The Feds’ Security Theater

American Thinker was good enough to publish one of my article yesterday.  Please enjoy, and comments are always welcome.


The Fed's Security Theater

By Michael A. Thiac

I’ve subscribed Strategic Forecasting (STRATFOR) for the better part of two decades. I’ve often described them as America’s versions of Jane’s and told their vice-president that their reports were “intel-porn” for geeks like me during the Iraq War.

Yesterday, I was looking at the Security Weekly report,

It Takes a Village to Stop a Lone Wolf
By Scott Stewart
The recent attacks in Dallas, Nice, Baton Rouge and Wurzburg have again raised public awareness of lone attackers unaffiliated with an organized terrorist group. I am constantly asked how governments can defend against this new threat. But that question is misguided: Lone attackers operating under a model of leaderless resistance is not a new phenomenon. Stratfor has been tracking the devolution of the jihadist movement from a hierarchical structure to a more grassroots one for more than a decade. Though leaderless resistance is by design more difficult for authorities to detect and deter, those who practice it are still bound by the vulnerabilities in the terrorist planning cycle…

Now I found this paragraph really interesting (emphasis mine):

…Though the vast majority of police officers are not assigned primarily to investigate terrorism, they often encounter grassroots militants who make operational security errors or who are in the process of committing crimes in advance of an attack, such as document fraud, illegally obtaining weapons or illegally raising funds for an attack. Cops simply doing their jobs have thwarted a number of terrorist plots, and police officers need to be trained to spot indicators of pre-operational terrorist activity. But police are not the only grassroots defenders. Other people, such as neighbors, store clerks, landlords and motel managers, can also notice operational planning activities, including people conducting pre-operational surveillance, creating improvised explosive mixtures, and purchasing bombmaking components and firearms.
In July 2011, an alert gun store clerk in Killeen, Texas, alerted police after a man who exhibited unusual behavior came into the store to buy smokeless gunpowder. Police officers found him and, after questioning, learned he was planning to detonate a pressure cooker bomb and conduct an armed assault at a restaurant popular with soldiers from nearby Fort Hood. The clerk's situational awareness and decision to call the police likely saved many lives….

Gee, you mean the federal assets, which we spend a fortune on, didn’t help?  Who would have thought that:

Boston police weren’t told of Russian warning on brother
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis III said Thursday that his department was unaware that the Russian security service sent a query to the FBI about one of two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombing long before the attack.
When asked whether he would have given the suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a second look had he known, Davis told a congressional committee: “We would certainly look at the information. We would certainly talk to the individual…”
…“I can’t say that I would have come to a different conclusion based upon the information that was known at that particular time,” said Davis, adding that he should have known of information that “affects the safety of my community.”
The Boston police chief also said his department was unaware of a later notice that Tsarnaev had spent six months last year in Dagestan, the site of an Islamist insurgency in southern Russia. Information about his travel was sent to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston, Davis said, but the officer did not notify four Boston police officers assigned to the group.

Or this more recent example of federal efficiency:

FBI had closely scrutinized the Orlando shooter before dropping investigation
The FBI investigated the Orlando shooter for 10 months beginning in 2013, putting him under surveillance, recording his calls and using confidential informants to gauge whether he had been radicalized after the suspect talked at work about his connections with al-Qaeda and dying as a martyr.
As part of the investigation, Omar Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with police on Sunday morning, was placed on a terrorism watch list and interviewed twice before the probe was closed in March 2014 because agents concluded he was not a threat, FBI Director James B. Comey said Monday in an interview with reporters at bureau headquarters.
Several months later, in July 2014, Mateen surfaced in another investigation into the first American to die as a suicide bomber in Syria, a fellow Floridian. And, again, investigators moved on….

In July 2010 the Department of Homeland Security (another Bush holdover which should have never seen the light of day, but that’s a different issue for another post) announced the “If you see something, say something” program, encouraging people to spy, oh, yes, “report suspicious activity.”  I suggest another program for DHS and the Justice Department, “If you know something, do something!”

I recently finished my master’s in Intelligence Studies (please, no snickering :<) ) with a focus on homeland security.  I’m also a 23-year veteran of Army intelligence (ok, get yourself off the floor, enough laughing at that grand contradiction in terms) and had access to Top-Secret and above material for over two decades.  In the beginning of my career, the guidance for releasing classified information was does the recipient have a “Need to Know”?  Arguably that hindered “connecting the dots” over several radicalized Muslim extremists learning how to fly large aircraft (but not wanting to know how to land) and a decision was made, during the Bush administration, to switch from “Need to Know” to “Need to Share.”  But this still hasn’t made it through the intelligence/law enforcement bureaucracy, especially at the federal level. 

As we see with Mateen and the Tsarnaev brothers, federal law enforcement and intelligence assets had knowledge of potential terrorists but took no action to inform local law enforcement.  These are the men and women who actually have to deal most directly with the threat. 

There is a reason police agencies are taking Active Shooter training all over the nation.  Not knocking the feds, but it was the local law that handled the racist assassinations in Dallas earlier this month.  Don’t forget it was local law enforcement that handled the Muslim extremists in San Bernardino, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.  Or remember back in 2013, an alert citizen noticed smoke in a SUV, notified a NYPD officer who evacuated the area and no one was hurt. 
We are approaching the fifteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and there is still a massive amount of work to be done in the intelligence and law enforcement areas to insure information flows as needed.  If the FBI had warned the Boston PD, would it have prevented the Marathon Bombing?  God only knows.  But we cannot only react to a threat now.  The federal agencies must be more sharing with threat data to allow local/state law enforcement to investigate, prepare for and handle the threat.  We can collect a lot of data on our adversaries, but if it’s not in the right hands, it’s completely worthless.

Michael A. Thiac is a police patrol sergeant and a retired Army intelligence officer. When not patrolling the streets, he can be found on A Cop’s Watch.

Officer Down

Officer Ashley Marie Guindon
Prince William County Police Department, Virginia
End of Watch: Saturday, February 27, 2016
Bio & Incident Details
Age: 28
Tour: 2 days
Badge # 1145

Officer Ashley Guindon was shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance in the 13000 block of Lashmere Court in the Lake Ridge area.

The male subject at the home murdered his wife and then opened fire on the officers with a rifle as they approached the home. Officer Guindon was fatally wounded and two other officers, including her training officer, were wounded. All three officers were flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where Officer Guindon passed away.

The man who shot them was arrested at the scene and subsequently charged with capital murder, first degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding of a police officer, and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Officer Guindon had been sworn in the previous day and was working her first day on the street with her training officer. She was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

Rest in Peace Sis…We Got The Watch

Nemo me impune lacessit

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

Another example of Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.....

Leftist media loves to use statistics to show how ugly, unfair, etc life in America is. And in this article, a B Hussein Obama sycophant in the Washington Post on policer murder by pistol in the last few decades. Here are excerpts, with commentary:

By Christopher Ingraham July 9

Police are safer under Obama than they have been in decades

In the aftermath of the mass shooting of a dozen police officers in Dallas this week, some conservatives rushed to lay blame for the incident at the feet of the Obama administration.

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh said on Twitter that "Obama's words & [Black Lives Matter]'s deeds have gotten cops killed." Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.) said, "the spread of misinformation and constant instigation by prominent leaders, including our president" contributed to the killings. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said the shooting had "roots" in the "anti-white/cop events illuminated by Obama."

