Government is just another word for how we can fuck shit up together.
[NakedSecurity] Losing your home in a hurricane or wildfire is bad enough, but to add insult to injury, the US agency that helps survivors get temporary housing set millions of them up for identity theft and fraud by needlessly sharing their personal data with a contractor.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General (DHS OIG), which administers FEMA, said in a management alert dated 15 March that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spilled highly sensitive personal data belonging to 2.3 million people who needed hotel lodging because of the 2017 wildfires in California and because of that year’s trio of hurricanes: Harvey, Irma and Maria.
In order for the contractor to administer FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program, there are 13 types of Personal Identifying Information (PII) it needs, and there are these six types of Sensitive PII (SPII) that it doesn’t need but which FEMA gave it anyway: street address, city name, postal code, the name of the applicant’s financial institution, applicants’ electronic funds transfer numbers, and their bank transit numbers.
SPII is defined as a subset of PII which if lost, compromised, or disclosed without authorization could result in what the DHS OIG called "substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to an individual." SPII, which includes the financial information that FEMA fumbled, requires stricter handling guidelines because if it’s compromised, it can bring serious hurt to people.
On Friday, FEMA called the data disclosure a "major privacy incident" in a press release.
Press secretary Lizzie Litzow said in the release that FEMA has taken "aggressive measures" to close the leak and that the agency is no longer sharing unnecessary data with the contractor.
FEMA has also conducted a "detailed review" of the contractor's information system, she said. As of Friday, FEMA hadn't found evidence that the survivors' data had been compromised… although a lack of evidence doesn't mean that it didn't happen, as an anonymous DHS official told the Washington Post.
FEMA has also worked with the contractor to scrub the sensitive data off its system and has updated its contract to ensure compliance with DHS cybersecurity and information-sharing standards, Litzow said. Also, FEMA has told the contractor to complete additional DHS privacy training for its staff.
The DHS official told the Post that of the 2.3 million survivors affected, 1.8 million had both their banking information and addresses revealed, while about 725,000 people had just their addresses shared – a total that's slightly more than that mentioned in the OIG's report.
[Variety] Dr. Dre’s attempt to throw shade on the recent celebrity college admissions scandals backfired after he apparently belatedly realized that he’d donated $70 million to the college his daughter, Truly, is attending.
On Saturday Dre posted a photo with the caption, "My daughter got accepted into USC all on her own. No jail time!!!" and then quickly deleted it after it was pointed about that in 2013 he and Beats by Dre cofounder Jimmy Iovine donated $70 million to the school to establish the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.
Making matters worse, on Monday TMZ excavated a post from Truly that seems to suggest she actually didn’t want to attend USC, saying that her father was pushing her to attend the school.
None of this indicates that Truly was not accepted to USC entirely on her own merits, or that Dre’s contribution was not completely above board. However, anyone with a teenaged daughter will understand the doghouse Dre is presumably in at the moment.
The worlds of entertainment, business, sports and academia were rocked by the recent revelation that wealthy parents such as Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin allegedly paid college admissions consultant Rick Singer large sums to get their children into elite colleges. A second suit, filed on behalf of two Stanford students, claims their degree has been devalued due to the school’s association with the scandal.
#5
What does that mean, no jail time?
However, anyone with a teenaged daughter will understand the doghouse Dre is presumably in at the moment.
Yeah, totes. Just the other week I donated $20million local police department rec center, joking that I hope they don't see my daughter doing any wrong.
[DAWN] The US space agency NASA scrapped Monday a planned historic spacewalk by two women astronauts, citing a lack of available spacesuits that would fit them at the International Space Station.
Christina Koch will now perform tasks in space Friday with fellow American Nick Hague ‐ instead of Anne McClain as originally planned.
Had Koch and McClain done their spacewalk together, it would have been the first ever by two women astronauts.
Until now, male-only or mixed male-female teams had conducted spacewalk since the space station was assembled in 1998 ‐ 214 spacewalks until now.
