It's A Cruel, Cruel Summer: Once Again In The Hospital

I've not posted anything today, as I spent the day at the Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia.

After spending most of July and August in the Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia (Methodist Hospital is part of the Jefferson Hospital organization), I reported to Jefferson early this morning to have a kidney stone removed.

The surgical procedure was successful, I'm happy to report.

I'm in a bit of pain this evening, but I'm glad to be home and I'm glad that my medical issues and hospital visits may finally be over.

Last month I reported to the Methodist to have the kidney stone removed, but my left knee was swollen and very painful. I was rushed from the OR to the ER, where the knee was drained (a very painful procedure) and the source of the pain and swollenness was discovered to be a flare of gout rather than inflection.

Had the knee been infected, I would had what is known as a "wash-out" surgical operation.

That I have gout explains the problems I've been having with swollen and painful feet for some time.

I suspected arthritis from my sport and work activity over the years, as I also suffer from arthritis in my back along with my nerve and spine damage caused by sports, work and life's "wear and tear."

Thankfully, the gout can be treated with medication and I'm now seeing a specialist. I hope to soon be able to take long walks again.

I returned to the Methodist this past Monday morning to have the kidney stone removed and after waiting for more than 10 hours, I was informed that I lost my OR time to a life and death emergency.

I was not happy to be bumped after such a long wait, but I was thankful that my medical condition, although painful, was not a life or death case. I prayed for the other patient to make it.

Today was "third-time lucky" - in a sense - for me.

I'd like to thank the fine doctors, nurses and staff at Jefferson and Methodist for their care and professionalism these summer months as I suffered from a serious kidney infection and other medical issues that landed me in the hospital for three extended stays, as well as the out-patient visits.

I'd also like to thank my beautiful wife for standing beside me and helping me to endure these past two God-awful months. And I'd like to thank my family and friends for their love, support and prayers.

Now back to work.

FBI: Counterfeit Goods Smuggling Ring Dismantled

The FBI web site offers an interesting piece:

When Ning Guo was sentenced to prison earlier this year, it marked one of the final chapters in a massive international counterfeit goods smuggling case—one of the largest ever charged by the Department of Justice—in which criminals attempted to flood the U.S. market with bogus cigarettes, handbags, and sneakers from China that would have been worth $300 million on the retail market.

From November 2009 through February 2012, the smugglers and their conspirators attempted to import hundreds of shipping containers full of counterfeit Nike shoes, Gucci handbags, cigarettes, and other items from China into the U.S. through the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey.

When a multi-agency force took down the operation in 2012, nearly 30 individuals were arrested and charged with various counts of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, as well as other crimes—including money laundering and drug trafficking.

“This was a complex case,” said Special Agent Ron Pascale, who worked the investigation from our Newark Division. “But over time, we identified the entire conspiracy and dismantled it.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/august/counterfeit-goods-smuggling-ring-dismantled/counterfeit-goods-smuggling-ring-dismantled?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=346011 

A Man Of Courage And ISIS's Face Of Evil

Tom Rogan at National Review offers his take on the brutal murder of journalist James Foley.

The video released yesterday depicting the Islamic State’s beheading of American journalist James Foley proves two things: the character of an immensely courageous man and the purely evil nature of the Islamic State.

Recording this brutal beheading, the jihadist group thinks it’s being strategic. Its leaders — who likely hold a number of other Western hostages, and appeared to show one of them in the video — hope the video will terrorize America into leaving them alone. They believe that when we see Foley’s death in a barren wilderness, we’ll cede them their empire of death. Tellingly, and simultaneous with the video’s release, Islamic State supporters began tweeting associated threats.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/385830/man-courage-and-isiss-face-evil-tom-rogan

Russian Roulette - A Deadly Game: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot

 

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review of Giles Milton's Russian Roulette - A Deadly Game: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot in today's Washington Times.

To Great Britain, the threat issued by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov — better known by his revolutionary name of Lenin — was clarion clear. In November 1917, soon after his Bolshevik faction seized control of Russia, he called on the “oppressed masses” of Asia to follow Russia’s example and throw off colonial rule.

He named as an early target India, the “jewel in Britain’s imperial crown.” Lenin declared, “England is our greatest enemy. It is in India that we must strike them hardest!” For emphasis, Lenin tore up the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention that laid out spheres of influence in Central Asia, specifically protecting India’s northern frontiers from Russian intrusion.