These statements are part of a broader narrative of a "war on cops" carried out by the Obama administration and/or the Black Lives Matter movement, depending on whom you ask. It's certainly true that some shooters of police, such as the Dallas attacker, appear to be motivated by a hatred of white police officers or a twisted urge to seek revenge for police shootings of black Americans. But the simplistic and inflammatory notion of a "war on cops" is completely undercut by one fundamental data point: Intentional attacks on police officers are at historically low levels under President Obama...

No Mr. Ingraham, he wanted to murder whites, especially white officers. From your own newspaper, the Washington Post, the day before you published this article, so you had time to read it.:

...The gunfire was followed by a standoff that lasted for hours when the attacker told authorities “he was upset about the recent police shootings” and “said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown....

Data from the Officers Down Memorial Page, which tracks law enforcement officer fatalities in real time, illustrates the point. During the Reagan years, for instance, an average of 101 police officers were intentionally killed each year. Under George H.W. Bush that number fell to 90. It fell further, to 81 deaths per year, under Bill Clinton, and to 72 deaths per year under George W. Bush.

Under Obama, the average number of police intentionally killed each year has fallen to its lowest level yet — an average of 62 deaths annually through 2015. If you include the 2016 police officer shootings year-to-date and project it out to a full year, that average of 62 deaths doesn't change.

It's worth pointing out that in 2016, year-to-date officer fatalities via shooting only are up 44 percent over last year, according to the numbers compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial Fund. But that's partially an illustration of how sensitive these numbers are to individual incidents: If you set the Dallas shootings aside, the year-over-year increase is only 17 percent. And as Eugene Volokh points out, the 2016 numbers are roughly on par with the numbers for the past 10 years.

Mr Ingraham, like many a leftist you take out some a factor that distort statistics.In the years since the 1970s, the deployment of Kevlar and ceramic vest have saved thousands of officers. A cop fired upon, hit, and not killed because the vest stopped the bullet (or made the difference) is not counted as dead. You do rightly credit the advent of trauma centers throughout the nation, especially in large cities, has made a cop's chance (or any person's chance, for that matter) of living through a shooting much greater.

...These figures in the chart above include all incidents in which a suspect intended to kill a police officer — shootings, stabbings, assaults, bombings and vehicular assaults. They exclude such things as accidental shootings, job-related illnesses and traffic accidents. If you were to narrow it down to just shootings, the overall trend would be roughly the same: from 80 deaths annually under Reagan to 48 annually under Obama. Again, factoring in the 2016 shooting numbers, including Dallas, has a negligible effect on the average under Obama.

These falling fatality numbers aren't simply a function of better medical care for injured officers. Overall assaults on officers are down, too. In 1988, the last year of the Reagan administration, there were 15.9 assaults for every 100 sworn law enforcement officers according to the FBI. In 2000, at the end of the Clinton administration, there were 12.7 assaults for every 100 officers. By the end of the Bush administration that number fell further to 11.3. Under Obama in 2014, the most recent year for which the FBI has data, that number further fell to 9.0....

Mr Ingraham, here are the numbers from the ODMP, including Dallas and Baton Rouge. The number of officers murdered by gunfire by this date is up %82 compared to this time last year.

Some non-statistical points to make. One, the motive of both shooters in Dallas and Baton Rouge are well know, they wanted to revenge the shooting by police of black thugs.

Two, the difference is the current president is doing his best to encourage, excuse and embrace the shooters. He brought leaders of Black Lives Matter to the White House and called them better community organizers then he was. He is lying about people, encouraging others to riot and trying to federalize police, ala the Third Reich.

Any drop in fatalities of police is good news. However, it is spite of O Hussein Obama, in no reason because of him.

He got bitten in the ass by biting into his burger....

I recall during a constitution law class in college we covered a case of police seizing garbage from a suspect's trash can and using it against him. The Supreme Court ruled that since the man had put the trash out to the curb for pickup, he gave up all rights to it. If he had kept it in his driveway, it would still be within his domicile and require a warrant.

Looks like a similar issue here.

Half-Eaten Burger Comes Back To Bite Chicago Man In Robbery Spree:

A half-eaten hamburger led authorities to a Chicago man who acted as the getaway driver in a series of bank robberies in western Michigan over the last two years, federal prosecutors said.

Dominick T. Johnson, 34,was sentenced Wednesday to 72 years and eight months in prison for the heists he carried out with his 24-year-old half-brother Nathan Benson, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prosecutors say Johnson was the brain and the wheels behind the three successful bank robberies that happened between May 2014 and January 2015 in Kalamazoo County, about 150 miles northeast of Chicago.

In two of the robberies, Johnson listened in on a cellphone from a car while Benson forced employees into bank vaults at gunpoint, prosecutors said. Cellphone tower data placed him near the banks at the time of the crime.

While speeding away from one robbery in Oshtemo Township, Johnson apparently tossed “a partially eaten hamburger” from the vehicle, and investigators were able to pull his DNA from it, prosecutors said.

The duo made three other failed bank robbery attempts, twice thwarted by police and once when Johnson crashed their vehicle on the way to the heist, prosecutors said.

Johnson was convicted in January in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids of seven crimes, including conspiracy, bank robbery and weapons charges. Benson was found guilty for his role in the robberies and sentenced to 14 years in March.

Good work guys.

From Houston TX to Baton Rouge LA, help at a very trying time.

I love my adopted home town of Houston, helping my home state of Louisiana at a time of need. Thank you sir for this donation.

WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

Texas man donates custom-made caskets to families of fallen officers

Trey Ganem drove from Houston to Baton Rouge Thursday with a special gift for the families of the three officers who died during Sunday's shooting: custom caskets for each officer that Ganem made at his shop in Texas.

He is donating them to the families. Ganem was a Sheriff's deputy for two years and said he was inspired to create them immediately after hearing about Sunday's massacre.

"People need to put their pride aside and start living from the heart,” Ganem said.

Each casket has a similar design, but they're different based on the particular officer, based on military service, their department and their personality. Each casket is painted blue with an American flag on top and each has special symbols for each officer, like a Superman logo on Montrell Jackson's casket, because his family always thought of him that way.

Ganem was escorted for the four hour trip to Baton Rouge by the Undefeated Motorcycle Club, a group of former and active law enforcement officers.

"You know, you just can't do enough to help your families, your brothers, your sisters out there... during a tragic time. You know, it's time to heal,” said Richard Sedgwick, the president of the club.

Ganem met with Matthew Gerald's wife, Dechia Gerald, at the Rest Haven Funeral Home. He says she was deeply touched when she saw the casket.

"It's touching their lives and helping them. Like, she was smiling then. And who smiles at this time, you know? She was like, 'He would have loved it,'” Ganem said...

Thank you sir, from a member of the Thin Blue Line.

Commentary on the West....

This is a column from STRATFOR where the author is concerned where"...the world is turning populist and isolationist, with regions fracturing and trust declining..." A will concede a few of his points, but he seems off. Posted with my commentary.

The West Needs to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is The West Needs to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is

Editor's Note: The Global Affairs column is curated by Stratfor's editorial board, a diverse group of thinkers whose expertise inspires rigorous and innovative thought in our analyses. Though their opinions are their own, they inform and sometimes even challenge our beliefs. We welcome that challenge, and we hope our readers do too.

By Parag Khanna

Between the surprise Brexit vote and the unexpected rise of Donald Trump, it would appear that the world is turning populist and isolationist, with regions fracturing and trust declining. But that narrative is false. Many regions of the world — including Europe — continue to expand and integrate. In the coming years, all of the former Yugoslav republics will have become EU members, increasing the union's membership and completing its geographic contiguity to Greece. Indeed, Greece has yet to leave the monetary union or the European Union. There hasn't been, and won't be, a "Grexit." Britain has left the European Union, but not Europe itself; it remains deeply functionally connected to the Continent in almost every meaningful way, especially as a strategic ally.