McClain worked outside the station last week ‐ with Hague ‐ when she realised that a "medium"-sized upper half of her spacesuit fit her better.
"Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it," NASA explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
"I can't go on a space walk! I don't have anything to wear."
Sad, really. Not only can NASA no longer put a man on the Moon, they can't even put a woman in vacuum. Kudos to the geniuses who decided to make a routine event into one giant step for woman-kind... and then punted.
#5
Report No. IG-17-018
Beginning with the Gemini 4 mission in June 1965, NASA astronauts have ventured outside their spacecraft hundreds of times wearing specialized suits that protect them from the harsh environments of space and provide the oxygen and temperature control necessary to preserve life. The spacesuits NASA astronauts currently use on the International Space Station (ISS or Station) – known as Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) – were developed more than 40 years ago and have far outlasted their original 15-year design life.
While maintaining the existing fleet of EMUs for use on the ISS, the Agency has also spent almost $200 million on three spacesuit development efforts to enable human exploration in deep space, including missions to Mars: the Constellation Space Suit System ($135.6 million), Advanced Space Suit Project ($51.6 million), and Orion Crew Survival System ($12 million). A key part of these development efforts will be testing the next-generation spacesuit technologies on the ISS prior to its scheduled retirement in 2024.
In this audit, we examined NASA’s efforts to maintain its existing spacesuits and its plans for and progress in developing its next-generation spacesuits. To complete this work, we interviewed Agency and other relevant officials; analyzed cost, schedule, and performance data; and reviewed relevant reports, documents, and presentations.
#6
NASA continues to manage an array of design and health risks associated with the EMUs used by ISS crew. In addition, only 11 of the 18 original EMU Primary Life Support System units – a backpack-like structure that performs a variety of functions required to keep an astronaut alive during a spacewalk – are still in use, raising concerns that the inventory may not be adequate to last through the planned retirement of the ISS. Given these issues, NASA will be challenged to
continue to support ISS needs with the current fleet of EMUs through 2024, a challenge that will escalate significantly if Station operations are extended to 2028.
Despite spending nearly $200 million on NASA’s next-generation spacesuit technologies, the Agency remains years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit capable of replacing the EMU or suitable for use on future exploration missions. As different missions require different designs, the lack of a formal plan and specific destinations for future missions has
complicated spacesuit development. Moreover, the Agency has reduced the funding dedicated to spacesuit
development in favor of other priorities such as an in-space habitat.
After examining these spacesuit development efforts, we question NASA’s decision to continue funding a contract associated with the Constellation Program after cancellation of that Program and a recommendation made by Johnson Space Center officials in 2011 to cancel the contract. Rather than terminate the contract, NASA paid the contractor
$80.8 million between 2011 and 2016 for spacesuit technology development, despite parallel development activities being conducted within NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division. Moreover, given the current development schedule, a significant risk exists that a next-generation spacesuit prototype will not be sufficiently mature in time to test it on the ISS prior to 2024. Finally, little schedule margin exists between anticipated delivery of the Orion Crew Survival System spacesuit in March 2021 and NASA’s current internal launch date of August 2021 for its first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit.
#9
NASA's astronaut program is a complete dumpster fire.
Their planet exploration arm is good, as they contract it out and just set the goals, run the high level stuff and let the contractors do the rest. Maybe they should take that approach with their other programs. Clearly their current management is about as effective as the ones in Office Space.
#15
AlmostAnonymous5839 - Much Much More than 5 billion.
Last I saw closer to 20 billion and climbing with not one rocket to show for it.
BTW SpaceX has now launched almost 70 rockets and their total cost is much less then what NASA has spent on the Senate Launch System Turkey.
#20
Why are there no muzz on Star Trek? Because it's the future...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 15:11 Comments ||
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#21
Today's NASA's extracurricular
Careers outshine extravehicular:
"Let's stick to our knitting:
New suits, more form-fitting,
Less spacious enclosures testicular!"
