Inspired Blog #3

This inspired blog post comes from come from a story Sandy Brooks from the Join Task force recommended we look up during her presentation earlier this year. In the middle of her presentation she ask the small group of students who went to her presentation to look up the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which is also known as KAL 007 or KE 007. I eventually looked it up on the internet and found it to be a rather interesting story so I decided to write one of my inspired blogs about the situation.

Spy Plane or Civilan Aircraft??

Basically this is a suspicious story about a Korean Air Lines airbus full of civilian that was shot down a Soviet Military Aircraft. The flight was en route to New York City coming from Anchorage. Needless to say all of the passengers onboard were killed. The incident took place in September of 1983 over the Sea of Japan. One of the reason it drew so much attention from the United States was because one of our Congressmen was onboard the Korean flight when it was shot down. Another reason that grabbed my attention was the fact that at first the Soviet denied shooting the plane down but later claimed they did shoot it down because it was on a “spy mission.” In my opinion it doesn’t make any sense for the Soviet to deny shooting the plane down and later retracting the statement and insisting that they shot it down because it was on a spy mission. I’m no fighter pilot or top military official, I do have several years of military experience, but I think any civilian can tell the difference between a spy plane and civilian air liner. Next to this paragraph I posted a picture of the Korean Air Liner that was shot down, and it doesn’t look like a spy plane to me. The Soviets also obstructed the search a rescue efforts of the wreckage, I feel like the only reason they would do this is because they had something to hide. Why else wouldn’t they let the United State help with search and rescue efforts?

From what a read about the incident, it says that the Soviet shot it down because it had crossed an international line into restricted Soviet territory during what the Soviet called a “planned missile test” time. The reason I put parentheses around the “planned missile test” is because of my intended sarcasm. From what I understand most of the official who investigated the incident didn’t believe that the Soviet had any missile testing going on at that time. I guess they believed that the United Stated provoked the Soviet by crossing the restricted airline; they said the American’s “allegedly” wanted to see what the Soviet’s Military capabilities were by crossing their territory.  The Soviets even took it as far as saying the United States told the airliner to cross the line to try and start a war with the Soviets.

Like I said, I found this story really interesting. It ended up being one of the tensest events during the cold war. It also eventually leads to the airline tracking policy by the United States. They put tracking devises in all their aircraft to prevent another situation like this. I would also recommend that you check this story out.

Assigned Blog #4

In this week’s blog I am going to cover two topics that we covered in the class discussion and that were in this week’s class readings. One is the Ushahidi project that helped responders and victims after Haiti’s earthquake. I’ll also cover media technologies and how they help share information during disasters and responses; however, I’ll mostly focus on Wikis.

(Ushahidi Logo)

First I would like to talk about the Role of the SMS short code Ushahidi set up in the disaster response after the earthquake destroyed much of Haiti. It is crazy that a lot of the SMS data that was produced through the 4636 short code was processed by people and not computers. The information wasn’t fed into computers; it was translated by humans who volunteered their time to help. There were so many volunteers helping translate the messages, that the turn-around time for a message to be translated was as short as ten minutes at times. There were two organizations or groups that helped translate the information, they were referred to as translation platforms in the readings. One group was the volunteers (or professionals) and the others were NGOs. Both did a great job for the most part; however, the NGO’s had minor errors that cause delays in their responses. My point is I think the SMS technology and how it played a role in the Haiti disaster response was great, but I think the amount of volunteers to process the SMS information was incredible. Its great people will sacrifice their own time and skills to help other who are in need. If a disaster such as the earthquake that destroyed Haiti were to hit State College, would you volunteer your time and skills to help the response efforts, much like the Ushahidi volunteers did?

Next I’ll talk about emergency knowledge management and social media technologies. The class is on a need to know basis or sensitive, it should be shared via Wikis. For one, because it’s hard to secure the information on the Wikis, and two, there is tons - sometimes hundreds of thousands of people able to view the Wikis. So basically I think Wikis can be used in certain emergency situation to share information as long as the information isn’t sensitive. What do you think, can social media help respond to disasters or by sharing information? discussion and the reading basically focused on the ability to share information. There were several methods of sharing information between government, organizations, or people. Social media and Wikis were the big ones. The Wikis were great because a lot of people could be researching information and share it via Wikis. Rather than researching and then going to showing the information to people everybody could view the Wiki at the same time. There was one problem with the Wiki, there was an instance where too much information was loaded into the Wiki, which cause problems and errors in viewing the information. The question, whether or not Wikis could be used during disasters to help the response efforts. I would say yes, because all the responders or governments could use Wikis to share information with each other to respond more efficiently. But after the class discussion I decided they should only be used to share information as long as the information isn’t sensitive. If for any reason during a disaster and emergency response

Inspired Blog #2

Friday afternoon Sandy Brooks, from Joint Interagency Task Force South, spoke to a small group of Penn State students for about an hour. She is the Director of Intelligence and Security and the Chief of Innovation, she opened the discussion by meeting with everyone in the room and asking them a few simple questions about themselves.