... As Mr. Milton documents, the British intelligence service flooded Moscow with swarms of agents soon after the Bolsheviks seized power. The tasks were many. Could the Bolsheviks be overthrown and replaced by the ousted Kerensky government? Did the new government have the political will (and military capability) of continuing the fight against Germany?

The story of British machinations in Moscow has been related by both operatives and histories, ranging from Sidney (“The Ace of Spies”) Reilly to Somerset Maugham. Through skilled use of recently declassified files of Indian political intelligence, Mr. Milton gives a gripping account of how the Reds tried to carry out Lenin's threat.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/20/book-review-when-britain-stood-up-to-russian-aggre/

Reclaiming John Wayne: The Duke's Ten Best Films

Timothy Mangan at ocregister.com looks back at the late great actor John Wayne.

John Wayne was a great actor. There, I said it.

It may get me thrown out of certain intellectual circles, it may cause some to wonder about my politics, but that’s my premise and I’m sticking with it.

Sooner or later (usually sooner), anyone who writes about Wayne has to face the topic.

“For years,” writes Scott Eyman in his new biography “John Wayne: The Life and Legend,” “the debate about Wayne centered around the ridiculous question of whether or not he could act, with liberals generally taking the negative position.” That’s a big part of the problem in assessing Wayne’s acting skills. His personal politics (conservative) got in the way of seeing the acting clearly, much in the same way that Mel Gibson’s loopiness or Woody Allen’s family troubles get in the way of seeing them.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/wayne-631983-film-way.html

You can also read an earlier post on John Wayne via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/05/happy-birthday-to-film-legend-john-wayne.html

Security of Mosul Dam Critical to Iraq's Infrastructure

Claudette Roulo at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2014 - President Barack Obama has announced that Iraqi forces, aided by on-going U.S airstrikes, have recaptured Mosul Dam from ISIL terrorists.

U.S. military officials said American aircraft had conducted a total of 68 targeted airstrikes since Aug. 8, the majority directed at setting the conditions for Iraqi security forces to retake the dam.

"These strikes were conducted under authority to support Iraqi security forces and Kurdish defense forces as they work together to combat ISIL, as well as to protect critical infrastructure, U.S. personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts," a release from U.S. Central Command said.

The attacks are aimed at preventing ISIL forces from receiving reinforcements, Pentagon Spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said, as well as reducing their defenses. This "will allow [Iraqi security forces] to conduct maneuvers around the dam," he explained.

No U.S. military personnel were involved in the ground operations, the colonel said. "We do have U.S military overhead in these aircraft that are conducting airstrikes and of course in our [joint operation centers]," Warren said.

The Mosul Dam captures the flow of the Tigris River, providing flood control, water and electricity to Mosul's 1.7 million residents. First opened in 1986, it is the fourth-largest in the Middle East.

"If the Mosul Dam were to fail, that would lead to a humanitarian disaster," Warren said.

And failure is a real concern, he added.

The dam's location was "chosen for reasons other than geologic or engineering merit," according to a 2007 report by the Army Corps of Engineers.

While the report found that the dam itself was well-constructed, the underlying geology is a cause for "intense concern about the safety of the structure." The dam's bedrock foundation consists of water-soluble rocks, such as gypsum, marl and limestone, and the presence of the dam's reservoir is hastening subsurface dissolution.

The geologic conditions under the dam necessitate "extraordinary engineering measures to maintain the structural integrity and operating capability of the dam," the report said.

A constant program of maintenance is needed to ensure the dam is not undermined, which could unleash a floodwall that would travel southward down the Tigris River valley all the way to Baghdad, nearly 300 miles away.

A letter sent by President Barack Obama to Congress yesterday said the dam's failure would endanger the lives of large numbers of civilians, U.S. personnel and facilities, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace.

Note: The above U.S. Army photo of the Mosul Dam was taken by Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens.

Admiral Rogers: Cybercom Defending Networks, Nation

Cheryl Pellerin at the DoD News offers the below piece:

FORT MEADE, Md., Aug. 18, 2014 - U.S. Cyber Command continues to expand its capabilities and capacity, Navy Adm. Mike Rogers said Aug. 14.

The U.S. Cyber Command commander and director of the National Security Agency was speaking during an interview at the NSA headquarters building here.

