said.

Where is State? They are forced to sit on the side without the money or resources to provide a non-military face to foreign publics while the military continues to become more sophisticated in participating in and managing media diplomacy. Is this the path we really want to be going down?

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