Sandy then played a short video about the Joint Interagency Task Force South’s operations. Most of the video was about maritime drug busts. After the video, Mrs. Brooks spoke briefly about herself and her history. She was a student at Appalachian State during the Vietnam era, Sandy said she frequently protested the war when she was a student. Ironically she joined the Navy after college hoping to be a helicopter pilot. Instead she was placed into the Navy’s crypto community. She retired as a captain (O-6) after 28 years of service and was immediately employed at the Task Force Tampa center.  There she was luckily enough to be a “targeteer”, coordinating air-strikes during Operation Desert Storm.

She then discussed how Penn State was tied into the “targeteers.” Sandy said her intelligence staff would provide detailed maps of possible targeted areas for Desert Storm. She would then put on some special glasses and view the map in 2D and decide what targets needed to be bombed. In today’s war we need to fight smarter, not harder and at the same time eliminate as much unintended kills as possible. So, she decided she was going to make these map she used to pick targets visible in 3D. She visited many Universities across the Nation in search for ideas and designs that could help her turn the maps 3D. Penn State students were the only ones who could come up with a possible design that worked.

Mrs. Brooks then talked about the Nation’s poor communication skill between federal, state, and local agencies prior to September 11^th.  She said after 9/11 Joint Interagency Task Force played a major role in repairing the communication gap between these agencies. She didn’t really go into a lot of detail about how they improved the communications.

Towards the end of the hour she opened the floor for students to ask questions. One question was how technology plays a role in the drug busts (referring to the video she shared at the beginning of the discussion.) She said none of the busts would have happened if it wasn’t for the intelligence and information they gathered. Sandy said, they would fallow the money, which lead to drug, and eventually would lead them to the terrorists. Technology helps them collect and disseminate the information and intelligence for these drug busts. She also mentioned that every year the government cuts their funding yet the Joint Interagency Task Force continues to increase the drug busts every year because of the advanced technology they are able to use.

Sandy ended the talk by saying today’s information war isn’t only about protecting the information; it is also about attacking information security. 

Photo:(http://servicetoamericamedals.org/SAM/recipients/profiles/hsm10_brooks.shtml)

Assigned Blog #3

 After reading the Final Report: U.S. House of Representatives Select Bipartisan Committee to investigate the Preparation and Response to Hurricane Katrina, I’ve came to the conclusion that the lack of response was due to primarily two reasons. One, was the lack of preparation and underestimating the storm, and two the lack of communication during the response effort.

Preparation:

Like Dr. Tapia said during our discussion, New Orleans is below sea level, hurricanes have hit there in the past, also- the people of New Orleans should have been prepared for flooding. The picture to the right shows pretty much exactly what time and where Hurricane Katrina was going to make land-fall. Much like State College is pretty consistent with preparing for major snow storms. Granted the flooding was a little excessive in New Orleans, but the Final Reports stated, they knew the levees were weak, the levees weren’t built to their original design, and that residents near levees reported leaking and damage to the levees months before the hurricane made land fall. The Army Corp. of Engineers advised officials that the levees needed to be repaid. Nothing was ever done because nobody wanted to flip the bill for repairs, and there was confusion about who should take charge of repairing the levees. The Nation Weather Service warned the Gulf Coast of the category five hurricane five days prior to land-fall.  With these facts, and several others, I feel like the smartest decision would have been for the governors of the affected areas to order a mandatory evacuation. Eventually governor Blanco ordered a mandatory evacuation, but it was 19 hours prior to Katrina’s land-fall.  In my opinion, it should have been ordered at least a day before land-fall.

Communications:

Communication damages and failure to implement back-up communication resources impacted the efficacy of the response significantly. I don’t want to focus so much on the civilians not having communications, but the local, state, and federal governments not being able to communicate with each other, which impacted the response negatively. FEMA couldn’t communicate with state emergency management agencies, active duty military personnel had trouble coordinating with the National Guard, most police stations and state troopers didn’t have communications for three days. It was a big web of responders and agencies who couldn’t communicate with each other to coordinate response efforts.  According to the Final Report, the Department of Homeland Security developed the National Management System (NIMS) and the Nation Response Plan (NRP), and basically the NRP defines what needs to be done in a massive emergency event and the NIMS defined how to manage the situation. NIMS consist of six major components, one of which is “communications and information management.” I guess my questions is, where was NIMS during Hurricane Katrina?  Maybe they wouldn’t have had all the answers to the communication break-down and flaws, but I feel like they could have done a better job at coordination communication efforts during the large-scale emergency. In 2005 the government made it mandatory for state to adopt NRP and NIMS, but if situations and poor responses like Hurricane Katrina happen, what’s the points of forcing state to adopt NRP and NIMS?

Assigned Blog #2

                               Technology Changes After September 11, 2001

The Emergency center 911 became concerned after September 11, 2001 when an overwhelming number of emergency calls came in to the 911 center. A majority of those calls were lost or dropped due to the heavy phone traffic that day. A report said the 911 emergency centers felt helpless, being unable to help the victims in the twin towers. The FCC (who is in charge of 911 communication operations) took on the responsibilities of upgrading 911. 

