Blogs of War

Robot swarm in the battlespace may not be as far off as many think. Sure, many obstacles remain but we’re advancing at an amazing pace. Imagine these weaponized – with just enough intelligence and payload to find and kill a human target within a mile or two. The effect on battlefield tactics will be profound but it may have an even greater impact on policy. Going to war is only going to get easier – as long as the robots are on your side.

Apparently the tape was received by the family quite some time ago and is being released to, hopefully, move the investigation forward:

Asked about the timing of the tape’s release, an F.B.I. spokeswoman, Jacqueline Maguire, said in a statement: “The video was not previously released due to ongoing investigative initiatives. The investigation to locate Mr. Levinson continues, as the U.S. government continues to work to find him and bring him home safely.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Levinson’s family received another e-mail containing photographs of him wearing what looks like orange prison garb and with a full beard. The F.B.I. was able to trace the various e-mails back to Internet cafes in either Pakistan or Afghanistan but not back to the person or group that created them, said the people briefed on the inquiry.

Mr. Levinson was 59 when he went missing on Kish Island where he had gone to meet with an American fugitive known as Dawud Salahuddin. Mr. Salahuddin has lived in Iran since 1980 when he fled there after assassinating a former aide to the Shah of Iran outside his home near Washington. Mr. Levinson’s family and American officials have said that Mr. Levinson went to Iran to investigate cigarette smuggling for a private client.

I’ve created a monitor to stream tweets about this case. You can follow the live updates at http://levinson.blogsofwar.com.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Infamy Speech

December 8, 1941

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounded determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”

In isolation this would have been embarrassing but wouldn’t have left a mark. But when you’ve stumbled in every debate, and pundits are repeatedly declaring that you have just one more chance to get it right, this is pretty damaging. I am sure that this will be the defining moment of Perry’s campaign, the moment everything ended, but things have been unraveling from the start. This has been Romney’s race for some time and looks to stay that way.

I’ve monitored a number of noble stands against cartel corruption over the years – most of which ended in murder. What Barrett Brown and Anonymous are doing with #OpCartel feels more like grandstanding than sacrifice for the greater good and will likely trigger the same ugly response.

Mr. Brown is of course free to risk his life. That is precisely what he is rather needlessly doing with this op and silly video. My primary concern is the number of innocent people who could get caught in the Anonymous-Cartel crossfire and die as a result. Identifying a cartel member or collaborator will almost certainly trigger reprisals and cartels have this really nasty habit of including all manner of innocent family members, associates, neighbors, and bystanders in their targeted killings.

It’s difficult to have faith that Barrett Brown and the anons will release this information in any sort of responsible manner when the first acts of #OpCartel feature them blowing their OPSEC all to hell. And it’s not just their own security that they’re compromising. They have potentially endangered the personal security of innocent bystanders just by announcing their intentions in such a public and clumsy manner.

ProTip: When declaring war on some of the most dangerous, highly trained, connected, and well-funded psychopaths on the planet DON’T TELL THEM YOU’RE COMING.

Recommended on Twitter: @BarrettBrownLOL. Barrett Brown’s work has appeared in The Guardian, al-Jazeera, Vanity Fair, HuffPo, New York Press, Skeptical Inquirer, Skeptic, McSweeney’s, American Atheist, others. Unofficial Anonymous spokesman.

Related: Krypt3ia has a good, and rather blunt, post on this.

The release of this video was announced, on Twitter, by KDF spokesman Major E. Chirchir:

#Operationlindanchi FOR the First time we release a Video Clip showing the Kenya Navy sinking Militiamen,upload on you tube

I wouldn’t have predicted the existence of a social media campaign, even a small one, with this offensive so watching this aspect of it unfold is quite interesting – even if the video is not. I suspect more is on the way.

Video via Alert5 (blog | twitter) who, along with Kursed, is doing a great job keeping up with J-20 developments.

As I’ve said on Twitter, the viral campaign for this jet is more impressive than the jet itself. Conducting the first flight with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in-country is icing on the cake for the Chinese even if coincidental.

China has officially gone stealth.

The Communist country confirmed reports it has conducted a test flight of a stealth fighter jet, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

The news comes after a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who Gates said told him of the J-20′s maiden flight.

Check this earlier post for my take on the J-20.

As predicted, and promised, better quality video is already available and posted here. I’m sure that within a few weeks we’ll have HD chase plane footage set to a Metallica soundtrack. When it drops, I’ll post it here.

Thanks again to Kursed for the tip.

Like most DPRK observers I love North Korean travelogues. I know that the tightly controlled DPRK tourism machine presents a highly sanitized, if not outright fictional, view of daily life for North Koreans but even propaganda can be revealing. The truth always slips through. I am also well aware of the smuggled videos that reveal the extreme poverty, oppression, and executions that occur there but those are for another post and another day.

Most of the blogs, photos, and videos assembled below are the products of ordinary tourists (although the first blog contains the impressions, and photographs, of a Reuters photographer). Some of the observations are quite sharp, most of them mundane, but if you take in enough of them something approaching reality emerges.

Blogs
Inside North Korea: No One Said Anything (2010)
“The atmosphere was solemn. On the street, men wore suits and women wore the traditional Korean dress called a hanbok. While the convoy was delayed at a security checkpoint, I joined other colleagues who started taking pictures of passers-by. I couldn’t resist and snapped some shots of North Korean soldiers going in and out of a gate nearby. No one said anything.”