Or "gaffs," was it?
Posted by: Bob Angosh7198 ||
03/27/2019 15:48 Comments ||
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[RT] Netizens were up in arms this week grilling CNN boss Jeff Zucker who awkwardly defended his network’s coverage of the Mueller probe, saying their job was to report facts "as we know them," rather than, you know, investigating.
"We are not Sherlocks. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did," Zucker said in light of the fact that the Robert Mueller investigation which CNN had harped on for the last two years found no evidence that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
"A sitting president’s own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation," Zucker added in an apparent reference to Moscow. "That’s not enormous because the media says so. That’s enormous because it’s unprecedented," he continued, seemingly moving back the network’s goalposts with any hope of an actual conviction smashed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Then why do you call your hit pieces "Investgative reporting'?
#3
We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did,
Rumors are not facts. Opinions are not facts. Your wishes are not facts. 'The Dossier' was not facts. Simply reading the Donk Socialists' daily talking points are not facts. Fake News! Now they are artifacts of your destructive behavior towards the institutions of the republic.
#11
These are infomercials without a product to sell.
I'd argue that that they are selling to people who already bought the product and want more - more validation that they're the kool kids, more buzz about new features. Like Apple fan-bois, they've bought the brand and want to have their status confirmed and hear about the latest product release. It's new, it's thinner, it's sleeker, with even less headphone jacks. Woo Woo!
In this case, the product is TrumpHitler/NeverTrump - Now with Moar Mueller. Oops, that was yesterday's product. Tune in next week for Impeachment 2.0!
#12
They need to be careful. They said yesterday that the majority were not news but commentary shows, so they cant be held liable for content. OK, but then the narrative, buzz words, and language across the networks were identical. This take them from commentary to propagandists. Creating propaganda on our media, across the networks in an effort to change an election or sway the public politically is a RICO event.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/27/2019 17:28 Comments ||
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#13
The Classic Colbert/Maher Defense™: "Take me seriously at all times except when I could be sued for libel and slanderous statements --- that's (quote) humor (un-quote)!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2019 19:12 Comments ||
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#16
"I received my exam results the other day; I missed more correct answers than I have ever received. I was feeling bad until I watched some CNN. Now I feel better about my results."
#17
"On the first leg of my flight I became violently airsick. I didn't know how I would complete my trip. After a layover at the lounge with CNN on, I was ready to get back on a plane!"
[TMZ] State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office says, "After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett's volunteer service in the community [evidence of this is not readily available]
and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."
The statement is consistent with what our sources said about Jussie only getting community service if he'd been convicted. The decision is NOT sitting well with Chicago PD.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
The real comedic drama was the faux disgust and outrage displayed by the mayor and police chief. These two should be on SNL.
#14
If you are a very suspicious person, and you know of the Obama canal deep links in every part of Chicago politics, and the importance of the gay and minority political sects in the Democrat coalition, you note how damaging a highly visible fake hate crimes trial would be, and you desperately want to get the Mueller report off the public’s screens, you then might appreciate the telegenic drama displayed by the Mayor and Police Superintendent. The public has a terribly short and shallow attention span and this is so much more like real TV shows.... are BHO and ValJar’s fingers up Rhams ass again?
#16
the Cook County Clerk said that there was never a motion by Juzzie's lawyers or by the prosecutors to void the charges
it just happened
The Chicago Way
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 16:18 Comments ||
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#17
Just showing us their ass now. Just lazy; no show trial, no oops prosecutor fumbled evidence, just eh let him go. Not even a shut up about it. Not even a courtesy reach-around.
#18
Let them enjoy their influence while it still means something. Five years from now their friendship will be worth less than Chelsea Clinton’s, and dear little Malia won’t have ever had any at all.
