EXPLORATORY AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Signal, Sygnet, and Sigil - The Exploratory and Expeditionary Force

For those of you with military and related backgrounds, I have been working for some time now (actually this goes back to when I was in the CAP) on a Special Military sub-branch called the EXPLORATORY AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. I have it pretty much in order now and if you'd like to look over it and comment I'd appreciate the feedback and commentary. If you are already aware of anything like this already in operation within the US military then please let me know. And please provide information on it if you can. If you are not aware of any such military unit or paramilitary unit then please feel free to comment on it to me.

However from all of my military and Pentagon sources no-one seems to know of a unit like this, or formed under this set of mission standards. Though as has been pointed out some existing units already handle many of these separate mission functions.

The general idea is of a military sub-branch (or actually a force assimilated from all of the other branches) whose chief job is exploration and exploratory expeditions, including scientific expeditions. They would also gather Intel and make current and accurate maps of foreign cities and nations as well as exploring unexplored or little explored areas which currently exist in our world. Eventually they could be used as off-world expeditionary explorers.

This idea harkens back to the Greek, Roman, and British ideals of military and paramilitary (or in the case of the British of private explorers with military backgrounds) units who were employed as explorers, scouts, and expeditionary forces. (A good early American Example of such a force was the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was not just a scouting force but a combined Intel operation, scientific expedition, contact/diplomatic mission, and mapping reconnaissance of the Continent, as a friend recently reminded me. So this idea is really just a return in many respects to the early American idea of a combined civilian/military joint force with multiple mission objectives and capabilities. One which is both Expeditionary, and Exploratory.) In this case I want to make it a standing and full time unit of the US military though it would be open and fluid as well, and private citizens and those from civilian agencies could join as well. Let me know what you think of the idea. You can contact me by email if you like or leave comments here.

Before I publish and promote this idea I'd like some feedback and possible suggestions for improvement.



EXPLORATORY AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCE:


Troops – Multi-Branch Corp of Seamen, Airmen, Soldiers, Marines, Guardsmen, Paramilitary, Lawmen, and Civilian Agents.

Special Forces Units: 10 Teams of 10 to 30 Men, Entire Corp not to exceed 500 men, including support personnel and officers. These Teams will be Renaissance Troops, capable in a wide range of disciplines, both military and non-military, able to function effectively as both individual agents and in small tactical units.

Assignment: Personnel and Officers would come from regular and reserve units of the other branches having shown aptitude for EE Work and having been recommended for the Force by their superior officers. Certain personnel might also be recommended by their Congressmen, Senators, or the President and might possibly come from civilian agencies, scientific organizations, cooperative corporations, law enforcement, etc. Everyone recommended and accepted would then have to undergo basic training for the Force and pass all tests and requirements, physical, mental, and psychological.

Uniforms and Appearance: Any person serving in the Force will have access to various uniforms depending upon assignment, mission, and posting. They will wear standard BDUs employing standardized camo patterns while working with governmental and civilian personnel, and with other military branches. They will have expeditionary uniforms and fatigues while on duty assignment in the field. They will wear a casual uniform similar to those worn by civilian personnel or law enforcement personnel or they will be allowed civilian clothes and dress suits when interacting with the public or while operating in foreign lands or posts.

Animal Teams: Most EE Force Units will employ specially trained animal teams that can assist with various missions.

Training (Trained in the following): Advanced All Terrain Survival Skills, Languages, Archaeology, Anthropology, Exploratory and Mapping Skills, Land/Sea/Air Navigation, Record Keeping, Engineering, Information and Intel Gathering, Espionage and Sabotage Work, Animal Handling, Conservation, Encryption/Encoding/Decryption/Decoding, Communications, Field Computing, Scouting, Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Interrogation and Interviewing, Handling and Operation of small land, sea, and aircraft, Tracking and Manhunting, Pursuit and Evasion, Search and Rescue, Advanced Field Medicine and Basic Emergency Field Surgery, Disaster Relief, basic Geology and Geography, Physics, Biology and Natural Science, Reconstruction, Cultures and Religions.

Combat Skills: Tactical and Close Combat, Sniping, Sabotage, Scouting and Recon, Counter-Insurgency, and Guerilla Warfare.

Mission Types: The types of missions undertaken by the EE Force will include, but is not necessarily limited to the following types of assignments; Exploration, Template Profile Mapping (TMP), Scouting and Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Navigation (all to include wilderness, unexplored, rural, and urban terrains), Disaster Relief, Reconstruction, Cultural Analysis, Intel, Espionage, Interpretation, Engineering, Communications, Field Computing, Archeological and Anthropological, Scientific, and Cultural/Societal Interactions.