Outside of Europe, the leaders of North America's three states just held a major summit outlining their next steps in trade and energy cooperation. The mega-continent is becoming a North American Union — and even a freak Trump election wouldn't undo the surge in U.S. exports to Mexico or the fact that the U.S.-Mexico border is by far the most heavily trafficked international crossing in the world. From Southeast Asia's 650 million people — who have just ratified an ASEAN Economic Community with free labor mobility — to the East African Community of 250 million across a half-dozen countries, post-colonial regions are burying the hatchet and growing together, not apart, to achieve greater economies of scale and bargaining power. Most fundamentally, China is physically binding together the more than one dozen countries on its periphery and beyond into Central Asia through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), further enlarging the functional integration of the world's most populous and economically dynamic regions.

All of this is very much to the good. But it is also a reminder that in a world of more powerful regional blocs, the West needs to regroup. Whatever the aftermath of the Brexit or the U.S. election, the trans-Atlantic community needs to get its houses in order and remember that to remain the greatest force shaping global order, it needs to put its money where its mouth is.

America Jeopardizes Its Own Opportunities

Let's start with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreements. European politicians score points with the public for denouncing the provisions of TTIP, even though it would reduce many unnecessary frictions in trans-Atlantic commercial cooperation. And yet when the United States and Europe team up in World Trade Organization cases against China (or others), they stand a far greater chance of gaining favorable rulings. Despite the strategic imperative of uniting Western economies for greater efficiency and scale, the bigger picture is currently lost in the narcissism of minor differences.

In the case of the TPP, which Hillary Clinton and Trump now both publicly oppose, Obama's signature trade pact with Asia is in jeopardy. Today's presidential candidates forget that building bonds of trade and commerce with a rival's neighbors is a pillar of extending influence across the vast Pacific Ocean. Most of the Fortune 500 generates greater profits from exports to high-growth markets such as Asia than from their home turf. South and East Asia are precisely where the West should be deploying its deep capital markets and massive foreign direct investment stock to improve corporate governance, combat corruption and urge greater infrastructure investment so that the Asian middle class continues to rise and consume Western goods and services.

With both the TPP and TTIP, rest assured the struggle for economic influence will be lost unless the West puts its money where its mouth is.

Are we taking a treaty which is not even read my the members of the congress that must vote on it. If they cannot read it, how can you be assured it is so great? Personally I believe increased trade is better for all concerned. However, seeing the Obama regime is known for wanting to put in things without the public knowing, to say the least this needs to be slowed down and thoroughly examined. By the next administration.

And again, STRATFOR posted last week on how the Iran nuclear deal has surprises in it.

China Pays to Gain More

Despite its current economic rough patch, China shows little sign of abating its quest to smooth the supply chains that are its principal source of geopolitical and economic leverage. It is pushing for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, knowing that as labor is offshored to other Asian nations, it can benefit as a capital owner of offshore industrial and financial assets.

And with the AIIB, China is doubling down on what has already been a quarter century of infrastructure investment in its Central Asian and other neighbors, helping to unlock their resources while paving its own way to the Middle East, Indian Ocean and even Europe. By putting its money where its mouth is, China has even elevated infrastructure to the status of a global public good on par with America's historical provision of military security. More than 70 countries have lined up to join the AIIB, including America's closest allies, such as Britain. Some now call it the "NATO of the East" — a new kind of infrastructure alliance.

The United States urged European nations to withhold their membership to the AIIB in the name of nudging the new bank to promise higher social and environmental standards, but the AIIB has too much capital and clout among poor countries to be shaped from the outside. Indeed, it has just announced that the World Bank will co-invest with it. The only way to actually implement better governance beyond nonbinding paper agreements is to get inside such bodies as an investing partner on the ground.

The AIIB's projects will construct a new set of iron Silk Roads that will smoothly reach Iran. Now that the West has moved toward lifting sanctions, China and other trading nations simply want the United States to get out of the way so they can get on with the business of accessing Iran's fast-growing, urban and youthful society. South Korea now leads the pack among large new investors in Iran. The longer the West waits to ease restrictions on its own companies investing in and trading with Iran, the bigger the lead other countries and their corporations will get in gaining a foothold there.

There are many weak or small countries around the world that depend on China for nearly two-thirds of their foreign investment and to purchase most of their commodities exports. Myanmar has been through a democratic transition hailed by the West, but its companies are still hamstrung when it comes to reducing Myanmar's dependence on China. Sri Lanka's new government was elected on a platform of revisiting huge infrastructure contracts given to the Chinese, only to determine that it has no commercial alternative, not even India. China's grand port in Colombo and other projects have restarted. Ecuador and Zambia are two poor commodities exporters mortgaging their economies to China, taking on ever-larger debts to Beijing, which is collecting a greater share of upstream assets.

Geopolitics has become less about ideology and more about supply and demand, with policies shaped by the highest bidder. In such a world, the West must do more than host summits and pontificate about values. It has to get its act together and put its money where its mouth is.

Valid point on China's expansion, but he should know the current administration is not interested in expanding America, just managing our decline. And Obama has a lot of supporters on both his side, and the notional opposition (see RINOs), who are willing allies.

Parag Khanna is author of the new book Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (Random House, 2016).

"The West Needs to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is is republished with permission of Stratfor."

Iran: Secret Document Reveals New Nuclear Deal Details

Posted with one comment:

Iran: Secret Document Reveals New Nuclear Deal Details

A secret document connected to last year's Iran nuclear deal and made public on July 18 revealed that restrictions on Iran's nuclear program will begin to ease four years before the official agreement expires, AP reported. The document, described as a separate from but closely related to the 15-year nuclear accord, shows that Iran will be able to begin replacing centrifuges with thousands of advanced machines starting in 2027, just 11 years after the deal was first implemented. The document was never released to the public and came to light on July 18, when a diplomat passed it to the press. However, U.S. officials say it was made known to members of Congress earlier.

The document lays out important terms of the nuclear agreement that were absent in the public record. Along with the shorter timeline, it imposes a significant constraint on the number of centrifuges Iran will be allowed to replace. Iran currently has 5,060 centrifuges, and the number of replacements would be limited to between 2,500 and 3,500, depending on their efficiency levels. Those replacement centrifuges could be up to five times as powerful as the older models. The document seems to suggest that Iran actually requires less than 12 months — the number put forward by the U.S. government — to make enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon. In fact, Iran's breakout time could be closer to six months. However, because of the time it takes to build and integrate that many centrifuges, the country would not be able to turn them all on at once, an assessment echoed by U.S. officials familiar with the document. Notably, the document does not specify enrichment restrictions after year 13. International concerns about Iran's nuclear program remain.

B Hussein Obama, RINOs, Bob Corker...Thanks! :<(

What's going on in the World Today 160720

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USA

A Convention Short of Consensus, Not Contention

Analysis

In the United States, violence isn't used as often in the political process as it is in some other countries. But given the current intensity of political discourse and the recent string of attacks across the country, it is worthwhile to understand the threats to security at major upcoming political events such as the Republican National Convention, set for July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Donald Trump presidential campaign, Republican Party and city of Cleveland are putting the final touches on the event, but the unusual levels of opposition to Trump's campaign have made security a top concern for organizers and attendees.