A Secretive Trip to a Secretive Country (2010)
“Our rooms were all on the 25th floor. I entered the room excitedly and opened the window, expecting a wonderful view of Pyongyang. Instead, I was greeted by darkness. (Not surprising, given North Korea’s chronic shortage of fuel…) Out of the darkness, I could see a couple of high-rise apartment blocks across the river. Further afield, I could see the Juche Tower (probably the brightest-lit monument in the city). Realising that I couldn’t see much, I closed the window and decided to take a walk downstairs around the hotel lobby. While strolling, I saw a bookshop selling numerous North Korean books and publications. I flipped through some of the publications and I quickly became engrossed… The printing technology, design and layout of these publications looked very “1980s”.”

A Trip to North Korea (2006)
Koreans are not shy when it comes to basic needs, the guide forbid to take pictures of men taking a piss on the middle of the road, but there was no problem when it happened in the capital next to to a monument.

Fraser Lewry (2005)
“We learn how 82 American crew were held hostage for close to a year, only being released when the US published a full letter of apology. That the US retracted the apology the moment the sailors were freed is not mentioned. We roam the ship, from the communications room where various radio and encryption machines are stamped with plates that say things like ‘Top Secret Prohibited’, to the rear of the boat where a machine gun is primed to spray bullets across the bows of any ships from the US war maniacs or their southern puppet army. Etc.”

My Holiday in a Secret State (2005)
“At the statue, a few of us bought flowers and laid them at the front of the statue, before walking back and paying our respects by bowing. This was the first occasion I realised that some people might not be suited to a trip to DPRK. You have to go through the bowing to Kim Il Sung, and just accept it, even if you don’t approve of the leadership of the country. It is all about showing respect and politeness for a foreign country in which you are a rare guest. It’s a similar deal with the stories that you are told. Sometimes they seem far fetched, the guides know they sound far fetched, you know they do, and the guides know that you know. But the key is just to play along with it, take it in with interest and use your head a little.”

Don Parish (2005)
“People work from 9am to 6pm six days a week, every day except Sunday. They get a two hour lunch hour. Apartments and medical care are “free”. (Of course, to be exact no government service is ever free; someone had to pay for it. So wage levels are lower in communist countries so the government has the money to provide “free” apartments and medical care.) In North Korea, the waiting list to get an apartment is 3 years.”

Welcome to North Korea. Rule No. 1: Obey All Rules
While in the country, I desperately tried to talk to some actual North Koreans. But all outsiders travel in a virtual bubble, as a way to just about eliminate contact between North Koreans and outsiders. Except for the hotel’s doormen, all the staff we encountered were recruited from ethnic Korean communities in China – and they are rotated back to China every three months.

Journey into Kimland (2002)
“He handed the customs agent our forms and then motioned for us to put our bags through what appeared to be one of the oldest x-ray machines currently at work on our planet. I swear the thing must have helped in the original fight against polio. Anyway, when some of us complained about possible film damage the clerk motioned us over to another, much newer, machine. The bags went through, they looked over us, the bags and our forms and that was it. The world’s most tightly sealed country and we get through customs and immigration in less than 30 minutes. I’d half expected cavity searches, book burnings and perhaps a cattle prod. Instead it took less time than it usually takes just to walk up to the immigration line in most other international airports. There went reality again, screwing up my preconceptions.”

Wandering Camera
“There was an interesting moment when Alexey had trouble falling asleep and went out of the hotel at 6 in the morning to some random neighborhood. No one stopped him.He walked for about three kilometers, and was finally stopped by a policeman, who asked him for identification (in Korean, naturally). Since, first of all he didn’t have identification, and second he knew but a few words in Korean, they could not reach an understanding. A crowd gathered around them quickly (they don’t meet foreigners in residential quarters very often :) and finally there was someone, who knew the word “Russian”. That was what he asked Alexey, and Alexey said “yes”. After that the feelings got warmer, the policeman took down his name, and let him go. There were no consequences.”

Andrew Holloway (1988)
We climbed up to a pretty wooden pavilion, overlooking the city, and sat among the local people gossiping in the balmy night air, attracting I dare say a little envy at our cans of Japanese beer. On our way up we passed the city’s principal statue of the great leader. The bronze statue was illuminated by floodlights. A number of young devotees were gathered around the statue and studying the thoughts of the prophet by the beam of the floodlights in the presence of his brazen image. This is indubitably extremely silly, but when you are actually there it is also rather touching. I found it so anyway. “Do people in your country stand under statues of Margaret Thatcher and study her works?” asked Chang Yong ingenuously.

Photos
Lars Beck
North Korea Flickr Pool (9,700 Photos)
Kok Leng Yeo (109 Photos)
Escape From North Korea (NatGeo)
Unseen North Korea (BBC Gallery)
Rare Pictures from Inside North Korea (TIME Gallery)

Video
Arirang Mass Games
DPRK Tour Video (Produced by DPRK Tour Videographer)
Daily Life Inside North Korea
North Korean Welcome Song
Village Shop in North Korea
14 Days Inside North Korea
Seven Days in North Korea
A Sunday Drive in Pyongyang
Korital, First Pizzeria in the DPRK

Travel Guides
Lonely Planet
Wikitravel
Virtual Tourist

Photo by Kok Leng Yeo