United States

U.S. Government Counterinsurgency Guide

Insurgency is the organized use of subversion and violence to seize, nullify or challenge political control of a region. As such, it is primarily a political struggle, in which both sides use armed force to create space for their political, economic and influence activities to be effective. Insurgency is not always conducted by a single group with a centralized, military-style command structure, but may involve a complex matrix of different actors with various aims, loosely connected in dynamic and non-hierarchical networks. To be successful, insurgencies require charismatic leadership, supporters, recruits, supplies, safe havens and funding (often from illicit activities).

IACP State and Provincial Police Planning Sections (SPPPOS) Directory

The State and Provincial Police Planning Officers section (SPPPOS) is a part of the Division of State and Provincial Police of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Membership includes police agencies with responsibilities consisting of both highway patrol and criminal investigation responsibilities in the service of state and provincial governments, the federal government of Canada, or other sovereign governments exercising jurisdiction over territories within the United States or Canada. The organization is comprised of five geographic areas; the North Atlantic, North Central, North Atlantic, Mountain Pacific, and Southern regions. Each region may convene meetings as needed. An international conference is held annually.

El Paso Intelligence Center: Mexican U.S. Consulate Murderers Gang Warning

The Barrio Azteca was organized in the El Paso, Texas, County Jail in 1987 from where it moved to the streets and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison system. The Barrio Azteca prison gang – which has chapters in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico – has historically been linked to the Juarez Cartel. Barrio Azteca membership is estimated at 3,500 inside and outside of the prison system. Members have been reported in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Idaho, Washington, Kansas, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Utah. They participate in enforcing the rules of the Juarez Cartel in El Paso, Texas, and southern New Mexico.

USMC Irregular Warfare (IW) and Interagency Integration Lessons from OIF/OEF

The following material was extracted from MCCLL reports based on interviews, lessons and observations from operational units that participated in OIF/OEF over the past 36 months. Although this material is based on collections that took place in 2005 through 2007, comments from recent observers and currently deployed individuals indicate that issues on the ground likely remain the same. Content of this paper is grouped in response to specific questions in the TECOM tasking dated 2 April 2008.

U.S. Army Cyberspace Operations Concept Capability Plan 2016-2028

The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s assessment of the future operational environment highlights the importance of all aspects of information on the future battlefield. Army forces operate in and among human populations, facing hybrid threats that are innovative, networked, and technologically-savvy. These threats capitalize on emerging technologies to establish and maintain a cultural and social advantage; leveraging these new capabilities for command and control, recruiting, coordinating logistics, raising funds, and propagandizing their message. To operate effectively in this emerging environment, the Army must realign its information “Aim Point.” Army leaders and Soldiers must possess an in-depth understanding of how to leverage information-based capabilities to gain and maintain situational awareness. Understanding how to fight for and leverage the power of information, while denying the adversary’s ability to do the same, will be increasingly critical to success on the future battlefield.

U.S. DOJ Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations

According to the Supreme Court, a “‘seizure’ of property occurs when there is some meaningful interference with an individual’s possessory interests in that property,” United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 113 (1984), and the Court has also characterized the interception of intangible communications as a seizure. See Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41, 59-60 (1967). Furthermore, the Court has held that a “‘search’ occurs when an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to consider reasonable is infringed.”

New Jersey ROIC: Terrorist Bus Alteration

In December 2007, the Fairfield (New Jersey) Police Department (FPD) observed a bus, registered in Florida, at a local gas station, where the driver was pumping diesel fuel through an open window into the bus. Further investigation revealed that the driver had removed the right-side seats to accommodate eighteen 55-gallon plastic drums, which he filled with approximately 300 gallons of diesel fuel before FPD impounded the bus. There were numerous equipment violations observed and the driver was issued summonses as a result. The drums were not secured and diesel fuel apparently leaked during the fueling process.

Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI)

What is a SAR?