In addition EE Force Personnel may also provide both logistical and even combat support/assistance with various other types of units and operations and missions as needed, such as; Tracking, Manhunting, Search and Rescue, Medical, Tactical Engagements, Special Forces Operations, Cryption and Coding, Interdiction, and Sabotage.

Purpose: The EE Force would exist primarily as very advanced Scouts (not just in potential combat areas, but Scouts who enter areas long before any possible hostilities, or any necessary hostilities) and as Explorers to areas of the world in which information and intelligence is very limited, and to areas of the world which are largely unexplored and unmapped by the United States. The EE Force is primarily an exploratory and expeditionary force that possesses Intel and Tactical combat support capabilities if and as needed.

© JWG, Jr. 2007



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Thursday MCW Briefing 12/14/06

Thursday MCW Briefing

Posthumous Award

Scam Warning

FBI Award to Italian Policeman

Military Charities

Space Hackers

Quality Dropout?

Tears of Joy

Hunting Nuke Cargo

Took Awhile

Multi-Generational Conflict

Gates to the Future

Signal, Sygnet, and Sigil - Gates to the Future

I've been watching part of the Gates confirmation hearing this morning, as much as time would permit anyway. I had expected Gates to be little more than a typical intellectual analyst (the kind so common in the Company) given his background.

However, so far, I've been favorably impressed by the few segments of testimony and examination I have witnessed thus far. I especially liked his tendency to place the onus on long term Strategic outlines for the War in Iraq and the War on Terror back upon Congress.

I see obvious Cold War parallels here where the necessity for maintaining a basic multi-generational strategy had to be developed and executed over a number of years and over the operational span of consecutive and different administrations and sitting Congresses.

I am hopeful that Gates can lead some in congress, at least, to understand the strategic and tactical implications of what he was hinting at, and what needs to be done considering the realities of our current (and likely future) situation.

But then again this is Congress that we're talking about and a Democratic Congress at that, so first and foremost the Conservative and Pragmatic Democrats will have to win out over the Liberals. No easy task to say the least.

Shadows on a Moonless Midnight

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - Shadows on a Moonless Midnight





The article below was inspired by an article I read by Josh Manchester whose blog is the Adventures of Chester. I have been reading this blog for some time and endorse it.

My article discusses in brief ideas I have been developing for years, as well as conversations over time with some of my friends regarding these matters.

I suggest reading Josh Manchester's Article as well.


Jack.


One of the main and most persistent problems of this entire conflict has been the general failure by the public, as well as by many in the military and Intelligence communities to recognize the links between criminal activity directly associated with terrorism, overall terrorist strategy (on a regional and global basis), terrorist propaganda efforts (both directed towards their own potential recruits and used as a vehicle to suppress or depress opposition efforts - psychological and political attacks against the War Efforts in Iraq for instance), and the art of infiltration.

Terrorism, and terrorist recruitment is an underground, undercover, and clandestine effort. Propaganda efforts aimed at new recruitment is a clandestine operation and effort. Yet the United States fights our own propaganda war in an open and overt manner, completely losing all potential advantages of waging a covert propaganda war.

The US is also terrible at infiltration, dis and miscommunications, and undercover penetration of terrorist cells and the criminal organizations and rogue regimes that support and enhance their operations. Why? In my opinion for no better reason than a psychological resistance to the idea of adopting the operational methodologies of the enemy. Yet that is exactly how we should be operating, as the enemy does.

Obviously our goals differ, as would the methods by which we would seek to achieve both our war and peace objectives, but we could learn much and should learn much from the techniques of the enemy. This is a guerilla and Indian war. This is not a war against states with hierarchical organizational structures, though many rogue regimes assist terrorist aims, and many other nations, such as China and Russia and France indirectly assist those aims as well.

We should have a long time ago developed our own shadow forces; Forces, Teams, and Organizations (be they military, law enforcement, undercover, infiltration, or intelligence) that operate as mirror images of terrorist cells. These would be counter terrorist teams but their job would be to operate exactly like terrorist cells. I intend to write a more detailed paper about how these forces should be constructed, the benefits to be derived from the proper development of such forces, and how they would operate, for the B Reader, but suffice it to say for the moment that their operational purposes would include deep infiltration, intelligence gathering and construction (that is they could construct intelligence operations built upon anticipations and projections they make based upon the fact that they are mimicking real world terrorist cells), undercover work, covert and background psychological operations and propaganda warfare, and recruitment of operatives and agents in Islamic territories and organizations.

To beat, to overwhelm, to corrupt, to undermine, and to eventually convert the populations of those who oppose us we must become like the enemy, we must operate in a fashion and mode that the enemy understands. We must become better terrorists than they. Not with the intentions of undertaking terrorist acts, but in understanding and anticipating terrorist actions and in understanding and anticipating the actions of those regimes which support terrorist activities.