Threats of violence and disruption will not come from only one group. At least 16 organizations, both supporting and opposing the presumptive Republican Party nominee, have registered to hold demonstrations and marches across the downtown area during the convention. Dozens of other, more radical groups intend to demonstrate as well. But it is those with access to the convention — the party members and delegates themselves — who might present the most potent risk of disruption. Needless to say, understanding the potential threats to the convention's security is paramount...

How Donald Trump and the GOP Dropped the Two-State Solution for Mideast Peace

Days before the Cleveland convention, GOP leaders and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have found a rare bit of common ground: ditching decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy calling for the creation of an independent Palestine.

The shift came when the Republican Platform Committee unanimously approved an Israel-Palestine provision Tuesday night that had a striking omission: any reference to a two-state solution to the long-running conflict. The platform instead uses staunchly pro-Israel language that promises to oppose any outside efforts to force Jerusalem into a deal.

The new platform language was drafted with not only the blessing but the intimate involvement of two of Trump’s closest aides, Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman, according to several sources behind the effort. The two men are Trump’s primary Israel advisors.

AFRICA

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

ASIA

Broken Trust: How a Failed Coup Weakens Turkey

Analysis

The coup attempt that saw the Turkish state plunged into crisis has come at precisely the wrong time for Ankara. Just over the border in Iraq and Syria, critical challenges are mounting, as Turkey is drawn deeper into the fight to contain the Islamic State. Internally, Turkey is combating its own domestic Kurdish militant movement, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Because the coup emerged from within certain divisions of the military, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) must now engage in heavy purges of the armed forces. This will make it difficult for Ankara to use the military as an instrument of policy and national strategy. The coup has been put down, but the aftershocks could hamstring Turkey for a long time to come...

A Place Where Geopolitics Fades

Analysis

By Diego Solis

There are places where geopolitics fades, where you can shut yourself off from the slow-burning conflicts and tumultuous markets, from the rise and fall of great powers. The Cook Islands are one such location. This grouping of 15 islands at the heart of the South Pacific is just one tiny segment of a sweeping arc of islands that sprawls across the Pacific from the Marianas to Polynesia. Some (such as New Guinea and New Zealand) are massive, while others are nothing more than the faintest ring of coral above blue water...

Turkey, Fanning the Flames of Instability

As purges continue across Turkey in the wake of the attempted military coup, the leaders of certain countries are attempting to defend and solidify their holds on power. An observer need look no further than Turkey's immediate periphery in the Caucasus and Central Asia for evidence. On Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev unveiled constitutional amendments to prolong presidential terms from five to seven years. Meanwhile, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov set a date for a similar presidential term extension to take effect in his country....

India Strains to Move Away From Agriculture

Even though India's economy is the fastest-growing in the world, job creation in the country has fallen to its lowest point since 2009. Speeding the pace of the Indian economy's shift from agriculture to manufacturing has been one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chief objectives since he took office in 2014. In launching his "Make in India" campaign in 2014, Modi outlined a plan to increase the manufacturing sector's share of India's gross domestic product to 25 percent by 2022 and to add 100 million more manufacturing jobs (currently, manufacturing constitutes 16 percent of GDP and employs some 50 million people). But entrenched opposition to labor and land acquisition reforms are throwing off the prime minister's timetable for reaching his ambitious goals for the sector.

North Korea: 3 Ballistic Missiles Fired, Seoul Says

North Korea test-fired three ballistic missiles in the early morning hours of July 19, a statement by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said, CNN reported. The missiles, which traveled 500-600 kilometers (310-370 miles) to the east, were launched from North Korea's western province of North Hwanghae. The missile tests follow an agreement July 8 between Washington and Seoul to deploy the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile interception system in South Korea.

EUROPE

A European Dream, Deferred

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko arrives for the 2016 NATO summit in Poland. As countries with a history of Russian intervention become more concerned about Russian interference, their hopes for European integration are also becoming more elusive. (SEAN GALLUP/Getty Images)
Summary

As difficult to accept as the United Kingdom's recent vote to leave the European Union is for many people around the world, for some citizens of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, it is just baffling. For several years, their countries have aspired to join the Continental bloc, though none has clinched an official offer of membership yet. Though the Brexit will not precipitate the European Union's demise in the immediate term, it will undoubtedly fix the union's attention on its inherent problems. Consequently, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia worry that EU interest in expanding east will decrease, enabling Russia's influence in the region to grow…

Looking for an Exit From the Brexit

The results of the Brexit referendum are proving to be as much a threat to the United Kingdom's unity as they are to the unity of the European Union. For Scotland and Northern Ireland, two countries in the United Kingdom where a majority of voters opted to remain in the European Union, the decision to leave the Continental bloc is especially concerning. Scotland's 2014 independence referendum and more recent opinion polls in Northern Ireland highlight their dilemma: Voters in each place want to remain in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. This contradiction will shape London's negotiations with the European Union over the future of their relationship...

U.K.: House Of Commons Backs Trident Nuclear Weapons System Renewal

The British House of Commons voted July 19 overwhelmingly in favor of renewing the country's Trident nuclear weapons system, BBC reported. Lawmakers backed the measure, which will cost an estimated 31 billion pounds ($40.7 billion), by a vote of 472 to 117. The system consists of four submarines that can each carry up to eight nuclear missiles. Each missile can carry multiple warheads. The new fleet will be ready for service by the early 2030s. New Prime Minister Theresa May made clear that she would be ready to use nuclear weapons if the situation arose.

A Brexit From Europe’s Scientific Community?

Analysis

In the scientific community, collaboration across countries, continents and oceans has long been the norm, driving scientific knowledge and innovation forward. Research projects and development, especially at the academic level, often cross international borders. Even so, science and research are not immune to political and economic restraints: Travel and immigration regulations, access to funding, and patent laws all limit open collaboration in scientific development.

The United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union will not eliminate the opportunities for its scientists and researchers to work with those of other countries, even EU member states. Nevertheless, it could have repercussions for the future of technological innovation in the United Kingdom. Though ideas will continue to flow freely between the United Kingdom and the Continent after the Brexit, scientists and researchers may not. In addition, as the Brexit becomes a reality, funding for research in the United Kingdom likely will take a substantial hit...
MEXICO/LATIN AMERICA

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

AFGHANISTAN

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

CHINA

China Is Building Its Future on Credit

Summary

As China tries to overcome slowdowns in its industrial and trade sectors, the country's banks have continued to increase the pace of lending, issuing 1.38 trillion yuan ($205.8 billion) worth of loans in June. The figure confirms some economists' expectations that lending will keep rising as China's central government attempts to revive economic growth and boost property markets that showed signs of another slump in May. It also indicates that despite Beijing's repeated pledges to reduce the economy's reliance on credit and state-led investment, the easy flow of financing from state-owned banks remains the country's primary bulwark against widespread debt crises among corporations and local governments...

IRAN

Iran: Secret Document Reveals New Nuclear Deal Details

A secret document connected to last year's Iran nuclear deal and made public on July 18 revealed that restrictions on Iran's nuclear program will begin to ease four years before the official agreement expires, AP reported. The document, described as a separate from but closely related to the 15-year nuclear accord, shows that Iran will be able to begin replacing centrifuges with thousands of advanced machines starting in 2027, just 11 years after the deal was first implemented. The document was never released to the public and came to light on July 18, when a diplomat passed it to the press. However, U.S. officials say it was made known to members of Congress earlier.

