The Pengaton's new eye in the sky]]>Image via DARPA website
Now that unmanned surveillance and attack drones hovering over foreign and friendly skies the world over has become almost commonplace, the Pentagon is looking to add another eye in the sky for big brother. The Defense Department’s research arm DARPA, is developing a satellite that would capture real time imagery from space. Project MOIRE (Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation) would fit spy satellites with camera lenses nearly 60 feet wide. DARPA argues that because there aren’t enough drones or other aircraft providing real time imagery and current satellites only take still photos, such a project bridges a national security gap.
According to Universe Today, each MOIRE satellite would cost $500 million and would cover an area of more than 100 km by 100 km. DARPA hopes the device would be able to track a vehicle moving up to 60mph, which would require a resolution so fine it would be able to see objects a mere 10 feet long in a single pixel.
While the satellite is of course, purported to be used to detect missile launchers, one only has to wonder how many organizations like the NSA, CIA, or FBI would love to get their hands on. Given the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the U.S. Government the right to detain American citizens and recently released FBI documents which highlight the agency’s interest in prosecuting animal rights activists as terrorists, we can only wonder how long before MOIRE satellites end up keeping an eye on the average citizen.
Image via The Secularity
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 breezed through Congress and headed to the White House, even though public opposition to parts of the bill, now directed at President Obama in the hope of a hail Mary veto, remains strong. The most troubling aspects of the bill violate fundamental rights provided in the U.S. Constitution to American citizens by giving the government sweeping power to indefinitely detain citizens without trial. Like many other pieces of legislation, this year’s NDAA is another push in a long series of movements marching the U.S. Towards a hard right, nearly fascist state.
In addition to this, the NDAA also contains troubling language regarding Department of Defense interests in Iran, China, Wikileaks, defense contractors and more. A report from a conference on the NDAA contains tough talk in respect to both China and Iran. Considering the amount of saber rattling many warhawks have already engaged in, one has to wonder seriously whether the U.S. Could further engage in military actions towards Iran and what exactly, the DOD believes our attitude towards the Chinese will be in the coming year. The bill contains an amendment which requires economic sanctions towards entities in Iran as well as a provision for “an independent review of current U.S. Capability gaps to counter Iran and China” (emphasis mine). The conference report also says it “takes steps to ensure that the United States is fully prepared to defend our vital interests against an emerging competitor” in regards to China.
Given the information dumps from Wikileaks over past two years, as well as the horrid treatment of Private Bradley Manning, on trial for providing information to Wikileaks, the Pentagon is very interested in keeping other potential whistleblowers at bay. The Defense Department’s research arm already expressed interest this year in employing a disinformation campaign against would be Wikileakers. The NDAA conference report codifies that interest, saying it:
Requires the Secretary of Defense to establish a comprehensive program to detect unauthorized uses of classified information. Requires technological solutions, updated policies and procedures, and enforcement measures to assist with detection of such unauthorized activities.
The NDAA would also eliminate oversight regarding ties politicians have to defense contractors. In the name of keeping “the acquisition process free from political influence,” the act no longer requires contractors to declare their political contributions before applying for defense contracts. In other words, Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumann needn’t disclose campaign donations if they wish to produce another budgetary sinkhole like the F-35, for which the NDAA provides another $8.5 billion.
Not only does this year’s NDAA push America closer to the brink of a police state and moves us inches closer to new wars, it highlights the machinations of a broken political system. National security experts don’t want it, military leaders don’t want it, the director of the FBI doesn’t want it, Civil Liberties experts don’t want it, the people don’t want it and yet, it passed both legislative bodies and awaits the President’s signature. The majority of legislators show little concern for the will of the people they supposedly serve. Should President Obama decide to sign the bill, it will show the executive branch is no more interested in preserving the will of the people and the core of our democracy than the legislators who ignored overwhelming opposition to this piece of legislation.
If there’s any wonder why so many citizens devote their time to protest, why nearly half of the American people believe this is the “worst Congress ever” and another third call it “below average,” it is because politicians now brazenly defy the will of their constituents. If our democracy is to survive, politicians must become public servants, rather than oligarchs only interested in maintaining their power.