#19
Okay, if there was never a motion to void, then nothing happened. Maybe they are testing us. No motion, no record, no dismissal. If it wasn’t written down, if it wasn’t documented, then it never happened.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/27/2019 17:46 Comments ||
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#20
Cook County officials may be penalized for legal irregularities but the voiding of the indictments can't be undone.
Of course there is still the issue of the death threat letter that Juzzie presumably sent to himself. If there is enough evidence that one would be a Federal charge.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 20:04 Comments ||
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[DAWN] The 500-year-old wounds of the Spanish conquest were ripped open afresh on Monday when Mexico's president urged Spain and the Vatican to apologise for their "abuses" ‐ a request Madrid said it "firmly rejects."
Spain's centuries of dominance in the New World, backed by the Catholic Church, leapt from the history books to the headlines when Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called on Spanish King Felipe VI and Pope Francis to apologise for the conquest and the rights violations committed in its aftermath.
"I have sent a letter to the king of Spain and another to the pope, calling for a full account of the abuses and urging them to apologise to the indigenous peoples (of Mexico) for the violations of what we now call their human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... ," Lopez Obrador said.
He made the remarks in a video, filmed at the ruins of the indigenous city of Comalcalco and posted on Facebook and Twitter.
"There were massacres and oppression. The so-called conquest was waged with the sword and the cross. They built their churches on top of the (indigenous) temples," added the anti-establishment leftist.
"The time has come to reconcile. But let us ask forgiveness first."
Spain's rejection was immediate and blunt.
"The government of Spain deeply regrets that the letter the Mexican president sent to his majesty the king, whose contents we firmly reject, has been made public," it said in a statement.
"The arrival, 500 years ago, of Spaniards to present Mexican territory cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations," it said.
"Our two brother nations have always known how to read our shared past without anger and with a constructive perspective."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#5
My understanding, perhaps wrong was that when presented with a long list of Spanish demands including religious conversion and supplying troops the Tlaxcalans had only one question, 'Do we get to kill Aztecs?'. A simple Yes was all that was required to seal the deal.
#6
Is Mexico going to apologize for all the modern technology they use? If Spain hadn't invaded, the would probably still be using stone tools.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/27/2019 10:59 Comments ||
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#7
I'd aways understood that the bulk of Modern Mexican citizens were of Spanish descent and their own indigenous peoples are fairly ill treated so it's pretty bold to be making claims of Spain and pretending to be victims.
[ALMASDARNEWS] A diplomatic source from Caracas previously told Sputnik that a group of Russian military personnel had arrived in the Venezuelan capital to take part in consultations with the country’s officials on defence industry cooperation.
The planes arrived in the Venezuelan capital on Saturday. Media earlier reported that an estimated 99 Russian military staff had arrived in Caracas on board two planes, which also delivered 35 tonnes of cargo. After the arrival of Russian Defence Ministry officials in Caracas, media reported that Venezuela had deployed S-300 air defence missile systems.
The source said that Russia and Venezuela had not recently signed contracts for the supply of the S-300 systems to Caracas, noting that the systems had been delivered to Venezuela in 2013.
The source highlighted that the visit had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis in the country, as it had been scheduled long before the trouble erupted.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while reacting to the Russian visit, said Monday that “the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by as Russia exacerbates tensions in Venezuela”.
Pompeo accused Russia of “continued insertion … to support the illegitimate regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela [which] risks prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people who overwhelmingly support interim President Juan Guaido”.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Hostile? Seems more like the Repro-man showing up to collect on a bad debt.
You know there is a point to the action when you park a permanent military mission on someone's border (see-Poland) and then act really upset when that someone else posts something similar near you. Didn't say I like it, but just pointing out tit for tat. If we had left NATO when the wall came down and they played this I'd be far more concerned. Instead we keep playing stupid entanglement games cause the Beltway still thinks this is the 20th Century.