Currently we are woefully inadequate at the arts of infiltration, of undercover operations (both against International Criminal Cartels and against Terrorist cells), of counter-recruitment and of turning terrorist operatives, and most especially at the propaganda wars. You can win a war against another military force by military action alone, but you cannot win a successful peace by military action alone. It takes a combination of cultural, military, social, religious, political, economic, law enforcement, intelligence, and propaganda-mission oriented efforts. We have been very successful militarily, but only moderately to minimally successful along the political, cultural, social, economic and intelligence spheres of operations. We are an utter failure and disgrace thus far at our efforts concerning the religious, law enforcement, and propaganda based aspects of our strategy. And I would go so far as to say this is primarily due to the fact that we have no real strategies, or only immaturely developed strategies to exploit these absolutely important aspects of infiltration and undercover warfare. For too long we have fought this war as a reactionary conflict, when we should have been fighting it as an anticipatory set of actions designed to overwhelm our enemies. Currently we either react to enemy attacks or attempt to thwart future or attempted enemy attacks. But we almost never preempt terrorist structures and actions in the same sense in which we attempted to preempt rogue regime support for those actions by invading Iraq. I am not against the War in Iraq, I think that if properly exploited Iraq would help to cripple Islamic fascism throughout the region, and by having a functional and effective base of operations for Western Ideals in that area help to eventually crush Islamic fascism on a global scale. In addition a successful Iraq could have beneficial effects upon other enemies, such as Iran, North Korea, and China. If it works it could help to stabilize the entire world over time giving us specific and unique leverage in that vital area of the world. However we must properly exploit Iraq both for the good of the Iraqi people we have helped to liberate and for our own national and international interests. And we are not properly exploiting Iraq because we are fighting a reactionary and police state war there when we should be fighting an Infiltration and Undercover/Clandestine war.

We cannot fight and win a war, which is based upon deception, disinformation, propaganda, recruitment, infiltration, and clandestine action, when we are unwilling to develop the types of forces and counterforces necessary to fight enemies who intuitively understand the types of warfare in which the world is immediately engaged.

The United States must become far better at deception, disinformation, miscommunication, propaganda, recruitment, deception, infiltration, undercover operation, and clandestine action than any enemy we are likely to encounter. We must operate as a state army, as a national security force, but we must infiltrate as if we were a small guerilla and terrorist force whose very survival depends not upon technological superiority but psychological strength and cunning and guile and craft.

The Soldier of the United States learned to fight and was formed in the crucible of the Indian War, of the guerilla fight, of the Swamp Fox. We must return to those roots, both tactically and strategically. Our governmental strategy, the course plotted in the Pentagon, the covert plan of our State Department must make allowance for and assume certain basic ideals and practices of operation, chief among these being the fact that being better at what the enemy does than they are is not a disgraceful manner of behavior, it is a necessary and even brilliant one. We must hunt as the wolf hunts. We will hunt for different reasons of course, and to a different end, but we must become even better than the wolf at tracking, at infiltration, at cover, at disguise, at camouflage, at stealth, at methodology, and at penetration. And when the War on Terror is finally over then historians will be able to look back and say, "the terrorists were good, but the Americans, by God, were like Shadows on a Moonless Midnight."

We can win a Midnight War; of course, we’ve done it before, but not if we insist on doing all our fighting at High Noon and in broad daylight.


© JWG, Jr. 2006


P.S:I also encourage everyone to read Eric Egland's broad, excellent and insightful article about redesign of War Plans and Tactics in Iraq. It echoes many of the discussions my buddies and I have been having on this very issue for years.

I think though that these recommendations could be well applied to the overall War on Terrorism, no matter the theatre of operation.

Six Steps to Victory

Verona, Kennedy, and Counter-Terrorism

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - Verona, Kennedy, and Counter-Terrorism


Ace, over at the Ace of Spades has been doing a recent series on some information taken from the Verona Decrypts.

Some of you may remember me discussing Verona with you some time ago via email.

A while back, (and please excuse my faulty memory as to the exact source or sources - I think I read them on the CIA site or the FBI site, or both- you know how much technical reading I do) I read much of the Verona information and information regarding the related operations on governmental websites, at least those portions that they were willing to release to the public. Of course you can obtain more detailed information by a FOIA request, but I find it extremely interesting that the Company and Bureau websites apparently no longer allow direct public access to these files.

I'm wondering if this might not be related to two separate, but perhaps inter-related matters. One is due to the fact of how much political data can be gleaned, even about current political figures, such as Ted Kennedy. And this has indeed been the focus of the series done by Ace, among others. See here. And here.

