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Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Muslims blow up US military barracks Muslims attempt to blow up the World Trade Center Muslims bomb US Embassies Muslims blow a hole in a US Navy ship Muslims destroy the World Trade Center and blow a hole in the Pentagon Muslims worldwide riot over . . . cartoons Disaffected Muslims riot around France Muslims…
Wal-Mart’s ability to crunch numbers is a favorite of conspiracy theorists, and its data centers are the corporate counterpart to Area 51 at Groom Lake in the state of Nevada. According to one consumer activist, Katherine Albrecht, even the wildest conspiracy buff might be surprised at just how much Wal-Mart knows about its customers –…
It was a beautiful spring day at the Edina Art Fair. Some quite good and plenty of really bad “art” and the diet-blowing menu of brats, fried cheese curds, cherry lemonade, all ridiculously overpriced but oh-so delicious in the 84-degree sun. A perfect time to turn on my underused biological SIGINT capability and see what…
(Hat Tip to Bruce Schneier . . . naturally) I have been waiting for someone to tackle this topic from the European point of view: Had a European government, instead of the Bush administration, created the NSA’s call database, would that government be in violation of European privacy law? I think so, for the reasons…
Via Geostrategy Direct (subscription): The Iran navy has procured hundreds of fast patrol boats as part of what is believed to be a swarm strategy to overcome the firepower of U.S. cruisers and destroyers. Gulf analysts said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has deployed and trained hundreds of FPBs in the northern Gulf to surround…
The Department of Homeland Security yesterday slashed anti-terrorism money for Washington and New York, part of an immediately controversial decision to reduce grant funds for major urban areas in the Northeast while providing more to mid-size cities from Jacksonville to Sacramento. The announcement that the two cities targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, would suffer 40…
They have a plan, they have a pattern . . . Armed with details of billions of telephone calls, the National Security Agency used phone records linked to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to create a template of how phone activity among terrorists looks, say current and former intelligence officials who were briefed about the…
Gamers quibble over trees while missing a forest: Was an elite congressional intelligence committee shown video footage from an off-the-shelf retail game and told by the Pentagon and a highly-paid defense contractor that it was a jihadist creation designed to recruit and indoctrinate terrorists? It’s looking more and more like that is the case. The…
A long post derived from Inside the Pentagon (subscription): Retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, who led a “red team” of notional enemy forces at the outset of JFCOM’s Millennium Challenge 2002 war game, is calling on the command to spell out publicly how the experiment has influenced the Defense Department view of…
Acting on Assumptions with Iran & Iraq: To learn lessons from history, including recent history, it’s essential to get the history right. That’s why, in order to understand what to do about the mullahs’ regime in Iran, it’s worth revisiting the debate over the intelligence in Iraq. . . . and that’s just the first…
Work (I won’t call it duty) calls and finds me at the keyboard when I should be doing something that a lot of brothers are unable to do today: enjoying their families. In between flashes of corporate panic I find myself visiting the ‘sphere and taking note of those who are intentionally still blogging today,…
A very interesting entry at Strategy Page, with the most significant points brought out in the second paragraph: DoD is overhauling its entire intelligence apparatus …The plans are pretty ambitious, and are partially implemented. The basic idea is to take advantage of abundant computer power, and affordable networking, to tie together as many troops, vehicles…
Not that he needs it but . . . Misleading Intel: Everyone (not just some US political cabal) thought Iraq had WMD. We’ve found arty shells with nerve-agent (sarin) in them; documents placing orders for precursor chemicals used to make this thing called Zyklon-B (famously used by another tyrant decades ago); and shady-looking mobile labs…
One of the better attempts to critique the NSA’s efforts today in the NY Times: If the program is along the lines described by USA Today — with the security agency receiving complete lists of who called whom from each of the phone companies — the object is probably to collect data and draw a…
So the other day I tried to use my credit card to buy something, and it was denied even though I knew perfectly well my credit card was just fine. So I called my credit-card company to find out what was up with all this, and it turned out I had made the unpardonable mistake…
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo says Belgium will ask Ukraine to clarify if Belgian rifles supplied to Kyiv were used by pro-Ukrainian troops to attack Russia’s western border. These comments came on Monday after there were reports that anti-Kremlin fighters used tactical vehicles originally given to Ukraine by the United States and Poland and carried…
Russia’s defense ministry stated that it has thwarted a Ukrainian attack in Donetsk. This is the latest sign that a counter-offensive may have begun. Russia released a video of the alleged battle which shows military vehicles under heavy fire in fields. Russia claims it killed 3oo troops and destroyed 16 tanks. Moscow’s claims have not…
Sudan’s conflict is continuing into its seventh continuous week and fighting has propelled the nation into an all-out war. Fighting between dueling generals from the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out on April 15 and has continued to escalate. The country is in a humanitarian crisis with over 1,800 people…
Pakistan’s annual inflation rate has hit 37.97% in May according to the statistics bureau, a national record for the second month in a row. The announcement on Tuesday worsens the economic crisis in the country as bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund remain stalled and there is a risk of defaulting on debts. The…
Two women have been killed by shelling in the Russian border region of Belgorod according to the region’s governor. The overnight drone attack and shelling also damaged buildings in the neighboring Bryansk and Kursk regions.Ukrainian officials have not commented so far. Previously, Kyiv has denied involvement in other attacks across the border, which it claimed…
In Haiti, a grassroots vigilante movement called “Bwa Kale” has emerged as citizens take matters into their own hands to combat gang violence. Suspected gang members have been chased, beaten, decapitated, and burned alive by the vigilantes, resulting in a decrease in kidnappings, killings, and other forms of violence. However, human rights groups emphasize that…
NATO is racing against time to avoid the embarrassment of Sweden missing its deadline for admission to the alliance. Turkey, a strategically important NATO member, is blocking Sweden’s accession due to concerns about Sweden’s perceived support for Kurdish terror groups and alleged complicity in anti-Turkish protests. Missing the deadline could send a dangerous message to…
North Korea’s attempt to launch a military reconnaissance satellite into space failed due to a malfunction in the rocket’s second stage, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The report cited low reliability and stability of the engine system and unstable fuel as the reasons for the mission’s failure. North Korea’s National Space…
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti stated that he would not surrender the country to a Serbian “fascist militia” following violent protests in the north over the installation of ethnically Albanian mayors. Clash occurred between NATO peacekeepers and Serbian demonstrators who tried to block the newly elected mayors from taking office in the municipality of Zvecan.…
Denmark, a NATO member, plans to invest 143 billion Danish crowns ($21 billion) in defense over the next decade. The increased spending aims to meet military and security goals and address shortcomings in defense capabilities, particularly in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The government also announced an additional 21.9 billion Danish crowns ($3.16 billion)…
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on Moscow, marking the first time the city has been targeted by multiple drones since the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian defense ministry claimed that at least eight drones caused minor damage in what they called a “terrorist attack.” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that…
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence