Military Intelligence

I Carabinieri Reali al fronte nella Grande Guerra (co-authored with Filippo Cappellano)

by Flavio Carbone

published in Nicola Labanca, Giorgio Rochat (a cura di), Il soldato, la guerra e il rischio di morire, Milano, Unicopli Edizioni, 2006, pp. 167-214.

Working with the co-author and with different visions the co-author tried to underline the effort based on the... more Working with the co-author and with different visions the co-author tried to underline the effort based on the mobilisation of a very important numbers of Carabinieri to support the action of the Armed Forces during the First World War.

“There is a serious and sustained threat from international terrorism to the UK and UK interests’ overseas (National Counter Terrorism Security Office website). Critically assess British counter-terrorist efforts, comparing them with the US, with a particular emphasis on the role of the intelligence agencies.”

by Robert Melhuish

Gang Investigators’ Perceptions of Military-trained Gang Members (MTGM)

by Carter Smith

Co-authored with Dr. Yvonne Doll, accepted for publication in Critical Issues in Justice and Politics (Volume 5 Number 1 May 2012, ISSN 1940-3186) Keywords: articles of gangs in the army, military crime, research articles, us military training gangs, gang-related activity in the us armed forces increasing, dod strategic plan for gangs in the military, army definition of gang, army enlistment, gang activity in the us military, street gangs in the military, percent of military personnel have gang association

Abstract
Communities everywhere have experienced the negative effects of street gangs. The presence of... more Abstract
Communities everywhere have experienced the negative effects of street gangs. The presence of military-trained gang members (MTGMs) in the community increases the threat of violence to citizens. The problem addressed in this study was the apparently growing presence of military-trained gang members in civilian communities. The purpose of the study was to determine the perceived presence of military-trained gang members and to examine whether there was a relationship between the perceptions of gang investigators regarding the presence and the size of their jurisdictions, the proximity of their jurisdictions to a military installation, and the extent to which investigators participate in anti-gang activities. The statistical analyses used to test the hypotheses in this study were Pearson and Spearman Correlation Coefficients, independent means t tests, and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression analysis. Respondents reported a mean of 11% of the gang members in their jurisdictions were MTGMs. The Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve were identified as the largest sources of MTGMs and the Bloods, Crips, and Gangster Disciples were the gangs most represented. Recommendations included all branches of the military therein should adopt a uniform definition of gangs. Military leaders should acknowledge the increase in gang-related crime affecting the military and address the problems caused for both military and civilian communities without attempting to quantify the threat level. Military leadership should continuously examine the activities of all suspected military gang members to determine active gang affiliation for retention purposes while evaluating any gang affiliation for security clearances. Military Law Enforcement liaison for recruiters should develop effective communication with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to assist with information sharing.

Positivism, Postpositivism and Intelligence Analysis

by Mary Manjikian

Intelligence Ethics and Non-Coercive Interrogation

by Michael Skerker

Defense Intelligence Journal, 16-1 (2007): 61-76

The Haganah and SOE: Allies and Enemies - Irregular Warfare & Politics in Mandatory Palestine - Given at SMH 2012

by Jacob Stoil

An approach to Intelligent Information Fusion in Sensor Saturated Urban Environments

by Nikolaos Konstantinou

Co-authored with Ch. Doulaverakis, Th. Knape, I. Kompatsiaris and J. Soldatos, In European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC 2011), co-sponsored by IEEE, Athens, Greece, September 2011

This paper introduces a novel sensor information fusion system enabling security and surveillance in large scale... more This paper introduces a novel sensor information fusion system enabling security and surveillance in large scale sensor saturated urban environments. The system is built over state-of-the art sensor networks middleware and provides information fusion at multiple layers. A distinguishing characteristic of the system is that it support seamless integration with semantic web middleware (including ontologies and inference mechanisms), which enable intelligent high-level accurate reasoning. This is a key functionality for efficient surveillance in large scale
environment, where manual inspection of individual tracking systems becomes extremely resourceful and overall impractical. A proof-of-concept implementation of the system manifests its benefits and technical challenges, while also outlining lessons learnt.

