Adventures in Arabian OSGEOINT

In 2016, I found a couple of items of interest using open source GIS resources.

In July, while researching an article about the Dhofar Rebellion, I was reminded by a South African source about a 1972 cross-border raid into South Yemen. The incident is listed as having taken place in "Sinau". I had some difficulty finding any reference to Sinau, save for a 1985 article in The Spectator. I was beginning to believe that the incident might have been apocryphal, but ended up finding this site, which matches the description of the raid site and is spelled "سناو" (which apparently shares its name with a site in Oman - ironic!). This was definitely one of those times when knowing how to read Arabic text was of critical importance.

In August, I was reminiscing about my first full day in Oman back in 2012. After taking me to a couple of sites of interest, I asked my taxi driver to take me to see something interesting. He took me to this little village that's fed by one of Oman's famous aflaj, ancient canals. He told me about the hot water, and told me to try to keep my feet in it as long as I could while he went up to the village mosque to pray. I don't think I even made it a full minute, the water was so hot. I knew approximately where it was, but I'd lost track of it, so I went back and tried to find it. I ended up being successful - it's right here, the village of al Hamaam/الحمام. That made me wish that I'd had the forethought to take a few photos while I was there. As it turns out, someone uploaded their own travel photo to Panoramio. Very cool.

My goal of spending 2016 developing my GIS skills ended up being mostly a bust. I have a plan for late 2017 that may end up giving me a chance to play catch-up. Regardless, I'll probably spend plenty of time exploring satellite images in 2017, so stay tuned for more cool discoveries.

Thoughts on Generals Mattis and Flynn

I've written previously about General James N. Mattis, USMC (Ret.), to include posting a bunch of quotes from the man whom we admirers fondly refer to as "The Warrior Monk". The Trump transition team recently announced that General Mattis will be the incoming administration's nominee for Secretary of Defense. A lot of my friends have sought my reaction, and if we're being honest, I had hoped that General Mattis would run for President in the election that's just come to a close. Under the circumstances, I'm not displeased that he'll be the nominee for SecDef.

Given that many folks aren't so intimately familiar with General Mattis' career as am I, I thought I'd put together a quick post with some items in which he's featured since retiring. In late 2013, The Director sent me a link to General Mattis' lecture at the Foreign Policy Research Institution, aptly titled "Reflections of a Combatant Commander in a Turbulent World".

In June of 2014, General Mattis was interviewed by Harry Kreisler of UC Berkeley. You can download the podcast, or watch the video on YouTube. General Mattis is known for his direct manner of public speaking, as evidenced in that original quote compilation I posted. This interview, of which I was unaware until a few days ago, provided a brand new Mattis anecdote with which I was previously unfamiliar:

"In Pakistan's case, when I first got there [in 2001], and landed in Islamabad, I had a great little map, and it showed what I was gonna do, showed a little ship out in the ocean and an arrow going to Afghanistan, and this sort of thing. And I walked in to see our ambassador there, I'd landed at midnight, walked into her office about eight o'clock in the morning, and she said, 'Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my country?' and I thought, 'This isn't going to go so well.' So I said, 'Well, Madame Ambassador, my name's Jim Mattis. I'm gonna take about a thousand of my best friends up in Afghanistan and kill some people.' And she said, 'Really, General?' And I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' She said, 'Well, sit down, I think I can help you.'"
- General James N. Mattis, USMC (Ret.), 2014

In January of 2015, General Mattis testified before the Senate Armed Services committee on national security threats. He's a fellow at the Hoover Institution, and in February of 2015 he published an essay entitled "A New American Grand Strategy", which echoed many of the points he made in his testimony. In April of 2016, General Mattis addressed the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a lecture entitled "The Middle East at an Inflection Point". As I mentioned earlier, General Mattis is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, and in May of 2016 they released a podcast of a speech he gave entitled "General Mattis: What Should We Do About Iran?". In September, General Mattis and fellow Hoover analyst Kori Schake were interviewed by Ryan Evans for the War on the Rocks Podcast about their new book on civil-military relations.

Without opining on President-Elect Trump, from a purely analytical standpoint, the selection of General Mattis suggests that a number of the controversial statements that Mr. Trump made during the campaign may have been mostly bluster - "serious, but not literal", as the vogue phrase states.