The other thing I'm wondering about is the fact that the Verona information may have been purposely removed because it allowed free and public study of potential methods and procedures (that is the information allowed one to easily infer practical methods) for the gathering of intelligence information. I haven't had time to test this thesis lately due to being so busy with other matters, but if other files regarding Intelligence and Law Enforcement Operations have indeed been removed form easy public access on various governmental websites, then I can be reasonably certain that particular parties are indeed very concerned that past operations may offer clues as to methodology which could be exploited by various enemies and could allow them to penetrate our ongoing intelligence, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operations.

Jack.

Ambush in Afghanistan

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - Ambush in Afghanistan

This is exactly the kind of situation in which it would be excellent to deploy small teams of Special Forces, along with Rapid Response Teams, to areas near the border and around these outposts. We should be ambushing and counterambushing these incursions from the Pakistani side of the border. In others words we should not set up posts to wait on these incursions, but to await these incursions.

Also I hope that the idea will be considered of building fake forward observation posts (if it is not already being executed) which are built specifically to be nothing more than ambush traps. The Taliban undertakes a probing and attempted overrun operation only to encounter a dummy post prepared to encircle and destroy the operation. It seems to me that now that we control some of the cave complexes which the Taliban had formerly held that these complexes would make excellent traps. Special forces could create and design and assist with operating the traps, Afghani troops could support and assist with operations, and mountain troops could execute and ambush.

This is also an excellent opportunity to invent, develop, and deploy new weapon sets designed specifically for mountain, close combat, ambush and special warfare.

The Afghan War has always interested me far more than the Iraq War, as a military and tactical matter, I guess because it is far more suited as a theatre and as a warfare type to my particular personality and mind-set. It is a more rural and frontier's war, a rougher and more open terrain, a more rustic war full of opportunities for ambush and asymmetrical warfare. It stimulates me tactically.

The Iraq war is basically an urban war, and although those types of challenges fascinate me as well, I guess my first real interest is in rustic, wilderness, and frontier's warfare and how to properly conduct those types of operations.


As a political matter however this should be extremely interesting for the Bush-Musharraf relationship. As well as for the Pakistan-Afghan relationship.
Sooner or later things will have to change.


Taken from the Fourth Rail:


The Taliban Consolidates Power in Pakistan as Violence Increases in Afghanistan

Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas

Yesterday's rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force compound in Kabul, Afghanistan highlights the increased level of violence throughout the country. Coalition and Afghan troop have seen a marked increase in suicide bombings, IED (roadside bombing) attacks and platoon and company-sized attacks from Taliban fighters over the past year. The Taliban's latest springtime offensive is now in full swing.
In the latest attempt to stem the violence, Coalition and Afghan troops launched Operation Mountain Lion in the Pech River Valley in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan's Bajaur agency. Over forty Taliban were killed during the operation. The Pakistani Army reportedly has deployed paramilitary troops "along the border stretching from Dir Lower to Dir Upper and Chitral districts" to halt the flow of Taliban across the border during the operation. The Bajaur tribal agency hosts al-Qaeda and Taliban infiltration routes into Afghanistan. The agency is also the scene of air strikes in the village of Damadola, where U.S. Predator drones struck at a meeting of al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Ayman al-Zawahiri was thought to be in attendance but missed the dinner. Five senior commanders, including Abu Khabab al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda WMD committee are believed to have been killed in the strike.
A segment of the violence can be attributed to Coalition and Afghan Army's push into previously uncharted territories within Kandahar, Urguzan, Kunar and Helmand Provinces. The Coalition and Afghan forces are now making contact with the enemy. The Taliban are attempting to fracture the Coalition, and believe they can run up the body count and force the Canadians to withdraw. "We think that when we kill enough Canadians, they will quit war and return home," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yuosaf Ahmedi. The narcotics trade is also a major source of conflict, as Robert Charles noted last January. The drug lords are finding common cause with the Taliban as the Coalition and Afghan government seek to eradicate the poppy crops.
But the increased violence and regeneration of the Taliban in Afghanistan cannot be viewed as a strictly Afghan problem. The Taliban is reconstituting in Pakistan's lawless North West Frontier Province. The Taliban have been massing in large formations and have essentially taken control of the North and South Waziristan agencies, while consolidating power in the Tank, Khyber and Peshawar agencies. The Pakistani Army is essentially confined to the two garrisons in Miranshah (North Waziristan) and Wana (South Waziristan). The Taliban has openly declared Shariah law in North and South Waziristan and usurped power from the local tribes. Two tribesmen have been beheaded, Zarqawi-style, for "working as US spies." Eight Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed and twenty-two wounded in an ambush near Miranshah, and eight 'miscreants' [Taliban/al-Qaeda] were killed in the ensuing firefight.
The Pakistani Army has been conducting air strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban camps, and has claimed the Taliban and al-Qaeda have taken heavy casualties. While these accounts are likely true, Pakistan has gone to great lengths to hide their own casualties. Pakistan's Daily Times indicates "Taliban forces have so far killed 150 pro-government tribal Maliks in the North and South Waziristan Agencies and are openly challenging the writ of the government by engaging a number of security forces’ personnel in the area." A source supposedly privy to a high level Cabinet meeting also indicates "the ‘Talibnisation’ of Waziristan was damaging other parts of the NWFP and that the local ‘Maliks’ and political administration had been limited to their houses and offices..."
“The Taliban’s sphere of influence has expanded to [the tribal agencies of] DI Khan [Dera Ismail Khan], Tank and the Khyber Agency, where clerks of the area have started to join them. There has been a sharp increase in attacks on heavily-defended military targets in these areas as well,” according to Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao.
Steven Emerson aptly explained the status of Pakistan in the Global War on Terror, "[Pakistan] is both an ally and it's an "anti-ally," so to speak. It has been helpful. It's also been detrimental." The Taliban's consolidation of power in the tribal belt is a major detriment, and a problem the Musharraf government can no longer ignore.

