Taking soldiers into any urban environment is hazardous. But the Army has been using a new tool before going into Iraq's restive cities, like Mosul and Falluja, that helps officers answer critical questions and make their missions somewhat less unpredictable.
The new weapon is called the Urban Tactical Planner, which combines advanced computer software tools with high-resolution imagery that is beamed down to earth from a new generation of commercial satellites... a three-dimensional virtual tour of a mazelike section of Mosul before the first troops from the First Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, and the Iraqi National Guard began capturing insurgents last month.
3-D Maps From Commercial Satellites Guide G.I.'s in Iraq's Deadliest Urban Mazes
The NY Times, November 26, 2004
Imaging Government Buildings, Military Installations, etc.
Since its debut last summer, Google Earth has received attention of .... Officials of several nations have expressed alarm over its detailed display of government buildings, military installations and other important sites within their borders.
"It could severely compromise a country's security," V. S. Ramamurthy, secretary in India's federal Department of Science and Technology, said of Google Earth.
South Korean officials have said they fear that Google Earth lays bare details of military installations. Thai security officials said they intended to ask Google to block images of vulnerable government buildings. And Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the K.G.B., was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: "Terrorists don't need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them."
Governments Tremble at Google's Bird's-Eye View
The NY Times, December 20, 2005
Finding New Soldiers
The Defense Department and a private contractor have been building an extensive database of 30 million 16-to-25-year-olds, combining names with Social Security numbers, grade-point averages, e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
Congress wants to ensure the success of the volunteer force," he said at a reporters' roundtable in Washington. "Congress does not want conscription, the country does not want conscription. If we don't want conscription, you have to give the Department of Defense, the military services, an avenue to contact young people to tell them what is being offered. It would be naive to believe that in any enterprise, that you are going to do well just by waiting for people to call you."
16 to 25? Pentagon Has Your Number, and More
The NY Times, June 24, 2005
Finding New Jihadists
Every day now, new messages appear on the Web offering encouragement to resistance fighters, and last week Mr. Zarqawi's group started an Internet magazine, complete with photographs and 43 pages of text. Other Islamist groups are joining the effort, including one calling itself the Jihadist Information Brigade.
"We, the media department of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, declare that we have our own means of publication and that we observe the accuracy and truth of our statements," the statement said. "No one should aspire to say about us what we have not said."
Terrorist groups around the world rely increasingly on Internet chat rooms, more anonymous than traditional Web sites, to recruit fighters and to communicate with one another.
Jihadists Take Stand on Web, and Some Say It's Defensive
The NY Times, March 13, 2005
Selling the Administration
"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.
Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News
March 13, 2005
Military Blog
A military doctor whose Web site chronicled the bloody aftermath of the suicide bombing of a mess tent in Iraq has shut down the site after being told his postings violated Army regulations. "Levels above me have ordered, yes ORDERED, me to shut down this website. They cite that the information contained in these pages violates several Army Regulations. I certainly disagree with this," it said. On his Web log, Cohen had described the chaotic scene after the Dec. 21 mess hall bombing in which 22 people died.
Military Doctor Closes Online War Diary Associated Press, January 5, 2005
Monitor Chatrooms
George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, speaking on the vulnerabilities of the nation's computer networks at a technology security conference on Dec. 1, noted the ability of terrorists to "work anonymously and remotely to inflict enormous damage at little cost or risk to themselves." He called for a wholesale taming of cyberspace. The ability of terrorists and other dark elements to engage in covert communications online remains a daunting security problem, and one that may prove impossible to solve. The Central Intelligence Agency had contributed money for a counterterrorism project that promised, among other things, an automated surveillance system to monitor conversations on Internet chat rooms. Some Internet specialists wonder whether such projects, even if successful, fail to acknowledge the myriad other ways terrorists can plot and communicate online. From free e-mail accounts and unsecured wireless networks to online programs that can shield Internet addresses and hide data, the opportunities to communicate covertly are utterly available and seemingly endless.
On the Open Internet, a Web of Dark Alleys December 20, 2004
Monitor Universities
The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.
Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems
The NY Times, October 23, 2005
Robotic War
Recent reports that the Pentagon is planning to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to perfect computerized warfare sound like science fiction. In fact, the plan, Future Combat Systems, was first dreamed up years ago. Its designers envisioned a 21st-century fighting force of automated tanks, helicopters and planes, remote missile launchers and even troops of robot soldiers - all coordinated by a self-configuring network of satellites, sensors and supercomputers. A way to get the human out of the loop.
Computers were first developed to calculate missile trajectories and break enemy codes. But so far it's been only in science fiction that anyone has dared to turn over decision making to machines. As the thinking machinery continues to evolve, the strategists will keep asking themselves the same question: Is there still a good reason to trust ourselves or should we defer to a computer's calculations?
Who Do You Trust More: G.I. Joe or A.I. Joe? The NY Times, February 20, 2005
"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.
Recent reports that the Pentagon is planning to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to perfect computerized warfare sound like science fiction. In fact, the plan, Future Combat Systems, was first dreamed up years ago. Its designers envisioned a 21st-century fighting force of automated tanks, helicopters and planes, remote missile launchers and even troops of robot soldiers - all coordinated by a self-configuring network of satellites, sensors and supercomputers. A way to get the human out of the loop.
Computers were first developed to calculate missile trajectories and break enemy codes. But so far it's been only in science fiction that anyone has dared to turn over decision making to machines. As the thinking machinery continues to evolve, the strategists will keep asking themselves the same question: Is there still a good reason to trust ourselves or should we defer to a computer's calculations?