First, judging from his tenure as Commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, General Mattis is likely to be unapologetic about cutting wasteful Pentagon spending. As an example, he drastically scaled back USJFCOM's investigation of "Transformation" concepts and technologies, most notably Effects Based Operations. These programs had a lot of political capital behind them, and produced lucrative contracts, but proved to be limited in their battlefield utility in Afghanistan and Iraq. So, General Mattis' selection suggests the possibility of fiscal responsibility on the part of the Trump Pentagon.

Second, General Mattis has been an outspoken advocate for America's coalition and alliance partnerships, particularly but not limited to NATO. (For most of his tenure at USJFCOM, General Mattis was "dual-hatted" as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation.) President-Elect Trump's comments about NATO and other American allies raised questions about the future of those partnerships under a Trump presidency; General Mattis will push to maintain those alliances.

Third, General Mattis' testimony before the Senate, among other public remarks, suggest that contrary to his reputation as a ruthless killer - earned though it is - General Mattis is likely to caution President Trump against precipitous use of armed force in open-ended conflicts with poorly defined or insufficiently resourced goals. Basically, America will either be slower to enter into military engagements that don't serve the natural interest, or General Mattis' tenure as Secretary of Defense will be short-lived.

As an aside, several friends have also asked me about Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, President-Elect Trump's selection for National Security Advisor and one of the more vocal members of his campaign team. I'll admit to not having heard of General Flynn prior to the election. On Friday, I listened to a couple of interviews with him, one from SOFREP Radio, and the other from the International Spy Museum. I'd like to give both podcasts another listen, but General Flynn said some pretty smart things about how the Department of Defense learned the wrong lessons from Operation Desert Storm and then ran around trying to fit all future engagements into that operational concept. That's something that I've been saying for years, and it's pretty controversial among foreign policy folks. I'm less confident about General Flynn's appointment than I am with General Mattis, but unlike the six minute NPR segment on Lieutenant General Daniel Bolger from 2014, General Flynn didn't say anything in roughly two hours of interviews that came off as immediate red flags to me. I share some of my progressive friends' concerns about General Flynn's son spreading the "PizzaGate" conspiracy theory, and it seems appropriate that the junior Flynn was subsequently fired from the transition team as a result.

I'm decidely less enthusiastic about some of President-Elect Trump's other cabinet picks, but I'm also less qualified to discuss them, so I won't.

First Contact Media, Old and New

Wow. It has been a long time since I posted anything. Without making any promises, I hope to start remedying that a bit.

Last week, basically by accident, I was exposed to a couple of really interesting pieces of media exploring concepts of first contact between humans and aliens. First, I went to see Arrival, which was great. Independent of that film, I'm a longtime fan of the Serial Podcast, and of the Slate Serial Spoiler Special, which led me to subscribe to the Panoply Media RSS feed. For a while, Panoply was putting out a lot of varied material, but that feed has slowed to a trickle. So, when I saw something new and different a few weeks ago, I decided to check it out. It's called LifeAfter (stylized as "lif-e.af/ter"), and you can check out the Teaser, Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3.

LifeAfter is a production of GE Podcast Theater (in association with Panoply Media). I'd never heard of GE Podcast Theater, though I find it interesting to see that we've returned to the golden age of radio and the early days of television, when a single company would sponsor an entire program (typically with advertisements written into the content of fiction programs). I ended up discovering that LifeAfter is actually GE Podcast Theater's second offering: I missed The Message (RSS) in 2015. I listened to the entire run of The Message on Friday (it's just under two hours in total duration). You can listen, too - and in case you're too lazy to look it up, here are the direct links!

Introducing The Message

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

I don't know if there was any "cross-pollination" between The Message and Arrival, but I found the plotlines to be very similar. For film buffs, the obvious examples of inspiration for both are Independence Day (1996) and Contact (1997). However, specific elements of The Message reminded me of a book I read in 2006: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Easily one of the best, most thought-provoking books I've ever read, and one I appreciated enough to give to my mother-in-law. I'll spare everyone any spoilers, but if you've enjoyed The Message and/or Arrival, or just enjoy original science fiction that's not a retread of Star Trek, The Sparrow is definitely worth the investment of your time. (I heard the sequel didn't meet the same high benchmark, but I didn't read it, so I can't say that for a fact.) You can even get it on your Kindle, which wasn't even a thing when I read it!

