Watson Institute, Brown University / William D. Hartung Center for International Policy: Profits of War: Corporate Beneficiaries of the Post-9/11 Pentagon Spending Surge – September 13, 2021: “Pentagon spending has totaled over $14 trillion since the start of the war in Afghanistan, with one-third to one-half of the total going to military contractors.A large portion… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Defense
The D.C. Underground Atlas
“Washington, D.C.’s federal architects have a special proclivity for underground tunnels. District residents navigate the tubes like human submarines, and rely on their services for basic needs like drinking water and central heat. Contributing factors include the city’s unique building height limit, extreme weather, and the security considerations of recent decades. As a result, Washington sits atop… Continue Reading
The Capitol Police Said Jan. 6 Unrest On Capitol Grounds Would Be “Highly Improbable”
BuzzFeedNews: “BuzzFeed News has exclusively obtained the permits Capitol Police issued for protests on Capitol grounds for Jan. 6 — a rare window into a secretive organization and its most consequential day. The chief of the Capitol Police and its top intelligence officer personally approved permits for six demonstrations to be held on Jan. 6,… Continue Reading
Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11
Pew: “Americans watched in horror as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 20 years later, they watched in sorrow as the nation’s military mission in Afghanistan – which began less than a month after 9/11 – came to a… Continue Reading
The US Budgetary Costs of the Post 9/11 Wars
20 Years of War – A Costs of War Research Series, Watson Institute of Public and International Affairs, Brown University: “The United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $6.4 Trillion through Fiscal Year 2020 in budgetary costs related to and caused by the post-9/11 wars—an estimated $5.4 Trillion in appropriations in… Continue Reading
U.S. Military Withdrawal and Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan: Frequently Asked Questions
CRS Report – U.S. Military Withdrawal and Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan: Frequently Asked Questions, August 20, 2021: “On August 15, 2021, the Taliban entered the Afghan capital of Kabul, completing a rapid takeover over the country that surprised many Afghans and Americans alike. The Taliban’s advance came as the United States was completing the military… Continue Reading
US mission in Afghanistan a failure: Government watchdog
Follow up to previous posting – The Afghanistan Papers A secret history of the war – see also two new reports from Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR): SIGAR released its 11th lessons learned report examining the past 20 years of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. After spending $145 billion trying to rebuild… Continue Reading
The Afghanistan Papers A secret history of the war
“A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals [Dec. 9, 2019] that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. The documents were generated by… Continue Reading
Combating Foreign Disinformation on Social Media
RAND – Combating Foreign Disinformation on Social Media Study Overview and Conclusions by Raphael S. Cohen, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, Joe Cheravitch, Alyssa Demus, Scott W. Harold, Jeffrey W. Hornung, Jenny Jun, Michael Schwille, Elina Treyger, Nathan Vest “How are state adversaries using disinformation on social media to advance their interests? What does the Joint Force—and the… Continue Reading
White House Issues Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems
National Law Review: “On July 28, 2021, President Biden signed a National Security Memorandum entitled “Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems” (the “Memorandum”). The Memorandum formally establishes an Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative and directs the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of… Continue Reading
Explore Thousands Of FAA Drone And Unidentified Aircraft Incident Reports With Our Interactive Tool
The Drive: “We are excited to announce the launch of our new interactive tool that maps and makes searchable thousands of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and unidentified aircraft incident reports. The vast dataset is drawn from information compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration. Some of the reports are highly unusual, going far beyond typical low-altitude… Continue Reading
Histomap: Visualizing the 4,000 Year History of Global Power
Virtual Capitalist: “Today’s infographic, created all the way back in 1931 by a man named John B. Sparks, maps the ebb and flow of global power going all the way back to 2,000 B.C. on one coherent timeline. Histomap, published by Rand McNally in 1931, is an ambitious attempt at fitting a mountain of historical… Continue Reading