The document lays out important terms of the nuclear agreement that were absent in the public record. Along with the shorter timeline, it imposes a significant constraint on the number of centrifuges Iran will be allowed to replace. Iran currently has 5,060 centrifuges, and the number of replacements would be limited to between 2,500 and 3,500, depending on their efficiency levels. Those replacement centrifuges could be up to five times as powerful as the older models. The document seems to suggest that Iran actually requires less than 12 months — the number put forward by the U.S. government — to make enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon. In fact, Iran's breakout time could be closer to six months. However, because of the time it takes to build and integrate that many centrifuges, the country would not be able to turn them all on at once, an assessment echoed by U.S. officials familiar with the document. Notably, the document does not specify enrichment restrictions after year 13. International concerns about Iran's nuclear program remain.

IRAQ

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

ISRAEL

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

RUSSIA

Russia&#039;s Muslim Regions Turn to the Gulf for Help

Analysis

As Russia's economy continues to stagnate, the country's 83 regions are being forced to compete with one another for outside investment to stay afloat. The quest for funding was a popular theme at the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where regional governments and corporations tried to woo foreign partners and financiers. Some regions have focused their campaigns on Asia and Europe: The Kaluga and Kaliningrad provinces, for example, have signed investment deals with Bavaria, and Kaluga's governor visited Vietnam earlier in the year seeking funding. But four of Russia's Muslim republics — Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chechnya and Dagestan — have set their sights on Muslim states in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, a strategy that has put Moscow on edge...

SYRIA

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

MIDDLE EAST GENERAL

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

MISC

Geopolitical Calendar: Week of July 18, 2016

The Attack on the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel That Never Happened

Analysis

Editor's Note: The following piece is part of an occasional series in which Fred Burton, our vice president of intelligence, reflects on his storied experience as a counterterrorism agent for the U.S. State Department.

By Fred Burton

Just off Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, only two blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, yellow taxis stop and start before a row of heavy glass doors at the base of an imposing 47-story building. A single doorman stands outside, his white-gloved hands folded. Above him the name of the building is scrawled on the aging concrete: The Waldorf-Astoria...

The Anatomy of a Coup Attempt

Analysis

Coups tend to be evaluated by a single criterion: whether or not they achieved their purpose. And though the results are, of course, what matters most to those who have power — and those who covet it — that kind of evaluation ignores the anatomy of what makes a coup successful. The current situation in Turkey reveals a significant degree of planning and coordination, but its "success" depends on the same things that all others do...

It Takes a Village to Stop a Lone Wolf

By Scott Stewart

The recent attacks in Dallas, Nice, Baton Rouge and Wurzburg have again raised public awareness of lone attackers unaffiliated with an organized terrorist group. I am constantly asked how governments can defend against this new threat. But that question is misguided: Lone attackers operating under a model of leaderless resistance is not a new phenomenon. Stratfor has been tracking the devolution of the jihadist movement from a hierarchical structure to a more grassroots one for more than a decade. Though leaderless resistance is by design more difficult for authorities to detect and deter, those who practice it are still bound by the vulnerabilities in the terrorist planning cycle. …

How the Brexit Could Hurt Scientific Research



In the scientific community, collaboration across countries, continents and oceans has long been the norm, driving scientific knowledge and innovation forward. Research projects and development, especially at the academic level, often cross international borders. The United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union will not eliminate the opportunities for its scientists and researchers to work with those of other countries, even EU member states. Nevertheless, it could have repercussions for the future of technological innovation in the United Kingdom. Ideas will continue to flow freely between the United Kingdom and the Continent after the Brexit, but scientists and researchers might not. In addition, as the Brexit becomes a reality, funding for research in the United Kingdom likely will take a substantial hit.

A great pic on Dallas!

Great post below this, "The most impressive line I've heard was one from a Baton Rouge officer: 'I'm willing to meet my God so that you don't have too.'"

Be safe friends!

Perhaps radical Islam...isn't

Again, my friend and fellow Army officer Mike Ford has a great post in American Thinker.  Enjoy. 

Perhaps radical Islam...isn't 

By Mike Ford 

When Donald Trump opined that we should stop all Muslim immigration "until we can figure out what is going on," perhaps he stumbled on something we have yet to recognize: that radical Islam...isn't.  Much is being made (with good reason) of President Obama's failure to use the words "radical Islamic terrorism" when describing the horrific act in Orlando and other terror attacks here in the U.S.  Even yesterday's atrocity, the brutal murder of at latest count 80 civilians, who were run over by a French citizen of Tunisian descent, using a 5-ton cargo truck, has yet to elicit those words from President Obama. 

However, our focus may be a bit off here.  Perhaps the problem isn't radical Islam.  Perhaps the problem is Islam in its entirety.  As horrific as this brutal mass murder was, at what point does a radical politico-religious extreme become a mainstream religious belief? 

There are some interesting surveys out there regarding Muslim attitudes by the Pew Research Center.  The findings were interesting, especially when we examine them against a definition of "radical" or "extreme" that presupposes a locus at the end of a politico-religious spectrum and a population of less than 1 percent of the total population surveyed.  

Here are some of the findings 

As of 2010, there were 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, or 23% percent of the population. 

Latest estimates put Muslims at just under 1% of the U.S. population at 2.75 million, 63% percent of whom are immigrants. 

Pew projects that by 2150, U.S. Muslims will outnumber American Jews, becoming the second most populous religion at 2.1% of the U.S. population, a little more than double today's share.   

Extrapolating forward, we are talking over 5.5 million Muslims in the U.S. 

Taken by themselves, those numbers would cause little concern.  However, Muslim attitudes both in the U.S. and worldwide should give us all pause.  A Washington Post article regarding Muslim attitudes toward homosexuality ("Here are the ten countries where homosexuality may be punishable by death") notes that Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, all U.S. allies, have death penalty statutes regarding the practice of homosexuality.  Abhorrent to Americans as that may be, it's difficult to paint that viewpoint as "extreme," when it is the legal position of duly constituted governments, some of which are U.S. allies in the war on "radical Islamic terrorism." 

Closer to home, the Pew study looked at the opinions of Muslims residing in the United States.  One interesting finding: 

More generally, Muslims mostly say that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam are rarely or never justified, including 92% in Indonesia and 91% in Iraq. In the United States, a 2011 survey found that 86% of Muslims say that such tactics are rarely or never justified. An additional 7% say suicide bombings are sometimes justified and 1% say they are often justified in these circumstances.

Using these percentages, coupled with the current Muslim population, that's 25,000 U.S. Muslims who believe violence in the form of suicide bombers is often justified in support of Islam. 

Polls may show that a clear majority of Muslims abhor ISIS violence, but until they actively do something to reform the clear plurality of Muslims who support it, innocent men, women, and children will continue to be murdered by this theocratic terrorist element that is by no means looked at as "extreme" by a goodly part of the Muslim world. 

Whatever happens, our Republic, with its protections for individual liberty, especially religious liberty, will have to come to grips with this, sooner rather than later.  Maybe Trump is right.  Maybe we should halt all Muslim immigration until "we figure out what is going on," and those so-called, "moderate Muslims" nudge their politico-military-religious construct towards meaningful reformation. 

Mike Ford is a retired infantry officer with experience in counterterrorism in Central America, Southwest Asia and as an instructor at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

I need deescalation training....

I recently read the final report of the Presidential Task Force on 21st Century Policing (I have insomnia and it's a sure cure) and I love the lecturing of these lawyers who have never enforced the law and the bureaucrats in uniform tell cop how he is doing wrong. The cop on the scene. Trying to instantly restore order to a situation that took years to deteriorate. Where there is not functioning family to handle the issue. While outnumbered 5-10 to 1. And people are pissed off and you, the cop, are the intruder.

