Category: National Security

How to build a radio while in a Japanese POW camp

Fascinating interview here about how some British POW’s cobbled together a radio receiver while in the middle of the jungle from random spare parts they had lying about the prison.  

    The resistors were another problem. We found out that we could use the impurities in some of the tree wood and the bark, particularly cinnamon bark which was available by getting through the wire only about 2 feet and we could normally pinch that while the Japanese sentry was moving around.       We used a piece of string with the material rubbed on it from the burning of the cinnamon bark with some impurities in it (we didn’t have a chemical analysis); we weren’t very fussed because most grid-leak resistors were about a megohm or thereabouts and we had no means or any way we could measure a megohm, so it was largely a trial and  error thing to see if it would work. We made a number of these bits of string and tied them round different things to dry  them out to get the thing going. Eventually about an inch, three quarters of an inch to an inch, was about the right order of things to get about a megohm resistance. They were the two main things.
  I wonder if POWs today would have the same skill set. Heck many folks don’t even learn morse code anymore.]]>

Moscow subway system notes huge drop in passengers.

img24I guess when you are unemployed there really isn’t the need to go anywhere.

Moscow’s chandelier-adorned metro, ranked as one of the world’s busiest, said passenger numbers had fallen by 7 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from the same period last year. The number of people travelling on the Stalin-era system has fallen by an average of about 700,000 a day in April and May, said Moscow metro chief Dmitry Gayev.
It is a pretty subway system.  The turnstiles however, can kill.  If you mess up pulling your card out of the system expect to be impaled by those things.]]>

GSG-9 Rescue Mission of Somali pirate hostages called off at last minute by US

Der Spiegel is breaking an interesting story about a failed rescue mission of German hostages held by Somali pirates.    

Last Wednesday, at approximately 7 p.m., the government’s key state secretaries were sitting around the birch conference tables in the situation room, where they had met almost daily for the past three weeks to address a crisis brewing off the coast of Somalia. The officials were there to manage one of the biggest secret operations in postwar German history. Elite members of the GSG-9 police force were on the verge of boarding a German freighter, the Hansa Stavanger, which had been kidnapped by Somali pirates. The Americans had lent the Germans one of their ships, the USSBoxer, to use as their flagship in the planned attack — and a fleet of German Navy vessels flanked the enormous helicopter carrier. The ships had been patrolling near the Hansa Stavanger for days, waiting just beyond the horizon to evade detection on the pirates’ radar screens.
  But eventually it turned out that the Americans called off the mission.  The attempted rescue would likely be a bloodbath and a disaster–possibly even a suicide mission for the rescuers.  It’s also going to start a debate in Germany as to the abilities, or lack thereof, of the German military and law enforcement. Pretty good read.  Worth checking out.]]>

What's so special about this variant of Swine Flu

There has been some interesting tidbits dripping out about the new Swine Flu that is making its way around the world.  Already there is speculation that this was cultured in a laboratory and not naturally occurring, and some do wonder if it is a biological warfare agent or even an attempt on Barrack Obama’s life, but the reason is not alarmist conspiracy theories but due to the nature of this virus:  

There are eight genes in the flu virus. According to Dr Hay, this new one has six genes from swine flu viruses already known to have been circulating in the US, and two from swine flu viruses from Europe and Asia. The US swine flu virus genes in this new virus are themselves mixtures of swine flu, bird flu and human flu viruses – what’s described as a classic “re-assortment” – a combination feared most by those watching for a flu pandemic. Experts around the world have been warning for years that this is inevitable.  
I do kind of wonder how the virus from Europe, Asia and the US all ended up together.  Or maybe it is some sort of mutation that created something that looks like all the regional variations.  This will be interesting to watch. (as for my preventive measure–no burritos for the time being and maybe I’ll stock up on some shotgun shells).]]>

Does our embassy in Pakistan have a heliport? We may need it.

[/caption] A frightening story in the New York Times (which is already being updated in other papers). Seems the Pakistani Taliban are closing in on the capitol of Islamabad after seizing a strategic district about 70 miles from the city. Despite having only about 400 fighters, the Pakistani Army is too concerned with war with India to actually go after the Taliban holding the town.  After taking over the Swat Valley, some in the Taliban movement felt emboldened to flog a young woman and move forward into other areas.  But US protests about Pakistani indifference is starting to worry even the Taliban, who fear a military response might be forced by the US and Taliban opponents within the Pakistani government.   For those who forget, Pakistan has nukes.  Nukes and the Taliban?  Not a good mix.   Why do I have a flashback to this image?  I wonder if our embassy has a heliport…]]>

34 days that could drastically change the Pentagon?

The Washington Post is writing that a huge debate is underway in the Pentagon about counterinsurgency vs. conventional warfare. This has been a constant battle since conventionally trained forces (i.e. battling the Soviets in Western Europe) arrived in Vietnam many decades ago, but it has been heightened by the collapse (and resurrection?) of the Russian military along with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The discussion about this has taken a relatively small ‘war’ and turned it into a bellweather phrase in the Pentagon to discuss the overall change in the military. 34 Days in Lebanon was how long the Israeli Army battled (unsuccessfully) the Hezbollah guerillas to a standstill, basically. Army war planners have conducted no less than 5 simulated US vs. Hezbollah battles in war games to see how the US military would fare in this type of battle.

Discussion of the Israeli 34-day offensive is now a coded phrase, where people judge which side of the conventional vs. counterinsurgency debate you happen to fall on by how you view that operation. (For those who don’t remember, the Israeli army poured into Southern Lebanon to rout out Hezbollah but Hezbollah stood their ground and put up a stronger than expected fight, including knocking out a few tanks and blasting an Israeli Naval vessel with a cruise missile (which they got from Iran).

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Was Betancourt a jerk?

Most of the world rejoiced when Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages were rescued from the FARC in Colombia, but now new details are emerging in a book published by the three Americans who were also in captivity calling into question her behavior while in captivity.

Two Americans held captive for five years by Colombia’s Farc rebels have launched an extraordinary attack on their fellow jungle hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, accusing her of being haughty, manipulative and self-absorbed.

One of the Northrop Grumman contractors accuses her of stealing food and hoarding books and even of putting their lives in danger by telling rebel guards – incorrectly, he insists – that the three were CIA agents.

Betacourt did not comment.

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Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka…

In case you haven’t been paying attention, the Sri Lankan military is on a roll. They seized the last major outpost of the Tamil Tigers rebel group and are now very confidently predicting ‘the end of the resistance’ that has been going on for nearly 25 years.

The rebels are now confined to a very small area of the island, and civilian casualties are mounting (a cluster bomb took out a hospital yesterday). What is somewhat surprising (or maybe not) is the lack of mainstream media attention to this. When Israel went into Gaza in one big push, we knew all the details and all the white phosphorous rounds hitting this school or another. But the Sri Lankan battle is definitely off the radar scope of most people.

This will be interesting. Like several other organizations (Shining Path springs to mind) you see a major military victory and then several years of peace, followed by a bit of a resurgence. One wonders what the next decade will bring in Sri Lanka.

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