Related:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2376780,00.html

http://counterterrorismblog.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/10/AR2006061000006.html

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - The B Reader

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - The B Reader


For your consideration:

This is something I've been thinking about for a very long, long time. However this morning I was reading the new Counterterrorism Blog and it occurred to me how the idea might actually be implemented.

The basic idea would in some way be similar to that of the Counterterrorism Blog. It would allow experts with divergent and asymmetrical opinions on various subject matters to publicly present those opinions in order to influence public, institutional, legislative, and even military action on aspects of current policy and operations. However unlike the Counterterrorism Blog it would cover an open field of subjects ranging from, but not necessarily limited to: military affairs, intelligence matters, counterterrorism, espionage, psychological operations, counterintelligence, national politics, international politics, law enforcement, technology, economics, futurism, and related topics of local, national, and international interest.

Secondarily it would diverge from almost all other blogs of this type in the fact that it would not be just another “Expert Blog” nor would the opinions and analyses be limited to "mere experts." Yes, it would contain articles and writings by people with their own substantial personal base of expertise and experience, but it would also allow the posting of the ideas and opinions of thoughtful amateurs and private citizens, who nevertheless have good and interesting perspectives regarding these subject matters and would like to have a place to express them. Of course the amateurs would have to meet the same criteria of "professionalism" of content and expression in any pieces they submit, as would the experts. That is to say that any amateur piece submitted would have to be well written, well expressed, and well reasoned, but it could easily deviate from and distance itself from accepted doctrine and wisdom, and hopefully it would do just that in order to be of value to others. In other words the amateur productions would not have to agree with expert opinion in any way, merely be well reasoned and well argued from that particular point of view. Anyone could contribute, expert or amateur, citizen or foreigner, as long as his or her paper or presentation was of high quality and well executed.

Why would one possibly want to create a website where expert opinion and amateur opinion freely mix, you might ask yourself? The answer is self-obvious if you just think about the potential for a few brief moments. Expertise tends to become self-limiting over time, experts become calcified in their opinion and slow to change and understand change, relying upon their past and present level of expertise to solve problems, when in truth new and vexing problems often require new solutions well beyond the scope and kin of currently established expertise.

The amateur on the other hand is often extremely inventive but also usually has little understanding of how institutional and organizational processes function, and what can realistically be achieved, and what cannot be realistically or economically achieved.

By mixing the wisdom and experience of the expert with the inventiveness and innovation of the talented amateur a cross-fertilization may develop which helps to synthesize beneficial approaches to extremely difficult problems.

In addition this process of cross fertilization will help the amateur to better understand the expert and the difficulties of his necessary method of operation and help the expert to become exposed to ideas outside the normal parameters of his operational method and theatre, and thereby gain new and fresh insights he had previously lacked. The amateur can provide innovation and insight, the expert wisdom and clarity. Together they may just possibly work so well in unison that heretofore seemingly impossible problems become manageable and soluble.

I'm going to run this idea by some of my friends in the military, government, and related fields and see what they think of it, if they would like to contribute, or if they know others who would like to contribute. Then I will be going from there based upon their recommendations and what I think can be accomplished.

There are other problems to work out of course before this venture can be launched. First of all, though I intend to contribute I will be too busy to contribute all of the time, so instead I will act more as Editor in Chief, contributing when I can. The next problems will be form and format. At this point I am considering a topical approach with a new topic being submitted once every two weeks or once a month. One or more experts could then write about that topic, and one or more amateurs could write about the same topic. The contributors would not see (nor would anyone else except the editors) each others products or writings or papers until such time as they were published on the blog or site (simultaneously or near-simultaneously), and then everyone would be free to react to those productions in any way they wished. As for format I currently see the project as either a standard blog or a Wiki site, but I'm leaning more towards a blog, as the Wiki site might be too easy to crack, deface, and malignantly edit.