The FCC said that 20 percent of American’s have ditched their cell phones, making it difficult for the 911 centers to locate the callers. They stated that; wireless 911 calls create new challenges in locating the callers because their systems locate land-line callers by a billing address associated with the phone number.  Since 9/11, the FCC main priority has been to improve their locating abilities. So far they’ve came up with the solutions to help.

1.       The FCC has about 95 percent of all contracted cell phone carriers willing to comply with what the FCC calls a “phase 2” locating system. Basically it allows the cell phone carriers to provide 911 centers with the coordinates of the cell phone calls being made.

2.       They have also made if mandatory for carriers to report to 911 centers when their network goes down. This will help response efforts in emergencies and natural disasters.

3.       FCC chairman is implementing a “next-generation 9-1-1”, which he calls NG911. These new upgrades will able people to contact 911 via texts, data, photos, and videos.

     The FCC is doing a great job learning from September 11 and making sustainable developments updating their technologies to accommodate a more efficient emergency response to future victims. However I see two problems that might arise if another attack, much like 9/11, takes place and would render the FCC’s new implements useless.  

1.       Like we discussed in class, all the cell phones around immediate area of the attack, wouldn’t work. The carrier’s network went down because they had their antennas on the north and south towers. People making rescue calls and people trapped inside the rubble weren’t able to make phone calls. So, if the major cell phone carriers don’t modify their networks to handle mass volumes of calls, then all the updates that the 911 emergency centers won’t make a difference.

2.       The FCC stated that 911 emergency centers were overloaded with phone calls on September 11, there call center’s systems went down due to the mass amounts of call coming in. They said call center employs felt helpless because there was nothing they could do to get in contact with the victims and vice versa. So, if there system isn’t update to handle mass mounts of emergency phone calls, then like I said with the cell phone carriers, none of the measures of effectiveness the FCC made to 911 centers will make any difference because they won’t be able to handle the amount of calls.

Like I said, I think it is great the FCC is making changes with communication efforts. But, if another 9/11 attacks takes place, and the cell phone carriers and 911 emergency centers can’t handle a mass amount of calls, then all these measures of effectiveness won’t make any difference. I feel like we would be right back a square one, just like that tragic Tuesday morning with nobody could make phone calls.

Inspired Blog #1

George W. Bush: 9/11 Interview

                           

President Bush observing the damages of 9/11 from Air Force One

I decided to base my extra credit blog of off George W. Bush’s 9/11 Interview released by National Geographic about a week or so ago. First, I’m going to give my opinion about the idea of 9/11 being a government conspiracy. I’ll also blog about the communication flaws on that tragic day.

The “Conspiracy” 

Following the attacks on 9/11 there were rumors floating around blaming the government for the attacks. Videos, commentaries, and articles made their way around the internet providing (probably false) evidence that the government was to blame for the attacks and that the disaster was a government conspiracy. This was probably the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard in my life. This was clearly an act of terrorism. I don’t have the time or space to get into that debate; however, I think anyone who saw President Bush’s facial expression and emotions when he was notified about the attacks would have to agree- this was no conspiracy. Below you can see a picture of Bush in a classroom full of kids being notified about the initial attacks. Videos can also be found on the internet of George W. in the Florida classroom when the attacks were unfolding. 

Communication Flaws

President Bush was rushed onto Air Force One by the C.I.A. soon after the attacks on the twin-towers has occurred. The head of the C.I.A. kept President Bush in the air until he felt it was safe for him to return back to Washington. While in the air for several hours, they discovered three major communication flaws associated with air force one.

1.       President Bush had difficulties locating and communicating with government officials and his family. When the attacks went down, government officials and his family took cover in secret bunkers around the nation. There was no way for the president to communicate with essential personnel while America was being attacked. Eventually he was able to communicate with his family.

2.       He was concerned because he wasn’t able to address the nation about the attacks. He wanted to inform America that the government was functional, operating, and taking action. Except there wasn’t the proper technology onboard the aircraft to allow the president to address the nation. He had to land at a secured Air Force base in Nebraska and make a video addressing the nation in an underground bunker, then air the video to the nation later.

3.       It was difficult for officials on Air force One to understand what was going on as the country was being attacked. They had to watch news channels on the plane, but as they were flying, they were constantly going through “TV zones.” So, the signals were going in and out and they constantly had to adjust to televisions to see what was going on. It seems crazy that the government was being updated by news channels on the TV- which kept losing signals.  

Since then, the government has stated that they have updated technologies on-board Air Force One to accommodate these flaws, to avoid these communication problems in the future. I’ve searched the web for the modifications they made, I am assuming it is top—secret, because they are impossible to find.

I do wonder how the government never thought of having these technologies on-board the plane? Clearly there was no mitigation.  If the C.I.A. flies the president around as a mean of protection, It is mind boggling that they never thought of these communication situations. Hopefully they learned their lesson, and they did in fact upgrade the communication technologies on Air Force One. 

Side Note: My favorite quote from the tragic day is from President Bush when he went to group zero, he yelled to one of the human-aid  workers who couldn't hear him speak "...i can hear you, the world can hear you, and the people that did this, will hear from us."