"The decision to create [U.S. Cyber Command] was a ... recognition of a couple things. No. 1, the increasing importance of the cyber domain and the cyber mission set in Department of Defense operations in the 21st century," Rogers said.

Such a command would add to the department's ability to protect and defend its networks, and give policymakers and operational commanders a broader range of options, he said.

The second consideration involved DoD's mission to defend the nation, coupled with the potential of nation-states, groups and individuals to conduct offensive cyber activities against critical U.S. infrastructure.

In that scenario, the admiral said, defense officials thought it was likely the president would "turn to the secretary of defense and say, 'In your mission to defend the nation, I need you to do the same thing here in the cyber arena against this mission set critical to U.S. infrastructure, and I need an organization capable of doing that.'"

These conditions led the department to realize the need to create a traditional warfighting organization capable of executing a spectrum of cyberspace missions, Rogers said.

And, he added, they knew they needed to do so "with a dedicated professionalized workforce. This is not a pickup game where you just come casually to it."

Rogers said he focuses on five priorities for Cybercom.

These are to build a trained and ready cyber force, put tools in place that create true situational awareness in cyberspace, create command-and-control and operational concepts to execute the mission, build a joint defensible network, and ensure Cybercom has the right policies and authorities that allow it to execute full-spectrum operations in cyberspace.

Making progress is important to Rogers, who characterized his ultimate goal as bringing U.S. Cyber Command to a level where it's every bit as trained and ready as any carrier strike group in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility or any brigade combat team on the ground in Afghanistan.

"My objective during my time as the commander, first and foremost," the admiral said, "is to ensure that we have brought to fruition the operational vision in cyber ... [to make sure] it's something real, it's something tangible, and it is operationally ready to execute its assigned missions."

That is happening as Cybercom brings its warfighting capability online, with the services generating a total cyber mission force of about 6,000 people by 2016, all trained to the same high standard and aligned in 133 teams with three core missions:

-- The Cyber National Mission Force, when directed, is responsible for defending the nation's critical infrastructure and key resources.

-- The Cyber Combat Mission Force provides cyber support to combatant commanders across the globe; and

-- The Cyber Protection Force operates and defends the DoD information network, or DoDIN.

Defending the DoDIN is the focus of a partnership in progress with the Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA.

The agency provides command and control and information-sharing capabilities and a globally accessible enterprise information infrastructure to warfighters, the president and national leaders, and other mission and coalition partners. DISA, Rogers points out, is also a combat support agency.

The agency reports to acting DoD Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen, and its director is Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr. "I have always believed ... that we need to integrate operations and networks and our defensive workforce into one team," Rogers said, "and that you are more effective in operating a network and in defending a network when you do it with one integrated approach."

As a result, Rogers' team decided they needed to create a relationship with DISA, he said, adding, "At the moment there's no formal [command and control] line between us, but we're in the process of creating one." As part of that process Rogers collaborates with Halvorsen and Hawkins. "What I think we need to do," he said during their meeting, "is create an operational construct that creates a direct linkage [between] U.S. Cyber Command, DISA and U.S. Cyber Command service components." It's critical that the relationship includes the service components, Rogers said,

"Because, under the current network structure today, those networks are largely run by [the] services. So we've got to create a relationship between DISA and the services that is very operational because you've got to maneuver networks, you've got to react to changes, and you can't do that in a static kind of environment." He added,

"We're in the process of doing that and I expect to roll it out in the fall. ... You'll hear it referred to as JFHQ DoDIN," he said, or Joint Force Headquarters DoD Information Networks. Rogers said that he, Halvorsen and Hawkins agree, this is the future of DISA. "[DISA] will operate on the networks.

They'll be part of our defensive effort so they will be out operating on the networks just like us," he added. "One of the core missions is the defense of the DoDIN," Rogers said. "The forces associated with that mission will be assigned to DISA, to the services [and] to the combatant commanders." So, he added, DISA will have some operational control over the cyber mission force to help execute their mission. Another of Rogers' priorities for Cybercom is to help develop a common situational awareness of "what's happening in DoD networks," he said.

The commander highlighted the need for speed and agility in the cyber arena, adding, "If you can't visualize what you're doing ... you're not going to be fast or as agile, and thus arguably not as effective as you need to be." Rogers said, "As an operational commander I am used to the idea of walking into a command center, looking at a visual depiction that through symbology, color and geography enables me to very quickly come to a sense of what's happening in this space. We are not there yet in the cyber arena."

