Further Proof

I've been alternately busy and pessimistic about our species future lately so I haven't had much time to post.

Hope all is as well as can be hoped for in everyone's corner of the world.

With that, I offer another piece of evidence that the U.S. is closer to a fascist state:
Battlespace America @ Disinformation

The article discusses the formation of a new military command group (e.g. CENTCOM) that covers the US. By itself it's not a bad idea. However, considering the assault on basic American Liberties that this group known as the administration has been willing to dispatch, I can easily imagine serious abuses.

Interesting

Judge Halts Award Of Iraq Contract
By Alec Klein and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 2, 2007; Page D01
Brian X. Scott, a 53-year-old Colorado man, filed the complaint in early April. He argues that the military's use of private security contractors is "against America's core values" and violates an 1893 law that prohibits the government from hiring quasi-military forces.

Talkin' to your shoes

As usual, Boing Boing's tipped me off to something exceedingly important.

Navy Researching Vomit Beam

You never know what's going to land in your mailbox. Last night, I found a weapon that shoots an invisible wall-penetrating beam that makes people so dizzy they fall over. (It can make them puke, too, but I'll get to that in a moment.)

Now we're talking.

Invocon, Inc., one of dozens of companies expected to showcase their wares at the forum, says it'll be there to display its "non-lethal, stand-off weapon for military and law enforcement personnel that could ultimately work through walls and other non-metallic structures."

More at Wired's Danger Room
And you know Those schematics are going to eventually have an open source equivalent.

BTW...here's a list of many of our favorite names for driving the porcelain bus.

Skills

I'm not a survivalist per se. I don't think there is an army of blue helmeted U.N. troops under the Rockies waiting to spring and take over the country. What I do believe is that there are skills that everyone should know to keep in touch with the earth, and therefore, reality. One thing that I truly appreciate from my time in service were the various Rangers and Special Forces that I had the privilege to work with. I learned a lot. After a several years in, I had considered going into Special Forces myself an Ops/Intel Sergeant, but I just couldn't commit to the amount of time it takes to train.

With that, here's a nifty link:

Rick F. Tscherne's Ranger Digest
From the website:
A Site Dedicated To Teaching Soldiers, Campers, Hikers, & Other Outdoor Enthusiasts "How to Survive & Thrive in the Outdoors."

As a former US Army Ranger, Drill Instructor, and an advisor/trainer to the Bosnia & Herzegovina Army (1996-97) under the US State Department approved "Train & Equip Program." I have always enjoyed sharing with soldiers my personal experiences and tips on how to survive in a military outdoor environment through field expedient know-how.

Articles, survival manuals written by Tscherne (complete with a pre-order warning about course language), and gear.

Know your overlords

Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) since 1919.

• Kellogg, Brown and Root at Wikipedia
• KBR's Corporate Website
• Kellogg, Brown & Root at The Center for Public Integrity

And of course the tie-in...

• Halliburtonwatch.org

And a couple of under-the-radar clippings...

Gulf Coast slaves
Halliburton and its subcontractors hired hundreds of undocumented Latino workers to clean up after Katrina -- only to mistreat them and throw them out without pay. (More...)

The battle scars of a private war
Contractors wounded or killed in Iraq are the anonymous casualties. Ceremonies are secret, and benefits are scarce.

In Tough Times, a Company Finds Profits in Terror War
From building cells for detainees at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba to feeding American troops in Uzbekistan, the Pentagon is increasingly relying on a unit of Halliburton called KBR, sometimes referred to as Kellogg Brown & Root.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The Fighting Quaker"

What do these folks have in common?

• Robert Sterling Clark
• Al Smith
• Irénée du Pont
• J. P. Morgan
• Remington Arms

They were probably stopped by this man...Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler aka "The Fighting Quaker"


Corporate/Fascist plot against the United States

And there are people who actually believe
It Can't Happen Here.

Assume

Makes an ASS out of U and ME

Boing Boing has a link to the National Security Archives release of an administration brief presented by Centcom called Polo Step. Looking at it, I was astounded by the mis-assumptions.
Real fucking Pollyanna. But when you're fundamentally based on a lie, it will keep going until everyone else's reality tunnel bores through yours. However, this doesn't sound like it came from DIA or subcomponents. I bet this came from policy people, passed down for digestion, and then bounced back for wider distribution.

BTW...