The last few problems should be fairly easy to solve, a method of submission, how topics are arranged, what topics are presented and when, and editorial criteria.

If you have any comments to make on this proposal or idea then please feel free to email your ideas and responses to me or post them here, to the Missal.

Finally I should say that provisionally I am thinking about calling the Blog
the B Reader. But I'm open to other suggestions as well.


article here: http://themissal.blogspot.com/


© JWG, Jr. 2006

™ JWG, Jr. 2006

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - White Paper

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - White Paper


I am in the Process of writing a White/Theory Paper on Intelligence and Information Matters as regards the Internet and the World Wide Web. I am still not entirely certain of the contents of this paper, how long exactly it will take me to write or on which of my various Blogs or websites it will be posted.

I am uncertain also as to whether to make the paper limited access or public.

If you have any suggestions as to content or thematic issues you would like to see me discuss or any suggestions as to whether you think this paper should be publicly accessible or subscribed, let me know.

The paper/article will also briefly describe the various personal experiments I have conducted in these matters and what conclusions they have led me to draw as a result.


As of now the working title is: An Analysis of the World Wide Web and the Internet as regards Intelligence Matters, Information Sharing, and the New Methodologies of Data Distribution


Intelligence on the Internet - Terrorism, Intelligence, Information Sharing and Retrieval, Data Distribution, Counterterroism, Counterintelligence, International Criminal activity, Monitoring, Data and Intel Mining, Illicit Transfer of Information, Secret Transfer of Information, Vigilance, Private Communications, Substrata Communications, SubRosa Activities, Informational Pathologies and Degradation Vectors (Worms, Viruses, etc.) Clandestine Research, Cracking, Hacking and Informational Vadding Activities.


Paper Contents:

Threads
Sites
(Web) Blogs
Portals and Gateways
Web 2.0
Web 3.0 and 4.0
Surrogate Site Gates (SSG)
Linkages
Metadata
Surgical Data
Gray Lit
Black Lit
Project Information
Analytical Toolmaking and Collational Construction
Deep Mining, Wide Mining, and Hack Mining
Transference
The Underworld Web
Pathologies and Vectoring
Limited Accessibility Information (LAI)
Invisible Web (also known as the: Hidden Web, Black Web, Deep Web, Underground Web, the Invisible Net, etc.)
WETNET
Open and Closed Military Intelligence
Experiments in Steganography, Encoding and Encryption
Public Sites as Secret Validators, Dead Drops, and Information Validators
Ubiquitous Exchange
The Vadding Imperative
Uncontrolled Experimentation


Glossary of Terminology

Links to Interesting Sites

LINKS TO INTERESTING SITES

Business/Finance/Investment

http://www.startupjournal.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/business/markets/index.html
http://www.vfinance.com/
http://business.updates.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/default.stm
http://www.foxnews.com/business/economy/index.html
http://www.freshpatents.com/


Religious and Christian Service

http://pantheon.org/
http://www.koinonia.org.il/site/index.php
http://www.vatican.va/
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/
http://www.prisoneralert.com/
http://www.missionfinder.org/resources.html
http://www.koinonia.org.il/site/index.php
http://www.children.org/
http://christianity.rinf.com/
http://www.missionary-blogs.com/
http://www.conciliarpress.com/
http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/
http://www.hillsidesbc.com/


Esoteric

http://www.meru.org/index.html
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html


Governmental/Agency

http://www.cert.org/nav/index_main.html
http://www.usdoj.gov/
http://www.fbi.gov/
http://www.interpol.int/
http://www.atf.gov/
http://www.cbp.gov/
http://www.dea.gov/
http://www.secretservice.gov/
http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/index.html


Military/Intelligence

http://www.military.com/
http://www.cryptography.com/index.html
http://www.cofc.edu/~williamj/pcmission.html
http://www.cicentre.com/
http://ctstudies.com/
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/
http://www.stratfor.com/
http://www.janes.com/
http://www.homelandsecurity.org/
http://www.loyola.edu/dept/politics/intel.html
http://www.cdi.org/
http://www.cfr.org/index.html
http://www.d-n-i.net/index.html
http://www.csis.org/
http://www.isis-online.org/


News

http://www.articledestination.com/


Law Enforcement

http://www.crimeandclues.com/
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/criminal-home.html
http://www.usmarshals.gov/
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nypd/home.html
http://www.lasd.org/divisions/detective/
http://www.necrosearch.com/
http://www.academy-group.com/
http://police.sas.ab.ca/prl/for.html


Educational/Literary

http://omacl.org/
http://home-school-usa.com/
http://www.news.harvard.edu/
http://web.mit.edu/