The Defense Department plans to ratchet up cyber security over the next five years, say chatter from a conference its research arm, DARPA, held on Monday. DARPA is seeking $208 million in funding to “prepare for hostile cyber acts that threaten our military capabilities,” an increase in $83 million reports Information Week. At the “cyber [...]]]>The Defense Department plans to ratchet up cyber security over the next five years, say chatter from a conference its research arm, DARPA, held on Monday. DARPA is seeking $208 million in funding to “prepare for hostile cyber acts that threaten our military capabilities,” an increase in $83 million reports Information Week. At the “cyber colloquium” in Virginia on Monday, talking heads for the DoD waxed poetic about the issues the Pentagon faces with cyber security.
“It is the makings of novels and poetry from Dickens to Gibran that the best and the worst occupy the same time, that wisdom and foolishness appear in the same age, light and darkness in the same season,” said DARPA’s director Regina Dugan, Wired reports. Former White House Security chief Richard Clarke was more blunt, saying current networks are as “porous as a colande.” Meanwhile, Wired reports DARPA also tacitly reached out to hackers at the colloquium, looking to enlist “the efforts of technical experts at unprecedented levels, including at the development of policy and legal frameworks.”
In addition to spending more money and enlisting the help of hackers, DARPA plans to employ a digital disinformation campaign against newer would-be Wikileakers. Fox News reports the DoD is looking to develop a system which would identify “malicious insiders” who might seek to reveal confidential information. An abstract for an awarded solicitation revealed a program that would give out fake information and then track its disseminators. “We want to flood adversaries with information that’s bogus, but looks real,” said a professor leading the project.
The folks at DARPA, the Defense Department Advanced Research Project, put a call out for those interested to attend a workshop held at the end of February to understand what role “theories of narrative play in security domains.” In other words, the Pentagon wants to learn more about storytelling, because a better understanding of “the [...]]]>The folks at DARPA, the Defense Department Advanced Research Project, put a call out for those interested to attend a workshop held at the end of February to understand what role “theories of narrative play in security domains.” In other words, the Pentagon wants to learn more about storytelling, because a better understanding of “the role stories play in a security context is a matter of great import and some urgency.” To summarize, the Stories, Neuroscience and Experimental Technologies (STORyNET) workshop was held on the 28th with three goals:
To survey narrative theories – understanding the nature of a story and what makes one up.
To better understand the role of narrative in security contexts – asking what role stories play in political radicalization and how they influence participants in politics.
To survey the state of the art in narrative analysis and decomposition tools – “How can we take stories and make them quantitatively analyzable in a rigorous, transparent and repeatable fashion? Are particular approaches or tools better than others for understanding how stories propagate in a system so as to influence behavior.” (emphasis mine)
The Defense Department has always had an interest in collecting information – from the mass data mining project that was the Total Information Awareness Office (defunded in 2003, with some pieces shifted to other agencies) to “capturing knowledge” for analysis and use with artificial intelligence. The Pentagon has also maintained a very cozy relationship with the mainstream media, embedding reporters in military units and providing plenty of its analysts to propagate its agenda. One would think the DoD already has a handle on storytelling.
While plenty of Americans might buy word from the Pentagon at full price, it’s the hearts and minds of the rest of the world DARPA could be after with theoretical workshops like STORyNET. Max Eddy at Geek System points out that crafting a good tale could help with messaging in Iraq and Afghanistan and Kit Eaton at Fast Company suggests such research could be good for influencing more favorable outcomes for the U.S. in the social revolutions spreading through the Middle East.
While we shouldn’t expect anyone from the Pentagon to craft the next Harry Potter anytime soon, the prospect of things like STORyNET workshops combined with other information collecting and propaganda mechanisms bring us one step closer towards our own Ministries of Truth and Peace.
(H/T to AEM and the Poetry Foundation for spreading the word first)
File this under “not surprised:” The L.A. County Sherriff’s Department will begin using a smaller version of the Active Denial System to control inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center. The Assault Intervention Device stands at only 7.5” tall and will emit an invisible heat wave nearly 5 inches in diameter in a range of about 100 feet. The device will be used to curb the numerous inmate assaults in the prison.
Proponents of the device say that the pain ray weapon will allow guards at the prison to break up incidents before they get out of control, with minimal risk to guards and without incapacitating or injuring combatants. Of course, that same logic has been used in other supposed “less than lethal” measures before with limited success. The weapon itself produces a burning sensation which targets can only stand for about 3 seconds. One has to wonder how long before the A.I.D. ends up in an interrogation room.