Operation Cassandra, Phase 2: Data Consolidation

Phase 2 of Operation Cassandra is the consolidation of my own personal data, and the archiving of additional data that I'm pulling from various sources. For the last few years, I've had a lot of data spread across several different assets. I want to get those assets mostly consolidated - with multiple devices at play, it will be difficult to keep them that way for more than a few minutes - to make future use a bit easier. Here are the steps I've established:

1. Consolidate all files into new file structure - As I mentioned above, this basically involves taking all of my files and sorting them into a deliberately structured hierarchy to make them easier to use. As some of them may eventually go online, it will make it easier to enforce the appropriate access controls as well.
2-4. List and clear KFHHG downloads; Determine KFHHG document load; Set KFHHG document load - I've previously mentioned my Kindle Fire Hitchhiker's Guide. Organization of what went onto it, and what came off, has been sort of ad hoc. I want to be more organized about it, so I'm going to figure out what files I've loaded onto it, and clear those files; figure out what stuff I need on there either permanently, or in phases; and set that load. I technically have two of them, so the lists may look a bit different, but it will be an improvement.
5. Dhofar archive - From time to time, I've mentioned my obsession with the Dhofar Rebellion, an obscure conflict that took place in southwestern Oman during the 1960's and '70's. I want to archive the bulk of what's available online, plus all of the work that I've done myself.
6. OGHAP archive - I may have mentioned that I'm writing a book about the First World War. I want to neatly archive all of the materials I've used.
7. History Education Resource Archive (HERA) - When I was in college, I assembled and peddled an archive of public domain history sources, mainly primary source materials, and focused primarily upon ancient history. I'd like to get it a little bit more streamlined (possibly converted into plaintext) and expand it to include some additional sources and topics.
8. Linguistic Asset Resource Archive (LARA) (language archive) - I've collected a lot of foreign language materials over the years, mostly Arabic and a little bit of Latin. I want to get it better organized.
9. Database of Historically Acquired Risk Management Assets (DHARMA) - I've collected a lot of security risk management materials over the years. Between 2009 and 2012, I put a lot of that material together as archives focused on information security and anti-terrorism. I want to consolidate those archives into one, and then expand it to cover additional security risk management categories.
10. Strategic Analysis Resource Archive (SARA) - Not surprisingly, I've collected a lot of stuff related to strategy, military operations, and military history over the years.
11. Figure out BitLocker - The days of "I don't really need encryption" are pretty much over, so I'm hoping to figure out how BitLocker works without locking myself out of any of my own files. So, that should be fun, right?

Work continues. More to come.

Operation Cassandra, Phase 1: Computing Equipment

I've made some progress on Operation Cassandra. The original plan was to embark upon the various phases of the operation in sequential order, but that's kind of fallen apart. Still, the phases help to keep the tasks somewhat organized.

The first phase is squaring away my existing computing equipment. In addition to two legacy Dell laptops, I've had a number of additional bits and pieces laying around, and those needed some attention. The plan has been as follows:

1. Check the functionality of an old laptop hard drive - After an old Rocketfish hard drive enclosure bit the dust, I bought an Inateck USB 3.0 2.5 Inch & 3.5 Inch Aluminum Hard Disk Drive External Enclosure to check the functionality of an old laptop hard drive. It didn't work, but I may give it another go at a later date.
2. Check the functionality of an old desktop hard drive - I used the same Inateck hard drive enclosure to test this hard drive, which is still functional.
3. Check the functionality of an old desktop hard drive - This was a different hard drive from my mother's old desktop computer. Not only was it still functional, but I was amazed to find that it had no malware on it.
4. Clear files and defragment both laptops - I've basically cleared the files, which feeds into Phase 2, but I haven't defragged them yet. 5. Optimize black laptop for OSGEOINT and podcasting use - After Operation Irene, my open source geospatial intelligence laptop sort of became my primary workstation. I want to clear some of the stuff that's accumulated (a lot of it has already been cleared) and optimize it for Phase 4 (Raspberry Pi GSS) and Phase 5 (Geospatial Information Systems) work, as well as podcasting.
6. Optimize green laptop for use as file server - I saw an article (Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with NAS4Free). Once I'm able to get a fresh laptop, I'd like to try my hand at turning my second laptop into a Network Area Storage.

Work continues. More to come.

Orcadian OSGEOINT Exercises

In late 2011 and early 2012, I found myself stuck in a back office in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, bored out of my skull due to a dearth of assignments, but nonetheless required to put in long days at a desk. I ended up spending some of that time acquainting myself with websites pertaining to Orkney. Based on some of those discoveries, I decided to try to combine satellite imagery with available ground photography to identify the location of the Howar Farm on North Ronaldsay. I used one descriptive line...