And we need to be taught "De-escalation."

Must be nice in your air-conditioned office.

I'll go on a tear on the TF report in a future post, I have a lot to criticize. But I found this interesting. Emphasis mine.

It’s Citizens; Not Police Who Need De-escalation Training

Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., CMI-V Copyright © July 15, 2016

In the wake of the officer-involved shootings of Philando Castile (St. Paul, MN), Alton Sterling(Baton Rouge, LA) and most recently the assassination of five Dallas, Texas officers; I have been doing non-stop interviews with reporters from the national and international news media.

A number of these journalists have been asking me about the de-escalation training I produce for law enforcement. They ask what the “de-escalation” concept refers to and how it works. They ask, “Shouldn’t the police be getting more de-escalation training?” While I generally respond that it is always a good idea that street officers receive more training; I have taken a different view that I’ll share with you. If you agree with me, I hope that you will share this article with others you know; especially the news media and detractors of law enforcement...

I would have one question. What "De-escalation" technique would have stopped Micah Xavier Johnson, the radicalized black nationalist, from murdering 5 cops. Seeing he apparently had other things on this mine?

Just asking.

...Our educated law enforcement community – In the United States today, we have never seen a more diverse, better educated, well trained and technologically advanced law enforcement community. Police academies today are more like mini-universities; all accredited through community colleges, where officers receive undergraduate credits for course work.

In most states police recruits study and are tested in over forty-three separate topics of instruction during an intense six-month academy. During this period, they must demonstrate written and physical/practical competency with a minimum passing score of between 80% to 100% in all subjects. Cultural and sexual diversity, tactical communication, laws of arrest/search and seizure; civil rights, victimology, preliminary investigations, forensics; mental health, drug influence; traffic enforcement and investigations; physical training and use of force/deadly force comprise just a few of the many subjects covered. This level and time compression of education and training is far more demanding; and more intellectually and physically challenging than any university I am aware of....

A lot of junior colleges offer criminal justice majors, after two years you can get an associates in CJ with a state peace officer's license. Take that and you can get hired by a local agency. In Texas the basic requirement for a peace officer's license is 60 hours of college and in many larges agencies bachelor's or graduate degrees are common. And we can see the handwriting on the wall, at some point we can see a four year degree as a basic requirement.

The reason that police academies are far more demanding than universities is because police officers must deal daily with the real and not theoretical difficulties, challenges and life risks of society. Officers are trained to respond to and often make split-second life and death decisions under circumstances that the U.S. Supreme Court has described as “rapidly evolving, tense and uncertain.” 1

The police academy is just the beginning of a probationary officer’s training experience. After the police academy, comes a three to four-month Field Training Program, where recruits are intensely supervised by personal Field Training Officers (FTO’s) and evaluated each day on over thirty separate codified police practices. After the FTO program, police recruits are shadowed on their calls for another six months before being considered as a “solo beat officer.” Police recruits also undergo a probationary period of from one to two years before being accepted as fully certified officers.

That is the beginning. Again, in Texas, all active peace officers must have 40 hours of training every two years and my agency requires 40 hours a year. And it's rare I don't go to class over 100 hours a year, not counting online instruction required by the department, etc. Plus, as you advance, there is leadership training for sergeants, lieutenants, etc.

Police vs. the public’s education – Now let’s compare the education and training that police officers receive to that of some in the general public; including politicians, the liberal media and Black Lives Matter movement who enjoy chastising and criticizing police officers.

In the U.S., civil rights are generally not a topic of discussion in middle school and are barely covered in high school. Rather, students learn about civil rights leaders and perhaps their First Amendment rights of freedoms of speech and assembly. Fourth Amendment rights pertaining to law enforcement encounters, detentions, arrests, searches and seizures are almost never covered. Appropriate behavior during police encounters, the rule of law and police practices are rarely if ever covered unless one takes a constitutional law class in college or a university.

No, these people went to college so they know the law and their rights. Hey, they watch YouTube and Law and Order. 

Nearly every university professor I am acquainted with who teaches constitutional law, has little to no idea how police officers are trained. They lack an understanding in the legal concepts of an officer’s “collective knowledge.” They generally misunderstand the standards of proof officers rely upon to stop/detain, investigate, search and/or arrest such as reasonable suspicion and probable cause. They know very little about federal case law standards of police practices. This becomes evident when I am asked to step into their classrooms to teach these concepts and I quiz their university “scholar” students in Master’s degree programs. This is disgraceful and a true disservice to American society.

At a homicide scene a 17 year old, after calling for an ambulance, called his brother and the brother said, "I'm calling our lawyer..." A couple of hours later a lady shows up and demands to see the 17 year old. We explained to her, "Ma'am, he has not requested to see an attorney and as of right now, he is not subject to custodial interrogation, he is being detained as a witness..." The lady continued to argue and another officer asked her, "Are you a defense attorney?" No, she was a real estate attorney. I have a joke that the last person you want to ask about the law is a lawyer, but it's only slightly facetious. Most lawyers do not practice criminal law and their knowledge is somewhat limited in the field (e.g. ruling in search and seizure, etc).  

Who really needs the training? I have come to the conclusion that it is generally not the police who need more training including “de-escalation,” diversity, sensitivity and civil rights training; it is the American public. The Millennium Generation has absolutely no understanding of what their actual civil rights are – and more importantly, are not. They have no idea what the legal constraints are with respect to their behaviors during police encounters. They have no awareness as to why they get detained and arrested for the stupid things they say and do. Most of their parents are worse than their offspring are.

Young people and most adults have no understanding of how police officers are trained and how that training combined with their non-compliant, suspicious, potentially threatening and/or active physical resistance become part of the calculus of the peaceful, or defensively forceful response by police their actions precipitate. 1 Case Cite – Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989)

A simple rule to live or die by – Literally every so-called “controversial,” high-profile officer- involved death case bears example of this one simple fact. People who don’t make stupid life decisions; are compliant with police when contacted; and who don’t resist detention or arrest; almost never have problems with police; or end up hospitalized or in a morgue. It’s just that simple. Want some contemporary examples to prove this simple rule? Do the names Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and Anton Sterling sound familiar? They should. Five Dallas officers ultimately lost their lives last week because of the general public’s self-centered, brazen ignorance.

I would put as an aside, people like this are not "raised," i.e. they don't have parents rearing them. No one has disciplined them over the years and no one can tell them "no" because they "know their rights!"

Sensitivity training – It takes a special person to risk their life for those who care so little. Police officers are not your lackeys. They are not separate from you. They are you. They come from your communities. They are your former or current classmates; your friends; your relatives. Police do not create society’s problems; they respond to them. People create society’s problems they consistently make stupid life decisions. Young men impregnate teenage girls because they are selfish, insensitive and controlling. They abandon their children for the same reasons. Teens cut and drop out of school because they are too weak; and/or because their father figures abandoned them. Some teens join gangs and/or take drugs for the same reasons.

I have little tolerance for sensitivity training, etc. I find it often tries to divide people into blocks and then pit them against each other. If one of my officer's is in a shootout, that becomes my shootout. And it will be not matter was his race, sex, or orientation is. The only color is blue.

Young men and women poison their own people with drugs and sentence them to a life of addiction because they have no moral compass. Young men pack guns; rob people; invade their homes and kill each other for all of the above reasons. Young men create genocide within their own communities, knowing that everything they do is criminal and physically and emotionally harmful. It is the public and not the police who need sensitivity training. The police are the sensitive ones.