•“Official documentation of observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence gathering or preoperational planning related to terrorism, criminal, or other illicit intention”
• SAR process focuses on what law enforcement agencies have been doing for years—gathering information regarding behaviorsand incidentsassociated with crimeand establishing a process whereby information can be shared to detect and prevent criminal activity, including that associated with domestic and international terrorism
• Examples: Surveillance, photography of facilities, testing of security

LA-RTTAC Guardian Incident Review: August 2009

(U//FOUO//LES) The Guardian database is populated several ways. Leads may come directly to the FBI for entry by FBI personnel. They may come from e-Guardian – an unclassified, law enforcement sensitive reporting portal available to vetted account holders at the Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Web site – for later transfer into Guardian. Or they may come first to the JRIC via online lead sheets, by facsimile, or by phone for selective entry into e-Guardian. The FBI’s Threat Squad assesses and investigates all Guardian leads. Based upon their findings, incidents are closed, transferred to another agency for follow-up, or referred internally for additional investigation.

Nationwide Wireless Priority Service

The Nationwide Wireless Priority Service (WPS) is a system in the United States that allows high-priority emergency telephone calls to avoid congestion on wireless telephone networks. This complements the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), which allows such calls to avoid congestion on landline networks. The service is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission and administered by the National Communications System in the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Government Emergency Telecommunications Service

The Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) is a White House-directed emergency phone service provided by the National Communications System (NCS) in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications Division, National Protection and Programs Directorate, Department of Homeland Security. GETS supports Federal, State, local, and tribal government, industry, and non-governmental organization (NGO) personnel in performing their National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) missions. GETS provides emergency access and priority processing in the local and long distance segments of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It is intended to be used in an emergency or crisis situation when the PSTN is congested and the probability of completing a call over normal or other alternate telecommunication means has significantly decreased.

Raven Rock Mountain Complex (Site R)

Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC) is a underground continuity of government facility built by the U.S. government in the early 1950s. It is located about 14 km (8.7 miles) east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and 10 km (6.2 miles) north-northeast of Camp David, Maryland. It is also called the Raven Rock Military Complex, or simply Site R. Other designations and nicknames include “The Rock”, NMCC-R (National Military Command Center Reservation), ANMCC (Alternate National Military Command Center), AJCC (Alternate Joint Communications Center), “Backup Pentagon”, or “Site RT”; the latter refers to the vast array of communication towers and equipment atop the mountain. Colloquially, the facility is known as an “underground Pentagon”.

Sacramento Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center: Open Carry Movement

Recently, emails have been circulating about the Open Carry movement and its members’ attempts to openly carry firearms in public places. The intent may be to have an officer arrest them or seize their firearm so they can file a civil lawsuit against the officer. Because of the recent incidents in the Sacramento RTTAC region and the likelihood that the incidents will continue, the following information is being provided to law enforcement agencies for purposes of Officer Safety and Situational Awareness.

Operation Northwoods

Operation Northwoods was a plan circulated in the U.S. government in 1962 to stage false flag terrorist attacks inside the U.S. and abroad to provoke “military intervention in Cuba”. The plan called for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or other operatives to commit genuine acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere. These acts of terrorism were to be blamed on Cuba in order to create public support for a war against that nation, which had recently become communist under Fidel Castro. One part of the Operation Northwoods plan was to “develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.”

U.S. Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons

During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union both deployed thousands of “nonstrategic” nuclear weapons that were intended to be used in support of troops in the field during a conflict. These included nuclear mines; artillery; short, medium, and long-range ballistic missiles; cruise missiles; and gravity bombs. In contrast with the longer-range “strategic” nuclear weapons, these weapons had a lower profile in policy debates and arms control negotiations. At the end of the 1980s, before the demise of the Soviet Union, each nation still had thousands of these weapons deployed with their troops in the field, aboard naval vessels, and on aircraft. In 1991, both the United States and Soviet Union announced that they would withdraw most and eliminate many of their nonstrategic nuclear weapons.

Climate Change and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): Looking to 2020

The European Union’s (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a cornerstone of the EU’s efforts to meet its obligation under the Kyoto Protocol. It covers more than 10,000 energy intensive facilities across the 27 EU Member countries; covered entities emit about 45% of the EU’s carbon dioxide emissions. A “Phase 1” trading period began January 1, 2005. A second, Phase 2, trading period began in 2008, covering the period of the Kyoto Protocol. A Phase 3 will begin in 2013 designed to reduce emissions by 21% from 2005 levels.