#3
BP - true that. There should be repercussions. Threats to break off intel exchanges if persons X, Y, and Z are not canned and banned (actually, unlike Mifsud, Steele, ...) and permanently denied visas
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2019 19:19 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.DONGA] South Korea and the U.S. military authorities are intensively monitoring North Korea after detecting communication signals that show activities related to solid-fuel missiles designed to attack the U.S. and the South in Shinheung, South Hamgyong province. The North previously showed missile provocation activities in Dongchang-li and Sanum-dong.
According to multiple government sources, military authorities of the two countries detected occasional transmission of communication signals related to missile activities in Shinheung from Monday to Tuesday and upgraded their surveillance of North Korea. The signals were detected through reconnaissance assets such as reconnaissance plane RC-136, which are dispatched to monitor signals of North Korea’s provocation.
Shinheung is an area where a launch site for Musudan missiles ‐ medium range ballistic missiles and liquid-fuel missiles ‐ used to be. The Shinheung area is now known to be using the site for a solid-fuel missile assembly factory and a base for other missiles instead of Musudan that failed in test launches multiple times.
Liquid-fuel missiles require more than 30 minutes to inject fuel and oxidizer, which allows the U.S. and South Korea to detect the activities and launch a preemptive strike. Solid-fuel missiles, however, are more fit for surprise attacks as they are injected with fuel and oxidizer in advance and can be launched in an instant. Because of this, South Korea and the U.S. were concerned when the North secured solid-fuel missiles starting with the test launch of submarine launched ballistic missile Polaris-1 in 2016 and medium range ballistic missile Polaris-2 upbuilt as a ground-based missile in 2017.
Some analyze that the signals come from telemetry, which is on-site remote measuring equipment operated during the preparations for missile launches. "North Korea is sending out a warning message that it could launch solid-fuel missiles if the Trump administration keeps the North Korea sanctions unlifted," a diplomatic source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Hundreds of people gathered for an anti-NATO protest in Belgrade on Sunday, as the country marked the 20th anniversary of the NATO-led bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. The demonstrators held banners with slogans such as “Never in NATO,” “NATO, get out of here” and “Stop NATO fascism.”
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday, while hearing a petition filed by two Ghotki sisters who were allegedly forcibly converted from Hindusim and married to Moslem men, ordered the state to take over custody of the girls and ensure their safety till their case is decided.
The petition, filed by the girls and their spouses Safdar Ali and Barkat Ali, has sought protection from adverse action. It states that the girls left their home on March 20. On March 22, after announcing that they had willingly converted, the girls sought legal help.
According to the petition, the two girls were born in a Hindu family and converted because they were "impressed by Islamic teachings". It claimed that they did not inform their family because of threats to their lives.
They claimed that MNA Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and Hari Lal from the Hindu Council had concocted "a false and fabricated story" about their forceful conversion.
The petitioners subsequently left their native town of Ghotki in Sindh and travelled to Khanpur in Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab. They travelled to Islamabad after learning that the inspector general of Sindh and Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... were planning an operation in Khanpur against them and, the petition claimed, feared that the police may kill them if they are apprehended to show "progress" to the governing party.
They asked the court to restrain the respondent authorities ─ the state minister for interior, Sindh chief minister, inspectors general of Sindh, Punjab and Islamabad police, MNA Vankwani and the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) ─ from "harassing" and "threatening" them, as well as requesting that Pemra be asked to refrain from "promoting propaganda" against the petitioners.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition in Courtroom 1, where both girls and their alleged spouses were also present. Representatives of the federal government, Islamabad administration, and Sindh police, and the director general Human Rights were all present in court today.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Two suspects were tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! by police on Tuesday in connection with the suicide earlier this month of a teenage boy from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Battagram district.
District Police Officer Abdul Rauf Baber Qaiserani told Dawn that the 15-year-old boy had been an orphan and a resident of Battagram's Shingli Bala area. He did away with himself on March 14, which was confirmed by the hospital after an autopsy.