The Romanian Army Officer Lt. Alexandru Gheorghe (27 y.o.) Fights for Democracy Under the Weight of the Lingering Communist Era Tombstones

by Adrian Toader-Williams

Denigrating intellectuals and eliminating people that stands out against the ruling government for a public interest cause has deep roots in the old time human behavior tendency to hold power. Personally I have hard time to accept that during our days such concepts and practices are still generalized in the civilized countries. Remainders of the old communist and dictatorial regimes isolated tendencies are possible to linger around. We can aim towards a sustainable development only by reaffirming the democracy, the social contract and the fundamental law protecting the Human Rights. If not absolutely nothing makes sense. Full Article: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-743320 Military Army NATO Romania Social Contract Human Rights Health Freedom Economy Economics Equilibrium TEKT Triangular Ecokinematics Theory Webcast Romania Retirement Law Education Security Sustainable Development Government Finances Banks Money Inflation Attribution

Denigrating intellectuals and eliminating people that stands out against the ruling government for a public interest... more Denigrating intellectuals and eliminating people that stands out against the ruling government for a public interest cause has deep roots in the old time human behavior tendency to hold power. Personally I have hard time to accept that during our days such concepts and practices are still generalized in the civilized countries. Remainders of the old communist and dictatorial regimes isolated tendencies are possible to linger around. We can aim towards a sustainable development only by reaffirming the democracy, the social contract and the fundamental law protecting the Human Rights. If not absolutely nothing makes sense. Full Article: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-743320

Efficacy and Adoption of Central Web 2.0 and Social Software Tools in the U.S. Intelligence Community

by Dave Schroeder

Over nearly the past decade, the United States Intelligence Community has struggled with how to effectively share... more Over nearly the past decade, the United States Intelligence Community has struggled with how to effectively share information and transform the intelligence production process to leverage the explosion of social software tools. Post–9/11 reports, recommendations, directives, and legislation uniformly point to the need for the IC to move from the existing “need to know” mode to one of “need to share” and “responsibility to provide.” Initiatives like Intellipedia and A-Space have been held out as successes, but they have not fundamentally changed the “finished report” model of intelligence production. Grassroots adoption of new tools by eager young analysts has only gone so far, and the IC is in danger of not achieving the agility it needs to respond to today’s threats. Perils like Wikileaks threaten to undo the progress that has been made. What can be done to transform intelligence into a “living” product?

Harry Pirie-Gordon and the Palestine Guide Books

by David Gill

Harry Pirie-Gordon (1883-1969) was responsible for the preparation of a series of Guide-Books published by the... more Harry Pirie-Gordon (1883-1969) was responsible for the preparation of a series of Guide-Books published by the Palestine News immediately after the First World War. The information had been prepared for the British attack on Palestine. Pirie-Gordon first went to Syria in 1908 ostensibly to study Crusader Castles. He took part in the survey of the Syrian coast around Alexandretta and worked as a foreign correspondent for The Times. Pirie-Gordon was commissioned in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and initially worked through the Arab Bureau in Cairo. After a spell in Salonica, he was commissioned in the Army, returned to Cairo and took responsibility for the publication of the Palestine News for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Allenby’s campaign in Palestine drew on the developing technology of aerial photography to prepare accurate maps of troop dispositions.

Deterrence, coercion and brute force in asymmetric conflict: The role of the military instrument in resolving the Northern Ireland 'troubles'

by Aaron Edwards

Published in the 'Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict', December 2011

The use of deterrence, coercion and brute force in effecting peace in asymmetric conflict is often overlooked and a... more The use of deterrence, coercion and brute force in effecting peace in asymmetric conflict is often overlooked and a premium instead is placed on diplomacy and bargaining between states and non-state terrorist groups. Indeed, the relative success of the Northern Ireland “peace process” since the 1990s has amplified the sound of dialogue as a means of ending violent conflict in deeply divided societies. This article adopts a different perspective. Borrowing from strategic theory, it examines the British state's application of force in bringing the Provisional IRA to the negotiating table. It argues that in the “battle of wills” between the British state's security forces and the IRA, a more coercive strategy was adopted by Britain than is openly admitted in the scholarly literature on the Northern Ireland “troubles.” The article concludes with several observations on the importance of the use of force in counter-terrorism operations.

NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan: Paving the Way for a Secure Afghan State?

by Justin D. Wallestad

Originally published on www.INEGMA.com

The geographical transition of responsibility from NATO-led security to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) –... more The geographical transition of responsibility from NATO-led security to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) – beginning this last summer – were anything but envisioned by policymakers in Washington two years ago, let alone academics who suggested a de facto partition separating the northern Tajiks from the southern Pashtuns in Afghanistan presented the only feasible solution to bringing an end to the war.

A Knowledge Taxonomy for Army Intelligence Training: An Assessment of the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leaders Course Using Lundvall’s Knowledge Taxonomy

by Texas State PA Applied Research Projects

Ruiz, Victor H., "A Knowledge Taxonomy for Army Intelligence Training: An Assessment of the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leaders Course Using Lundvall’s Knowledge Taxonomy" (2010). Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 331.
http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/331

Purpose: The events of September 11, 2001 and the succeeding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan changed intelligence... more Purpose: The events of September 11, 2001 and the succeeding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan changed intelligence requirements from those of the Vietnam era and the cold war. As a result, intelligence training was modified to keep up with matters such as globalization and counterinsurgency operations. This dynamic operational environment thus necessitates constant evaluation of intelligence training practices. This research has two purposes. First, it explores the different types of knowledge involved in military intelligence training. Second, it uses Lundvall‘s Knowledge Taxonomy to assess the types of knowledge acquired through intelligence training at the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leader‘s Course (MIBOLC). The four evaluated knowledge categories are know-what, know-how, know-who and know-why.