Police come into depressed, violent, hopeless communities to save people from themselves. And as thanks for risking their lives; they are then chastised, criticized, demeaned, shot in the back and killed for their efforts by cowards who resonate with the false narratives of radical groups who seek to overthrow the rule of law.

See my comments earlier about people not being raised. A child is not something you can give birth to and 18 years later hug on their graduation. It takes time, commitment, money, etc. The child is not a part of a parent's life, they are the parent's life. Too many people today are letting the streets raise their children. And it shows with homicide rates, rape numbers, etc.

De-escalation training – Police learn that they cannot control people; they can only control themselves. They practice de-escalation training not because they are the ones who need to calm down; but because the people they encounter are often angry, enraged, demented, psychologically unstable, under the influence of illegal drugs, hateful; and/or all of the above.

The general public believe that they have rights that they don’t have. They think and often tell police that they have no right to stop them for a traffic violation; detain them for suspicion of criminal activity; or when police try to intervene when they are unstable, drug influenced, or suicidal. People pack guns; they move menacingly at officers with weapons when repeatedly ordered at TASER® or gun point not to. They provoke officers by compressing time and distance. They verbally or by gestures threaten to beat, stab, shoot and kill officers. Then when force is used against them; they or their surviving relatives sue “to get paid.”

And I'll add egged on and hoping to be the next YouTube sensation.  Not to mention these people are acting like this is the new rage in law enforcement.  I was taught this in my academy 18 years ago and it's common sense, controlling people with words first then other options. 

Where is the support for police? What is far worse emotionally and psychologically for police officers when they are forced to use force and perhaps take a life, is that the uninformed media lines up to support the suspect instead of the police without any forensic facts or evidence that the police did anything wrong. They would rather believe the deliberate lies of Black Lives Matter; race baiter charlatans like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton; or our racially biased; forked- tongued President that it was the police’s fault – the “police acted stupidly.” The media has gotten the forensic facts of deadly police-citizen encounters wrong time and time again. Professor Gates, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and scores more case like them. And our naïve, uninformed, low-informed and disengaged public just mindlessly follows along.

There is never an apology or even a concession to police that the media, race baiters, or the Black Lives Matter surrogates were wrong. That’s not the way the “New America” works these days. No, today it’s all about #journalism instead of vetted, investigative reporting. It’s all about assigning blame rather than accepting responsibility for a wrong-doing. That’s the do-nothing, bring nothing to the table, cowardly society police are forced to work with. It is far easier to yell, scream and criticize the brave men and women of law enforcement than to put on a badge and police their own troubled, violent communities. That seems to be beneath them.

The public’s paradigm shift – The simple fact is that it is the public who needs de-escalation training. They need to calm down and have a studied response instead of emotionally charged reaction to the police they encounter during pedestrian stops, vehicle pull-overs, and investigative contacts. They need to know that a court of law and not the street is the venue for arguing the justification of a stop or an enforcement action. They need to know that no matter how much they might dislike the police; or the reason(s) for being contacted by them; they are legally obligated to obey an officer(s)’ directions, orders, or commands. The public needs to learn how to listen and not argue with police. They need to learn how to temper their behavior and not make stupid, threatening, and potentially deadly bad decisions. Essentially, they need to learn to grow up and mind their manners.

While this may certainly be a “free” society; that freedom is conditional upon obeying the law and it’s hard to argue an opposing view from behind bars, from a hospital bed, or from the morgue.

Mark Levin refers to the "civil society" and how it's broken down over the last few decades. Until we start to disciple and raise children again, we will have more issues like this.

Dr. Ron Martinelli
Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., CMI-V, is a nationally renowned forensic criminologist, police expert and a Certified Medical Investigator, who directs the nation’s only multidisciplinary Forensic Death Investigations amp; Independent Review Team. Dr. Martinelli, is the author of the new best-selling book, “The Truth Behind the Black Lives Matter Movement and the War on Police,” His forensic site is www.DrRonMartinelli.com

Excellent post sir.

Conversation: Lessons Russia Can Learn From Turkey's Coup

Conversation: Lessons Russia Can Learn From Turkey&'s Coup



Conversation: Lessons Russia Can Learn From Turkey's Coup is republished with permission of Stratfor.

The Coup Felt Round the World In the wake of his military's quashed coup, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not the only world leader taking stock of his hold on power. When such uprisings occur, officials in other countries — no matter how disparate their governments or how distant their borders — inevitably wonder whether it could happen to them....

Nice Attack Shows the Vulnerability of Soft Targets

Nice Attack Shows the Vulnerability of Soft Targets is republished with permission of Stratfor.


How France Will Respond to the Nice Attack

Summary

After a large truck plowed into crowds and killed at least 84 people in Nice late on July 14, French President Francois Hollande announced that the country's state of emergency would be extended for another three months. Hollande also said that border controls would be tightened and that France would show "real force and military action in Syria and Iraq." French authorities confirmed that the main suspect is a 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian man who had a police record for petty crimes but who apparently had not been flagged for terrorist activity and was unknown to intelligence services. The Nice attack is the latest in a series of terrorist plots to target France over the past year and a half and will influence both the country's upcoming presidential campaign and the political debate within the European Union...

Officer Down

Corporal Nate Carrigan
Park County Sheriff's Office, Colorado
End of Watch: Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Age: 35
Tour: 13 years
Badge # 10

Corporal Nate Carrigan was shot and killed as he and seven other deputies served a high risk eviction order at a home on Iris Drive in Bailey, Colorado, at approximately 9:15 am.

The subject named on the eviction order was an activist in the Occupy Denver movement. The subject exited the home and then reentered it, with Corporal Carrigan and other deputies following back inside to stop him. The man was able to grab a rifle and opened fire, killing Corporal Carrigan and wounding the other two deputies. The subject was shot and killed by return gunfire.

Corporal Carrigan had served with the Park County Sheriff's Office for 13 years. He is survived by his parents, sister, and two brothers.

Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Nemo me impune lacessit

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

The Sounds of Silence...Thin Blue Line.

A few months back I posted on this new version of the Simon and Garfunkel classic Sounds of Silence. A new video showing the Thin Blue Line with this haunting cover.



Thank you Bryan G for the link.

American Thinker: Nice attack a blow to Hillary

Fellow Army officer, long time friend and former cop Mike Ford has anther great article in American Thinker. Enjoy and comments are always welcome!

July 15, 2016 

Nice attack a blow to Hillary 

By Mike Ford 

As I watch the reporting of the carnage that just took place in Nice, France, I cannot understand how anyone with two neurons to rub together could support a political party or candidate that allows Muslim immigration, refugee or otherwise, into these United States. I get this insane blood pressure spike every time I see footage of American citizens who were forced to choose between burning to death in agony or plummeting to their deaths from the Trade Center Towers. The footage from Nice instigates those same spikes. 

Our choice is clear: do we support a candidate who puts the interests and security of the United States first? Or do we support a candidate who has a record of criminal activity – who looks at her political career as a way to fill her personal financial coffers? 

Hillary Clinton has a long history of feeding at the public trough, whether as a political spouse or as an elected or appointed official. While her personal corruption may have started as acceptable, she has now blown right through "somewhat unseemly" and arrived well in the middle of "snout down in the trough up to the ears." 

Moreover, as the director of the FBI has stated, Clinton's handling of classified information, some of which is so sensitive that disclosure of it could likely cause the death of U.S. covert agents, was "extremely negligent." 

