Posted on 02/08/2007 6:43:10 AM PST by Valin
Problem: If a cop in Anytown, USA, pulls over a suspect, he checks the person's ID remotely from the squad car. He's linked to databases filled with Who's Who in the world of crime, killing and mayhem. In Iraq, there is nothing like that. When our troops and the Iraqi army enter a town, village or street, what they know about the local bad guys is pretty much in their heads, at best.
Solution: Give our troops what our cops have. The Pentagon knows this. For reasons you can imagine, it hasn't happened.
This is a story of can-do in a no-can-do world, a story of how a Marine officer in Iraq, a small network-design company in California, a nonprofit troop-support group, a blogger and other undeterrable folk designed a handheld insurgent-identification device, built it, shipped it and deployed it in Anbar province. They did this in 30 days, from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15. Compared to standard operating procedure for Iraq, this is a nanosecond.
(snip)
Since arriving in Iraq last year, Maj. West had worked with Spirit of America (SoA), the civilian troop-support group founded by Jim Hake. In early December, SoA's project director, Michele Redmond, asked Maj. West if there was any out-of-the-ordinary project they could help him with. And Maj. West said, Why yes, there is. He described to them the basic concept for a mobile, handheld fingerprinting device which Iraqi soldiers would use to assemble an insurgent database. Mr. Hake said his organization would contribute $30,000 to build a prototype and get it to Khalidiya. In New York, Goldman Sachs contributed $14,000 to the project.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Can Do!
http://www.sodaro.com/Plone/bat_news
where is that new iris scanner?
Currently being configured to spy on you and I, here at home and this will be a good idea because "it's for the children".
now i undrstand
it makes perfect sense
after all we are a greater risk to ourselves
than any ME sandsnake
I'm with you, quit playing pattycakes and get on with it
Pelosi and Reid have other funding priorities,
and to their discredit too,
Republicans should have held back on spending except for the war effort.
Beats me. I'm getting an inspiration for an investment opportunity, though.
suggestion?
the iraq/ iran versions should be leaded
I'm the field support guy in that article.
I lived in Charlottesville VA. The USMC reporterette who wrote that story had sloppy handwriting. The only titusville I know of is in Florida.
The notion that collecting biometrics from bad guys is somehow less satisfactory that just shooting them is pure infantile BS.
Believe me, when bad guys shoot at Marines they usually wind up dead. The ones smart enough to give up need to be asked a few questions about their dead buddies. At the same time we need to nail down their identity. Not their fake name, not where they claim to be from but non-ambiguous information about them.
If we were to just shoot every single detainee our military would have no credibility or honor left.
Should we have more aggressive ROE? Sure.
Should we kill them all and let Allah sort them out? Just the ones bearing arms.
The notion that collecting biometrics from bad guys is somehow less satisfactory that just shooting them is pure infantile BS.
Well said!
I helped the USMC get their BAT program up and running.
It was a privilege to work with a group that was more interesting in results than their evaluation reports and rotating out.
After two enlistments as an intel analyst with the Army I must say that my year with the USMC was refreshing.
I live in Sierra Vista now and just bought an 06 883L last June. It's a small world.
Great work. Just like the storied "Skunk Works"
I put the WSJ article along with the Spirit of America donation site in an e mail and sent it to everybody on my email list. What I wrote.
I don't usually send," pass along this e-mail," emails. In fact, I detest them.
I'm making an exception in this case.
Feel free to print out the story and post it at your work or forward it to friends or organizations that may be interested in supporting this work.
This email has a story on equipment that the troops in Iraq don't have, but would be very useful to them. See the test story from the field.
This is an incredible device showing American ingenuity and what we Americans can do when given the opportunity to solve problems for our troops.
You need to get a life.
Great work. Just like the storied "Skunk Works"
I put the WSJ article along with the Spirit of America donation site in an e mail and sent it to everybody on my email list. What I wrote.
I don't usually send," pass along this e-mail," emails. In fact, I detest them.
I'm making an exception in this case.
Feel free to print out the story and post it at your work or forward it to friends or organizations that may be interested in supporting this work.
This email has a story on equipment that the troops in Iraq don't have, but would be very useful to them. See the test story from the field.
This is an incredible device showing American ingenuity and what we Americans can do when given the opportunity to solve problems for our troops.
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/cgi-bin/soa/project.pl?rm=view_project&request_id=124
Make a donation to this project
To donate please call 800-691-2209 or send a check to:
Spirit of America, File 50315, Los Angeles, CA 90074-0315
Please put "Snake Eater" and your email address on your check. (If no project is specified the donation will be designated for our unrestricted fund.) To make a secure online donation enter the amount below:
That's what I hate about the Army.
Spirit of America bump
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/cgi-bin/soa/project.pl?rm=view_project&request_id=124
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