Establishing situational awareness in the cyber realm is a combination of technology and capability, the admiral said, and determining what knowledge is needed and what elements contribute to that. "Is what U.S. Cyber Command needs to know about what's going on in the network world the same thing as a strike group commander needs in the Western Pacific?

The same thing an Air Force air wing needs in Minot, North Dakota? The same thing a brigade combat team needs in Afghanistan? It will vary, so we've got to create a system that you can tailor to the needs of each commander," he said. Rogers noted there are many ongoing efforts to improve situational awareness, pointing out the need to work collaboratively to fix the problem. "We do have some tools right now," he added. "They're just not as mature and comprehensive as I'd like them to be."

Cyber is foundational to the future, the admiral said, and he often comments to his fellow operational commanders that cyber is a mission they have to own. "The wars of the 20th century taught most warfighting professionals that, no matter what you do, a good foundational knowledge of logistics is probably going to stand you in good stead," Rogers explained.

In the 21st century, he added, operational commanders may find that, regardless of their mission, they will need a sense of what's going on in their networks, where they're taking risk, and the impact of network structure and activities on their ability to execute the mission. "It's not something you turn to your communications officer ... or your CIO and say, 'I don't really understand this. Go out and do some of that for me.' That isn't going to get us where we need to go," the admiral said.

Rogers elaborated on the need for Cybercom to be ready. During his time as Cybercom commander, he said he expects that a nation-state, group or individual will attempt to engage in offensive, destructive capability against critical U.S. infrastructure, from the power grid to the financial sector.

The Presidential Policy Directive for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience outlines 16 designated U.S. Critical Infrastructure sectors. Rogers says he tells his team they have to be ready to respond to such a call. But for an attack on the United States, Cybercom will support the Department of Homeland Security, which is the lead agency for broader security protections associated with critical infrastructure, and partner with the FBI, which is the lead agency for domestic attacks and law enforcement.

"Our biggest focus really is going to be bringing our capabilities to bear to attempt to interdict the attack before it ever gets to us," the admiral said. "Failing that," he continued, "we'll probably also have some measure of capability that we can provide to work directly with those critical infrastructure networks to help address the critical vulnerabilities and where the networks could use stronger defensive capability."

To prepare for such interagency collaboration in the event of a domestic cyberattack, the command trains as it will fight, Rogers said. "In the military I'm used to the idea that you train like you fight. So we exercise [and] we replicate the things we think are going to occur in a combat scenario," the admiral said. "I want to do the exact same thing with the same set of teammates I'm going to operate with if we get the order to do so." The department and Cybercom already do internal exercises, he said, as well as ongoing interagency exercises such as Cyber Guard, in which elements of the National Guard, reserves, NSA and Cybercom exercise their support to DHS and FBI responses to foreign-based attacks on simulated critical infrastructure networks.

The whole-of-government exercise, completed June 17, was designed to test operational and interagency coordination and tactical-level operations to prevent, mitigate and recover from a domestic cyber incident.

Cyber Guard is a good example, Rogers said, "but I want to build on that. DHS and FBI were there but I think we can do even more." Information sharing and partnerships with the critical infrastructure sectors is an important aspect of enabling Cybercom to more effectively interdict and stop an attack, if directed to do so by the president and defense secretary, he added. The cyber threat is growing increasingly complex, the Cybercom commander said, and a more diverse set of actors is involved in the mission set, "from nation-states that continue to increase their capabilities, to groups, to individuals." In broad terms, he added, "you don't see a crisis in the world today that doesn't have a cyber aspect to it." For that reason and others, the ultimate construct of U.S. Cyber Command must be flexible, the admiral said.

"If you want to develop full-range capabilities and generate the maximum flexibility for their application, you've got to build a construct that recognizes we're going to be supported sometimes, we're going to be supporting other times, and sometimes we're going to be doing both simultaneously," Rogers said.

In one scenario Cybercom might be helping the commander in the Pacific, he said, and "at the same time we might be driving efforts to secure the U.S. financial infrastructure ... and trying to support U.S. Central Command. "It's just the nature of things," Rogers said, "because cyber is so global and so foundational."