Police had subsequently initiated an inquiry under Section 174 (Investigation over unnatural death) of the Criminal Procedures Code. The investigation revealed that two suspects had allegedly raped the boy six months ago and filmed the assault. Afterwards, they blackmailed the boy to "carry on the relationship" or risk having the video released.
Police believe that it was under this pressure that the boy decided to take his life.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A teenage Hindu girl was allegedly kidnapped from her residence in Sindh's Badin district by gunnies earlier this month, her father said on Tuesday, but a man came forward with the claim that she was now his wife after converting to Islam.
A first information report (FIR) of the case was registered at Badin's Pangrio cop shoppe on Tuesday after the girl's father filed a complaint claiming that his 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped from their house by four gunnies ‐ three of whom were unknown ‐ on March 17.
The complainant, a member of the Hindu community in Jam Khan Pitafi village, stated that his daughter's life was in great danger and demanded of the authorities to take immediate action to recover the "kidnapped" girl.
However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... one of the four suspects, who purported to be the girl's husband, sent documents to local journalists to show that he had married the girl after she allegedly embraced Islam at the hands of Pir Jan Agha Khan Sarhandi on March 17 at his seminary in Samaro town. Denying her father's claim that she was a minor, the man puporting to be her husband claimed that the girl was 19 years old.
The man, who hails from Pithoro town of Umerkot district, also said that his alleged wife and himself had submitted an application seeking protection to a court in Sanghar.
An official at the Pangrio cop shoppe, Kando Rebari, told DawnNewsTV that after registering the case on kidnapping charges, police had started an investigation into the matter.
Commenting on the case, rights activist Mukesh Meghwar alleged that Hindu girls were being kidnapped and forced to convert under a "deep-seated" conspiracy. He demanded early recovery of the girl allegedly kidnapped in Badin as well as other girls in similar situations.
The case has emerged days after the federal government took notice of the alleged forced conversion and underage marriages of two teenage girls in Ghotki, after two separate videos started doing rounds on social media. The father and brother of the girls in videos circulating on social media said that the two sisters were kidnapped and forced into changing their religion from Hinduism to Islam. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... a separate video of the girls went viral, in which they said that they accepted Islam of their own free will.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019 00:00 ||
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[Entornointeligente.com] By Shane Harris Shane Harris Intelligence and national security reporter Email Bio Follow March 26 at 6:08 PM The Army has chosen Palantir Technologies to deploy a complex battlefield intelligence system for soldiers, according to Army documents, a significant boost for a company that has attracted a devoted following in national security circles but had struggled to win a major defense contract. Industry experts said it marked the first time that the government had tapped a Silicon Valley software company, as opposed to a traditional military contractor, to lead a defense program of record, which has a dedicated line of funding from Congress. The contract is potentially worth more than $800 million. The Army’s decision to go with Palantir, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor and sometimes adviser to President Trump, brings to a close the latest chapter in a fierce competition.
In March 2018, the Army chose Palantir and Raytheon to vie for the next phase of the Distributed Common Ground System (or DCGS-A, for Army), which lets users gather and analyze information about enemy movements, terrain and weather to create detailed maps and reports in real-time. Actually, these systems are designed to capture 'all source' intelligence data and inputs from existing diverse systems and present them to the soldier on a user friendly 'flat network' system. These are social network and battlefield surveillance analysis tools, not collectors.
The system is designed to be used by soldiers fighting in remote, harsh environments. But critics within the Army and in Congress have for years complained that DCGS-A cost too much and didn’t deliver the intelligence and capabilities that soldiers needed. Some soldiers said the system was too hard to use and searched for alternatives. Yes, "complained for years". Somewhere around 15 years now as I recall, possbily longer.
Many became backers of Palantir, which sells to governments and businesses, including in the financial and health care sectors. Palantir and its advocates argued that their software was cheaper and could meet all the Army’s requirements. But Army brass defended their decision to pay for a custom-built platform. In 2016, the Army chose Raytheon for a next phase of DCGS-A.