Method: In conjunction with Lundvall‘s knowledge taxonomy, this research uses four working hypotheses to explore the different types of knowledge that intelligence training provides to company-grade Army intelligence officers. While initially based on the taxonomy, the working hypotheses contain intelligence-related topics found in the literature supporting the postulated knowledge categories. Each working hypothesis contains sub-hypotheses that are used to supplement or reinforce their corresponding expectation. A case study methodology is used to assess the types of knowledge acquired at the MIBOLC. The data-collection techniques used in this research are document analysis, structured interviews, and direct observations.

Findings: The results strongly support the existence of know-what and know-how knowledge training at the MIBOLC. Know-who and know-why knowledge training is also present but only in limited to adequate amounts. While the course provides a foundation for conducting intelligence analysis, two areas of instruction need improvement: fostering interpersonal relations and developing higher order thought processes. These findings are in line with Major General Flynn‘s 2010 assessment of intelligence operations in Afghanistan, where population-centric information gathering and adaptive thinking better support counterinsurgency operations (2010, 5,15). Improving the areas of know-who and know-why will support current operations by placing more emphasis on people and on how to think critically and adaptively. These findings apply to intelligence leaders at the United States Intelligence Center and to Brigade Combat Team commanders and intelligence officials. Improving know-who and know-why knowledge at the school-house and tactical levels will provide junior officers the ability to critically analyze the central intelligence aspect of counterinsurgencies, the people. Not improving know-who and know-why knowledge will limit an intelligence officer‘s abilities and therefore perpetuate a reluctance to view counterinsurgency operations in a holistic manner

Transforming Counterinsurgent Strategy - Using the Topography of Intelligence

by Lukas Milevski

Infinity Journal 2/1 (December 2011), 21-24.

Ideologie, Propaganda und politischer Pragmatismus. Die Auseinandersetzung der osmanischen und habsburgischen Großmächte und die mitteleuropäische Konfrontation

by Gabor Agoston

Published in Martina Fuchs, Teréz Oborni, and Gábor Újváry eds., Kaiser Ferdinand I. - Ein mitteleuropäischer Herrscher. (Münster: Aschendorff  Verlag, 2005), pp. 207-233.

Intelligence and Anglo-American Air Support in World War Two: The Western Desert and Tunisia, 1940-43. By Brad William Gladman

by Ross Mahoney

Book Review published in Global War Studies

Challenging Goliath

by David Robie

Robie, D. (1986). Challenging Goliath. New Internationalist, Issue 163 - September 1986. ISSN: 0305-9529

When Aotearoa (NZ) banned nuclear warships from its ports it
was seen as David standing up to Washington's... more When Aotearoa (NZ) banned nuclear warships from its ports it
was seen as David standing up to Washington's Goliath. But behind Prime Minister David Lange is a whole army of peace campaigners forcing him to sling his shot. David Robie traces the history of their resistance - and shows how ordinary people declaring their home as a nuclear-free-zone helped send a message to the superpowers.

Fake soccer websites used to mislead Iran during cyber-attack on its nuclear program

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

Two fake soccer websites helped the creators of the Stuxnet computer virus that last... more By James M. Dorsey

Two fake soccer websites helped the creators of the Stuxnet computer virus that last year attacked computers used in Iran’s nuclear program mislead authorities as they launched their assault as part of a covert campaign involving assassinations of nuclear scientists and mysterious blasts at Iranian nuclear and military facilities.

The creators used the websites, www.mypremierfutbol.com and www.todaysfutbol.com, as fronts to communicate with Stuxnet-infected Iranian computers in a bid to make Iranian authorities believe that related traffic originated with soccer fans, according to a Reuters news agency story.

The story discloses details of how Stuxnet was developed and deployed based on research conducted by cyber warfare expert John Bumgarner, a retired U.S. Army special-operations veteran and former intelligence officer, who is chief technology officer of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit group that studies the impact of cyber threats.

The Stuxnet virus created havoc in computers that control Iranian centrifuges designed to enrich uranium in the Islamic republic’s underground Nantaz nuclear facility and is believed to have set the program back by several months. It reportedly affected 1,000 of Iran's estimated 8,000 centrifuges.