"Walk along North Ronaldsay's prettiest beach, Nouster Bay, to Howar farm[.] From the Pier or the Bird Observatory it's 30 minutes brisk walk along the sandy bay. Longer if you dawdle to enjoy it."

... and two photos (the headers to this page and this page) as my guides. Below is a montage combining those two images with two aerial images.

The inset, zoomed out image shows the vantage points of the two ground images using white and grey chevrons, the grey chevron being replicated on the lower image. Aside from that, the colored arrows correlate the various elements of each photo for comparison. Here are a few things to note:

Note the two skylights in the barn denoted by the green arrows, and the difference in height between the differently colored roofs of that building.

Note the skylight/vent in both images denoted by the grey arrow.

Note the point at which the out building denoted by the beige arrows narrows.

Note the greenhouse, which appears transparent from above, denoted by the purple arrows.

I went through a similar process to identify The Ruah at the Green Farm on Eday, but they've since updated their website, so I can't take you through that process as well. All that said, it's been really great practice in open source imagery analysis.

Operation Cassandra

A couple of years ago, I blogged about Operation Irene, my effort to turn an old laptop into an "open source geospatial intelligence platform". This post is sort of like that... Sort of.

Let's review.

I worked a variety of jobs between 2006 and 2012, and really wanted to get into some sort of foreign policy analysis gig, but couldn't seem to break through. Between 2010 and 2012, I saved a ton of money (assisted in large part by a contracting gig in the Persian Gulf) and then spent fifteen months getting my master's degree in Scotland, where I graduated with distinction with an MSc in Strategic Studies (of the International Relations variety). (That's Scottish for "at the top of my class".) Despite this, and some other sweet credentials, it took me ten months of job applications and five interviews, tops, to get hired into basically the same job I was doing in 2010. I relocated to my current digs with the intent of eventually transferring or getting hired into something more commensurate with my background.

Fast forward nearly two years, and that plan has yet to pan out. I haven't gotten to the point of giving up on ever doing something related to strategy, but it appears that the foreseeable future shall be spent in information technology. So, in 2016, I need to shore those skills up so that I can poise myself to either get promoted here, or else generate opportunities to leave. Truth be told, if I'm going to be locked into IT work, I don't really feel the need to shackle myself to this particular locale. I need to open up some maneuvering room.

So, what to do? Well, the magic bullet seems to be the Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification from (ISC)². I think it may require a couple of other certifications to get me up to the point of being ready to test for it - the CAP and the repeatedly aforementioned PSP, to name but two. I've decided that I need to create some opportunities for hands on experiences on my own home network in order to force some of the more complex concepts to make more sense.

And thus, operation Cassandra, which is like Operation Irene ratcheted up to eleven.

I'm still making final tweaks to the overall plan, but I have it divided into five phases. In Phase 1, I'll be getting my existing equipment sorted. That means basic maintenance on my existing (more-or-less) twin laptops, and tightening up the settings on my home networking gear. Phase 2 will involve organizing my information, to include determining and then loading a "Hitchhiker's Guide" load on my original Kindle Fire. Phase 3 will focus on getting a bit smarter about home network engineering.

The initial phases get me ready for the heavy lifting in Phases 4 and 5. Phase 4 will involve setting up a home enterprise network composed of a set of four or five Raspberry Pi 3 boards configured as servers, and accompanying peripherals. I'm tentatively planning to figure out how to build a web server, a file server, a firewall and intrusion detection system, a GIS server, and potentially something involving shortwave radio. Phase 5 will involve using that home network, and particularly that GIS server, to learn QGIS. In addition to all of the hands-on training, I'd like to accompany the whole thing with the requisite documentation involved in the National Institute of Standars and Technology's Risk Management Framework, which is the federally mandated (and industry standard) framework for establishing, authorizing, and maintaining secure information systems. When all's said and done, I'll include the documentation, via the web and file servers.

If I can pull it all off, I'll have hopefully picked up some actual skills to accompany my existing theoretical understanding of some of these technologies; produced some functional work samples; and made some progress toward some of my personal and professional goals. It'll also get me started in the GIS field, in which I may pursue some formal certifications in the next couple of years.

I have a lot of work ahead of me. I'll try to chronicle each phase for the blog as I'm able.