Entertainment

http://www.realmofinfamy.com/forum/


Art and Music

http://inventmusic.org/


Consumer

http://www.bbb.org/
http://www.ftc.gov/


Science

http://www.howstuffworks.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/default.stm
http://www.bnl.gov/world/
http://www.foxnews.com/science/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/technology/index.html
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/science.html
http://www.gyre.org/
http://www.999today.com/science/
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
http://www.newscientist.com/
http://www.physorg.com/
http://radio.weblogs.com/0149361/

Vadding/Exploration/Hobbies

http://www.jinxmagazine.com/ http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/ http://hostingworks.com/support/dict.phtmlfoldoc=vadding http://www.infiltration.org/infilspk.htm http://www.souterrains.org/ http://www.urbanadventure.org/ http://www.infiltration.org/ http://www.urbanexplorers.net/
http://www.opacity.us/ http://www.undercity.org/ http://homepage.mac.com/peint/zone-tour/index.htm http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/ http://www.uer.ca/ http://www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.html http://www.opuszczone.com/index.php http://www.drainfreaks.net/ http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/ http://negativespaces.net/

Subject Explanations

Pesharim - Subject Explanations


I thought since I have undertaken a new publication schedule I might write a Subject Explanation to let my Readers (those who are not familiar with me, my old friends and my family know me well enough) understand a little bit about my background and the kinds of things they can expect to find and read about when they visit the Missal.

The Missal is my personal blog and therefore I cover subjects of interest to me, and to many of my readers. These subjects, when, and why they are included in this blog are as follows:

On Mondays I will write on Politics and Legislative Branch Matters. I have assisted on various campaigns and worked a couple. I’ve worked on quite a bit of legislation as a citizen working with my Representatives, and Senators, State and National to help write some legislation and assist with some popular movements and referenda, such as the effort to make the Amber Alert system national. I’ve also assisted with local initiatives and legislation on taxes, crime, etc. I’ve helped conservative campaigns for Presidents (such as Reagan and Bush) and helped on the campaign for Dole, which failed. I read in politics when I can and make extensive biographical studies of various candidates (both those I support and oppose) when a campaign interests me. I consider myself both politically Conservative and a Classical Liberal, but I have no interest at all, and little respect for, modern liberalism. I also consider myself politically active to a degree but unlike many modern men I don’t consider politics an obsession or religion. To me it is a tool for achieving a better society (when it works) or an obstruction to a better society when it fails, but not an end in itself. I have an interest in politics and public policies for that reason, and consider it important, but it doesn’t consume my every waking hour or thought. And I can’t imagine me wanting it to.

On Tuesdays I will write on Science and Judicial Branch Matters. I have a very old interest in Science going back to the time when I was in the second or third grade. As a kid I used to perform cryogenic freezing and resuscitation experiments on frogs and various other small creatures such as reptiles, amphibians, insects, and arachnids. I carried around a homemade Emergency Medics kit and would treat injured animals I found, attempting to save their lives. As I aged I became involved in several advanced science projects and experiments through special programs. I am an amateur astronomer, and I have built my own chemistry and biology lab. I have performed numerous forensic (a fascination for me) experiments and investigations, as well as physics, chemistry, bio-chemical, biological, engineering, psychological, medical, and surgical experiments. I enjoy reading in and experimenting in both hard sciences (physics) and soft sciences (psychology). I enjoy studying science, reading on current developments, and new technologies, studying the history of science and reading biographies on famous scientists. When at the various colleges I attended I read in and studied degrees for Psychology and Anthropology. I’ve been on a few archaeological expeditions and done internships in the field of psychology. I Vad and conduct my own Industrial Archaeological expeditions. I invent and have a great personal interest in Technology. I enjoy most every field of science but my favorite discipline is Physics, followed closely by Genetics and Psychology.