#2
Butcritics within the Army and in Congress have for years complained that DCGS-A cost too much and didn’t deliver the intelligence and capabilities that soldiers needed. Some soldiers said the system was too hard to use and searched for alternatives.
All of the above factual. DCGS-A was/is a proprietary system hitched to costly contractor (Lockheed Martin) soldier mentors. Unfriendly and difficult to operate is an understatement.
A non-techie can learn to use the basic Palantir tool in an afternoon of instruction. Slower non-techies may require an additional morning of instruction. No foking expensive battlefield 'right seat ride' mentors required. Savvy analysts can hop on and figure it out in 15 minutes.
#3
which lets users gather and analyze information about enemy movements, terrain and weather to create detailed maps and reports in real-time.
I am not now nor ever have been a gunt, soldier, etc. I have not even stayed in a Holiday Inn, but, that said it seems that detailed weather maps and reports are not what said grunt in the middle of a gun fight needs to help him kill bad guys.
#4
Here is an example or screen shot of a social network analysis product using the Analyst Notebook (ANB) tool. A favorite of the intelligence community.
By simply kliking on the 'face' image, a complete personalia/bio compendium and existing traffic on the subject is quickly at hand and can be printed or forwarded to an end-user.
Crude example: Akmed travels to Benzar Village on the first and third Tuesday afternoons of the month and frequents Halads tea shop. Amed also travels to Benzar and frequents Halads on the first and third Tuesday afternoons. Halads tea shop only has one table. What potential analytic conclusions might you draw ?
Of course ANB wasn't good enough for DCGS-A. They had to come up with their very own proprietary non-integrating ANB 'clone' tool.
The types of conflict, drone zapping and detention of Taliban or AQ leadership, etc, found in Iraq and AFG generally require the identification and confirmation of bad actors along with their support networks. These bad actors tend to not present themselves with bugle blasts in uniformed massive assaults as in the Korean conflict. Social Network Analysis enables this identification process.
Probably a gross over-simplification, but I hope it helps.
#6
LockMart had Congressmen in its pocket. So they steered the Dept of the Army where it would benefit the politicians, not the nation or the Army or the soldiers. We need term limits and transparency.
#7
Thanks Beso. I didn't make myself clear enough.
I understand your example and how that could be more than a trifle useful. What is confusing me is the idea that "soldiers" need to generate real time reports and maps. That might be useful for someone in operations (if I understand Tom Clancy) but ground pounders in a gun fight?
#8
All this stuff will be integrated one way or another eventually. Will it be integrated well or poorly? Time will tell. But imagine a future where a micro drone could report that the desired target was / was not at the location about to be raided as a result of good integrated intel data.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 15:17 Comments ||
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#9
That might be useful for someone in operations (if I understand Tom Clancy) but ground pounders in a gun fight? Posted by AlanC
There generally is no FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battlefield). Killing everyone to your immediate front and pushing the surviving forces back to an encircled Berlin as in WWII is unfortunately not an option. Iraq and AFG insurgent warfare is a can of worms. Everyone you meet, see walking along a roadway, or squatting to take care of business is a potential enemy.
In any city in the US, say a city of 250,000 people. It's generally the same 600-900 violators who cause the trouble. "The usual suspects" so to speak. Report writing and documenting potential bad actor activities (their social network) helps the troops keep track of the bad actors and their pals.
Archiving these social networks and layering them over time permits a historical record of activities, hide sites, weapons cache locations, infiltration routes from Pakiland, etc. which is useful for the next soldier coming into theater. Troop rotations are a fact of life. No sense going into an area cold.
They all look the same and will smile and wave at you, but they're not your friends.
#11
There's too ways that "too much information" presents: Your girlfriend talking incessantly about her exes is one kind. What you need to know now buried beneath everything else right behind the pony is the other kind...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 17:22 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
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