Then there is Clinton's position regarding Syrian "refugees." She advocates bringing thousands of them here. I have two questions: 

1) First and foremost, how does this benefit the United States and the taxpayers who have to pay for it? 

2) How can they be "vetted"? As Mrs. Clinton knows, the best way to truly vet a foreign national is through that person's government – a government with whom we have friendly ties. How are we supposed to do that with Syrians? 

Donald Trump has none of these issues – especially regarding immigration. Mr. Trump understands, as did President James Earl Carter, that sometimes we as a nation have to turn off the immigration spigot until "we can figure out what is going on." 

Mike Ford is a retired infantry officer, frequently edited by his lovely bride, who is a retired English teacher and high school principal.  

I would add even the disgraced FBI director, James Comey said last year we cannot vet these invaders, err immigrants, oh, yea, refugees, as there is no database to query. So we're importing the people who will lead to a civil war. Again, thanks libtards and B Hussein Obama.

Yes, people are that stupid....

The stupidity of the human animal never ceases to amaze me. You think you have hit rock bottom, then someone takes out the pick ax and starts breaking the rock into pieces.

I was on a Traffic Hazard-Urgent and I stopped in the middle of I-610 to pick up a tarp that had fallen into the road. This is an accident waiting to happen. Thankfully a unit pulled up behind me to block other cars. I’m pulling this tarp into my Tahoe (it was huge) and this idiot in a SUV moves to the left shoulder, stops and is taking a picture of me, completely oblivious to the fact she can cause a wreck.

I screamed at her, “Get the hell out of here!” and she seems shocked I was yelling at her. She drove off annoyed.

It’s times like this I’m scared I got a gun, I may not resist the urge to cleanse the human gene pool!

Numbers, Witnesses and Misdemeanor Murder.

As I type this I’m looking back at a call from two days ago. I checked by with one of my units on a Shooting-Just Occurred call, a mid-20s black male was shot in the middle of a very busy intersection of Da Hood. Someone drove up, fired the round and drove off. In front of about 50 people just standing in the area, apparently with nothing to do and all with cell phones equipped with cameras. The young man was shot in the abdomen with one small round and walked into a small store, asking the clerk to call for an ambulance.

We all know he was a local and when we started to ask the “witnesses,” nobody knew him or anything about how he got shot. People who couldn’t wait to approach us with their cell phones, hoping for their 15 minutes of Twitter fame, were now quickly walking away.

We have a term for it. Misdemeanor Murder.

I have no idea if the man died or not (I would guess not from the extent of the injuries) but again, there is no question if this was a police involved shooting, every one of the dozens of people there would have a camera out and being speaking to the reporters who called. See Mike Brown.

One of the effects of the breakdown of minority families in the years since the Great Society, the civil society has disintegrated. People are taught as they get older (there are not raised) that law enforcement is the enemy and that the justice system is not a way for handling crimes. The unknown black male likely knew who fired the round and drove off. In a few months someone else will be shot by this young black man or his “family.” And nobody saw nothing!

Another case of Misdemeanor Murder.

Heather McDonald has written a book called The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe. In it she documents the statistics of actual shooting. In spite of the propaganda of the current idiot residing in the White House, there is not a war on minorities by the police. Some of the highlights:

1. Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or "were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force," according to MacDonald in a speech at Hillsdale College.

Some may argue that these statistics are evidence of racist treatment toward blacks, since whites consist of 62 percent of the population and blacks make up 13 percent of the population. But as MacDonald writes in The Wall Street Journal, 2009 statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveal that blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties…

…MacDonald also pointed out in her Hillsdale speech that blacks "commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime" in New York City, even though they consist of 23 percent of the city's population.

2. More whites and Hispanics die from police homicides than blacks. According to MacDonald, 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers…

3. The Post's data does show that unarmed black men are more likely to die by the gun of a cop than an unarmed white man...but this does not tell the whole story. In August 2015, the ratio was seven-to-one of unarmed black men dying from police gunshots compared to unarmed white men; the ratio was six-to-one by the end of 2015. But MacDonald points out in The Marshall Project that looking at the details of the actual incidents that occurred paints a different picture:

The “unarmed” label is literally accurate, but it frequently fails to convey highly-charged policing situations. In a number of cases, if the victim ended up being unarmed, it was certainly not for lack of trying. At least five black victims had reportedly tried to grab the officer’s gun, or had been beating the cop with his own equipment. Some were shot from an accidental discharge triggered by their own assault on the officer. And two individuals included in the Post’s “unarmed black victims” category were struck by stray bullets aimed at someone else in justified cop shootings. If the victims were not the intended targets, then racism could have played no role in their deaths…

4. Black and Hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at blacks than white officers. This is according to a Department of Justice report in 2015 about the Philadelphia Police Department, and is further confirmed that by a study conducted University of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway in 2015 that determined black cops were 3.3 times more likely to fire a gun than other cops at a crime scene.

5. Blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops. This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of cop killers are black. According to MacDonald, the police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person…

I think I see another book on my Good Reads account coming up.

Gotta get ready for work. Thursday in Da Hood means the weekend is just starting, so we likely will see people getting drunk, stupid, perhaps a shooting or stabbing. In front of dozens. And nobody saw nothing.

Another case of Misdemeanor Murder.

Thanks Norm W. and Whitman L. for the link.

Mrs. Bill Clinton skirts the law again....

I spent 23 years in Army intelligence and this is a disgrace. If I had sent Top Secret and above documents on my personal email I would still be in Leavenworth. She used a server that the FBI director said was less secure than Gmail. But she will not be indicted.

This says is all:

Former mayor and federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani says it well during this interview, especially at the 1:50 mark, "...she couldn't pass an FBI background check..."

Disgusting.

Something else about cops...

Won't deny the blog has been off a bit. I've been catching up on some stuff and the last few days have been disenserting. But a friend posted this on FB and I wanted to put it out.



Thanks Mike F. for the link.

Cop Motivation

Some great example of cops on The Watch, combined with Al Pacino's great speech from Any Given Sunday.

“The sheep do not want the dog around. He looks too much like the wolf. He reminds them that danger lurks out there, just beyond the relative safety of the fence.

The wolf also hates the dog. He knows that it is the dog that stands between him and his prey. It is because of the dog that he is lean. The dog is the reason the wolf is forced to stalk the darkness.

The dog knows these facts. Undeterred, he stands watch, ever ready to do battle. Despite that he is an unwelcome guest in their mists, the dog is ready, at a moments notice, to give his life in defense of his flock. It is simply who he is. Police"

I post this as I'm about to leave for home. I've accomplished my mission in life. I've started The Watch, and I'm going home at the End of Watch. Be safe out there.

ASSIST THE OFFICER-DALLAS!

CALLING EVERYONE. THIS IS THE WEBSITE FOR ASSIST THE OFFICER-DALLAS. THEY ARE COLLECTING FOR THE OFFICERS IN DALLAS AND THEIR FAMILIES. DONATE IF YOU CAN, SPREAD THIS AS FAR AS YOU CAN.

https://atodallas.org

EOW Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Deputy David Michel, Jr

Late last month I posted on how some people believe the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office used "excessive force" on the suspected murderer of Deputy David Michel. If you want my comments, hit the link. My friend Jason, a lieutenant on the JPSO, had this posted on his Facebook page. I had trouble getting through it.

RIP Bro...We Got The Watch.

How the Middle East Will Exploit Solar Energy

How the Middle East Will Exploit Solar Energy is republished with permission of Stratfor.