On Wednesdays I will write on Religion, Religious Matters, and on National and International Affairs. My interest in religion goes back nearly as far as I can remember. My interest in God goes even farther back than that, as I can’t ever remember a time not having an interest in nor not talking with God. I am pretty much a lifelong Christian, was raised a Baptist Protestant, and an adherent and disciple, if a very imperfect one, of Christ. As a teenager I became very experimental in religion, a trend that has pretty much continued throughout my life, and I became heavily involved in Raja Yoga. I meditated constantly and for a while mediation was the only spiritual practice I conducted. During that time period I was extremely happy and blissful, but then one day I felt as if I were spending all of my time absorbed in God and avoiding life rather than living it. That God wanted me to go out into the world and stop retreating from it. So I gave up the habit of daily meditation and became far more heavily involved in the world. My religious experimentation continued however and I began the practice of different forms of mediation (far less often though), contemplation, and prayer, began attending Mass, had several different personal religious experiences including dreams, trances, and visions, began hanging around Priests (especially Jesuits) and Monks (Franciscans and Benedictines), and studied Sufism and Judaism. My studies of and experimentation with Sufism and Judaism led me to the Philokalia, which led me to the Greek Orthodox and the Coptic churches. On High Holy Days I attend Mass at Greek or Coptic churches. At college my first set of degree studies was in Religion and Philosophy and I studied Latin and Greek intensely, finding both languages fascinating. In college I developed a Religious Order of Monkhood including the Rule Set because I was seriously thinking about becoming either a Secular Priest or a Monk. Instead I ended up dating several different women from various parts of the world and eventually married when I turned 30, and then had children. Recently I have become very interested in Missions Work, have developed good friendships with several missionaries, and my church has made me leader of some Mission Projects. However the desire to become a Priest ad Monk has never left me and once I retire I intend to become a Greek Orthodox Priest and right before I die, a Monk. I would like to end my life by taking my wife and going to a Monastery on some little Greek island or in the desert and dieing there, in the company of monks and priests. I am extremely interested in the idea of Reconciliation between the Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic, and Protestant churches, of erasing the various historical schisms in the Church and of developing a new sort of Modern Universal Christendom, in which all Christians and others who wished to do so (Jews, Sufis, etc.) could participate.

On Thursdays I will write on Military and Intelligence Matters, Law Enforcement and Criminal Affairs, the War on Terrorism, and Executive Branch Matters. I have a very long interest in Criminal Matters, dating back to my teenage years. In addition I have worked numerous cases and investigations. Originally my interests were more in criminology, then later in forensics and criminalistics. Now my interests are in International Criminal Cartels, Smuggling Operations, Terrorist Cell Structure and Financing Operations, and in anticipating and thwarting crime before it can occur. Though I still take a keen interest in local crime and local cases as well. My interest in the military goes back to a time when I was a teenager and I spent numerous hours studying World War II , Korean War and world military history generally. I also joined the Civil Air Patrol as a teen and thought briefly about a career as either a Fighter Pilot (I loved flying the training Wing Aircraft), or a Submarine Commander (as I’ve always been equally fascinated by submarine warfare). But I later pursued neither course, other interests taking a priority. Eventually however because of personal contacts and old friends I became deeply interested in the military again and began to extensively study intelligence matters and psychological operations. The War on Terror has only served to accelerate my interest in and studies of the current military situation, and I found a natural overlap between my previous experience with criminal investigations and undercover operations and the way terror cells, rogue regimes, and International Criminal Cartels operate. I began to try to develop new approaches to assist military thinkers, analysts, and planners with penetration of and infiltration of terror cells and ICCs. When asked I try to provide outside, unorthodox, and hopefully creative ideas for various branches of the service, and amateur or non-military analysis on various intelligence matters, usually related to crimino and narco terrorism, and operations. Because of this I also developed a strong interest in Non Lethal and Less Than Lethal Weapons and Weapon’s system developments. I closely follow new developments in NL and LTL technologies and because I invent I also closely follow many military Research and Development Projects.

On Fridays I will write on Culture and Popular Culture, and my Personal Hobbies. My personal hobbies include digital photography, film, Vadding - Urban, and Rural Infiltration and Exploration, investigating Cold Cases, video gaming (though I have almost no time to ever play anymore), art (I still do most all of my art by hand, though I use software to manipulate my photographs), architecture and design, composing music, inventing, writing poetry, hiking, working out, throwing the discus, and reading. I also conduct my own scientific experiments, assist with disaster relief and rescue operations (I spent many of my summers as a kid at a Rescue Squad), monitoring radio and world band radio communications, work on mission and ministry projects and occasionally help fight local fires. So those are the kinds of things I will write about on Fridays. I also enjoy watching and commenting upon Popular Culture. Popular Culture entertains me to no end and I often find pop culture extremely bizarre, funny, hilarious, absurd, and ridiculous. So I enjoy writing satirical pieces and parodies of popular culture and the Internet. I also enjoy reading about and following the modern Culture Wars in American and foreign societies between liberals, conservatives, traditionalists, secularists, and moderates. Finally I will also comment on games, music, film, art, and other elements of standard culture.

On Saturdays I will write on Art, Science, Religion, and Medical Matters. Since I have already explained my interests in these fields in the above sections I won’t reiterate.

On Sundays, my Sabbath, if I publish, it will be on Religious and Artistic Matters.



Previously I have owned my own business, which was a Consulting and Brokerage business. Eventually I grew very tired of Brokerage and Start Up Financing and IPOs, and it cost me a lot in time and money. Now I earn my bread as a Freelance Writer and Journalist. I also do investigations for various businesses, corporate, and other clients, and occasionally I still do consulting work. At the suggestion and encouragement of friends I am now also moving into the arena of writing fiction.