For January, I chose The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives by Nick Turse. I’ve read plenty of columns from Turse over the years. He usually writes about the invasive and inhuman ways the Defense Department encroaches on our lives. The Complex is just that – a lengthy explanation of Pentagon ties to the lives of everyday Americans. 
The book opens with a brilliantly crafted narrative about a progressive minded young couple that believes they’ve done their best in avoiding supporting the DOD behemoth. Very quickly we learn that everything, from their iPods to their coffee to the copy of Hegemony or Survival sitting on their bookshelf is somehow interlinked with the Pentagon. In a globalized world, such connections are hard to avoid – be they to the Complex, a sweatshop, Wall Street or any other nefarious entities. Still, the names and numbers become staggering.
The first half of the book points out connections and relationships that become less surprising as they’re analyzed. One can assume that large corporate hegemons like AT&T, Boeing, and more recently, Google, would do everything in their power for a contract with an entity holding an unlimited wallet. Turse also points out relationships and monies spent with more independent/local businesses by the DOD, but again, this isn’t a terrifying surprise as one would be hard pressed to find a local hot dog joint not interested in a thousands of dollars. More staggering though, is the amount of waste, misplaced and unaccountable money that passes from the doors of the Pentagon into the business world. Politicians and pundits often complain about pet pork barrel projects and federal budgetary wastes, but the Complex leaves the reader wondering why none seem to want to trim the fat out of the DOD budget.
Later on, The Complex pulls back the blinds on the web of connections the military has to entertainment – from movies to Myspace – and how those connections are used to draw in fresh recruits. Turse draws attention to movies like the Transformers, first person shooter video games and even NASCAR as ways the lines between entertainment, simulation training and pro-war propaganda blur almost indistinguishably. Finally, The Complex opens the doors of DARPA, the DOD’s dream machine, where the cyborg soldiers and surveillance state of the movies collide in real life.
Peeling back the layers of the Pentagon is no easy task, but Turse does great work here and lays his findings out in an easily (and entertaining) manner. Soft cover, 290 pages. Pick it up by clicking here.
For February, I’m reading Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past by Ray Raphael. If you’d like to follow along and comment at the end of the month, drop me a line and we can collaborate! – Aaron Cynic
Thomas the Tank Engine's true self revealed
The concept is pretty simple. The Energetically Autonomous Tactcial Robot will “perform long range, long endurance missions without the need for conventional refueling.” The EATR won’t need to refuel thanks to its ability to harvest its own fuel, BY EATING. It can use conventional fuels when they’re available, but the EATR can also “find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment and other organically based energy sources.” Skeptics will quickly shout science fiction on this one, but much like the PHASR, the EATR is not only real, but begging to be fast tracked into production, since DARPA is ready to match hungry investors dollar for dollar.
The EATR platform has endless possibilties, from surveilence to transport to “robotic swarms and cognitive collectives.”
Artist's rendering of robotic swarm. Artist most likely in grade three
Oh, and we could probably mount a whole fuckload of guns to it.
There are so few times I end up on the same page as the folks at Fox News. Originally, Fox posted a story about the EATR and suggested that it could feed on dead bodies, since warzones are usually filled with them and they are made up of organic material. Unfortunately, Fox pulled the original article so I can’t read it, but the corrected version (and other news stories) states that the EATR is strictly “vegetarian” feeding on things like plant matter and wood chips. The PDF presentation even includes multiple pictures of a happy herbavoric Rhino munching on plants to drive the point home.
You know, we could totally strap some lasers to this guy
Cyclone Power Technologies Inc assured the public that the EATR will be able to distinguish between vegatative mass and other materials, with a cybernetics expert backing them up saying “If it’s not on the menu, it’s not going to eat it.” They also quickly reminded us that the Geneva conventions clearly states that desecration of the dead is a war crime. Of course, I’m sure that certain US lawyers will be able to figure out a legal justification around that one.
CEO of Cyclone Power Technologies Harry Schoell attempted to calm the public’s fear of people eating robots by saying “We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission. We are focused on demonstrating that our engines can create usable, green power from plentiful, renewable plant matter. The commercial applications alone for this earth-friendly energy solution are enormous.” Clearly, Harry never paid much attention to science fiction, because I’m sure that’s the same thing the team who invented Skynet said just before it became self aware and nuked the population.
Image: http://gizmodo.com/333455/get-your-own-terminator
Once again, welcome to the future!