In a second cyber war incident, Iran said last month that it had discovered traces of the Duqu virus on which Stuxnet was based but had developed software to stop it before it created damage. Security software company Symantec Corp said in October that it had noticed a virus with a code similar to that of Stuxnet.

Unlike Stuxnet, which is designed to take out control systems, Duqu is intended to collect data in advance of a cyber-attack.
Stuxnet is widely believed to have been developed by Israel and the United States as part of a covert effort to prevent Iran from acquiring the capability to build nuclear weapons. An enhanced upgraded version of the virus is reported to be close to completion.

It is difficult to see the virus attack on the Iranian computers independent of the assassination of at least three key Iranian nuclear scientists in the past two years as well as a series of explosions in Iran.

A blast last month at the Bid Ganeh Revolutionary Guards base 48 kilometers west of Tehran killed 17 people, including General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in the Islamic republic’s missile development program. Iran’s assertion that the explosion was an accident has widely been greeted with scepticism. Iranian officials acknowledged that the explosion happened as scientists were working on weapons that could be used in an attack on Israel.

Iranian officials however denied that a second blast in Isfahan days after the Bid Ganeh incident involved a nuclear facility in the city where raw uranium is believed to be converted to uranium hexafluoride, the gas used in centrifuges in the initial phase of the process to enrich yellow cake.

The officials initially said the blast was related to a military exercise but later denied that any explosion had occurred. At least two more unconfirmed explosions are reported to have happened at facilities that host Iranian Shahab-3 medium-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Two Iranian nuclear scientists, Fereydoon Abbasi-Davan and Majid Shahriari, were targeted in bombings in Tehran late last year in separate attacks. Mr. Abbasi-Davan survived the attack and was subsequently appointed as head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization while Mr. Shahriari was killed. The modus operandi in both attacks was the same: a motorcyclist who attached a bomb to the vehicles that they were travelling in.

In related incidents, nuclear scientist Darioush Rezaie was killed in Tehran by gunmen in Tehran in July of last year while Massoud Ali Mohammadi died in a bombing in the Iranian capital in January 2010. A Tehran court convicted in August Majid Jamali Fashi to death on charges of having been involved in the murder of Mr. Mohammedi on behalf of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

The incidents are believed to be part of a covert campaign designed to complement ever tougher sanctions imposed on Iran and make a military strike against Iranian nuclear targets less likely.

Cyber warfare expert Mr. Bumgarner told Reuters that the fake soccer websites were part of a far larger effort to create a smoke screen behind which the Stuxnet virus attack could be launched undetected. Mr. Bumgarner said that an earlier virus, Conficker, that infected millions of computers in 2008 and was still dormant in many of those computers across the globe enabled the creators of Stuxnet to launch another attack with an improved version of the virus whenever they were ready.

While such an attack is likely, it is less likely to employ soccer as a deception.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

London Riots: Decentralized Intelligence Collection and Analysis

by Alexandre Cristina

Published in the Small Wars Journal

The purpose of this paper is to comment on one of the developments arising from the 2011 summer riots in England,... more The purpose of this paper is to comment on one of the developments arising from the 2011 summer riots in England, where a website was set up so that the public could identify those involved and report them to the Police. The use of modern technology to identify insurgents could be a response to the lack of working censuses in many areas where stability operations are conducted, seen by some observers as a major weakness.
The central idea is to tell friend from foe, or in classical Maoist terminology, fish from the water, using some of the widely available tools which, on the other hand, seem to have been used to spread the violence in the UK.
The use of a website to spread pictures of violent incidents and have the perpetrators identified by the population would be a way to plug a gap in police capabilities, since the British authorities are unlikely to have the necessary manpower and knowledge to do so on their own.
This is why we can talk of "decentralized intelligence collection and analysis."

The New Great Game: Military, Police and Strategic Intelligence for Global Security

by John P. Sullivan

In 'Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism,' Volume 2, Issue 2, 2007.

Intelligence and counter terrorism are key elements of the contemporary global security environment. Profound changes... more Intelligence and counter terrorism are key elements of the contemporary global security environment. Profound changes in the nature of states fuelled by globalization, information technology, and the influence of non‐state actors are changing the structure and dynamics of intelligence. A range of global threats and conditions influence the contemporary global security and intelligence stage. These include global insurgency and terrorism (as seen in the Salafist jihadi struggle with the West), the rise of global business and civil society, global political movements, transnational organized crime, the rise of global cities, networked diasporas, global disease, and the prospect of planet‐wide climate change. Yet, while all players in this new ‘Great Game’ recognize that intelligence is essential to situational understanding, few have the institutional structure, experience, and understanding of the various types of intelligence necessary to negotiate the current and emerging security environment. This article will review the threats and conditions influencing global security environment, and discuss the roles of military, police, and strategic intelligence in understanding this environment.