...a big fuck you to all the fuckers who blamed the failure to find WMD's on the Intel community.

Pentagon office produced `alternative' intelligence on Iraq
By Jonathan S. Landay 2.8.07
McClatchy Newspapers(MCT)

A special unit run by former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's top policy aide inappropriately produced "alternative" intelligence reports that wrongly concluded that Saddam Hussein's regime had cooperated with al-Qaida, a Pentagon investigation has determined. (More...)

Under the Radar

Ok...my intel analysis is working over time. I won't tell you what to think, but I'll put up two big, easy dots to connect.

Today:

4 troops abducted, killed in Iraq attack (Yahoo News - AP)
In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and then shot them to death.

The U.S. military confirmed a report earlier Friday by The Associated Press that three of the soldiers were dead and one was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, about 25 miles from the compound where they were captured. A fifth soldier was killed in the initial attack on the compound. (More...)

Ok. Now does anyone remember this from 11 JAN?

US Iraq raid draws Iranian anger (BBC News)
US forces have stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident.

Iranian and Iraqi officials said the building was an Iranian consulate and the detainees its employees. (More...)

Purpose

My muse is not with me today, so this is going to be a bit terse and matter of fact.
Complex 39 (look it up) is a place where I (Snag) can organize my dispatches regarding the state of the world. "Why the fuck would anyone want to read this, when there's so many other sources of information?" one might ask.
Well, I'm operating on a few principles I think might be unique:

• Complex 39 is an attempt to blend Art, Journalism, and Commentary in a multitude of media types.
• Complex 39 isn't an attempt for the absolute truth. As A. Korzybski has said "The map is not the territory." This is only a map. However, this map is an attempt to rip off the routine of daily existence that have dulled our senses and see the seething, froth of humanity as we apes interface with technology. Hopefully a closer look at the pornography of violence, the ever pervasive agents of social control, the transmogrification of civilization, the underground technological pirates...
• Complex 39's stylistically somewhere between Post-war America and cyberpunk.

So who the hell is Snag?
Hopefully that will be fleshed out overtime. Here's a quick run down to this point:
Born in the industrial north of the U.S. just before Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins made contact with another planet. Born shortly after the Kennedy assassination and cover-up. Born shortly before the Neo-Con's first major criminal enterprise known as the Nixon administration and subsequently Watergate.
I grew up nomadically, moving every couple of years across the U.S. My single mother was always searching for something unknown. Intellectual challenges I suppose. Spiritual quests maybe?
My brother is a drummer in a band and a pretty cool guy. He majored in Art History and works for a prestigious museum in Boston. He would like to move into curations.
I've done everything from roofing to working in an industrial laundry to managing a restaurant to salvaging demolition sites.
I spent 11 years in the U.S. Army. Most of it part-time. First as a medic, then administration, then intelligence/security management. For six years I was an intelligence sergeant with the military police. I was adept at the M16, M60, and grenades. While I served these things happened:

1. The Tanker War - "Operation Earnest Will"
2. U.S. Invasion of Panama
3. Second Persian Gulf War - "Operation Desert Storm"
4. "No-Fly Zone" War
5. U.S. Intervention in Somalia
6. NATO Intervention in Bosnia - "Operation Deliberate Force"
7. U.S. Occupation of Haiti
8. U.S. Embassy bombings and strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan (The bin Laden War)

I've built and raced a 1963 Fairlane 500 with a modified 315 cubic inch "Windsor" motor. I'm self-taught. I'm interested in grease cars. My good friend and the lead singer of the Kings of Nuthin', Torr, has been a big help in my automotive knowledge.
I was a punk rocker/bootboy in my adolescence. I was a fan of Fear, Black Flag, The Exploited, and Dead Kennedys. I drank beer with Colin of G.B.H. around a fire, in a corn field, at a show in Kansas. I spent many years hanging out in a place called the Outhouse.
Along with Schroedinger, Feynman, Heisenberg, et al, Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash are my spiritual advisers.
I'm currently a criminal investigator in the private sector. I'm good at understanding intention from behavior. I can beat people up. I'm good at investigating financial based crimes. I think it's odd and a little depressing that THEY (society...the law...the corporate powers...) allow me to hurt people if needed in the course of my job.
My gal Blank Maxine of twenty years is a brilliant photojournalist (that's her work in sidebar).

Out for now...